Some Programs Slow to Launch from Start Menu

Hi cerien, welcome to 7F! :)

You say "some", do you have the Defragmenter on a schedule, have you ever defraged?

Have you ever ran a Disk Check or a SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker?

They would be what I would try next in that order. A word of warning, the CHKDSK will take upwards of an hour or two or more to finish once started, and do not disturb your machine while it is running.

The SFC /scannow should take less than a half hour.

Were you referring to the CHKDSK or the SFC?

If the CHKDSK you only need to do that once, if the SFC do that at least twice with reboots in between.
See Note step #4 of Option two.

The registry issue is possible, I will explain shortly. But, first things first.

We need to ascertain that your machine's file structure is okay, that is CHKDSK's job, then SFC will check the integrity of those files.

After running each of those scans; remember CHKDSK once, SFC more than once with restarts after each, you need to check the Start Menu shortcuts to see if there is any improvement.

Now we are getting into the registry question.

This may help: Start Menu All Programs - Add or Delete Shortcuts with this you can delete, then re-add those problem shortcuts

You can try Icon Cache - Rebuild

If there is still no improvement try booting into Safe Mode when there pick Last Known Good Configuration, and press Enter/Return on your Keyboard, and allow Windows to Boot to the normal Desktop.

If no improvement, then your next step would be to preform a System Restore.

If there is still no improvement.
Do you recall approximately when this started?
How many programs are "Some", can you list them?
You would need to find out how to un-install those programs, then re-install them. Check to see if there is improvement.

If all of this does not help, the next step would be a Repair Install

Final step is a Clean Install Windows 7