Windows 10: All the programs in my Start Menu are just gone.

So, this happened a couple of weeks ago, and me being the most unobservant person on Earth, I didn't notice that half my icons were missing from my taskbar until yesterday. Most of the remaining icons don't work when clicked (they specify a missing shortcut), and when I went into my start menu>programs folder to check, almost all of the programs in there are suddenly missing shortcuts/are just not there. I believe this happened before not the most recent Win10 update, but the one before that. I just don't understand where it could have all gone. I've lost a lot of programs and it's messed up the liscencing for a couple of them as well, so any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea what could have caused this to happen as I'm very careful with my downloads and McAfee hasn't reported any viruses or malware.

:)

 

Why did the startup window get cleared?

I didn't missed any step, the list was gone and gone , even after using lot of programs the programs were not listed in that list.

 

Files missing from "Start Menu" "All Programs"

RE: WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE 32bit, Files missing from "Start Menu" "All Programs" list.

I have several "start menu" programs missing in my "all programs" list. One of the missing entries is the "accessories" folder and all related files.

As far as I can tell all of the missing files are on the system and they can be found by using the "start menu search" facility. This problem is occurring with other users but I can not find a solution which works to get things back the way they were after installing the OS.

I am seeing the missing apps and other items at this location in iexplore.exe %allusersprofile%\Start Menu\Programs .

Everything I have tried to get these items back into my "start menu" "all programs" list has been met with failure except creating a shortcut. A shortcut is not the real fix as it leaves two entries in the folder.

When I right click on the highlighted "all Programs" box, in the start menu, a small options list pops up, if "open all users" is selected a new window pops up. Inside that window I can click on the programs folder where I can see the missing entries that should appear on my "all programs" list plus those which I presently see on my "all programs" list together in a single directory listing.

How can I get the above directory list of programs back into the "start menu" "all programs" area so I do not have to go through this extra window and select the programs folder to locate what I wish to run?

I also noticed my accessories folder has a lock on it while I am in the primary user administrator account. If you know how to get rid of the lock it would be helpful however I can find that information when I get a chance to look up the answer?

I noticed some hidden (first tier) folders on the C: drive which I made visible while leaving protection on the OS folders. I can now see these folders in an iexplore.exe directory listing. This did not fix the problem in the "all programs" file selection list and I do not remember if this folder was hidden when the OS was installed.

When I opened up the system to allow a login directly into the Administrator account everything shows up the same as it did when the OS installed along with all other programs installed afterward.

After some progress I am still here *Bang Head :banghead: and slowly getting closer to an answer. Can anyone help me get there a little faster?

 

Removing unused programs from start menu


Thanks, guys. It worked. I deleted the files in the folder as you suggested and now those apps are gone from the start list.