Windows WinX Menu shortcut key not working

[poyndertoo]

Hi all

I am having problems with the shortcut key Win + X, the one that opens the advanced context menu in the lower-left corner of the screen, it does nothing.

The folder WinX is in my User account where it should be,

Most of the other shortcut keys work Ok as far as I can test them.

Any ideas on where to start looking.

Regards... Colin

[HappyAndyK]

Do other keyboard shortcuts work?

Does the Win+X menu appear when you take your cursor to the bottom left corner?

[poyndertoo]

If I take the cursor to bottom left corner of the start screen I get the desktop, if on the desktop I get the start.

Not all of the other keys work for instance the Win+E, which has got me think if it is Directory Opus causeing problems as it was set to take over as the file explorer. I'll check and report back.

Is there anyway of remapping the hot keys.

UPDATE

Just uninstalled Directory Opus and Win+E is working, Win+X however is not.

It must be a program I've installed as when I reinstalled Win8 it worked Ok, forgot to check each prog when I reinstalled.

Is there any way of finding out which program is causing the problem apart from reinstalling everything again.

Colin

[whs]

The folders containing the shortcuts that you can bring up with Win+X are in the Group2 and Group3 folders that are located at C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\ WinX. Maybe you can pick them up from there.

[HappyAndyK]

I am guessing some software you installed re-mapped the hotkeys. Maybe you could use some freeware to help you remap the hotkeys. Else you may have to consider carrying out Restore or Refresh on your system.

[poyndertoo]

Ok, a refresh did not work so I spent a lot of time yesterday re installing Windows 8.

Each time I installed a program I tried Win+X and did a Restore point at several intervals.

I the found what was causing the problem, I had tried a suggested method for bulk erasing all the install programs pinned to the start page and that caused Win+X to stop. I did a system restore to the last point made and all was Ok. I continued as before, installing, checking and Restore points every now and then.

I managed to get to the end of all my installations with no problems, I did several shutdowns and reboots after that and Win+X was still working.

Great I thought until this morning, switched on the PC after being off all night and.. Win+X has stopped working!!!!

I am assuming that the restore point did not fully sort the problem out but I fail to see why it only manifested itself after being powered down over night.

This is the method I used to try and bulk unpin from start screen...

1. Open-Command Prompt (Admin)-by pressing-Win-+-X,-A


2. Copy these lines:
del %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemda ta-ms
del %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemda ta-ms.bak
tskill explorer

3. Right-click in Command Prompt and select-Paste:

4. Press Enter

Pasted from superuser.com - reset-unpin-all-items-in-windows-8-start-screen-quickly


Any suggestions where to go from here. I feel another re installation coming on.

Regards Colin

[poyndertoo]

Ok, found the problem after much installing and uninstalling etc.

To get rid of the shortcut arrows on the desktop icons I had followed some instructions on renaming a registry entry which removed the arrow but as I now know stopped Win+X working as well.

The culprit was.. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\IsShortcut , I had renamed it to NoIsShortcut.

Thanks for the help and deep thought.

Colin

[HappyAndyK]

Thanks for posting the solution here - I hope it helps someone someday!

[kstcable]

To get rid of the shortcut arrows on the desktop icons I had followed some instructions on renaming a registry entry which removed the arrow but as I now know stopped Win+X working as well.

[sdmf74]

To get rid of the shortcut arrows on the desktop icons I had followed some instructions on renaming a registry entry which removed the arrow but as I now know stopped Win+X working as well.

I too am having problems with the win+x shortcut,when I try to use it nothing happens.(I mean all the options appear in the box but when I click on one i.e. device manager,nothing happens) All the other win+ shortcuts work though. I have not messed with my registry at all. Any other things that may be causing this???? or known fixes??? I have had to reformat and reinstall windows 8 several times already for other unrelated problems and DO NOT want to do it again.

If I create another user account it works with that one but not with my main(administrator) account. This is unfortunate Those win+key shortcuts are one of the few things that make windows 8 bearable