Make Vista Start Menu behave like XP

[Ian Betts]

They did not destroy anything, they just changed it, now when you open it
there is a small black side arrow and the menu flip from the start to the
programs and back at will. Its easy.

 

[Ian Betts]

You have both and then some. Some folk don't search for innovation before
crying. You have XP and Vista features in the new start menu.

 

[Ian Betts]

Try looking further that your nose.

Its the same but more so.

 

[Chris Hillman]

Try looking further that your nose.

Its the same but more so.

WTF does "the same but more so" mean?

I don't say this often. You, sir, are an idiot. If you can't see the
*huge* differences (as even illustrated by my screenshots) than you must
be blind.

 

[Guest]

Jesus, how many times are you going to post this question? If you like the
XP start menu so well why don't you just go back to XP?

I think the start menu in Vista is much better than Xp. It is also much
easier to use. Things change. Get used to it or quit posting.

Have a nice day.

C.B.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:34:24 +0300, "carl feredeck"

thats NOT how the XP menu was...

The vista menu is crappy,
the classic menu is crappy...

We want the XP menu back!

That's something I never expected to hear ;-)

That Vista offers only Vista and Classic (dropping XP) seems to
acknowledge the failure of the XP UI to gain support.

Personally, I like Classic, but I can see the problem that both XP and
Vista revisions of the Start menu are attempting to fix. I didn't
like the XP attempt, but have accepted the Vista attempt.

The problem is "vendor vision" that applies when software populate the
Start Menu. What you may want is this...

Internet
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Eudora
Extras
Firefox Safe Mode
Eudora Help
Eudora Getting Started
ReadMe This

....but what you get is this:

Blah-Blah Software
Whatever Writer 2.0 Free Edition
Register
ReadMe
Run Whatever Writer 2.0 Free Edition
Uninstall

This may be in your per-user menu, All Users, or splatted across both.

You have to smell who wrote what you want to run (as if anyone other
than their marketers care), wade through an extra pointless fly-out,
and then (assuming the menu doesn't collapse because you wandered "off
the edge") your chances are:
- 1 in 4 you will run the app
- 1 in 4 you will destroy the app
- 2 in 4 you will waste your time

It's not as easy as it should be, to clean up this mess and organise
things by category, without bloated names and SCREAMING CAPITALS! from
pushy vendors (hello, CoralDRAW)..

If you do clean up the mess, you break the assumptions of the
software's uninstaller, so that uninstalling the app will leave these
shortcuts behind. Also, some piggy apps will re-assert their
shortcuts, especially when they "update" themselves.

Part of the reason for this mess is understandable; an app vendor
cannot anticipate your style of categorisation, and attempts to do so
can end up with this...

Internet
Internet Applications
Internet Programs
Online Applications
Using the Web

....which is not an improvement.

But the other reason is a "root law"; that "co-operative" systems
degenerate into competitive systems. There's no "trustable club" of
"approved players" who will not sink into a nadir of
self-gratification at your expense, as the Sony rootkit case shows.

The reason I prefer the Vista workaround (or walk-away) to the XP one,
is that Vista constrains menu flyouts so they are far easier to
navigate. But I still prefer to "editorialize" my own Start Menu, and
would like to see an approach that makes this easier for users to do,
as well as tracking of items so that uninstallers can clean up.

--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -

To one who has never seen a hammer,
nothing looks like a nail

 

[XS11E]

That's something I never expected to hear ;-)

That Vista offers only Vista and Classic (dropping XP) seems to
acknowledge the failure of the XP UI to gain support.

Personally, I like Classic,

I have to agree, both my Vista install and my XP install are set up to
look exactly like Windows 2000 which I found to be more usable for me
than either the Vista or XP start menus.

As always, YMMV

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the well reasoned/thought out response. Was starting to
think this forum was only good for snippy responses.

I am starting to come to terms with the new vista start menu. I liked
keeping 'my computer', 'my docs', 'control panel' off of my (usually
cluttered) desktop.

It's hard to have the UI you've been using for the past 5 years forcibly
taken from you, while they preserve the Windows 95-2000 start menu.

All I know is that it is slower (for me now) to get to what I want
through the start menu than it was on XP, and I'll likely have to resort
to a 3rd party solution for the first time for launching apps.

Ugh.

:: Fingers crossed for this option to be in SP1 ::

 

[Guest]

Hmm no, it actually sucks.

The point seems to be that you now can open more than one folder in the
Programs menu. I woudn't mind so much if all folders in the Programs menu
would fit in that tiny little space, but it doesn't, so you need to be
rolling up and down to find what you're looking for. So this is a
time-consuming, useless new feature.

To make things more stupid, "Classic view" sends you back to the stone age
of Windows 95, entirely ignoring the solution was just on version ago:
Windows XP had the ultimate Start Menu power.

If anyone gets mod of this on the net, post here! This Vista start menu is
painfully stupid!

 

[Bob C]

Right click Orb, select properties, select classic view, make sure scroll is
checked/unchecked per your preference.

Aloha,
BobC

 

[Guest]

Man, to all people who *do* like the Vista menu, please, don't post here.
Anything you post in the way of "boohoo I like the Vista menu" doesn't answer
the question, hence it's off-topic. Remember there's a question up there.
Jesus...