Customize the Windows 11 Start Menu

Start Menu management in Windows 11 is different than Windows 10. Microsoft recommended an MDM provider such as Microsoft Intune to manage the Windows 11 Start Menu.

 

There are many environments (such as VDI and Azure Virtual Desktop(AVD) that don’t use an MDM provider to manage their Windows 11 workspace environment. In this blog post, I will highlight how to manage the Start Menu with native tools such as Active Directory and Group Policies.

I will create several blog posts about how to customize the Windows 11 Start Menu, configure the taskbar, remove unwanted desktop icons and remove bloatware and apps.

  • Customize the Windows 11 Start Menu (this blog post)
  • Customize the Windows 11 Desktop icons
  • Customize the Taskbar icons
  • Remove bloatware from the Start Menu

In this blog post, I will highlight how to customize the Windows 11 Start Menu with native Active Directory Group Policies.

In Windows 10 you can export and import the Start Menu layout. With the “Export-StartLayout” PowerShell command, the Start Menu is exported to an XML file. With a Group Policy, you refer to the custom XML file.

In Windows 11, the Start Menu is exported to a JSON file. The command is like this:

Export-StartLayout -Path "C:\Layouts\LayoutModification.JSON"

There is no Group Policy (Windows 11 22H2) to import a Start Menu JSON file. The Group Policy only works with an XML file.

There is a workaround. In Windows 11 the Start Menu is stored in a single encrypted file in the following folder location:

%LocalAppdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

In this folder, there is a start.bin or start2.bin (depending on the Windows 11 version) file. This file is the Windows 11 Start Menu that can be copied.

These steps will copy the modified Start Menu to a central location and when the endpoint starts the modified Start Menu will be copied to the default user profile. When new users logs in, they will get the customized Start Menu.

  • Pin/unpin and organize the apps in the Start Menu the way you want.

  • Copy the start2.bin file in from the %LocalAppdata%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState folder to a central location (for example in a folder in the netlogon share of the domain controller (for example \\lab.local\netlogon\w11).
  • Create a cmd file called w11startmenu.cmd with the following context:
copy "\\lab.local\netlogon\w11\start2.bin" "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState" /Y
  • Open Group Policy Management console
  • Create a GPO Computer Configuration – Scripts (Startup/Shutdown) – Startup – Scripts and browse to the cmd script file in the netlogon share (for example \\lab.local\netlogon\w11\w11startmenu.cmd)

All users who log in with a new profile will get the customized Windows 11 Start Menu.

More information can be found in the following article, link.

Identify VMs that have VMware Tools with the OpenSSL v3 vulnerability

In OpenSSL version 3.0.0 to 3.0.6, a critical vulnerability is found (link). A lot of vendors use these versions of OpenSSL in their products. VMware has the following statement:

To date, no VMware products have been found to be critically impacted by CVE-2022-3602 or CVE-2022-3786. Regardless, VMware products that consume OpenSSL 3.0.x will consume 3.0.7 fixes as a precautionary measure in upcoming releases.

VMware Tools version 12.0.0 and 12.1.0 both contain the OpenSSL 3.0.x version.

VMware Tools OpenSSL version
12.0.0 3.0.0
12.1.0 3.0.3

To quickly identify what VMs have the OpenSSL 3 vulnerability present you can use PowerCLI. The following script identifies all VMware Tools 12 versions and higher:

$vcserver = 'the FQDN of the vCenter Server name'
Connect-VIServer $vcserver
Get-VM | Where-Object {$_.Guest.ToolsVersion -ge '12.0.0'} | Select -property Name,PowerState,@{Name='Toolsversion';Expression={$_.Guest.Toolsversion}} | Sort Toolsversion
Disconnect-VIServer * -Confirm:$false

The results can be exported to a CSV file by adding the following line after the Sort ToolsVersion

| export-csv c:\temp\vmwtools.csv -notypeinformation

OpenSSL v3.0.7 is released. This version will fix the critical vulnerability. The NCSC has a GitHub page (Link) with software that is affected. Now it is time for VMware to release an updated version of VMware Tools that included the new OpenSSL version

Update: November 29, 2022

VMware Tools 12.1.5 is released. This is a maintenance release of VMware Tools to provide fixes for critical product issues and security issues:

  • Updated OpenSSL to 3.0.7
  • Updated zlib to 1.2.12 with additional fixes
  • Updated GLib to 2.56.3 with additional fixes
  • Updated libxml2 to 2.10.2
  • This release resolves CVE-2022-31693. For more information on this vulnerability and its impact on VMware products, see https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2022-0029.html.

The release notes can be found here and the download location can be found here.

 

How to install Windows 11 on VMware Workstation

For testing purposes, I frequently use VMware Workstation to install Operating Systems such as Windows 11.  The biggest challenge with Windows 11 is that you need a TPM 2.0 device. When installing Windows 11, if your computer does not meet the hardware requirements, you will see a message stating, “This PC can’t run Windows 11“.

Windows 11 requires the following hardware specifications:

  • CPU: 1 GHz or faster with 2 or more cores on the processor
  • RAM: 4 GB RAM
  •  Storage: 64 GB or larger
  • Firmware: UEFI, Secure boot
  • TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0

More info: link

The following options are available when installing Windows 11 using VMware Workstation Pro/Player and Fusion:

Option 1: The physical endpoint such as a laptop or PC has a TPM 2.0 device. This requires adding encryption and adding a vTPM device.

Option 2: The physical endpoint such as a laptop or PC has compatible hardware but no TPM 2.0 device. VMware Workstation 16.2 Pro adds an experimental vTPM device that uses a new encryption mode with increased performance over fully encrypting the VM in option 1.

Update October 17, 2022:  Wil van Antwerpen has a good blog post about the risks of this experimental feature.  Make sure that you read the blog before using this feature!

What you should know about VMware’s experimental vTPM – Vimalin

Option 3: The physical endpoint such as a laptop or PC has no compatible hardware such as a TPM 2.0 device. Use a registry hack to bypass the TPM check.

If you don’t have a Windows 10/11 ISO, you can create one following this blog post: Quick Tip: Download the latest Windows 10/11 ISO files – ivobeerens.nl

Here are the steps outlined for each option:

Option 1. The physical endpoint such as a laptop or PC has a TPM 2.0 chip

Start VMware Workstation and create a new Virtual Machine with the following configuration:

  • Type of configuration: Custom (advanced)
  • Virtual Machine hardware compatibility: Workstation 16.2.x
  • Guest Operating System Installation: Installer disc image file (iso): Point to the downloaded Windows 11 ISO
  • Guest operating system: Microsoft Windows
    • Version: Windows 10 and later x64
  • Virtual Machine name: Name of the VM such as: Windows 11
    • Location: for example: c:\vms\win11
  • Firmware: UEFI
    • Secure boot: Check
  • Processors: 2 or more
    • Number of cores: 1 or more
  • Memory (MB): 4096 or more
  • Network Type: Use network address translation (NAT)
  • SCSI Controller: LSI Logic SAS or Paravirtualized SCSI
  • Virtual Disk Type: NVMe
  • Disk: Create a new virtual disk
    • Maximum disk size (GB): 64 or more
  • Disk file: Windows 10 and later x64.vmdk
  • The new VM will be created.
  • Edit the virtual machine settings
  • Click on the options tab, choose Access Control, and select Encrypt

  • Enter a virtual machine password twice

  • The VM will be encrypted
  • Select the Hardware tab and select Add
  • Select the Trusted Platform Module and click Finish and OK

  • Start the VM to install Windows 11

The VM is encrypted and has a TPM device configured.

 

Option 2: The physical endpoint such as a laptop or PC has compatible hardware but no TPM 2.0 device.

Since VMware Workstation 16.2 there is an experimental feature without the need fully encrypt the VM. Use it with care and read the blog from Wil van Antwerpen before using this feature!

  • Follow the steps in step 1 till  ” The new VM will be created”
  • Before starting the VM close VMware Workstation
  • Edit the VMX file of the created VM in notepad for example
    • Add the following line to the end of the file:
    • managedVM.autoAddVTPM = “software”
    • This line adds a TPM 2.0 device to the VM
    • Save the VMX file

  • Open VMware Workstation
  • Start the VM to install Windows 11

Option 3: The physical endpoint such as a laptop or PC has no compatible hardware such as a TPM 2.0 device. Use a registry hack to bypass the TPM check.

In 2021 I already blogged about this hack. More information can be found here: Install Windows 11 as VM on VMware vSphere / Workstation without TPM 2.0 – ivobeerens.nl

 

With these 3 options, you are able to install Windows 11 on VMware Workstation Pro/Player and Fusion in most situations.