Increase Start Menu Size (w/o Recently Opened Programs)
Sep 21, 2009
I'd like to make my Start Menu bigger (increase its height, to be specific). I've seen someone post a screenshot here: http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/Build-a-Monster-Windows-7-Start-M... Unfortunately, he didn't talk about how to achieve this.
I know that I can go into the Start Menu and Taskbar Properties menu > Customize > Start menu size and then and increase the number of recent programs to display, however, I really do not like to display recently opened programs (sorry to seem difficult). Is there any way to make the start menu size bigger without displaying recently opened programs?
Recently opened programs does not appear in the start menu.Windows help shows Click to open Taskbar and Start Menu Properties. Click the Start Menu tab, and then click Customize. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, in the Number of recent programs to display box, enter the number of programs you want to display on the Start menu, click OK, and then click OK again. Both the check boxes are disabled so I cannot make any changes.
A while back I used a few different programs to tweak Windows 7. One of the programs I used caused the recently used programs to stop showing up in the star menu. Under properties now I can't even set the number of programs to show because it is grayed out and unselectable. Any body know how to get this function back? I have ran SFC to see if there was something corrupt in Windows 7 with no errors returned. I think there is something turned off in the registry but have no idea where to look.
In the start menu the games I play don't go higher up the list, in fact they keep getting pushed down until they aren't even in the menu at all by programs that I run once in a blue moon.
Games should be ordered by how frequently they are used, the same way that all other programs are, despite the fact that there is a games folder.
...and yes, I'm aware that games can be pinned to the start menu.
It mostly happens in Lightwave 9.6 and Photoshop CS2. So the problem is that when I open a drop down menu in those programs the program either flickers a lot or it goes in the background and I have to alt+tab to get it back every time. It is really annoying because I can't do almost all important things in Lightwave and I can't save images in other formats in Photoshop beacuse of the drop down menu, and in other programs it flickers a lot and is just annoying.
This tutorial will show you how to increase or decrease the height of the Start Menu in Windows 7 without displaying recently opened programs and without displaying sub-menus. Many users would like to change the height of the Start Menu in Windows 7. There are many reasons for why a user would want this. My personal reason is so that all the programs in the All Programs list of the Start Menu will display without my having to scroll up and down the list. The problem is that the Start Menu is dynamic and, it would seem, cannot be manually sized. Two existing methods of changing the height of the Start Menu are to 1) display recently opened programs; and 2) display the sub-menus that appear on the right side of the Start Menu, such as Documents, Downloads, and Games. However, for those who would rather not display recently opened programs and not have some useless sub-menus displayed, a third, more flexible way exists, and this tutorial will cover that method.
I am trying to get my taskbar to store recently opened items but when I right click on the start menu and select properties I see that the check box is greyed out! I have no idea what I did to make it greyed out and more importantly, I have no idea how to get it back so that I can enable it again.
Here is an image of my desktop. The gadget size is big, the taskbar is big, the close restore minimize button size is big, how should I restore them to default size?
When I start up my computer, my Steam starts up, then I manually start Chrome. Chrome comes up fine, Steam does too, but when I try to right click on Steam and click friends, all it does is create another steam process running at 100-108 K. Then if I close Chrome and try to reopen it, it will do the same. This happens with EVERY program after I start up. There's a 5 second window where I can open programs without issue, then after that it will only start 108 K copies of them. It takes me around 30 restarts just to get it working properly, if not more.
The screenshot will show what I mean. When I click on All programs, a list appears (shortened) and when I click on a choice (i.e. Accessories/System Tools) it tells me it is empty.I don't know how to fix this, and all references I have found seem to relate to upgrades from Vista to windows7.I have windows home premium 64 bit.
I've installed Windows 7 on my laptop and want to customize the Start Menu's All Programs window. I normally consolidate like programs/folders into one common folder to minimize the number of items on the All Program window (i.e. all Microsoft related items in one folder called something like Microsoft Programs). I can't seem to figure out how to do that in Windows 7.
looked the most sensible place to put it. Second, I've tried scouring the internet for a similar problem, but as of yet have been unable to find one.The problem I'm experiencing occurred after some hardware problems, which meant the computer was periodically crashing. I think I've now fixed these, however a software problem with windows 7 seems to be occurring.Every time I go to the start menu and load a program, not one but two instances of these programs start up. This doesn't occur with all programs I've tested, but this may be because other programs only allow one instance to run at a time. Examples of ones I've tested include Speedfan, Handbrake, Calculator. If I start the programs from within explorer, only one instance starts.
Interestingly, not sure if this is related, if I go into explorer and double click on a folder, it does not open the folder, i have to right click and then use the open option.The computer generally feels a bit slow. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar, or whether I should try a repair install (which will be a bit of hassle as I'll have to try to uninstall SP1 first).
Maybe a week or two ago I was cleaning a junk from a system with revo uninstaller and have checked few more options then they are checked by default,and I erased some of the apps from start menu.That were apps which are in Accessories and System tools folders,and all Administrative tools folder.
After that I tried to approac them through Administrative tols in Control panel,but I was getting a message that a shortcut refers to a location which is unavailable,and that they are maybe moved to some other place on HD.Since I knew what have I done,and it was 3:00 AM,I decided to do a System restore,but some other day when I won't be sleepy.
Tomorrow and day after tomorrow I was kind a busy,and forgot to do a System Restore,but I was downloading some games and I was running out of a place on that partition.I was maybe a few hundreds megabytes short,and decided to delete all system restore points and turn off system protection,so I can get some extra place which was earlier dedicated to System restore.Off course,in that moment I forgot about the programs I deleted few days before but I remembered them in the same moment I turn off System protection and when restore points were gone,but a second or two too late.
So,my question is:
Is there any way so I can get back System tools and Administrative tools back?
Of course there is because I see some of them in System32 folder and in Windows folder(exe files) or maybe they are all there but I can't tell which one was where,and I don't know how I can get them back in Start menu,and reassociate Administrative tools with Control panel shortcut.
And of course,I don't have an image of a system.
I hope that you undersand what I was trying to tell.
This may have been reported earlier and has been happening on Vista and XP to some people (albeit not REALLY the same), but I'm seeing my entire programs list in "All Programs" disappear after every installation of any software. It seems adding to the list makes it disappear. The funny thing is that the actual files (shortcuts, etc.) are all in place in their proper folders and don't get removed. It's just the start menu which stops showing them. A way to fix this, for me, is to MOVE the entire contents of
contents) After this, it all comes back, but only until I install something new.
Does anybody have any such or similar problems?
Also, I have a different user account on this computer (for my wife) and none of this happens there, even if I perform an installation from under that account!
I should also say that this window install (currently build 7077) has been upgraded from 7048 (i.e. 7048 -> 7057 -> 7068 - >7077). I have AVG antivirus + firewall installed (the problem happens with it disabled and has started long after AVG's been installed anyway).
This did not happen on any provious builds (and started relatively recently but for the life of me I can't remember when exactly since I don't really use the programs menu that much). The first time it happened I did a restore which brought back the contents but again, until the next install after which it all disappeared again.
It seems to have something to do with the way the start menu finds its contents...
My computer recently prompted me to do a virus scan and after rebooting, it erased all the files and programs on it. I read some posts stating to "unhide" all the folders in windows explorer to help the situation. That seemed to restore alot of programs, but I still can't launch certain programs off the Start Menu nor can I see their shortcut in Windows Explorer. I'm able to open files using those programs from Windows explorer, I just cant open the program itself from the Start Menu. The folders of those programs on the Start Menu say "empty" and no program is displayed.
How to permanently remove/ban programs from the Start Menu Recent List? (Since manually deleting them will only get them back on once the program is started again.) The sole answer gave a suggestion to "switch the feature off". This answer though useful to some is not to me. Those programs which are indeed often used are on the desktop via a shortcut. Those on the start menu, are programs not often used or perhaps only used this week, then not used for 2 months, then used again later once. Therefore, as the reader suggested, to then, after turning the feature off and"add links to the programs you do want there manually" doesn't do it since I may not want them there 'next week' nor do I like the idea of me having to manually add them and manually remove them all the time. In Windows XP there used to be a little Microsoft program called TweakUI (Power Toys) that would do exactly that--controlled which programs could go there and which could not. Considering that TweakUi was originally made for the 1st or 2nd Windows version (before Windows 95) I hesitate to use it again for Windows 7.
How to permanently remove/ban programs from the Start Menu Recent List? (Since manually deleting them will only get them back on once the program is started again.) The sole answer gave a suggestion to "switch the feature off". Those programs which are indeed often used are on the desktop via a shortcut. Those on the start menu, are programs not often used or perhaps only used this week, then not used for 2 months, then used again later once. Therefore, as the reader suggested, to then, after turning the feature off and "add links to the programs you do want there manually" doesn't do it since I may not want them there 'next week' nor do I like the idea of me having to manually add them and manually remove them all the time. In Windows XP there used to be a little Microsoft program called TweakUI (Power Toys) that would do exactly that--controlled which programs could go there and which could not. Considering that TweakUi was originally made for the 1st or 2nd Windows version (before Windows 95) I hesitate to use it again for Windows 7.
I would like to know if is possible to show All Programs in the start menu automatically when you click the orb. Because clicking every time to show the list of All Programs is not very nice since I don't use the recently programs open function.
I'm a Mac user and an avowed keyboard shortcut enthusiast. On a Mac we have a wonderful app (prog in Winspeak) called Quicksilver, which makes it possible (among other things) to switch between running programs using the keyboard (i.e., without the hunt and click mouse nonsense). All I have to do is invoke a hot-key, type one or two letters (it remembers the apps I use most!), press Enter and BAM! I'm there. I find this so much faster than hunting for the right icon on the taskbar, or alt-tabbing through 10-15 apps to get to where I want to go. Alas, in Windows (any flavor, be it 2K, XP, Vista or 7), if I do anything other than alt-tab to a running program, or click on its icon on the taskbar, I'm going to start another instance of that program, which means loading duplicates of all the resources that have already been loaded into memory! Using Excel as an example, all I want is to hit the Windows key, type e x, hit Enter (assuming Excel is the first choice) and switch to the one (and only) instance of Excel that is already running. Is that really too much to ask? For the record, I have tried a number of Windows based Quicksilver knockoffs, and they all suffer from the same limitation. So it seems that trapping which programs are already running is an impossible feat under Windows?
I posted a thread about this problem last week in this thread: Problem installing MyDefrag 4.1.1
Basically the problem is that after installing some programs, the "All Programs" list in the start menu disappears and is just blank. At the time I thought the problem was only with MyDefrag but today I installed the microsoft Intellitype 6.1 software for my keyboard and the same thing happened. Has anyone else had a similar problem.
Im on windows 7 Ultimate 32bit. I accidentally deleted all the shortcuts from C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms...
And now i dont see any program in my start menu , obviously , so please tell me how to fix this problem. I have disables system restore , so can anyone just give me his/her shortcuts? The basic ones like paint etc.
How to delete program entries from a specific user start menu?
PC's have multiple user accounts, for designers and administrators within the business. Designers do not need access to Sage Accounts so I want to remove it from their start menus and administrators do not need access to dreamweaver and thus I want to remove it from their start menu.
How to permanently remove/ban programs from the Start Menu Recent List? (Since manually deleting them will only get them back on once the program is started again.) "switch the feature off". This answer though useful to some is not to me. Those programs which are indeed often used are on the desktop via a shortcut. Those on the start menu, are programs not often used or perhaps only used this week, then not used for 2 months, then used again later once. Therefore, as the reader suggested, to then, after turning the feature off and"add links to the programs you do want there manually" doesn't do it since I may not want them there 'next week' nor do I like the idea of me having to manually add them and manually remove them all the time. In Windows XP there used to be a little Microsoft program called TweakUI (Power Toys) that would do exactly that--controlled which programs could go there and which could not. Considering that TweakUi was originally made for the 1st or 2nd Windows version (before Windows 95) I hesitate to use it again for Windows 7.
