The power menu (also known as the WinX menu, because of its acronym) is a useful context menu that allows you to quickly access some Windows features. But what if it doesn’t include a shortcut to the feature you want? Fortunately, you can add shortcuts to it using a free and lightweight utility known as hashlnk.
We’ll show you how to download and use hashlnk to add shortcuts to your favorite Windows features in the power menu.
How to download hashlnk
The hashlnk app allows you to add shortcuts to the Windows Power menu. To get started, go to hashlnk download page on github and click Download.
This will download a zip file. To decompress the file, right-click on it and select it extract all. then press extract to extract its contents to the same folder where you downloaded it.
Open the extracted folder, and you will see one file called hashlnk.exe.
Do not close this window, as we will need it for the next part of this guide.
The first thing you need to do is create a shortcut for the application that you want to add to the WinX list.
press Win + S. To bring up Windows Search and type the name of the application or Windows feature in the search box (we are using Control Panel for example). When it appears in the search results, right-click on it and select it Open file location.
You will be taken to the folder where the application shortcut is located. Keep this window open as well.
Next, open Windows Run by pressing Win + R.. Then copy and paste the following text into the text box and press File Enters a key:
%LocalAppdata%MicrosoftWindowsWinXThe WinX The folder will open, and you will see three subfolders inside it named group 1And the group 2And the Group 3. These groups indicate how the items in the energy list are arranged. So group 1 for the lower elements, group 2 for brokers, and Group 3 It is for the first.
Now, copy the application shortcut and paste it into any file WinX The subfolders mentioned above (we copied the Control Panel shortcut and paste it into a file group 2 Folder).
The shortcut won’t appear in the power menu yet, the menu only shows a special type of shortcut that hashlnk will help us create.
The magic will happen at the command prompt. To open Command Prompt, press Win + R. To access Windows Run, type poultice in the text box, and tap Enters a key.
Next, we will need the file path to the hashlnk utility. In Windows 11, go back to the folder with the . extension hashlnk.exe File, right-click on it and select copy as path.
On Windows 10, in the extracted hashlnk folder, be sure to select a file residence Ribbon in the top menu of File Explorer, then click hashlnk.exe to determine it. then press Transcription pathwhich you will find in the file clipboard section of the tape.
Paste the path of the hashlnk tool file into the command prompt by right-clicking anywhere inside the cmd window.
Next, copy the application shortcut file path (control Board) that you pasted into a file WinX subfolder (group 2 In our example) and paste it into the command prompt as well (make sure there is a space between the two file paths).
On our end, the last command looks like the screenshot below. Keep in mind that your file paths won’t be exactly the same, but the screenshot should give you an idea of the final output.
He hits Enters to run the command.
Restart your computer. Upon restart, check the Power menu and you will see the newly added shortcut there. To remove it, delete the shortcut from a file WinX The subfolder you put it in.
If the power menu lacks a shortcut that you feel should be there, you can easily add it to make your life easier. Using the hashlnk tool is one of the best ways to do this, with little knowledge.
If you want a more graphical way to add shortcuts to the power menu, consider using an app like WinX Menu Editor instead.
