Solved Peculiar "folder hiding" behavior in start menu programs list

Peculiar program group "hiding" behavior in start menu programs list

I haven't been able to find any hits on this when searching, although I have to expect it has been brought up before. It is behavior that I used to see in Windows XP, but have definitely noticed it in Windows Vista when running in the XP "classic" view.

I navigate the Start Menu Programs Group list and run a program. Everything is fine. I eventually put my computer in Standby mode. Later, I wake up the computer and go to the Start Menu Programs list again. This time, I may see one or two different behaviors:

1. The last programs group I accessed is now hidden from view. There is a double arrow at the very end of the programs folder list that when clicked, it shows the programs group that was hidden from view.
2. The whole programs group list is almost completely hidden, except for the last couple of programs groups that I accessed in the last session. Again, the double arrow icon is at the end of the list and when clicked, the whole programs folder list reappears.

I find that this behavior is inconsistent, but most frequently happens after accessing Microsoft Office programs. Unfortunately, because I was familiar with this behavior in Windows XP, I didn't make a mental note of when I first started noticing it in Windows Vista (I've been using it on my laptop for over 3 years). It could be that it wasn't happening initially when I first got my laptop, or I simply didn't pay attention as the frequency was low. But, I've come to notice it more lately and I'm rather curious as to what this is all about.

Is this "normal" Windows behavior for XP and Vista? If so, was it corrected in Windows 7? And if not, should I be concerned that there's some kind of very passive virus existing on my system that my anti-virus is failing to detect? (I previously used AVG and now I'm running Avast!).

Note: I'm running Vista SP2 on an HP Pavilion DV5T dual core 2.53GHz with 4Gb RAM.

It's not clear to what you're seeing. Are you talking about the list of programs shown when you click on the Start button? Perhaps you could post a screenshot.

Hi Wither,

Unfortunately, the occurrence seems almost random. I can't force it to happen. However, I'll try to take a screen shot the next time I see it. But until then, yes--it's the list of program groups displayed from Start --> Programs. Within those groups are the program shortcuts. What happens is that those groups (or folders) become momentarily hidden, forcing you to click on the ">>" icon at the end to force them to show.

For example, you'd see this in the program group list:
Accessories
Adobe
Media Tools
Microsoft Mouse
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Silverlight
etc.
>>

Where is Microsoft Office? Upon clicking the ">>", you then see:
Accessories
Adobe
Media Tools
Microsoft Mouse
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Silverlight
etc.
(the ">>" goes away after clicking it)

I realize it's a very minor thing, but I'm perplexed as to why it happens and the "feel" of using the interface would be more fluid if I could get it to stop doing it. Of course, then when I want it to happen (to get the screenshot), I can't seem to trigger it. It appears to have something to do with a recently used program and an amount of time lapsed after using it.

NOTE: I was saying "program folders" before, but realized the correct nomenclature is "program groups" and changed them accordingly.

Now I understand. I'm not on my Vista machine tonight so I'll have to look tomorrow.

I couldn't find a way to customize the start menu in such a way to prevent this from happening. When I go to Customize, I have only three things checkmarked. If I remember correctly, I've seen the same thing but, it wasn't until I reinstalled Vista a few months ago that it started displaying more than one column. There's go to be a way.

Right click on the Start Button and select Properties. Select Start Menu, Classic, Customize. Is "Scroll......" checkmarked? If so, uncheck it.

Hi Wither... yes, the "Scroll" option shows up as unchecked. I was able to see the effect happen again, and I took a screen capture. The ">>" is actually oriented to pointing downward. In this shot, I have an "Auslogics" program group that is now hidden. I had previously accessed a program in that group, and of course clicking on the ">>" makes it appear (so I didn't bother showing the capture for that--you get the idea). It doesn't make any sense to me as to why Windows does this. When I see the entire program group list minimized with just the last one or two program groups accessed being shown, this makes sense to me--it assumes that I'm not interested in the rest. But why hide something I recently accessed? It's bizarre.

I don't understand it. I know that if I checkmarked the Scroll...., I could only get one column of the Programs. Unchecking it caused the list to expand to show all.

Yes, it is indeed strange. I also noticed that this effect happens shortly after installing a new program, whereby the group is hidden by default, only revealed once the ">>" is clicked.

I don't know if you can fix the start menu. I never use sleep or hibernate. I don't even use a screen saver because I don't trust anything that times out, like drives that spin down. But my suggestion would be try the free Vista Start Menu. If you are right handed you may like it since you can move it over to the right side near the system tray.

I used it for awhile and didn't really have any complaints. But I like RocketDock and use a bunch of taskbar stacks instead. I hate trying to find stuff embedded in the start menu. Mostly the reason I open it is to uninstall something that doesn't have an uninstall link in Programs and Features.

http://www.vistastartmenu.com/index.html

I had considered installing some alternative shells for the desktop, but I'm usually reticent to do that as my experience has never been trouble free (always some annoying quirk or worse to be encountered). Thanks for mentioning this Vista Start Menu alternative. Judging from the demo previews, it looks impressive. I'll definitely give it a try.

Incidentally, are you considering upgrading to Windows 8 when it comes out?

I don't set any file manager as replacement for Explorer. As you say, there's usually some annoying glitch. I don't remember having any complaints about Vista Start Menu other than it's too much like the standard one. I guess I'm one of the few people who like the Vista start menu scrollbar instead of expanding flip out menus going left to right covering the whole desktop.

I haven't seen anything in W8 that makes me want to try it. If I bought a new machine that came with it I'd probably leave it on as long as I could get rid of the finger drag crap. I'm not into touch screen. Now that I've had W7 for awhile I like the Taskbar pinning and jump lists. One thing really nice is an Explorer folder next to the Start Orb. You can have dozens of folders open. All you have to do is right click and select Close All to close them all with one shot. Very convenient since I wrote a lot of Hotkey things that open folders, place them on the desktop in tiled mode etc..

If I could try an 8 core PC running W8 then I'd be very curious how that would perform.

Well, I've got the Vista Start Menu running and so far I kind of like it. It's quite a different feel from the classic Windows menu, but in a good way. Quite flexible. I think I could get used to it.

It seems to be a good implementation. I hope it works out for you.

edit: btw, thanks for the rep.

You're welcome. I take it that since W7 is working out so well for you, there won't be any incentive for you to upgrade to W8 once it's out (it also sounds like it's going to be more of a resource hog). RocketDock looks really cool, almost like a mini version of the MacOS menu bar. Their website says there is no x64 version, but I installed it anyway. Works nicely! Icons are a little blurry when expanded, but it's not a big deal. I think I'll effectively dispense with most of my desktop icons now. Thanks!

I like RocketDock quite a bit. I use a glass skin. The only trouble you might have on 64 bit is the folders that get redirected. But that's only a couple of folders. Outside of that and a few registry quirks most 32 bit stuff runs fine. StandAlone Stacks 2 works fine n my Vista64.

I'm just starting to take advantage of the JumpLists in Windows 7. I was using a Hotkey program to launch a bunch of web sties at once, like a pack that I use together frequently. But after experimenting I found many browsers will accept multiple Urls on the command line. I wrote a small program to read a file full of Urls, give you an opportunity to specify a filter to only open those with the filter word, and it pops up a Gui with 6 buttons. You can associate a browser with each button.

But what makes it easy to use is pinning the files to the program icon on the taskbar, which is itself pinned. I right clock the icon, then select a file, my filer input box pops up. Hit Enter for no filtlers. Gui of 6 Browser(of which I only have 4 populated at the moment) pops up. I hit enter again to open all the sites with my favorite browser.

The buttons are all blank at first. If no browser has been assigned, it opens a FileOpen dialog and you select the browser for the button. Then it opens the Urls from the file in one shot.

Max command line is about 8181 characters, but you can easily cram a dozen or so Urls on the command tails. Works pretty well. Vista and earlier is a bit less convenient where you could put a shortcut in SendTo folder. But the JumpList makes it easy to keep the files right with the program icon.

edit: I'm still messing with it a bit. When it's debugged I'll probably upload to my site. Although many users don't like it if they have to manually create a text file with a list of stuff. Often though, it's very effective and nearly fool proof.

I just found ChrisNSoft and downloaded the stand alone stack, as well as a few other goodies there. Cool stuff--thanks!

FWIW, I never did solve this mysterious start menu program folder hiding thing. It still happens from time to time. Sometimes it is the last used program folder that is hidden, but sometimes the reverse happens where everything else is hidden except for the last used program folder. It's very strange.