Alphabetize start menu items

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken K
  • Start date Start date
K

Ken K

It seems to be that the statrt items are sorted within their separate
profiles, which is to say all of the programs under administrator are
sorted, then those under All Users, then those of other users, etc.

Is there some way to combine all of the programs so that they appear in
alphabetical order? I have so many programs that I have to scroll
through a couple of pages to find some of the programs I use only rarely
and it is a PITA.

Thanks
Ken K
 
You should not see those of other users. Only those of;

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\

%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\

Try Start|Programs then right-click somewhere in the menu and choose 'Sort
by Name'


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| It seems to be that the statrt items are sorted within their separate
| profiles, which is to say all of the programs under administrator are
| sorted, then those under All Users, then those of other users, etc.
|
| Is there some way to combine all of the programs so that they appear in
| alphabetical order? I have so many programs that I have to scroll
| through a couple of pages to find some of the programs I use only rarely
| and it is a PITA.
|
| Thanks
| Ken K
 
Dave said:
You should not see those of other users. Only those of;

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\

%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\

Try Start|Programs then right-click somewhere in the menu and choose 'Sort
by Name'
Click to expand...
Thanks. That helped, but I now have two lists, each alphabetized.

I am actually the only account on the computer except for
administrator. I always sign in administrator but somehow I have the
two lists and I am not clear how they became separated. For example,
the first list has programs like Accessories, Acronis, Image Burn,
Microsoft Office 2003, Roxio, Scansoft, Zonelabs plus others, and the
list that follows has all of my Adobe programs, Internet Explorer,
Symantec, and Windows Media Player plus others.

How would I go about combining the two lists so that the programs are
just one alphabetized list?

Thanks
Ken K
 
You could cut the shortcuts from;
%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\

and paste them in;
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Thanks. That helped, but I now have two lists, each alphabetized.
|
| I am actually the only account on the computer except for
| administrator. I always sign in administrator but somehow I have the
| two lists and I am not clear how they became separated. For example,
| the first list has programs like Accessories, Acronis, Image Burn,
| Microsoft Office 2003, Roxio, Scansoft, Zonelabs plus others, and the
| list that follows has all of my Adobe programs, Internet Explorer,
| Symantec, and Windows Media Player plus others.
|
| How would I go about combining the two lists so that the programs are
| just one alphabetized list?
|
| Thanks
| Ken K
|
|
|
| >
| >
 
Dave said:
You could cut the shortcuts from;
%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\

and paste them in;
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\
Click to expand...
Dave,

I did as you proposed and it worked fairly well. Below the long
alphabetized list there is still a list of 26 programs, about 8 of which
are Adobe programs, others like WinDirStat, Windows Media Player, Real
Player, PCAnywhere, Microsoft Frontpage, PerfectDisk, LogMeIn, Windows
Defender, and My Bluetooth Places. I have looked in Administrator, All
Users, Default User, Guest, and Ken profiles under Documents and
Settings, but I can't find the shortcuts. Any idea where they might be
hiding?

Thanks
Ken K
 
Right-click on them in the start menu and choose
Properties|General|Location:

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Dave,
|
| I did as you proposed and it worked fairly well. Below the long
| alphabetized list there is still a list of 26 programs, about 8 of which
| are Adobe programs, others like WinDirStat, Windows Media Player, Real
| Player, PCAnywhere, Microsoft Frontpage, PerfectDisk, LogMeIn, Windows
| Defender, and My Bluetooth Places. I have looked in Administrator, All
| Users, Default User, Guest, and Ken profiles under Documents and
| Settings, but I can't find the shortcuts. Any idea where they might be
| hiding?
|
| Thanks
| Ken K
 
Dave said:
Right-click on them in the start menu and choose
Properties|General|Location:
Click to expand...
Yes, so one would think!!! For example, I had clicked on Adobe
Photoshop 6.0 and the target is C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Start Menu\Programs. So I went to that spot and the only Adobe
reference is to Adobe Download Manager, obviously not the correct
reference...

Ah-hah! I think I have just discovered something. When I opened the
start, Program adn right-clicked, it opened a window that is entitled
Programs and there is a list of all of the contents of the Programs
menu. Now I can see that the first alphabetized list is of FOLDERS and
the next 23 are SHORTCUTS. Hopes shattered... I did just that--made
folders that should have fit into the alphabetical scheme, and, in fact,
they do in the Programs folder but when Start Programs is launched, it
didn't work. There were still a few folders which were out of sync...
Then I found the answer: I dragged the out of synch folders to where
they should have been in the Start, Programs list and that did it. So
there must be come registry that logs where they should be placed..

So all's well that ends well..

Thanks
Ken K
 
If you mean by "out of sync" in another folder then that should have put
them at another level in the programs menu.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Yes, so one would think!!! For example, I had clicked on Adobe
| Photoshop 6.0 and the target is C:\Documents and Settings\All
| Users\Start Menu\Programs. So I went to that spot and the only Adobe
| reference is to Adobe Download Manager, obviously not the correct
| reference...
|
| Ah-hah! I think I have just discovered something. When I opened the
| start, Program adn right-clicked, it opened a window that is entitled
| Programs and there is a list of all of the contents of the Programs
| menu. Now I can see that the first alphabetized list is of FOLDERS and
| the next 23 are SHORTCUTS. Hopes shattered... I did just that--made
| folders that should have fit into the alphabetical scheme, and, in fact,
| they do in the Programs folder but when Start Programs is launched, it
| didn't work. There were still a few folders which were out of sync...
| Then I found the answer: I dragged the out of synch folders to where
| they should have been in the Start, Programs list and that did it. So
| there must be come registry that logs where they should be placed..
|
| So all's well that ends well..
|
| Thanks
| Ken K
 
Dave said:
If you mean by "out of sync" in another folder then that should have put
them at another level in the programs menu.
Click to expand...
I should have said not alphabetized instead of out of sync. They are now
all alphabetized; it was interesting that I had to do it manually, but
whatever... it is now all A->Z
 
Glad to hear it's sorted. (no pun intended)

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| I should have said not alphabetized instead of out of sync. They are now
| all alphabetized; it was interesting that I had to do it manually, but
| whatever... it is now all A->Z
 
To get the listing alphabetized in the future, simply right-click on any item
and then select "Sort by Name".

| Dave Patrick wrote:
| > If you mean by "out of sync" in another folder then that should have put
| > them at another level in the programs menu.
| >
| >
| I should have said not alphabetized instead of out of sync. They are now
| all alphabetized; it was interesting that I had to do it manually, but
| whatever... it is now all A->Z
 
David said:
To get the listing alphabetized in the future, simply right-click on any item
and then select "Sort by Name".

| Dave Patrick wrote:
| > If you mean by "out of sync" in another folder then that should have put
| > them at another level in the programs menu.
| >
| >
| I should have said not alphabetized instead of out of sync. They are now
| all alphabetized; it was interesting that I had to do it manually, but
| whatever... it is now all A->Z
Click to expand...
That is what is so curious. I did just that and it did not sort
properly until I did it manually. Go figure...

Thanks
Ken K
 
You didn't mention doing that in any of your previous postings (but maybe I
missed that), but if you had inadvertently sorted a subfolder, the sort is
restricted to that folder. It will not sort the top or main folder listing. The
opposite is also true, i.e., sorting the top or main folder listing does not
sort the content of any of its subfolders.

| David Webb wrote:
| > To get the listing alphabetized in the future, simply right-click on any
item
| > and then select "Sort by Name".
| >
| > | > | Dave Patrick wrote:
| > | > If you mean by "out of sync" in another folder then that should have put
| > | > them at another level in the programs menu.
| > | >
| > | >
| > | I should have said not alphabetized instead of out of sync. They are now
| > | all alphabetized; it was interesting that I had to do it manually, but
| > | whatever... it is now all A->Z
| >
| That is what is so curious. I did just that and it did not sort
| properly until I did it manually. Go figure...
|
| Thanks
| Ken K
 
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