When start menu is opened all the shortcuts are gone . A couple did return at one stage but a few minutes later they vanished again.

do you mean where notepad, excel, word.... are here:


if so, these are your most recent programs and when you go to all programs and click on a program, that program should appear on the start menu..

Hope this helps
Mike

Thanks for your reply.I installed ie7 and they seem to be appearing again now.