XP idiosyncracies

I'm still; new nufff to XP that I'm still trying to figure things out (aren't most of us?).

This question concerns the Start menu; specifically the left pane of the Start menu.

Whenever I open any program from a shortcut, an icon is placed in the left pane of the start menu. Deleting them is not a problem so much as a pain in the nether region. In start menu properties
(I don't like the classic version) I have set number of icons to 4 but more keep getting added. How do I stop this?

 

Thanks Pete, yeah, some interesting stuff there, I'll have to study it somewhat and I think several ideas can be implemented.

 

You can try TweakUI

They have an option to limit the icons that are allowed to populate the lower left section of the start menu. In case you are not aware, you can also "Pin to Start Menu" to permanently place certain progams in a convenient location (upper left portion)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

 

Thanx Larry D but this version is for XP Professional, I have XP Home.

 

Ricky, I use Home also

This is for home, download it and look under Taskbar / Start Menu