It could be dumb luck, but since installing the updated Windows 7 drivers from Razerzone for my mice, I have not had that right-click error on either PC since. That's been since I last posted here, nearly two weeks ago.
If for some reason it does do it again, I will try to post here and let you guys know. As of now though, the problem is resolved for me until it rears its ugly head.
I've been reading about Win7-x64 hanging or crashing when right-clicking in Explorer. I think it is a coding error in Explorer. Why? For me it started after a clean install (and and again after a reinstall) before anything other than Win7 was on the system. Don't know about x32 - haven't seen any posts for that OS version.
After installing various apps which add to the context menu(WinZip, WinAmp, Notepad++ etc) it still happens. One post on sevenforums recommended Mark Russinovitch's Autoruns program (excellent!). Using it I disabled every context handler(even Win7's) and it still sporadically hangs Explorer when I right-click on a drive/folder/file. If all context handlers are disabled, it seems they're innocent.
I've looked for an online method of submitting a problem report to Microsoft but all I found were pay solutions. I'm not about to pay them $259 (really!) to help them find one of their problems. They can come to sevenforums and their own newsgroups and get lots of feedback.
I can't think of anything else to do except hope that Microsoft eventually acknowledges that this is a widespread problem and deigns to look into it. You might try Autoruns (Google Russinovitch Autoruns) and see if it helps you. You can disable and re-enable individual context handlers via a GUI, not the registry.
Good luck and...
Grrrrr!
Just though id pop back in and let you guy's know i fixed the problem, it turns out to be caused by the weirdest thing ever. i had private browsing enabled in firefox, i didn't think it would have any effect on explorer.exe and that it could only effect firefox.exe itself but low and behold i disabled it and explorer hasent crashed since. it dosen't make much sense since i think it was crashing even when i had firefox closed but it fixed the problem.
I'm also having frequent "Windows Explorer Not Responding" problems on my two Windows 7 systems, a netbook and a desktop both with Home Premium installed. After careful observation over several weeks now, it seems that it happens if I "jiggle" the mouse slightly at the same time that I right click. If I right click very carefully, no problem. Never had the problem with my former XP system. Don't like to do it, but might have to lower the mouse sensitivity a little to see if that helps.
funtalk . . .
It may simply be coincidence, but when I switched from Avast Antivirus to MS Security Essentials, the problem went away and has not re-occurred. The switch from Avast was the only software change that I made (other than routine Windows Updates) from the time I was having the problems and when the problems disappeared.
First go to any site and install "ShellExView". It's a small program. It will tell you in the right hand column which dates were the last to be modified. You can choose either of two dates of the latest changes and you can decide which programs caused your problem by the date.
Then do this:
1. Click the start button
2. Type in the search box "Event Viewer" and hit enter
3. On the left side navigation go to "Windows Logs" and expand it
4. Click on "Application"
5. In the box to the right scroll down until you find an error entry with "Application Error" in the source column, and highlight it.
6. In the box beneath on the "General" tab you will see lines of information. Look towards the bottom of the list and you will see "Faulting application path". This is basically what you were trying to do when the error happened. Beneath that entry will be "Faulting module path". This should tell you what program caused the error.
7. Uninstall the program, reinstall it, update it... whatever. But do SOMETHING with it. In my case I uninstalled the program referenced in the "Faulting module path", restarted the pc and it was an instant fix.
THen:
Star Run OK Regedit HKLM Local Machine \ Software \ Microsoft \ SQMClienti \ Windows \ Disabled Session
At this point you will be presented under four keys, you can not find MachineThrottling, open the subkey marked with the triangle and there you will find "throttling" of course without the quotes. For added security export the subkey and save it in a safe folder having a lot of care, being able to restore immediately place if the operation is successful, but I assure you the result at 100%. Now delete the subkey Throttling with the right of our mouse, tidy up the registry and now pay attention: back on the desktop, we need to turn off the computer does not restart, repeat off. Wait 10 seconds and switch, problem solved. We will not have the Windows explorer has stopped working, start the machine and operating system Windows 7 will work beautifully, making it even more, even if it is already faster than about 14/18%.
These steps were gathered from other sites I have researched. But I had done one more thing: After I was then able to right click again the icons were still greyed out. So I went to desktop first and selected all. THen right click, properties and all of the properties will show up at one time. UNCHECK the hidden file icon at the bottom and apply. They will all turn good again. THen go to downloads, pictures, documents and all and use edit to select all. UNCHECK the hidden button again and apply and all will turn good again. DO this with every page you have lightened hidden icons on. This will work for hundreds of icons on a page at one time.
My problem was Ad aware. I deleted that plus spybot and malwarebytes. Seems they caused a bad problem with the shell somewhere but I believe it was the ad aware that was the main. But not for sure. I had a hard time deleting ad aware so I stopped it in task manager and anywhere else I could like msconfig from the run search box.
My system is restored well and is faster too. Try it in any combination and it works. I did not have to put the Throttle key back in either. It had no value anyway. I still saved it by exporting just in case. You'll figure it out once you start playing with it. Not that difficult.
The event viewer and the SHellExView program will show you exactly what is cursing your right click blunder. It even shows you their file locations. YOU CAN ALSO right click on the item in question in event viewer and it will let you go to properties and find a previous version you can use. If it is needed. But this works.
thye response in the window was:
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\SHELL32.dll
Report Id: 2b7b234e-4dc8-11e5-a73d-f04da2dd94cc
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