Speedup Cascade Control Panel Menu.

[Guest]

I have the cascade control panel option enabled in the registry using the
following key.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

;--- Enable Cascading of various special folders on Start Menu

"CascadeControlPanel"="YES"
"CascadeMyDocuments"="YES"
"CascadeNetworkConnections"="YES"

The problem is, on the first view of the menu it takes a long time to load.
After the initial load it is fine. I assume the other start menus are cached
on bootup but the control panel menu is not. Is there any way to speed this
up?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Doing the following will also clear the Start Menu cache.

Besides the Run MRU (Most Recently Used) list, this also clears...

IE History, AutoComplete, Clear the TIF, Clear the Run MRU, Typed
URL's and Clear List:

XP Start Menu:
You have to switch to Classic long enough to get the Clear button.
Right click the Start button | Properties | Select Classic Start Menu |
Customize button | Clear button | Click OK | Select Start menu | Click Apply
|Click OK

Classic Start Menu:
Right click the Start button | Properties | Customize button | Clear button

Clear button
[[Removes the list of recently accessed documents, programs, and Web sites
from the Documents menu.]]

The XP Start Menu Clear button does not clear the Run MRU. The Classic
Start Menu Clear button will clear everything in the Run MRU.
----------

Start Menu and Icons Slow

Start Menu is slow and icons take a long time to load.

Refresh the Icon Cache by deleting the IconCache.db.

IconCache.db usually found here >>>

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data
or
C:\Documents and Settings\Username Here\Local Settings\Application Data

IconCache.db is a hidden file.

It will be recreated after you reboot.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Ah, I had my head up my... And this was in my archives too.

Change the Speed of the Start Menu.

The MenuShowDelay registry entry controls the time in milliseconds that it
takes for a menu to appear when you move your pointer over it.
MenuShowDelay applies to all cascaded shortcut menus.

Start | Run | Type: regedit | Click OK |
Navigate to >>
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Value Name: MenuShowDelay
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: any whole number between 0 and 4,000

Values are all in milliseconds. 0 is the fastest, 400 is default.
A setting of 0 has no delay.

Log off or restart Windows for any changes to take effect.

How to Control the Delay of the Start Menu Display
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216445

The MenuShowDelay entry does not support the value 0 in Windows Server 2003.

The submenu may not immediately appear when you point to a menu in Microsoft
Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/835240

MenuShowDelay value here also...
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Or use TweakUI...

TweakUI
[+] Mouse

[[The Menu Speed slider control sets the speed at which cascading menus
automatically open when you move the mouse over them. The fastest setting
causes them to open immediately and the slowest setting is extraordinary
slow.]]

You can download TweakUI here...

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Tweak UI
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not
exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including
mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or above or Windows
Server 2003.

Scroll down the right hand side and look for...
Tweak UI
TweakUI.exe

TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe is what you get.

If you have Windows XP without any Service Packs, download Version 2.00.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe


Tweak UI for Windows XP Guide
http://www.winxpsolution.com/Tweakuixppro.aspx

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

I did some extensive testing with the methods you described, and it didn't
help alleviate the problem. After reading my post I realize that I should
have been a little more clear. The only menu that is slow to load on the
first view is the control panel menu. All the other menus are spot on.
Once the control panel menu has been viewed at least once then it pops
right up, that is until the next reboot. I thought that the problem might
be with the fact that the control panel is normally opened in a separate
window and isn't usually a cascaded menu in the start menu. Which would
mean that XP wouldn't cache the control panel menu with the other
elements of the start menu. This of course is just my theory on the whole
thing.

Here are my OS specs, I am currently running XP Pro sp2, with the latest
updates, verified with MBSA 2.0.1. I also only use classic menus, with
most of the "extras" turned off.

Doing the following will also clear the Start Menu cache.

Besides the Run MRU (Most Recently Used) list, this also clears...

IE History, AutoComplete, Clear the TIF, Clear the Run MRU, Typed
URL's and Clear List:

XP Start Menu:
You have to switch to Classic long enough to get the Clear button.
Right click the Start button | Properties | Select Classic Start Menu |
Customize button | Clear button | Click OK | Select Start menu | Click
Apply |Click OK

Classic Start Menu:
Right click the Start button | Properties | Customize button | Clear
button

Clear button
[[Removes the list of recently accessed documents, programs, and Web
sites from the Documents menu.]]

The XP Start Menu Clear button does not clear the Run MRU. The Classic
Start Menu Clear button will clear everything in the Run MRU.
----------

Start Menu and Icons Slow

Start Menu is slow and icons take a long time to load.

Refresh the Icon Cache by deleting the IconCache.db.

IconCache.db usually found here >>>

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data
or
C:\Documents and Settings\Username Here\Local Settings\Application Data

IconCache.db is a hidden file.

It will be recreated after you reboot.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

I have the cascade control panel option enabled in the registry using
the following key.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

;--- Enable Cascading of various special folders on Start Menu

"CascadeControlPanel"="YES"
"CascadeMyDocuments"="YES"
"CascadeNetworkConnections"="YES"

The problem is, on the first view of the menu it takes a long time to
load. After the initial load it is fine. I assume the other start menus
are cached on bootup but the control panel menu is not. Is there any way
to speed this up?

 

[gregory.winters]

Wes:

My left mouse button menus open satisfactorily without the need of the
adjustments you list in this thread. However, sometimes it can take
nearly 20 seconds to display a right mouse button options menu! Is
there a setting to tweak this, as well? Thanks.

Greg

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

Right-click is extremely slow only when Network is enabled
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/rcdelay.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[gregory.winters]

Wesley:

Both of these links seem to have made a difference, but I'll need at
least a week to go through all of my applications and test. I
appreciate your response! P.S. Maybe you can find out why MS still
does not give us the control we need of the O/S right out of the box
so that these problems are not so mysterious and difficult to
resolve.

Greg

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Greg, Windows is not the problem, generally speaking, it is 3rd party
context menu handlers that cause the problems.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In