exclude program binary from start menu search results when indexing is off

Platform: windows 7 enterprise 64-bit

Search indexing off

I have shortcuts in the start menu set up to start Matlab with extra command line arguments so that it correctly finds the license file on start-up.

However for some reason on some of our windows 7 computers a search for 'matlab'  in the search box in the start menu, brings up the usual shortcuts from the start menu but also an extra entry which points directly at the matlab binary in its installed location c:\matlab\R2014a\bin\matlab.exe

Problem is that the latter does not have the the extra command line arguments for start up with license.

How can I exclude the start menu search results from returning the binary link? Note again that indexing is turned off.

This happens on one lab full of windows computers but not on another. Both labs run the same versions of both operating system and Matalb. Both have the exact same entries within ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Matlab

Is there a registry setting or such that I can use to exclude the installed binary from being returned in the search results?

Thanks.
May 21st, 2015 12:04am

Hi,

I made a test in our testing environment, the reason why you got two results because a setting named: "Search programs and control panel" from Start Menu settings.

My suggestion to resolve this problem is delete Matlab shortcut in Programs from Start Menu.

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May 21st, 2015 6:55am

Thanks for your suggestions.

I compared the settings for 'customize start menu' between the two labs of computers and the settings are identical.

Next on the lab that has the extra search hit I switched off the 'Search programs and control panel' and that caused zero hits for a search on 'matlab' (without the quotes) not even the expected ones. So that is not a work-around or solution but thanks for pointing me at that customization.

Here's a little extra info on the behavior: as you type matlab into the search box:

once you have typed mat hits appear for both matlab and mathematica but not the extra unwanted matlab link

continuing input with matla entered into the search still only the 3 expected hits for matlab occur

Not until the trailing b of matlab is entered does the extra hit to the program binary appear.

  • Edited by huanitoo Thursday, May 21, 2015 2:18 PM
May 21st, 2015 2:11pm

Hi,

You might a bit of misunderstood what I say, the Search settings in screenshot just used to explain why this problem occurs.

But to resolve your problem, you do need to remove the extra shortcut in Programs of Start Menu.

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May 22nd, 2015 1:44am

Thanks again. Guess I did misunderstand what you were saying however there is no extra shortcut in Programs of Start Menu

On both sets of computers there are these shortcuts to matlab like so:

PS C:\programdata\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs> Get-ChildItem -recurse -force | Where-Object {$_.name -match 'matlab' }


    Directory: C:\programdata\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs


Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----          9/8/2014   8:40 PM            MATLAB
-a---         5/21/2015   8:58 PM        839 MATLAB R2014a.lnk


    Directory: C:\programdata\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\MATLAB\R2014a


Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---          9/8/2014   8:40 PM        910 Activate MATLAB R2014a.lnk
-a---          9/8/2014   8:40 PM       1038 Deactivate MATLAB R2014a.lnk
-a---         5/21/2015   8:58 PM        851 MATLAB R2014a.lnk

But still an extra hit, for just plain matlab, comes up from the search box  results, one that points directly to the binary in the install folder as previously described. I would remove it if I knew where it was :)


May 22nd, 2015 5:25am

Hi,

Another method to find the extra shortcut out is using Process Monitor, we can use it capture the Search process in start menu. Then find the Matlab shortcut from its results.

You can access to the link below to download Process Monitor:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

How to capture a Process Monitor trace:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dswl/archive/2010/01/10/how-to-capture-a-process-monitor-trace.aspx

Learning Example:

Using Process Monitor to Troubleshoot and Find Registry Hacks:

http://www.howtogeek.com/school/sysinternals-pro/lesson5/all/

Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 25th, 2015 2:50am

Thanks. That's a great idea. I tried several captures on a system in the affected lab and I can see that typing matlab in the search box is causing various registry keys to be opened then it opens the matlab R2014a shortcut from the start menu and right after it closes that it opens the installed folder of the matlab binary, almost as if it got that information from the programdata start menu shortcuts. There is no registry call that references 'matlab'  only explorer opening the properties of matlab links. I saved the capture in case you want to look at it.

This has given me the idea to remove al the normal matlab links from the start menu to see if search still finds the installed binary...let's see:

OK, with all shortcuts to matlab removed from programdata the search hit on the installed binary still comes up but only it.

From procmon I can see that the search is looking in various places for wildcards like ma*

c:\Users\huuanito\ma*

C:\windows\ma*

c:\windows\systems32\ma*

and then C:\matlab\r2014a\bin\ma*

later it also looks in

appdata\microsoft\windows\startmenu\

However I cannot see a registry call that relates to any of these, or how it know where to search. The only thing I see is a reference to the search dll

   
May 26th, 2015 3:44am

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