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Windows 10 can't currently deal with more than 512 items in its Start menu

WindowsCentral.com

Staff member
Dec 17, 2013
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windows-10-start-menu_0.jpg

There are some Windows 10 users who might have a lot of items in their Start menu. However, if those people have put in more than 512 items in the menu, there's a known issue that will cause it to "eat" those apps or crash a lot

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TechFreak1

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May 15, 2013
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Thought I'd test this and to be honest found nothing of concern there is only a delay off a few seconds and this delay only happens once after a cold boot, warm boot or signing (this is running off a 850 EV0 SSD).

Screenshots below:
Folder contents of the duplicated folder. as file size wasn't mentioned as factor.
folder contents.PNG

Copied a folder to the start menu\programs dir and it didn't appear:
User created folders don't appear in start menu.png

But short cuts do appear if they are made outside of this directory:
User created shortcuts do appear.png

Trying to create a shortcut inside the directory results in the following:
cant create shortcuts in startmenu-programs dir 1.pngcant create shortcuts in startmenu-programs dir 2.png

So duplicated the folder shown in the first screenshot and created shortcuts:
816 items.PNG816 shortcuts.PNG

Copied them into the directory:
27 start menu items.PNGPaste to dir.pngshortcuts in start menu.png

This is what happens (occurred after signing out, same result with a cold boot, warm boot and signing out - but it only occurs once):

delay.jpgno delay.jpg

Beyond that everything else works fine and there is no abnormal behaviour.

This test was done on a near clean install (installed last night) with the latest updates and only display drivers {leshcat} installed manually everything else is running on generic drivers.

I imagine this only applies to installed Win32 items as they create additional registry entries whereas store installs don't generate as much "digital litter" when compared to Win32 installs.

Edit: Also thought I'd check with a folder containing a lot of files and folders (with 632,000 files + 2,448 folders to be exact) and no problems what so ever.
Shortcut folder with 632,000 files + 2,448 folders.PNG
 
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