Classic Shell: Forum

At times, the Recent Item list will display the list as filenames, sometimes as full path names to the list in my user account, and sometimes a combination of both. The references can even appear twice, once as a full path reference, once as only the filename.

Even more frustrating is that the filenames that appear as paths cannot be deleted from the menu that comes up with a right-click on the item. To get rid of them, you have to use the option to "Clear Recent Item List". Of course, then even the ones that you wish to keep are removed.

As shown, hovering over a path will show the filename it represents.

In this example, the 3rd and 4th entry are actually duplicates pointing to the same file. The 5th and last entries refer to the same file, one reference as a full path, one as the filename only.

[img]http://s1108.photobucket.com/user/abcandjrc/media/Computer%20Related/0af86087-412c-49bc-a07a-66e0560af5ee_zpsv0xcdtfj.jpg.html]
Classic Shell version 4.2.4 (I will update 4.2.5 right now and will post if I find any change to this behavior)
Windows 10 version 1511 updated to today, 11/29/2015

The contents of the menu come from the Recent Items folder. Double-click on it in the start menu to open that folder in Explorer. See if there is anything odd about those files.

I just updated to 4.2.5 and cleared the list. I will keep an eye on the list and if the strange appearance occurs will take a look in the folder and report back.

Thanks.

Might be a Windows 10 bug. Note that Classic Shell does not maintain this list. It is created by Windows.

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

There was no change in behavior by switching to 4.2.5. Still mixed full-path and filename-only listings in the Recent Items list. I looked in the folder where recent items are stored and they all look like normal shortcuts. But even though one item is on the Recent Items list in both formats, only one shortcut appears in File Explorer even if I turn on hidden file and system file views. But if I check the Properties on each, they are different links created on different days. Obviously one or the other is "invisible to the user" from File Explorer (taking IBM's old saw of "transparent to the user" to the extreme ?)

Here are the relevant images:

[img]http://s1108.photobucket.com/user/abcandjrc/media/Computer%20Related/The%20File%20Explorer%20View%20v4.2.5_zpsgimj87lb.jpg.html] The view from Classic shell. Both formats point to Checkbook Planner 2015-11.xls.

[img]http://s1108.photobucket.com/user/abcandjrc/media/Computer%20Related/Classic%20Shell%20Recent%20List%20v4.2.5_zps3oiw3uxp.jpg.html] The view from File Explorer with Properties by right clicking on the items on The Recent Items list. Other than the date information on the General tabs, there are no differences in the Properties display except that each carries the heading shown as the item on the Recent Items list, as can be seen.

I can't believe I am the only one experiencing this since all three of my computers exhibit the same (but random) behavior. That is, I have found no pattern which predicts which items will appear which way. One difference which might be in play is that all my data is on network drives, but even at that, why does the appearance of the full-path items appear to be at random? And these days, I bet there are millions of computers using network drives.

I have tons of data on network drives mapped to a drive letter and I don't see issues with that in the Recent Items list. Are you saying that they appear without the full path in Explorer Recent Items folder but show the path in the Classic Start Menu? (Your screenshot conceals the Explorer view of the Recent Items folder).

_________________
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.

The one which shows as a filename-only appears as a normal shortcut identified by just the filename (you can see it just above the Properties listings). The one which shows as a full-path doesn't appear anywhere in the File Explorer Recent folder but, somehow or other, clicking on it in the Recent Items list opens it. Just like I got the Properties for it by right-clicking on it. It's as if it is a "ghost link" which Classic Shell lists and can find but File Explorer doesn't find.

And I suspect, as you obviously do, that the network drive probably has nothing to do with it but I mentioned it just in case someone might have an idea of a relationship.

So on the General tab, both shortcuts have the exact same location "C:\Users\ABCandJRC\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent"? Open a command prompt in that folder and type "dir *.lnk". See if you get duplicates that way. This is closer to the way the start menu creates its Recent Items menu.

Indeed, nobody else has reported a similar problem. And I'm sure many people are using Excel.

Yes, both point to the same file but the creation date for each of the two links is different. Here are screen shots of the cmd file directory list and of the File Explorer list. You can see that the cmd list shows 6 links, one of them a second link to the file (2). On the Classic Shell Recent Items list that one is the one showing only the filename, as it should. Note that they have different creation dates. On the File Explorer list, only 5 shortcuts are shown. The one shown for the duplicates has the 12/01 date as the (2) link does on the cmd list. This is with hidden and system files visible on the settings in File Explorer View.

[img]http://s1108.photobucket.com/user/abcandjrc/media/Computer%20Related/Cmd%20list%20of%20links_zpszh094f98.jpg.html]

[img]http://s1108.photobucket.com/user/abcandjrc/media/Computer%20Related/File%20Explorer%20list%20of%20shortcuts_zpsmeadkaxe.jpg.html]

As I said, it appears the link is really there, Classic Shell knows about it, but even using the right-click/delete option on the Classic Shell link will not delete it so W10 doesn't seem to know about it. Obviously, this has me totally stumped. If I use the Clear Recent Items List click on Classic Shell, all of the links go away, so I presume the cmd list would be empty. I don't want to do that right now since this is the only active example I have and may still be useful for finding the problem.

And this in not unique to Excel files. It happens totally at random with various programs. It is just that the current example is an Excel file. I have seen 6 or 8 of the full-path listings from time-to-time.

The lack of reports is puzzling since all three of my computes exhibit the behavior. I may have some strange piece of software installed on each that is causing the effect, but I pretty much doubt that. I do know that when all three computers used the standard W7 menu system, the problem did not occur. Kind of leaves W10, Classic Shell, or an interplay between the two.

I have a theory. If you open the same file multiple times, normally Windows doesn't create multiple recent links, so somehow it knows that such link already exists. If you open multiple files with the same name but in different folders, it will create multiple links. The new link will have (2) or (3) in the name.

Possibly that check if the two files are the same didn't work for you. Maybe your files are on a network drive that sometimes reports different drive letter, or volume name, or maybe a difference in the case of the paths - "my documents" instead of "My Documents". Something is confusing Windows into thinking these are different files. Maybe it is caused by a buggy network drive driver.

The implementation of the Recent Items shell folder may be detecting this case and hiding the duplicates. When the start menu finds the file using the dir method and then asks the shell for the display name of that file, the Recent Items folder gets confused and returns the full name of the file.

I don't see what can be done on my end to fix this. I'm getting "valid" information from Windows. There is no reason to doubt it, so the start menu displays it.

You can only deal with what the OS services provide. The strange thing is that File Explorer, MS's own software, acts differently then the cmd software. Someone in-house isn't servicing the internals properly.

There are four ways that I can think of that we open files. So far I have not determined if one or another triggers the problem. I may start a log to keep track of the means a given file is opened. Most of the time, we open them from the Recent Items list (and I like it that Classic Shell holds a few more than W7 and its predecessors did). The second most prevalent is from File Explorer. Third would be from the recent list in an application if we are already working in one. Finally, from the Open dialog in an application. Somewhere something "funny" is happening.

Just another data point. I have a little piece of software I wrote using Delphi that uses a command file of filenames I want to retain on the Recent Items list. Executed on demand, it will delete all files from the Recent folder except those in the command file. That reduces the probability of my overflowing the Recent Item limits and not seeing files I use frequently. Wild cards are supported. It gets a wildcard match and removes the link to the items shown with a full-path seeing them as shown on the cmd dir listing as a filename with the (n) being insignificant due to the wildcard. So, it sees things File Explorer doesn't.

Thanks for your efforts on this. If I find a direct connection to how the files are opened I will let you know, if for nothing else than it will give an insight into what is going amiss.

Please review this entire chain. I don't want to seem pushy, but I like Classic Shell in every respect except for the one being reported. However, this is a really annoying characteristic.

I installed a competitor's product to see if this problem occurred with it. In 16 days usage on 3 computers this did not show up a single time. Somehow or other, Classic Shell is displaying information that is not very usable to me and, as I said before, is impossible to delete from the list without wiping out the entire list by using the "Clear" option. It would be best not to have the items listed in the first place, but would at least be acceptable to be able to delete them individually.

Here are screen shots taken only a reboot away as one product was removed and the other installed. No documents were opened in the interval except those which the uninstaller/installer may have used and the file used to save the first image. Note that the "full path" items show on Classic Shell and do not on the other product.





I'd sure appreciate it if you would take another look at this.

I'd also like to see others confirm if they are seeing this. At first I thought it was possible my configuration was part of the problem, but the other product seemed to work just fine (at least as far as this problem is concerned).

As I said, Classic Shell uses a different method for listing the Recent Items folder. It is much faster. Speed is important because usually the Recent Items folder doesn't get cleared and it keeps on growing. Once it grows to few hundred items, the standard way of listing the files can be very slow.

Since nobody else has reported this problem, I am hesitant to change the implementation. It may just be some incompatibility between Office 2003 and Windows 10. That's not a common combination.

What will happen if you right-click on the bad entry and select Delete? I recommend you back up the target document, in case it gets deleted by mistake.

I use the Recent Documents feature very heavily and while I got the full path once in the past, it was only temporary and I couldn't reproduce the issue or determine what was causing it. It's very rare and doesn't happen any more on any of the PCs where I use Classic Start Menu.

_________________
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.

Ivo,

I wasn't ignoring your question but I was waiting to make sure of a couple things. I keep hoping the situation will change with every W10 update but so far, no joy. I just got another example and can add a bit of information.

1. It is not only Excel files which can appear as full path name on the Recent Items list. I just had one appear for a file opened by a Delphi program I authored. It is the first time I have seen that but, as I said, these only happen rarely, and with no rhyme-or-reason apparent. (I have a potential clue, see below.)

2. Once in the list, the item cannot be deleted by highlighting it and using the Delete Key.

3. It cannot be deleted from the list by using the right click pull-down menu Delete option.

If you could just find a way to let me delete those items I would be thrilled. To get rid of them now, I have to use the "Clear...." option and therefore lose all the stuff I want to keep.

It appears that perhaps the secondary "ghost" entry may be created when windows loses track of my network and a file is open. I have posted on several forums about problems with networking and W10 being a real pain. W10 sometimes loses the network at random, and loses it every time the computer sleeps. This may be at least one cause. I will keep an eye out to see if I can connect that to other instances. But it does not happen every time the OS gets lost otherwise my Recent List would be full of them as frequently as W10 gets lost. I have currently disabled sleep mode so perhaps that is why I am not seeing as many. However, at the time this item appeared the computer had not gone to sleep, but W10 lost track of the file anyway. And this network ran perfectly under both Vista and W7.

It sure is fun being part of a World-wide Beta test for the largest software company in the world. I don't envy you in creating support software for it.

FYI:

http://www.tenforums.com/network-sharin ... rible.html

Here is one example of a real mess with File Explorer. I think the problem may be the same and the multiple copies of My Documents which appear are due to the OS losing track of the relatively simple network I am running. My Documents lives on one of my three network drives. No telling. But lots of other wierd stuff happens, too. Like phantom folders with no names or names in what appear to be characters from Eastern Languages.

http://www.tenforums.com/general-suppor ... -mess.html

OK. The best I can do is to try to simulate a similar condition by manually creating extra .lnk files that are duplicates. And then see how they behave and why they can't be individual deleted. I will add it to my list of things to investigate in the future. But it is a pretty long list, so can't make any promises

Understand...... Aerospace developer for 26 years. Glad to be out even if it means being "older than dirt".