Explorer context menu BC Icon missing

[iconizer]

Explorer context menu BC Icon missing

Yes I did reboot after disabling the 38 extensions.

Upon your last posting (#15) I re-enabled those 38 extensions in order to be in a position to follow exactly your advice and do the disabling in parallel both with shellex and 64bit at the same time.

Thereafter I rebooted and then disabled all non-MS extensions (except CirrusShellEx) in shellex.exe results as well as in shellex-x64.exe results at the same time.

After rebooting again the situation was still the same: no BC context menu Icon in windows explorer (the respective checkmark being set in the Tools menu > Options dialog, Startup section > Explorer Integration).


Note:

After having done the disabling with shellex.exe and then starting to do the same with
shellex-x64.exe I realized that the items disabled before were already disabled in x64. So I had nothing more to do. But I was uncertain whether I had really started x64 and not just carelessly repeated x86.

I find it rather difficult to differentiate between shellex.exe and shellex-x64.exe output if I am not very attentive when starting the exe because there is no diffenrence under "Help > About" between the two. It does not tell wether it is x86 or x64. That is rather irritating.

However, I could be sure because when sorting the output tables for "File Created Time" I get sixteen "N /A" with x86 and only two with x64. So I don't have a "mirror situation" between the two outputs - not sure whether this is significant.

[Aaron]

Hello,

ShellExView is not a Scooter Software product, but is a handy tool for disabling shell extensions without uninstalling or removing programs fully. I'm afraid we have no input on its design or presentation.

One thing I forgot to ask: to keep the tests simple, right click files on your local Desktop\.

If disabling the shell extensions and the Classic Shell did not work, are there any other programs that could be disabled? Since the goal is to remove as much customization as possible (until the BC3 shortcut begins to work), I would recommend leaving everything disabled. Periodically attempt to run the Add.reg patch and restart to see if that kicks it off. The fact that it works in Safe mode but not regular mode for the same user account is an indicator that Safe mode has prevented something from starting up, and that then BC3's shell extension is working.

Do you have an alternate machine to test on as well? That might be a good troubleshooting point, because then you could try and determine the difference in configuration between the two machines.

[iconizer]

Explorer context menu BC Icon missing

I know that ShellExView is not a Scooter Software product but since your proposals for problem solving refer to it quite freequently I thought you could draw on your vast experience with the tool and tell me off-hand which major group of extensions to block for a test without endangering the Windows boot process.

In particular, I would welcome your comments on the following suggestions in postings #12 and #14:

... method outlined on Ramesh's site i.e.
"to bisect the list of context menu handlers into two groups, disabling half of the entries at a stretch, rebooting and testing the behavior again"...

... to choose a sort key which would put me in a position to disable a major contiguous block of MS items (perhaps all of the type "context menu"?) without endangering the boot process...

As concerns the following proposals in your last posting

... are there any other programs that could be disabled? ...

Do you have an alternate machine to test on as well? That might be a good troubleshooting point, because then you could try and determine the difference in configuration between the two machines.

I think I have already tried similar methods i.e. trying the diagnostic startup and comparing the BC behaviour wrt explorer context menu between admin and users respectively. I don't know what else I could compare between two different computers.

So please comment on the bold-type text above since this is the only way I could imagine for a speedy solution corresponding to my abilities. Failing this, I would deem it advisable to leave the thread pending and report back once I had found a solution on my own, which could take quite some time. Thank you so far, but I hope for your comment.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Launch ShellExView
Sort by Product (as an easy method to group Microsoft extensions together, and all other extensions above or below).
Make sure Options -> Mark non-Microsoft extensions, suspicious extensions are enabled.
Select all of these marked, non-microsoft extensions and then Disable them.
Then switch Options -> Show 32bit extensions to enabled
Repeat and also disable all of these, too.

This should leave you with all disabled extensions, 32bit and 64bit, as you switch between Options -> Show 32bit extensions On and Off.

You may want to also disable some Microsoft extensions that are not part of the Microsoft Windows Operating System, but this is normally not necessary.

Verify that it is still not working before the reboot, then reboot, and verify that ShellExView still maintains that the items are disabled. Instead of a reboot, you can also try the ShellExView option to "Restart Explorer".

However, the issue is that this may still not be a shell extension conflict. ShellExView would help us figure out if another shell extension is the conflict, but it in fact might be caused by another software that runs on startup on your machine when not in safe mode. Testing another machine and comparing the software suite's you've set up on one vs. the other might help narrow down which share common applications that might be causing the problem.

[iconizer]

Hello,
Launch ShellExView
Sort by Product (as an easy method to group Microsoft extensions together, and all other extensions above or below).
Make sure Options -> Mark non-Microsoft extensions, suspicious extensions are enabled.
Select all of these marked, non-microsoft extensions and then Disable them.

That's what I did in#16.


When you continued

... Then switch Options -> Show 32bit extensions to enabled.
Repeat and also disable all of these, too.

This should leave you with all disabled extensions, 32bit and 64bit, as you switch between Options -> Show 32bit extensions On and Off...

it dawned on me that you have been talking all the time of the installed version (created by shexview_setup.exe) whereas I have been using the portable version shexview-x64.zip. It is only the installer version that offers the menu sequence "Options -> Show 32bit extensions" instead of providing two different exe-files (x86 and x64) as the portable version does.

Before following up your instructions with the newly installed ShellExView I would like to present some findings with this new version and attach a question in order to perhaps narrow down the MS items that can be safely disabled:



I am especially concerned with lines 2 and 3. "Betriebssystem" is the German term for "Operating System" and I wonder what the difference and the different origin of the two groups might be and whether or not I could safely disable one of them. In order to put you in a position to advise on this one I am including here part of my ShellExView output containing some "Betriebssystem" and "Operating System" items.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Do you have a non-English OS install? It is possible that some of the shell extensions are universal, and some would have German.

The included screenshots still shows some shell extensions that are not disabled that are clearly not Microsoft related. Did you get a chance to disable all of those (32bit and 64bit at the same time. If you do one, then the other, then there's always a potential conflict).

[iconizer]

Hello,

as I said in #16 and confirmed in #20, I had disabled all non-MS extensions (except CirrusShellEx) in shellex.exe results as well as in shellex-x64.exe results at the same time. This was under the portable version.

In your #19 you referred me to the installer version and I re-enabled all previously disabled extensions in order to make a fresh start. That's what you see in the screenshot you mentioned. Before again disabling the items in question according to your last instructions I wanted to wait for your reaction on my #20 because I had hoped that there might be a systematic difference between the MS Betriebssystem and the MS Operating System items prioritizing one or the other group as a first release candidate.

This obviously not being the case, I will proceed now and leave both groups enabled for a start. But I think I am going to disable the MS Office Items. This should not endanger my system. I will report back.

By the way, yes, i do have a non-English (i.e. German) OS install and I wondered that there were these language differences wrt Microsoft in the product name column of the shellexview output.

[iconizer]

Reload this Page Explorer context menu BC Icon missing

Hello,

Hello,
However, the issue is that this may still not be a shell extension conflict. ShellExView would help us figure out if another shell extension is the conflict, but it in fact might be caused by another software that runs on startup on your machine when not in safe mode. Testing another machine and comparing the software suite's you've set up on one vs. the other might help narrow down which share common applications that might be causing the problem.

Meanwhile I tend to adopt the view that my BC icon problem is indeed caused by another software that runs on startup on my machine when not in safe mode because although following exactly the course of action described in your #19 including all intermediate checks and restarts, the Explorer context menu BC Icon did not show up in the problematic user accounts. Before doing all this I had even uninstalled Classic Shell and when running ShellExView according to your instructions I additionally disabled the 9 MS Office items.

Testing another machine is not an option for me because I only own an older computer with Wiindows XP and there would be too many differences to my present system. Even if I had Win7 there (which would be 32-bit anyway) I would have to install an unmanageable amount of programs and would have to do so many checks for the icon to appear and so many restarts thereafter that such a path is prohibitive for me. And it is just as prohibitive to do it the other way round and uninstall one program after the other from my present system together with the associated checks and restarts until the icon reappears.

There are two other interventions in my system I could think of, i.e. an Inplace Upgrade and the recreation of my present two standard user accounts. Apart from their problem solving capability (could you comment?) I would shrink back from the efforts involved at this point of time. So, there is nothing left for me to do about the problem. Thank you for your help so far.

If by any chance I hit upon a solution to this problem I will report back here in this thread or, if too much time has passed, establish a new thread for communicating the solution with a reference to this thread.

iconizer

[iconizer]

Hello everybody,

here is a last report for those readers who think like me that their icon problem is most probably caused by software running when not in safe mode (although I have learnt that it may not be the pure presence of specific pieces of software but rather the specific combination of software that can cause problems):

After having gone farthest with disabling items in ShellExView and having uninstalled Classic Shell as reported, I additionally uninstalled "Direct Folders" und unchecked "SuRun" in msconfig in order to avoid their hooks. The result was as before: icons were OK in admin account and missing in the two standard user accounts.

Now I have run out of ideas and will resume other work that had been waiting the last four weeks. I wish every reader who had hoped to find useful ideas in this thread to be luckier than me in solving their icon problems.

iconizer

[Aaron]

Thanks for the detailed reports. In the meantime, this tip might help while if the shell extension is still not working: you can drag and drop icons from a Windows Explorer window onto an empty pane or file/folder path in the BC3 interface. This requires have the two windows open side by side, but can be quicker than using the BC3 browse dialogs if you already have files open in Explorer.

Another test might be to disable Startup applications. To do so, run "msconfig" and in the Startup tab try disabling programs that you think might be non-standard.

[iconizer]

Explorer context menu BC Icon missing

Thanks for the detailed reports. In the meantime, this tip might help while if the shell extension is still not working: you can drag and drop icons from a Windows Explorer window onto an empty pane or file/folder path in the BC3 interface. This requires have the two windows open side by side, but can be quicker than using the BC3 browse dialogs if you already have files open in Explorer.

Thank you Aaron. This tip will certainly be very helpful for users that are missing the BC shell extension. As for me, I do have the shell extension but I am missing the icon, which makes it cumbersome to find the BC shell extension in a long context menu in contrast to just looking out for the beautiful and conspicuous BC icon(s).

Another test might be to disable Startup applications. To do so, run "msconfig" and in the Startup tab try disabling programs that you think might be non-standard.

In my #6 I cited part of my E-Mail mentioning that I had applied the Diagnostic Startup under msconfig. Just in case there would be a difference, I now followed your above suggestion and disabled all items under msconfig > General > Selective Startup > Startup tab. Both Setting did not produce the BC icon.

[Aaron]

Sorry, most of my troubleshooting methods had been based on the idea that the entire shell extension was missing, not just the picture/icon of the shell extension. My general troubleshooting steps would not be altered (as it still looks like a conflict), but this would explain some of the language I used in earlier posts.

It's very strange that only the picture is missing, and yet works under Administrator or Safe Boot, and that disabling everything on startup and other shell extensions did not help get it working. I'm unsure of the next step to try; perhaps something specific to your Windows theme?

[iconizer]

I think that any further attempts at solving this problem are very questionable as the user profile (only the one with the BC icon problem) proves more and more to be corrupted. As a further example for this I would mention that my WinPatrol Icon one day started vanishing from the systray and the "WinPatrol.exe *32" process from the Windows Task Manager regularly after about 52 minutes system uptime. This problem could not be solved either. So I will have to create a new user profile.

Thank you for all the effort you invested in the solution of my problem. There is probably no other solution than a new profile.

[rprastein]

I think that any further attempts at solving this problem are very questionable as the user profile (only the one with the BC icon problem) proves more and more to be corrupted. As a further example for this I would mention that my WinPatrol Icon one day started vanishing from the systray and the "WinPatrol.exe *32" process from the Windows Task Manager regularly after about 52 minutes system uptime. This problem could not be solved either. So I will have to create a new user profile.

Thank you for all the effort you invested in the solution of my problem. There is probably no other solution than a new profile.

Possible solution: Change your Windows theme.

I realize it's two years later, but I have the missing context menu icon problem, too, with 64-bit Windows 7 with SP1 - in my case, it's with an admin user, and it's because of the Windows theme I am using (Windows Classic). If I change to Windows 7 Basic theme, my BC context-menu icon re-appears. I'm guessing it's related to my Resource Monitor not re-painting, which I found with Google was associated with which Windows theme is active when I start it. If it is the same underlying cause, then it's possible that all of the non-aero themes other than Windows 7 Basic have the same problem, but I haven't tested that theory.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Thanks for the input. I tried out Windows 7 Classic theme (with a reboot) on a test VM and the icon appears to stay present. It is possible you have another theme customization or application in place that is providing further conflict. Any customizations (especially any 3rd party programs) might have an impact.