Windows 10: Notification Area does not have a program associated with it

I just installed a second hard drive for data, leaving my C: drive for just the OS and programs.

Not wanting to go crazy with sysprep, I decided to just move my special folders the approved way: Properties => Location. This was going swimmingly until I got to AppData\Local. Apparently those files are in use and can't be moved, throwing an "Access Denied" error. No problem, I choose to move the location without moving files, reboot, and now that the files in the old local appdata aren't locked I copy them over to the new local appdata location, skipping any files that are open. (Copy, not move, meaning I have a safety valve of all my local appdata files still sitting in the default location.) I don't particularly care about my local appdata settings; it's roaming that has the good stuff. So whatever gets skipped is fine by me.

Anyway, all that went fine, local appdata was successfully moved to the D: drive, all good. I did notice that my systray icon settings seem to have been lost, though. The icons I set to "Always Show" had been reverted to only show for notifications. So I right-clicked the taskbar, chose Properties and clicked the Customize button next to Notifications. This throws a "file not associated" error.

Thinking that maybe moving local appdata might be too much for the system, I restored it to the default location, again not moving files. Reboot, so now I'm exactly where I was before moving it in the first place: Local appdata is back in C:, and all the local appdata files are what they were. My systray icons are back to my preferred settings, so all is good. But that button still throws an error.

Reboot again, still the same problem: You don't have a file associated with this type. After googling to find out what the actual command line is that's being executed, I try both in the run dialog.

This throws the same error as clicking the button:
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 5

This works fine:
explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}


My conclusion is that I need to add a registry key for some file association that will make that first command line work. Anyone know what it is I need to add?

Here's a screen grab:





I'm also thinking that I can move Local AppData back to D:, since this problem is still there even with them on C:. I figure move to D:, fix the problem, and I'm good to go.

:)

 

File does not have a program associated with it for performing this action

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

I do understand your concern, however I’ll be glad to assist you.

Try the following methods and check if it helps.

Method 1: I suggest you to run
SFC scan to resolve the issue. SFC scans the corrupted files and recover it automatically.

To run the SFC/SCANNOW command in Windows 10:

• 
  Left click on Start button.
  
• 
  Right click on Command Prompt (Admin) option which will let you run
  'Run as administrator’.
  
• 
  Command Prompt Window pops up.
  
• 
  Type: SFC /SCANNOW and hit Enter.
  

You can also follow the link below for reference:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

Method 2: Set the computer in a clean boot state and check if it helps. Setting the system in a clean boot state will help to identify if any third party applications/drivers or startup items are causing the
issue. Refer the article and check if it helps.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Note: After clean boot troubleshooting steps, follow the section
"How to reset the computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with clean boot" in the provided link to return your computer to Normal startup mode.

Please feel free to get back to us if you have any doubts. We will be happy to assist you further.

Thank you.

 

File does not have a program associated with it for performing this action

Original title:

When I right click on my desktop and click personalize I get this message-This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs
control Panel."

How can I fix this?

 

Here are registry screenshots for my ms-settings:notifications entry:








Not sure if this will help?

 

Nice, thanks much for the screen shots. Unfortunately that's the same as I have, so nothing to try there.

Looking more closely at the shortcut command that throws the same error, I searched HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for "Options_RunDLL" and came up with several hits, but no "5"s. Just 0s and 1s. Testing the various values with the Run dialog:

%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 0 <== opens Folder options, General tab
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 1 <== opens Taskbar options, Taskbar tab
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 2 <== opens Folder options, Search tab
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 3 <== opens Taskbar options, Taskbar tab (same as 1?)
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 4 <== "no program associated" error
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 5 <== "no program associated" error
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 6 <== opens Taskbar options, Toolbars tab
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 7 <== opens Folder options, View tab
%SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 8 <== opens Taskbar options, Navigation tab

9 and 10 do nothing; the run command is ignored entirely with no error message or effect. So it's looking like just 0 through 8. It seems weird that 1 and 3 do the same thing, but whatever.

Could you try 4 and 5 and let me know what they do so I can figure out what I need to create alternate shortcuts for? That way even if I never fix it I'll at least have a workaround.

 

Both 4 and 5 open the System Notifications Area so that is consistent with what you have been finding.

 

If your intention was to move the location of your User folders (your profile name), then this tutorial would be the way to proceed. If so, suggest you put everything back the way it was before and do an image backup first.

Users Folder - Move Location in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Moving the users folder is undocumented and unsupported, though of course it's possible using sysprep.

I'd prefer to just stick with supported features. Moving certain special folders by going to folder properties => location tab is the officially supported methodology, and it's available for local appdata.

Cool, thanks much. If the only problem I have is that I have to roll my own shortcut to manage systray notifications, no harm no foul. I already use custom shortcuts for a bunch of standard windows features anyway, so adding one more is trivial.





Still, if anyone happens to know a way to fix this issue or stumbles across a fix in the future, I'm definitely interested.

 

Actually, would system restore mess up anything?

I have two restore points available, both automatics. (Which annoys me. My manual restore points appear to have been automatically thrown away, which doesn't seem logical. I made them for a reason.)

One restore point is from today, the other from early last week. Since early last week I added a second hard drive and moved my documents, music, downloads, pictures, video, appdata\low, and appdata\local (and then moved it back to default) over to it. And all of that was done today. If I restore to last week, would anything major get messed up, do you think?

I've never done a system restore before. Manually set restore points, but never used them.

 

Gah!

Right clicking the desktop, both "Display Settings" and "Personalize" are throwing the same error.

Time to cross my fingers and try a restore point. Wish me luck!

 

Restore point should work fine. Good luck!

 

Yep, that did the trick nicely. Notifications, Personalize and Display settings all work fine now.

It was REALLY slow, though. It sat at that blue "initializing restore" screen for like 15 minutes, so I just left it running and did other, non-computer stuff. Coming back to it now, all is well. So it took anywhere from 16 minutes to four hours. heh.

 

Final postcript:

After the system recovery, all my custom folder locations (documents, music, etc...) were gone, but the files themselves were still safely on D:. The C: drive versions of these folders included all exe and iso files, folder shortcuts, and I think a few others. I just deleted these old versions since my current stuff was already on D:, then re-did my custom locations. That went without a hitch.

I decided it's best to leave Local and Local Low on the system drive, moving only Roaming to the D: drive. Even before moving Roaming I noticed that all my firefox settings were gone, so after pointing Roaming to D: I just did a simple restore of my entire Roaming folder backup I made yesterday before adding the second hard drive.

I only appear to have to re-do my Quick Launch bar, but that's to be expected whenever you move Roaming. Quick Launch is finicky that way. Other than that, everything works and all my settings are how I like them.

So all's well that ends well.