AdventuresInVista » The All New Start Menu

The All New Start Menu
20 February 2007 in General & Screens + Vids | Comments enabled

Windows Vista has an all new Start Menu. Well, almost new. It certainly looks a lot cooler (like most things in Vista it’s semi-transparent), but it also works differently, too.

The all-new Vista Start Menu

The first you’ll notice is that MS have finally got rid of the stupid My prefix, so on the right hand side you now have “Computer”, “Documents”, etc. Far more sensible if you ask me. I never could quite work out why my my computer was talking to me as though it was my head?

As well as all the old right-hand side items, we now have a “Default Programs” item. This is quite a useful feature (I’ll cover it in more depth later), but in essence it allows you to change things like the default program used when you double click on a file, what happens when you insert a CD, etc.

The left hand column is again taken up with your Frequently Used Programs, and the good news is you can have a lot more now.

All Programs now opens in the left column with a scrollable list within the Start Menu, with a Back link to return to your Frequently Used list. This new system takes a bit of getting used to, and to be honest I find it easier to use the ‘Start Search’ facility. Click the Windows logo, and start typing. It searches everything… programs, documents, links, favourites.

Is it an improvement? Well, I think so. Let me know what you think in the comments.