Backing up Start menu
Sometimes a virus or a system crash can damage the profiles on a computer. When that happens, you loose the list of programs that is on your start menu.
What is the Start Menu?
It lists the programs that you have on your system and gives you access to them
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If your start menu gets damaged, the programs will be missing from your start menu. The programs are still on your system. However they will not show up here. To use the programs you will have to type in the command to start the program. To do that, you have to know where the executable is located and the exact name which can be difficult.
To fix the missing list, you will have to manually reinstall each program in the list or reinstall all the programs that are missing.
However, if you have backed up the Start menu before the Start Menu got damaged, you can copy the saved file to the system and be back to the way it should be. If you have more than one profile on the computer, you will need to back up the Start Menu for each profile.
To backup the Start Menu, backup up the location mentioned here.
Here is a short list of files you should back up
Some folders are hidden. To access them or to copy them, you may have to unhide them and you may have to unprotect system files. For information on accessing the hidden folders click here