When you click the Windows 10 Start button, you will see that the interface is divided into three separate sections: small buttons on the left side, a list of apps and programs in the middle, and static or dynamic tiles on the right side.
You can customize quite a few options for the appearance of the Start menu, including the list of folders or links that appear in that left menu. By default, you will see items such as Settings, Power, Network, Downloads, etc.
In this article, I’ll show you how to customize the icons that appear on the Start menu.
If you’re looking for a way to hide or remove applications from the Windows Start menu that appear in the list of all programs, scroll down to the “Remove applications from Start” section.
Show / Hide Folders in Start Menu
To get started, click the Start button and then Settings (gear icon).
Then click “Personalize”.
Then click “Start” from the menu on the left, after which you will see all the options for customizing the Start menu.
Just to mention a few things while we’re here, if you turn off Show list of apps in the Start menu, it will remove that middle section we talked about above (list of programs and apps).
Newly added apps will show you all the programs you’ve recently installed at the top of the list. The Show Most Used Apps section will list the most used apps right below the recently added apps.
If you want to hide recently opened files from the context menu of the taskbar icons, make sure that you uncheck the Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Startup or Taskbar option.
Finally, below is what we are looking for. Click on the “Choose which folders to display on the home screen” link. Microsoft likes to call these items folders, but links or shortcuts seem to make more sense to me.
Here you can enable or disable the list of predefined folders / links that will be displayed at startup. For example, if I turn everything on, you will see my list in the Start menu get quite long.
That’s all. If you wanted to add or remove apps from the Start menu instead of these icons, you need to try something different.
Remove apps from Start Men u
To remove an application from the list of applications on the Start menu without uninstalling the program, simply right-click it, select More, and then select Open File Location.
This will take you to the Windows System Start Programs folder. Here you will see a list of all the folders and shortcuts that appear on the Start menu itself.
To remove an item from the list, simply remove it. You can also create your own folders here and add your own shortcuts or links. If you want to add a shortcut, create it on your desktop by right-clicking the file and choosing Send to Desktop (create shortcut).
Then just drag this shortcut into that folder and it will appear in the Start Menu! You should also have no problem adding or removing items from this folder.
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