Cant 'explore' or 'open' start menu folders

[glent]

well i just did a install with no regtweaks and the same thing happens

ima also using the hacked tcpip, sfc_os,and custom winntbuu i dount these would have any affect right>?

Edit 1 : Ive just buit, a new ISO with nlite and ryanvm 1.4 and the problem is still there...i tested the source without Ryanvm and the problem does not appear.

edit 2 :

i may be barking p the wrong tree but i ran qfcheck within wmware and say this

is it normal?

im begging to think myabe the pack from ryan site may have been corrupt i will trya new dl now

[glent]

I download it again and I added ryan pack manaully and all htofixes apear when i run qfcheck but i still can not explore or open folders on the start menu

Edit 1: I tested the lite pack and its fine mayeb the copy/move context dll is the problem?

[RyanVM]

OK, I see the problem. It's being caused by WhoLockMe. It'll be out of the next release until I can figure out what's going on and a way to fix it. Thanks for finding the problem.

EDIT: New release should be out next Tuesday, for the record (Mcirosoft patch day).

EDIT2: To fix the problem for now, open up a command prompt and run the following command:

regsvr32 /u WhoLockMe.dll

[glent]

thank you ryanm

[durex]

Hey glent... can you do me a quick favor? See if the 'New Folder' button works in the Open and Saves as dialog boxes... (Big thx Ryan)

Removing the wholock me fixed the open and explore start menu, but I still have this issue....

[glent]

I have built a new ISO and added the commad to my cleanup.cmd and everythign worsk just fine ..even the new folder

[benners]

I have been using WholockMe for a while after finding it on the authors website, and in all this time I have never used it on a folder, only files, once the files have been unlocked I am able to delete the folder.

If you want to keep the WholockMe functionality you can delete this key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\WhoLockMe]

which will remove WhoLockMe from the folders context menu, give browsing functionality back to start menu folders and still keep the file context menu.

[durex]

Unfortunately I use it on folders on multiple occasions... for example when I try to delete a folder and I get access denied... shows me what file is being used causing that error...

So is this an issue with the who lock me program or how its being implemented by your pack Ryan?

[RyanVM]

Unfortunately I use it on folders on multiple occasions... for example when I try to delete a folder and I get access denied... shows me what file is being used causing that error...

So is this an issue with the who lock me program or how its being implemented by your pack Ryan?

It's an issue with the DLL. It's "implemented" in my pack by being extracted from a CAB archive to system32 and registered like any other DLL (and the same way it would be registered if you were to download it an install it manually).

I sent an email to the developer regarding that issue (and the Mydoom issue as well, but at least I'm able to work around that one), so I'm hoping to hear back from him on the matter. I'm not overly encouraged by the fact that it hasn't seen any development since 2002 (though the developer does have other more recent projects on his site - so at least he appears to still be around).

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

@durex re: 4th post in thread -

Hrm.. and I did use nlite to remove some stuff

I've known different technicians at work remove the same things from their install cd's @work and get different results. That's why I never use nLite for reducing size of source. Its too unpredictable. Sorry if this upsets the nLite dev's but thats' our personal experience with it - we just use it as a slipstreaming tool.

Some people might/will disagree with me but from past dodgy experiences I will not use nLite as a reducing tool.

I use the original guide = http://unattended.msfn.org/xp/space_saving_tips.htm and manually del all the mentioned directories there and haven't had any issues from doing so, especially the prob you are experiencing.

nLite V0.99.4b2

M$ WinXP Pro (with no SP's applied, just "bare")

M$ SP2

RyanVM pack full V104

P.S. For the same reasons - unpredictability - we also don't use VMware or VirtualPC for testing. Just a dedicated testbox. It just adds extra clutter to find what-went-wrong-where if issues arise. Rule 'em out from the word go.

Well I & Heck of a lot of other forumers have been testing NLite for many months now & the only problems I have encountered are user errors not program ones!

[SyntaxError]

I have the same start menu problem. Can't explore or open submenus, but they both work fine on the start menu root. I don't use nlite or Ryanvm's update packs, wholockme, and no windows components are removed from my unattended. I haven't even manually reduced the size. Programs Files and Documents and Settings folders are in the default places. Drag and Drop is not disabled. I'm using Xp Pro with sp1 and a handful of hotfixes installed via svcpack.inf, with a hacked uxtheme.dll, and custom logon screen. DirectX 9.0c, Ryanvm's dotnet2.0 silent installer (which I finally got to work after I found out you need windows installer 3.1 installed first), TaskSwitch powertoy, and SunJava all install via RunOnceEx.

This start menu thing seems to be just another random bug in windows. I've used my UA on several systems, and sometimes the problem is there, sometimes it isn't. But ONLY with a UA cd.

[cluberti]

Usually, this is because of missing class ID's in the registry (CLSID) - you'd need to run regmon on the system when trying to do the failing steps though, to see which CLSID comes back as not found.

[SyntaxError]

I can't make heads or tails of all the garbage in Regmon. What am I looking for?

[cluberti]

Yeah, regmon's pretty verbose. However, you're looking for any entries that are "Not found" or "Access denied". Note that on the "Not found" entries, it may find the key or value it's looking for later on, so be careful - it can take the registry parser a while to find what it's looking for, and it may look in multiple locations for a key or value. Keep track of the "Not found"s that are actually not found, and note any access denied's immediately.

Sorry I can't help you too much further, because regmon and filemon are a bit more low level tools than most GUI users are used to dealing with. It takes a pretty good knowledge of how the system works when it's actually working to be able to look at a regmon or filemon log and see what's "wrong" - it helps to know what it looks like when it's working .

Sometimes, though, regmon or filemon are the only sure-fire way to find out just what's going on within the system's "guts". It's good to find out when things aren't working, and it's also good for those times when you think "I wonder what happens when I click this, or make this change here..."