Start menu structure- adding your own folders and deep menus


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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...)
 

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Windows 11 Proi7-8650U16GBIntel UHD 620
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Windows 11 Pro
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Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo t480s
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i7-8650U
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16GB
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Intel UHD 620
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dalchina said:
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...)
Click to expand...

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

docs.microsoft.com

Customize the Windows 11 Start menu

How to pin OEM apps in the Windows 11 start menu
docs.microsoft.com
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro x64Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAMintel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GD...
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
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SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
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intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
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Realtek HD Audio
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15.6"
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1920x1080 IPS
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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
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Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
Mouse
hp wheel mouse
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MS Edge Chromium
Antivirus
MS Windows Defender
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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 My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Proi7-8650U16GBIntel UHD 620
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo t480s
CPU
i7-8650U
Memory
16GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel UHD 620
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
C SN810 SDCPNRY-512G-1006
Browser
Edge, Firefox
Antivirus
Defender
In All Apps they show as cascading folders...

000600.png

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

000601.png
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two Other systems

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS ROG Strix

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS VivoBook
  • ASUS VivoBook 'Lite' ~ Windows 11 Home
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 My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Proi7-8650U16GBIntel UHD 620
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo t480s
CPU
i7-8650U
Memory
16GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel UHD 620
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
C SN810 SDCPNRY-512G-1006
Browser
Edge, Firefox
Antivirus
Defender

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two Other systems

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS ROG Strix

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS VivoBook
  • ASUS VivoBook 'Lite' ~ Windows 11 Home
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 My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Proi7-8650U16GBIntel UHD 620
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo t480s
CPU
i7-8650U
Memory
16GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel UHD 620
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
C SN810 SDCPNRY-512G-1006
Browser
Edge, Firefox
Antivirus
Defender
dalchina said:
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.
Click to expand...
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 My Computers

System One System Two Other systems

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS ROG Strix

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS VivoBook
  • ASUS VivoBook 'Lite' ~ Windows 11 Home
dalchina said:
This implies
- can't add e.g. portable programs to the start menu
- can't structure a very large start menu into categories
Click to expand...
Worked for me....

1626317014412.png
 

My Computers My Computers

System One System Two Other systems

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 HomeAMD Athlon Silver 3050U8GBRadeon Graphics
    OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23-R9VY
    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 (from April 2026: 250GB EVO 850)
    Internet Speed
    150 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    UPDATE - 11 April 2026: due to lid hinges starting to break up this laptop has been retired from active duty. The OS with all software and files has been migrated to my System Seven in 'Other systems' to carry on as my general purpose 'main machine'.

    I've now clean installed 25H2 and used Garlin's scripts to update Secure Boot to CA 2023 and revoke the PCA 2011 certificates. It's new role is to test secure boot issues.

    Info for 2021-2026:
    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 2021 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, 24H2 on 3rd October 2024 through Windows Update by setting the Target Release Version for 24H2, and 25H2 on 30th September 2025 through Windows Update by setting the Target Release Version for 25H2.

  • At a glance

    Windows 11 ProIntel® Core™ i5-520M8GB(integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude 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.
    In-place upgrade to 24H2 using hybrid 23H2/24H2 install media.
    Upgraded to 25H2 by Enablement Package.

    Also running Insider Experimental 263xx and 29xxx builds and Windows 10 as native boot .vhdx.
  • My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro.

    My SYSTEM FOUR was a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e (1st gen) type 20DA, Celeron N2930, 8GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device. This has now been sold. It has been replaced by my System Eight.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 8GB RAM, 1TB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus Insider Beta, Experimental 263xx and 29xxx builds (and a few others) as a native boot .vhdx.

    My SYSTEM SIX is a Dell Latitude 5550, Core Ultra 7 165H, 64GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, supported device, Windows 11 Pro, Hyper-V host machine. Updated to 25H2 on 30th September 2025.

    My SYSTEM SEVEN is a Lenovo Thinkpad T580, 1920x1080 touchscreen, Intel Core i7-8650U, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD + 2nd 512GB NVMe SSD, a supported device for Windows 11. This is my current general purpose 'main machine'. The installed Windows 11 Home from my System One has been migrated to this machine. As its new home has an existing digital licence for Pro I've been able to upgrade the migrated OS from Home to Pro.

    My SYSTEM EIGHT is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e (5th gen) type 20LN, Celeron N4120, 8GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, a supported device for Windows 11. Currently running Windows 11 Pro, plus Insider Beta, Experimental 263xx and 29xxx builds as native boot vhdx.
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