A few days ago I did a clean install of Windows 7 RC onto my primary work laptop, to ‘upgrade’ from Windows 7 Beta. I used Windows Easy Transfer in the process, which was my first time using this utility.

First of all, I thought they did an outstanding job in building the utilities features, and the User Experience. It was really simple to use and required no explanation on how to use it. Bravo.

I did run into one small, small issue when moving to the RC from the Beta. This should not affect anyone who is upgrading from XP. This suppose this has the possibility of affecting a centralized organization upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7. However since the RC is just that, a Release Candidate, not the gold code for Windows 7, this tiny issue may be fixed in the full release version.

Here are the basic step I followed in migration from Windows 7 Beta to the RC:

  1. Backed up old Windows (7 Beta) system using Windows Easy Transfer.
  2. Reinstalled Windows 7 RC using the ‘clean install’ option.
  3. Installed my VPN connection software.
  4. Joined the corporate AD domain using my corporate credentials which recreated a user profile of the same name which was on the W7 Beta system.
  5. Restored my system using Windows Easy Transfer.
  6. Installed Office Suite 2007 on the new machine.

Here is where something strange happened:

  • I went to the Start/All Programs/Microsoft Office… menu.
  • Right-clicked on the Office 2007 Application shortcuts, and chose “Pin to Start Menu”
  • Checked the Office Application shortcuts on the Start Menu, and they were all appended with a “(2)”. For Example, “Microsoft Office Word 2007 (2)”.

I thought this a little strange since there were not any Application shortcuts on the Start Menu to begin with and no other shortcuts showed up besides the ones I had just added. I tried to rename a Start Menu shortcut to see what it would allow. Sure enough, you could rename it, but not to match what your would expect such as “Microsoft Office Word 2007”.

So I got a little curious and figured out how to fix that. If you run into this issue, these steps should fix the problem for you too:

  1. Open Windows Explorer, (press the “Alt” key to get the hidden menu), go to  “Tools”,”Folder Options”, click the “View” tab.
  2. Select “’Show hidden files, folders, and drives.” under the “Hidden Files and Folders” area.
  3. Right-click on the Application shortcut/icon from the Start Menu, and choose “Properties”.
  4. Click on the “General” tab.
  5. Find the “Location:” field and copy (Ctrl+C) the entire file path to the right of it. It should be something like: ‘C:\Users\<your_name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu’
  6. Click on the “Start”/“Windows” button”. Paste (Ctrl+V) the file path into the “Search programs and files” box at the bottom of the Start menu.
  7. When this folder opens select all the contents (Ctrl+A) and delete it.
  8. Go back to your “Start/All Programs/” menu and choose the Application’s you want to “Pin to Start Menu”.

This is caused because the Start Menu shortcuts are copied from you old machine and restored to the new machine using Windows Easy Transfer. I restored my user profile and data to the new installation before installing Office 2007 or the other applications which I had on my previous Windows build. I think this might have been the cause for the Start Menu shortcuts to already be in the profile but hidden. If you load the machine and the applications before restoring the user profile and data using Windows Easy Transfer this may not be an issue. However, I am not going to reload my machine again just to find that out.

:-)