Windows 7 blank All Programs menu

Question

Possible Duplicate:
All start menu items have disappeared

In Windows 7, sometimes the 'All Programs' menu goes completely blank, making it tricky to access installed software. THe search feature still works and programs can still be accessed that way.

Answer 1

As originally documented at Electric Dreams blog:

This happens when there are more than about 70 folders in the ‘All Programs’ menu. There are two simple workarounds I have come up with (try one or both, as is appropriate to your circumstances):

1. Uninstall programs until there is <70 folders in the All Programs menu.
2. Use Windows Explorer (Windows-E) to browse the All Programs folder (typically C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) and reorganise some of the folders into a subfolder. For example, create a Utilities folder and drag some of the other folders inside it. There must be <70 folders in the top level.

Answer 2

This guy fixed the problem

http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/05/story-of-windows-7-and-empty-all.html