Save Windows start screen layout (as a template)

Question

Is there a way for me to SAVE my "start menu" layout to a file (xml?), meaning the grouping and ordering of the elements on the Start screen.

TO CLARIFY... I am aware of and understand the "roaming" profile capability / behavior which support syncing your user preferences between devices.

I like the way my start screen is set up.... I want to be able save it, switch things around, and then restore my previous layout.

Almost like how you can save "templates" of layouts on some Android devices.

Is it in the registry?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 08 '12 at 15:10

Back up the following files (whichever ones exist), then restore them and see if it works:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms.bak

%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms
%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms.bak

After restoring you might need to restart Explorer from Task Manager:

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 20 '23 at 06:02

There are some PowerShell commands that allow you to export the start menu and re-import it. Arguably you could manipulate the file and upload an identical file to multiple enviroments!

$sitename = "xyz"
Export-StartLayout -Path "$sitename.json"
# before running the import, edit the file in some way. 
# or just clone it to other servers.
# ... then ....
Import-StartLayout -LayoutPath "$sitename.json" -MountPath "c:\"

The file looks like this:

Save Windows start screen layout (as a template)

2 Answers2