Hack the Start Menu and Taskbar

Run the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc at the Run prompt or command line. Go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu and Taskbar. If you click on the Extended tab at the bottom of the screen, you’ll be shown a description of the setting that you’ve highlighted, along with an explanation of each of the options. Settings you can customize include showing the My Pictures icon, the Run menu, and the My Music icon on the Start Menu; locking the Taskbar so that it can’t be customized; and many others. To change a setting, double-click on it and choose the options from the menu it displays. There’s not room in this hack to go into detail about each of the settings you can change, so I’ll tell you about some of my favorites. I’ve never been a big fan of My Documents, My Pictures, and My Music. In fact, I never use those folders, so there’s no point having them on the Start Menu. The settings in the Group Policy Editor let you get rid of them. If you share your PC with other people, the Group Policy Editor is a great way to make sure that no one can change the Start Menu and Taskbar except you. So when you have the Start Menu and Taskbar working the way you like, they’ll stay that way until you want to change them. Enable “Prevent changes to Taskbar and Start Menu Settings,” and no one will be able to change their settings except you. Select “Remove Drag-and-drop context menus on the Start Menu,” and no one except you will be able to remove or reorder items on the Start Menu. You can even stop anyone else from shutting down Windows by selecting “Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down command.”

Among the many entries here are a lot of pointless ones, by the way. You can remove the Log Off entry on the Start Menu, for example, which certainly isn’t high on my list of must-haves. But who knows, you may want to do that or any of the many other changes the Group Policy Editor allows. Go in there yourself and muck around; you’ll find plenty to change.