Recently i accidently messed up my documents and settings. heres what i think did
right clicked on documents and s:ettings and went to properties and in attributes either unticked both boxes or ticked both boxes (read only and hidden)
Now documents and setting s does not appear to be there but when i did the virus scan i started searching in documents and settings, which led me to believe it was hidden or something
Now all my documents are still ther but when i go to strt > all programs it says empty
PLEASE help and tell me what to do!

Fastest way to fix this problem is use system restore, takes you back when your computer had no problems.

Go To Start > Run box type: %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

When program opens pick the option > Restore my computer to an earlier time.

In the Calendar pick a day or time before you made the changes.

Windows will shut down and reboot and will say "You have successfuly restored your system or it will tell you the restore point did not work, it depends how far back you go, if the restore point will work........ try March 5,

If you need any help with system restore, post and somebody will help you.

Good luck

C:\Documents and Settings should be Read-only and not hidden.

An easier way to re-establish your settings would be to open either My Computer or Windows Explorer. Do this under an account with Administrator privileges.

Click on Tools, Folder Options, View.

Under the "Files and Folders" section, place a check mark in the box for "Display the contents of system folders".

Under "Hidden files and folders" click "Show hidden files and folders".
Remove the check marks under "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)", and just in case, "Hide extensions for known file types".

Close My Computer or Windows Explorer.

Reopen one of the above and you should now see the missing folder(s). Choose Properties and reset the attributes to how they should be.

Then reverse the above steps to set your views back the way they were

Tankyou so much! i was havin a freak attack lol! but i still hav one more problem:
when i goto start > all programs, its still empty?

Hi becca492;

Try this and see if your all programs menu comes back, you might have to do this as the admin.

Go To Run box type: regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

Restart windows and all programs menu should be back.