Start Menu

Customize your Start Menu, plus tips for using Start Menu features.


Aliases and app paths
The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths key contains a series of subkeys that identify executables with the format NAME.EXE. The Default value entry in such a key contains a path to the appropriate executable. A second value entry, called Path, may identify folders that are passed to that executable.

When you type NAME into the Run dialog, Windows first looks for it in the Windows folder, then in the system directory, then at the DOS path set up before Windows loaded. If it does not find an executable with that name in any of these locations, Windows looks in the App Paths key. If it finds a corresponding key, Windows runs the specified executable.

The name you type in does not have to be identical to the executable, but it must match the name of the key. Consequently, you can use these keys to set up quick aliases for often used programs, batch files or groups of applications. The Windows Interface Guidelines claim that if you move an executable, Windows adjusts these App Paths entries; testing shows this is NOT true.


Changing Start Menu icons
The icons displayed for the hard-wired Start Menu items (Programs, Documents, Settings, Find, Help, Run, Suspend and Shut Down) are stored in SHELL32.DLL in the WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. Entries in the Registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons will magically remap the Shell32.dll icons to display the icons of your choice.



The indices of the Start Menu icons are as follows:


 20  Programs

 21  Documents

 22  Settings

 23  Find

 24  Help

 25  Run

 26  Suspend

 28  Shut Down


So to reassign these to point to your favorite icons, use Regedit to add new String Value entries to the Shell Icons key, remembering to subtract one from the index because Windows counts icons from zero rather than one. For the data, enter the full path to the icon or icon resource.

If the Shell Icons key doesn't exist, just create it. Right-click on the explorer key, select New > Key, type Shell Icons and press Enter.

To view 256 color icons your display should be set to HiColor or TrueColor mode. Icons such as some of those in
COOL.DLL have a completely different appearance when displayed this way. In order to see your changes, it is necessary to refresh the icons. Do this by using the Display Properties dialog to change the icons' size, explained here, or use the Rebuild Icons button on the Repair tab in TweakUI, part of Microsoft's PowerToys.


Document history list
If you select Document from the Start Menu, you can view the last 15 document files that you double-clicked on or opened via a Windows 95 common dialog. This list is spawned from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RecentDocs key, which contains a MRUList value entry and 15 alphabetically named value entries. Each of these 15 entries holds the name of a document and the name of its shortcut in C:\Windows\Recent (in binary format).


Find Files or Folders
Did you know you can search for multiple filespecs, and search in multiple drives/paths in the Find Files or Folders applet? To use this feature, simply type the filenames (or paths) separated with a semicolon. Here's an example for 'Named'.

*.txt;*.doc;*.me;*.1st

This would find all files with .txt, .doc, .me and .1st extensions. The same will work for paths in the 'Look in' edit field, eg:

c:\;d:\winapps;f:\util

would search the root of c: plus the d:\winapps folder and also the f:\util folder. You can have Find search the subdirectories under each specified drive/path as well by checking the 'Include subfolders' checkbox.

NOTE: Some find operations (especially when searching subfolders and/or searching on a CD-ROM) can take quite a while to complete. If you see the file(s) you are looking for appear in the lower portion of the window, click the stop button to halt the search. Remember you can resize the Find window or scroll through the results even while it is busy searching (95 is a multi-tasking OS, right?).


Run history list
When you select Run from the Start Menu, the resulting dialog lets you quickly launch an executable or open a folder. This dialog's history list is stored in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU key (MRU stands for most recently used). This key contains up to 28 value entries (including its Default). If your history list is full, 26 entries are identified by the letters of the alphabet; these contain the last 26 commands (in ASCII format) that you entered into the Run dialog or Explorer's Go To dialog. The MRUList entry lists the 26 alphabetical keys according to how recently they were used; the first letter corresponds to the most recent command, the second letter to the second most recent command, and so on.