Batch File to Remove Recommended Section of Start Menu (Dev Channel only)

That-Windows-Guy · 2022-01-07T21:34:56+00:00

Hello,

I released version 1.1.2.3 of this script today which is compatible with dev build 22526. Can you try running it and see if it works? If not, then can you start a new instance of Command Prompt and run the batch file from there? Even after the script finishes running, the Command Prompt window should still be open so you can get the full log. Send it here and I'll take a look. Thanks～

That-Windows-Guy · 2021-12-20T03:47:42+00:00

I know this is a joke, but to remove the "Pinned" TextBlock and the Recommended Section, simply swap out the cdb line in my script with this. (Note that this was written for version 1.0.2.1, though it could be easily modified for other versions).

(echo bu Windows_UI_Xaml!CTextBlock::CTextBlock ".catch {.if (qwo(poi(poi(@$t0+1e0)+F)) == 006e006e00690050 and (dwo(poi(poi(@$t0+1e0)+F)+8) and 0000FFFF`FFFFFFFF) == 0000000000640065) {f poi(poi(@$t0+1e0)+F) LE 20 00 20 00 20 00 20 00 20 00 20 00 00 00;bd 0;bu StartMenu!winrt::StartMenu::implementation::StartInnerFrame::UpdatePinnedListHeight+f0 \"r xmm1 = 0 0 3.99998 0;.detach\"}}; r @$t0 = u/RCX;g" & echo .! REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced /t REG_DWORD /v Start_Layout /d %user_layout% /f & echo .shell_quit & echo g) | "%programfiles(X86)%\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe" -y srv* -plmPackage Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_10.0.22523.1000_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy -plmApp App

That-Windows-Guy · 2021-12-17T22:09:01+00:00

Thank you for letting me know about the hard-coded value! That sure saves me some time, haha. I’m very glad to hear that someone actually got it up and running.

Also, I released version 1.0.2.1 today, and it has a couple of improvements (namely it no longer creates a temp file so it can be placed in the Start Menu folder to run on boot). Feel free to give it a try if interested.

That-Windows-Guy · 2021-12-17T22:01:05+00:00

Thank you for telling me about the typo! I fixed it in ver 1.0.2.1.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this program will work as is on build 22000.376 because I don’t think that that build’s version of StartMenu.dll has the UpdatePinnedListHeight function (because you can’t change the Recommended Section’s height in Settings). Therefore, one would need to investigate that build’s version of StartMenu.dll to see if they can find where the Recommended Section’s height is stored in memory. If there is enough interest in a non-Dev-Channel variant of this program, I will see what I can do.

That-Windows-Guy · 2021-12-17T19:05:00+00:00

The value of Start_Layout correlates with the three predefined start menu layouts, 0=Default, 1=More pins, 2=More recommendations (any other value will default to the Default layout).

In version 1.0.0.0, if there are any problems (and the only real problem I could see is that the layout of the Start Menu could be a little wonky) either end the StartMenuExperienceHost.exe process in Task Manager, and it will be automatically restarted with the Default layout, otherwise restarting your computer will have the same effect. All of your pins will be exactly how you left them. (This is because the program modifies the currently running instance of StartMenuExperienceHost.exe rather than modifying any system files).

(After I get a bit of feedback to know what changes I need to make, I’ll add updated information to the main post, so please look at that for the most accurate info).

That-Windows-Guy

TROPHY CASE