Question [HELP] I have the weirdest issue, video clip included

[RipGroove99]

This issue appeared seemingly out of nowhere a few weeks ago and for the life of me I cannot figure out what it is. My PC is usually very snappy and has no other major issues (couple of other minor issues listed at the end of this post as they may be related).

This is the problem:

• 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???!!!

This is extremely annoying for every day tasks like copying and pasting etc so I need this fixed ASAP. This happens across all storage devices including 1x M.2 SSD, 1x SATA SSD, 1x Storage HDD, 1x USB Flash Drive.

Things I have tried so far:

• System restored to a time I knew the issue was not present
• Unplugging storage HDD
• Updating Windows
• SFC /Scannow
• Windows
• Update Windows, no updates pending
• Ran CCleaner
• Ran Spybot
• Disabled all items from context menu via SHellExView
• No anti virus running
• Ran DISM
• Checked Page File Allocation sizes

Here is a video of the issue:

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


Now, the only other issues the PC has which may or may not be related are the fact that my Windows Photo Viewer and Video player almost always crash whenever I try to open a photo or video. I've had these issues for about a year and I've not been able to resolve them either, even uninstalling them and reinstalling them from the Microsoft Store.

Other than those issues the PC is operates flawlessly, it is very snappy and has great gaming performance.

So, any ideas?



Spec for reference:
OS - Win 10 Home
MOBO - ASUS TUF Z270 Mark 1
CPU - Intel i7-7700k with NZXT Kraken X62 AIO
RAM - 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum @ 3200MHz
GPU - EVGA 1080ti SC2 Hybrid AIO
OS DRIVE - M.2 Samsung 960 EVO 500GB
GAME DRIVE - Samsung 860 EVO 1TB
PSU - ASUS ROG Strix 850w

 

[RipGroove99]

Just to add I do not have this issue when right clicking the desktop itself, it only happens on files and folders.

 

[Cj-tech]

Just to add I do not have this issue when right clicking the desktop itself, it only happens on files and folders.

I see that you have other options on the context menu that are not default to Windows 10. Is one of those programs running slowly and causing it to take so long?

 

[RipGroove99]

I see that you have other options on the context menu that are not default to Windows 10. Is one of those programs running slowly and causing it to take so long?

Well spotted but I've already tried removing those from the context menu which made no difference at all.

 

[RipGroove99]

Also it definitely seems worse on .txt files, it does happen on other files and folders but it happens on .txt file much more frequently.

 

[RipGroove99]

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.