Windows 7: Start Menu doesn't show after upgrade to 7068

Untill now Windows 7 has been my system of choice, but since i've upgraded from 7057 to 7068 (i've always made upgrades and always went superb) my start menu doesn't show up, the shortcuts are all intact in All users and current user ( "%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu" and "%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu").

1- I have already taken ownership of all shortcuts in those folders (my account is an administrator account) and set full permissions.
2- I have made a new user account to check if using this account it solved the problem.
3- Changed location of start menu in registry. HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

No success.

The search start menu function is working (i.e. it manages to find the hidden shortcuts in those folders)

Basically the system is working very well (+/- 1 week uptime), only this "small" problem... Any ideas?

Hello JJmourajr, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Usually a clean install is recommended instead since Windows 7 is still in the testing phases to avoid potential issues with remnants from the previous OS installation. However, you might see if doing a repair install may be able to fix this for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thank you for the advice, my computer takes ages to upgrade , and i am recovering from a bilateral hernia surgery... will try to relax, because the problem is not that bad. Maybe someone will find a fix (registry or else) in the meantime to another 7 64-bit build.

After doing some more thinking on this, you might see if this may be the issue below with All Programs set as disabled.

Start Menu All Programs List - Enable or Disable - Vista Forums

I hope your recovery goes by quickly and pain free.

I tried the policy setting and restarted. And i found another policy setting: Remove common program groups from Start Menu.
But still no luck...

Other than the repair install. You might see if creating a new administrator account and see if the Start menu works properly in it. If it does, then you can just copy the contents of the old user account's C:\Users\(user name) folders into the corresponding new account's folders to keep your user settings. If all goes ok, then you can delete the old user account from within the new one.

Have you recently installed cyberlinks powerdvd ??

It was already installed before the upgrade...

Do you have the start menu items located here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs (You might have to turn on 'show hidden files and folders')

yes...