Most start menu program folders say (empty)

[Vladimir8185]

Hi there,

I have a problem with most of the programs in my start menu no longer containing any shortcuts but just displaying "(empty)" as shown below.

And when I use "search programs & files" to find the program it doesn't find it either.

I first noticed this happening about 3 months after I did a clean install of Windows 7 and I am 99% sure it affects all programs I have installed since then. The shortcuts are there after the programs are first installed (I don't check this all the time though) but disappear soon after - maybe after the next logon... I don't know.

It must be related to permissions because when I right click on "All Programs" and select "All Users", if I try to open one of the affected program's folders I get the message "You don't currently have permission to access this folder". I can click "continue" and open the folder and the shortcuts are there.
(A related problem maybe that some of the shortcuts have lost their icons??)

I don't know much permissions and ownership etc but have managed to change the ownership of one of these folders to Administrator and it then the shortcuts also appear again in the start menu.
I could just go through and do this to all the 40 odd programs that are affected buy I want to know what's causing it to stop it happening in the future.

I have spent hours trying to find a solution to this problem and it is driving me crazy!
I have seen a lot about the Windows 7 restore virus that makes start menu folders empty? I don't think this is the problem (I used to run AVG but now Microsoft Security Essentials and they have never found anything) but I haven't actually seen any info about how to confirm if you have this virus or not - mainly people advising to run different "virus fix" programs which I am wary about.

I have only ever had one user account on the computer which is set to admin privileges too.
Any help would be much appreciated, Thanks!

 

[Vladimir8185]

just saw this in the "similar threads" below this post

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/51328-start-menu-empty.html

Quote: Originally Posted by beabt1
My Start Menu......Once was populated but now is vacant. I'm not aware of any action of mine that has caused the original list to disappear. Items can still be added to the menu if I choose to do so.

It is a known problem when start gets more than abt 80 items. I have it now. there are 2 fixes. first have less than that number of items. second there is a thread here that has the cure. I forget its name and fix. Just search for it. Me I just deal with it too much trouble.

 

[AddRAM]

Have you tried re installing the program ?

 

[Vladimir8185]

Yes, it's not just one program though, i'm pretty sure it's all of the programs I have installed since it first started happening 6 months ago (and no, I have no idea what changes might have happened at the time)

 

[Britton30]

Did you install the programs form your user account or from an Administrator one? Did you select "Install for all Users" or maybe "Just Me"?
How have you accessed them for the last 6 months?

 

[Vladimir8185]

Installed from my account (which is an admin account anyway) and always select All Users if the option is given.
I just pinned to the start menu the ones I use often and the others I open directly from within program files....which I have gotten sick of doing now hence having ANOTHER go at trying to find an answer, giving up and posting here haha

 

[Vladimir8185]

Does no one have any ideas on this one???

 

[VistaKing]

Hi Vladimir8185

Can you tell me if you have this folder ( in bold ) C:\Users\(YourUserAccount)\AppData\Local\Temp\smtmp ?

 

[Vladimir8185]

No I don't, I checked the Administrator user as well. Is that how you check if you have that virus that affects the start menu?

 

[VistaKing]

Yes the virus stores folders in that folder and the folders are numbered 1 , 2 , 4 . Each number goes to a specific folder . Can you take a screen shot of the entire start menu ?

 

[mohavepc]

Yes the virus stores folders in that folder and the folders are numbered 1 , 2 , 4 . Each number goes to a specific folder . Can you take a screen shot of the entire start menu ?

Here is a Top Notch Tool Unhide.exe - A introduction as to what this program does - Am I infected? What do I do?

 

[VistaKing]

mohavepc

if he ran a cleaner to delete his temp files that folder is gone and the tutorial you gave him is pointless.

 

[Vladimir8185]

Regarding the virus and temp\smtmp folder...now I googled that virus again and checked your link mohavepc I can remember checking for that folder now when I had a good go at researching this problem 6 months ago, and again 3 months ago. Both times that folder didn't exist so I was confident that wasn't it (the possiblity of the virus was my main concern over the inconvenience). And I have never run cccleaner or anything similar that would delete my temp files either (there be 500 odd folders and 2300 files when i just checked the properties of my temp folder).

Someone else also suggested running an offline virus check like microsoft defender offline which I have done and came back clean.

Vistaking, here are the screenshots of my complete start menu, I presume the reason is you want to see if there are any suspect programs there? There are a couple of issues I have had which has required me to use "deep" uninstallers because the normal uninstall or add/remove programs won't seem to work. May or may not have any significance but just in case...
1. Had major dramas trying to get bluetooth talking to my phone so ending up installing and uninstalling a variety of bluetooth stacks to try and get it to work (with no luck in the end btw! )
2. I have a Sapphire 7750 video card which I had a bit of trouble setting up to begin with but was working fine until I stupidly updated Catalyst Control Centre hoping to fix a minor issue. After a few days pulling my hair out on this one I had to used ATIman uninstaller to get it working again. This seems to be a pretty serious program and I became a bit suspect about it when Security Essentials kept hanging on one of the ATIman exes, so tryed to uninstall it but it wouldn't.
3. After using AVG (free) for years I gave up on it because it kept getting errors updating. As is well known, this is a bit more involved than just clicking "uninstall" too but I am 99% sure it was done properly. I say this because this seems to be the most common reason why people are having trouble with MSE hanging.
Well after I deleted the ATIman folder (because it wouldn't uninstall) MSE is now hanging on
C:\windows\system32\codeintegrity\driver.stl !!

Sorry about the longwinded and possible irrelevant response but I figured too much info is probably better than not enough! Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Britton30]

Try running this to get rid of AVG items. AVG | Download tools and utilities

Let me understand you, in the right snip of the All Program menu if you click any of those folders it is empty?

 

[cottonball]

Vladimir8185,

Check out Method 3: How to restore Start menu and files hidden/deleted by a virus - General Security - Smartest Computing

 

[Vladimir8185]

Briton30: one of those is exactly what I used run to uninstall AVG properly. I don't really think I have a problem there, I was just saying that before anyone told me that's the reason for MSE hanging during a scan.

No not ALL the programs are affected, about 75% are and if I order all the folders by date created it seems to be most of them from a certain point onwards but not all of them. Just the other day I saw a program still had it's shortcuts there a day or 2 after I installed it but now it is empty.

cottonball: I am 99% sure it is not that virus (or any virus for that matter)! When I go into C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs all my programs and shortcuts are actually there. Except I don't have permission to open the folders for the programs that are affected. If I change the owner to myself then the shortcuts within that folder reappear in the start menu.

 

[VistaKing]

Vladimir8186

I think this is your issue

:ar: A story of Windows 7 and an empty All Programs (and how I fixed it) - Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

 

[UsernameIssues]

Vladimir8186

I think this is your issue

:ar: A story of Windows 7 and an empty All Programs (and how I fixed it) - Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

@OP,
Did nesting the start folders cure your ills. I was unable to replicate the issue mentioned in the blog... and I tested with thousands of folders/shortcuts.

 

[chriso32]

found it

after searching around i found this and it worked for me:


Hey, I figured out how to get my all programs folders restored to where they were no longer empty.

1)Go to the startup icon
2)then put cursor over "All Programs" and right click and click on "open"
3) then select the "programs" folder and right click and select "properties"
4) then select the "previous version" tab, await the previous versions to show up and select the folder that existed prior to your problems and hit restore and follow through with prompts.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Welcome to the Seven Forums and thanks for the added info.