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Donna Ohl, Grady Volunteer Coordinator
Hi Ron May,
Thank you very much for helping to answer the question posed!
I think it worked. Time will tell if there are any issues.
Here is what I did for others to try should they be not afraid to move the
menus out of the Documents and Settings clutter into a location of their
choosing.
0. Decide where you wish to store your customized menus:
Start -> Run -> cmd <Return>
c:\> mkdir c:\data\My Menus ... ooops... Windows is stupid when it comes to
spaces.... try this instead of forever surrounding commands with quotes
c:\> mkdir c:\data\menus
1. Copy existing personal well-organized menus (in this case, in "donna")
FROM:
C:\Documents and Settings\donna\Start Menu\My Menu
TO:
C:\data\menus\My Menu
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive "User Shell Folders" key:
Start -> Run -> Regedit
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Notice the set of values of type REG_EXPAND_SZ:
Common AppData = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data
Common Desktop = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop
Common Documents = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Documents
Common Favorites = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Favorites
Common Programs = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs
Common Start Menu = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu
Common Startup = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Common Templates = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Templates
3. Change the "Common Start Menu"
FROM:
Common Start Menu = %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu
TO:
Common Start Menu = c:\data\menus
4. Voila!
Reboot Windows XP and now your personalized menus are stored where you
want them. Make sure the menus reflect EXACTLY the hierarchy you use for
your programs and for your application-data directory, e.g.,
archivers, browsers, calendars, digitizers, editors, financials, games,
hardware, internet, etc.
Thanks go to Ron May & Franklin for this wonderful easy-to-follow tutorial!
Donna