Broken Start Menu / Icons

[Geoffrey Schaller]

I am having an issue with the "Frequently Used Programs"
icons missing from the left side of the Start Menu. I
checked the settings in the Task Bar / Menu properties,
and have an allowance for up to 20 to show, but none show
up. I've also tried clearing it and resetting the number
back to 6, they are still missing and will not re-appear.

I've done searches on the Hard Drive & Registry for the
names of apps / shortcuts on a working PC to see if I
could find where they were stored, but came up blank - I
don't know where Windows XP keeps this information.

Any help on tracking this down, or at least where to begin
looking at the problem, would be appreciated. Thank you!

-Geoffrey Schaller

 

[Guest]

OK, I have done some more legwqork and found the reference
to "MFU" in the registry, but I still cannot find how or
where it stores the information on which apps are Most
Frequently Used - how does it determine this, and store
the information? If I can clear it out, it will hopefully
reset...

-Geoffrey

 

[Guest]

I've narrowed down the problem to one user profile... but
none of the keys for the MFU are in User Profiles, only
the LOCAL_MACHINE keys in the registry. This is VERY
confusing...

Any help in troubleshooting this would be appreciated!

-Geoffrey

 

[Keith Miller]

The keys which hold the frequently used info are under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\longnumber\Count

They look like nonsense because they are ROT-13 encoded.

Keith

 

[Geoffrey Schaller]

Thank you, Keith. I tried clearing out those keys, along
with the other MFU keys, and it's still not showing any
new items on the MFU list in the start menu.

Any idea what may be causing this, and/or how to fix it?

-Geoffrey

 

[Keith Miller]

The most likely culprit is a policy setting. Since it's only affecting one profile, log on to that
profile and then examine:

'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer'

Look in the right-hand pane for a value named: 'NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList'

If it exists, delete it. If it doesn't exist, please post back the entries you have under this key.

Keith

 

[Geoffrey Schaller]

I checked the Policy - it's not there. I did a search on
the whole registry on the string, as well as a manual /
visual search for it, and I could not find it. Below is a
listing of the values I could find in that Key:

Key Name: HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-900454903-
4044848495-1300315422-1137
\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explore
r
Class Name: <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time: 2/2/2004 - 10:17 AM
Value 0
Name: NoInstrumentation
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 1
Name: NoWelcomeScreen
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 2
Name: NoAutoUpdate
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x0

Value 3
Name: ForceClassicControlPanel
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 4
Name: NoNetHood
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 5
Name: NoRecentDocsNetHood
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 6
Name: NoDesktopCleanupWizard
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 7
Name: NoActiveDesktop
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 8
Name: NoWindowsUpdate
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 9
Name: NoSMMyPictures
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 10
Name: NoStartMenuMyMusic
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 11
Name: NoStartMenuNetworkPlaces
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 12
Name: ForceStartMenuLogOff
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 13
Name: NoResolveSearch
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 14
Name: NoThemesTab
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 15
Name: NoComputersNearMe
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 16
Name: NoHardwareTab
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 17
Name: NoSecurityTab
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 18
Name: NoDFSTab
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 19
Name: LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 20
Name: NoDrives
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x0

Value 21
Name: NoSMBalloonTip
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 22
Name: ConfirmFileDelete
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x1

Value 23
Name: Btn_Back
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 24
Name: Btn_Forward
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 25
Name: Btn_Stop
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 26
Name: Btn_Refresh
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 27
Name: Btn_Home
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 28
Name: Btn_Search
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 29
Name: Btn_Favorites
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 30
Name: Btn_History
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 31
Name: Btn_Media
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 32
Name: Btn_Folders
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 33
Name: Btn_Fullscreen
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 34
Name: Btn_Tools
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 35
Name: Btn_MailNews
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 36
Name: Btn_Size
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 37
Name: Btn_Print
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 38
Name: Btn_Edit
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 39
Name: Btn_Discussions
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 40
Name: Btn_Cut
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 41
Name: Btn_Copy
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 42
Name: Btn_Paste
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 43
Name: Btn_Encoding
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x2

Value 44
Name: NoViewOnDrive
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x0


Key Name: HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-900454903-
4044848495-1300315422-1137
\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explore
r\RestrictCpl
Class Name: <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time: 2/2/2004 - 10:17 AM