How to fix slow right-click menu item on Windows

Windows 10’s right-click menu, also known as context menu, will slow down over time. This is because third-party programs install extensions to the context menu and these extensions are coded incorrectly, which can slow down the right-click menu. In this article, I will show you how to fix the context menu that opens slowly, or hangs when you right-click.

You can also remove right-click menu items directly using the Windows Registry. However, this process is quite slow and requires many steps, so I will show you a faster way.

ShellExView is one of the great utilities of NirSoft. It can run on Windows 10 and earlier versions of Windows. First, download ShellExView and launch it.

You will see a long list of extensions in Windows. A lot of them are created by Microsoft and come with this operating system. Those won’t slow down your system. So hide all Microsoft utilities by tapping Options > Hide All Microsoft Extensions.

Now the list is only for the third-party add-ons that you have installed. Examples include utilities from 7-Zip, Notepad++, NVIDIA, Dropbox, Google Drive, Malwarebytes and Paint.NET.

Would you like to find out which shell utilities are causing the problem? This is also a bit of a hassle, you have to disable one or more shell utilities, then restart Explorer and see if the problem is fixed.

Eg:

• Disable all third-party extensions and add them one by one until the problem appears.
• Turn off each extension until the problem is fixed.
• Turn off group extensions. For example, disable half of the extension, if the problem is fixed then continue to turn off half of the last half, continue until the faulty extension is found. This is the fastest method.

First, select the extensions you want to disable. You can click each one, or press Ctrl + A or also have an entry card Edit > Select All to select all, press and hold the . key Shift to select all widgets after the selected one, press and hold Ctrl to select each widget consecutively.

To disable one or more selected shell utilities, right-click them and select “Disable Selected Items” or press File > Disable Selected Items. To turn it back on, just press “Enable Selected Items”.

Utilities that have been disabled will show the word “Yes” in the Disabled column.

You need restart the computer for the above configuration to take effect. You will see this option in the Options menu of ShellExView, but I recommend you do not do so because it will cause Explorer and taskbar to reload continuously, you have to log out or restart the machine to stop this error. .

Instead, I recommend using Task Manager. To open Task Manager, simply press Ctrl + Shift + Esc or right click taskbar and select “Task manager”.

Find and click on Windows Explorer, then click “Restart”.

Explorer will restart. Now, try to open the right mouse button to see if the error appears again. If it’s still slow, turn off the enabled extensions, if it’s faster, turn on the disabled widgets.

Repeat until you solve the problem

Repeat this process until you determine which extension is causing the error. By checking your right-click menu every time you turn off or turn on an extension, remembering to restart Windows Explorer, you will determine which utility is failing quickly.

Turn off any extensions you don’t want to use. Don’t worry, you can always turn them back on in the future. If it doesn’t solve the problem, try applying the methods speed up windows that anonyviet instructed.