Windows Menu Related Tips

Menu Show Delay
Cascading menus appear or disappear 500 milliseconds after you apply or remove their highlight. You can change this time by tweaking:

    HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop
        MenuShowDelay = "xxxx"

        Where "xxxx" is a value in milliseconds greater than 100. The default is 500 (one half second).

Drop Down Menu Alignment
Add or change this setting to Right or Left align drop down menus:

    HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop
        MenuDropAlignment = "x"

        Set "x" to "0" for left and "1" for right aligned menus.

Sorting Start Menu Items -- Windows 98 or later.
To permanently sort items alphabetically on the start menu goto HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu\&Programs\Menu and highlight the Order entry in the contents pain then delete it. There is a similar entry for each of the &Program subkeys (Accessories, Games,...)

Multi-Column Start | Programs Menu
In some configurations the Start menu displays as a single column with arrows at the top and bottom rather than multiple columns. The following tweak restores the multicolumn menu: Windows 95 the Start | Programs menu displayed multiple columns when necessary. Windows 98 does not. But it can. Use Regedit to add a new value:

    Under this key    
        HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

    Add a new string value named StartMenuScrollPrograms with a value of NO if running IE6 and a value
    of FALSE otherwise.

Disable Recent Documents Menu
Open Regedit and goto HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Find or create a DWORD named NoRecentDocsMenu and set its value to 1. To stop Windows from tracking recent documents, find or create a DWORD value named NoRecentDocsHistory and set it to 1.