5.6. Customizing the Start MenuIt's possible to live a long and happy life without ever tampering with the Start menu. In fact, for many people, the idea of making it look or work differently comes dangerously close to nerd territory. Still, knowing how to manipulate the Start menu listings may come in handy someday, and provides an interesting glimpse into the way Windows works. And tweaking it to reflect your way of doing things can pay off in efficiency down the road. Note: Thanks to the User Accounts feature described in Chapter 15, any changes you make to the Start menu apply only to you . Each person with an account on this PC has an independent, customized Start menu. When you sign onto the machine using your name and password, Windows Vista loads your customized Start menu. 5.6.1. Start Menu SettingsMicrosoft offers a fascinating set of customization options for the Start menu. It's hard to tell whether these options were selected by a scientific usability study or by a dartboard, but you're likely to find something that suits you. To view and change the basic options, right-click the Start menu; from the shortcut menu, choose Properties. Now the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box opens, as seen in Figure 5-7.
When you click the Customize button, you see the dialog box shown at right in Figure 5-7. Here you're offered a random assortment of Start-menu tweaks, neatly listed in alphabetical order; they affect the Start menu in some fairly simple yet profound ways. Here, among other things, is where you'll find the show/hide switches for commands on the right side of the Start menuComputer, Control Panel, Documents, Games, Music, Personal folder, and so on. Beneath each of these headings, you'll find three options. The middle one, "Display as a menu," is extremely useful. It means that instead of simply listing the name of a folder (which is what "Display as a link" means), your Start menu sprouts a submenu listing the contents of that folder, as shown at bottom in Figure 5-8.
5.6.2. Adding Icons to the Start MenuUsually, when you install a new program, its installer automatically inserts the program's name and icon in your Start All Programs menu. There may be times, however, when you want to add something to the Start menu yourself, such as a folder, document, or even a disk. 5.6.2.1. The "free" sections of the Start menuIn the following pages, you'll read several references to the "free" portions of the Start menu. These are the two areas that you, the lowly human, are allowed to modify freelyadding, removing, renaming, or sorting as you see fit:
5.6.2.2. Dragging onto the Start menuHere's how to add an icon to one of the free areas:
Tip: If " Sort All Programs menu by name" is not turned on, your All Programs list may gradually become something of a mess.If you want to restore some order to itspecifically, alphabeticaljust right-click anywhere on the open All Programs menu and choose Sort by Name from the shortcut menu. 5.6.3. Removing Icons from the Start MenuWhen it comes time to prune an overgrown Start menu, there are three different sets of instructions, depending on which section of the Start menu needs purging.
5.6.4. Renaming Start-Menu ItemsAlthough few people realize it, you can rename anything in the Start menu's left side. Click the Start menu to open it, right-click the command you want to rename, and choose Rename from the shortcut menu. The name of the command sprouts a little editing box. Type the new name and then press Enter. 5.6.5. Reorganizing the Start MenuTo change the order of listings in the "free" portions of the Start menu, including the All Programs list, just drag the commands up and down the lists as you see fit. As you drag an item, a black line appears to show you the resulting location of your dragging action. Release the mouse when the black line is where you want the relocated icon to appear. Tip: If you change your mind while you're dragging, press the Esc key to leave everything as it was. You can drag program names from the lower-left section of the Start menu, toobut only into one of the "free" areas. |