Solved Windows 8.1: Right-Click Menu for Explorer Disappeared

jdanniel

New Member
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I've been dabbling with Windows 8.1 a little bit, and noticed something missing from it--at least, it's missing on my computer. I'd like to know if I am the only person experiencing this.

The problem is quite simple: The right-click menu for the Explorer taskbar icon has disappeared, and it doesn't let me close my open Explorer windows.

menu.jpg

I have desktop shortcut icons for the C drive, and two external drives. Also, I have a shortcut icon for my USB flash drive, which I usually keep plugged in for backup.

I can have several Explorer windows open by clicking these icons. They appear stacked in the taskbar. (See diagram below.) If I have only one Explorer window open, the menu will have a Close Window option. If two or more windows are open, it will say Close All Windows.

taskbar.jpg

This menu, and these options, seem to have disappeared with Windows 8.1 Preview. Is this a known issue? Or am I the only person experiencing it?

Thank you! Jd
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
This is what I see on my system (things I don't know if I can show are removed):

context.jpg

I am running the publicly available build of 8.1 Preview.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8, Windows 7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Z210
    Internet Speed
    25mbps

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
I am still having this right-click context menu problem.

Resetting the jump lists did not work.

I even took the drastic approach of formatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows 8 from scratch, then updating it to Windows 8.1.

Still no context menu.

Am I really the only person experiencing this problem?

It's a minor problem, but it annoys the heck out of me that it doesn't work. Is there a way for me to contact Microsoft and explain the situation to them directly?

Jd
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
Here are my Windows 8.1 views with a stacked explorer arrangement:

stacked1.jpg

stacked2.jpg

Is there anything else I can do to help you?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
What works for one person may not be another person's cup of tea. I prefer to have separate windows for each drive. Now, the solution to that would be a tabbed explorer. A freeware utility called Better Explorer has that.

The issue is not how I arrange the windows.

The issue is why the context menu has vanished. I'm wondering if it was caused by the installation of a program that is for some reason incompatible with Windows 8.1 in some way. For example, I prefer to use Avast Anti-Virus. That is currently not compatible with Windows 8.1.

Neither is AVG Anti-Virus. Last night, I read an article somewhere that says a build update will address AVG and will permit it to be used. As of this morning, it was virtually eradicated from my computer when I updated to Windows 8.1 again.

The only free a/v program I know of that works with Windows 8.1 is Avira, which I am currently using. But I am wondering if it affects Windows 8.1 in some way I don't understand.

Another possibility: I used a Registry editing technique to remove the shortcut arrows from all of my icons on the desktop. I'm also wondering if this technique may have affected the right-click context menu for the My Computer icon.

What I find even more odd is that all of the other taskbar icons' context menus are still there. Why JUST the Computer icon?

I'd like to know if anyone has tried removing their desktop shortcut arrows and then looked to see if the context menu for the Computer icon has vanished. If so, then that goes a very long way to tracing the source of this problem.

The technique I used for removing the shortcut arrows is here:

How to Remove Shortcut Arrow on Icons in Windows (Include Desktop Items) « My Digital Life

Jd
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
With all you have said, I still don't understand where the context menu has vanished from. You spoke about stacked windows and I showed you a stacked image. You spoke about a context menu that disappeared, I showed you what my context menu looks like (relative to the stack). Another poster also showed you the same view.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Let me try again at describing the problem. I am not convinced I have been doing all that great a job.

Here is a screen shot of my taskbar.

taskbar1.jpg

The icon to focus on is the one to the right of the Microsoft Internet Explorer icon. It's the icon that opens up Windows Explorer.

Here is an image of part of my desktop.

desktop1.jpg

Notice I have three icons on my desktop, for drives. The C drive, and my two external hard drives.

Now, look carefully. When I click on these three drive icons, notice what happens to the Windows Explorer icon in the taskbar. It looks like it is stacked like a deck of cards, with the cards slightly spread out. I do not know a better way to describe it, which is why I have these images.

Let's take a closer look.

taskbar2.jpg


The red arrow is pointing right at what I am referring to as a "stack." Maybe I'm not using the best nomenclature for this, but this is the best I can do to describe it right now.

If you put shortcut icons on your desktop for your drives (it will work for USB flash drives, as well), and then open up windows for your drives, you'll see something similar.

Now…with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, I could right-click on this so-called stack, and a menu similar to this one will appear:

menu.jpg



If I click Close All Windows, then the windows for all of my drives close. The so-called "stack" disappears, and the icon in the taskbar reverts back to its original state:


taskbar1.jpg


The problem is: With Windows 8.1, this menu is gone. I am unable to use Close Window or Close All Windows to close the drive windows and get the taskbar icon stack to revert back to this.

I can't do a better job of explaining it than this. Hopefully, these images, along with a more detailed explanation of what I refer to as a "stack" will help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
Much better now. I will test on my 8.1 machine and be right back.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Whew. Good thing I know how to make all these screen shots. A picture is worth a thousand words. Thank you for trying to help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
So, I placed three shortcut icons to three unique drives on my desktop.
I then opened each drive individually to their own unique explorer view.
This triggered a stacked explorer arrangement to be visible on the taskbar.
I was able to right-click that stack and close all windows (the menu was there)

aaa.jpg

Now I will tell you that something strange did happen when I first tried to create the three shortcuts and place them on the desktop. So, as I added them to the desktop and started to move them closer to each other, they actualy "joined together" to create 1 tri-icon (with 3 drive images on 1 big icon). However, I just deleted that big icon and redid the shortcuts and it never happened again.

Have you tried doing a disk cleanup and rebuilding your icon cache?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Try removing the desktop shortcut arrows, reboot your computer, and then please see if that changes anything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
Try removing the desktop shortcut arrows, reboot your computer, and then please see if that changes anything.

What do you want me to do after the reboot? Should I recreate the shortcuts again and retest? If not what should I be looking at?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Deleted shortcut arrows, rebooted, recreated shortcuts, opened 3 drive windows in explorer, right-clicked stacked icon, menu was there again (same as before).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I have done all that you have asked and now I have to leave this issue for someone else to continue with. Good luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Very odd...I'm the only one experiencing this problem. Maybe it's a combination of my hardware, the software I choose to use, and who knows what else. It's not a big deal, but why this is happening is absolutely confounding me.

Thanks for your help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
Sorry things didn't work out for you. I am using Build 9431 and I installed it by downloading the ISO and doing a clean install.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Hmmm...you know what? Maybe I should do a clean install. I've always been uncomfortable with upgrading over an OS.

Honestly, I didn't know a clean ISO was available. Would you be willing to point me in its direction? In the meantime, I'll do a Google/Bing search and see if I can locate the ISO on my own.

I've thoroughly backed up my computer, so in the event I install the clean ISO and still have this problem, I can just go back to it.

I'm using build 9431 also.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
Hmmm...you know what? Maybe I should do a clean install. I've always been uncomfortable with upgrading over an OS.

Honestly, I didn't know a clean ISO was available. Would you be willing to point me in its direction? In the meantime, I'll do a Google/Bing search and see if I can locate the ISO on my own.

I've thoroughly backed up my computer, so in the event I install the clean ISO and still have this problem, I can just go back to it.

I'm using build 9431 also.

BINGO! That has to be it! Go here: Windows 8.1 Preview ISO files - Microsoft Windows

Now, I feel somewhat comfortable in saying "Glad I could help."
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I am downloading it now. Thank you for mentioning the ISO. Whenever I install an OS, I always--I mean always--prefer to do it clean.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope this solves the problem. It will be a while, of course, before I can come back here and report on the progress.

Thanks again! Jd
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
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