Start Menu a Living Hell?

G

Guest

First of all I must admit that the install of Vista RC1 (64bit) was
absolutely marvellous, no errors or faults. Hardware detected and installed
correctly for the most part. After that however things do take a turn...

Whilst I recognise the search box as a great leap forward in the start menu,
removing the cascading pop-out all programs menu is a curse, and switching to
classic view removes the majority of the features that have redeemed XP/Vista.

One hopes that Microsoft R&D spent a lot of time and effort on the Start
Menu for Vista, especially considering the marketing push that followed the
release or 95, although perhaps the marketing department instead decided that
a pretty colour scheme was far more important than a functional Start Menu.

I would suggest that the option of utilising the XP dual columned Start
Menu, with the addition of the newer Vista features would assist in the
uptake of this new version and ease the change over for most users.

Being the neotechnical ludite that I am, I may have to remain with XP, and I
can easily state that few, if any, of my clients or contacts will enjoy or
desire the change to Vista over XP in part due to the lack of an easily
usable Start Menu.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
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click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...a59&dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
 
R

Robert Firth

The start menu is one of the greatest innovations of Windows Vista. If you
ever had enough programs that your cascading start menu covered the whole
screen and off the page, you would feel the same way I do. However, I'm sure
it is possible that a the tree model could overflow that much smaller window
it is placed in. After seeing the inline 'all programs' menu in Vista, the
cascading start menu model looks very awkward protruding from the start
menu.

The most important part of the start menu is the search box. Want to open
word? Reach your pinky finger down to the "windows" key, press it, type word
(or wo), press enter, and poof word pops up. Same thing for disk cleanup.
Type disk (or di) and press enter. In fact 'w' + enter opens the media
center.

Robert Firth
http://www.winvistainfo.org
 
L

Lang Murphy

Don't know about a living hell... yes, it's different. Yes, if you're locked
into the cascading menus, then Vista's model will be, maybe, a burdensome
change. I prefer the cascading menus to the Vista model myself. Too much
work to open the Office group and then have to scroll down to get to the
off-menu choices.

That said... I don't use the Start menu that often. I'm more of a
"folder-centric" kinda guy. Create shortcuts on my DT for the folders I use
most frequently, open the folder of choice and right click in the folder to
create a new document of whatever type. So the Vista model doesn't cheese me
off too much, cause, just like in 2K and XP, I ain't gonna use it all that
often.

Just my two cents...

Lang
 
P

PowerUser

Navigation isn't as fast anymore. That's a problem. I wish they had an
option to choose WinXP style, along with Classic. And does anyone know
about menushowdelay in the Registry? Multiple items come up and even after
setting them to 0 that delay persists.
 
P

PowerUser

Robert Firth said:
The start menu is one of the greatest innovations of Windows Vista. If you
ever had enough programs that your cascading start menu covered the whole
screen and off the page,


Ever checked the "Scroll programs" checkbox in XP?



you would feel the same way I do. However, I'm sure
 
G

Guest

Right click on the orb, Properties, Customize and put a check mark in
"display as a menu" under each section.
 
R

Randy H

Agreed, the search box in the start menu rox! It's been my only method for
launching apps. I hate using a mouse, this new search box allows my fingers
to stay on the keyboard.
 
P

PowerUser

:)
The start menu runs to 3 columns here after expanding all programs, and I
feel I can find what I'm looking for really fast this way - I keep my
menushowdelay at 0 and sort alphabetically.
 
G

Guest

do you want run notepad? type "no", look, and press enter
do you want run Windows defender? type "defe", look, and press enter
do you want open the Firewall? type "fir", look, and press enter
do you want open the letter of mom? type "mom", look...
new start menu is fantastic!
 

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