If you have been using Microsoft Windows Vista for quite some time, you would have noticed that installing a number of programs/softwares into your computer considerably slows down the response time of your start menu program folder, sometimes up to one second or more before the programs listed in a particular start menu folder is displayed. Worst of all, if you are trying to launch a program from you start menu which is within another start menu prrograms folder.

Well, I have found a way to bypass this very annoying thing in Windows Vista. I have about 98 start menu entries (including the default start menu entries by Windows Vista) in my laptop and yet, there is no lagging whenever I click on any start menu folder before it will be displayed. This is what I did:

Right click on the start menu (the windows logo on the left hand side of your task bar) and click on prooperties. Then click on Customize. This will present you with yet another Window where you can select the start menu items you would want to display an a link/menu/not at all. Find the option Highlight newly installed programs and disable it.

After this, log off/restart your windows. Go back again and check the response time of your start menu and you will find out that it has increased considerably. Before I found this out, I have been wondering the reason why my laptop (Compaq nx6310 - Specs: Intel Core2Duo T5500 @ 1.66GHz, 1.0GB DDR2 667, 120GB SATA-150 HDD) would always seem to be non-responsive for a bried moment after I have instaled a number of programs in there. Because of this, I had to partition and install Windows XP Professional w/SP2 in a second partition to know if splitting the softwares between the 2 OSes would solve that problem, yet the same thing kept happening. Right now, I am running more than twice the number of softwares I generally instal on my Windows Vista Ultimate and yet, there is no lagging whatsoever in the start menu Programs folder.

Note: This is only applicable to people using Windows Vista on their computers as this very option of disabling Highlight newly installed programs is not available in Windows XP and the previous Windows Operating systems. I have not tried this proceedure in the other Windows Vista Editions as I have always used the Ultimate Edition, but I believe that it will work in there as it worked in Ultimate which happens to be the heaviest of the Vista Operating Systems.

well thanks for ur tip. I have realised that but didnt figure out how to solve it

This is not true, as you can disable that option within Windows XP Pro, I do it all the time at work. Also, there is actually a way to speed up the response time for the Windows Start Menu by editing the registry.

First you will need to open the system registry by going to Start>Run then typing in "regedit" (without the quotes) and hitting enter. From there you want to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, don't expand the Desktop folder just single click on it. The window to the right will show many options, the one that you are looking for is "MenuShowDelay", right click on it and select modify. Change the number from 400 to anything you want, the higher the number the slower the Start Menu the lower the number the faster the Start Menu, and then click "OK". Just an FYI I set my to 50 and it works fine.

***ALWAYS REMEMBER TO BACKUP YOUR REGISRTY BEFORE EDITING IT***

I just wanted to say that all people that are n ot experienced with adding things and customizing registries should not do it without some sandbox rpogram or some automated program editor because if you make simple mistake or usually a noob one you will have to make complete restart of your system that is installation of all pprograms and Windows once more.

The other thhing is that your laptop is on the verge of minimum requirements for Windows Vista and this might be also the reason why it is getting slowed down. Also depends on what antivirus programs are you using since new programs need to register some processees with windows and because antivirus might want to check all of these it can get slow when you install it first time.

I haven't yet experienced any problems with ther problem you are talking about and I am using Vista for several months and have a hall bunch of programs installed.

think twice before even seeing registry and at double that when editing it.

Or you could use GNU/Linux like me

I'm just kidding, I had experience with Vista and I think its kinda the same OS like XP with just some eye-candy and upgraded progs. Nothing to see there, move along I thought...

You should really give a try to some GNU/Linux distro like Ubuntu or SuSE or maybe even Fedora

Cheers