Recent content by Skeptic Mike

The current user version uses a different technique from the all user version. It sets the bit in Attributes value that prevents the enumeration of the shell folder. When an explorer window, or a file open/save dialog, is created all the folders are enumerated to find out what to show...

This doesn't do anything to registry keys. Takeown and icacls operate on files and folders. Your code operates on the basis that you're running as Trusted Installer, so you already have full control. There are no useful native commands in Windows to change Registry key ownership and permissions.

Well, what it does break is access to the runas verb. As well as using the right click context menu to get an elevation prompt, you can also access the verb programmatically. Adding the verb to the powershell command start-process for example powershell start-process regedt32 -verb 'runas' If...

It seems that the extensions whose icon you can't change have an icon assigned to a ProgID that they share. The default value of the .ext registry entry is the ProgID. So look at that for each extension. If they are all the same and the ProgID has a default icon, then that's the explanation. You...

I don't use these for regular maintenance, I've not seen a need for this. Other obviously useful tools in the general area are the Sysinternals - Sysinternals tools . I'd get all of them, not just the command line ones. Particularly useful are accesschk for helping with understanding...

You did a thorough investigation, presented what you found and a satisfactory solution. I have no idea why the 3 PCs ended up as they did. My comment was only possible because you were so thorough. It's really good to see that. Thanks for raising the issue.

Interesting. It's not necessary to delete the key @TopFlynn identifies, the problem is down to the data in the DWORD value Attributes in the shellFolder subkey. It's 0x100000, or SFGAO_NONENUMERATED as Microsoft’s documentation names it. And this setting isn't cleared by swapping away from and...

There is a Powershell Script here How to universalize a shortcut? which claims to analyse shortcuts. It might help you to see what's going on. For the full delight of lnk files see [MS-SHLLINK]: Shell Link (.LNK) Binary File Format

If the context menu items you want to remove are delivered in the same way as the generic 'Ask Copilot', then one or both of the following Poweshell one-liners may show the CLSID that you would need to block in the same way as Add or Remove "Ask Copilot" Context Menu in Windows 11 and 10 So...

Another thing I overlooked. I checked the MSI I have which is English. Which one did you use? This matters; for example if the FriendlyTypeName, which I'd expect to be translated, is set to an empty string then the New item isn't shown.

What I'd suggest is to uninstall open office, and then to repair install Libre Office. Because of the probable overlap between the two packages it's likely that the repair will be required. If after doing that the new menu entries aren't there, the next thing is to export the relevant keys so...

I omitted some required registry values. These are also required to make 'OpenDocument text' appear in the New context menu. There will be other keys and values in a functional install. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.odt] @="LibreOffice.WriterDocument.1"...

A normal installation of Libre Office from the msi should add 'Open Document text' to the new context menu. This is enabled by this registry entry: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.odt\LibreOffice.WriterDocument.1\ShellNew] "FileName"="C:\\Program...

Your screenshot shows the desktop icon "Learn about this picture". There is a tutorial which shows how to remove this: Add or Remove "Learn about this picture" Desktop icon in Windows 11 We've been talking about removing the option from the context (right click) menu. You may well be perfectly...

Yes, I'm saying either action would undo the removal of SpotlightLearnMore. My post was trying to explain how and why my suggestion would work. This is a specific example of a general solution to hiding a common type of context menu item. If you open regedit and move to...