Navigation Pane Difficulties

Greetings to all...

When I launch MY Computer, the navigation pane on the left "USED TO" display a Favorites List. It has now disappeared! When I right click on the pane and select, "Restore Default Favorite Links" nothing happens. Also, when I try to drag and drop and "create shortcut here" nothing happens. The pane is listed as EMPTY.

The My Favorite Links folder is still on my C: drive with all my favorite shortcuts in it.

... Has anyone else run into this little Vista annoyance and found a solution?

Thanks!

DDC.

Hi Asawriter,

Welcome to Vista Forums.

You may have just inadvertently hidden it. This tutorial will show you how to unhide it if this is the case.

Favorite Links - Hide


If not, then you might see if a simple restart will clear the problem, or run a "sfc /scannow" (no quotes) command to see if it can find and fix the problem. This tutorial will show you how if needed.

System Files - SFC Command

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Greetings, Shawn!

Thanks for getting back to me. Much Appreciated. The unhide thing didn't work. I'm trying the sfc thing now...

Have a great day!

DDC.

DDC,

Did all go well?

Greetings, Brink...

I Hope all is well…
Thank You for contacting me. Okay. I Hope you have a few moments, and I Hope that this post at the very least, puts a smile on your face. Here’s what is going on with my Laptop, which I affectionately refer to as, “Toshiba.” Toshiba is a Satellite A200 – AH5. I doubled her memory to 2038 MB, added an LG 20 inch monitor, a LaCie USB hard drive, a cordless mouse and keyboard, and she feeds off a Belkin surge protector/power regulator/battery back up which is plugged into a APC surge protector/battery back up which is plugged into a grounded socket. I run her on battery once a week, because I read the manual before I turned her on for the first time. I also raised her up off of where she rests to increase airflow, and ran HD tune for a while until I got to the point where I can tell what temperature she’s at just by placing my hand gently on her TouchPad. She’s never gone over 44, and she starts at 39. (Actually, when she feels like she’s around 43 or 44, I place a fan next to her and cool her off.
I’m running Vista Home Premium 32 bit NTFS, 3 Virtual Desktops on my dual monitor system, and she’s happily networked with two other computers via a Linksys router. Protection: Avast, Spyware terminator, Windows Defender, Windows Firewall (The Future Shop Tech told me that I didn’t need to use Zone Alarm because the Router has its own Firewall) Maintenance: Bi-weekly: Ccleaner, Windows Advanced Care personal, Eusing registry cleaner, Auslogics Defrag and Registry Defrag, and Spyware terminator once a day.
I log when I install add-ons or programs. I use seven browsers: IE8 beta in 7 mode (default), Firefox, Opera, Maxthon, Sea Monkey, Slim Browser, and Safari (they all have their strengths and weaknesses), Feed Demon (12 Subscriptions – all computer related) Speech recognition, (saves mouse clicks – great for launching stuff – not bad at dictation) One note, Outlook, Sidebar (even running 8 – 12 programs never seen her go over 60ish% memory usage.) Rocket Dock, and POP Peeper, and I love snooping around on CNET. 2 GB ThumbDrive with portable apps.
When I cold boot, even with doubling the memory, she boots into Basic? When I warm re-boot she delivers Aero? IE8 in 7 mode tells me that protected mode is off so I internet options and hit set to default and am prompted to restart IE so I do and guess what… You guessed it. My Solution. Reset to default. Darn. Still the same. Solution. View – Status bar – “OFF”
I installed an add on called Trailfire to assist and organize researching for my blog, (maybe that’s the culprit for no favorite links in navigation pane) Temporary Solution – Organize – Layout – Navigation Pane – OFF! I run Vista’s monthly back up, and I park my stuff on my Skydrive/ADrive. USER ACCOUNT CONTROL – OOOFFFFFFFFFFFFF! Maybe that’s why IE8 in 7 mode won’t run in protected mode? Read about a hack to add non-Microsoft programs – Hmmm – too complicated – UAC - OFF you go. Now Toshiba is staying on 24/7 365 unless I absolutely have to reboot – you guessed it – TWICE????
To wrap up and answer your question – No, sir. The stuff suggested did not work. Someday I’ll get p.o. and reformat. Start from scratch… Unless of course, there’s someone on this forum worth his or her weight in gold that will have pity on me and share a few secrets. I am not really comfortable digging around in the registry, however, I’ll do it to get my navigation pane back, my status bar back, be able to boot into Aero on the first try, turn the Laptop monitor off when I’m writing on the LG 20. (You know – to preserve the laptop display’s life) If I do that now, when I switch back into dual mode it changes to Basic and I have to - ??. Why bother, you say? I like Aero and its faster than basic… SO… Dear sweet computer maniacs! With a healthy combination of fear and respect… What exactly is Toshiba up to? Perhaps the answer is very simple – maybe I should have named her, “Bill.”

Have a good one,

DDC.

LOL DDC,

That is great. It sounds like you take good care of Toshiba.


For Favorite Links section:
I found that if you had try to change the shortcut arrow overlay with a program not designed for Vista, then it can cause this section to be blank. Use this program in this tutorial below to restore the shortcut arrow, then you can use it to do what you want afterwards.

Shortcut Arrow


IE8 Protected Mode OFF:
Turning off UAC caused this one. You will need to turn UAC back on to enable Protected Mode again. An alternative is to elevate the administrator accounts so they are not bothered by UAC with UAC still on. You can see how in this tutorial.

User Account Control (UAC) - Elevate Privilege Level


Windows Aero:
Not sure about this one. Make sure that your WEI score is refreshed to see if that helps.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Shortcuts in Navigation Pane - HAVE RETURNED

IE8 in Protected Mode - HAS RETURNED

UAC back on - AND BEHAVING


(1) Turned monitor two off
(2) Detached it from Laptop
(3) Cold Reboot>Updated WEI>No change
(4) Windows Update>Installed update for 945 Chipset>Shutdown
(5) Attached Monitor 2>Cold Boot>Configure Monitor two>Shutdown
(6) Sat and prayed for a Moment - COULD THIS ALL BE TRUE???
(7) Turned on computer

It booted into Aero! Wow.

Tweak Now Win Secret the culprit for the navigation pane dilemma...

The price...

This program called MultiMon TaskBar won't function properly now...

Ctrl>Alt>Left/Right Arrow key would throw maximized windows back and forth. COOL!

Uninstalled>download>reinstall>NOPE?? Oh, well. Substitutions?

ANYWAY

Shawn and Brink. As far as I am concerned YOU two have earned your HERO badges for the day!

Thank You very much!

Vista Forums, ROCKS! Have a great weekend.

DDC.

DDC,

That is great news. I'm glad to hear it.

You can see if using Run as adminstrator with MulitMon Taskbar will help it.


LOL, I know I have split personalities sometimes, but I'm just one multi-tasking person.

Shawn Brink

Hey!

Shawn of the Brink! I Hope all is well...

I will most certainly try that....

Thanks again!

You know, there was something else I wanted to ask you, however, I'm in the process of learning the, "Patience is a Virtue" thing.

I'm going to leave Toshiba alone for the evening...

DDC.

p.s. I'll more than likely run out of patience tomorrow

Greetings, Shawn of the Brink!

I Hope all is well...

I have managed to get MultiMon taskbar program to work on Vista; Aero enabled.

• Start>Control Panel>Personalize>Display Settings>Advanced Settings>Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile>Graphics Properties>Hot Keys>Disable Hot keys
• Right-Click MultiMon icon>Properties>Compatibilty>Run this Program as an Administrator

SUCCESS! The Intel Graphics Accelerator with Hot Keys Enabled took priority, (Ctrl+Alt+Right/Left Arrow rotated the active program 90 degrees, instead of the desired effect.) Running the program as you suggested, as an administrator, has finally made this wonderful little program behave, even though the mouse option doesn't appear next to the minimize button, even when running the program in XP compatibility mode. According to the Software writer, the icon version of the short cut key option doesn't work in Vista Aero... WHO CARES!!!

Bottom Line, being able to throw active, and MAXIMIZED windows back and forth between monitors with a shortcut key is SO handy, it's hard to put it into words! Well, it isn't hard, but I'd have to use colorful metaphors...

In Addition, having windows minimize to their appopriate monitors is also very handy...

Once again, THANK YOU for the "GOOD AS GOLD" advice!!! Shall I weigh in and explain that my computer experience is now becuase of your kind assitance, a joy instead of a wrestling match!!!!

DDC.