mirror of
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu.git
synced 2026-04-11 17:37:22 +10:00
Based on original Classic Shell tutorial: http://www.classicshell.net/tutorials/buttontutorial.html
354 lines
19 KiB
HTML
354 lines
19 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
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<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="content-type"><title>Open-Shell Menu</title>
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<style type="text/css">
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h1 {
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color: #0078d4;
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font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,sans-serif;
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font-weight: 600;
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color: #005a9e;
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font-weight: 600;
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p {
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font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,sans-serif;
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body {
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font-family: "Segoe UI",Tahoma,sans-serif;
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}
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</style></head><body>
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<a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu"><img src="images/OpenShell.png" style="border: 0px solid ; width: 64px; height: 64px; float:left;" alt="Open-Shell website" title="Open-Shell website"></a><h1 style="padding-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 12px;"> Open-Shell Menu</h1>
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<span style="color: #2b88d8; font-weight: bold;"><br>
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Open-Shell Menu</span>
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is a flexible Start menu that can mimic the menu behavior of Windows
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2000, XP and Windows 7. It has a variety of advanced features:
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<ul>
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<li>Choose between “Classic” and “Windows 7” styles<br>
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</li>
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<li>Drag and drop to let you organize your applications</li>
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<li>Options to show Favorites, expand Control Panel, etc.</li>
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<li>Shows recently used documents. The number of documents to display
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is customizable</li>
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<li>Translated in 35 languages, including Right-to-left support for
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Arabic and Hebrew</li>
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<li>Does not disable the original Start menu in Windows. You can
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access it by Shift+Click on the Start button</li>
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<li>Right-click on an item in the menu to delete, rename, sort, or
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perform other tasks</li>
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<li>The search box helps you find your programs and files without getting in the way of your keyboard shortcuts</li>
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<li>Supports jumplists for easy access to recent documents and common tasks</li>
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<li>Available for 32 and 64-bit operating systems</li>
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<li>Has support for skins, including additional 3rd party skins. Make your own!</li>
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<li>Fully customizable in both looks and functionality</li>
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<li>Support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility</li>
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<li>Converts the “All Programs” button in the Windows menu into a cascading menu</li>
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<li>Implements a customizable Start button<br>
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</li>
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<li>Can show, search and launch Windows Store apps (Windows 8+)</li>
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<li>And last but not least – it's FREE!</li>
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</ul><br>
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<h1><a name="styles"></a> Styles</h1>
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The Start menu offers 3 styles to choose from.<br>
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<h3>1) Single-column classic style</h3>
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<img src="images/style1.png" style="width: 480px;" alt=""><br>
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This style is similar to the menu found in Windows 2000. It has one
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column in the main menu with vertical text on the side. You can
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customize the order of items, icons and text.<br>
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Programs, jumplists and search results show as cascading sub-menus.<br>
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<br>
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<h3>2) Two-column classic style</h3>
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<img src="images/style2.png" style="width: 480px" alt=""><br>
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This style is similar to the Windows XP menu. There are two columns
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where you can arrange your menu items. Customize the order, icons and
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text.<br>
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Programs, jumplists and search results show as cascading sub-menus.<br>
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<br>
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<h3>3) Windows 7 style<br>
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</h3>
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<img src="images/style3.png" style="width: 480px;" alt=""><br>
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This style is similar to the Windows Vista and Windows 7 menu. The
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items in the first column are pre-defined to pinned and recent
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programs, all programs list and search box. The items in the second
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column are fully customizable.<br>
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The jumplists and search results show inside the main menu. The
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programs can be inside the main menu or open as a cascading sub-menu.<br>
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This style offers less customization than the classic styles, but
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has a look and feel more familiar to people used to Windows 7.<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<h1><a name="operation"></a> Operation</h1>
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If you have used the Start menu in older versions of Windows you’ll
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feel right at home:<br>
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<p>
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Press the Windows key or click on the orb in the corner of the
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screen to open the Start menu.</p>
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<p>
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Hold down Shift while clicking on the orb to access the operating
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system's own
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Start menu.
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</p>
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<p>
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Click on an item to execute it.
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</p>
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<p>
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Drag a program to change the order of the programs in a menu, or to
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move it to another folder.
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</p>
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<p>
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Right-click on an item to rename it, delete it, or perform other tasks.</p>
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<p>
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Right-click on the orb to edit the settings for the Start menu, to view this help file, or to
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stop the Start menu process.<br>
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</p>
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<p><br>
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</p>
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<h1><a name="settings"></a>
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Settings</h1>Right-click on the Start button to access the settings:<br>
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<img src="images/settings1.png" style="width: 516px;" alt=""><br>
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<br>
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You can choose from seeing only the basic settings, or all available
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settings. Hover over each setting to see a description of what it's for. Type in the search box to find a setting by name.<br>
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Every setting has a default value. The default value can be constant,
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or it may depend on the current system settings. Once you edit a
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setting it becomes "modified" and is shown in bold. To revert to the
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default value, right-click on the setting.<br>
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<br>
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You can save the settings to an XML file, and later load them back.
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Press the Backup button to access these functions. From there you can
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also reset all settings to their default value.<br>
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<br>
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Most settings will be changed immediately as you edit them. For example
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you can edit the Start menu, then while the Settings dialog is open,
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access the Start menu to see the changes. Small number of settings will
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require you to exit the Start menu before you can see the change.<br>
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<br>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Note:</span> All Settings windows are resizable. Resize them and place them where you want them to be. They will remember the new position.<br>
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<br>
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Click on the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Customize Start Menu</span> tab to customize the menu items. Depending on the style you will see different UI.<br>
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<br>
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For classic styles you can customize both columns of the Start menu and
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create sub-menus. The left column shows the current items in the menu
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and the right column shows the available menu items. Drag from the
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right to the left to add items to the menu.<br>
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<img src="images/settings3.png" style="width: 516px;" alt=""><br>
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<br>
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For the Windows 7 style you can only edit the items for the second column and there are no sub-menus.<br>
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<img src="images/settings2.png" style="width: 516px;" alt=""><br>
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<br><br>
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Double-click on the icon to edit the item properties:<br>
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<img src="images/settings4.png" style="width: 339px;" alt=""><br>
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Here you can select a command for the item, its text, icon and other attributes. Press the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Restore Defaults</span> button to get the default text and icon for the chosen command.<br>
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<br>
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The command can be:<br>
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<ul>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">one of the predefined commands</span> - from the dropdown</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">custom executable string</span>
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- this can be a name of a program and its arguments, or even a URL
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(like http://www.google.com). Environment variables like %SystemRoot% are supported</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">left blank</span> - then if the link attribute is used, it will act as a command<br>
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</li>
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</ul>
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The link can be a path to a file or a folder. If it is a file, that
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file will be executed. If it is a folder, that folder will be opened as
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a sub-menu. Some menu items (like Programs and Favorites) have an implicit
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link attribute, so for them the Link box will be disabled.<br>
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<br>
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The icon can be:<br style="font-weight: bold;">
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<ul>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">left blank</span> - then if the link attribute points to a file or a folder, the icon of that file or folder will be used<br>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">resource file,icon ID</span> - for example <span style="font-weight: bold;">%windir%\notepad.exe,2</span>. Do not leave space between the file name and the comma. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Make sure you are using the icon's resource ID, and not the icon's index.</span> For best results use the <span style="font-weight: bold;">[...]</span> button next to the icon box<br>
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</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">,icon ID</span> - same as above, but the resource file is the <span style="font-weight: bold;">StartMenuDLL.dll</span> itself. This is useful when referring to the start menu's own icons<br>
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</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">icon file</span> - for example <span style="font-weight: bold;">C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\Email.ico</span></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">none</span> - this will use a blank icon</li>
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</ul>
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If the label or the tip attribute start with <span style="font-weight: bold;">$</span> (dollar sign), then the system will treat it as a name of a string in the <span style="font-weight: bold;">StartMenuL10N.ini</span>
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file. The actual text will depend on the current language setting. This
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is useful when creating a menu that can be used by multiple languages.<br>
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<br>
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If you check "Insert Sub-items as Buttons", instead of showing the menu
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item itself, the Start menu will show the sub-items as a row of
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buttons. By default the buttons are centered. You can align them to the
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left by adding a separator as the last item, or align them to the right
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by adding a separator as the first item. One possible use is to replace
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the shutdown menu item with
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separate buttons for shutdown, restart, log off, etc.<br>
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<br>
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<h1><a name="admin"></a>Administrative Settings</h1>
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The settings are
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per user and are stored in the registry. By default every user can edit
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all of their settings. An administrator can lock specific settings, so
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no user can edit them:<br>
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<img src="images/settings5.png" style="width: 516px;" alt=""><br>
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In this example the setting "Enable right-click menu" is locked to always
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be unchecked and can't be changed by any user. This is achieved
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by adding the setting to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OpenShell\StartMenu</span> registry key. Create a DWORD value called "EnableContextMenu" and set it to 0.<br>
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<br>
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In some cases you may not want to lock the value for all users, but
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simply modify the initial value of the setting. In such case add
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"_Default" to the name of the value. For example if you want to context
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menu to be disabled by default but still allow the users to enable it
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if they wish, create a DWORD value named "EnableContextMenu_Default"
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and set it to 0.<br>
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<br>
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The easiest way to know the registry name of a setting and its value is to modify it, and then look it up in <span style="font-weight: bold;">HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OpenShell\StartMenu\Settings</span>.<br>
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Sometimes you may want to lock a setting to its default value, but you
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don't know what the default value is. Then create a DWORD value and set
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it to 0xDEFA.<br>
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<br>
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There is also a global setting "EnableSettings". Set it to 0 in the
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registry to prevent the users from even opening the Settings dialog:<br>
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<img style="width: 492px;" alt="" src="images/settings_disable_sm.png"><br>
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<br>
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The Start menu also checks most of the group policies set by the administrator. Run <strong style="color: #2b88d8;">gpedit.msc</strong> and go to <strong style="color: #2b88d8;">User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar</strong>. From there you can disable Run, Shutdown, Help, and other features. <span style="font-style: italic;">(Not available on Home versions of Windows)</span>.<br>
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<br>
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Editing the settings through group policies is also supported. Extract the file <b>PolicyDefinitions.zip</b> found in the installation folder and read the document <b>PolicyDefinitions.rtf</b> for more details.<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<h1><a name="skins"></a>Skins</h1>
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You can pick from the many pre-installed skins:<br>
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<br>
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<img src="images/skins.gif" style="width: 188px;" alt="Skins for Open-Shell Menu" title="Skins for Open-Shell Menu"><br>
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<br>Or you can download and install additional 3rd party skins (from
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the main website or from another place). After you download a new skin
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you
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must copy the <span style="font-weight: bold;">.skin</span> file to the Skins directory – usually <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #2b88d8;">C:\Program
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Files\Open-Shell\Skins</span>. After that it will be available in the settings.<br>
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<br>
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<strong>Windows 7 Note:</strong> Some skins may be specifically designed for
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Classic, Basic, or Aero mode. For example an Aero skin may require
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glass support any will look weird if the Classic or Basic theme is
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selected. Some Aero skins may also require specific glass color to be
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selected.<br>
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<br>
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You can create your own skin. You will need an image editor that
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supports alpha channel (like Gimp or Photoshop) and a tool to edit
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resource files (like Resource Hacker or Visual Studio). And of course
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some talent for graphical design :). Read the <a href="SkinTutorial.html">Skinning Tutorial</a> before you begin.<br>
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<br>
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<br><br>
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<h1><a name="search"></a>Search</h1><img src="images/search1.png" style="width: 302px;" alt=""><br>
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<br>
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The search box lets you search the contents of the start menu, the
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programs in the PATH environment variable and the indexed files. You can have the search box
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appear as a normal menu item and then you can get to it using the
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up/down arrow keys. You can choose to have the search box selected by
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default when you open the start menu. Or you can choose to activate the
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search box only with the Tab key, so until you press Tab you can use
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the keyboard for navigation as if the search box is not there.<br>
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<br>
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The search results show in the main menu if you are using the Windows 7 style or in a sub-menu for the classic styles.<br>
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Click on each category to expand it and see more results. Click on the icon at the end to view all results in Explorer.<br>
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<br>
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The classic styles allow you to register additional "search providers", which you can use to
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search for the text from the search box. You run the search program
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either by selecting it from the menu, or by
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pressing Alt+key. In this example use Alt+A for Agent Ransack.<br>
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<img src="images/search2.png" style="width: 309px;" alt=""><br>
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<br>
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This is done by adding sub-items of the SearchBoxItem in the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Customize Start Menu</span> tab:<br>
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<img src="images/search3.png" style="width: 260px;" alt=""><br>
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<br>
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Open each of the sub-items and enter a command to start the search program. If you use <span style="font-weight: bold;">%1</span> in the command, it will be replaced by the contents of the search box. If you use <span style="font-weight: bold;">%2</span>
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it will be replaced by the url-style encoded search text. Enter a
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label, tip, and icon to complete your menu entry. In the label text you
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can use <span style="font-weight: bold;">&</span> to mark the accelerator character (for example <span style="font-weight: bold;">&Agent Ransack</span>).<br>
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<br>
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Here are a few possible commands:<br>
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Search with Agent Ransack: <span style="font-weight: bold;">"C:\Program Files\Agent Ransack\AgentRansack.exe" -r -f "%1"</span><br>
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Search with Everything: <span style="font-weight: bold;">"C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe" -search "%1"</span><br>
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Search with Google: <span style="font-weight: bold;">http://www.google.com/#q=%2</span><br>
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Search with Bing: <span style="font-weight: bold;">http://www.bing.com/search?q=%2</span><br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<h1><a name="button"></a>Custom Start Button<br>
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</h1>Open-Shell can add its own Start button to the taskbar. It can
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even replace the default Start button in Windows 7. You can choose from
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an Aero-style orb, a rectangular classic button, or
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you can make your own. For a custom Start button you need an image that
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contain the 3 states of the button - normal, hot and pressed:<br>
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<img src="images/button_images.png" style="width: 48;" alt="Start button images" title="Start button images"><br>
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The image must be a 32-bit PNG or BMP. By default the width of the
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image determines the size of the button. You can override that by
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entering a custom width.<br>
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Read the <a href="ButtonTutorial.html">Button Tutorial</a> for more information about creating custom buttons.<br>
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You can find many custom Start button images online. Here are few examples:<br>
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<a href="http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=18">http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=18</a><br>
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.sevenforums.com/themes-styles/34951-custom-start-menu-button-collection.html">http://www.sevenforums.com/themes-styles/34951-custom-start-menu-button-collection.html<br>
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</a><a target="_blank" href="http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/78291-big-group-custom-start-orbs.html">http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/78291-big-group-custom-start-orbs.html</a><br>
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<a target="_blank" href="http://tutoriales13.deviantart.com/art/Orbs-153450418">http://tutoriales13.deviantart.com/art/Orbs-153450418</a><br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<h1><a name="localization"></a>Localization</h1>
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The user interface (except the Settings dialog box) is localized in 35
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languages.<br>
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The Settings dialog box is translated in a smaller number of languages.
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The default installation contains only English. More languages can be
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downloaded from the <a href="http://www.classicshell.net/translations/">translations page</a>. Make sure you download the translation package for the exact version of Open-Shell.<br>
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<br>
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<br><h1><a name="command_line"></a>Command Line</h1>
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<span style="font-weight: bold; color: #2b88d8;">StartMenu.exe</span> supports 5 command line parameters: <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #2b88d8;">-open</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #2b88d8;">-toggle</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #2b88d8;">-togglenew</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #2b88d8;">-exit </span>and <span style="font-weight: bold; color: #2b88d8;">-settings</span>.<br>
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<br>
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The first two do what the name suggests. One opens the classic Start menu, the other
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toggles it. You can use the parameters to create a shortcut in your
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QuickLaunch bar that opens the Start menu. Or to set a hotkey in
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programs such as <a target="_blank" href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/WinKey.shtml">WinKey</a>.<br>
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<br>
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The third one "-togglenew" toggles the default Windows Start menu (or Start screen). It is useful if
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you want to create a shortcut or a hotkey to open the default menu and use the Win
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key for the classic menu.<br>
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<br>
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Use "-exit" to exit the Start menu. This command will only work if the Start menu is not currently busy.<br>
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<br>
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Use "-settings" to open the Start menu settings. This is useful for creating a shortcut for editing the settings.<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<h1><a name="accessibility"></a>Accessibility</h1>The Start menu supports screen readers like JAWS,
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or Microsoft's Narrator. If the accessibility support causes problems it can be disabled from the <span style="font-weight: bold;">General Behavior</span> tab of the Settings.<br>
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<br>
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</body></html>
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