My shortcuts disappeared from the Start Menu, and Administrative Tools was empty. But I was able to get them back -- thanks so much to those from this site who put together the brilliant tutorial on restoring shortcuts .
But the fact that they were missing in the first place has me perplexed. Does anyone know what could have happened? I will be scratching me head and losing sleep until I find out what happened.
Yes I do -- against the advice of friends who are much more tech savvy than I am. I was afraid it was a registry issue. Any advice.
Stop using them immediately. That's my advice. As it causes more issues then it "fixes".
Uninstall them completely. While uninstalling those junk programs, look in the list and uninstall any other programs you do not use. If your not sure you can leave it or ask here.
If you want to use any cleaner, the only one recommended is this here:
CCleaner - Delete Junk Files
I wrote a guide on how to use it. It's called ccleaner.
I don't know your level of tech savvy, and this is not intended to make you feel stupid, but this is how you uninstall a program should you need it:
Programs and Features - Uninstall or Change a Program
As a matter of fact, I have VERY minimal items in ADD/REMOVE programs because I don't have a "happy " finger when it comes to putting things there by mistake. I am quite cautious about that sort of thing. Of the 12 items in the box, one is, indeed, CCleaner, another one is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and I use Revouninstaller to THROUGHLY remove what I deem unnecessary and no longer needed --all three of those highly are touted throughout this site and others. (I've used those 3 for quite some time.) So my savvy isn't lacking in that department.
My original query, though, was for thoughts as to how it could have happened. It is not just me, the problem is described in countless posts on sites such as this very one. I have read much about the fixes, but not much about the cause -- thus my original question.
But Andrew129260, I do appreciate you taking your time to respond.
That's great news about you being careful what to install and what not. :)
Gotcha, unfortunately I do not know the cause. I almost bet though that when something happens like this its third party software to blame. Running just windows would probably not see the error/problem occur. However, I do not know what third party program would do that, and it would take some time to narrow down.
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On using Ccleaner