Right click menu takes about 15 secs to appear

I've been having a problem for some time when I right click on a file to get the right click menu choices (properties, copy, delete, etc). I have to wait about 15 seconds before the right click menu choices appear. I had a similar problem on another computer of mine, but it either went away or something I did fixed the problem. (I think it was the latter, but now I can't recall what I did!)

My machine is otherwise responsive. It's got an Athlon X2 5000 cpu, 2 gigs of DDR2 667 RAM, and 1 1/2 to 2 gigs of swap file space, 2 hard drives with multiple partitions. I defrag regularly and use CCleaner often to clean out temp files and unneeded registry trash.

I play games frequently and, for example, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl runs smoothly and is quite responsive with most graphics settings in the medium range and a few set to high (my graphics card was a low ender which I'll be replacing soon with, probably, an 8800 GT model with 512 megs of RAM). Saving a game and loading up a save, once the game has been loaded, are quick also. So, as I said, my system seems quite responsive except for this pokey right click problem. :confused

The C: boot drive/partition is starting to get a bit crowded, which I will remedy within the next 5 to 7 days by installing a new hard drive and moving over my current C: installation to the new drive.

If I right click on the desktop the menu choices for that appear immediately. But if I right click on a file or folder then I get the 15 second delay. I use PowerDesk as my file management software (and have used various versions of it since Win95 days). PD ver 6 on this machine I'm currently having the problem with and had version 5 running on the other machine which had a similar problem at one time. Actually on that older machine I had to wait more like a minute or perhaps even longer for the menu choices to appear when I'd right click on a file or folder.

I thought maybe I had fixed the problem on my other machine by uninstalling and reinstalling PowerDesk, but I've tried that on this newer machine and it didn't make any difference.

I guess my next step will be to uninstall PD again and see what happens if I'm using MyComputer/Windows Explorer for file management to see whether or not I have the same problem.

Anyone have any ideas about other possible causes/remedies for my pokey right click menu?

 

It just occurred to me that I perhaps should have mentioned I'm using a Razor Copperhead mouse with it's proprietary software. I'm going to check the software settings and see if there's anything there that might account for this problem.

 

I seem to recall that this can happen if your right click menu has lots of choices.
There is a way to remove some of the choices that you probably rarely use and speed up the right click menu opening.
I'll see if I can track it down.
What OS are you running?

This explains the reason for a slow right click menu opening
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm
and offers a registry fix or a program fix which can be used to solve the problem.

 

For the record, my OS is Win XP Home.

That program, ShellExView, which I found in the helpful link you provided, did the trick! Thank you, thank you!

A program I installed quite a few months back, called Eraser, apparently was at the root of the problem, rather than having too many additions to my right click menus (which is not the case). As I hadn't used Eraser in months (and think I only downloaded it to try it out along with some other utilities for erasing persistent/uninstall resistant files), I uninstalled Eraser and the 15 second delay problem is gone!

I first downloaded and installed the Shell extension program I found on the link you provided and that enabled me to quickly identify the culprit.

You may be wondering if I've really put up with this 15 second delay for months and months. Well, yes and no. I first built this system months ago but have only used it sporadically as I kept intending to upgrade the graphics card, RAM and processor to turn it into a much better gaming machine, but just hadn't gotten around to spending the money on the better components. Then about a week ago what had been my main surfing and gaming machine, also homebuilt, began to act flaky so I set my current machine up and realized I had this problem with the right click menu delay.

Thanks again for your help plodr! :clap