Many Mac users use the Apple menu as a convenient way to navigate their hard drives, since it turns complex directories into easily navigable hierarchical menus. To do this, you simply create an alias of your hard drive (highlight the drive and type Command-M) and place this alias in the Apple Menu Items folder inside your system folder. This can also speed up navigation of large folders (such as clip art).

Unfortunately, a bug in Mac OS 8.5 means that these large volumes can add considerably to the time it takes to open the Apple menu. To get rid of the bottleneck, either disable the hierarchical menus using the Apple Menu Options control panel, or remove the aliases to large volumes. If you really must have this convenient feature, remove the Apple Menu Options control panel entirely, and replace it with a third-party alternative, such as the shareware BeHierarchic (www.octave.net/BeHierarchic/).