Windows 7: alphabetical folders in start menu

I saw a post somewhere on this forum about how to set up alphabetized folders in start menu.

The folders were just named "A", "B", "C", etc., and then application short cuts were moved into their respective folder...Adobe Reader would be found in the "A" folder.

As a bonus when a user typed "A' into the Start Menu search window the folder would be found and then opened.

Can someone (or the author) remember where that post was and provide a link? I searched for "alphabetizing the start menu" but no joy.

I don't know about alphabetizing, but I have my folder tree divided into 8 main categories:

BurMan
BusMan
ComMan
DevelMan
EdiMan
FileMan
MuseMan
SysMan

Each of these are further divided by subfolders. It is a matter of preference, but I find this a faster way of navigating to a particular program.

I was the author, but it did not pertain to start menu. It invloved just folders, but here it is

Windows usual 'snap to grid' feature is gone???

It is quite simple.
Open users - yourusername - Appdata - roaming - Microsoft - Windows - Start menu.
Create the new folders in "programs" (A: B. etc)
Close the folders down and then, in the start menu, just drag and drop the shortcuts into the folders, as you want them.

A shorter path that works is Program Data\Start Menu\Programs.

No, that's not the post. The one I read had images of the start menu...several posts worth.


Thanks anyway.

I understand. And I can do the alphabetical folder thing or I can set up start menu folders like "system utilities," "Office Apps," etc..

But I was looking for a little more info on how the search thing worked. For instance when I type "A" in the search pane now...before making any changes to the Start Menu, I get a list of results: not all of them beginning with "A".

I don't understand why that should be the case.

The Start Menu's search looks at more than just the Start Menu's items. You could reduce the scope of the search by editting the Indexing Options in the Control Panel, but if you did, that would significantly reduce the usefulness of the search capabilities.