Inserting Spacers in Start Menu's Program List
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- To: "Wintips&Tricks" <wintips@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2006 08:57:44 -0500
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Inserting Spacers in Start Menu's Program List
by Vic Ferri
Question:
Is it possible to insert a separation bar in the All Programs list? All
Programs is located at the Start button and shows all the
programs installed. The list starts to get unyielding and should be separated
so programs can be located easier.
Answer:
The way Windows is designed does not allow you to insert a true separation bar
but there is a little trick you can use to create
spacers that you can insert wherever you feel the need in your Start Menu's
program list (named All Programs with XP and Programs if using the Classic
view) In fact, the result of this little trick may appear better than an
actual separation line as it will be more obvious to spot.
Here's how step by step so that even a Windows beginner can follow:
1. Right click an empty area of your desktop and choose New>Shortcut
2. In the Target field labelled "Type the Location of the Item" enter SYSTEM32
and then click Next.
Note: you can actually choose any target you prefer. It doesn't matter what
it is.
3. In the field asking for a shortcut name, delete the entered text and then
while
holding down the ALT key, type 0160 on your keyboard's NUMBER PAD.
This will make the name field appear empty. Then click Finish.
4. On your desktop, you will now have a shorcut icon pointing to System32.
Right click the new shortcut, go to Properties and then delete the text in the
name field so that it is blank.
Click Apply.
5. Next click Change Icon and choose a BLANK icon from the icon list in
shell32.dll. Click OK
and then Ok again to exit.
You will now have a blank icon with no name on your desktop. All you will see
is the shortcut arrow
(or nothing at all if you have shortcut arrows disabled)
Now simply drag this icon to your Start button and then into the All Programs
menu (or Progams menu if using Windows classic)
and insert it wherever you need a spacer. The shorcut arrow will not show. All
you will have is a blank entry for a spacer and it will be
very easy to spot.
As an alternative method to create the blank shortcut, you can just make a copy
of an existing shortcut, rename it with ALT 0160,
go to the Properties, remove the target text and change the icon to a blank one.
Creating Multiple Spacers
You can redrag the same shortcut to form as many spacers as you like but note
that because they will all have
the same name (the invisible 0160) they willl be automatically numerically
renamed. For example, the second one will be
named (2) the third (3) and so on. You can either keep that name format or
simply rename to whatever you prefer.
If you want the look of line, just rename with a series of dashes
----------------------- or a line _____________
If you want them more blank looking, just rename with a single character like a
single dash
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