Where are ALL locations of Start Menu folders in Windows 10?
Solution 1:
You can find it here :
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
which, in a standard installation, refer to
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
To me that includes all folders and files in the start screen.
But maybe you installed programs, then uninstalled them- but the folders remained there hence the extra folders or files.
In my case all that was in that folder existed in the Start menu.
Solution 2:
Since you're familiar with PowerShell, there are several possible solutions ...
And yes, I'm in Win 10:
PS > [Environment]::OSVersion.Version
Major Minor Build Revision
----- ----- ----- --------
10 0 10586 0
Ask Windows (.NET)
Ask Windows (.NET to be specific) where the location is. This will resolve the correct location in case you, like me, moved your AppData\Roaming folder into a DropBox-like location.
PS > [Environment]::GetFolderPath('StartMenu')
C:\Users\VertigoRay\DropBox\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
PS > [Environment]::GetFolderPath('CommonStartMenu')
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
More about GetFolderPath.
Delete Corrupted AppLocker Files
PowerShell (As Admin):
PS > Get-ChildItem "${env:SystemRoot}\System32\AppLocker\Plugin*.*" | %{ Move-Item $_ "${_}.bak" }
Restart Windows after you run the command.
DISM Restore Health
PowerShell (As Admin):
& dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart Windows after you run the command.
Re-register App Packages
PowerShell (As Admin):
PS > Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | %{ Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml" }
You might get some errors (red text). Typically this is saying the .xml can't be found; just ignore it.
Re-index
As previously linked in this thread, simply re-indexing your drive should cause the Start Menu DB to refresh. I would turn off indexing, then turn it all back on.
Turning off indexing deleted the indexing files in previous versions of Windows; I haven't tested this in Windows 10. If needed, you can manually delete the indexing files once indexing is turned off; might need to reboot after turning indexing off to release all open handles. The default location for the indexing files is: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search
Solution 3:
Although completely non-obvious, it is actually very simple.
Windows-R to open the run menu and type:
shell:programs. This opens the equivalent of C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
shell:common programs. This opens the equivalent of C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
I personally use shell:startup a lot to open the folder where shortcuts are located for starting up automatically.
You can find the full list on the winhelponline site.
Solution 4:
The folder you are looking for does not exist.
Windows 10's start menu uses a Microsoft proprietary database, there is no folder.
When you click "All Programs" in the start menu, Windows shows all programs listed in it's start menu database. The database is populated with items from multiple locations as fixer1234 described, but ultimately it is the contents of the database that are shown and not any specific folder(s).
Solution 5:
It's true that the (some say silly) proprietary binary Win10 StartMenu database is located at:
- Orthodox: %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database\
But that's not the whole story (AFAICT).
There is a right (orthodox) side to the Windows 10 start menu (groups & tiles), and a left side (alphabetical words) ... where that left side comprises at least two components (user and global).
So that makes for three locations, if you consider both the alphabetical and orthodox portions of the Windows 10 Start Menu.
Left side (alphabetical app names):
- Global: %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\
- User: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\
The orthodox (right side tiles) of the Win10 startmenu is the binary hive at:
- Orthodox: %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database\vedatamodel.edb
Note that this orthodox tile-menu hive is of fixed 1024KB size (which likely explains the reputed limit of 500 entries) and fixed date (which likely indicates the purported secret things going on inside of Win10 that I can't myself explain but maybe others can explain).
As proof of concept, (as admin or another user) you can COPY the entire binary orthodox "Database" hive, and then change your Windows 10 orthodox menus, and then copy back your archived orthodox hive, and you'd get your old menus back.