Start menu item duplication

I have a PC with Windows XP Home installed that sometimes shows a duplicate section of items on the Start menu. When you click the Start button, a normal display is shown in the attached image. The items in the red outlined box will sometimes be duplicated, with the duplicates stacked just as they are normally but with one set above the other. So, the four items in the red box will show, and then directly below that they will show again in the same order. If anyone has seen this before or has any idea as to the cause, info would be appreciated.

Thanks.

You could just try running a sfc /scannow and see if that fixes the problem. Usually, a system file scan will repair out of the ordinary problems such as this.

The upper left icons are "pinned" items. The ones blow that are recently/frequently used apps.

Are your pinned icons being duplicated or are they just showing up in the rencent list? How may time a day does it happen?

The pinned items are the ones that are duplicated. So far, it has happened 1-3 times per day.

Next time you see it, hit the F5 key.

Is this a low end pc. (small amount of ram and on board video)

It is an E-Machines T3500 series. It has onboard video and at least 256MB of RAM.

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

I have a PC with Windows XP Home installed that sometimes shows a duplicate section of items on the Start menu. When you click the Start button, a normal display is shown in the attached image. The items in the red outlined box will sometimes be duplicated, with the duplicates stacked just as they are normally but with one set above the other. So, the four items in the red box will show, and then directly below that they will show again in the same order. If anyone has seen this before or has any idea as to the cause, info would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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I have EXACTLY the same problem and it is driving me insane! See attached screenshot. It has been doing this for nearly 2 weeks now. I posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support and a MVP replied as follows:

"Perhaps resetting the Pinned items list in the registry might help. Create a System Restore point first, and then try this:

Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe
Navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartP*age

Backup the key to a REG file.
Delete the three values namely "FavoritesResolve", "FavoritesChanges" and
"Favorites"
Close Regedit.exe
Logoff and then log back in."

I have pretty much done this already but will give it another try now. PLEASE let me know if you manage to fix this and I will do the same! :)

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

I have a PC with Windows XP Home installed that sometimes shows a duplicate section of items on the Start menu. When you click the Start button, a normal display is shown in the attached image. The items in the red outlined box will sometimes be duplicated, with the duplicates stacked just as they are normally but with one set above the other. So, the four items in the red box will show, and then directly below that they will show again in the same order. If anyone has seen this before or has any idea as to the cause, info would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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P.S. I have found that doing nothing more than right-clicking on the Start button and clicking Properties, then OK (without changing any settings) resets it to the correct situation of each program appearing only once.

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Originally Posted by Steve R Jones

Next time you see it, hit the F5 key.

Is this a low end pc. (small amount of ram and on board video)

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F5 doesn't have any effect here.

My PC is home-built, as follows:

Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73 GHz, 512 Mb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 4

You could try the repair corrupt icons option in TweakUI. I haven't had the same problem but I've had other bizarre menu problems solved that way.

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Originally Posted by ProfessorU

You could try the repair corrupt icons option in TweakUI. I haven't had the same problem but I've had other bizarre menu problems solved that way.

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Thanks - I'll try that if the registry hack doesn't work!

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Right-clicking on the Start button and clicking Properties, then OK (without changing any settings) resets it to the correct situation of each program appearing only once.

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This works on the PC I'm having trouble with also. I didn't try the registry hack, but I did look at the keys mentioned. One of them simply has the value of the number of items in the affected part of the Start menu, and that was correct, so changing it wouldn't have done anything.

Unfortunately the registry hack didn't work - the first time I came to use my Start Menu tonight, the pinned items were again duplicated. I left them alone and tried the Rebuild Icons option in TweakUI. This restored the pinned items back to their correct state. The only question now is whether this is a permanent state or whether they will start duplicating again!

Thanks for the update. Please let us know if the TweakUI fix was a permanent one. If I were betting on the outcome, I'd have to bet against it.

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Originally Posted by jdc2000

Thanks for the update. Please let us know if the TweakUI fix was a permanent one. If I were betting on the outcome, I'd have to bet against it.

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You were right - the items have started duplicating again :mad:

Anyone else got any other suggestions please?