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EXE files and Start menu
Is there any way I can put an .exe file on the Start menu? I know I can put a link to it on the desktop but that has too many icons on it already.
Thank you.
Is there any way I can put an .exe file on the Start menu? I know I can put a link to it on the desktop but that has too many icons on it already.
Thank you.
Nice try :-(
Unfortunately, Windows 10 displays massive problems with .exe-files within the start menu. Neither searching for them nor pinning them to the start menu work.
Just have a look in those threads:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...7-6c3339465037
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...5-ebfeadf0d82e
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...d-131dd2e15981
Can't search for .exe files in start menu? : Windows10
Regards
This true, especially if you have a lot of items in your start menu list. If you have more than 512, anything missing is not searchable and is not pinnable despite effort to pin it to start. I hope in the next build, this issue is fixed. I am not sure if insiders are able to share information on this, but would be great if this is fixed in their test builds.
You can only put shortcuts on the menu.
Ztruker's suggestion should work fine.
Here's a tip (unrelated to the issue):
Create a new folder on your desktop named dtIcons (any name will do),
then drag all of the icons on your Desktop to that folder.
Once you have the icons in the folder, you can leave it on your desktop (moving any new icons to that folder as they are created ) - you'll have to open the folder to access the icons of course
-- OR --
move the folder (as long as the file name chosen does not already exist in the location - rename it if necessary) off of your desktop to your User folder (any location you choose)
then create a new toolbar on your Taskbar and point that to the folder holding your icons.
this gives you a drop down menu of your icons that were cluttering up your Desktop.
You can manually add shortcuts to the menu list (left hand pane).
There are some considerations if you manually added the item to either All users menu > All apps or your personal menu > All apps. Win8 / Win10 menu keeps track of items on the menu. The easiest way to tell Windows that a new item is placed there is to create a shortcut anywhere BUT All apps and copy that shortcut to All apps.
You can also use PowerShell to 'touch' the object.
The PowerShell cmdlet below uses the non-existent contoso.lnk as an example.
If your shortcut is in your personal menu, you will have to change the environment variable
from
$env:programdata
to
$env:appdata
AND
Change the file name of the shortcut from contoso.lnk to the file name of the shortcut you want to update
(ls "$env:programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\contoso.lnk").lastwritetime = get-date
It really is easier to just create a new shortcut and copy it to the menu you want.
There are a few instances where people have disabled UAC and that causes more headaches than it's worth. Set UAC to the default if it has been changed.
Search and Indexing are tightly tied together - if you've modified your index locations, you'll need to revisit your settings. Make sure Start is included as a location in the index.
If the object is not in an indexed location - Search might not find it.
Search from Explorer will find it regardless of the index status.
Search for file names (Q1 report) or extensions xls
If you search for Q1 report.xls - your results will not be what you expect.
Lastly try this
Press the WinKey [ ] on your keyboard and start typing our search query
The input box doesn't appear until you type the first character and the results are filtered as you type.
Or in a few words, anything you put on the Start menu or Taskbar or Desktop will still add an icon to be clicked on. The only other way I can think of is to create a Folder on the Desktop then start moving icons/shortcuts into it to lessen the clutter. I've done that on several computers, only have to open the Folder and choose the program.