Right-click menu delay since installing SP2...part 2

  • Thread starter Thread starter Homer J. Simpson
  • Start date Start date
H

Homer J. Simpson

I posted a message a few weeks ago saying that since I installed SP2, one of
my machines is now taking 15-20 seconds to display the right-click menu in
Explorer. The standard suggestion was to look for and disable third-party
context menu handlers. Fair enough, that would've been my first guess as
well. However this didn't help; I couldn't find anything that made the
problem go away.

Now I just noticed that this doesn't happen strictly with the right-click
menu--for example, if I highlight a file, then select Edit|Copy through the
window menu (instead of right-clicking a file and then selecting Copy, which
I came to avoid because of the delay) I'm getting the same thing. The Edit
submenu appears immediately, but it still takes 15-20 seconds for the
operation to start when I select Copy (or Delete, or File|New|Folder). I'm
thinking this does *not* necessarily have to do with context menu handlers.

I'm not sure whether this is relevant, but the problem is intermittent. If
I have Explorer running for a few minutes, odds are pretty good that I'll
get the delay. However, once the popup menu appears, I can reselect it
immediately as often as I want without any pause. However, if I then switch
to some other app for a few minutes, when I get back to Explorer I'll get
the delay again. You'd think it has to do with caching and the system is
busy re-reading stuff from the registry (or cached in the pagefile), but the
machine has a gig of RAM and I'm not loading anything between task switches
that should cause massive file swapping--just typing text in an editor for a
while and then switching back to Explorer. Plus, there's no disk activity,
and CPU usage remains at 0. Explorer is simply not responding during that
delay.

Any suggestion before I give up and just reformat/reinstall? I'd rather not
go through such a drastic and silly action, but it's been almost three weeks
now and it's driving me crazy...
 
Homer,

Disable "Windows Image Acqisition" Service.
SP2 may have enabled that service.

<snip>
| since I installed SP2, one of my machines is now taking
| 15-20 seconds to display the right-click menu in Explorer.
<snip>
this doesn't happen strictly with the right-click menu
<snip>
| Any suggestion before I give up and just reformat/reinstall?
<snip>
 
anonymouse said:
Homer,

Disable "Windows Image Acqisition" Service.
SP2 may have enabled that service.

After a bit of research on WIA, it doesn't look like the symptoms I'm
experiencing are exactly what is being described in this case, but what the
hell, I'm ready to try just about anything. Can't hurt anyway.

Thanks, I'll report back...
 
anonymouse said:
| >> Disable "Windows Image Acqisition" Service.

| The service isn't running. :-/

Last resort...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=819101
(Temporary Decline in Performance Occurs When You Right-Click a File or
Folder in Windows Explorer)

I don't think that'll do it--the CPU is idle while Explorer pauses.
Everything else works perfectly fine and the system remains snappy and
responsive otherwise; it's just Explorer that stops responding for a few
seconds.

Besides, I already have the bells and whistles (such as Transition Effect,
as suggested in the article) disabled.

I've now also established that even the hotkeys (Ctrl-C, Del) and the
toolbar buttons can make Explorer pause...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm
"Slow Computer" By Jupiter Jones [MVP]

As for this link, well, I'm not seeing general slowdowns on this
machine--only Explorer pauses when performing file operations.
 
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