Add or Remove Items for All Apps in Start menu in Windows 10  

There are in ALL App many app that i cannot delete like xbox etc.. some solutions ?

Thank
Hispa

I just upgraded to Windows 10 64 bits from Windows 7 64 bits, and I'm in the same boat as all of you.

My windows 7 start menu have been imported fine into 10. Most of everything was there, don't think I've noticed something missing. However, my all apps list was huge. So without any searching on the net, I looked around my hard drive, and found those two directories mentioned here... in programdata and userdata.

I have reorganized stuff in those two dirs, I took everything out of individual folders, removed all uninstaller, and kept only the application icons, and moved everything into the start menu/programs folder.

Windows 10 doesn't see these changes.. my start menu is still the very same as it was right after my windows 7 upgrade.

It's killing me... can't believe they did something like this. Windows 7 programs menu was intuitive... you could right click on stuff, and access properties, and everything you wanted... you could drag and drop, move stuff around, delete stuff right from the menu.

I have searched the windows registry, and cannot find anything that looks like the start menu in there...

Seems the all apps menu is generated from the previous windows 7 menu when you upgrade, and there must be a way to "rebuild" it... scan installed apps, and redo it... get-startapps seems to point in this direction, but I haven't found any switches to this program.

I have seen in another thread about startisback++, and using it for now. It partially solves my problem, and properly list the programdata and userdata stuff properly. So now my menu is messed up... everything is out of folders, and there is no organization... The idea behind taking stuff out of folders was because the all apps from 10 is grouped by letters.. but in startisback, there is no organization, its all together. And my windows 10 start screen still shows the folder structures I had on windows 7, prior to re-organizing stuff in programdata and userdata.

Sigh... how could they mess that up... specially when the start menu/screen from release candidate looked much better with customization option in a start menu tab in the taskbar properties.. seems to be gone now. (I havent installed RC, or any preview)

Anyone figured out something?

PLCMAN58 said:

WIN10 Start Menu All Apps does not have the same structure as WIN7.

I updated my computer from WIN7 Ultimate to WIN10 Professional and the WIN10 Start Menu All Apps does not follow the same structure

I had some WIN 7 Start Menu options like this

Schneider Electric

SoColabarative

Advantys
Unity Pro

Each of the subfolders have shortcuts in them.

In WIN10 all of the shortcuts have been grouped under Schneider Electric.
........

To me, that is the single most annoying feature (well, GUI, anyway) of Windows 10 and may even make me revert to W7. It is even worse when a lot of those subcategories had files with common names like "Help.....". They all wind up under the main category in a "bunch" without direct connection to their primary association.

Forced updates is at the very top of my list, of course.

Maniac said:

I have tried adding additional shortcuts to these folders several times and every time the shortcut does not appear in All Apps. Most of the time the shortcut will appear pinned as a tile. Once I unpin it from start, the shortcut is deleted from the Programs folders. It's a little frustrating since I have several desktop apps that are not listed in All Apps that I would like easy access to from time to time (without having it as a pinned tile).

Any suggestions?

I'm experiencing the same issue. Have you found a solution yet?

AntonAnton said:

I'm experiencing the same issue. Have you found a solution yet?

If the mountain won't come to......

I installed Classic Shell. Take a look at it. I tried to stay "stock" but there are some things that are just plain intolerable.

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

ARYLIOA said:

I installed Classic Shell. Take a look at it. I tried to stay "stock" but there are some things that are just plain intolerable.

I would much rather just keep a shortcut on the desktop since I prefer the aesthetic of W10 and it's only one program. Thanks a lot for the suggestion nonetheless. I hope MS comes around and addresses this issue sometime soon.

AntonAnton said:

I would much rather just keep a shortcut on the desktop since I prefer the aesthetic of W10 and it's only one program. Thanks a lot for the suggestion nonetheless. I hope MS comes around and addresses this issue sometime soon.

I started my career with GM when they were actually building cars without taxpayer aid. You know that was long ago. We had a "clean desk rule", inspired by all the IBM-weenies who were the big-guns in computing in those days. (1401s and 7010s ran the world.) Telephone and calendar pad were the only things allowed to be on our desks permanently. Even after 26 years in the wild-and-free aerospace industry I couldn't break the habit.

Those IBM guys, in their dark blue suits with white shirts and solid dark blue or dark gray ties were scary!

I think that's a good habit to have. It doesn't take that much time or energy to search for whatever it is you're looking for, using the search function. Personally, I use my desktop as the destination of downloads and temporary files, so it's always fairly clean.

AntonAnton said:

I think that's a good habit to have. It doesn't take that much time or energy to search for whatever it is you're looking for, using the search function. Personally, I use my desktop as the destination of downloads and temporary files, so it's always fairly clean.

For any that haven't figured this out yet, it seems that windows 10 caches the start menu somewhere, or some way. Whether it is by way of an .ini file, or another file, or the registry, the system remembers things. Making changes forces you to follow a few "rules".

First, if you delete a folder that is in the start menu without first deleting the shortcuts within it, they will not go away. I am on the developer preview and have to make all my changes every single time there is an upgrade so I have become fairly well versed with making the menu look the way I want it to look (there are three start menus to contend with here also, the users, the base windows, and the default). I now have a base menu that I use after deleting the entire start menu (by deleting all files in folders first, then their folders) by copying it over which speeds things up.

So...though it is very laborious, my menu structure is as follows:
I create a folder structure within the start menu that begins with a number, say 1 - Creative (which means creative programs I have installed. Then I put whatever shortcuts I want in that folder either by creating a new one or copying one from another location in the start menu. In this folder I have photo editing software, web editors, etc. I create as many folders as I need to tidy things up.
Then I go through and delete or move any shortcuts from folders I no longer want in my start menu. Then I go back and delete empty folders I no longer want. I do this even with the windows system folders such as administrative tools. **deleting the windows system folders has side effects** for instance, within file explorer you can right click on "this pc" and select manage, but this will no longer work because of all stupid things, the "manage" link is actually a shortcut that points to the start menu shortcut in the administrative tools folder. I work around this by just using the link in the start menu. I haven't found a reg hack to subvert this stupidity.
Also, the windows bundled apps, so far as I have found, can not me moved or organized in any way. at least with my numbered scheme I can see all the folders I want right at the top of the list.