Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   petri.com/heres-what-happens-if-you-add-more-than-500-items-to-the-start-menu-in-windows-10

   With Windows 10, there is an odd bug with the Start menu that if you add more than 512 items to it, the menu enters a twilight zone and either eats your apps (not permanently deleted but they not longer show up in the menu) or crashes constantly.

   Microsoft is reported to be working on a fix. 512 items may seem like quite a few, but subtract all the shortcuts that come with a bare Windows install, and you don't have nearly enough to accommodate some of the folks here, e.g. Dragonlair & WhiteRabbit, with extensive game collections. That 512 limit apparently includes folders of shortcuts placed on the Start Menu.

   Posted 9 years ago #
2. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   I could do as I have done on 8.l -- move the non-used shortcuts (mainly the default ones on an install -- other than games) to an area that start menu doesn't see and games to a similar place just to keep the full 8.1 start menu from scrolling forever for almost 1300 games; but I do not want to do that.

   I just checked Shortcut's Manager on Win7 and it reports 1615 shortcuts for me. A check of the 2 start menu shortcut folders (appdata and programdata), I find the following numbers:

   For AppData -- 96.0 KB allocated for 24 files and 7 folders
   For ProgramData -- 7.73 MB allocated for 1670 files and 211 folders.

   It's not just games. I have 8 products from a company called myriaCross (cross-stitch software). The developer makes at least 3 shortcuts for each product. All I need is 1/product. The full group of shortcuts is 33 files in 8 folders (8 products).

   Every time you install a product, Most create a shortcut folder to include the product and the uninstall at the very least. Then there are links to manuals, links to the site and links to other products.

   I currently have 1313 games on my desktop with 4 new ones due in next week. That doesn't count any I find between now and next week.

   For the novice who doesn't realize just how much garbage is installed, that 512 limit goes fast!

   I was already not happy in that it had not complely given back the Windows 7 start menu but the continuing existence of this limitation is a show stopper for me. NO WAY do I want anything to do with Windows 10 with a ridiculous limitation like ths!

   Posted 9 years ago #
3. 

   Tiffany
   Member

   OMG. WOW. Who has more than 500 in their start menus. All my games go into a Games Folder. Any that made their way to my Start menu as a shortcut gets removed.

   Posted 9 years ago #
4. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   Tiffany, The "Games folder" is usually a sub-folder of the start menu!

   Start Menu is in 2 places -- ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. Games is a sub-folder of Programs.

   the other place is Users\<username>\Appdata\Roaminig\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. Games is not usually found here and some of what is here is a duplicate of what's in ProgramData. Why there are 2 copies -- I have NO idea!

   I just checked -- besides my games it looks like I have 358 shortcuts. that does not take that many games to hit that 512 limit! Especially if you let it keep the uninstalls! Most of those have been removed all over the place. I'm trying to get hubby to let me remove more -- I use Revo Uninstaller for that action!

   Posted 9 years ago #
5. 

   Tiffany
   Member

   Checked both and my two lists are completely different. Strange. But if there is anything in my Start Menu that I do not want, I clean it out.

   Posted 9 years ago #
6. 

   Tiffany
   Member

   I found this the other week and started to clean up.

   http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/10529-all-apps-start-menu-add-remove-items-windows-10-a.html#option1

   But I only cleaned out about 6 games that I did not want in my Start Menu.

   Posted 9 years ago #
7. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I found this the other week and started to clean up...

   The tutorial uses wildcards to get to the 2 folders Dragonlair talks about -- you can also try right clicking something in the Start Menu, then selecting Explore or Open All Users or similar wording depending on the version of Windows. The tutorial mentions the Default User folder, which I believe only populates the Start Menu when you create a new login or account -- in 10 it does nothing to an existing Start Menu anyway.

   Windows 10 may only add a folder to the Start Menu *After* you add a shortcut to that folder. Adding a folder or shortcut also may not show up for a while -- removing one may or may not take a while too. You can drag a folder to the Start Menu button, it'll say pin to Start Menu, but nothing happens. You can drag a folder over the open Start Menu, & it shows a folder with a slashed red circle [the sign for no or forbidden]. You cannot drag/drop shortcuts from one place in the Start Menu to another. You will likely have to create shortcuts intended for the Start Menu somewhere else, & drag them into one of the Start Menu folders in Windows [10 calls it File] Explorer, because that way you can click OK when it asks Admin permission.

   My guess is that it maintains a database of sorts with what goes in the Start Menu, & delays when they happen, are caused by that database &/or its cache not updating promptly. Security restrictions may also play a role.

   Posted 9 years ago #
8. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   WOW. Who has more than 500 in their start menus.

   I see in his Moderator comments on the game download page that WR has taken the plunge to 10... Be interesting to see how he's handling it.

   Posted 9 years ago #
9. 

   Dragonlair
   Member

   I see in his Moderator comments on the game download page that WR has taken the plunge to 10... Be interesting to see how he's handling it.

   WR says that he reformats his hard drives frequently (about every 6 months). He also has far more games than I do but I suspect he does not have anywhere near as many as I do installed at any one time.

   Be that as it may -- having any arbitrary limit to the number of shortcuts is like the old DOS limit of 128 members in a Directory (now called Folder) including pointers to itself and it's parent. That didn't work then and this limit is not going to work now!

   Posted 9 years ago #
10. 

    ChrisS
    Administrator

    According to Windows 10 preview build 10547 deploys to Insiders, with Start menu tweaks and more the current the limit is bumped from 512 to 2048 tiles. They don't say if that increase in tiles will increase the registry size by 20 GB but there was a reason for the limit. Just calling the entries tiles is probably good for 5 GB...

    Posted 9 years ago #

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