Vista - Right Click context menu very slow on Desktop

Whenever I try to right click the desktop , (icons, folders, or background)
the context menu takes a very long time to pop up. I tried ShellEXView and
disabled all of the items. It didn't fix the problem I have. New computer,
and I only have 1 restore point, that was before I installed heavy programs
Adobe CS3 and Office 2007. If I can fix it without having to reinstall these
I'd be very greatful.
Thanks.

I have the same problem, and can't figure out how to fix either.

"Anthony_Marx" wrote:

On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:21:00 -0800, Neil Z <Neil
Z@xxxxxx> wrote:
Why you worry about Office 2007's reinstallation, I do not know. It
only takes a few minutes (less than 20, in fact) to install Office
2007 Professional (ALL OF IT) to the HD. It takes more time to update
it than it does to install it.

Anyway, have you completely defragged your HD lately? I've found that
if I haven't defragged completely recently, Desktop operations will
get sluggish.

Also, you aren't telling us what make/model/size your HD is, its
rotational speed, its UDMA setting, your CPU's type and speed, your
FSB speed, your video card, amount and speed of vram, its GPU speed,
its bus speed, etc. All these things can affect the speed at which
program modules on disk load into memory and display on screen.

As a rule of thumb, consider this:
File access times are proportional to UDMA settings, drive rotational
speed, and the drive's connector type.

Of course, as I've stated above, many other factors affect file access
times. Remember that I've given a rule of thumb, not a fundamental
Law.

Example1: PATA-connected drives are fundamentally slower than
SATA-connected drives.
Example2: IDE drives clocked at 5400RPM are fundamentally slower than
SATA drives clocked at 7200RPM, or even IDE drives clocked at
7200RPM..
Example3: External USB/Firewire drives will always be slow. Their
transfer speeds are currently 400-480MB/sec (or800MB/sec for
Firewire).
Example4: An external e-SATA drive will be super fast (~3GB/sec for
SATA-300).

Hope you get it figured out...

Donald L McDaniel

The problem isn't with optical dreives, or even the HDD. Just right clicking
on a folder or an icon. It takes 23 seconds for the context menu to popup.
Games, internet, programs all run fine. But if you want to right click on the
recycle bin to delete or restore a file, it seems like it takes forever.
Pentium D, 3.4 Ghz
2 GM Ram
500GB Raid HDD
twin Sony 16X DVD RAM drives
Twin Nvidia 7900GTX SLI video cards.

Hope this helps...THANX!

"Donald L McDaniel" wrote:

On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:09:02 -0800, Neil Z
<NeilZ@xxxxxx> wrote:
It does help.
But I would STILL advise you to do a complete defrag, including a
boot-files defrag, as well as a defrag of the MFT, the Paging file,
etc.

BTW, you didn't tell us how much of that 500GB HDD is free. The
fuller and more fragmented it becomes, the more sluggish Desktop
operations will become.

Also, "RAID" is related to the controller, not the HDD, so you do NOT
have a "RAID HDD", you have a "500GB HDD attached to a
RAID-controller".

Also, if I had a RAID-Controller (I do, btw), I would turn RAID off in
the BIOS if you have only a single physical HDD. RAID is best-used
only for multiple physical drives, not logical drives on a single
physical drive. In fact, turning it on when you only have a single
physical drive will result in poorer performance, not better
performance.

Donald L McDaniel

I performed a (Windows) defrag - no help at all. I have twin 250Gb drives
attached to a R.A.I.D. conroller (RAID0) with 40% free. I increased the
paging file to 4096; uninstalled and software that attached itself to the
context menu (Norton, WinRar, etc). I forgot to mention I am running 64bit
Vista. Getting ready to give this pc away. Would really like it to be running
the way it should
Donald L McDaniel" wrote:

On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:39:01 -0800, Neil Z
<NeilZ@xxxxxx> wrote:
Question:
Is your RAID set striped, and appears as a single volume in Windows,
or is the second volume just a shadow-volume (used to do automatic
backups)?

Personally, I would be of the opinion that your problem is your RAID
setup, if the set is striped.

Also, my own opinion about 64-bit Vista is that it is not ready for
prime-time, since there is so little software which will take
advantage of 64bits at the present time, and there are so few 64bit
drivers.

Unless your software is optimized for 64bits, your 64bit OS is kind of
redundant, since all 32bit software will only run in 32bits under a
64bit OS.. I would either install 32bit Vista, or XP 32bit.

Unless the person you are giving it away to has lots of 64bit
software, the 64bit processor will be wasted on him/her.

BTW, software optimized for 32bits WILL run slower under a 64bit OS.

Also, another thing to consider:
I ALWAYS experience such slowdowns you've described if
1) Nero Scout is always running.
or
2) Windows Indexing is turned on.
or
3) Both Windows indexing AND Nero Scout are running.

If that is the case, try turning off Nero Indexing FIRST, since it
seems to be continually running if it is installed, whether you are
actively indexing your media or not.

Personally, I prefer to turn ALL indexing off immediately after
updating Windows the first time after installation, since my machine
is more than fast enough to use old-style Windows search rather than
Vista's so-called "fast search". If you experience this indexing
slowdown after first installing Windows, Windows Indexing is obviously
the culprit. You will know it is running, since your HDDs will be
"grinding" all the time. Nero, however, it a MUCH BIGGER culprit. Its
indexing feature (Nero Scout) is slower than mollasses, even on a fast
machine like mine, MUCH slower even than Windows Indexing, which is
slower than [enter anything you consider very slow here].

Hope this helps..,.

Donald McDaniel

This has been helpful, TY. I will try the indexin g thing when I get home.
You're right about the 64bit problem. I did it for gaming (which is working
fine) and really didn't care about anything else. I DID build this pc for
gaming after all! But daily routines (copy/paste, cd burning, etc) brings me
back to the 486 days.
Thanks for the reply. I'll let you know how it worked!


"Donald L McDaniel" wrote:

This is well known problem with Vista.

The context menu software was changed in Vista and has some bugs.

I figured out the problem. Turns out to be Roxio's Drag to Disc program. I
uninstalled this module, left the rest of Roxio alone, and everything is
running greart! Hope this helps

"super_duper_englander" wrote: