In the past, I’ve written a tip on how to organize your Windows Start Menu and it’s one of my favorite tips – I use it religiously after I’ve installed a new program on my machine.
Enter iTunes.
The problem is, every time iTunes is updated (and why isn’t Apple patching instead of making us install the entire 60+MB program again and again…) it creates a new shortcut in the Start Menu, along with a shortcut to Quicktime. Worse yet, the “old” shortcuts (the one’s that I’ve moved) don’t work anymore!!
To combat this, I’m following the “More than Twice” rule: If you do an operation more than twice, then you should create a script for it.
Project Goals
To achieve this crazy voodoo, we’re going to create another batch file. This script will do a few things:
- Copy shortcuts to iTunes and Quicktime to the All Users Media Start Menu folder.
- Copy a shortcut to iTunes into the current user’s Quick Launch.
- Delete the iTunes and Quicktime directories from the Start Menu.
Now, we could create the script to move, as opposed to copy these items, but I like to have a little assurance that the files are actually where they need to be before I delete them.
Automatically Update the iTunes Start Menu Shortcut
To learn how to create a batch file, please review the post “How To Create a Batch File“.
The code is commented so it should be self-explanatory. Though, if you have any questions, leave a comment on this post and I’ll answer it for you!
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@echo off
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REM ***copy the iTunes shortcut to the "Media" folder and the current user’s Quicklaunch***
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xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\iTunes\iTunes.lnk" "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Media\" /Y
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xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\iTunes\iTunes.lnk" "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\" /Y
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REM ***copy the Quicktime shortcut to the "Media" folder***
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xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\QuickTime\QuickTime Player.lnk" "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Media\" /Y
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REM ***Delete the iTunes and Quicktime folders from the Start menu***
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rd "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\iTunes" /s/q
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rd "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\QuickTime" /s/q
Download
You can download the raw code – you must save the file with a .bat extension.
Options
If you’d like to change the Start Menu folder locations or names, you can do so on lines 3 and 7.
Good script! That is extremely irritating… Maybe it’s a hint… “Switch to Mac!”
That “More than Twice” rule that you mention sure sounds like a rule that would pay off quite quickly. There are many tasks that we do repeatedly, and if we put in the effort to create a small file to handle the procedure, time would be saved, and one could later release the file for others as well. Showing the code used is also a plus.
Armen, you’re absolutely right – even if the time saved is a minute, it’s much faster to accomplish a task by using a double-click!
I can\’t believe no one has made that point yet!!! Good work on really nailing down the correct approach. I\’m going to link to this from my blog roll, ok?
Eww, start menu? Keep programs out of there. I prefer to access them from the Start->Programs menu, or directly from the desktop.
I always used batch files as a shortcut in my pc. I have been getting big problems while running my iTunes in my windows and I never thought that I could fix it this way… I can’t wait to make my system run faster! Great tips!
This is a interesting line of content, very nice article.
Thanks for sharing this post, good way of bring this subject to discussion.
Keep up the great work !
Thank you for this. This seems to be a great utility.
Cool post. Love it.
this plugin needs updation. It is no longer supporting.
I always used batch files as a shortcut in my pc. I have been getting big problems while running my iTunes in my windows and I never thought that I could fix it this way… I can’t wait to make my system run faster! Great tips!