Start Menu - Restore Missing Default Shortcuts

How to Restore Missing Default Start Menu Shortcuts in Vista​

   Information

This will provide you with separate downloads that include all of the All Programs default shortcuts in the Start menu for each edition of Vista so you can either restore all of the shortcuts or just the ones you need.

   Note

A Start Menu shortcuts download for the Vista Enterprise edition is not included in this tutorial. You can use the download for Ultimate in it's place.

EXAMPLE: Start menu All Programs for Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate
NOTE: To compare and see the features in each edition of Vista, see: Windows Vista Editions Overview and The Vista Editions Comparison Table

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STEP ONE

To Restore Default Start Menu Shortcuts used by Current User Only

NOTE: All 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Vista have these same single current user default Start menu shortcuts. You will also need to download the All Users Default Shortcuts for your edition of Vista in STEP TWO below.

1. Click on the Download button below to download the file below.​

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Single_User_Shortcuts.zip​

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2. Save the Single_User_Shortcuts.zip file to the desktop.​

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3. Right click on the Single_User_Shortcuts.zip file (on desktop) and click on Open.​

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4. Click on Allow in the UAC prompt.​

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5. Extract the Single_User_Shortcuts folder to the desktop.​

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6. Right click on the Start button and click on Open or Explore, not Open/Explore All Users. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: This will open this hidden Start Menu folder in Windows Explorer:​

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C:\Users\(user name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu​

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7. To Restore All Default Single User Start Menu Shortcuts ​

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A) Open the Single_User_Shortcuts folder (on desktop) and right click on the Programs folder and click on Copy.​

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B) Right click on a empty space in the Windows Explore window and click on Paste. (See screenshot above)​

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C) Click on Yes and Copy and Replace to confirm the copying of the default shortcuts and desktop.ini files.​

8. To Restore Just the Single User Shortcuts You Want​

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A) Open the Single_User_Shortcuts folder (on desktop) and manually copy the shortcuts you want over to the Start menu location in the Programs folder in the Windows Explorer window location above. (See screenshot below step 6)​

STEP TWO

To Restore Default Start Menu Shortcuts Shared by All Users

NOTE: You will just need to select the download for your edition of Vista. You will also need to do STEP ONE above to restore the Single User default Start Menu shortcuts.

1. For Vista 32 bit or 64 bit Home Basic​

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A) Click on the download button below to download the file below.​

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All_Users_Home_Basic.zip​

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B) Go to step 5.​

2. For Vista 32 bit or 64 bit Home Premium ​

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A) Click on the download button below to download the file below.​

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All_Users_Home_Premium.zip​

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B) Go to step 5.​

3. For Vista 32 bit or 64 bit Business ​

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A) Click on the download button below to download the file below.​

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All_Users_Business.zip​

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B) Go to step 5.​

4. For Vista 32 bit or 64 bit Ultimate​

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A) Click on the download button below to download the file below.​

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All_Users_Ultimate.zip​

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5. Save the ZIP file to the desktop.​

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6. Right click on the ZIP file (on desktop) and click on Open.​

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7. Click on Allow in the UAC prompt.​

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8. Extract the All_Users_(Vista Edition) folder to the desktop.​

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9. Right click on the Start button and click on Open All Users or Explore All Users, not Open/Explore. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: This will open this hidden Start Menu folder in Windows Explorer:​

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C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu​

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10. To Restore All Default All Users Start Menu Shortcuts​

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A) Open the All_Users_(Vista Edition) folder (on desktop) and highlight the Programs folder, Default Programs shortcut, and Windows Update shortcut, then right click on them and click on Copy.​

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B) Right click on a empty space in the Windows Explore window and click on Paste. (See screenshot above)​

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C) Click on Yes and Copy and Replace to confirm the copying of the default shortcuts and desktop.ini files.​

11. To Restore Just the All Users Shortcuts You Want ​

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A) Open the All_Users_(Vista Edition) folder (on desktop) and manually copy the shortcuts you want over to the Start menu location in the Programs folder in the Windows Explorer window location above. (See screenshot below step 9)​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Customize the Start Menu in Vista
• How to Display Small or Large Icons in the Vista Start Menu
• How to Enable or Disable the All Programs List in the Vista Start Menu
• How to Restore the Start Menu Search Button after Installing the Vista SP1
• How to Enable or Disable the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties Window in Vista
• How to Add or Delete a Shortcut or Folder From the Start Menu in Vista
• How to Hide or Show Hidden Files and Folders in Vista
• How to Restore the Administrative Tools Shortcuts in Vista
• How to Fix the Games Explorer Link in the Vista Start Menu
• Game Shortcut Links in Games Explorer Do Not Work

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Arbaces, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

 

[pngzhengli]

Hi, thank you very much for your post. I had almost restore most of the programs but I'm unable to restore the "Administrative Tools". When I right click on "Start, Open All Users, Programs, the Administrative Tools file is there" but when i click on All Programs, I cannot see it. Can you pls advise me?

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Hi Pngzhengli, and welcome to Vista Forums.

See if this tutorial can help you. Check the instructions in the NOTE under Here's How to make sure you have that checked in the Customized Start Menu window.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/137512-administrative-tools-restore-shortcuts.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[pngzhengli]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. I'm still unable to see the "Administrative Tools" folder in my Start Menu.

 

[Brink]

In the Customize Start Menu window, scroll to the bottom of the list and check to make sure that you have Display on the All Programs menu and the Start menu dotted under System administrative tools.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/89656-start-menu-customize.html

 

[pngzhengli]

Yes, I can now see the folder. Thanks alot. Now I have other problems. Is it possible to restore my laptop to it's original state? It seems that I've registry problems and it take quite some time to turn on and off my laptop.

Is there any instructions on how exactly the procedures is?

 

[Brink]

Yes, you should be able to restart the computer and boot into the Recovery Manager program, for the recovery partition, by pressing usually the F10, then selecting the restore factory default installation type option. Check you laptop's documentation on the exact procedure though. This will be a clean install, so backup anything you do not want to lose first.

They should be in your laptop's documents. What is the brand of your laptop? I'll see if I cannot find them at the laptop's website for you and post back a link.

 

[pngzhengli]

I'm using Acer Aspire 5572AWXMi. Thanks alot!

 

[Brink]

I couldn't find a link with exact instructions, but the ones I provided above should get you through it ok.

 

[pngzhengli]

I don't really understand "by pressing usually the F10, then selecting the restore factory default installation type option. Check you laptop's documentation on the exact procedure though". I tried typing option but nothing.

And also I have problems with my performance report. I've attached a copy of my Event Logs.

I also attached a copy of Reliability and Performance Report.

 

[Brink]

Pngzhengli,

You would restart your laptop, then press F10 every second until the Acer eRecovery Management screen comes up. From there, you should have an option to select to restore the laptop back to the factory default install of Vista. Just select it and follow the on screen instructions to allow it to format and reinstall Vista for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[pngzhengli]

What about the errors logs I've attached? Can it be resolve?

 

[Brink]

The logs seem to indicate that you are low on memory. You can had more RAM to help. If you have manually adjusted you Virtual Memory Paging File, then you should set it back to allow the system to manage it.

If this doesn't help, then you might post these separate issues in the General Discussion forum to hopefully get a solutioni for them soon.

 

[segual]

Thanks Brink this really saved me. Hated having things all messed up, now (hopefully) my start menu is back to normal.

As a head's up to my fellow humans, my Start menu got messed up either after trying out the applications "Startup Delayer" or "NetStumbler" - don't wanna find out which to be honest.

However it was mainly my fault: one of these decided to copy my entire Start menu into a new "Programs" folder inside "All Programs". For whatever reason I then decided it was best to delete this straight away (it was early in the morning), and in doing so, despite all the shortcuts having previously appeared in both the "All Programs" and this new "Programs" folder in "All Programs", every single shortcut I owned got deleted. This did not make me happy.

System restore wouldn't fix it, but in the end I was able to use file recovery software to retreive most of my programs shortcuts, but strangely most of the Windows ones were badly corrupted. So this helped immensely.

Thanks again!

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Segual, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Thank you for sharing the suspect programs and your results.

Shawn

 

[saw580]

Shawn, I made a mistake a few months ago, and I've been searching once or twice a week since then, hoping that I could correct the problem. Finally, after all this time, you have helped me to overcome my moment of fail. I do appreciate your work, and I hope that I can give back to this forum as much as I have taken, even in just this short period.

Many thanks to you, sir.

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Saw580, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Thank you,
Shawn

 

[blackhawk]

im having some problems w/ my laptop. after restoring my missing default shortcuts when im logging into windows a notepad will apear and a popup window saying that the filename, directory name or volume label sytax is incorrect.. i must have done something wrong, im also running some programs like ccleaner and advanced windows care personal and registry mechanic(but currently uninstalled)..sometimes there's also an error occuring "C_PsdRsDll not found".. i also tried system restore but it failed.. now i dont want to reformat my system cause there's a lot of projects here in my laptop.. i dunno what im going to do now..

btw, i have an asus m50 laptop.. i really need to fix this one coz' its quite annoying..

 

[Brink]

Hello Blackhawk, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might doublecheck to make sure that you have downloaded the correct Start Menu shortcuts for you edition of Vista and that they were placed in the correct folder.

As a precaution, you should backup you projects and anything else you do not want to lose in case this is a symptom of a larger problem.

The C_PsdRsDll not found error is for your Infenion TPM professional package program. You can fix this by uninstalling that program in Programs and Features. Not sure if it is related to your other problem, but it could be.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[riptor]

In addition, lets say you don't want to reinstall your apps and software due to the pain staking time it's going to take, just simply locate and copy the .exe of the program to the start menu folder...the same one in which you had to copy and paste to.