"Pin to Start" personalization - How? Windows 10 Home

Question

I have a questions on organizing the pins on the start menu. (The list in the left pane and the taskbar, I already know how to manipulate.)

1. Microsoft provides a pre-made group icon containing things like Skype, On Note, Edge, One Drive, etc., that is collapsed. When you click on it, it expands out to the standard group configuration. How do I make my pin groups collapsible like that? I can't find an option anywhere. It's a pin folder, I guess.

2. Is there a way to add a start pin group in mass? I have a desktop folder full of shortcuts that I want to add to a start menu pin group that is collapsible. Clicking on each and selecting "Pin to Start" is a pain. I'm assuming they are stored somewhere similar to the the items on the left pane or the taskbar and I could copy the shortcuts there, but have no clue where that is.

3. If I pin a desktop shortcut to the Start Menu and later remove the desktop shortcut, will the pin also disappear at some point, or does it remain until manually removed?

Answer 1

1. If you drag one icon in the start menu onto another, it will create a folder. You can then drag other icons on to the folder to add them to it.
2. Copying shortcuts that can be "pinned to start" into C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs will add them to your start menu, but you will have to put them in a folder manually.
3. Pinning things to start copies a shortcut to the path in #2. Removing the original shortcut does not remove the copied shortcut, and therefore does not remove the pin. If you delete a desktop shortcut that has been pinned to start, the pin will remain until you unpin it. If the original is the actual program rather than a shortcut, then deleting it, of course, deletes the program.

Answer 2

1. You can move icons out of the group icon setup into their own space. You may need to unpin from Start first.

You can then right click and Pin to Start. That generally works, but not all icons can be pinned to start - most can.

2. En Mass: Not that I know of.

3. Assuming what you Pinned to Start is a true Shortcut (not a an App file) then you can definitely delete the Shortcut from the Desktop and it stays in Start.