madmatt

Okay, this is a true test for the tweak wizards of NTFS.

This question was the reason I joined XP-erience. However, nobody could answer it for me then, and I'm still here. *shrug*

The problem occurs when I right click an item in my start menu. I have duplicate listings for "Scan with Norton AntiVirus" and "WinZip" in my right click context menu.

Note: This only occurs in the start menu, it does NOT occur while using Windows Explorer.

Screenshot number one: startmenu.jpg

Screenshot number two: startmenu2.jpg

In screenshot number two, you will also notice that I have duplicated line breaks between the first "WinZip" and the second "Scan with Norton AntiVirus".

Please do not suggest the following:
- Reformat (Been there, done that, problem returns).
- Uncheck shell enhancements (Been there too, removes all listings of these items, and I want/need them in my right click context menu.
- Any third party programs (I would rather do it myself, if possible).

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

dealer/yoyo, heh. =)

---

zalood

Matt,

i am not suggesting to use a third party program to solve your mistery, but the accompanying article gives a good knowledge as to how the context menu is placed in the registry.
here is the link:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,21808,00.asp

basically contextmenu are placed in several places and mostly in
HKLM\Software\Classes\
- in the program classes itself
- under program extension i.e. .txt
- under subkey folder
- under subkey drive
- and lastly under * which act as a wildcard

on my start menu i have "stuffit" in context menu and i have deleted the following:
HKLM\Software\Classes\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\
subkey: Stuffit

I can see immediately that "stuffit" is gone from Start Menu context menu
but is still available in win explorer context menu, i guess its because the entry is still available under
HKLM\Software\Classes\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\

Hope this help.

madmatt

zalood..

Thanks for the reply. I tried your method without reading the posted article (URL).

At first glance, your solution works; however, it not only removes the duplicate, but the original. So I said to myself, "I can live with that."

Test number two: Run Windows Explorer and make sure the menu is there (because that's where I NEED it). Problem: it's not there.

I put everything back the way it is and I will have to read that article later on today. Thanks for the help.

Any other suggestions? =)

[edit]I should also mention that I only have ONE listing for each the Norton menu and WinZip menu under that registry folder.[/edit]

---

zalood

matt,

did you check if norton is listed under
classes\folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers ??

other alternative to try . .
delete from:
HKLM\Software\Classes\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\
add the same entries under:
HKLM\Software\Classes\*\shell\ContextMenuHandlers\
(please note shell and shellex)

edit:
or add the same entries under:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell

ZipTriX

Madmatt, would you have happened to use an option to remove the shortcut arrow from shortcuts?

madmatt

Yes, who wants those arrows?

zalood, I'll take a look and get back to you. Thank you.

---

ZipTriX

Removing the arrows is what causes the problem, you are experiencing. I have yet to figure out why.

zalood

i always remove those arrows and never had matt's problem.

yoyo

Madmatt your question was quite a challenge. Searched and tried, but didn't find a solution. Seems Ziptrx found it, at least an explanation. My compliments! I could reproduce the problem by renaming the IsShortcut value. This is definitily causing the duplicate entries in the context menu of shortcuts.
Zalood how did you remove your shortcut arrows? TweakUI for instance removes it by replacing the arrow overlay with a transparent one. It is still there, but you don't see it. This method will not cause this problem, however some people are reporting problems with the look of icons.

zalood

yeah . . you might be right yoyo (and Ziptrx) . .
i did it using x-teq.

madmatt

Okay, I am 100% lost.

I used TweakUI to remove the arrows from the shortcuts. Last night I reconfigured the arrows using TweakUI. After doing so they duplicate entries were still there.

I am not familar with the registry hack to change the "IsShortcut" that you speak of. Would you mind walking me through this so I can rid my start menu context menu of the duplicate entries and have no shortcut arrows?

Thank you.

---

madmatt

I set shortcut arrows to show.

Using Tweak-XP Pro, I set "Desktop Shortcuts WITH Arrows"

Using TweakUI, I set the overlay to default (show arrow).

Doing so solved the problem. However, I don't want to show the arrows, is there a method of doing away with the arrows but not having the dupicate listing in the context menu?

Thanks Zip for finding this, yoyo for supporting his findings and to zalood for helping.

---

yoyo

Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile (note this is a L =linkfile) . In the right side there should be an entry IsShortcut. If it isn't there rightclick - new string value - name it IsShortcut. Done.
Then remove the arrows using TweakUI.
Guess if this will not solve the duplicate entries problem, we'll have to start thinking again.

madmatt

IsShortcut was present.

I selected 'None' using TweakUI again and the duplicate listings in the context menu did not reappear.

I am starting to think that it was the tweak I applied using Tweak-XP a while back ("Desktop Shortcuts WITH Arrows") that was causing the duplicate listings.

I'll keep an eye on the situation.

Thanks again guys.

*gives a cookie to everyone that helped*

---

yoyo

hmmmm

yoyo

After eating my cookie, I checked and indeed TweakXP removes the arrow by deleting these two entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\lnkfile\IsShortcut:""
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\piffile\IsShortcut: ""
(piffiles are shortcuts to DOS-programs).

madmatt

Darn that Tweak-XP.
Now I know for the future.
Thanks again.

..hope the cookie was good...

---

zalood

yum yum . . i'll save a notes on this thread for future reference . .

just a little warning for everybody trying to get rid of those arrow using x-teq just in case you didn't notice what x-teq had warn you:

- this will also wipes your shortcut keys
- this will blank all your favorite links in the start menu