Discussion: Start Menu Folders

[Hellbovine]

This question is about the folders that are on the left side of a Windows 10 start menu (Settings, Pictures, Documents, etcetera). You can customize these folders by going to: Start > Settings > Personalization > Start > Choose which folders appear on start.

Does anyone know of a clean way to add this type of customization into an NTLite image? For example, let's say we want to show only Settings and File Explorer in the list. I've scoured the internet and the only solutions so far seem to be from the year 2019 and involve the subpar approach of trying to edit the unfriendly "CloudStore" keys in the registry, and the second solution is a policy key, but it does not support Home editions of Windows. To further clarify, I'm not trying to mess with the DefaultLayouts or LayoutModification XML files since that's an unrelated topic.

Here's the best thing (link) I've found on the issue which describes what I'm talking about in more detail.

 

[garlin]

The only proper solution is Layout XML files. Don't even bother with CloudStore, that's too far downstream from the source configs.

 

[Hellbovine]

As far as I know though, these specific settings are not a part of either XML file. I have already used both with great success to eliminate all the groups and taskbar defaults, but these sidebar folders aren't a part of that system?

 

[crypticus]

I use sordum's tool to backup and restore or manually restore its backup...

 

[Hellbovine]

I looked into the Sordum tool and that's the same as what Garlin said. What I'm looking for is not the XML files, since those do not have anything to do with the start menu icons on the far left, as seen in the screenshots in the link I provided. Granted I didn't actually use the tool, but I did visit the site and it says it modifies the XML layouts.

 

[Hellbovine]

To help clarify this thread, I'm not trying to modify the tiles, groups, or taskbar, but rather what Windows refers to as the start menu folders, which are icons on the left side of the start menu. There are 10 options in total and they consist of Documents, Downloads, File Explorer, Home Group, Music, Network, Personal Folder, Pictures, Settings, and Videos.

 

[garlin]

What you're referring to is Pinned Folders, on the left sidebar.

I read that GitHub thread, and tweaked Disassembler0's script (converting byte arrays to hex format, and writing a real timestamp).
The script works fine to update Start Menu, but there's two issues:

- We can't use a fixed registry key, because the key's name is dynamically created during user provisioning.
- Running the script from RunOnce executes too early, before user provisioning (which takes a while) does its work.

No problem, insert a while-loop and wait for the reg key.
W10 Home as you wanted

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There is no cow level.

1. Update StartMenu_Folders.ps1 script with your preferred folders list.

$itemsToDisplay = @("Settings", "Explorer")

2. Copy StartMenu_Folders.ps1 to sources\$OEM$\$1\Scripts

3. Add a Post-Setup command in User - Execution:

Powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "%SystemDrive%\Scripts\StartMenu_Folders.ps1"

 

[crypticus]

I looked into the Sordum tool and that's the same as what Garlin said. What I'm looking for is not the xml files though. Those xml layouts do not have anything to do with the start menu icons on the far left when you click the start button, as seen in the screenshots in the link I provided. Granted I didn't actually use the tool, but I did visit the site and read about it, and they modify the xml files.

that tool also saves and restores icons on the far left. and tool can be used in silent mode.