Windows 10: Windows 10 Start Menu Pinned Icons/Tiles Location Found

Ok, after doing some digging with some special tools and utilities that I have, I have found the location of where StartMenuExperienceHost.exe stores it's data for the content, locations, and sizes of items pinned in the start menu.


It is stored in the registry at the following location:


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore


I am going to warn you, much of the data stored in the subkeys here is in binary format. Looking at it, it looks like it's stored as a memory image of a record format that is akin to a C struct or the attributes of a C++ class. Since I don't have the source code, I cannot say what the fields are or anything.


The specific item that was changed was this:


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$de${7b564936-e5ad-4386-b12e-a8e6215bf5e2}$start.tilegrid$windows.data.curatedtilecollection.tilecollection\Current


How did I find it? I used a SysInternals tool called Process Explorer. I started it, set the filters, and restarted the start nenu process, then opened the start menu. In about 3 seconds it recorded over 660,000 events. Filtering it some more, I noticed that it was opening that key...a lot. So I exported that entire branch, make a change to the start menu, and exported it again to a different filename. Then I compared the two files and found differences. So I loaded the first file back in and no change. The change occurred when I restarted the start menu process and the change that I made reverted to what it was before. So that is the place where the data is stored. I know quite a few people have been looking for this so they can backup the start menu layout.


The data is quite complex so I would strongly advise against manually editing this as it can make your start menu inoperable, crash your system, and destroy your user profile. You may also need to reinstall the operating system if things go sideways enough. Best bet is to leave it alone, but I suspect that backup and restore will be fine.


Related Posts.


Windows 10 Start Menu Pinned Tiles Location?


Enjoy.

:)

 

Windows 10 Start Menu Pinned Tiles Location?

Hi

I've been searching for a while and i can't find where the pinned tiles
in Start menu are located.

All I can find is a list of folders that doesn't have the pinned tiles:

This doesn't have what I need:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\StartMenu\Programs

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

This doesn't exists at all:

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database

Is there any location or registry value/key where I can find the PINNED TILES in Start Menu?

I read somewhere that there is a database... does anyone know where is it located?

Thanks in advanced

 

How to customize pinned Start Menu icon?

OK, I have a comparable shortcut I added to Windows Accessories to start IE with no add-ons. It is in:
C:\Users\<my name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories
and is an ordinary shortcut to iexplore.exe with some parameters:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -extoff

It originally showed the default IE icon on the list of All apps on the left Start menu. I pinned it to Start and it showed the same IE icon. I then did 'More > Open file location' and gave it a different icon. As you can see, both the All apps menu and the Tile show the custom icon now.





This was done with version 1607, what version does Winver say you have? It may be that this doesn't work on earlier versions, the Start menu had a lot of changes from that of 1511.

I suggest you try changing the icon to something else, then back to your preferred icon after you have pinned it to Start. This may kick Windows into showing the correct icon on the Tile.

 

Windows 10 Start Menu Pinned Tiles Location?

Where are the start menu pinned tiles located in Windows 10? Example: I pin Weather, Notepad, and Calculator to the start menu. Where does this data get written? In Windows 7 it was under Program Data>Microsoft>Windows>Start Menu. It appears to have moved
in Windows 10. Is it a folder I just haven't been able to find, or is it a registry key now?

Thanks

-Jim