Customize personalized XP Start Menu as needed

For many users, the default Start Menu configured by XP has the feeling of "chicken ribs": it is not easy to use, but cannot be ignored. In fact, you only need to make a customized XP Start Menu for yourself-this is the topic we will discuss today.

The so-called cutting-edge without mistake, before the construction of the first to "Sharpen the tool ". Although the basic functions provided by XP can also be used, if you want to achieve better results, try TweakUI for XP. Microsoft official website provides related download resources. Note that there are two available execution files: The Itanium system version and other system versions. You only need to download the version you need.

). Before installation, you must uninstall the old version of TweakUI. Different from previous versions, the TweakUI of this version adds the program icon to the Start Menu, rather than the control panel of a non-traditional version.

Then we can start the work. Right-click the start button and select Properties. A two-column dialog box is displayed, including the Start menu and taskbar. After you select the former option, two options are displayed: "XP Start Menu" or "classic Start Menu". You can either use the traditional Luna topic Start Menu or choose a Windows classic appearance topic, each style menu has its own sub-options.

Select a classic style and click the "Custom" button to add and remove icons from the Start menu, or click "advanced" (you can access the menu from a browser in the same path) enter the folder where the Start menu is located. You can clear the list of recently accessed files, for example, the command line typed in the "run" command bar and the list of accessed documents; there are also some options to control the display or hide of some icons, such as enabling drag and drop in the Start menu, and expanding the "control panel" and "My Documents" icons into menus. If an extended icon is selected, it is automatically expanded as a sub-menu when the mouse is hovering over the icon. This is a small function that has been used since Windows 95, if you do not extend the icon, the corresponding folder will be opened in the new window (see figure 1 ).

The following describes three special options:

Scroll program: if there are too many programs in the "program" menu in the "Start Menu", or you only want to use a single-column sub-menu for display, you can select the "scroll program" option. In this way, the "program" sub-menu will display only one column, and there is a small arrow at the top and bottom to scroll to display the hidden program icon. If it is deselected, all programs will be displayed in the Multi-column menu; if you are not satisfied with either of the two schemes, you can set the Start menu to open a folder, and the icons displayed will be reduced accordingly.

Show small icon: this is also a traditional Windows option. If this option is not selected, a large icon is displayed in the Start menu, and a Windows version is displayed next to it.

Use personalized menu: After this option is selected, the "program" menu only displays the recently used Program Shortcuts, And the infrequently used Program Shortcuts are hidden, causing inconvenience in searching. Although some users prefer this feature, we do not recommend it. After all, you can easily use the Start Menu.

In contrast, the XP style menu is much more intelligent. Unlike the classic Start Menu, the XP Start Menu is displayed in two columns, and some standard icons are listed on the right, such as "Search", "run", "document", "help", and "set. Like the classic Start Menu, you can also choose to hide these icons in "Custom" and "Advanced properties" of the XP Start Menu, you can also open a sub-menu or an independent folder. The "logout" and "Close computer" buttons are separated and placed under the Start Menu.

The dialog box on the left is split into two parts. The upper part is a fixed list of common programs. You can use it to create shortcuts in the browser, you can also use the drag-and-drop function to add shortcuts to the list. This function is easy to use. In the XP system, this operation becomes simpler. Right-click any shortcut and select "attach to the Start Menu" to add the program to the Start Menu. Similarly, right-click the shortcut and select "Remove from Start Menu" to cancel the preceding operation.

The lower part of the dialog box is the shortcut list of common programs. You can set the maximum number of shortcuts. New icons that exceed the upper limit will automatically replace the old icons, but the upper limit is 30. In the upper limit dialog box ("Start Menu attribute" "Custom" "general"), you can choose whether to put the browser and email icon in the fixed frequently-used program list, and whether to clear the list of recently used programs (see figure 2 ).

When adding shortcuts to the Start Menu, XP shows its intelligent side. For example, you cannot add existing shortcuts or add projects started from the Quick Start bar. You can right-click the shortcut menu to clear the shortcuts in the Start Menu, but this does not prevent them from returning again. It is this unsatisfactory part that allows TweakUI to show its skills. The "Start menu" dialog box under "Taskbar and Start Menu" will display a list of all programs, you only need to select the program in reverse direction to permanently disable the shortcut from being included in the income Start Menu (see figure 3 ).

If you are tired of entering the Device Manager only when you are crazy about system properties, you can try this: Open "run" in the Start menu and enter devmgmt In the Name Bar. msc can directly access the Device Manager. In addition, the reader mentioned that the DOS command can only be input in Insert mode. If "Insert switch" is used to switch to Overtype mode, no input is allowed. It is said that this rule has been used since MS-Dos 5, but I only verified Windows 3.1/MS-Dos 6.2.

Maybe you didn't notice it, but the design of anything is constantly correcting errors and making up for defects. The same problem exists in the development and design of Windows. After a long journey, I did not open my computer for a while, but when I came back, I found all the desktop icons suddenly disappeared. Check the file in a browser and find the file intact. Obviously, the desktop icon is hidden-This involves the issue of "Active Desktop. In Windows 98, you can choose to hide the icon when viewing desktop projects on a web page in settings of Display Properties. However, "view on a web page" is an inexplicable design. In Windows ME, the "Hide icon" option does not exist in the display attribute, however, you can find "lock desktop project" and "show desktop icon" in the sub menu that appears after right-clicking the desktop ". XP is similar to Windows ME. Right-click the desktop and select the "show desktop icon" option in the "arrange icons" submenu (SEE ). In addition, the XP Desktop Cleanup Wizard cleans up a small number of icons in a period of time, and places them in a folder named "unused Desktop shortcuts. Although such a change in design will be more or less confusing, it is not difficult to see Microsoft's unremitting efforts in innovation consciousness.