IBM Launchpad doesn't draw left pane including the links.

Here's a normal view.

 

And here's that defective view:

The problem is described here http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21586443
but sometimes it's hard to find the solution on ibm site and articles move often.
So, easy solution is to remove all the spaces from  launchpad path. For example "C:\distr\IBM Connections\launchpad.exe"  replace with "C:\distr\IBM_Connections\launchpad.exe".