Start Menu - A new way to be Stupid!

Early on I got hooked on the convience of adding icons to the left side of the panel that pops up when you click the green start button. If you didn't know, this is accomplished by right clicking a file and selecting "pin to start menu".

Okay, so I want the shortcut on my launch bar too, so I drag it from the start menu to the folder and click copy here.

Guess what? It doesnt copy the shortcut, it copies the file itself. I never really understood why right clicking on the progs pinned to start menu would not give you the normal info with the usual find target button option.

Now I think I understand. They do it this way to screw people up!


- HandsOff

[aren't you sorry you looked!]

 

"Guess what? It doesnt copy the shortcut, it copies the file itself."

 

Hi Firecat,

Finally someone who knows what's important! You have just broken my string of 29 totally ignored posts on things i think are sort of good to know.

Did you Know...you can pin folders to the start menu?

Did you notice that the annoying Most Recently Used short cuts (bottom left part of the start menu can be eliminated by setting the number to zero in the task bar options?

Okay, that's it, cya,

HandsOff

 

I pin a hijackthis and a history folder there...but put the history folder there with a special tweak Did you ever just drag and drop a folder on to the start button...or it's short cut that you made first for the desktop?

 

Primrose,

You are right, just drag the folder on the start button and it is pinned. It's just a little thing but strikes me as a very handy thing to know.

If you arent crazy about the My Documents, My Music, ect...its one way of building your own file organization scheme, right alongside of theirs.


- Handsoff


P.S. - question of the day. does anyone REALLY no how to turn off the pop ups, that come up if you hover your pointer over anything on the task bar? I know what folder views says, I know what change windows behavior says, ect...I just really would like to turn it off.

 

http://addict3d.org/index.php?page=viewarticle&type=security&ID=252
Scroll down to 29. Disable balloon tips
or try this nice little Powertoy (TweakUI);
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Can sort lots of little niggles etc....

 

LOL! I was not counting, but I always find your posts interesting HandsOff. And this one was no different. I just found out some new stuff

 

Man, from all this I can conclude that the programmers/developers at Microsoft are STRANGE people....

But quite some interesting information here - Thanks HandsOff

 

Big Brad-

I see you have a different (newer?) version. Mine is 2.00.1.0 Also that you have the balloon box checked (do you by any chance also enjoy telemarketer phone calls while just preparing to sit down to dinner?)

The only problem is, (you can verify if you like) no matter how you set this, you will still get many, if not most annoying balloon tips, or whatever they call them.

Still, I know there is a way. It's just little known. to sum it up,

Microsoft control freak orginization: 3
Downtrodden masses: 0


CB - I appreciate the sentiments. I was narrowly focusing on the type of post that I think of as "interesting (to me) tidbits of information", or "news you can use...not"


Firecat - Once again, you have struck to the very heart of the matter! Someday I want to take a fieldtrip to Redmond and observe them in their natural environment.


- HandsOff

 

Yeah HO, maybe I bum steered you a little there?....
BTW my TweakUI is 2.10.0.0
I cant find mention of the latest version at M$ link above??
Anyway..did you mean?..

 

Excellent! I knew they were two different things, maybe even three or four. I meant the bottom one, but seeing the pair together makes me think you are right. The top on has got to be a balloon.

Here is what one might hope would be the "thing", but clearly it is not.
see the unchecked box: so we have

-Ballon tips &
-Pop-up descriptions, theoretically covered, but the "things" are still there


More to follow.


-HandsOff

 

If its that easy to twaek the OS that way then it does completely defeat Microsofts new 'security' campaign, doesnt it?

Strange of M$ to make Windows so easily exploitable....Hmm.

Did you know that M$ publicly said that phones which use Linux may be awaiting legal problems...Hmm...wonder what they meant?

 

here's another reference to 'balloon tips'

Now, I know there is something people call 'tool tips'. some people use text boxes to describe what I mean.

Terminology is a real problem here!

-HandsOff

---
Firecat, well, tweak UI was programmed by microsoft, after all. Plus there has always been some degree of control that the user has over the appearance of windows. Most things in the interface are customizable one way or the other. I'm getting sick of the built in icons and colors. I think I might go back to silver folders, and silver and purple icons! I also notice some people have put their name on the start button. I don't know how they did it, but in my current frame of mind i think "Apple" would look good there.

 

From all this, I can conclude that programmers/developers at Microsoft are either:

1)Geniuses
2)Total idiots
3)Insane
4)Schizophrenic

 

If you want to know how to change/modify the start button, see this link:

http://sarahlane.typepad.com/sarahword/2004/06/hack_xps_start_.html

Then give us a screenshot

 

Hey F-Cat

That link was most excellent. I think it is going to provide hours of enjoyment in the future. The regulars around here were suitably impressed. I think there may even be the beginnings of fear and suspicion.

'My God, if he can do this...what else could he be doing.'

'Yeah, my bank balance was 1 cent low when I checked!'

'So was mine'

'How can he afford all those MP3 players on his income, that's what I'd like to know!'

'I think he's kind of cute in a geeky sort of way...'
----------------

anyway I can only display the lower left quadrant of my screen but you will clearly see the 'Start' has been replaced with 'So Fly'.

Thanks for the awesome info-

HandsOff

 

I read somewhere that MS guys do that because of the "open Architecture" thing. you open the architecture of your product to allow developers to write plugins/utils as addons for your product.
Apparently, this is how MSDOS and windows beat out Apple's Mac OS early on. [one of many factors]

Now the thing with open architecture is.... people are gonna write new utils for your OS, which means decent products from 3rd party developers come out real quick [Adobe photoshop was first made for Mac], which people notice, then buy, then your product starts becoming famous.

i know I'm not really being clear here, but for a real quick look at what i just said, go to the book "Infinite Loop - How the world's most insanely great company finally went insane" By Michael S Mallone. it's about Apple... from the early teenage of Jobs and Woz to c.2000... Somewhere in the middle [many times, in fact] open architecture is shown as being leveraged by MS against Mac.
Mallone surmises that Bill gates fought in IBM (once he was on board the IBM PC team) to make IBM open up their architecture to developers. Ironically, while this made Gates rich, and Windows/Intel/IBM synonymous with PC, it first elevated the IBM PC, then due to the plethora of IBM clones [reverse engineered, cheap toys], destroyed IBM's hegemony so completely that the Big Blue has never quite completely recovered to take a lead position in the PC world. But that resulted in HP and Compaq among others to rise to the fore... but once again, i digress.



Do read the book
it's very nice.

 

Thanks for the info no13

 

No. 13,

In addition to those factors, Intel lost a couple rounds in court somewhere along the line. IBM alledged that AMD was infringing on there copywrites both by copying the x86 software, and also by using what they believed were trademarks, 386 and 486. A judge actually made a ruling on the basis that the internal micro-code was not identical and the chips were legit. Also, Intel could not "copywrite a number" so there new offering went from 586 to Pentium. BTW, I actually had a 486 cpu made by Cyrix (sp?). they cost about a third of what a comparable intel chip cost at that time. and it even said "486" right on the chip.

I remember that Apple actually licensed the "look and feel" of macintosh to Microsoft. That seemed like suicide to me, but who knows, maybe it was brilliant. They would have copied, or bought Apple, or something like that, who could stop them?

Another surprise was when apple permitted a few manufacturers to produce Apple Clones. Better computers for half the price! We bought one for our mom! They must have been very short licenses because they did not last long.

The thing that amazes me is how thoroughly Apple user's love their cute little machines. My sister has both Pentium four, and G4 computers. She's always maintained that there is no big difference but was before she got the G4. I wonder if she will be seduced by Apple?

One last comment: iTunes rules, and WMP-10 sucks!


-HandsOff

 

well, MS employees have been repeatedly warned NOT to show up at work or at public events with iPods, so... you know.

And about the Mac Clones? yeah. Mallone mentioned those too.. [i've been on the computing scene AFTER '96... books and net is the ONLY way I can get past details]

Good educational story.

 

I don't do any thing that has to do with computers. My loving husdand does it all for me .He works with cable and networking data but after his hard day at work he has to fix my problems. I'm lucky I have him. He is the best in every thing he does, SHHH Don't tell him that. then he thinks I'm Getting soft. LOL

 

It would seem that I have many years of experience on the both of you.

Oh, wait, playinging solitair, backgammon, and hearts counts as experience doesn't it?


P.S. - I don't suppose it occurred to them what an endorsement their position on ipods is? I suppose like most employee's I would not dare to provoke management. I wonder how hard it would be to disguise it as a creative nomad? Maybe there would be a market for disguise your iPod kits?

I suppose one could learn to immitate the gate of a person with to much weight on one hip. Passive resistance sometimes works when direct confrontation would lead to disaster.

--------------------------------
For those of you who have been following our progress here at the Handsoff Institute, here is a photo of our new cryogenically cooled Ram Drive XP Module. If you look closely you will recognize the familiar units that make up the four arms of the unit. They are 1 GB each individual RAM drives that do double duty as Apple iPod Shuffles. After a morning of hard research, we here at the lab are all ready for a jog around the complex wearing the very same devices you see pictured. Then at 1:00pm sharp, back in the cryochamber!


-HandsOff

 

~bump~

 

Hehe...HandsOff, looking good

BTW, BUMP!

 

I'm afraid I do not compute. What is this bump

anyway, after changing the word "start" I felt I should get rid of that rediculous windows flag. Here is the result:


- HandsOff