What about the empty programs menu?

The directory name probably changed, too. So the start menu is pointing to the wrong directory now.

psaez wrote on 2024-04-18, 17:26:

I think it was after installing your custom service pack.

Your assumption is correct.

You should omit the service pack in this case and use "FIX95CPU_V3_FINAL.ZIP" instead, to get at least the most important (language independent) fixes.

Hmm... I probably need to add a disclaimer about the language thing. It's true that many of the patches that Microsoft released had to be downloaded specifically for the language-version of Windows you had, and crossing the patches for the different language versions would cause trouble. The service pack linked in the guide obviously only includes the English-language versions of the patches, otherwise it would be multiple times larger!

On the other hand, a lot of software also assumed your localisation and paths, and wrote stuff to wherever instead of %WINDIR%, etc. More than once I had to hunt for shortcuts and things like that from mirror-directories and manually place them in the localised or changed-default location. What a bummer. Eventually I just grew tired of dealing with that, and moved to using the English language version of Windows. It was most consistent anyway. I'm from a smaller language region though. I would expect a lot more software would have been available with proper Spanish translations...