All Programs Gone

[Golfer]

I'm using XP on my laptop and I've just had a problem in that when I go to Start and hover over All Programs nothing comes up !!! If I click on All Programs nothing happens !!! I changed the Start menu to Clssic Start Menu and the All Programs sub menu says (empty).

There are obviuosly prgrams there so it's a bit weird. My weekly virus scan was run today and is clear. Alos I ran Microsoft Antispyware and my machin is clean. I've copied All Users entries into my username but still no entries.

Anyone else had this problem.

[Darius Wey]

Have you tried restarting your computer?

[Mark Kenepp]

Try logging on as a different user and see if the programs appear in the start menu.

Look in your user folder, C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Start Menu, and see if anything is displayed there. Also look in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu.

If you do not log on to the computer, then I am not sure exactly where to find the actual folders that contain the start menu items but I am sure it is there on your C:\ drive somewhere.

If they are empty, it is possible that they were accidently moved or deleted. Try looking in your trash to see if they ended up there or do a search on your C:\ drive for "Start Menu" and see what comes up. I would start by looking in folders adjacent to where the start menu should appear in the user folder.

[Brad Adrian]

Performing a System Restore might do the trick, too.