Last week I ran into a Windows 11 headache that had me on the edge of reinstalling the whole OS! So, maybe this will help someone else, because I spent hours chasing my tail.
Symptom: After a routine update and reboot, File Explorer started randomly “freezing” whenever I tried to right-click on any file or folder. Sometimes it would just crash and restart itself. Occasionally, a right-click would work, but most of the time, nothing would happen for 10+ seconds or longer, making quick work completely impossible. This happened on the desktop too, not just inside File Explorer.
What I tried (and what you’ll probably find online):
- Disabled all third-party context menu shell extensions using ShellExView (tons of guides point to malfunctioning extensions/handlers)
- Ran sfc /scannow and DISM restorehealth commands-no integrity violations detected
- Updated graphics drivers (just in case, since weird Explorer glitches can relate to GPU sometimes)
- Tried creating a new Windows user profile-right-click lag still persisted with the new account
- Booted into Safe Mode-the lag didn’t happen there, confirming it was likely some software issue loaded during normal boot
- Uninstalled a few recent programs just in case, but the issue remained
What actually solved it (the weird bit):
Totally by accident, I noticed that if I disconnected from the internet (either unplugged ethernet or disabled Wi-Fi), the problem almost entirely vanished and right-clicks worked instantly again! That got me thinking-what is on my context menu that might be doing something with the internet?
Turns out the culprit was a OneDrive status handler. I had recently unlinked OneDrive from my account but left the app installed. For some reason, the OneDrive item in the context menu was trying (and failing?) to check status online every time I right-clicked a file-possibly getting stuck in some authentication limbo.
Here’s what finally fixed it:
- I opened Task Manager > Startup, disabled anything related to OneDrive, and restarted.
- I also went into Apps > Installed Apps, found OneDrive, and selected uninstall (even though I thought it had already been mostly removed).
- After rebooting, the right-click/context menu lag was 100% gone-for both new and existing user accounts.
Tips/lessons learned:
- If your Explorer is laggy specifically on right-click, and context menu shell extension guides don’t catch it, look at any cloud sync service that might still be half-installed or unlinked, especially OneDrive or Dropbox.
- Even if you unlink a cloud service, uninstall it fully if you’re not using it-leftover handlers can cause issues.
- Try disconnected from the internet as a diagnostic step-it can reveal if a context menu extension is trying to call home with every click.
- ShellExView is great, but some extensions don’t show up cleanly, especially those built into Windows like OneDrive, so manual cleanup may be required.
Hope this saves someone a few hours of hair-pulling! Would love to hear if anyone else has seen a similar weird Explorer/context menu bug with cloud services.
