I've seen a few solutions with a google search, it depends on the setup. In this thread.. while it didn't provide any concrete action to take for the fix ... it did provide direction and clues. I too have PathFinder application, and I too had this problem where it was only within the Desktop folder the problem surfaces.
After the series of steps below were complete, right clicking came back.
In Finder:
1) Click on Desktop, *verify* that the Top Menu is actually OS X's Finders.
Go to "Finders Preferences", select "General" tab
Change "New Finder windows open in:" to something other that the User Home directory (I chose /User/Shared)
In Path Finder Preferences:
1) [General] Preference tab de-select following options
- Launch Path Finder at login
- Show menu bar icon
- Set as default browser
2) [Browser] tab
- Set "Starting Directory:" path to something other than you user Home directory (again I manually selected /User/Shared)
3) [Finder] tab, De-select
- Hide Finders's Desktop
- Quit Finder when Path Finder launches
Of the above, I don't know which particular edit was the culprit, was just happy to have it back....
