Start Menu

Accommodating All Kinds of Needs

If your computer used by many people with different kinds of need, you can use the User Profiles facility. To activate it, double-click the Password icon on the Control Panel. Alternatively, try to modify the Programs folder. Right-click on the Start button, click Explore, and then double-click Programs folder. Start creating a private folder for every user.

Easy Access to Your Drive

To get easy access to all drives, just open My Computer, and then click and drag all icon drives inside it into the Start button. Shortcuts to all of your drives will appear in the Start menu. This method is effective when your desktop is closed by the running applications.

Faster Run Commands

If you open a folder in the Explorer, Windows will use that folder as an active folder in the Run dialog box. Therefore, you can activate all applications in that folder without typing its full path and drive letter. For example, you can activate Tetris game only by typing "tetris" (without quotation marks) in the Run dialog box, if the Wingames folder (with tetris.exe file inside it) currently opened by Explorer. Don't forget that you can use several last used commands in the Run dialog box, just by clicking the arrow symbol and select them from the list.

If you are running a file with the Run menu, then Windows will search it in that active folder. If they can't be found, Windows will search it in the system directory (C:\Windows, C:\Windows\System). If still can't be found, Windows will search it in the location appeared in the C:\Autoexec.bat file or App Path folder in the registry file.

Therefore, to get faster activation for files that used many times, type the file location in the C:\Autoexec.bat file. Use Sysedit (click the Start-Run button, type sysedit, click OK) to edit the autoexec.bat file. Now, you don't need to access Wingames folder with Explorer anymore, only to get faster activation for tetris.exe file.

Opening Folders inside the Programs branch

If you are using Win ME/98SE or Win 98/95 with Internet Explorer 5.0 installed, you can open every folder inside the Start Menu Programs branch. For example, click on the Start button, and point to Programs-Accessories. Double click on Accessories folder will open that folder in a window.

Optimizing Run menu

- To open a folder usually you have to run the Windows Explorer first, and then explore the hard disk contents until you find the right folder. Actually, there is another method by using the Run menu. Click your mouse on the Start button, point to Run, type the name of the folder you want to open (e.g. "Recent"), and then press Enter. A window filled with all files in C:\Windows\Recent folder will appear on the screen.

- To open the main folder, click your mouse on the Start button, click Run, type \ (backslash) character, and then click OK.

- Click on the Start - Run, enter .. (two dot characters), and then click OK or press Enter. You will see C:\Windows folder.

- Want to open your favorite web site via Run menu? Just click on the Start - Run, enter its address (ex: www.microsoft.com), and then click OK or press Enter. Internet Explorer will be opened and after a moment you will see that site.

- If you are working in a network, use the Run box dialog to enter UNC (Universal Naming Convention) to folder at the server.

- To find out about full path and hidden extension for some files that hidden in the Explorer window, just click and drag that file to the Run box dialog.

Preventing the Screen Saver

When you are waiting for the Disk Defragmenter, Scan Disk, or Compression Agent process, the screen saver suddenly appears on the monitor screen. Obviously, the defragmentation process for example, will be repeated from the beginning. To solve this problem, usually you have to deactivate the screen saver facility by using the Display Properties dialog box. Actually, there is another method. First, run the Disk Defragmenter or Scan Disk and then press Ctrl+Esc key to show the Start menu. Leave the Start menu open until the Disk Defragmenter or Scan Disk process is completed. This method will prevent the screen saver from appearing on the screen.

Quick Method to Activate an Application (1)

Placing too much shortcut in the Start menu can make it difficult to access. To get around this situation, you can use the Run menu to activate your favorite applications, which is not yet including in the Start menu. To do so, perform these steps: