Some Programs Slow to Launch from Start Menu

[cerien]

Hi

I have a weird situation. Some programs are slow to launch from the start menu (win7 home premium), while they start quickly when launched from an explorer windows.

Any suggestions as to what could cause this ?

Rgds,

J.

 

[Anak]

Hi cerien, welcome to 7F!

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

 

[cerien]

I do indeed defrag once a week

 

[Anak]

Have you ever ran a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html or a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html?

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.

 

[cerien]

Thanks
I did that not so long ago, I will redo one tonight
J.

 

[Anak]

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.

 

[cerien]

I did both, and will redo both thanks for the reminder on SFC

Actually, I was thinking more of a registry issue... as the programs starts correctly when invoked from file explorer.

 

[Anak]

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: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/296-start-menu-all-programs-add-delete-shortcuts.html with this you can delete, then re-add those problem shortcuts

You can try http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/49819-icon-cache-rebuild.html

If there is still no improvement try booting into http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html 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 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Final step is a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[LM2008]

I have the same problem, but chkdsk or sfc didn't helped, sometimes i have to click multiple times until it opens. What brand is your computer?