Programs on Windows XP (Home) Start menu deleted from computer

[matt2500]

I'm trying to figure out a real head-scratcher here. My mom called me to come look at her computer, as several programs (Freecell, Solitaire, the Windows calculator) have apparently vanished from her machine.

All were in the 'recently used programs' part of the Start Menu (not the permanently pinned-to-the-menu ones, just files that had recently been opened and appeared on the list).

I thought she had simply accidently removed them from the Start menu, but no, these executable files are nuked from the machine. A search for calc.exe, or sol.exe, comes up completely blank.

My next thought was some type of virus/malware nuked (or even renamed) these files, so I just finished a sweep of her computer with a just-updated version of AVG Pro 7.5, but it found nothing more malicious than a couple of tracking cookies.

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Thanks.

eta - Actually, she's running Windows ME; I just assumed it was XP Home.

[kerowo]

Go into the windows folder and look for them by hand. XP (and I'm assuming ME) will hide things from searches if they are in the windows folder. You could also check the recycle bin for them as well.

[matt2500]

Yeah, I tried both of these. Even went in via the command prompt and searched all relevant directories.

The files are simply not there.

[buckslayer80]

Can you still launch any of the missing apps from the start----all programs? If so then they're still there.

[matt2500]

Nope, they're not listed in start--all programs.

They're gone. I ran a search for calc.exe and sol.exe, and then went in via the command prompt into C:\Windows\system32\ and they're not there.

This one has really got me stumped. I can turn up nothing via Google. A couple of other people have reported having the Calculator simply disappear, but no one ever has suspected a virus or anything. It's impossible to actually delete any of these apps via the Start menu (you can just remove their shortcut on the menu bar), and my mom knows nothing about computers, so wouldn't be able to actually even mistakenly delete them. I'm at a loss.

[buckslayer80]

Log on as another user, and see if it changes anything. It doesn't sound like it will, but worth a try. If not, then you can always run an upgrade install and check disk and get all the missing stuff back.