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

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
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.

Was this answer helpful?

40+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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

Was this answer helpful?

30+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

89 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-12T02:37:10+00:00

    In the search cmd line type shell:startup

    then drag n drop file

    Your Outlook will automatically start when PC is turned on

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

  3. Anonymous
    2015-03-13T17:41:31+00:00

    Home users will have to use the cacls command, user of Pro or higher can right click and set security permissions with the GUI by right-clicking on the item, getting properties, and adjusting the permissions on the "security" tab.

    If all users should be able to access the file, add read permission to the authenticated users group.

    please give example syntax. also when I looked at cacls, it said it was superceded by icacls. the syntax looks useless or impossible to me - I have no idea how to use it, I am not a security buff.

    help appreciated on this for me and probably for the other person too.

    and how do you acquire the account name? I assume it's found in the file properties (rt-click, properties) under the Security tab. using a format like computername\username yes?

    The account name is the username the user in question uses to log in. You can find a list by going to start, typing "cmd" and entering in "net users". Add a pipe | followed by the word more if it scrolls off-screen.

    You can also find a list of users by going to control panel->user accounts and family safety ->user accounts->manage another account

    However, it might show a display name instead of the user account name unless you click on the account itself.

    I quite agree that the help from cacls /? and the official Microsoft page is neigh incomprehensible. I even hold an MCSA and MCDST certification and found them difficult to decipher, and made some errors learning to use them, and I am NO stranger to the command line (having started with MS-DOS 3.30 back in 1990) or to NTFS permissions via the GUI in 2000 and XP pro.

    Unfortunately, the link to the decent tutorial I found is broken, so I can't take the easy way out.

    The command to use to allow all authorized users to access a file is

    cacls FILENAME.EXT /e /g "authenticated users":F

    To allow everyone, even guests accessing a share from another computer, try

    cacls FILENAME.EXE /e /g everyone:F

    to allow a specific user or group

    cacls FILENAME.EXE /e /g USERNAME:F

    You can affect the read, write, or change permissions by changing the F at the end to the following:

    R  Read

    W  Write

    C  Change (write)

    F  Full control

    Also note that FILENAME.EXE should be changed to the filename and extension that you are actually trying to edit. MS-DOS wildcards work, but be careful using wildcards, as you can accidentally alter something you shouldn't.

    To take away a permission, change the /g to /r.

    In general, you should always use the /e, or you can seriously screw things up. I can't think of any time I have NOT used the /E and not caused a problem. Maybe somebody more knowledgeable about cacls can give some examples of scenarios when the /e is not needed.

    I find the explanation for icacls even more cryptic, and would appreciate somebody giving me a link to a good tutorial. The Microsoft page is no different from the screen shown by icacls /?, and it is worse than some of the "help" pages in MS-DOS 3.30 (they really cleaned up the /? help pages in MS-DOS 6.22).

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments