Start Menu and Classic Start Menu

Windows XP offers 2 types of start menu

1. Regular Start Menu

2. Classic Start Menu

The difference between both

Classic start menu will not have the My computer / My documents /My Music links inside the start menu. But the regular or the new Start Menu will have all these and it will not display the My computer and My documents Icon in the desktop.

I used to work with classic menu, recently I have changed it because I do not store anything in my Desktop.

Regular Start Menu

You can switch between these two by right clicking on Start Menu and click properties as shown below

Click on the Properties and you will see the window as below

Choose which one you want to opt for.

You can also Customize the start menu by clicking the “Customize” button as shown in the above image.

You will get a pop like below for regular Start Menu

1. If you want to change the size of the displayed icons inside start menu, choose anything as I have marked as 1 or 2
2. You can control how many recently accessed programs can be displayed on the left side of the start menu (You can see I have about 12 Items) So change the number to how many you want. I have numbered it as “3” in the image
3. If you want to delete all the list on the left side of the start menu click “Clear List” I have marked it as number 4
4. You can choose the browser or the email client of your choice to display in your left Top of Start menu. All the available Email Client and browsers are listed under the drop down menu. I have marked this 5 and 6 in the image above.
5. Advanced options. I will talk about this in my next post

These methods are very simple, if you want any assistance let me know by posting a comment.

Customizing Classic Start Menu

1. Right click the Start Menu and then Click Properties
2. Choose Classic Start Menu and Click the “Customize” button
3. The menu will look like below
4. �

   

5. If you want add any programs to Start menu click the “Add” button and the wizard will guide you, all you have to do is like the program or documents that you want to access from Start Menu.
6. If you want to remove any item from Start Menu, click “Remove” and you will get the list of items available in your start menu.
7. If you click “Advanced” you will see a new window opening as I have explained earlier, you can add, remove and organize programs from a folder view or explorer view.
8. If you want all the Start Menu to be organized alphabetically, just click “Sort”
9. You can also clear recently accessed programs, documents, Web pages by clicking clear button
10. Advanced Start Menu options have some advanced features that I will talk later.