Speed up the Windows right-click menu

The following guide provides you with information on how to speed up the time it takes to display the right-click menu on machines running the Windows operating system.

I noticed recently on a machine running Windows 10 that some right-clicks on files, folders or the taskbar, would take several seconds to load on the first right-click.

Windows would display a spinning loading or processing icon when that happened, and it was kinda puzzling that this happened on the machine as its was powered by a fast SSD, 16 Gigabyte of RAM and an Intel Core i7 processor.

The issue happened regularly, and it did not seem to matter if the computer was idle or under load at the time.

Context Menu Bloat

One reason why it may take time to display the right-click context menu on Windows devices is bloat, or more precisely, if a lot of programs have added entries to the context menu which Windows needs to display.

Another reason why you may notice delays is if entries are buggy or corrupt.

The right-click menu changes somewhat depending on the item you right-click on, but if you get a lot of items and a loading delay, then this may very well be the reason for it.

Note: If you notice a delay only after idle time, it may also be a hard drive's sleep mode, especially if you hear the spinning up sound of a hard drive whenever there is a delay in displaying context menu items. You may want to try programs like Sleep Blocker or NoSleep HD to prevent the powering down from happening.

Several programs allow you to disable or remove entries from the right-click menu that you don't need there.

Some users swear on CCleaner for that, while I personally like Nirsoft's ShellExView better as it offers better option and more entries that you can deal with.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Download the free program from the developer website. Make sure you download the 32-bit or 64-bit version that matches the version of Windows you are using.
2. Extract the archive to the system and run the program afterwards.
3. First thing you may want to do is click on Options and check the "Hide all Microsoft Extensions" preference there to avoid removing Windows-specific items. You may still distinguish between Microsoft and third-party extensions if you don't do it as third-party extensions are displayed with a pink background by the application.
4. What remains are entries added by third-party programs to the system. While it is often possible to remove those entries in the preferences of those programs, it is usually faster and easier to remove them with the help of a program like ShellExView.

You may be able to identify some items directly by their extension name or description, but it may not always be that easy, especially for items that offer no information.

Select one or multiple items (by holding Ctrl while left-clicking), and then either right-click on the selection to select disable, or click on the red button in the main toolbar for that.

For items that you cannot identify, select File > Google Search Filename or Google Search Extension, to run an online search to find out more about it.

You may use trial and error as well, but since items are not removed right away from the context menu, you may need to restart the computer often to use that method.

Another useful option that ShellExView provides you with is to display the entry in the Registry. Since it does not support removing entries, using the Registry for that is one of the options you have to delete items permanently.

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