Items in XP fixed Start menu?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Pinnell
  • Start date Start date
T

Terry Pinnell

Where does XP keep its list for attaching shortcuts to the Start Menu
please? (Top left of screen on clicking Start.)

I'm asking because lately I've started to get strange entries
appearing there. They are miscellaneous GIF files that I don't even
recall using for months! I got rid of them (with 'Remove from this
List') but a couple of fresh ones have now appeared.

BTW, I went into the registry and searched for the text string of
several *legitimate* entries, but there were no hits. That surprised
me. Surely they must have registry entries?
 
Hi Terry,

Given that there is no Programmatic access to Pinned-list, I'm surprised how
a program adds it's entry there automatically. Your best bet is to run a
spyware scan using Ad-aware with fully updated reference files.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx
<quote>
In Windows XP we intentionally did not give programmatic access to the bold
list of items at the top of the Start menu (the "pin list"). The pin list is
for users to put their favorite icons. It is not the place for a program to
decide unilaterally, "I am so cool. I am your favorite icon. I just know it.
So I'll put myself there because, well, I'm so cool."

</quote>

Your search in the registry won't get any results because the Pinned list is
stored in a REG_BINARY format and manipulating the Binary data is tough.

--
Ramesh, MS-MVP XP Shell/UI
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k


Where does XP keep its list for attaching shortcuts to the Start Menu
please? (Top left of screen on clicking Start.)

I'm asking because lately I've started to get strange entries
appearing there. They are miscellaneous GIF files that I don't even
recall using for months! I got rid of them (with 'Remove from this
List') but a couple of fresh ones have now appeared.

BTW, I went into the registry and searched for the text string of
several *legitimate* entries, but there were no hits. That surprised
me. Surely they must have registry entries?
 
Ramesh said:
Hi Terry,

Given that there is no Programmatic access to Pinned-list, I'm surprised how
a program adds it's entry there automatically. Your best bet is to run a
spyware scan using Ad-aware with fully updated reference files.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ramesh. These entries weren't even programs, just a couple of
my own files, like xyz.gif. Bizarre. I'll be watching out for their
reappearance! But I'm assuming there's nothing malicious here, just
some glitch.
 
Terry Pinnell said:
Thanks Ramesh. These entries weren't even programs, just a couple of
my own files, like xyz.gif. Bizarre. I'll be watching out for their
reappearance! But I'm assuming there's nothing malicious here, just
some glitch.
Click to expand...

They're back! They turned up this morning sometime, probably while I
was working in a program called CircuitMaker (which I've used for
years). Here's a screenshot, showing the two spurious entries at the
end of my list.
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Images/StartMenuQuirk.gif

That first file, 8k3s5v.pwl, was definitely a file I used today. The
other, phonecircuit.gif, has just as definitely *not* been used for
months, and is in a different folder to the other. I'll have to remove
them again, but some similar will be back (in pairs it seems).

It's very strange indeed. Plainly *something* has got corrupted. But,
given the apparent inaccessibility of this list in the XP registry,
I'm at a loss to know how to fix it.

I'll post in the Aumha Forum too.
 
Interesting one, Terry. Perhaps a registry audit (XP Pro) for this key will
help:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage]

How to use Group Policy to configure auditing of Windows registry keys in XP
Professional?:
http://www.winxptutor.com/auditreg.htm

--
Ramesh, MS-MVP XP Shell/UI
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k


Terry Pinnell said:
Thanks Ramesh. These entries weren't even programs, just a couple of
my own files, like xyz.gif. Bizarre. I'll be watching out for their
reappearance! But I'm assuming there's nothing malicious here, just
some glitch.
Click to expand...

They're back! They turned up this morning sometime, probably while I
was working in a program called CircuitMaker (which I've used for
years). Here's a screenshot, showing the two spurious entries at the
end of my list.
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Images/StartMenuQuirk.gif

That first file, 8k3s5v.pwl, was definitely a file I used today. The
other, phonecircuit.gif, has just as definitely *not* been used for
months, and is in a different folder to the other. I'll have to remove
them again, but some similar will be back (in pairs it seems).

It's very strange indeed. Plainly *something* has got corrupted. But,
given the apparent inaccessibility of this list in the XP registry,
I'm at a loss to know how to fix it.

I'll post in the Aumha Forum too.
 
Ramesh said:
Interesting one, Terry. Perhaps a registry audit (XP Pro) for this key will
help:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage]

How to use Group Policy to configure auditing of Windows registry keys in XP
Professional?:
http://www.winxptutor.com/auditreg.htm
Click to expand...
Thanks Ramesh. But is it worth my trying that on XP Home?
 
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