Contents of Folders in Start Menu don't Auto-Sort

from Stardock Forums

Hello Everyone,

Windows 11 Home 22H2, Start11 1.47, Windows 7 menu style. I have added a bunch of folders of shortcuts to my Start menu, and the contents of these folders don't sort themselves alphabetically:

If I open the same folder in Explorer, the shortcuts in the folders are properly sorted. There seems to be no way for force a sort from within Start11, the Start menu, or the contextual menu. I've tried refreshing the folders in Explorer, replacing them in the menu, changing the menu style from Windows 7 to Modern, creating all-new folders and shortcuts and adding them to the menu, nothing seems to fix it.

I would just write this off as a future feature request, but I have a very similar workstation (Win 11, Start11, Windows 7 menu style) running alongside this one, and the contents of folders added to the Start menu do auto-sort themselves. So I am at a total loss as to what the difference between the two might be. Any thoughts?

Thanks Everyone,

Andrew

start menu products
48,571 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. May I know, how you added those Shortcut Folders into your start menu? I use this guide and it alphabetically sorted for me.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

What file system is used on the drive that folder points to?

FAT32 or NTFS?

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Basj,

I added the folders by dragging them from their original location into the open Start11 Start menu.

Can you be more specific about which topic in that guide you used to add the folder? There are a lot of topics in that guide, and I don't see one that specifically pertains to adding folders to the Start menu. The anchor text you linked to is about backing up your settings.

Neil: the drive where the folder of shortcuts (actually a folder of folders of shortcuts) lives is formatted exFAT.

Thanks everyone!

 

Andrew

EDIT: Added anchor text information

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

This one.

Windows 7 Start11 Menu Style Shortcuts

For pinned items to be carried over for the Win7 menu style, you can copy all the shortcuts located here:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu
(copy \ paste that into Windows Explorer)

Reboot and it should be as it was for settings.

For any of the exported shortcuts to render on a PC that imported them from another, those apps\folder\documents would need to exist on it and be in the exact same location.

 

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

I have a feeling it being exFAT may be the issue.  I seem to recall NTFS drives return the filenames sorted, but exFAT do not.

In order to sort those we would need to load up the entire list first and then apply a sort which isn't something Start11 is doing.

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Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Neil, it seems your recollection was correct: I moved the folder of shortcuts to the C: drive (NTFS) and now the folders' contents auto-arrange themselves alphabetically.

Many thanks to both of you for your advice!

 

Andrew

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello everyone,

I have the same problem.

Is it even possible to sort the start menu with "Start11" ?
Also, the folders.

What does this have to do with the file system ?

The sorting is saved in the registry.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\OpenShell\StartMenu\Order]

With “Open Shell” this works without any problems.


- How do I get rid of the "Desktop" folder in the start menu ?

- Can I increase the height of the start menu ?

See screenshot below.

I would also really like there to be an export/import function for all settings.
Exporting via the registry is not up-to-date and should be an option in the program itself.

Greetings,

Angel

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Angelchc, reply 7

Hello everyone,

I have the same problem.

Is it even possible to sort the start menu with "Start11" ?
Also, the folders.

What does this have to do with the file system ?

The sorting is saved in the registry.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\OpenShell\StartMenu\Order]

With “Open Shell” this works without any problems.


- How do I get rid of the "Desktop" folder in the start menu ?

- Can I increase the height of the start menu ?

See screenshot below.

I would also really like there to be an export/import function for all settings.
Exporting via the registry is not up-to-date and should be an option in the program itself.

Greetings,

Angel


End of Angelchc's quote

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, your issues and the OP are different, yours, I believe, is on "All Program" mode. While the OP on Pinned items panel.

Please create a new thread for yourself. Also include more information of your system. Please refer here: https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1387003915/Contacting+Stardock+About+Start+Product+Issues

Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.