Using context menu uses all available processor

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tim Kite
  • Start date Start date
T

Tim Kite

When I right-click on a file or a shortcut (not a
folder), if I have task manager up, I can see my
processor use all go to explorer.exe. I also see a very
large number of page faults generated by that process.
It happens with every combination of running software and
graphical theme I can think of. I even disabled all
programs that put plugins into the context menu,
including my anti-virus. I only noticed this because
explorer was set to high process priority (automatically,
I didn't set it that high) and I was playing music at the
time (an MP3). I noticed that when I had the context
menu displayed, the audio buffer would underrun and the
music would stop, the buffer would re-fill, and then play
for the 4 seconds or so the buffer lasted. My roommate's
laptop running XP Pro (just like me) doesn't use hardly
any processor to maintain a context menu (<1%), but still
generates tons of page faults. I can keep the buffer
from getting dropped by setting explorer to normal
priority, but does anyone know a way (besides re-
installing the whole OS...or getting Litestep) to get
explorer back to "normal" behavior and not trying to hold
the processor while I'm in a context menu?
 
Hahahahahahaha, I solved it myself after hours of pain.
It's those stupid "common tasks" that are on the left
side of WinXP folder windows by default. Turn them off
(View/Folder Options/Classic Windows), and right clicking
on a file causes barely a hiccup. How did I notice
this? Right-clicking on files in file-open dialogues
didn't cause explorer to grab all the resources it could
muster, and those don't have common tasks. Come on
Microsoft, you could have tested for this. I understand
security updates, but this one is just pathetic.
 
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