AutoHotkey Community

I would like to pin a shortcut to an AHK script to the Start screen in Windows 8.1 (the screen that first comes up with the Win key, not the Apps sub-screen.)

I found one thread about this on the old forum at http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/1 ... rt-screen/ but the solution -- to put a shortcut to the script in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu -- doesn't work. Windows says it can't create a shortcut there, and asks if I want to put it on the desktop.

Right clicking the script doesn't give me a Pin to Start option, nor does right clicking an existing shortcut that's already on the desktop.

I can copy the script itself to the folder, but that doesn't suit my purposes -- the script looks in a subfolder where it's located and calls other scripts, and I want to keep all of that where it is, so it's got to be a shortcut.

Thanks.

Create a shortcut to the script in the start menu folder ( %A_StartMenuUser% ) . Then press windows key and search for the script. Then right click on the result and press "pin to start".
Let me know if you're having trouble

Thanks for the reply. There must be something I'm not getting.

The only two Start Menu locations I can find are at

C:\Users\username\Start Menu , which I'm completely locked out of (even though I'm the names user and I'm logged in as an admin.)

and at

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu, where it won't let me paste a shortcut, and asks if I want it on the desktop instead.

I have pasted shortcuts at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs in the past, but those were shortcuts to actual applications. When I try that with an ahk script, it says it can't do it and also asks if I want it on the desktop.

Not sure where %A_StartMenuUser% is. When I put that in the Run box, it doesn't find anything.

I meant to check the AutoHotkey built-in variable called %A_StartMenuUser%, my bad. [Edit - It's actually just %A_StartMenu% - double my bad]
Try checking the following location: C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Replace <username> with your account name. You should have access to that location.

Thanks for the clarification. That did it.

Finding the various locations of the Start up and and Start Menu and keeping them straight has always been a pain in Windows, but Windows 8.1 seems to have taken it to a new level. I'd been using W7 until a couple of months ago. The Start screen is actually alright, once you clear it out and put your own stuff on it, but actually doing that seems unnecessarily complicated. The Apps sub-screen seems completely useless, other than (as with the path you gave me) as a way to get things to the Start screen that you can't put there directly. At least that how it seems.

Thanks again.