Re: 'Pinning' items to Start Menu

How you deal with this issue is your business but I'll pass along how I've
handled it in past similar situations.

The first thing I do is to eliminate the area reserved for frequently used
programs. That can be done by right clicking the Start button, selecting
Properties from the menu, hitting the Customize button, and setting the entry
next to "Number of programs on Start menu" to 0. This gives me the maximum
amount of space on the left hand side of the Start menu for pinned items.

Next, I'll pin to the start menu the applications that I feel deserve quick
access. Finally, if there are any network resources that are accessed frequently
I'll add them by doing the following;

Open My Network Places and locate the shared folder you want pinned to the Start
menu.
Note: If the folder doesn't appear here, click on "Add a network place" in the
left hand column and browse to the network location manually.
Once you've got the shared folder available in My Network Places, click on
folder and drag it to the Start button. Release the mouse button and you should
now have an entry on the Start menu that points to this network resource.

Keep in mind that if there are a number of shared resources on your network My
Network Places can become cluttered quickly. To prevent this you can go to
Control Panel -> Folder Options -> View tab -> Uncheck Automatically search for
network folder and printers. With this setting disabled you will have to
manually create your network places.

Note: Here's an article that expands on how items can be pinned to the Start
menu. The registry edit that's mentioned in the article will apply to any item
in My Network Places

Courtesy of Ramesh Srininvasan, MS-MVP
How to add "Pin to Start menu" option for folders in Windows XP/Vista
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/pinfolder.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan


"Plegron" <plegron@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23tJh9FYPIHA.4476@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks Nepatsfan.

I'm not sure about the group policies. I'm the admin and I've never specified
that I wanted this feature disabled, but adding the registry value has enabled
the feature, so that's a great help.

Unfortunately, it appear that I can only 'Pin' local items which is a great
pity because most of the files I want quick access to are located elsewhere on
the LAN. I've tried adding shortcuts to the remote files in a local folder,
but this doesn't work either. Looks like the best I can do is pinning the new
local folder itself (which is not quite as logical or as immediate) or use
normal shortcuts on the Desktop (not what I wanted as I use my Desktop for
work in progress and stuff that's still to be filed properly).

To be honest, I think I'll probably revert to using the Classic menu and
forfeit some of the nice touches of the Start Menu in favour of the Classic's
superior customisation in this respect.

--

Plegron Snaith


"Nepatsfan" <nepatsfan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eGUL2vDPIHA.5184@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"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







.