How do I identify what is freezing explorer?

How do I identify what is freezing explorer? I have a vista ultamite machine that has been running fine for over a year. In the last few months it has started freezing up. Not completely but just explorer.
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bert [Entry]

"I would start by running Process Explorer from Microsoft/Sysinternals. By watching explorer.exe in PE, you may be able to see what part of it is causing the hangs. Could very well be some type of codec/add-in etc crashing or timing out.

Edit: I just came across an amazing tutorial from Kansas State University on using Process Explorer, complete with screenshots (PDF link): Process Explorer Tutorial Handout"

bert [Entry]

I had a client about a year ago that had a similar problem loading some folder content in Explorer. We determined the issue to be one of those all in one codec packages. It was crashing when loading thumbnails in folders containing video files. After uninstalling the codec package the problem was resolved.