Tip 121: Add Internet location to your XP Start menu

Sometimes, on computers that have Windows XP pre-installed, you might find a menu-option that really is a location on the Internet. Often this basically is a link to the manufacturer's website.
Did you know you can have your own web-referral in your start menu?
It might be a nice way to get to your own website or have some other very favorite site easily accessible.

To achieve this, open the registry editor and navigate to:

  1. Start the registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}.
  3. If the Windows key doesn’t exist, click Edit, New, Key to create the key.
  4. Change the "{Default}" value on the right to reflect the name you want displayed in the Start menu, eg. "My Favorite Link".
  5. Look up the key named HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon. If it does not yet exists, create it.
  6. Change the "{Default}" value on the right to be %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-47. With this entry you determine what ison is displayed next to the shortcut in the menu. In this example it is Icon number 47 that is contained in the file Shell32.dll. If you want a different icon you can change the number or even the filename and the number. Each icon in a file that has icons in it, can be referenced by it’s number, indicating the icon's position in the file.
  7. Now navigate to
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\PropertyBag    .
  8. Make sure the following valuesnames and values are present in the right hand panel:
    CLSID, REG_SZ, {13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000}
    method, REG_SZ, ShellExecute
    Command, REG_SZ, My Favorite Link
    Param1, REG_SZ, http://www.myfavoritelink.com
  9. Some of the Values mentioned may already exist, some others may need to be added.
  10. Exit the registry editor.

Alternatively you can use the script link_on.vbs to set the link and link_off.vbs to remove a link.
The scripts refer to the example mentioned, "My Favorite Link", so you will want to use notepad to change it to your own preference.

Note: To avoid accidental running of the script, the scripts on this web server are stored as *.vb_ file. Clicking on the link will bring up the script in the browser. From there you can save it for later use, simply by selecting All text in the browser window and copy/pasting it into your own newly created .vbs script file.