Windows 10 Start and taskbar layout

In Windows 8 there was a lot of difficulty with Start menu configurations. These problems are somewhat cleared up in Windows 10 after build 1607. There is now a PowerShell cmdlet to export and import Start menu layouts. Typically, this is done as part of a deployment task sequence using SCCM or MDT to ease the automation of the process. Group Policy and Mobile Device Management (MDM) policies can be used to do some of this as well.

Some thought needs to be put into this ahead of time. Take the existing mechanics into account:

If you apply a taskbar layout to a clean installation of Windows 10:

  • The default configuration is merged somewhat with your configuration. Only applications that are in your configuration and default applications that are not specifically removed will be pinned to the taskbar.

If you apply a taskbar layout to an upgraded Windows 10 installation, things get messy, as you can see here:

  • If the application was pinned to the taskbar by the user prior to upgrade, those pinned applications remain and new applications will be added to the right of the existing ones
  • If the application was pinned during installation or by policy (not by the user) and the application is not in your XML configuration file, the application will be removed from the taskbar
  • If the application was pinned during installation or by policy (not by the user) and the application is in your XML configuration file, the application will be added to the right of the existing applications
  • New applications specified in your XML configuration file are pinned to the right of the user's pinned applications

Now, with all of that taken into account, no matter if you apply a taskbar configuration to a clean install or an updated one, the users can still pin additional applications, change the order of the pins, or even unpin them.

The instructions for exporting the layout are as follows:

To define and export the desired Start menu layout, use the following steps:

  1. Set up the desired layout of the Start menu/screen on an existing Windows 10 machine.
  2. Make a directory called C:\temp.
  3. Run PowerShell in Administrator mode.
  1. Run the following command in the PowerShell console: 
      export-startlayout -path 
      c:\temp\customstartscreenlayout.xml –verbose
  1. To then import the customized layout to a mounted WIM (where %systemdrive% is the path to the mounted WIM):
    • Run the following command in an elevated PowerShell console:
              import-startlayout -layoutpath 
              c:\temp\customstartscreenlayout.xml 
              -mountpath %systemdrive%

This mechanism should provide relief for some administration tasks in the customization area.

Do note that this is not supported if you use roaming user profiles.