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Where'd they hide the Start Menu links? 1

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JimHorton

JimHorton

Programmer
Jan 29, 2000
991
US
I used to be able to easily add shortcuts to the startbar by simply dragging them to Documents and Settings\someuser\blah\blah\startmenu

I do that now--and the link is there in the folder, but not on the startbar. And none of the things that *are* on the start bar are in that folder--the link I drag there is all alone. I have none of the 'hidden' settings checked--all files, even 'protected os' files are showing. I searched the registry for the startbar list as well but couldn't find it. Where did they hide it?
-Jim
 
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Make sure you have enabled "dragging and dropping" in the right-click Start(button)/ Properties/ Start Menu/ Customize.
 
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Is it Quick Launch of the Start Menu you want to drag the files to ?

Quick launch resides under

C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

 
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sorry to barge in, but does any body know the registry key to turn on/off quick launch. Also lock the taskbar ? (though I think I have found that one)

Cheers,

J
 
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linney
Yes, dragging/dropping is enabled, but I'm dragging from within Windows Explorer, not from, say, the 'All Programs' menu to the start bar.
cadaveca
Do you know the key name...or at least the parent hive where I would look? I already did a search on the registry for several of the link names and nothing came up. I purposefully made a unique name that could not be existing elsewhere in the system so that this link name would pop up in a search. Neither a file search (with show all hidden/system) found this file, nor a file search with 'containing' showed any files. A full registry search showed only the 'recent search' for this value.

mmv
I thought yours was right, and it seems to be *partly* right. *Some* of the items on my start button are in that Quick Launch, but only 3 of about 15 that I have on the start bar--I also checked in 'All Users', 'Default User', and all other users' quick launch as well--and these files aren't there

What's interesting and confusing is that if I *move* one of these files from QuickLaunch to *any* directory, it stays on the startbar! Even if I rename it in the new directory (I even put one on a separate hardrive)--the new name now shows on the startbar?!?

The real crux now is: How does Windows XP know that some .lnk file *anywhere* on the system is to be shown on the startbar? There is some internal pointer but I can't find it. BUT...I did find on the short cuts that are on the startmenu a setting Unpin from Start Menu, but I can't find a Pin to startmenu.
Thanks for any further help...
jim

 
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The Task bar has five areas:
. Start Button
. Quick Launch, if enabled
. Task Tray
. Area for user defined Taskbars
. Task Tray Notification area

Only #2, #3, and possibly #4 offer any drag and drop features.

What you are describing sounds more like #5, and this is controlled by the startup program entries in either the Start Up folder for username or through the RUN keys in the registry. Use MSCONFIG, Startup tab to look at your startup entries that are registry related.

 
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bcastner
Thanks for that. I looked in the msconfig, and the registry-related stuff there is some Symantic stuff, IBM Client Access stuff, and other explainable items.

The Startmenu is where it all *used* to be. I have 2 Win98 machines, a Win2k server, and 2 XPPro machines. On all my non-xp machines, what goes on the startbar (by StartBar I'm referring to the vertical bar that pops up when you hit the Start button--not the taskbar) these items are in the Start Menu folder of the Docs&Settings\user (in win98, that could be in either Windows\Profiles\user, or just Windows\StartMenu.

But XP is doing something different--as I said, I looked in the start menu of every user, including 'all users' and 'default', and they just arent there. I even went to the step of renaming one of these items to a strange name, then searching for it. I found it--but it was in it's original program's folder--the only evidence that it is on the startbar is the 'Unpin from Start Menu' item in the right-click menu of the link file. That's fine--to Unpin--but how do I take some new file and Pin it?
--Jim
 
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...and I know I can drag an item from the desktop or other Startmenu location--on the All Programs menu tree and have it appear on the startbar---but I'm looking for the system-level info on this, ie: where is the fact that an item should show on the start menu kept.
--Jim
 
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The question you are asking is decidedly murky for me. I have not seen much documentation on the MRU feature of XP, which is what this feature of the Start Menu is tied to. This link a little while ago is a discussion that may shed some light.

thread779-645467
 
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...but this is not the MRU feature--Those links go above the start button but below that first line on the startbar. Above that line are the shortcuts that stay there. Ie, when you install MS Office, this is where they put the 'Open Office Document' (does anyone *ever* use that one?).

I typically put my most common shortcuts there, since I normally have many windows open at one time, and I don't like to do the 'minimize all' or 'show destop' to get to desktop shortcuts--and I very much loath having to navigate the All Programs, etc, etc, which can get very deep and extend to the right edge of the screen, then backtrack to the left side if the install program made a very deep shortcut.
--Jim
 
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You are confusing me tool.

Taking just the left panel of the Start Menu:

Entries below the line are MRU. They can be right-clicked an "pinned" and then go above the line as pinned items.

Entries pinned can be unpinned.

I thought your question was essentially how to get items below the line in the left panel. This is where it gets murky as it is decided by XP as part of its MRU feature.
 
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Sorry, I know it's confusing. What I'm asking is:
How can I open Windows Explorer.
Navigate to, say, C:\Program Files\SomeProgram\Someprogram.lnk

Then take SomeProgram.lnk, still from withing Windows Explorer, and drag it to the Docs&Settings\user\StartMenu Folder?

I tried exactly that and the thing doesn't show up. Also, the other links that are *on the startbar, above the MRU line* are not visible in this folder.

I guess it's become more of an acedemic issue--since I know I can open the program, then see it below the mru line, then pin it to the 'above' area. But the point is that this used to be done via simply having the .lnk file physically exist in the STartMenu folder. That's obviously changed, I'm just wondering where, physically, the system-level information exists that says "This .lnk file should show up on the startbar" When I right click on the itme *while it's in the startbar* I can see the 'remove from list' or *from Windows Explore* I can see 'Unpin from start menu'

I appreciate all your help, and if it's just one of those MS undocumented secrets that we'll someday read about in the bowels of a PC mag article, then I can deal with that.

Just before I sent... I found something. On the Target executable...that is where 80% of what I'm looking for is. I can right-click on the .exe and see 'Pin to start menu'.

This sort of solves the problem. the remaining 20%, and what my real need is, where is this stored? What I really am doing is:
I have, say, 15 shortcuts in *my* users start menu. I have 4 other users that I want to give some, but not all, of those 15 items to.

In the past, I'd go to my docs&settings\startmenu folder, then ctrl-Select say, 8 of those, then drag them to say, User1's Startmenu folder. Then when they log on, they see those 8 items. Now, they don't. The .lnk files exist in the startmenu folder of their user, but they are *not* on the startmenu (startbar).
If you can tell me that, that would be great, otherwise I'm most of the way there, and thanks again,
--Jim
 
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freestone,
I looked in that mskb article after I sent, and saw that that explained about the 'pin to start menu' thing, so a star for that,
--Jim
 
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1. In Win2000 you can drag and drop a file to the Start Menu/Button and a shortcut *on* the Start Menu would automatically be created.

In XP, when you drag and drop a file to the Start Menu/Button it creates a copy of the program file, *not a shortcut*.

2. In Win2000 if you created a shortcut, then moved it to C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Start Menu) that shortcut would show up *on* the Start Menu.

In XP that shortcut shows up under Start, All Programs. Big difference! If you want that shortcut to appear on the Start Menu, you have to right click the shortcut in Windows Explorer, and choose &quot;pin to Start Menu&quot;. However, you now have a shortcut on the Start Menu *and* under All Programs ... which is redundant. And if you delete the shortcut from the All Programs menu, you create an orphaned/broken shortcut on the Start Menu.

The only way to create a shortcut directly on the Start Menu is to first create the shortcut elsewhere, like in Windows Explorer, then copy it to the Start Menu... a shortcut for a shortcut!

Or revert to the &quot;Classic&quot; start menu.

(From various web discussions)
 
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In short, drag and drop on top of the Start button and not to a user folder.

 
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I'd like help with this one too. I don't think the original question was ever answered. The question was, when a user selects &quot;Pin to Start Menu&quot; and an application appears on the Start Menu above the Most Recently Used (MRU) application list (and below the username), what does XP actually do? Does it create a shortcut and put it into a folder somewhere, or does it store that info in the registry?

I have an issue where I have pinned applications to my Start Menu, but for some reason the Administrator on my machine has disabled right-click on the Start Menu, so I have no way of removing the application (I can't right-click and delete it). I've even changed the name of the folder where the application resides, but for some reason XP is able to find the application anyway (strange). So it is stuck and I don't want it there. Any ideas?
 
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Sure does not sound like the original question!

The Start Menu contents are encrypted. The pinned item list is here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage\Favorites
 
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