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
    2010-12-09T22:36:29+00:00

    I think maybe I have an answer for you. I have an Excel spreadsheet that I open almost daily, and I want to be able to open it directly from my Start Menu. Try this: Open Explorer and right-click on the file, drag it down to the Start Menu until you see the msg "Pin to Start menu", then release the mouse. The file should then be in your Start Menu.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-11-21T13:49:09+00:00

    Thanks Ronnie. Your solution worked for me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-11-20T01:16:04+00:00

    Thanks for the ideas Dave but nothing really works good in Win7 like the XP start menu for shortcuts to files and folders stored on the network server. I really do not want to deal with extra folders opening that I need to close. Looks like Win7 is a step backwards in productivity for us. Other companies must not store their data bases and template files on the network servers as I can find no easy way to have quick access to these files from Win7. The task bar idea kind of works but it is hoakie compared to XP start menu. I think I will try the Classic Shell Hack to get a classic start menu in Win7 and if that does not work then will just wipe Win7 from the computer and install XP pro and hope that someday before we need to replace more computers that MS comes up with a solution that makes some sense and works. I think 1st I will do some searching on the internet to see if anyone makes a program that can make a folder expand or show the contents of the folder by just mousing over it as that would solve the problem and be a workable solution. Wow do I miss the ease of just right clicking on the start button and exploring the start menu and copying shortcuts to that folder, hopefully someone at MS can add this back into the next build or SP. Searching the internet looks like there are other frustrated people out there, why else would someone spend the time to create software to restore the classic menu.

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