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

Anonymous

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?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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.

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

0 comments

89 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-01-04T16:45:17+00:00

Of course its a waste of time! Do they care? NO THEY DO NOT.

I've never owned a mac -- never wanted to. Work on one at work. NO FLIPPING PROBLEMS, ok??

We need to STOP buying Windows products, period.

My next laptop will be a macbook -- yes, you've finally, FINALLY sent me to the other side, Microsoft. Damn good job well done.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2014-01-04T16:43:00+00:00

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

Microsoft and Windows and Dell and all you others need to stop treating us like we're morons. I've been working on computers since 1986. We bought the computers, we OWN them and you don't anymore. We want to change things -- we should be allowed to without your useless interference making things WORSE.

Yes, Windows and MS have made things worse!
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2013-10-29T20:16:58+00:00

The part that you seem to be skipping over is the ability to Right-Click "New" > "Shortcut" once you are in the "Open All Users" "Start Menu" area. The only "New" option is "Folder."

So you end up creating all your shortcuts on your Desktop (because creating a shortcut on the desktop is allowed) and then dragging them over to your Start Menu. Once you have them all dragged over, then you can finally start organizing them the way you want them. Doesn't that seem like a waste of time to you?

Of course the Pinning to Start Menu or Taskbar even makes me more annoyed given it isn't a shortcut at all and becomes some binary data in the registry. Try managing those with Group Policies!
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments