the icon delay problem only occurs on folders with many .lnk files in it. (similar to the windows startmenu) - i bet the problem is related to the lnks. Sometimes on my System i have to wait 2-3 sec before the menu pops up if i open it the first time. The second time right after there is no delay.

Somewhere there's a setting in Windows which requires .lnk files to be verified before they are displayed. You could try searching as to how to turn it off - if you want to.

Before you mess with undocumented registry settings, however, I do urge you to give Noccy's version a try. Seriously. That may take care of your problem. For me, my computer seemed to become faster, more responsive, maybe it'll work for you as well.
Just be careful to not use the BBCleanSkin that's included with the newest version since that tends to screw things up, use the next older version instead (the link is posted on the same page).

actually iam already using the latest bbclean build. regarding the lnk verify stuff .. looks like this might be the problem. i have done some searching but have not found a solution for this prob yet. - anyone ?

It's a configuration option on nlite. Despite having done some trawling of the Windows options over the last 10 years or so, I had never come across it before.

If you're desperate & have the time, try spelunking in M$'s Windows XP Professional Resource Kit (1700 pages) next time you're in a specialist bookstore.

ok, i did some testing with about 30 icons within a [path].

I activated the registry option to not search for damaged links (verify links)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
"NoResolveSearch"=dword:00000001
- no change, after reboot (first time to open the menu and good for testing) it still takes some seconds to until the menu appears

i then "rebuild" the submenu by hand:

before:
[path] (Network) {%userprofile%\shell\customdata\menufolder\network}
now:
[submenu] (-Network) <%userprofile%\shell\icons\menu\active\drives.ico>
[exec] (Active Sync) {C:\bin\ActiveSyncToggle.exe} <*>
[exec] (Advanced) {C:\Programme\Advanced Port Scanner\Advanced Port Scanner.exe} <*>
[exec] (Bandwidth) {C:\Programme\bandwidth monitor\Bandwidth Monitor Pro.exe} <*>
[exec] (Biet-o-Matic) {C:\Programme\Biet-O-Matic\Biet-O-Matic.exe} <*>
[exec] (Easy file sharing Webserver) {C:\Programme\Easy File Sharing Web Server\fsws.exe} <*>
....
[end]

still the same result.

-> icon cache, right ?

I forgot to say that my machine isnt very fast, 1.5Ghz Centrino and 1GB Ram.

So what happens if you change the menu to something like? (I'm guessing at the icon numbers)...In order to get a real result, you'll need to take out all the "<*>" elsewhere in the menu first. (Make sure you start by backing up.) I'd sort of guessed that, but, as they say: "The oldies are the goodies"!

if i remove the <*> its damn fast - no lag at all

Has anybody tried to use this with the Portable Apps launcher http://portableapps.com/?
For me, the PA launcher it not working anymore. It did with the version of BB I had previously, but now clicking on the launcher window does nothing. I even have to click on the tray icon again to get rid of the window.
Any idea what might be causing this and what could be done about it, if anything?

so ne solution for the icon cache problem yet ?

You can probably fix the icon cache problem with one of those registry tweakers such as X-Setup 6.6 (free). Windows default icon cache is set at '500'. By increasing this number to '2000' you may have better performance.

I don't know this for sure tho - I don't use icons in my menus, I think it is down right ugly.

Hi,

I was playing around with regmon and found strange behavior of bbclean... blackbox.exe process is opening the same registry keys over and over again... is it normal?
Here's a small fragment of regmon log:
9 0.46752256 blackbox.exe:2668 OpenKey HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202} SUCCESS Access: 0x20019
10 0.46755356 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202}\EnableDHCP SUCCESS 0x1
11 0.46758932 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202}\LeaseObtainedTime SUCCESS 0x47AB4FD2
12 0.46762061 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202}\LeaseTerminatesTime SUCCESS 0x47ACA152
13 0.46764827 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202}\DhcpServer SUCCESS "192.168.0.1"
14 0.46767619 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202}\DhcpServer SUCCESS "192.168.0.1"
15 0.46772173 blackbox.exe:2668 CloseKey HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202} SUCCESS
16 0.46785584 blackbox.exe:2668 OpenKey HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{73325E01-83DD-406E-A3C3-7CEE3FF0036F} SUCCESS Access: 0x20019
17 0.46788490 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{73325E01-83DD-406E-A3C3-7CEE3FF0036F}\EnableDHCP SUCCESS 0x0
18 0.46792093 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{73325E01-83DD-406E-A3C3-7CEE3FF0036F}\DhcpServer NOT FOUND
19 0.46795222 blackbox.exe:2668 CloseKey HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{73325E01-83DD-406E-A3C3-7CEE3FF0036F} SUCCESS
20 0.46863833 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Tcpip\Linkage\Bind BUFFER OVERFLOW
21 0.46866682 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Tcpip\Linkage\Bind BUFFER OVERFLOW
22 0.46869615 blackbox.exe:2668 QueryValue HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Tcpip\Linkage\Bind SUCCESS "\Device\{711E7AD5-26A0-4E62-ABAB-C5C92C914202}"

What plugins do you have loaded?

And does it still do this when all the plugins are unloaded?

I can confirm it, yes, it still do if i unload all plugins.

If you have a line similar to this in your menu: either comment it out or delete it and then do a restart and see if it still does it.