Make Windows 98 display a long start menu in multiple columns

Helpline Q&A Directory

In Windows 95, the items in the Start menu and its submenus were always alphabetised. It could also expand a long menu into multiple columns. Windows 98, however, forces you to scroll. Is there a way to make the Windows 98 Start menu behave like the one in Windows 95?

There are fixes, but they require Internet Explorer 5.0. Go to Start, Windows Update. Once you have Internet Explorer 5.0 installed, alphabetise any Start submenu by right-clicking the submenu and select Sort by Name.

Making long menus display in multiple columns is tougher. In fact, it requires editing the Registry. Before you do this, see tip Back up the Registry for instructions on backing up the Registry.

Once your Registry is safely backed up, select Start, Run, type Regedit and press Enter. In the Registry Editor, navigate the lefthand pane, as you would in Windows Explorer, to Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.

Once there, right-click a blank spot in the righthand pane and select New, String Value. Name your new value StartMenuScrollPrograms. Press Enter once to save the name and again to bring up the Edit String dialog box. In the Value data field, type false. Press Enter, then close the Registry Editor and reboot.