Windows 8.1 came with a new feature called Power User Menu or the Admin Menu. It is called by such names because it is basically a menu consisting of all the tools that mostly the power users use. This menu can be invoked by pressing the hotkey Win+X, and it includes shortcuts to Control Panel, Command Prompt, Task Manager, Disk Management, Event Viewer, System and so on. All these shortcuts point to some of the features or tools that come with Microsoft Windows. If you do not want any of these shortcuts in the Power User Menu, then you can remove them easily. Here is how:
- Press the hotkey Win+R to open the Run command.
- In the Run command, type %AppData%\..\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX and press Enter.
- The folder that opens up will have three sub-folders, Group1, Group2 and Group3. These folders contain different shortcuts to various tools or settings in Windows.
- Before you delete any of the shortcuts, make a backup of the whole WinX folder. You can do this by simple copying the WinX folder somewhere on your hard disk.
- After making a backup, you can delete the shortcuts you do not need. You can also move shortcuts from one sub-folder (Group1, Group2, Group3) to another to arrange them in a different order.
- After modifying the order or deleting the shortcuts, you have to restart Windows to see the effect. In the following screenshot, I have deleted the command prompt shortcuts from the Power User Menu.
Conclusion: Customize the Power User Menu in Windows 8.1 is very easy. All you have to do is open the WinX folder and manipulate the existing shortcuts in any which way you want.