Readers Questions.
IF01685
Q.
I have WIN XP. In earlier versions of windows, I could make a (I guess program
group is the right name) program group, for instance "printing and graphics",
then I could put all my programs that pertained to printing and graphics into
that group. Then when I pushed start / programs I would have to select "printing
and graphics" to access say, Print Shop. All printing and graphics programs were
in that group. I cannot find how to do that in XP. Now when I press "start" then
"all programs" there are so many programs listed, that they will all not display
on my screen. I hope this makes sense to you. Can you tell me how to make these
groups? Thank you.
A.
I am the same way. I have a created a few groups such as Microsoft, Utilities,
and Rarely Used. To create the groups you have to create a new folder in the
Start menu's directory structure.
Right-click on the
Start button and select the "Explore All Users" (in some
circumstances, the option may be just "Explore"). If you want your groups to be
seen only by you and not by any other users that may log onto your machine, then
use the Windows Explorer window that pops up to find the "C:\Documents and
Settings\user\Start Menu" directory (where "user" is the user id you use to log
into Windows). If you don't care whether other users see your groups or not,
then just use the directory that is opened with the
Windows Explorer window.
Go into the "Programs" directory under the "Start Menu" directory. Within this
directory create as many new folders as you need and name each one after one of
your desired groups. Once you have created each of your groups, move all the
directories within the "Start Menu\Programs" directory into the desired group
folders that you just created. Don't worry if you do not see all of the
programs that are on the Start Menu, some are in other directories. Now, bring
up the Start Menu and select the "All Programs" option. If there are still
directories that need to be added to the various groups, then click on their
icons and drag them into the groups (you may need to hover the mouse of the
group for a few seconds to have them open up). Don't worry about getting the
items in alphabetical order, you can do this for each group by right clicking
anywhere within that group on the Start Menu and selecting the "Sort By Name"
option.
Let me know if you need anything else.
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