[FIX] Start Menu icons are missing or deleted after malware

There is a new piece of malware making the rounds that hides or deleted your Start Menu icons/shortcuts. The program folders in the All Programs button are still there, but they show up as Empty.

I really didn’t want to manually restore each one, and I couldn’t definitively figure out if those shortcuts are saved with System Restore (very doubtful). So here is how I found them:

[Instructions based on Windows XP]

Start menu > Search > click All Files and Folders > type *.LNK for the file name > click More Advanced Options > check all three boxes starting with “Search” > click Search.

In this case, I found all the shortcuts here: c:\documents and settings\[user]\local settings\temp\smtmp\1\ STRANGE

I then had to manually move them to c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs

Any better methods — please comment!!

[UPDATE 2/15/12 : Here is a support page from ESET that has a utility that might fix this easily. If you try it, please comment.]