[HELP] Explorer suddenly very slow but comes and goes?

RipGroove

RipGroove

RipGroove

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Decent PC, spec below in sigature, usually very fast and snappy.

Recently sometimes when I right click on things it takes ages for the context menu to come up, doesn't seem to matter what type of files I click on. It comes and goes very quickly, like I will click on a file and the context menu is there instantly but I can click the same file again just 2 seconds later and it'll make me wait 10 seconds for the menu to appear?!! This is extremely frustrating when I just want to Copy & Paste a file :(

What I've tried so far:

  • System Restore to a point I know did not have the issue
  • Checked Task Manager for any resource hogs, nothing there
  • Ran SFC /Scannow
  • Checked for Windows updates (none were available)
  • Ran CCleaner
  • Ran Spybot (all clear)
  • Disabled items from context menu via ShellExView
  • Ran DISM
  • Checked Page File Allocation sizes

I don't believe it is specifically a context menu problem as when the problem arises some other things are slow too, like opening Task Manager, essentially some Windows related actions are slow. But then in the blink of an eye suddenly it's all OK again and super fast and snappy.

Any ideas?
 
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Your last option was my 1st go to.

I had this and not sure if it was culprit but I keep it this way now : use your last option to remove the Nvidia(s) entries from the Desktop Menu, you can use the tray icon instead.
 
Check Event Viewer in case a drive is failing. Are you running any anti-virus? sometimes that can hang things up as it does checks.

More generally this is a known issue with Windows 10 though they've supposedly fixed twice but still happens - I have a couple of systems where File Explorer and the Start Menu start getting delays like this which go away after a reinstall but comes back a random time later - I've tried completely changing everything but the motherboard without solving it - fortunately not systems I use a lot.
 
Rroff said:
Check Event Viewer in case a drive is failing. Are you running any anti-virus? sometimes that can hang things up as it does checks.

More generally this is a known issue with Windows 10 though they've supposedly fixed twice but still happens - I have a couple of systems where File Explorer and the Start Menu start getting delays like this which go away after a reinstall but comes back a random time later - I've tried completely changing everything but the motherboard without solving it - fortunately not systems I use a lot.
Click to expand...

Can't see anything that jumps out at me in Event Viewer, again though I'm not 100% sure what I am looking for. No third-party anti virus. It does seem like a Windows issue to me, I'll get a video up shortly, just waiting for YT to process the HD version.
 
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Here's a quick video of me opening Task Manager and Resource Monitor which both open fairly slowly, then I right click some files on the desktop (MP3, VIDEO, PHOTO, TEXT, FOLDER) and also my regular desktop icons. In this instance you can it initially gets hung up on the MP3 file but then keeps getting hung up sometimes when when I right click the TEXT FILE, worth noting though that this doesn't always happen just on text files, it seem pretty random and happens on all file types. I was trying to copy and paste some mp3 files around yesterday and simply gave up because I had to wait 10 seconds for the context menu to open each time.

Video: https://youtu.be/IBJcO1E_3p8

Worth noting that everything else on the PC is still snappy and fast, gaming and video editing etc, it just seems to be some Windows actions that are being affected sporadically but increasingly more frequent..
 
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I'm pretty sure this isn't Drive related as I've just copied the same few files to various locations (M.2 OS Drive - SSD - Storage HDD - USB Thumb Drive) and still have the same problem, still random as well (as in which files it happens to and when) and still very frequent.
 
Well I still have this problem and it's no less annoying. Had a few Windows updates, endlessly messed around with the context menu items and even ran a registry repair tool so I guess I'm staring down the barrel of a fresh Windows install now. My plan was to already have built an 11th gen Intel/3080ti PC by now but obviously the World went mad and the only chips I can buy are from the local Chippy.
 
Glanza said:
Do you have a HDD as a storage drive? I sometimes get explorer 'lagging' for a few seconds when it has to spin my storage drive up if I've not accessed it in a while.
Click to expand...

Apologies for the delay, I've only just had time (been bothered) to unplug the storage drive and unfortunately it made no difference, worth a shot though.
 
It gets even more weird:
  • Boot into Windows
  • Right click a file or folder (does not matter what the file type is)
  • Have to wait about 8 seconds for the context menu to pop up???!!!
Once it has finally popped up I can right click files and the menu appears right away as long as I keep doing it, but if I stop for a few seconds and then try again I have to wait 8 seconds again???!!!

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvky-MgaLKw

Just to add I do not have this issue when right clicking the desktop itself, it only happens on files and folders.
 
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I've just realized that this problem is not just confined to the context menu, when I want to save any type of document or file, Windows hangs for about 8 seconds before it opens up the box where I choose the files destination. The same also applies when I try to open anything Windows related like Task Manager or something.

And just to add the slow context menu problem goes away in Safe Mode but the other slow issues like Task Manager opening and 'Save As' are still slow in Safe Mode.
 
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