Manage Windows 10 Start and taskbar layout

Applies to

• WindowsВ 10, Windows Server 2016 with Desktop Experience, Windows Server 2019 with Desktop Experience

Organizations might want to deploy a customized Start and taskbar configuration to devices running WindowsВ 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. A standard, customized Start layout can be useful on devices that are common to multiple users and devices that are locked down for specialized purposes. Configuring the taskbar allows the organization to pin useful apps for their employees and to remove apps that are pinned by default.

Taskbar configuration is available starting in Windows 10, version 1607.

Start and taskbar configuration can be applied to devices running Windows 10 Pro, version 1703.

For information on using the layout modification XML to configure Start with roaming user profiles, see Deploy Roaming User Profiles.

Using CopyProfile for Start menu customization in Windows 10 isn’t supported. For more information Customize the Default User Profile by Using CopyProfile

Start options

Some areas of Start can be managed using Group Policy. The layout of Start tiles can be managed using either Group Policy or Mobile Device Management (MDM) policy.

The MDM policy settings in the table can also be configured in a provisioning package using Policies > Start. See the reference for Start settings in Windows Configuration Designer.

The following table lists the different parts of Start and any applicable policy settings or Settings options. Group Policy settings are in the User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar path except where a different path is listed in the table.

Start	Policy	Local setting
User tile	MDM: Start/HideUserTile Start/HideSwitchAccount Start/HideSignOut Start/HideLock Start/HideChangeAccountSettings Group Policy: Remove Logoff on the Start menu	none
Most used	MDM: Start/HideFrequentlyUsedApps Group Policy: Remove frequent programs from the Start menu	Settings > Personalization > Start > Show most used apps
Suggestions -and- Dynamically inserted app tile	MDM: Allow Windows Consumer Features Group Policy: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Cloud Content\Turn off Microsoft consumer experiences Note: This policy also enables or disables notifications for a user’s Microsoft account and app tiles from Microsoft dynamically inserted in the default Start menu.	Settings > Personalization > Start > Occasionally show suggestions in Start
Recently added	MDM: Start/HideRecentlyAddedApps Group Policy: Computer configuration\Administrative Template\Start Menu and Taskbar\Remove «Recently Added» list from Start Menu (for Windows 10, version 1803)	Settings > Personalization > Start > Show recently added apps
Pinned folders	MDM: AllowPinnedFolder	Settings > Personalization > Start > Choose which folders appear on Start
Power	MDM: Start/HidePowerButton Start/HideHibernate Start/HideRestart Start/HideShutDown Start/HideSleep Group Policy: Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands	none
Start layout	MDM: Start layout ImportEdgeAssets Group Policy: Prevent users from customizing their Start screen Note: When a full Start screen layout is imported with Group Policy or MDM, the users cannot pin, unpin, or uninstall apps from the Start screen. Users can view and open all apps in the All Apps view, but they cannot pin any apps to the Start screen. When a partial Start screen layout is imported, users cannot change the tile groups applied by the partial layout, but can modify other tile groups and create their own. Start layout policy can be used to pin apps to the taskbar based on an XML File that you provide. Users will be able to change the order of pinned apps, unpin apps, and pin additional apps to the taskbar.	none
Jump lists	MDM: Start/HideRecentJumplists Group Policy: Do not keep history of recently opened documents	Settings > Personalization > Start > Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar
Start size	MDM: Force Start size Group Policy: Force Start to be either full screen size or menu size	Settings > Personalization > Start > Use Start full screen
App list	MDM: Start/HideAppList	Settings > Personalization > Start > Show app list in Start menu
All Settings	Group Policy: Prevent changes to Taskbar and Start Menu Settings	none
Taskbar	MDM: Start/NoPinningToTaskbar	none

In local Settings > Personalization > Start, there is an option to Show more tiles. The default tile layout for Start tiles is 3 columns of medium sized tiles. Show more tiles enables 4 columns. To configure the 4-column layout when you customize and export a Start layout, turn on the Show more tiles setting and then arrange your tiles.

Taskbar options

Starting in Windows 10, version 1607, you can pin additional apps to the taskbar and remove default pinned apps from the taskbar. You can specify different taskbar configurations based on device locale or region.

There are three categories of apps that might be pinned to a taskbar:

Apps pinned by the user

Default Windows apps, pinned during operating system installation (Microsoft Edge, File Explorer, Store)

Apps pinned by the enterprise, such as in an unattended Windows setup

We recommend using the layoutmodification.xml method to configure taskbar options, rather than the earlier method of using TaskbarLinks in an unattended Windows setup file.

The following example shows how apps will be pinned — Windows default apps to the left (blue circle), apps pinned by the user in the center (orange triangle), and apps that you pin using XML to the right (green square).

In operating systems configured to use a right-to-left language, the taskbar order will be reversed.

Whether you apply the taskbar configuration to a clean install or an update, users will still be able to:

• Pin additional apps
• Change the order of pinned apps
• Unpin any app

In Windows 10, version 1703, you can apply an MDM policy, Start/NoPinningToTaskbar , to prevents users from pinning and unpinning apps on the taskbar.

Taskbar configuration applied to clean install of Windows 10

In a clean install, if you apply a taskbar layout, only the apps that you specify and default apps that you do not remove will be pinned to the taskbar. Users can pin additional apps to the taskbar after the layout is applied.

Taskbar configuration applied to Windows 10 upgrades

When a device is upgraded to Windows 10, apps will be pinned to the taskbar already. Some apps may have been pinned to the taskbar by a user, and others may have been pinned to the taskbar through a customized base image or by using Windows Unattend setup.

The new taskbar layout for upgrades to Windows 10, version 1607 or later, will apply the following behavior:

• If the user pinned the app to the taskbar, those pinned apps remain and new apps will be added to the right.
• If the user didn’t pin the app (it was pinned during installation or by policy) and the app is not in updated layout file, the app will be unpinned.
• If the user didn’t pin the app and the app is in the updated layout file, the app will be pinned to the right.
• New apps specified in updated layout file are pinned to right of user’s pinned apps.

Start layout configuration errors

If your Start layout customization is not applied as expected, open Event Viewer and navigate to Applications and Services Log > Microsoft > Windows > ShellCommon-StartLayoutPopulation > Operational, and check for one of the following events:

• Event 22 is logged when the xml is malformed, meaning the specified file simply isn’t valid xml. This can occur if the file has extra spaces or unexpected characters, or if the file is not saved in the UTF8 format.
• Event 64 is logged when the xml is valid, but has unexpected values. This can happen when the desired configuration is not understood, elements are not in the required order, or source is not found, such as a missing or misspelled .lnk.

Start Menu Settings In Windows 10

Last Updated on October 13, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

The Start menu is back with Windows 10. While the Start menu looks different from the one in Windows 7, it operates pretty much the same way. And the good thing is that there are plenty of settings to tweak and customize the Start menu in Windows 10.

Start menu in Windows 10

Windows 10 allows users to change the default look of the Start menu in several ways. You can change the color of Start menu if you don’t prefer the default black color, make Start menu background transparent, add or remove new tiles to the right-side of Start menu, resize tiles, add or remove recently added and most used groups, and resize the whole Start menu to your liking.

While it’s good that we can customize and tweak Start in several ways, users coming from Windows 7 will be surprised to know that these settings are not located under Taskbar and Start menu properties.

This is because Microsoft has moved many of the settings from the expected location to the new Settings app. If you’re coming from Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, you will know that Start screen settings were present under the PC Settings app in Windows 8/8.1 as well.

Open Start menu settings in Windows 10

As said before, Start menu settings in Windows 10 are located under the Settings app. If you’re not sure how to open the same, here is how to open Start menu settings in Windows 10:

Step 1: Right-click on the desktop to open the context menu, and then click Personalize option to open the Settings app.

Step 2: Here, on the left pane, click Start to find Start menu settings on the right-side.

As you can see, there are settings to enable or disable recently used apps, most used group, and add new locations to the Start menu.

Step 3: Additionally, if you want to change the color of the Start menu or make the Start menu transparent, click Colors option on the left panel to see those settings. To make the Start menu transparent, click the Transparency effects toggle button. To display color on Start, select Start, taskbar, and action center option under Show accent color on the following surfaces.

All taskbar settings except the option to change the taskbar color and make the taskbar transparent can be found under Taskbar and Start menu properties. Just right-click on the taskbar and click properties to get there.

Windows 10 Start-button, Search, PC Settings etc. don’t work

I am running Windows 10 and all of a sudden Start Menu, Search, PC Settings etc. stopped working. I need heelp getting this fixed without having to re-install my computer.

I thought I should create a new thread since all the other threads just repeatedly suggests the below solutions. As far as I can see most of the frustrated Windows 10 users did not get it to work with any of these solutions.

I have already tested the following:

1. Restart Windows Explorer
2. Restart Windows Desktop Manager
3. Created a new User Account (and yes, restarted computer and logged in to this)
4. Run sfc /scannow
5. Run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
6. Run Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach
7. Run the circulating script: 10services_default.bat
8. Uninstalled the latest couple of Windows Updates
9. Tried flipping settings around in taskbar properties
10. Tried updating my graphic display drivers
11. Uninstalled a few programs, like antispyware and malwarebytes

I can’t access Windows Update to check for new updates since I can’t press start or access PC Settings. Any other way to get to «Windows Update»?

Well, as far as I can see this is a most serious bug that really needs Microsoft attention right away. Any other suggestions besides the one’s I’ve already tried, please feel free to post them here!