Changes to Group Policy settings for Windows 10 Start

Applies to

WindowsВ 10 has a brand new Start experience. As a result, there are changes to the Group Policy settings that you can use to manage Start. Some policy settings are new or changed, and some old Start policy settings still apply. Other Start policy settings no longer apply and are deprecated.

Start policy settings supported for WindowsВ 10 Pro, WindowsВ 10 Enterprise, and WindowsВ 10 Education

These policy settings are available in Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar under User Configuration.

Use this policy in conjunction with a customized Start layout to prevent users from changing it

This applies a specific Start layout, and it also prevents users from changing the layout. This policy can be configured in User Configuration or Computer Configuration.

Policy	Notes
Clear history of recently opened documents on exit	Documents that the user opens are tracked during the session. When the user signs off, the history of opened documents is deleted.
Do not allow pinning items in Jump Lists	Jump Lists are lists of recently opened items, such as files, folders, or websites, organized by the program that you use to open them. This policy prevents users from pinning items to any Jump List.
Do not display or track items in Jump Lists from remote locations	When this policy is applied, only items local on the computer are shown in Jump Lists.
Do not keep history of recently opened documents	Documents that the user opens are not tracked during the session.
Prevent changes to Taskbar and Start Menu Settings	In WindowsВ 10, this disables all of the settings in Settings > Personalization > Start as well as the options in dialog available via right-click Taskbar > Properties
Prevent users from customizing their Start Screen
Prevent users from uninstalling applications from Start	In WindowsВ 10, this removes the uninstall button in the context menu. It does not prevent users from uninstalling the app through other entry points (e.g. PowerShell)
Remove All Programs list from the Start menu	In WindowsВ 10, this removes the All apps button.
Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands	This removes the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands from the Start Menu, Start Menu power button, CTRL+ALT+DEL screen, and Alt+F4 Shut Down Windows menu.
Remove common program groups from Start Menu	As in earlier versions of Windows, this removes apps specified in the All Users profile from Start
Remove frequent programs list from the Start Menu	In WindowsВ 10, this removes the top left Most used group of apps.
Remove Logoff on the Start Menu	Logoff has been changed to Sign Out in the user interface, however the functionality is the same.
Remove pinned programs list from the Start Menu	In WindowsВ 10, this removes the bottom left group of apps (by default, only File Explorer and Settings are pinned).
Show «Run as different user» command on Start	This enables the Run as different user option in the right-click menu for apps.
Start Layout
Force Start to be either full screen size or menu size	This applies a specific size for Start.

Deprecated Group Policy settings for Start

The Start policy settings listed below do not work on Windows 10. Most of them were deprecated in Windows 8 however a few more were deprecated in Windows 10. Deprecation in this case means that the policy setting will not work on Windows 10. The “Supported on” text for a policy setting will not list Windows 10. The policy settings are still in the Group Policy Management Console and can be used on the operating systems that they apply to.

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.