From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Windows 11 Pro

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible. At:

https://youtu.be/cib1dXS5yTE?t=14

the author shows the Start Menu, and there is a paging control at the right-side of the window for the Start Menu that he can click on to
scroll through the pinned items that are out of view. I don't see that
paging control. However, half of the pinned section in the Start Menu
is blank. A newly pinned item has plenty of space to get added to the
Start Menu without any scrolling required.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Sun, 12/21/2025 12:15 AM, VanguardLH wrote:

Windows 11 Pro

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible. At:

https://youtu.be/cib1dXS5yTE?t=14

the author shows the Start Menu, and there is a paging control at the right-side of the window for the Start Menu that he can click on to
scroll through the pinned items that are out of view. I don't see that paging control. However, half of the pinned section in the Start Menu
is blank. A newly pinned item has plenty of space to get added to the
Start Menu without any scrolling required.

Run Winver.exe and check your OS version.

24H2 doesn't seem to be complete, with regard to Start Menu design.

The 25H2 running on the Test Machine (shown here), has the scroll on the right side.

[Picture] 25H2-Start-Scroll-Bar.gif

https://imgur.com/a/ZzsAQgw

Paul
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Windows 11 Pro

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not
visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible. At:

https://youtu.be/cib1dXS5yTE?t=14

the author shows the Start Menu, and there is a paging control at the
right-side of the window for the Start Menu that he can click on to
scroll through the pinned items that are out of view. I don't see that
paging control. However, half of the pinned section in the Start Menu
is blank. A newly pinned item has plenty of space to get added to the
Start Menu without any scrolling required.

Run Winver.exe and check your OS version.

24H2 doesn't seem to be complete, with regard to Start Menu design.

The 25H2 running on the Test Machine (shown here), has the scroll on the right side.

[Picture] 25H2-Start-Scroll-Bar.gif

https://imgur.com/a/ZzsAQgw

My bad. I didn't have enough items in the Pinned list to require paging/scrolling to see them. That was a red herring as to why some
pinned items don't show up in the Start Menu's Pinned list.

I right-click on a file or shortcut, Pin to Start, but the item isn't
visible in the Pinned list. If I again right-click on the same object,
I'm then offered Unpin from Start. Well, it would have to be pinned to
then have the option to unpin it.

I'm back to why pinned objects that Windows 11 thinks have been pinned
are not visible in the Start Menu's Pinned list.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On 2025-12-21 05:15, VanguardLH wrote:

Windows 11 Pro

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible. At:

https://youtu.be/cib1dXS5yTE?t=14

the author shows the Start Menu, and there is a paging control at the right-side of the window for the Start Menu that he can click on to
scroll through the pinned items that are out of view. I don't see that paging control. However, half of the pinned section in the Start Menu
is blank. A newly pinned item has plenty of space to get added to the
Start Menu without any scrolling required.

At least twice, I think perhaps three times, when creating my W11 builds
I had problems with the Start Menu suddenly losing its icons. The
shortcuts were there, as evidenced by the labels being visible, but
their icons were missing. I never found a reason for this, let alone a
cure, and on each occasion had to revert to my last good backup of the
build and start that phase of the build again. Damned waste of time.

As Paul has said, the icon-style Start Menu in recent versions of
Windows is somewhat clunky and has a number of problems that the
traditional text-style menus did not have.
--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website: www.macfh.co.uk

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

VanguardLH wrote:

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not >visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible.

Yes, I've also seen it a few times. Simply unpinning and pinning it
again does the job. One of the many foibles or bugs in the GUI.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On 2025-12-21 16:02, Apd wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not
visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible.

Yes, I've also seen it a few times. Simply unpinning and pinning it
again does the job. One of the many foibles or bugs in the GUI.

This definitely did *NOT* work for the problem I described.
--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website: www.macfh.co.uk

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:

Windows 11 Pro

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible.

FWIW, I see a similar kind of behaviour for pinning to the *Taskbar*
(on my Windows 11 Home 24H2 laptop).

For example when I pin (non-open) Calculator to the Taskbar, seemingly nothing happens, but when I hover over the spot where the Calculator
should be located, it pops up "Calculator" and when I click that spot, Calculator starts. If I then minimize Calcultor, the spot on the Taskbar
is still empty, but with an small bar below it, indicating that
something is active.

Sometimes this misbehaviour corrects itself, but not always.

So it seems this misbehaviour is not limited to the Start menu.

N.B. I use Open-Shell Menu, so I don't know whether or not this also
happens in the native Windows 11 Start menu on my system.

[...]
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Windows 11 Pro

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not
visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible.

At least twice, I think perhaps three times, when creating my W11 builds
I had problems with the Start Menu suddenly losing its icons. The
shortcuts were there, as evidenced by the labels being visible, but
their icons were missing. I never found a reason for this, let alone a cure, and on each occasion had to revert to my last good backup of the
build and start that phase of the build again. Damned waste of time.

As Paul has said, the icon-style Start Menu in recent versions of
Windows is somewhat clunky and has a number of problems that the
traditional text-style menus did not have.

I miss the toolbars in the Taskbar that Windows 10 had, and before.
Although a poor substitute, I found I could create groups in the Pinned
section of the Start Menu to group related programs, like I did with the taskbar toolbars. Alas, I'm finding items that I pin to the Start Menu
are not visible. When I right-click on the item again, it says Unpin
from Start Menu, so Windows thinks it got pinned, but it's invisible.

Sometimes when trying to create a pinned group by dragging one pinned
icon atop another, it's like playing that cat-n-mouse game where
something moves when you try to hover the mouse cursor over it. Windows
11 thinks I'm trying to reposition a pinned icon instead of creating a
group when dragging a pinned icon atop another pinned icon. Plus,
that's the deepest layering I can do with pinned icons. Just 1 layer
with a group, and no subgroups within a group, like hierarchical
layering.

Might have to go with Start11. I was hoping not having to throw
3rd-party software to regain features lost in Windows 11, but looks like Microsoft isn't moving their lardy butt on improving the Start Menu.
Besides letting me pin anything to a cascading folder on the taskbar, it
gives me a better Start Menu layout. However, Stardock really should
indicate those settings within Start11 which are already settings within Windows 11, but they rolled into Start11. I dislike when devs pretend something they added to a program was their invention.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Apd <not@all.invalid> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is
not visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin
from Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start
Menu, but the professed pinned item is not visible.

Yes, I've also seen it a few times. Simply unpinning and pinning it
again does the job. One of the many foibles or bugs in the GUI.

I've tried that. Mostly because I'd pin, didn't see it in the Pinned
section of the Start Menu, figured I flubbed the pin, and right-click on
the item only to find "Unpin from Start Menu" which meant it got pinned.
So, I'd unpin, and re-pin, but still no visible icon in the Pinned
section. Pinning seems flaky. Might show, might not.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.lh> wrote:

Windows 11 Pro

Sometimes when I pin a program or shortcut to the Start Menu, it is not
visible. Right-clicking on the file or shortcut shows "Unpin from
Start", so Win11 thinks the item had been pinned to the Start Menu, but
the professed pinned item is not visible.

FWIW, I see a similar kind of behaviour for pinning to the *Taskbar*
(on my Windows 11 Home 24H2 laptop).

For example when I pin (non-open) Calculator to the Taskbar, seemingly nothing happens, but when I hover over the spot where the Calculator
should be located, it pops up "Calculator" and when I click that spot, Calculator starts. If I then minimize Calcultor, the spot on the Taskbar
is still empty, but with an small bar below it, indicating that
something is active.

Sometimes this misbehaviour corrects itself, but not always.

So it seems this misbehaviour is not limited to the Start menu.

N.B. I use Open-Shell Menu, so I don't know whether or not this also happens in the native Windows 11 Start menu on my system.

[...]

With the flaky Start Menu, and according to you also the flaky Taskbar, regarding pinned items, Start11 is looking more desirable.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

VanguardLH wrote:

Apd wrote:

Yes, I've also seen it a few times. Simply unpinning and pinning it
again does the job. One of the many foibles or bugs in the GUI.

I've tried that. Mostly because I'd pin, didn't see it in the Pinned
section of the Start Menu, figured I flubbed the pin, and right-click on
the item only to find "Unpin from Start Menu" which meant it got pinned.
So, I'd unpin, and re-pin, but still no visible icon in the Pinned
section. Pinning seems flaky. Might show, might not.

Definitely flaky. It can happen with the taskbar, together with some
other strangeness like icons temporarily changing colour. In case it
matters, I'm on Win 11 Pro, 25H2.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

VanguardLH wrote:

With the flaky Start Menu

I haven't noticed any flakiness on either of my Win11 Pro machines, or
any customer machines.

But there is a shiny new Start menu in 25H2
currently gated-off and awaiting activation,

(there's a way to activate it now if you really want https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvdv09AmDYg)
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

With the flaky Start Menu

I haven't noticed any flakiness on either of my Win11 Pro machines, or
any customer machines.

But there is a shiny new Start menu in 25H2
currently gated-off and awaiting activation,

(there's a way to activate it now if you really want https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvdv09AmDYg)

I have 25H2 of Windows 11 Pro, but don't have the updated Start Menu.
That'll probably get later pushed with some feature update.

Won't be using the phone link sidebar. Already removed the phone link
app. When I get a new phone, maybe those features might prove useful,
but, for me, probably about once a year, at most. I'm way too old to
have been ingrained to a phone grafted onto me to be always present.

The only "big" change, other than some rearrangement in the layout, is
the Recommendation section can now be made to disappear. Before you
could disable it, but that just removed items it would display, not that
there was a Recommendation section in the Start Menu.

A layout change is where the All apps list is presented. Now it's at
the bottom of the Start Menu instead of a separate list you see when
clicking on the All app button. Actually I prefer the All apps list to
be separate since I rarely use it. Not sure how the Category grouping
works since I don't recall any app specifying a category of software for itself. Maybe that's something you do by creating categories, and
dragging program shortcuts into a category group. Similar to how you
can create pinned groups.

The video mentions how to use vivetool to unlock the new Start Menu
feature, but I don't see much change other than layout and the phone
link sidebar. I'll wait until Microsoft foists it upon me. Still
doesn't come close to what I can do with Start11.

I don't see anything saying the stability of adding pinned items has
been improved. I'm not the only one that has encountered pinned items
not appearing in the Pinned section of the Start Menu, or them
disappearing. That you haven't encountered the problem does not
eradicate the problem for others. Lucky you. Right now, I'm setting up
a new Win11 Pro setup, so there are a LOT of changes and tweaks going
on, like pinning items and making pinned groups in the Start Menu, so
I'm probably generating a lot more change events than you which means
the flakiness could be more evident to me.

Thanks for the heads up on the Start Menu change to arrive someday.
Still a lot of features missing from Microsoft's implementation compared
to Start11 that I've just started to play with.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

A layout change is where the All apps list is presented. Now it's at
the bottom of the Start Menu instead of a separate list you see when
clicking on the All app button. Actually I prefer the All apps list to
be separate since I rarely use it. Not sure how the Category grouping
works since I don't recall any app specifying a category of software for itself. Maybe that's something you do by creating categories, and
dragging program shortcuts into a category group. Similar to how you
can create pinned groups.

Nope, you don't get to assign a program to a category to decide what
goes in which All Apps group. See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8ynKwdQd4

Well, that sucks. Programs don't assign themselves a category, and what
is get is some Microsoft choice for known programs should be added to
which category. Guess there will be a catch-all category for all those
unknown programs Microsoft has yet to categorize, and for which you have
no control. When I create pinned groups, I decide which apps to group
together based on what category I decided. Doesn't look like the user
gets a choice with the Category view of All Apps.

Since All Apps is no longer a separate list view, but merged into the
main Start Menu view, the layout settings are gone (More pins, default,
more recommendations). The layout changed, but layout options got
reduced. Guess it's that minimalism mantra creeping in again.

Settings have also changed on where you find them. Oh joy, relearn how
to find them again. Keep settings a moving target. Well, at least, you
can still search for them if you remember a keyword that will match on
the setting.
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

VanguardLH wrote:

Won't be using the phone link sidebar. Already removed the phone link
app. When I get a new phone, maybe those features might prove useful,
but, for me, probably about once a year, at most.

Not least (for me) because phone link requires an MSA last I checked.

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