[rwrussell]

I'm running XP Home. When in Windows Explorer if I right click on a file/folder I get an hourglass for about 25 seconds and then it dumps me out of WE. After I'm dumped out everything else still seems to work fine and I can reopen WE, but still no right clicking in it.

The right click feature seems to work in all other applications.

Help! Thanks in advance!

[Old Rich]

Is this something new? . . Did you install or uninstall anything prior to this happening? . . Have you tried System Restore to a point prior to this happening?

[rwrussell]

It just started in the middle of the afternoon. No new programs had been installed or deleted. I tried to use the Restore feature only to find that it had been disabled (I've turned it back on, but that obviously won't help us with this).

I've run a full Norton virus scan which came up clean. I also ran Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware which turned up a few little things, but cleaning them up didn't seem to make any difference. Oddly, it only seems to happen in Windows Explorer.

Thanks for your help.

[rwrussell]

Any ideas? It's still doing this and I've tried everything I can think of short of reinstalling Windows Explorer (which I'm not sure is even possible). Thanks.

[achookang]

My experience is similar:

Windows Explorer "crashes" when I right click in blank space
(i.e. not right click on a file). This also occurs when clicking on the
File menu, and when selecting "new folder" icon on a save dialog, or clicking on "Make a new folder" on the task panel on the left (if available, e.g. in My Documents).

The "crash" is the hourglass for about 30s then "progran not
responding". The rest of the system appears to work OK and I can still
start a new instance of Windows Explorer afer, but the fault will
recur.

I am assuming it is something to do with the "new" function????

My system: Windows XP Home SP 2 all updates installed; AVG free
antivirus, MS Antispyware beta and Ad-Aware all up to date and scanned
clean.

Can anyone advise on how to isolate the problem and solve it :-)

Thanks

[achookang]

Update:

I have now solved this problem, at least in my case.

I got some pointers to various websites on microsoft.public.windowsxp.general and after reading at : http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm ....

I used regedit to check the key: HKCR/Directory/Background/shellex/

I found two additional subkeys as well as "new" which is apparently
supposed to be there after a clean WinXP install.

The key I removed was called 00nView I don't know what installed it,
but deleting it solved the problem.

Hope this may help you too.
Thanks to the person who replied on the newsgroup, too.

[2CV67]

See topic: "Solved: Windows Explorer does not close now" lower down
and also sticky: "Microsoft Update MS06-015 (908531) – IMPORTANT!" at the top of this forum.
Sounds like your problem to me...

[achookang]

Originally Posted by 2CV67

See topic: "Solved: Windows Explorer does not close now" lower down
and also sticky: "Microsoft Update MS06-015 (908531) – IMPORTANT!" at the top of this forum.
Sounds like your problem to me...

I'm not the original poster, although his problem as described sounded very similar to mine.

After looking at the two posts you mention (actually I had already looked at the sticky, since it was stickied) I dont really think they describe the same problem.

In my case anyway, there was no problems accessing special folders, no problems with any MS Office apps, or indeed any of the other symtoms descibed in the sticky.

The sole problem was accessing the "New" function (as in to make a new folder), whether by right clicking in the Explorer window, or trying to choose the File option from the menu, or clicking the Make a New Folder in the task panel. This lead to Win Explorer to stop responding, but everything else worked.

Anyway, as I mentioned a post or two earlier, I solved it for my case by judicious rummaging in the registry.

[spiers]

Hi, Im having a similar problem but on Windows XP Pro edition. The strange thing is it only happens on one account. Also in certain places. On my mums account which is set to admin rights, cant access anything in "my" Marks documents not her my documents if you get me?
I put some music in my folder, for her to listen to, when trying to access it said filename didnt exsist? But if she right-clicked on the files explorer crashed stating the Kernel was at fault? The music was stored in Marks Music which is a sub-folder in Marks documents.
So really got two problems, the right clicking and the files not exsisiting. I went onto my account and put the folder the music was in as shared, a hand was placed under the folder so i think its not shared, but it still states an incorrect filename? Trying to access the music through Windows media player also creates an error about access rights.
Tried opening the music through VLC player and Creative player, none play the file?
Any ideas why such change between accounts?
Thanks.