ShellFolderFix - Manage folder window positions/size

LOVELY!

The last tweak issue with W7 solved with this nice little tool!

Well, almost. I install it but it won't autostart properly. Neither can I change any settings. I get an error when I press OK. "Unable to create shortcut int Startup folder.". If I place a shortcut in Startup manually, it opens up non-minimized as my computer boots (even when that option set, incl run with Admin rights).

If I start it manually, it starts minimized and works - although only with the default settings.

What could be the problem?

I've moved and reset the Startup folder, I've made sure the reg key for it points to the right place. I also use ClassixShell to get the old version of the startmenu, but tried without that running, and still I get the same error.

(Win7/x64)

Fawkrin said:

Well, almost. I install it but it won't autostart properly. Neither can I change any settings. I get an error when I press OK. "Unable to create shortcut int Startup folder.". If I place a shortcut in Startup manually, it opens up non-minimized as my computer boots (even when that option set, incl run with Admin rights).

If I start it manually, it starts minimized and works - although only with the default settings.

What could be the problem?

That's very strange, sounds like some kind of issue with access rights for the process since you can't change settings (or have it write the shortcut). Those settings are written to the current user registry section, which you always should have write access to AFAIK.

The reason it doesn't start minimized is also due to it failing to write to the registry. You can bypass that particular effect by adding "/autostart" to the shortcut command line:

C:\...blabla...\ShellFolderFixUI.exe /autostart

However that's not an ideal solution since you'll still have the problem of it not writing other settings to registry.

I don't really know why it isn't allowed to write to the registry (or disk), do you have some other security software installed? The only thing to do, I can think of right now, is to open the Task Manager (right click on empty area of start menu and pick Start Task Manager) and look under "Processes" tab. Search for "ShellFolderFixUI.exe" in the list and see if the "User Name" column matches your user name.

Fawkrin said:

ShellFolderFix is started and run by me yes. And surprise, the /autostart didn't really help. The main window still pops up. The other programs in startup does not.

Now that's really really strange, that should be technically impossible :) . The code to display the dialog is completely circumvented if /autostart is specified.

That it displayed it without /autostart made sense, because then it used a registry key to check if it's the first time run, and since it can't write to the registry it always thinks it's the first time, but with /autostart that doesn't happen. I'm stumped.

Uhm, now I get another error when I try to change settings: "Unable to delete shortcut from Startup folder, reason unknown."

It's getting better...

I don't think that is strange though. It doesn't have write access so it can't delete the shortcut, and since the default settings are used it thinks autostart should be disabled so it tries to delete it.


Hmm, if I understood it right you used the installer so this shouldn't be able to happen, but is there any chance it's running the 32-bit version? Check the task manager and see if it says "*32" next to ShellFolderFixUI.exe process.

Also did the process have the correct owner?

found details about the installation and such, so it has definetely written to registry

That's probably what the installer writes to the registry, not the application. If you want to look for what the application writes then look for HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/ShellFolderFix. I'm suspecting that isn't there at all.

Hey

Nope, no *32 so its the 64 bit version, and I used the installer.

I have reg entries at that location;
Default - value not set
Dbsize - 0x000003e8 (1000)
FirstRun - x000000 (0)

Happy to be able to puzzle others too, not just myself... :)

Fawkrin said:

I have reg entries at that location;
Default - value not set
Dbsize - 0x000003e8 (1000)
FirstRun - x000000 (0)

Ok, that might help a little to determine what's happening (but still not why). I'm attaching a new exe which you can replace the current one with (just copy it over the existing one). I've added some numeric error codes to error message when it's creating/deleting the shortcut, hopefully that can help me on why that fails.

I also came to think about one other scenario where the dialog opens up on app start (even if /autostart is specified), and that is if the app is started while an instance of it is already running. Maybe for some reason it's double launched (related to ClassixShell?). In any case this is secondary, maybe it sorts itself out once the primary issue above is solved.

edit: attachment removed

Problem solved. I suspected it was double launched, so we were both right. Nothing wrong with your app, it's just probably written to give errors where other apps just chooses to ignore errors... Or limits the number of times it can be launched.

As I want a clean and sorted Start Menu, I edit it. Part of that is making sure all entries are in the same location. As software have the habit of installing shortcuts at either the "user" area, or the "all user" area, I move them to where I want them ("user area"). When I did that after installing all software on my new W7 system, I MOVED the folder structure. That left the "all user" area without any folders. A simple empty "programs\startup" folder in the "all user" start menu solved the problem.

This has been the same since WinXP. If one of the two startup folders don't exist, Windows runs the one that exist twice. Just to be sure I guess.

So, I killed the Bruce Boxleitner in my system. For now...

Thanks for a great app, keep it up!

And THANKS for the effort of solving this, and making your app better. Wish that Microsoft had this kind of spirit instead of forcing us to do what they think is best. It IS a lifesaver in my W7 setup, and with the user created freeware Classic Start Menu app I run, it makes up 50% of my happiness with the system. M$ owes you money in my book.

Ah great, that explains it. It failed to make shortcut because of the missing folder, and if it failed the shortcut it also aborted applying other settings (which I suspected was the reason for failure to apply settings so I changed that in the attached debug version above, so that settings always get applied regardless of shortcut success/failure).

I've added another specific error message for missing Startup directory, which will be included in the next version. Makes it easier to figure out should it happen to someone else in future.

Glad that got sorted out in a somewhat painless fashion (considering the seemingly strange behavior it could have been a lot harder) :)

Hi Tweaker,

I've just had another situation where ShellFolderFix has decided to start Explorer as a tiny window off-screen.

I've made a copy of ShellFolderFix.db... Is this the file you would need to see to determine what's being written in there?

Thanks.

-Noel