Windows 10: How do I remove a "Custom Start Menu" installed in File Explorer?

If needed, I'm using Windows 10 Home Edition on a 64-bit OS. My brother part 2 installed a Windows 7 themed Start Menu off GitHub and now my taskbar looks like this when I press the Windows key. I can press the "Start Menu" button at the top to access the Windows 10 Start Menu, but I like it better if I'm not interrupted by a Windows 7 style Start Menu whenever I press the Windows key. Fortunately, I was able to remove most of the files A custom File Explorer was also installed. But I was unable to remove 3 of them because they were being "Used in Windows Explorer" or being used in "Open

:)

 

Inability to open file explorer from start menu


I am not able to open the file explorer through the option on the start menu, or by clicking on the file explorer pinned to the task bar. When I click the pinned file explorer the window that pops up says "Windows cannot find ''. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again." I am able to navigate through to my files by going to the start menu file explorer's jump list (clicking the arrow to the right of the file explorer option on the start menu). All of these issues began after I had been messing around with custom themes. I ran UltraUXThemePatcher_3.0.4 and then I changed the following files (themeui.dll,uxinit.dll, and uxtheme.dll). Next, I ran a registry editor file that made it so I can take ownership via right click. I also followed these steps in this article: [Windows 10 Tip] Remove Icons from Navigation Pane of This PC - AskVG
up to the end of "Part 2: Remove Quick Access Icon From Navigation Pane of This PC".
The last thing I did was install a custom icon pack.

 

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

 

File explorer icon from taskbar dissappears while working on it

Hi,

To assist you with your concern, we suggest you pin the File Explorer from the Start Menu by following these steps:

• Click the Start Menu.
• Right-click File Explorer.
• Choose Pin to taskbar.

If you need further assistance, feel free to reply to this post.