Hi, this is my first post. I have exactly the same problem. I upgraded Windows 7 x64 build 7000 to build 7068. Upgrade process went smoothly wihout any errors. Only thing not right is that i do not have any menus even though the files are in the directories mentioned in the posts above. I have tried all that has been suggested and even created a new account but the interesting thing is that no new menus were created for this new account.
'All Programs' in Start Menu is blank in 7068 x64. Tried repair install and creating a new user account, but still 'All Programs' is empty. Registry values are all OK and items are navigable in the original folders that are used to populate 'All Programs' and also have correct permissions, exactly as on another 7068 x86 machine where Start Menu is fine.
Hello.
I just found this place vai a Google search as I had the same deal going from 7000 to 7068.
I fixed this simply by deleting all the shortcuts from the user folder location and re-pinning everything. Was quick and fixed it.
No reason to recreate the whole user account or repair installs.
No the issue you are describing is different. We are not talking about programs that a user can pin the the start menu, but about the All Programs list:
Not yet solved!
I just got a 1 TB drive, I have 2 500 GB drives that I'd like to turn into a RAID 1 array. One is currently a data drive, the other is my old OS. So I need to empty those 2 500GB drives onto my shiny new Win7 TB drive so I can make an array out of them.
When I installed Win7, it was on the TB drive. Apparently, I made the foolish mistake of installing Win7 with another drive in my computer (dear MS: this is not a mistake... it shouldn't matter.) Why is that bad?!?! Because Win7 decided to setup the boot configuration data on the D drive... because the only better than a single point of failure is 2 points of failure (wtf!). So after spending a Wednesday night learning how to rebuild the BCD from scratch--AGAIN, I was up and running again. Yay.
Then I replaced the 1 500GB data drive with the other 500GB drive containing my old Windows Vista drive (again as a D drive). Again, the idea was to back things up to my C drive and clean the drive out. Well, Windows 7 won't let you delete protected system files from another OS without taking ownership of the files. Fine. This shouldn't be a problem. So I right click on the drive, take ownership, apply it to all of the subfolders/files, change the permissions, give 'Everyone' Full Control (again to subfolders and files). Now I should have complete control to do whatever I want with the files on my old Vista install. Great.
I get what I need off the drive, deleting everything I don't need as I go along (including Windows, Program Files, Users, etc.). So far so good, right? Just emptying out a drive that is in no way related to my current OS installation... (whistling inconspicuously)
Then I notice that everything pinned to the task bar is broken. Even the Explorer & Media Player links. Then it tells me that the recyle bin on my D drive is corrupt & offers to rebuild it--fine. I don't care about that drive anymore anyway. My desktop wallpaper is gone. Huh. Wtf? No big deal. I reset my wallpaper and figured I'd re-pin the items to the bar... Click the start menu, all programs, Accessories--empty. Administrative Tools--empty. Startup--empty. In fact, every single folder in these directories:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
empty. Not a shortcut to be found.
Let me google this and see if anyone else had this problem. Why is Firefox asking me if I want to import stuff from IE? I already said no to this before I installed my 15 extensions and configured them all the way I like them... Not anymore...
Somehow, even though I installed Win7 on Tuesday, the timestamp of c:\users\scott is 10:08 AM this morning. Apparently, changing NTFS permissions on what appears to be a Windows installation and deleting files COMPLETELY RUINS a perfectly good installation of Windows. That makes sense... I'm not annoyed by that at all.
Well, I'm off to install an axe into my motherboard.
-Scott
I have this same issue and a temporary solution so far has been to move all the folders and shortcuts from the "Programs" folder in start menu to a temporary folder and immediately move them back . They will then stay there until the next time I install anything that adds itself to the start menu. This workaround also works for the common start menu items from \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Also, I've also had it happen that IE and Firefox and some other programs intermittedly don't remember their settings... like Windows Media Player asking it's setup questions on every third or fourth start for the first few days after installing or upgrading windows... IE does the same.
I suspect it may have something to do with access priviledges on system folders... or even system drives....
Same problem on 7100 RC, same fix (move out, move in).
zack21uk,
editing the registry isnt a smart idea as i figured out anyway (attempting a registry clean and failing miserably) might take a long time but maybe its for the better that you move your things over to the other account, and rename, thats just my advice.
Enzo.
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