Start Menu Mods

[bergerb-com]

Not really an issue, but a list of things I am using differently to get it to work like i want it to.

<rant>
I had a nice unattend config, that was working beautifully. Then came the start menu reworks via windows-update, that just bloated everything back up.
So now I am again reworking my script to achieve that level of perfection out of the box :)
</rant>

First the Start-Pins. When I update to the latest version and create a new user, they are ignored and again showing stuff like WhatsApp and Solitaire.
Currently the Key is put into HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start. I moved the whole script content into the DefaultUser.ps1 section and adjusted the key so it gets loaded into the default user hive. (This seems to survive updates and also new user creation ... so far...)

{
	$json = '{"pinnedList":[{"desktopAppLink":"%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Microsoft Edge.lnk"},{"packagedAppId":"Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App"}]}';
	if( [System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version.Build -lt 20000 ) {
		return;
	}
	$key = 'Registry::HKU\DefaultUser\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer';
	New-Item -Path $key -ItemType 'Directory' -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue';
	Set-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $key -Name 'ConfigureStartPins' -Value $json -Type 'String';
};

I also added AllAppsViewMode to the default user hive: (This allows for the start menu to be displayed as a List instead of this weird category thing)

{
	reg.exe add "HKU\DefaultUser\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Start" /v AllAppsViewMode /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f;
};

Additionally, it seems like W11 now respects the HideRecommendedSection setting. I have tried this before and it was definitly not working before. Now its working.

This went into specialize.ps1

{
	reg.exe add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /v "HideRecommendedSection" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f;
};

I am also adding

<HideLocalAccountScreen>true</HideLocalAccountScreen>
<HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>

to the section. So all I have to do is the partitioning and selecting the right windows edition.

I gave it a quick test with the current .iso Win11_25H2_German_x64_v2.iso, with the settings above, the start menu stays (kind of) like I want it to.
Even with the latest update.
(The List is always open on the first screen instead of an extra button, but thats good enough for me)