Many icons on the new Start panel will help you navigate through Windows in a way you have never done before. All of the icons that are displayed can be customized to fit your needs so that you can have one-click access to several different parts of your computer. Icons such as My Computer, My Music, Network Connections, and many more are now placed right on the Start panel. Windows XP gives you the capability to add even more. Additionally, these icons can be transformed into pop-up menus that expand and show the details. For example, instead of just displaying the My Computer icon, when you move your mouse over the icon, it can pop up a menu that will display shortcuts to each of the separate
drives on your computer.
These new features allow you to be much more efficient when working with your computer. You can save yourself a lot of time by enabling the auto-expanding pop-up menu feature on many of the utility icons such as Control Panel. This way, you can have access to all of your Control Panel applets with just one click on the Start Menu.
Windows XP makes it possible to edit most of the navigation icons right from within the user interface so you don't have to worry about hacking the registry in this section. To get started, follow these steps:
1. Right-click the Start button and select Properties.
2. You should now see the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window. Next, click the top Customize button, and the Start Menu settings will load.
3. The Customize Start Menu is where you can change many aspects of the Start panel; for now, click the Advanced tab. You will learn about some of the items on the General tab in the next few sections.
4. Once you have the Advanced tab displayed, you will see the Start Menu items scroll box. In this box you will see a list of all of the different features for the icons that can be displayed on the Start panel. Table 2-2 lists in detail all of the different features and their separate options. For demonstration purposes, letÕs make the My Computer icon expand automatically to show all of the drives. Scroll down in the box until you see the My Computer title.
5. Then select the Display as a Menu option, to enable the Auto
Expand feature.
6. Click OK twice, and your change is now complete.
As you can see, making changes to the items on the Start panel is quite simple
drives on your computer.
These new features allow you to be much more efficient when working with your computer. You can save yourself a lot of time by enabling the auto-expanding pop-up menu feature on many of the utility icons such as Control Panel. This way, you can have access to all of your Control Panel applets with just one click on the Start Menu.
Windows XP makes it possible to edit most of the navigation icons right from within the user interface so you don't have to worry about hacking the registry in this section. To get started, follow these steps:
1. Right-click the Start button and select Properties.
2. You should now see the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window. Next, click the top Customize button, and the Start Menu settings will load.
3. The Customize Start Menu is where you can change many aspects of the Start panel; for now, click the Advanced tab. You will learn about some of the items on the General tab in the next few sections.
4. Once you have the Advanced tab displayed, you will see the Start Menu items scroll box. In this box you will see a list of all of the different features for the icons that can be displayed on the Start panel. Table 2-2 lists in detail all of the different features and their separate options. For demonstration purposes, letÕs make the My Computer icon expand automatically to show all of the drives. Scroll down in the box until you see the My Computer title.
5. Then select the Display as a Menu option, to enable the Auto
Expand feature.
6. Click OK twice, and your change is now complete.
As you can see, making changes to the items on the Start panel is quite simple
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