Pin Icons to Start Menu for All Users with GPO

by Trond Eirik Haavarstein

Pinning and unpinning icons to the Start Menu or Taskbar can be a pain on Windows 2008 or Windows 7. After doing some research I came up with an how to that I wanted to share with you today.

The first problem I got was that the Pin to Taskbar / Start Menu was missing from the menu.

It seems like it’s not possible to do this when the Start Menu are redirected to a network drive. Simply copy the icons you want to your Desktop.

Pin the icons to the locations you want so the settings get’s saved to registry.

Now head into the %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned folder and copy the icons to a network share you can use in Group Policy Preferences.

Define the folders you want to copy

Pinning icons to the users Start menu contains of 2 components, the icons in the User Pinned folder and in registry. Open registry and export HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage2

I’m using the fantastic tool Reg2XML to convert registry files to XML.

The last step is to import the XML file to Group Policy Preferences.

Thanks Microsoft for making this so easy! There’s also a custom PowerShell module you can use to pin / unpin icons, but this didn’t support command line switches. What I mean with this is that I couldn’t add icons for applications like Notes where you have Notes.exe =H:\Notes\Data\Notes.ini in the path.

Are you doing this in other ways? Please share with the Citrix Community by leaving a comment below.

Prepare For Your Next Citrix Exam with FREE Training

Enter you email to Get Instant Access to Citrix Training and blog post updates directly to your inbox. Over 14644 people have already enjoyed this comprehensive training.

‘=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
‘ OBJECTS
‘=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Set objRegistry = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\.\root\default:StdRegProv”)
Set objFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set objApplication = CreateObject(“Shell.Application”)
Set objAllUsersPrograms = objApplication.NameSpace(CSIDL_COMMON_PROGRAMS)
Set objUserPrograms = objApplication.NameSpace(CSIDL_PROGRAMS)

‘=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
‘ VARIABLES
‘=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dim arrSubValues, arrDeleteApps, arrPinApps, strAllUsersProgramsPath

strAllUsersProgramsPath = objAllUsersPrograms.Self.Path & “\”
strUserProgramsPath = objUserPrograms.Self.Path & “\”
arrDeleteApps = Array(“displayswitch.lnk”, “remote desktop connection.lnk”, “sticky notes.lnk”, “snipping tool.lnk”, “calculator.lnk”, “paint.lnk”, “xps viewer.lnk”, “windows fax and scan.lnk”, “Magnify.lnk”)

Call Main

Sub Main()
DeleteStartMenuApps HKEY_CURRENT_USER, “”, arrDeleteApps

DoVerb “Pin to Start Menu”, strUserProgramsPath & “Internet Explorer.lnk”

‘Get the version of Office installed, so that we can pin it to the start menu
If IsProgramInstalled(objRegistry, “Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007″) = TRUE Then
DoVerb “Pin to Start Menu”, strAllUsersProgramsPath & “Microsoft Office\Microsoft Office Word 2007.lnk”
DoVerb “Pin to Start Menu”, strAllUsersProgramsPath & “Microsoft Office\Microsoft Office Excel 2007.lnk”
Else
DoVerb “Pin to Start Menu”, strAllUsersProgramsPath & “Microsoft Office\Microsoft Word 2010.lnk”
DoVerb “Pin to Start Menu”, strAllUsersProgramsPath & “Microsoft Office\Microsoft Excel 2010.lnk”
End If
End Sub

‘=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
‘ FUNCTIONS AND SUBS
‘=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Function DoVerb(strVerb, strPath)
On Error Resume Next
strFolder = objFSO.GetParentFolderName(strPath)
strFile = objFSO.GetFileName(strPath)

Set objFolder = objApplication.NameSpace(strFolder)
Set objFolderItem = objFolder.ParseName(strFile)

For Each ItemVerb In objFolderItem.Verbs
If StrComp(Replace(ItemVerb.Name, “&”, “”), strVerb, vbTextCompare) = 0 Then
ItemVerb.DoIt
Exit Function
End If
Next
On Error Goto 0
End Function

Sub DeleteStartMenuApps(hDefKey, sSubKeyUser, arrDeleteApps)
If Len(sSubKeyUser) > 0 Then
sSubKeyName = sSubKeyUser & “\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist”
Else
sSubKeyName = “Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist”
End If

objRegistry.EnumKey hDefKey, sSubKeyName, arrSubKeys

If IsArray(arrSubKeys) Then
For i = 0 to UBound(arrSubKeys)
sTempSubKeyName = sSubKeyName & “\” & arrSubKeys(i) & “\Count”
objRegistry.EnumValues hDefKey, sTempSubKeyName, arrSubValues

If IsArray(arrSubValues) Then
For m = 0 to UBound(arrSubValues)
For n = 0 to UBound(arrDeleteApps)
If InStr(UCase(RunROT13(arrSubValues(m))), UCase(arrDeleteApps(n))) > 0 Then
objRegistry.DeleteValue hDefKey, sTempSubKeyName, arrSubValues(m)
End If
Next
Next
End If
Next
End If
End Sub

Function RunROT13(strInput)
For i = 1 to Len(strInput)
iChr = Asc(Mid(strInput, i, 1))
If (iChr >= 65 and iChr = 97 and iChr = 78 and iChr = 110 and iChr <= 122) Then
strOutput = strOutput & Chr(iChr -13)
Else
strOutput = strOutput & Chr(iChr)
End If
Next

RunROT13 = strOutput
End Function

Function IsProgramInstalled(objRegistry, strProgramDisplayName)
intRegistryHive = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
strRegistryKey = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall"

objRegistry.EnumKey intRegistryHive, strRegistryKey, arrSubkeys

IsProgramInstalled = FALSE

For Each strSubkey In arrSubkeys
strDisplayName = ReadRegistryValue(objRegistry, "STRING", intRegistryHive, strRegistryKey & "\" & strSubkey, "DisplayName")

If UCase(strDisplayName) = UCase(strProgramDisplayName) Then
IsProgramInstalled = TRUE
Exit For
End If
Next
End Function

Function ReadRegistryValue(objRegistry, strType, intRegistryHive, strSubKeyName, sValueName)
Select Case UCase(strType)
Case "DWORD"
objRegistry.GetDWORDValue intRegistryHive, strSubKeyName, sValueName, strValue
Case "EXPANDEDSTRING"
objRegistry.GetExpandedStringValue intRegistryHive, strSubKeyName, sValueName, strValue
Case "MULTISTRING"
objRegistry.GetMultiStringValue intRegistryHive, strSubKeyName, sValueName, strValue
Case "STRING"
objRegistry.GetStringValue intRegistryHive, strSubKeyName, sValueName, strValue
End Select

ReadRegistryValue = strValue
End Function

Trond Eirik Haavarstein May 23, 2012 at 18:52

Great script Dagfinn, thanks for sharing

Clemens May 23, 2012 at 20:05

Hi
I find redirected Startmenu convenient for smaller Sites (up to 200 Users).
I share the folder on the network, enable ABE on that one, create a GPO for redirecting the Startmenu (Startmenu has to be classic style) for all users and give permissions to APP Groups, where I add the according Users to. The Icons have to be created from one of the XenApp Servers. Any user without being member in that group does not see the Icon, only members do.
I don’t like that folder sitting on a DFSR