My permanent start menu & favorites sort solution.

[jimanny]

Here is a solution that I use to permanently sort the start menu and favorites for an unattended install.

What you will need:

1) A working unattended install.

2) Sort.zip

3) Regperm.exe

4) PsShutdown.exe

Step 1: Unpack and collect the files.

Unzip Sort.zip to the root of your unattended files location. Please take caution not to overwrite any file that already exists and you want to keep! For example cmdlines.txt.

Obtain Regperm.exe and PsShutdown.exe and place them into the Tools directory.

Step 2: Update the username and password (optional).

Update the the username and password fields in $OEM$\autologon.reg and $OEM$\useraccounts.cmd

Step 3: Update your unattended image and run it.

At T-12, you'll see a box flash by that adds the new user then a blue dos box that sets up the rest. After a restart, you'll be automatically logged in as the new user. Then the permissions on the MenuOrder key are immediately set via RunOnceEx and the system will reboot via PsShutDown.

When you're logged back in, check out the start menu. Try to reorder it by dragging. You should not be able to! What's even better, it will ALWAYS be sorted because the MenuOrder cannot be written to!

Please note that this is just an example but can be tweaked to fit your existing unattended install. Also note that any reg tweak .reg file found in the Tweaks directory will be read in at T-12 by Sort.cmd.

Have fun,

- jimmany

[Astalavista]

Good work!

should help those that use nlite.

[BFCF]

oWS.RegWrite "HKLM" & runonceex & "install01\1",drive & "\Tweaks\Tools\CreateMenuOrderKey.vbs"

You have CreateMenuOrderKey.vbs on Sort.vbs file but i don't find this file, CreateMenuOrderKey.vbs. Where is this file? Is needed?

Thanks.

[jimanny]

Yes, good find. I originally had CreateMenuOrderKey.vbs create the key before the permissions were set on it with RegPerm. Then later learned you could do the same with a simple .reg file, thus the MenuOrderKey.reg file.

So you can safely remove the lines without a problem. I updated the Sort.vbs in the Sort.zip file here.

On a side note, if you leave the line you mentioned in Sort.vbs, RegOnceEx can't find CreateMenuOrderKey.vbs and just moves on, which is why my testing still worked.

- jimanny

[BFCF]

On a side note, if you leave the line you mentioned in Sort.vbs, RegOnceEx can't find CreateMenuOrderKey.vbs and just moves on, which is why my testing still worked.

I've tried everything and i can't manage to make this work.

In every time i tried, i still can sort the Programas menu i the way i like and it don't auto sort automatically.

I can't find what i am doing wrong.

Can you help me?

Thanks.

[jimanny]

BFCF, maybe there's something different in your winnt.sif file. For this method to work for an unattended install, you should only need to modify your winnt.sif and unzip Sort.zip to your UA root. That should create the $OEM$, Tools, and Tweaks directories with all the relative files. Then just compile the ISO and test it. After the install, it should do this:

• 1. Automatically login as the new user "NewUser" with the password "CHANGEME"
  2. Set the permissions on the MenuOrder key (you may not see this cause it happens quick)
  3. Reboot
  4. Automatically logon again as "NewUser"
  

This is where you try to drag the items in the start menu. If you can't, then it worked.

I tested this method with only these tweaks applied so maybe a tweak you have is interfering. Try to only use the file in Sort.zip and see what happens. It should work! You might also try comparing your winnt.sif to mine. Here it is (change the ProductKey and admin password of course):

winnt_jimanny.sif