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
    2009-12-11T17:11:27+00:00

    The solution works, but does anybody know why Microsoft decided it was too dangerous for the Administrative login to right click "Programs" -> "Open all users" then browse to the folder you want and create a shortcut in there? 

    Example:

    Sysinternals Suite is simply a ZIP file with all the help files and executables.  If you manually add these to your system by the "Send to Desktop" you want to just kick yourself for wasting your time with all the dragging, clicking, renaming, and messing around.  In a lot of ways I feel Windows 7 gave up on the Start Menu - Programs section.  In two years on most computers that whole section will probably become an absolute mess on the average computer since nothing was done to make it easier to improve managing it.  I guess we just have to type or pin everything into the Search.

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-12-06T08:52:34+00:00

    Thanks! Works if I open the relevant program folder in Explorer.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-12-05T08:29:35+00:00

    I have a couple of PDF files with manuals and tutorials of certain programs. Tried to open Start Menu in Explorer and add shortcuts with ALT+left-mouse-drag, to no avail. It is also not possible to create shortcuts in the Programs folder and subfolders, although I can copy and delete files.

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