Re: 'Pinning' items to Start Menu

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"Plegron" <plegron@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O6NRq2%23OIHA.2208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Some installations of XP allow the user to add links to the Start Menu as
shortcuts to (some) programs, files and folders.

I'm talking about the area of the Start Menu on the left above the list of
recently opened programs and below the user's log on name. It's separated
from the list of recently opened programs by a division rule, but only seems
to appear on some flavours of XP. I have it on my laptop that's running XP
Home and used to have it on earlier work PCs, but my current work PCs,
recently built and running XP pro installed from a recent Action Pack CD,
don't have it.

Why is this? Is it to do with the fact that the work PC are part client
machines that have been added to a domain or because we're using roaming
profiles?

I have no need for the list of recently opened programs on the Start Menu as I
have added shortcuts to all main programs on the Quick Launch area, so having
the ability to access frequently opened files and folders from this part of
the Start Menu his is an extremely useful feature. I have found very little
information on how to enable and use this feature and nothing detailing it's
behaviour which I have learned something about from trial and error.

Is there any way to enable this feature where it doesn't appear to be enabled?

Where can I find some more documentation about this feature and how it works?

There appears to be no equivalent in Vista which I find rather surprising
given the huge amount of work MS has recently undertaken in the area of the
Windows GUI. I know the new search feature is great for quick access to a
very wide range of documents and programs, but for stuff you need regular
access to, it's hard to beat just hitting the Start button and selecting it
straight off a short hotlist.

--

Plegron Snaith




This is a question you should be asking the people who administer your work
computers. There's a group policy setting that when enabled will turn off this
feature. If it's set through the Local Security Policy on Windows XP Pro
(Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc) it creates the following registry entry and gives
it a value of 1.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoStartMenuPinnedList

It's possible that the machines that don't have this feature are members of an
Organizational Unit within your Active Directory Domain and there's a domain
policy in place that removes this feature from the Start menu.

For more info on this subject, take a look at these articles.

Policy settings for the Start menu in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292504/en-us

Remove Pinned Programs List from the Start Menu
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1036/

Good luck

Nepatsfan


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