- About Vista's Start Menu
- Locating and Running Programs
- Searching Is Simple with Start
- Other Start Menu Features
- Customizing Your Start Menu
- Modify Your Start Menu Without Using the Customization Dialog Box
- Chapter Wrap-Up
Modify Your Start Menu Without Using the Customization Dialog Box
You can make some changes to your Start menu directly from the Start menu itself without opening the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. As you learned earlier in this chapter, you can move menu items from one place to another by dragging them with your mouse. (This works if you've allowed it by checking the Enable Context Menus and Dragging and Dropping option in the Customize Start Menu dialog box.) Right-clicking a program in the left pane (your recently run programs list) produces several options, as shown in Figure 3.9.
Figure 3.9 Right-click a Start menu entry to see a list of tasks you can perform related to that item.
Some common Start menu right-click options you'll see are as follows:
- Open—Runs the program or opens the folder determined by whatever entry you right-click over.
- Pin to Start Menu—Affixes the program to the top of your Start menu's left pane to take a fixed place among your Internet browser and email programs. You can right-click over any program pinned to the top of the Start menu and select Unpin from Start Menu to move it out of the top of the Start menu's area. (To unpin your Internet browser and email program from atop the Start menu, you must uncheck those programs from within the Customize Start Menu dialog box, as shown in the previous section.)
- Add to Quick Launch—Places an icon for that program or folder on your taskbar's Quick Launch toolbar. Chapter 6 explains more about your Quick Launch toolbar.
- Send To—Opens an additional submenu that enables you to select one of several locations you want to send that item to, such as to a disk, an attachment in an email, or to your desktop as a shortcut icon. This option is most useful for single documents and files such as pictures, music, and video files that you want to put somewhere else or send to someone. Generally, you cannot send programs to another location although you might want to place an icon of a program you frequently use on your desktop. After you place a program icon on your desktop, clicking that icon, which is just a shortcut or pointer to the actual program, executes that program without requiring the assistance of the Start menu.
- Remove from This List—Removes the item's entry from that place in the Start menu's recent programs list.
- Rename—Enables you to change the name of a Start menu entry.
As stated before the previous list, you'll find other right-click options appear when you right-click over other Start menu programs and entries. The most common options are shown in this list. The rest should be self-explanatory as you run across them. For example, right-click on your Start menu's email program and you'll see the Read Mail option. Click Read Mail and your email program opens directly to your inbox.