Slow context menus

[···Scott···]

http://www.sysinternals.com/

Regmon and Filemon are both indispensible tools for diagnosis. Both work fine
under WinXP, and both are free. When I have obscure (read: annoying) problems
like yours, I often fire up one or the other of these, configure the filters
carefully, then enable capturing and reproduce the problem so all registry
and/or file accesses are logged.

--
···Scott···
Remove "your clothes" to send an email reply.

"Frank Dreyfus" <fdre...@nyw.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9160EE98DD942ad...@207.46.230.185...
> When I right click on a file or folder in Windows Explorer, it takes
> about 45 seconds for the context menu to appear.
>
> The same when I click on icons on the desktop (like My Computer).
>
> I assume XP is looking for something it can't find. But what? How
> can I track this down?
>
> I am connected to another PC on a network and it may be that there is
> something on the network drive that is slow to locate?
>
> This just started happening today. But I haven't installed anything
> recently, so I don't know what could have changed.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks, Ed

[Alseph Liebergore]

Hmmm...I take it there's not much traffic on your network. Are your drives
defragmented? Is your network configured correctly? Are you using 10Mbps
or 100Mbps LAN? Are both of your NICs same bandwitdth (10Mbps or 100Mbps)?
Are you using TCP/IP or NetBeui for your LAN? Do you connect through a hub?
This may or may not be off topic. Do you connect to the internet via your
LAN (as in PPPoE protocol or other similar)? If so, are you or is the other
machine downloading a lot of stuff at the time?

Anyway, just some things to consider.

[Mike Z]

I had the same problem untill removed the network card. Try it, might be a
resourse conflict.

[Frank Dreyfus]

"···Scott···" <sdglock...@hotmailCLOTHES.com> wrote in
news:eWzlLQzcBHA.2108@tkmsftngp03:

> Regmon and Filemon are both indispensible tools for diagnosis.
Both
> work fine under WinXP, and both are free. When I have obscure
(read:
> annoying) problems like yours, I often fire up one or the other of
> these, configure the filters carefully, then enable capturing and
> reproduce the problem so all registry and/or file accesses are
logged.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have downloaded both of the utilities.
They overwhelm me with data and I don't know what to filter out since
I have no clue what's causing the problem. I'll keep playing with
them, but no luck so far.

Thanks, Ed

[Frank Dreyfus]

"Alseph Liebergore" <go...@jew.com> wrote in
news:uXd83k0cBHA.2156@tkmsftngp03:

Thanks for the ideas.

No, there is very little nw traffic. This is a home LAN with little
usage except on my main PC.

I am defragging now, but I don't hold out much hope for that. There
isn't much disk activity during the long delays.

The network is working well AFAICT.

I don't think the nw is a problem because I can explore it readily
from my main PC.

All nics are oldish 10mbs. I'm using tcp/ip for LAN traffic. Yes,
I have a 10mbs hub.

The hub connects to a router and then to a cable modem. I don't use
PPPoE, just a straight connection.

[Frank Dreyfus]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will pull the nic and see what
happens. But there are no indicated resource conflicts in the
resource manager.

Thanks, Ed

"Mike Z" <zob-...@msn.com> wrote in news:evIi8#1cBHA.1948
@tkmsftngp03:

[Frank Dreyfus]

Just so we're on the same page...

You understand that the network works fine? The only time I have a
problem is when right clicking on a file or icon.

Thanks for the clarification,

Ed

[···Scott···]

Instead of pulling it physically, you could simply disable it in Device Manager.

--
···Scott···
Remove "your clothes" to send an email reply.

"Frank Dreyfus" <fdre...@nyw.com> wrote in message

news:Xns91618A643CEB9ad...@207.46.230.185...

[Frank Dreyfus]

Problem solved!

I have an old PC on the LAN that no one uses. I have used it's hard
disk for network file storage.

That PC happened to be off line due to a recent power outage. It
seems some of the software on my main PC was installed to the remote
drive. So Windows was searching for items on that PC.

The unfortunate thing is that there are no messages or other
indications that something Windows wants is unavailable. At least I
couldn't find any.

Now I faced with trying to figure out what needs to be re-installed
to my PC so I permanently get rid of the old one.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

Ed

[Kent W. England XP MVP]

This is usually caused by something in the context menu having to
search. You say you are connected to another PC via the network. I
suspect that something you added to your right-click context menu is
searching on a mapped drive or network shortcut. See if a network
shortcut was added to your SendTo folder, for example.

(This has nothing to do with your network adapter.)

--
Kent W. England, MS MVP for WinXP Networking

"Frank Dreyfus" <fdre...@nyw.com> wrote in message