Help Classic Menu - Shortcuts attributes - BIG mistake

Dear ElQuia,

I am glad to read that your issue is solved.
I had the same issue as you, but unfortunately your solutions didn't work for me, so I had to dig further. I think I have found the solution and I am writing this post for those people out there that are still struggling with the same (or similar) issue.

To summarize the issue:
I use Windows 7 (x64) and I don't like the Windows 7 Start Menu.
So I looked for an alternative and the best I could find was:

Get Windows XP Styled Classic All Programs List in Windows Vista and 7 - Tweaking with Vishal

This worked OK at first, but after one or two days every shortcut in the menu wouldn't immediately start the appropriate program. First I would get a pop-up with the title 'Bestand Openen - Beveiligingswaarschuwing' (this is dutch for 'File Open - Security Warning'), asking me for permission to start the program.

Cause analysis:
I have not been able to determine the cause for this behaviour, but I think the reason might have been that I moved a lot of shortcuts from my personal Start Menu (C:\Users\Systeembeheer\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) to the general Start Menu (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) since the above mentioned alternative Start Menu only shows the contents of C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
I mainly used the 64-bit version of the thirdparty filemanager Q-Dir for this.

Solution analysis:
* Attempt 1:
I tried adding C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs to
the Intranet Zone in the security settings of Internet Explorer.
This didn't work
* Attempt 2:
I modified the following security settings for the Internet Zone in Internet
Explorer: Set 'Start Applications and insecure files' to 'Enable (not secure)'.
(I hope I translate this correctly from the dutch Windows 7 I run).
This worked, but I didn't like this solution, because it creates a huge security
hole. Advise: don't use this!
* Attempt 3:
I tried (part of) the first solution mentioned above by ElQuia:
- From Start - Run: type gpedit.msc
- Browse to User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows
Components / Attachment Manager
- Enable 'Inclusion list for known file types' and add '.exe' to this list.
(NB: alle the other changes mentioned in ElQuia's first solution post above are
not required)
This worked, but again creates a huge security hole. Advise: don't you this
if you don't have to.
* Attempt 4:
I tried the second solution mentioned above by ElQuia, which boils down
to resetting all security settings of all directories from C:\ProgramData\
Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs down.
Unfortunately this didn't work for me.
* Attempt 5:
So I dug deeper and checked whether the issue might be caused
by settings in NTFS streams on the .lnk or .exe files (see the section Alternate
Data streams on NTFS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and
Streams)
As far as I have been able to determine, this was not the case.

Solution:
Finally I came accross the following site:
How to remove "Open File - Security Warning" window? - Microsoft Windows Vista Community Forums - Vistaheads
And the solution for me proved to be the following steps:

- Click Start and in Accessories find the CommandPrompt
(or click start and type cmd)
- Right click on the found CommandPrompt or cmd.exe and choose
'Run as Administrator'
- Type the following commands (each line followed by <enter>)
CD \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\
icacls StartM~1 /setintegritylevel (CI)low
CD Start Menu
icacls Programs /setintegritylevel (CI)low

This worked, so my conclusion is that the issue was caused by incorrect security settings that are not visible from within Windows Explorer on the security tab of a file or a folder, but that are nevertheless relevant for how files are accessed by Windows.
For more info on ICACLS:
Icacls

I hope this helps some people out there that are battling with the same issue.
By the way: Meanwhile I have found a terrific (AND FREE!) alternative to the Windows 7 Start Menu: Welcome to Classic Shell

Keywords: .lnk, shortcut, Windows 7, alternative Start Menu, Favorites