Right click system wide is behaving weirdly. I suspect it comes from EP. But uninstall didn't help. Anybody has a similar experience? Solutions?

[AlterNate37]

Hi.
I know that there's a known issue about right click on the taskbar and in Start, and another known issue about not being able to pin stuff to Start nor to remove pinned stuff from Start.
But my issue goes further, and does NOT disappear after uninstalling EP, no matter if I uninstall it from its settings or with Revo.

Issue:

• right clicking some items pinned in Start doesn't give any context menu.
• also in Start, if I click on "All" to see the list of installed apps, Store Apps give the context menu but "Pin to Start" doesn't work. While Desktop Apps give no context menu.
• Search remembers the apps I searched, like RegEdit, CMD, MSConfig, and I always had a context menu when right clicking them, and could start them as an admin, but now no more.
• right clicking on ANY item in "Windows Tools" (= Computer Management, Defragment and Optimize etc) I get a "loading" circle and the window freezes and it's not possible to close it from the X on the top right corner (it does close if I right click on Windows Tools on the taskbar and select "Close Window").
• Same thing with circle and freeze happens if I right click on some .exe in C (as far as I could observe it only happens with exe and only in C). It's selective though. For instance, if I go in Program Files and open the 7-Zip folder, a right click on 7z.exe or 7zG.exe gives the context menu, but right clicking on 7zFM.exe gives circle and freeze. In the LibreOffice folder right clicking on any of the main exe like Writer, Base, Math etc freezes the window, but things like python.exe correctly give the context menu.
  In the C Windows folder a right click on regedit.exe freezes the window, whereas explorer and notebook exe correctly give the context menu.

I've no f..ing idea wtf is this f...
But it's f...ing with me and I'm going nuts.
I've noticed that if I reinstall EP after uninstalling it from the uninstall option in its properties window, all the customization is still there.
So I'm wondering if maybe something that EP changed is causing this issue and the issue stays even after uninstalling EP because EP fails to revert all changes in the registry to the default.

NOTHING I've tried worked.
Only creating another account works. But I'd prefer to fix mine than to move everything to a new one.
You can read more about what I've tried HERE.

I'm posting this here because I'm not sure that it's an issue with EP but I kindly ask @valinet to have a look at it and give me some help.

Thanks

[pyrates999]

Uninstall EP. The settings for EP are in the registry and not removed during uninstall. That is why you had them back when you installed EP.

Please don't use Revo to uninstall EP.

I don't think this is caused by EP. Your drive that windows is on could be dying. I would do a backup of all your data then continue.

Also check your cpu temp to be sure it is not overheating.

After you've uninstalled EP:

You may need to repair your windows install. Please run the following in an elevated command prompt (right click on command prompt icon and select run as administrator) or elevated powershell (right click on powershell icon and select run as administrator):

chkdsk C:

If it tells you there are errors, then run this:

chkdsk C: /F

Reboot to run it on boot. Keep running that command until it reports no errors. Then run this to repair windows:

sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore
dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup

then run this until it reports no errors:

sfc /scannow

Then reboot your computer.

[AlterNate37]

Hi, thanks.

Yes, like I was mentioning, I have uninstalled EP, at first with its own uninstall feature, then with Revo and the leftovers hunt.
It didn't change anything.
I also provided a link to my post in eleven forums where I explained that I have used SFC and RestoreHealth and a few more things and nothing worked.

What I didn't try is chkdsk, but why do you think it's relevant? I thought that chkdsk isn't to find errors in the file system but bad sectors in the disk. I don't think it applies here. Am I misinformed about what chkdisk does?
And, what would be the purpose of startcomponentcleanup? Afaik it's like resetbase but without reset, and it's only to free some space (which I don't need at all) but has no effect whatsoever on the health of the system. Is this not correct? Or if it is, why do you recommend it?

[AlterNate37]

btw I've done all that, religiously.
It didn't solve the issue in the slightest.
Sorry.
Any other ideas?

[pyrates999]

did you run chkdsk like I said? And did you run the rest of it after running chkdsk with no errors?

[AlterNate37]

yes, religiously just like you said.
No result whatsoever...

Does it give you maybe some hint the fact that from a new account I don't have this issue?
In the new account I also tried installing EP and nothing bad happened. But this doesn't mean that EP isn't related to this issue. In my main account also when I installed EP nothing bad happened in that moment.
But at some point it did.
Maybe you can make more out of this info, I personally can't neither say it was EP nor say that it wasn't.
I only know that what you asked me to try didn't help, and that the issue is still present in Safe Mode in my account but not in another account (in normal mode).

[pyrates999]

I think you got hardware issues. To try to find out if it's memory related, go here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/do-more-with-surface/how-to-use-windows-memory-diagnostic

[AlterNate37]

For the records, it's no hardware issue. It was something wrong with my filesystem.
That's why be creating a new account the issue wasn't there.
If it was hardware issue the issue would have been there even on the new account.
That's why I asked you if this detail was maybe giving you a hint but it seems it didn't.

If anybody with the same isse lands on this post, know that you can solve it without a clean install, you simply have to create a new account, give it admin status, and delete the old one.
Before you delete the old one of course make sure you moved your personal files on the new one (downloads, documents, pics etc).
But honestly, don't keep the personal files in the same partition (and if possible not even in the same disk) as the OS ;)