Neowin member and Microsoft Windows Search developer Brandon Live, aka Brandon Paddock, has been kind enough to publically release his own unofficial tool for Windows Vista. Start++ is an enhancement for the Start Menu in Windows Vista. It also extends the Run box and the command-line with customizable commands. For example, typing "w Windows Vista" will take you to the Windows Vista page on Wikipedia!
Changelog:
- Users can now install or create custom Start Gadgets which wrap web pages and services, including many iPhone apps that happen to fit quite well in the Start Menu.
- The mechanism by which the Start Menu is hooked has been rewritten. It should no longer be possible for it to "lose track" of the Start Menu.
- Start++ no longer uses Automation/Accessibility APIs for anything, so no longer will provoke non-hotfixed versions of IE 7 to crash (due to an IE 7 bug).
- Fixed many potential memory / resource leaks.
- New UI for building basic Start Gadgets, which can be shared on BrandonTools.com just like any other Startlets.
- Scroll up and down within a Start Gadget using either Control+Up / Control+Down or PageUp / PageDown (without taking focus out of the search bo
- Fixed a crash when using the context menu of the Start Gadget browser window
- Added some additional Gadget properties for Gadget authors, largely targetted at Twitter support:
- The user can now specify a username / password which will be used for HTTP Basic Authentication when connecting to the server. The password is saved on the disk in an AES encrypted format.
- OnActivate and OnSubmit now support providing HTTP POST parameters.
- When exporting a Gadget, the username and password fields will be blanked out.
This is BETA software!, please use caution when installing it on your system
Download: Start++ 0.7.2 Beta (Freeware)
Screenshot: >> Click here <<
Link: Home Page | Forum Discussion
Microsoft should develop a tool to transform that useless thing into a true Win95/98/ME/2k/XP/2k3 menu.
Microsoft should develop a tool to transform that useless thing into a true Win95/98/ME/2k/XP/2k3 menu.
Have you never used Vista or something?
It works fine as the Win95/98/Me/2000 Start Menu.
It's the Windows XP/2003 Start Menu that it doesn't work like.
Microsoft should develop a tool to transform that useless thing into a true Win95/98/ME/2k/XP/2k3 menu.
Ok, Mr. Blanket Statement, would you please enlighten us as to why the Vista start menu is so damn useless compared to the oh-so-feature rich Win95 one? Do you need a Vista for Dummies book? Never heard of the CLASSIC start menu which... surprise, surprise - works just like in Win95/98/ME/2k/XP/2k3?
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