Start Menu and Classic Start Menu

DSP — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:51:52 +0000

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

Start Menu Properties

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

Start Menu Properties

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

CustomiZe start Menu

If you want to change the size of the displayed icons inside start menu, choose anything as I have marked as 1 or 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
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
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.
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

Right click the Start Menu and then Click Properties
Choose Classic Start Menu and Click the “Customize” button
The menu will look like below
�
Customize Classic Start Menu
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.
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.
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.
If you want all the Start Menu to be organized alphabetically, just click “Sort”
You can also clear recently accessed programs, documents, Web pages by clicking clear button
Advanced Start Menu options have some advanced features that I will talk later.

Similar Posts:

Organizing Windows Start Menu

DSP — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:15:34 +0000

Start Menu appears on the left bottom corner of any windows system by default. and this can be adjusted to any direction like right left and top.

When you click on the start menu you will get a list of menu like below

Windows Start Menu

The left side of the column has the recently accessed program and the right side of the menu has the shortcut to many programs.

You can completely customize this start menu by yourself or by spending some money buying some software. I suggest you to try it for yourself.

Right click on the start menu (RIGHT CLICK) and you will see a menu like below. (you may not have all that appearing in the screen shot)

Start Menu Right Click

When you click Open, It will open a window by default in the following location

C:\Documents and Settings\Mirror

Mirror is the login Id for the computer so I have Mirror here, for example if your user Id is Daniel the link will be like below

C:\Documents and Settings\daniel

Here you will see the start menu items listed, You can arrange this item and also delete add more shortcuts to the start menu.

And these item will be listed in the start menu as seen below

Start Menu Organizing

You will see what ever you have added on the right side top of the Start menu.

But hey wait, This may not be the one you wanted to change but everything down below the right top section.

Here it is how to do

C:\Documents and Settings\Mirror\Start Menu\Programs

(Instead of Mirror enter your Computer user name.)

You will see all the programs under your user name. You can add new programs delete start menu item and create new shortcut, why not have one of your frequently accessed� file placed there, and you will see that in your start menu.

But there is one more thing, There are still programs that you cannot see in this window but that will appear in the start menu. How to organize that?

Right Click the “Start Menu”

Left Click “Explore All users”

This will open a window and that is usually

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu

You will see all the folders like programs folder and any other application shortcut.

This is very simple and useful. I will try to post a video later.

If you have any questions, please post a commentSimilar Posts:

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Start Menu and Classic Start Menu

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