If you're accustomed to using Windows 95, you know that the Start menu is arranged into submenus (folders) that contain Shortcut icons, all of which appear in alphabetical order. But Internet Explorer 4 and Windows 98 trash this convenient alphabetical scheme. This is progress?

Never fear! Unlike Windows 95, Windows 98 and IE 4 (with the Windows Desktop Update feature installed) let you arrange Start menu items in any order you want. When you install new software, it's usually added to the bottom of the Programs menu unless the installer lets you specify otherwise. The fix is easy. Just click Start-Programs, position the pointer over an item you want to move, and then drag it to a new location ù either on the same menu, on any menu in the Programs menu hierarchy, or above the first line in the Start menu. When you see a black bar where you want to place your submenu folder or Shortcut, release the mouse button.

If your Programs menu is stuffed with dozens of items, you might want to edit the Registry to list it in alphabetical order automatically. As a precaution, you should first make a backup of the following files in your Windows folder: user.dat, system.dat, user.da0, and system.da0.

Now launch the Registry Editor by choosing Start-Run, typing regedit, and clicking OK. In the left-hand pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder. Click the + next to MenuOrder to see its two folders (called keys) ù Favorites and Start menu. To display your Programs menu alphabetically, continue navigating down the tree to the Start menu\&Programs\Menu key. In the right pane, you should see the binary Order icon, which stores sorting information. To reset the sort order, select that icon and press <Delete>. Then click Yes to confirm the deletion.

To clean up other menus, delete the Order icon from within the appropriate MenuOrder keys ù that is, from the Favorites\Menu key, the Start menu\Menu key, or the Menu key of any submenu key. Then exit the Registry Editor and select Start-Log Off <your user name>. Log on to Windows again, click the Start button, and go to a menu you've just cleaned to see the result. Items should appear in alphabetical order with submenus first. In my experience, this technique works better with Favorites-Programs, and other menus than with items you've added to the Start menu itself.

Unfortunately, neither dragging Start menu items around nor editing the Registry tidies up out-of-order items permanently. Drag an item out of place, install new software, or let other people use your computer, and your Programs menu can gradually lapse into disorder again. The same holds true for any menu that you can customise, such as the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer. To force Windows to list a given menu alphabetically each time you start your computer, you need to create stand-alone Registry sections. Here's what to do.

First, use the Registry Editor to make a backup of the Menu key of a particular menu: select the key in the left pane and choose Registry-Export Registry File. Specify a location for your backup and type a name. Make sure Selected branch is highlighted and click Save. Now locate the backup file you just created, right-click it, and choose Edit to open it in Notepad. Save a copy under a new name to preserve your original backup: choose File-Save As, type a name like "alpha.reg" (be sure to include the quotation marks so Notepad gives it the .reg extension), and save the file in the folder of your choice ù for example, the Windows folder.

Now to make some changes. If you successfully exported only a Menu key branch, the third line of your file containing text should begin with "Order"=hex:. Select and delete everything after the colon so that "Order"=hex: is the only thing on the line and that line is the last one in your file. At the end of the line, press <Enter> to insert a carriage return. Now choose File-Save and then File-Exit. This creates a Registry key backup with a blank Order icon, eliminating the information about icon arrangement.

This little text file includes a complete path to the section of the Registry that determines the order of a given menu. By merging this file with the Registry, you can delete whatever order info is stored for a given menu. To make Windows import this Registry key every time you restart your computer, choose Start-Run, type notepad c:\autoexec.bat, and click OK. Now add the following line to the last line of your autoexec.bat file: c:\windows\regedit c:\windows\alphatiz.reg (your path may differ). To change the order info on multiple menus, create a modified .reg file for each menu and create a line for each .reg file in autoexec.bat. Save the file, exit and rest assured your menus will be a little cleaner each time you reboot.