Fix easily a suddenly slower Windows Explorer context menu


The other day suddenly I realized that Explorer’s context (right click) menu had become really slow whether for files or folders. I had to wait for it to open while until then it opened instantly. My PC is an Intel i7 with SSD and 8 GB or RAM — no problem for it to open a context menu.

If you are in the same situation, or even if you owe a weaker PC and you’d like to add some touch of speed to the context menu of Windows Explorer, it’s easy. Open the context menu for files (right click on some file types you use regularly such as documents, graphics, movies, etc) and for folders (right click on any folder) and observe carefully to locate options you don’t really need. For instance, if you use always a particular player to open your movies, you don’t need the play, enqueue or similar options of some other media player(s).

The less options exist in your context the speedier it will be. In my case though the sudden decrease of speed came from a particular option added by Google! It was Google Drive that made my context menu so much slower, perhaps because it needed to connect to the internet each time it opened!

If you need to remove this or other options from your Files and / or Folders context menu, usually the programs that introduced these options can also remove them. If not, here are two free, light and portable utilities that will let you decide what options to remove from Explorer’s context menu. Get them both to see what works best for you, and enjoy!