How to get the list of items available in start menu using c#

Question

I'm creating windows application using c#, where i'm automating windows.

I'm trying to get the list of items in the start menu in windows 8.1. When we press only window key and we get some items on the start menu screen, i want to fetch these items only but not those which we get when we press "DownArrow" button on the bottom of the start menu screen.

Can anyone suggest me an method to check that ?

Answer 1

@Dineshkumar.S , Welcome to Microsoft Q&A, based on my test, It seems that it is hard to get all items in start menu at once.

Based on my search, most of items is placed in the path C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs.

Please refer to the following steps:

First, Please get the file name with extension name .lnk.

    string path = "C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs";  
    List<string> list = new List<string>();  
    var files=Directory.GetFiles(path,"*.lnk").Select(i=>Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(i));  
    list.AddRange(files);  

Second, Please get the folder name.

    var dir=Directory.GetDirectories(path).Select(i=>new DirectoryInfo(i).Name);  
    list.AddRange(dir.ToArray());  

Third, We need to add the name about system tool(e.g. Calculator) to the list manually, because there are not in the same location.

 list.Add("Calculator ");  
 .....  

Hope my code could help you.

Best Regards,
Jack

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