Odd Start Menu Behaviour

[purelonewolf]

I rebuilt my desktop today and dropped XP Pro SP1 onto it and all went well.

Very strangely though, when I added the machine to the domain and logged in, it has replicated my Start Menu Programs content to the top of the start menu.

I initially thought it had duplicated the folders, but have discovered that XP believes that all of the icons are located under Programs and that I only have one set. As I say, they are all being displayed at the top of the start menu as well as in programs.

I presume some reg value has become naffed up during connection to the domain, but I cant figure out which one..

Any ideas anybody?

 

[bcastner]

It likely is an issue easily handled through right-clicking the Start Menu, Properties, Start menu, Customization.

I suspect it is not a Group policy object that is controlling here, but the default Start menu properties setting to treat additions in the All Programs section as new entries worthy of listing on the top of the Start menu.

You can remove these and change the setting through the Start menu, properties, customization.

 

[purelonewolf]

I have been in there - If I goto Advanced and look through explorer, the folder structure is as it should be, not how it is.

I reverted back to the Windows XP default start menu and on choosing "All Programs" have a duplicate of the start menu/programs folder above it.

Its almost like the old Admin/User separate menus that NT used to use one above the other.

 

[bcastner]

Odd,

Even after you hit 'Clear List' they persist?

 

[bcastner]

You can remove the entries "permanently" using regedit:

A note from the ElderGreeks site:

"A feature of the new XP Start Menu is a list of the most frequently used programs on the left side of the menu. Personally, I find this section rather useless, since a program I'd want to be instantly available I'd place either in Quick Launch or pin it to the list of programs above this frequently used programs section. However, if you find the feature useful but would like to exclude a specific program from appearing here permanently:


[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileAssociationIn the right pane, double click AddRemoveApps
The [Value Data] box contains a list of the default XP entries
To add a program to the list, type a semicolon followed by the name of the program executable
Example: To add Notepad, the entry would be ;notepad.exe
Add as many programs as you like and click [OK]
To remove entries, remove the listing.
Exit Registry and Reboot


If you prefer not to edit the registry, you can right click on any entry in the section and select [Remove From This List] and the program will be removed. However, this is not a permanent solution and the program will return eventually as it is accessed by users.