Stop Certain Programs From Showing in Start Menu

[DarkBringer]

Say you wanted to prevent certain programs (like Winrar, Notepad, Command Prompt) from showing up in your Start Menu, is there a registry hack to do this?

[spazmire11]

well you can just delete the shortcut, right click the entry and hit delete.

[mmarable]

Just switch on the hidden attibute in a script. The shortcut will still be there in case you change your mind later on.

[Br4tt3]

Just switch on the hidden attibute in a script. The shortcut will still be there in case you change your mind later on.

I do it exactly like this, depending on who is logging on, if they r member of that application group, the icon is displayed, otherwise hide it. That way I dont "confuse" the end users...

[Boskabouter76]

Hi Darkbringer!

I use the del command to rid the desktop from several shortcuts. Perhaps it could help you out as well? I use the runonceexe.cmd and the last command script it executes deals with this. I assume you are familiar with this methods already right?

Best regards,

Paul

[Takeshi]

If you're referring to the pinned items or the frequently used programs list on the L side of the Start Menu, to stop Notepad appearing, go to

HKCR\Applications\notepad.exe

add REG_SZ NoStartPage = 1

Do the same for other programs under their keys.

Edited August 16, 2006 by Takeshi

[gunsmokingman]

Edit these to suit your needs

Here is a Vbs Script That pins to the Start Menu

Save As PinToStartMenu.vbs

Dim Shell  : Set Shell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
 Dim Act	: Set Act = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
 Dim Fso	: Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 Dim Loc
'/-> Array That Sets The Locations For The Apllication Folder
	 Loc = Array(Act.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%SystemRoot%"),_
				 Act.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%SystemRoot%\System32"),_
				 Act.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%ProgramFiles%\Winamp")) 
 Dim App 
'/-> Array For The Application You Want To Remove From The Start Menu
	 App = Array("calc.exe", "mspaint.exe", "notepad.exe", "winamp.exe")
'/-> Varibles Names 
 Dim Folder, FolderItem, StrLoc, StrR
  For Each StrLoc In Loc 
   For Each StrR In App
	If Fso.FileExists(StrLoc & "\" &  StrR) Then 
	 Set Folder = Shell.Namespace(StrLoc)
	  Set FolderItem = Folder.ParseName(StrR)
	  FolderItem.InvokeVerb("P&in to Start Menu")
	End If  
   Next 
  Next 
'/-> Message Box 
  Act.Popup "Completed Pinning To The Start Menu", 4, "Finished", 0 + 48 + 4096

Here is a VBS script that unpins thing from the start menu

Save As UnPinToStartMenu.vbs

Dim Shell  : Set Shell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
 Dim Act	: Set Act = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
 Dim Fso	: Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 Dim Loc
'/-> Array That Sets The Locations For The Apllication Folder
	 Loc = Array(Act.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%SystemRoot%"),_
				 Act.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%SystemRoot%\System32"),_
				 Act.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%ProgramFiles%\Winamp")) 
 Dim App 
'/-> Array For The Application You Want To Remove From The Start Menu
	 App = Array("calc.exe", "mspaint.exe", "notepad.exe", "winamp.exe")
'/-> Varibles Names 
 Dim Folder, FolderItem, StrLoc, StrR
  For Each StrLoc In Loc 
   For Each StrR In App
	If Fso.FileExists(StrLoc & "\" &  StrR) Then 
	 Set Folder = Shell.Namespace(StrLoc)
	  Set FolderItem = Folder.ParseName(StrR)
	  FolderItem.InvokeVerb("Unp&in from Start Menu")
	End If  
   Next 
  Next 
'/-> Message Box 
  Act.Popup "Completed Start Menu Clean Up", 4, "Finished", 0 + 48 + 4096

[DarkBringer]

Thanks for the response, guys.

If you're referring to the pinned items or the frequently used programs list on the L side of the Start Menu, to stop Notepad appearing, go to

HKCR\Applications\notepad.exe

add REG_SZ NoStartPage = 1

Do the same for other programs under their keys.

Something like this is what I was looking for, but there are certain applications that I run which are not in the Program Files directory, and this hack doesn't seem to work for those. And I think the value is NoStartPage = " ".

But a little more research led me to exactly what I wanted. Here it is......

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;I don't want these showing in my Start Menu!
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\Notepad.exe]
"NoStartPage"=""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\WinRAR.exe]
"NoStartPage"=""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\cmd.exe]
"NoStartPage"=""

All I have to do is add the .exe file I don't want showing up and it doesn't.

By the way, nice script, gunsmokingman.

Edited August 18, 2006 by DarkBringer

[Takeshi]

You're right about the blank value.

I don't quite understand this bit:

...but there are certain applications that I run which are not in the Program Files directory, and this hack doesn't seem to work for those.

because notepad and cmd aren't in the Program Files dir anyway.

Also, HKCR\Applications\

is the same key as:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\

It's just the way regedit displays it differently.