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Start menu "pinned" items --- where are files kept?

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sweetcow

Technical User
Oct 20, 2008
28
US
My start menu's "pinned" shortcut items got wiped somehow. (See image attachment for clarification of what I mean by "pinned" items).

I have a backup, so I should be able to restore them. The problem is I don't know where the files for the pinned items are stored. I know the Start Menu programs are just in the Local Settings\Start Menu folder, these items don't seem to be included there.

Does anyone know? thank you!
 
Pinned Items are kept in the Registry in Binary Format. If you saved a copy of the registry you may be able to import that key back to get the pinned items back.

Have a read here:



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
Can you manually replace these pinned shortcuts? What about System Restore?

"A program (.exe file) or a shortcut to a program can be "pinned" to the Start menu by right-clicking the item and clicking Pin to Start Menu. Any other item can be added to the pinned list by dragging and dropping it to the Start button or the Start menu. An item can be removed from this list by right-clicking it and clicking Unpin from Start Menu or Remove from This List. The order of the items in this list can be arranged by dragging and dropping them to the preferred position".

Description of the Start Menu in Windows XP
 
If you have to go to the trouble of editing the registry and everything, I'll probably just manually recreate it. Was
hoping to avoid, but it's really not actually THAT much work. I'm just lazy.

Thanks for your help everyone!
 
Microsoft has jumped backward through hoops to prevent any tool from putting it's shortcut in the Startmenu Pinned-list. That's why it's not documented and very very hard to achieve. It is very easy for an end-user to put a shortcut there, by right-clicking on the item and select something like 'Connect to Startmenu' (don't have an English windows here for the correct words), or by dragging it in the right place.
This is to avoid all installers to put their shortcuts there, just like they all forcibly put their shortcuts in the Quick Launch Bar :-( With the worst offender being Outlook 2003, that recreates it's QLB-shortcut on every start...

In short: You are unable ( / discouraged) to put any shortcuts on the Pinned-list, other then dragging or pushing them there by using the mouse.

HTH
TonHu
 
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