Classic Shell: Forum

Hi all,

Strange one, we have a domain with appdata redirection for desktops and local roaming appdata for laptops due to them roaming off and on site.

The desktops have frequent programs etc absolutely fine, the laptops logged on with a network account do not. A local system account has no issues.

Where does classic shell store the recent program/frequent program information? When I check %appdata%\Roaming\ClassicShell there is a DataCache.db file and pinned folder.

Users have full access to their own Appdata folders etc. Any ideas what could be going on?

Windows 8.1 Update Enterprise 64bit

Regards

Lawrence

The usage information is actually maintained by the OS and is stored in the registry. It is possible that the paths stored there do not match the paths to the actual program shortcuts.

Go to the registry and open HKCU\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings. Create a new DWORD value named "LogLevel" and set it to 4.

Log of and log in again.

Open the start menu once, then close it.

Immediately after that open Explorer in %APPDATA%\ClassicShell and look for a file named StartMenuLog.txt. Attach that file here.

Hi,

Thanks for this please see attached for this.

Regards

Lawrence

I don't see any data in the log file. It is as if the system setting to track program usage is turned off.
Download the Classic Shell Utility from here: http://classicshell.net/downloads/ then run it and send me the log file.

Hi,

Thanks for that. I followed the original instructions you sent and did some further testing on our redirected appdata clients.

In the original post you sent it didn't say to launch an application from the menu. Having seen the behaviour with this logging on other machines after pressing links and watching the output I take it you wished to instruct me to do this for the file sent?

I can provide another when I'm on site tomorrow if that is the case.

I apologise for any confusion. Also for the fact I work 8am-4pm UK GMT.

Regards

Lawrence

My second request was for a different log from the Classic Shell Utility program. It collects information about your system settings. It is not the same as the start menu log that you initially sent. That file made me suspect that you don't have the program tracking enabled, and the second log will help verify that.

Ahh I see. My mistake.

Will send you the result when I'm on site tomorrow.

Thanks for the help.

Regards

Lawrence

Please see attached for the utility log.

Regards

Lawrence

I don't see anything out of the ordinary in the log file.
Right-click on the taskbar and select Properties. Then go to the Jump Lists tab. Make sure the "Store recently opened programs" is checked. This is the Windows setting that controls the usage database.

Hi,

Checked that also when I've been logged in as a network user, all appears to be in place.

Very strange problem it seems, local administrator on the effected machine works as expected. Users on desktops using the same version experience no issues due to appdata redirection. For some reason it doesn't like the absence of appdata redirection.

The only other thing we do is to give users access to redirected shortcuts away from site is we do a robocopy of the network shortcuts (including applications in shared volumes) to the machine. This currently places shortcuts into "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs".

This is done with the following logon script:

IF EXIST "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools" (
rmdir "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools" /s /q
)

robocopy "\\server\share$\STAFF\64BIT\START MENU" "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" /e /w:0 /R:0

robocopy "\\server\share$\STAFF\64BIT\DESKTOP" "M:\Desktop\Shortcuts" /e /w:0 /R:0


Any reason why this maybe an issue?

Regards

Lawrence

Go to the registry and see if there is any data in these two keys:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\{F4E57C4B-2036-45F0-A9AB-443BCFE33D9F}\Count
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\{CEBFF5CD-ACE2-4F4F-9178-9926F41749EA}\Count

The start menu uses the contents of these keys to track the program usage.

Hi,

You're absolutely right there appears to be no entries in these locations for our laptop clients with the none redirected appdata/copied start menu links.

There are entries in the working clients. How would you think we should change our setup with this in mind?

Thank you for your patience.

Regards

Lawrence

As far as I know, the only setting that controls these registry keys is the "Store recently opened programs". If you have it checked, the data should appear. Maybe there is some group policy at play here that suppresses that functionality.

You're absolutely right.

The setting entitled "turn off tracking of app usage" had been enabled by group policy. This seems to enable to use of "sort apps by > most used" in windows 8.1.

For anyone finding this post the settings is located under: User Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Edge UI

No idea why this had been set in one of the policies. Thank you for helping me solve this issue!

Regards

Lawrence