"Pin" a Folder to the Start Menu

Comments

# Geoff said on October 17, 2005 02:07 PM:

I'm not exactly sure which folder you are trying but I have always made a shortcut to "My Computer" in the Start Menu which allows me to browse all the folders through there. Simply right click and drag the folder to the top of the "Programs" list (above the seperator line), when you let go select "Create Shortcut". From there it should allow you to browse the contents of the folder.

# ralph said on October 17, 2005 03:21 PM:

you can pin a regular windows explorer shortcut to the start menu, and change the "Start in" field to display any path you want.

just right click and go to properties, its under the shortcut tab.

# Nicolas said on October 18, 2005 01:01 PM:

Actually, it seems impossible to add any folder in the special area of the start menu. The different available options are set in the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced)

But you could try something :
- Create a special folder for containing the 'shortcuts' to the folder you want to browse
- Set this folder as, for example, the 'My Music' special folder (using TweakUI or modifying the registry). Now you get the 'shortcuts' container.
- The problem is now that if you add a shortcut to your destination folder, only the shortcut will appear, you will have to click on it to open it in a new folder. Not what you want, if I understand well.
- BUT. You can use a different kind of 'shortcut' : NTFS Reparse points. Unix users would call them 'symbolic links', but they're not exactly the same. You can create such links with the LN.exe tool in Resource Kit, or use JUNCTION.exe from SysInternals (http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Junction.html)
- Then you get a parent folder, with cascading children located wherever you want on your NTFS drives.

I must admit that I still haven't tried all this, all apologies if it doesn't work (and for the 'frenchy' english too :-o ).

# Jeff said on August 1, 2007 03:45 PM:

windowsxp.mvps.org/pinfolder.htm

I had to explore to the actual start menu folder item on the harddrive and add it from there (i.e. c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs), but it worked

# MEPierce said on November 5, 2009 10:51 PM:

Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then browse down to the following key:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\

Once there, you’ll need to create a new key called {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8} with no value.

Hold down shift while right clicking the folder, you'll see the "Pin to Start Menu" Option.

# Bryan said on January 1, 2010 05:14 PM:

That registry fix is exetremely cool.  I now have a music folder located on an external drive pinned to my Start menu choices.

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# Dennis said on February 9, 2012 02:06 PM:

1. Create a folder on your C drive. Call it something like DoNotDelete so you don't accidentally delete it later.

2. Create a shortcut to any location on your C drive and put the shortcut in the new folder. ("C:\" works fine)

3. Drag the shortcut to the Start menu to pin it.

4. Right-click on the new icon in your Start menu and select properties. Change the Target path to the folder you would like it to open. This can be a network path as well.

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