How can I add shortcuts to the Windows 7 start menu?

Anonymous
2009-12-04T17:08:01+00:00

For some reason, it is impossible to add any new shortcuts to the start menu in Windows 7. I always get a message 'Windows can't create a shortcut here. Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead?' I tried to select 'Show hidden files, folders, and drives' in the Folders and search options > View and to get to the start menu from ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu but this does not help.

How do you manually add a shortcut to the start menu?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2009-12-05T08:37:45+00:00

Right click on the file and select Send to Desktop (create shortcut) and then drag the shortcut on the desktop to the Start menu.

You should not create shortcuts or change any files in the Programs area unless you are troubleshooting.

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Anonymous
2010-07-04T23:18:49+00:00

Sorry ... I don't accept that the "Pin to start menu" option is a substitute for being able to manually add a shortcut to the start menu.  Being able to pin something is useful, but it doesn't cover many of the use cases for manually adding something.  First, when you pin something, it will always appear in the same place.  So there's no way to "pin" something into your Accessories\System Tools folder.  Second, there is no way to "pin" something into the All Users start menu.  If you have 5 people who need to access a program (like a family where 1 is typically the admin) then you have to login as each and pin it separately.  Or am I supposed to just tell my 7-yr-old daughter to go hunt down the EXE for the app I installed and pin it herself?

I completely appreciate why Microsoft wants to keep average users from messing with their start menu.  But there should be a way to disable this protection on a per-user basis or at least relegate it to a warning that you can only override as an admin user.  It's kind of silly to have the only solution as "copy it to your desktop then copy it to the folder where you want it".  That makes just as much sense as having to copy/paste everything through Notepad when you want formatting stripped off.

Hi

Organizing the folders and files in the Start/All Programs section is not a mystery and is fully supported.

There are 2 locations where the All Programs folders are kept.

Click Start, right click All Programs and select either Open or Open All Users.

Open is where all of the folders and files are kept that appear only in the logged on users all programs folders.

Open all users is where the programs that appear in every users all programs folders are located.

Usually, the only programs that are in an individual users folder is if that user is an administrator and they installed a program and selected to not make that program available to other users on the computer.

Once you go to that location in Windows Explorer for these folders and files, you can organize them any way you wish, just as you would any other folders.

Hope this helps.

Thank You for using Windows 7

Ronnie Vernon MVP

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-03-04T01:00:46+00:00

    Err, I  believe that you want to use one of these instead of "C:\Users\what you named your computer\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" :

    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

    C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

    or if for a specific user

    C:\users\what you named your user account\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

    Use the last one if you only want the program to start for a specific user.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-03-02T17:20:14+00:00

    NVM, I took the thread to mean the 'startup' folder in the Start Menu.  Deleted reply.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-09-13T19:12:47+00:00

    Also when you open the all users start menu folder as you have described you can not add new shortcuts to it. You can only add new folders. This is unacceptable behavior. As the administrator I should be able to add a program to the all users start menu if I need to.

    Hi

    I think you mean that you cannot "create" new shortcuts in the All Users/Start Menu/Programs folder. But you can certainly "add" new shortcuts in that location.

    You use the existing shortcut for a program or create a shortcut in a different location. Right click the shortcut and select Copy. Go to the All Users/Start Menu/Programs folder and Right Click/Paste the shortcut.

    There are a few open source programs that I need to add to our systems that are just executables and not windows installation programs. Why you ask? Because these open source programs work really well, are free and customers can't be convinced to pay hundreds of dollars when they can get it for free. And oh, they work.

    I'm not sure what this has to do with the subject in this thread?

    If you mean that these programs are not added to the Start Menu, because they do not use an installation routine, you can create a shortcut to the executable, rename it to to whatever you wish, and then Copy/Paste it anywhere you wish.

    I also use many open source programs.

    Regards

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