{"id":3094,"date":"2016-05-07T14:50:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T09:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2019-05-22T06:36:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T06:36:01","slug":"windows-10-start-menu-user-folders-do-not-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-10-start-menu-user-folders-do-not-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 10 Start Menu User Folders Do Not Open When Clicked"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you click Start and click on a shortcut to your personal folders such as Documents, Downloads, Pictures or Music, nothing may happen. This problem occurs if the shortcuts in the Start Menu Places folder are missing or have been tampered with. The shortcuts in Start Menu Places are common to all user accounts, and not meant to be modified by users.<\/p>\n

(Update:<\/strong> Information in this article doesn’t apply to Windows 10 v1809 and higher. Start Menu Places folder is no longer used in v1809 and up.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Also, in Settings, “Choose which folders appear on Start” page, the toggle buttons may be grayed out.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Restore Default Start Menu Places Shortcuts<\/h2>\n

To replace the corrupt or missing shortcuts with original copies, open File Explorer and browse the following folder:<\/p>\n

C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu Places<\/p>\n

Right-click an empty area in the folder, click Properties, and click the Previous Versions tab.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This screen shows the list of previous versions or backups of the folder (and files in it) from shadow copies. The number of items shown there depends upon the number of System Restore or shadow copies you have in your system. Choose the appropriate version which has the original, untampered version of those shortcuts, and copy it to your Start Menu Places folder.<\/p>\n

If this issue has been seen for a long time now, and none of the shadow copies have the unmodified version of the shortcuts, then run the System File Checker. Right-click Start, click Command Prompt (Admin) and then type:<\/p>\n

SFC \/SCANNOW<\/pre>\n
Let it take its own time to complete, and when it’s done, check if it has restored the original shortcuts back into the folder. If it hasn’t, then the source copies may have been corrupted.<\/p>\n
Download Start Menu Places shortcuts (defaults)<\/h2>\n
I’ve uploaded the Start Menu Places shortcuts, which you may find it useful if none of the above methods work. Download StartMenuPlaces.zip<\/a>, unzip and extract the contents to a folder. This zip file has the entire Start Menu Places folder, including the hidden desktop.ini file. Rename your existing Start Menu Places folder, and copy the Start Menu Places folder (which you extracted from the downloaded zip file) to “C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\” directory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This restores your Start Menu Places shortcuts, and fixes the user folder links in Start menu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you click Start and click on a shortcut to your personal folders such as Documents, Downloads, Pictures or Music, nothing may happen. This problem occurs if the shortcuts in the Start Menu Places folder are missing or have been tampered with. The shortcuts in Start Menu Places are common to all user accounts, and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[540],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","tag-start-menu"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2059,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/winx-menu-does-not-open-power-user\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":0},"title":"Win+X Menu Does Not Open in Windows 10 or 11","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Right-clicking Start, or pressing the Win+X key combination opens the power-user menu as in the following image: If this menu doesn't open or nothing happens when you use the Win+X key combination, it could be possible that the IsShortcut registry value has been removed for shortcuts (.lnk) file association. Follow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/w10\/winxmenu-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":867,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/quicklaunch-toolbar-folders-appear-as-cascading-menu\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":1},"title":"How to Make Folders Appear as Cascading Menu in the Quick Launch Toolbar","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"When you create sub-folders in the Quick Launch folder to better organize the shortcuts, the folders will appear in the Quick Launch toolbar correctly, but clicking them would launch Windows Explorer. Some people would like to view the contents of the folder (cascaded as a list) rather than opening the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 7"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 7","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-7\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/ql-folder-cascade1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1423,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-send-to-bluetooth-device-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":2},"title":"Send To Menu Empty or Shows Only “Bluetooth Device”","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When right-clicking a file and clicking the Send To menu in Windows, only the Bluetooth Device shortcut may be displayed, although the other shortcuts, including the default ones, such as Compressed (zipped) folder, Desktop (create shortcut), Mail Recipient, are intact in the user's Send To folder. On some systems, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"send to menu shows only bluetooth device","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/w10-sendto-bluetooth-only.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/w10-sendto-bluetooth-only.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/w10-sendto-bluetooth-only.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3682,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/backup-start-menu-layout-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":3},"title":"Backup, Restore, or Reset Windows 10\/11 Start Layout & Shortcuts","author":"Ramesh","date":"August 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost every Windows user would customize their Start menu layout as per their requirement, to ease their workflow. It's also helpful if you backup the Start menu tiles layout in Windows after customizing it, just in case your profile becomes corrupt at some point of time due to one reason\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Utilities"","block_context":{"text":"Utilities","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/utilities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"backup and restore start layout - sordum","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sordum-start-menu-backup-reset.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sordum-start-menu-backup-reset.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sordum-start-menu-backup-reset.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1105,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-start-menu-shortcuts-open-file-security-warning\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":4},"title":"[Fix] Favorites File Download Security Warning","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Double-clicking a .URL file in your user profile's Favorites or Favorites\\Links folder may show a \"Do you want to open this file?\" file download security warning, as shown below, after installing the latest quality updates. URL \"File Download\" Security Warning To remove the Favorites File download security warning, do the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Internet Explorer"","block_context":{"text":"Internet Explorer","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/internet-explorer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"favorites security warning windows 10","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/favorites-warning-build-187-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2207,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/pin-folder-to-taskbar-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":3094,"position":5},"title":"How to Pin a Folder to Taskbar in Windows 10?","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By default, when you drag a folder and drop it in Taskbar, the folder is added to the File Explorer Jump list, and not as a separate item. 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