Right click 8.1 'start' button does nothing

Question

Hi;

Upgraded from windows store (original 8.0 clean install) to 8.1.  Everything worked fine, except the windows start button does not respond to a right mouse click.  Left button works fine (switches between desktop and start menu), Right mouse clicks works as expected on every other object.  I don't have any of the windows 8.1 start screen navigation settings checked  (I.E. stop using the start screen).

Ideas?

Answer 1

I too have all the contents but me too facing the same problem

Answer 2

Thanks for this it worked a treat! Right click Windows works as normal.

Answer 3

Another downside to removing the Shortcut arrows.

I've also been ripping my hair out trying to work out why I cannot pin programmes or whatever to the task bar. Or if they are there why are they not showing?

After finally fixing the right-click Start button I thought I'd take a stab in the dark. Right-clicked the Desktop Shortcut icon of Outlook, clicked Pin to Taskbar and voila, it finally worked.

I'm very new to 10 but I cannot get my headspace around how doing something so trivial as editing the Registry to not display something irrelevant has such an impact on the basic usability of the operating system.

That's two boxes checked. Now all that's left to get working is Indexing (can't turn on), One Drive (maybe the new Gmail account which I needed to create to receive a Microsoft account might work), File History (can't turn on) etc etc.

Answer 4

This was it! Bloody spot on !!!

I recently updated from 7 to 10 and the installation was fine with no problems. One of the extras I was pleased to have at hand was the right-click on the Start button menu options. I had no reason to go into them at depth but thought I would have a look later down the track.

When I decided to have a look the right-click didn't work. I've been racking my brain to work out why not and when going over my notes it stuck in the back of my head that possibly deleting the arrows on Shortcut icons might have had something to do with it, yet I could not see how ridding the desktop of unecessary adornments could have an effect on the operability of a button.

But sure enough, on reversing my deletion of killing the arrows the operation of right-click returned. Justlast Knight's offhand remark is the only one I have seen that mentions this fix and I give him a huge pat on the back.

I tried the cutting and pasting that others mentioned but I found the easiest and most accurate way to restore the Registry entries was to do it manually.

Run - Regedit

Go to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile and

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile

and to each add a new Dword name by

Edit - New - Dword name

Name it IsShortcut and accept the default values.

By the way it has taken me two nights on Microsoft's support pages and a phone call to (I think the Philipines which was a waste of an hour) just to set up a Microsoft account so I could reply to the post. Bloody Microsoft!

JK's post was spot on so please spread the word about this fix and give him credit, a pat on the back or a cigar.