I'm going to call this an OS or User Profile corruption or the Start Menu Programs folder got deleted.
Right Click the Orb and choose Explore All users
If it's empty, there is your problem, You will have to recreate it manually.
if not, then it's a corruption somewhere (Registry???)
but I would not know where to look, if that is where it is and I am not saying it is in the Registry
I would create a new user and see if the issue exists. If yes, then reload the OS
If not, then it was a profile issue and use the new profile.