When you set out to work with Microsoft Windows Server 2003, one of the first things you'll notice is that the desktop and Start menu are different from previous editions of the Windows operating system. For starters, the desktop is empty—or practically so because the only item on it is the Recycle Bin—and there's a new Start menu. Beyond that, though, the interface changes from Microsoft Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2003 are minor. In fact, you'll find most of the tools that you want to work with are right where they were in Windows 2000.
However, for those coming from Microsoft Windows NT to Windows Server 2003, the interface represents a significant change, the biggest of which has to do with the use of the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). Although most system functions still are controlled through Control Panel, many administrative functions are now accessed by using the MMC. You'll find there are many prepackaged administration tools for the MMC, many of which are accessible from the Administrative Tools menu. But the true power of the MMC is in its extensible framework that lets you build your own administration tools.
This chapter is the first of two that focus on customizing the configuration of Windows Server 2003. In this chapter, you'll learn how to customize the operating system interface. In Chapter 11, you'll learn how to use and customize the MMC using the extensible framework provided by Microsoft. As you'll see, once you optimize the environment, you'll be well on your way to mastering Windows Server 2003.
Way back in Chapter 1, we talked about some of the interface changes in Windows Server 2003, focusing on the changes to the Start menu and discussing how you could choose to use either the simple or the Classic Start menu. Basically, you right-click the Start button, select Properties to display the Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box, and then select either Start Menu (for the simple Start menu) or Classic Start Menu. That is one way to change the interface. Now let's look at other ways you can change the interface, starting with how you can control the content of the Start menu.
Regardless of whether you choose to use the simple or Classic Start menu, you can customize the menu by adding, removing, moving, copying, sorting, and renaming menu items. The simple Start menu does have a slight advantage over the Classic Start menu in the area of customization, however. As Figure 10-1 shows, this menu has the following features:
Figure 10-1. Simple Start menu has two customizable areas: the pinned items list and the most frequently used programs list
Pinned items list Appears in the upper-left corner of the menu and allows you to add items that should always appear on the menu. If you no longer want an item to appear on the list, you can remove it as well.
Frequently used programs list Appears below the pinned items list and shows the most frequently used programs. The Windows operating system manages this list automatically based on your program usage, but you can control the number of items that appear here and can remove items from the list. You can't add items to this list, however.
All Programs button Appears in the lower-left corner of the menu and provides access to the program menus. The items that appear here are the same as you see when you are using the Classic Start menu and click Programs, including any items that normally appear above the Programs menu. You can rearrange the items to meet your needs and preferences.
Note
Items on the pinned items list and most frequently used programs list do not appear on the Classic Start menu. You can, however, add items to the top of the Start menu above the Programs folder.
To add an item to the pinned items list, navigate the menu system until you get to the program you want to work with. When you find it, right-click it, and then click Pin To Start Menu. Now you have a program shortcut pinned to the Start menu. Alternatively, if you drag a shortcut, folder, or program icon to the Start button and release the mouse button before the menu displays, the shortcut is added to the pinned items list. Keep in mind that these techniques are for the simple Start menu—the Classic Start menu doesn't have a pinned items list.
Troubleshooting: No shortcut menus appear when I right-click
The appearance of the shortcut menu when you right-click a menu item is controlled by the drag-and-drop menu configuration option. If you don't see a shortcut menu when you rightclick an item, the Enable Dragging And Dropping menu option has been disabled. To enable shortcut menus, right-click the Start button, choose Properties, and then click Customize. If you are using the simple Start menu, click the Advanced tab, and then in the Start Menu Items box, select Enable Dragging And Dropping. If you are using the Classic Start menu, click Enable Dragging And Dropping in the Advanced Start Menu Options list.
You can add a program to the top of the Classic Start menu, above the Programs folder. To do this, you drag a shortcut to the top of the menu from any location in the menu, the desktop, or a Windows Explorer window. When you do this, you'll see a shortcut menu with Copy Here, Move Here, or Cancel options. Most of the time, you'll want to create a copy of the item rather than move the shortcut. This ensures that the shortcut remains in its original location and if you later delete the item from above the Programs menu, you'll still be able to access the item in its original location.
The simple Start menu supports drag and drop, too. In fact, you can drag an item from any part of the menu to any other part of the menu, regardless of which menu you are using. This is how you add an item to any part of the menu. So, click the item you want to work with, hold down the mouse button, and navigate to where you'd like to add the item in the menu. A dark line shows where the new item will appear when you release the button.
You can use drag and drop to move items from the desktop or Windows Explorer to the menu as well. When you do this, the Windows operating system leaves the item where you got it and creates a copy on the Start menu. If the item you're dragging and dropping isn't a shortcut, that's okay as well. The operating system creates a shortcut to represent the item on the Start menu automatically. This allows you to drag a file or folder to the menu, providing a quick access shortcut to the file or folder.
Note
The Windows operating system creates a shortcut only if you drag and drop a file or folder to a location within the menu. If you drag a file or folder onto the menu and then drop it into one of the document links, such as My Documents, My Music, or My Pictures, Windows Server 2003 will move the selected item to the document folder instead of creating a shortcut.
Troubleshooting: I'm unable to drag and drop items
All this talk about dragging and dropping items is fine as long as the drag and drop feature for the Start menu is enabled. If this feature is disabled, however, you won't be able to drag items to, from, or within the Start menu. To enable drag and drop, right-click Start, choose Properties, and then click Customize. If you are using the simple Start menu, click the Advanced tab, and then in the Start Menu Items box, select Enable Dragging And Dropping. If you are using the Classic Start menu, click Enable Dragging And Dropping in the Advanced Start Menu Options list.
To copy an item to a new location, press Ctrl, click the item, then hold the mouse button while dragging the item to the new location. A plus sign (+) appears next to the mouse pointer, indicating that you are copying the item not moving it. Release the mouse button and then release the Ctrl key. You can copy items from the menu to the desktop, a folder, or a toolbar using the same technique.
Note
Keep in mind that when you drag an item from the left side of the simple Start menu to the All Programs menu, Windows Server 2003 always copies the item. Therefore, you don't need to hold down the Ctrl key. The same is true when you drag an item from the All Programs menu to the pinned items list.
When you work with the Start menu, you should be aware of two additional features, which you might or might not like: automatic highlighting and hiding of menu items.
For the simple Start menu, when you install new programs, by default the Windows operating system highlights the additional menus and menu items that have been created. These highlights last until you run the item (or for several days) and are designed to make it easier for you to find the new items and also ensure that you know what changes have been made to the Start menu. Some users love this feature; some users hate it. If you find the highlights distracting, you can remove them. To do this, right-click the Start button, choose Properties, and then click Customize. Click the Advanced tab, and then in the Start Menu Settings box, clear the Highlight Newly Installed Programs box, as shown in the following screen:
For the Classic Start menu, by default the Windows operating system displays the most frequently used items and hides the others. This feature is designed to reduce menu clutter by giving you shorter menus that make it easier for you to find the items you use the most. A double arrow at the bottom of a submenu indicates the presence of additional items that are not shown. To display these items, click the double arrow or wait a few seconds and the menu will expand automatically.
The newly displayed items are shown on a light-colored background to make them easier to see. Again, this is a feature you probably either love or hate. Don't worry, you can turn this feature off. To do this, right-click the Start button, choose Properties, and then click
Customize. In the Advanced Start Menu Options list, clear the Use Personalized Menus option, as shown in the following screen:
For the default Start menu, the Windows operating system manages the frequently used programs list based on your program usage. The list includes only shortcuts to .exe files; any other executable files that you use are not shown on the list regardless of how often you use them. There are many exceptions as well. For example, if the name of the shortcut that starts the program contains any of the following strings, it is not displayed on the list:
Documentation
Help
Install
More Info
Readme
Read me
Read First
Setup
Support
What's New
Remove
The list of excluded names or partial names is controlled by the AddRemoveNames value in the registry location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionExplorerFileAssociation. Further, the following program executables are specifically excluded from appearing on the list:
Setup.exe
Install.exe
Isuninst.exe
Unwise.exe
Unwise32.exe
St5unst.exe
Rundll32.exe
Msoobe.exe
Lnkstub.exe
The list of excluded programs is controlled by the AddRemoveApps value in the same registry location mentioned previously. Additional programs can be registered to be excluded from the list by adding them to the KillList value in this registry location. The following programs are on the Kill list by default:
Explorer.exe
Dvdplay.exe
Mplay32.exe
Msohtmed.exe
Quickview.exe
Rundll.exe
Rundll32.exe
Taskman.exe
Bck32api.dll
The Windows operating system uses these registry values to control the items that appear on the frequently used programs list. You can customize these values, particularly the Kill list, if you desire. You can also control whether and how the list is configured. By default, the Windows operating system shows up to six frequently used programs on the list. You can change this behavior by setting the number of programs to display using a value from 0 to 30. If you use a value of 0, no frequently used programs are displayed and you essentially disable this feature. Any other value sets the maximum number, up to and including that number, of frequently used programs that the operating system can display on the Start menu.
To specify the maximum number of programs that can appear on the frequently used programs list, right-click Start, choose Properties, and click Customize. In the General tab of the Customize Start Menu dialog box, enter the value you want to use in the Number Of Programs On Start Menu box, as shown in Figure 10-2. If you want to clear the program usage statistics, click Clear List. After you click Clear List, the Windows operating system clears out any existing program usage statistics and starts over, adding programs to the list each time you use them.
As you add new programs, the Windows operating system typically adds the shortcuts for the programs to the bottom of the menu. Over time, this can result in having programs listed in a seemingly random order. To have it so programs are listed alphabetically, you can tell the operating system to re-sort a particular menu or submenu so that folders are listed in alphabetical order, followed by menu items listed in alphabetical order.
To sort the currently selected submenu, right-click an item on the menu, and choose Sort By Name from the shortcut menu. If you are using the Classic Start menu, you can sort all the submenus within the Programs menu at once. To do this, right-click Start, choose Properties, and then click Customize. In the Customize Classic Start Menu dialog box, click Sort.
Note
The Windows operating system maintains many menu settings separately for the Classic and simple Start menus, including drag and drop settings and sort order. This means if you change the order of a menu using the Classic Start menu, the changes don't appear if you change to using the simple Start menu.
While we're talking about sorting items, a related topic is renaming items. Unlike versions of the Windows operating system prior to Microsoft Windows XP, you can rename menu items. To do this, right-click the menu item you want to rename, and choose Rename. Edit the name of the item, and then click OK. Renaming an item can change the way the item is sorted, but Windows Server 2003 won't re-sort the menu automatically. You must do this manually using one of the techniques discussed previously.
Windows Server 2003 gives you several options for removing items from the Start menu. If the item is on the pinned items list, you can remove it from the list by right-clicking it and choosing Unpin From Start Menu. Unfortunately, if you do this and the program is also one of your most frequently used programs, it could immediately reappear on the frequently used programs list. To ensure the program doesn't show up in either location, right-click the item, and choose Remove From This List. This is the same option you choose to remove an item from the frequently used programs list. (Unfortunately, this isn't permanent, however. If you continue to use a program, it can show up again on the frequently used programs list. So, if you really want to block a program from the frequently used programs list, exclude it as discussed in the section entitled "Controlling the Frequently Used Programs List" earlier in this chapter.)
Other types of menu items can be removed as well. To remove a regular menu item, rightclick it, and choose Delete. Confirm that you want to remove the item by clicking Yes when prompted.