I discovered the application SMOz at the Make Use Of Website and decided to give it a try because my start menu is already filling up with all kinds of applications that I have installed on my new computer. Many of these are for testing purposes only but some will remain there permanently.
SMOz is basically [...]

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Windows XP keeps track of how many times an application has been started by a user of the system and displays the most frequently used programs in the start menu. That’s a pretty convenient feature for some users but there is no obvious way to control which applications are listed in the start menu.

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Clicking on Start, All Programs, the folder of the software that you want to start and finally the software is the normal way to start applications using the Windows start menu. Unfortunately though it closes every time you have started a software from it which means that you have to follow the same path again if you want to open another application from it.

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After a few months of using Launchy and Rocket Dock I realized that I actually did not use the startmenu of my Windows operating system at all. I either use these great apps that give me more flexibility and speed or use icons on my desktop for certain tasks.
Another reason why I’m not using the startmenu anymore is that it really looks and feels messy after a while because every new application adds it’s own folder to it. The question that came up for me is whether I needed the startmenu at all.

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We all know that Microsoft decided to add the search function to the Vista startmenu and get rid of the run box by default. You can add the run dialog again but there is a much better way to add functionality to the search box using a little great application called Start++. It adds new commands to the search box which define actions that are executed. Typing “g searchterm” for instance opens the default browser and opens Google search results with the searchterm that you have entered. Eight default commands are already defined and you can add new ones with ease.

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