Windows 10 Start Menu - A Working Solution

[xpclient]

Ask in the Classic Shell forum please.

[robjduk]

Ask in the Classic Shell forum please.

 

nice suggestion and may just do that however I don't think asking the question to a lot of people talking about classic shell already is totally mad.

[Michael]

If you navigate to Settings (within Classic Shell), and select the 'Customise Start Menu' tab.

 

On the left hand side, you can optionally remove 'Programs' by right clicking it. I can't guarantee this will work, but it's worth a try!

[ngibson]

I am trying to get classic shell working. I have loaded onto a client and each time a user logs on the classic start menu pops up. I have then imported the startmenu template into policies and created a startmenu gpo. I have enabled 'left click opens' only to test. However, now when a user logs in the classic start menu does not load up when you click the start menu, the win10 start menu loads. Right clicking the start menu and then clicking settings opens the classic start menu settings and 'left click opens' is greyed out so must be picking up the gpo settings. Just not sure why classic shell start menu wont open. Removing the GPO allows the classic shell start menu to open again but want it to work with the GPO. Any ideas........?

[sparkeh]

Here is an example of our student start menu running on a test machine (ignore the bits like games, they are removed on production machines). I have removed the 'all programs' link and built the menu in the 'pinned items' areas of Classic Shell using gpps. More details below.

 

By default Classic Shell has its own folder that contains pinned items (per user) located at '%AppData%\Classic Shell\Pinned'. By copying shortcuts into this folder we can build our own menu.

 

I use Group Policy Preferences to copy shortcuts so we can build a customised menu per user. As we are a primary school I can make a very simple start menu for the younger pupils consisting of the few bits of software that they use. You can also create submenus in the pinned area by specifying sub-folders in the gpps (e.g. copy a shortcut to Word to '%AppData%\ClassicShell\Pinned\Office'. To avoid dead links you can also use item level targeting to check that the program is installed. I've tested this and the creation of the start menu using this fashion doesn't seem to effect logon times much.

 

Using this method provides a much more flexible method for creating a start menu than the native Win 10 menu.

 

Hope this helps someone

[Hybrid]

This might be a little side step - but how do you guys remove the Control Panel/PC Settings/Administrative Tools/Default Programs and Help and Support from your 'Windows 7' Classic Shell menus? I've enabled the options within the GPO but have since noticed it's only relevant on the 1 and 2 column styles. I've disabled access to the control panel via GPO but the icons still exist. :/

 

Here's hoping someone can shine some light onto this.

 

Cheers

[Michael]

Some of the GPOs only apply to the Ultra Classic Start Menu and not the Windows 7 Start Menu.

 

If you look at my original post, you can download/import an example of how I've achieved it using a GPP regedit into your own Group Policy.

[Hybrid]

Some of the GPOs only apply to the Ultra Classic Start Menu and not the Windows 7 Start Menu.

 

If you look at my original post, you can download/import an example of how I've achieved it using a GPP regedit into your own Group Policy.

 

I have noticed that, Michael. It seems that one feature works on one, but doesn't on the other. I did also import your GPO's into my test server but there wasn't any registry keys added into the GPO though, or certainly not that I've found yet anyway. The registry entry is blank.

[Hybrid]

Scratch that - found your registry entry under the User Configuration section. I'll have a trawl through this now. Thanks again, Michael.

[Michael]

Sorry about that - What version of Windows Server are you using? It should work with 2008 Server and later which supports GPP policies.

 

I created the GPO from a 2008 R2 Server. The GPPs are located within the user context -

 

User Config > Preferences > Windows Setings > Registry

 

The value should be called 'MenuItems7'

 

Hope this helps!

 

Edit: Glad you found it OK!

[rob998]

Works like a charm! Put off updating to Windows 10 in any of my schools after start menu issues right from the off. This solution worked first time and with a bit of tinkering is exactly how I want it. One school down, just a few more to go!

[Michael]

Works like a charm! Put off updating to Windows 10 in any of my schools after start menu issues right from the off. This solution worked first time and with a bit of tinkering is exactly how I want it. One school down, just a few more to go!

 

Great stuff!

[cogrady84]

Another satisfied customer, finally got things nailed down how I want them... big thanks to the OP.

 

[sparkeh]

Another satisfied customer, finally got things nailed down how I want them... big thanks to the OP.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34910[/ATTACH]

Awesome work. Classic Shell really is great.

[cogrady84]

For those wanting to pin shortcuts to the start menu, i applied the following logon script for my roaming profile users with redirected appdata:

 

md "%appdata%\ClassicShell\Pinned"

xcopy /y "\\server\netlogon\Utilities\StudentWin10Pinned\*.*" "%appdata%\ClassicShell\Pinned"

 

The "StudentWin10Pinned" folder in netlogon contains the shortcuts to be pinned, I had to make the directory manually, as it isnt created until the profile is uploaded back to the server during logoff otherwise, so your logon process may hang.

[AJWhite1970]

Similar progress here, pretty much got the visual side of Windows 10 nailed down now, also playing with Classic Explorer just to tidy up the mess that's "My Computer"

 

Using the pinned trick as above (except using fastcopy instead of xcopy), also using a shared redirected desktop, got all the my documents/videos/favourites redirected to home drive etc, BGInfo is doing the wallpaper and am able to create the default user profile and login as any new user without issue.

 

[Arthur]

also playing with Classic Explorer just to tidy up the mess that's "My Computer"

By mess, do you mean the folders that appear above the C:\ drive?

 

http://i.cubeupload.com/UuehZk.png

 

They can be deleted...

 

www.howtogeek.com/222057/how-to-remove-the-folders-from-%E2%80%9Cthis-pc%E2%80%9D-on-windows-10/

[AJWhite1970]

Partly yes, but also trying to get the default view to open to what I wanted. It's still a work in progress but at present it looks like this..

 

[cogrady84]

Anyone got any hints on disabling shift-rightclick on the start button from opening the win-x shortcut menu, and also removing the classic start menu help option from the context menu?

[Heisenberg]

Got my start menu looking good thanks to all involved here! It's redirected, and my "all programs" folder is also redirected. Is there anyway to remove the default apps on the start menu?

 

E.g.

Maps

People

Calculator

Alarms & Clock

Snipping Tool

Paint

Sticky Notes

 

Will I need applocker for this?

[cogrady84]

Got my start menu looking good thanks to all involved here! It's redirected, and my "all programs" folder is also redirected. Is there anyway to remove the default apps on the start menu?

 

E.g.

Maps

People

Calculator

Alarms & Clock

Snipping Tool

Paint

Sticky Notes

 

Will I need applocker for this?

 

I think this is related to the hiding common program groups from the start menu gpo?

[cogrady84]

Anyone got any hints on disabling shift-rightclick on the start button from opening the win-x shortcut menu, and also removing the classic start menu help option from the context menu?

 

Think i've sussed the win-x issue by hiding all of the shortcuts in the WinX folder in the default user profile, just need to get a startup script doing it for my domain, can't be bothered sysprepping again for such a small change.

 

C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX

 

EDIT - sorted:

 

attrib +H /D /S C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\*.*

 

Works as a computer startup script

Edited February 5, 2016 by cogrady84

[cogrady84]

Next thing is copying favourites across to the new v5 profiles, as it doesnt seem to carry anything across, just creates a new version profile... sigh

[Arthur]

Don't know why the forum is putting a space between the W and i in WinX... I can't stop it though

Use CODE tags to stop spaces being inserted.

 

attrib +H /D /S C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\*.*

[cogrady84]

Use CODE tags to stop spaces being inserted.

 

attrib +H /D /S C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\*.*

 

Nice one i'll remember that thanks!