It's scientific fact (no, really--I read it on the Internet) that too many icons in the Start menu can cause Iconus Disorientateum, a disorder producing anxiety, a sense of having lost your bearings, and in rare cases, a desire to chuck it all and take the day off.

If you work in a home office, you don't have a geeky MIS person to protect you from this serious icon ailment. So I'm going to spend two articles showing you how to shovel those icons off your desktop, customize your Start menu, and live happily ever after.

Start Here

You might not realize it but when you click the Start button and the Start menu pops open, just about everything you see is built on shortcuts and directories. Because a shortcut simply points to a program, it can safely be renamed, moved, or even deleted.

BTW, I'm using what most people have on their PCs--Windows 98. So while most of my tips will work in Win Me, I can't guarantee they'll run correctly if you're using Win 95.

What two sections of the Start menu get cluttered the most? The top section, and the menu items that cascade from the Programs icon. What happens is that you install a new application and it thinks it's the center of the universe. So the program adds a folder either to the top portion of the menu, or to the Programs area, or worse, to both spots. Until I cleaned up my Start menu, most of the entries hanging around in the upper portion of my menu were programs I rarely used.

Oh, so you say you're happy with your Start menu but want to tweak the Start button? I've got just the thing for you: StartButton v1.1.80 is a free tool that lets you change the picture and text displayed on your Start button. (Mine says "Bass Int'l" with a tiny mug shot of my dog.)

Dig this: Did you know that most monitors have a hidden, undocumented feature? Yep, it's a built-in scanner. No, really, folks, I saw it in action. Test it yourself (but wash your hands first).

Start Changing

Try this experiment: Close all your applications so you're at the desktop. Open the Start menu and slide any item from the upper portion onto the desktop.

Don't like it there? Try two remedies: Right mouse click on the desktop and select and click Undo Move. Or just slide the entry back onto the Start menu by dragging it to the Start button, waiting for the menu to appear, and dropping it where you want to see it. Cool (and easy), eh?

Now open Start, Select programs, wait for the menu to pop out to the side, and try dragging items onto the desktop. Drag and drop to move items from one spot on the menu to another spot, and use the right mouse button to delete or rename items.

Quick look: While you're fixing your Start Menu, a virus may be creating havoc on your PC. Take a few minutes and read "Stealth Fighters," our story evaluating antivirus programs (and see who got Editor's Choice).

Organize, Arrange, and Classify

My strategy was to create a folder on my desktop called "Holding." (Click your right mouse button, select New, and choose Folder.) Then for safekeeping, I dragged each rarely-used item from the upper portion of the Start menu and dropped it into my Holding folder.

Then I evaluated every icon on my desktop, decided if each was something I used at least once a week, and if so, moved it to the upper portion of my Start menu.

You might even want to add items such as Control Panel, Printers, or URL history to your Start menu list. It's not at all difficult. Right-click the Start button and choose Open. Then right-click within the Start menu window and select New, Folder. When the new folder appears, for each item you'd like to add, copy and paste one of the following lines of text into the folder's title field. Take note: Include everything, including the period, curly brackets, and dashes.

Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

URL History.{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}

Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

The change is immediate. Click Start, and you'll see that the new item is now part of the Start menu list. When you move your mouse over the new Control Panel folder, a cascading menu of all your system's control panels will appear.

OTOH, you can just place a few, specific items from Control Panel onto your Start menu. For instance, I have Add/Remove Programs and System Information. This, too, is a no-brainer. Just open Control Panel as you normally would and drag one or more icons to the Start menu. Nifty, no?

Dig this: I know you like challenges and clearly need something to do for the rest of the day. Don't worry, this labyrinth will drive you loony. Like your relationship with Microsoft, for every step you take towards the exit, you're followed by the Minotaur who's taking two steps. [Highly-addictive, world-class waste of time. I spent 30 minutes with this. Good work Bass.--Ed]

Icon Delete You

The most difficult part of this process is looking at every stray desktop icon and ruthlessly deleting most of them. Me? I had a dozen Web sites I planned to visit but never did. There were also roughly 15 program shortcuts that I never got around to removing, each also in the Programs section of the Start menu. Besides taking up desktop space, the icons steal system resources from running applications.

There's a very cool program that can help you organize desktop icons. Dynamic Karma's Power Drawers (free trial, $35 to buy) is a behind-the-scenes tool that creates folders and puts files in groups based on functional categories (including Internet, utilities, games, and development tools). The utility also lets you navigate your files, folders, and applications in nanoseconds, all with a quick right-mouse click. Hold the mouse cursor over a text file and you'll see file size, date created, author, and title; do it to a graphics file and a thumbnail of the image appears. Power Drawers won Best Utility in PC World's 2001 World Class Awards.

Next week, more ways to yank, pull, and tug at your Start menu.

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