No Run, Search, All Programs functions working

Hi experts and helpers,
For the past several months, the "Run," "Search," and "Help and Support" functions in my Start menu haven't been working. When I try to use them, it says "Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want to create a shortcut on the desktop instead?" If I say yes, the desktop shortcut doesn't work. Also, pressing the "All Programs" button does not work.

An online help technician from HP told me to run multiple system checks to see if this is a malware problem. I ran such programs as AdAware, SpyBot, CW Shredder, SpySubtract, TrendMicro's Housecall, Ewido, CCleaner, and Hijack This. Most of these tests found some questionable material, but were able to fix the issues, as far as I understand. On the TomCoyote forum for HJT logs, my very helpful responder looked over my log and concluded that I don't have any malware or viruses and suggested I post here for Windows help.

So what's going on? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you so much in advance. This forum is incredible.

 

Have you tried this?
Right click on your Taskbar (the bar at the bottom of your screen)
Choose Properties.
Then click on Start Menu
Then Customize
Then Advanced.
There you see the options for showing them on your Start Menu.
If they are checked then:
Uncheck the ones that are not working.
Then re-boot and go back an put a check in the items.
See if they work.

 

tried, didn't work

Thank you for the suggestion - just tried it, didn't work unfortunately. upon reboot and after I put them back on my start list, there's the same problem -- didn't work, asked me if I wanted to create a shortcut.

 

You could try this.
Create another user. Log on to that user and see if they work there.
If they do you can move your data to the other user.

 

Click start>run and type the following 2 lines clicking ok after each one of them. Then see if they work. If not, reboot and try but I don't think this should be necessary.

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

regsvr32 /i shdocvw.dll

 

Techs -- created another user, and the same problem exists.

Zander -- I can't use 'Run' at all -- when I call it up, the run window does not come up. The only thing that comes up is a message asking me if I'd like to create a shortcut on the desktop. There is no box to type anything into.

sorry... no luck so far...

 

lol cheeselovers. Sorry about that. I don't know where my head was when I posted that. I wasn't thinking I guess.

Try running those two commands from a command prompt. There should be a shortcut in your start menu named command prompt. Look in start>all programs>accessories. If you don't have a shortcut for it, what happens if you try to use the run box in task manager? Right click on the taskbar, choose task manager. Then in task manager click file>new task (run). If that works you can try running them there.

 

Zander - It completely worked! I got to the command prompt from accessories. Thank you SO much. So what went wrong? Don't want it to happen again, obviously.
That was amazing, thank you!

 

Good! Glad to hear you got it fixed. As to how it happened, I don't know. Gremlins maybe?

Thanks for posting back and letting us know. Also, once again, sorry about the run thing. Sometimes my typing gets ahead of my mind I guess.

 

Me too

Hi Zander, I have followed your suggested answers to the issue cheeselovers had, as I have the same problem. So far no luck the .dll's you suggested registered successfully and I have rebooted yet the problem still exists. If you have any other suggestions on how to resolve the issue I would be most grateful to hear any response you give me. Thanks In advance.

 

A further note to my last post. I can acess run and search by using the windows key and the associated shortcut key, help and support can be activated by using the F1 key.