Tweak: Change the Start Menu Order

[David McNamee]

<i>The following tweak involves editing your Smartphone's registry. Improperly editing values in the registry could cause unexpected behavior or cause the Smartphone to stop working. For more information on editing the registry, <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=35785#35785">see this post</a>.This tweak is provided as is, with no guarantees as to its effectiveness, or to the safety of using this tweak.</i><br /><br /><b>Change the Start Menu Order.</b><br /><i>Instructions provided by Jonny Midnight</i><br /><br /><b>Purpose</b><br />The programs listed in the Smartphone's Start Menu are in alphabetical order - except for the first few that are fixed by either Microsoft or the service provider. Since it might be nice to have the programs listed in an order in the order in which you'd likely use them, we provide this tweak.<br /><br /><b>Instructions</b><br /> Open up Regedit, and browse to the following: <br />HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Shell/StartMenu Select 'Values' Select 'Order' In the value data you can now change the order of the links in the start menu. The easier way to find the link names is to open up All Explorer, Smartexplorer, or even browse to the phone via the computer, and look at the files in '\IPSM\Windows\Start Menu'. Don't forget to add '.lnk' at the end of the program name, or it won't work. <br /><br />If you want any of your own custom links, just make sure you put them in the \IPSM\Windows\Start Menu folder. <br /><br /> Now you must reboot your phone for the changes to take effect.<br /><br /><i>Re-published with permission from <a href="http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=7695">Jonny Midnight</a>.</i>

[Macguy59]

EXCELLENT ! Thank you thank you thank you :D

I have wanted to do this since day 1 with my i600. Now my start menu really is MY start menu.

[Macguy59]

FWIW . . . applying the ROM updates will not restore the Start Menu to defaults, so whatever changes you make will remain :D

[Oxios]

For a CAB see this link (http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=96467)

[encece]

Although this may work well for many people, I never really had a need for this. I'm a bit more of a neat freak (you wouldnt know it to see my apartment), but I like a bit more order.

I create category folders along with my Settings Folder in the Start Menu and place the appropriate shortcuts under each:

Settings
Accessories (Calc, Orneta Notepad)
Communication (IE, Agile Messenger, Call History, HipFTP, IR, Modem Link)
Games (no explanation necessary)
Multimedia (Windows Media, Picture Viewers)
Programs (Calendar, Contacts, PowerTasks, etc)
Reference (eWallet, DataViewer, Weather)
Utilities (SmartExplorer, Task Manager, RegEdit, etc)

Programs used to be called Productivity but some programs create the folder if it is not there when installing and I was getting tired of removing it.

[bnycastro]

How can I arrange the folders in the 'Start Menu' folder? All I can find is stuff about shortcuts (.lnk) I'd like to arrange folders as well.

[ctmagnus]

This only works with the first eight or so items. Dumb.

OTOH, Jeyo's utility doesn't go past that limit either. Also dumb.

[Mike Temporale]

This only works with the first eight or so items. Dumb.

OTOH, Jeyo's utility doesn't go past that limit either. Also dumb.

That's an OS limitation, and not the tools. Microsoft has configured the first 8 menu items such that the OEM can make sure their application is on the first page. After that, it's a battle royale. ;)

[ctmagnus]

So Microsoft is dumb then ;)

Anyways, I set mine up this afternoon so that my most used apps are no more than three keypresses away, so at this point I don't really care who's dumb.

[ctmagnus]

Actually, using the Smartione desktop app, at least the first twelve links (the whole first screen plus at least the first four on the second screen) can be changed. My bad! :oops:

[Mike Temporale]

There is some sort of flag on this, because some people report that they can do the first 2 pages, and others can only do the first page. I'm not sure how this is decided. :?