Back up Your Start Menu Layout by Copying This Folder
Windows: If you’ve spent a lot of time customizing the Start menu to your liking, make sure you don’t lose it. Luckily, you can back up your layout by making a copy of the hidden folder.
Your Start Menu layout is saved in a hidden AppData folder on your Windows system drive. To find it, you need to make sure you can view hidden folders. To locate the folder and make a copy, follow these steps:
- Open a new explorer window.
- Go to C: \ Users \ [YOUR USER NAME] \ AppData \ Local \ TileDataLayer.
- If you don’t see the AppData folder in the user folder in the previous step, click the View tab and select the Hidden Items check box. Then repeat step 2.
- Copy the folder labeled “Database” to a different location. For example, save a copy to Dropbox or another hard drive.
- If you need to restore the layout of the Start menu, copy the backup back to the location in step 2.
This folder contains all the information you need to return the Start menu to the state it is now. If you ever customize your menu, you will have to create a new backup. As Addictive Tips points out, you must log out of any other computer that you are logged into your account on when restoring a backup, otherwise you could create a conflict as Windows is syncing data using your Microsoft account now (unless you are using a local account record ).
How to Back Up and Restore the Start Menu Layout in Windows 10 | Exciting tips