Windows 10 problem with duplicated icons in taskbar, broken Jump Lists

[MDJ]

Hello,

 

I‘ve been recently having a problem with duplicated items in taskbar and broken Jump Lists. I‘m now using Windows 10 but this problem occurred in Windows 8.1 too but then it somehow fixed itself. Some programs that I pin to taskbar have a tendency to duplicate themselves when clicked on. For now, I‘ve noticed this behaviour only in Skype and Spotify but it‘s still very annoying since duplicate icons take valuable taskbar space and even more—make Jump Lists of those programs broken, meaning that you can still see tasks program developers provided but after you click them nothing happens.

 

I‘ve tried loads of times pinning, repinning, deleting whole User Pinned folder from %appdata%/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Quick Launch, clearing Jump List folders manually and automatically with Command Prompt commands as suggested here with no luck. The only thing I did achieve was when I pinned Skype to taskbar in my other user account, then copied the newly created shortcut from Use Pinned folder to my User Pinned folder—this made Skype Jump Lists working but duplicate icon in taskbar remained.

 

I‘ve recently found a tutorial which may force taskbar to use only one icon per app but I can‘t check this right now as 7+ Taskbar Tweaker isn‘t yet officially available for Windows 10 users.

 

Thank you for taking your time and reading my message, any suggestions would be appreciated,

 

MDJ

 

P. S. I don‘t know if this is related but I can‘t pin any Control Panel item to Quick Access whilst I can pin folders. Interesting side of this is that pinned Control Panel items appear in File Explorer's Jump List but after clicked I get a message that item is unavailable and that it might have been moved, renamed or removed.

 

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Links to some screenshots:

i.imgur.com/RNRBIj1.png

i.imgur.com/JXhFylK.png

i.imgur.com/M5nq5tl.png

[Tripredacus]

Does the second Skype icon disappear if you disable viewing Protected System Files? I know you have this enabled now because you have the two desktop.ini on your 3rd picture.

[MDJ]

Does the second Skype icon disappear if you disable viewing Protected System Files? I know you have this enabled now because you have the two desktop.ini on your 3rd picture.

Unfortunately doesn‘t make any difference.

[kaljukass]

These are different things (link and shortcut icon)- you're probably activated and allowed to run Skype Windows Desktop version and Skype for Windows. And You have allowed to start both if Windows start. These programs are different. You need to choose what you use, but not both simultaneously. 

And at all, Why is needed in the same pc two different Skypes?

[MDJ]

 

These are different things (link and shortcut icon)- you're probably activated and allowed to run Skype Windows Desktop version and Skype for Windows. And You have allowed to start both if Windows start. These programs are different. You need to choose what you use, but not both simultaneously. 

And at all, Why is needed in the same pc two different Skypes?

 

I‘ve only desktop version of Skype, haven‘t seen modern one working for Windows 10 so far as Store installs Get Skype app instead of the actual modern version. I‘ve no auto startup set for Skype or Spotify either. Having duplicate taskbar icons for Skype and Spotify is my main problem and it isn‘t a behaviour that would occur if everything were fine with user account (some kind of bug, some broken settings?). Skype shortcuts in the screenshots are shown in comparison. As the text in red font colour says, one of them provides working Jump List but can be only gotten by pinning the program in other user account—in my account the completely broken one is pinned. Either way, none of them solves duplicate taskbar icon problem.

[NoelC]

I realize you're trying to use a feature that should work, but...  I've found I get the best results with the newer several generations of operating systems by not trying to use any of the features Microsoft has tried to glue on.  This includes things like pinning, libraries, jump lists, and even keeping items in the Taskbar that are not running.

 

It's like they created new ways for people to do things, but never bothered to finish them.  The last thing in the world we need is an operating system where things don't work reliably.

 

On the other hand, ancient things like icons on the desktop work pretty reliably.  Maybe it's not "hip", but personally I think "works" is a lot better than "hip".

 

I suggest gradually getting out of the habit of using the "new" features can lead to a good way to use Windows.

 

-Noel

[MDJ]

I realize you're trying to use a feature that should work, but...  I've found I get the best results with the newer several generations of operating systems by not trying to use any of the features Microsoft has tried to glue on.  This includes things like pinning, libraries, jump lists, and even keeping items in the Taskbar that are not running.

 

It's like they created new ways for people to do things, but never bothered to finish them.  The last thing in the world we need is an operating system where things don't work reliably.

 

On the other hand, ancient things like icons on the desktop work pretty reliably.  Maybe it's not "hip", but personally I think "works" is a lot better than "hip".

 

I suggest gradually getting out of the habit of using the "new" features can lead to a good way to use Windows.

 

-Noel

I get your point but I actually really enjoy testing all new features out, learning to finish my daily tasks in new ways. Of course, I‘m not fond of Microsoft trying to push such things as Desktop application replacement to Modern apps, Fast startup which doesn‘t even make Windows completely shutdown but instead partially hibernate, Aero Glass removal and trying to make UI as blank and dull as possible. I could continue with this list on and on but some newly introduced features I just simply love using that‘s why I‘m dedicating my time to fix existent problems.

[maxXPsoft]

MDJ

 

2 desktop.ini is where you set explorer to show hidden files so thats normal. Just delete them

 

Paste below in a command window. This will clear all Jumplists and see if that fixes.

This is one line

 

cmd /c Echo Y | DEL "%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\recent\automaticdestinations\*" | cmd /c Echo Y | DEL "%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*"

Edited August 8, 2015 by maxXPsoft

[MDJ]

MDJ

 

2 desktop.ini is where you set explorer to show hidden files so thats normal. Just delete them

 

Paste below in a command window. This will clear all Jumplists and see if that fixes.

This is one line

 

cmd /c Echo Y | DEL "%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\recent\automaticdestinations\*" | cmd /c Echo Y | DEL "%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*"

I‘ve just tried this but as I said above I‘ve tried clearing Jump Lists earlier too but problems still persist. Not all Jump Lists are broken, only the ones of applications which have duplicate taskbar icons. As it‘s seen in screenshots, when properties of duplicate taskbar icons are shown you can see that you‘re viewing EXE file properties instead of shortcut properties. When comparing different applications I made a conclusion that normal behaviour is to show shortcut properties. I believe that this is part of the problem why File Explorer divide some application icons.

[maxXPsoft]

You had this problem in 8 also and you upgraded and dragged that problem over.

 

It is best to never upgrade but do clean install.

Requires you to collect your serial numbers, current applications and place them on a separate drive or something.

 

Then if you have the installation dvd or usb you just run setup.exe and choose settings carefully and tell it not to save anything.

It should be ok cause your activation comes from your hardware ID since you have upgraded already

If you don't have same media then this site will let you download and create a new one http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10?OCID=WIP_r_Win10_Body_AddPC

I'd say an 8GB usb drive

 

If you go to All Settings, Update and Security there is a Recovery then Reset this PC

I haven't tried it yet so don't know if it requires the usb drive you burned upgrade to or not.

Edited August 8, 2015 by maxXPsoft

[MDJ]

This problem somehow automatically fixed itself in Windows 8.1 so it didn‘t even drew my attention then. Anyway, I did upgrade my Windows but straight after that I did a clean install so no registry keys or applications are transferred to my Windows. The strangest part is that in my other user account this problem doesn‘t occur though Control Panel items can‘t be pinned to Quick Access even there.

[maxXPsoft]

You've got a rare strange problem there M8 and I'm clueless cause I have not had it yet myself. If I did I'd try a clean install first and then if not fixed I dig deep into registry or whatever.

[MDJ]

Perhaps one of my installed application always messes something up, who knows. Even though this problem is hard to solve, I don‘t think I‘ll be doing a clean install soon as reinstalling programs, tweaking Windows into your desired way are very time-consuming things. At least, the main problem only occurs for two applications at the moment.

[maxXPsoft]

Know that feeling, I installed the ancient Visual basic 6 on ten here and it crashed at end but it works. Was able to update my Jump2reg with minor thing and its working

 

I'm always working on reg settings and stuff to get my system back quicker to what I want if I crash it which I'm prone to do

[MDJ]

By now I‘ve managed to make all of my jump lists working again by editing incorrectly working shortcuts in “User Pinned” folder. It‘s a simple solution—I just crop the path in “Start in” field by one folder. An example of this could be default “Start in” path for Spotify “C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Spotify” is cropped to “C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\”.

 

However, other problems still persist.