Hi
I am new here, I found the link on another site and hope someone can help.

My PC is a Dell Dimension, I've had it a few years. Running with XP.

When I go onto start, all programs then hover over any program, it says empty

I cannot open a program in the usual way. All the programs are still there but I have to go the long way round to open anything.

I searched on line and found some info about program shells not initialising.
I tried system restore but it said there hadn't been any changes so there was nothing to restore.
I also tried a microsoft hotfix which was supposed to be for this kind of problem but that didn't work either.

My PC has been like this since Easter.

As I am a teacher, I asked the IT technicians at work but they didn't have a clue

Can anyone here suggest a solution

The items you see in "Start > All Programs" are actually shortcuts to the programs and these shortcuts are in the folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\

If these shortcuts are no longer working, there's no reason why you cannot delete them and create new ones pointing to the .EXE file for a particular program in the folder:

C:\Program Files\ProgramName\

If you need help in doing this, post back again.

First, login with an Administrator user account.

Then go to Start, Run and enter regsvr32 /i shell32.dll then press enter key.
(note the spaces after 'regsvr32' and'/i' )

This may fix the problem.

If it doesn't, post back.

The purpose of unticking the box to hide the extensions of known file types was so that you could easily identify which was a program's .EXE file in the C:\Program Files\ProgramName folder - nothing else.

Having established which is the .EXE file, try creating a shortcut to it [right click and select Send to Desktop (create shortcut)] and then see if the shortcut on the Desktop actually launches the program.

Try this:


Open 'My Computer'
Go to C drive
Right click the 'Documents and Settings' folder
Select 'Properties' from the menu.
On the General tab, make sure that the attribute 'hidden' is NOT checked.

Have you recently installed a new program?

Or an update to a program?

Although you say you've tried a system restore and it reported there were no changes to make, have you tried a system restore to an earlier date? Such as last week or earlier?

Although it does not solve the problem of missing startup links, have you by any chance got the "Cleanup Desktop Icons" program set for a very low period?
if yes, that would explain why the desktop icons disappear.

To replace them back in the "Startup" list, you need to locate the appropriet .exe file (as previously mentioned) then "Right Click" and drag it to the user Startup folder, when you then release the mouse button, select "Place Shortcut Here"

A easy way of doing this is to open My Computer, then minimise it (do not close it),
Then open My Computer "AGAIN"
Now re-size the window so it only covers half of the desktop.
Click the other My Computer icon which is also on the blue information bar (next to the clock) and also re-size that to cover the other half of the desktop.
You now have 2 My Computer windows on display.

Using one of them, locate your Start menu, once located do not change the window.
From the other window, you can now brows the "Programs" folder to find the .exe files, then simply drag from one window to the other and select the paste shortcut here option.
(Don't forget, "Right Click" to drag the files)