Make 'all programs' permantly expanded in start menu

Question

I love the new windows 7 taskbar. I have all my favorite programs pinned to it. But this functionality makes the 'frequently used programs' feature in the start menu redundant. I currently have just a blank space where they used to be and I want that to be filled with the full list of programs. Is there a way to keep the 'all programs' list expanded all the time? Or at least an update in the near future that will allow me to do it?

Answer 1

Hello yttrailman,

Thak you for visiting the Microsoft Answers Community.

 - Navigate to C:\

 - Pull down Organize

 - Click Folder and search options

 - Click View tab

 - Click radio button for Show hidden files, folders, or drives

 - Click OK

In C::

 - Navigate ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

In this folder you can create new folders that will appear under Start > All Programs

Hope this helps

---

Chris.H

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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Answer 2

Hi Ionic_Altruist,

Welcome to Microsoft Answers!!!

1)  Do you mean to say that you want the list of frequently used programs in the start menu or you have disabled the feature?

We would require more clarity on this “all programs list expanded all the time”

If you are referring to have All Programs list in the place of recently used programs then there is no option to do that currently.

If you want to delete the frequently used programs you may follow the steps below.

The Start menu displays shortcuts for the programs you use most frequently. You can change the number of program shortcuts displayed (this can affect the height of the Start menu).

Open Taskbar and Start Menu Properties by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Taskbar and Start Menu.

Click the Start Menu tab, and then click Customize.

In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, in the Number of recent programs to display box, enter the number of programs you want to display on the Start menu, click OK, and then click OK again.

However in the mean time, if this not exactly that you wanted I would suggest you to read through the articles in the links below that gives detailed description and steps to Customize the Start Menu and the Task bar.

Customize the Start menu

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Customize-the-Start-menu

Taskbar overview

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/The-taskbar-overview#section_2

If you are referring to bringing programs to where the list of recently used program is, its not possible.It is a default option.However your feedbacks on the changes in features are welcomed at the link below.

https://connect.microsoft.com/dashboard/info/

Hope this information was useful.

Regards

Varun J: MICROSOFT SUPPORT

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http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/answersfeedback/threads/ and let us know what you think

Answer 3

"If you are referring to have the All Programs list in the place of recently used programs then there is no option to do that currently."

This is what I want to do.

thanks for the link, ill suggest it there.

Answer 4

My question is "How can I rearrange & group the programs in the "All Programs" list like I did in XP.  I want to, for instance, group all word processing and related programs in a folder called "WP."  I find in Win 7, I can drag and drop a program or folder to another folder.  I can rename the folders.  But how do you create a new folder in the "All Programs" list?

Thanks.

Answer 5

I would like to be able to do this too. Also, is there a way to have the "all programs" expand like in xp? The ability to see all programs is nice. Not just a partial list of the programs with a scroll option to see the rest. Are you kinding me? Did we step back from XP here? Seems like it to me. I know you can type to search, but again I prefer the old xp way as more user friendly.