Choose and show select Folders on Start Menu in Windows 11/10

Did you know that you could choose and display select folders on the left side of the Windows 11/10 Start Menu? If the idea appeals to you, then this post will show you how to show select Folders on the Start Menu.

Choose which folders appear on Start Menu in Windows 11

To choose which folders appear on Start Menu in Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. Press Win+I to open Windows Settings.
2. Go to Personalization > Start > Folder.
3. Toggle the folder buttons to show them in the Start Menu.

However, if you use Windows 10, you need to follow these steps.

Choose which folders appear on Start Menu in Windows 10

To begin, From the WinX Menu open Windows Settings > Personalization > Start.

Towards the bottom, you will see a link Choose which folders appear on Start. Click on it to open the following panel.

Here, by toggling the slider to On, you can opt to display the following items on the Start Menu:

• File Explorer
• Settings
• Documents
• Downloads
• Music
• Pictures
• Videos
• HomeGroup
• Network
• Personal folder.

Select the items you want to display and open your Start Menu.

You will see the folders being displayed on the left side of the Windows 10 Start Menu.

Hope you find this small tip useful!

Choose which folders appear on Start grayed out

If this Choose which folders appear on Start option is unavailable & grayed out in your Settings, see if this helps.

Create a system restore point first and then open an elevated CMD and execute the following commands:

cd C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows

ren "Start Menu Places" "Start Menu Places Originals"

Now open C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows and create a new folder named Start Menu Places here. You may need to Show hidden files, folders and drives first.

Restart your PC and sign in using another local account and check. If you do not have other local accounts, create one first.

Now using this other local account, copy all the shortcut files from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu Places Original folder to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu Places folder.

Restart and log in with your original account and see if it has helped.

Can you add folders to Start menu?

Yes, you can add folders to the Start Menu in Windows 11 and Windows 10. To do that, you need to open the Windows Settings panel and go to Personalization > Start > Folders. Here you can find some folders that you can include in the Start Menu. You need to toggle the corresponding buttons to make them appear in the Start Menu.

How do I customize the Start menu in Windows 11/10?

There are a lot of things you can change or tweak in the Start Menu of Windows 11. For example, you can align it to the left side like Windows 10, change the Start Menu color, remove apps from the Recommended list, etc. You can follow this guide to customize the Windows 11 Start Menu.

Hope it helped.