Programs Not Showing Up In Start Menu

[Command Prompt]

Whenever I search for some programs in the start menu, they aren't showing up.

It's happening for skype, and if I locate the file manually it runs fine, so I know it's installed.

It's even happening for MS programs like paint that come pre-installed. I don't have them installed on a separate HDD, so I honestly have no idea what's causing this.

Also, when I go to Start > All Programs, and go to Skype, the folder is empty. (it should have just the skype.exe in there)

Note: It's not happening just to Skype, and it's not happening to ALL programs, it's just happening to certain ones.
Also my search feature does not work properly because of this.

Example:

1. The start menu, I searched Skype and nothing shows up.
2. You can see there is nothing in the Skype folder...But I have Skype installed.
3. I search Paint but nothing comes up.
4. I have Paint...It is a default program.

[OVO™]

You need to drag it into your applications I Think

[King]

Do you have McAfee Security Suite?

[MarkW7]

Do you have anything in:

Code:

C:\Users\USERNAME\Searches

I see you have ccleaner installed, run it with everything under "Windows Explorer" ticked, Memory Dumps, Start Menu Shortcuts, Old Prefetch data, User Assist History and Custom Files and Folders go to the Applications tab and tick everything under Windows then Run Cleaner.

Might as well run the reg tool as well and report back.

[DAMINK™]

Right click on the task bar and select properties.
Click on the start menu tab and then click on customize.
At the bottom you will see a button that says default settings.
Click that and it'll set everything in the start menu back to default.

Hope that helps.

[King]

It's a commonly known problem with the McAfee Security Scanner and McAfee Security Suite. Usually comes preinstalled on many Dell machines. If you have it, get rid of it.