We need two pieces of information at least:
1/
What's in C:\Program Files? Prolly the programs you're missing.

2/
What's in the Registry? Prolly NOT the programs you're missing.

You might be able to restore to the last known good configuration via F8.

Your future father in law should use the shotgun on you because you didn't back his data up!

lol Well, the intention behind cleaning up some things on the computer wasn't to delete the menu. It just suddenly disappeared without trace. All the programs are viewable in the folder "Programs" but in the start menu they are just not present. I retraced my steps on what I had done but nothing that should affect the Programs menu.

The last thing I did before this happened was....

Opened "My Computer" and right clicked "ACER ( C: )" and in the drop down selected "Properties", and in that I went to "Tools" and performed a "Error Check" < This option will check the volume of errors >.

Then in the new window "Check Disk ACER ( C: )" I selected "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors".

Once that was done, it asked me to restart the computer, which I did, and when it restarted, I went to the START menu to open the Control Panel and highlighted Programs by accident and noticed the problem.... Nothing was in it...

Any ideas? Thanks for any suggestions!!

And I hope it's no shotgun, that would suck LOL

But did you look into your Registry? We need that info to diagnose the problem.

Is there a stack of software listed under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE

If not, at least we know why Programs shows nothing. Then we can guess the likely cause, which might be the repair function of chkdsk. I always back up data before running chkdsk with /F.

Hello,

Sorry, it wasn't until now that I figured out the Registry bit. I tried following some guidelines from a site called "Xperience Xp" the link is....

http://xperiencexp.blogspot.com/2005...u-missing.html

Anyways, yes, under SOFTWARE there are a whole heap of files and folders available.

What can you suggest would be my best next step to take? I really appreciate any further assistance you can offer in helping me resolve the problem.... Future "Father-in-Law" may just be getting that shotgun ready LOL

Hello,

To be more precise, this is a perfect explanation to my problem I found on another website, but there were no replies that solved the issue.... Perhaps this will help a little more in trying to explain my situation.

Today I received a call that an EU was unable to see any programs in their start menu.

I went to the EU's office and sure enough that was the problem among other things. I also found that the "Recycle Bin" was not on the desktop nor was it listed in "My Computer" or in the "Explorer Window."

I also noticed that the properties for the "Start Menu" (Advanced Start Menu Options) was blank. This was also the case for the folder options; (Windows Explorer --> Tools --> Folder Options --> View (Tab)--> Advance Setting Window).

In addition to these oddities, the files that the start menu was suppose to point, where on the workstation.(i.e C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs") All the icons she needed were there, yet the program menu on the start menu said "Empty"
Anyone have any ideas as to what happened?

I checked for Spyware using Adaware, Spybot, and HiJackThis; none Made sure that the anitvirus software was up to date; it was.

I rebooted the workstation and logged in under my administrator id and received the same results.

The computer I am using is a Acer Dell Windows XP SP2.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

You can re-add list through Start Menu Properties. Right click on system tray and customize the Program option.

My understanding is that you are referring to the All Programs menu within the Start Menu, not the Start Menu itself.

Can we get that cleared up first or did Thunderstorm98 latch on correctly?

if it is the All Programs menu, you could try to add System Administrative Tools through the Customize/Advanced menu item. If something appears you'll be frustratingly on your way and by no means there yet!

Also you can try running a program from Program Files. if it's all OK with the Registry, the program should run and you can icon it on Desktop to give you some breathing space.

I did some research in the Registry and then checked my theory in Google. Sure enough there are entries buried that must be there for All Programs information to be displayed.

If the stuff below solves your problem, you'd need to try and find out what zonked your Registry entries. Chkdsk /f? Hmmm.

ANyway this is what I uncovered:
---------------------------------------------------------
Empty All Programs menu due to lost links

To fix empty All Programs menu problem, run the regsvr32 /i shell32.dll command and then restart your PC. Your program links must be visible in the All Programs menu after restart.

If not, then you will need to check Shell Folder data for certain values in the registry. For this, open the Registry Editor window by running the regedit.exe command.

Next, navigate to the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current
Version\ExplorerUserShellFolders folder and check if the entries listed below are visible in the right pane.

Value name Value data
Start Menu %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu
Programs %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs

Also, navigate to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curren
tVersion\Explorer\UserShellFolders folder and check the values given below.

Value name Value data
Common Start Menu %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu
Common Programs %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs

Next, to repair the problem, add the missing expandable string values to their specific locations. Finally, restart the system to implement the changes.

--------------------------------------------------------

Let us know.

and if that don't work ,what about trying a system restore back a few days before you made changes ,to someones computer wit out there consent ,especially the future father in-law , ouch ouch !!LOL