W11 does not save my App icons I add to the start menu

[dancetheskies]

I purchased my HP Envy Desktop directly from HP.  It came with W11 installed, and I've kept it update with all the may OS patches that MS has pushed out to me.

My problem is with the W11 start menu display.  It comes with about a dozens default W11 app icons show on it, and it is supposed to allow users to add their own apps.  I can select my apps and put them in the start Menu, but they are not saved by the OS.  When I re-boot the PC, all my added icons are gone and the original default icons are back.  How do I fix this?  Is there a registry key that is set worng?  Help.  This 

[Dragon-Fur]

@dancetheskies 

Welcome to the HP User Community.

Update - Best Option

Ask specific Windows 11 "how-to", "does not work", and "what-if" questions at the Microsoft Community

Microsoft has changed the way the Windows Start menu works and looks in Windows 11.

Your computer brand or device hardware has no control over the situation.

Settings > Personalization > Start

Switch ON Show recently added Apps

Assuming the apps are being added to the "All Apps" section,

Find and Right-Click on an application >> select to shove it to the top of the list.

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[WAWood]

@dancetheskies 

I have two comments to add.

First, what "may patches" are you talking about? Windows 11 was not released until October of last year and the first Windows Updates (patches) for it did not come out until November.  So clearly, there would be no "May" updates for it.  If these were HP updates, then that is understandable -- but those would not affect Windows functions.

Second, in addition to the excellent advice that @Dragon-Fur has already provided, if you right-click an app icon on the desktop, you can select Pin to Start to add it to the Start Menu.  I have done this to clear off my desktop and the icons have not been  tampered with in any way.  Also, if you want the icons on the taskbar instead, right-click again, choose Show mor Options and then Pin to Taskbar.  When done with these, you can drag the desktop icon to the Recycle Bin to clean up the desktop.

[dancetheskies]

Oh, it looks like I had a typo.  I meant to say I have installed all "MANY" MS updates, not "MAY" updates, which makes no sense as you said.  Sorry for the typo error!

But, I've previously done the pinning my new App Icons in the Start Menu (and task bar), and they look fine there.  But the problem is they do NOT re-appear in the start menu there when I boot my PC afterwards (task bar works as it should).  The new start menu icons are gone, and all the W11 default icons are back in place.  My changes do not "stick"!    W11 has done this from the very start.  I did not upgrade to W11 from W10.  W11 came pre-installed on a new HP desktop PC I purchased from the HP web store several months ago.  I know it was probably the very first public released version, but all the updates that have come from MS using the alerts I get were verified as installed properly in the log file.   So something is not right in the OS, and I'm guessing there may be a registry key that is missing or is not set properly that controls what icons get displayed or added to a list of "saved" start menu icons the OS uses when it boots.  Any info  you can give on registry entries that control the start menu contents would be appreciated.

p.s.  I saw some registry info in the other links that were given here about causing the old W10 start menu to re-appear, but that was diabled by MS in their OS system updates.  I just want the new Start menu to at least function the way you say it should, and mine doesn't😟.

[WAWood]

@dancetheskies 

You should look into start menu alternatives.

I use Start11 from Stardock. They came out with their own Start Menu with Windows 8 when Microsoft presumed EVERYONE (like them) was using tablets and wanted only big BUTTONS on their touch screens.  Clearly, not everyone else felt this way as Startdock sold countless millions of copies of Start 8 to the rest of us -- who still wanted a Start Menu.

There is also StartAllBack which is gaining acceptance as another MS alternative.

[dancetheskies · Accepted solution]

I have contacted MS Support and FINALLY got the problem solved.  I first did an in-place (no loss of data or files) re-install of W11, but that did not solve the problem.  At the suggestion of MS SUpport, we opened a new MS Account, and THAT resolved the problem.  My Start menu Icon display was more detailed, and my changes were properly saved and survived a re-boot.    But I now had to open a new Windows Live Mail (old program I still use) account and re-populate my contacts, calendar, and saved Mail store to get back to normal.