The "All Programs" area in the start menu (Programs)is empty. This happened concurrent with some other odd events, most of which I've managed to fix. Any help?

The Start Menu a User sees comes from two folders: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\ and C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\ Where username denotes your User Account configured on the computer. --------------- Check those two folders. Any problems should be checked in Windows Safe-Mode, to see if they happen there. Do you scan your computer for Spyware ?? Watch for help from others.

The folders both have all the appropriate programs in them, but selecting the "All Programs" icon from the start menu draws a blank. Same in safe mode. No spyware. I suspect its a registry issue, just don't know where.

Check the following to see if where All Programs may be turned off- Policy Settings for the Start Menu in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;292504&Product=winxp

Possible that your Profile has become corrupted from those 'other odd events'- How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile Then again, how long have you had SP2 ??

Would THIS help? i_XpUser

Thanks for your responses. XpUser, I did try the solution on the Ramesh site earlier, with no change using either approach. Chuck2, the value for turning all programs off is set to 0, which, should mean that they're not turned off. I tried setting up a new user profile, as per the MS article in response 4, but the new profile has the same problem. Maybe not related, but starting concurrent with this problem, when I open an MS Office application (outlook, Excel), I get a pop-up telling me to load the feature from the CD. I ignore and close the pop-up, and everything works fine.