Why won't shortcuts pinned to start menu launch?

Hello -

I upgraded my WindowsXP Pro installation to Windows Vista Ultimate. There
are a few things that don't appear to function properly and the one that is
most annoying is simply this...any icon on the start menu panel will not
launch.

I check the properties and consistently find that they match identically to
any shortcut I put on the desktop (these will all launch properly). More
over, if I right click one of the icons pinned to the start menu and select
'put into quicklaunch', once there, they start properly as well?!

Why is this happening and how do I fix it? Anyone know?

Tia

Randy Volters