6 replies to this topic

[Vincent P]

Computer -Windows XP Home

At first my computer was fine. I was making a powerpoint and installed some random googled \"Avi - MPEG\" converters which I believe is my downfall. I needed to use the programs, and afterwards decided to sleep knowing tommorow I should uninstall them. The next day I logged on, had a lil browse of the net, watch some vids, chat with people. Suddenly my computer was going, at a stage where it would freeze for literally 5 minutes or so. Randomly an installer for Microsoft Office 2007 ran, even after clicking cancel it would begin installing again.
Then I remembered I wanted to uninstall the programs. Before I could navigate far enough to uninstall, it would keep freezing and explorer.exe not responding. I also tried a system restore, but again it was going so slow. Instead I decided to turn off and leave it for an hour or so.

When I came back, I turn on the power button and the first windows screen with a scroll green bar comes up. Then I get a blue screen error message. I have to just click the power button again so that the computer will turn off. Whenever I pressed the power button, a black screen saying that it didnt shut down properly last time, and if I wanted to go into safe mode or whatever came up. Whichever one i chose, aftewards the blue screen error would come up again before I reached the log-on screen; like this:
[url="http://\"http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f363/blue_duck_1/DSC03952.jpg\""]http://i51.photobuck..._1/DSC03952.jpg[/url]
[url="http://\"http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f363/blue_duck_1/DSC03953.jpg\""]http://i51.photobuck..._1/DSC03953.jpg[/url]

I ran the Windows XP CD (chkdsk i think or something like that) and pressed f12 and ran the Fixboot thing. That took about 3 hours to complete and afterwards when my PC restarted everything looked normal. I got to the log-on screen, logged in and the programs were working, so was the internet. However, the in Start -> All Programs, now everything was missing.
I decided to system restore, back a few days or so. AFter that completed, I logged on to my account to find an error message saying Microsoft Office was corrupted and to put the XP CD back in and restart and then it should repair itself. When I did that, it took about 7 hours for the repair to finish -doing 5/5 different steps-.

Restarted and relogged onto my account and the Start -> All Programs list was empty again (bar 2 folders, also empty).
I went about getting back the accessories folder by getting a friend to send me theirs, and that seems to work properly now.
Only problem is im still missing all the shortcuts/folders to my programs and other possibly important things in the All Programs Menu.

Is there any way I can get these back/ Would I need to get some of them back because they are important things?
As right now this is what my start menu looks like:
http://i51.photobuck..._1/startmnu.jpg

Im missing alot of pre-installed programs on my Start Menu, such as PowerDVD, Sonic DLA etc.
Theres no shortcut to the programs in Program Files.
Also, im missing the "Games" folder. In Program Files I can see the .exes, but when i try and run them it says they cant run, so try and close some programs or edit them in Add/Remove Programs (which I dont know how to do)

Edited by Vincent P, 08 October 2008 - 02:23 PM.

[nasdaq]

Hi,

This may may help your in restoring your Programs from the menu.

http://windowsxp.mvp...AllPrograms.htm

If you need help at any moment please ask before proceeding.

[Vincent P]

I tried, but it didn't do anything.
The values were the same as what I was supposed to fix in the first place, but even so I still modified them.
After restarting my start menu looks the same.

Im just wondering, seeing as I already have the accessories folder, is there anything else that is supposed to be in "All Programs" which I would need?
I mean apart from the "games" folder, is there anything else that is meant to be in there.
Because for the program shortcuts, I can easily reinstall the programs to get the shortcuts back.

[nasdaq]

I googled this string program menu empty

I found many suggestions one of which is:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs (folder) was marked "Hidden." This prevented their display.
Unchecking "Hidden" under Properties resulted in their (immediate)
display.

===

Or this link.
http://www.softwaret...ogram-list.html

Have a look further on Google.

Mean time you can always create shortcuts to your control panel.
Right click on the .exe file you want to use and select create a Shortcut.

[Vincent P]

Hey sorry for the long reply, my internet router packed in and its taking me ages to fix it.
Im connected on a temporary modem so apologies if my replies aren't for a few days.

Anywhoo,

Whilst I can just copy the program shortcuts, 1) I cant find all of the programs' shortcuts, and 2) Im missing out of folders which contain other things other than the .exe to run the program.

But after a bit of browsing and playing around, I did find this which was quite interesting; in regedit:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sofware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\

I have 2 folders.
One was called Start Menu -> Programs, which contained virtually nothing, and the other was called "Start Menu2"
When I opened up "Start Menu2" then -> Programs, I found a list of all the things in my All Programs list before this problem arised.
I decided to delete Start Menu (the one with nothing) and rename Start Menu2 as Start Menu.
When I restarted there was a new folder made, called Start Menu2 again, this time containing virtually nothing.

Its quite confusing but in short.
I now have 1 folder called "Start Menu" which contains all my programs that are spose to be in the list,
and 1 folder called "Start Menu2" which now has very little.
It seems as though the new Start Menu2 is still in use.
Is there any way I can like, change the computer to make it use "Start Menu"

[nasdaq]

I found an interesting link here.
http://www.microsoft...tt_03may05.mspx

Go to this title.
Personalize the Start Menu

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder contains the sort order of the Favorites menu and Start menu. The subkey Favorites contains the sort order of the Favorites menu. The subkey Start Menu contains the sort order of the classic Start menu, and the subkey Start Menu2 contains the sort order of the new Start menu.

Deciphering the contents of these three keys is next to ridiculous, but you can remove any of them to resort the corresponding menu in alphabetical order. For example, to restore the All Programs menu to alphabetical order, remove the subkey Start Menu2. To remove a subkey:

• In the left pane, right-click the subkey you want to remove, and then click Delete.

As you can see all you had to do was to remove the Start Menu2 key.
I can only suggest you try that and hope that all returns to normal.
What you did before in renaming start menu2 to start menu may have caused some permanent damage.

[nasdaq]

Due to the lack of feedback this Topic is closed.

If you need this topic reopened, please tell the moderating team by replying here with the address of the thread. This applies only to the original topic starter.

Everyone else please begin a New Topic.