I notice that even running the "sort" function for the Start Menu does not put everything in the "Start Menu in alphabetic order.

Start items that are in sub-directories go alpha, but items not in sub-directories seem to have their own alpha order

There are probably 3 start menues on most installations: "All users", "Default User" and the specific user. Perhaps this creates the sorting problem

Does anyone know how get the items in the Start menu to be in perfect alphabetic order, other than mousing them there?

Can you just go start -> Programs and then right click somewhere and "Sort by name" ? I guess that only works on one folder and not any files in the sub folders (ie: sort by name at the all programs level doesnt sort by name any subfolders like games or accessories).

Hey, that's a nice short-cut I never tried. Always went to the sort button going through the Start/TaskBar and Start Menu item.

That works to sort all the items alphabetically in 2 groups: Items that have multiple choices and those that don't (like MS programs and Adobe Acrobat) I wonder why the distinction.

But, your short cut is very useful and saves time. Thanks.

I found an entry in the registry where it stores all the start menu orders and I found that deleting that folder tree in the registry caused all the start menu items and sub menu items to sort alphabetically and when new things were installed they were added alphabetically to the list instead of being added at the bottom of the list.

The list stayed sorted until I dragged something by mistake and the registry key was recreated and everything was given an id of where it was

I found this key by searching the registry for start menu or a name of a program on the start menu

You would have to open everyone's registry seperatly to do it for everyone but you could do it to the default user's registry so all new users would get an auto sorting start menu

If you can't find the key in the registry tell me and I will have a look :)

Very interesting Robinwilson. Found the key
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-436374069-1078145449-1060284298-1003\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Exp lorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu

I deleted the entire MenuOrder tree and it was regenerated when I rebooted the O/S, but without a text listing of start menu items. The text listing is regenerated when items are dragged in the start menu, as you point out. But, looking at the hex data in Programs/order which apparently causes the actual Start Menu order--that is, installed programs, followed by a second alpha list that includes things like Media Player, Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, etc., it looks like the registry makes a distinction between programs installed by Win XP and programs installed after the O/S is set up. But, this same second listing on the start menu also includes MS Word, Excel, Front Page, PowerPoint, Copernic, for example, each of which has the same "LNK" notation after their entry in the hex code under the "order" item in the key that was regenerated upon rebooting. In otherwords anything with LNK after it sorts in a list separate from the other programs installed on the machine.


Have you any idea why these items sort separately from installed programs? What does "LNK" signify in the key?