Windows 8 How to restore missing Windows Accessories to Apps screen

Trouble

Noob Whisperer

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Nov 30, 2009

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13,722

• Jul 16, 2014

• #2

You should be able to place your shortcuts to the windows accessories into this folder and they should appear properly in the all apps tiles.
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories

It actually shows up as a folder called "Windows Accessories".

 

Last edited: Jul 16, 2014

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Andy Ingham

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Jul 15, 2014

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• Jul 16, 2014

• Thread Author
• #3

Hi Trouble - many thanks for getting back on this. I tried this but receive a 'Windows can't create a shortcut here' message. It's also noticeable that 'Notepad' (the only accessory that I didn't 'lose'!) doesn't seem to be in that folder.

 

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Trouble

Noob Whisperer

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Nov 30, 2009

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13,722

• Jul 16, 2014

• #4

Don't worry about notepad, its' source is from another location although it does show up in Windows Accessories.
I had a similar problem when creating shortcuts within that Windows Accessories folder, so I just right clicked the folder, chose properties, selected the security tab and selected my username in the top box and gave myself full permissions to the folder in the bottom box..... then all was well.

 

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Solution

Andy Ingham

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Jul 15, 2014

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• Aug 7, 2014

• Thread Author
• #5

Hi Trouble - Eventually got around to trying this out. The permissions change does allow me to put the shortcut in that folder, e.g. for Snipping Tool. but it's not appearing under Windows Accessories:

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2025

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ussnorway

Windows Forum Team

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May 22, 2012

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4,533

• Aug 7, 2014

• #6

is that with roaming accounts?

Try a metro screen search and check the path.

 

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Andy Ingham

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Jul 15, 2014

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• Aug 9, 2014

• Thread Author
• #7

Hi.

Yes, doing that search it looks as though Snipping Tool being found in 'C:\Users\andy_000\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories' - so I need to move the other Windows Accessories into there to get them to appear?

Only thing is that Windows Accessories are missing for all users on the computer, so would I have to do this for each user I guess?

Has anyone any idea how this might have happened in the first place?

Finally, does anyone have a list of the default 8.1 Windows Accessories?

Many thanks to everyone for all this help,

Andy

 

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ussnorway

Windows Forum Team

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• Aug 9, 2014

• #8

There is 3 account types;
1. microsoft
2. local
3. Microsoft roaming
#one is default unless you have two or more accounts or computers... you can still turn roaming off as well.
Roaming settings are stored at the Microsoft store cloud and will follow you from computer to computer as the name sugests... afaia you can only have and adjust Microsoft signed apps in a roaming account but that may have changed.

 

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