Solved: Long delay before context menu shows up

[Guest Robert Kochem]

Hi newsgroup.

 

The last months I noticed that opening the context menu of shortcuts took

sometimes very long (5-10 seconds). I found out fast that this happens only

on shortcuts that are broken (the executable the shortcut links to does not

exist anymore) - but it only happens on one PC therefore a software (or to

be detailed a shell extension) must have been the cause.

 

Investigating a problematic shell extension isn't simple but finally I

found today the cause:

Using Sysinternals ProcessMonitor i traced the long delay back to a shell

extension named "CmdLineExt.dll" (located in the system32 folder). The DLL

description named it as "SecuROM context menu for Explorer." from "Sony..."

WTF - why needs a copy protection needs a shell extension?

 

After deactivating the shell extension via "regsvr32 /U CmdLineExt.dll" the

delay was gone.

 

Conclusion: Another unnecessary and bogus software brought you by Sony

(also known as the "rootkit publisher"). I can only suggest everybody to

deactivating this useless shell extension.

 

Robert