Right click on Task Bar Icons not working(Several machines)5-2021

The system and others...On windows 10 systems such as my own build 20H2 (19042.985) and some of my clients

Good day folks, the problem is that you can right click and get the contextual menu to select say task bar etc, but if you have a icon that has been pinned such as a program, file explorer, google chrome etc. nothing happens when you right click on them. As one example if you have launched google chrome and you right click the taskbar icon you should be able to select google chrome again to get a second instance of the program. A second example would be a program Icon that you want to UNPIN. Nothing happens.

I have been searching high and low here and this one really has me stumped.....
I'll try to list everything I have tried here so far.

SFC/scannow
Clean boot
Clean boot into safemode
Replaced WinX folder
Ran the Power shell command Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

Tried a Reg Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ ImmersiveShell\Launcher
and add a new DWORD named UseExperience with a Value_data of 0.

I'm still looking but I'm not finding much of anything that is current.

TIA

Thank you for the link, tried it, NO Joy.

Mike R

I would assume a SAFEMODE boot would eliminate the Graphics driver and yes all of these tests I have conducted are as an Administrator.
I couldn't tell if all were installed the same as they are different brands of PC's as well as laptops. Some custom and some Factory. Mine is a straight up clean install of W10 on a clean SSD. Been in service for about 3 or 4 months now.

Yes I can confirm that in the SAFEMODE boot the right click function did not work.
I thought I mention that but yes I have created a new user account on my own machine as administrator and that made no difference.

I will look at your links to the right click problem although I think I have seen most already. I have been searching a LOT of forums on this.
Again Thanks for the comments.
Mike R
P.S. I'm no rookie here, I've been an independent PC tech making a living at this for 25 years. But this one has me a bit perplexed and I refuse to reinstall to correct it. I really need to find an answer that I can apply to my own as well as my clients systems.

dalchina said:

Hi, another relatively easily checkable aspect is shell extensions- context menus.
Two tools:
a. Shellexview (free) - Options: Hide all MS extensions, enable 32 bit extensions ot be shown.
Disable all listed. No logoff needed.
b. That does not necessarily show all context menu items.
Try Autoruns (free from MS). That has sections of context menus.
Run as admin, again disable all shown.

(You're really looking for something less common that's been added of course, as most commonly used progs don't have such an effect).

Ideally there's some common aspect or program to the way these systems are managed- e.g. are group policies applied in common?

See:
Disable Right-Click Context Menu on Taskbar in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 | Password Recovery

Forgot to tell you I have used both tools and neither helped
Mike R