Prior to installation of NIS 2009 on my Fujitsu XP (Service Pack 3) laptop, I could right click on a program in the Start – All Programs list and a menu window would appear. One option in that menu was to create a desktop shortcut icon for that program. I happened to do this successfully immediately prior to installing NIS 2009, but after installation all I get is a menu that appears and disappears so fast that I can not tell what it is no matter how hard I look. I read in other posts about shortcut keys, but I’m trying to create a desktop shortcut icon to the program. Is there a parameter that I can turn off – even temporarily – in order to make this work?
Hi DRLew01 and welcome!
I have not heard of or experienced this particular issue with NIS 2009 on an XP machine.
What security program did you have installed prior to NIS? How was it uninstalled?
Do you have any other real time security programs running?
Are any third party file management programs installed?
Let us know.
Thanks!
I was getting a lot of junk on my PC, so I had a professional wipe my hard drive and restore my PC from scratch. The professional also updated Windows to Service Pack 3. Then with the physical Wi-Fi switch turned off, I installed my other applications, set up my desktop shortcuts (a few by right clicking on programs in the All Programs list), configured each application as I wanted, etc. but did not load any data files from my backups. Next, I installed NIS 2009 (which, by the way, installed flawlessly), turned on my Wi-Fi physical switch and updated the NIS virus definitions, downloaded Firefox, and then downloaded any other updates available for my other programs. A couple of days later, I installed SystemWorks Basic Edition 12.0 (again flawlessly). I performed so many changes during this period that – now that I think about it – I can’t swear that I was able to create desktop shortcuts from the All Programs list prior to installing SystemWorks, so it is possible that SystemWorks is blocking shortcut creation, not NIS. My PC is now pretty vanilla (the purpose of this whole effort) and I have no third party file management systems installed except Seagate Manager v2.1.50 which supports a USB connection to a 1TB Seagate FreeAgent Desk external drive. (Seagate Manager can automatically synchronize my files for backup, but other than installing it, I have not configured or used it.) My system is working flawlessly (probably shouldn’t ever say that!) and except for the inability to get anything other than a quickly flashed menu when I right click a program in the All Programs list, I have no reason to believe anything is wrong. It really feels like that function is being blocked by something, and somewhere there is probably a parameter that could be turned off temporarily when I want to create a desktop shortcut for a program on the All Programs list. (I can, however, manually create and move around as many desktop shortcuts as I wish.) By the way, all programs are closed when the right click fails. Hope this helps.
Hi DRLew01,
I have not forgotten about you. Right now, I'm trying to reproduce your issue by tweaking various Windows XP settings and I am also toggling various extensions using a shell extension manager. So far, no luck.
I am not an expert with System Works, so I cannot make any suggestions on that.
Hang in there.
Which version of NIS 2009 are you running? (Help & Support > About)
[edit: added content]
Message Edited by Phil_D on 08-25-2009 10:44 PM
Hi DRLew01,
Try this: Right click on "Start" and select "Properties." In the "Start Menu" tab click the "Customize" button. Open the "Advanced" tab and put a check mark in the box for "Enable dragging and dropping." "OK" your way back out. If that box is unchecked, the context menu will not work in the Start Menu, so I'm hoping this is your issue and not something more complicated. Let us know if this works.
You guys are BRILLIANT!!! Turning on drag and drop did the trick. Now I get the submenu when I right click and can indeed create a desktop shortcut. Didn't have anything to do with NIS or SystemWorks.
I was having trouble with my mouse touchpad causing items to sometimes "stick" to the cursor and move across the screen even when I was not holding the left button down, so I turned drag and drop off thinking it would correct the problem. I never dreamed that turning off drag and drop would affect right clicks to get a submenu, but I guess sending something to the desktop is sort of a drag and drop, especially if you do it by holding down the left bottom and dragging the item to the desktop instead of "sending" it there through the submenu. Guess now I need to really look hard at my mouse menu (drag lock is turned off, and tapping is set to very fast) -- or else get a real mouse!
As a near the top of his class aerospace engineer with 20 years of experience and a masters degree in computer science with another 20 years of computer experience, I should know this stuff, but it all changes if you look away for 10 seconds. The computer field is very humbling, especially if you start thinking you are pretty smart!
THANKS AGAIN.
Very nice suggestion, SendOfJive! I don't know that I would have come up with that one.
DRLew01 wrote:
The computer field is very humbling, especially if you start thinking you are pretty smart!
Well said! I couldn't agree more. I think I'll print that one up as a sign for my wall.
I'm glad all has turned out well for you DRLew01.
I have no idea why Windows has so many obscure little checkboxes in so many places, many with misleading or confusing designations (would “Enable right-clicking” have been too much to ask?). Humbling, and maddening sometimes. Glad we were able to find a solution for you.