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No problem, I actually like the nature of some topics - they just seem to go off topic no matter how much we try! The wish of bringing back Opera was just that I knew that Soya would react! :wink: And so he did… :slight_smile:

I noticed that you’ve removed almost everything! Essential buttons, the Comodo logo at the top… too much for me, but I certainly like your minimalistic approach. You probably know I do, see my start menu below. :smiley:

LA

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You certainly beat me on the Start menu, but that’s because I left the top parts for 2 reasons:
Those are shortcuts to 2 of my most commonly used things (with the 3rd being a temporary thing) and because I like to keep the blue Windows logo to make it look less bland.

How come yours states “Shutdown Down…” while mine is “Turn Off Computer…”?

Tru dat. Look what you caused me to do right at this moment! :-X

Now it’s LM’s turn to split my post to somewhere else.

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I’m happy to see that you’ve removed the same things as I have, like Help, Documents etc… Also happy to notice that you use CCleaner that much. Same here. :slight_smile:

Curious: what are Requests? And CFP Registry Deletes? Which one is temporary?

As you have some shortcuts on your desktop (last time I checked), why both there and on the startmenu? Where do you have Opera? I always start my browser with a little dedicated physical button. Every guest at my computer has to look for a long time in my start menu programs folder, eventually they succeed, but the little WWW button is unbeatable… :smiley:

Interesting, I have no idea. I also have XP Pro. Could there be a difference between the US (or CA?) and the UK version? I don’t even know if I have US or UK. All I know is that I dropped the Swedish version a long time ago, and started to use all programs in English versions, to make it homogeneous and always be sure to have the latest version.

/LA

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Requests is my personal text file that stores things like my list of anime to watch :smiley:
CFP Registry Deletes is a text file that contains CFP files and registry keys in case I need to refer to any that’s remaining if I happen to uninstall CFP 2.4 (for the upcoming 3)

I do NOT dupliate my shorcuts on my desktop and start menu because that’s not my style. The most commonly used programs are in my Quick Launch (next to the start button). I put CCleaner and the other text file shorcuts on the Start menu because while having programs opened, I don’t want to have to minimize everything just to get to the desktop.

Shutdown vs Turn Off has nothing to do with localization or language settings. I know that for a fact because I have lots of US customers at my work that have Turn Off on their computers. I also have XP Pro, so it’s not the OS version. Maybe you have the Classic theme on or I didn’t install every single Windows Updates patch?

No Classic theme, I use a customized visual style. I do have all patches. Here’s another thesis: I do not use the simple user log on / log off style, but the other one, the “professional”. See the attached image.

I’ve recently switched to this log on / log off style, and it’s possible that I’ve seen “Shut Down…” before. Don’t remember.

/LA

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Thesis or theory? Whatever it is, you must be right on the dot :slight_smile:

I hardly know the difference. :smiley:

/LA

I hope I’m not breaching any law and I can join too. :wink: This is my desktop, nothing special geek-wise but practical for me (it’s in Spanish):

http://www.imgplace.com/directory/dir1888/1190663520.png

I’m used to the default XP skin, even my granma couldn’t miss those big buttons LOL. Actually in System properties I disabled all graphic enhancing options except for two: skins of course (don’t like naked XP so good), and the animation when you minimize or restore windows (yes I know I deserve Hell for that :stuck_out_tongue: ).

The icons are systematically ordered if you pay attention. 8)

You are certainly welcome too! :slight_smile:

It’s a functional desktop, not really my philosophy - I seldom hesitate to chose form before function. Disabling those graphic enhancing options is the way to go, I’ve done exactly the same as you. No animations whatsoever.

I don’t really see the pattern, more than perhaps graphically? No alphabetical arrangement? Hey, wait, now I see - it’s kind of categorized! An excellent approach, I have the same on my start menu.

I also see that you have CDBurnerXP 3, did you know that version 4 came out two (or three) days ago? I tried it, but according to CPF it wanted to act like a server. When denied, the application crashed. This was, however, not CDBurnerXP’s fault. It’s related to the .NET Framework.

/LA

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Does anyone know how to get rid of the Search > On the internet… without removing the Search menu itself? I couldn’t find anything specifically in Group Policy or google.

And if possible, it would better if there was a way to move For Files or Folders… in place of the Search menu.

{I changed the topic title to reflect anybody’s start menu}

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Ooh I’m flattered sir. ;D :stuck_out_tongue: What about naming this “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine” instead? :smiley:
(:AGL)

Yep the icons are categorized. Content/disk locations on the left, program shortcuts on the right. Any temporary files put in the Desktop would go to the left too, actually by default files downloaded to the Desktop would go right below the trash bin (no coincidence here). Stuff that needs prompt attention will go right to the centre of the desktop where it will call my attention. By the way the last folder (shorcut) is for games, well actually for a folder where I keep shorcuts to them (I don’t like having the individual shortcuts for all games spilled on the Desktop itself), where there’s in turn anoter shorcut to the folder where games are actually installed --this is why the desktop shortcut categorizes for going to the left. (Actually the former is a subfolder of the latter.) Freudian perhaps, but to me it makes sense. 88)

The program shorcuts to the right are indeed categorized in rows, plus similar programs are kept close as far as possible. First row, normal programs --the stuff I actually use the computer for, when I’m not fooling around because of being a geek (or playing games), LOL. Second row, virtualization (drives/machines), plus CD burning because it wouldn’t have its own row alone and it kinda looked fine next to Daemon Tools… (Oooh wait, CD burning should be in the first row, and it could still stand right above DT! Moves Cool it’s even more logical now, and the icons form a nice perfect square MWAHAHAHAH…)

Ahem, let’s move along. (Note to self: find a psychiatrist… who thinks my desktop r0ckz.) Third row, Internet stuff (Opera is in the Quicklaunch bar as well as my ADSL modem connection). Fourth and fifth rows, administration tools, all configured to run with different credentials since they need admin rights and that’s my limited account that I use all the time.

Since it was introduced in Win95 I don’t like the Start Menu for everyday use, for me it’s only where all is shown in case it’s needed (at least in my user acount and the admin one). If I’ll be needing a shortcut more than once it will have to be in the Desktop or in Quicklaunch bar.


When I click on Search (“Buscar”) there’s no menu and I get a single window where I decide exactly what I want to search instead of being guided. (Wait this icon is useless because I always search by right-clicking… Removes MWAHA-- Googles for “obsessive-compulsive”). I don’t remember if I didn’t have your menu before but I do remember that, within the Search interface, I went to “Change Preferences” and switched from guided to advanced mode. I bet that’s what you’re looking for. However if that doesn’t do the trick try right-clicking on the Task Bar > Properties > Start Menu tab > Customize > Advanced tab, and look in “Elements”. By the way I have Home, just in case it’s different in Pro. (Options’ names are translated from Spanish so they may not be literal in an English Windows.)


PS: Thanks a lot Leoni for letting me know about CDBurnerXP. :) However I'm concerned about what you say, even though I don't have .NET Framework installed. And in its site I read that the new version needs .NET, unlike previous versions, so I think I'll stick with v3 since it does the job. It seems the only major new feature is 1:1 copying and I use ISORecorder for that, it's great, you don't see it here because it works through handy context menus.

pant, pant :o

That might produce ■■■■■■ side effects :o, so I’ll pass on that. (Unless LA is up to it ;D).

I don’t know of any “Change Preferences” in the Search to advanced mode…

The second one I do know about, but it just opens the Start menu folder and the only thing in it is the Program files & folders.

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Check the edit I added after you quoted me but before you posted:

By the way I have Home, just in case it's different in Pro.

Otherwise I don’t know.

EDIT:

I mean this:

http://www.imgplace.com/directory/dir1892/1190675777.png

There’s one way to know: wait for LA and see what he sees because he has Pro as well.

I have Pro, too. I thought maybe it was an advanced config option, like the view as links or something, so I checked. Screenies attached. Not that I use it, anyway. I guess I should remove it from the list, hmm? I use Agent Ransack if I need to find a file.

You will also note that I too, have “Shut down.” I’m thinking that’s a themes/styles issue, though, rather than OS version (I could be wrong).

LM

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Now I see. The reason why such option is unavailable for me is because I’m using the Classic View (which I prefer).

Well, there you go. I use the classic logon scheme, and have FUS disabled but that’s more for security. For the Start menu appearance, I don’t want W95 or W98 flashbacks, and prefer to waste the resources… :wink:

LM

Yep it’s the same in Win98 which I have installed in a virtual machine.

I grew to hate Win9X wholeheartedly and it deserved just that because it’s the worst excuse for an OS ever. But besides the performance I also like the XP menus better, when you shut down the computer there are big buttons and you can’t push the wrong one --I use the keyboard anyway what can’t be done in Win98 I think. In Win98 (and XP’s “classic view”) you’ve got to select what to do (shut down, reboot…) from a pull-down menu and the latest action is remembered. If I had a dollar for every time I rebooted when I wanted to turn off or the other way around…

That’s why I prefer the XP view, but it’s a matter of personal preference so I’m not dissing yours. ;D
(:AGL)

Someone called? LA’s back. :slight_smile:

Japo, I really like your devotion to the arrangement of desktop icons. Always nice to hear from someone who probably spends as many wasted hours as I do, on customizing!

Regarding CDBurnerXP I think your choice is good. I uninstalled the new 4.0, but switched to the open source InfraRecorder instead of CDBurnerXP 3.0.


So you’ve found out the search mystery. Soya, I hope you’ve disabled that annoying search assistant as well? :slight_smile: I’m back to the most basic search tool, very clean and simple. It doesn’t get any better.

Have you found out how to remove “On the Internet…” from the start menu? How did you get rid of “For people…”? I still have that one.


Hmm, we all use visual styles (not classic), but the shut down label still differs? I don’t get this. Or maybe I was right here:


This is a problem, I agree. Nevertheless I’m a newly recruited user of the classic log off / shut down interface. I guess I prefer the cleaner, more professional look. :slight_smile:

/LA

Hmm, we all use visual styles (not classic), but the shut down label still differs? I don't get this.
Well, the person who designs the style/theme decides what will go where; some go into a lot of detail (shoot, some even change the entire layout to resemble Mac, Linux, or something else entirely). So it makes sense to me that one might program it to say "Turn Off" instead of "Shut Down." I'm not saying I'm right, so don't get me wrong. ;)
I guess I prefer the cleaner, more professional look.
Hmm, so where does that leave me? I use the more "modern" XP layout in general (start menu, Explorer and such), but the NT-style classic logon.

LM