With the release of Windows 11, Microsoft changed how you customise the Start Menu in a way that it is the same for all users when they first log in.
With Windows 10, this was a case of simply exporting the start menu to an XML file, which could then be re-imported with ConfigMgr during OS Deployment. With Windows 11, this is no longer possible
So how do you do it?
Well, fairly easily as it turns out – here’s how
First, login as a test user and customise the start menu pins to how you want it to look
Next navigate to:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy
There will be a number of folders in here, but the one we are interested in is the “LocalState” folder
This one folder contains the file “start.bin” – this one file contains the layout of our start menu and canbe easily copied and replaced.
The easiest way to do this is to copy the whole LocalState folder to a network share that can be accessed during OS Deployment.
Once that folder is copied, all you need to do is create a new “Run Command Line” Task Sequence Step in ConfigMgr with the following in your command line
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cmd /c robocopy "\\SERVER\SHARE\Path\Packages\Win11_StartPins\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\Localstate" "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState" /MIR |
(Make sure you replace the \\SERVER\SHARE\Path part of the robocopy command to patch where you stored your LocalState folder
Save the task sequence – and that’s it
Now, when you build a new Windows 11 machine your default pins will be there when users first login.