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Windows Start Menu Sorting and Editing
by By James C. Smith—NOCCC www.Reflexive.Net/james/, JamesCSmith@BigFoot.com - March 18, 2000 at 03:22:35:
The Windows Start menu allows you to launch any program that is installed on your computer. Each time you install a new prograEm it adds itself to the Start menu. Some programs give you more control that others when it comes to where the program is added to the Start menu. For your Start menu to be truly useful, you need to customize it to fit the way you use your computer. You can put almost anything you want in the Start Menu including programs, documents, web sites, batch files, or anything you access frequently. You can also arrange the items in the Start Menu so things you use most frequently are easy to get to.Windows 95—Windows 95 allows you to edit the Start menu a couple different ways. You can click Start/ Settings/ Taskbar & Start Menu. Next click on the Start Menu Programs tab. From here you can use wizards to add and remove items or you can click advanced to get full control of your Start Menu. You can organize the Start Menu by creating groups or submenus and moving item from one submenu to another. For example, you could put all your graphics editing programs in one group/submenu called graphics. You could also move the programs you use most often to the root level of the Start menu so you don’t have to open the Programs submenu to get to them. Windows 95 always displays the item in the Start menu in alphabetical order. If you want to control the order of the items, you can rename them to start with numbers or letters. A program name prefixed with a 1 or A will be near the top of the menu and an item prefixed with 9 or z will be near the end of the menu. Another way to edit the Start menu in Windows 95 is to simply right click on the Start button and select Open or Explore. From here you can rename, delete, copy, move, or add items to the Start Menu.
Windows 98—All the editing techniques mentioned above work in Windows 98 plus 98 has some very nice new features. These features are very useful, but so subtle that you may not even know they are there. Any time the Start menu is open (simply left click on the Start button like you always do) you can actually edit the menu in place. Simply click and drag an item in the menu to move it up and down in the menu or even to a submenu. For example, if you play solitaire often, you can move it to the root level of the menu at the top or bottom or anywhere else that is convenient for you. Just click Start/Programs/Accessories/Games. Now move your mouse over Solitaire then press and hold the left mouse button. Now you can drag the Solitaire menu item to a new part of the Start menu. If you use Solitaire often, you may want to drag it all the way to the root level of the Start Menu. This will move it to that new location permanently. If you would rather just put a copy in the root level of the menu, but also keep the existing copy in the Games submenu, you can do that by dragging the Solitaire item with the right mouse button. When you drop it in the new location with the right mouse button, a menu will appear with options to Move Here, Copy Here, or Create Shortcut Here.
You can also use this drag-and-drop technique to move something from the Start menu onto your Desktop or into a folder. Just drag any item out of the Start menu and drop it on your desktop. You will get a shortcut on your desktop to the program your dragged. This also works in reverse. You can take any item on your desktop and drag it over the start button. Hover over the start button for a few seconds without dropping the file. The Start Menu will appear. Now continue dragging to put the item anywhere you like in the Start menu.
You can rename, delete, copy and paste Start Menu items by right clicking on the item in the menu. By default there is an item in the root level of the Start menu call Windows Update. You can rename it to Patch Windows by just clicking the Start button, right clicking on Windows Update, and selecting Rename from the context menu. Now type in Patch Window or any other name you like. Or you could right click on Windows Update and select Delete to get rid of that item if you never want to use it.
Unlike Windows 95, Windows 98 does not automatically sort items in the Start menu alphabetically. This can be convenient because you can use drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste items to rearrange them into whatever order is best for you. There is no need to put letter or number prefixes on program names to get them to sort the way you want. However, if you just want the items sorted alphabetically, you don’t have to manually drag them all around. All you need to do is right click on any item in the Start Menu and select Sort by Name from the context menu. This will sort all the items that are current in the menu. New items that are added later will be added to the bottom of the menu. You will have to select Sort by Name again later to re-sort the new items into the menu.
The Start menu can be a great way to get easy access to the programs you use most frequently. Unlike your Desktop, the Start menu is always accessible. However, most people find the Start menu inconvenient to use because there are too many items and they are not properly organized. Using the techniques described above, you should be able to reorganize your Start Menu so that all the programs or documents you use most frequently are easy to access with one or two clicks of the mouse.
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