Start menu programs dissapearing...

[Elooder]

This may have been reported earlier and has been happening on Vista and XP to some people (albeit not REALLY the same), but I'm seeing my entire programs list in "All Programs" disappear after every installation of any software. It seems adding to the list makes it disappear. The funny thing is that the actual files (shortcuts, etc.) are all in place in their proper folders and don't get removed. It's just the start menu which stops showing them. A way to fix this, for me, is to MOVE the entire contents of
"[startup drive]:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" to a different folder and then MOVE it all back (same goes for the "[startup drive]\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" contents) After this, it all comes back, but only until I install something new.
Does anybody have any such or similar problems?

Also, I have a different user account on this computer (for my wife) and none of this happens there, even if I perform an installation from under that account!

I should also say that this window install (currently build 7077) has been upgraded from 7048 (i.e. 7048 -> 7057 -> 7068 - >7077). I have AVG antivirus + firewall installed (the problem happens with it disabled and has started long after AVG's been installed anyway).

This did not happen on any provious builds (and started relatively recently but for the life of me I can't remember when exactly since I don't really use the programs menu that much). The first time it happened I did a restore which brought back the contents but again, until the next install after which it all disappeared again.

It seems to have something to do with the way the start menu finds its contents...

 

[Orbital Shark]

This could be something to do with Windows & the actual display of new software (although i may be wrong as i've not seen it myself).

You could try setting the start menu properties (right-click Taskbar, properties, start menu then customize). About half way down you'll find 'Highlight newly installed programs' see what happens if you de-select that option.

 

[Elooder]

Thanks for the advice!
I've just tried switching off highlighting of new programs and it seems to have stopped the list from disappearing, but I suspect the list is now also not being updated (i.e. new programs don't get added). I will check this again and report back.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Glad it's working for you so far. The new programs will still appear, they just won't be highlighted.

 

[Elooder]

Unfortunately, I just checked and it seems it's not fixed (the list just disappeared again). Looks like the first time I was testing, I used a program which doesn't add to the programs menu...

I just hope Microsoft gets wind of this through some kind of telemetry collection so they know of the potential problem even though it's probably caused by something I did or installed...

 

[Orbital Shark]

Sorry to hear that. You could try visiting

http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/6148-vista-win7-7068-start-menu-not-working.html

and see if that helps, it's marked as solved too.

Hope this helps

 

[Elooder]

Just checked that thread. It's the same thing I have but it hasn't been solved there AFAIC.... oh well... may just do a clean install of the next build when it comes along...

Thanx for your help!

 

[Orbital Shark]

Is it? It's marked as solved but I didn't actually read the thread, it looked the same as your issue though. Might be an idea to keep an eye on it though

 

[Orbital Shark]

Have you looked at trying the step mentioned by Mr GRiM, creating a new user to see if that works? It did for the 1st person.

 

[Elooder]

Well, I said in my first post, I have another user account on this install and everything's fine there... therefore I'm assuming it would work, but unfortunately transferring everything from this account to a new one and all that is actually a bit too much trouble considering I don't install new stuff all that often AND I'll do a fresh install of any new build that comes along. In other words, if there was some registry/file fix, I'd do it but transferring everything from one account to another is too bothersome (let alone I have a ton of programs that would probably not work without a proper transfer or reinstall...). Somehow, I'm quite sure that it's me who screwed up somewhere (probably with the folders and whatever as I have been changing permissions on them before this started)