INVALID: Desktop Context Menu makes Explorer hang and crash

[Dark-Mortal]

Describe the bug

Right-click on Desktop empty space makes explorer hang. Icons on Desktop do not respond (left or right click does not matter, even on mouse-over effect not shown). Sometimes even task bar icons do not respond, Start Menu, running process icons etc. I am using latest 4.4.191 Open Shell version. Windows 10 Home 22H2. Computer laptop: 2 graphic cards: Intel UHD Graphics and nVidia GeForce RTX. Context menu of Desktop icons works without problems. Context menu of Task Bar works fine. If I uninstall Open-Shell Desktop Context menu works without problems!

I think it is some kind conflict with nVidia:

[22:59:35] Exception: 000006BA [22:59:39] Exception: 8007000E [22:59:39] Exception: 8007000E [22:59:39] Exception: 8007000E [22:59:49] Exception: 8007000E [22:59:49] Exception: E06D7363.?AV?$clone_impl@VHresultException@UXDriver@Nvidia@@@exception_detail@boost@@ [22:59:49] Exception: E06D7363.?AV?$clone_impl@VHresultException@UXDriver@Nvidia@@@exception_detail@boost@@ [22:59:49] Exception: E06D7363.?AV?$clone_impl@VHresultException@UXDriver@Nvidia@@@exception_detail@boost@@ [22:59:49] Exception: E06D7363.?AV?$clone_impl@VHresultException@UXDriver@Nvidia@@@exception_detail@boost@@ [22:59:49] Exception: E06D7363.?AV?$clone_impl@VHresultException@UXDriver@Nvidia@@@exception_detail@boost@@ [22:59:50] Exception: 8007000E [22:59:50] Exception: C000070A [22:59:50] Unhandled: C000041D

Dump: Dropbox Link

Area of issue

Windows Explorer

To reproduce

Right-click on Desktop empty space

Expected behavior

No response

Open-Shell version

4.4.191

Windows version

Windows 10 Home 22H2

Additional context

nVidia GeForce RTX

[ge0rdi]

I don't see any obvious reason of crash in the dump. Nor any connection to Open-Shell :(

The only thing related to context menu that Open-Shell should do is adding Pin to start menu (Open-Shell) item. You may try to disable it by checking Disable the Pin shell extension in settings (and possibly restart explorer/machine) to see if that will make any difference.

You have also few other 3rd party software loaded in explorer:

• CryptoPro CSP
• TortoiseGit
• Dokan Project
• FileSeek Shell Extension
• AudioDevProps
• FileLocator Pro / Agent Ransack

Many of those quite old, like from 2021/2022. Try to update them to latest versions. Eventually, try to disable them (using Autoruns tool from Sysinternals).

Also try to update Nvidia drivers to latest ones.

[Dark-Mortal]

Yes, but I tried to uninstall Open-Shell and everything starts to work fine, only Open-Shell. All other are still there. Disable the Pin shell extension - does not help. Will try to update nVidia driver and stop apps. Hope it will help. Will write you the results.

[Dark-Mortal]

I updated nVidia driver and still have the same problem. Also I turned off applications, nothing help. I found strange thing that if Explorer window is open (any folder) then Context Menu appears for several seconds but after that Explorer.exe restarts. I can record dump with uninstalled Open-Shell when everything works... if it helps.

[ge0rdi]

You can try to disable Customize taskbar option and create following registry entry (and restart explorer):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\OpenShell\StartMenu\Settings]
"CompatibilityFixes"=dword:00000008

That should disable any Open-Shell hooking.

Yes, but I tried to uninstall Open-Shell and everything starts to work fine

Does also exiting Open-Shell help? (right-click on start and Exit)

[Dark-Mortal]

Status: INVALID

I am sorry, I found the source, it is not Open-Shell, true. It was an application which defined PdiShellExt Class for Desktop Background. I removed it and no more crashes.