Customizing "All Apps" Issue with MS Apps (only)

Landlocked · Jun 19, 2023

I've sorted out my users All Apps menu shortcuts except for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office shortcuts. I obviously can't drag and drop from the menu itself. These shortcuts aren't here:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Is this impossible to sort out or is there a reg hack or another location they are kept?

Thanks!
Landlocked

Wisewiz · Jun 19, 2023

Landlocked said:
%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

The upper one is the Start Menu itself; the lower, All apps. If you open the latter, you can drag and drop any shortcut into it, and it will stick and show up in All app.

For the start menu, I find that putting a shortcut on the desktop usually (always?) gives me a Pin to Start option in the context menu, so I never have to drag and drop to get things into the Start menu itself.

I use those Programs folders so frequently that I've included them in my Start menu icon-set: Start Menu and All Apps.

Landlocked · Jun 20, 2023

Thank you for your reply! I moved the Office icons to the appropriate folder.

The icons that I would love relocate under All Apps (ALL of the Windows apps like Calendar, Clock, and Mail do NOT show up in either of the aforementioned directories, but still reside on All Apps. This is what puzzles me!

Wisewiz · Jun 20, 2023

Ah. If someone else hasn’t already done it, I’ll be glad to say a bit about that a little later. It’s morning coffee time in balmy Southern Ontario. Welcome to the forum.

OAT · Jun 20, 2023

Landlocked said:
The icons that I would love relocate under All Apps (ALL of the Windows apps like Calendar, Clock, and Mail do NOT show up in either of the aforementioned directories, but still reside on All Apps. This is what puzzles me!

Create a shortcut with this as the target and All Apps as name:

explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder
(you don't even need the explorer.exe there unless you want to pin that one too)

Open it and you can pin as your heart desires.

Wisewiz · Jun 20, 2023

Landlocked said:
The icons that I would love relocate under All Apps (ALL of the Windows apps like Calendar, Clock, and Mail do NOT show up in either of the aforementioned directories, but still reside on All Apps. This is what puzzles me!

Not clear where you would like to relocate those icons. If you right-click any of them, they will (correctly) offer no "Open file location," entry, because they are not sourced from either of the two Programs folders (in Users and in ProgramData) and the only way you can put them somewhere else is to follow @OAT's guide above and create new desktop icons for them. Then they're yours to fiddle with. Just use the new AllApps icon to bring up the individual icons, right-click any of them, and choose Create Shortcut. That will produce a pop-up that asks whether you want to put the icon on the desktop. Click Yes.

Landlocked · Jun 20, 2023

Thank you all for your suggestions!

What I was trying to do was simply tidy up my entire list of all apps by dropping shortcuts into respective folders. Apparently that's not an option and I'm forced to scroll forever.

The stoopid MS apps clutter, IMHO.

I should be happy I can at least pin stuff to subfolders off the start menu.

Wisewiz · Jun 20, 2023

You can uninstall most of those apps -- and then they won't be in your All Apps list at all.

Uninstall Apps in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall apps for your account, all users, or new users in Windows 11. If you no longer want or use an app, then you could uninstall the app to remove it and free up space on the drive. Desktop apps are traditional programs installed by a user. These will...

www.elevenforum.com

You might look at reply post #4 under that tutorial. I find it very helpful with PowerShell.

And note that a few of the ones that clutter up ALL Apps have a right-click Uninstall option.

Here's to a clean, clear App Apps menu!

But you can't get rid of Get Started. Many of us here have tried, and so far, it's a no-go.

Landlocked · Jun 21, 2023

I'm sorry if I'm not being clear or just not understanding. I'm not the brightest bulb these days. :)

Yes, I did what was suggested in post #4. Yes, I can uninstall some of the apps, but many I want to retain -- just neatly tucked away in a folder off of All Apps. In the image below you'll see I'd love to move the MS/Win apps to a folder called Windows Apps hanging under All Apps. Ideally these remove the single instances at the root of the menu.

And: How the heck did an All Apps shortcut for MSI Center end up there and not in my user or global start menu folder?

Also: Any way of getting rid of "For You -- To show your recent files..." at the bottom of the start menu? I don't see anything in the personalization area.

Thanks again, folks! It's always the trivial things that bug the heck out of me.

Wisewiz · Jun 21, 2023

@Landlocked

I don't think the MS apps shortcuts can be foldered. If that could be done, we'd have seen the method posted on the Web in the last couple of years. There is a large market for such a solution.

The MSI Center shortcut is an OEM feature. I suspect (but I do not know) that the only way to get rid of that shortcut is to delete the entire MSI Center utility.

As for the For you ... and Recommendations sections (as well as the Search control at the top of Start), I'd suggest Power Start Menu from the MS Store. It's available in a free Trial edition, and if it's worth it to you, the licensed edition is quite inexpensive. Screenshots below are from that program.

Wisewiz · Jun 21, 2023

This is my Start with PSM (trial) running:

OAT · Jun 21, 2023

I don't think the MS apps shortcuts can be foldered.

What? Sorry but using this explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder
You can not only pin them and create shortcuts as you wish.

And the Start Menu with multiple folders.

Wisewiz · Jun 21, 2023

@OAT

His post #9 makes it clear, I think, that OP wants a triple-shot result:
1. Don't uninstall any apps
2. Don't see any of them individually in All Apps menu, and
3. Have a single icon for all of them in All Apps and only there.

I understood your solution in post #5, but OP's shot in #7 makes it clear that he wants a single icon that will remove Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Clock, Feedback, Get Started, Notebook, Paint, etc. from the All Apps menu without any uninstalls.

It's the removal-consolidation part that OP is focused on.

OAT · Jun 21, 2023

Wisewiz said:
@OAT

His post #9 makes it clear, I think, that OP wants a triple-shot result:
1. Don't uninstall any apps
2. Don't see any of them individually in All Apps menu, and
3. Have a single icon for all of them in All Apps and only there.

I understood your solution in post #5, but OP's shot in #7 makes it clear that he wants a single icon that will remove Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Clock, Feedback, Get Started, Notebook, Paint, etc. from the All Apps menu without any uninstalls.

It's the removal-consolidation part that OP is focused on.

@Wisewiz
Therefore you are right, and I misunderstood.
What the OP wants can't be done as All Apps is by nature a 'gathering' of everything as its name implies.

Wisewiz · Jun 21, 2023

Thanks. I hoped I wouldn't offend.

I've gotten rid of all of them except these (that I either don't use at all or have shortcuts for elsewhere, and they are thus, to me, just All Apps "clutter" -- OP's term):

Feedback, Get, Store, Notepad, Paint, Snipping, Terminal, and Security

Landlocked · Jun 21, 2023

Obviously the MSI Center installer has elevated permissions to designate that their shortcut can hang on the root of All Apps and not be relocated or deleted. That being said, shouldn't that shortcut location be designated in the registry? I will have to look if so, and how it varies from one manipulate maniuplate.

Wisewiz · Jun 21, 2023

Revo Uninstaller (Free) might have a go at it. I'd use the Windows Apps setting and see whether it shows up in there.

If it doesn't show up in either All Programs or Windows Apps, you can try Hunter Mode: Open a window of MSI Center and drag the Hunter Mode icon into it.

I actually have used Hunter Mode a number of times, but have had only a few successes with it. The rest of Revo works like a charm, though.

Landlocked · Jun 21, 2023

Thanks -- but do those apps simply remove the Win apps? My goal was simply to keep them, but relocate the "hard" shortcuts to the apps to a custom subfolder off of All Apps.

Wisewiz · Jun 21, 2023

I was suggesting you use Revo to get rid of MSI Center, not MS apps.

My post #10 above summarizes my understanding of your wishes until now. Seems I had most of it right. The part I missed is that you want the icon NOT to be on the All Apps list, and you want all of the apps shortcuts in the folder (icon) OFF the All Apps list, too.

Sorry, but I think no-can-do my friend.

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