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Thread ID: 95515 2008-12-09 03:27:00 I've lost the list of programs under the "start" "all programs" list box HomerJayK (14375) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
726864 2008-12-09 03:27:00 G'day all,
I had a little drama with uninstalling a program which I have now fixed (you can read about that here " forums.pcworld.co.nz " if you wish) and in the wash up I have lost 90% of the programs from under the "all programs" list box. All of the programs are still on my laptop and unchanged but they just aren't listed. This is probably and easy fix i just can't work it out or find anything about it anywhere, that doesn't relate to a virus, but that might be because I just don't know what to google.
The only thing I can think of is that I used a third party piece of software do do the uninstall, because windows installer wouldn't do anything, and it did delete something from the registry. I don't now enough about it to be able to check.
Also, I tried to roll the system back to a restore point but it said their were no changes which I find very hard to believe as their were multiply restore points created after the one I tried to go back to.

Thanks in advance.
HomerJayK (14375)
726865 2008-12-10 09:31:00 As an add-on to this i have also worked out that windows doesn't know where the programs that are pinned to the start menu are located any more. when I try and launch something this way I get this error message "Windows is searching for Microsoft Office Word 2007.lnk. To locate the file yourself ,click Browse." It's the same for what ever program I chose. HomerJayK (14375)
726866 2008-12-10 17:54:00 Can you open a word file and then when it doesn't open right click and tell it to open with word from the list of programs? gary67 (56)
726867 2008-12-10 18:07:00 windowsxp.mvps.org Safari (3993)
726868 2008-12-17 20:53:00 Thanks for the suggestion, I followed everything I could out of that thread but with no luck. I couldn't quite follow the instructions exactly but this is what I did, tell me if you think their is a better option. The post says to;

"fix the the Shell Folder data for Start Menu, Programs, Common Start Menu and Common Programs."

"Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

* Common Start Menu
* Common Programs "

I found these alright and changed the path of Common Programs back to the default %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs. It did have a value called sexvid (who knows what that was?)

Then
"Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER

* Start Menu
* Programs "

The path closest to this I could find was HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Explo rer\MenuOrder\StartMenu2\Programs

The next instruction was;

"If Common Programs value is not available in the right-pane, create a new REG_EXPAND_SZ value named Common Programs and assign the data as said above."

I did that under the Programs folder but with no joy.

Is their something else i should try or have I misunderstood the directions?
HomerJayK (14375)
726869 2008-12-17 21:26:00 Check on this - go to my Computer / C: Drive / Document s and settings folder / right click it / properties / then under the General tab ( down the bottom) make sure in attributes the Hidden is NOT ticked, if it is untick it - reboot and see if the list is back.

Edited: also check in C: programs Files, make sure thats not hidden as well.

If everything looks OK - Download This here (windowsxp.mvps.org) , right click it after downloading / merge - But make a restore point first.
wainuitech (129)
726870 2008-12-24 09:10:00 I went in to the properties of both of those files and they weren't hidden but the strange thing I did notice was that the Size, Size on disk and Contents lines started counting up, from zero, like it was scanning the folder. It didn't seen to make any difference to anything except when you go into properties a second or third time it does it again but much quicker.

I'll try the download soon, once a few things have stopped running on my PC, and post after.

Cheers.
HomerJayK (14375)
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