Start/All Programs Menu shortcuts not working

ok, not ALL of them have ceased to function... only the ones i really
use....
let's see just upgraded to Vista Ultimate from Home Premium, clean
install, and the problems have not stopped for the week... it has just
been an awful experience...

so i noticed after the latest round of tech support from MS, where
they had to reset some permissions to get past one problem, that
several of my desktop icons ceased to function. those were easy enough
to fix.
But there are several icons in the start menu/all programs list that
no longer function either.
skype, quicktime player, office word, logitech quickcam, acrobat,
windows journal

all those shortcut icons are white squares that don't do anything when
you click on them.
acrobat and skype had disabled on the desktop, but i simply remade
those shortcuts.
all the word icons were disabled so the only way i was able to access
the program was to either find the exe in exlporer or click on one of
the documents to open it.

how do i get the shortcut icons in the all programs menu working
again?

thanks

If I were you, I'd get that case number from the last MS tech support call
and go back to them. It looks like someone there should help you, as what
they did might have mixed things up.

I have had a similar problem and found a solution over time. My shortcuts to
Office stopped working. I found out that there is a some sort of issue with
Vista and certain software context menus interfering with the shortcuts. If
you have installed software that changes the rightclick options on some files
(wsftp, winrar) this could be the reason you lost your ability to start
Office through the shortcuts. If you are comfortable editing the registry
then here is what i did. My problem was WSftp.

open the registry start - regedit.
navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\
look at the software packages that are listed One of them may be the issue.
I would recommend backing up the keys before you start deleting them.
One at a time click the key on the left choose file then export.
Then edit and delete.
Try your shortcut.

If it works that was the key causing the issue. If that doesnt work restore
the key and go to the next one. I would not remove anything that was not an
additional installation. The key I deleted was WSFtp and I did not change any
others. Hope this helps.