Hacking Truths

Anyone out there who's experienced any long delays (i.e. more than, say, 5 seconds) when right-clicking a file, folder, or even empty space will find this post very helpful. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but the solution was a great relief.

My problem was with an Intel Graphics driver; the right-click context menu loaded very, very slowly after I installed a new monitor. Immediately, I suspected a driver problem, and, as it turns out, for me it was. Since I have an Intel graphics card installed, the right click menu contained items like Graphics Properties and Graphics Options. Somehow, this created a conflict between the Intel driver and the new monitor's driver.

Luckily, Intel has provided a very helpful registry hack (download here) that will remove those two Graphics entries from your context menu. Before using it, though, you might want to backup your registry just in case.

If the Intel hack doesn't work or if you don't have an Intel graphics card, you might want to check out ShellExView, which will let you disable any entries (shell extensions) in your context menu one by one until you find the source of the problem. A good tutorial is located here. Oftentimes, delays occur because too many programs have installed extensions in your context menu.