Troubleshoot | All of My Programs Are Gone Pressed Windows

Why did my apps disappear on my PC?

Users often visit the All Programs of the Start Menu to locate their desired programs or apps. But have your programs disappeared from Windows 10 after clicking Windows?

Some of you might raise questions like these:

Why did my apps disappear on my PC? More importantly, how do I get my programs on my screen?

Possible causes of missing Windows programs

If you’re on this page, please get an overview of possible reasons before going further.

• System optimization software
• Game mode
• Outdated or corrupted device driver
• Hidden desktop icons
• Uncheck your desired desktop icons
• Tablet mode

How to solve all programs disappeared Windows 10/11?

All of my programs are gone pressed Windows, how to resolve it? There’re five feasible ways for your reference. To quickly locate a targeted method, you’d better have a closer look at the above reasons.

Solution 1. Recover disappeared programs from the All Programs of the Start Menu

Although all the programs disappear, they can still run smoothly in the Start Search box. It’s most likely that related folders are hidden. This is how you can recover disappeared programs via the following steps.

Step 1. Copy “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu” in the search bar and hit “Enter” to open it.

Step 2. Right-click on the blank of the window and select the “Properties” option.

Step 3. Under the General tab, don’t tick the “Hidden” property. Then click the “OK” button.

Please click Continue if there’s a permission confirmation window.  

Solution 2. Disable game mode to fix your Windows key

With game mode, Windows 10 has better game performance. But this can occasionally cause keyboard malfunctions. At the moment, you can disable game mode to make your Windows key work smoothly.

Step 1. Press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings and select the “Gaming” option.

Step 2. Click “Game Mode” on the left, then toggle off your Game Mode.

Some keyboards have Game mode buttons. If it is your case, you can turn it off directly.

Solution 3. Update keyboard drivers to fix your Windows key

If there’s an outdated or corrupted keyboard driver, your Windows key naturally doesn’t work correctly. In this scenario, updating, uninstalling, or reinstalling your device driver is essential. Let’s show how it works.

Step 1. Type “Device Manager” in the search bar and open it.

Step 2. Under the keyboard section, right-click on your used keyboard. Then click the “Update driver” button.

Step 3. Select the “Search automatically for updated driver software” option. Please wait patiently.

Solution 4. Add desktop programs via Desktop icon settings

Sometimes, your desired programs are not gone from your Windows computer. You can try these clicks to show hidden desktop icons first.

Right-click on the blank on your desktop and select View from the context menu. After that, click the “show desktop icons” button.

If the above clicks cannot help you restore desktop icons on Windows 10, you can turn to desktop icon settings for help (add, remove, show, hide, or resize desktop shortcuts). For instance, this method makes it possible to solve your desktop icon that appears after deletion.

Step 1. Press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings and click the “Personalization” button.

Step 2. Click the “Themes” button.

Step 3. Click the “Desktop icon settings” button.

Step 4. If you need to show the Recycle Bin icon, tick the “Recycle Bin” option. Then click Apply > OK.

Solution 5. Disable tablet mode on Windows 10/11

In computing, there’re two screen modes: desktop mode and tablet mode. Nevertheless, if your PC is in the latter mode, besides desktop icons, even desktop files can disappear from Windows 7, 8, 10, or 11 computers. Thus, you’re suggested to disable tablet mode.  

Step 1. Press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings and select the “System” option.

Step 2. Click “Tablet mode” and select the “Use desktop mode” option on the right.

Further reading: How to recover desktop files from hard drives?

Undeniably, document loss is more common than application loss. Several users might find files on hard drive disappearing rather than programs disappeared Windows 10/11.

Most users rarely believe they are so unlucky as to suffer data loss. So it’s not surprising that no precautions were taken.

Professional data recovery software like MyRecover might be your top choice because third-party tools can transform necessary backups into alternatives and recover as much data as possible.   

★Powerful features & friendly design:

Recover the deleted/lost Word, Excel, PPT, PDF, photos, videos, audio, folders, and other 200+ types of data from HDD, USB, SD cards, and other storage devices.   

Keep the original format for the deleted/lost files.   

During Quick Scan and Deep Scan, you can enter filenames in the search bar to find your desired files or wait to see all the deleted and other missing files.   

Support NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, and ReFS file systems.

Download MyRecover on your Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, or Windows Server computers to recover desktop files from hard drives!

Step 1. Launch MyRecover on your PC and hover the mouse over the local disk C drive. Then click Scan.

Step 2. Locate your desired desktop files by Name, Date, Type, Size, or Path. You can also see all the deleted and other missing files after running Quick Scan and Deep Scan.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Other Missing Files folder, and click “Recover x files” to get your selected desktop documents back. Please remember to store these recovered files in another path.

In the end

All of my programs are gone pressed Windows, how do I get my programs back on my screen? Please refer to the above content to find possible factors and targeted solutions.

Apart from that, there’s no better way than using reliable file recovery tools to recover missing & deleted files.

It’s advisable to make file, partition, disk, or system backups with free backup software for Windows because regular backups are the most overlooked data loss prevention tip.