Where have my Start menu icons gone?

[bizzybody]

A couple of days ago I noticed all the icons under Start > Programs have vanished, except for Computer, which had its name erased. All the subfolders and their contents are still there. I don't know *exactly* when this happened because for the past couple of weeks I've left it running 24/7. Three days ago I discovered it'd rebooted itself, but that was most likely due to Windows Update.

I'm running Ultimate 32bit with the Classic style Start menu, Aero Glass enabled. I'm running Avast! antivirus which automatically updates and I never find anything but some tracking cookies with Spybot and AdAware.

[Kotuku]

It sounds like you have logged in as a new or guest user. When you click the Orb, is your usual user name at the top of the menu on the right? If not logout and log back in as the correct user. If for some reason that is not available, then use system restore to go back to before this instance.

[bizzybody]

Hmmm. I could try System Restore. I did try logging in as Administrator and the icons are also gone there. It looks like something cleaned out that part of the All Users start menu.

Ok, now this is odd. Last night I renamed the Computer shortcut under Start > Programs from not having a name at all to Computer. I just checked now and it's back to no name.

This falls under the classification of NOT GOOD. At least there's still several restore points available. The only time a nasty bit of malware got past me on vista, it deleted all the restore points.

[bizzybody]

Well, that didn't help. Earliest restore point was 11/11/08 so whatever deleted the start menu shortcuts also wiped out all the prior restore points.

If there's one thing I wouldn't mind 50 annoying levels of security on, it's the system restore backup files!

Oh well, time to make sure I have all the latest drivers and everything else I need then nuke and pave for a clean install. Fortunately I have my custom vLite'ed SP1 install disc and an up to date Autopatcher download.