Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

If you have recently upgraded or updated your Windows, you might be facing this issue where the right-click context menu on desktop appears to be slow, in fact, when you right-click on the desktop it takes a lot of time for the context menu to appear. In short, the right-click context menu seems to be delayed because of some reason, and that’s why it appears slow. So to fix the issue, first, you need to find the cause of the delay and then fix it.

Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

This issue is annoying because desktop right-clicks in an important function of windows which let users quickly access settings, display settings etc. The main issue seems to be some 3rd party application which seems to be conflicting with Windows Shell extensions or a corrupt 3rd party shell extension itself. In some cases, faulty or outdated display drivers also seem to cause a right-click context menu to appear slow. So without wasting any time let’s see how to actually Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10 with the help of below-listed troubleshooting steps.

Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: Update Display Drivers

1. Press Windows Key + R then type devmgmt.msc and hit enter to open Device Manager.

devmgmt.msc device manager

2. Next, expand Display adapters and right-click on your Nvidia Graphic Card and select Enable.

right-click on your Nvidia Graphic Card and select Enable

3. Once you have done this again, right-click on your graphic card and select “Update Driver Software.

update driver software in display adapters | Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

4. Select “Search automatically for updated driver software” and let it finish the process.

search automatically for updated driver software

5. If the above step could fix your problem, then excellent, if not then continue.

6. Again select Update Driver Software but this time on the next screen select “Browse my computer for driver software.

browse my computer for driver software

7. Now select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.”

let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer | Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

8. Finally, select the compatible driver from the list for your Nvidia Graphic Card and click Next.

9. Let the above process finish and restart your PC to save changes. After updating the Graphic card, you may be able to Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10.

Method 2: Disable 3rd party Shell Extensions

If you have a context menu with a lot of 3rd party shell extensions, then one of them may be corrupted, and that’s why it’s causing a delay in the right-click context menu. Also, many shell extensions can cause the delay, so make sure to disable all the unnecessary shell extensions.

1. Download the program from here and then right-click on it and select Run as Administrator (you don’t need to install it).

right-click on Shexview.exe and select Run as Administrator

2. From the menu, click on Options, click on Filter by Extension Type and select Context Menu.

From Filter by extension type select Context Menu and click OK

3. On the next screen, you will see a list of entries, under these the entries marked with the pink background will be installed by 3rd parties software.

under these the entries marked with the pink background will be installed by 3rd parties software

4. Hold down CTRL key and select all of the above entries marked with the pink background then click on the red button on the top left corner to disable.

Select all the item by holding CTRL and then disable selected items | Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

5. Reboot your PC to save changes and see if you can Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10.

6. If the issue is resolved, it was definitely caused by one of the shell extension and to find out which one was the culprit you could start enabling the extensions one by one until the issue occurs again.

7. disable that particular extension and then uninstall the software associated with it.

8. Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 3: Perform a Clean Boot

You may put your computer in a clean boot state and check. There could be a possibility that a third-party application is conflicting and causing the issue to occur.

1. Press the Windows Key + R button, then type ‘msconfig’ and click OK.

msconfig

2. Under General tab under, make sure ‘Selective startup’ is checked.

3. Uncheck ‘Load startup items‘ under selective startup.

Under the General tab, enable Selective startup by clicking on the radio button next to it

4. Select the Service tab and check the box ‘Hide all Microsoft services.’

5. Now click ‘Disable all to disable all the unnecessary services which might cause conflict.

Move over to the Services tab and tick the box next to Hide all Microsoft services and click Disable all

6. On the Startup tab, click ‘Open Task Manager.’

Go to the Startup tab, and click the link “Open Task Manager”

7. Now, in the Startup tab (Inside Task Manager) disable all the startup items which are enabled.

Right-click on an application and select Disable | Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

8. Click OK and then Restart. If the issue is resolved and you want to investigate then further follow this guide.

9. Again press the Windows key + R button and type ‘msconfig’ and click OK.

10. On the General tab, select the Normal Startup option and then click OK.

system configuration enable normal startup

11. When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Restart. This would definitely help you Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10.

Method 4: Registry Fix

Note: Make a backup of the registry before continuing.

1. Press Windows Key + R then type regedit and hit Enter to open Registry Editor.

Run command regedit | Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10

2. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

3.Make sure to highlight ContextMenuHandlers, and under it, several other folders will be there.

under ContextMenuHandlers right-click on each of the folder and select Delete

4. Right-click on each of them except New and WorkFolders and then select Delete.

Note: If you don’t want to delete all the folders, you could start by deleting until the issue is resolved. But after each folder you delete, you need to restart.

5. Reboot your PC to save changes.

Recommended:

That’s it you have successfully Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10 but if you still have any questions regarding the above guide then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.

41 thoughts on “Fix Slow Right Click Context Menu in Windows 10”

    1. A huge thank you to the original Author ‘adityafarrad’ for posting the above solutions! (Method 2) also worked for me. 🙂 Been wrestling with this problem ever since installing Windows 10 shortly after it’s official launch. The culprit in my case was the ‘V2i Context Menu Class’ by (Symantec System Recovery 2013 R2)

  1. You guys are awesome! I was able to solve mine with method 2. Was abit skeptical at first but it worked. Phewwww….glad that was over it.

  2. I tried everything here but nothing worked.
    My problem was the New contextmenu was slow as hell.

    Finally found the solution and it was a weird one, removed everything I installed from Windows Store after that it’s fast as ever again.

    Never going to use windows store to install anything again.

  3. Avatar photo
    Terry Peterson

    Method 2 worked great and the downloaded shellexview program was easy with the instructions. After disabling all of the shells and a reboot, the problem was solved. I suspected it was the Bitdefender shell and so re-enabled all other shells and rebooted again. Problem was still solved so problem shell identified and disabled!

  4. Yep .. Method 2 worked for me. Turns out that either AVG, Icloud, or Asus Webstorage was causing a collosal slowdown on my menu. I’ve disabled those and haven’t yet gone through to turn them on one by one (trying to get some work done now I’ve got my performance back up). So for sure .. try disabling anything that is related to transfer of files .. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that either iCloud or Asus Webstorage was the problem.

  5. Second method really helps me.. I saw some videos on youtube they were also fixing the problem but after rebooting the problem was arising again, but after the second method provided here the problem fix permanently.. Thank-you
    Second method is the BEST one… Thanks for giving us the best solution…

  6. Hello,
    my right click work every where except when I right click on a folder.
    Any solution will be welcome.
    Thanks by advance

  7. Thank you very much. In my case it resulted in the
    Method 2: Disable 3rd party Shell Extensions and the problem was in : C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Internet Services\ShellStreams64.dll
    The problem was really annoying!

    After several attempts with advice from youtube videos finally got a help.

    Thanks again.

  8. Method 2 is really helpful! After installing shexview app and disable 3rd party Shell Extensions (in pink colour), eventually I am able to get the menu very quickly after a right-click on the desktop! Thank you for the sharing!

  9. Removing Intel advanced graphics entries from the context menu worked for me.
    Add these keys if not present.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\igfxcui]

    [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\igfxDTCM]

  10. Thanks! Method two worked. I had like 4-5 that I disabled. Now it is so quick, and it doesn’t make my cpu go to 100%.

  11. In my case (laptop HP Pavilion, Intel Core i7 , 8th gen), the handler connected to
    Microsoft apk “People” caused 5 -8 sec lag when you open the context menu with right mice button. I used the “ShellExView” to investigate the culprit of this lag. When I click to “Handlers”, no handlers have been highlighted in “ShellExView”. Since this lag was happened recently, I checked the dates of all handlers and regroup them by installation date. The Jan. 13th (the latest update from Microsoft) was applied to my laptop. I found 10 handlers installed on this date and blocked them. Restarted file explorer and NO LAGS any more !!
    So, I was enabling one by one subsequently until found that handler named ” Pin To Start Screen verb handler” was the only one who caused such crazy lag. Of course, I uninstalled the Apk “People” which was installed with latest windows update. In order to successfully uninstall the People apk, this handler should be enabled and than blocked again after. I did it in order to avoid messing with Registry editor.

    FYI, my older laptop with different Intel processor and Display adapter driver, still do not have the same lag problem. Just in case, I also uninstalled this People apk and blocked the appropriate handler named above.

    Hope this will help in similar situation – at least, it is worth to try. It is obvious that bad handler is not interacting equally bad with different versions of the screen adapters.

  12. I had an annoying problem where the context was super slow but only on image files.
    Culprit was Microsoft’s Paint 3D.
    Deleted Paint3D from
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.bmp\Shell\
    and
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.png\Shell\
    Using registry editor
    And now my context menus work perfectly.

  13. may be a bit too early to say – but i had a problem suddenly with the right click menu popping up everytime I did a simple (left-click) double click. Happened almost everywhere.. on folders.. files.. in google chrome etc.
    Tried the regedit option here – deleted a whole lot of stuff.. and wallah!… it looks like its back to normal. I have just restarted and have not had the menu appear for about 10 minutes ( compared to the annoyance every 5 seconds!) .. and I’m happy..

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