Start Menu Tool

After several app installations and Windows updates, the layout of your Start Menu in Windows 10 might suffer modifications. On a shared computer, different users might unpin tiles they do not need or rearrange tiles to their liking.

To prevent that from happening, you can run a PowerShell command to create a backup of the layout and apply a group policy to lock the layout in place. Instructions on how to do so are one search away, but if thinking about tweaking the registry and the group policy gives you headaches, then Start Menu Tool is the way to go.

Start Menu Tool provides a user-friendly GUI to help you back up the layout of the Windows 10 Start Menu and restore it whenever necessary, should any changes occur. Following a brief installation, the application is ready to use.

The main window is simple, clearly focused on functionality rather than looks. It only comprises buttons for the three functions of Start Menu Tool, with no additional options to deal with. The first thing you need to do is create a backup of the current layout of the Start Menu. This is done with the push of a button instead of having to deal with PowerShell, commands and XML files. A confirmation message is shown once the task is complete and the date and time of the backup is revealed.

If you notice that the layout of the Start Menu has been tampered with, you can use Start Menu Tool to restore a previously saved copy of the layout. Avoiding such situations is possible altogether by locking the current layout, which is just as easy. The lock status is displayed within the main window.  A locked layout means a group policy has been set in place to prevent modifications to the Start Menu.

Whether we are talking about modifications due to newly installed applications or intentional or unintentional attempts to customize it, you might not like changes to the Start Menu without your consent. Fortunately, Start Menu Tool provides a way to backup the current Start Menu layout and even lock it, if necessary.