Windows 7 Classic vs. New Start Menu

And an extreme close-up.

I can't read any information on my "preview"

The I hate both option in the poll

Would that mean the person hating both just never started any version of windows ? Or started but just hated to start

I miss in this poll the option: "I like both" or "I would like both"

unawave said:

I miss in this poll the option: "I like both" or "I would like both"

Click to expand...

Good point

Windows 7 Classic Start Menu - My Solution...

CSMenu

To find out more about and to download CSMenu, please go to http://www.csmenu.com

For any bugs, comments, criticism or suggestions, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/csmenu.

Thanks.

Version 0.2

EDIT: 20/10/09 Go to http://www.csmenu.com for the latest version.

Ok so I've had more time than I thought I would, and here is the second release (0.2).

=====================
Version 0.2 Changelog
=====================

* On the first menu, you can now have anything you want (although Shut Down is fixed at the bottom). Just create a new text file, save it as what you want the menu item to be called, and change the file extension to 'csm'. Also, you can put a number infront of the csm file, which determines the order of which the items are displayed on the main menu. Once all the numbers have been listed, it will revert to alphabetical order. For example - '1zzz.csm' and '2aaa.csm' will be displayed 'Zzz' and 'Aaa' (an automatic uppercase is added at the beginning).

* The selected item on the previous menu now remains selected. So if you are looking at programs > accessories, then both programs and accessories will be highlighted, aswell as whatever your mouse is hovering over.

* If you click the desktop when the menu is open, it will now close, like the real start menu would. However, this will only work on the primary desktop - if I click somewhere on my second monitor nothing happens.

* A 'Windows 7' text/image has been added to the main menu. No big deal, but just makes it look a bit more realistic

Feeedback, bugs, suggestions and comments all welcome! Thanks!

EDIT: Download deleted - This is an ancient version!

looks good, but I'd suggest you post this in this thread:

Link Removed

Thanks, but your link just brings me back to this thread. I'll try to find another thread with the same topic!

Thomas

Knowing me, i probably copied the wrong link.

Try this one :

Link Removed

thomasw234 said:

You can have multiple folders, just add a comma between the folders, eg: \"C:\bob,C:\fred\" would display the contents of both folders on the same menu.

Click to expand...

1. This doesn't work.
Example: The programs menu is build from these two folders:
C:\Users\[User name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
When I add these two folder in "1programs.csm" (comma separated) I only get the menu from the first folder (I have changed the order position).

2. Arrow of shortcut symbols
Can you hide the small arrow of the menu links ? There exists some registry hacks to disable ALL small arrows in shortcuts:
Link Removed - Invalid URL
Link Removed - Invalid URL
But I like these small shortcut arrows on desktop shortcuts to show me what desktop symbol is a shortcut and what desktop symbol is a program. So I don’t want to disable the small arrows generally. So: Is it possible to disable the small arrows only for the menu links ?

Next thing perhaps you can't see:
3. In every language localization there exists in nearly every windows folder a file "desktop.ini" with attribute "hidden". This file is responsible for the translation of the folder name to the corresponding language.
When I have enabled "show hidden files" in Windows Explorer - then in all of your menus the file "desktop.ini" appears. Please: Suppress the appearance of this file generally - even if "show hidden files" is enabled.

4. The complete language localization is not implemented
So I see only the English names of folder and shortcuts.

German example of "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\desktop.ini"
---------------------------------------------------------
[LocalizedFileNames]
Memory Diagnostics Tool.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\MdSched.exe,-4001
System Configuration.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\msconfig.exe,-126
Performance Monitor.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\wdc.dll,-10021
Data Sources (ODBC).lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\odbcint.dll,-1310
Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\System32\AuthFWGP.dll,-20
services.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\filemgmt.dll,-2204
Computer Management.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\mycomput.dll,-300
iSCSI Initiator.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\iscsicpl.dll,-5001
Event Viewer.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\miguiresource.dll,-101
Task Scheduler.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\miguiresource.dll,-201
Component Services.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\comres.dll,-3410
Print Management.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\pmcsnap.dll,-700
Security Configuration Management.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\wsecedit.dll,-718

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21762
---------------------------------------------------------

This means:
[.ShellClassInfo]
For German language the name of the folder "Administrative Tools" is translated to "Verwaltung" - which is stored in the file "%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll" at position "21762"

[LocalizedFileNames]
For German language the name of the shortcut "Computer Management" is translated to "Computerverwaltung" - which is stored in the file "%SystemRoot%\system32\mycomput.dll" at resource position "300"

So your program should do this:
---------------------------------------------------------
If "desktop.ini" exist then
Otherwise use folder name
---------------------------------------------------------
If file "desktop.ini" exist then
Otherwise use shortcut name as menu name

Ok thanks for the feedback. I can't reply to all your questions straight away because I'm at college at the moment, but just make sure you're running version 0.2, the problems with shortcut arrows and only a single folder was supposedly removed in 0.2, or it has been for me at least. I'll have a look this afternoon when I'm at home!

Thomas

thomasw234 said:

but just make sure you're running version 0.2

Click to expand...

Yes, I used version 0.2

5. Can I disable the "Shut Down" menu link? (I anyway always use Alt+F4)
I don’t like it because
• The message is in English "Are you sure you want to shut down?"
• And if I have open a not saved document the file is killed

Remark: In the command
C:\WINDOWS\System32\shutdown.exe -r -f -t 00 -d p:0:0
The parameter "f" is responsible for "not waiting" to save opened documents.

Perhaps it should change to:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\shutdown.exe -r -t 00 -d p:0:0

6. Configurable colours
Is it possible to have configurable colours - perhaps in an ini file? Colours for:
• Text colour
• Selected item text colour
• Menu Background
• Selected item area

unawave said:

1. This doesn't work.

Click to expand...

Ok, that's weird, I wasn't aware that Windows 7 had the start menu split into 2 folders. When I get my text file setup, it shows the contents of both folders, but one after the other (it doesn't merge the contents, so there are 2 folders called accessories). Please could you paste the contents of your programs.csm text file, so I can try and replicate it exactly.

2. Arrow of shortcut symbols

Click to expand...

This is also weird. On version 0.1 the icon was taken straight from the shortcut file, but on 0.2 I thought I'd solved it, by finding out the location of the file the link was pointing to, and getting the shortcut from that. If it's not too much trouble, could you get a screenshot please?

3. In every language localization there exists in nearly every windows folder a file "desktop.ini" with attribute "hidden"

Click to expand...

Yes I was aware of this file as it shows up on mine (en-UK as opposed to the standard en-US), I will prevent it from being displayed.

4. The complete language localization is not implemented
So I see only the English names of folder and shortcuts.

Click to expand...

Ok, I wasn't aware of that. It might take me a bit of time to get it sorted, but yes I should be able to have a go at that. Thanks for the info on how to do it!

5. Can I disable the "Shut Down" menu link? (I anyway always use Alt+F4)

Click to expand...

6. Configurable colours

Click to expand...

Yes in the next version I will add a setup dialog, which allows you to customize various settings.

Thankyou very much for all of your suggestions! It might be a while before I get chance to completely add all of these, as I have so many exams coming up. Or it might be tomorrow just depends on how much revision I do.

Thomas.

I remember a long time ago on the Registry Guide forums that removing the shortcut arrow can cause problems.

Here's the possibilities of what might happen when you remove the shortcut arrow:

Note : Please note that in some cases deactivating the arrow for *.LNK files might lead to duplicate items in the Explorer context menu, as in essence, removing the “IsShortcutâ€Â￾ effectively forces Windows to treat the shortcut as real hard file. In Windows 7, it may also cause error such as unable to pin shortcut to Taskbar or Start Menu.

Classic. And classic control panel view as well.

Excuse me - but forget point "2. Arrow of shortcut symbols". I can not see the shortcut arrows anymore. Neither in version 0.2 nor in version 0.1.

thomasw234 said:

Ok, that's weird, I wasn't aware that Windows 7 had the start menu split into 2 folders. When I get my text file setup, it shows the contents of both folders, but one after the other (it doesn't merge the contents, so there are 2 folders called accessories). Please could you paste the contents of your programs.csm text file, so I can try and replicate it exactly.

Click to expand...

That's correct and now I see that "Accessories" appears two times:
• One time with the content of the user menu
• One time with the content of "All user"
So: The file "programs.csm" works correct.

But it would be better, when the two menus of "Accessories" merged to one menu.
Also "Administrative Tools", "Maintenance" and "Startup" appear twice.

Content of "programs.csm":

How do you change to the Classic Start Menu?

Vista, there was an option when you'd right click the taskbar and go to Start Menu Properties. I am unable to find on this for some reason.

It's impossible unless you use 3rd party utilities.

the one above is the best one I've seen yet.

take a look at all the posts in this thread starting from the beginning.

Thank you so much for this! This looks amazing! Keep up the good work, you just brought a tear to my eye and gave me hope.

CSMenu Version 0.3

EDIT: 17/05/2009 - v0.4 is out now, see the post number 21 (page 3). The attached files in this post are out of date!

So here is the next version. I think it covers the stuff discussed previously. Once again, please let me know if there are any bugs, or you have any constructive criticism / suggestions.

Thanks, Thomas.

=====================
Version 0.3 Changelog
=====================

* Desktop.ini is now hidden by default

* A settings file with 25 different settings is used, so the program can be customized using the customization tool (including disabling the shut down option). Configuration tool is in English only!!

* Localization now sorted out.