Start/All Programs Severely reduced 2

[playingball]

For some unknown reason my usual programs including MS Office have gone missing and would like them back. If anyone has had similar issues please reply. Running XP Pro SP3. Thanks

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Can you be more specific? Gone from where? Just the Start Menu's All Programs section or from their hard drive locations and/or desktop shortcuts as well.

What changed between the time they were 'normal' and now? What was installed or removed? Any error messages in the Event Viewer?








To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[playingball]

'Evening,

Thanks for the interest in my problem.

The programs are gone from the Start/All programs. The programs are still in c/d program files. Some of the programs in 'all programs' from the start button exist but the fold has been drastically reduced.

Only program installed was Revo Uninstaller and a new install on a anti-virus program called Vipre.

There were no error messages I am aware of.

 

[linney]

I have seen this occur when the programs that the shortcuts point to are in folders with the Hidden Attribute set. Check to see if this is the case with your computer.

 

[kjv1611]

playingball,

Did linney's sugesstion strike out or hit a home run? Any news on your progress?

An easy way to test and fix the issue linney is talking about in one fell swoop is to do this:
1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Go to your Local Disk C: Drive
3. Find and right-click on the Program Files folder.
4. Select Properties.
5. Wait for the doohickey to stop changing, if it's constantly changing - that way you know it's had time to calculate all the summarized details.
6. Look for a check in the box next to "hidden", or if the check box is filled in green. If it's checked, then the whole thing was made hidden by someone/something. If it's a green square, that's normal, as some things ought to be hidden. If it's unchecked, it's not your issue.
7. If it's checked or green square, you can click it (more than once if necessary) until it no longer has anything in the checkbox.
8. Hit OK
9. When it asks you if you want to apply to only this folder or to this folder and all subfolders and files, choose the latter (all).
10. If you get any "access denied" messages, just click on "Ignore all", that way it'll change what it can.
11. After it's finished, try checking your start menu - if no different, restart Windows and THEN try your start menu.

Another note, it sounds like that Vipre antivirus can be dangerous to the health of your Windows system if set to high protection settings. See these posts at CNET:

http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-se...7-33190884-1.html?tag=userReviews;summaryList

My personal opinion is that if I saw an AV app flaging explorer.exe as a virus without giving details as to why, such as "in wrong folder - suspicious" or something like that, then I'd write it off as a good program. Especially if it can't tell normal explorer.exe activity from non-normal activity. I've seen firewalls ask for permitting the file to do certain things, but this AV app has actually gone and deleted the program, according to a couple of posts in that link. Scary stuff in my opinion.

That said, it seems at least possible that your problem occurred from the use of that AV program.

I'd recommend one of these myself:
Nod32 if you want to spend money
Avira Antivir if you want a free one (or you can still buy their paid version)
AVG still isn't too bad, but Antivir does seem to provide better protection now, and from my experience of late, it seems they've fixed many of their false possitive issues that kept me away from them back about 6 or 7 years ago.


--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

I meant to add this to my instructions in the last post about the hidden attribute. Some files/folders should be hidden. If you try this, it will unhide everything, unless the file has additional protection in place. If it does unhide everything, just be a little more careful when deleting things by hand.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[playingball]

Thanks to kvg1611 and linney for your suggestions. Neither of the suggestions have actually restored my programs in Start/all programs. There is no check mark at my hidden attributes check box or filled with green.

Funny thing about the suggestion regarding Vipre, my year subscription to Vipre started acting up co-incidently with the problem with the programs.
Appreciated the info regarding Vipre, I'll probably stick with it being aware not to bump up the AP to the higher level.

As a footnote to my problem with the programs running - NEW programs I have downloaded show up now in their proper place at the START but the old ones I have to boot off my tray or try to make a short cut from their locations on the drives. Too bad windows can't see my older programs.

Cheers!

 

[linney]

Maybe you ran into a corrupted profile situation? If you create a new user what are his shortcuts looking like?

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Select both boxes.

811151 - How to Copy User Data to a New User Profile

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

Have you checked both of these locations?

C:\Documents and Settings\usernamexxxx\Start Menu
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu

 

[DTracy]

Funny thing about the suggestion regarding Vipre, my year subscription to Vipre started acting up co-incidently with the problem with the programs."

Have you tried setting to a restore point prior to this problem?

Also, you might try setting the system date back to a time prior to the expiration date of your AV software.

I would try the restore point first though.

Regards,
David.