Member Avatar for Blue Storm

Ok so I have an issue thats really starting to get annoying. When I try to open "My Computer" it freezes. Not the whole PC, just "My Computer" If I wait long enough it will eventually start working again. But thats usually takes anywhere from a min to 2 mins. Also when I right click on the start button or any item on the start menu it does the same thing.

Now if I click on "My Computer" and it freezes I am usually able to still keep on working in other applications as normal. I can also go to Start -> Run and get to my drives that way. So it just seems to be when I try to access My Computer or any item that is tied into that service.

Any help would be much appreciated and thanks in advance!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by BoJaN4464

Dani AI

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This looks like Explorer is waiting on something external (a context-menu handler, a network path, or a device) rather than a pure CPU/memory problem. The earlier suggestions from , and are good triage, but they don’t pinpoint the root cause. The two things that most often produce the exact symptoms you describe are (1) third‑party shell extensions that time out when the right‑click menu is built, and (2) Explorer trying to enumerate a mapped/remote or removable resource that isn’t responding.

Try this focused troubleshooting sequence (no reinstall or system‑restore first):

  • Narrow the context‑menu handlers: run ShellExView (or Autoruns) and disable non‑Microsoft “Context Menu” / shell extension entries, then log off or restart Explorer and test. Re-enable items one at a time to find the offender. This usually fixes slow right‑clicks.

  • Check for stale network or mapped resources. From a command prompt run:

    net use
net use X: /delete   (replace X: with any stale mapping)

    Also scan Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts for \server\share links or printer shortcuts that point to offline resources.

  • Trace Explorer to the exact hang: use Process Monitor (Procmon) from Sysinternals, start capture, reproduce the freeze, stop capture and filter on ProcessName = explorer.exe. Look for long durations, STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT, or repeated “NAME NOT FOUND” attempts — those entries tell you what Explorer was waiting on.

If those steps don’t find it, test in Safe Mode or create a fresh user account (if the problem disappears, the user profile or per‑user shell extension is the culprit). Check Event Viewer for Explorer errors and run chkdsk on the system drive if filesystem issues are suspected. Back up the registry or create a restore point before making permanent changes.

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Member Avatar for Member #46692

system restore then a through virus and spyware check perhaps?

Member Avatar for daniweb2013

press alt+cntrl+del and end process what is using CPU

Member Avatar for Blue Storm

press alt+cntrl+del and end process what is using CPU

I tried that already. I killed all unnecessary services and it acted no different. It even acts that way when windows starts up for the first time.

Member Avatar for BoJaN4464

I had this problem too before, I fixed it by setting the power options to NOT turn my hard drives off. When you start up my computer it freezes because it's waiting for one or more of your drives to spin up.

As for the right click, I'm having a similar issue but it's whenever I right click anything(folder,file, etc.) but once it loads once I can right click on similar items and the menu will load up right away, seems like it just takes forever to load and cache the context menu.

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