Windows 10: Add or Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu in Windows

How to: Add or Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu in Windows

How to Add or Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu in Windows

The Start Menu will show shortcuts of all programs (apps) listed in All Programs (Windows 7), Apps screen (Windows 8), and All Apps (Windows 10).

The Start Menu for an account will include items (ex: app shortcuts) from the following profiles:

• New Users - This will be items from the C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder that only get added for a new added account.
• All Users - This will be items from the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder that are shared by all accounts on the PC. These would be the common program groups.
• User - This will be items from the C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder that are only included for this specific user.

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove items from the All Users profile from the Start Menu for specific or all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

*Warning You must be signed in as an administrator to add or remove items from the All Users profile from the Start Menu.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Add or Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu in Local Group Policy Editor
• Option Two: Add or Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu for All Users using a REG file

EXAMPLE: Folder for Common (All Users) Program Groups in Start Menu









OPTION ONE [/i] Add or Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu in Local Group Policy Editor

*note In Windows 7, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions.

In Windows 8, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Pro and Enterprise editions.

In Windows 10, the Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two.
1. Open the all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.

2. In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Start Menu and Taskbar. (See screenshot below)



3. In the right pane of Start Menu and Taskbar, double click/tap on the Remove common program groups from Start Menu policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4. Do step 5 (add) or step 6 (remove) below for what you would like to do.


5. To Add Common Program Groups from Start Menu
A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

*note Not Configured is the default setting.

6. To Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu
A) Select (dot) Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)




7. When finished, you can close Local Group Policy Editor if you like.

8. restart the computer to apply.





OPTION TWO [/i] Add or Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu for All Users using a REG file

*note The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry keys below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

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

NoCommonGroups DWORD

(delete) = Add
1 = Remove

1. Do step 2 (add) or step 3 (remove) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Add Common Program Groups from Start Menu for All Users
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Add_common_program_groups_to_Start_Menu.reg

Download

3. To Remove Common Program Groups from Start Menu for All Users
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Remove_common_program_groups_from_Start_Menu.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. restart the computer to apply.

8. You could now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Open and Use All apps in Windows 10 Start menu
• How to Hide or Show App List in Start Menu in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove All Apps List in Start Menu in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Items in All apps in Windows 10 Start menu
• How to Add or Remove User Program Groups from Start Menu in Windows
• How to Add or Remove Most Used apps on Start Menu in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Recently Added apps on Start Menu in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Folders on Start List in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Most Used Apps on Start Menu in Windows 10

:)

 

How to uninstall Built in apps

I don't think the current method that is marked as an answer is the correct way to uninstall a pre-installed app unless you are only removing it from the user account and not the entire OS.

Uninstalling

Must have missed that you are using home edition.

I haven't tested this, but if you grab an app from the start menu and drop it on the desktop then right click it you can click uninstall. If you try it or anyone else does let me know if it removes the entire app and frees up disk space.

The correct way to remove them unless there was a change I am not aware of

Using Remove-AppxPackage will remove the app for the user but it won't remove provisioned apps built into the OS unless the only copy lives in the user account.

To remove provisioned apps that are installed on each user account when a new one is created you need to use remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -PackageName where you would replace the PackageName with the package to be removed which you can get using the Get-AppxPackage
command.

App remove programs inside all programs

If you want to organize the start menu you can change the apps that appear in the all apps section by adding or removing shortcuts here C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Cleaning up start menu all apps

Create a folder in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and name it whatever you want. You can group them into folders if you want a slimmer menu or to organize them into a more logical way you.

Customizing the shortcuts in the start menu

• Right click the item in the right hand side of the start menu. From there you can
  
• resize them
• remove or unpin
• Drag and drop them to a different menu group or create a new group
• If you want to move an entire group you can grab the title and move it up or down or side to side if you have expanded the menu size.
• Click on the title bar and rename it or add a name to a new group you create

If you want a large menu you can grab the top or side of the start menu and resize it like you would any other window.

 

Can't find programs after Windows 10

I had this exact problem. Cortana and Windows 10 search on show programs that are listed in your Start Menu. If you have over 512 items, this issue cannot be fixed. The start menu is limited to 512 items. This is a know bug. If however you don't, you can
manually add items to your start menu, meaning they can be searched for.

Locate the .exe of the program you want. Create a shortcut, and call it what you want the program to display as.

Press Windows Key + R

Type in %AppData%

From here, click Roaming

From Roaming, navigate to Microsft>Windows>Start Menu>Programs

Stick any shortcuts you want in there.

You can also add folders to group items of the same Publisher.

Hope this helps.

 

Tru dat, but at least the "New" label will go away after opening the app, or after so many unknown days when no longer new.

 

Yup! No biggie; sorry for the interruption, now, get back to work! *chuckle