# [SOLVED] Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.



## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

A few days ago I was watching a movie on my T.V from my PC and i had received a few errors i stupidly ignored them and just canceled them while the movie was playing to finish the movie. Anyways after the movie was finished almost 90% of my desktop items were gone. All that was left was the recycle bin and the My Computer Icon and internet explorer. Also my "all programs" section in my "start Menu" were showing "empty" when i hovered the mouse over the programs. I've ran Maleware bytes numerous times and IF i had a virus that caused this it's more then likely gone. I have ran a program called unhide.exe it fixed a few things but not even close to all of them. I'm here in desperation i'm pretty well with computers to an extent. I really dont wanna reformat my computer if i can avoid it. My system restore also wont work. I receive an error when i try and start it up. I'm thinking i have a registry issue. I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to registry problems. Anyways thats it in a nutshell. I run on a Windows XP SP 2. (Also i usually use a monitor for my computer i just hooked up the T.V just for the movie. Not sure if that was the issue either), (Also hope i'm in the right thread for this)


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

dreamvgt said:


> A few days ago I was watching a movie on my T.V from my PC and i had received a few errors i stupidly ignored them and just canceled them while the movie was playing to finish the movie. Anyways after the movie was finished almost 90% of my desktop items were gone. All that was left was the recycle bin and the My Computer Icon and internet explorer. Also my "all programs" section in my "start Menu" were showing "empty" when i hovered the mouse over the programs. I've ran Maleware bytes numerous times and IF i had a virus that caused this it's more then likely gone. I have ran a program called unhide.exe it fixed a few things but not even close to all of them. I'm here in desperation i'm pretty well with computers to an extent. I really dont wanna reformat my computer if i can avoid it. My system restore also wont work. I receive an error when i try and start it up. I'm thinking i have a registry issue. I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to registry problems. Anyways thats it in a nutshell. I run on a Windows XP SP 2. (Also i usually use a monitor for my computer i just hooked up the T.V just for the movie. Not sure if that was the issue either), (Also hope i'm in the right thread for this)


Do you have any system restore points?


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## WindowsHelp (Aug 15, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*

If you can reach all of your files still, even through c:\documents and settings\USER\Desktop then I recommend putting them onto a seperate storage device and formatting your PC.
Otherwise, you can do a partial format (non-destructive) which will reset all of your settings and norms on the PC but at the same time not getting rid of any of your files. There may be a setting that could be hiding your desktop icons, possibly even a virus. Try scanning with McAfee or a free, but trusted, virus scanner.


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

WindowsHelp said:


> If you can reach all of your files still, even through c:\documents and settings\USER\Desktop then I recommend putting them onto a seperate storage device and formatting your PC.
> Otherwise, you can do a partial format (non-destructive) which will reset all of your settings and norms on the PC but at the same time not getting rid of any of your files. There may be a setting that could be hiding your desktop icons, possibly even a virus. Try scanning with McAfee or a free, but trusted, virus scanner.


There's no such thing as a "partial format". Let's try not to confuse anyone with that, as that could lead to a very bad misunderstanding. Are you referring to a repair install?


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## WindowsHelp (Aug 15, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



mjones1 said:


> There's no such thing as a "partial format". Let's try not to confuse anyone with that, as that could lead to a very bad misunderstanding. Are you referring to a repair install?


Actually, there is such thing as a non-destructive format, I have done this countless times.
Please research these things before you tell me it doesn't exist.
Non-Destructive Recovery


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

WindowsHelp said:


> Actually, there is such thing as a non-destructive format, I have done this countless times.
> Please research these things before you tell me it doesn't exist.
> Non-Destructive Recovery


And I suggest you READ my post before you jump to conclusion. I didn't say anything about a "non destructive recovery," I said "let's try to not confuse terminology" because theres no such thing as a friendly version of formatting. All you did just now was link to a data recovery topic on another forum, having absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand. The OP didn't accidentally format his hard drive, or delete a partition. All data recovery will do is look at the unwritten sectors of his hard drive and attempt to recover any data from previous partition that have not been written over yet.

To stay an topic: again, any restore points?


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



mjones1 said:


> Do you have any system restore points?


I dont know if i have any restore points when i try and start up my System restore it tells me that "system restore can not help you" or some **** and then asks me to restart my computer. I went through my registry to see if my system restore was active. when i hit start it gave me an error message.


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

dreamvgt said:


> I dont know if i have any restore points when i try and start up my System restore it tells me that "system restore can not help you" or some **** and then asks me to restart my computer. I went through my registry to see if my system restore was active. when i hit start it gave me an error message.


It sounds Ike you've got issues all over the place... I recommend a repair install. Here's a great guide on repair installs, since I can be lazy and spam other topics in the mean time (haha, jk).

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1.htm


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



mjones1 said:


> It sounds Ike you've got issues all over the place... I recommend a repair install. Here's a great guide on repair installs, since I can be lazy and spam other topics in the mean time (haha, jk).
> 
> Repair Windows XP by Performing a Repair Install (Part 1 of 2)


will this remove all my files like a format would? or is it just kinda a way of putting things in default settings.?

Ignore that question i read it on the page you provided


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*

Okay i read all that gonna give it a try wish me luck!


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



mjones1 said:


> It sounds Ike you've got issues all over the place... I recommend a repair install. Here's a great guide on repair installs, since I can be lazy and spam other topics in the mean time (haha, jk).
> 
> Repair Windows XP by Performing a Repair Install (Part 1 of 2)


Okay, I did the repair install. It did fix my system restore and a few other programs but my programs in my start menu are showing "empty" still A few less then before though. And my original desktop items are missing. I feel I'm getting to the pinpoint of the issue here. On the bright side my PC is running faster with the repair install. But still the majority of the original issues.


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## mjones1 (May 25, 2008)

dreamvgt said:


> Okay, I did the repair install. It did fix my system restore and a few other programs but my programs in my start menu are showing "empty" still A few less then before though. And my original desktop items are missing. I feel I'm getting to the pinpoint of the issue here. On the bright side my PC is running faster with the repair install. But still the majority of the original issues.


If it fixed the restore points... Have you tried restoring?


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



mjones1 said:


> If it fixed the restore points... Have you tried restoring?


Yeah, Although it fixed system restore. The only restore point i had was for the repair install lol. I couldn't go to last month sadly. Is there a way to by pass that? Its almost like all the system checkpoints i had got erased when i did the system repair install


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*

It sounds like your user profile got corrupted and Windows loaded a Default Profile. Go to C:\Documents and Settings you should see your old profile name listed there but not branched out. If you open that file you should see Desktop folder in it, if so, if you open it you should see your desktop icons. If so *Copy* the* Desktop, Favorites, My Documents, and Start Menu *and paste them into your profile that you are currently logged into, overwriting the empty folders.


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



spunk.funk said:


> It sounds like your user profile got corrupted and Windows loaded a Default Profile. Go to C:\Documents and Settings you should see your old profile name listed there but not branched out. If you open that file you should see Desktop folder in it, if so, if you open it you should see your desktop icons. If so *Copy* the* Desktop, Favorites, My Documents, and Start Menu *and paste them into your profile that you are currently logged into, overwriting the empty folders.


I did what you said. It actually fixed a lot of the programs, But the ones that are in my C: Drive -> Program files. I have noticed that if i install something new into my C: Drive it will show up in my all programs list and show the actual program. So maybe i have some how removed the shortcut in the all programs menu for a lot of older programs that were installed before my pc went all crazy like.


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## spartann300 (Apr 16, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*

this is what worked for me-
go to start-> run-> type cmd

then type all this in at once.

attrib C:\*.* /d /s -h -r -s

press Enter key.

There is also a program called Unhide.exe. 
http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/unhide.exe
This will help getting Desktop icons back.


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



spartann300 said:


> this is what worked for me-
> go to start-> run-> type cmd
> 
> then type all this in at once.
> ...


I actually mentioned in my issue that i ran unhide.exe. It actually didn't work to well it got a few desktop items back. Got another suggestion? lol


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## spartann300 (Apr 16, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*

Oops sorry. i was reading your post from my phone at the time. then replied using my computer later.


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



spartann300 said:


> Oops sorry. i was reading your post from my phone at the time. then replied using my computer later.


lol, Its all good I appreciate the help either way. its really bugging me i dont know what the problem is. I've Ran a program called spybot search and destroy yesterday it found a few spywares and removed them from my PC but did not resolve the issue.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*

You are still infected. Try running *unhide.exe* again since you scanned with Spybot, and if you still have problems, click on the *Virus/Trojan *link in my signature and post there for more help.


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## dreamvgt (Sep 5, 2011)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*



spunk.funk said:


> You are still infected. Try running *unhide.exe* again since you scanned with Spybot, and if you still have problems, click on the *Virus/Trojan *link in my signature and post there for more help.


I re-ran unhide.exe then downloaded an antivirus program called Avast and it ran a pre-boot up virus scan and removed a hella alot of virus's needless to say my computer is acting normal again. And after that finished i ran unhide.exe yet again. My computer seems to be running great now. But my programs in my start menu that are linked to my C;Drive are still showing "empty" when i hover over them with my mouse. I guess i just have to get used to it lol. At least i can manually start programs in C: drive.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

*Re: Start Menu All programs Showing Empty. Desktop Icons gone help please.*

Glad to see you got it sorted. As for the Start Menu items. Go to *C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Start Menu* right click that file /*Properties*. Un-check *Hide* if it's checked. You can also go to the Program Files, find the program you want to make a shortcut to and right click the .EXE file and choose *Send To...Desktop (make shortcut)* or right click and choose *Pin to Start Menu
*Then please mark this thread solved in the Thread Tools at the top.


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