Restore Missing Administrative Tools Shortcuts in Windows 10

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If your Administrative Tools folder is empty, use one of these ways to restore the default shortcuts.

The default Administrative Tools shortcuts can be restored by running the System File Checker.

Open an admin Command Prompt window, and then type:

sfc /scannow

After the System File Checker completes, you’ll notice the missing Administrative Tools shortcuts restored.

(Thanks to the commenter Ben Page for the tip.)

If you want to restore a specific shortcut, you can use the following command-line instead.

For example:

sfc /scanfile="C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\Active Directory Administrative Center.lnk"

admin tools shortcuts sfc.

Alternately, you can download windows-10-admintools.zip (from Windows 10 Pro x64 v2004 computer.)

Note that this list is from a Windows 10 Professional x64 computer. Higher editions like Windows 10 Enterprise may contain additional shortcuts.

You can either download the above zip file and place the shortcuts in the Admin Tools folder or create shortcuts manually in the following folder:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools
Name Target
Component Services %windir%\system32\comexp.msc
Computer Management %windir%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s
Defragment and Optimize Drives %windir%\system32\dfrgui.exe
Disk Cleanup %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe
Event Viewer %windir%\system32\eventvwr.msc /s
iSCSI Initiator %windir%\system32\iscsicpl.exe
Local Security Policy %windir%\system32\secpol.msc /s
ODBC Data Sources (32-bit) %windir%\syswow64\odbcad32.exe
ODBC Data Sources (64-bit) %windir%\system32\odbcad32.exe
Performance Monitor %windir%\system32\perfmon.msc /s
Print Management %systemroot%\system32\printmanagement.msc
Resource Monitor %windir%\system32\perfmon.exe /res
services %windir%\system32\services.msc
System Configuration %windir%\system32\msconfig.exe
System Information %windir%\system32\msinfo32.exe
Task Scheduler %windir%\system32\taskschd.msc /s
Windows Firewall with Advanced Security %windir%\system32\WF.msc
Windows Memory Diagnostic %windir%\system32\MdSched.exe

In addition to the above (commonly used) shortcuts, there may be many more, depending upon the version and edition of Windows 10 you’re using.

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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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5 thoughts on “Restore Missing Administrative Tools Shortcuts in Windows 10”

  2. The problem for me was not that the folder was missing, per se, but that some Windows update renamed it. It is now found at the following path:

    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Administrative Tools

    Note that there is a space between each word in the folder name “Windows Administrative Tools”.

    Oddly, when I click in the File Explorer address bar and the path is changed to a link, it reads this way:

    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools

    Another annoying Windows 10 SNAFU.

    Reply

  3. Believe it or not sfc checks for the existence of the Administrative Tools shortcuts. Rather than doing this, just run `sfc /scannow`

    Reply

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