Right-click menu in Win Explorer takes 10 Seconds

Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
4 Gig RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 @ 2.8 GHz
NVIDIA board

I've been running this system just fine until recently when this problem with the right-click menu started. Actually, it is a problem specific to the "New" portion of the right-click menu in Windows Explorer. I can right-click a blank portion of an Explorer window and I get the usual instant pop-out menu; but, if I click "New", it takes a full ten seconds to respond. For ten seconds, it is as though I didn't click at all, then the "New" nested menu appears and everything works as normal. If I impatiently click several times in a row during that ten seconds (on "New"), everything grays for the rest of the ten seconds, then the Windows Desktop redraws completely and I have to start over again trying to use the "New" menu.

This has been going on for about two weeks.

Suggestions?