Start Menu Layout GPO not Working

2017-08-02

Question

_{Wednesday, August 2, 2017 7:46 PM}

Hello all. I have spent a good part of my day today assisting one of my helpdesk guys with a project that he is working on involving customizing the start menu layout for Windows 10, locking it down, and deploying it to a subset of my user base. We have followed this and several similar articles with no luck:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/deploymentguys/2016/03/07/windows-10-start-layout-customization/

He created a brand new profile on a fresh Windows 10 workstation and ran the Export-StartLayout Powershell cmdlet to export the config to XML. We built a GPO and enabled both the user and computer policies for Policies > Administrative Templates >Start Menu and Taskbar and configured the Start Layout policy to enabled with the file path set to where we put the XML (we put it in the GPO in sysvol so users can easily get to it to read it.).

Long story short, we tested this and it is not working. GPRESULT -R and RSPO.MSC confirm that all parts of the policy are being applied and it effectively locks the start menu from further customization (as we wanted) but it's not updating the layout. We can reach the script through UNC but it just doesn't seem to want to work.

Any suggestions?

All replies (16)

_{Thursday, August 3, 2017 1:57 AM}

Hi Brolide,

If it's possible, please upload your XML file and start menu layout after you applied to group policy.

In addition, please check if it's indeed applied.

Navigate to the following registry to see if the following entries exist:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\

In addition, what's your current build? Did you use the partial start layout XML file or full controlled start layout xml file?

Windows 10 1607 and Windows 10 1703 group policy partial start layout are different.

After applying the start layout group policy, Windows 10 1607 start menu only appears the tile that included GP XML file. But Windows 10 1703 appears the tiles that GP controlled and the tiles that Windows 10 default.

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
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_{Wednesday, August 9, 2017 9:30 AM}

Hi,

Was your issue resolved?

If yes, please mark the helpful reply as answer in order that other community members could find the helpful reply quickly.

If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Tuesday, September 19, 2017 12:35 PM}

Unfortunately it does not look like it was resolved. My coworker is able to apply this template successfully through local GPO, but when we try to push it through GPO to another test machine, nothing happens. Any thoughts?

_{Tuesday, September 19, 2017 1:07 PM}

Here is my xml for reference:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

-<LayoutModificationTemplate Version="1" xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout" xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout" xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification">

-<DefaultLayoutOverride>

-<StartLayoutCollection>

-<defaultlayout:StartLayout GroupCellWidth="6">

-<start:Group Name="Explore">

<start:Tile AppUserModelID="Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" Row="0" Column="0" Size="4x2"/>

<start:Tile AppUserModelID="Microsoft.RemoteDesktop_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" Row="4" Column="2" Size="2x2"/>

<start:Tile AppUserModelID="Microsoft.BingWeather_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" Row="2" Column="2" Size="2x2"/>

<start:Tile AppUserModelID="Microsoft.NetworkSpeedTest_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" Row="4" Column="0" Size="2x2"/>

<start:Tile AppUserModelID="Microsoft.BingNews_8wekyb3d8bbwe!AppexNews" Row="2" Column="0" Size="2x2"/>

<start:Tile AppUserModelID="Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" Row="6" Column="2" Size="1x1"/>

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Row="0" Column="4" Size="2x2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Internet Explorer.lnk"/>

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Row="2" Column="4" Size="2x2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Excel 2016.lnk"/>

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Row="6" Column="0" Size="2x2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Google Chrome.lnk"/>

<start:Tile AppUserModelID="Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" Row="6" Column="3" Size="1x1"/>

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Row="7" Column="2" Size="1x1" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Snipping Tool.lnk"/>

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Row="4" Column="4" Size="2x2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Word 2016.lnk"/>

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Row="6" Column="4" Size="2x2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Outlook 2016.lnk"/>

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Row="7" Column="3" Size="1x1" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools\File Explorer.lnk"/>

</start:Group>

</defaultlayout:StartLayout>

</StartLayoutCollection>

</DefaultLayoutOverride>

-<CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection PinListPlacement="Replace">

-<defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>

-<taskbar:TaskbarPinList>

<taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Internet Explorer.lnk"/>

<taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools\File Explorer.lnk"/>

<taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Outlook 2016.lnk"/>

</taskbar:TaskbarPinList>

</defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>

</CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection>

</LayoutModificationTemplate>

_{Thursday, September 21, 2017 10:13 AM}

Hi Brolide,

Please run gpresult /h C:\gpresport.html as Admin on the test machine to generate the group policy report.

Then open that file to confirm if the group policy is applied.

Navigate to the following registry to see if the following entries exist:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Wednesday, December 27, 2017 9:00 AM}

Did you ever got a solution to this problem?

I to have the same issue running Windows 10 2016 LTSB (1607).

I tried with a bare minimum xml to minimize faults but I still can't get it to work.
I looked in the registry as menioned above and everything looks ok and i can reach the xml beeing pointed out there.

My xml looks like this:

/Björn

_{Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:59 PM | 2 votes}

Good day,

I'm not sure if you ever resolved your problem, but I found a lot of documentation online, and finally found a very simple solution somewhere. (FYI I am running 1709 with latest updates)

To totally lock the layout, use groups. I created a group, put all the tiles in, then exported the layout. After i set up GPO, it worked as designed, total lockdown with only the tiles i put in.

To do a partial lockdown, only a need to modify the following line, Change

to <DefaultLayoutOverride LayoutCustomizationRestrictionType="OnlySpecifiedGroups">

My layout file is below.

Hope this helps.

_{Friday, April 27, 2018 2:04 AM | 1 vote}

Another thing that I came across is that if the following policy setting is enabled it will cause the layout to not be applied and end up with a blank Start Screen.

User Config->Administrative Templates->Start Menu and Taskbar->Remove common program groups from Start menu : Enabled

_{Thursday, August 23, 2018 1:55 PM}

I have the exact same issue. But it does lock the startmenu.

The Registry shows the URL is present.

It simply just doesn't work.

I tried both Local and UNC path. NO success.

I use build 1803 - 17134.228.

IF they just made it so you could run a logonscript and a cmd and run it with a powershell script but that also doesn't work but that is by design.

I know why this is not working, if it would, their "new" apps won't show anymore, and all the crapware they get money for for stuffing it down our throats would also not show anymore. This is evil, we got enterprise windows to be able to manipulate this stuff, and we still can't. You are criminals!

_{Friday, August 31, 2018 5:58 AM}

I had to use HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\LockedStartLayout = 1 otherwise did nothing happen.

_{Friday, October 12, 2018 9:22 PM}

I just want to chime in here for future people to look at this. If you want for users to be able to pin icons, use the "OnlySpecifiedGroups" tag in the DefaultLayourOverride. This makes you have locked groups while the rest of the start menu is open:

<DefaultLayoutOverride LayoutCustomizationRestrictionType="OnlySpecifiedGroups">

If you don't do this, your GPO will restrict the Start Menu to precisely and only the groups of icons delivered:

<DefaultLayoutOverride>

MCP: Windows XP, ACSP: OSX 10.5

_{Friday, October 12, 2018 9:24 PM}

Are you able to get taskbar icons pinned? So far I have been unable to apply new icons to the taskbar or else it thinks that the xml file is bad and loads a stock one instead. If I remove the <CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection> section, it will properly apply the GPO and store the Start Menu icons.

Sample file that I'm using:

<LayoutModificationTemplate xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout" xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout" Version="1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification">
  <LayoutOptions StartTileGroupCellWidth="6" />
  <DefaultLayoutOverride>
    <StartLayoutCollection>
      <defaultlayout:StartLayout GroupCellWidth="6">
        <start:Group Name="Microsoft Office">
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Word 2016.lnk" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Excel 2016.lnk" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="4" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PowerPoint 2016.lnk" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Access 2016.lnk" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Outlook 2016.lnk" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="4" Row="2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Publisher 2016.lnk" />
        </start:Group>
        <start:Group Name="System Utilities">
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Snipping Tool.lnk" />
          <start:Tile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" AppUserModelID="Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" />
        </start:Group>
        <start:Group Name="Other Software">
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\QuickBooks\QuickBooks Premier - Accountant Edition 2015.lnk" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Adobe InDesign CC 2018.lnk" />
        </start:Group>
      </defaultlayout:StartLayout>
    </StartLayoutCollection>
  </DefaultLayoutOverride>
    <CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection PinListPlacement="Replace">
      <defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>
        <taskbar:TaskbarPinList>       
          <taskbar:DesktopApp AppUserModelID="Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge" />
          <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Google Chrome.lnk" />
          <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Firefox.lnk" />
          <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools\File Explorer.lnk" />
          <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Word 2016.lnk" />
          <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Excel 2016.lnk" />
          <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PowerPoint 2016.lnk" />
          <taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Snipping Tool.lnk" />
        </taskbar:TaskbarPinList>
      </defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>
    </CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection>
</LayoutModificationTemplate>

MCP: Windows XP, ACSP: OSX 10.5

_{Wednesday, October 31, 2018 7:02 PM}

Same issue as stated above, also running 1803 fully patched. When I add taskbar text to XML file I lose the start menu, taskbar info does not appear either. When I remove the taskbar text, my start menu comes back.

I need to integrate start and taskbar in same file, or find a work around. This appears to have worked in earlier versions of Win10.

_{Tuesday, November 27, 2018 5:03 PM}

You need to add

xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout" Version="1"

To the LayoutModificationTemplate line in your XML file to get the TaskBar settings to apply

_{Tuesday, November 27, 2018 5:03 PM}

See my comment above

_{Thursday, April 4, 2019 1:51 PM}

This did it for me! After trying all other fixes, this is what got my StartLayout group policy setting to work. Thanks!

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Start Menu Layout GPO not Working

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