What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something else

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/handy_start_menu.html

It looks like a possibility, but I like to review the alternatives before getting a program.

Please don't tell me just uninstall a lot of programs. I'm going to do that when I have time to. But I don't now. I'm cautious about uninstalling programs with good reason. I almost uninstalled Jarte after installing it on a friend's advice. That would have been a huge mistake : now Jarte is one of my favorite programs.

Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
32-bit
Service Pack 3

Dell DIMENSION DIM2400
Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9
2.05 GB of RAM
Graphics Card: Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV
Graphics Controller, 64 Mb
Hard Drive Size 114.4GB
Free Space was 35.8GB; now 22.0GB because after backing up My Documents on Google Drive, Google Drive has duplicated the whole darn thing on my hard drive :mad
Motherboard: Dell Computer Corp., 0G1548
Antivirus : Panda Cloud free

 

Re: What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something

conceptualclarity...

I think it helps to start with knowing how the start menu works. Without getting into the accounts bit (I don't have one on this PC...just use the default administrator account), here's what I did to organize my Start Menu:

1. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Start Menu\Programs
2. Leave the folder open but minimize it
3. Open Start menu and look at the entries with the idea of creating subgroups for them
4. Decide on subgroup titles and in the open C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Start Menu\Programs folder right click and select New->Folder
5. Title the folder the name of your first new subgroup
6. Repeat the process until you have all the subgroups you want
7. Now go to your Start menu, open it and the Programs menu. Begin dragging program icons into whichever folder you created for them.

Some examples of ones that might help you could be System Applications, Security Applications, Microsoft Programs, Internet Browsers, Media Browsers, Diagnostics Applications, PC Maintenance Applications, etc...

Anyway, this is how I organized my Start menu. For me, adding Rainmeter to the desktop made it even better. I use the Start menu about 1/3 as much because of Rainmeter...

 

Re: What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something

Thanks, I will try that.

You mean your desktop directory or your wallpaper desktop? I thought Rainmeter was just decorative. I really need help for my desktop directory and My Documents. I am livid over the way Windows rapes and pillages whatever arrangement I try to put in them.

 

Re: What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something

conceptualclarity...

Rainmeter is many things. The decoration is just a nice element the program can add, although it doesn't have to change things much. It's really just about convenience. For example, there are "skins" (like a tile) packages that make it possible to open any of, say, eight of your most frequently used programs. You can then put that anywhere on your desktop that you consider most convenient for opening the programs. The same can be done with key folders. I don't have to ever hardly open My Documents, because I have a link to all the key folders in MD in a RM skin on the desktop. I even have a tile that gives me instant access to important Windows XP functions like Device Manager, System Configuration Tool, Command Prompt, Task Manager, Control Panel, Services Control applet, Performance Monitor, and Event Viewer.

Doesn't help with the configuration problems and challenges of Windows folders, but at least things are easier to get to in the first place. Also, if your PC has sensors (many P4s don't), the live meter tiles on the desktop are great for monitoring usage.

Think I mentioned, I don't use icons on the desktop, anymore. I have them all hidden. If I want to see the icons, I have a Rainmeter link to the desktop folder (for me C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop) so I can see them...

There are all kinds of setups available with Rainmeter. If you would like to try it, let me know. I'll get you through the setup.

Weather and clock tiles are nice to have too...

 

Re: What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something

I have started to try to do this, but whenever I try to drag and drop a program icon into the Security Programs folder it won't go into it but instead lands on the line above it. I tried dragging and dropping at the Windows Explorer folder, but that didn't affect the All Programs display. Very frustrating.

 

Re: What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something

I deleted that Security Programs folder and created a new one. The previous one wasn't showing that little black arrow on the right side, and it appears that was related to my inability to drop programs there. I think it was because I had made a shortcut in the Administrator folder and dragged it to the All Programs display. This time I just created the new Security Programs folder in the Programs folder of Owner, and it showed up in the display, and it works.

 

Re: What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something

Hey cc...

Glad you got that sorted out.

Got an interesting tip for you to try that really works for me. It's actually in two parts.

1. Start menu->Run->type msconfig and hit enter->Boot.ini->set the timeout number to 10 seconds. It's about half way down right side. This is supposed to speed up boots, and it seems to help some on the front end. Boots do seem more or less the same overall, but I like that to desktop seems quicker to me on this PC.

2. This is a minor registy edit you can see the documentation for here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Windows-XP-Startup-Faster

Microsoft calls this prefetch, but I think of it as drive caching, because the information in the C:\Windows\Prefetch folder is on the C:\ (or whatever your main drive is) and isn't info to be placed in RAM (at least I don't think so). The placement of this key indicates that the information in the folder is about placing info in RAM, but the folder full of data appears to me to be the data itself, the folder is of course on the hard drive, hence this seems to me hard drive caching. This I mean instead of information to be placed in RAM memory.

Anyway, I changed the key to 2 as shown in the link and then cut all of the files in the prefetch folder out of the folder and pasted them into a folder on a backup drive, so that I could restore them if necessary. Then I rebooted. The result was much better, but there was one side effect. I had to reset my startups using CCleaner, because it seems everything was suddenly set to startup that I had disabled using CCleaner. No big deal, I just disabled them again in CCleaner.

Second reboot was slower, but fixes in CCleaner startup stuck, so that was good. Not sure about changing the key and removing the prefetch files. I am going to run this for a couple of days or so and see how the performance is over time. I don't boot much, so that doesn't matter much to me. but I do sense a little bit calmer PC when just allowing boot files to be placed in the prefetch folder (the registy key change in link)...

 

Re: What's best program for overcrowded XP start menu, Handy Start Menu or something

conceptualclarity...

Going through old posts a few minutes ago, and I noticed this one. I am using a program called Appetizer now. It's a great start menu replacement for my purposes if you would like to take a look.

It's small and movable, and it can be set to be on top of everything. You can import various things from Start Menu and from Quick Launch and then you can also add programs, files, folders, and internet sites.

The import feature didn't pick up all of the start menu items, so I went to the start menu and right clicked on the ones that didn't import to get the path to the start up file for the program, then I added them one by one manually.

This is a smash hit with me. Now I am back to using Start Killer to get rid of the Start Button, which drives me crazy. I was using docks, but this is better for me for sure. It's very nice. I just love that I can move it anywhere, and it's not too big. It stays on top, but it's not in the way of full screen (it doesn't appear above games...another plus).

Here is the link:

http://app.etizer.org/

Oh yeah. I love that this is open source. I bet there will be some doozy plugins someday. I am only using the groups one, but I did download a skin. That was fun...

Cheers