'Pinning' items to Start Menu

[Plegron]

Some installations of XP allow the user to add links to the Start Menu as
shortcuts to (some) programs, files and folders.

I'm talking about the area of the Start Menu on the left above the list of
recently opened programs and below the user's log on name. It's separated
from the list of recently opened programs by a division rule, but only seems
to appear on some flavours of XP. I have it on my laptop that's running XP
Home and used to have it on earlier work PCs, but my current work PCs,
recently built and running XP pro installed from a recent Action Pack CD,
don't have it.

Why is this? Is it to do with the fact that the work PC are part client
machines that have been added to a domain or because we're using roaming
profiles?

I have no need for the list of recently opened programs on the Start Menu as
I have added shortcuts to all main programs on the Quick Launch area, so
having the ability to access frequently opened files and folders from this
part of the Start Menu his is an extremely useful feature. I have found
very little information on how to enable and use this feature and nothing
detailing it's behaviour which I have learned something about from trial and
error.

Is there any way to enable this feature where it doesn't appear to be
enabled?

Where can I find some more documentation about this feature and how it
works?

There appears to be no equivalent in Vista which I find rather surprising
given the huge amount of work MS has recently undertaken in the area of the
Windows GUI. I know the new search feature is great for quick access to a
very wide range of documents and programs, but for stuff you need regular
access to, it's hard to beat just hitting the Start button and selecting it
straight off a short hotlist.

 

[Stan Brown]

Some installations of XP allow the user to add links to the Start Menu as
shortcuts to (some) programs, files and folders.

I'm talking about the area of the Start Menu on the left above the list of
recently opened programs and below the user's log on name. It's separated
from the list of recently opened programs by a division rule, but only seems
to appear on some flavours of XP.

As far as I know, that area above the line or outside the Programs
list is just the contents that are in the immediate Start Menu
folder, not in Start Menu\Programs or subfolders thereof. (This may
depend on whether you have chosen Classic Start menu, as I have.)

The easiest way to get to the Start Menu folder is to Right-click on
Start button and select Explore.

Under the Start Menu folder I have two folders: Games and the
automatic Programs. When I click my Start button, the menu is
Games
separator line
Programs
Documents
Settings
Search
Help and Support
separator line
Log Off (my user ID)
Turn Off Computer

 

[Plegron]

Thanks Stan.

I hadn't tried using the Classic Start Menu and the way this behaves is much
more straightforward. I can add anything I like above the line by simply
adding a shortcut to the Start Menu folder as you pointed out.

This may be a way to achieve something similar, but I prefer the normal XP
Start Menu and it doesn't actually deal with the problem I described or
answer any of the questions I asked.

Thanks all the same. If I can't get any more help on this I may consider
forfeiting the new menu just so I can have the custom links so easily
accessible.

 

[Craig Schiller]

On a desktop icon, if you right-click you should see an option that says
"Pin to start menu". I think that's what you're looking for.

Craig

 

[Plegron]

Thanks Craig, but no, it's not what I'm looking for.

This is one way to pin an item to the Start Menu, but this menu option only
exists on installations of XP that support this feature. None of the PCs on
our current network do. What I'm looking for, as I explained at some length
in my original post, is an explanation as to why this feature only appears
on some XP installations and not others and also how to implement it on
systems that don't appear to support it already, if it's possible at all.

It's likely there's a perfectly rational explanation and it may, indeed, not
be possible to have it activated under certain conditions, but it needs some
input from somebody who knows what's going on and why this behaviour is
happening. So far I've not heard from anybody who has experienced the
problem.

 

[Craig Schiller]

Sorry, I misunderstood.

 

[Nepatsfan]

Some installations of XP allow the user to add links to the Start Menu as
shortcuts to (some) programs, files and folders.

I'm talking about the area of the Start Menu on the left above the list of
recently opened programs and below the user's log on name. It's separated
from the list of recently opened programs by a division rule, but only seems
to appear on some flavours of XP. I have it on my laptop that's running XP
Home and used to have it on earlier work PCs, but my current work PCs,
recently built and running XP pro installed from a recent Action Pack CD,
don't have it.

Why is this? Is it to do with the fact that the work PC are part client
machines that have been added to a domain or because we're using roaming
profiles?

I have no need for the list of recently opened programs on the Start Menu as I
have added shortcuts to all main programs on the Quick Launch area, so having
the ability to access frequently opened files and folders from this part of
the Start Menu his is an extremely useful feature. I have found very little
information on how to enable and use this feature and nothing detailing it's
behaviour which I have learned something about from trial and error.

Is there any way to enable this feature where it doesn't appear to be enabled?

Where can I find some more documentation about this feature and how it works?

There appears to be no equivalent in Vista which I find rather surprising
given the huge amount of work MS has recently undertaken in the area of the
Windows GUI. I know the new search feature is great for quick access to a
very wide range of documents and programs, but for stuff you need regular
access to, it's hard to beat just hitting the Start button and selecting it
straight off a short hotlist.

This is a question you should be asking the people who administer your work
computers. There's a group policy setting that when enabled will turn off this
feature. If it's set through the Local Security Policy on Windows XP Pro
(Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc) it creates the following registry entry and gives
it a value of 1.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoStartMenuPinnedList

It's possible that the machines that don't have this feature are members of an
Organizational Unit within your Active Directory Domain and there's a domain
policy in place that removes this feature from the Start menu.

For more info on this subject, take a look at these articles.

Policy settings for the Start menu in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292504/en-us

Remove Pinned Programs List from the Start Menu
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1036/

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Plegron]

Thanks Nepatsfan.

I'm not sure about the group policies. I'm the admin and I've never
specified that I wanted this feature disabled, but adding the registry value
has enabled the feature, so that's a great help.

Unfortunately, it appear that I can only 'Pin' local items which is a great
pity because most of the files I want quick access to are located elsewhere
on the LAN. I've tried adding shortcuts to the remote files in a local
folder, but this doesn't work either. Looks like the best I can do is
pinning the new local folder itself (which is not quite as logical or as
immediate) or use normal shortcuts on the Desktop (not what I wanted as I
use my Desktop for work in progress and stuff that's still to be filed
properly).

To be honest, I think I'll probably revert to using the Classic menu and
forfeit some of the nice touches of the Start Menu in favour of the
Classic's superior customisation in this respect.

 

[D. Spencer Hines]

A sound decision.

DSH

 

[Nepatsfan]

How you deal with this issue is your business but I'll pass along how I've
handled it in past similar situations.

The first thing I do is to eliminate the area reserved for frequently used
programs. That can be done by right clicking the Start button, selecting
Properties from the menu, hitting the Customize button, and setting the entry
next to "Number of programs on Start menu" to 0. This gives me the maximum
amount of space on the left hand side of the Start menu for pinned items.

Next, I'll pin to the start menu the applications that I feel deserve quick
access. Finally, if there are any network resources that are accessed frequently
I'll add them by doing the following;

Open My Network Places and locate the shared folder you want pinned to the Start
menu.
Note: If the folder doesn't appear here, click on "Add a network place" in the
left hand column and browse to the network location manually.
Once you've got the shared folder available in My Network Places, click on
folder and drag it to the Start button. Release the mouse button and you should
now have an entry on the Start menu that points to this network resource.

Keep in mind that if there are a number of shared resources on your network My
Network Places can become cluttered quickly. To prevent this you can go to
Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View tab -> Uncheck Automatically search for
network folder and printers. With this setting disabled you will have to
manually create your network places.

Note: Here's an article that expands on how items can be pinned to the Start
menu. The registry edit that's mentioned in the article will apply to any item
in My Network Places

Courtesy of Ramesh Srininvasan, MS-MVP
How to add "Pin to Start menu" option for folders in Windows XP/Vista
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/pinfolder.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Plegron]

Thanks again, Nepatsfan.

My strategy is much the same as yours. I've already tried setting the
number of Recent Programs to zero, but the Start Menu area actually expands
to accommodate pinned items, so it doesn't actually give any 'more space' to
pinned items unless it does so when your list gets too big for the screen.
This is not a situation I'm concerned about so haven't looked to see what
happens.

Thanks for the tip on how to prevent Windows from automatically adding
Network Places. That's always annoyed me.

Using Network Places to add network folders is also useful, but I'm still
unable to pin a file located elsewhere on the LAN as it appears that a
Network Place has to be a folder.

I know we could use the Quick Launch bar for this but we use this for quick
access to regularly used programs and want to keep it for just launching the
program only without any document loaded. This is quite intentional and
logical and has many benefits from an organisational point of view.

I can access any recently opened document via Recent Documents, but this is
not ideal for two reasons. Firstly, I'm not sure what criteria Windows uses
to determine what a recent document is, but I do know that there are many
files I've used recently that aren't listed. Then there are those that are
included that aren't of any use and just force other (possibly useful) items
off the list. Secondly, the list is sorted alphabetically which further
compromises its usefulness.

The ability to pin a file, such as a Word or Excel document directly to the
Start Menu would allow the program to be started with the correct document
loaded with just one click. Doing this with a local file is no problem, but
when I try to drag a file located on the LAN, it's not allowed.

The registry key referred to in the article is already present, so I can
add/remove pinned items using the context menu, but again, the option is not
available for files located across the LAN.