Clicking On Start Menu And Taskbar Items Doesn't Launch Program
Aug 25, 2011
Essentially, upon starting up my computer, from time to time, I have no yet been able to isolate what may cause this issue, I will find that I cannot launch programs from their shortcuts in the Quick Start or Taskbar menu. As of right now I have not tried to launch said programs from the original .exe file in this scenario.I've noticed that when I try to open these programs from the Taskbar, the icon will be surrounded by a square to indicate that it is active, but, after a period of maybe 5 seconds or so, sometimes longer, it will disappear and the program will no longer look active. Opening up the task manager, the programs usually show up in the Processes under the appropriate name. Multiple instances of a program can appear, even when, under normal circumstances, multiple instances aren't allowed (such as with Firefox). The processes will usually show a static amount of memory used, like 108k for any firefox.exe in the process list, and will simply sit there until they are ended, despite the program not actually running. When this happens I generally have to restart the computer and hope it works on the restart.
If I mount a removeable media such as USB Stick or a TrueCrypt file volume (with rm option) then I cannot pin prgms from these medias/drives to the taskbar nor pin files to the Start menu. Is there really no way to disable this No-Pin-Protection? Under WinXP this worked without problems.
I need to remove all the most visited pages which you get when you right click on the quick launch icon. I have cleared all the data "from the beginning of the time" several times but no use. All the pages come back after Windows is restarted.I have also reinstalled chrome & waterfox but they all come back after a reboot.I have tried CCLeaner and Glary Utilities as well...But none helped?
I had a program installed called Spiral Knights, and I pinned the icon onto the taskbar so I could quickly launch it. When I was done playing it for good, I uninstalled it and it looked like the icon was off the taskbar, but it wasn't. When I tried to put another program onto the taskbar, called minecraft_server.jar, it pinned to the Spiral Knights icon, even though SK isn't installed anymore. Wherever I try to put the minecraft_server.jar onto the taskbar, the SK program is still there, and it says if I want to pin the minecraft_server.jar onto SK.
1. Which DLL uses W7/64 for the sound at start-up of Windows? I would like to edit it for my own sound.
2. How can I alter the sequence of the entries in the Start-menu? Now the sequence is in sequence of creation, I would like to group them by application-area.
every time i double-click, the start menu pops up...i double click again and it closes... however to close it i cannot even click away like everybody else can... it only just started occurring the day before... i also do not have my desktop icons displayed because i don't like cluttered desktop... i cannot make them appear because my rightçlick isn't working at all on the desktop unless i right-click in a window.
Yesterday, the task bar and Start button mysteriously disappeared.I've also found that the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" windowdoesn't come up. There are two places to click on in Control Panelthat should bring up this window, but it doesn't. The Control Panelborder changes color as if something is starting to happen, but thennothing happens, possibly indicating that some program starts to runbut then finds something wrong and exits. I didn't see anythinginteresting in the error logs. The desktop icons appear normally.The problem exists only when logging onto my son's account. When Ilog on as administrator, the task bar and Start button appearnormally.The usual tricks don't work: Ctrl+ESC, or bringing up Task Manager andtrying to rerun explorer.exe. I tried sfc to check for corruptedfiles, but none turned up. I ran an AVG scan and it did find one fileit considered a threat, which it removed, but that didn't solve theproblem.
I found a web site that referred to the registrykeyHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorerwhich has a NoSetTaskbar value that can be used to disable the"Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" window. On the administratorlogin, the Explorer subkey is there all right, but doesn't haveNoSetTaskbar. (It does have NoDriveTypeAutoRun.) But when I log ontomy son's account, the Policies key had no subkeys at all. I triedadding an Explorer subkey without adding any values, but this didn'tsolve the problem. I haven't yet tried adding a NoDriveTypeAutoRunvalue, but since this seems to pertain to AutoPlay it didn't seemrelevant to this problem.Any thoughts as to what might be going on or what might fix it?
My computer recently prompted me to do a virus scan and after rebooting, it erased all the files and programs on it. I read some posts stating to "unhide" all the folders in windows explorer to help the situation. That seemed to restore alot of programs, but I still can't launch certain programs off the Start Menu nor can I see their shortcut in Windows Explorer. I'm able to open files using those programs from Windows explorer, I just cant open the program itself from the Start Menu. The folders of those programs on the Start Menu say "empty" and no program is displayed.
The icons on my desktop keep going to the left side of the screen. I have unchecked the option to "auto arrange" several times, but it keeps moving the icons to the left side of the screen anyway.Are there any alternatives for me having quick access to the programs, folders etc that I use on a regular basis other than putting them on the desktop as shortcuts?? I may or may not be using some of these terms in the correct way?Can I move them down to the task bar? How many icons will the task bar hold? Can I have multiple task bars? Will this slow down my computer? What does it mean to create a library for shortcuts?why do some items appear under the start menu and others dont?
How would i go about replacing the ones i need which i am brand new to this stuff so i don't know what i'm missing and what i need. Great predicament to be in ay.I attached the Unhide program from Bleeping
When I open a program that has been pinned to the taskbar, the icon for that program disappears immediately. I understand that this is a feature of Windows 7, but my girlfriend finds it rather annoying. Is there any way to stop this behavior? By the way, I am using the "Never Combine" option for my taskbar.
For example, the first icon pinned in the taskbar is Mozilla Firefox. When I open Firefox, the icon disappears, and only the other pinned icons remain. I would like to change this behavior so that the icon, once pinned, will remain, even if I open the program associated with it.
I have been having a Windows 7 issue for a week now. Last week, my desktop computer had the "blue screen of death" and it sort of fixed itself and rebooted, and it seemed to be working again. However, in the past 2 days, everytime I turn on the computer, and then when the desktop pops up, and I click the start menu button, the whole desktop freezes and I can't click anywhere else. I tried going on safe mode and do a system restore, but the choices of time to reset my computer was still after the blue screen of death.It's really frustrating, because I can't turn my computer off properly anymore cause it just freezes, I can't backup my files, because it's frozen, and I can't backup in safe mode.
I need to change some file associations. I tried right click/open with/choose default program on a file of the type for which I want to change the association but get a message saying "Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item." The program I want to use for this file appears in the menu that pops up when I click open with but clicking on the program gives me the same message as does Start/Default Items. I am logged in as administrator so surely should have permission to change associations in this way. The machine is a 2 month old HP laptop running windows 7 home premium. Is there another setting I need to change to allow me to do this?
I'm configuring Windows 7 Enterprise for my office. I've gone through and installed all the programs. I then do the deal where I log in locally and copy my profile and make it the Default profile.
Anyway, when I log in using my profile (Domain Admin) no problems! When i log in as a typical user (without admin rights) I don't see anything on the left side of the start menu (recent programs). I open Word, Excel, etc. but nothing is ever added to the recentfavorite program list.
I got a trojan earlier today that resulted in everything on my desktop vanishing and I have empty folders in the start menu.I can only get to the control panel by doing a search for it and I can't get to the part related to icons.I understand there is a program that might un-hide them but I read that it also makes visible things that should remain hidden.
I know that the full version can be achieved while holding the shift key, but is there way to bypass that and have the regular full sized menu by default?
After I updated my Internet Explorer 9 Beta, the items in my Start menu are no longer expandable and I cannot click on them. I am not refering to the All Programs, but the items in the blue bar such as Documents, Favorites, Recent Items etc. Clicking on the main item (ex: Favorites) will list my favorites and folders, but I cannot click on any of them or expand the items inside. Oddly enough, I can expand and click on Favorites from within IE9.
A shutdown, restart, disk check have all failed to fix the problem. As I stated, this started immediately after I did the latest update to my IE9 Beta dated 15 Feb 2011.
After a new (clean) install of Windows 7, the start menu is empty - all installed programs and other items usually posted by the installer are missing. Is there a fix (not a workaround) for this problem? There have been a lot of postings for this issue over time throughout the Internet, but I cannot find a real fix (like a patch from Microsoft) for this problem. When I install Windows 7 with a newer release of Windows 7, the start menu is populated as expected, so I can only infer that Microsoft knew about and fixed the problem in later releases, but did not post a fix. Unfortunately, I have a couple of systems that have recently been built with an earlier release of Windows 7, and subsequently, have the problem.
I unfortunately listened to the husband of one of my wife's friends and ran CCleaner on my Win 7 PC and now the Recent Items list on my Start Menu, which I use a lot, is totally fouled up. The settings are correct and I've edited the registry but the number of items displayed is never consistent, never more than 6, and sometimes disappearing completely, whereas I have it set to store 10 items.
The win 7 start menu download folder item on the right sorts by name. This is very annoying. I cannot find a download unless I know its name. If by date I just look up a recent download at top of list. How do I change behavior so downloads in start menu (right column) sorts by date? I changed the folder properties in explorer so the download folder sorts by date. It does there no problem. But not in the start menu.
So about a month ago I restarted my computer and when it came back on all my programs pinned to my task bar and everything that was in my start menu was gone. From there I could not unlock the taskbar and nothing would pin in either the start menu or taskbar. I researched everywhere about it. I tried unlocking the taskbar in properties and registry with no luck. I finally found some posts about how my user profile was corrupt and from there I went on and made a new profile and copied everything and BOOM it all worked fine now. Well today it happened AGAIN! I restarted my computer and everything disappeared. So I think it is still a corrupt profile, but this is the second time it has happened.
I have a client that has laptop with windows 7 Pro. He had a faulty network card, so I have added a new, usb network card. That said, He can not pin anything to taskbar or start menu. I cleared both folders of shortcuts(567 of them) but to no avail. He also has no options under his desktop Context menu for New. He is also using a roaming profile, of which I will disable next time I am there. I have a feeling that might be the issue. I did scour the internet trying all the usual suggestions, but do vaguely remember something about an entry in cache somewhere that if it is too big or corrupt, it could cause this behavior. I am unable to find that post anywhere now.I mention the network card because one post had taskbar issues until he disabled his faulty network card. I have disabled the faulty network card.
so somehow I caught the malware program known as Windows 7 recovery. As per its standard operations it made my computer seem like it was having a bunch of issues, hid all the files on my hard drive, removed my background, etc. I followed a removal guide I found here on bleeping computer and it did rid of me of that annoying malware. A lingering problem I am still experiencing is that all my start menu items are missing. For example there is a folder for Microsoft office, but when you open it it shows as empty, but if I open a Microsoft office file like say a word file the program opens as normal. I have run the unhide.exe file a couple of times, and shutdown my firewall and maleware protection, but to no avail the start menu items still seem to remain hidden.
When I start up my computer, my Steam starts up, then I manually start Chrome. Chrome comes up fine, Steam does too, but when I try to right click on Steam and click friends, all it does is create another steam process running at 100-108 K. Then if I close Chrome and try to reopen it, it will do the same. This happens with EVERY program after I start up. There's a 5 second window where I can open programs without issue, then after that it will only start 108 K copies of them. It takes me around 30 restarts just to get it working properly, if not more.
About a month after I started using it, the Say the Time clock program I bought stopped launching the management menu when I right click the date/time field in the task tray (notification area).
Therefore, I can't use or edit the program. Neither the touchpad nor the cordless mouse works.
Other than this problem, my computer works great. Every single item that's meant to be right clicked works for me.
Is there a way I can generate a log to show the software manufacturer (Provenio) that it's their problem and not mine? I am a novice user but I can follow instructions. However, I don't want to put my computer at risk if I make an entry error.
I've been using computers for 18 years and I've never had this problem until I bought this software and used it for about a month.
I just wanted a conclusive way of putting the ball back in the manufacturer's court.
Registry Hacks To Customize Windows 7 & Vista Start Menu & TaskBar Useful links: Ultimate Windows Tweaker - Features PC Tools Registry Guide Back Up, Restore, aintain the Windows 7 & Vista Registry While there are several freeware Windows Tweaking Utilities , like the freeware portable Ultimate Windows Tweaker ,available, there are some who just love to tinker with the Registry. This article is for those such. Most ot these tweaks are applicabe to Windows 7 too. Do remember that it is risky touching the registry and as such do back up the registry and / or create a system restore point first.To customize your start menu options, you have to modify the DWORD value data and set it to either 0 or 1. To modify the value data, you rt click on the name and select modify.
Then in the value data box, you set its numeric valueetting the value of respective DWORD to 1, means that it will have the effect as described in the Value NameSetting the value of respective DWORD to 0, means that it will have the OPPOSITE effect as described in the Value Name.If the DWORD ValueNames do not exist, you will have to create them. To create them, rt click in any blank space in RHS Panel > New >Dword value.The following are some of the recognized DWORDValueNames.NoTrayItemsDisplay : Hides the Task Bar notification areaNoToolbarsOnTaskbar : Do not display any custom toolbars in the taskbar QuickLaunchEnabled : Enable QuickLaunch bar display in the TaskBarNoSimpleStartMenu : Disabling it will force the Classic Start Menu NoStartMenuPinnedList : RemovePinned Programs list from the Start Menu NoStartMenuMorePrograms : Remove �All Programs� list from the Start menu NoStartMenuMyGanes : Remove Games from Start Menu NoStartMenuMyMusic : Remove Music from Start Menu NoStartMenuNetworkPlaces : Remove Network from Start Menu NoTaskGrouping : Prevent grouping of Task Bar items HideClock : Hides from the Task Bar notification area NoSMBalloonTip : Remove Balloon Tips on Start Menu items NoAutoTrayNotify : Turn off Task Bar area cleanup notification LockTaskbar : Lock the Taskbar and prevents the User from moving or resizing it NoSearchCommInStartMenu : If enabled Start Menu search will not search for Communications. NoSearchProgramsInStartMenu : If enabled Start Menu search will not search for Programs. NoSearchInternetInStartMenu : If enabled Start Menu search will not search for Internet History NoSearchFilesInStartMenu : If enabled Start Menu search will not search for Files This list is not exhaustive. You can simply study the registry key's DWORD's, illustrated above and see that there would be many more such tweaks or hacks available. The ValueNames are roughly indicative of what they would do.
Take the example of NoRun. Its value is set at 0. If you open Taskbar & Start Menu Properties > Star Menu Tab > Start Menu > Customize. You will see a checkbox to Add Run command to the Start Menu. But if you now go back to regedit, and change the DWORD of NoRun to 1, and now go back to the Start Menu properties box, you will see that the item to Add Run itself will be missing ! So, enabling or disabling such options through Vista Registry, will allow or prohibits users, from executing such actions through the Properties box. Incidentally, there used to be a Registry Restriction Tool from Microsoft, which went on to become a part of the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit which went on to become Windows SteadyState. You may find SteadyState of interest. If you are interested in such Registry Hacks you may find this Registry Guide for Windows of immense interest. It provides an extensive range of registry tweaks, tricks & hacks for optimizing, enhancing and securing the Windows� operating systems including Vista.
I recently bought a second user machine from a colleague of mine. He re-installed Windows 7 so that everything was fresh and set up a new profile for me but I wasn't happy with the name of the profile that he had set up. Anyway to cut a long story short I created a new profile, copied the old files across and deleted the old profile I wasn't happy with.Everything is working fine and as it should be but I have a now have a couple of annoyances with a number of the programs that I have pinned to the taskbar and the start menu. For example when I pinned Firefox and Thunderbird to the taskbar it has named them as Firefox (2) and Thunderbird (2) as if they are duplicate programs/shortcuts. The same is true with some of the programs that I have pinned to the start menu. For example when I pinned CCleaner to the start menu Windows named it as CCleaner (2) even though it wasn't present in the first place. If I try to rename it to CCleaner (as it should appear) Windows tells me that there is already a program by that name pinned there and it asks me if I would like to rename it CCleaner (3).As far as I can tell it doesn't affect the performance of such programmes, its just really really frustrating. Would it have anything to do with the files that I copied across from my old profile?
Is there a way to permanently lock items on the task bar and start menu? I can for example lock the taskbar, but can still drag icons onto or from it and rearrange them. I want to lock everything permanantly so no one can screw them up. I'm using Home Premium.
