How to Fix: Right Click Desktop Not Working (Spinning Circle)

Dennis Faas's picture

Infopackets Reader Jared P. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

The right click on my desktop is not working. When I right click on the desktop, all I get is a spinning blue circle. What normally appears is a dialogue menu that shows Display Settings, Personalize (the desktop), View, Sort by, and New (to create a folder, shortcut, text document, etc) - but instead, the cursor circle keeps spinning forever. I've left it alone for an hour but the right click keeps loading forever and never produces a menu like it should. Update: Since I've emailed you, I've found a few so-called guides online to fix my problem (the menu now appears instead of the blue circle); however, the 'New' submenu which is normally part of the right click menu is now absent. Now I can't create folders on my desktop or create a new text document on the desktop. Is there a proper way to fix this? "

My response:

I asked Jared if he would like me to connect to his machine using my remote desktop support service in order to have a closer look, and he agreed.

Below I will discuss my findings.

How to Fix: Right Click Desktop Not Working (Spinning Circle)

After researching this issue, it appears that the 'right click desktop menu broken with a spinning blue circle forever' issue has to do with a corrupt registry value.

The guides I've come across on the Internet state that the best way to deal with this is to manually edit the registry using regedit in order to wipe out all the corrupted registry subkeys, but this is a very obfuscated approach to fixing the problem. It also introduces yet another 'side effect' issue which Jared has accurately described - the 'New' submenu is now missing.

I've written a small script to fix the right click desktop menu issue, plus it will preserve the 'New' submenu. Unlike most 'how to' tutorials online regarding this issue, you won't need to navigate through the registry editor (regedit) to make it work. This script will also reset the Explorer.exe task which will also stop the spinning circle. All you need to do is copy and paste my script onto a command line to fix the problem properly.

To do so:

  1. Highlight the text below with your mouse:

    reg delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers /f
    reg add HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D {D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}
    taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
    ping localhost -n 5 >nul
    start explorer.exe
    echo this is a dummy line
     
  2. Right click over the text above and select "Copy" from the dialogue menu.
     
  3. Next: click Start, then type in "CMD" (no quotes); wait for "CMD.EXE" or "Command Prompt" to appear in the list, then right click it and select "Run as Administrator". A black window should appear with the title "Administrator: CMD" or such. This is known as an administrative command prompt.
     
  4. Right click in the middle of the administrative command prompt with your mouse and select "Paste" from the dialogue menu. The text you highlighted in Step #1 should now be output to the command line. You may receive an error such as: "ERROR: Delete request is partially completed" - you can safely ignore this error message.
     
  5. Now, test your right click menu on the desktop. It should now be working, and should also include the 'New' submenu.

I hope that helps.

Got a Computer Question or Problem? Ask Dennis!

I need more questions. If you have a computer question - or even a computer problem that needs fixing - please email me with your question so that I can write more articles like this one. I can't promise I'll respond to all the messages I receive (depending on the volume), but I'll do my best.

About the author: Dennis Faas

Dennis Faas is the owner and operator of Infopackets.com. With over 30 years of computing experience, Dennis' areas of expertise are a broad range and include PC hardware, Microsoft Windows, Linux, network administration, and virtualization. Dennis holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science (1999) and has authored 6 books on the topics of MS Windows and PC Security. If you like the advice you received on this page, please up-vote / Like this page and share it with friends. For technical support inquiries, Dennis can be reached via Live chat online this site using the Zopim Chat service (currently located at the bottom left of the screen); optionally, you can contact Dennis through the website contact form.

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Comments

dew6000's picture

worked.. even though HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\New value was already set to {D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}

MS Version 1909 (OS Build 18363.720)

Thank you

4brianbirmingham_13927's picture

Thank you very much! I lost track of the number of registry hacks, 3rd party software solutions, and policy editor fixes that I tried. Yours is the only that worked. My right-click response is almost immediate. Thanks again.

Brian

Anna's picture

Oh wow. After a reinstall and finding this incredibly specific problem, I thought I'd have to manually mess around with all kinds of things. Instead, a quick search led me to this article with an instant fix that worked perfectly. Thank you so much!

nathanj's picture

Thanks for this solution, you saved someones xmas present.

jasonc28_14409's picture

Thank you for this - are you able to provide a brief explanation on what could be the cause of this registry corruption, as well as how your solution worked? I have just started a fresh reformat of my Asus Laptop, and was in the process of uninstalling all the pre-installed software, and the issue of freezing right click on desktop happened. It is already the second time it behaved like this (i reformatted on both occasion, thinking it was caused by OneDrive).

lbelvitt_14461's picture

I don't normally create accounts for stuff like these, but I had to create an account to tell you thanks.

MattSauve's picture

I second what @lbelvitt_14461 said above! I made an account just to thank you for having this page up. It was super simple and fixed the exact problem I was having! I have never seen this problem before on any Windows 10, but this forum did the trick.

Thank you,
Matthew Sauve

pcarter21's picture

Made an account just to say thank you. My computer started doing this today and I was about to lose my mind. This fixed it immediately. Appreciate this!

THANKS's picture

Created an account to say thanks :)

mrozaiman2's picture

Thanks for your guide. It fix my issue.

boomdigity5_16155's picture

Created an account to say:
Thank you so much. It worked!

jhandsky's picture

Made an account as well to say thank you! Worked instantly for me.

jgage03's picture

I also jut made an account to say thank you! This worked instantly, less than a 5 min fix. We had factory reset an ASUS laptop to find the desktop menu not working when it started back up. Mainly wanted people to know this still works! Thank you so much!!!!!

kw193_16664's picture

Like the others above, I created an account to say thanks. I was about to just buy a new computer, but your fix solved the issue. Thanks!