Written on the 15th of November, 2005
Posted in Software, Windows

Start Menu Cleaner

Is your Start Menu a mess?
Do you have dead shortcuts on your Start Menu?
Start Menu Cleaner can help you!

Start Menu Cleaner is a simple little program that looks at all the shortcuts in your Start Menu to see if they point to a valid location. Then, it gives you the option to delete dead shortcuts, leaving you with a squeaky clean Start Menu!


Download Start Menu Cleaner


(14Kb ZIP File and you’ll need the .NET Framework Version 2.0 installed)

If you like this program, I’d appreciate a small donation.

17 Responses to “Start Menu Cleaner”

  1. dr anees says:

    November 16th, 2005 at 10:14 am

    i installed .net v2 but still i’m unable to run sm cleaner. zip files has no .exe file.

  2. Marcus Wynwood says:

    November 16th, 2005 at 11:17 am

    Double click on “StartMenuCleaner.application” and it will install :-)

  3. slapnutz says:

    November 16th, 2005 at 6:09 pm

    doesn’t work for me either. maybe we’re not double clicking properly ;)

  4. Geoff says:

    November 16th, 2005 at 6:45 pm

    What’s the point of writing these **** hot programs if you have to install another pgorame (net Framework) which my not be prepared by Halal conventions?

  5. Marcus Wynwood says:

    November 16th, 2005 at 8:39 pm

    Ok - now all that is in the ZIP file is “StartMenuCleaner.exe”
    You don’t get a shortcut in your Start Menu or an entry in Add-Romove Programs anymore, but atleast it will work now! :-) Thanks guys :-)

  6. slapnutz says:

    November 17th, 2005 at 5:08 pm

    well of course MY start menu was squeaky clean already ;) but this surely will be a handy tool when i work on others.

    nice work Marcus! thanks!

  7. Josh says:

    December 29th, 2005 at 5:44 am

    Great app. Many thanks. :-)

    It worked fine for me. I purposely littered my start menu with a few empty folders and dead shortcuts and it removed all of them w/ a prompt. This should come in handy.

    Quick question: Will it work with 64-bit Windows XP?

  8. Marcus Wynwood says:

    January 2nd, 2006 at 4:13 pm

    G’day Josh,
    I’m glad it worked for you :-)
    I havent tried it, but it should run fine on 64bit Windows because it’s made using the .NET 2.0 Framework. Let me know how you go :-) Thanks.

  9. dojrzale cycate latynoski says:

    February 5th, 2006 at 9:25 am

    Hello
    I see pretty good a website, great job !
    That`s the stuff !
    Regards from dojrzale cycate latynoski

  10. Josh says:

    April 1st, 2006 at 4:50 pm

    Update: I’m not very sure if this is a Windows XP 64 bug in relation to your program, but immediately after uninstalling some Adobe products, Adobe’s wonderful installer left a bunch of **** on my hard drive, including the program shortcuts. The program failed to remove Adobe’s Acrobat 7 shortcut, but after reboot, it picked it up.

    A bit odd, I know, but I observed this.

  11. Tux says:

    May 12th, 2006 at 4:51 pm

    I love this program - I don’t know how I got by without it!
    Thanks :-)

  12. Danald says:

    June 13th, 2006 at 10:25 am

    Realmente tengo gusto de este Web site. Usted todo ha hecho un buen trabajo.

  13. Andy says:

    September 25th, 2006 at 12:22 pm

    Why do I have to keep doing it why dont it remove all dead links at once on my PC? - its left a load of dead links in my start/programs folder

  14. Em says:

    September 26th, 2006 at 12:58 am

    Danald, comprende engles tambien? :)

  15. Robert Fidler says:

    October 20th, 2006 at 2:57 am

    Why would your .zip file onClick fire off Word? Is it trying to run a macro of som sort.

  16. Geert says:

    May 16th, 2008 at 4:36 am

    Hello Marcus, Aim using the cleaner but in vista sp1 it didt work I tried the help but no results I get this message:

    please help?

    Greetings Geert.

    van JIT-foutopsporing (Just In Time) in plaats van dit dialoogvenster.

    ************** Tekst van uitzondering **************
    System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Kan een gedeelte van het pad C:\Users\Geert\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\All Users\Start Menu\Programs niet vinden.
    bij System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
    bij System.IO.Directory.InternalGetFileDirectoryNames(String path, String userPathOriginal, String searchPattern, Boolean includeFiles, Boolean includeDirs, SearchOption searchOption)
    bij System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(String path, String searchPattern, SearchOption searchOption)
    bij StartMenuCleaner.Form1.deleteEmptyFolders(String startingPath)
    bij StartMenuCleaner.Form1.buttonGo_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
    bij System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

    ************** Geladen assembly’s **************
    mscorlib
    Assembly-versie: 2.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
    —————————————-
    StartMenuCleaner
    Assembly-versie: 1.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 1.0.0.0
    CodeBase: file:///C:/StartMenuCleaner/StartMenuCleaner.exe
    —————————————-
    System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly-versie: 2.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
    —————————————-
    System
    Assembly-versie: 2.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
    —————————————-
    System.Drawing
    Assembly-versie: 2.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
    —————————————-
    Accessibility
    Assembly-versie: 2.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
    —————————————-
    mscorlib.resources
    Assembly-versie: 2.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
    —————————————-
    System.Windows.Forms.resources
    Assembly-versie: 2.0.0.0
    Win32-versie: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms.resources/2.0.0.0_nl_b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.resources.dll
    —————————————-

    ************** JIT-foutopsporing **************
    Als u JIT-foutopsporing wilt inschakelen, moet in het configuratiebestand voor deze
    toepassing of computer (machine.config) de waarde
    jitDebugging in het gedeelte system.windows.forms zijn ingesteld.
    De toepassing moet ook zijn gecompileerd terwijl foutopsporing
    was ingeschakeld.

    Bijvoorbeeld:

    Wanneer JIT-foutopsporing is ingeschakeld, worden onverwerkte uitzonderingen
    naar het JIT-foutopsporingsprogramma gestuurd dat op de computer is geregistreerd
    en worden niet door dit dialoogvenster verwerkt.

  17. Marcus says:

    May 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

    I’m not sure about that one. It’s been over 2 years since I’ve looked at this program, and I haven’t tested it with Vista, sorry.

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