Windows Vista Start Menu tweaks

I like the classic start menu,without any of the personalized info (recent docs,files, etc.) used. I know to right-click on the Start pearl, and select Properties and then click/unclick what I want and don't want. But there are two tweaks that I haven't yet found in Vista.

I would like to take two shortcuts from my classic Vista start menu--Help/Support, and Documents. I was able to do this in XP, but the particular MS page that I used, doens't have the same registry settings :

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q292504

Any suggestions? The only info I found by googling was the same old set of screenshots and suggestions about the right-click/Properties technique.

 

If you know how to edit the regedit, do this:
To remove Help from the Windows Vista Start menu, use Regedit to navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

On the Edit menu, Add Value name NoSMHelp as a REG_DWORD data type. Set the data value to 1.

Log off and log on for the setting to take effect.

NOTE: If you subsequently set the data value to 0, Help appears without the need to logoff.

NOTE: NoSMHelp stands for No Start Menu Help.

To remove the Docs folder:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
On the Edit menu, Add Value name NoSMMyDocs as a REG_Word data type. Set the data value to 1.

Log off and log on for the setting to take effect

 

Uhaligani, thanks for replying. Unless I'm mistaken, when I look up regedit, I don't see the registry key that you are telling me to look for. My registry follows that "address" all the way up to Current Version/Policies. But there is no "Explorer" key or section inside that. There is a separate Explorer section inside Current Version, but not inside Policies.

The info that you gave me is listed in the ms webpage that I linked to--for XP.

I tried inserting this inside the ...Current Version>Explorer>Start Page key, but to no avail.

BTW-I tried this with the DWord value being 1 for both decimal and hexidecimal-- which should it be?

 

OK - I don't think this is a problem. I am using Ultimate and am logged on as pure Administrator (I am also the only user)
It has obviously created differences.
Go to the Explorer panel, which you have mentioned. Click the "Advanced" panel
Find the two keys there and change the value to =
They would be ShowMyDocs and Start_Showhelp
You may have to scroll down to find them - mine are abbreviated to things like
showm....

P.S. (Later)
Very Odd. I have just set up a User account in my name, with Administrator priviliges. The key is certainly still there in my Regedit?

 

I wouldn't think that two versions of the same OS would have different setups of regedit. Sorry, Uhaligani, but when I looked in the Advanced section, there was nothing like the Show my docs or show start menu help. I checked again and again. Not sure what the problem is--I'm the only user on this laptop, which is an admin account. I did see something like Show Recent Docs, if that is what you meant. I will give this another shot when I get home from work tomorrow. Thanks again for your time.

 

Adjacent I have:

Start_ShowHelp
Start_ShowMyC...
Start_ShowMyD...
Items 1 and3. are the those we are discussing.
If you don't have them, you can of course, edit them in. I see no reason why that should not work.
Back up the regedit.
Sorry, looking back. My lousy typing again the value should be 0 on these keys.1 on the first offering.

 

OK I give up on this one. I inserted DWord keys in the Advanced section, with values of 0. They are:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Start_ShowHelp

Start_ShowMyDocs

I log off and they are still there in the start menu.

Does using the classic start menu do anything to this equation? I switched over to XP/Vista style, and I didn't see either of those in that style of menu. But switching back to the classic start menu, there they were again.

 

Well, running short of ideas.
I have created a reg import file which will put the keys I originally mentioned into your reg.
There are no facilities for attachments, apparently, on this site, so go here and download it.
You should then (hopefully,) after importing it, have the keys available whxich I first mentioned
http://www.divshare.com/download/852640-bbb

 

OK, I double-clicked on it, and next thing I know, I get a mesage saying that these settings have been saved to my registry.

I know you're gonna hate to read this---but after logging out and back in, and even after rebooting---those items are still there.

 

No. All the patch has done, as I explained, is (I hope) put the reg keys into you regedit. You can now go in an edit them.