Recently Opened Programs Bug

[goorambatman]

Problem
There is a problem with some short cuts in the list of shortcuts in
‘Recently Opened Programs’ in Windows Vista’s Start Menu.
Some of these Shortcuts wont open, all Microsoft Office shortcuts don’t
work. When I click on them I get no response, nothing happens.

Observations
When I look at the properties of the shortcuts that don’t open I notice that
the target field is uneditable and only contains the programs name, the ‘open
file location’ and ‘change icon’ 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?

[Andrew McLaren]

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.

[goorambatman]

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]

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.

[goorambatman]

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]

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.

Follow the steps in "Method 2" here:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

[EasterEEL]

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?

We have Registry Mechanic in common then, although I think the Office links problem occurred well after I first used this. However possibly around the time I first used R-Wipe and Clean.

I haven't found a solution yet but I have found a sort of workaround 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 area where the Internet-link and E-mail link are fixed by default and the area below where recently opened program links appear in a 1st in 1st out queue (eight links by default). It is possible to put more icons into the fixed area (you might want to reduce the eight links default to compensate, to stop the start menu getting too tall).

Drag the Office 2003 icon(s) from the 'All Programs' area into the area at the top. The office links work fine then and can be re-ordered as necessary and will not appear a 2nd time in the recently opened programs list area below.

Puzzlingly I have found with 3rd party icons (Nero for instance), if 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 folder the link does not work. So if I have a desktop or folder icon for Nero, I have to first drag it to the 'All Programs' menu, and then drag the new copy icon from the 'All Programs' menu to the top area.

In the end I decided to while-away a few hours this Sunday to troubleshoot this problem.

I WAS able to resolve the problem by deleting my profile and creating a new one. In fact this also resolved a few other irritations that had crept into Vista. These included some menu items in ‘System & Maintenance’ not opening correctly on a single click. The Recycle Bin not remembering a re-size or change to view-details. And certain 'All Programs' links not working when 'Run as Administrator'.

Apart from backing up items before deleting the profile I would 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 missing from the 'All Programs' list. (For me this re-enforces the view that my old Vista Profile was pretty screwed up either by Vista or Registry Mechanic, R-Wipe & Clean or Vista Smoker Pro)

The missing links were not just installed programs, but included links from Accessories, System Tools and Windows Software. It is easy to copy them across from the backup.

There is a rumour that 3rd party programs Shell Extensions can cause problems and this software is excellent to see what is going on.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

[goorambatman]

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.

[goorambatman]

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.

[goorambatman]

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?

[scrumpyjoe]

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]

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.

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!

[stroke]

There is a problem with some short cuts in the list of shortcuts in
‘Recently Opened Programs’ in Windows Vista’s Start Menu.
Some of these Shortcuts wont open, all Microsoft Office shortcuts don’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
(http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...Id=135&mode=3).
I also had installed Diff Doc
(http://www.softinterface.com/MD/Docu...n-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.

[A5b]

I have solution to overcome unworking links in the start menu. Yes it
not automated and requiers to do thinks manualy, but at least it works.
So,
1.go to the folder, where insalled the Office and manualy create
shortcuts for the programs (Word,excel, etc.)
2. open the forlder in start menu where all the automaticly created
shortcuts are.
3. replace the old ones in start menue program with the newly created
once
4. delete resently open program list in the menu (or just office
shorcuts)
the next time you open word or execel the new shorcut in the list will
be working