Lost some file associations + Start Menu and Tray icons not opening

ksio89 · 24 Oct 2015

I do not know what happened, but I lost some file associations, such as opening .torrent files and magnetic links with utorrent and text files (.ini, .txt etc.) with Notepad++. Additionally, Start Menu and tray options, such as volume slider and wi-fi menu are not opening anymore. Settings starts, though. I already tried to apply that CSSEmerg67758.diagcab fix, but it didn't help. I can't perform a system restore as well, I get this error:

Lost some file associations + Start Menu and Tray icons not opening-windows-10-start-menu-issue.png

Any idea on how to fix this issue? Thanks in advance.

Night Hawk · 24 Oct 2015

The first recommendation would be trying to roll the system registry back before the problem was first seen since this sounds too much like a registry glitch has come up on you there. You do that by working with the System Restore option.

Of course it always helps to see a few System Restore Points created in Windows 10 prior to adding new programs on or making changes in case something does go wrong. When making a number of changes within a short period of time you could easily run out of valid restore points in order to get things back running again.

Now those are the options you would have used before your particular situation came up where now you may have to either consider the Reset the PC or Upgrade to Repair options. If you should elect one of those two options then you may want to consider seeing a System Restore Point shortcut created for being able to prevent future mishaps like this from happening where you are without any restore points to work with.

The apparent cause for all this seems to stem from the changes you made in file associations which likely resulted in the registry errors you are seeing. Task bar System Tray items just like anything else in Windows still ends up going through the System Registry itself as far as the settings to enabled or disable go.

dalchina · 25 Oct 2015

Hi, as we don't know what led to this situation, or the extent of the problem, start by opening an elevated command prompt and running chkdsk C: /F.

You need a clear result before proceeding. That's important.

Then try running sfc /scannow, again from an elevated command prompt.
This may well not fix your problems, but worth a shot.

After that, you're probably best advised to do an inplace repair install. That will keep all your installed programs and data, unless there has already been some significant corruption.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

Night Hawk · 25 Oct 2015

With the Start menu and Taskbar's notification area involved you can sure that entails a large registry issue while numerous disk errors will tend to prevent Windows from even starting up. With torrent files and whatever else it's also possible you attracted some type of virus or malware having left the system wide open to some bug. Only the Pro version for uTorrent offers any type of virus, malware protection there.

For the moment however trying to boot into Safe Mode to remove anything just installed the most recently might help as well as trying the System Restoration option as well as going for the other repair tools dalchina pointed out. Just remember malwares can play havoc with the registry as well as any programs that go on sideways.

ksio89 · 26 Oct 2015

Well, the only option left was repairing Windows 10 installation, this way I did't lose my files, only programas I've installed. I don't know if it's a malware, this didn't happen with Windows 8.1. I've created another System Restore Point as soon as I've installed and set up everything. Let's hope I'll be able to perform a restor if this issue happens once more. Thanks for the replies.

dalchina · 26 Oct 2015

Hi, hope you remembered to run chkdsk before you did that to ensure your disk structure was sound.

Now here's the next tool you need to make sure you can recover from almost any soft error..

Disk Imaging

Windows is very fragile. To recover Windows simply and quickly when something obscure goes wrong, use disk imaging regularly and before any major change or update.

You should use Disk Imaging regularly - this

Gives you a complete backup of the disk/partitions imaged from which you can extract files if you wish
Lets you recover your PC to the exact same working state as when you created the image in a time limited stress-free manner without technical assistance.
Lets you replace your hard drive and restore your PC to the same working state.

(Provided there is no basic hardware fault of course)

Disk Imaging creates a compressed version of the disk/partition(s) you image. The initial image is larger than subsequent incremental or differential images, which are also faster to create.

You need:
- e.g. Aomei Backupper or Macrium Reflect (both free)
- a boot CD created from those
- an external storage device - I suggest at least twice the size of what you are backing up.

It's good you've enabled system restore, but that's partial and won't help you recover from everything.

Night Hawk · 26 Oct 2015

Sorry to hear you needed the Upgrade to Repair to get things going again. I sill prefer a full clean install while I know some apps can be one times installs only being a royal pain! I have a few on 7 that would need to be bought all over again just from a repair install let alone a full clean install and why I have to keep an old image onhand to restore that every so often until things get situated finally where I no longer need one program in particular still used on an unfinished project.

Don't forget to see to the Restore Point shortcut option since you will want to see a few points made manually each time you go to plan something new in order to be better prepared the next time. I had to see a Repair Install take place on the first upgrade to 10 here when that came out Buggy as heck during that first week untill getting to the clean install. The Repair wouldn't even activate due to the heavy traffic MS was seeing when everyone was jumping for 10!