Customizing the Start Menu/Panel Program Listings for users of the Start panel

There are a variety of features that will impact the way the programs are listed on the screen. Here is a list of all of the different features and a description of what they can do.

Customizable Features of the Start Menu

Display Administrative Tools

The administrative tools provide users with even more control over their system. I suggest that you enable this feature by checking the box so that you will be able to take advantage of the easy access to your system controls.

Display Favorites

The favorites can be useful depending on how often you use them in Internet Explorer. If you are like me, and do not use your favorites very often, then consider leaving this one off. If you would like to add your favorites to your Start Menu, then this will place an expanding menu that will display all of your
links.

Display Run

This feature will display the Run command on the Start Menu. I do not recommend that you remove this from the Start Menu.

Expand Control Panel

I like this feature the most out of all of the features that you can customize. Enabling this feature will make the Control Panel automatically expand and show you each of the Control Panel applets. This way, you can get almost anywhere in your computer controls easily without even having to load the Control Panel first. You can jump directly to where you want to go instead

Expand My Documents

I personally do not use this feature because I have way too many documents in the My Documents folder. Trying to find the correct document is a waste of time when you have to scroll through the list. It is must faster to leave this one alone and then just browse through the icons when you open up your documents

Expand My Pictures

This feature is pretty much useless when you have more than a few photos. Because most pictures that you take are saved in a numbered fashion, it is very hard to find a particular photo. Instead, don't enable this one so that it remains just a link. That way, you will be able to take advantage of the new filmstrip view when browsing your photos

Expand Network Connections

I recommend that you enable this feature because it will allow you to easily access and connect to your various communications devices. If you use a dialup connection, your dialup connection will be displayed and you can connect by right-clicking the name and selecting Connect. If you have a network adapter, you can access your network properties and status easily from this menu
as well.

Expand Printers

Have a lot of printers installed on your computer? Or, do you use a lot of network printers? This is an easy way to access all of the different printers that you use. You can view the print queue as well as delete jobs for a specific printer

Show Small Icons in Start Menu

This is my favorite feature on the list. This basically shrinks your whole Start Menu by removing the Windows XP banner from the left and replacing the large icons with small icons. This allows the Start Menu to take up far less space than before.

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How to customize the Start Menu Program Listings for users of the Start panel?