Start Menu Problems...nothing happens when clicking on All Programs and...

[Ian Roberts]

Hi

My friends PC has a curious problem with some items on the START menu.

She has an HP Pavilion laptop running XP home edition.

When left clicking "All Programs" nothing happens! No menu appears.

Also when left clicking on Help, Search or Run it brings up a "Shortcut"
prompt message saying "windows cannot create a shortcut here..." the same as
if I had right clicked the item and tried to create a short cut on the menu.
The first thing I thought was the mouse buttons had somehow got reversed but
this is not the case.

Ive done an extensive search on google and the MSKB but couldnt find
anything that describes type of this fault. Ive never seen it myself
before.

Its obvious that something has been seriously messed up in the registry but
I have no idea where to look or what for.

Also another problem, maybe related, but the built-in mouse pad no longer
responds. She has to use an external mouse on the PS2 socket. However the
touch pad works when we start in safe mode - although we still get the same
menu problems

Any suggestions about what I should look at to try and sort this out?

Thanks a lot.

Ian

 

[Mike J]

the mouse / touch pad settings didn't get reversed
you say? because there are options to make a mouse
recriprical to normal: where a left click is same as
right click and vice versa

 

[Ian Roberts]

Hi Mike

Thanks for replying.

Thats a very good point. I checked all the settings and options and after
trying both buttons I found the menu items still have the same problem.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Ian Roberts]

I went ahead and did a repair install and I'm very pleased to say that this
has resolved all the problems.

My friends PC is now running perfectly and noticeably faster too.

Ian

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