Refluxology

I’ve upgraded to Windows 7 having returned from a year-long Ubuntu adventure and being what I can only politely describe as a bit unwilling to saddle my laptop with Vista.

On the whole I’m very happy with it.  I know XP “just works” but this seems just as reliable.  One thing that really annoys me about it though is the Start Menu.  It uses a Vista-style menu that requires much scrolling to find anything.  Very annoying.  More annoying is that, unlike Vista, there’s no option to return to the XP-style menu which is infinitely easier to use.

Horrible menu...

...with horrible scrolling

Fortunately, I’ve found a free program that can replicate the effect pretty well.  It’s called, somewhat misleadingly, Vista Start Menu.  Vista Start Menu can replace the normal menu with something much easier to navigate and much more familiar.  There’s not a lot more to say that their website can’t fill you in on, so I’d recommend you take a look.  There’s also a Pro version which allows further customisation (including a nice feature that automatically finds the main program in each folder and lets you select it directly from the menu) and has an Aero interface that blends in with Vista/7 more cleanly.

Much better (doesn't have to be this wide)

The Get a proper Start Menu back on Windows 7 by Refluxology, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England License.