missing programs from programs and features

[lsg1r]

Ok... this ones got me a bit stumped and never had the issue before...

Trying to clean a lot of malware/unwanted programs from a laptop for someone I know (they don't know pc's) and I go and uninstall a program that isn't wanted. After a reboot I'm left with 10 programs left in the list (edit: add/remove in control panel not start menu) when before it was around 30, even things like office have vanished.

I've tried sfc /scannow, checked with revo uninstaller (even less showing strangely), rescanned with av/malwarebytes etc.

Did a google and it suggested looking for a 60+ character string in regedit, did this and nothing looked wrong.

Anything else I can try before resorting to a system restore or reinstall from scratch (ideally I don't want to have to do this)

Ta very

 

[Nanobot]

Have you tried looking at Previous Versions history and see if you can recover an old Start Menu?
Go to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu and right click on the Programs folder. There's usually a Previous Versions tab with a couple of versions to choose from.
If there are several previous versions listed, you can hover your cursor over each one to see the size and get an idea which version looks bigger.
You can even Copy an old Start Menu to somewhere else to look through. If it's the right version, you can either copy the shortcuts back into the right place, or do a Restore.

Edit: Also look in C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu as the All Users Start Menu set of shortcuts applies to all user accounts.

 

[lsg1r]

It's not the start menu with the issue (everything is still there), it's the 'add remove programs' bit in control panel (now called programs and features)