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

I would like to remove Contact Support, Cortana, Microsoft Edge, and Windows Feedback from the All Apps menu. Is it possible to do this?

Thank you Brink for your tutorial.

I reworked my "All Apps Start Menu" using your option three, I found the following few do's and dont's after a few false starts.

1 Empty folders created in the Programs folder will not show in the "All Apps in Start Menu" until at least one shortcut is added to the new folder.

2 Shortcut names must not contain the ".exe" extension as this is ignored by Windows and will not show in the "All Apps Start Menu".

3 Move shortcuts by cutting and pasting not copy and paste

4 Some shortcuts do not work when moved to a new location, to overcome this, open the folder that the shortcut is pointing to and right click the App and select "Create shortcut", this will create a new shortcut on the "Desktop", rename the new shortcut to remove the ".exe" extension, delete the non working shortcut and cut the new shortcut and paste into the relevant start menus folder.

5 I found that sub-folders are transparent in the "All Apps in Start Menu" which shows the contents of the sub-folder but not the sub-folder itself.

This what I found when re-arranging my Windows 10 "All Apps in Start Menu".

Anleck said:

After prodding some cache files and registry entries without success I came arcoss this topic in the forum.

Basically I made a temporary User account from my normal account. Used this (>) to enable the Administator account, also from my normal account.

Sign into temp account.

Make sure both User accounts (normal and the new temp one) are signed out.

Sign into the Administrator account and enable hidden folders.

Backup/rename the TileDataLayer folder in 'C:\Users\[user profile name]\AppData\Local' of my normal account. Then copy the TileDataLayer folder from the temp account to my normal account.

Logout of the Admin account and into my normal account and check the start/all apps menus (which did reset back to default for me).

Remove the temp account.

Disable the Admin account.


NOTES: On the first attempt I had not signed out of one or both of the user accounts and was informed that not all the files in the TileDataLayer folder could be copied as they were in use. Carried on and merged with a backup copy. This half worked (empty start/all apps menus (only power and all apps entries)).

Upon the successful attempt the start menu was returned to default. All apps menu was fine and contained my installed apps folders and shortcuts, it also now contained entries for my portable apps that had no entries before ((including Grid ) but had been pinned to start)). EDIT: portable apps I had not pinned to start have no entries - obvious I guess.

Tested with a throw away text file and the weirdness is still present so now to be sure/carefull about what I pin to start.

Whilst I can't promise this will work for others, hopefully it will help some.

Anleck you are the man! I have been bothered by this Windows 10 bug for several hours until I saw your message. You are right. Indeed this problem only happens if the shortcut is created onto Start Menu first. We must create the shortcut elsewhere, outside Program Files (which will put the shortcut directly onto Start), and outside the All App folder. For example, we better create the shortcut in a temp folder, then move the shortcut into the All App folder.

For the programs that are already registered by Windows 10 on the tile view, it will always show up on the tile view no matter how we change the shortcut. I finally found an easier get around. Using Autoruns.exe as an example, I renamed it to "Autoruns2.exe" then create a shortcut in the temp folder (outside Program Files). Then move this shortcut to the All App list. This finally allows me to see Autoruns on the All App list.

Thanks again Anleck. I just registered on this forum to say thank you and to share another get around

Thanks for trying to help, Brink.
Then, if it is not possible to separate the programs, this menu is completely useless. In that case, what would you recommend to replace it, please?

Neophile said:

........
Then, if it is not possible to separate the programs, this menu is completely useless.........

Amen, Neophile. I have a couple early posts in this thread and came to the same conclusion.

Try Classic Shell. Free. It sure beats the daylights out of what Redmond decided we would like. I have mine set up to look pretty much like W7. And if you like to use tiles for a few items it allows you to switch back and forth at will.

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements