#266 Add program to start menu without right-click

[Ed Avis]

In the old Windows start menu you could Customize and Add a new entry to the Programs menu. With Classic Shell there is no visible way to do that - none of the many tabs in the configuration dialogue box have an Add button. Not even Customize Start Menu lets you add a new entry that's not already in the list.

It is possible by right-clicking, but that can be difficult on a touchscreen device. In any case a visible button would be more discoverable than a right-click menu. Please make an Add button in a fairly obvious place that lets you add new programs to the start menu. That is surely the most common customization people do.

[xpclient]

The Classic Start Menu supports several ways of adding custom items of your choice. One way is to right click once on the Start button itself, click Open or Open All Users. This will directly open Explorer where you can paste shortcuts inside it or create new shortcuts. You can also do this without opening Explorer directly from the menu itself. Right click in an empty area of the Programs menu and click "New Shortcut". Only these methods require right clicking.

Another way to add menu items is to define a Custom Item from the "Customize Start Menu" tab. The buttons in the right column can be added by double click (or double tap), you don't need to right click (double click is mentioned on the Customize Start Menu tab). The Custom Item can be a Link to a file or folder or a Command with parameters. The very last item in the right column is "Custom Command" (you will need to scroll all the way down in the right column).

Yet another way to add folders or file shortcuts is to directly drag them over the Start button, wait for the menu to open and drop them where you want to add them. This also doesn't involve right click (should be easier for touchscreens but I haven't been able to test this with a touch screen).

Thanks for the feedback. Clearly, more work needs to be done for touch support.

[Ed Avis]

Thanks for the tips. The Customize tab says 'double-click in the left column to edit the item' but I didn't understand that this could be used to add new items.

I do think an old style Add wizard would increase usability, simply because that's the interface older Windows versions used and many users are already familiar with it.