Simple PowerShell to add PortableApps to your Windows 8 or 8.1 Start Menu -

Copy the below code to your machine and edit the $folder line to match the location of your PortableApps you can check you have the correct folder by doing a dir with it and ensuring all your portable apps come up.

To undo what the script does then remove the folder “%appdata%\microsoft\windows\Start Menu\Programs\Portable\“

No warranty or suchlike – for information only. Publication requires leaving a comment with a reference to each article and source must be provided with all use

Save it to your DropBox to run when you go onto a new machine. Will work best if you always mount your DropBox drive in the same location. You can always adjust the script to search for the Dropbox folder

# ##############################################################
# ## 
# ## Copyright (C) Al West, 2014, TSEW, UK.
# ## 
# ## Change the line of code below to match the folder where your 
# ## portable apps are - if you omit the filter then everything found 
# ## will be added. Not good!
# ## 
# ## To delete links, remove the following folder 
# ## (copy and paste into the Explorer window):
# ##    %appdata%\microsoft\windows\Start Menu\Programs\Portable\
# ## 
# ## Running this again will only recreate the shortcuts. 
# ## It will not delete redundant ones.
# ## 
# ## Also, not all files have "portable" in their name, so it doesn't 
# ## cover everything.
# ## 
# ##############################################################

# Set the folder where your portable apps are located
$folder = "D:\Dropbox\Portable\PortableApps\*Portable.exe"

function Make-Shortcut {
    param (
        [string]$portableApp
    )
    $appName = [io.path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($portableApp)
    $location = $env:APPDATA + "\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Portable\"
    $WshShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell

    Write-Host "Creating:" $appName " <<>> " $portableApp
    Write-Host "In:" $location

    $Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut($location + $appName + ".lnk")
    $Shortcut.TargetPath = $portableApp
    $Shortcut.Save()
}

# Get all matching files and create shortcuts
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Recurse

foreach ($file in $files) {
    Make-Shortcut -portableApp $file.FullName
}

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