So you are in the process of developing a Windows 10 image, nice!

You want de customize your StartMenu, nice!

You have built a reference machine, and exported the StartMenu file.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/mt171092(v=vs.85).aspx

We know how to do that with PowerShell:

Export-StartLayout – Path C:\Export\MyStartMenu.xml

And in your task sequence you import the file again with PowerShell:

Import-StartLayout C:\Import\MyStartMenu.xml –MountPath $env:SystemDrive\

(or you can rename your MyStartMenu.xml file to LayoutModification.xml and do a xcopy to C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\)

xcopy /e /s /y /h /i “%~dp0LayoutModification.xml” “C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml”

Ok you do a deployment, log on with a new user who has no profile on the computer, open up the startmenu and……Nothing, still the default startmenu!

Like this:

Windows 10 Original StartMenu

But I wanted this:

Windows 10 Wanted StartMenu

Well I found a nasty line in the generated XML file while exporting with PowerShell

Export:

And with this it is NOT working.

Just remove the line and things will start to work! Nice!