Start menu context annoyances
Recently, I've been posting more about Windows Tips'n Tricks. Along that theme, I recently solved a problem that was another thorn in my side.
I often will use the context menu in the Start->All Programs menu to get at the shortcuts in my Start menu. I use a custom toolbar folder to hold all my shortcuts, so that I can easily edit and save them, then restore.
For some reason, that context menu was broken and I just had a bit of time to search out the cause.
There's a really great tool out there called WhoLockMe that is a context menu add-on that will tell you which process has locked a file or folder/directory. Since we save a lot of files on network shares, and often those files update, a lock by a user holds up the works! You can quickly determine which PID has a lock on that file, and kill it or make sure it get's cleaned up properly. Awesome tool!
Problem: WhoLockMe is one of many programs (apparently AVG is also one of them) that puts this context-sensitive menu item in for items that appear on the start menu. Personally, I think that's pretty silly since they're mostly shortcuts. At any rate, I don't need to do much directly on the items in the menu itself, but I want the Open or Explore links to actually WORK!
Solution: There are a few keys in the registry that manage which extensions handle what context menu (ContextMenuHandler, go figure). The one that worked for me lived in
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\WhoLockMe
Deleting the WhoLockMe key immediately (without reboot) cleared up my problem. You should probably export the keys before deletion in case that's not the culprit.