Vista Start Menu
Annette Fazzari
I'm running Vista. I normally right-click on the bottom left-hand Start button and select "Explore" from the pop-up context menu to start Windows File Explorer. Currently the initial location displayed is...
I've searched for existing answers here and on the Net generally, but all I can find is stuff about how to change that initial default location if I invoke Explorer from Start -> All Programs -> Accessories. Which does actually work, if I start Explorer that way - but I don't, so it's no real help.
I understand that. But even though it might be a logical "default" for the action, surely that doesn't preclude the possibility of a custom override? I don't really want to know about other ways to invoke Explorer - I want to be able to customise [sic] the method I do use.
Under the hood, the Start Menu is basically just a folder that contains a bunch of shortcuts. Therefore, when you right-click the Start button/menu, you are essentially right-clicking on the Start Menu folder. So it makes sense that when you click the Explore command, it opens Windows Explorer in the Start Menu folder.
Probably the quickest and easiest way is to put a link right there in the taskbar so that you can have one-click access to it. If you were using Windows 7, you could simply pin a folder to the taskbar, but in Vista (as with XP), you can do pretty much the same thing with the QuickLaunch bar, and not only is the icon a little smaller, you get better control of which folder it opens as well:
You could do this by changing some tiny harmless registry keys. (If you don't like it you could simply revert them back, without any problems. So if you go directly where I tell you to go, you don't need to worry). I checked this on Windows 7, and it could be applied there too.
Note: this might be a little different on vista, because I didn't get a chance to test it on vista itself. Either way, if what I mentioned above does not work, which is very unlikely, try to find the values which are pointing to your "C:\Users\Admin.VISTA-IMAGE\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu" in someway, and try changing them (but be extremely careful).
I'm creating a new shorcut within and update of my program on the Start Menu I worked getting the Special Environment variable ALLUSERSPROFILE and it worked for me under XP, it returns the right path, when using it under vista ir returns c:\ProgramData which is useless. Reading the Environment variable StartMenu is also pointless it returns empty string. ( On vista it lies under Windows\Start Menu, in english ,and if the install folder Windows has the default name)Does anyone has an Idea how to get the startmenu directory for the 'All Users". and would it be a generic solution that works under XP and Vista?
CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU (FOLDERID_CommonStartMenu) The file system directory that contains the programs and folders that appear on the Start menu for all users. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu. Valid only for Windows NT systems.
Looking under the registry I found the following key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Foldersthere is a value named Common Start Menu that contains the path. It works on vista and XP
Recently I noticed some context menu items under Windows Vista that I didn't previously recall.I first noticed this after right-clicking on the text box on the start menu.However, these items appear on most text-input fields, including Notepad, any of the text fields in the default File Open/Save dialog boxes from almost any application, or even right-clicking on the text while renaming a file from Windows Explorer.The complete context menu displayed is shown below:
These extra items - "Right to left Reading order", "Show Unicode control characters", "Insert Unicode control character", "Open IME", and "Reconversion" - practically double both the width and the height of the context menu.To make things even more annoying, there doesn't appear to be any way to disable even the display of these items.
IME stands for Input Method Editor, which should allow for the input of additional characters and symbols that may not be found on the keyboard.However, the "Open IME" option doesn't even appear to function - even though clicking it toggles the option between "Open IME" and "Close IME".I've also never seen the "Reconversion" item enabled, even when text is selected.I don't even know what it is for.While "IME" contains a short 1-sentence definition in the Windows Help, searching for "reconversion" doesn't give any results.(Regardless of the menu functionality, a user should still be able to input any character code through the use of "alt codes".)
At first, I thought I accidentally installed an additional language pack, which is method that would have added these items under previous operating systems such as Windows XP.Another thought was that these options were introduced with Windows Vista Service Pack 2, or that I had accidentally installed a SP2 version designed for multiple languages.However, I found that these options are immediately available in default installations of Vista, including both the English Ultimate and Business editions.
I was a bit surprised at how few results related to this menu and Windows Vista show up on Google.Most of those are several years old (around 2007), the most comprehensive and recent of which I found on this forum thread.None that I've found contain any solutions, and apparently these menu items still exist in Windows 7 as well.
Another issue I just noticed is that Vista's new start menu is not at all resizable, and is sometimes too small / too narrow to display items with longer names.To make matters worse, there are no scroll bars or other apparent functionality for viewing the cut-off text.This is even the case with some of Microsoft's own programs and installed shortcuts.For example, the last 2 characters of "Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit" do not fit within the fixed width of the "All Programs" menu.
Unfortunately, again, there doesn't appear to be any resolution or reasonable work-around to this issue, short of renaming the longer names to shorter ones.The two most relevant pages I found from searching the web are this forum thread, and this Microsoft Answers forum thread where a Microsoft support engineer's response is only to switch to the classic Start menu instead.
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I recently posted about automatically launching plugins within Vista Media Center. I just came across another improvement that allows editing the order and contents of the Vista Media Center start menu. This, combined with automatic plug-in launching, goes a long way toward giving whatever startup experience you desire.
Now, since this is a hack, I take no responsibility of how you might break Vista Media Center, destroy your computer or otherwise corrupt the world using this hack.
Also note, that a software update might overwrite your hacked ehres.dll file effectively removing your changes.
I am running windows 10 and have object desktop. When using windows blinds 10 it does a good job of skinning but it cannot change the start menu. Is this a shortcoming of the software? I noticed a few skins on the site have a changed start menu but mine will not change no matter what skin I install?
Suggestions?
Dave.
On Win10, to skin the Start Menu you need to have Start10 installed and have it set to use the Win7 style. Start10 is included with Object Desktop so you should already have access to it if you don't already have it installed. There are some screenshots of Start10 here if it might help:
Yep, have start10 configured as per above and rebooted a few times. Still the same problem though the color of the start menu changed to orange per the colour of the them but still the regular start menu.
If that is what shows when you press on the taskbar start button then you do have a situation. But clicking on the start button should show a SM like win7. If not Just keep trying what DaveRI is suggesting.
Quoting Totalize, reply 4
Yep, have start10 configured as per above and rebooted a few times. Still the same problem though the color of the start menu changed to orange per the colour of the them but still the regular start menu.
I wonder if there is a conflict with the LAUNCH app. When I hit the start button the launch app comes up too.
Well, here's a similar issue. I had Start 10 v1.56 installed on my spare PC and it worked fine. I upgraded it to Start 10 v1.60 and no matter what I do the WB skins start menu will not apply, it is always the Windows 10 menu.
Quoting LightStar, reply 9
Well, here's a similar issue. I had Start 10 v1.56 installed on my spare PC and it worked fine. I upgraded it to Start 10 v1.60 and no matter what I do the WB skins start menu will not apply, it is always the Windows 10 menu.
So I gave up finally and went back to v1.56 and all is fine now. I have tried everything, even set the settings exactly to my main PC's settings for v1.60 that works fine with that version.
Looks like Start 10 v1.60 has some issues for sure.
The Windows 10 start button can be changed with Windows Blinds I had it done. But I guess I had the start button file on my C drive so everything else ok loading my theme from the folder on my Files drive but my custom start button won't load as before and the Skin Studio won't load with this current version of Windows Blinds to help me locate and swap it. Can someone please tell me the exact file name and location? See screen shot of the button that is loading which seems to be the vista start button file: