Windows 7: "Windows Explorer has stopped working right click"

Hi,
This problem has been frustrating me for some time and I'm wondering if anyone could help me with this. As the title says, I am getting a "windows explorer has stopped working " error when I right click a program. whenever I right-click a folder, it takes very long for it to load. It works fine on other things and I tried to run cmd but I can't run as admin since it won't let me right-click it. So for now I am running registry repairs and hoping it'll come up with something. But I was wondering if anyone else had any input on this.

What kind of mouse do you have and how is it attached? It could be that the driver is corrupt or the attachment is bad. What does your log say about the error?

It's one of the old laser optical Dell mouses. The problem isn't coming from the mouse, it has been working for quite a while. I think it's more related to the computer. I don't really get much of an error because" windows explorer has stopped working" and and then it just reloads explorer.exe

How old is the HD? Have you run a diagnostic? I got the same impression, that it had trouble loading the registry. It may be a good idea to run a diagnostic on the drive even if you have to boot from CD. That would help to rule out the hardware.

Laptop is about a year old, ASUS UL50A if that helps. How would I go in doing the diagnostic check?

Have you recently loaded/installed any new software that adds shell extensions--Like an antivirus or utility? Or copied files (programs) from another computer to restore something you may have deleted by accident?

Whoever made the hard drive usually has a diagnostic program you can download. If it's WD then go to western digital site. If it's Seagate, go there. Search for the drive model number. There should be software downloads for that model drive. Or a download that will list a whole bunch of drives it will work with.

To my knowledge, I don't think so. If anything I just restored my computer back a little bit to the 15th and it's still acting up

does the onboard touchpad buttons act the same way (or is only the external mouse and is mouse PS2 or usb)....if yes then I would check to see if any new mouse drivers have been loaded through Windows update or other update service and roll them back.....or....you could do a restore to a point before this began to occure if it hasn't been too long.

Just saw your newest post....try rolling back to prior to the 12th of this month when the latest patches rolled out.

Okay just restored it back. The same problem is happening with on board touchpad. I read that it might be some kind of shell problem. Don't know if that's it but I still wouldn't know how to go about fixing it.