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Windows Vista11
Problem

There is a problem with some short cuts in the list of shortcuts in

â??Recently Opened Programsâ?? in Windows Vistaâ??s Start Menu.

Some of these Shortcuts wont open, all Microsoft Office shortcuts donâ??t

work. When I click on them I get no response, nothing happens.



Observations

When I look at the properties of the shortcuts that donâ??t open I notice that

the target field is uneditable and only contains the programs name, the â??open

file locationâ?? and â??change iconâ?? option are also unavailable.

It still appears to be a .lnk file.



I am Running Windows Vista Home Premium.



Is there a hotfix or other solution for this bug?


-

"goorambatman" <goorambatman@hotmail.com>wrote...

This part is normal. Office creates its Start Menu icons, by using objects

in the Shell Namespace, rather than *.lnk files (this is a bit hard to

explain, without a long tiutorial on Shell programming; but ...) the Shell

(basically, Explorer) keeps a namespace of objects it's interested in;

including applications which are registed as Shell objects in the Registry.

This is all layered on top of COM. The Start menu entries point to objects

in Explorer's memory space, constructed from Registry entries; not to lnk

files out in the external file system.



As to why your Office apps won't run, that's a different problem. See if

they start when you run the EXE file, eg Winword.exe. This will show whether

the problem is in the applications themselves, or just in their Start menu

icons.



Unfortunately the Office menu icons are not easy to repair manually, as far

as I know. Why Office chooses that technique to create its icons I don't

know; lnk file seem easier to manage, to me. Your best bet would be to go to

Control Panel, Programs and Features, select Office, and then select the

"repair" option. That will rebuild any missing Start menu icons, and

probably replace damaged ones too.



If that doesn't help, you may need to ask in an Office related group such as

microsoft.public.office.misc - it's more an Office problem, than a Vista

problem as such.



Hope it helps,

--

Andrew McLaren

amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au





-

All Office Aplications run normally, all shortcuts function normally, except

when I attempt to run them from the 'Recently Opened Programs' list. This

appears to be a Windows bug, perhaps something conflicting with Vista's

security. Im not sure, all i know is these type of short cuts don't run from

the 'Recently Opened Programs' list in Vista.





"Andrew McLaren" wrote:

"goorambatman" <goorambatman@hotmail.com>wrote...

I don't think it's a bug, as such - that behaviour is far from being the

universal experience of most Vista/Office users, in fact this is the first

report I've heard. But something is undoubtedly broken, on that particular

machine.



As above, I'd try running the Office repair option; that has fixed several

weird Office problems I've had from time to time.



--

Andrew McLaren

amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au





-

There are plenty of cases on the web where others have reported this issue

including a few others in this discussion group.



I will run the office repair tool but I am fairly sure that the problem is

OS related as the problem is with both Office 2007 and Office 2003

aplications. There is just an issue with this type of shortcut running from

this location.



Note: These shortcuts will run from all other locations (eg Desktop and

Start>All Programs>Microsoft Office). This is why I think it is an OS bug

and running office repair wont work.







"Andrew McLaren" wrote:

Oh, sure - it might eventually prove to be a bug; I don't know. I've

certainly seen occasional weird behaviour in Vista's Start Menu.



But at present, there is no public Knowledgebase article from Microsoft, and

no hotfix for the issue.



If it is a bug, this will presumably change in time.



Meanwhile, a repair is the best I can suggest.



--

Andrew McLaren

amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au





-

I can confirm I see exactly the same problem. I can't pinpoint exactly

when it started.



Originally I noticed it with one non office program. Now it is

affecting all Office 2003 programs. However some other programs work

fine.



One thing I have noticed; right-clicking the Office icons, the

drop-down menu is missing a number of options such as Open File

Location, Run As Administrator etc.



I am still troubleshooting and would be interested to know you have run

any windows 'cleaning' programs such as R-Wipe & Clean, Registry

Mechanic, Vista Smoker Pro etc?





--

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-

Yes, i have used Webroot Windows Washer, Registry Mechanic and Advanced

System Optimizer.



I really don't think these programs have caused the problem, i think it is

just a general Vista problem. Perhaps there will be a hotfix in SP1 when it

is released.



I have Office 2007 and Front Page 2003, this bug affects both.



If you will right click and view the properties of a working shortcut file

and one that is not working (Office one) you will notice there there is a

difference.



"EasterEEL" wrote:

We have Registry Mechanic in common then, although I think the Offic

links problem occurred well after I first used this. However possibl

around the time I first used R-Wipe and Clean.



I haven't found a solution yet but I have found a sort of workaroun

for Office 2003 (I have no way of checking for other office versions).



As you know the 'Recently Opened Programs List' consists of a top are

where the Internet-link and E-mail link are fixed by default and th

area below where recently opened program links appear in a 1st in 1s

out queue (eight links by default). It is possible to put more icon

into the fixed area (you might want to reduce the eight links defaul

to compensate, to stop the start menu getting too tall).



Drag the Office 2003 icon(s) from the 'All Programs' area into the are

at the top. The office links work fine then and can be re-ordered a

necessary and will not appear a 2nd time in the recently opene

programs list area below.



Puzzlingly I have found with 3rd party icons (Nero for instance), i

you drag them from the ''All Programs' area into the area at the top

the link works fine, but if you drag them from the desktop or a folde

the link does not work. So if I have a desktop or folder icon fo

Nero, I have to first drag it to the 'All Programs' menu, and then dra

the new copy icon from the 'All Programs' menu to the top area



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-

In the end I decided to while-away a few hours this Sunday t

troubleshoot this problem.



I WAS able to resolve the problem by deleting my profile and creating

new one. In fact this also resolved a few other irritations that ha

crept into Vista. These included some menu items in ?System

Maintenance? not opening correctly on a single click. The Recycle Bi

not remembering a re-size or change to view-details. And certain 'Al

Programs' links not working when 'Run as Administrator'.



Apart from backing up items before deleting the profile I woul

recommend taking a copy of:



c:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\StartMenue\Programs



This is because my new profile had a number of links completely missin

from the 'All Programs' list. (For me this re-enforces the view that m

old Vista Profile was pretty screwed up either by Vista or Registr

Mechanic, R-Wipe & Clean or Vista Smoker Pro)



The missing links were not just installed programs, but included link

from Accessories, System Tools and Windows Software. It is easy t

copy them across from the backup.



There is a rumour that 3rd party programs Shell Extensions can caus

problems and this software is excellent to see what is going on.



www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html" >www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html



Roge



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-

Ok I did that, created a new user account, deleted my old one and transfered

all my contacts and shortcuts to my new account. This didn't fix this this

problem, but it has fixed issues with performance. Things are running better

now for some reason. This is all very strange, I don't know how these

shortcuts work so i have no idea what could be causing this problem.



A guess would be missing registry keys/values or corupted operating system

files but i really don't know.



"EasterEEL" wrote:

OK, Microsoft just admit it that some Vista systems have this issue!



Recently opened programs is not the only place where Office Apps wont open,

they also wont open from "start search".



Why would this be happening?

-

"goorambatman" wrote:

I have the same problem with Office 2003 shortcuts not opening from the start

menu or from the search. If I pin a shortcut to the menu it also fails to

open AND I have lost the open new Office links. The funny thing is if you

change to classic menu view they reappear and work ok. They also work ok if

you go to programs and click on the office link there. Unistalling Office and

reinstalling failes to rectify the problem which started after installing

"Prospector". I am about to try system restore and will post back



"goorambatman" wrote:

Hi,



Follow the steps in "Method 2" here:

windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm" >windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm



--=20

Regards,



Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]

Windows=C2=AE Troubleshooting www.winhelponline.com" >www.winhelponline.com





"scrumpyjoe" <scrumpyjoe@discussions.microsoft.com>wrote in message =

I have the same problem with Office 2003 shortcuts not opening from the =

start=20

menu or from the search. If I pin a shortcut to the menu it also fails =

to=20

open AND I have lost the open new Office links. The funny thing is if =

you=20

change to classic menu view they reappear and work ok. They also work ok =

if=20

you go to programs and click on the office link there. Unistalling =

Office and=20

reinstalling failes to rectify the problem which started after =

installing=20

"Prospector". I am about to try system restore and will post back



"goorambatman" wrote:

Hi,



Follow the steps in "Method 2" here:

windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm" >windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm



--=20

Regards,



Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]

Windows=C2=AE Troubleshooting www.winhelponline.com" >www.winhelponline.com





"goorambatman" <goorambatman@hotmail.com>wrote in message =

OK, Microsoft just admit it that some Vista systems have this issue!



Recently opened programs is not the only place where Office Apps wont =

open,=20

they also wont open from "start search".



Why would this be happening?

-

I solved this problem, i did a clean install, yes i only own the upgrade

version of vista but there is a very straight forward way of doing a clean

install of vista with the upgrade version, look it up!



did the clean install, ran all vista updates, installed vista sp1 beta (as i

was invited by microsoft a while ago), then installed all my security

software and then other software.



Hey presto, i actually have no problems with my OS. Maby a registry cleaner

damaged windows before... Definatly upgrading is a bad choise, and from what

i have seen, upgrading from XP media center is just useless.



Finally, i am experiencing the wow!

-

Thanks Ramesh, I downloaded that tiny prog and found out it was a context

menu as you so rightly suggested. Turned out to be my Drive HQ backup right

click. Thanks again



"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:

Excellent! Thanks for the feedback, scrumpyjoe.



--=20

Regards,



Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]

Windows=C2=AE Troubleshooting www.winhelponline.com" >www.winhelponline.com





"scrumpyjoe" <scrumpyjoe@discussions.microsoft.com>wrote in message =

Thanks Ramesh, I downloaded that tiny prog and found out it was a =

context=20

menu as you so rightly suggested. Turned out to be my Drive HQ backup =

right=20

click. Thanks again



"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:



-

Thanks for the update!



--=20

Regards,



Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]

Windows=C2=AE Troubleshooting www.winhelponline.com" >www.winhelponline.com





"goorambatman" <goorambatman@hotmail.com>wrote in message =

I solved this problem, i did a clean install, yes i only own the upgrade =



version of vista but there is a very straight forward way of doing a =

clean=20

install of vista with the upgrade version, look it up!



did the clean install, ran all vista updates, installed vista sp1 beta =

(as i=20

was invited by microsoft a while ago), then installed all my security=20

software and then other software.=20



Hey presto, i actually have no problems with my OS. Maby a registry =

cleaner=20

damaged windows before... Definatly upgrading is a bad choise, and from =

what=20

i have seen, upgrading from XP media center is just useless.



Finally, i am experiencing the wow!

-

<< Problem

There is a problem with some short cuts in the list of shortcuts in

â??Recently Opened Programsâ?? in Windows Vistaâ??s Start Menu.

Some of these Shortcuts wont open, all Microsoft Office shortcuts donâ??t

work. When I click on them I get no response, nothing happens.>>



I had this same problem with Vista and Office 2007. It started after I had

installed a set of Vista hotfixes from HP

(h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp >h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp

I also had installed Diff Doc

(www.softinterface.com/MD/Document-Comparison-Software.htm)" >www.softinterface.com/MD/Document-Comparison-Software.htm) too. I

tried repairing my Office 2007 installation, but that didn't work. I ended

up removing the set of Vista hotfixes and Diff Doc, and that seemed to

correct the problem. I'm not sure what was the culprit, but hopefully this

will shed some light upon the problem.



-

I had same problem, no Microsoft link open in recently used programs list and

also Device Manager link would not open in Control Panel/Sytem and

Maintenance/System.

I used suggested "method 2", and as i remembered last program i had

installed was "Image To PDF" from "Adult PDF" and that was the problem. I

disabled ImageToPDF ContextMenu Menu.dll. Everything is working! Big thanks

to "Ramesh, MS-MVP"!



"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:

Excellent! Thanks for the feedback, Kobenhaven.



--=20

Regards,



Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]

Windows=C2=AE Troubleshooting www.winhelponline.com" >www.winhelponline.com





"Kobenhaven" <Kobenhaven@discussions.microsoft.com>wrote in message =

I had same problem, no Microsoft link open in recently used programs =

list and=20

also Device Manager link would not open in Control Panel/Sytem and=20

Maintenance/System.

I used suggested "method 2", and as i remembered last program i had=20

installed was "Image To PDF" from "Adult PDF" and that was the problem. =

I=20

disabled ImageToPDF ContextMenu Menu.dll. Everything is working! Big =

thanks=20

to "Ramesh, MS-MVP"!



"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote: