My Start Menu is Slow, Sometimes

TychoCelchuuu

Start > All Programs > Click on anything. It works fine! So no problem, right? Wrong. I like to keep everything alphabetized, and get rid of clutter, so I delete anything that I don't need in there by right click > Delete. The only problem is, sometimes this is REALLY slow. Like, 10 seconds after I right click, the menu pops up. Then the delete either works super fast, or it takes another 10 seconds. Sometimes the menu is instant but the delete still takes a while. Sometimes it works just fine.

I don't really know what the problem is. I'm running Windows XP Pro, and it's a new install, only a few months old. This program just cropped up a little while ago; before that it was fine.

Black Ice

I had the same problem myself a while back. I used to do spyware/adware scans habitually and I never thought about how I wasn't doing them consistently anymore. It had actually been a month or two since I'd done one.

Basically, I'm saying, if you haven't already, run a spyware/adware scan. I used Ad-Aware and Spybot, both can be located at download.com if you don't have them.

TychoCelchuuu

I ran one a day or two ago, so it's not that. The rest of the computer is fine, it's just the start menu occasionally.

Improvolone

...defrag?

TychoCelchuuu

My disk is mostly defragged.

Black Ice

Another "duh" suggestion: have you restarted your computer?

Also, if you do Ctrl Alt+Del, how many processes are you running?

TychoCelchuuu

Yeah, I've restarted. There are about 31 processes running when I'm just using the computer for normal stuff, with no new processes introduced between the period where it worked and the period where it sometimes doesn't work.

DrFrylock

Deletion can be a slow operation for some reason from Windows Explorer. The right-clicking might be some kind of Explorer plug-in that adds items to your context menu that is running slowly. When you right-click on a file, do any options come up that aren't part of the ordinary Windows application?

TychoCelchuuu

7-Zip ads a context menu and AVG Antivirus ads a "scan this file" but that's it. It only slows down in the start menu, though, and only sometimes. Also, the other half of the problem is deleting, which sometimes takes a while even if the context menu pops up instantly.

DrFrylock

To speed up deletion, try:

1. Emptying your recycle bin - it may be full and deleting a new file may mean Windows having to scan through and delete an old file to make room, and then move the existing file in there and update magic pointers elsewhere on the drive.
2. When you click delete, hold shift. This bypasses the recycle bin and lets you just delete the file irrevocably. This is generally very fast.

TychoCelchuuu

I'm thinking it's probably not a different problem for deleting and for the right click menu, but my highly unscientific testing results in Shift + Delete not exhibiting any slowdown. Assuming that persists, you've solved half my problem. Thanks