Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar (Windows 10)

This video demonstrates how to customize the Start menu and the taskbar (in Windows 10 only) without using the Copy Profile feature of sysprep. Step-by-step instructions are below the video.

Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar
 

1. Sign in to Windows on your Reference VM, and configure the Start menu as you want it to be for all users.
2. Open PowerShell, and run Export-StartLayout -Path [Path\LayoutModification.xml].
3. Browse to and open the LayoutModification.xml file that you specified in step 2. 
4. Add xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout" to the first line of the file, before the closing >.
5. Open the attached Taskbar-XML-Snippet.txt file to see a code sample.
6. Duplicate or edit the "taskbar:DesktopApp" line to specify the applications that you want pinned to the taskbar.
7. Copy the edited XML, and paste it on a new line above in the LayoutModification.xml file that you created.
8. Copy the XML file to C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\ on your Reference VM.
   
    

Alternatively, you can download the LayoutModification.xml file that is attached to this article, and copy it to C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\. This layout creates an Office app collection in the Start menu and puts Outlook, File Explorer, and Internet Explorer in the taskbar.

For more information, visit these pages:

• Configure Windows 10 Taskbar
• Customize Pinned Items on Taskbar in Windows 10 1607 during OSD with ConfigMgr
• Customizing the Windows 10 Start Menu and Adding IE Shortcut during OSD
• Customize the Taskbar