Setting up start menu redirection without the microsoft shortcuts?

[Joko]

Hello everyone,

 

We are using Mandatory profiles and we are having trouble rolling out applications as some PCs are still 32x and the newer are 64x. I have set up some GPOs with specific WMI filters and that is working no problem.

 

The issue i am having is currently we have ' Remove common program groups from Start Menu' active. So any start menu GPP or Group Policy redirect is not applying. Am i missing something here? If i disable the group policy i then get all the icons and folders from the All Users which i just do not want.

 

I basically want to merge my start menu custom folders/shortcuts with what is in the mandatory profiles already (or make them use 100% redirect).

 

Have any of you guys seen this before?

 

Thanks.

[3s-gtech]

Remove common program groups from Start Menu should not stop your redirected Start Menu from showing, only the local 'Public' or shared Start Menu. The policy can cause some real quirks with Windows 8.1 and 10 due to certain modern apps not working if you set this policy. I think you have another issue though - I have this policy set for Windows 7 machines and it doesn't affect redirection. My manatory profiles don't have any form of Start menu in them though, it's all done through GP.

[Joko]

Hi gtech,

 

Thanks for your reply. It's really weird, as soon as i disable that common groups setting, the folder GPP which i have made appears.

 

Could it be the path i am using for the folder? Maybe this is conflicting with the 'Public' folder? The GPP i have set up is:

 

A folder

Action : Replace

Path : %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Office 2017

Every tick box, unticked.

Common tab, Everything unticked (i will do item level targeting once i get it to work).

 

Thanks.

[3s-gtech]

Yeah, that won't work. It's the %ProgramData% folder that is disabled with the GP setting. If you want to redirect, either use a network path (mine is in my sysvol) or stick the destination folders somewhere like C:\Start and use GPP to copy them in.

[Joko]

Thanks for that, i think i have actually got it working using %appdata% Instead of %ProgramData%. This is just to put a folder onto the start menu for me. Leading from this, should i be able to merge the menus? I mean add folders to existing folders/start menu which is already on the mandatory share?

 

At the moment the profile will either load the start menu with the office 2017 folder, or the start menu with all the existing folders. Not both

 

Thanks.

[3s-gtech]

%appdata% should be fine, if a little odd (it will be removed and recreated at each logoff/logon so may increase logon times). As to whether it'll merge with the menu in the profile, I can't say for sure. My experience of anything like that would suggest it would (in the same way that a normal user's start menu is a mash up of their own personal Start Menu items and the All Users Start Menu) but only testing will tell you for sure.

[Joko]

Morning, Yeah i would put it in the sysvol like you if i was just targeting the start menu, the merge is whats causing me the headache. I may just start fresh and do the leg work to use 100% redirection instead of relying on both this and mandatory's.

 

Thanks for your help!