The Windows 7 start menu has been designed by Microsoft to display recently used programs on the first page and all installed programs that have added a start menu entry on the second page. The second page is displayed after the user clicks on the All Programs link there.
When a Windows user decides to disable the listing of recent programs that have been executed on the computer a blank start menu page is displayed instead. This does not make that much sense for many users who would prefer that the programs listed under All Programs are moved to the first page so that they are accessible immediately when clicking on the start menu.
This is however not the case and there is no preference to change this behavior. The only option for users who have disabled the recent programs from being listed in the Windows 7 start menu is to fill the blank start menu with program and file links.
Programs and files can be pinned to the start menu just like they can be pinned to the taskbar in Windows 7. This appears to be the only way to make use of the otherwise blank start menu in Windows 7.
It would be interesting to see if anyone came up with a better solution for the blank start menu in Windows 7. If so let us know in the comments.
Update: Pinning files, folders and programs to the blank start menu might be a tedious process, but it can really pay off as it allows you to customize the first page of the Windows start menu to your liking.
One alternative that has been mentioned in the comments is to use a start menu replacement application that gets rid of the Windows 7 start menu and replaces it with its own version.
Related Articles:
Pin Folders And Files To The Windows 7 Start MenuStart Multiple Applications from the Start Menu
Classic Shell Adds A Start Menu Back To Windows 8
Start Menu Replacement Open Menu+
The Windows Start Menu
Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ using the icons below.
i am looking forward to see how could it be achieved,too.
Unfortunately, I don’t know any way, apart from using one of the several start menu alternatives available, to do this easily.
One option would be to recreate the menu structure of the ‘All programs’ pane, by utilising the ability to pin folders to the start menu, as presented here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8964-start-menu-pin-unpin-folder.html
Here are a few alternative shells, there are others, both free and paid:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/
http://www.csmenu.com/
http://www.classicstartmenu.com/index.html
Yeah, I’ve been livin with this for about a year now…too lazy to pursue a fix.
Dougle; Thanks for the suggestions.
This is what my start menu looks like and it bugs me.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate Apple.
But Apple would never design or release an OS that did something this stupid.
I found that someone had gone into Windows Explorer, into the “Users” folder and selected the properties for the user account folder. The “Hidden” checkbox was checked, making everything in the user’s folders hidden. Nothing would then show up on either the desktop or in the start menu.
I had this issue out of the blue, and I went into the Control Panel, chose “TaskBar & Start Menu”, clicked on the “Start Menu” tab, and then “customize.” For some reason, “Recent Items” was unchecked. Once I checked it, it was fixed.
Best thing to do to fix blank start Menu is to open the c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu there should be a “program” folder. Right click on the folder and click properties. Click on Previous Versions tab and select a date prior to your problem.
This fixed my problem immediately.