Bdtyktl

A common problem I have is that I have a new PC that I'll be using for a while. And pretty much every Windows 10 PC I've used (even work PCs) have a ton of junk I don't want in the start menu in the form of a tile. I don't care much about the stuff in the "all apps" menu because it's out of the way, but I want the tiles to be just for stuff I use a lot.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the only way to remove tiles is one by one by right clicking > unpin from start. How can I quickly remove all these tiles?

Also, is there some easy way to copy over the start menu links and layout from another computer? This would be useful as I have a number of programs that I always want in the start menu no matter what PC I'm using.

WARNING: The script runs without confirmation and feedback. It worked for me, but I don't know if it would work for everybody.

From this and this, I made the following script, which did the thing for me:

(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).

    NameSpace('shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}').

    Items() |

  %{ $_.Verbs() } |

  ?{$_.Name -match 'Un.*pin from Start'} |

  %{$_.DoIt()}

It unpins all programs from start menu.

For non-english Windows, you should probably replace 'Un.*pin from Start' by another sentence.

Run

(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).

    NameSpace('shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}').

    Items() |

  %{ $_.Verbs() }

To check what's yours. In French : '&Désépingler de la page d''accueil'

An alternative to the method InterLinked suggested is to use PowerShell to remove the apps (this completely removes the app's, not just hides them).

Get-AppXPackage | where-object {$_.name –notlike “*store*”} | Remove-AppxPackage

For more see this tutorial. http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4689-apps-uninstall-windows-10-a.html

You can get your Windows 7 start menu back by using "Classic Start". This program will replace the Microsoft "Metro" start menu. It is highly configurable, allowing you to get an XP, or Win7 look. This is the first app I install on Win10 if I'm not using a touchscreen.

It looks like this:

You can also replace that little shell with any icon you want, if you want to change your start menu button.

Check it out:

https://github.com/passionate-coder/Classic-Start

This script works well

(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).

    NameSpace('shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}').

    Items() |

  %{ $_.Verbs() } |

  ?{$_.Name -match 'Un.*pin from Start'} |

  %{$_.DoIt()}

On Win 10 versions 1709 and 1803 it removes all shortcuts except the shortcuts which are the links (not shortcuts) to install the applications from the Store (News, Speed Test, and e.t.c).

This script will remove them when they're installed.

You mentioned you are using Windows 10. Group Policy Editor provides this capability. You can use a group policy template to manage settings at scale.

If you want no tiles, make sure your template has no tiles and deploy. If you want certain tiles here/there, arrange them once, capture, and then deploy.

You can use this link to learn more about this method

If you don't have gpedit.msc, you can use a 3rd party workaround to get it installed, but that would only be if you are using the Home edition. Otherwise, this should work as is.

I use the free version Startmenux to get a windows XP like start menu with no tiles and a full list of programs accross the screen rather than hidden in that scrolling menu (yuck).

I believe that there are other similar programs. Here is an article that introduces others, for fairness.