{"id":1095,"date":"2010-10-01T23:22:32","date_gmt":"2010-10-01T17:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2021-05-31T14:19:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T08:49:04","slug":"backup-pinned-start-menu-shortcuts-windows-7-vista-xp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/backup-pinned-start-menu-shortcuts-windows-7-vista-xp\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Backup the Pinned Start Menu Shortcuts in Windows 7\/Vista\/XP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pinned items listing which you see at the top of the Start menu is stored in the registry as a REG_BINARY value, and Windows provides no GUI to backup and restore the Pinned items configuration. In case you want to transfer the Pinned items configuration to another user profile, you need to use the Registry Editor and backup the settings in the source profile.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There is an additional step involved if you&#8217;re using Windows 7, wherein the Pinned shortcuts are actually maintained in the following folder, and are referenced in the registry:<\/p>\n<pre>%AppData%\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Quick Launch\\User Pinned\\StartMenu<\/pre>\n<h2>Backing Up Pinned Items in the Start Menu<\/h2>\n<p>1. Start <b>Regedit.exe<\/b> and go to the following branch:<\/p>\n<p><b>Windows XP<\/b><\/p>\n<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\StartPage<\/pre>\n<p><b>Windows Vista and Windows 7<\/b><\/p>\n<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\StartPage2<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-2.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"585\" height=\"316\" \/><\/p>\n<p>2. Click File, Export and save the branch to a REG file. (e.g. <i>sm-pinned-list.reg<\/i>)<\/p>\n<p>3. Open the REG file using Notepad and delete the following values (if present) and their corresponding data.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FavoritesResolve<\/li>\n<li>ProgramsCache<\/li>\n<li>ProgramsCacheSMP<\/li>\n<li>ProgramsCacheTBP<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i>Note that you&#8217;ll have to a lot of scrolling in the text file as some values occupy too many lines.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-5.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"449\" height=\"371\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t find any info about the significance of &#8220;FavoritesResolve&#8221; value. But when I looked at the its binary data, I could see absolute path references that included the computer name followed by the current user profile folder. Hence I chose not to export the &#8220;FavoritesResolve&#8221; binary value (which worked out well at the end.) There were two other values &#8220;FavoritesChanges&#8221;, &#8220;FavoritesRemovedChanges&#8221; which I left unaltered in the REG file.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-4.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"391\" height=\"343\" \/><\/p>\n<p>4. Save the REG file and store it in a removable media or to a common location in the hard disk so that you can access the REG file from another user account.<\/p>\n<p><b>Additional Step: For Windows 7 Only<\/b><\/p>\n<p>5. Open the following folder:<\/p>\n<pre>%AppData%\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Quick Launch\\User Pinned<\/pre>\n<p><i>You can access the path by typing it in Run dialog, or from the Address bar in Windows Explorer.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>6. Copy the folder &#8220;StartMenu&#8221; and store it in a removable media or to a common drive\/directory where other users have access.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-3.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"443\" height=\"216\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now you have the REG file and copy of the &#8220;StartMenu&#8221; folder stored in a separate location. (e.g. <i>D:\\Pinned Items Backup<\/i>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-6.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"389\" height=\"207\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Restoring Start Menu Pinned Items Listing from Backup<\/h2>\n<p>7. Logon to the user account where you want to restore the Start menu Pinned items configuration, and complete the steps given below.<\/p>\n<p>8. Terminate the Explorer Process. (Instructions for: <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/b\/jeffdav\/archive\/2004\/07\/22\/191636.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Windows XP<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-terminate-and-restart-explorerexe-process-cleanly-in-windows-7-and-vista\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Windows 7\/Vista<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/exit-expl-w7.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"425\" height=\"160\" \/><\/p>\n<p>9. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to launch Task Manager<\/p>\n<p>10. Click the File menu, New Task (Run&#8230;) and type:<\/p>\n<pre>REGEDIT.EXE \"Path to the REG file\"<\/pre>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<pre>REGEDIT.EXE \"D:\\Pinned Items Backup\\sm-pinned-list.reg\"<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-8.png\" width=\"429\" height=\"228\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-9.png\" width=\"588\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>11. Click Yes and click OK.<\/p>\n<p><b>Additional Step: For Windows 7 Only<\/b><\/p>\n<p>12. Copy the &#8220;StartMenu&#8221; folder that you earlier backed up, and place it in the following location:<\/p>\n<pre>%AppData%\\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Quick Launch\\User Pinned<\/pre>\n<p>13. Choose to overwrite the existing &#8220;StartMenu&#8221; folder if prompted.<\/p>\n<p>14. Click the File menu, New Task (Run&#8230;) and type: <b>EXPLORER.EXE<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-7.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"429\" height=\"228\" \/><\/p>\n<p>15. Press {ENTER}<\/p>\n<p>This restarts the shell and your new Start menu settings should be applied.<\/p>\n<h2>Screenshots<\/h2>\n<p>This is from the source user account from where you backup up the data.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-0.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"421\" height=\"639\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The following screenshot is from the newly created user account where I restored the Pinned items list to.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/pin-1.png\" alt=\"windows start menu pinned items backup\" width=\"421\" height=\"592\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Only glitch that I noticed is that some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/determine-the-target-path-of-windows-installer-shortcuts\/\">Windows Installer based shortcuts<\/a> didn&#8217;t seem to work well. They showed up with generic icon, and some of the items displayed the error &#8220;This action is only valid for products that are currently installed&#8221; when clicked, while some other Windows Installer shortcuts worked just fine. If this happens to you, simply Unpin the affected items and create new ones.<\/p>\n<h2>Windows 10<\/h2>\n<p>Are you using Windows 10? If so, check you&#8217;d like to read this article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/backup-start-menu-layout-windows-10\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Backup the Start Menu Layout in Windows 10?<\/a> which tells you how to completely backup your Start screen layout which is stored in a database file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pinned items listing which you see at the top of the Start menu is stored in the registry as a REG_BINARY value, and Windows provides no GUI to backup and restore the Pinned items configuration. In case you want to transfer the Pinned items configuration to another user profile, you need to use the &#8230; <a title=\"How to Backup the Pinned Start Menu Shortcuts in Windows 7\/Vista\/XP\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/backup-pinned-start-menu-shortcuts-windows-7-vista-xp\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How to Backup the Pinned Start Menu Shortcuts in Windows 7\/Vista\/XP\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1097,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/backup-pinned-taskbar-shortcuts-restore\/","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":0},"title":"How to Backup and Restore Pinned Taskbar Shortcuts in Windows 10","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"When you install Windows on a new computer, customizing Windows takes a lot of time and effort. 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We've seen that in article IE9 Lets You Pin Website Shortcuts to the Windows 7 Taskbar. Clicking the Pinned site shortcut opens the website using Internet Explorer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Internet Explorer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Internet Explorer","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/internet-explorer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/archived\/ie9-pinsite-diff-brwsr-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3682,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/backup-start-menu-layout-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":1095,"position":2},"title":"Backup, Restore, or Reset Windows 10\/11 Start Layout &#038; Shortcuts","author":"Ramesh","date":"August 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost every Windows user would customize their Start menu layout as per their requirement, to ease their workflow. 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