Classic Shell: Forum

After upgrading my Classic Shell from 4.0.2 to 4.0.4, I began noticing that SkyDrive (now OneDrive) was not starting on my Windows 8.1 Pro x64 machine. On further investigation, I discovered that the SkyDrive SyncEngine Host process was not running at startup. I could restore SkyDrive functionality using Microsoft's troubleshooting tool, but the problem would come back on each restart of the computer.

Then I tried uninstalling Classic Shell, since it was the last program I had installed/updated. The SkyDrive Sync Engine Host process came up immediately at startup.

I tried a series of installs/reinstalls of Classic Shell. Each time, SkyDrive Sync Engine Host would not start with Classic Shell installed. Conversely, each time Classic Shell was not installed, the SkyDrive process would start and run. No other alterations or modifications were made to the setup on my machine.

After this series of installs/uninstalls, I tried installing a trial version of Start8 just to see how SkyDrive would behave with it installed. SkyDrive starts up every time on a series of reboots.

It is possible that SkyDrive and Classic Shell use a similar technique for starting early after login, making them incompatible.

I will try to reproduce the issue. What version of SkyDrive are you using, and how do you determine if it is working or not?

The version of SkyDrive.exe on my machine is 6.3.9600.16507.

I determine if it's working by looking for the presence of the SkyDrive Sync Engine Host process in Task Manager. When that process is missing, the SkyDrive icon doesn't appear in the notification area, SkyDrive folders disappear from the navigation pane of File Explorer and the 'Save Documents to SkyDrive by Default' setting under PC Settings/SkyDrive/File Storage goes from 'Yes' to 'No' and can not be reset.

Let's try this. Go to the General Behavior tab in the settings and then uncheck "Start automatically for this user". Then reboot and see if SkyDrive works. After you confirm that, run ClassicStartMenu.exe and see if both the menu and SkyDrive can coexist.

OK, tried it. SkyDrive works when ClassicShell doesn't start automatically and I manually run ClassicStartMenu.exe. When I start Classic Shell automatically, I see the issue with SkyDrive.

OK, let's try something else. Open regedit and go to HKCU\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings.
Create a new DWORD named "AutoStartDelay" and set it to 1000.
Then enable back the "Start automatically for this user" setting.
Restart and see if it works now. If it doesn't work, try increasing the value to 2000 or more.

BTW, are you automatically logging in, or are you typing a password every time?

Sorry for the delayed response - I'm creating the DWORD you requested now.

I assume you are referring to logging in to Windows - I always type a password.

Will post with the results of the DWORD later today.

Well....results are puzzling. Created the DWORD and set its value to 1000, 2000 and 3000. All 3 values work; the SkyDrive Sync Engine Host appears IF the PC is simply restarted. However, if the PC is shut down then restarted, the SkyDrive process does not start at all...

Let's go back to the previous test - if you uncheck "Start automatically for this user", does SkyDrive work if you shut down, then restart, then run ClassicStartMenu.exe.

Already did it, SkyDrive will work with automatic start disabled in the shutdown/restart scenario.

Since you seem to have a 100% repro case, are you willing to work with me over the next few weeks to run some tests? If so, send me a PM and we can take this offline.