'All Programs' fails to open

As we all know, when you click on 'Start - All Programs' it opens up the list of programs installed on the computer. For some reason or other it has stopped doing that on my pc. No matter what I do, whether it's clicking, double clicking, waiting or rebooting, I just can't get 'All Programs' to open. I have to go into the 'Program Files' folder if I want to open one which is not on my desktop. Does anyone have an suggestions, please? Thank you.

 

Lugwalker--Does anything open when you click Start?
As a work around in the near term, can you access All Programs by right clicking on Start|Explore|Programs?

 

The 'click' procedure works normally on everything else, but not on 'All Programs'. Thanks for the workaround, though. Much obliged

 

Lugwalker--Glad my suggestion could be of a little help if not a solution.
I wonder if this is one of the problems that mysteriously can be solved by right clicking a blank spot in the Taskbar|Properties|Start Menu|Customize|Advanced tab and looking at some of the settings. Of special interest could be whether the item "Enable dragging and dropping" is checked.
Another possibility
http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6142-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=151076&messageID=1682848
If this just started recently, you could also try a System Restore.

 

Everything in the 'Customize' 'Advanced' section is as I would expect it to be, Jim, including the 'Enable drag and drop' option. I tried the 'Start - Run regsvr32 /i shell32.dll' suggestion (a box then open saying that it was successful), but when I restarted the computer the problem was still there. Thanks for the link, though.

 

does the problem persist in safe mode?

 

Yes, indeed, the problem persists in safe mode

 

Lugwalker--Grasping at straws.
In the cobwebs of my memory I seem to remember that some problems with the Start button could be fixed by making sure all Drives (even those not used) were checked in TweakUI|My Computer|Drives.
You might also look under TweakUI Taskbar and Start Menu|Start Menu to see what boxes are checked.
Guess you know you can get TweakUI for XP from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
And another idea, change to Classic Start Menu. Right click Taskbar|Properties|Start Menu.
Did you consider a System Restore?

 

I tried the 'Restore' option but it was unsuccessful (couldn't restore to previous point). I changed to 'Classic View' but a box beside 'Programs' just said 'Empty'.
I'll look into TweakUI Fingers crossed.

 

I installed TweakUI. All drives were checked in 'Drives', all boxes checked in 'Start' menu. Thanks for the suggestions, Jim. Ready to try anything

 

Start Menu 'All Programs' is empty or nothing happens when you click the menu

 

I tried the first half of your suggestion earlier today, Zander, but without success. I'll try the second part tomorrow when I'm not not so tired (one needs to have one's wits about you when fiddling with the registry)