Dropbox corrupts Windows 10 Start Menu

Okay, update: I blocked the shell extension and restarted Explorer. Oddly, the context menu still appears, but the bug with the start menu has gone away (at least for now). Following instructions similar to those on the aforementioned Microsoft discussion:

1) Open the registry editor.

2) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked (create the Blocked key if necessary)

3) Create a new string value "{ECD97DE5-3C8F-4ACB-AEEE-CCAB78F7711C}", and give it a value of "DropboxExt".

4) Go to the Task Manager's details tab, right-click explorer.exe, end task.

5) Still in Task Manager, go to File | Run and type explorer.exe to restart the taskbar.

After I did this the start menu was behaving properly again. If it fails to keep doing so I'll follow up.

Unfortunately the problem has returned. I still think Dropbox is the primary reason for it, because it didn't start until I installed Dropbox. There are other shell extensions Dropbox adds that maybe need to be disabled, but unlike the context menu extension I don't know if it's as safe.

I am however still seeing "Send a Copy..." in my context menu, so it's also possible that the instructions I was given for disabling certain shell extensions are simply incomplete.

Sorry to hear about this, LummoxJR and thanks for all the info you gathered.

Just to confirm, does the issue go away when the Dropbox app is closed or uninstalled?

@Hannah I haven't uninstalled Dropbox or exited the app. I did, today, change the ForegroundFlashCount registry value described here:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/windows-7-explorer-window-does-not-appear-in-front/1199682e-2415-4a7a-bf21-f57a972122ee?page=1

Right after starting up my computer I had the issue recur, so I went into the registry and changed ForegroundFlashCount from its value of 7 to the proper default of 3; I don't know how or when it got changed to 7. Immediately afterward, even without restarting explorer.exe, the problem went away.

I'm not certain at this point if I've licked the problem or if it'll return in a future session. All I can say is that it never happened at all until about when I installed Dropbox, and I had no other installations or updates around that time that would explain the change. This appears to be a problem a lot of users have had with Windows and is, ultimately, a Windows bug, but it seems the Dropbox installation is what kicked it off for me.

Thanks for keeping us updated on your experience and what has worked for you, LummoxJR.

Hopefully, this will be useful for other users experiencing this issue as well.

If the issue does return, though, let us know.

The problem resurfaced on the next session and doesn't go away when closing Dropbox. It appears to be a very weird intermittent Windows issue. I don't know why it started with installing Dropbox, though.

I have the same issue as well, with the same behaviors.
Dropbox autoupdates; bug is back, uninstall dropbox, bug is gone, install dropbox all is fine, dropbox autoupdates, bug is back, uninstall dropbox, bug is gone, install dropbox all is fine, dropbox autoupdates, bug is back... etc ad nauseam

No response to this thread from the Dropbox team still? I installed Dropbox today and immediately the bug appears. Amazing that this issue has STILL not been resolved.

I have been struggling wish this for a year or  two. I had no clue Dropbox was the cause. Seemingly random things (installing a new user, running CCleaner) seemed to fix it but it then came back and those were not repeatable. I had installed the start button to my middle button so I could close the menu.

I removed the context menu  with a context menu editor, rebooted and now it seems to be gone.

The general advice on these kind of issues seem to be: install updates, run sfc /scannow, if does not work then reinstall everything.

If the fix does not work I'll have to just stop using Dropbox and find other methods to do things like transfer my photosfrom the phone to the PC.

It's been over 2 years and Windows 10 is nearing end of life. This STILL has not been solved. I hope this issue doesn't persist in Windows 11 as well.