Configure Start Menu and Taskbar Pined Apps in Windows 11 via GPO

In this article, we’ll explore ways to manage the Start Menu and taskbar layouts in both Windows 11 and Windows 10. With the ability to import and export Start menu and taskbar pinned app configurations between computers, you can create environment templates for different groups of business users and deploy them using Group Policy or PowerShell scripts. This allows administrators to standardize the set of pinned app shortcuts on the Start menu and taskbar across corporate users’ computers in the AD domain.

Export and Import Windows Start Menu Layout with PowerShell

Start by customizing the Start menu and taskbar on the reference computer: remove default app icons, add frequently used shortcuts to classic and/or Microsoft Store apps, pin and group them on the screen.

To export the current user’s Start Menu layout settings to a JSON file, use the following PowerShell command:

Export-StartLayout -Path $Env:USERPROFILE\Documents\newStartLayout.json

The Import-StartLayout cmdlet is not supported in Windows 11. According to Microsoft’s documentation, you can either use Intune/Microsoft Endpoint Manager or Group Policy to apply the Windows 11 Start menu layout in JSON format to other computers (described below).

However, there is another unofficial way of copying a pre-customized Start Menu with pinned apps to another user’s profile. In Windows 11, the Start Menu configuration is stored in the user’s profile in the %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\ directory. The format of the Start Menu configuration file varies depending on the Windows 11 build.

• start2.bin file – format used in Windows 11 22H2 and newer.
• start.bin file – used in builds before Windows 11 22H2

You can copy this *.bin file to another user’s profile to apply the customized Start menu layout. The following PowerShell script copies the customized start2.bin file from the current user’s ($env:LOCALAPPDATA) to the Default profile (which is used as a template when creating new user profiles in Windows):

$path = "$env:systemdrive\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState"
New-Item -Type Directory -Path $path -Force
Copy-Item -Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\" -Destination $path -Force

To apply the configured Start layout to an existing user profile, copy the start2.bin file and replace the existing file in the target user profile. Replace “Default” in the target folder with the name of the user to whom you want to copy the Start Menu layout (this method of copying a layout saves the grouping of pinned apps in the Start Menu).

After copying the start2.bin file to the user profile, the user must either log in again or restart the StartupMenuExperienceHost process.

taskkill /F /IM StartMenuExperienceHost.exe

Deploying Custom Start Menu Layout using GPO

You can deploy the Start menu layout file to other computers in the domain using Group Policy. To do this, copy your layout JSON (or XML, if you’re using Windows 10) file to the NETLOGON directory on the domain controller. Then open the domain Group Policy Management console (GPMC.msc), create a new policy or edit the existing one, and assign it to the OU containing user accounts.

Go to the GPO section User Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar. You can also apply the Start menu layout policy to computer objects. The configuration in this case must be made in the Computer Configuration section.

• For Windows 11: enable the Configure Start Pins policy and specify the UNC path to the JSON file in Netlogon (this GPO option is available starting with Windows 11 24H2) 
• For Windows 10:  enable the Start Layout policy and specify the UNC path to the XML file containing the Windows 10 Start Menu layout settings. (for example, \\woshub.com\netlogon\StartLayoutW10.xml)

Once this GPO has been applied, users will no longer be able to make permanent changes to the pinned apps in the Start menu. If you want to apply a pre-configured Start Menu layout and then allow users to customize it, you can use Group Policy Preferences.

The idea is to copy (with replacement) the reference start2.bin file into the Default profile, or into the existing user profile at the next login (paths are specified above). The easiest way is to copy the file to user computers using GPP (User Configuration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Files). Enable the option Apply once and do not reapply option on the Common tab.

Partial Lock the Certain Items in Windows 10 Start Menu

The Partial Lockdown mode, introduced in Windows 10 1511, enables you to specify groups of Start Menu tiles that users cannot modify. This allows users to change any pinned shortcuts, icons, or tiles, except for a certain group of corporate app shortcuts.

To set the locked Start Layout groups, you need to manually edit the XML layout file using any text editor (it is convenient to use Notepad++ to edit the XML file).

Open your file StartLayoutW10.xml and find the following section in it: <DefaultLayoutOverride>. To lock the specific shortcut group, you need to change the attribute of this section to <DefaultLayoutOverride LayoutCustomizationRestrictionType=”OnlySpecifiedGroups”>

Save the changes to the XML file and deploy it to users’ computers via GPO. Thus, only the groups of tiles (shortcuts) specified in the XML file will be locked. All other groups, their contents, and element settings can be changed by users.

How to Deploy Pinned Taskbar Items Using GPO

To configure a list of pinned taskbar apps on users’ computers, it is recommended to use the XML file method. The administrator creates a special XML file, TaskbarLayoutModification.xml, that describes the pinned shortcuts. Then, this XML file can be deployed to users using Group Policy.

XML templates containing examples of how to configure pinned taskbar apps can be copied from the Microsoft website:

• Windows 11: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/customize-the-windows-11-taskbar
• Windows 10: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/customize-the-taskbar

Edit the XML file to add shortcuts to your Win32 or Microsoft Store apps according to the template (add app under the taskbar:TaskbarPinList section).

This XML file can be applied to users’ computers via the Start Layout option under the Computer (or User) Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar -> Start Layout section of the GPO edition. Specify the UNC path to the XML file in the policy settings.

To reset any user changes to the list of pinned apps in the XML file, enable the Reapply layout at every logon option.

Instead of using GPO, you can copy the customized XML file into the Default user profile on a computer. In this way, you can configure Windows to create all new user profiles on the computer with pre-configured pinned apps in the taskbar.

copy /Y "%~dp0LayoutModification.xml"  "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\"

In this article, we explored how to apply a pre-configured Start Menu layout and pinned taskbar icons to users (the approaches differ in Windows 10 and Windows 11).