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Start Menu - Registry - Hide some folders

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Friday, August 7, 2015 1:03 PM | 1 vote

Hello,

Via Start / Settings / Personalization / Start / Choose which folders appear on Start, we can choose to show or hide some folders (ex: to show or hide File Explorer, Settings, etc...).

I would like to know if we can do the same via the registry (regedit) and if yes, where are stored the keys...

If not, where is stored this information ?

Thanks in adavnce,

Pierre

All replies (22)

Saturday, August 8, 2015 8:38 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote

Hi Pierre,

There is no registry would work to customize the start layout.

The below is the MSDN article talking about how the start layout works:

Start layout for Windows 10 desktop editions

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/mt171092%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

The actual files are stored in the following path:

C:\Windows\ImmersiveControlPanel

If you would like to customize the start sreen, then please check:

Customize the Windows 10 Start screen

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/mt170651(v=vs.85).aspx

Regards

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].

Monday, August 10, 2015 5:31 PM | 1 vote

Thanks for the quick anser.

Seems that with the links your provided, I was able to customize a part of the Start Menu... but not all.

Here are my steps:

1- unpin everything in the Start Menu to empty it completely.

2- Go to: Start / Settings / Personalization / Start / Choose which folders appear on Start

3- disable everything (so except All apps, Power and the username, I have absolutely nothing else in the Start Menu)

4- resize the Start Menu to remove all colums

5- in a Powershell (as admin), do an Export-StartLayout -path c:\StartCustom.xml

6- in GPEDIT.MSC, make sure to point User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Start Menu and Taskbar / Start Layout to c:\StartCustom.xml

The result is that if I apply this GPO to another user, I obtain:

1- Start Menu have no pinned icons (great!)

2- The size of the Start Menu isn't the same (resize is not applied). That's bad...

3- Choose which folders appear on Start is not applied.

So for 2 and 3, I don't know to apply my modifications to another user (GPO related...)

Thanks again !

Monday, August 10, 2015 5:33 PM | 1 vote

For your info, here is a copy of my LayoutModification.xml:

<LayoutModificationTemplate Version="1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification">
  <DefaultLayoutOverride>
    <StartLayoutCollection>
      <defaultlayout:StartLayout GroupCellWidth="6" xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout" />
    </StartLayoutCollection>
  </DefaultLayoutOverride>
</LayoutModificationTemplate>

Monday, August 24, 2015 5:36 PM | 1 vote

Someone ? Thanks !

Monday, August 31, 2015 6:26 AM | 1 vote

Hi Pierre,

Apologize for the late reply.

The GPO way is described in the following link:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/398b696c-0c43-40c7-8420-f7f61c4de734/forum-faqhow-to-customize-start-menu-in-windows-10-technical-preview?forum=WinPreview2014General

Regarding why it not working as expected, I think it should be the settings changed in Windows 10.

Regards

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected].

Monday, December 12, 2016 2:48 PM | 1 vote

No one yet seems to be able to answer the question though... How do you customise 500 PCs so that you did not have to walk around and set "Choose which folders appear on Start" for each user that logs on to each PC????

Anthony Sheehy - MCP, MCITP

Monday, January 23, 2017 1:09 PM | 3 votes

No one yet seems to be able to answer the question though... How do you customise 500 PCs so that you did not have to walk around and set "Choose which folders appear on Start" for each user that logs on to each PC????

Anthony Sheehy - MCP, MCITP

I'm having the same problem. It seems people just constantly quote Microsoft's Export-StartLayout cmdlet and aren't actually reading the question. 

We are looking for a way to customize the options found here: Start / Settings / Personalization / Start / Choose which folders appear on Start.

These settings have nothing to do with the StartLayout. 

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 

Wednesday, February 8, 2017 10:49 PM

Hi,

You can change size of start menu by adding 

StartTileGroupsColumnCount="1"

in **LayoutModification.xml **so it will have just one column.  

It should look like this: 

<LayoutModificationTemplate
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification"
    xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout"
    xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout"
    xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout"
    Version="1">
    
  <LayoutOptions StartTileGroupCellWidth="6" StartTileGroupsColumnCount="1" />
  <DefaultLayoutOverride>
    <StartLayoutCollection>
      <defaultlayout:StartLayout GroupCellWidth="6" xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout">
        <start:Group Name="Info" xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout">
          <start:Tile Size="4x2" Column="0" Row="0" AppUserModelID="Microsoft.BingWeather_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" />
          <start:Tile Size="4x2" Column="0" Row="2" AppUserModelID="microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe!microsoft.windowslive.mail" />
          <start:Tile Size="2x2" Column="4" Row="2" AppUserModelID="microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe!microsoft.windowslive.calendar" />
          <start:Tile Size="2x2" Column="4" Row="0" AppUserModelID="Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" />
        </start:Group>

Regards

Thursday, February 9, 2017 4:49 PM | 1 vote

Sorry. That has absolutely nothing to do with the original question, which has yet to be answered.

Anthony Sheehy - MCP, MCITP

Friday, May 5, 2017 8:44 PM | 2 votes

After doing some poking around and several registry compares, the key to change I found is this ... HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current\Data

I configured the folders that I wanted to show on a reference computer, then captured that key. I am using a batch file to add (modify) the key for new users, restart the explorer process so the changes take immediate effect and then the batch file deletes itself. I just started doing this, but it seems to be working fine, I just wanted to post this now before I forgot.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017 8:16 PM

How does one do this when they do not have anything under CloudStore in that string for the registry?  We use domain joined machines only and not microsoft accounts, is that the difference?

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 2:09 PM

I just tried to run this on my Anniversary Update Machine and it does not seem to work. I was able to get it to work on the Creators Update which is what I am currently deploying. My machines are domain joined WITHOUT Microsoft accounts.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 8:33 PM

Chris,

Which way were you referring to having it work in Creator's Update?  The one I mentioned ( the registry settings)? I'd like to know if I should scour the GPO settings for 1511 vs 1607 vs 1703 if you mean via GPO somehow.

Please advise.

Thank you!

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 8:48 PM | 1 vote

I have a GPO that copies a file (StartMenu.cmd) to the default user startup folder. (C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) The contents for the folders are ...

REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current /v Data /t REG_BINARY /d 0200000082d22761a8c5d2010000000043420100cb320a06058691cc930524aaa30144c38401669ff79db187cbd1acd4010005afe69e9b0e24de930244d5860166bf9d879bbf8fc6d4370005bcc9a8a401248cac034489850166a081bacbbdd7a8a482010005ceabd3e90224daf40344c38a016682e58bb1aefdfdbb3c0005a08ffcc103248ad0034480990166b0b599dccdb097de4d0005c482d6f30f248d1044ae8501668bb5d3e9fed2edb1940100c23c0100 /F

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

I also pin programs to the taskbar in the same file, but I left those out for the sake of this thread. By doing this, every new user that logs in gets the pins and the folders I selected on the start menu.

If you want to force existing users to have the same start up folders, you could change the GPO to reflect the user that is logged in. We only set the parameters for this one time and allow the users to change as they see fit.

**NOTE: If you use the exact command above, you get Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Network, File Explorer and Settings.

Thursday, May 11, 2017 2:09 PM

Thanks Chris!

I am looking to only add file explorer to everyone's start.  Obviously I'd want to keep the settings and the power icons as well.

Can you tell me what sections are or aren't these?

Thank you.

Thursday, May 11, 2017 2:19 PM

What I did was on a test system, I set the icons that I wanted through the GUI ( in your case just add file explorer since settings is standard) and then went into regedit and exported that registry key. You then can remove the commas and slashes in the data and copy that data into the reg add command I have given previously.

Thursday, August 3, 2017 12:06 PM

I have a GPO that copies a file (StartMenu.cmd) to the default user startup folder. (C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) The contents for the folders are ...

REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current /v Data /t REG_BINARY /d 0200000082d22761a8c5d2010000000043420100cb320a06058691cc930524aaa30144c38401669ff79db187cbd1acd4010005afe69e9b0e24de930244d5860166bf9d879bbf8fc6d4370005bcc9a8a401248cac034489850166a081bacbbdd7a8a482010005ceabd3e90224daf40344c38a016682e58bb1aefdfdbb3c0005a08ffcc103248ad0034480990166b0b599dccdb097de4d0005c482d6f30f248d1044ae8501668bb5d3e9fed2edb1940100c23c0100 /F

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

I also pin programs to the taskbar in the same file, but I left those out for the sake of this thread. By doing this, every new user that logs in gets the pins and the folders I selected on the start menu.

If you want to force existing users to have the same start up folders, you could change the GPO to reflect the user that is logged in. We only set the parameters for this one time and allow the users to change as they see fit.

**NOTE: If you use the exact command above, you get Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Network, File Explorer and Settings.

thanks. got the same problem.

why don't you simply add the registry changes to default user registry hive? (NTUSER.DAT)

should make things simpler & easier without needing taskkill explorer and reopen it. gonna try it

Thursday, May 17, 2018 6:37 PM

I've added my customized Start Menu Folders as a task sequence in MDT.

First go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\ and export the whole Key. You should have something like this (keep in mind my data will be different based on folder selections in the current\data key. 

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\DefaultUser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\DefaultUser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current]
"Data"=hex:02,00,00,00,39,83,fc,8d,4f,db,d3,01,00,00,00,00,43,42,01,00,cb,32,\
  0a,05,05,86,91,cc,93,05,24,aa,a3,01,44,c3,84,01,66,9f,f7,9d,b1,87,cb,d1,ac,\
  d4,01,00,05,bc,c9,a8,a4,01,24,8c,ac,03,44,89,85,01,66,a0,81,ba,cb,bd,d7,a8,\
  a4,82,01,00,05,af,e6,9e,9b,0e,24,de,93,02,44,d5,86,01,66,bf,9d,87,9b,bf,8f,\
  c6,d4,37,00,05,ca,e0,f6,a5,07,24,ca,f2,03,44,e8,9e,01,66,8b,ad,8f,c2,f9,a0,\
  87,d4,bc,01,00,05,ce,ab,d3,e9,02,24,da,f4,03,44,c3,8a,01,66,82,e5,8b,b1,ae,\
  fd,fd,bb,3c,00,c2,3c,01,00

Next I created a batch file that will load the default user hive during my deployment and import it so that all new users created will get the custom start folders. Here is my batch:

REG LOAD HKLM\DefaultUser %SystemDrive%\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT

regedit.exe /s folders.reg

REG UNLOAD HKLM\DefaultUser

exit

So now all you have to do is go into your MDT and create a new application with those 2 files in a folder and call it like Start Menu Folders... the command line for me is cmd.exe /c folders.bat which has the above info in it to load the hive and import the reg file. 

It works perfectly to make sure everyone has the folders you want in the start menu. Thank you CHRIS.FL for finding out where this was in the registry!

Thursday, May 31, 2018 2:42 AM

Did you use HKLM? when I apply it there it does nothing. Where in your TS do you place the application install? Mine is loaded into the default registry but is not copied over when a new account is added. 

Friday, June 15, 2018 6:00 PM

I apply to HKLM only because I'm loading the Default user profile hive to import it.

Then you import the registry entry and it loads it into the default user account so all new accounts will retain this setting....unload hive and done.

So after testing this a few times, and maybe it was the upgrade to 1803, it no longer seems to work. Or maybe it didn't to begin with. What I'm finding is that the actual registry key will be different on each machine. The real location is here but your numbers will be different than mine.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\de${4cfc5e64-a813-46c5-9ae0-f1a3245daf2f}$$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current]

The part that is unique to each user is this: $de${4cfc5e64-a813-46c5-9ae0-f1a3245daf2f} but i don't know what it's significance is. I don't know how to import this setting if it's just going to change on each machine. Setting the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current] key doesn't seem to do the trick though. 

Saturday, November 10, 2018 5:20 PM | 1 vote

The part that is unique to each user is this: $de${4cfc5e64-a813-46c5-9ae0-f1a3245daf2f} but i don't know what it's significance is. I don't know how to import this setting if it's just going to change on each machine. Setting the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current] key doesn't seem to do the trick though. 

You can script this in a batch file, using reg query & find in a for loop:

for /f "tokens=2 delims={}" %%a in ('reg query HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount ^| find "$$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties"') do set CloudStore_GUID=%%a

It will save the unique number in the variable 'CloudStore_GUID' (you can name it anything you want) then import using 'reg add':

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$de${%CloudStore_GUID%}$$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current" /v "Data" /t REG_BINARY /d BINARY_DATA_HERE

Replace 'BINARY_DATA_HERE', exported from an existing machine configured in the Settings app the way you want.

Obviously the default user profile hive doesn't contain the key nor has that number been determined since it hasn't been created yet, but you can edit the default user profile hive to add a RunOnce command to execute said script to import the setting once the account is created.

It won't take effect until next log on or restarting Explorer.

UPDATE: My 'first logon' script waits at least 90 seconds ('timeout /t 90') after the desktop appears for everything to 'settle' after a new account is created. It seems it takes at least 30 seconds for that key to be created after the desktop appears, even on an SSD, so running the commands before then won't work. 

Tested on LTSC 2019 (1809) & Semi-Annual Channel (1809), 17763.1 & 17763.107 re-released ISOs.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019 11:53 PM

Hello Pierre,

Starting with Windowns 10 1703 Microsoft added additional registry settings to help "Provisioning Packages" accomplish what you're asking.  I've reverse engineered it and I found out you have to manipulate the following registry entries:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start]
"AllowPinnedFolderDocuments"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderDocuments_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderDownloads"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderDownloads_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderFileExplorer"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderFileExplorer_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPersonalFolder"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPersonalFolder_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPictures"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderPictures_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderSettings"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderSettings_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderNetwork"=dword:00000001
"AllowPinnedFolderNetwork_ProviderSet"=dword:00000001

To force a pinned folder to be visible set the corresponding registry values to 1 (both values must set); to force it to be hidden set the values to 0; to let the user choose, set the values to “FFFF” (HEX) or remove the key.



There are hints to the solution if you search "Policy CSP  Start"

Thank you,

-Mi Rey