What does Pin To Start actually do?

Fresh installation of Windows 10.

When I right click an app in the Start Menu (All apps) and select Pin to Start, nothing happens. Nothing about the Start Menu changes. I have multiple Pins but I see no change in the Start Menu.

Note that Pin to Taskbar does work.

What is supposed to happen?

Bruce.

paulsalter said:

it should add the item to the right hand side of the start menu

this might fix it

try going into Settings App, Personalization, then set start menu to full screen
try pinning item again
go back to the above setting and turn off the use full screen start

this sometimes fixes odd things like this on the start menu

Ah, that helped me discover 2 things. I was assuming the right side was reserved for Tile apps only, so I was assuming I would see my regular app Pins on the left side (where I'd prefer them anyway). I also discovered that nothing changes on the Start Menu unless I reboot. Changing to fullscreen and back each require a reboot to see the change. Pinning now works (to the right side) but also requires a reboot to see). Extremely Inconvenient as my upgraded Windows 7 PC takes over 7 minutes to reboot. Are the required reboots normal for the Start Menu?

I've never had to reboot after pinning an item to start. Have pinned about 12 items.

BunnyJ said:

Instead of restarting the PC another way to get this done is by going into the task manager and restarting Explorer.

That does indeed work for me. But I find it difficult to believe either killing explorer or rebooting is what MS intended for their new Start Menu.

If having to kill Explorer or rebooting is not normal, then I'm hoping someone can help me fix whatever is wrong with my PC.

Thanks.
Bruce.

BunnyJ said:

Fast question.. did you have this issue when you upgraded from your previous OS??

I had this issue on a clean install , but after 2-3 reboots , now i can pin without restart.

BunnyJ said:

Fast question.. did you have this issue when you upgraded from your previous OS??

I upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium yesterday, but didn't get around to playing with customizing the Start Menu until today. I wasted a couple of hours trying to figure out what I should expect Pin and Unpin to do.

If you mean did I have menu trouble with Windows 7, no. No trouble at all.

Bruce.

Ok, I have finally seen it work but it's extremely intermittent. Usually Pinning a program from the left of the menu doesn't work. But every once in a while right clicking on an exe and selecting Pin and Unpin to Start does work. The Start Menu changes within a few second of the action. It works a few times and then quits again. But I haven't yet discovered a pattern or predictably recreate. It's beginning to smell of a bug.

Bruce.