Hi, I have a problem with my Windows Explorer: when I opened the Drop-Down-Menu of the Windows Explorer "Adress-Bar", I could see items like "Desktop", "Computer", ... in the past. But now, when I open this menu, it's just empty!! I don't know what has happened, but maybe this is due to the fact that I copied (not moved) my "Users" directory onto an External Harddisk. Maybe this is not the reason, but at least this is what I did and now, I have this behaviour. How can I fix this problem???

Run the system file checker http://www.windows-it.tk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=80 My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

I executed sfc /scannow No Integrity Issues could be detected. Unfortunately the problem still exists. Is there anything in the Registry that can be set to show all the default-items again?

Find your Windows disk, boot from it and select repair Backup your files in case something goes wrong I backup daily My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Hm, somehow this did not help! I also tried it with a new User Account as I thought this might be corrupted, but same behaviour there. I gues there must be something corrupted in the Registry... Is there a key that is missing causing thing problem?

Those errors are due to resource allocation problems/ My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

What does it mean? How can I repair it? By restoring an image wich is linked to the same users directory (on D:\) showed the same behaviour. So maybe it IS a problem of the User Profile but somehow it should be possible to repair it? Why is it the same behaviour when I create a new user profile and logon to this one?

Tell me all the details about your machine, clearly you have more than a basic box My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

What details you need? It's Win7 Ultimate installation. What is special about it is the "Users" folder, that is linked to D:\ and is therefore not located on C:\ To backup my data I just copied everything, including my "Users" folder to an external Harddrive. Then the problem came up (as far as I could backtrack it)

is D: a partition or a physical disk? are you using a notebook, netbook, desktop? My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

I am using a notebook. "D:\" is just a partition on the same physical hard disk

make / model web page of the machine if you know where it is My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

It's an older one: Fujitsu Siemens AMILO PI 2515, but upgraded to 4GB RAM

Did you upgrade from Vista or did you do a clean install? My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Clean installation, but this issue is nothing that was there after installation. It just came today...

use the windows dvd and boot from it, and see if the repair can fix the problem the explorer problem is a system level error and that is not good My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Are we talking about the same problem? I found a screenshot that shows the issue http://forum.chip.de/windows-7/windows-7-explorer-dropdown-leiste-1372123.html How can I fix it with the Boot Mechanisms?

That is what I expected from your description My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Repair-Mode did not fix or even detect problems... So, what can I do now? Isn't there a fix for this issue from MS? It seems like I am not the only one with that problem. I still think it is a corrupted User Profile.

My only remaining suggestion is to go back to Vista as its evident Windows 7 is not working on your machine properly. My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

I don't think, that my machine in gerneral is not working properly with Windows 7. Everything including this Windows Explorer menu worked fine until yesterday!! It went bad, when I made a Backup of the "Users" directory and copied it to the external harddrive! So this must be something software related and doesn't have anything to do with my machine working not properly with Windows 7. Other advices? I also think that there is a problem with the Default-User Profile, as creating a new user shows the same behaviour now. Is there a Tool that can repair User Profiles??

I don't think, that my machine in gerneral is not working properly with Windows 7. Everything including this Windows Explorer menu worked fine until yesterday!! It went bad, when I made a Backup of the "Users" directory and copied it to the external harddrive! So this must be something software related and doesn't have anything to do with my machine working not properly with Windows 7. Other advices?

Backup and install Vista fresh as that is the supported OS for your machine. My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

You mean install Windows 7 fresh, don't you? It can't be the solution to go back to Vista and Win7 has been running for months without any problem and the Drop-Down-Menu working totally correct. Do you agree? There MUST be a different solution or let's say a real solution, as it already worked fine for months...

Use Vista for now as there are a lot of issues with Windows 7 on notebooks. Too many to easily fix the problem, even if I had the machine in the shop I would put Vista back on it. SP1 is nearly out but I suspect problems will remain. There is a long thread on batteries alone. My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Hhm, before I ever go back to Vista, I'll either stay with this issue or re-install Win7 with a deleted User-Profile (which most likely will happen) ;-) All right, so far thank you very much for your help!!

A few votes would be cide I suggest using the original OS for a machine as upgrades on portables has been dodgy. So many problems surface due to driver issues. My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

I generally agree with you, but since there haven't been driver issues so far and also this Drop-Down-Menu problem did not exist until I started this thread, there is no reason to go back to Vista! Another thing came into my mind: on the day the problem came up, I also ran CCleaner a couple of times to clean the registry. It might also be a registry key missing that causes this problem. But then why would it be still existing after restoring an Backup image? Is the Win7 registry stored somewhere in the "Users" directory?? As I told you this directory will not be restored by my Backup. The Backup only restores the "C:\"-Partition...

I do not like those programs, they are generally crap My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

I don't think that Acronis True Image, for instance is crap. They also have a bootable CD which allows you for restoring your system partition even if Windows is not starting up anymore! Even Windows 7 nowadays has a full system restore mechanism implemented wich you can execute with your Windows DVD and the repair option.

I have a page on cloning, might have some interest. http://www.windows-it.tk/papers/diskcopy.php My MVP is for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT, and I am getting increasingly good with Visual Studio. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews