Ya' know what would be cool?
 

If there was a was a way to directly pin a folder to XPs Start Menu, not just an application shortcut.

You know what's cool?
 

Open Windows Explorer
Navigate to the destination folder
Copy the contents of the address bar into the clipboard
Go to the desktop
Right click and choose New Shortcut
When the dialog box for path to executable comes up, paste the contents of the clipboard into the dialog box
Next
Enter whatever name you choose.
Finish.
Drag the newly created shortcut to the desired location on the Start Menu.



Next problem, please.

:rolleyes: I've done that many times. I'm talking about simply right-clicking on a folder, and having an option to "Pin to Start Menu" like an application shortcut.

Well, by definition, the Start menu contains items you can "start". Like applications. That's what shortcuts are. Pointers to applications. Even your "folder" isn't a shortcut, it's an attribute of an application, probably Windows Explorer.

Regardless, to achieve your goal of having a shortcut on the start menu that takes you to a given folder using explorer, you have a way to do it, you've always had a way to do it.

To right click on a given folder and have yet another context sensitive menu option of compiling the steps I just described is certainly doable, just not by me.

Keep searching. Perhaps someone has written a little script to do what you're talking about.

So I suppose the only way is still to right-click on the folder, select Create Shortcut, and drag it to the Start Menu.

Move the folder to start menue?? Why not??

I'm confused as to what your question is. The Start menu (not to be confused with the Startup folder) is a directory (a folder) on the disk. You can save files to the Desktop (a folder) or in the Start menu (although I did not verify that one). Just because the file is saved in the Start folder does not mean that the Windows Start button will display that file. The Windows Start button will only display shortcuts and executable icons in that folder.

To see what is in your Start folder, use Windows Explorer to view some of those Start menu entries in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs

Replace 'All Users' with the computer logon account to see the rest of those Start menu entries.

No, if you read my initial post in this thread, you'll see I gave a different way to achieve the end you're seeking.

Still, you have to have two things:

1 -- A shortcut to an application (explorer.exe) and a startup parameter (begin in this directory).

2 -- A way to have that shortcut placed on the Start menu.

How you do these two things is up to you. I reckon you're trying to economize on keystrokes and mouse clicks. A worthy goal, but I think you're going to be very hard pressed to shorten the procedure to less than:

right click on desired folder
choose send to desktop (create shortcut)
drag shortcut to Start menu

That's two clicks and two drags and two releases.

Conceivably, you could shorten that to one click drag release, but at what cost? You could look for a custom script (like in VB perhaps). Maybe others have had your problem too, and have already solved it.

Happy hunting.

Can't you just right-click, drag, drop? It works with Vista, but I can't confirm with XP.

Confirmed.

In Windows XP, if you hold down the Shift key and right-click a file or folder, you usually see one additional entry on the context menu: Pin to Start Menu. This gives you a quick way to stick the chosen file or folder on the top left side of the Start menu.

Confirmed.

busterb, my fluency in redneck is far less than your fluency in nerd. Excellent find!

Notice the usually, doesn't work fer me. Perhaps some setting I've made with tweak UI?

this is a useful discussion
 

The shift/right-click displays a "pin to start menu" for files, but not for shortcuts.

Now, this maye be a stupid question, but I'm trying to drag/drop a shortcut to the Start Menu, but it won't let me release it there unless I'm floating over another directory. How do I drop something directly in the Start Menu?

Edit: Nevermind. I can drop documents in the upper-left-hand area where applications are displayed.

Actually I didn't answer my own question. I still can't drop shortcuts to documents in the start menu. Edit: Actually I can't pin these documents to the start menu at all, because...they're on a shared network drive...they have to be on this computer I guess?

Flint:

I created a shortcut to a document. The shortcut is on a shared network drive. I could not put that shortcut onto the start menu. I confirmed your report.

Then I enabled Make Available Offline (or words to that effect). I followed the wizard and it made a "Shortcut to Offline Files" on my desktop. Inside this newly created folder was a shortcut (offline style, whatever that is) mirroring the shortcut on my shared network drive. NOW I was able to place the original shortcut on my shared network drive on the start menu using the regular procedures. This ability remained even after I deleted the intervening shortcut created in the Offline Files folder on my desktop.

You mean here? This is totally grayed-out for me...

p'raps. No, not really.

Find your shortcut that is ON THE NETWORK SHARE. Right click on it and look for the context menu choice "Make Available Offline". That will rouse the wizard.

The original file is on the shared drive (so it is accessible to others in my department). The shortcut is on my desktop. Right, I can make a shortcut in the reverse orientation and pin it to my start menu, but I can't seem to: create a shortcut, on my start menu, for a file that exists on the shared drive. I can drop it in "My Documents" etc. on the Start Menu, but otherwise I'm ghostbustered.

This is now easy.

Everybody has same access to same share and same access to same original file, right? Good. Here's the key:

Make a shortcut to the *original file on the network share* and place it in the same location as the original file.

Now you have a network located *shortcut* that can be manipulated as described above. Try it and let me know what happens.

That's one of the things I already tried. Files existing on my profile, or shortcuts to files existing on my profile, can be pinned/dropped to my start menu. Files existing on the shared drive, or shortcuts to files existing on the shared drive, cannot be pinned/dropped to my start menu.

It doesn't matter where the shortcut is, it matters where the file is.

The "make available offline" context menu choice has never been available to me, which makes sense (maybe?) considering that the entire Offline Files tab under Folder Options appears to be deliberately disabled, presumably some higher-up decision.

Well, I regret to say that I agree with you.

Naturally, a network file must have the network available to make sense, and XP "knows" this. The "glue" for a network file / shortcut / local is the offline files setup. Annnnnd.... you don't have it. That is regrettable. Sorry buddy.

Though...I don't see any reason why a shortcut placed on the "desktop" of my roaming profile (which I can do) should be any different than on the "start menu" of my roaming profile; so I navigated to C:\Documents and Settings and dropped them in my Start Menu folder, and...

...they show up in the upper pane of All Programs.