Right Click Crashes Windows Explorer

[Yuksha]

I am facing a very weird issue with windows Vista Home Premium , whenever i am trying to access Context Menu Editor, window is getting crashed saying "Windows Explorer has stopped working.". Because of this i am not able to carry out tasks like zipping files, renaming files,running exe files etc even though when i am logged in my system as Administrator. I have tried using Explorer as well as PowerDesk Pro 7 and unfortunately i am getting same response from them. Some of my colleagues suggested me to disable antivirus while accessing context menu, saying that it might be interfering but i dont see any difference after disabling antivirus as well. I want to know if there is a way by which can find out the cause of this issue and fix it out?

[AbiaA]

I have checked regrading your issue and have found most of them mentioning that it is caused by a third-party shell extension. In order to fix this you will have to disable all non-MS context menu handlers. If you haven't then do that now and let me know if it is helping.

[Yuksha]

I have now disabled PowerDesk which was a non-MS context menu handler but that's not making any difference in my case. Windows is still getting crashed saying "Windows Explorer has stopped working." when i am trying to access Context Menu Editor. Is there anything else that i need to check out?

[AbiaA]

I think you will have to try disabling other shell extensions temporarily rather than just non-MS context menu handlers. You should also go through Event Viewer and check out if there is any suspicious information in System logs regrading Windows Explorer. If disabling other shell extensions doesn't help and if you dont find anything suspicious in System logs then you can try using Regedit and change Powerdesk Menu to zPowerdesk Menu in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\PowerDesk Menu. I am not sure if that will help but you can surely give it a try in such condition.

[Yuksha]

Disabling other shell extensions and non-MS context menu handler dint helped but changing PowerdeskMenu to zPowerdesk using Regedit fixed the issue. Since changing that i am not having any issue in accessing context menu.Thanks AbiaA !!

[RAG]

AbiaA solution has helped me out as well, In my case i am running Windows Vista Ultimate with SP-2 and was using PowerDesk 7. I had tried disabling and uninstalling PowerDesk 7 thinking it was causing the issue but while looking after a fix for this issue i came across this thread and was able to sort it out by changing Powerdesk Menu to zPowerdesk Menu in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\PowerDesk Menu.

[Asamp]

My system is running on windows Vista Ult 32 and i am running in to exactly the similar kind of issue. There is something wrong going on with Windows Explorer, i am not able to right click and create new folder. When i try that windows get crashed, I am not having any non-MS context menu handler in my case, i have tried using Shiminview app as suggested by some people but no luck. I have been checking out threads related to this issue in other forums as well and by now ive tried using chkdsk and SFC /Scannow command, changing DEP,turning off Areo and other possible solutions i came across but they no avail. Issue still persists and i want to get rid of it as soon as possible so any help regrading this will be highly appreciated.

[AbiaA]

See Themes service and Desktop Manager are only two services which are capable of affecting Windows Desktop Manager directly but such crashes can also occur because of third party programs which deal with compressed folders for e.g. winrar. I have come across some people who have mentioned that they have faced similar issue after installing third party antivirus software's as well. So just check out for such programs, disable them and see if things are working fine after that.

[Asamp]

I have installed windows Vista Ult 32 in my system and i am not having third party programs like Winrar. I do have Mcafee antivirus but i have already tried disabling it. Other than this i am having TweakNow Powerpack but i havent heard of it to be causing any conflict or interfering with any program as such. I dont mind uninstalling these programs but i really dont think that doing that will help me out. I think there is something else causing this issue in my case.

[AbiaA]

Since you have already tried disabling extensions i cant think of anything else that might be causing this issue. If possible then try uninstalling Mcafee antivirus and TweakNow Powerpack and check out if that's helping. I cannot assure you saying that it will definitely help but you should surely give that a try. As i have already mentioned in my above post some people have faced such issues after installing antivirus programs like AVG, NOD32, Avira, Kaspersky, Avast, and BitDefender so i suspect it to be Mcafee in your case.

[Baebi]

Even i suspect Mcafee to be cause of the issue in your case, i just wanted to share that third party packages which claims running and protecting Window system better are causes many issues. Its actually due to lack of testing, their developers dont test them on all versions of operating system where as permutation and combination of different version of operating system varies accordingly. In short if a third party package works fine on windows Vista Home Premium then no one can assure that they will work fine on other versions of windows vista as well unless they have tested their package on those platforms.

[Asamp]

AbiaA you have mentioned that you have come across people having similar issues after installing AVG, NOD32, Avira, Kaspersky, Avast, BitDefender and you are doubting Mcafee in my case. If it is so then can you let me know one antivirus software that will run fine on Vista Ult 32 without causing any issue? I really dont think it is because of macafee and i am quite sure about it. I have used Mcafee antivirus and TweakNow Powerpack together in windows xp and i never came across any such issue. It all started since installing them in windows vista. Anyways i will try out what you have mentioned and will post back the response i get but i really need an answer for what Ive asked.

[Pirat360]

In my situation, problem is just like in topick.
But never used any macAffe apps on this pc.
The latest apps I'v installed were some games, witch one of them needed aegia phisics app.
After I noticed the problem, ad-aware & Spybot S&D was insttaled and run full scan,... But here the problem occures one more time. Ss&d needed administratior rights to repair some damadged files,... no way :(
please help!!

[Pirat360]

I'v deinstalled aegia, and it helped,... BUT just for about an hour,.. ?!?!? WThack,...? help please
Oh the problem got even more massive,...
I can right click on screen but not on an icon, and now it crashes while launching skype (?!)

[meamy81]

I dont know about others... but after reading many post on various forums i thought to run Trojan Remover on my machine... and it detected an invalid key in registry and let it remove and rename the reference. now i'm able to right click as much as i can and this problem is not coming...

hope this will fine if anything occur even after that i'll update my reply...