Windows 7 Program Icons Missing in All Programs Menu

[brgroup]

Hi,
I did an upgrade from Vista Ultimate to 7077 ultimate..Everything went smoothly with only one or two uncompatible programs. Unfortunately when I click on Start | All Programs every one of my installed programs icons are missing. I have to search for the program to start it and pin it to the taskbar if I want to keep it accessible.

I've tried a few registry hacks, security settings and even tried to copy some shortcuts over. I also tried restoring all the default shortcuts to the C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu - You can see in the screenshot only a few items have shown up.

I've tried creating a new admin account and the problem is repeated there as well..No program icons in the All Programs Menu. My version is activated.

Here's a screen shot:
Link Removed due to 404 Error

I'm kind of stumped here and its a pretty big annoyance..lol!

Anybody else have this problem or anybody know of a fix? I feel like its an easy one (hidden folders?) or a permissions problem, but I'm not finding it..

Thanks in advance!
BRGROUP

 

[catsartcox]

Yep, i am also haveing this problem. Please help

 

[vooicpdoo]

Just upgraded from the beta to the rc and now have the exact same problem... I've tried the same things as the OP mainly with permissions... If I copy files from the c:\programdata folder to the c:\users\User Name\appdata folder a few icons show up but not very many and only the Microsoft apps such as DVD Maker.

 

[mustardman]

I have exactly the same problem. Upgraded Vista Business 32bit to Windows 7 Pro 32bit RC1 (Build 7100).

 

[davehc]

I cannot understand how this has happened, but the solution may be to copy (not move!) all the shortcuts to the global start menu. That is under \Program Data - Microsoft _ Windows _ Start Menu _ Programs

 

[mspeedo]

Same problem here, after i upgraded my Vista home premium to RC 7100, all programs are missing from start menu (is blank), even if shortcuts icons are in start menu folders. When i copy it there and there, some icons shows, but when i do some changes in start menu options, all disappears again. This is curious MEGA BUG!! I tried many things, nothing help.

//ok i fixed this problem.. partially. I moved all my startmenu shortcuts from AppData (current user) and ProgramData (all users) to another location. Then a moved it all to ProgramData startmenu folder. In "programs" directory under Start Menu i have only subfolders with shortcuts. Other shortcuts files are directly under Start Menu folder. I found that this working, but there is some limit in number of subfolders which are in Startmenu/programs folder. When i exceeded this limit, start menu is blank. I don't know exact number, but now i have 77 subfolders + 14 shurtcuts under start menu folder and starmenu working fine. But with around 100 subfolders it was empty. So try this and delete unused shotcuts.

 

[mustardman]

On another site a fix was posted for a previous beta version of Windows 7. That fix doesn't translate to current windows 7 because the registry directories have changed somewhat. I think it may be a matter of just finding the right area of the registry which is slightly re-arranged from this fix. I tried adding this registry fix to a few places similar to the description below but so far no luck. If anyone can find the right location for build 7100 please let us know. It may also be a permissions issue.

"use Link Removed and browse to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

make sure the value of "StartMenuLogoff" is set to "0"

you have to logoff/logon for the changes to take effect

 

[compumech]

Seems like a bug indeed...

I thought MSPEEDO was on to something, so instead of going through the process he went through, I simply right clicked on "all programs" in the start menu and chose "open all users." Then I went into the Programs directory and began deleting icons and folders, bringing the number down to 70.

Lowe and behold, I clicked on start, all programs, and everything was back.

Either this is a bug, or Microsoft has intentionally put a 70 item limitation on start menu items....


For now this is the workaround.

// Just because I am insanely curious, I went back and created a bunch of test folders to see if the items in the all programs menu would go away. I originally had 106 items in the start menu, so I went crazy and added 133 by creating random folders and moving files and shortcuts here. The All programs menu did not dissapear, and all items were displayed.

I think this is a bug that occurs during the upgrade process of one build to another. It happened specifically for me after I went from 7057 to 7077. I currently run 7100.

So this is a fix, not a workaround.

 

[jbb3141]

I did an upgrade from Vista Ultimate and have the same problem! Not one of my program icons appears and I've had no luck tracking down how to fix this problem. I thought I had gotten rid of that virus known as Vista but it appears to have given me the finger one last time...

Jeff

 

[compumech]

Try reading my post above.

 

[AirForce2117]

Compumech,

I tried your solution, but only about 1/3 of my icons showed up, so here's what I did and it worked.
1. I created a new folder (D:\temp\StartMenu).
2. Right clicked on the All Programs on the Start button.
3. Selected Open All Users.
4. Moved all folders in the Program folder to the folder I created in step 1.
5. Moved each folder in the folder created in step 1 (one at a time) back to the Program folder. Just to ease my mind, after moving a few I click on All Programs on the Start button. Each time the All Programs was correct, so far.

After rebotting my laptop, All Programs was again empty!!

This Works!
1. Click on the Start Menu.
2. Right Click on “All Programsâ€Â￾.
3. Select “Open All usersâ€Â￾
4. Open the Programs Folder.
5. Create a new folder named “Aâ€Â￾.
6. Drag all the other folders into the A folder.
7. Close Windows Explorer.

You’re done. When you click on “All Programsâ€Â￾ you’ll see a limited number of Program Items. If you click on the A folder, you see all of your Programs. NOTE: In this folder the folders follow single shortcut items.

 

[compumech]

Heh, to each his own I guess. My icons are still under program files after I did what I did, even after reboot. I guess there are a number of things here to try then!

 

[AirForce2117]

How many items do you have in the root of Programs? I've got 85. Placing them in the A folder was the only work arround that I could get to work.

 

[nlowhor]

Compumech,

This Works!
1. Click on the Start Menu.
2. Right Click on “All Programsâ€Â￾.
3. Select “Open All usersâ€Â￾
4. Open the Programs Folder.
5. Create a new folder named “Aâ€Â￾.
6. Drag all the other folders into the A folder.
7. Close Windows Explorer.

You’re done. When you click on “All Programsâ€Â￾ you’ll see a limited number of Program Items. If you click on the A folder, you see all of your Programs. NOTE: In this folder the folders follow single shortcut items.

Ok, I did this and it worked as you said. However, after doing this I did the following.
1) Go back to start menu, right-click on All Programs, and select Open.
2) Go back to start menu, right-click on All Programs, and select Open all users
3) Now you have 2 explorer windows open. In the one for all users, double click the A folder.
4) Select all and copy everything in the A folder to the all programs folder for just this user.
5) There are some duplicate items, but I just merged those folders.
6) Now I seem to have both the few that came across with the original method and also the other stuff. I don't know if everything is actually there, but it seems good enough.

Now I just need to repin things to my start menu that I wanted. Also, haven't rebooted yet to make sure it sticks. It's not perfect, but good enough until the day I do a clean install.

 

[Horia]

I just finished upgrading to Windows 7 Ultimate RC Build 7100 from Windows Vista Ultimate. I must say, the upgrade went smooth, however, Windows 7 does not support the older Kaspersky Anti-Virus releases (Version 6), so I was prompted to uninstall it. Other than that, there were a few warnings regarding other software such as SonicWall Global VPN client, but overall the installation went well. I would say about 3 hours.

The only thing I have noticed so far is the issue posted in this thread. The All Programs icons and folders dissapeared. I have read through the thread and the following worked for me. A quick note, I had a total of 99 items in my All Programs folder.

1) I right clicked on the "All Programs" link and selected the "Open All Users" option.
2) I then double clicked on the Programs folder and voi-la there were all my All Programs shortcuts and folders.
3) I started to remove shortcuts and folders that were either empty or no longer needed. I wanted to make sure this was a bug so I deleated one shortcut at a time and check the All Programs menu until my shortcuts reapeared.
4) I deleted a total of 9 shortcuts/folders and everything came back. I currently have 90 items in my "All Programs" menu.

Howerver, just for kicks, I created another folder named Test in Programs folder once select the "Open All Users" option and my shortcuts along with the Test folder showed up just fine.

In conclusion, this may be a bug when you upgrade to Windows 7.

Microsoft...any thoughts?

 

[techgolem]

Mspeedo and Computech seem to have it right. Once I started moving around shortcuts to reduce the # I got my pointers back. Definitely a quantity-related bug.

 

[DeeZaster]

At first I thought this might have been the "Max Cached Icons" limitation when they got rebuilt when upgrading (as I was just missing the actual icons), but the route your going is just using them from another source, not your originals it looks like (using All Users which usually is loaded full when you install a program and choose install for all users, its placed there). Have any of you taken a look if maybe there is a mistake in the following locations:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage\NewShortcuts]
- Note that these should normally be deleted upon upgrading or cleaning

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders]

and maybe

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu]

Pretty much self explanatory after you take a look. Wow6432Node is not used btw (x64 OS users). The one thing I do dislike very much is any SecuROM activated game gets deactivated and costs you a tick of how many you get when you perform an upgrade. Seems the update way likes to move all your SecuROM data into C:\$WINDOWS.~Q, I was able to save all but one activation so not to bad. I just make sure now to deactivate each game before I do attempt an upgrade (btw its not recommended to do an upgrade anyways, a clean/fresh install is always a prefered method of upgrading, not refering to SP updates, but a full OS upgrade).

 

[geoholl]

I thought MSPEEDO was on to something, so instead of going through the process he went through, I simply right clicked on "all programs" in the start menu and chose "open all users." Then I went into the Programs directory and began deleting icons and folders, bringing the number down to 70.

Lowe and behold, I clicked on start, all programs, and everything was back.

Either this is a bug, or Microsoft has intentionally put a 70 item limitation on start menu items....


For now this is the workaround.

// Just because I am insanely curious, I went back and created a bunch of test folders to see if the items in the all programs menu would go away. I originally had 106 items in the start menu, so I went crazy and added 133 by creating random folders and moving files and shortcuts here. The All programs menu did not dissapear, and all items were displayed.

I think this is a bug that occurs during the upgrade process of one build to another. It happened specifically for me after I went from 7057 to 7077. I currently run 7100.

So this is a fix, not a workaround.

That didn't work for me in exactly that way. I followed the instructions, right-clicked all programs and opened all users. When I deleted a few folders they then showed in All Programs. I repeated the process and deleted 5 items at a time. Now they are all in All Programs where they used to be.

So, I guess there is more than one way to fix this..

G

 

[SaltyDog]

Got my icons down under 70 by creating folders, and now it works like a charm. Thanks for the tip!

 

[urbantank]

This solution here works

I thought MSPEEDO was on to something, so instead of going through the process he went through, I simply right clicked on "all programs" in the start menu and chose "open all users." Then I went into the Programs directory and began deleting icons and folders, bringing the number down to 70.

Lowe and behold, I clicked on start, all programs, and everything was back.

Either this is a bug, or Microsoft has intentionally put a 70 item limitation on start menu items....

Yep this is the solution for now as it worked for me as well .... I removed the shortcuts from "open all users" it showed that I had about 86 shorties in there and I took out the ones that I rarely used from the start menu and walla .... all of them showed up again .... nice find, I was scratchin my head on this one all night.