Win10 Start/taskbar right-click–menu problems

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Win10 Start/taskbar right-click–menu problems

By Fred Langa Changes to Win10’s Start menu and taskbar can result in broken context menus, if the menus contain third-party add-ons. Here are some solutions. Plus: When and how signing in with a PIN is just as secure as entering long, classic, password-based credentials.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/win10-starttaskbar-right-clickmenu-problems/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.

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LangaList Plus

Win10 Start/taskbar right-click–menu problems

By Fred Langa Changes to Win10’s Start menu and taskbar can result in broken context menus, if the menus contain third-party add-ons. Here are some solutions. Plus: When and how signing in with a PIN is just as secure as entering long, classic, password-based credentials.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/win10-starttaskbar-right-clickmenu-problems/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.

The usual Microsoft bashers will decry this as yet another failure of Windows 10, when it is clearly the third-party add-ins that are to blame. It seems that human nature is to blame the device when it’s something the user did to mess it up. Lesson: If you want to use add-ins, install them one at a time and test them thoroughly before you put in the next one. Often, add-ins not only break the native OS, they break each other; or conflicting commands from two add-ins will combine to break the OS when either one alone would cause no problem.

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The usual Microsoft bashers will decry this as yet another failure of Windows 10, when it is clearly the third-party add-ins that are to blame.

Yes and no. Microsoft publishes a SDK and provides a “set of rules” (my terminology) that allow developers to create software that will work with Windows. In the past, updates have sometimes done things that change the rules and break existing software. Usually, there is an update to the SDK or tech notes that give developers information they need to update their own products.

What this article points out is that the pace of changes appears to have significantly increased in Win10, since it is very much a work-in-progress. This has lead to an increase in the number of programs having some issues.

There is a running discussion at another forum I frequent that is trying to keep track of changes that effect the performance of a particular program. The lead software developer has encountered a number of cases where small things are breaking or their behavior is changing due to the way MS is slip-streaming updates. Some of these updates appear to involve changes to system DLL’s used by programs.

I do not intend this to be Microsoft bashing, but merely point out that this is a something of a departure from the way things have been done in the past. It has the potential to put software developers in a bind due to the rate of change and the potential to have their programs break faster than they can fix them.

PS. Microsoft also have a history of doing things that ignore their own rules and may even use unpublished code so that their own programs work better. I certainly hope that this is not a part of what is happening now.

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Thank you Fred Langa! Read the Windows Secrets email earlier today and SUCCESS!!!!

I took a slightlly different approach (more like a sledgehammer rather than a feather) by using CC Cleaner. Instead of removing the context menu items one at a time, I disabled all of them. I always wondered how these things got into the context menu, and what I could do about them. Now I know. There were 76 items in the list! I disabled all of them and now my right click options work both on the start menu and the task bar.

So far, I haven’t missed a single one, but if I do, I know how to enable it again.

Wish I’d have had this information over a month ago when I first posted it. Would have saved a tremendous amount of effort and pain.

Thank you

Harris Guilmette

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Sometimes I find that the Explorer right-click menu does nothing. Using the Task Manager to kill and then restart Explorer.exe fixes this.

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Sometimes I find that the Explorer right-click menu does nothing. Using the Task Manager to kill and then restart Explorer.exe fixes this.

I have had the same issue with the right-click menus on the task bar. I think it has only happened after a Windows 10 Update. I try right-clicking the icons on the taskbar and nothing happens. It didn’t occur to me to simply reset explorer.exe so I rebooted the whole computer (probably a good idea to do anyway when things are acting up as that is usually the cure to most problems)

On a related point, I am still having the same issue that I described here: http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//174034-Jump-List-Issue
Perhaps it is a related issue and the suggestions in this article will help resolve it. (I assume that resetting Windows, as described in the last option in the article should work though I haven’t tried it yet.)

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Fred’s using an older version of CCleaner. Newer versions look a little different … but the Context Menu options ARE still there.

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Normally Win-X produces the same list of things that right clicking the Start button does. Does Win-X also fail to work properly when right clicking the Start button isn’t working properly?

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I have a home built PC with an ASUS motherboard that started on Win 7, upgraded to Win 8, then Win 8.1 (geez) and finally Win 10. I never even noticed that the Windows Start Right Click function wasn’t working for a week or so!
Long story short – the problem was the BIOS. It was old. ASUS had an update online but I had to get one of the gurus at the office to puzzle out how to get it installed. Voodoo and dead chickens were necessary but he got it done. Unfortunately, Win 10 got toasted in the process – I had to use the reset function. But it works correctly now.

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I have a home built PC with an ASUS motherboard that started on Win 7, upgraded to Win 8, then Win 8.1 (geez) and finally Win 10. I never even noticed that the Windows Start Right Click function wasn’t working for a week or so!
Long story short – the problem was the BIOS. It was old. ASUS had an update online but I had to get one of the gurus at the office to puzzle out how to get it installed. Voodoo and dead chickens were necessary but he got it done. Unfortunately, Win 10 got toasted in the process – I had to use the reset function. But it works correctly now.

We always use live chickens at home and save them to use again after the next Windows update.

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I use TeamViewer to access my home computer when I’m away. Is typing the PIN into the lock screen through TeamViewer also just as safe?

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Not sure if this is related. Recently on several occasions my task-bar icons have lost their Jump Lists, the Windows Start button has ceased to function (except when right-clicked). Again, I suspect a recent Windows update and/or conflicts with other software. The problem is usually cured by restarting once or twice, but it’s a nuisance. I’ve read various threads suggesting using Powershell to force re-registration, but the results for others appear mixed and sometimes lead to loss of other functionality. Any thoughts?

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