Start11 destroyed my start menu

from Stardock Forums

My start menu was getting full, and I remembered that I could add another page, so I did that. I moved some of my groups to the new page and switched to it. I was trying to organize the page so I tried to drag one of the groups to a new position. I don't know what I could have possibly done to cause this, but instead of moving the group it duplicated all of the groups. But that's not the real problem. When I went back to the first menu page, all of my groups were gone! The page was empty.

I did some searches to see if there was a backup/restore capability, because I would certainly have set that up if there was. But of course, there isn't. So, heavy sigh and a new cup of coffee and I started to rebuild my menus. I opened an application folder and selected 'pin to start11' on the application. I opened the start menu, and it was still empty. Of course, it had been pinned to the second menu page (why?). So I switched to that menu, and there it was, pinned to one of the groups. But aside from that, all of the groups were now empty!

In a matter of minutes, Start11 had completely destroyed my start menu. Dozens of carefully organized application links... gone.

I don't believe that I did something, even accidentally, that would result in the obliteration of my start menu. And of course there's no automatic backup feature in Start11 to allow saving and restoring of the configuration.

I am not very happy at the moment. I am going to try a system restore to see if that brings my menu back.

stardock software
2,689 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

I feel bad that happened to you kgschumacher. Did you create a restore point before installing Start11, by any chance?

Not to sound self-righteous, but It's generally a good idea to do that before onstalling updates or new programs. Hope you hsve a recent restore point in any event.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

This was not a new installation. I have been running Start11 since I recoiled in horror at the start menu when I did my first Windows 11 update. All I was doing was trying to organize my application groups.

I did have a restore point that was only two days ago, and after the restore I just had to reinstall one program that I had installed yesterday. And the restore did bring my menu back. I made a backup of the Start11 registry and verrry carefully created a new page and reorganized my groups, and everything worked without destroying anything. I will definitely take a registry backup if I try to do anything with multiple pages in the future.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting kgschumacher, reply 2

I did have a restore point that was only two days ago, and after the restore I just had to reinstall one program that I had installed yesterday. And the restore did bring my menu back. I made a backup of the Start11 registry and verrry carefully created a new page and reorganized my groups, and everything worked without destroying anything. I will definitely take a registry backup if I try to do anything with multiple pages in the future.
End of kgschumacher's quote

Thank Gd! I'm genuinely happy your efforts didn't go down the tubes. :)

Teaches one to do a couple of restore points and a daily incremental, external backup weekly.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting kgschumacher, reply 2

I have been running Start11 since I recoiled in horror at the start menu when I did my first Windows 11 update.
End of kgschumacher's quote

You're not alone there, mate...;)

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 4

You're not alone there, mate...
End of Jafo's quote

😂

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 4

You're not alone there, mate...;)
End of Jafo's quote

And my second reaction was, "Stardock has to have done Start11!" because I've been a long-time user of Start8 and Start10. :grin:  

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for the bug report.

We believe we have reproduced something similar by switching page in Start11 using the button4/5 on the mouse whilst dragging a group.  This will be blocked in future versions of Start11 as you shouldn't be able to drag groups between pages (the move page menu options should be used instead)