Windows Start menu - I can't unpin a blank tile

I've had an invalid shortcut in: C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and I removed it but the problem is that I didn't unpin it from the Start Menu first and now I'm stuck with a blank tile which I can move around and resize but can't unpin.



Clicking on "Unpin from Start" does nothing. I tried restarting my computer but the tile is still there. I tried creating another shortcut with the same name as the tile in C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs but it didn't do anything.


If there is no other solution, I will do this: Reset Start Layout in Windows 10 but I put a lot of effort into my start menu and I'd rather avoid starting from scratch if it's possible.

AltairAC said:

I've had an invalid shortcut in: C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and I removed it but the problem is that I didn't unpin it from the Start Menu first and now I'm stuck with a blank tile which I can move around and resize but can't unpin.



Clicking on "Unpin from Start" does nothing. I tried restarting my computer but the tile is still there. I tried creating another shortcut with the same name as the tile in C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs but it didn't do anything.


If there is no other solution, I will do this: Reset Start Layout in Windows 10 but I put a lot of effort into my start menu and I'd rather avoid starting from scratch if it's possible.

Hello, I apologize ahead of time as I am developing a migraine and cannot concentrate on reading at the moment, however I am hoping this (Administrative Tools - Add or Remove from Start Menu - Windows 7 Help Forums) will help you out in some form or fashion. If not, I sincerely apologize and hope to help you fix it soon. best of luck (if it does not work, I am almost certain you would be able to remove a registry for it with regedit OR CCleaner (there is an option to remove registry entries that are no longer referenced and whatnot. )


UPDATE: I just noticed in my corner notifications I have something that says Safely remove usb... etc it is for my wireless adapter, idk if that helps.

docpipo said:

Hello, I apologize ahead of time as I am developing a migraine and cannot concentrate on reading at the moment, however I am hoping this (Administrative Tools - Add or Remove from Start Menu - Windows 7 Help Forums) will help you out in some form or fashion. If not, I sincerely apologize and hope to help you fix it soon. best of luck (if it does not work, I am almost certain you would be able to remove a registry for it with regedit OR CCleaner (there is an option to remove registry entries that are no longer referenced and whatnot. )


UPDATE: I just noticed in my corner notifications I have something that says Safely remove usb... etc it is for my wireless adapter, idk if that helps.

Thank your for your reply.

CCleaner didn't find anything and I'm afraid that the link you provided is not related to my problem. The tile is a leftover from a shortcut that opened the following software http://safelyremove.com/.

If you know the link to the shortcut, you may be able to remove it with command prompt.

something like

Code:

del /a /q "%USERNAME%\menu start\programs\autostart\shortcut.lnk"

possibly without the "autostart" portion.
I really hope this helps, I'm sorry if it didn't.

docpipo said:

If you know the link to the shortcut, you may be able to remove it with command prompt.

something like

Code:

del /a /q "%USERNAME%\menu start\programs\autostart\shortcut.lnk"

possibly without the "autostart" portion.
I really hope this helps, I'm sorry if it didn't.

The problem is that I already deleted the shortcut "C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\USBSafelyRemove.lnk" before I unpinned it from the Star Menu (I already mentioned that in the first post but maybe I didn't explain my problem well enough). I have a tile but no shortcut (*.lnk file). I tried adding other shortcuts with the same name and path but to no avail. I can pin them on the Start Menu and then I have 2 tiles named "USBSafelyRemove". One works as advertised but it doesn't affect the other one (the one you see in the screenshot above).

AltairAC said:

The problem is that I already deleted the shortcut "C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\USBSafelyRemove.lnk" before I unpinned it from the Star Menu (I already mentioned that in the first post but maybe I didn't explain my problem well enough). I have a tile but no shortcut (*.lnk file). I tried adding other shortcuts with the same name and path but to no avail. I can pin them on the Start Menu and then I have 2 tiles named "USBSafelyRemove". One works as advertised but it doesn't affect the other one (the one you see in the screenshot above).

You explained yourself fine, I completely misread it and I apologize for that. I hope you can figure it out, and if you do, be sure to post here telling us how so we can help people in the future. Best wishes, Pipo.

spunk said:

If you have not emptied the Recycle Bin, restore the Shortcut to it's original position. Or, do a System Restore to a time before you deleted it. Now you should be able to unpin the the tile from the desktop. then you can delete the shortcut again.

Thank you very much! I used shift + delete but I managed to recover the deleted .lnk file with Recuva (deep scan enabled). I specified the location (C:\Users\myUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) before I started scanning and voila. I put the .lnk file back where it was, the tile got other right click options and I was finally able to unpin it.

(System Restore is not an option, I disable it for paranoid reasons.)

Problem solved!

And now to backing up my start menu.