2.4. What's in the Start MenuThe following pages take you on a whirlwind tour of the Start menu itselffrom the bottom up, left to right, the way your mouse encounters its contents as it moves up from the Start button. 2.4.1. Search BoxThis thing is awesome . The instant you pop open the Start menu, your insertion point blinks in the new Start Search box at the bottom of the menu (Figure 2-4). That's your cue that you can begin typing the name of whatever you want to open .
The instant you start to type, you trigger Vista's new, very fast, whole-computer search function. This search finds, among other things, anything in the Start menu, making it a very quick way to pull up something without having to click through a bunch of Start menu submenus. You can read the meaty details about Search in Chapter 4. 2.4.2. All ProgramsWhen you click All Programs, you're presented with an important list indeed: the master catalog of every program on your computer. You can jump directly to your word processor, calendar, or favorite game, for example, just by choosing its name from the Start All Programs menu. Rather than covering up the regularly scheduled Start menu (as it did in Windows XP), the All Programs list replaces it (or at least the left-side column of it). You can restore the original left-side column by clicking Back (at the bottom of the list) or pressing the Esc key. 2.4.3. FoldersAs you'll quickly discover, the All Programs list in Vista doesn't just list programs. It also houses a number of folders . Some of them bear the names of software you've installed; you might see a folder called, for example, Urge (Microsoft's online music-store partner) or Logitech. These generally contain programs, uninstallers, instruction manuals, and other related junk. Tip: When you open something that contains other thingslike a folder listed in the Start menuyou see its contents listed beneath , indented slightly, as shown in Figure 2-5. Click the folder name again to collapse the sublisting.Keyboard freaks should note that you can also open a highlighted folder in the list by pressing the Enter key (or the right arrow key). Close the folder by pressing Enter again (or the left arrow key).
Another set of folders is designed to trim down the Programs menu by consolidating related programs, like Games, Accessories (little single-purpose programs), and Extras and Upgrades. Everything in these folders is described in Chapter 6. 2.4.3.1. The Startup folderThis folder contains programs that load automatically every time you start Windows Vista. This can be a very useful feature. For instance, if you check your email every morning, you may as well save yourself a few mouse clicks by putting your email program into the Startup folder. If you spend all day long word processing, you may as well put Microsoft Word in there. Of course, you may be interested in the Startup folder for a different reason: to stop some program from launching itself. This is a particularly common syndrome if somebody else set up your PC. Some program seems to launch itself, unbidden, every time you turn the machine on. Fortunately, it's easy to either add or remove items from the Startup folder:
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