Folder suppression in Start Menu

[Chris]

In 98/ME the Programs list from the Start Menu only included the \Start
Menu\Programs folders with
links to the actual programs, help file, etc. XP Home not only lists these
items but
also the folders where the programs are located with all their contents. Is
there a
way to suppress the latter?

 

[David Candy]

Well it doesn't so what have you done. All I can think of is you changed the location of the program folder to Program Files.

Look at these 4 places in the registry (type regedit in Start - Run)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserShell Folders
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
and look up both Start Menu and Programs for each of the above

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
and look up Common Start Menu and Common Programs

This can happen if you dragged Programs or Start Menu folders about as it auto updates the path in the registry. Though we'll need to see what is entered in these values to see what you dragged where.

(All Programs is built from 4 individual folders - Two user specific and two All user specific folders - with classic Start and clasic Programs folders almagamated into All Programs on the XP Start Panel)

 

[Chris]

Using TweakUI for XP I changed the location of Programs to another folder on
a different drive. The Registry contents are now:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders
Start Menu = %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu
Programs = E:\Program Files
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders
Start Menu = C:\Documents and Settings\All\Start Menu
Programs = E:\Program Files
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders
Common Start Menu = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu
Common Programs = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders
Common Start Menu = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
Common Programs = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start
Menu\Programs

My objective is to change the default location used when new programs are
installed. Can this be done without messing up the Start Menu?

--
Chris

Well it doesn't so what have you done. All I can think of is you changed the
location of the program folder to Program Files.

Look at these 4 places in the registry (type regedit in Start - Run)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders
and look up both Start Menu and Programs for each of the above

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders
and look up Common Start Menu and Common Programs

This can happen if you dragged Programs or Start Menu folders about as it
auto updates the path in the registry. Though we'll need to see what is
entered in these values to see what you dragged where.

(All Programs is built from 4 individual folders - Two user specific and two
All user specific folders - with classic Start and clasic Programs folders
almagamated into All Programs on the XP Start Panel)

 

[David Candy]

Programs entry has nothing to do with Program Files. It is only for the shortcuts to appear on the start menu programs menu (if using classic menu) or All Programs menu if using new XP style menu.

Change it back in tweakui which will do it in a non standard way (but it doesn't matter) or edit it in Regedit to

%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs
which is the default.
PS on most computers very little is here as most shortcuts go into All Users so they are available to everyone.

You can change Program Files as well. However wierd things can happen as windows will self repair and so will office and some other programs. So you may get some already installed program installing themselves in both locations and using a bit of this install and a bit of that install. Doesn't matter if you've got plenty of disk space.

You change Program Files here in Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
Only change ProgramFilesDir as the entry in ProgramFilesPath means do what ever programfilesdir says.

Most but not all programs can also be moved with this change (just by dragging them to the new folder) as they use %programfiles% as their paths so as long as they are in the folder referenced by ProgramFilesDir they'll work. Likewise these programs may have minor problems if not moved, mainly with broken shortcuts (looks in the new location).

All problems are minor and are easily fixed. But there will be wierd stuff happening as each program is different and has (if any) different minor problems.

So do at own risk and be prepared to uninstall and reinstall any app you can't make happy.

 

[David Candy]

What I do is have a folder called Program Files at the new location. I don't edit the registry and the old location is the official one. When installing programs I choose Custom, Change Path, and overtype the drive letter in the default path provided (eg c:\program files\appname becomes d:\program files\appname). Most setup programs handle this with out making you do stupid things like create the folder first or typing in the appname because it forgot the default when you tried to browse to a new drive.

This is just a couple of extra mouse clicks and key presses when installing and it acts intelligently and non annoyingly.