How to set Pinned Start Menu Items for Default Profile in Windows 7
07-13-10
Currently I am entrusted with developing a Windows 7 Professional Image for deployment and have until recently been stuck with getting the default user profile to ‘keep’ pinned start menu items.
While I was copying them to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu they still wouldn’t show up. There is actually a complementary Registry key which makes the magic happen. So without further ado: How to set Pinned Start Menu Items for Default Profile in Windows 7
* Using your regular admin/user account setup the Pinned Start Menu Items how you would like them to look.
* Copy: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu TO: C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu
* EXPORT the Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage2 to a REG File. Load the Hive C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT and import those entries into the appropriate place within NTUSER.DAT. (So if you load your hive under the key HKEY_USERS\Test you will have to adjust the REG file to say: HKEY_USERS\TEST\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage2 instead of:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage2 for the merge to work correctly.
* You can then actually make further changes to the default users registry, once your done unload the hive and bob’s your uncle (Your done)
Or you could boot the machine into Audit mode using sysprep, configure the profile how you want it to look, sysprep generalize, then deploy with an answer file using the copy profile option. Lol, made me scratch my head for a while too that one!
Btw – guess what I’m doing at the moment!
Great Thanks Pat. I knew there must have been an easier way!