Windows XP did (still does) some strange things.
Here is one of my favourites:
Start Menu 'All Programs' is empty or nothing happens when you click the menu
When you click Programs menu in the Start Menu, it may show Empty
Nothing happens when you click All Programs in Start Menu
Not all the shortcuts are displayed
Open Registry Editor by typing REGEDIT.EXE in the Start, Run dialog.
Navigate to these locations and in the right pane, set the correct values mentioned herewith:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Set Start Menu value to %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu
-and-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Set Common Start Menu value to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu
Set Common Programs value to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs
If Common Programs value is not available in the right-pane, create a new REG_EXPAND_SZ value named Common Programs and assign the data as said above.
Type the command in Start, Run box: REGSVR32 /n /i:U SHELL32
[This updates the Shell Folder paths in accordance with the User Shell Folder's REG_EXPAND_SZ values]
Restart Windows for the changes to take effect!
