Accessories Folder Missing from Start Menu

Anonymous
2011-01-14T20:16:03+00:00

Hello - I just purchased a new cpu with Windows 7 Home Premium installed.  When I first started using the system I know that the traditional Accessories Folder which usually includes System Tools and other files/folders was on my Start Menu.  After using the maching for a bit of time and installing many new programs I noticed that the folder is missing.  Is there a way to get this back on the Start Menu without a system restore as that will cause me to loose my newly installed programs from what I have read on other threads.  Thanks for your feedback.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2011-01-14T20:25:34+00:00

You are correct that System Restore may cause you to have to reinstall your recently added programs.  Here's one possible alternative:

Restore Previous Versions of a File or Folder

1 - Click your Start button, then right-click the "All Programs" link at the bottom.  Choose "Open All users".

2 - In the window that opens, right-click the Programs folder and choose "Restore Previous Versions". The Properties window may take a moment to load in all the available old copies of that folder.  Cool Fact: These previous versions come from the same place as System Restore backups, except these let you restore individual files instead of your entire system :)

3 - Click a old version of the file from a date when you know the Accessories folder was still there, then click "open" and look around.  From there you can right-click the backup copy of Accessories, and paste it into your actual Programs folder (that you opened in step 1).

Hope this helps.


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  1. Anonymous
    2012-04-13T17:34:01+00:00

    thnx a lot!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-18T03:22:41+00:00

    Hi. I just wanted to say thank you. I tried almost all the ideas above, but this one just worked. The only thing I can think of as to why this happened in the first place (the Accessories folder and a few others disappeared) is because I accidentally turned off my computer whilst it was sleeping. So maybe it kind of crashed. They are so temperamental!

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-12-11T16:33:00+00:00

    it worked, thank you for your help

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-09-30T14:01:24+00:00

    I did this exactly as outlined. I found that the entries in the "User Shell Folders" key folder  pointed to my %userprofile% folder rather than the  C:\ProgramData... folder.

    So I changed all to point to C:\ProgramData./... for each of the keys Common Programs, Common Start Menu & Common Startup.

    Rebooted machine, but Accessories was still missing in StartUp. By the way, excellent outline instructions & clear to follow.

    So I don't understand what else to do. It doesn't seem to be a setting that you can click on or off.

    Any other suggestions?

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