Is there a way to make Vista Startmenu look like XP?

By :No-Frost:
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Experienced

:No-Frost:

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install xp ?

I'm already using XP... But my question is because some day I will need to install Vista (thinking in a couple of years from now), for the directx 10 and stuff... But I've always had this question in my head...

So, it's possible to make it???

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Plarkster

Posted
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There's a thread about the Vista start menu already here.

Basically you can either use the Classic menu or install this app: Vista Start Menu.

You can probably get the common tasks in folders down the side by using a theme but there aren't too many out yet.

Grand Master

Roger H. Veteran

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i'm always wondering why people go back to the Windows 2000 way of doing things? The XP menu (recently used list) is pretty good when compared to branching off tons and tons of pop-out menus. The Vista one improved upon that so much that i can't even imagine going back to the XP one. That's like time traveling to the time when your parents were having sex to conceive you. EEEEEWWWWWW LOL

Grand Master

Ironman273

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People don't like change, even when it's better from them. Use the Vista startmenu for a while and you'll probably see why it's designed the way it is. Its usability is much greater than XP. At work I hate not having the search box when starting a program in XP.

  • 3 weeks later...
Experienced

:No-Frost:

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I was using vista for 2 month before I switched back to XP... I really didn't like it the way the startmenu behaves, so as the organization of the windows (with the right panel from xp to the upside pannel in vista)... Well, I believe that I had to get use to it...

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BajiRav

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i'm always wondering why people go back to the Windows 2000 way of doing things? The XP menu (recently used list) is pretty good when compared to branching off tons and tons of pop-out menus. The Vista one improved upon that so much that i can't even imagine going back to the XP one. That's like time traveling to the time when your parents were having sex to conceive you. EEEEEWWWWWW LOL

Man, I get irritated a lot when I have to use someone's PC at work and they are still stuck in the 90s with the classic start menu. :pinch: Why can't people accept change (especially when it improves productivity).

Usual scenario:

I want to do something in my comp/doc etc

on XP/vista -- two clicks (or winkey + search)

old menu -- minimize all windows > look through desktop clutter ( :x ) > find my comp/doc etc.

:wacko:

Grand Master

Titoist

Posted
Posted
Man, I get irritated a lot when I have to use someone's PC at work and they are still stuck in the 90s with the classic start menu. :pinch: Why can't people accept change (especially when it improves productivity).

Usual scenario:

I want to do something in my comp/doc etc

on XP/vista -- two clicks (or winkey + search)

old menu -- minimize all windows > look through desktop clutter ( :x ) > find my comp/doc etc.

:wacko:

yeah... and for some reason they expect new OS's to work the same as older OS's... like many of my friends complain that they will never go to Vista cause it "wastes" RAM... even though thats what Superfetch is and uses RAM in a efficient manner.. but they still cant get it through there heads... to them, the more free ram there is the better.

Grand Master

Joel

Posted
Posted
Man, I get irritated a lot when I have to use someone's PC at work and they are still stuck in the 90s with the classic start menu. :pinch: Why can't people accept change (especially when it improves productivity).

Usual scenario:

I want to do something in my comp/doc etc

on XP/vista -- two clicks (or winkey + search)

old menu -- minimize all windows > look through desktop clutter ( :x ) > find my comp/doc etc.

:wacko:

Learn the Winkey shortcuts and you'll never hunt again.

Winkey + E for Explorer, Winkey +R for Run, Winkey + D to minimise all, etc. Even just those 3 make it easier to deal with the inconsistencies of other PCs.

Veteran

betasp

Posted
Posted
Man, I get irritated a lot when I have to use someone's PC at work and they are still stuck in the 90s with the classic start menu. :pinch: Why can't people accept change (especially when it improves productivity).

Usual scenario:

I want to do something in my comp/doc etc

on XP/vista -- two clicks (or winkey + search)

old menu -- minimize all windows > look through desktop clutter ( :x ) > find my comp/doc etc.

:wacko:

Do you have any references that the new start menu improves productivity?

Grand Master

zhangm Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
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Well, I can just think about it and see if anything I come up with makes sense.

First of all, the Start Menu is an (almost) always on top element, and you'd ideally like it to be as unobtrusive as possible. Flyout menus are fine up to a point, but if you've ever serviced Joe Average's Windows XP computer, you've probably seen a three-layer flyout menu that covers the entire desktop. Not good for file operations, like dragging and dropping items from the menu onto other interface elements.

Most people have the taskbar placed on the bottom. When you click the orb, your mouse pointer is already placed nearest the most used items: Search bar, All Programs button, the Shutdown menu, and the most used programs, and most heavily used locations on the side. You don't have a changing interface now when you click the All Programs button - no new elements appear like the flyout menus. Instead, the Start Menu changes its contents, which should seem intuitive, since it behaves in exactly the same way as any file or web browser, and you get the list of all programs/folders. Its just minimizing mouse movements and trying to adapt the flyout menus to a world where people typically have over a hundred programs installed on their machines. Really, they probably should have done this with XP.

Personally, I think the All Programs menu is next to useless. Organization is becoming something done on the fly. I almost always just use the Search Bar to bring up whatever I'm interested in. Its fast, clean, and doesn't require any movement of the mouse. Just winkey and type in the first couple letters...

I do however hate the scrollbar under All Programs. They could make things a bit cleaner by making the All Programs contents scroll with vertical movements of the mouse, much like the OS X dock, and ditch the scrollbar entirely. Move upwards when hovering over the menu, and have the items slide quickly under the mouse.

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted
Learn the Winkey shortcuts and you'll never hunt again.

Winkey + E for Explorer, Winkey +R for Run, Winkey + D to minimise all, etc. Even just those 3 make it easier to deal with the inconsistencies of other PCs.

Yea I do that a lot. But it is still a pain when people have a billion desktop icons.

Do you have any references that the new start menu improves productivity?

I don't think any reference is needed. Try it yourself with the scenario I described. XP start menu will be guaranteed faster for not only accessing shell folders but also launching recently used apps.

Grand Master

Linkinfamous

Posted
Posted
Source?

It's difficult to even get the mouse down to the bottom left of the screen and click as fast as I can open an app by tapping win + the first three letters of its name and hitting enter.

Seriously, just look at the menu for the source. Which is faster, hitting 5 keys on the keyboard, which i can do quite quickly, or going through menus?

Grand Master

Colin-uk Veteran

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  • Veteran
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I use the keyboard for accessing the programs in the start menu, it would probably take longer for me to click into the search box and type what i wanted to launch rather than tapping the windows key and up arrow a few times.

also sometimes i can only remember the icon for the program i want to launch (sometimes cant remmber the name).

Contributor

steven s.

Posted
Posted
Winkey + D to minimise all

wow. weird. i always used winkey + M (M for minimize?) Wonder what D stands for

Source?

I don't really understand why you would ask this. Think about the programs that branch off so you have

All Programs > Lavasoft > Adaware

or of course

All Programs > Accessories > System tools > Disk defrag

Vista lets you type just DISK DEFRAG or actually go through the menus if you want.

If you really think moving your mouse and scrolling through a list of programs (and if you are arguing you use too many programs for Vista's most frequently used list to be too small, then obviously you have a lot of programs in All Programs) is faster, then you must be a very slow typer.

The all programs isn't THAT much different. If you were a person who spent time organizing the all programs menu, then the search is +1 for you.

I use the keyboard for accessing the programs in the start menu, it would probably take longer for me to click into the search box and type what i wanted to launch rather than tapping the windows key and up arrow a few times.

also sometimes i can only remember the icon for the program i want to launch (sometimes cant remmber the name).

If you just click on the start menu or use the winkey, search is already focused, so you don't have to click it.

And what you are saying combines both parts of the vista menu; the fact if you do remember the program name, and the fact that you can have icons in your most recently used programs.

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