Programs & Administrative Tools have disapeard from my Windows 7 Start Menu

Question

All of the programs from my Start Menu in Windows 7 have somehow disappeared. They aren't in the start menu folder that's in AppData folder, either. Also, the Administrative Tools don't show either. When I tried using the start menu's properties to make it reappear, the folder did show up, but it was empty. It cannot be accessed from the Control Panel either.

What could be causing this problem and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

Try Unhide from bleeping computer. I've run across this a few times and this program fixed it.

After you run that also make sure to run MalwareBytes to get at anything that is doing this.