Microsoft responded to some of the criticism in a large blog post at the Building Windows 8 blog. The company dodged the question if it will be possible to turn off Metro to use the desktop exclusively. Some user concerns were addressed on the other hand. haitanya Sareen, Microsoft program manager lead of the Core Experience Evolved team, noted that users will be able to close applications in Metro, and that Microsoft is working on improving mouse support as well.

I do not want to paraphrase all that has been said in the article, but would like to address two issues that I consider most important. The first one is a paragraph that compares the touch debate to the mouse debate in the 1980s.

The debate around touch today is looking eerily like the debate in the 1980s over whether a mouse was a gimmick, a productivity time waster, or an innovation in the user experience. We say this knowing that many comments have been emphatic about the superiority of the mouse over touch. Unlike when the mouse was introduced—before desktop publishing programs came along there were few use cases for the mouse other than early paint programs—today we are surrounded by touch screens—at the airport, the gas station, the movie theater, every cash register, and of course, on our phones. The one place touch has not yet become mainstream is on the most capable of all the devices you use. Just like the introduction of the mouse, innovations like this do not happen without new OS support, new apps, and new hardware. We believe that, as with the mouse, we will see touch augmenting, but not replacing, most every aspect of the PC experience over time. Achieving this starts with the Windows 8 Developer Preview. So with that, let’s start the dialog about how things will evolve, not just in the Windows core user experience, but in hardware and apps as well.

The issue that I have with this approach is that most desktop users do not have touch, and won’t for a long time. I do not have statistics on average times a monitor is used in a desktop or business environment, but it is likely that it is a long time.

While it is fine and dandy that users find touch based devices almost everywhere, they do not find them where it matters most: their workplace.

Another aspect that seems to get overlooked is that it is obviously easier to buy additional peripherals, say a mouse, than a new monitor. Not only is the former a lot cheaper (I do not have figures for the early 80s though), but it is also completely opt-in. If you do not want to work with a mouse, you do not have to.

The second issue I have is about something that Microsoft did not address, but that many users would like to know. Will Windows 8 have a feature to disable, turn off or bypass Metro Start? Considering that Microsoft did not mention it completely, my initial reaction is that it won’t. Chaitanya even mentions the question in the second paragraph of the post, but fails to provide an answer for that.

Lets take a look at some of the – many – user comments that followed the blog post.

Xpclient writes:

The big difference between Windows 9x, Windows 2000/XP and between Windows 7/8 is choice. In earlier versions of Windows, UI and design changes were not forced on us. We had the option to use Program Manager and File Manager even in Windows XP. We had the option to use Classic Start Menu in Windows Vista. The newer OSes seem to FORCE what Microsoft thinks is best for us and leave no option/choice to return to the older interface. That is Microsoft’s single biggest shortcoming in UI design and user experience. Another thing Microsoft needs to learn is that user interfaces not need to constantly see radical overhauls, they need to evolve building on what was built previously. Don’t push the reset button far too often and start everything from scratch. You don’t realize how annoying users find it when working UI features that people use everyday in their work was entirely gone instead of simply being turned off or disabled by default. No one’s going to complain about Windows being more customizable. Instead, you make it less customizable, remove what’s working previously and on which considerable time has been spent on in previous releases and then say to these users, this is it, to simplify we just had to eliminate features. Take it or leave it.

Windowsfan has positive things to say:

I actually like the idea of using the Metro Start screen to search for apps. the full-screen view can present the user with more apps at one time (about 20) while the start menu can only show 14. Also, the “tap windows key and type to search” approach is fast and simple. More attractive+Live Tiles for application updates+presents the user with more at once = a solid win for the Start screen, in my opinion. BUT, perhaps instead of forcing us to switch screens when we want to perform a search from the desktop, you could only bring up the Search charm menu at the side, and have us choose apps from there. This approach would make searching for apps via search less complex and jarring. I DO have beef with your taskbar though:

tNO criticizes the new concept:

With the new design you leave the “task oriented” concept behind and move back to an app centric approach that in my opinion isn’t modern.

I don’t want to start apps. I wan’t to do something with my PC. Were is this document I was working on yesterday? I don’t find it in the new Start screen. Where is this tool I was using earlier? Oh, I have to search again, and again… You call it improved search? Why? Because I have to filter content manually again like in the 90′s?

A strange fact that comes to mind while reading this article is, that your data shows that people like to use the taskbar as a launcher but the taskbar isn’t present when you turn on Windows 8. The Start screen hides the taskbar. And on the other side you showed that people don’t like to pin apps to the Start menu but now, this is the only thing they can do on the new Start screen. I don’t get that logic.

And what about other basic features like power off or restart? Did people use this less often in Windows 7? Or why did you removed this functionality?

Part of the new Start screen as we know it yet is this hover menu when you put the mouse pointer in the lower left corner. Not that the functionality is hidden to the user but it also feels very uncomfortable. It is one of the most important UI elements but does work like no other element in Windows. Nowhere else is such a menu that you don’t have to open, that pops up automatically from nowhere. It just doesn’t feel right.

Microsoft in the mean time has published the second part of the start screen series. You can read it here.

It too makes several arguments that I cannot really agree with. Probably the biggest is this one:

But, when you’re launching a new app, you’re leaving the thing you’re currently doing. So we wanted to take advantage of the whole screen to make launching and switching apps as efficient as possible. The full-screen Start gives you the power and flexibility to launch more apps with a single click.

I cannot agree with it, for a number of reasons. For instance, I start programs that I want to run in the background. This includes the Thunderbird email client, Skype, other communication software and programs that automatically run tasks for me. I do not need to see their interface until they notify me that I have received mail, a call or whatever.

Another element here is that I have a large monitor, and that I like to have multiple apps open at the same time, for instance Firefox and my feed reader and sometimes maybe an always on top video that I watch while working. I cannot do that with Metro, it seems.

Do not get me wrong though. Metro is surely damn fine for touch based devices, but I cannot really see myself working with it in a desktop environment. I will stick with Windows 7 if Microsoft won’t add options to disable or bypass Metro Start. I’d also like to predict that the majority of desktop users who worked with other Windows systems before will be shocked when they see the new user interface. Check out Windows 8 News for more coverage. You can download Windows 8 from here.

Classic Shell is a free software for Windows that brings back several of the features that were modified or dropped in newer versions of the Windows operating system. The full list of features includes:

• The classic Windows start menu with eight available skins
• Classic Windows Explorer
• Classic Internet Explorer 9

Windows users can select which features they want installed on their system during installation. It is possible to only install the classic start menu for instance, or only classic Windows Explorer. Installation requires elevated privileges and changes are immediately available and visible without a system restart.

The classic Windows start menu for instance is available right after the installation finishes. The classic Windows Explorer menu on the other hand is only partially available.

A right-click on the toolbar and the selection of Classic Explorer Bar enables the toolbar in Windows Explorer. A click on the options button opens a configuration menu with interesting settings. Here it is possible to add or remove toolbar buttons from the Explorer toolbar and configure other features of Windows Explorer.

Some of the things that you can configure here is a different location bar layout (disable breadcrumbs), change the navigation pane style to XP classic or simple, enable sort headers in all view modes or to replace the file and folder conflict dialogs (file exists for instance when copying).

Classic Shell adds three configuration options to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 web browser. It adds a caption to the title bar to display the page title there and shows the security zone and loading progress in the browser’s status bar.

Windows Vista or Windows 7 users who miss some of the features that they used to work with under Windows XP, should take Classic Shell for a test ride to see if it resolves some of the issues that they have.

The Open Source software is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Downloads are offered at the program homepage over at Sourceforge.

The Windows 7 start menu on the other hand displays one default power down option, and the remaining options in a menu next to it. Shutdown is the selected default action, while reboot, lock or sleep mode are available as menu items.

Some Windows users may prefer to change the default actions of both the power button on the PC case, as well as the power down button in the start menu. Here is how this is done.

Change Start Menu Power Button

Right-click on the start orb in the Windows taskbar and select Properties from the menu. You will find configuration options for the start menu in the window that options. among the options is a Power Button Action pull down menu. Just select the desired power button action from the menu and then OK to apply the change to the system.

You can for instance select lock or sleep if you use those modes regularly, and shutdown less regularly.

Click on the start menu orb again after you have made the change, you should see the new action on the shutdown button.

Changing the PC Case Power Button Action

Many Windows users do not know that they can change the action of their PC case power button as well. This configuration option is available in the control panel. Click the start menu orb and select Control Panel from the options afterwards. Click on the System and Security applet, and there on “Change what the power buttons do” under Power Options.

The default action is to shut down the computer. This can be changed to sleep, or do nothing in the pull down menu on the configuration screen. Some users may see different options in the menu, depending on their setup.

It is furthermore possible to define if a password needs to be entered on wakeup. If you do not want to enter your account password again, select Don’t require a password.

Click the save changes button in the end to apply the changes.

And that’s how you change the functionality of the power button on your PC case, and the power button of the start menu. Have something to add? Let me know in the comments.

This shortcut is actually the Location Context Menu in the Nautilus Actions tool. Thanks to that little feature you can create plenty of quick-access shortcuts which will start up those applications from the right-click menu. Let’s see how this is done.

Nautilus Actions Configuration

I have covered this topic before (see Nautilus Actions content on Ghacks) on Ghacks, so the idea of creating a Nautilus Action should be familiar. In case you haven’t read any of the other content, the idea behind Nautilus Actions is that you can create an action, based on location and/or MIME type. These actions are highly customizable and incredibly handy to use.

Usually these actions are created not only with the command to be executed, but with command parameters that are used to inform the command what it is acting on (for example: %M for space-separated list of full pathnames for selected files). We are going to NOT add parameters for any actions we create for the purpose of command shortcuts. Why? Because for the shortcut you are not going to be acting on any file or directory, it is just to start an application.

Create the action

Click on System > Preferences > Nautilus Actions Configuration. This will start up the Nautilus Actions Configuration window. Let’s say you want to create a short cut used to open the GNOME Terminal application. Here are the steps you need to use to do that:

1. Click the “Define a new action” button.
2. In the Action tab make sure you check the box for “Display item in location context menu” and enter “GNOME Terminal” in the Context Label area.
3. In the Command tab enter /usr/bin/gnome-terminal for the Command Path. Do not enter anything for the Parameters.
4. Click the Save button.

Your action has been created. Now, to make sure it will appear, you need to restart Nautilus. To do this you can either log out and log back in or you can open up a terminal window and issue the command nautilus -q.

Figure 1

After Nautilus has restarted right-click anywhere on your desktop and you should see an entry in your menu that looks like that shown in Figure 1.

Of course you can do this with just about any application you want. But know that this really wasn’t the intended use of this tool…but it is a handy way to create those shortcuts.

You could get very creative with this set up and create shortcuts for various commands and actions.

Final thoughts

One of the aspects of the Enlightenment desktop that I’ve always like was the ability to quickly access applications from a simple click of the mouse anywhere on the desktop. This little “shortcut” on GNOME will give you a similar feature.

One of the main points of criticism is the lack of options to organize the start menu. Practically any application that gets installed places an entry in the start menu, usually a folder with one or multiple program, file and website links.

This fills up the start menu over time, and even though it is sorted alphabetically, it often takes longer than needed to find and start a program from there.

It is possible to organize the start menu manually. But that is only a temporary solution, considering that every new program that adds an entry to the menu breaks the order of items.

The free software Handy Start Menu offers an alternative. Probably the best feature of the program is its simplicity. Simply install it in Windows, select to enable the organized start menu and watch the magic happening.

organize start menu

All start menu items are instantly organized into categories like Office, Internet, Security and Utilities. Everything that cannot be identified by the program is put into the Without Category folder.

The program offers options to manage all start menu items and the available categories. This option is directly accessible by clicking on “click to manage the menu”.

The category manager displays the categories and items, with options to move items into different categories. There does not seem to be a way to create new categories, but the existing ones should be sufficient for the majority of applications available.

category manager

The category manager lacks customizability, which is the greatest weakness of the program. Besides the already mentioned inability to create new categories, it lacks the ability to delete items from the start menu. Even worse is the fact that it overrides the core functionality in the start menu. The user has to switch to the standard menu to delete entries, or browse to the folder in Windows Explorer to do so. Not a practical thing to do.

And while we are at it. Other standard options are not available as well anymore. A right-click displays only the options to open, move or manage the entry. No options to start the program as an administrator and no options to pin it to the taskbar or view its properties.

The Handy Start Menu has a lot of potential, but its shortcomings are what will keep a lot of users from using it permanently. Finally, the start menu appears only ordered for as long as the program is running in the background. A better solution would have been to sort it once, and save the structure.

This would remove all the shortcomings that we have identified in the review.

If you want to try it, The Handy Start Menu is available from the developer website. It has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit, but is said to be working on all Microsoft operating systems from XP to Windows 7. (via Addictive Tips)

The results are empty folders, and invalid program shortcuts in the start menu. Only users of advanced uninstallers, like Revo Uninstaller, do not have to cope with those problems, as their programs scan and delete leftovers after uninstallations.

It is quite possible to clean the start menu manually, but then again, one purpose of a computer is to make life easier for the user.

Start Menu Cleaner is a small portable software for Windows that can scan the Windows start menu for empty folders and broken shortcuts.

start menu cleaner

All options are presented to the user in the main interface. The application by default detects and deletes empty folders, and invalid program shortcuts, as long as they are not pointing to removable or network drives.

All deletions need to be confirmed before they are executed. Adventurous users may disable that confirmation to speed up the process.

clean start menu

Folders and shortcuts that are deleted are gone for good, unless the option to delete them to the recycle bin is enabled in the options.

Start Menu Cleaner is an effective lightweight program to remove invalid entries from the start menu. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows, and available for download at the developer website.

Programs can be pinned to the first screen of the Start Menu by right-clicking them in Windows Explorer and selecting the Pin To Start Menu context menu entry.

This adds the program to the Start Menu so that it can be launched from there.

But the option is only provided for executables, and not even for all of them. A right-click on a folder or non-executable file does not display the context menu entry either.

It is nevertheless possible to pin folders and files to the Windows Start Menu. The fastest way to do that is by dragging and dropping them to the desired location.

Start by dragging the folder or file to the Start Menu orb. A Pin To Start Menu overlay is displayed. Dropping the folder or file on the orb places it beneath all entries on the first page of the Windows 7 Start Menu.

Users who want to customize the position can wait until the Start Menu opens to place the folder or file in the desired location.

pin to start menu

You will notice that the folder or file is now available in the start menu. A click on it will either open the folder in Windows Explorer or launch the file in the default viewer.

You might also be interested in our article on how to pin files or folders to the Windows 7 Taskbar since drag and drop is not working for this operation.

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.

The broken links checker will automatically scan the Windows Start Menu for broken shortcuts. Each shortcut found to not working anymore will be displayed in its interface giving the user the option to delete them from the start menu.

Some or all of the broken shortcuts can be selected in the overview. A click on the finish button will delete all selected links from the Windows Start Menu. The software program will only delete the shortcuts and not the folders that they reside in.

It should be noted that popular system cleaners such as CCleaner are also capable of deleting broken shortcuts from the start menu. An easy way to delete empty folders in the Windows Start Menu is to use a program like Remove Empty Directories and point it to the path on the computer system that stores the start menu entries (Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\).

Start by opening the Windows Registry with [windows R], typing [regedit] and hitting [enter]. Search for the key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}

Double-click on the Default entry in the right window and replace the value with a name of your own. If you want to link to a downloads directory name it downloads.

Create a new key by right-clicking and selecting New > Key from the menu. Name the key DefaultIcon. Double-click on Default again and enter a path to an icon on the computer system. You can for instance use shell icons. To use the generic folder icon you give the key the following value:

%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll,-4

Click here for a full list of possible values.

Open the subkey Instance\InitPropertyBag. Right-click and select New > String from the menu and name it command. Give the string the same name that you have chosen in the first step. We will name it downloads so that it matches the name that we have selected.

Create two additional strings by right-clicking and selecting New > String. Name the strings param1 and param2. Double-click param1 and give it the value explorer.exe. Double-click param2 and enter a path on the computer system, e.g. c:\downloads\.

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create or edit the DWORD entry Start_ShowOEMLink. Double-click it afterwards and give it the value 1.

Now restart the computer, log off or kill and restart the explorer.exe process. The new entry in the Windows Start Menu should appear.

One interesting aspect of the software is the option to run the new Start Menu next to the old one for some time to find out if it better suits the needs. The new Start Menu makes use of a search tab at the top and five tabs at the bottom that provides access to various files and services with enough options to customize most of the display and entries.

The Start Menu is separated by the tabs Favorites, Recent, Computer, Programs and Leave.

• Favorites contain links that are added by the user. Links can be added in various ways including from other tabs of the Start Menu or by editing the favorites.txt file that comes with the application.
• The Recent tab displays programs and files that have been opened recently by the user.
• The Computer tab contains links to profile folders like My Documents, Printers or the Run dialog.
• The tab Programs contains links to all programs that are installed on the computer.
• Leave provides links to options like shutting down, logging off or closing the Open Menu application.

The program’s options contain various possibilities to change the look and feel of the application. It is possible to change the skin, remove items from the Start Menu or to change the default locations of system paths.

Open Menu+ uses roughly 20 Megabytes of computer memory when running in the open. The application itself is very responsive and easy to use.

ViOrb Remastered is one small tool that might be one of those that this user groups loves. It does not do more than to replace the Windows XP start button with the Windows vista’s start button. That’s pretty straightforward with no configuration needed at all. The user simply has to execute the file after unzipping it and it will automatically replace the start button for as long as it is running.

The software is currently available as a pre-beta build in the forum of the developer after registration. While it does not throw any error messages during usage the author still has some annoyances to sort out before releasing the software program.

The main problem with the application is that the start button works as intended if the taskbar is at the bottom of the screen. Items get replaced however if the taskbar has been moved by the user to the sides of the screen making it unusable in its current state.

This can be fixed by moving the taskbar to the bottom and then back to the side if auto-hide is not enabled. Once the taskbar hides itself automatically the entries get pushed aside again.

The application uses roughly 5 Megabytes of computer memory while running. The only way to uninstall it is by opening the Task Manager and killing the process (which crashed Explorer). A restart of the system or logging off / on again should do the trick as well.

But even those users who rely on the Windows Start Menu won’t have that many difficulties accommodating because Start Killer, the name of the application, removes the Start button only for the time it is running in the background. It furthermore provides keyboard shortcuts to display the Windows Start Menu even while running.

Start Killer will automatically remove the Windows Start Menu button from the Windows Taskbar once it is running. It works with every taskbar orientation possible which should make users happy who run the Windows Taskbar on the left or right side of the screen.

Windows Taskbar:

Windows Taskbar with Start Killer running:

A few things need to be explained. The Windows Start Menu can be displayed with the keyboard shortcuts [Windows] or [CTRL+ESC]. That opens the Windows Start Menu at the usual position and hides it again once the user has finished the task at hand.

Start Killer adds an icon to the Windows System Tray which provides access to several settings after right-clicking it. The application can be set to load on system startup. It is furthermore possible to disable the System Tray icon in the options.

Computer memory usage of Start Killer is at the low end with about 2.5 Megabytes and barely any virtual memory.

This provides fast access to all programs, files, folders and applications that are accessible in the dock. The icons can shape as a circle or spiral around the center. The Circle Dock is placed on top of every other open window and remains on top even if another window is activated.

New items can be simply placed in the circle by dragging and dropping them into the center. They appear in the next free place of the circle. If no free space is available a new bigger circle is created where the icon will be placed. Icons can be moved around to place the most used applications near the center for easier access.

The mouse wheel rotates the icons in the circle and a left-click loads the selected application. The program comes with more than 20 skins that provide different shapes. It’s pretty amazing how flexible that program is. You can add/remove application titles, backgrounds, increase or decrease fonts and sizes of pretty much everything so that the dock suits your needs in the end and blends perfectly with the rest of the desktop.

I’d like to mention a few interesting functions. Circle Dock is portable and Open Source. That in combination with the option to synchronize the dock with files that are located in a specified folder makes up for an interesting USB application launcher. This is also great in networks where every computer should have access to the same shortcuts. Circle Dock is also compatible with multi-monitor systems.

The software program requires Windows XP or Windows Vista in either the 32-bit or 64-bit version and the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5. The only thing that is lowering my enthusiasm for the application is the memory usage of 30 Megabytes of memory and virtual memory which is a lot for such an application.

SMOz is basically a start menu organizer that provides eight folders, like multimedia and games, to organize the start menu properly. It does not do anything that cannot be done with little manual work. It adds eight folders to the Windows Start Menu that could be described as categories. These folders are then automatically populated by SMOz by moving known applications to the corresponding folder.

It would for example move iTunes into the Multimedia folder and Nero Burning Rom into CD-Utilities. To sum it up: It adds eight folders to the Start Menu and scans the existing start menu entries for applications that are in its database to move them to the right folder.

The real question is if you really need a software for that or if it would not be faster to create the folders manually and move the applications afterwards into them. It is still necessary to move most of the installed applications manually into the correct folder because SMOz fails to identify most of them.

SMOz does not provide a way to only move the executable file of a Start Menu entry into another folder. If it is located in a folder the whole folder has to be moved. I never understood the folder concept there anyway for single applications. I do not need access to read me documents, uninstall or the manual in the start menu.

It does not make sense in my opinion to have a software like Notepad in that list because you normally open it automatically when clicking on a text document. It is possible to disable that feature altogether but that’s probably not wanted all of the time. The XP Run Count Editor lists all tracked  applications giving the user the option to change the Run Count value of the application.

You can increase or decrease the Run Count of an application so that it appears on a specific position in the start menu. The highest value will of course appear on the top of the frequently accessed programs list while lower values appear at the bottom.

If you want to get rid of this feature completely you right-click the Start Menu and select Properties. The Customize button opens a new window where you can set the number of programs that will appear in the list. If you set that value to 0 no programs will be listed.

I used this way to start several applications after system start until I discovered that it is possible to start multiple applications from the start menu without that auto-closing feature.

If you press the SHIFT key while clicking on the start menu it will not close after launching an application. It will simply remain open which means that you can start as many applications as you want from the start menu. This is also nice if you want to delete several entries from the start menu.

Normally deleting an entry would also close the start menu which would mean that you have to open it five times if you want to delete five items. If you press SHIFT this is not happening. You may now delete all folders in the start menu without it being closed after each process.

The answer was a clear ‘no’. There is however a much better way than to simply ignore the startmenu. I’m talking about an application called JetStart which is a tiny utility which replaces the original startmenu with a cleaner better one. It looks more compact, displays the applications that you use the most plus adds several predefined folders like Internet that can be populated with shortcuts as well.

Jetstart offers another feature which is a fully customizable floating toolbar that allows you to access all categories and launch favorite programs quickly. The main program window let’s you not only quickly search for and launch programs but also uninstall them. It is also possible to import items from the original start menu.

The default commands open Word, let you search Google, Yahoo, Live Search and IMDB, use Sudo application to start the application with admin rights and search Wikipedia and Dictionary.com. Using the command “y spyware spam fighting” would open search results from the Yahoo search for that query in your default browser. Everything described until now have been so called Command Startlets. Start++ has another feature which is called Search Startlets. The commands play, playartist and playalbum followed by the name of an artist search your hard drives for that name and play the songs, videos or albums automatically. Play Who by Fire for instance would search for the Song Who by Fire from Leonard Cohen and play it if found on the system.

The biggest advantage of Start++ is of course that every user may add commands to Start++ that aid him in working with Windows Vista. You can add new commands and search startlets. New commands could open applications with a simple shortcut. Let me give an example of how that would work.

I will add a command to launch notepad from the search box. I click on New in the list of commands and type !note as the shortcut. Name can be anything that you like so Notepad would be good to be able to identify what the command is doing. The command itself is simply notepad.exe

Once Saved I can start Notepad by typing in !note in the search box of the start menu. You sometimes have to add the full path to an application but that is the only thing that might differ.

Adding Internet searches is a little bit more trickier. Lets add a command that searches eBay for the search string that we enter. We have to perform a search on eBay to see how eBay handles the parameters. Go to eBay.com and enter a search term, test for instance. Take a look at the url and search for test in there. We have to replace test with %+ in the command box from start++.

So, to add a eBay search we would create a new command, give it the shortcut e and the name eBay and add the following line to the command http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?satitle=%+&category0= Please note that I removed some of the options in the url to shorten the output on my blog. You can now search eBay for antivirus software using the command “e antivirus”. The same principle applies to many other sites such as Amazon, Digg and others.

I compiled a list for some popular web services on the next page, just copy the urls into the command box.

• Amazon
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Ebay
• Engadget
• Gizmodo
• Lifehacker
• Myspace
• Techcrunch
• Youtube

As you can see it is pretty easy to add your favorite site to start++.

Search Startlets use a slightly more complicated syntax. If you take a look at the play shortcut you notice the command kind:(music OR video) %* store:file ; Let me explain the variables here:

• kind: refers to the type of file that you want to play, in this case we have choose to include a OR statement which means that a search for music and video files is performed.
• %* means that all results are added to the playlist, %1 would mean that only the first and %n where n is a number would add that number to the playlist and play them.
• store:file – Well I can only guess here but i suppose that it defines that it should search for files only.

Start++ is a very nice application that added tremendous usability to Windows Vista. Can only recommend it to everyone who is running Vista.

You could probably live with the search function only which can find files as well and displays them in a list. Clicking the file would have the same effect as entering it in the run box. It can however take some time until the search finds the filename and the run box is just a little bit faster to work with. So, to add the run box to the start menu do the following:

• Right-click the taskbar and select Properties
• Click on the start menu tab and select customize
• Find the Run Command and select it
• Hit ok until you left every menu and are back in Windows
• The Run Box should be there immediately