Program EXE's in "All Programs" List of Start Menu

I have recently reinstalled XP Pro 32 on a new drive in my laptop. After
almost finishing all of the updates (now SP3), program installs and tweaks, I
have found that the Start Menu - All Programs list includes both program
shortcuts, AND complete lists of items in the Programs directory of installed
software (C:\Programs\ ...).

If I explore "All Users" in the All Programs list, I get none of these
entries. Ditto for any particular user. But if I highlight one of these
folders in the All Programs submenu (e.g. Microsoft .NET) and right-click
Explore, I get a windows explorer open at C:\Programs\Microsoft .Net|. If I
delete the folder in the All Programs list, all of the Programs (exe's and
dll's too) in that C:\Programs sub-directory are deleted.

Just to make this clear, the All Programs list contains a lot of folders of
exe's and dll's, not just the shortcut entries that it should hold.

I am probably the author of my own misfortune, by using Tweak UI and
mistakenly adjusting the Program folders location (a slip of the mouse which
I found out about after a dozen or more application and windows update
installs).

In addition to the entries in All Users and the particular user, where else
does the All Programs list source its entries?

More particularly, how do I get these out of the All Programs list without
reinstalling the OS?
--
Jim C