Some start menu shortcuts are missing on Windows 10

Question

Not sure when this started happening but some time after upgrading to Windows 10 I noticed some of my search results were not showing up with what I wanted. For instance, when I searched for Word 2013 or Skype, I did not get any results. I decided to investigate and tried rebuilding the indexing file and moving it to a new location but it made no difference.

So I checked my start menu and manually tried looking for the shortcuts only to discover that they strangely weren't there. Also notice how some of my tiles have suddenly disappeared.

Strangely enough when I browse the actual location of the start menu folder, the shortcut for Word and Powerpoint are there.

I've checked that none of the folders/shortcuts are hidden or read-only and that the files/folders have sufficient permissions via the Security tab.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Answer 1

At the current moment the start menu is limited to 500 entries in the database. This also affects search and Cortana as they both rely on that DB.

There is currently no known fix other than going to your start menu folder and deleting links and folders to apps not used.

Edit: On 2015-09-19 they released a technical preview that lifted that limit to 2048, which is nice. It should be pushing out to Insiders and will trickle down to standard users soon enough.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/review-windows-10-is-the-best-version-yet-once-the-bugs-get-fixed/

Answer 2

I had a similar problem after upgrading.
I was able to fix it by:

• Going to Start Menu folder->Properties (%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu)
• Selecting the "Hidden" option
• Hit "Apply"
• Select "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files" and hit OK
• Unselect the "Hidden" option
• Hit "Apply"
• Select "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files" and hit OK

I'm not sure what caused Windows to see some as hidden and others not, but this reset the flags and everything is visible on the start menu, now.

Answer 3

I found out a peculiar behaviour which causes an instance of this problem.
My findings are for build 1703, and I cannot, at the moment, verify them on more recent builds.

I had a shortcut inside a menu folder which would not show up, no matter what.
In the end, I discovered that the Start Menu hides duplicate shortcuts that point to the same file. Suppose you have a shortcut named Shortcut-A at the root level of the menu file structure (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) which points to c:\someprogram.exe.
Now suppose you have a copy of Shortcut-A in a menu folder e.g. C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\SomeFolder.
In the All applications list only the copy at root level will be visible. You can find the folder SomeFolder under the letter "S" in the list, but the shortcut will not be visible under it.
Furthermore, this happens even if the two shortcuts have different names, but point to the same executable. In other words, if, in SomeFolder, you have Shortcut-B pointing to c:\someprogram.exe it will not show up as well.

In my tests this can be reproduced systematically and the Start Menu immediately updates itself after creating/deleting copies of the shortcut, with no need to touch the menu database files.

Answer 4

I can confirm that this is a major flaw. Some people in Windows Forums are reporting that it happens to them with even less shortcuts/entries. We just have to hang tight for right now unless you want to explore third party options.

Answer 5

I've had issues with the new Win 10 start menu on several workstations after upgrading from Win 7. Here is a batch file I use to rebuild the start menu:

ResetWin10StartMenu.bat

@echo off
echo.
echo This will delete the TileDataLayer database to reset the Windows 10 Start Menu.
echo It may take a couple hours and a few reboots before the menu is automatically rebuilt.
echo All items pinned to start will have to be repinned once the menu returns to normal.

echo.
echo *** The Start Menu database will be backed up before being deleted ***
echo.
CHOICE /C DRC /M "Press D to Delete the database, R to Restore, or C to Cancel."

if errorlevel 3 goto end
if errorlevel 2 goto restoredata
if errorlevel 1 goto deletedata

:deletedata
taskkill /im explorer.exe /F
c:
cd c:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database
sc stop tiledatamodelsvc
md %userprofile%\desktop\StartMenuBackup
copy *.* %userprofile%\desktop\StartMenuBackup
del /q *.*
sc start tiledatamodelsvc
explorer.exe
goto end

:restoredata
taskkill /im explorer.exe /F
c:
cd c:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database
sc stop tiledatamodelsvc
copy %userprofile%\desktop\StartMenuBackup\*.*
sc start tiledatamodelsvc
explorer.exe
goto end

:end
exit 

Answer 6

For everyone struggling still with this issue, I would like to share my solution. Maybe it helps for others.

Issue description:

I had multiple shortcuts which were showing to same .exe file but with different parameters (due to different language). Unfortunately only one shortcut was shown in startmenu. The rest were not shown.

Solution:

1. Delete all shortscuts that are not working in startmenu
2. Create new shortcut of the .exe on desktop
3. Rename the shortname to that one you want. Now the next step is important!
4. Right-click on shortcut and open Properties. Now make sure that in the Target field after the .exe there are some different (wrong) parameters.

For example: if this is the correct structure for shortcut: "C:\App.exe" -language eng you have to change the target to this wrong parameter: "C:\App.exe" 1 -language-eng

5. Apply the solution of hiding and un-hiding (in properties > hidden/unhidden > "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files") of the folder start menu in %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
6. Restart your machine
7. The new shortcuts should be visible in your startmenu. Now you can just edit the properties of the wrong shortmenu and fix the target field back to the correct one. For example: "C:\App.exe" -language eng

Answer 7

I experienced the same behavior on Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (build 19045.3448).

To work around this problem, I

1. Made a batch file that executes the EXE file with the necessary command-line arguments.
2. Made a shortcut of that batch file.
3. (if so desired) Changed the icon of that batch-file shortcut to use the same icon that the shortcut of the EXE uses.
4. Add that shortcut of the batch file to the Start Menu folder.

It worked for me--a ridiculous, but quick, work-around.

...

Microsoft, I know you're not listening, but please stop trying to "help" us.

Answer 8

Cleanup Cortana cache:

• Kill explorer.exe and dllhost.exe
• Delete %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\*