I had the same exact problem. Actually when the system hangs after doing a right mouse click, you can do a Ctrl+Alt+Delete and see under Processes that VERCLSID.EXE is now running. Killing VERCLSID.EXE restores things to normal. VERCLSID.EXE is part of the KB908531 update. Interestingly I have 3 PCs running XP SP2 and only one PC has this problem after installing KB908531. What gives?

See this story on the Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/18/ms_patch_glitch/

Microsoft's patch adds a executable file called Verclsid.exe, which validates shell extensions before they are loaded by the Windows Shell or Windows Explorer. HP's Share-to-Web Namespace Daemon (Hpgs2wnd.exe) causes Verclsid.exe to stop responding. Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall asks for user approval before allowing Verclsid.exe to do its work. When this occurs, Verclsid.exe�s execution stops until the user clicks through Kerio's notification dialog.

One of my clients had the same problem. Thanks for the advise.

I had the same problem. Thought it had something to do with uninstalling another programm, but - as you wrote - KB908531 caused the error.

Thanks! Rob

Thanks for the help I just spent 3 hours of my life trying to fix my friend's computer. Your fix worked.

Mine freezes every time I right click, too. I have XP SP2, but I don't see KB908531 listed on the Add/Remove Programs list. Any suggestions?

See if Verclsid.exe is running in the task manager (hit ctrl-alt-del) and kill it if it is. Maybe remote that EXE if you don't have that update listed? No idea if that'll break things more or not though. Anyone else know?

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted in this thread. I was having the exact same problem, could not for the life of me figure out what was going wrong. Happened to stumble on this thread, uninstalled the MS update, problem solved!

Thanks again!

Thanks you lot, thats been bugging me for a while, do u reckon microsoft knows about it?

Thanks. I was gearing up for a clean install of XP to fix this problem when I found this discussion. Couldn't figure out where verclsid came from after realizing it was the freeze.

Now, as I write this, I see that Windows is automatically updating something - hope it's not KB908531.

Thank you very much. I too was having this problem on one of 3 computers. I had no clue what had happened to it. Was fine one day then blah. Thought it was one of my kids :)

I suggest try following thing for WinXP XP 98 ME 95 win2003 WinVista Internet Windows Explorer context menu rightclick right-click mouse right button hangup hang-up freezed freeze-up hold-up screw fucked-up frozen {when I right click on file explorer freezes up} also:
Download from www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html file called ShellExView. This is a small file (approx 84kb). after installing ShExView, examine the conflicting Shell hooks to Windows Explorer. One way I solved my problem was to click on Column header called "Product Name" (optionally on Company name). Then make sure to DISABLE? (yes) to all non-Micorsoft products. Don't worry you will be able to activate others later. Then one-by-one activate (DISABLE?) No. The Shell item that will freeze is most likely to be resolved on just first attempt after disabling all non-microsoft products. I found that eraser v5.8 misbehaved and caused me a ten hour hunt to resolve.

I suggest try following thing for WinXP XP 98 ME 95 win2003 WinVista Internet Windows Explorer context menu rightclick right-click mouse right button hangup hang-up freezed freeze-up hold-up screw fucked-up frozen {when I right click on file explorer freezes up} also:
Download from www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html file called ShellExView. This is a small file (approx 84kb). Examine the conflicting Shell hooks. One way I solve my problem was to click on Column header called "Product Name" (optionally on Company name). Then make sure to DISABLE? (yes) to all non-Micorsoft products. Don't worry you will be able to activate others later. Then one-by-one activate (DISABLE?) No. The Shell item that will freeze is most likely to be resolved on just first attempt after disabling all non-microsoft products. I found that eraser v5.8 misbehaved and caused me a ten hour hunt to resolve.

Thanks for that! I had same problem! So annoying! Could'nt figure out what was wrong at all! Was blaming the girls in my house!! Microsoft better bring out something to fix that!! Dont want to have to keep closing Verclsid.exe everytime i want to right-click! Thanks again...i would'nt have figured it out!

For me the cause was the NDIS driver from the NVIDIA Corporation

Did I say NDIS? I meant GeForce. Thanks to your instructions it was easy to find the extension in question. My next step will be to update this driver to the lastest version.

Thank You so much for your help!

I'm unable to remove KB908531 using Add/Remove programs. It says "unable to be removed". So how do I get rid of it?

Your solution fixed my freezing problem. Many thanks as im totaly useless with all this technology. Cheer'z Vegitio

Thanks for the advice, followed your instructions and it works a treat, how do i stop microsoft trying to put it back though!

Thanks for the advice and getting me on the right track.. It was NVIDIA along with the Patch you mentioned before.. KB198165 helped me to fix the issue with a registry hack: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165/EN-US/

unfortunately, i did a FRESH install, AND update (so, I was back to square 1) before I googled the problem and came up with this site. Thanks guys, I hope to solve my problem today.

Thanks so much. All I had to do to solve the problem was update my GeForce Driver and it worked like a charm. Heh.... I probably right clicked 10 times I was so happy.

Bada Bing!!!

Thanks for posting this discussion. I also had the same problem with my machine freezing on right mouse clicks on the desktop. I was going to reinstall but glad I checked google first and found this Discussion. I at first couldn't find the KB908531 update, then I selected the box at the top of the add/remove screen for 'Show Updates'.. Then I found the little bugger! So glad I found this.. Otherwise I'd be sat here doing a total reinstall, instead of sitting here listening to very load music, wakin up the neighbours and havin a few bevvies.

Cheers ;-)

Thanks for the Show updates tip, I found the KB908531 file but when I chose to remove it, I got a huge list of programs that might not work if I unisntall the file. Should I ignore this??

I am still having trouble with this symtom. I have removed the update as described. I do not have any HP or NVIDIA software installed. I can right click once on a desktop item and close it but if i try it again I get the FREEZE, it's now bugging the hell out of me. I even tried editing the registry as described in the microaoft bulletin mentioned. Anybody got any ideas? HELP!!!!!

I am still having trouble with this symtom. I have removed the update as described. I do not have any HP or NVIDIA software installed. I can right click once on a desktop item and close it but if i try it again I get the FREEZE, it's now bugging the hell out of me! I even tried editing the registry as described in the microsoft bulletin mentioned. Anybody got any ideas? HELP!!!!!

Many thanks, your solution fixed my problem,
I have deleted VERCLSID.EXE as well.
Is it OK to Restore This File??
From a non technical person
Cheers Alan

Thanks to all who posted here, however, useriii, you're AWESOME!! THAT is the fix!!! I couldn't find the KB in add/remove either, went to the MS site to look at the KB article, checked the reg edits they recommended and they already existed. Downloaded the nvidia drivers and while waiting checked out useriii's suggestion on the shexview program. WORKS LIKE A CHARM!! Indeed, disable all non-MS items and WHAM!, right click is back! I re-enabled the few I wanted and no ill effects, left most of the ones I disabled to remain disabled. I don't miss any of that crap.

Thanks again useriii for a quick fix and for saving me additional HOURS of my life I'd otherwise never get back. :)

Thanks a thousand. I've looked high and low for some hint(s) of how to fix this problem. With the help of Google I found your info and applied it. All is well now.

Again thanks for the help.

Thanks alot for the suggestion, unfortunately I was not able to uninstall the update, there was no option to, and it said that it cannot be removed.

However, I used ShellExView to disable one of the things, now there IS NO RIGHT CLICK ON DESKTOP LAG!

I also uninstalled unnecessary HP software, like share to web, and photo and imaging.

Brilliant suggestion, thanks alot, I have been searching for weeks on how to fix this fucking problem!

yup, Nvidia drivers. i have an older geForce2 mx 400 running XP with all the updates including the one mentioned here. updated the drives to the "universal" from the nvidia site and all is good...

Thank you Joe/useriii! ShellExView has done the trick after days of trying to discover why my PC had suddenly falls to bits everytime I was opening Explorer from the Start Menu... I was convinced I'd have to take more drastic action! You are genius and a gentleman sir for sharing this.

Bless you!

Thanks very much Arcterex for the fix, or as we say in Ireland - Go raibh mile maith agat!

ShellExView is the way to go. Follow these steps:

1. Click the company column, so that software is organized by company name.

2. Ignore "Microsoft" and perform a "binary search" by disabling A-L or everything up to the first entry of Microsoft (Shift select and hit "Disable").

3. Right click on your desktop. If it still freezes, your problems are in the M-Z category (excluding "Microsoft," of course). Use Task Manager to restore your computer by cancelling the last process (in my case drwatson).

4. Repeat step 2 above as necessary, narrowing the range until you get the little bugger.

The culprit in my case was "Favorite Shortcuts Context Menu Extension," a little taskbar utility.

P.S. Thanks to useriii!

Thank you soooo much! The right click freeze was driving me nuts. I had friends at work trying to help, but no one could figure it out. I did have to delete the verclsid.exe files from my hard drive because "ending process" in the Task Manager window only stopped it for one or two clicks. Deleting the files completely from the C Drive solved the problem.
Thanks again!!
George

Please someone help!!!!!!! When I try to remove the KB908531 I get a huge list of programs that MIGHT not work properly if I unistall that file. Should I ignore this warning??????

I have a hpcompaq nc6120 laptop, and I also had problems when I right-clicked on the desktop. Thanks to ShellExView - and you guys who suggested it :) - I found out that the problem was the "Intel Graphic Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile" context menu. After disabling it, everything worked fine.

Thanks again for the solution!

Thanks to "useriii" for pointing me in the direction of Eraser being the cause of my problems! Uninstalled and everything is behaving as it should again.

For the benefit of anyone else, I also tried:
* Unintalling KB908531 (didn't appear to have any effect - verclsid.exe was still there)
* Renaming verclsid.exe (caused worse lockups than before)
* Disabling the NVidia shell extensions (no joy)
* Applying the registry fixes in KB918165 (they were already there, apparently as a result of the update to KB908531 released by MS)
* Checking for the HP drivers listed as causing problems (didn't have 'em)

explorer.exe will not run on one of my computers and it appears linked to kb908531 installation. Anyone else had same problem?

What worked for me was starting in safe mode, right-clicking the HP Share to Web, then Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up task manager. Instead of closing the verclsid.exe I closed the associated HP executable that was running (hpcfg something or other). The right click menu came right up and allowed me to remove the item from the desktop

Thanks a Million!

I've tried Shellexview and found nVidia was the one causing problem.

Rgds / LASAWIC

HP has no right to force customers who purchase printers/scanners or all-in-ones to install hacker program like "SHARE-TO-WEB", a HP program that comes with built-in upload folder that allows hackers to access private info of users' computers without their knowledge of their precious files being uploaded all the time. Also, there's no need to automatically force people to so-called "update" or "upgrade" HP's any version of software. If user really wants to update, he would do it himself. You just don't do it like a creep without consent of the user. HP is so arrogant and has been playing God & spying on people for so many years. I'm surprised it takes so long for people to catch those corporate spies. HP's people including CEOs are found to be spies with rock-solid proof. For example, please see:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001964.html

HP has no right to force customers who purchase printers/scanners or all-in-ones to install hacker program like "SHARE-TO-WEB", a HP program that comes with built-in upload folder that allows hackers to access private info of users' computers without their knowledge of their precious files being uploaded all the time. Also, there's no need to automatically force people to so-called "update" or "upgrade" HP's any version of software. If user really wants to update, he would do it himself. You just don't do it like a creep without consent of the user. HP is so arrogant and has been playing God & spying on people for so many years. I'm surprised it takes so long for people to catch those corporate spies. HP's people including CEOs are found to be spies with rock-solid proof. For example, please see:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001964.html

Hey,
I had the same problem as everyone above with SP2 and KB908531 and not being able to right click my mouse(hourglass appeared and no menu).I read the post about ShellExView utility and gave it a try. Grouped all the "non" Microsoft shells together and disabled them all.Right clicked a desktop icon-problem solved.By process of elimination I found my problem(I enabled one at a time until the problem occured again)a program called Shred XP.Left it disabled and everything is working fine-even the Shred XP.Check out http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

Updated my Nvidia Drivers, and PRESTO!! I can right click again!!

Thanks again to all who contributed this method.

I was having the same thing for the past 3 days at work. I was not KB908531 or a bad context menu entry.

I used sysinternals regmon filtering all but explorer.exe and highlighting NOT FOUND.

I quickly started logging and then right clicked..

I let the logging run until the menu finally appeared 20 sec later.

looking through the log I noticed a sudden large gap in the time stamps. I found an entry looking at the following regkey

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\GSpot.exe\shell\open\command]
@="\"\\neptune\\GSpot\\GSpot.exe\" \"%1\""

Gspot was an audio codec testing util that I had used a couple days ago at home and the share \\neptune was there.

I ran the start>run command \\neptune and timed the difference between the right click and the "network path not found" error.

they were the same. I then changed the regkey to a local copy of the app and the right click was working fine..

thanks

ShellExView saved the day!Thx to useriii ! It was Eraser here too and disabling it with ShellExView worked perfect! Thanks so much!

Mike

I search for the "verclsid.exe" and delitet it and pronto right right click works(system 32)

very happy again!!!!

damnnnn, thankkkkkkss aloooooot, (phewwww), been battling with this crap for a LOOOOONG time, freakin microsoft, now seriously looking at apple (mac), thanks again , God bless.

P.S. with shellexview, "adobe acrobat context menu" was the culprit. grrrrrrr

I also found my culprint, it was the Program UEStudio, a program to develop programs

I uninstalled the KB908531 ( did not work ). I upgraded my Nvida drivers ( did not work ). I downloaded the shellexview and through process of elimation I found this extension causing the issue. (Offline Files Menu Yes Context Menu Client Side Caching UI 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) Microsoft® Windows®).
So make sure to include the Microsoft in your search.

I had the same problem in that if I right clicked on Desk top everything froze up. After much experimentation found that when I removed a Programme called Power Zip the problem went away.

Using ShellExView and disabling shell extensions one by one, I quickly found that TextPad was the cause of my problem. Thanks for the tip!

Like usual , it's the last thing you did to the computer, ie installing hard/software or making changes. Generally, make a note of when the problem started and try to make a connection to ONE of those changes. Undo/remove/uninstall the last change/hardware/software and 99.9% of the time that will fix the problem. For me , it was Eraser software that caused the problem. As soon as it was uninstalled, every thing was fine.
Thanks everyone.

Thanks Guys
ShellEXT solved my problem

You guys are HEROES :)

When I try to right click on a file my computer freezes, no mouse movement, ctrl/alt/del does not work. I have removed the Windows Update that is associated with the freezing and it still happens. I have ran ShellExView, still nothing. Any idea as to what is causing my freezing?

I tried all these - to no avail - ctrl+alt+del cannot get me out of updates - desktop freezes - have to reboot - Microsoft gave me more suggestions - in vain. I don't want to re-install
Please help

i had the same issue. see article by microsoft at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165/

thanx a lot
hail shexview!!!!

if you have eraser 5.8 or higher try turning of entropy polling. that wasa the proble for me. found it though by using shellview, then going to eraser support and getting the answer for the freeze problem. GOOD LUCK

Useriii got the cure spot on !!!!!! quote...
I suggest try following thing for WinXP XP 98 ME 95 win2003 WinVista Internet Windows Explorer context menu rightclick right-click mouse right button hangup hang-up freezed freeze-up hold-up screw fucked-up frozen {when I right click on file explorer freezes up} also:
Download from www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html file called ShellExView. This is a small file (approx 84kb). Examine the conflicting Shell hooks. One way I solve my problem was to click on Column header called "Product Name" (optionally on Company name). Then make sure to DISABLE? (yes) to all non-Micorsoft products. Don't worry you will be able to activate others later. Then one-by-one activate (DISABLE?) No. The Shell item that will freeze is most likely to be resolved on just first attempt after disabling all non-microsoft products. I found that eraser v5.8 misbehaved and caused me a ten hour hunt to resolve.
unquote
In my case the right click freeze of explorer.exe was caused by Steganos Security Suite...a context extension menu hook. I disabled it using Shellexview...and voila...the freezes are gone !!
thanks useriii....you are a hero..
Jack

Why does windows explorer freeze but not my computer?

im haveing a simular problem. when i load my computer everything is fine. but as soon as i X out all programs and left or right click on my desktop the computer freezes. how ever my mouse still moves and i can still bring up task manager.
and i get a message saying drwatson has ran into an issue and needs to close. and the only way i can restore the computer is to kill drwatson on task manager. the comp runs fine util everything is exed out and the desktop is ckicked on.
anyone know how to resolve this?!

Every time I would right-click on any icon on the desktop, or on any file in File Explorer I got the hour glass, after three finger salute I regained desktop.

Read here that Eraser 5.8 was the culprit so I just uninstalled it and every thing is back to normal.

Now I don't need to do clean reinstall of WinXP Pro as a local tech told me to do.

What a relief.

I suspect my problem with the right-click freezing started when I installed a program called Eraser 5.7

I think this has somehow corrupted the context menu processes. It's never behaved like this for me before, and this is a new install of Windows XP.

I am also running AVG8 and Sunbelt Personal Firewall.

useriii, tnx!!!
Here's my bugger:

GraphicsShellExt Class Yes Context Menu igfxpph Module 3.0.0.4396 Intel(R) Common User Interface Intel Corporation No No No No No No C:\WINDOWS\system32\igfxpph.dll {3AB1675A-CCFF-11D2-8B20-00A0C93CB1F4} 9-2-2009 14:15:28 9-2-2009 14:15:33 No Directory\Background A 147.456
classic freeze, killing explorer.exe and a drwatson.exe going beserk! (that was the proces I had to kill in order to regain my desktop)

again, tnx!!!

sup peeps i have some what da same proublem
i can't right click on the web or explorer,
i can't copy paste pixs.when i click the right side button nothing happens no widow opens?/
help

shellext solved the problem in my case "snagi it" was the culprit Thanks again shellext

man after weeks of ppl telling be make new account reformat do this do that witch isnt a answer this was the answer this page thanks everyone after seeing this page and this "shellext solved the problem in my case "snag it" was the culprit Thanks again shellext" i did the shellext and it worked thanks everyone for reposting the answer and fixes cause it helped me " GOD BLESS YOU GUYS" lol Eastern420

ShellEx worked like a charm.
Damn it was that "BUContextMenu Class" With Norton 360.