Windows 7 Increasing Start Menu Size (w/o displaying recently opened programs)

[VicVicVic]

Hello,

I'd like to make my Start Menu bigger (increase its height, to be specific). I've seen someone post a screenshot here: Link Removed - Invalid URL Unfortunately, he didn't talk about how to achieve this.

I know that I can go into the Start Menu and Taskbar Properties menu > Customize > Start menu size and then and increase the number of recent programs to display, however, I really do not like to display recently opened programs (sorry to seem difficult). Is there any way to make the start menu size bigger without displaying recently opened programs?

Thank you,
Vic

 

[gavin19]

The picture looks like it's been achieved using the method we already know about, increasing the number of recently opened items/programs, it's just that it's probably a newish install with only a few used apps. If you don't want the menu to be populated by recently opened programs then just fill it up with other applications that you 'pin'. If you fill the list with pinned applications up to the desired height then that will work. Why would you want to have the menu taller and then leave the programs list blank? I understand why you may want to make the menu itself taller but does the programs list have to be blank?

The closest I can think of is to make a load of shortcuts, rename them to '.' or some other single character, and then change the icon to a blank/white ico, then pin that to the start menu. Repeat until desired height is achieved! Although then you would have a string of dots or dashes or whatever running up the menu. Something like bullet points would look ok I suppose.

 

[VicVicVic]

First off, the idea of the shortcuts with dots in them is really creative, but like you said, it's a bit weird (it gave me a smile though!).

To answer your question about blank space, that isn't actually what I'm trying to achieve. Basically, my All Programs menu of the Start Menu is much larger and longer than the main section of the Start Menu (the part that is displayed right when you click on the Start Menu Windows orb). In other words, I have a lot more programs in the All Programs list than what I have pinned. Ideally, I would like to see all the programs in the All Programs list as soon as I click on the All Programs link/button, instead of having to scroll down the list. This is why I'd like to increase the size of the Start Menu.

As you can see, I'm trying other things as well that is related to this issue I have, including Link Removed. I was thinking if that I could pin some folders to the Start Menu, then I can move it out of the All Programs list and balance the two lists.

I hope this all made sense. Side note: what would you call the list of programs that show up when you first click on the Start Menu?

Thanks,
Vic

 

[gavin19]

I hope this all made sense. Side note: what would you call the list of programs that show up when you first click on the Start Menu?

Thanks,
Vic

Yes it makes sense now thanks. Well I don't think there is an official name for it as such, I just classed it as another kind of 'Quick Launch' as it worked in pretty much the same way. I hate anything on my desktop but since I only really use maybe 10-11 programs regularly I just have them pinned to the taskbar. Others which I would use maybe weekly or monthly I would pin to the Start Menu. I would very rarely use the 'All Programs' list to be honest. I have 11 apps pinned to the taskbar and a further 13 to the Start menu, that's plenty for me, but I can see now what you are trying to achieve. The only other alternative would be to manually pin all of the apps from 'All Programs' to the main Start menu so that, in effect, it would be like 'All Programs' showing up when you click on Start. It would take a few minutes but it's the only thing I can think of for now.

 

[VicVicVic]

Thanks for all the input and suggestions, Gavin.

After hours of tinkering with the Start Menu, I believe I finally arrived at a perfect solution to my issue!

I wrote a quick tutorial to describe what I did. I've tried this method on two different computers running Windows 7 and was able to duplicate the results over and over.

Link Removed

Let me know what you think, if possible,
Vic