How do I add shortcuts above the start button?

iamc3k · 12 Jan 2017

Folks,

I'm now running 4 machines with Win10/64. I used a guide to personalize 3 of them...and have now lost it.

When I press the start button (the 4 panel windows icon in the lower left corner), the default behavior is that four icons open up: power, settings, file explorer, and a symbol for the computer user. Also a larger pane opens to the right with all the most used software and then an alphabetical listing. As well, the tiles are visible.

I'd like to add shortcuts to downloads and other folders to the list which has power, settings, file explorer and my computer icon. I've done it on 3 machines, but forgotten how.

(Any pointers on correcting my terminology would be appreciated.

)

How do I do that?

Thanks,
Ken

philc43 · 12 Jan 2017

Try the following page in Settings -> Personalisation and select Start and go to "Choose which folders appear on Start":

How do I add shortcuts above the start button?-2017-01-12.png

iamc3k · 12 Jan 2017

Perfect!!!

Thank you.

SpacemanSam · 08 Nov 2019

Is there a registry edit or anything else that can be run from a batch file to do this?

AndreTen · 08 Nov 2019

Check this reg Key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Start

Could be you'll have to add keys to prevent items to show:

"AllowPinnedFolderDocuments"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderDocuments_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderDownloads"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderDownloads_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderFileExplorer"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderFileExplorer_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderMusic"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderMusic_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderNetwork"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderNetwork_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPersonalFolder"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPersonalFolder_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPictures"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPictures_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderSettings"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderSettings_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderVideos"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderVideos_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001

Legend:

_ProviderSet"=dword:00000000 == Allows User Toggle
_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001 == Blocks User Toggle
"AllowPinnedFolderXXXXXXXXXXXX"=dword:00000001 == Show
"AllowPinnedFolderXXXXXXXXXXXX"=dword:00000000 == Hide

More in this thread on Github : Choose which folders appear on Start #199

SpacemanSam · 12 Nov 2019

AndreTen said:

Check this reg Key:

Could be you'll have to add keys to prevent items to show:

Legend:

_ProviderSet"=dword:00000000 == Allows User Toggle
_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001 == Blocks User Toggle
"AllowPinnedFolderXXXXXXXXXXXX"=dword:00000001 == Show
"AllowPinnedFolderXXXXXXXXXXXX"=dword:00000000 == Hide

More in this thread on Github : Choose which folders appear on Start #199

Thanks for the Github link. The code you quoted wasn't what I needed, but another post on that page was. The powershell script on that page did what I was looking to do.

AndreTen · 13 Nov 2019

SpacemanSam said:

Thanks for the Github link. The code you quoted wasn't what I needed, but another post on that page was. The powershell script on that page did what I was looking to do.

Glad it worked for you