Windows 10 Start Menu Opens Programs in New Window

Hi All,

I have had windows 10 for a while now, so far I haven't had any problems, just the occasional annoyance that can be fixed with a quick search on line.

I do however have a problem that I can't find a solution for and was wondering if anyone else had managed to fix this. I mainly have the issue with chrome but it applies to all applications. When I search for a program in the start menu, I would prefer that if the program is already running that that program is then brought to the top / brought to focus.

For example, if I have chrome already open but I have it minimised and I'm using another application, I want to be able to:

Hit the start button
Type Chrome
Hit Enter
See the existing chrome window appear.

Whereas at the moment a whole new window of chrome will appear, leaving the original window minimised. It's not a major issue but its a small annoyance.

After searching on line I have found answers on how to do the OPPOSITE to this, where a new instance of chrome is opened. This was achieved as follows:

How to open a new window of a desktop app from the Start screen

http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-open-a-new-window-of-a-desktop-app-from-the-start-screen/

Open Registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell
Right click ImmersiveShell, and create a new key called Launcher.
At HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Launcher, right click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value called DesktopAppsAlwaysLaunchNewInstance.
Double click it and set its value to 1.

enter image description here

Log off and log in back or just restart Explorer as we showed in this previous post.

That's it. Now try launching a Desktop app from the Start screen. It will always start a new instance.

magicandre1981 - http://superuser.com/questions/631967/how-do-i-make-windows-8s-start-menu-always-open-applications-with-open-as-new

Naturally I assumed changing this registry value to 0 would mean that the start menu would never open an application in a new instance. Needless to say it didn't work.

So my question is really, is anyone else having a similar issue and has anyone found a solution to this?

Many Thanks,

James Webb

1 Reply

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

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