Start menu structure- adding your own folders and deep menus


dalchina

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Hi, as an experiment I added a folder including other folders containing shortcuts in
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

In Win 10, this would have been seen in the Start Menu. Not in Win 11.

I tried placing a folder containing shortcuts directly there. Still not seen.

I'm guessing that perhaps only installed programs are now visible via the Start Menu.

I also used Brink's tutorial to change to the 'Classic' Win 10 style menu. Same behaviour.

This implies
- can't add e.g. portable programs to the start menu
- can't structure a very large start menu into categories

There could be new issues for people with large menus upgrading from e.g. Win 7.

(Ok.. the answer's Open Shell...)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
Hi, as an experiment I added a folder including other folders containing shortcuts in
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

In Win 10, this would have been seen in the Start Menu. Not in Win 11.

I tried placing a folder containing shortcuts directly there. Still not seen.

I'm guessing that perhaps only installed programs are now visible via the Start Menu.

I also used Brink's tutorial to change to the 'Classic' Win 10 style menu. Same behaviour.

This implies
- can't add e.g. portable programs to the start menu
- can't structure a very large start menu into categories

There could be new issues for people with large menus upgrading from e.g. Win 7.

(Ok.. the answer's Open Shell...)

The answer shouldn't be 'Open Shell' or any other third party app.
A user should be able to do Basic things directly on Windows 11.&

But let's wait a little bit. It's still in Beta!!!

Maybe that might be a workaround

 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DELL Precision 3560
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)
    Motherboard
    DELL 004N73 / UEFI Ver. 1.18.1
    Memory
    SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 IPS
    Hard Drives
    Internal: KIOXIA BG4 Series 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
    External: 2 x WD Passport 2TB USB 3.0, 1 x Toshiba 500GB USB 3.0
    Keyboard
    Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
    Mouse
    hp wheel mouse
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    MS Windows Defender
    Other Info
    DELL USB slim Optical Drive DW316
    Macrium Reflect v8 (backup and.... lifesaver)
I have a couple of hundred programs organised into categorised folders like Maintenance, Utilities, Multimedia/Photos/Videos etc.. no Win 10 style menu copes with that. The Win 10 menu stripped out the folders and flattened out all the shortcuts, completely mixing them up. This one seems to ignore added folders. I've not tried putting one in a user folder rather than all users though.

MS seems to provide the start menu primarily for users with just a few programs installed with no flexibility.

An O/S used to be conceived of as providing a higher level of abstraction from the hardware, providing interfaces and features applications made us of- so it's perfectly valid to make use of 3rd party programs for dedicated functions or to provide more advanced or specialised features.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
In All Apps they show as cascading folders...

000600.png

but, as Pinned, they're only shortcuts...

000601.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS ROG Strix
  • Operating System
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS VivoBook
Thanks, yes if you put them here
C:\Users\<userfoldername>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

... but not here (for all users):
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

I think I mentioned I'd only tried the latter.

But I don't see cascading folders- only shortcuts extracted from folders.

I.e. folder is
1.jpg
but start menu shows
2.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
Did you notice how the shortcuts are extracted from one of the subfolders and the subfolders themselves are discarded?
That's how Win 10's start menu behaves too, so I expected nothing better, really.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
Did you notice how the shortcuts are extracted from one of the subfolders and the subfolders themselves are discarded?
That's how Win 10's start menu behaves too, so I expected nothing better, really.
Most shortcuts show from all folders..., the sub-folder themselves do not show..., un-installer exe's don't show for some reason!
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS ROG Strix
  • Operating System
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS VivoBook
This implies
- can't add e.g. portable programs to the start menu
- can't structure a very large start menu into categories
Worked for me....

1626317014412.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Lattitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.

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