Windows explorer freezes when using Open with option

Windows explorer freezes when using Open with option.Whenever I right click on any file and select Open with option, windows explorer is hanging/freezing.Need help on this.

Solution 1:

I am writing this just because I was so frustrated about this, and the solutions of CCleaner and DISM didn't work for me, and I couldn't find anything online with a solution that worked.

I tried deleting the icon cache and that seemed to work for me.

Create a batch file per these instructions and run as admin - be aware a restart is requested and advised:

@echo off
set iconcache=%localappdata%\IconCache.db
set iconcache_x=%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*

echo.
echo The explorer process must be temporarily killed before deleting the IconCache.db file. 
echo.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing.
echo.
pause
echo.
If exist "%iconcache%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\IconCache.db file has already been deleted.
echo. 
If exist "%iconcache_x%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\IconCache_*.db files have already been deleted.
echo.
exit /B


:delete
echo.
echo Attempting to delete IconCache.db files...
echo.
ie4uinit.exe -show
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F 
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache%"
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache_x%"
start explorer.exe
echo.
echo IconCache database files have been successfully deleted.
goto restart


:restart
echo.
echo.
echo You will need to restart the PC to finish rebuilding your icon cache.
echo.
CHOICE /C:YN /M "Do you want to restart the PC now?"
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 goto no
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto yes

:yes
shutdown /r /f /t 00

:no
exit /B

The linked page doesn't state that the icon cache causes the "open with" hang, but does state that the cache can get corrupted sometimes.

Solution 2:

In a Microsoft Answers thread on this, someone had good luck running CCleaner to clean up their registry. I downloaded the free version and ran it, it found a bad Open With... registry entry for an Intel utility I no longer have and never used, plus 146 more registry references to invalid paths left over from old software. I let it fix them all, and my Open with... hang is gone.