Where is the StartMenu

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Moser
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael Moser

This Vista constantly trying to protect me from myself is driving me
nuts! In XP it was a snap to add a new Folder to the StartMenu. Not so
in Vista! Where *IS* this stupid folder?

And why can I not navigate certain Junctions? There is a
"StartMenu"-junction in my C:\Users\<me> folder, but when I double-click
it to open that folder I get an "Access Denied". It's me and I own this
darn box and I want to open my own StartMenu D*A*M*N*-*I*T*! Why
doesn't Vista let me? Not even asking permission to?

I am soon going to switch off this entire UAC weirdness! Or Vista
itself, for that matter!

Michael :-(
 
Michael,

I had the sam problem and Ronnie Vernon (MVP) sent me this.....

The All Users Start Menu folder is located at:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

The individual users Start Menu folder is located at:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

Hope this helps.

Bob
 
Easiest way: right-click on the Start button and select "Explore" to get to
your start menu or "Explore All Users" to get to the All Users start menu.
Then you can add folders, copy/move shortcuts etc as before, though you
still need multiple confirmatory mouse clicks each time you do something.
I'm waiting for the day when I fart and get a popup dialog asking if I
really want to.

The thing that really pisses me off about the start menu is that it's fixed
in height vertically. You don't have to install many apps before you start
having to scroll it to get to some items, and on my monitor it only occupies
about half the vertical screen height. Maybe someone at MS thinks that
800x600 is still the standard monitor size.

Nick
 
Hi, Nick.
The thing that really pisses me off about the start menu is that it's
fixed in height vertically.
Click to expand...

Right-click Start | Properties | Start Menu | Customize. Then under Start
menu size, change the Number of recent programs to display.

As I recall, the default is about 9. I can get up to 19 on my 1280 x 1024
screen. When I try 20, it uses the full height of my screen and pops up a
suggestion that I try a higher screen resolution. I've changed my setting
to 15, which is comfy for me.

Everything is limited by the size and resolution of the monitor screen, of
course, but - within those limits - the height of the Start Menu is
customizable and not fixed.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
Michael

If you are having problems with the new location of users folders in Vista,
the following procedure will create a text file on your desktop with a list
of all junction and symbolic link folder showing their location and the new
Vista location that they point to.

Go to Start and type: cmd.exe In the Results, right click cmd and
select the Run As Administrator option.

Type CD\ (Press Enter)

At C:\>

Type: dir /aL /s > c:\users\<username>\Desktop\JunctionPoints.txt

( Replace <username> with your User Name)

Press Enter.

This will place a text file on your desktop that contains all of the
Junction Points for every user on the system. This text file will show the
location of the old folder location in XP and the new location in Vista will
be shown in brackets.
 
Actually - instead of having to look up in a text file where a junction
is pointing to I would rather be able to *navigate* the junction.

This is the point I don't get: In XP (where I used junctions a lot to
give me short name access to deeply buried stuff) they behaved like a
"normal" directory, i.e. I could click on a Junction and - voilà - I was
*in* that directory. In Vista I get an "access denied" on all this
junctions.

In XP for Junctions I also got another Tab in Properties that would
spell out, where that Junctions was actually pointing to. Not so in
Vista.

Can one somehow allow/tell/force Vista to display such "secrets" to the
user and make these junctions behave reasonably?

Michael
 
Michael

Some experienced users may get very frustrated when they first start using
Windows Vista. All of the changes you are seeing in Vista are there for a
reason, not to keep information a 'secret'. One thing that you need to try
and avoid is tweaking things to make them work like they did in a previous
version of Windows, like XP.

These Junctions and Symbolic Links in Vista are there for one reason and one
reason only. If a legacy application is installed and is programmed with
hard coded paths that point to a location that is no longer available in
Vista, the reparse point will direct that program to the new, proper
location in Vista. These reparse points are not intended to perform any
other functions.

Experience has shown that permission changes can change the fundamental
behavior of the operating system, resulting in seemingly unrelated and
unexpected behavior in other components or programs. These changes can
affect security, application compatibility, stability, and reduce
functionality, performance, and capability. You can compare this to pulling
one of the bottom cards out of a house of cards. Further, you may not be
able to undo extensive permission changes that are propagated throughout the
registry and file system by simply reversing the action.

Some things you may see if extensive permission changes are made:
The failure of user accounts to function as expected.
Reduction in security.
Standard users ability to view the contents of other users content, even
administrators folders.
Performance problems such as long logon times or system slowdowns.
Application compatibility problems or application crashes.

These are situations where the only way to get back to the out-of-the-box
settings may be to reformat the hard drive and perform a reinstallation of
the operating system.

You can still use normal user created junctions the same way you did in XP.
 
I don't mind, if things are changed for a good reason. I actually
welcome that and I even agree that many things in Vista are now much
cleaner and better organized and more separated and that this will
certainly contribute to more safety.

Since I only know the old XP locations, yet (I'm sure I will soon know
all the new locations by heart...), I found it VERY frustrating that
there is no built-in *decent* and quick method to reveal the new
positions (having to start a shell and key in commands to find a
link-target - give me break. We are in click-adee-clix country! ;-) ).
So, after double-checking that it was tested with Vista as well I
installed HardLinkShellExt(ension) (see
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html) which
makes dealing with these Junctions a snap. And since it also adds a Link
Properties tab to Properties I am no longer blind-folded...

Michael
 
Michael

Thanks for the link to that program. It's very cool and I like the way it
replaces the arrow overlay with the small chain link icon on the junctions.
 
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