Previously I had used a whole combination of toolbars and application launchers so it was a welcome change to remove some of this clutter.

One of the notable alternatives to pop up was the Vista Start Menu, a replacement for both the XP and Vista menus. Developer Dennis Nazarenko created it becuase he says:

“I have always found the Start Menu in Windows to be inconvenient to use. In the new Windows Vista it’s been made more attractive but more inconvenient than even before!”

His replacement is definitely a more useful option for XP but I would never recommend using it in Vista, it would be somewhat of a step backwards.

In fact you can actually get the Vista Start Menu in XP, thanks to the Vista Start Menu Emulator by Folgelsoft. It is a completely accurate version of the Vista start menu for XP, and I think it’s very impressive. In fact I on my XP computer I love using this application as it functions almost identically to the real thing and is a dead ringer looks-wise.

The performance is also impressive, no lag or slow down compared to the default menu and it loads very fast on the initial login. The integrated search is almost instant, and better in some ways then Vista, but that’s becuase the VSME only searches the shortcuts within the menu itself. Vista indexes the entire system.

So if you want to give the new start menu a try without upgrading then this is how you can do it. Admittedly it looks a bit funny when used with the Luna theme as it’s black and transparent, but you can always skin your desktop to match.

Related posts

• Pimp up the Vista startmenu (0)
• WinFS, Was it Really so Good? (1)
• Windows Vista SP1 Download (12)
• Windows Vista SP1 breaks applications (2)
• Windows Vista Editions – Do you know the differences ? (6)

You are free to create new folders, sub menus and separators and fill them with the content that FileMenu Tools offers. New options vary from the very useful Command Line From Here option which opens the command line window from the selected folder. You may also run a selected program with parameters (defrag or anti-virus for example) and perform many operations such as copy path, move to, advanced delete and advanced renamer.

Besides that you can edit the Send To dialog which I personally rarely use. You can disable current options and add new ones with ease. One application could be to move files to a special data folder once they have been downloaded and checked. There are certainly other and better options but this is just to show that adding new send to entries can be useful.

Related posts

• Pimp up the Vista startmenu (0)
• Check the size of your folders (2)
• Xsite Freeware (1)
• Weekend Fun Tails Gear (1)
• Watch Tv over Internet with Sopcast (3)