The Pinned items listing which you see at the top of the Start menu is stored in the registry as a REG_BINARY value, and Windows provides no GUI to backup and restore the Pinned items configuration. In case you want to transfer the Pinned items configuration to another user profile, you need to use the Registry Editor and backup the settings in the source profile.Read more
registry
“Pin to Taskbar” and “Pin to Start Menu” Missing in Windows 7
After deleting the IsShortcut registry value to remove the shortcut arrow overlay in shortcuts (.lnk) files, you may notice that the “Pin to Taskbar” and the “Pin to Start Menu” context menu items go missing when you right-click on a shortcut. Also, one or more of the context menu items may appear twice, as in the image below.Read more
How to Disable Auto Arrange in Folders in Windows 7?
Windows 7 doesn’t include an option wherein you can disable auto arrange in folders (icons view). Sometime back I created a magical registry hack (FFlags DWORD 43000001) that disabled the "Full Row Select" functionality in folders in Windows 7. I also posted some interesting observations in article How to Disable Full Row Select in Explorer in Windows 7 about the registry hack, which demonstrates that applying the hack also brings back the missing "Auto arrange" menu option in the View menu of folders when in Icons view.
Automate Using Script
Update: I just converted the registry edits to a Script file that does all the work. Works in Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and Windows 10.
Check out my recent post How to Disable Full Row Select and Auto Arrange in Folders in Windows 10?
To do this Manually
I hereby bring you a slightly tweaked version (sets FFlags to 43000000) of the same registry hack and provide some screenshots in this article. After applying this edit you can enable or disable auto arrange feature on a per-folder basis. Of course, an "Undo" REG file is provided in case you want to revert back to the factory default setting.Read more
[Fix] Explorer.exe Error “This file does not have an app associated”
When you click the Windows Explorer or File Explorer shortcut Pinned to the Taskbar, or when running explorer.exe directly, the following error message may be displayed:
This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Apps Settings page.
And the same error occurs when using the Win + E shortcut or running explorer.exe manually.
In earlier Operating Systems (e.g., Windows 8 and below), the following error is displayed:
This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel.
And using the Win + E key sequence causes “Unspecified error”
However, Explorer may launch correctly when including additional switches such as /e or /n with explorer.exe, or double-click the This PC icon. Also, all other shortcuts for other applications Pinned to the Taskbar may work fine, thus implying that this is not a Shortcut (.lnk) file association problem.
Cause
This problem occurs due to missing data in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folders registry key. The File Explorer pinned shortcut located at the following path is a special shortcut that references a value under the “Folder” registry key:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
Information in this article applies to Windows Vista through Windows 10.Read more
How to Remove Pin to Taskbar Option For a Particular Application in Windows 7?
If you have a host application that you don’t want to be pinned to the Windows 7 taskbar, you can do so by adding a registry value in the application registration area. By default Windows prevents the following host processes from being pinned to the taskbar.
- RUNDLL32.EXE
- MSHTA.EXE
- DLLHOST.EXE
- APPLAUNCH.EXE
- HH.EXE
- WINHLP32.EXE
- MMC.EXE
… and other file names defined in the following registry key in string values HostApps, AddRemoveApps and AddRemoveNames
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ FileAssociation
To remove the Pin to Taskbar (and "Pin this program to taskbar") context menu options for a particular application, use these steps:Read more
How to Add a Right-Click Menu Option to Run a Program Elevated
From the Windows Taskbar, you can start a program elevated by holding the Ctrl & Shift keys and then clicking on a pinned shortcut. To launch a program elevated from the right-click menu, you can add custom entries and launch it using a script or using the NirCmd utility. Earlier we wrote about the new elevate command-line argument in NirCmd, which you can implement in the context menu.
This article tells you how to add a right-click menu option to run a program elevated.
Error “Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file” When Playing DVD Movies
When you insert a DVD media in the drive, right-click on the drive and choose Play from the context menu, the following error may occur. Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item. However, you may be able to play DVD movies via … Read more
Install MSI Software Packages With Logging Using the Right-Click Menu
When a software installation which uses Windows Installer Package fails, you enable Windows Installer Logging and re-run setup to capture the output to a log file for troubleshooting. This can be done using three ways: using the Registry Editor, using the Group Policy Editor or by running the msiexec.exe command with required parameters.
The first two methods are documented in article How to Enable Windows Installer Logging. The third method uses the msiexec.exe command-line parameter. Here is an example:
msiexec /l*v d:\mylog.txt /i "C:\Users\Ramesh\Desktop\7z465-x64.msi"
This starts the 7-Zip .msi installation (7z465-x64.msi) and records all the results, including verbose output to a log file named mylog.txt located at D:\
Do you find it difficult to type the entire command-line everytime when you need to log application setups? No problem! You can implement this in the context menu for .msi files so that you can launch the installation with logging in a couple of mouse clicks.Read more
Fix Windows Search Error 1053 “Service did not respond”
Recently I came across a problem where the Windows Search service failed to auto-start, and manually starting the service using Services MMC resulted in Error 1053, with the following error message verbatim.Read more
Fix Error “There was a problem starting PhotoViewer.dll” When Editing Image Files in Windows 7
After upgrading your Windows Vista computer to Windows 7, when you right-click on a JPG/JPEG image and click Edit, the following error message may appear:
There was a problem starting C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Gallery\PhotoViewer.dll The specified module could not be found.
