Start Menu: submenus are slow

[Lester Horwinkle]

In XP Home SP1, I use the classic style throughout.

I organize my program menus differently than most people ... I have a series
of subfolders in my Start Menu folder, with application shortcuts in each
subfolder. There's a Video subfolder, Tools subfolder, Web subfolder, etc,
each with app shortcuts pertinent to that category.

The problem: Start Menu pops up immediately, but when I mouse up to one of
these tools folders, it takes a couple of seconds for the submenu to open
up.

Is there a fix for this?

I had the same menu structure under Windows 98 on another computer, and
there was no submenu delay.

Also, interestingly, I have the same structure on my wife's computer, also
running XP Home (but no SP1 ... this is a 2 year old box). And it exhibits
no submenu delay.

 

[Dave Patrick]

You might get the desired effect by setting the Reg_Sz string value of
"MenuShowDelay"="400"
found at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
The value is expressed in milli-seconds. Valid whole-number values are 0 to
4000

 

[Lester Horwinkle]

The delay goes away after the first time a menu is selected. So this is not
a programmed delay.

I suspect that the delay is caused by the initial reading and caching of the
menu contents, and of the icons for each menu entry.

I just don't know why only this XP box has the problem.

You might get the desired effect by setting the Reg_Sz string value of
"MenuShowDelay"="400"
found at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
The value is expressed in milli-seconds. Valid whole-number values are 0 to
4000

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

In XP Home SP1, I use the classic style throughout.

I organize my program menus differently than most people ... I have a series
of subfolders in my Start Menu folder, with application shortcuts in each
subfolder. There's a Video subfolder, Tools subfolder, Web subfolder, etc,
each with app shortcuts pertinent to that category.

The problem: Start Menu pops up immediately, but when I mouse up to one of
these tools folders, it takes a couple of seconds for the submenu to open
up.

Is there a fix for this?

I had the same menu structure under Windows 98 on another computer, and
there was no submenu delay.

Also, interestingly, I have the same structure on my wife's computer, also
running XP Home (but no SP1 ... this is a 2 year old box). And it exhibits
no submenu delay.

 

[Alex Nichol]

The delay goes away after the first time a menu is selected. So this is not
a programmed delay.

I suspect that the delay is caused by the initial reading and caching ofthe
menu contents, and of the icons for each menu entry.

I think you are right - it is having to look via the shortcuts for all
the files concerned, and get the icons (which is the real delay) first
time off until they are cached. I notice it, but not nearly as long as
you seem to. Only suggestion would be the very tedious one of going
through all the shortcuts in the relevant 'menu' folder and change icon
on them to some single convenient one which would be cached straight
off. Say the 'light arrow' one in tweakui.exe if you have that, so the
icons would not show