Windows Start Menu Shortcuts

Posted by james on Feb 24, 2007 in tips | 0 comments

In my last article, “Windows Logo – Top 5 Shortcuts“, I gave you a few ideas on how to use the Windows Logo Key in key combinations, for example, to lock your computer. The last tip was to just press the Windows Logo Key. Of course, doing that only shows you the Windows Start Menu. This article will show you how to use this as the start to a few excellent shortcuts in Windows. (If you like, you could open the picture at the bottom of this article to see where on the Start Menu I am talking about).

Get a list of your 10 (or fewer) MOST used programs, like Internet Explorer, Outlook, FireFox, etc… and then for each one, follow the steps below:

  • Find the shortcut to the program in your Start Menu
  • Right-Click on the Shortcut and click on “Pin to Start menu“

It should now appear in the Top section of your Start Menu. If you know how, you could just drag-and-drop a shortcut onto this section of the Start Menu.

  • Right click on the Shortcut and click on “Rename”
  • Starting at “1″, rename the shortcut so that it has a number before it. For example, you could change “Internet Explorer” to “1 – Internet Explorer“

Now, to use these new shortcuts, all you have to do is press the Windows Logo Key to open the Start Menu, and THEN press a number. This will automatically select one of these shortcuts, assuming that the number is unique on the Start Menu.

Windows Logo Key Start Menu ShortcutsThe picture on the left (which will open up into a new page for a larger version if you click it) shows you what my Start Menu looks like. I’ve left the Mozilla FireFox, Outlook and Internet Explorer shortcuts in focus so that you can see what I am talking about in more detail. As you can see with my FireFox shortcut, I’ve used the letter “Q”. This is for 3 reasons:

1 – I ran out of numbers
2 – “Q” is not a common letter, and no programs I use start with this letter. If there is more than 1 program that starts with your shortcut number or letter, pressing the key will just highlight one of the shortcuts
3 – I press the “Q” with my left hand, which is the same hand I use to press the Windows Logo Key on my keyboard.

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