Programs list a 1/5 of origional list

islanderre

Folks,

Apologies about the title but its the best I could come up with at this late / early hour.

My laptop went in for repair on Friday and got it back late Saturday. It is a Toshiba Satellite A30-212 running on Windows xP. Problem was that it would not boot up for some reason; the black screen that gives you the option to start in safe mode, start normally etc. kept appearing despite me pressing start normally. Anyway, left it into a shop for repair but now when START, ALL PROGRAMS is pressed, the list is now approx. a fifth the size it was. Microsoft Word, Excel, Itunes, Google earth, Microsoft Autoroute etc. is gone form this list.

The only options on the PROGRAMS list now are: I.E, Outlook express, Remote assistance, Windows Media Player, Engine Documentation, Accessories and Startup.

Does anyone know how I might repopulate the programs list??

I'm sure Microsoft Word is still on the computer somewhere as I was able to open a WORD document I had saved on my memory stick.

Due to work, I cannot call back to the shop till next weekend and dont like speaking with them over the phone due to the language barrier (Guy working there is Polish, Good guy too but hard to understand).

Thanks to anyone who may be able to help me resolve this issue.

bnt

I don't know of an automated method of doing that, though someone else might. It helps if you know how the Start Menu works, so you can make your own shortcuts:
- if you right-click on the Start button (bottom left), you see options: "Open" and "Open All Users".
- each opens a directory, which is the location where all the shortcuts live, for either you alone, or all users on that computer.
- You put shortcuts in either location, depending on whether those shortcuts are for you alone, or for all users on that computer. If you're always the only user of that computer, it doesn't matter, of course.

Using Microsoft Office as an example, I would do something like this:
- find the Office program files, which are typically under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office (but can vary). Locate an Application (program) called Word. It might show up as word.exe, depending on how your system is set up. If you run it, Word should start as normal - if not, it's the wrong program.
- You want all users on the computer to be able to use Word, so right-click on Start and select "Open All Users"
- The window that pops up will have various icons, and a Programs folder, or more. Try this: right-click-hold on the Word program in the other Window, and drag it in to the new Start Menu window. Let go, and choose "Create Shortcut". This should create a shortcut called "Word". You can rename this to "Microsoft Word" if you like.
- This appears on the Start menu top level, not under Programs. You can move shortcuts anywhere you like, create your own folders under Programs, whatever you want.

CHW

Would help to know what was done to correct the booting problem. Maybe a destructive or non-destructive reinstall of XP. Some PC vendors may have Word as part of the initial install, so if the OS was restored from a recovery partition on the hard drive, it would be installed too. Was it Word that opened? docs can be opened using Wordpad. Are your Excel documents opening?

I think you should open Windows Explorer (Start>All Programs>Accessories>Windows Explorer), locate your hard drive on the left (Usually C: under "My Computer"), and have a look in the "Program Files" folder to make sure your self-installed stuff like Google Earth, MS autoroute, etc are still available there in folders.

islanderre

Folks,

Many, many thanks for the replies.

BNT & CHW, I have done as ye recommended and yes the programs are there. I am now starting to repopulate the programs list as posted by BNT.

Thanks agin folks; Boards is great when you get in a situation like this. It is great to be able to get easy to follow instructions from people like yourselves.

Alanstrainor

Moved from laptops.
Cheers,
Al.