One of the things I found strange though is there will come a point in time that your program list in your start menu will suddenly disappear. This occurs due to a 70 file/folder limit in the Start Menu directory so your "All Programs" from the "Start Menu" is limited only to 70 items, both files, folders and shortcuts. The solution is to keep files, shortcuts and programs in subdirectories and maintain the folder limit. This is also a great way of classifying your apps. My start menu has an audio, graphics, video, editor, OCR and browser folder, so I can easily classify my programs.

To solve this limitation, you can create subdirectories in C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/ and transfer your files, folders & shortcuts to their respective subdirectories. If you can't see the "ProgramData" subdirectory, enable "Show hidden files, folders and drives" in "Control Panel" / "Folder options" / "View".

Happy foldering !