Classic Shell: Forum

Is there a way to prepopulate the start menu with certain icons like Microsoft Word, so when a user logs in, those icons are already there?

Which area of the Start Menu do you wish to prepopulate the links? You can paste any shortcuts inside the folders the Start Menu uses for pinned shortcuts - either
C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
OR
C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\ClassicShell\Pinned
and the subfolders of the Start Menu folder such as Programs.

You cannot prepopulate the Frequent or Recent programs list.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

If you have installed Microsoft Word then it should show up in the start menu unless you deleted the shortcut. A reinstall of Office should restore the shortcuts.

I'm referring to the initial list you see when you first click the start button. I want to prepopulate some frequently used shortcuts there (like what happens when you choose "Pin to start menu (Classic Shell)" but I want it to be for everyone that logs into the workstation with their own login. That way they don't have to click all programs, etc to find their frequently used programs. I can programmatically do this with vbscript but the "Pin to start menu (Classic Shell)" will pin an additional icon for each app each time the script runs (normally at login) and thus creating a new icon of word (for example) every time they log in. You end up with many copies of the same icon on the start button - it gets very messy. It'd be nice if the "pin to start menu (classic shell)" function would change to "unpin" like what happens for the regular windows 7 start menu or when you "pin to taskbar". Then it wouldn't duplicate icons.

You can copy-paste/directly move your shortcuts in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu for them to be available to all users. Also, the "Pinned Programs setting" on the Main Menu tab must be set to "Start Menu folder".

Then there will be no need to use a script to pin.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

That works. Thanks