Add Internet Explorer to Windows 10 start menu

As you may know from a previous blog post, the Windows 10 start menu can be customized. In this post, I will show you how to add Internet Explorer to the start menu. Before you get started, refer to the aforementioned post as you will need a customized start menu.

Step 1: Create a shortcut to IE

Create a shortcut to Internet Explorer and copy it to the folder on your deployment server where you have the LayoutModification.xml and LayoutModification.ps1 files.

Step 2: Modify the layout

You will need to modify the customized LayoutModification.xml by adding the following:

<start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Internet Explorer.lnk" />

The difference between adding a shortcut to Microsoft Windows Explorer (as shown in the previous post), and Internet Explorer is that Internet Explorer requires the DesktopApplicationLinkPath with a link to where the application resides. This is required for the application to work.

The contents of the XML should look like the below example. You can see that Microsoft Windows Explorer, and Internet Explorer will be positioned next to each other.

<LayoutModificationTemplate Version="1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification">
  <DefaultLayoutOverride>
    <StartLayoutCollection>
      <defaultlayout:StartLayout GroupCellWidth="6" xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout">
        <start:Group Name="Company name" xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout">
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationID="Microsoft.Windows.Explorer" />
    <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationLinkPath="%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Internet Explorer.lnk" />
        </start:Group>
      </defaultlayout:StartLayout>
    </StartLayoutCollection>
  </DefaultLayoutOverride>
</LayoutModificationTemplate>

Step 3: Add shortcut

In you Startlayout.ps1 script, add the Internet Explorer shortcut to a location that users have rights to read, for example:

ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories

Add the following to the script:

-Path $PSScriptRoot'\Internet Explorer.lnk' -Destination $env:SystemDrive'\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories'

The complete startlayout.ps1 script should look like this:

Startlayout.ps1
Copy-Item -Path $PSScriptRoot'\Internet Explorer.lnk' -Destination $env:SystemDrive'\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories'
Copy-Item -Path $PSScriptRoot'\LayoutModification.xml -Destination $env:SystemDrive'\windows\temp
Import-StartLayout -LayoutPath $PSScriptRoot\LayoutModification.xml -MountPath $env:SystemDrive\

Step 4: Publish

Now all you have to do is to Publish this in Specops Deploy OS and deploy a machine.