"Remove from this list" won't work on corrupted Start Menu entry!!!

[Keith Andrews]

I pinned a shortcut to the XP Start Menu, and now I can't
remove it. I even found its association in the Registry
and deleted it, to no avail. The 'pinned' Start Menu
entry stayed put, and its Registry association was
regenerated upon reboot.

This 'pinned' Start Menu entry got corrupted because at
one time I had deleted the Shortcut to which it was
linked. That rendered the Start Menu entry useless, so I
tried to remove/unpin it from the Start Menu. That didn't
work, so I put the deleted Shortcut to which it was linked
back into place. The entry now worked again in terms of
launching the target program -- but it still couldn't be
removed/upinned.

So ever since, I've not been able to "unpin from Start
Menu" or "remove from this list". It just ignores me and
stays put. I'd sure appreciate any advice (aside from
starting with another user ID, and losing all my settings).


Many thanks,
Keith

 

[Keith Miller]

When you modify the 'pinned' area of the start menu, 3 values under the key:

'HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage'

are modified. The value names and types are:

Favorites REG_BINARY
FavoritesChanges REG_DWORD
FavoritesResolve REG_BINARY

If you double click on Favorites or FavoritesResolve you'll be able to see bits of text that refer
to your items. I don't know the exact structure of these values so I backed up the whole key (just
to be safe), deleted these 3 values, rebooted, and every pinned item except IE & OE were gone. I
was then able to pin a new item, checked the registry, and found that new values had been created
with no ill effect. The only drawback is you will have to repin the shortcuts you want, but that
seems a small price to pay to be rid of the annoyance of dead links staring at you

Keith