How to restore Start menu shortcuts in Windows 8.1
2014-07
Phoenix Logan
Now I can't even get to the Desktop in 8.1 without pressing 
+D. I also can't get to the Store, OneDrive, or Camera. How can I restore these shortcuts?
If you need more details about how they were removed, if that helps at all, I was installing an application (iDisplay), and when it said what folder to put the Start menu shortcuts in, I typed . for the current directory (the main Start menu directory, instead of an iDisplay folder). It seemed to have emptied the folder, including some of my other shortcuts like Notepad++, Audacity, and BitTorrent.
I already tried doing a System Restore, but it failed because it said it didn't have access to something. I disabled my antivirus (Avast) but it didn't work after a second time.
Giacomo Lacava
I have a Windows 2012 server joined to a domain with UAC disabled by group policy. I'm logged on as a domain user with local admin rights.
I create a shortcut to a local HTML file, then I add that shortcut to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. The shortcut appears in Start screen, but when I click on it, I get a dreadful message: "This app can't open - Internet Explorer cannot open while User Access Control is turned off". Of course IE works just fine on its own, and the same shortcut placed on desktop works fine as well.
I'm not sure if I want to know why this is happening (although clear explanations of the byzantine UAC system are always welcome), but I'd certainly like to know how to launch this sort of shortcuts from Start menu without having to enable UAC.
David Marshall
This appears to be by design. See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2736601
Does setting Internet Explorer to open links on the desktop change the behaviour?