Hack the Windows 8 All Apps Screen

Hack the Windows 8 All Apps Screen



Didn’t know that Window 8 had an Apps screen? You’re not alone. Here’s
how to get to it, and how to hack it




Switching to Windows 8 from an earlier version of Windows can be a disconcerting
experience, notably because it’s so difficult to figure out which Desktop apps you’ve
got installed. It’s easy to find your Windows 8 native apps, because they’re front and
center on the Start screen. But that’s not the case for Desktop apps, since they mostly
don’t show up on the Start screen. In earlier versions of Windows, you could always
click the Start button and browse through them that way. But in Windows 8, the Start
button has been sent into the Great Beyond. What to do?


Figure 1.
The first step in adding a Desktop app to the Start screen

Although it’s not immediately apparent, there is a way to browse through all your
Desktop apps, using the “All apps” option that shows all of your Desktop apps (in
addition to all of your Windows 8 native apps).

On the Start screen, either right-click an empty space, or else press Windows key+Z.
That opens the App Bar. There’s only one thing you can do here: click the “All apps”
button at the lower right (Figure 2). (On a touch screen, slide in from the bottom of
the touchscreen to open the App Bar.)



Figure 2.
Click here to see all of the apps installed in Windows 8

When you do that, you’ll come to the “All apps” screen. It does exactly what it says: it
shows you all the apps on your system. On the left, you’ll find all the Windows 8 native
apps, and to the right, the Desktop apps (Figure 3). Click any one to run it.



Figure 3.
The “All apps” screen

Notice that the Desktop apps on the righthand side are organized into groups—
Windows Accessories, Windows Ease of Access, Windows System, and so on. If you’ve
installed software, you’ll notice that those apps may be in their own groups as well.

How does this mysterious organization happen? Very simply, as it turns out. It mimics
the structure of two folders on your device. Any subfolders in those folders show up
as groups on this screen—for example, the Windows Accessories group. Also, all the
shortcuts in those folders show up as apps inside the group on this screen.

To change the organization of Desktop groups and apps on the “All apps” screen, you
only need to change the shortcut and folder structure in those two folders.


The two folders are:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

UserName is your Windows 8 account name.

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs 

has all the apps that all users of the system will see, and

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

has those that show up for an individual user.



Tip: You don’t have to spend time in File Explorer navigating to these two folders.
There’s a quicker way to get to each. Press Windows key+R to get to the run box,
type Shell:common programs, and press Enter. That sends you to

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.

If you instead type Shell:programs
and press Enter, you’ll go to

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.

Go into those folders, and add any folders that you want to show up as groups on the
“All apps” screen. In those folders, add shortcuts to any apps you want to show up as
part of those groups. Delete any folders and shortcuts that you don’t want to appear.




See Also
• “Hack Your Way Through the Start Screen”