Start menu context menus

When I right-click an entry in the submenus of the Start>* menus (e.g. Start>All Programs, Start>Control Panel, or Start>My Computer), the context menu pops up for a split second (almost invisibly-fast) before dissapearing. If I right-click on anything in those menus, e.g. right-click on Start>All Programs>Windows Media player (a program) or Start>All Programs>Accessories> (a folder), the context menu does basically the same thing. None of the next lower folder/file context menus work either (e.g. Start>All Programs>Adobe>Adobe Premier> or Start>My Computer>Local Disk (C: ) won't have a context-menu).

My first thought was to open regedit and see if there was a speed value I could change or something. My problem is I don't know where to look for this context menu. Normal file/program context menus seem to be pretty easy to find, but I can't find where this one is hiding. My other guess is that this could be in the shell32.dll and I could use ResourceHacker to change it, but again, I don't know where to look.

Earlier today I did a fresh install. I secured my system (firewall, av, etc.), got everything back up to date (primarily windows updates), installed a hand-full of programs, and began putting all my settings back the way I like them. re-scanned my computer for bugs.

All the programs I installed were the same ones installed prior to my fresh install, save for some updates. The updates could have done this, but I'm not sure which one would have done that.

I don't want to do a system restore because I don't know when the problem started, and I don't want to undo the work I've put in to making my system usable again. I just want to manually fix this problem.

more info
os: XP home SP2
other: context menus seem to work fine elsewhere.

 

Right click on the Start button, left click on Properties, click the Customize button, go to the Advanced tab. Scroll down to and check "Enable dragging and dropping," clilck OK and OK again.

I have no idea why the dragging and dropping setting would affect right clicking on the Start Menu but it does.

 

Well, you're right, that fixed the problem, and it makes no sense! Thank you very much for that. I NEVER would have found that on my own. Again, thank you very much!



as a side note, does anyone know why this works?

edit: The only thing this didn't fix is the context menu that almost pops up when i right-click on open space in the 'all programs' folder.

 

harbaughisback--If I right click in an open space on the All Programs menu I get something flashing much too fast to see. I have no idea whether it is a context menu or not. But I would not expect a context menu from such an open (blank) space.
Hope this makes you feel that you are not missing much if anything. Or do you feel you used to get a context menu from such a procedure?
Or are you talking about right clicking on a blank spot in the C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Start Menu\Programs folder? There I do get a context menu.

 

I am talking about the menu that you get to through the start button>all programs> [blank space] and not something found in explorer (that works fine). The thing that made it stand out was the fact that this is the same flashing I saw before I had drop and drag enabled. I can't remember if i had a context menu here before, honestly, and now that I think about it, I can't really guess at why I would need one there, but since it flashed, I thought I ask.

Perhaps this isn't a problem at all, perhaps there is no context menu for this. I guess I was just a bit jittery from the earlier problem. Thanks much for pointing this out.