Explorer problem on start and context menus and long starting programs

Neophile · Jul 20, 2009

Hello,

Explorer is no longer working properly in a few ways. Programs often take a long time to start and display “(Not responding)” on the their top window frames. Right click menu sometimes takes a long time to appear while explorer freezes. The explorer window itself is sometimes quite long to change the display when I change folder (this is far from often, but happens).

The first window to appear when we click on the Start Menu, the one with the large icons, is usually OK, but sometimes it does the same as the “All Programs” second window;
Here, the folders do not open and on Task Manager I can watch explorer taking up all the CPU available resources immediately after I pass to “All Programs”;
However, if I click “Back” (explorer stops abnormally using all CPU resources);
Then I click “All Programs” again and the previously clicked folder is now already open, but explorer is again up with CPU resources, so if now I click on a subfolder or on another folder, it all repeats again.
At this moment I don’t have backups to install.

I have read the tutorial about Start Menu, and also another post at http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/74151-right-click-item-start-menu-explorer-crash.html. I followed this post and disabled all explorer extensions, but it didn’t make any difference, so my problem must not be the same as the one on that post. I wonder what it is. I am convinced it must be something external to explorer that affects its performance, but I can’t discover what it is, so that I’d be very thankful for any kind help.

DarkDavil · Jul 20, 2009

Not sure what it is, try cleaning ur registry + defragging your computer.
Google Auslogics and get the free reg cleaner + defragmenter.

Neophile · Jul 20, 2009

Thank you DarkDavil. I defrag the discs every three days automatically using Task Scheduler. I also clean the registry frequently with Uniblue's RegistryBooster. To be sure, I just did it again as you said, but nothing changed.

I noticed that on the right (black) side of the start menu there is no problem, even when when I point to the admin tools that I have there. It behaves as I described for the left side first window (the large icons) that appears when we start clicking on the start menu.

What can it be, please?

ltwally · Jul 20, 2009

Neophile said:
...
I have read the tutorial about Start Menu, and also another post at http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/74151-right-click-item-start-menu-explorer-crash.html. I followed this post and disabled all explorer extensions, but it didn’t make any difference...

Did you make sure to reboot your computer after disabling the extensions? Those changes do not happen in real-time; a reboot is necessary for them to take effect.

Neophile · Jul 20, 2009

Hi ltwally. No, I didn't reboot after disabling the extensions. So I was very glad when I read your post because I thought it was that. I went quickly to try it, but the computer took over 10 min to reboot; I had downloaded some updates and it was long. Unfortunately, after rebooting nothing changed. It is disgusting that I can't fix it. What else can it be, please?

Neophile · Jul 30, 2009

I could not solve this issue. Isn't there someone to kindly help, please? this is so annoying and I'm not able to get rid of this after all this time.

Ardneh · Jul 30, 2009

Just as an experiment create a new User Account and
see if the problem persists there. If not you can transfer your personal files to
the new account and ignore or delete the old one.

Ardneh

Neophile · Jul 30, 2009

Hello Ardneh, thanks for your tip. I created a new user account witht Computer Management. Before transferring my files and deleted the old one I tried this new account. Unfortunately, the problem remained exactly as on the old account. I'm very sorry it didn't work. What else can I try, please?

Ardneh · Jul 30, 2009

Neophile:

I don't see from the posts whether you've tried doing a System Restore from Safe Mode.

Ardneh

Neophile · Jul 31, 2009

Yes, I did it at the beginning, but with so result. Sorry I didn't mention before. Thanks again for the help.

delphin · Jul 31, 2009

Neophile said:
Yes, I did it at the beginning, but with so result. Sorry I didn't mention before. Thanks again for the help.

Download shell menu view and disable non microsoft extensions with that tool and check

One more thing, is your computer a part of your organization or school network?

Neophile · Jul 31, 2009

Thank you so much for the good will on trying to help, Delphin.

I have already tried your recommendation. Maybe it is not very clear, but I mentioned on the last paragraph of my initial post on this thread. It refers to another thread on this forum with that recommendation(http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/74151-right-click-item-start-menu-explorer-crash.html). I found strange that the guy on that thread soved his problem, but I didn't. Except for Avast, which I re-enabled, I still have all explorer non Microsoft extensions disabled.

My computer is a home stand alone. Thank you for any welcome help.

Ardneh · Jul 31, 2009

Neophile:

This may not apply but if you have Dual-Core or Dual processor computer
try this:

Open Task Manager, Processes tab, on the explorer.exe entry that is hogging resources - Right click - click Set Affinities... and if both are checked then uncheck one of them.

This is not a solution but it might make the computer easier to work with as you continue to troubleshoot.

Ardneh

Neophile · Jul 31, 2009

Thanks Ardneh. I have an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor, as per the specs on my profile, so the right clicking you mention doesn't not show the Set Affinities option. And yes, as soon as i click (or wait on to change) on All Programs on the Start Menu the explorer jumps up taking CPU resources to a varying (not stabilized) 50% to 90%. All help welcomed.

Ardneh · Jul 31, 2009

Neophile:

Not sure if this would only duplicate what you've already done
with ShellMenuView but check this link:

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista

Ardneh

Neophile · Jul 31, 2009

Ardneh, I followed the Microsoft instruction with System Configuration. No result. Only a few were not Microsoft's. Then I disabled everything, both services and startup, Microsoft or not. Nothing changed even when all disabled and on safe mode. I couldn't disable Avast completely because it always re-enabled itself. Many thanks, we have to try something else.

Ardneh · Aug 1, 2009

Neophile:

This might work for you:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html

You may need to borrow somebody's retail Vista-SP2-Integrated
install disc to make this work, if your situation doesn't meet the
prerequisites, described at the link.

Just remember to use your Product Key if re-activation is needed.

Ardneh

delphin · Aug 1, 2009

Neophile said:
Ardneh, I followed the Microsoft instruction with System Configuration. No result. Only a few were not Microsoft's. Then I disabled everything, both services and startup, Microsoft or not. Nothing changed even when all disabled and on safe mode. I couldn't disable Avast completely because it always re-enabled itself. Many thanks, we have to try something else.

Neophile,

I prepared a new hkcr hive for u. Before editing the hive, pls take a complete registry backup and create a restore point. so that we can restore if anything goes wrong.

download the View attachment 14642 and extract the hkcr.reg save it your c drive.

Before following this step, clean boot your system, and close all the application, terminate all the processes except microsoft and windows critical process.

open regedit by typing regedit in run. expand hkey_classes_root and delete all the subkeys inside hkey_classes_root manually, except .reg this key will give the association to merge the hkcr.reg

While deleting some keys, they will not allow you to delete.. it will say access denied. Leave those subkeys and delete all the other keys.

Finally you will only have .reg and some other keys inside hkcr.

Now open your c drive and double click on the hkcr.reg now the key will be merged. Restart your computer and check your explorer.

Neophile · Aug 1, 2009

I had these two answers from Ardneh and Delphin. I couldn’t do Ardeneh’s right away even if it was chronologically the first because I should slipstream SP2 and this would take a long time. So I went to try Delphin’s instruction. However this proved to be even longer because I had to clear all the registry keys one by one. The reg file from the HKCR that I saved is over 45MB. Now, clearing the keys one by one would be very long but possible, but a very large quantity of them does not accept to be removed, and each one in this case takes several times the time to clear one that is accepts. I had to give up because it would have taken many hours. Previous versions of windows would accept removing all keys, but not Vista. so now, I’ll have to try the other suggestion and start by slipstreaming SP2.

Of course, I am very grateful for the real good will and the help being kindly provided and I will go on following all suggestions as I can. This now will take me over one day and as I might be absent, maybe more days. I’ll be back with the results hoping it works.

Neophile · Aug 2, 2009

Ardneh. I can´t do it for the moment because I need a lot of time without interruption, but I was checking a few operations and on the http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/230249-sliptream-vista-sp2.html tutorial nothing happens when I press Ctrl+Shift+F3 on points 2 and 3. Is there anything that might not let me do it, and is not mentioned on the tutorial. please? :huh: Thks.

Explorer problem on start and context menus and long starting programs

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