Remove Pictures Entry from Start Menu

I want to remove the Pictures item from the topmost section of the Windows-7 Start Menu, but there is no option to do so in the Tasbar and Start Menu Properties dialog.

Expected:

enter image description here

Actual:

enter image description here

There are options to remove the other items (recorded tv, music, videos, etc.), and the option is present in the registry (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\MyPics\Hide\CheckedValue=dword:0), but it just doesn’t reflect in the Start Menu (Pictures is still shown while the others are removed).

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Could it be a bug? (It's strange that only this one Start Menu item is broken.)

Synetech

Posted 2011-02-02T22:53:24.323

Reputation: 63 242

Looks like a bug/limitation to me. What happens if you change from Windows Classic theme to Windows Standard under the Appearance control panel? – Mikel – 2011-02-02T23:02:54.093

@Mikel, nope, the entry is still in the Start Menu and the option is still absent from the dialog box. (Yes, Windows is up-to-date.) – Synetech – 2011-02-03T00:49:24.147

Answers

I can't personally vouch for it (as I have not tried it), but it looks like Ultimate Windows Tweaker can do that, and more.

farfromhome

Posted 2011-02-02T22:53:24.323

Reputation: 537

Well it didn’t fix the absence of the Pictures option in the dialog, and it reset all of the items to be links instead of menus like I had, but it did in fact remove the Pictures item from the Start Menu. It’s not a complete solution, but it accomplishes my original goal of removing it. (Now I just need to run ProcMon to figure out what changes and API calls UWT makes to accomplish that.)

Thanks. – Synetech – 2011-02-03T03:40:04.763

When I untick "Don't display this item" under Pictures it does what it says.

This may sound dumb, but make sure you apply any changes before closing down the window.

happy_soil

Posted 2011-02-02T22:53:24.323

Reputation: 2 339

Look at the screenshot again; there are NO options for Pictures at all. – Synetech – 2011-02-03T00:45:58.800

Weird. Have you tried setting everything back to default settings? – happy_soil – 2011-02-03T01:24:26.610

Yes, it does not fix it. Besides, the dialog is just an interface for changing the options in the registry. Like I said, the registry entry in question is already present and set to not show the Picture item, but the Start Menu is ignoring it. Someone/something broke my Start Menu. :-D – Synetech – 2011-02-03T03:01:35.937