Games missing from start menu after fresh Windows 10 install

[Grayyy Matterrr]

Before I reinstalled windows 10 this past weekend all steam games that were installed would appear in the start menu under the steam folder. After reinstalling windows, steam, and a few of the games, none of the games are appearing there anymore. Does anyone know why that is? I didn't install anything before to do this windows, or steam, seemed to do it on their own.

[Brujeira]

When you install a game, the first panel that you see has options for creating additional shortcuts on the desktop and in the start menu. These are turned off by default, so that's what's changed as you must have had one turned on and reinstalling turned it off again.

All you need to do is turn it on the next time you install a game and Steam will remember the setting. If you want to add shortcuts for the games that you've already installed then the process is really easy.

1. Go to the Steam icon in your start menu, right-click it and select 'More -> Open File Location'.
2. Go to the installed games entries in Steam's library page, right-click each one in turn and create a desktop shortcut.
3. Cut and paste the desktop shortcuts into the folder you opened in step 1.

[Grayyy Matterrr]

There are two options, create a desktop shortcut, which I've always left blank, and create a start menu shortcut, which I just made sure is checked. Normally it would put that shortcut under the steam icon in the start menu, but I just tried it and it did not add the game to the start menu.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Grayyy Matterrr:

There are two options, create a desktop shortcut, which I've always left blank, and create a start menu shortcut, which I just made sure is checked. Normally it would put that shortcut under the steam icon in the start menu, but I just tried it and it did not add the game to the start menu.

Hmm, that's odd. It certainly added it to my start menu when I tested it - in fact it's showing it in both the 'Recently Added' section at the top and in the Steam folder itself. You wouldn't mind double-checking the Steam folder in your start menu, would you? It really should be in there.

[Grayyy Matterrr]

Just confirmed it is not there. I'm starting to think something went wrong with the install of windows because a few other things have stoped working that are only related to windows, like right clicking on the start button not doing anything and command prompt not opening. I've never had this problem before on any of my other PC and steam and the games are otherwise working fine.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Grayyy Matterrr:

Just confirmed it is not there. I'm starting to think something went wrong with the install of windows because a few other things have stoped working that are only related to windows, like right clicking on the start button not doing anything and command prompt not opening. I've never had this problem before on any of my other PC and steam and the games are otherwise working fine.

Hmm. Well, if you need more in-depth help with figuring out if you have issues with your Windows install then you should post in the Hardware and Operating System subforum - there's very little that the posters there don't know.

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/

[Grayyy Matterrr]

I actually figured it out. At some point, when I was trying to fix onedrive, I made all the folders in the AppData folder hidden. Hasn't fixed my other windows issues, but at least all of my steam games are now where they should be in the start menu. Thanks for your help.

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Grayyy Matterrr:

I actually figured it out. At some point, when I was trying to fix onedrive, I made all the folders in the AppData folder hidden. Hasn't fixed my other windows issues, but at least all of my steam games are now where they should be in the start menu. Thanks for your help.

Oops. Well, these things happen. Hope you get the rest of your issues sorted in due course.

[Satan]

Originally posted by Brujeira:

When you install a game, the first panel that you see has options for creating additional shortcuts on the desktop and in the start menu. These are turned off by default, so that's what's changed as you must have had one turned on and reinstalling turned it off again.

All you need to do is turn it on the next time you install a game and Steam will remember the setting. If you want to add shortcuts for the games that you've already installed then the process is really easy.

1. Go to the Steam icon in your start menu, right-click it and select 'More -> Open File Location'.
2. Go to the installed games entries in Steam's library page, right-click each one in turn and create a desktop shortcut.
3. Cut and paste the desktop shortcuts into the folder you opened in step 1.

This worked for me. Thank you very much.

[Steve]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.