problem with right clicking on system icons in start menu

[Mizpah]

I did one of those dumb things where I used a utility to tweak my
computer without backing up the registry. I was using Ashampoo and made
some changes, but when I encountered a problem I wasn't able to restore
it to before changes - no backup (manual or auto) and no system
restore. The problem is not huge just really annoying. I am hoping
someone knows what to edit in the registry so I might change it back.

The problem only seems to be with the system icons in the "new" start
menu (ie My Computer, My Network Places, My Documents, etc. . .)The
problem also occurs with right clicking on "All Programs" on the start
menu. With the system icons, if they are set to cascading menus
(through properties) when I right click on the icon, I do not get the
pop-up menu (showing open, explore, properties, etc. . . ) Instead the
cascading menu just refreshes. The proper right click menu doesn't
appear. If I right click really fast it eventually pops-up, but this is
usually after ten or so rapid right clicks. I can never get the right
click menu to appear when I click on the "All programs" button on the
start menu.

I am quite familiar with the registry, but I am not sure where the
changes were made. I have used tweaking programs before, but this time
I got lazy and didn't make a backup. Lesson learned! If anyone knows
how to fix this or point me to the right key, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

If your right click menu is missing in the Start Menu...

XP Start Menu >>
Right click the Start button | Properties |
Start Menu tab | Customize button | Advanced tab |
Scroll down to and Check: Enable dragging and dropping |
Click OK | Click OK

Classic Start Menu >>
Right click the Start button | Properties |
Start Menu tab | Customize button |
Scroll down to and Check: Enable dragging and dropping |
Click OK | Click OK

[[Specifies whether you can drag items to the Start
menu.]] Also disables the right click menu if UNChecked.
----

If XP Pro...
You can use the Group Policy editor (Gpedit.msc) under the following
location to configure Start menu features:
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Policies\Explorer
The registry entries are DWORD values. A value of 1 is enabled, and a value
of 0 is disabled.

Policy: Disable drag-and-drop menus on the Start Menu
Description: Prevents users from modifying the Start menu by dragging and
dropping items. Other methods of customizing the Start menu are still
enabled.
Registry Value: "NoChangeStartMenu"

NoChangeStartMenu
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/92885.asp

Also look for a NoChangeStartMenu value in
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[reyesc]

OMG!!! You solved my problem!!! You are my hero!

If your right click menu is missing in the Start Menu...

XP Start Menu >>
Right click the Start button | Properties |
Start Menu tab | Customize button | Advanced tab |
Scroll down to and Check: Enable dragging and dropping |
Click OK | Click OK

Classic Start Menu >>
Right click the Start button | Properties |
Start Menu tab | Customize button |
Scroll down to and Check: Enable dragging and dropping |
Click OK | Click OK

[[Specifies whether you can drag items to the Start
menu.]] Also disables the right click menu if UNChecked.
----

If XP Pro...
You can use the Group Policy editor (Gpedit.msc) under the following
location to configure Start menu features:
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Policies\Explorer
The registry entries are DWORD values. A value of 1 is enabled, and a value
of 0 is disabled.

Policy: Disable drag-and-drop menus on the Start Menu
Description: Prevents users from modifying the Start menu by dragging and
dropping items. Other methods of customizing the Start menu are still
enabled.
Registry Value: "NoChangeStartMenu"

NoChangeStartMenu
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/92885.asp

Also look for a NoChangeStartMenu value in
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

I did one of those dumb things where I used a utility to tweak my
computer without backing up the registry. I was using Ashampoo and made
some changes, but when I encountered a problem I wasn't able to restore
it to before changes - no backup (manual or auto) and no system
restore. The problem is not huge just really annoying. I am hoping
someone knows what to edit in the registry so I might change it back.

The problem only seems to be with the system icons in the "new" start
menu (ie My Computer, My Network Places, My Documents, etc. . .)The
problem also occurs with right clicking on "All Programs" on the start
menu. With the system icons, if they are set to cascading menus
(through properties) when I right click on the icon, I do not get the
pop-up menu (showing open, explore, properties, etc. . . ) Instead the
cascading menu just refreshes. The proper right click menu doesn't
appear. If I right click really fast it eventually pops-up, but this is
usually after ten or so rapid right clicks. I can never get the right
click menu to appear when I click on the "All programs" button on the
start menu.

I am quite familiar with the registry, but I am not sure where the
changes were made. I have used tweaking programs before, but this time
I got lazy and didn't make a backup. Lesson learned! If anyone knows
how to fix this or point me to the right key, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mizpah]

Thanks Wesley! It helped and the problem is fixed, but I don't know if
your suggestion was the entire solution. I did everything you
suggested, Enable dragging & dropping was checked, everything in Group
Policy for Start Menu was "Not Configured" and I made the changes in
the registry as suggested. For current user the value was not there so
I added it. For HKLM the key was not there so I added it.

Then I restarted my machine, and sometime the context menu would
appear, sometime it wouldn't when I right clicked. It was as if the
cascade menu was outracing the context menu. So I had an idea and
checked the value for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\ShowMenuDelay and it was set for 16, I changed it back to
400 and now everything works fine, except the menus appear slower now,
oh well, can't have it all!

Thanks again.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

I have MenuShowDelay set at 92.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\
Value Name: MenuShowDelay
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 400
(Values are all in milliseconds. 0 is the fastest, 400 is default.
A setting of 0 is virtually instantaneous.)

As TweakUI sez about the Menu Speed slider....
[[The Menu Speed slider control sets the speed at which cascading menus
automatically open when you move the mouse over them. The fastest setting
causes them to open immediately and the slowest setting is extraordinary
slow.]]

Maybe you could also play around with these..

With the Classic Start Menu, both of these need to be UNChecked.
XP Start Menu doesn't have Use Personalized Menus option.

XP Start Menu >>
Right click the Start button | Properties |
Start Menu tab | Customize button | Advanced tab |
Scroll down to and UNCheck:
Scroll Programs * |
Click OK | Click Apply | Click OK

Classic Start Menu >>
Right click the Start button | Properties |
Start Menu tab | Customize button |
Scroll down to and UNCheck both of these:
Scroll Programs * |
Use Personalized Menus **
Click OK | Click Apply | Click OK

[*Specifies whether to display the items on the Programs menu as one long
scrolling menu or as horizontal pages. Depending on your screen resolution,
if you have more than 29 or 38 programs installed, and you select to have
one long scrolling menu, you can access the programs you don’t see
by clicking the arrow at each end of the list of programs.]

[**Specifies whether to turn on Personalized Menus.
Personalized Menus keeps the Programs menu clean by hiding items you haven't
used recently, while still keeping other programs easily accessible. You
can gain access to hidden programs by clicking the down arrow at the bottom
of the Programs menu.]
--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Mizpah]

Thanks again, but you mentioned something that I don't get. You said in
TweakUI there is a slider for menu delay. Are we talking about
Microsoft PowerToy tweakUI? I have it installed, version:2.10.0.0 and I
can't find a slider for menu delay in the program. Where is it, I must
be missing it somewhere. Thanks again.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Same version that I have.

TweakUI
[+] Mouse

Click on the word Mouse not on the [+]. The Menu Speed slider is at the top
on the right.

[[The Menu Speed slider control sets the speed at which cascading menus
automatically open when you move the mouse over them. The fastest setting
causes them to open immediately and the slowest setting is extraordinary
slow.]]

TweakUI
[+] Mouse

Menu Speed
The Menu Speed slider control sets the speed at which
cascading menus automatically open when you move the
mouse over them. The fastest setting causes them to open
immediately and the slowest setting is extraordinary slow.

To test the mouse setting, right-click the test icon.
-----

Double-click sensitivity
Double-click sensitivity specifies how close together two
mouse clicks need to be (in pixels) to be considered a
double click.

To test the double-click sensitivity, click twice on the test icon
with the left mouse button. If the two clicks registered as a
double-click, then the icon will change.
-----

Drag sensitivity
Drag sensitivity specifies how far (in pixels) the mouse must
move with the button held down before the system decides
that you are dragging the object. Increase this value if you
find that you are dragging objects accidentally when you click
on them.

To test drag sensitivity, try to drag the test icon with the
left mouse button. The icon will begin dragging when you
have moved the mouse the necessary distance.
-----

Hover
This is used to detect when the mouse hovers over the icon to get selected.
The size of the region is determined by the hover sensitivity in pixels.
-----

Wheel
This is used to control the number of lines when the mouse wheel is
scrolled. This can be either one page at a time or a particular number of
lines at a time.
-----

X-Mouse
The “Activation follows mouse” checkbox enables X-Mouse style window
activation. When X-mouse style window activation is enabled, you need only
move the mouse into a window in order to give it focus. Normally you must
click on a window in order to give it focus.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In