Windows Me Annoyances

Making Windows Your Own

The toolbars in applications, the icons on the Windows desktop, the various splash screens that appear, and the entries in the Start Menu are all designed to appear a certain way when first installed. Unfortunately, the criteria used to make those decisions are often based more on showcasing various aspects of the software than on actually making the application easier to use. So, why settle for the defaults?

Much of the rest of this chapter falls loosely under the category of customizing, but the following topics specifically deal with changing the defaults to make Windows easier to live with.

Tweaking the Start Menu Button

As is Microsoft’s intention, the Start Menu is the starting point for most tasks in Windows Me. It would seem reasonable, then, that one not only should be able to customize this menu with the most commonly used features, but also should be able to rid the Start Menu of the items that aren’t used.

Now, if you didn’t already know it, you can add, remove, and rearrange most of the items in your Start Menu by dragging and dropping (see Section 2.3.3 in Chapter 2 for more information). You can also sort any single menu alphabetically by right-clicking on any entry in the menu and selecting Sort by Name. However, there are certain intrinsic, unmovable entries, such as the Documents and Favorites menus, that not only get in the way if they’re not used, but can make it easier for “prying eyes” to do their prying.

A new feature in Windows Me ...