Menu Show Delay Time

How to Speed up Menu Show Delay Time in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8​

   Information

This will show you how to change the amount of time it takes for a menu to pop, fade, or slide open when you hover the mouse pointer over it in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

This setting will only affect the user account that you are currently logged on to.

   Tip

The Fade or slide menus into view and Fade out menu items after clicking Visual Effects options will also affect how fast menus open and close. Unchecking these options will help speed it up in addition to doing the steps in this tutorial below.

   Warning

If you set the MouseHoverTime setting, then it may override the MenuShowDelay setting in this tutorial.

OPTION ONE

To Change the Menu Show Delay Time using a REG File

1. Do step 2 or 3 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Have a Fast Menu Show Time
NOTE: This changes the menu show delay time to 20 milliseconds.
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Fast_MenuShowDelay.reg


Download


3. To Restore the Default Menu Show Time
NOTE: This changes the menu show delay time back to 400 milliseconds.
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Default_MenuShowDelay.reg

Download


4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

5. If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC-Windows 7/8) or Continue (UAC-Vista_, Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

6. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply the changes.

7. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

OPTION TWO

To Change the Menu Show Delay Time in Registry Editor

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press Enter.

2. In Registry Editor, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop


3. In the right pane of the Desktop key, double click/tap on the MenuShowDelay string value to modify it. (see screenshot above)

4. Type in a number between 0 to 4000 (400 is default) for how many milliseconds you want the Menu to wait before it opens. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: The lower the number, the faster the response time. If you use an entry of 0, there is no menu display delay. However it is not recommended to use 0 though since the menus may be hard to navigate through at that speed. 20 is a good number to use.

5. Click/tap on OK to apply. (See screenshot above)

6. Close regedit.

7. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply the changes.




That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Turn the Menu Bar On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Set Windows 7 Menus to Open to the Left or Right Side
• How to Change the Mouse Hover Time before Pop-up Displays in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Pop-up Descriptions
• How to Change the Windows 7 Aero Peek Mouse Hover Delay Time to Preview Desktop
• How to Change How Long Windows 7 Notifications Stay Open
• How to Change the Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Live Preview Delay Time
• How to Change Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Previews Display Delay Time

 

[rachaelo]

Does this work in Windows 7 too?

Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q216445 says this works for Windows NT 4 only. Did you try this on Windows 7 and noticed any difference?

 

[Brink]

Hello Rachaelo, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yes, I have tested it and can verify that it works great in both Vista and Windows 7 with a noticable difference.

Shawn

 

[TeenerTim]

Works on XP too. Just tried it.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Tim for posting back your results. Welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[Darryl Licht]

Actually it worked waaay back on NT4.0 and Win98! I used to teach students that trick in A+ PC repair classes I taught.

Everytime I used to do it back then, clients would call me or email me on "How much faster their PC was", and all I did was defrag, disk cleanup, etc, and a few registry tweaks.

This is still one of the best "secrets" out there, but todays HW is so much faster I doubt it is needed like back in the day!

 

[Lucretius]

Being able to see All Programs the second I click on the button from the Start Menu is awesome! No more of that domino-like action where the icons display one after another.

 

[helijack]

I gotta say.......this forum is awesome! I'm new to Windows 7 and this place is a godsend! Thank you so much everyone.

ps: I've been teaching people how to use computers since 1990, was glad XP came along, and now Windows.......without a doubt the best OS yet, IMHO.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Helijack, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[subyroo]

Thanks for jogging the memory bank Brink, I used a lot of recommended regedit changes in XP but forgot about seeing if similar things were available for Win7.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Pedro. I'm happy that it helped you.

 

[EzioAuditore]

@Brink
I followed the manual way. Ive set it to 0. Context menu items opens instantly but "All programs" in start menu opens with default speed. How do i correct it?
Afaik, it applies to start menu also.

Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello Ezio,

Sorry mate, but this does not affect the "All Programs" area in the Start Menu. Instead it would affect the buttons on the right dark side of Start Menu if they are set to "Display as a menu" in Customize Start Menu settings.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[EzioAuditore]

Oh my bad. Well then, how to have it opened instantly on mousehover, Shawn? I remember i had it earlier but now i forgot how to do that...

 

[Brink]

You might see if this may allow it to. with a setting of 0. Be sure tot check the items in the Warning box at the top to see if that is affecting it as well.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1884-mouse-hover-time-change.html

 

[EzioAuditore]

You might see if this may allow it to. with a setting of 0. Be sure tot check the items in the Warning box at the top to see if that is affecting it as well.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1884-mouse-hover-time-change.html

Oh thanks Shawn. That worked.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Ezio. That's great news.

 

[zijincheng]

hey thanks for the great post, I wonder if this is possible to do for the most recent programs in the start menu?

Eg, when your mouse hovers over a most recently used program such as word in the start menu and the list of most recent document opens up immediately?

 

[Brink]

Hello Zijin,

This should affect that as well.

 

[emibel]

I actually had the reverse problem. I wanted to increase the delay time, because I detest sub-menus opening up before I click them.

I found that the value can be more than 4000 (4 seconds). I tried 10000, and it was about 10 seconds. Then I wondered if a negative value might make it infinite, i.e. not open the sub-menu until I click. Sure enough, I set it to -1, and that now seems to occur.