Heartland

Am currently scratching my head in shock that Windows XP has reconfigured my Start Menu without most of my installed programs, these programs e.g. MS Office are all installed but the folder options and program links have gone from my start menu. The shortcuts on my desktop are still there but now if I want to run a program I have to search through explore or use the run command. Any ideas how to get the program links back and maybe how this happened?

Ta very much.

How does this happen?

a) you've deleted this from the start menu
b) you haven't use these shortcuts for a while - in this case they are hidden and can be revived if you click on the small arrow at the end of the programs (start->programs->look for the arrows)

For the case it's really not there, check this:

My windows isn't speaking english so the desciption may be not 100% accurate:


right click on the taskbar -> settings/options -> choose "start menu" tab -> customize

or go to this this folder:

documents and settings\your username\start menu

...or reinstall all the OP and all will go better

psichonaut wrote:...or reinstall all the OP and all will go better

In this case I'd choose OpenOffice - It's free & powerful:

http://www.openoffice.org/

Could also have been caused by running a program like CCleaner, which reorders things as part of the clean-up process. You can prevent it by unchecking Menu Order Cache in the Windows/Advanced section of the Cleaner function.

Or just get a Mac and dump that piece of Microsuxx garbage.

I mean, who names an operating system that sounds like brown sauce.

Could be a virus as well. There are a few common ones that essentially wipe out the start menu stuff.

Run Malwarebytes and see what it finds (Full scan). Once your PC is clean, then it may restore itself.

If not, then the easiest solution is to create a new user profile, copy over all your documents, desktop folders etc, into it, then delete the original affected profile and associated files and folders.

Had the same problem with a very hard to eliminate virus. Was able to restore most of it but there are still some scars.

Karst wrote:Or just get a Mac and dump that piece of Microsuxx garbage.

Is ther an echo in here?

I happen to love my maxed-out dual-core

piece of Microsuxx garbage

...
it was built by a techie friend of mine to be a great multi-media machine...
and it is!
I also use Peer Guardian, Mozilla's Firefox browser (with the no-script and
ad-block added on) and AVG free version and have had no problems with
viruses and such.

My experience: 99% of all computer related trouble is sitting in front of the device

DocSommer wrote:My experience: 99% of all computer related trouble is sitting in front of the device

"Error somewhere between monitor and seat"

that's the phrase in proper english - thanks

stufarq wrote:Could also have been caused by running a program like CCleaner, which reorders things as part of the clean-up process. You can prevent it by unchecking Menu Order Cache in the Windows/Advanced section of the Cleaner function.

I have run ccleaner so this could have caused the problem but all the menu order settings are unchecked by default (and still are) so not sure what's gone wrong. Thanks, Neil

the-happening wrote:

stufarq wrote:Could also have been caused by running a program like CCleaner, which reorders things as part of the clean-up process. You can prevent it by unchecking Menu Order Cache in the Windows/Advanced section of the Cleaner function.

I have run ccleaner so this could have caused the problem but all the menu order settings are unchecked by default (and still are) so not sure what's gone wrong. Thanks, Neil

get Mac!!!

Yeah, and I'm just hoping none of you are looking at this through Internet <splat>plorer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7787445.stm

Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Apple's Safari system are not vulnerable to this current flaw.