Windows 10: Can't pin programs to Start menu anymore?

Glad to hear the issue sorted itself out.

As a young man I was a prestidigitator, but it probably was the reboot

Bill
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I'm having he same problem since build 10162. I was hoping the latest RTM build 10240 would finally resolve it but alas such was not the case. In any event, your workaround to drag/drop from the all programs menu was not something I had considered. And it works! Its a very easy workaround so thank you for that. Meanwhile, if you ever do find the root issue remain interested...

 

I have done various registry hacks and other messing around with the install since my last post and the problem has yet to reoccur. So, I can't add any further information about the issue yet.

It will not be cool if it crops up in the release version. Having to do a registry backup everytime you install something or make a change, just to be safe, will get old fast. As will having to do multiple clean installs just to sort out a minor, but irritating, issue.

 

I have a post at Microsoft about this and it has gotten some traction with someone "in the know". Apparently, this can happen if you have more than 512 apps in the Start menu. They are working on a fix.

Microsoft Answers post:
Some Win32 apps missing from Start menu list - Microsoft Community

PowerShell command to tell how many apps you have:
Get-StartApps | measure

My other post here on this issue:
Desktop/Win32 apps missing from Start Menu "All Apps" and search - Windows 10 Forums

 

Great work Aaron44126 !!!!
This one really solved my problem. if I had read this 3 days ago it would have saved me a whole lot of work. It happened to me, not being able to pin programs anymore to the start menu and I got so worried that something else about my win10 fresh installation was wrong that I decided to go ahead and do a clean format again... well, three days passed getting my machine right to the very detail before doing a system image backup and bam, about 30minutes ago the same error came back and not being able to pin programs to the start menu... so I thought it might have been some program I installed. but no, it was windows 512apps problem that got to me...
So I followed your info on
PowerShell command to tell how many apps you have:
Get-StartApps | measure

And sure enough, I had much much much more than that. So I decided it was time to bring that number down.
and this is why I am writing this post, because after what I did, the new apps I installed made their way to the start menu in no time, since I had not more that 512 apps.

so, and since your post REALLY saved me the trouble of having to re-format the pc, I decided to share to anyone like me 30 minutes ago, how you can drop down that number and not lose another second of sleep until MS resolves this problem.
so here it goes:
What are considered startApps are actually "Shortcut" files. Yeah, "Shortcut" files. and some that you REALLY don't need.
Because what is considered by the start menu as apps are ALL the shortcut files in this folder:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Every single file there is adding up to the 512 max.
So, all the programs you install that also add for example a shortcut for their website in this start folder, that shortcut/link will be adding up to that 512 number.
Yes, now you see how it is really pretty easy to get to that number in no time.
And it's safe to delete shortcuts from this folder. just don't delete important or system shortcuts. but even if you do, keep in mind that these are just shortcuts and not the actual files (though, please steer away from deleting system shortcuts). anyway, if you got this far you'll know which shortcut files you absolutely don't need.

For example, if you install a program such as Waves Audio Mercury that has more than a hundred plugins, you'll pretty soon be close to reaching that 512 number, because Waves also puts in that folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs the shortcut to the PDF manual file of every single plugin. so, yep, even though they are shortcuts to pdf files and not really apps, those shortcuts there will be counting as startApps.
And remember that by deleting the pdf shortcut you're not deleting the actual pdf file...

so, get your collective selves down to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
and delete away until MS solves this bug
worked for me and now I'm a happy camper.
cheers! and again, thanks Aaron
*Wink

 

Never thought that could cause it as it's basically the same as what I saw here on youtube a few days ago, didn't know 512 was the magic number...

The Windows 10 Start Menu Catastrophe - YouTube

 

Yep. Freaky strange *Wink

 

I have this problem too,
I use keynote and conemu64 installed manually from zip files, creating shortcuts to them in
Code: shellrograms[/quote] or
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
does make the icons pop up as Tiles, but does not ever make those shortcuts get listed in my start menu "All Programs", and as such they cannot be found by typing partial names either, after explorer restart, logoff or restart they just never show *Sad

> Get-StartApps | measure

Count : 164

Edit: For some reason this is not a problem on my laptop which was an upgrade install from win8.1, only on the fresh clean install on my desktop PC.

I've tried using the conemu installer, for some crazy reason the conemu folder shows up in All Programs, and the uninstall shortcut shows up, but the ConEmu64 shortcut that does exist in the file system is still not showing up at all in the start menu itself :/