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

[RipGroove]

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?

 

[RipGroove]

Your last option was my 1st go to.

lol, well it didn't make any difference in this case unfortunately.

 

[RipGroove]

Thanks, worth a look.

 

[RipGroove]

Not really sure what I'm looking for on the resource monitor, I'll do a video of me right clicking stuff with the monitor open.

 

[RipGroove]

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.

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.

 

[RipGroove]

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..

 

[RipGroove]

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.

 

[RipGroove]

Dont suppose you have some old network drives that are no longer in use that are still there?



M.

No definitely not. It's very weird because it just happened one day overnight and won't go away.

 

[RipGroove]

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.

 

[RipGroove]

I do yes, I'll unplug it and see if it makes any difference.

 

[RipGroove]

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.

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.

 

[RipGroove]

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.

 

[RipGroove]

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.

 

[RipGroove]

So, any more ideas before I reinstall Windows?

 

[RipGroove]

To be honest, I'd have reinstalled Windows weeks ago - it would have been a far quicker solution.

You may be right but I have an absolute ton of software and games on it along with a load of peripherals so it's not a 5min job to get it all back up and running and from the limited similar issues I've read about online a Windows install might not even fix it.

 

[RipGroove]

Looking at your taskbar im surprised thats the only issue your having

lol

 

[RipGroove]

I've had the same software on their since way before the issue started. The rest of the PC runs fine, super fast and snappy, no issues.

 

[RipGroove]

Sure no sneeky crypto miner virus running?

Not as far as i know, everything else is fine, everything runs fast and it benchmarks near enough what it did when I built it 3 years ago. In general it's a very well kept PC.

 

[RipGroove]

This kind of slowness is often caused by bad shell extensions. You can use something like https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns to show what you have configured at the moment, then you could work through disabling them one at a time until you find the problem one.

Thanks man, I'll definitely give that a go

 

[RipGroove]

You joking me? who you trying to kid... lol

18 Mar 2021 at 17:41 - First Post
8 Jun 2021 at 17:52 - Last Post

You telling me you could have formatted + reinstalled the stuff you need bit by bit within this time?

lol Well it's not like I spent that whole duration starting at the screen hoping it would fix itself, I've just not had the solid block of time to actually document all my software settings and peripheral settings and all the nuances that go along with them and all the little fixes and tweaks I've done to Windows to get it everything working. I have a week off work coming up soon so maybe I'll start that process then.

It's one of those problems that isn't a massive issue that stops the PC from working so sub consciously it's not a major concern, however whenever I right click something or try to save something I'm instantly reminded of exactly how annoying it is and that I need to sort it out. You are right though, I need to start chipping away at it and make it happen.