Classic Shell: Forum

The "Devices and Printers" command in the Wins 8.1 "Classic Start Shell" is not working now. Selecting does nothing and Classic Shell freezes operation until I double click a couple of times

Do you have Devices and Printers set to show as a Link or as a Menu? By selecting do you mean hovering over it to expand? The menu hangs when you try to expand it but double clicking it opens it in Explorer?

You could try capturing a slowdown dump as shown in this article: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6. Run procdump -n 10 -s 1 explorer.exe and then quickly open the Start Menu and try to expand the Devices and Printers folder so it hangs.

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I also have the same issue. It seems to have happened after my latest Windows update. All the other expanding menu items on Classic Start Menu work fine (Control Panel, Recent Items, This PC, Apps) but the Devices and Printers menu, as soon as I hover over it, freezes the Menu.
I checked whether the folder had a problem, but I can open it by searching for 'Devices and Printers' in Classic Start Menu. It does take a while to open and populate all the items. I then checked if Classic Start Menu worked while I had the Devices and Printers folder already open. It does! So it must be some problem with taking too long to find all the devices.

I've tried uninstalling, then reinstalling Classic Start Menu. I wanted to try it with default settings but bizarrely Classic Start Menu seems to have found all its original settings, even though I Restarted before reinstalling. Did I do this right?


I've tried recording a dump as instructed, but get the reply "Multiple Processes match the specified name" in the Run window.
Can I check, should I be including gaps between the items as shown by my underscores below?
procdump_-n_10_-s_1_explorer.exe It's quite hard to tell if those are spaces or not.


In the meantime I've changed Devices and Printers to act a link rather than a menu, but any suggestions gratefully received.

Yes, you need to have spaces in place of your underscores.
To avoid the multiple processes error, restart the machine and run the test right after you log in and before you open any Explorer windows.

Btw, a little bit of delay in expanding Devices and Printers when it is set to show as a menu is normal. That is a special folder and when you open it in Explorer, you will notice that the Explorer window also takes some time to populate all the icons and shows a green progress bar at the top.

Of course, Classic Start Menu shouldn't hang or crash because of it. It doesn't normally. In case it does, please attach a dump.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.