Windows 10: Can't open start menu, and all office apps will not let users login for one specific model...

We have just over 50 users that use the E14FlipEvo A13MT. Starting last week, but finally impacting everyone today, a defender update was installed and now users can't open the start menu and all office apps aren't authenticating. Access to the apps via the web is fine, but not the applications. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is our AV. No third party. No changes were made on our end. Users that have other laptop model numbers are totally normal. Switching users or adding a new user doesn't help anything. SFC /Scannow didn't help.DISM /CheckHealth, /ScanHealth, and /RestoreHealth di

:)

 

Can I customize the list of suggest apps in the "Open with" menu?

Ya'll are missing the original question

Word is not in the Open with selection list. He wants to add it to that specific .pdf Open with list.

 

Can I customize the list of suggest apps in the "Open with" menu?

Well, I hope this helps the OP - it took a while. I tried 'Default Program Editor' (DPE) and it did indeed add (or remove) items, but when I tried to specifically add Word to pdf opening, it failed - it went through the motions, but nothing happened. So I started again, playing with settings for opening .doc files. This seemed to work: initially in explorer I had 3 programs appear in the 'default' list that pops up on a rt-click>open-with:



and this is what the relevant bit of the Registry showed:



Don't ask me why just 3 of those 8 (a to h) programs show up (maybe the 'instant' list is limited to three? - no, see later) - anyway, I used DPE to remove Wordpad from the list: when saving the edit as a REG file, this is what I got:

Code:

and the result in Explorer was:



and the registry now shows:



Note how item 'g' from the list has been removed (it seems there is no issue with having a letter missing). I then messed about trying to open a .doc file with various other programs, and they all started to appear in the 'instant' list:




So I thought 'well, that is easy - just open a pdf once in Word and it should appear'. So back to trying to open PDFs: but however many times I tried, Word would never appear.



even though there were any number of entries in the Registry 'Open With' list, including Word:



So what did DPE make of this - well, it showed some of the entries:



Although Word is shown, it doesn't appear on a rt-click. Its entry can be removed, but that doesn't help. So my attention was drawn to the existence of another folder below 'OpenWithList', namely 'OpenWithProgids', and that contained a specific ref to Sumatra (my preferred program for PDFs). Looking back at the same entry for .docx, I found this:



so I added an identical Word.Document.12 ref to the list for PDFs:



I think IrfanView is there as it got added during my experiments! I now get this in Explorer:


Hurrah! I then tried to use DPE to remove the redundant entries, and got this as a .REG file:
Code:

But when i merge that with the registry, the IrfanView item does not get deleted:



and as seen in the registry:



so I deleted it by hand, and at last have the entries I (or rather, the OP) want:




Note that my manually added reg entry is of type Binary', as there seems to be no way to add a value of type 'None'.

So it seems that DPE cannot cope with entries in the 'Progids' list, and something makes some programs fall into that list, rather than the 'openwithlist'. I am sorry for any typos above, or pictures in the wrong place - can't be bothered to check it too thoroughly. Hope it helps someone!

atb, Martin

 

Disabling specific apps from showing on the suggested start-menu items

Hi, The start-menu keeps suggesting me frequently used apps which I don't need showing up on the start menu, these are shortcuts I use from either the keyboard for a specific app or Settings or Screen Snip from the right Action Center side-bar (notifications pane). Please, reveal to me, the manner in which I could disable specific apps from showing on the suggested start-menu items, through registry, preferably. Thanks, in advance.