How To Subdivide The Start Menu
It is nearly without fail that I will be working on a computer and I will go to the Start Menu to access a program. Expecting my familiar menus I am greeted instead with fly out menus and the program listings will easily extend two-wide and offer still more. I'm sure the owner has long ago given up on using it--how can it be useful anymore when you have to navigate that kind of list each time you go there?
Every program you install wants to add its own suite of extras. It does not take long for these condos to dot the landscape in a never-ending sea of suburbia. Some put all of their utilities neatly into a single folder; some even allow you to choose a subfolder of your choosing. Many, though, are not so kind. They are like the slumlords working for the fly-by-night developer, interested only in keeping all the spaces filled.
The good news is that this is one of the easiest areas of Windows to fix. You can even give your menus an almost Explorer-type feel. And there's no need to worry about losing something important with your 'Delete' key. Everything in your start menu should be a shortcut. Everything. So deletions here have no more consequence than forcing you to search your computer later for a file that doesn't appear here.
Here then is the 4-step process for streamlining the start menu:
- Step 1. Map and create the rebuilding project.
- Step 2. Clean up the old neighborhood.
- Step 3. Find housing for all the remaining residents. Keep families together while moving them into new housing.
- Step 4. Regular maintenance. The neighborhood association should keep watch for intruders bent on messing with the community. Keep the detritus out.
Sounds like kind of an exclusive neighborhood huh? You are friendly, you just don't want outsiders coming in and running down your house values. Here's how:
Tier 1 Project
I've found that everything that I install on my machine can be fit into one of the following classifications (see screenshot). So whether I am cleaning an old machine or installing a brand-new Windows the first thing I do is create these folders. There are several way to do this. You can right-click the 'start' button and choose properties but you will have to choose the 'classic' path to really get to the core of the cleanup campaign. I prefer to right-click Start and then go to Explore All Users. This bring up the classic Windows Explorer view where it will be easiest to work with multiple files. Right-click on Start Menu > Programs and start adding the folders you want using the New Folder approach. Here are the ones I use but you may have a different scheme in mind. I'll get into the sub-classes of these folders shortly.
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Don't worry for the time being about getting rid of all your extra folders that individual programs have created; we will deal with that shortly. A few notes: I have a Startup folder which is automatically created by Windows and an Ex-Startup folder that I keep nearby. This is a handy place to move those Startup items that some programs want to constantly put here (such as Microsoft Office and its Indexing) The nice thing about the Start Menu is that we can put folders in any order we please, as easily as click-and-drag. So, while I stay alphabetical for the most part, there is no rule that says you have to. The Downloads folder is a rather superfluous folder. I added the link to downloaded programs, a shortcut if you will, but I never use it. |
Look at this as a new government being put into place. The new administration has made some campaign promises and is sincere about delivering the goods. It won on its promise to clean up the neighborhoods and improve the traffic flow in and out of the city. A more efficient government is the first order of the day and the planners and engineers are working overtime to come up with a workable model. Sometimes though, things get worse before they get better. For the time being we are creating offices that overlap and interfere with other offices; there will be a little bloat while doing this. Rather than just dump the previous occupants we are building around them. Later we will integrate the brightest prospects and trim the dead weight.
We have mapped our main arteries, the freeways. But we have to be able to maneuver the inner streets as well; our business district needs a makeover and some of the more populous neighborhoods need to cleaned up and re-routed as well if we are going to attain any kind of flow. So we are going to add sub-folders to some of the main folders.
Starting at the top and working down the first folder is Accessories. Windows automatically creates this folder and for that reason I have chosen to leave it alone. Believe me, I have tried to re-work this folder but Windows always replaced it somewhere along the line. So even if I copy some shortcuts from it to another folder I otherwise ignore it. It's just not worth the hassle to change. The second folder in my Start > All Programs is Desktop. I don't create extra folders here anymore either--I don't really keep enough programs here to justify it. At one time I had a Screensavers folder here but I just don't mess with that stuff much anymore. I keep a few wallpaper and desktop utilities here and also, while not technically correct, I keep the shortcuts to my desktop search programs (Coppernic and Google) here. The name fits and they are easy to find if I have shut them down elsewhere.
Next we have Games. The R & R Department. We have no subgroups here either, other than the ones for the individual games. We realize the need for entertainment and diversion but we are not going to programs spread themselves all over a folder. For instance, Far Cry adds 9 shortcuts when it installs, possibly into a folder like Ubisoft which means little to us. We put all of these into a new folder that we name, mysteriously enough, Far Cry. Same way with any other program. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. There are some folders coming up that do require some extra folders in order to retain legibility.
The Graphics folder is one of those:
What I have done here is add 5 folders for various types of graphics programs. Bear in mind that I install a LOT of programs, many for evaluation purposes, and I don't always get the extras weeded out regularly. You may not have the need for all the extra folders that I use. I add extra folders when I need to clean up parent folders. Obviously if you use MS Paint for all the graphics you do, you're not going to need the extra capacity. Most of the sub-categories are pretty self-explanatory so I won't go into them in depth. Basically I have folders for creative and photo editing, technical drafting, font utilities (since I usually waffle between a half-dozen of these), and viewers which are really for nothing other than browsing or organizing graphics collections. I place programs like ACDSee, Picasa, and Acrobat Reader here (I know the Adobe program does more but Reader is essentially a viewer. It's also a piece of crap I don't want on my desktop; I never open the program by itself since individual files will always open it when they are double-clicked.
Next we move to the Internet folder. I use some extra folders here also to keep the sub-levels clean:
Dammit, there's that Palm Tools folder again. I have no Palm-anything tools. Well I'll let it go for now. Another self-explanatory folder: browsers, IM proggies, Email clients and tools, book marking tools, and peer-to-peer programs. Nearly anything that deals with web connectivity. We could label this our Foreign Affairs division since it deals with everything foreign to our local government network.
Let me interject here that the explanation is longer than the process; you will have this all done before I finish this so skim the fat parts and concentrate on the meat. I honestly didn't think this would stretch this far. I'm afraid now that this will have to be completed in sections. ;)
I should say something about the Multimedia folder I guess before I send you off to complete this on your own. Multimedia encompasses a pretty wide range of senses. Well visual and auditory. But quite a diverse selection of media. Ok, you have your music players and jukeboxes (Music Match, Winamp, iTunes). But there are also editors that do a better job of cleaning up your tunes (Cool Edit Pro). And recorders for ripping the streams (StreamRipper). Then there are enhancements for your players to make those digital sounds come alive on your Dolby 5.1 (DFX). And tag editors (MP3Tag, moreTunes) to help keep the music library manageable (Media Monkey). Maybe you have some composition software or a midi hookup. Of course you have some music services you use when file-sharing doesn't do it (AllOfMP3, Napster). Visually you have your TV card software (Hauppauge Win TV). And the programs to convert your Flash files to MPEG (Riva FLV Encoder). Then you have CD and DVD copy programs (Nero, 123DVD). You get the picture. Enough said. Hence this folder probably holds the most sub-categories.
Office Apps can also encompass a wide range of categories. At one time I kept a separate folder for editors since not only do they process words, some are touted as programming editors. I decided finally that they should go in the downtown offices. I know where they are whether the mayor can find them or not. Office Suites are the board-room programs; they contain data management programs and spreadsheets as well as the word processors. PDF Moto and Adobe Acrobat are PDF Creation programs. I will tell you why sometime that I'd like to toss all Adobe programs off the roof of the tallest building. I'd like to but it would cause too much damage to the street. So I keep them around even though they take up too much space and are ill-mannered. I keep a few other smaller productivity apps in the Office folder to help balance out the obesity. This lowers just slightly the average weight of the office occupants. A couple of text readers, a label and business card design program and the old Everyready--Microsoft Publisher 98 round out the contents.
I think you can see what I'm doing here so I'll step quickly through our last folders now. Printer & Scanner obviously contains all the utilities for printers and imaging devices. It also holds a couple of PDF programs that reside only in the Print dialog boxes. When you choose them your program sends the printer output to a PDF file instead of the regular printer.
Your research assistants have been moved into the Reference labs. Genealogy programs are likely candidates as are the mapping programs. I keep an old copy (ancient) of MS Expedia Streets 98 here. Although a few local streets haven't yet gone through, Streets is still my favorite map program and the easiest to use by far. It still gives better results than the online maps and is much easier to follow when zooming or panning.
Tools could be a lengthy discourse but I'll let you take a look and decide how to handles this one. Homeland Security keeps its massive offices here but it shares space with the maintenance department in my little world. It also has its own medical department with a diagnostics and testing division. File Tools once had its own offices but it's been moved to keep up with the current administration's policy of keeping the core downsized. WinZip and other compression tools are here as are the Explorer alternatives; sometimes you need to look at files from a different angle. Windows Tools are in charge of repairs and tweaks to the fragile infrastructure. One might argue that they could be merged with System Tools since most repairs to the system involve repairs to Windows. But System Tools has more of an administrative role while Windows Tools is more proactive. For now they keep their own departments and we will hope they cooperate and share information just as our Security department does.
Lastly, we get to the chief enigma of our model--the Web Design department. No one really knows what they do or how they function. They are a mess and the people who rely on them frequently get shuffled from one department to another. Operatives with years of experience say they still have trouble deciding who to go to and, in fact, often shift alliances. Coffee Cup has a slight lead at this point due mainly to familiarity but frankly they're on shaky ground. Some are arrogant to the point of saying WYSIWYG but fail to live up to their promises. They all want to keep up with the CSS newcomers but word is the administration is very unhappy with the CSS model and has even publicized that it is becoming unnecessarily bureaucratic which means added complexity. The CSS people are nice enough and have a powerful lobby so they're probably not going anywhere.
What we have done here is create the blueprint around which our project will be created. If we have done it right, the result will be stream-lined and efficient, something any city management team would be proud to have designed. No menus will extend wider than one column; nor will we have to scroll up or down to see the entire contents of a list. Let's see though if we can fit get all the congestion cleared up before we go patting ourselves on the back.
Next: we cleanup and take back our streets