File explorer crashes upon right click?

OnAndOn · August 9, 2022

Hiya people,

Since setting up my PC I've been having this weird thing happen when trying to right click anything in the side bar of File Explorer. This includes everything from desktop, videos, pictures, documents and all 3 of my drives. It seems to momentarily remove all my shortcuts and close file explorer, but then they return. I have re-installed my OS three times. Weirdly, after re-installing it seems fix the issue briefly. Only for the issue to return days after, whether this is due to an installation of something I don't know. Please see attached for a video of this phenomenon. What is the likely culprit h

tobeornottobealttfan · August 9, 2022

Are you using any software to tweak windows default behaviour, like WinAero tweaker ?

OnAndOn · August 9, 2022

5 minutes ago, tobeornottobealttfan said:

Are you using any software to tweak windows default behaviour, like WinAero tweaker ?

Nothing like that, no. Initially I believed it could have been RevoUninstaller, so I avoided installation of that software this time around.

Kilrah · August 9, 2022

Most likely one of the programs you install every time after reinstalling the system is broken.

You can use ShellExView to see what hooks into the right-click context menu and try to disable some to see if you find the culprit.

OnAndOn · August 9, 2022

8 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Most likely one of the programs you install every time after reinstalling the system is broken.

You can use ShellExView to see what hooks into the right-click context menu and try to disable some to see if you find the culprit.

Hi, I'm really sorry for my ignorance but I'm not very well versed with that software. I have it downloaded and open now, could you possibly point me in the right direction with a tutorial on what I need to do, or basic instructions would be massively appreciated! Really sorry for any inconvenience.

Kilrah · August 9, 2022

If you sort the entries by Type you'll find a group of things in the "Context Menu" category. Start going over those you can see are from programs you installed (i.e. skip Microsoft ones) and start right-clicking and disabling things starting with those you don't really use, try right-clicking after each (you need to restart Explorer, but the crash is going to do it for you...) and see if it fixes the issue eventually. Leave that one disabled and reenable the others.

OnAndOn · August 29, 2022

On 8/9/2022 at 9:44 PM, Kilrah said:

If you sort the entries by Type you'll find a group of things in the "Context Menu" category. Start going over those you can see are from programs you installed (i.e. skip Microsoft ones) and start right-clicking and disabling things starting with those you don't really use, try right-clicking after each (you need to restart Explorer, but the crash is going to do it for you...) and see if it fixes the issue eventually. Leave that one disabled and reenable the others.

Hi there, I know this was some time ago but I finally got around to trying what you said. Turns out Nvidia CPL Context Menu Extension seems to be causing it, when disabling it and reenabling it, it fixes my problem. Any idea what's going on there?

Scatterblak · December 7, 2022

On 8/9/2022 at 2:59 AM, Kilrah said:

Most likely one of the programs you install every time after reinstalling the system is broken.

You can use ShellExView to see what hooks into the right-click context menu and try to disable some to see if you find the culprit.

Nosir. Same problem here, completely new vanilla Win 11 install. Happens out of the box. I can stop it for a bit by opening Folder Options and clearing the File Explorer History, but it comes back fast.