I first tried a couple of freeware programs with limited
success, then found the info below. Once you START menu is
sorted, if you *manually* rearrange the items, the auto sort
is turned off. In that case you go through the process below
again. I love finding a "free"-not-"ware" solution to a
problem. :-)

P.S. This could be automated using Windows Script, each time
Win starts.

-----
Sort Program Menu Alphabetically: Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Explorer\MenuOrder and delete the subkey 'Start Menu' (this
is where all the customized sorting information is stored).
Remember, once you rearrange a menu item, this subkey will
appear again with the information Windows needs to remember
the new menu arrangement and the menu items will no longer be
sorted alphabetically. Same with MSIE, just delete the other
key.

Klein <(E-Mail Removed)>:

> I first tried a couple of freeware programs with limited
> success, then found the info below.
[...]

> Sort Program Menu Alphabetically: Navigate to
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
> \Explorer\MenuOrder and delete the subkey 'Start Menu'
[...]

> P.S. This could be automated using Windows Script, each time
> Win starts.

I think that you cannot use a script. While I do not have experience
writing .vbs/.js, I have looked this up specifically. The msdn info
I read suggested to me that it is not supported to do a "deltree/rd"
on a registry key. That is, you can only delete a registry key that
does not contain subkeys. The key in question here, it always contains
subkeys, whose names are unpredictable.

If I am mistaken about this limit in using the native commands (eg
WshShell.RegDelete) of the Windows Scripting Host for deleting
registry keys, then hopefully someone might inform.


--
Karen S.