Drop down menus cause freezing

[Garrett Prestage]

I recently had a series of problems that caused me to have to install a new
copy of XP (Home). Now whenever I try to use the drop-down lists to find,
open or save files, the system hangs - sometimes it eventually finds the
location I click on but othertimes it just freezes (usually when I've become
impatient & tried to get it to stop). If I click on the Folders icon instead
& navigate from there without using drop-down lists it doesn't happen
(though it is sluggish). Also, in certain programs where I can navigate
through lists by entering a letter to go to items beginning with that
letter, the same thing happens - even when they're not drop-down lists.

Any thoughts on what this problem might be or what I can do to resolve it?

Garrett Prestage

[Wesley Vogel]

Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

Right-click is extremely slow only when Network is enabled
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/rcdelay.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:jfVCf.229880$V7.2...@news-server.bigpond.net.au,
Garrett Prestage <gpre...@bigpond.net.au> hunted and pecked:

[Garrett Prestage]

Thanks but this problem isn't related to right-clicking. It happens anytime
I try to navigate folders/files using a drop-down list in Explorer (eg in
MyComputer) or from within an Office program. Doesn't seem to happen with
non-Microsoft programs but can't be sure of that.

"Wesley Vogel" <123WVo...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:eMtBLkHJ...@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

[Wesley Vogel]

If you open a folder and click on File you'll notice that you get the same
menu as you would when you right click anything in that folder.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:QHVCf.229895$V7.1...@news-server.bigpond.net.au,

[Garrett Prestage]

Sorry, but either I'm not explaining myself properly or I'm a lot denser
than I thought. This isn't about the file menu options it's simply about
opening a file from a drop-down list. If I open Word, for example and pull
up the File Open window, then if I try to use the pull-down list at 'Look
in', Word locks up & stops responding. However, if I open the 'My computer'
icon & then navigate to the correct file, while it's sluggish it does work.
And this also happens in other programs where I try to do the same thing.

Coincidentally, I am also finding Windows Explorer to be very slow to
respond - I'm pretty sure the two problems are related because they began at
the same time.

"Wesley Vogel" <123WVo...@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:OJ4TtmUJ...@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

[t.cruise]

The wording of your post is confusing. When you write "install a new copy," do you mean
you did a repair install, or formatted your drive and did a clean install, or installed a
new copy to a different partition or drive? If you were having "serious problems," then a
"clean install" would have been advisable. Doing a repair install will not delete
problematic registry entries, or remove spyware/adware/malware which might have been part
of the problems you were experiencing. But, if you did do a clean install: Try going to
the web site of the maker of your display adapter, and download and install the latest
Windows XP compatible drivers. NEVER, NEVER use the Windows Update for updating drivers.
--

T.C.
t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com
Remove [NoSpam] to reply

"Garrett Prestage" <gpre...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:jfVCf.229880$V7.2...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...

[Wesley Vogel]

Update your antivirus software and run a full system scan.

Do the same for whatever anti-spyware applications that you have.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:lVlEf.233804$V7.5...@news-server.bigpond.net.au,

[sgtpback]

I have had the same problem. My problem occurs when I'm opening a Word
document. I select Open and then in the Open file dialog box, I click the
"Look in:" DropDown box and this is where the system stops responding. It
seems to occur when you have disconnected network drives. We have found that
some images we use to load pc's have the problem and other images do not.

[sgtpback]

If you disconnect all unavailable network drives, the problem goes away.

[C.@discussions.microsoft.com Dave C.]

I just had the same problem start in my computer. Whenever i try to use the
"save as" or "look in" dialog, the application freezes. I tried to
disconnect the network drive, turns out I'm not attached to a network drive.
I'll do virus and spyware scans now and report back. But I regularly do
these scans, so I don't think it's that.

[Bob I]

It's caused by a Windows update bombing on some software you have
loaded. The repair should be in todays Automatic updates.

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Problems in Windows Explorer or the Windows shell after you install security
update MS06-015:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=19125

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com

"Dave C." <Dave C.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
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