Windows 7 question

[Judy G. Russell]

Okay... I have a netbook with Windows 7 starter. The Start Menu is driving me bonkers, because I can't see how to combine all the various programs into folders (or whatever windows calls them) so as to present a more streamlined and hierarchical view. What am I missing here? Is there a "read this, dummy" website someone can point me to? Thanks!

[davidh]

Okay... I have a netbook with Windows 7 starter. The Start Menu is driving me bonkers, because I can't see how to combine all the various programs into folders (or whatever windows calls them) so as to present a more streamlined and hierarchical view. What am I missing here? Is there a "read this, dummy" website someone can point me to? Thanks!I don't know Win 7. I know a little Vista.

Did you try right click on the start button then click 'Explore' to put yourself into Windows Explorer in the Start folder so that you can make up your own folders of shortcuts the old fashioned way? That should work in almost any version of windows from Win 95 up, I hope.

Did you try starting to type the first character of a mfg name, product name, program name in the 'search' box?
I think if you type the name of an EXE in the search box and hit ENTER it will run the program just like the RUN facility used to do in earlier versions of windows.

Probably you could make folders on the desktop and fill with docs and/or shortcuts and then drag and drop the folders into the start menu (as if it were not already crowded enough).

If all your file associations are complete you shouldn't even need to know the names or locations of the EXE's if you're only going to modify existing docs. I've never bothered with setting up additional templates to click to start new docs of various types.

There's probably a lot of features of Windows that I neglect or don't use in optimal or recommended ways. I started out programming on punch cards and paper tape on teletype :rolleyes:

I still miss TAPCIS :(

[davidh]

Probably you could make folders on the desktop and fill with docs and/or shortcuts and then drag and drop the folders into the start menu (as if it were not already crowded enough).
I would not recommend putting docs into folders to be put in the start menu.

I think the rule used to be that it's safer to put docs in subfolders of 'my documents' than in subfolders of desktop. But I often violate that 'rule' :o

[sidney]

Is there a "read this, dummy" website someone can point me to?

I have avoided Windows 7 so far, but I do see that Wikipedia has an article on the Start Menu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start_menu) that contains links to some programs that gives you back the classic XP Start Menu (in the paragraph on Windows 7 in the section titled Evolution of the Start Menu) and also has a section titled Technical Details that describes where the directory is that you use to customize the Windows 7 Start Menu if you do decide to stick with it.

[Judy G. Russell]

a section titled Technical Details that describes where the directory is that you use to customize the Windows 7 Start Menu if you do decide to stick with it.BINGO! That's what I needed, Sidney. Thanks. I'd have never found that directory on my own.

[Judy G. Russell]

I would not recommend putting docs into folders to be put in the start menu.I never put docs in the start menu at all, only programs. But I put them in groups -- all genealogy programs under a genealogy group, for example. Those groups are now hidden away in an odd location in Windows 7.

[davidh]

I never put docs in the start menu at all, only programs. But I put them in groups -- all genealogy programs under a genealogy group, for example. Those groups are now hidden away in an odd location in Windows 7.
I put most of my commonly used programs in folders on the desktop. For example, I put most of my multimedia players, rippers, burners, converters, etc. in a "multimedia" folder.
I suppose that might even be a carry over from the way I used to do things with Program Manager in Windows 3.1.
Among the programs in my XP start menu I have a couple programs that I'm likely to call up on the spur of the moment, e.g. Vietnamese keyboard input method editor, when I need all the special diacritical marks and tones to search for some VN words in my browser, or Windows Explorer, or my multiprotocol instant messenger program Pidgin.

I thought these online videos about Win 7 were interesting:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help

They show how to take advantage of the new features of the Win 7 UI.

[Judy G. Russell]

I put most of my commonly used programs in folders on the desktop.Not me. I want my desktop clean. Always have.