Things You'll Need:
- Windows XP
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Step 1
You can move the taskbar to any side of the screen. Just close all your programs, put your mouse on the bar, press and hold down the mouse button, and drag it to the top, left, right, or bottom. If this doesn’t work, the menu bar is probably locked. See below to unlock.
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Step 2
You can adjust the thickness of the taskbar. Move your mouse to the long edge of the menu bar until you see the mouse change to the resize pointer. Press and hold down the mouse button and move your mouse to make the taskbar thicker or thinner. This is useful if you have a lot of programs open and you can’t tell what they are.
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Step 3
Now for the fun stuff. Right click anywhere in taskbar (or left click if you are left handed) where there is not an open program. A menu will pop up with all sorts of stuff. Most of the items are self evident. The cool one is “Show the desktop”. You can use this to instantly minimal all open windows and show the desktop.
If you click “Task Manager”, this will pop open the task manager which will show you the processes running, among other good stuff. -
Step 4
Right click (or left click if you are left handed) anywhere on the menu bar to pop up that menu. Click properties. This is where you can change the way the menu bar is displayed and what is displayed. Below is a summary of the items on the taskbar tab.
Check “Lock the taskbar” to prevent the taskbar from being moved or resized accidently.
Check “Auto-hide the taskbar” to hide it when it’s not in use. This gives you extra real estate on your screen when working in a program. To make the taskbar reappear, some keyboards have a windows button you can press. If not, just press and hold the Ctrl key then press the ESC (escape) key to make the taskbar reappear.
Check “Keep the taskbar on top of the other windows” to do just that. If the Auto-hide is checked, this really doesn’t do anything.
Check “Group similar task buttons” to save real estate on the taskbar if you have multiple documents open in the same software package, such as Excel or Word. Only one task button will appear for the software package instead of multiple ones.
Check “Show Quick Launch” to show the programs that installed themselves in the quick launch window. By default this is Internet Explorer and Show desktop. These will appear next to the start button.
Check “Show the clock” to show the clock.
Check “Hide inactive icons” to hide the icons on the right side of the taskbar that are not in use.
At anytime you can click the apply button to see what effects the options you selected or deselected does. -
Step 5
Click the Start tab on the top. This is where you can really customize how the start menu looks. You can have the normal XP look or the Classic Windows NT look. The normal XP look is bubbly while the Classic look is flat and square.
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Step 6
Be sure the Start Menu button is selected and click the Customize button to the right of it. You’ll see these items on the General tab.
You can select large or small icons, whatever your preference is.
A really good item to set is the Number of programs on the Start Menu. These items appear in the left hand column of the start menu. If you only have a few programs on your PC, just set this low. If you have a lot of programs on your PC and you use them often, set this number high. This will list the programs you use the most often and it’s very convenient because you do not have the go to your desktop or through the “All Programs” button to start up a program.
The Clear list just clears and resets your list of recently used programs. This is very helpful if there are programs in your list that you don’t use often and you just don’t want to see them anymore.
You can also set which Internet program you want on the list and which mail program you want on the list. If you use Firefox and want that on your Start Menu as the main item, select that from the list. If you did not install Firefox, it won’t be in the list. If you just get your mail in Internet Explorer, it’s best to uncheck the e-mail item so it doesn’t get in the way. -
Step 7
Click the advanced tab.
Check “Open submenus when I pause on them with my mouse” to not have to click on menus in the All programs group.
Check “Highlight newly installed programs” to show when anything new is installed in the All Programs group.
In the “Start Menu items:” box, if there are items you don’t use that are there, uncheck them. If there are items there that you would like to use, check them.
Check “Enable dragging and dropping” to enable you to move programs around in the All Programs group.
Check “Favorites Menu” to display your Internet Explorer favorites in the Favorites group on the Start Menu.
You can also display or hide the Control Panel, My Computer, My Documents, My Music, My Network Places, My Pictures, Network Connections, Printers and Faxes, Run Command, Set Program Access and Defaults, and Search.
Check Help and Support to display an item for searching for Windows Help.
Check “List my most recent opened documents” to display the “My Recent Documents” group.
The clear list button cleans out the items in your “My Recent Documents” group. This comes in handy if your list is too big and has a lot of unused documents in it. -
Step 8
The classic menu is for more advanced users or users who liked Windows NT.
Comments
sonni57 said
on 4/23/2009 Thanks for the good instructions on how to customize windows xp start menu. I'm a tech dummie so I need this.
lifeengineer said
on 4/23/2009 Good article on changing the Windows start menu taskbar