What Start Menu replacement software do you use?

hdmi · May 3, 2024

Fejinwales said:
I did actually find two 'Start menu' folders a few minutes ago in the Microsoft\Windows 'Default User' and in My User folders which I added to .rar files and saved them on an external drive - just in case.

On my laptop with Windows 11 Home NL (Dutch) OEM,

%userprofile%\Menu Start is a Junction that points to:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
%systemdrive%\Users\Default\Menu Start is a Junction that points to:
%systemdrive%\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
%programdata%\Menu Start is a Junction that points to:
%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

I think this is because Menu Start is the localized (Dutch) translation of Start Menu (albeit here in Flanders everyone and their cat just calls it the "start menu" anyway, I digress...). Where this gets (even more) confusing is when you come to realize that junctions tend to have the same exact yellow folder icon as regular folders. So, to be able to more easily see the difference between regular folders, junctions, symbolic links, regular files, and hardlinks, download and install LSE.

That said, the Default user profile is a template profile for all created users. Whenever you create a new user profile, the profile is built based on the Default user profile. So, it should be used only to configure applications, settings and customizations for each future new user account on the PC, as modifications within it do not propagate to existing users.

Fejinwales · May 3, 2024

Hdmi, thank you - it's a rediculously convoluted way to do something so bloody simple....

IownAmoneyPit · May 3, 2024

hdmi said:
I still don't see it. Your network/sound/notifications icons don't look like you have the Windows 10 taskbar. They look like you have the Windows 11 taskbar. I took a picture of my taskbar and I resized the picture so that its width matches the width of your picture. Here is the result:

View attachment 95134

As you can see, your taskbar is absolutely huge, and for no good reason excepting only maybe if you are visually impaired. It's like forcing everyone to stay in a wheelchair regardless of whether a person can walk. This is Microsoft in 2024.

@hdmi I misspoke after checking my settings I am indeed using "Windows 11 flyouts" for the Notification Area Icons and have included my StartAllBack settings below along with normal 100% DPI Taskbar

(Note for some reason I see rounded corners in my posted screenshots but they should be square)

glasskuter · May 4, 2024

I haven't used any third party GUI app since I used Start8 with Windows 8. I adapted instead.

hdmi · May 4, 2024

IownAmoneyPit said:
@hdmi I misspoke after checking my settings I am indeed using "Windows 11 flyouts" for the Notification Area Icons and have included my StartAllBack settings below along with normal 100% DPI Taskbar

(Note for some reason I see rounded corners in my posted screenshots but they should be square)

View attachment 95210

View attachment 95211

View attachment 95212

I was referring to the visual appearance of the system icons. I.e., the Network icon, the Sound icon, and the Notification Center (bell) icon. But anyway. Even after you changed your settings to make it smaller, my taskbar height is still 25% smaller than yours. Not a huge difference, but my point was that I still can't see the Windows 10 taskbar in any of your pictures. To me, what it looks like is that the guy who wrote StartAllBack just "borrowed" his tweak from Ramen Software (former RaMMicHaeL's Blog) Windhawk. The latter is free software, and the guy who "borrowed" it is charging money for it because he lives in a place called Russia.