Start Menu Shortcuts...won't delete?

[bigred]

I'm working away on my unattended install and have a batch file that is rearranging the Windows 7 start menu (that gets so messy). I'm filing things away into categorized folders, etc....but two shortcuts won't seem to move: Desktop Gadget Gallery and Windows Media Center.

Even when I run the command after the install, it still can't seem to find the file to move, though I have checked my path over and over and over. Does anyone know if there's anything weird with those two shortcuts?

Here's what I've been using (and I have already created the two folders Utilities and Audio & Video in the Start Menu):

MOVE /Y "%systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Desktop Gadget Gallery.lnk" "%systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Utilities"
MOVE /Y "%systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Media Center.lnk" "%systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Audio & Video"

Any help would sure be appreciated, even if it's to say that I've made some sort of stupid oversight. I just want to get this fixed up, thanks!

[digital john]

hi,

are u running as administrator?

u coud also try to xcopy and then remove the shortcuts...good luck

[bigred]

hi,

are u running as administrator?

u coud also try to xcopy and then remove the shortcuts...good luck

Yes I'm running as admin.

I'll try xcopy instead and post back, thanks.

[bigred]

Unfortunately xcopy didn't work either. Anyone else have any ideas?

[Moonchilde]

Does the folders you're trying to move them to already exist? If not, you'll have to create them in your image so that the move command can move them there. The move command won't create the folders, and if they don't exist it simly won't move them. I just tested it myself, and if the folder doesn't exist it errors out.

If you already mount the image to apply tweaks and stuff, you might as well just browse to the location to create the folders and move them yourself and then repackage the wim to install later. Otherwise, you'll have to add a command to create the new folders prior to moving the files there, which is probably just as easy to do.

[bigred]

Does the folders you're trying to move them to already exist? If not, you'll have to create them in your image so that the move command can move them there. The move command won't create the folders, and if they don't exist it simly won't move them. I just tested it myself, and if the folder doesn't exist it errors out.

If you already mount the image to apply tweaks and stuff, you might as well just browse to the location to create the folders and move them yourself and then repackage the wim to install later. Otherwise, you'll have to add a command to create the new folders prior to moving the files there, which is probably just as easy to do.

Thanks Moonchilde for the suggestion, however I did already have the folders in place and was even copying other shortcuts into those same folders.

The good news is that I have figured out the issue. Once the unattended installer finished (and once again didn't copy the shortcuts to the appropriate places) I navigated to the directory using command prompt (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) and noticed that the two shortcuts I was trying to move (Windows Media Player.lnk and Desktop Gadget Gallery.lnk) didn't exist, even though they are clearly visible at the top of the start menu, and appear when you navigate to that folder in Explorer. In the command prompt window I looked through the files that were listed and noticed that there were two there that didn't show up in the Start Menu: sidebar.lnk and media center.lnk . So those are the two files I need to move, but somehow they have a different name!

This is new to me, but maybe some of you have seen it before? Strange...but thanks to you guys who tried to help. It was appreciated!

Edited February 24, 2012 by bigred

[Moonchilde]

Does the folders you're trying to move them to already exist? If not, you'll have to create them in your image so that the move command can move them there. The move command won't create the folders, and if they don't exist it simly won't move them. I just tested it myself, and if the folder doesn't exist it errors out.

If you already mount the image to apply tweaks and stuff, you might as well just browse to the location to create the folders and move them yourself and then repackage the wim to install later. Otherwise, you'll have to add a command to create the new folders prior to moving the files there, which is probably just as easy to do.

Thanks Moonchilde for the suggestion, however I did already have the folders in place and was even copying other shortcuts into those same folders.

The good news is that I have figured out the issue. Once the unattended installer finished (and once again didn't copy the shortcuts to the appropriate places) I navigated to the directory using command prompt (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) and noticed that the two shortcuts I was trying to move (Windows Media Player.lnk and Desktop Gadget Gallery.lnk) didn't exist, even though they are clearly visible at the top of the start menu, and appear when you navigate to that folder in Explorer. In the command prompt window I looked through the files that were listed and noticed that there were two there that didn't show up in the Start Menu: sidebar.lnk and media center.lnk . So those are the two files I need to move, but somehow they have a different name!

This is new to me, but maybe some of you have seen it before? Strange...but thanks to you guys who tried to help. It was appreciated!

If you check the links in the start menu on an actual install, they actually point to

%windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe

(for media center) and

"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe" /showgadgets

for the gadget gallery. Try editing those instead, and maybe just using the delete command.

Or, you could just do what I mentioned earlier. Mount your WIM image and then just edit the directories you want instead of using the batch to move stuff during install. The install will simply copy over the edited wim file with the start menu stuff all set up as you want.