Windows 10: Links in the user's start menu are not executed

Hi there,

The title says it all: The two links in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup are not executed at startup as they should be.

But I have no issue navigating to the folder and 2-clicking on each link.

TIA

:)

 

My start menu icons aren't showing up properly!

I have same problem, the start menu is not working. when you click it , nothing happened. Microsoft edge and store icon are missing on the taskbar.

 

Windows 10 refuses to add a link to the All apps menu

I am trying to make a link to a stand alone executable (comes with no installer) in the All apps menu. The link is for a game called Massive Chalice. I tried putting the link in this folder:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

or alternatively to this folder:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

but in both cases instead of adding to the All apps list the link got pinned as a tile to the start menu. Even after restarting, the link was still not on the list.

So I contacted the Microsoft chat help who took over my computer and tried a few things until they gave up and came to the conclusion that an executable has to be installed in order to be able to appear in the All apps menu, so a standalone executable like
I have will not do that. I said this is a major bug and should not be that way, but as far as I was concerned this was the current answer to this problem.

But as it happens, today I got another standalone executable (of a game called Armikrog) which also has no installer. I put it in the same location, made a shortcut and put the shortcut in the same folder as the previous one and miraculously it appeared
in the All apps menu, with no start menu tile in sight.

So now I'm baffled... Why does one shortcut arrive to All apps while the other makes a tile instead?

Edit: I should mention that I only have about 350 links in the All apps menu so the 512 programs bug is not relevant to me.

 

Mine do.

What are your two links? We'd need to know what they are supposed to do before we can try and see why they're not working.

 

Perhaps they're disabled in Task Manager/Startup

 

No, they aren't.
@Bree: Would you care explaining why you need to know what the programs are doing when I explicitely said that both links are working?

 

@mQ573 - because the word 'link' could mean almost anything, it's usually used to refer to an Internet shortcut.

I don't know what you mean by the word 'link', it's not one usually applied to startup items. It could be a shortcut to an executable, a batch file actually in the startup folder, or even that internet shortcut. Each could have its own different problem. Without more details anything we say would just be a stab in the dark.

Precisely what it is trying to open may give a clue too, it may be something that depends on services or an executable that haven't started up yet.

 

- Are they portable apps?
- Has the executable path been broken or corrupted?
- Have you tried creating the same links in Program Data/Startup folder?

 

@Bree: O.K., shortcuts to stand-alone executable s would have been a better description.

Paths aren't broken since clicking on the shortcuts executes the programs.

Creating shortcuts directly in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup is not allowed, but copying the shortcuts works. I mean the copying works but the links are still not executed at startup.

And things were working alright before I had the laptop accidentally set in Tablet mode.

 

OK, now we have something to work on (particularly that 'Tablet' bit). I can now try to reproduce the problem.

No, you can't create shortcuts in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. That's the 'All Users' start-up folder and windows only expects setup packages to copy their shortcuts to it. Creating 'links' there (well, anywhere in Start Menu\Programs actually) is presumably blocked to prevent malware writing their own there. You're allowed to create folders - that's all, anything else must be copied there.

There is another Start-up folder, the 'per User' one. That's the %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup that you mentioned in the first post. You CAN create shortcuts directly in that one, it is after all 'your' folder to do with as you wish.

Which one are you actually having this problem with? Have you tried them both?

 

None worked.

I just tried the All Users' startup menu at Edwin's suggestion.

My original setup was involving the user's one (And that's the one I want).

This tablet mode setting seems to have brought up a lot of changes....

 

I have now tried creating a shortcut in my start-up folder, and copied a different shortcut into the All Users one. Both worked when I logged out and back in again. Then I switched to Tablet mode and logged out then in, both worked. Switched Tablet mode off and they still work.

All changes when you switch to Tablet mode should be reversed when you switch it off again. Try switching Tablet mode on, then turn it off again. Perhaps it will properly undo the changes on a second attempt.

If you have fast start up turned on, this could be preserving an error that crept into the system configuration. Try a Restart, this will perform a full start up of Windows from cold, it doesn't use fast start up.

What version of windows does Winver say you have? My tests were done on the Creators Update, version 1703, OS build 15063.138.

 

Using W10 1511 10586.494, much older than yours. Maybe MS fixed the tablet mode, like in New and Improved. *Wink

It might be a little detail, like Task Manager opening with an empty window since no Apps were running instead of listing all processes.

Anyway I found a solution: Deleting the two shortcuts and recreating them worked.

Thank you both for your help.

 

That's old, even for 1511, 10586.494 was the July 2016 build. You should be on 10586.873 by now.

Glad you got it to work, but I'd worry about you not getting the updates.

@mQ573, you seem to have stopped at July, in August you should have received the Anniversary Update to 1607. If you deliberately chose to stick on 1511 then there are better ways to do that than disabling windows updates. You can hide individual updates, including the Features Updates like 1607 and 1703. That way you can leave windows update turned on and continue getting vital security and bug-fix updates.

Hide or Show Windows Updates in Windows 10

I use it on my test machine (system two in my 'specs'). It has system images for all versions, back to the original 10240 release. Each earlier version has the features updates hidden.