[the_other_guy]

Excellent guide!!, but all this to create a couple of home screen folders??
Kodi needs some serious user friendliness upgrade!''' I have my movies in about 8 folders (Movies, Documentaries, Standup comedy, Animation, TV Shows, Home Movies and Music concerts, Music videos), Why in the standard skin( because that one is really good) after adding these, is it so hard in Kodi to have these show up under Movies, each in their own folder and still have all the same options as under the current "Movies" home screen item? To me there needs to be an option that allows for showing the root folder for each movie category folder.

based on kodi 18 may work on 17 it is just side menu with no widget screens
you would edit home.xml
you need to add new menu items

xml:
<item>

       <label>$LOCALIZE[427]</label>

       <onclick>PlayDisc</onclick>

       <property name="menu_id">$NUMBER[21000]</property>

       <thumb>icons/sidemenu/disc.png</thumb>

       <property name="id">disc</property>

       <visible>System.HasMediaDVD</visible>

      </item>

the way to set up a link
(links can be made by adding item to favourites \AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata just copy "link\\&quot
E:\\=DRIVE PATH
"E:\\Blu-Ray\\"

xml:
<item>

        <label>Blu-Ray</label>

        <onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,&quot;E:\\Blu-Ray\\&quot;,return)</onclick>

       <property name="menu_id">$NUMBER[22000]</property>

        <thumb>icons/sidemenu/blu-ray.png</thumb>

       <property name="id">Blu-Ray</property>

       <visible>!Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoMovieButton)</visible>

      </item>

"D:\\Documentaries\\"

xml:
<item>

        <label>Documentaries</label>

        <onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,&quot;D:\\Documentaries\\&quot;,return)</onclick>

       <property name="menu_id">$NUMBER[22000]</property>

        <thumb>icons/sidemenu/movies.png.png</thumb>

       <property name="id">Documentaries</property>

       <visible>!Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoMovieButton)</visible>

      </item>

"E:\\Standup comedy\\"

xml:
<item>

        <label>Standup comedy</label>

        <onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,&quot;D:\\Standup comedy\\&quot;,return)</onclick>

       <property name="menu_id">$NUMBER[22000]</property>

        <thumb>icons/sidemenu/movies.png.png</thumb>

       <property name="id">Standup comedy</property>

       <visible>!Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoMovieButton)</visible>

      </item>

 "E:\\Animation\\"

xml:
<item>

        <label>Animation</label>

        <onclick>ActivateWindow(10025,&quot;D:\\Animation\\&quot;,return)</onclick>

       <property name="menu_id">$NUMBER[22000]</property>

        <thumb>icons/sidemenu/movies.png.png</thumb>

       <property name="id">Animation</property>

       <visible>!Skin.HasSetting(HomeMenuNoMovieButton)</visible>

      </item>

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=333279