Start menu right side shortcut path

Without knowing what version of Windows you're using, nobody can help you. :emotion-5:

You might try using a System Restore to the latest date available before the problem started. Personal files will be ok, but you will have to reinstall any Microsoft updates originally installed after the date used for the Restore.

Ron

Windows OS: I'm using Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1.

I don't think System Restore will allow me to undo the lack of shortcuts in the Start menu; and I would like to install them myself, either manually, or with a utility program from the Internet, if I can figure out how to refer to the problem for a search engine.

I think part of the problem is internal to Windows and would take a bit of tinkering, so I could probably resolve the problem if I could find a helpful page of information to follow the directions.

That's exactly the type of problem System Restore should be able to fix. It reverts all your internal Windows settings to a previous state, eg before your icons disappeared. It shouldn't do any damage to your personal files so it's relatively safe to use.

If you're concerned about your personal files, back them up on external media before you run System Restore, just to be safe. But you should be backing those important files up externally all the time, anyway... :emotion-5:

Ron

Unfortunately, I don't think it will work. I think the shortcut lost the connection to the directories when I cut and pasted them off from the hard disk to the flash drive, so System Restore will not reconstruct the connection by restoring Windows settings and preferences.

The shortcuts no longer point to the right place, and I can't change the location of the Start menu shortcuts with the impoverished set of options currently in place. I need to make the internal corrections myself, or perhaps find an Internet download that will work.

I don't mean to insist; I just don't think it would work. What could I use as the name of the search for a search engine box?

Can anyone suggest a solution other than System Restore?

Have you tried something like this ...

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/159034-start-menu-restore-missing-default-shortcuts.html

Otherwise, I'm with Ron on this ... System Restore should fix it.

(I appreciate the suggestions about System Restore; however, System Restore doesn't seem to repopulate the Properties of my Start menu Folder shortcuts. That means that I fail to enable the Location tab on Properties, so that I can redirect the location.

I want to thank you two for your patience, and I don't want to seem obstinate.)

Thank you for the link. I looked around on the URL. However, the content was similar to what I needed, without actually pertaining to the folder shortcuts on the right hand side - Documents, Pictures, Music - such that the article dealt moreso with shortcuts under Programs on the left hand side of the Start menu.

If you can find a similar tutorial on www.vistax64.com for the right hand side, then I would probably be able to use it, rather than trying System Restore again.

I'm not sure if I should join the website to post my question, or simply look for a tutorial already posted.

BTW, the 64 bit dual processor computer in question uses 32 bit Windows Home Premium, although the website seems to be addressing Windows Vista in general.

I don't think you obstinate, I just didn't know that you had already tried System Restore.  It makes little sense to me why it wouldn't work ... good luck.

I'm glad you don't think me obstinate, then.

Well, I hate to keep repeating this part of my explanation: I don't know if it doesn't seem to get across yet, so here's another time -- after I cut and pasted the directories from the hard disk to the flash drive, the Start menu folder shortcuts on the right side lost the access to the Documents, Pictures, Music folders. With no folders to refer to, the Properties of the Start menu right side folder shortcuts became nearly empty, and lost their tabs.

System Restore doesn't interface with this particular mechanism - the connection of the shortcuts to the folders, which was undone when I cut and pasted the folders from the hard disk - as it has a selective approach to restoring previous settings of the system and its operating system, so it can correct some mistakes, as the Undo function is able to correct mistakes in software programs - yet it doesn't literally roll back to a previous point in the system as if rewinding a tape.

Rather, System Restore resets certain features, the list of which I don't have. Since the folders were cut and pasted from the hard drive to the flash drive, System Restore doesn't reconstruct the connections between the shortcuts and the no-longer-present folders, apparently. This feature is not on the list, as far as I can tell.

Needless to write, System Restore is useful for correcting other mistakes, and I have often been encouraged to try it as the first suggestion for Windows problems. System Restore corrects those other mistakes -- and -- as has been written above, works around the undesirable restamping of the hard disk's files and folders to their previous content and locations. System Restore seems to work better by not simply deleting new files and folders and replacing them with the Restore Point's old files and folders, as this would delete lots of tediously labored recent content, and the aversion of having to work from old files and folders would create a reluctance to use System Restore more freely to correct system and Windows mistakes.

Thus, System Restore is great at its function. However, my problem of a lack of a connection between the Start menu shortcuts and the folders Documents, Pictures, Music is not corrected by System Restore.

Because the Properties of the Start menu right side shortcuts are depopulated, I don't have Location tabs, so I can't re-setup the Locations to the locations of the Documents, Pictures, Music folders that I copied and pasted from the flash drive back onto the hard disk.

As a low-level Windows user, I often get encouraged to try System Restore as a 1st line of problem solving. I hope this post will clear up why it won't work in this case. If someone can help me with a tutorial to modify the internal mechanism to reconstruct the Start menu right side properties, or help me with a set of words to search for in help windows or search engines, I would be grateful.

I'm sorry to ask again. I hope I cleared up my question with the above long post.

Where might I find a tutorial or shareware program on the Internet, such as the suggested article from www.vistax64.com, if you can help me to find it? I looked around for about an hour or two and didn't quite find the right type of solutions in the sections on the Start menu and shortcuts.

Anyone have a similar suggestion? I'm still waiting. A technician tried to help me with a Windows internal mechanism solution, and after searching the Internet for a tutorial on Windows Vista, he found a Windows component to modify the system paths. Although the paths were redirected to the Documents, Pictures, Music folders in a limited way, the attempt apparently was limited from actually connecting the Start menu.

Have you tried something like this ... http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/159034-start-menu-restore-missing-default-shortcuts.html Otherwise, I'm with Ron on this ... System Restore should fix it.