Windows 10 Keeps Removing WinX Contents


  1. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
       #1

    Windows 10 Keeps Removing WinX Contents


    Hi, I have an issue since upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 few months ago. Basically, Windows 10 has that feature to right click on Start menu button to get access to system shortcuts like Programs, Settings etc. So this feature just stopped working for me after few days of Windows 10 usage. I googled it and found out it's a common issue that Microsoft just refuses to fix for couple of years already. To fix that one has to go to a Default user folde/ appdata/ local/ microsoft/ windows/ winx and copy group1,2,3 folders from there, then go to the same path for a current user and paste the folders in there.
    I did that, restarted explorer process and everything worked great until I reboot. After rebooting, these folder become empty again. So I have to repeat that copy and paste process every time I reboot. This is highly annoying and I have no idea why Windows 10 keeps removing those shortcuts.

    I even created a backup folder next to Group1,2,3 folders in a current user directory, to do things quicker, but Windows 10 even removes contents of backup folder. Note - folders themselves stay, only shortcuts files get removed from them.

    Could anyone suggest what is happening?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 42,953
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    Hi, have you seen these?
    Solved Start Menu button right click menu fails - Windows 10 Forums
    Solved Right Click start menu items do not work - Windows 10 Forums
    Windows 10 Start button - No right click option - Windows 10 Forums

    which I found for you in this forum by searching for
    right click start doesn't work

    Windows 10 Start button - No right click option - Windows 10 Forums
    #3

    You could find more quite easily if you need more - you could add
    solved
    to the search string

    If no solution please post back with what you've tried.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    I think there was a confusion, as my issue is not how to restore right clicking. I know how to restore it. The issue is that after rebooting Windows 10 keeps removing those shortcuts from WinX folder. I want to understand why and how to stop this.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 42,953
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #4

    So, taking ideas from those links.. which I guess you may not have tried..

    1. have you actually tried Shellexview and disabling context menu entries to see if that stops this happening? (Hide all MS extensions, disable all others).

    2. If no effect, try a clean boot and see if the menu remains

    You're saying Win 10 removes its own menu. I've never seen that. What we're looking for is sthg installed that damages Windows.

    A much more technical approach would be to use Sysinternals ProcMon, leave it running, find the folder has disappeared, then search ProcMon's log to see what did it.

    That approach could be somewhat time consuming.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #5

    I did all of that, and it seemed to be working for a week. Then all of a sudden Win10 is at it again - right click stopped working and all WinX folder content is empty - no shortcuts in Group folders.
    I don't know what's going on, but Windows apparently removes them from time to time.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       #6

    Does pressing Windows key + X work when the right click is not showing the shortcuts?
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Nope. WinX Group folders just get empty, it won't work until I copy the contents of Group folders from the Default user and paste them into WinX of my user. And then it's going to work for some time until something happens again and they get emptied.

    Also, I noticed every time it happens, sound volume icon also disappears from the panel at the bottom right. But this is usually easily fixed by restarting Explorer. But these two oddities happen together.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 1,773
    Windows 10 Home
       #8

    "all of a sudden Win10 is at it again - right click stopped working and all WinX folder content is empty - no shortcuts in Group folders."

    Why screw around with all that. Follow Brink's easy tutorial below and get an All Tasks folder with even more tools than Win + X has. I pin mine to Windows Administrator Tools but easy enough to pin to taskbar or wherever -

    Control Panel All Tasks Shortcut - Create in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 281
    Win 10 21H2 LTSC
       #9

    Just hit same bug, and this is on a clean install in a VM, no shell extensions installed, its a bit of a lol bug.

    Googled with lots of hits on the issue, with no fix.

    In my case it was SRP, I enabled it, and it happened, disabled it, and enabled it again and is ok. Is only default empty SRP rules there.
      My Computer


 

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