Pin apps to start menu for Enterprise workstations

OK, I fell like a newbie asking this, but I simple can't figure it out...

The customer I'm working for use Win 8.1 on laptops and workstations. They also use SCCM 2012 and have just requested Office 2013 to be added to SCCM. No problem here, the app installs and work without any problems.

However, they have requested that a Group is added to the Start menu, which contains shortcuts to Word, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Powerpoint and Lync. They don't want to go to all apps.

I can create the group manually (right click apps and pin to start) and group them. However how is this done automatically? The customer don't want each of their users to do this manually, where must be an enterprise way of doing this?

I read, you could create the group manually and then export it to an xml file and use policy to apply it, however this will overwrite the shortcut any user might have created, so this is not a solution

There must be another automatic way of doing this?

See screenshot, this is how customer would like it to look like

May 27th, 2015 5:26am

Hi,

Actually it is not a newbie question at all.

Windows 8.1 has introduced 5 new Start Menu Group Policies in relation to the Windows 8 Start Menu

StartPinAppsWhenInstalled, LockedStartLayout, GotoDesktopOnSignin, ShowAppsViewOnStart, DisableGlobalSearchOnAppsView

But unfortunately there is no policy could pin specific program to start screen and without over writing.

So the scripting seems to be the only option for that. There is a PowerShell module for Windows 8,

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Script-to-pin-items-to-51be533c

However unfortunately I tested it on Windows 8.1 without success. After searching for some time, I came across a post in MSDN forums which says that programatical access to pin to start verb is restricted in Windows 8.1. This means you cannot no more perform pin to start menu operation using scripts/tools. Only users can interactively do this by GUI. I am not sure if PowerShell really could not do this since it is a powerful tool but I am afraid it is negative for present stage.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/35e91e6a-7d5e-4a32-9a9c-c30990de8a05/why-could-not-get-pin-to-start-context-menu-for-lnk-file-in-windows-81-rtm?forum=windowsgeneraldevelopmentissues

Why Pin to start menu is not working in Windows 8.1 with PowerShell

http://techibee.com/powershell/why-pin-to-start-menu-is-not-working-in-windows-8-1-with-powershell/2389

Regards,

D. Wu

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 31st, 2015 9:47pm

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