Exploring Start Menu Folders

[natedog1127]

I recently discovered that the ability to right click and explore the folders in my start menu has become disabled.

I like to keep things organized so I often need to arrange folders or create new folders in my start menu. It's always been very convienient for me to simply right click a particular folder off the start menu and choose "explore" or "explore all users". I immediately would gain access to the appropriate start menu folder by windows explorer opening to the particular folder I explored.

Up till recently this has never caused a problem. Now when I release the click on explore or explore all users nothing happens. Like I said, normally explorer would open up and I would have access to my start menu folders.

I still get the context menu with the choices, I just cannot get a response when selecting to explore a particular folder. It's just like the old days before windows allowed exploring start menu folders.

Oddly enough I am still able to explore the Programs folder using the method I have described. But I am unable to explore any sub menu under it.

I do have dragging and dropping enabled. I have tried it both ways and neither resolved the issue. My security privilages are in order, I checked that too. File permissions are normal. I am afraid that there is something corrupt in the registry where the shell for the context menu or the start menu folders is kept.

Has anyone ever had this happen? Do you know of any fixes?

Thanks.

[bbeard67]

Have you run spyware checkers
Ad-Aware and Search & destroy
scanned with Virus Detectors
Keep in mind, None of these are any good if they aren't updated

Check these two keys in the registry


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell]

If you don't have the keys you may have these

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell.XXX]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell.XXX]
where XXX is an extension or .OLD

Change them back to just shell

[pip22]

If you haven't got it solved yet. you could always open 'Windows Explorer' (which is essentially what happens when you choose to 'Explore All Users'). Just search for EXPLORER.EXE and open it.
In left-hand pane, click on 'C' drive, then 'Documents and Settings' and below this you will see 'All Users' and lower down is your login name. Just a different way of doing the same thing. You can always put a shortcut to explorer.exe on the Desktop so it will be just as quick as the way you used to do it.

[just a solution]

Hi natedog1127!

I've just had the same problem and found a solution. Surely way to late for you but probably there are others with the same issue.

The problem is caused by DeliPlayer 2 (which I didn't now, of course). Finally, I tracked it down to this registry-key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shel lex\ContextMenuHandlers\{70D1ABA1-9778-401F-BB99-C5D3C72854D0}] (heck, were's the odd blank in shellex coming from?!)

Try renaming it to, for example, ...\ContextMenuHandlers\____{70D1ABA1-9778-401F-BB99-C5D3C72854D0} and check if opening start menu folders now works. Should work without reboot or re-login.

I haven't found any option turning context menus of in DeliPlayer 2 but I don't need this one anyways.

If you haven't installed DeliPlayer 2 another software might cause the same problem. Just check for any non-standard context menu entries and disable them temporarily.

Good luck

[dstarfire]

I've recently encountered this very same problem. However, in my case, it occurred shortly after installing the .net framework on XP sp1.