Chapter 10: Setting Up Your Start Menu and Taskbar

Customizing the Start Menu

Most of the Start menu and its submenus are customizable, except that the Turn Off Computer, Help And Support, Search, and Control Panel items on the Start menu cannot be removed or reorganized. You can, however, add items to the top of the Start menu, and you have total control over the Programs menu and submenus.

If your Programs menu has lots of submenus, getting to the item you want may take longer than you would like. If you find the Start menu cumbersome, explore the other methods of starting programs, which are covered in Chapter2.

Reorganizing the Start Menu

You can organize those parts of the Start menu that you are allowed to edit in three ways--you can drag-and-drop items, cut-and-paste items, or use an Explorer window to edit the Start Menu folders in the C:\Documents And Settings folder. These folders and their subfolders contain shortcuts to the programs that appear on your Start menu, and the arrangements of these shortcuts and folders define what command appears on what menu.

Here's a summary of changes you can make:

• Add an item to the top of the left side of the Start menu Right-click a shortcut on the desktop or in the menu, or right click a .exe file. Choose Pin To Start Menu from the menu that appears.
• Add a program to the Programs menu Drag a desktop shortcut or the program's .exe file to the Start button. Hold it there while the Start menu opens, hold it over the All Programs button until the Programs menu opens, and then drop it where you want it to appear. (Hold it over submenus to open them.)
• Remove an item from the menu To remove a program from the left side of the Start menu, right-click it and choose Remove From This List from the menu that appears. To remove a program from the All Programs menu (or its submenus), right-click the menu item and choose Delete. You can't remove items from the right side of the Start menu.
• Rename a menu item Right-click the menu item and choose Rename. Type the new name and press ENTER.

If these bullet points don't cover what you need to do, or don't provide enough detail, keep reading!

Dragging and Dropping Programs to the Start Menu

You can create a Start menu entry for a program by dragging its program file (or a shortcut to the program) to the Start button. To add an item to the Start menu, drag the file, folder, program .exe file, or a shortcut to the program from an Explorer window or the Desktop and drop it on the Start button. Windows creates a new shortcut, and the new command appears in the top part of the Start menu.

To put the item further into the Start menu hierarchy, drag it to the Start button and hold it there until the Start menu appears. Then drag the item to exactly where you want it to appear (hold it on a submenu option to open the submenu). You may prefer to move the item in two steps, first dropping it on the Start button, and then dragging it within the Start menu, as described in the next section.

Dragging and Dropping Items Within the Start Menu

The easiest way to reorganize items already in the menus is to drag-and-drop the commands where you want them.

Reorganize items already in the Start menu by dragging them, like this:

1. Display the Start menu by clicking the Start button.
2. Display the menu containing the item you want to move (for instance, you might need to click All Programs to see the Microsoft Word option, which you might want to move to a submenu called Microsoft Applications).
3. Click the item you want to move and hold the mouse button down.
4. While holding the mouse button down, move the pointer in the menu. The black bar shows you where the item you are moving will appear. You can open a submenu by highlighting it, and waiting for it to open.
5. When the black bar appears in the position where you want the item to be, release the mouse button to drop the item in its new position.

Cutting and Pasting Start Menu Items

When you can see a Start menu command, you can right-click it and choose from the shortcut menu that appears. Two of the shortcut menu options are Cut and Copy--use them to move or copy a Start menu item.

To move (or copy) a command from one menu to another, right-click it and choose Cut (or Copy). Then give the command that displays the submenu into which you'd like to move the command, right-click, and choose Paste. For example, if you want to copy the Netscape Navigator command from the Start | All Programs | Netscape Communicator menu into the Programs menu, choose Start | All Programs | Netscape Communicator to display the command, right-click it, and choose Copy. Then click Start, right-click the All Programs command, and choose Paste.

Moving Commands and Submenus by Editing the Start Menu Folders

Another way to customize the Programs menu and its submenus is to use an Explorer window to add, remove, move, and rename shortcuts. (Explorer windows are discussed in Chapters7 and 8.) You can also rename submenus and menu items and create new submenus by using this method.

The Programs menu displays the shortcuts stored in two separate folders--one contains the Programs menu shortcuts that all users see, and the other contains the shortcuts that are visible for your personal user profile. Windows combines the two sets of shortcuts and displays a single Programs menu. The C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Start Menu folder contains most shortcuts (if Windows isn't installed on C:, substitute the correct drive letter); the other folder is in the folder for your profile, C:\Documents And Settings\username\Start Menu (i.e., C:\Documents And Settings\Alison\Start Menu).

When you install a program that adds commands to your Programs menu, Windows asks whether you want the new menu entries to appear only in your Programs menu or on the Programs menus of all users of the computer. Adding, removing, and reorganizing the Programs menu is as simple as adding, deleting, and moving shortcuts within the two Start Menu folders. Menu items can be renamed by renaming the shortcuts.

The Start Menu folders (C:\Documents And Settings\username\Start Menu and C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Start Menu) contain the commands that appear at the top of the Programs menu. The Programs folder in the two Start Menu folders contain the rest of the commands that appear on the Programs menu. Each subfolder of the Programs folders corresponds to a submenu of the Programs menu. For example, the shortcuts in the C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Games folder appear in the Start | All Programs | Games menu.

You can display the Start Menu folder for your user account in Windows Explorer by right-clicking the Start button and choosing Open or Explore from the menu (Open displays the C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu folder in an Explorer window; Explore displays the same window with the addition of the Folders Explorer bar--we recommend choosing Explore). To display the Start Menu folder for all users, right-click the Start button and choose Explorer All Users. Figure 10-3 shows the C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Start Menu folder in Windows Explorer. Notice that all the customizable choices that appear on the Start menu in Figure 10-1 also appear in the Start Menu folder: the Programs folder, the New Office Document shortcut, the Open Office Document shortcut, and the Windows Update shortcut. Commands you can't change (such as Help and Run) don't appear.

Figure 10-3: Using Windows Explorer to edit the Start menu

To display the contents of the Programs menu, open the Programs folder in the Start Menu folders--look both in the folder for all users and the folder for your user account. You can explore the Start Menu folders by using the same methods you use to explore all folders on your computer.

To edit any submenu of the Start menu, you can right-click it and choose Explorer. Want to make changes to the Accessories submenu? Choose Start | All Programs, right-click Accessories, and choose Explore (for your user account settings) or Explore All Users. You see the C:\Documents And Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories or C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories folder in Windows Explorer.

Because the Start menu is stored as shortcuts within folders, it can be edited in the same way you edit folders and files:

• You can move an item from one menu group to another by dragging or cutting and pasting the shortcut to another folder.
• You can create a new menu group by creating a new folder: Select the folder in which the new submenu will be stored and choose File | New | Folder from the menu bar.
• You can rename a shortcut by selecting it and pressing F2 (or right-clicking the name and choosing Rename from the shortcut menu that appears). Windows highlights the name and shows a box around it. Type a new name, or use the cursor to edit the name. Press ENTER when you finish (or press ESC if you change your mind).

Although you can edit the Start menu by changing the contents of the Start Menu folder and their subfolders, the Start Menu and Programs folders are more than just regular folders. For instance, you can move the Programs folder out of its usual location, and you still see the Programs option on the Start menu (this can lead to complications that are hard to fix, though, so don't try it).

Changing Start Menu Properties

In addition to changing the programs that appear on the Start menu and the order in which they appear, you can customize the Start menu in other ways. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties to display the Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 10-4.

Figure 10-4: Choosing the style of your Start menu

The Start Menu tab on this dialog box enables you to choose between the Start menu (the new Windows XP design) and the Classic Start Menu (the old Windows Me Start menu). Except for the section on the Classic Start Menu, this chapter assumes that you are using the Windows XP Start menu.

Customizing the Windows XP-Style Start Menu

To customize the standard Start menu, click the upper Customize button on the Start Menu tab of the Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box to see the General tab of the Customize Start Menu dialog box, shown in Figure 10-5.

Figure 10-5: Changing the properties of the Start menu

The General tab of the Customize Start Menu dialog box offers you the following options:

• Select An Icon Size For Programs By default, large icons are displayed in the Start menu. Choose the Small Icons option to make the first level of the Start menu take up less room on the screen.
• Programs By default, the five programs that you use most often are displayed on the first level of the Start menu. You can change the number of programs that appear by changing this setting--choose a number between zero and thirty.
• Show On Start Menu By default, a shortcut to a browser and a shortcut to an e-mail program are displayed at the top of the Start menu. You can choose to display a different program by choosing from the drop-down lists, or you can choose not to display these programs by deselecting the check box. Remember, you can put any program at the top of the Start menu by right-clicking it and choosing Pin to Start menu.

Click the Advanced tab of the Customize Start Menu dialog box to see more options, including those that allow you to choose the folder shortcuts that appear on the Start menu. The Advanced tab has the following sections:

• Start Menu Settings These check boxes allow you to change Start menu behavior: You can have the Start menu open submenus when the mouse is paused over them, or, by deselecting this option, you can choose to have the submenus open only when you click on them. The other check box controls whether new programs on the Start menu are highlighted in a different color.
• Start Menu Items This box gives you control over what is displayed and how some items are displayed in the second column of the Start menu--the folder shortcuts, the Control Panel, and the Run command. (This section of the dialog box is described in more detail below.)
• Recent Documents Selecting the List My Most Recently Opened Documents check box displays the My Recent Documents submenu on the Start menu, which displays the names of recently used files. You can select a file from this list to open it in its native program. Use the Clear List button to remove the list of recently opened documents--if the check box is still selected, Windows will build a new list as you open new files. The My Recent Documents command on the Start menu is similar to the Documents item on the Classic Start menu.

The Start Menu Items section of the Advanced tab of the Customize Start Menu dialog box contains a list of settings that control what appears in the second column of the Start menu, and how it appears. The check boxes enable you to choose whether or not to display the menu item. Many choices in this section have three settings: Display As A Link, Display As A Menu, and Don't Display This Item. Figure 10-6 shows how these differ. My Music appears as a link: when you click My Music, you open the My Music folder in an Explorer window. My Computer appears as a menu: when you click My Computer, a submenu appears.

Figure 10-6: Displaying Start menu items as links and menus

Here is a brief rundown of the options in the Start Menu Items box that do not appear by default on the Start menu (the default items are explained in the section "What Is the Start Menu?"at the beginning of this chapter):

• Favorites menu The Favorites menu displays your most frequently used files, folders, Web pages, and programs. The menu displays the contents of the Favorites folder (usually C:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Favorites or C:\Documents And Settings\username\Favorites). The Favorites menu is easy to access, not only from the Start menu, but also from Explorer windows and most Open and Save As dialog boxes. Most people use the Favorites folder for shortcuts to frequently used files, folders, and programs, but you can also store files there (as with any other folder). Learn more about Favorites in Chapter 24.
• Network Connections You have two options for displaying network connections on the Start menu. You can Display As Connect To Menu, which displays Connect To on the Start menu with a submenu of your defined Internet and LAN connections (click a connection name to make the connection). The other option is Link To Network Connections Folder which displays Connect To on the Start menu as a shortcut to the Network Connections window.
• Printers and Faxes This option displays a shortcut to the Printers And Faxes folder, where you can see all your defined printers and fax packages and the Add A Printer icon.

Customizing the Classic Start Menu

If you choose to use the Classic Start menu you have a whole raftload of different customization options. To display the Customize Classic Start Menu dialog box, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties to display the Start Menu tab of the Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Classic Start Menu radio button (if it isn't already selected).
3. Click the Customize button to display the Customize Classic Start Menu, shown here:

In the top half of the dialog box are five buttons. Use them to edit the programs on the Start menu. The Advanced button displays the Start Menu folder for your user account. Remember that most Start menu shortcuts are also stored in the C:/Documents And Settings/All Users/Start Menu folder. The Sort button sorts the Programs menu alphabetically when you click it.

Most of the check boxes in the bottom half of the Customize Classic Start Menu dialog box are optional menu items--use the check boxes to select which items appear on your Classic Start menu. Use the Expand Control Panel, Expand My Documents, Expand My Pictures, Expand Network Connections, and Expand Printers check boxes to display the listed item as a menu rather than as a shortcut. Microsoft also included a few options that affect how the Start menu works:

• Enable Dragging And Dropping The Start menu can be edited by dragging and dropping menu commands.
• Scroll Programs Scrolls the contents of the Programs menu up and down when the list is too big to fit on the screen; otherwise, the Programs menu expands to more than one column.
• Show Small Icons In Start Menu By default, large icons are displayed in the Start menu. Turn on the Small Icons option to make the first level of the Start menu take up less room on the screen.
• Use Personalized Menus Displays only those commands you have used recently. Turn off this option if you want to see all commands all the time.