Why do Windows 10 / Windows 11 copied/pasted shortcuts not appear, but newly created ones do?

Question

With Windows 10/11 you can access the start menu items in these locations:

"%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs"
%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

For instance:

D:\Users\Hydra>dir "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\FireFox*"
 Volume in drive C is WIN11X64PRO
 Volume Serial Number is 1651-A283

 Directory of C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

26/06/2024  20:04             2,038 Firefox Private Browsing.lnk
26/06/2024  20:04             1,005 Firefox.lnk
               2 File(s)          3,043 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  228,548,452,352 bytes free

or

PS D:\Users\Hydra> Get-StartApps

Name                                             AppID
----                                             -----
...
Firefox                                          308046B0AF4A39CB
Firefox Private Browsing                         308046B0AF4A39CB;PrivateBrowsingAUMID
...

If you go to the location of the shortcut, copy it, paste it, rename it, and add a command line argument, it does not show up in the start menu.

D:\Users\Hydra>dir "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\FireFox*"
 Volume in drive C is WIN11X64PRO
 Volume Serial Number is 1651-A283

 Directory of C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

27/06/2024  17:56             1,196 Firefox - Copy.lnk                <--- the copied shortcut.
26/06/2024  20:04             2,038 Firefox Private Browsing.lnk
26/06/2024  20:04             1,005 Firefox.lnk
               3 File(s)          4,239 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  228,381,949,952 bytes free

However, if you go to either of the two locations, and then use "New" -> "Shortcut" and manually pick the executable, and add the appropriate command line arguments to it, it does show up in the start menu.

Additionally, If you pin the original shortcut to the start menu, you have the option to "Unpin from start" on the copied one (!), which has never been pinned, and unpinning the copied one unpins the originally pinned one (!!).

• Rebuilding the search index does not fix it.
• Killing 'Start' from task manager does not fix it.
• Killing 'Explorer' from task manager does not fix it.
• Logging out and back in again does not fix it.
• The permissions of the copied shortcut are the same as the original.

I have tried a fresh install of Windows 11 and the behavior is the same. I had similar issues on Windows 10 too.

Why doesn't copying/pasting shortcuts work when creating new ones using explorer does?