Member Avatar for mrs prout

Windows XP Home SP1

I have 2 log in accounts. On one of them note pad, calculator, windows explorer etc have all gone along with everything in accessibility, communication, system tools etc. In the other log in account, notepad, calculator, explorer etc are still there but accessibility, communication, system tools etc is empty. I tried a restore but no success.

How do I search for these programs as search only mentions files, folders etc.

I can't remember making any major changes over the last few months.

Thanks in advance

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

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This thread shows two useful checks already: suggested a fresh profile (good for spotting profile corruption) and pointed out that the actual programs are still present and recommended a system-file check. The next practical step is to look at the Start Menu folders themselves — what Windows shows under Accessories is just the union of a per-user folder and a machine‑wide folder. If the shortcut (.lnk) files are missing from those physical folders the menu will appear empty even though the programs still exist.

Check these folders while logged in as an administrator:

  • C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories
  • C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories

If the All Users Accessories folder contains the shortcuts but an account’s own folder does not, copy the missing subfolders or .lnk files into that user’s Start Menu\Programs\Accessories. If All Users is empty, copy the Accessories folder from C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories or from another working XP machine, then log off and back on.

Quick troubleshooting checklist:

  • Use Explorer to search for executables (for example, search for notepad.exe) and create a shortcut if needed, then place it into the appropriate Start Menu folder.
  • Enable viewing of hidden/system files if you can’t see folders.
  • If shortcuts exist but don’t appear in Start Menu, check folder permissions (Users need read/list rights) before replacing files.
  • If replacing shortcuts doesn’t help, a repair install or running the system-file check that mentioned is the next step.

When creating a new profile to fix corruption, copy only personal data (Desktop, My Documents, Favorites, Application Data) rather than cloning the entire profile; that avoids bringing corruption into the new account.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for alc6379

Try making a new user profile, and seeing if they're all there in that account. If they show up, you've got user profile corruption. Let us know how that goes, and we may be able to give you more information afterwards.

Member Avatar for mrs prout

Try making a new user profile, and seeing if they're all there in that account. If they show up, you've got user profile corruption. Let us know how that goes, and we may be able to give you more information afterwards.

Thanks for your suggestion - when I made a new user profile, opening accessories showed that the accessibility menu was OK but nothing in communications, interactive training, system tools or entertainment. Calculator, wordpad, explorer etc were present.

Member Avatar for caperjack

The exe for those programs will be found in the C:\windows folder .
I don't know why they are not sowing in Accessories.

This might help ,with the winxp cd in the cdrom ,go to start/run and type in,
SFC /SCANNOW , not the space between SFC and the /


What about a system restore back to before the problem started !

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