Windows Explorer Not Responding

I see several posts about this, but none fit my case. I had lots of trouble with my laptop computer several days ago (including BSOD), but with the help of MG, I'm back in business. Except that whenever I right-click a document, the laptop hangs up--the revolving circle keeps revolving, and I can't get to the drop-down menu. When I go to Windows Task Manager and click on the document to stop it from running, I get the message that Windows Explorer is not responding. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sometimes this is caused by a poorly implemented context menu addition a piece of software has added. Have you added any software recently and said YES to allowing it add a context menu item?

Try the ShellExView utility http://majorgeeks.com/ShellExView_d6978.html and one at a time disable some of the context menu items. You can always restore them if they are not the culprit.

 

Very embarrassingly, I must admit I left out one very important thing in my first post. I also do not have an Internet connection since the big trouble I mentioned. I tried the trouble-shooting attempts to restore the connection, but nothing worked. Sorry about this.

 

Plodr: I can't get anything when I right-click. Therefore, I can't get anything when I right-click Command Prompt. I think I'll try restoring to a previous restore point.

 

I still feel the context menu avenue should be explored, I've seen this exact problem more than a few times.

 

Cipher: I can't online to download the context menu program you recommended.

 

Of course, Plodr, you are right in thinking I'm online somewhere. It's my desktop computer I'm using to post on Major Geeks.

To cipher: I did as you suggested. I checked every context menu item on the list, and none of them is the culprit.

Sure appreciate all the efforts being made to help me.

 

Can you post a list of the software packages that you have context menu items for? I've also seen that removing the app entirely fixes it sometimes, removing the context menu works most of the time, but not all of the time.

By any chance are you running Spyware Doctor? This one in particular causes problems, in my experience...

 

Cipher: I don't have Spyware Doctor. I don't know what "software packages" are. I only looked for context menu items that were created in late July, since my problems began about then, and I did not find any software items that were created from late July until now. Also, I'm not sure what kind of info you want when you ask for a list. Is it the list that shows up when I use the ShellExView utility you recommended?

 

Software package = any software. Any program.

The list I refer to is a manually created list of the programs the ShellExView utility shows as having context menu items added for them...

 

When I go to ShellExView, I get a long list of items, including Context Menu items. Each listing has the Extension Name, if it's disabled or not, Type, Description, Version, Product Name, Company, and more. I don't see any software items that I have added recently. The most recent is DropBox last February. Do you want me to pick out some of the Context Menu items and send the information about the item to you? You can see that I'm not too swift in this department.

 

I would make a list of all software with a context menu addition.
You say you disabled all these one at a time, rebooted each time, and the problem persists.

OK, what I might do is to, one at a time, uninstall each program that added a context menu item using Revo Uninstaller to pick up any traces the default uninstaller misses.
Then a reboot and check if the problem is gone.

Be sure to secure an installer for each one you wish to add back before doing this.
Even if you find the culprit, try to do a new install, it could be a corrupted file on the current install. If the problem returns on said new install we can look at other ways to get around it.

Tedious, yes. Sometimes troubleshooting is tedious...

 

I probably misled you when I wrote that I had checked each Context Menu item. I highlighted each one in turn, then disabled it, then checked if I could get online, and when I could not get on line, I enabled the item and went to the next one. But this was hit-and-miss because I could not be sure that the menu item referred to software.
I am a babe in the woods on this Context Menu business. It took me until today to actually learn what a contest menu is. I went to one of my documents, right-clicked it, and found what I've been calling the drop-down menu. On it were several listings, including Scan With Microsoft Essentials, Scan with SuperAntiSpyware, and Scan with Malwarebytes. I assume these were added to the context menu at the time I installed them. Right?

 

Correct.
I still feel that the tedious work of disabling them one at a time, with a reboot, will solve this...

 

Okay. I'll do it.

 

Well, cipher, my Windows Explorer now is working just fine. But I don't know why. I began the job of checking each context menu item by disabling and enabling. Nothing worked. I had done a few and then was called away from the computer. Half an hour later, I was ready to resume the process. I decided to check Windows Explorer first, just in case--and it worked! I right-clicked several documents, and got the drop-down menu each time. I am deeply indebted to you. Thank you so much for sticking with me on this.

 

Glad its fixed, wish we knew what did it... :confused

I can only guess that some kind of reset occured by turning one off and then back on.