Add Custom Folder/Library to the Start Menu

[SI5K]

Hello, I have added a custom folder to my Username folder, and I would like it to appear on the start menu alongside Videos, documents etc.
Any links, walkthroughs etc appreciated. A quick search revealed nothing at
Seven Forums about this. . .
Despite the brevity of this post I'm quite adept with Windows and software in general, I'll look up any words used that I do not know...

 

[stevecn70]

You can't add custom folders to the right side of the start menu, only the left side.

You can however set your User folder to open as a menu instead of a link and it will expand out and you can get to your custom folder that way. One extra step but that's about alll you can do.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/265-start-menu-customize.html

 

[danemb]

Got it on left sie

I could get it on the left side by dropping and dragging, but not the right. I even created a file inside "Custom Folder" to see if it would give me options to "expand" such as Word 2010, Windows Live Writer, Firefox, Getting Started, and Sticky notes, but I could not see a way for it to make it expand. If it would expand so that you could see the contents of the file, you might even be better off having it on the left side, but I wasn't able to find that function :-( At least you can have it on the left side by dropping and dragging though. If you need screen shots, let me know.

In the meantime, maybe I can find a registry hack or something to get it on the right side.

 

[SI5K]

In practical applications, there no such thing as can't for software. . .
Theres gotta be some setting somewhere. Even if it requires editing a .dll or some other cryptic OS file...

 

[joshpowers]

Adding custom links to the right hand side of the start menu would require a code guru.

Taken that I'm not a code guru and would still like a custom link on the right hand side of my start menu, there are a few work arounds to this.


Option 1:

The Documents, Pictures, Music, Video, Download links can be routed to whatever folder you want.(You can enable/disable these librarys from showing in your start menu by right clicking on the taskbar, going to the start menu tab, and selecting customize.) The downside of this is that you can't change the names of the libraries.

In my example, I have all my documents stored on a secondary internal HDD. (E:/)

Step 1: Start -> Right click on Documents -> Select Properties

Step 2: Click "Include a folder"

Step 3: Browse to your given directory, and click "Include Folder"

(In my case it is "E:\My Documents")
​

Step 4: In the Library locations box, select the directory you just chose, then click "Set save location"

Step 5(Optional): you can remove the default directories so only the directory you specified is opened when you go to the documents library

Step 6: Click Ok, and it prompts you if you want to move all the files from the old location(s) to your new directory. This is up to you, I say no.

Step 7: Hit Start -> Click Documents to verify it points to your new directory.

​

Option 2:

Very similar to option 1, but with a little more customization.

Step 1: Enable favorites menu in taskbar properties -> start menu -> customize

Step 2: Right click on favorites when in the start menu, and select properties.

Step 3: Under the location tab, change the directory to whatever you wish.

Step 4: Click ok.

This option is nice because it allows you to browse the directory as a menu.


​

I think of these as redneck workarounds, but take from it what you want

 

[vijer]

Typical Windows crap. Let's see I can add Favorites, Games, Homegroup, Recorded TV, Videos

NONE of which I care to ever open let alone have quick access to from the Start menu but hey I cannot add a custom folder!! Stupid

So far I am not impressed with Windows 7 and will stick with the competitors OS. Microsoft keeps to trying to think for the user which I guess is what you need to do for dumber users.

 

[Codify]

Have been searching for ages for a way to do this - I want to have a link to my Music folder on the right side of the Start Menu. Can't believe there is no way to get such a simple thing!

I disabled the library view because of it's sheer annoyingness (the number of times i had to right click and select 'open folder location' just to be able to work with my files properly) and now i don't have links to my my picture folder and music folder.

Grr!!!

 

[deskareas]

Favorites, Games, Homegroup, Recorded TV, Videos have something in common.
i can't believe that this area is hard-coded.

 

[JemEt]

Maybe you would take a look at this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...r-buttons-open-users-instead-libraries-5.html .

I hope it could help you.

 

[timmiej93]

Hey,
I was looking for this as well.
The most sensible thing to do for me was adding the (for me unused) downloads folder as a link (dunno how its called exactly in english) and then before you do anything else, change it's name to whatever you want it to be.
Then right click it and select properties.
Go to the location tab and enter your designated folder.
Thats all, Easy as that.

Tim

 

[Winnland]

I did the same thing as timmiej93 but I used the 'My Videos' library.

1. Right click the library link you want to use (e.g. My Videos) select Rename.
2. Type in the name you want to give the library (e.g. Programming), hit enter.
3. Navigate to the folder you want to add to the renamed library (e.g. Python 3.1).
4. Right click the folder, select 'Include in library' and click the newly renamed library.

After doing the above, I had to restart my machine. Prior to restarting, the folder stores within my libraries would not expand when I hovered on them. After reboot, all works great. I also went back and right clicked on the default My Videos folders to remove them from the now named Programming library just to clean things up.

It's a shame that this work around had to be performed but at least my machine is now customized the way I prefer it. It makes no sense that Microsoft included the option to easily add new libraries yet doesn't allow the user to access a new library from the navigation pane of the start menu. :sarc:

 

[Tech Addiction]

You can add the Video Floder to the Right side of the Start menu by right clicking the start menu and choosing properties, then Customize then scroll all the way to the bottom and click display as link beside Videos.

 

[whs]

Adding custom links to the right hand side of the start menu would require a code guru.

Taken that I'm not a code guru and would still like a custom link on the right hand side of my start menu, there are a few work arounds to this.


Option 1:

The Documents, Pictures, Music, Video, Download links can be routed to whatever folder you want.(You can enable/disable these librarys from showing in your start menu by right clicking on the taskbar, going to the start menu tab, and selecting customize.) The downside of this is that you can't change the names of the libraries.

In my example, I have all my documents stored on a secondary internal HDD. (E:/)

Step 1: Start -> Right click on Documents -> Select Properties

Step 2: Click "Include a folder"

Step 3: Browse to your given directory, and click "Include Folder"

(In my case it is "E:\My Documents")
​

Step 4: In the Library locations box, select the directory you just chose, then click "Set save location"

Step 5(Optional): you can remove the default directories so only the directory you specified is opened when you go to the documents library

Step 6: Click Ok, and it prompts you if you want to move all the files from the old location(s) to your new directory. This is up to you, I say no.

Step 7: Hit Start -> Click Documents to verify it points to your new directory.

​

Option 2:

Very similar to option 1, but with a little more customization.

Step 1: Enable favorites menu in taskbar properties -> start menu -> customize

Step 2: Right click on favorites when in the start menu, and select properties.

Step 3: Under the location tab, change the directory to whatever you wish.

Step 4: Click ok.

This option is nice because it allows you to browse the directory as a menu.


​

I think of these as redneck workarounds, but take from it what you want

Option 2 is the way to go. You can really only replace an existing folder and Favorites is a good candidate - although I use Games.

 

[Tech Addiction]

I was referring to adding Videos to here.

 

[Mike Connor]

If you want to customise the start menu and also get some useful features back then try this;

Welcome to Classic Shell

This is also excellent for customising;

True Launch Bar • Superior replacement for standard Quick Launch

I use both, along with QtTabBar

QTTabBar

and some other stuff. All works very well and does what I want.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[ProVanity]

Fix and customize start menu win 7

First off download classic shell32.
It's allows you to have the windows 98 / xp classix start menu.
then go into classic shell's startmenusettings.exe.
there you can completely sort / delete / rename edit your start menu.

cheers

 

[ProVanity]

didn't read above post^^^^

 

[darthvader45]

I did the same thing as timmiej93 but I used the 'My Videos' library.

1. Right click the library link you want to use (e.g. My Videos) select Rename.
2. Type in the name you want to give the library (e.g. Programming), hit enter.
3. Navigate to the folder you want to add to the renamed library (e.g. Python 3.1).
4. Right click the folder, select 'Include in library' and click the newly renamed library.

After doing the above, I had to restart my machine. Prior to restarting, the folder stores within my libraries would not expand when I hovered on them. After reboot, all works great. I also went back and right clicked on the default My Videos folders to remove them from the now named Programming library just to clean things up.

It's a shame that this work around had to be performed but at least my machine is now customized the way I prefer it. It makes no sense that Microsoft included the option to easily add new libraries yet doesn't allow the user to access a new library from the navigation pane of the start menu. :sarc:

Nice, I did it with my Favorites menu. Turned it into a nice library for everything I needed(currently, Audacity projects editing Minecraft parodies of songs like Timber by Pitbull, basically snipping the audio I need and converting it to WAV).

 

[jonnyhotchkiss]

Typical Windows crap. Let's see I can add Favorites, Games, Homegroup, Recorded TV, Videos

NONE of which I care to ever open let alone have quick access to from the Start menu but hey I cannot add a custom folder!! Stupid

So far I am not impressed with Windows 7 and will stick with the competitors OS. Microsoft keeps to trying to think for the user which I guess is what you need to do for dumber users.

What is it you want to link to, and have your tried symbolic links or junctions?

Have been searching for ages for a way to do this - I want to have a link to my Music folder on the right side of the Start Menu. Can't believe there is no way to get such a simple thing!

I disabled the library view because of it's sheer annoyingness (the number of times i had to right click and select 'open folder location' just to be able to work with my files properly) and now i don't have links to my my picture folder and music folder.

Grr!!!

What path is your mypics etc that you want to link to?

For your purposes I'm surprised you're not making use of the library folders. ie music folder(s) in music library...


Wish I could read assembly!

 

[jonnyhotchkiss]

1) Enable (as menus) your libraries - documents, music, videos, pictures... note the order (i think it's fixed, renaming them didn't affect)

I started with the (never used) RecordedTv.
In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
I added {1A6FDBA2-F42D-4358-A798-B74D745926C5} with value
C:\Users\Jonny\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries\System Locations.library-ms

On a roll, I tried recycling the (former photos) library.
I changed the value for {A990AE9F-A03B-4E80-94BC-9912D7504104} to
C:\Users\Jonny\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries

So you can use photos,videos,recordedtv, even documents... recycle them, to point to libraries, or folders!

EDIT: This will create some interesting side-effects, namely

- The Libraries structure needs revising (I'm working on a fix). currently, the above hack gives you libraries within libraries (in the navspace)

- any libraries that you reference as 'new User Shell Folders' (redirectors referenced to get custom startpanel-menus) will be systemised, and you can't see them in libraries (root) and worse they're hidden from the 'Include in Library' options!!!

Thankfully there's an easy fix for this, ie create a library-symbolic-link to the (now-hidden) system-library:

Here I linked my (now hidden) System Locations library
mklink "System Places.library-ms" "System Locations.library-ms"