Windows 10: Start Menu Layout: LayoutModification.xml?

Hi Everyone,
I am trying to do something very simple (I assume) and change the default Start Menu Pinned Tile Group column number from 6 to 3 in order to further resize the start menu and remove a blank gap.

See this picture and note the unnecessary blank portion:



I can't drag/resize the Start Menu anymore to the left which is my whole goal. Note also the double white lines on the upper right which indicate that the group extends to that position.

I've been working on this issue for the past few days and have tried everything I could find. The whole PowerShell export layout command results in this XML code:
Code: <LayoutModificationTemplate xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout" xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout" Version="1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification"> <LayoutOptions StartTileGroupCellWidth="6" /> <DefaultLayoutOverride> <StartLayoutCollection> <defaultlayout:StartLayout GroupCellWidth="6"> <start:Group Name="Common Programs"> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Word.lnk" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="0" Row="1" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\OneNote 2016.lnk" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Firefox.lnk" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="1" Row="1" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Excel.lnk" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="1" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Outlook.lnk" /> </start:Group> <start:Group Name="Tools"> <start:Tile Size="1x1" Column="2" Row="0" AppUserModelID="Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\CCleaner\CCleaner.lnk" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="1" Row="1" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Paint.lnk" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="1" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Snipping Tool.lnk" /> <start:Tile Size="1x1" Column="0" Row="1" AppUserModelID="Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" /> <startesktopApplicationTile Size="1x1" Column="2" Row="1" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Notepad.lnk" /> </start:Group> </defaultlayout:StartLayout> </StartLayoutCollection> </DefaultLayoutOverride> </LayoutModificationTemplate>[/quote] Anytime I try to change that first StartTileGroupCellWidth="6" to "StartTileGroupCellWidth="3" the file becomes an unreadable Start Layout xml file according to PowerShell. Global Policy Editor (GPE) also doesn't recognize it and reverts the start menu to a default version (which is annoying because I have to re-pin all the tiles to make it look like the picture above). I'm confused by this since I'm only changing one integer.

However, when I change the second StartTileGroupCellWidth="6" section to StartTileGroupCellWidth="3" the xml file is processed without error and will be able to be imported by PowerShell, BUT the change isn't kept as a re-export of the layout shows that that second "3" change has reverted back to the "6" width.

I'm not above doing work in the registry (and thus bypassing the editing of the XML entirely) so if there's some key somewhere which will allow me to force the 3 column change or allow for the start menu to be further resized and get rid of the blank space, I'm all ears.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

:)

 

Start Menu layout modification using LayoutModification xml-file changes to default after restart

Hello,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand it feels frustrating when the modified settings are not working the way they are supposed to.



As you are using LayoutModification
xml file to modify the start menu layout, I suggest you to refer the article
Start layout XML for desktop editions of Windows 10.
Also, you can refer the article Customize Windows
10 Start and taskbar with provisioning packages.



However, since the issue is related to modifying the start menu layout through a
LayoutModification xml-file on multiple systems, I request you to post your query at
TechNet forums, where we have experts on start menu
modifications.



Hope it helps.



Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Adding OneDrive tile to start menu .xml with GPO

Hi Yasir,

Thank you for getting back to me but I have seen that suggestion which will not work for me. That steps suggested to do it manually which I'm trying to pin it to the start layout tile using .xml file via GPO. Below is the path where the OneDrive shortcut
that I'm trying to pin to the start layout tile.

<startesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="2" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\OneDrive.lnk" />

 

Start Menu layout modification turns to default after restart

Our company uses a default LayoutModification xml-file on all our computers. However only one of the computers has changed the startlayout after Windows 10 , v.1809 update. But the changes were overwritten after
a reboot. So Start Menu layout modification
turns to default after the computer restarts