Windows 10 Cannot Find Windows PowerShell.lnk on WinX Start Right Click Menu

In Start’s Apps List, or when using Win-X Power User Quick Access menu, where you right click on Windows 10 Start button to access the right click context menu, to attempt to open “Windows PowerShell” or “Windows PowerShell (Admin)”, the action failed and Windows 10 return the following error message:

Windows cannot find ‘%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows PowerShell\Windows PowerShell.lnk’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

When the issue happens, normally the Windows PowerShell shortcuts on the Start menu’s Apps List have also been broken, missing, disappeared, or accidentally deleted. As the result, when you try to look for Windows PowerShell through Start menu, Cortana, search, or via Win-X Quick Access right click menu, the PowerShell shortcuts are not found too.

To fix the Windows PowerShell shortcut not found or missing issue, you will need to restore the Windows PowerShell shortcuts to its original location, as detailed in the guide below.

How to Fix Windows 10 Cannot Find Windows PowerShell (Windows PowerShell.lnk) Shortcut on Start and WinX Power User Menu

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Open Windows PowerShell shortcuts location of another user. One such location is of “Default” user.

   In File Explorer, navigate to the following folder:

   C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows PowerShell

   If your Windows drive is on another drive letter, change it accordingly.
   You may need to switch account to login as another user (or even a user account in another PC) in order to access the AppData folder of said user. In such case, you can copy the Windows PowerShell shortcuts to another device such as USB flash drive, or common location such as C:\ drive.
   If there is no other user account (you’re the only user on the PC), try to create new user.
3. You should see the following 4 shortcuts of Windows PowerShell.
   • Windows PowerShell (x86).lnk
   • Windows PowerShell ISE (x86).lnk
   • Windows PowerShell ISE.lnk
   • Windows PowerShell.lnk

   Copy all the files.

   The directory “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group3” contains Windows PowerShell shortcuts (one for running as administrator) for Win+X right click menu. The shortcuts could be used too if you couldn’t find another user profile with proper Windows PowerShell shortcuts.
4. On the user account which is having issue with Windows PowerShell shortcut, navigate to the following folder in File Explorer:

   %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows PowerShell

   Tip

   %AppData% represents C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\
5. Paste the copied Windows PowerShell shortcuts into the folder.

Your Windows PowerShell should be returned to the Start menu now, and the quick access shortcut to Windows PowerShell in Win-X right click menu should now work properly.