So.. I was looking for a utility that would sort out the useful links to executables that are buried in 247 folders up and down my start menu.. in to topical folders to simplify my use and reduce the number of clicks and time spent scrolling and sifting through folders.

Not only does Start Menu Organizer NOT do that.. I don't seem to be able to use it to pull links out of folders to put them in to topical folders.. er, groups(?) At that.. I seem to be limited to how many group/folders I can create?

Am I missing something..? I can see that this software has been around for a while, so it must have some utility.. but from what I'm seeing, I'm better off sorting things by hand in Windows Explorer.

What am I missing??

You're not giving any details, such as OS and version, and Start Menu Organizer or SMO Pro, etc.

Review and follow the Board Rules and Guidelines, which give plenty of hints on what's needed in posts.

Well.. as it happens, I've just migrated from a Win7 x64 HP Elitebook that still has enough horsepower to last another decade or two. I am migrating to a Win11 Pro HP Omen with.. everything. 32 cores, RTX 4080, 64GB RAM, dual NVme SSD drives.. Of course, I despise Win10/11, so I've installed ExplorerPatcher, which enforces a Win10 style taskbar and Start Menu, which of course.. I've set to Win7 styled everything. I do still have the default Win11 start menu linked to the hardware Windows key, but I only use that Start Menu when I need a link to some Win11 specific App/Settings nonsense. Also, I have WinXP and WinXP mode from my old Dell M170 XPS installed in a virtual machine. I also have SUSE SLED co-installed on the Elitebook, and I will be co-installing the Ubuntu Creator flavored desktop on this machine as soon as I get the Windoze Start Menu sorted out. Glad you asked!

Oh, and yes, just the free version of SMO. I'm not going to drop cash on a utility that I don't understand why I would buy it, yet.



I don't know how to tell you this boss, In descending order, the posts I see are:
BitDefender
Anti-virus
What's next
Wish List
Translations
FAQ
How to hover
...then my post

I'm sorry, but I don't see a "Board Rules and Guidelines" post. Kindly point me to what you're referring to..?

Honestly, I thought I described my issues pretty well. My main point is.. I simply don't get it, but I'm pretty sure that there must be an "it" and I'm just not seeing it. :/

Alright, it's been like three days now. I'm just going to go ahead and.. move on down the road and do it myself. Have a nice day!

Apologies, was away for the weekend.



The free version of the Start Menu Organizer (SMO) does not allow you to create categories, it only offers a selected handful of pre-defined categories. In the Pro version you can create as many categories as you want.



Yes, you can, but it's a lot quicker (and safer because of the backup option) to do it via the SMO.

Anyway, there is a reason the last version of Windows listed in the System Requirements section of the SMO is Windows 7. From Windows 8 onwards Microsoft changed the folder-based structure from which the All Programs menu was structured from and turned it into an hybrid internal database. Not only that, it now displays those items in alphabetical order, so the SMO lost most of its usefulness (unless you are using an application like Winstep Xtreme which shows the All Programs menu using the old folder structure, but that actually comes with the Pro version of the SMO).