Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Right Clicking in Windows 7 causes explorer.exe to crash and restart


Could not right click in windows explore.   Every time you would right click the on a file windows explore would stop responding and close.  You also could not right click on any icon to pull the menu, if you did nothing would happen the process explore error message would pop up.  

These problems are caused by a bad context menu handler. A context menu handler is a shell extension handler that adds commands to an existing context menu (Example: cut, copy, paste, print, Scan with Norton etc). A poorly coded context menu handler may be causing any of the above symptoms. As context menu handlers can be added in different areas (file class, folder, allfilesystemobjects, HKCR\* registry keys), it's a difficult task for an end-user to pinpoint which shell extension is causing the problem.

Resolution:  Following the steps from http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm and using the tools listed below



We were able to find the context menu handler registry key that was causing the problem.  In this instance it was and HP instaprint issue.  We created a backup of his registry and deleted the offending key.  He no longer has the issue.  

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