Corrupted Context Menu - Win2k Pro My Network Places

[dbergst]

I ran into this rather annoying issue recently on my Win2K Pro SP4 box. The context menu that I see when I right click the "My Network Places" icon on the desktop seems to have been corrupted with duplicate / incorrect entries.

See the attached picture for details.

[profdlp]

A manual registry edit would likely fix this. The fun part will be finding the right place to do the editing.

Backup your registry first!


Prof

[Spinner]

Before delving into the murky depths of the Windows 2000 registry I suggest trying to see if the problem is simply being created by an application you have installed.

Load up in Safe mode and see if the menu name duplication is still present, and also do the same thing but this time, use MSCONFIG to stop your startup items from loading, just to make sure an application or driver isn't responsible.

If after all of the above testing, the problem still remains, then, a registry edit may be in order. If not though and the problem does seem to be application related, then you simply have to locate the program responsible and kill it.

Let us know how you get on.

SPINNER

[dbergst]

Thanks profdlp & Spinner. Your suggestions are appreciated.

This condition seems to have appeared only in the past couple of days. It may be related to either a system crash that occurred several days ago or a power outage that happened just the other day.

I have already searched the registry for offending entries, Windows 2000 FAQ, the MS Knowledge Base, Google, etc., but to no avail. I'll try Safe Mode, and MSConfig as Spinner suggested.

[EMT]

Search the registry for My Network Places. You'll come across a CLSID folder (something like HKLM\Software\Classes\CLSID\ and for me the key was {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}).

Open the key in there called 'shell' and see what's in there - for me there's a 'find' and a 'Sandra'. Look inside each for what it does and what the text on the dropdown menu will look like. If someone wanted to add something to the context menu of My Network Places, this is probably where they would do it.

[dbergst]

EMT said
Search the registry for My Network Places. You'll come across a CLSID folder (something like HKLM\Software\Classes\CLSID\ and for me the key was {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}).

Open the key in there called 'shell' and see what's in there - for me there's a 'find' and a 'Sandra'. Look inside each for what it does and what the text on the dropdown menu will look like. If someone wanted to add something to the context menu of My Network Places, this is probably where they would do it.

That's helpful information but I won't need to hack the registry. My Ghost backup from last week resolved this issue, along with a quick zip backup and restore of my email profile. My system appears to be up and running with no further anomaly on this right-click menu.