Personalization Add or Remove Default Shortcuts on Win+X Quick Link Menu in Windows 11

Paul Newton · Nov 22, 2022

Brink said:
You could try doing a repair install of Windows 11 below to hopefully restore them without losing anything.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

I'll maybe look into that tomorrow. I don't have the installation media but I think Advanced startup will give me that option and get everything it needs from the recovery partition - I'll double check with the Dell docs ...

Paul Newton · Nov 22, 2022

Brink said:
You could try doing a repair install of Windows 11 below to hopefully restore them without losing anything.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

Well, I did the repair install and guess what ... I still have the same problem - No Terminal, Powershell or Command prompt on the WinX menu

Paul Newton · Nov 23, 2022

Brink, many thanks for all your help and suggestions (even if none of them worked - hardly your fault

)

I have a temporary solution which works for me. I am using ExplorerPatcher GitHub - valinet/ExplorerPatcher: This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows. I then created a new toolbar and added shortcuts for Command Prompt and Windows Powershell. In the toolbar they can be clicked to run normally or right-clicked and Run as Administrator. I also had Terminal on my Start Menu and I have pinned that to the Taskbar.

Brink · Nov 23, 2022

Paul Newton said:
Brink, many thanks for all your help and suggestions (even if none of them worked - hardly your fault )

I have a temporary solution which works for me. I am using ExplorerPatcher GitHub - valinet/ExplorerPatcher: This project aims to enhance the working environment on Windows. I then created a new toolbar and added shortcuts for Command Prompt and Windows Powershell. In the toolbar they can be clicked to run normally or right-clicked and Run as Administrator. I also had Terminal on my Start Menu and I have pinned that to the Taskbar.

Great news. :party:

You might also like these context menus:

Add "Open in Windows Terminal" expandable context menu in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove a custom Open in Windows Terminal expandable context menu for all users in Windows 11. Windows Terminal is a modern host application for the command-line shells you already love, like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and bash (via Windows Subsystem...

www.elevenforum.com

Add "Open in Windows Terminal (Admin)" context menu in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove a Open in Windows Terminal as administrator context menu for all users in Windows 11. Windows Terminal is a modern host application for the command-line shells you already love, like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and bash (via Windows Subsystem for...

www.elevenforum.com

Paul Newton · Nov 23, 2022

Brink said:
Great news.

You might also like these context menus:

Add "Open in Windows Terminal" expandable context menu in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove a custom Open in Windows Terminal expandable context menu for all users in Windows 11. Windows Terminal is a modern host application for the command-line shells you already love, like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and bash (via Windows Subsystem...

www.elevenforum.com

Add "Open in Windows Terminal (Admin)" context menu in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove a Open in Windows Terminal as administrator context menu for all users in Windows 11. Windows Terminal is a modern host application for the command-line shells you already love, like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and bash (via Windows Subsystem for...

www.elevenforum.com

Hello Brink. I am not interested in those at the moment, but I am interested in Add Custom Shortcuts to Win+X Quick Link Menu in Windows 11
Unfortunately, it does not work for me (22H2, 22621.819). I will post a reply there with this finding.

Haorutia · Dec 10, 2022

Is there any way to remove all shortcuts in the WinX menu?
I am using Windows 11 Pro 22H2 in a local environment and want to delete all menus from WinX.
I have tried deleting past questions posted with Default user as the link, but it didn't work.

Also, I can't use third party software because it is prohibited.

Wisewiz · Jan 4, 2024

@Brink

Just resurrecting this dead thread to say that for the umpteenth time, when I ran sfc /scannow today, it fleshed out the full Win X menu with all the default entries again, and when I checked, I found that the only changes it had made were in the users\Default files, not in the users\<username> WinX files. When I removed the unwanted entries from the Default files and left the <username> files as I had set them up before, the Win X menu returned to the 8-entry form I like. Seems the observations above about Windows now paying attention first to the Default files are still correct for the latest versions of 11.

asteski · Mar 29, 2024

Wisewiz said:
@Brink

Just resurrecting this dead thread to say that for the umpteenth time, when I ran sfc /scannow today, it fleshed out the full Win X menu with all the default entries again, and when I checked, I found that the only changes it had made were in the users\Default files, not in the users\<username> WinX files. When I removed the unwanted entries from the Default files and left the <username> files as I had set them up before, the Win X menu returned to the 8-entry form I like. Seems the observations above about Windows now paying attention first to the Default files are still correct for the latest versions of 11.

View attachment 83154

How did you maange to do that, I mean to remove other terminal and leave only one and rename it? I can't seem to ge them removed and renamed at all, I used WinX tool to remove powershell entries and also I removed them manually by going to WinX folder to both default and user winx folder, Terminal still reamins in winx menu. I suspect it's because winx folder includes shortcuts to powershell, not terminal, but I can't figure out how to force remove both terminal entries. I'm on Windows 11 btw

Wisewiz · Mar 29, 2024

If no one else has answered your question by the time I get back here in two hours, I can give you the complete answer in a few lines. No renaming required. Just deletions. I’m not at my computer right now (on phone) but back by 9:30 Eastern US.

asteski · Mar 29, 2024

Wisewiz said:
If no one else has answered your question by the time I get back here in two hours, I can give you the complete answer in a few lines. No renaming required. Just deletions. I’m not at my computer right now (on phone) but back by 9:30 Eastern US.

Thanks, in the meantine I've also tried to remove terminal from context menus using this guide, but it didn't worked as well.

Brink · Mar 29, 2024

asteski said:
Thanks, in the meantine I've also tried to remove terminal from context menus using this guide, but it didn't worked as well.

That may be for this below instead.

Add or Remove "Open in Terminal" context menu in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Open in Terminal context menu for your account or all users in Windows 11. Windows Terminal is a modern host application for the command-line shells you already love, like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and bash (via Windows Subsystem for Linux...

www.elevenforum.com

Wisewiz · Mar 29, 2024

Step 1: Either download the .zip file from Option Two in @Brink's tutorial and unzip it, OR just run sfc /scannow, and get the full list of shortcuts back into the User and Default WinX file sets. Then start deleting from those file sets, and when you've finished deleting, open Task Manager, select the Processes tab, and scroll waaay down to Windows Explorer, and right-click it and choose Restart.

The deleting process includes removing specific shortcuts. In my case, when I've finished, I have these:

In Default: Group 3: Device, Disk, and Win Power Shell (the upper one of the two); Group 2: Ctrl Panel and Run; Group 1: desktop (with the blue icon). In my username: Group 3: Win Power Shell (the upper one of the two), Device, and Disk; Group 2: Control P, Programs, and Run; Group 1: Desktop (with the yellow folder icon). That's all.

That, after restarting Explorer, produces the menu in #47 above.

Hope that, and Brink's suggestion, get you where you want to go. No renaming required. But careful selection of the ones to delete is essential.

Dan

Wisewiz · Mar 29, 2024

One last suggestion: If you use @Brink's .zip file to get the shortcuts back into the correct folders, before you start deleting, it would be a good idea to restart Explorer. Then do the deletions you want to do, and THEN restart Explorer again.
If you use sfc /scannow, I think it might still be a good idea to restart Explorer before you start chopping out the dead branches. Then chop, and then restart Explorer.

Wisewiz · Mar 29, 2024

EDIT: One more suggestion: If before you start deleting you empty your recycle bin, then the things you delete (and only those) will be there, and if the result after restartng Explorer isn't what you'd hoped, you can open the bin and restore anything you removed in error. If, for instance, there are two similar items, and you deleted the second, but the result wasn't what you wanted, you can restore the second and then delete the first and then restart Explorer.

And it's okay to start over again by running sfc /scannow if you mess up. Just go back to square one.

asteski · Mar 29, 2024

Wisewiz said:
One last suggestion: If you use @Brink's .zip file to get the shortcuts back into the correct folders, before you start deleting, it would be a good idea to restart Explorer. Then do the deletions you want to do, and THEN restart Explorer again.
If you use sfc /scannow, I think it might still be a good idea to restart Explorer before you start chopping out the dead branches. Then chop, and then restart Explorer.

Okay it seems to work on fresh VM, so I installed other soft one by one and it's StartAllBack that is causing my specific issue.

Before I've installed it, I've managed to remove both terminal options, but SAB seems to bring it back with enhanced taskbar activated, which is very strange, as SAB does read data from WinX folders and acknowledges removal of other shortcuts, yet not for Terminal. Quite dissapointing, I guess I need to report a bug on SAB forum.

Wisewiz · Mar 29, 2024

Have you tried uninstalling SAB, then editing the WinX menu from scratch, until it's the way you want it, and THEN re-installing SAB? Seems unlikely that a new SAB would interfere with your C:\Users\ ... files.

asteski · Mar 29, 2024

Wisewiz said:
Have you tried uninstalling SAB, then editing the WinX menu from scratch, until it's the way you want it, and THEN re-installing SAB? Seems unlikely that a new SAB would interfere with your C:\Users\ ... files.

Didn't worked, I've:

- removed and reinstalled SAB,
- removed all shortcuts from both default and user WinX folder,
- restarted explorer/vm many times,
- disabled all SAB options, leaving only enhanced taskbar,

and all these shortcuts are gone, but terminal still remains. I guess it must be hardcoded into SAB somehow or reads terminal related data form somewhere else. It's not from reg keys from abovemnetioned guides, as it didn't worked as well.