Vista start menu – duplicate programs folder
This is just quick little post about another annoyance I found in Vista. I noticed that after going to all programs there was a programs folder that had duplicate shortcuts to everything already in the menu. I never saw that folder before so I have no idea where it came from. Trying to delete it completely killed my entire start menu.
To get rid of the duplicate programs folder:
- Go into the properties of the start menu (right click on task bar and then properties)
- Click the start menu tab then the customize button.
- Uncheck the “default programs” box. I’ve had to do this twice so far, the 2nd time I checked the box since I unchecked it the first time. Doing the opposite of whatever it is set to seems to fix it for some unknown reason.
Categories: Vista, Windows
duplicate, programs folder, start menu, Vista
Oh, my god. Thank you. You just saved a lot of hard work and worries. I have this happen to me twice and after deleting the folder, it messed up everything. Then the reformat routine.
I had no idea it was this simple.
Also, for people if the “defaults folder” is not checked, just check it. It’ll probably go away, then uncheck it again.
Thanks for the solution. Helps a lot~!
I’m here because I search for a solution to this problem. Is this something new? Ive never had this happen before and I actually have to keep it checked to keep it off…Ive had Vista for 3 years and never seen that before. Something new is causing this.
I never noticed it happen until I wrote the blog either and I’ve had Vista since February of 2008. Maybe a windows update screwed something up, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen that happen.
Well, I thank you for the fix even tho I had to do it backwards. Hey it lead me to your cool little blog, bookmarked it. Thanks again.
Or you can reboot. It works for me and many others when this problem arises.
Restarting does fix a lot of random problems, but it didn’t work for me.
Thank for this solution, I had the problem too, now it’s solved. Are we sure its a bug or could it be one of those “feature” as Microsoft calls it?
I just realized that, too, it’s a bad bug that must surely have gone unnoticed by Vista’s developers.
I tried deleting the Programs folder in the Start Menu directory, thinking that deleting that folder will remove the duplicate by opening the folder’s source directory, which didn’t work.
Thanks for putting up the solution, though.
Now, my only problem is trying to recover that deleted folder, now that I realize that it’s not supposed to be removed.