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How can I add a submenu to the start menu in Windows 7?
In the right-click menu on a shortcut under “All Programs”, there is a “Pin to Start Menu” entry. That's exactly what I want, but it only appears for shortcuts, not for folders. It can be made to appear for folders, but what it creates in the start menu is a shortcut to open the folder in Explorer, and not a submenu.
I know how to do it in Windows XP: create a directory under the Start
directory in my profile. Windows 7 has a similar-looking directory in AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
under my profile. But if I add a directory there under Windows 7, it shows up in the “All Programs” submenu and not in the start menu itself!
So, how can I add a folder (not a shortcut) to the start menu (not an existing submenu such as “All Programs”)? Or if there's some other way to create a submenu at the same location as the pinned items (or anywhere in the Start menu, really), what is it?
Do you mean a pinned item? If so, just drag a folder on the start button and it will be pinned. – Styxxy – 2012-12-05T18:20:32.553
@Styxxy I'm afraid I might have gotten the terminology wrong. Your suggestions creates a shortcut to a folder in the start menu: if I click on that menu entry, it opens the directory in Explorer. What I want is to add a submenu inside the start menu. Come to think of it, that this submenu is implemented as a directory is not part of my requirement, it's just the way this worked under XP but I'm open to other solutions. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' – 2012-12-05T19:03:17.683
Find out where the Start Menu folder is stored (probably
C:\Users\<userid>
and create a folder there. Its name should then show up under the Start Menu. – martineau – 2012-12-05T19:24:11.930@martineau That's what I did: it's
AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
. But…\Start Menu\Myfolder
does not show up under the Start Menu, it shows up under “All Programs”, like the content of the…\Start Menu\Programs
. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' – 2012-12-05T20:58:06.420It doesn't look like it is possible. The closest thing I could find was a kind of a hack http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14101/add-my-dropbox-to-your-windows-7-start-menu/.
– amit_g – 2012-12-05T22:04:15.190The reason http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/09/03/54760.aspx
– amit_g – 2012-12-05T22:05:02.023@amit_g Thanks for the link, but I'm not looking for programmatic access, I'm looking for a way to customize the interface on my account. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' – 2012-12-05T22:07:22.630
I agree, there's no in-built way to do this. You can use this, this, this, this or any similar program to approximate a sub-menu using jump lists.
– Karan – 2012-12-05T22:13:26.587