A context menu is a graphical user interface (GUI) that appears when you right click or press and hold on an item (ex: desktop, file, folder, drive, etc…) in Windows. A context menu can have menu items and sub-menus with a list of options or actions available for the item you right clicked on.
When you install 3rd party apps, some may include their own shell extensions that add items to the right click context menu.
If an app’s shell extension isn’t working properly, it can cause a context menu to be extremely slow or freeze when you right click to open the context menu.
This tutorial will show you how to troubleshoot and fix slow or freezing right click context menu caused by shell extensions in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.