How to Take Control of the Start Menu

[BobH]

I've putzed around with Win 7 for awhile now without modifying anything in the Start Menu. I understand that it is possible to customize the Start Menu, but I have no clue how to do so. I've searched and found articles or forum posts, but I either get different results following onscreen instructions or the posts are really about something else.

Could someone please point me to an article or three that will walk me through the process explaining the do's and don'ts?

[Rudi]

To clarify;
- Customize the actual menus
- Customize with skins
- Customize the settings

What area do you want to customize?

[BobH]

I'm not concerned about the skin. I want to learn about the different parts of the Win 7 Start Menu and how to control what appears where.

Start Menu.png

In this screenshot, there are program links in the left column above a line that seem to always be there and others below the line that seem to vary depending on how long it's been since I last used them (or some such criteria).

Similarly, in the right column are links to various tools. I use some of them frequently and others not at all.

Is it possible for me to control what appears, whether a folder appears or a program link, etc.? Can I group them into groups, eg, Office, File Utilities, System Info, et al? Can I bypass Control Panel and place a link directly to Network, eg?

Does that make sense?

[HansV]

In the left hand pane, the items below the horizontal line are recently used items. This list will change dynamically as you use programs. If you want to remove one of the items, right-click it and select 'Remove from this list' from the context menu.
The items above the horizontal line are pinned items; they will remain there until you remove them. To pin an item from the lower part (or from the taskbar), right-click it and select 'Pin to Start Menu' from the context menu. You can also drag-and-drop an icon into the pinned items area.
To remove a pinned item. right-click it and select 'Unpin from Start Menu' from the context menu.
You can drag items up and down to get them into the desired order.

If you click All Programs, you'll get a list of all installed programs. Again, you can drag items up and down, and you can drag items into the All Programs menu.

The All Programs menu is an amalgam of two folders: your personal Start Menu and the Start Menu that is visible to all users of the computer. Subfolders in the Start Menu folders are displayed as submenus.
To edit these folders, right-click All Programs, and either select Open or Open All Users from the context menu.
Changes in these folders will be reflected in the All Programs menu.

The right-hand pane can be customize by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Properties. Activate the Start Menu tab and click the Customize button.
For many of the items, you can specify whether they will be displayed as a link, as a menu (i.e. a fly-out submenu), or not at all.

In this dialog, you can also specify how many recent programs will be listed on the left hand side.

[HansV]

See Personalize the Windows 7 Start menu for detailed instructions with screenshots.

[BobH]

Thank you, Mr. V!!!

I shall give that some quality time on the morrow!

(but don't tell Claude)

[Rudi]

    
In addition to Hans's post(s), here is more excellent study material.

- How to Customize The Start Menu In Windows 7
This guide will show you how to customize the windows 7 start menu to include or exclude items according to your preferences.

- Start menu, Taskbar, System tray, Desktop, Gadgets, Visual Settings
This page describes the settings concerning the Windows 7 user interface to improve the user experience.