TC hangs when using right mouse button on drive root

[kobuki]

Hi,

When trying to get the context menu using the right mouse button on a drive root (that is, I see the F:\ drive contents for example), on the bar above the list where f:\*.* is shown, TC hangs indefinitely. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I can only kill TC when it hangs. If some time elapses between the start of TC and the right click (I cant tell exactly, it's somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes), it has more chance to work. The same context menu for the drive appears without problems in Explorer, any time.

Using TC 7.50a, Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

[karlchen]

Hello, kobuki.

In the past there have been tons of similar bug reports about issues experienced when using the context menu inside Total Commander (all versions). The cause will be a (partially) faulty shell extension.

Please, search for "context menu", "rightclick menu", "shell extension", "shellexview".

As everybody uses different phrases to report their context menu problems, you will get the longest list of helpful threads by searching for "shellexview".

The reason is simple:
Nir Sofer's Shellexview programme is the programme which keeps on being recommended as the best tool to identify the cause of context menu problems and to solve these problems.

So the advice in your case, too, is to use Nir Sofer's Shellexview.

Kind regards,
Karl

[kobuki]

Alright, going to try this next time. Had to restore from a backup today and the problem hasn't appeared again since then. Thanks.

[kobuki]

OK, the problem seems to persist. I've tried the mentioned process. It didn't work, unfortunately. One additional info though. When I bring up the context menu for any of the folders in the drive root first (it's working right away), then the drive root context menu is working fine. I suspect some kind of initialization problem, since the context menu in Explorer is working fine for the same drive. If I can help with any additional debugging info, please tell me how to produce it for you.

[karlchen]

Hello, kobuki.

Thanks a lot for offering to sacrifice your time in order to dig deeper into the issue of context menu problems.

Yet, to be honest, Christian Ghisler is the only person who is able to analyze any debug files and detect relevant pieces of information with respect to Total Commander, because he is the programme authour.

Kind regards,
Karl

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately I can't do much as long as there is no crash with exception addresses, but it really sounds like the typical problem with incompatible shell extensions.

[Dr. Snuggles]

I can reproduce the same error, TC 7.5.0.1 hang when i select all icons for drive letters with the right mouse button except drive c:.
When i select drive c: first are all other drives selectable without errors.
When i close TC and restart TC hangs after select any drive letter D - G with right button...
After a restart of TC and i select for example drive d: first with right button --> TC hangs and must be shutdown with the Taskmanager.

I have my system checked for wrong Shell-Extensions with Shexview.

Win7 Ult. x64 8GB

Drive C: Intel SSD 80GB
Drive D: RAID0 2TB
Drive E: RAID0 2TB
Drive F: RAID0 2TB
Drive G: 0,5 TB

The error occurs only when i select any of Drive D - G first with right Button and the drive shows his root. If the drive is show any sub folder no error occurs (?)

Greetings

DS

TC License #5949

[kobuki]

I can second what Dr. Snuggles writes. I haven't noticed it before, but when I try to use the context menu on C:\, it works, and after the context menu has been shown at least once, other drives are working too. Trying to bring up the context menu with a righ click for any of the other drives first, makes TC hang. Very much like what I've already described with a non-root folder.

[petermad]

I can not reproduce what Dr. Snuggles and
kobuki describes.

Must be OS-related - I use good'ol Windows XP SP3

[Dr. Snuggles]

I found a Solution for my little Problem.
I use Avira Antivir.
Disabling the Antivir-Shell-Extension-Function make the Problem go away.

Why is this simple Function (Aviras Shell-Extension) such a big Problem for TC?

Any Ideas?

Greetings,
DS

[sqa_wizard]

Why is this simple Function (Aviras Shell-Extension) such a big Problem for TC?

There are a lot of buggy Shell-Extensions out there.
They almost work flawless within Windows Explorer only, but crash with other programs.

That is the main reason why Shellexview is written ...

[Dr. Snuggles]

Today i have installed TC on 2 other Machines with identical Hard&Software:

Core i5 Quad, 8GB DDR3, 500GB (C:\, D:\) HDD, Win7 Prof. x64

I install TC on the Machines, right Click to view Context Menu for Drive D: --> TC hangs reproduceable!
After i killed the TC-Task and restart TC again, right Click to Drive C: --> TC shows the Context-Menu

On the Machines is only VMWare7-Workstation and the NVidia-Driver-Package installed, No Avira and no other Software...

Greetings,
DS

[Hacker]

Dr. Snuggles,
Hopefully you can find the misbehaving shell extension.

Roman

[Xtrician]

Someone can help me too, i have a problem when im press right click mouse on the white background tc closed and dissapear im not understand what to do with the ShellEX program..

Help please.

[HolgerK]

Help please.

No search available?

Here are the standard instructions to find the faulty shell extension:
1. Get the free tool ShellExView:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html
2. Disable all context menu shell extensions one by one (you can hide/keep
those belonging to Windows, they are usually OK).
3. Continue until Total Commander stops crashing

On x64 OS you should consider this too:

On x64 systems, ShellExView now always shows the shell extensions for x64 applications, even on the 32-bit version of ShellExView. If you want to get the shell extensions list for 32-bit applications, use ShellExView with /wow64 command-line option.

HTH
Holger