Program Shortcuts in Start Menu Missing? Bug?

Question

I have Vista Premium, and all of a sudden without errors or any warning, most of my program shortcuts are missing. The programs are still installed, I can get to them using explorer. If I go to the Start Menu All Programs and I click on a folder it will have an '(empty)' if I hover over it, it has date created, which is the install date. Is this a Vista bug? I've read that others have had it happen, any fixes? I know I can replace them by going to the individual programs, but I don't feel like doing it 50 times, and what if it does it again... One step closer to going back to XP....

Mary G · Answer

Check this--right click on the taskbar, Properties, Start Menu, pick which one you want and Customize it. Check all the settings to see what has changed. Did you know that many times you don't need the start menu? Use the Start-Search box on the start button and type the first few letters of whatever you want--programs, system settings, files--and the list of matching items will appear. It's a real plus.

Jake_Speed · Answer

Thankyou, Mary, I tried all the different settings, but most of the shortcuts are missing. I looked in the startup folder and under each program folder the shortcuts are gone. Something removed them? Not all, but most. I'll use the start-search and see how that goes...

Jake_Speed · Answer

Luckily, I had a backup of my whole hard drive, I restored the menus from that. I'm still trying to figure out what had removed them.

Windows General

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