Start Menu Order + Catastrophe

Look I not trying to start a fight or anything like that but , this is what I am talking about.

First off its 2010, OS's especially Windows OS should be functional customizable and streamlined. This is not a off the wall Idea.

More importantly a start menu should function properly. Obviously if you have read the previous posts, what was described is abnormal behavior or rather (bug)

Bugs need to get fixed which is why there are forums like (The Windows Seven Forums) in the first place.

On a side note, the Windows Start menu has worked this way since before Windows 98. Just like Linux OS, or simply organizing your internet bookmarks.

I hope somebody out there has had the same problem, lead to a fix and or just takes the concern here seriously.

Of course we are not going to fight over this. We are just exchanging our views. But I really think you are barking at the wrong tree.
1. A bug is if a function does not work as designed. But as far as the start menu is concerned, it works as designed.
2. You are talking about an additional requirement. And that is fair game. If you can convince 10% of the windows users (that is about 100 million users) that this function is absolutely required, Microsoft might listen to you.
3. The fact that some function was present in an earlier product does not require that it needs to be there forever. Cars do not have cranks any more to get them started. But that was a useful function all the way until the 60's.
4. I am not sure whether I share your interpretation of the purpose of technical forums. But that is neither here not there.

I have had this same frustration with Windows 7. As noted in the forum, Windows XP allowed the user to customize the menu under "All Programs" without restraint.

Windows 7 appears not to provide this level of customization. I have found a potential fix (it has survived two reboots so far). Try the following to see if it helps:

1. Run the Local Group Policy Editor. It is located at C:\Windows\System32\gpedit.msc. I'm running Win 7 Pro, so I don't know if this is included in all versions of Windows 7 or not.

2. Click on "User Configuration", "Administrative Templates", "Start Menu and Taskbar" on the left hand side.

3. On the right hand side, click "Turn of personalized menus" and set to disabled.

4. Exit the Local Group Policy Editor and rearrange your menus.

5. If you then reboot, the menus should stay the way you had them. As I indicated, mine menus have survived two reboots (which hasn't happened before).

For the record, if the above doesn't work this is a bug, not an additional feature. The help files clearly show that if "Sort All Program menus by name" is unchecked, and "Enable context menus and dragging and dropping" is checked, the menus should behave as they did in Windows XP. I think that the "personalized menus" were somehow forcing the menus to be resorted, but that is just a theory.

I'd be interested to know if this works for others.

The fix described in my prior post worked fine until I installed some new software. At that point, all the menus below the "All Programs" menu were resorted alphabetcially. Not of the menu items were moved from the folders I had moved them to, nor did menu folders get moved. It just alphabetized all the menu folders below "All Programs".

I don't see a way to prevent this, so just be aware of it.

First of all, this is a bug - not new functionality (the functionality has been around since Windows XP and was ported to Windows Vista, and on to Windows 7).

In windows XP it worked flawlessly.
In Windows Vista it tended to mess up when new programs were installed.
And as we know here - they have 'improved the quality of the bugs' in Windows 7.

Anyway, here is a solution that works for me:
1. Backup first(!) and then delete the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage\NewShortcuts

That's it - should work from now on.
I believe that the problem occurs because, at reboot, windows attempts to put the shortcuts listed under this key back in to the start menu at every boot, and when it finds that they are missing or moved, it reorders the start menus back to alphabetical (default order).

As this implies, any installation of a new program can cause the problem to reoccur.

It can also be that one of your programs consistently adds this key whenever you run it - and if this can't be disabled, then you have a hard choice of swapping the program for one that does not force you / nanny you in to having the shortcut - or just living with the problem.