The folders are still maintained by Windows, two of them, Classic Shell merely shows their contents:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Try to delete it from Explorer using right click. It Explorer still locks up or crashes, then it may be some context menu shell extension.
Try to use the Delete key and see if it works. Delete key also works inside the menu. To find out which context menu shell extension is causing Explorer to hang/crash, try capturing a dump using this method:
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