Vista Start menu broken..please help

[JimmiG]

Some programs will no longer launch from the Recently Used Applications list in Vista. If I go to All Programs and find the program, it will launch, and if I browse to the program folder and click the .exe file, it will launch..but when I click on certain programs in the Recently used applications list, nothing happens at all.

Apparently I'm not alone:
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/120404-start-menu-wont-launch-applications.html
http://timewarptechnologies.com/node/93
http://forums.windowsvistamagazine.com/forums/thread/8050.aspx

The solution is supposed to be to disable certain Shell extensions, but I've already tried that and it didn't work. I disabled every single one but the problem remains.

I've recently installed WinRAR and Unlocker (http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/) but uninstalled both and there are no traces left of them.

 

[greyeyezz]

That happened to me, the only way to fix it was to recreate shortcuts for the apps that wouldn't launch and manually replace them in the start menu folder. Yeah it sucks but was the only way. BTW Winbubble is what broke it.

 

[JimmiG]

I managed to fix it by uninstalling most of the utilities and apps I had on the system like 7-zip, WinRAR, WinZIP, WinAMP and tons of others. I don't know which program broke it but luckily uninstalling helped.