Girl Geekette

Menu Tricks - Speed

When you mouse over the start menu, there is normally a delay of a few seconds before the sub-menu you have chosen slides open. In computer terms, those few seconds can seem like an eternity. Here’s how to make it faster.

Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Double-click the MenuShowDelay icon on the right, and change the “Value data” box from its default of 400 to something faster, like 0.

Or if you think the menu opens too fast, you can increase that 400 to something bigger to slow the menu opening down.

When you have finished, press Enter.

You’ll now notice that the start menu opens much faster.

I have also zipped this up in a registry file.

  Minimize Windows Load Time (698 bytes, 291 hits)

  Default Windows Menu Load Time (702 bytes, 283 hits)

As in Windows Vista, Windows 7 comes along with UAC which prompts you before every administrative action you do. Here is how you can disable User Access Control.

Goto Start Menu > Control Panel > System and Security
Click on Action Center and Expand the “Security Tab“
Click on “Choose your UAC” Level and simply move the Bar down to stop prompting.

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. I cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

military or international time format

The clock now displays

clock

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. I cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

Speed up the Desktop on Windows 7

These entries achieve the following:

• Automatically end the programs that are taking a long time to respond.
• Quickly terminate the programs that are hung.
• Speed up menu display.
• Speed up the display of sub menus.

  Speed up the Desktop (664 bytes, 887 hits)

Change IE Window Title to default. Works in XP, Vista, Windows 7.

  Change IE Window Title to default (705 bytes, 846 hits)

Windows firewall may be great for may users, but it seems to do nothing for me more than being something annoying and possibly stopping a program from wanting that I want to run.

So, for me, I like to turn it off. This is how I turn it off:

Set the Control Panel to Small Icons. If you need a quick idea of how to do this, see Set Control Panel View.

Click on Windows Firewall

If Windows Firewall is on, you will see a screen similar to this one:

Windows Firewall - On

To Turn it off, Click on “Turn Windows Firewall on or off” on the left hand side of the screen

You will then see a screen similar to this:

Turn Windows Firewall On or Off screen

Click on Turn off Windows Firewall (not recommended) And Click OK

Windows Firewall - Off