Forum Discussion
Windows Server 2025 Terminal Servers - start menu pinned icons
I'm designing the config for some terminal servers running Server 2025.
I want to pin specific icons to the start menu. In Server 2022 (or Windows 10), this was simply a process of setting up the reference machine how I wanted it, then
Export-StartLayout -Path "C:\Export\MStartMenuLayout.xml" to generate the config file, whcih was then applied using the GPO Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar\Start Layout - this worked fine.
On Server 2025 (and Windows 11), however, it appears that this doesn't work the same any more. Although the export command works, it generates a JSON file now rather than an XML. OK, so I saved the file with the JSON extension, and copied the old GPO, amending the name of the config file to point to the new one.
However, it still doesn't work and this documentation:
Would appear to indicate that it can only be done using Intune. If it was Windows 11 I could do that, but as this is Server 2025 it isn't an option - Intune cannot manage server OSs even if I wanted to do that.
Can anyone suggest any alternative methods of doing this? All I want to do is configure a common set of pinned apps for all users - I'm not bothered about configuring any other aspects of the start menu as the defaults are OK.
Thanks