Can I add a folder to the Vista Start Menu

B

Brothernod

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 29, 2001
Messages
340
Top right section of the start menu that has Documents and Pictures and such. I REALLY want to add Videos and Downloads to them as I access both of those folders a ton.
Is there any way to add it there? I could do the shortcut in the top left but I really want it in with the other special folders like it should be.
 
Yes you can add a folder to the start menu.

Click start and right click on All Programs.

Click on "Open All Users"

Enter the programs folder and add your new folder here and it will appear on the start menu for you to drag your programs into.
 
Not what I'm looking for. I want it in the top right corner where the rest of my users "special folders" are. Where it should be able to go.
 
Right click on the task bar, choose properties, Click on the start menu tab, choose Customize, then follow it from there.
 
The options there are limited to certain folders. I'm interested in specifying my own folders as well.
 
If anyone can find a way to do this or an app/patch that lets you that would be great.

It seems just plain bizare that you can't have Videos or Downloads on the main shortcut list. Also I've no idea why they got rid of the icons with the links - it's much quicker to identify what link you want to click on from an image rather than a word...!

- Robin
 
right click on the word, go to properties, and then location. ?
 
Not exactly a way to do what you want, but I added the entire user folder to a menu slot on the task bar. So I can just click the user name and up pops a list of every folder in the directory (i.e. can access Documents, Music, Pictures, etc). Any folder could be added from there, I suppose.
 
New to posting to threads so please excuse any mistakes.
I know exactly what you mean, I wanted to do the same things to Vista, and looked everywhere and tried just about everything. I did find something I like, and I will tell you how I did it. It puts common links under a dedicated menu box of start panel.
I clicked properties on the start menu
Secleted customize under the "start menu"
Activated the link for "favorites"
Went into the Favorites folder under "user name", cleared out the crap put there by MS.
Added shortcut links to my RAID Drives, Videos, etc.
So now to go there, I click start, hold over Favorites, then a box will pop out, and click where I want to go.
Its the only way I found to do it. That was just bad programming on Vista.
It more less puts multiple links on one button instead of a dedicated button.
I put a screenshot example on my server.
http://www.brianhaly.com/Quicklinks/Quicklinks.jpg
Thinking about it now, you can probably rename the "favorites" folder so something else, something like that reloads on start up, I haven't tried it yet, but I will.
Anyway, thats what I did. I like it, and it works well.
I run Vista Ultimate, XP Pro, and Linux on a chain boot loader.
Brian
 
I use the show as menu option for Personal Folder, with "Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer" turned on.

Not quite the same functionality, but works for me.
 
Hey,
Im new to the whole forum thing so.... bear with me......

To try and do this, you must not be afraid of using the regedit tool.
To begin, open the registry editor and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders

Change one of the values (some of these are the shortcuts to the stuff already on the
start menu) to the desired location.
NOTE: Personal refers to you documents folder.

Then navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

and change the value of the one you want to replace. make sure that it is the same as the last change

EG: To replace the Documents item with Downloads change the data value for 'Personal' to 'C:\Users\_user_name_\Downloads' and '%USERPROFILE%\Downloads' respectively.

Then log off and log back on again to find the change :)
hope this helps:p
 
Why not just put your videos under Pictures and download everything to Documents? Or is it so important that it has to be called "videos" and "downloads"?
 
Actually it makes a huge difference when dealing with backup software as in some scenarios I want to backup pictures and not videos, and I never want to backup downloads but of course I want everything else in my Documents.

Plus Downloads are not documents, and videos are not pictures, having more organization and granularity is a good thing, it's just really limpdick that Microsoft won't let you have shortcuts to the things you access most and work with your data the way you want to.

I'm gonna try the hack tomorrow, it sounds solid and I'm pretty impressed, thank you :)
I hope this makes it into a vista powertoy.
 
milkweg said:
Why not just put your videos under Pictures and download everything to Documents? Or is it so important that it has to be called "videos" and "downloads"?
Click to expand...
For those of us with a lot of data to organize, it matters.
 
bringing back an old thread

Anyone ever figure out how to do this? I'd love to add Videos and Downloads to the right pane in the start menu.
 
bumping for a proper fix. I'd like to have the videos folder and downloads folder in the start menu without having to 'pin to start menu' and without replacing the games folder.

Here is a fix I found but its really just a workaround rather than adding the video folder the way you'd like it. It replaces the games folder with the videos folder but the newly created video folder will have the games folder context menu when you hover over it.

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/add-your-videos-folder-to-vista-start-menu-by-replacing-games/

edit: holy shit. I've been a member for 4.4 years and am still a noobie /sigh
 
sorry if this thread is too old to reply to.. but i registered just to tell you:

This is what you're looking for

Also, dont forget to go into the following settings section:

- right click start button > properties > click Customize.. > scroll down to the bottom of that list.
- You will see "search communications", and "search favorites and history", both of which you can set however you'd like.
- For "Search files", set that too "search entire index". If you don't, you won't see the newly indexed folders (unless they are within your c:\Users\Username\ folder)

Edit: oops. I didnt realize you wanted the folder on the top right. But, this lets you add your video folder and all your video files to the instant search, if that works for you.
 
No it's not, ryaske. That link describes how to do something completely different!


Early on I toyed with the idea of wanting the default 'Videos' and 'Downloads' folders there on the Start Menu with documents, Pictures, Games and Music. Couldn't figure out how to achieve it, and soon lost interest. In a default install the overall 'User' folder is displayed up top of the list anyways, so the ones I wanted are only a mouseclick (or hover menu, if I wanna display it that way) away.
 
Brander XP can add entries to the right-panel of the start menu on Windows XP...not sure if it'll work on Vista but it might be worth a shot.
 
Just for interest's sake (and because it's not been mentioned in this old thread) it's easy enough to add 'Videos' (or any other folder) to top left of menu.

In regedit:

Open up HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
Add a new key and name it {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8}
Close regedit


After doing that, if you hold the Shift key whilst right-clicking on any folder, you'll get a 'Pin to Start Menu' entry which adds it to left pane of the Start Menu. You can then drag it to top of list, and it'll appear afterwards alongside the other 'User' entries.

Not what was asked for, but it's closest as can be done, far as I can determine.
 
This annoys me as well, what I did is just add a "downloads" shortcut to the top of the vista menu on the left...don't have to resort to hacks that way.

sample screenshot (took it from google since i use winxp here at work)

 
personally i just found it easier to add it to the top left Pane of the Explorer (not start menu)..


infact with the new Explorer and search function i don't think i use the start menu any more..

i know this doesn't answer your question but with a WindowsKey+E you can quickly open your explorer and on the top left pane have all any folders "favorited" for quick access in the top left.. Adding folders there is as simple as dragging and dropping..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top