XP Start menu customizations

from WinCustomize Forums
Hi all,

This has probably been asked before, in fact I seem to vaguely remember a posting about it. Unfortunately I've forgotten what was posted and can't find it anymore. Anywho, now that I've gone to the dark side (!!) and am running Windows XP I decided to give the new Start menu a whirl. I don't think it can give NextSTART/Workshelf a run for their money, but I'll give it an opportunity

So, I need to find out how to customize the Start menu on XP. I've already gone through the properties/customizations/advanced stuff but seem to be missing a few things. Here's what I'd like to do:

1) Customize the user icon in the top left
2) Customize/hide the login name that appears over the icon
3) Most importantly, have shortcuts to folders that appear as a menu. IOW, right now I can have it show my Favorites or Control Panel. That works well, and I like how they can be configured to display as a popup menu. I'd like to do the same thing with a custom folder of my choice. I dragged 'n dropped my custom folders onto the Start menu and it works fairly well since I can even customize their icon. However, they always display as an explorer view instead of a popup menu.

TIA
7,705 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
1) Double click the icon. It will bring up a window where you can pick a new pic to use. From here you can hit Home and it will take you to a place where you can change user names.
2) That is up to the WB skin you are using. You could edit it in SkinStudio.
3) Not sure how you could do this one. You might need to go to ObjectBar to do this.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for the response. However, for #1 I've somehow managed to turn off the icon as there isn't one displayed. Any ideas how to turn it on first?
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Xymantix, if you're logged into a domain, you can't have an icon there, just as you can't have a Logon Screen. Your network has to be part of a workgroup, not a domain.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Xymantix, what you could do is maybe modify the top border of the start menu with SkinStudio and integrate the picture of your choice. Maybe a bit tricky but that's the only way I can think of to do this when on a domain.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, I fooled with a bunch of registry settings in hopes of 'fooling' XP into treating other folders like the Favorites one, but to no avail. The ol' Start Menu didn't last more than a couple of hours . Thanks for all of the suggestions, by the way.