Windows 7 - Start Menu - Reset Pin To Area

   Information

This will show you how to reset the "Pin to Start Menu" area to remove all current pinned items and restore the default pinned items in Windows 7. This is helpful if you cannot "Unpin from Start Menu" a item.

1. Click on the download button below to download the file below.

Reset_Pin_to_Start_Menu.zip

2. Click on Save, and save the .zip file to the desktop.

3. Open the downloaded .zip file and extract the .reg file to the desktop.

4. Right click on the extracted .reg file and click on Merge.

5. Click on Run, Yes, Yes, and OK when prompted.

6. Restart the computer to apply.

7. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg and .zip files on the desktop if you like.

1. Open the Start Menu, then type regedit in the search boxand press Enter. (See screenshot below)

2. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Sometimes you may have a StartPage2 key in addition to StartPage. You will want to go to the one that has a Favorites value in it's right pane.

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage

OR

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage2

3. In the right pane of StartPage and/or StartPage2, look to see if there is a Favorites value in one of them. Right click on Favorites in one or both key locations where found and click on Delete. (see screenshot above)
NOTE: The long binary number for the Favorites Data value is the list of pinned items. Since it cannot be easily edited, deleting it will be easier to reset it.

4. Click on Yes to confirm the deletion.

5. Close regedit.

6. Restart the computer to apply.