Member Avatar for welder50

Not sure if this is the correct forum to post this question. If I need to I will cancel this and post it where you think it belongs.

I would like to know haw to rearrange the display of program icons that appear when I click "start" and move the cursor over the "all programs" item.

The icons (program names) are presently sorted by their creation date (as apps are added they are appended to the end of the list). I would like to change it to alphabetical. I googled the question but only found answers for the programs in the "start" menu which are already alphabetical.

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Short answer: the All Programs list is just a view of shortcut files on disk, so you can get precise, repeatable ordering by managing those files and folders directly. and pointed out the menu-level tricks; the steps below show the filesystem approach that gives permanent control and works across users.

Open Explorer and edit the Start Menu folders for your account and for all users. On Windows 2000/XP these live at:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu\Programs
and
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs
You can also use the environment names \%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs and \%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs to jump there. Move, rename or group .lnk shortcut files and folders inside those locations; the All Programs list reflects those changes.

Practical tips: create subfolders to group related apps, or prepend numbers (use leading zeros: 01-, 02-…) to force a custom alphabetical order. Avoid deleting a shortcut until you confirm it is not the program uninstaller or a launcher required by the app. Editing the All Users folder requires administrator rights and will affect every account on the PC. If an installer keeps recreating shortcuts or a corporate policy prevents changes, changes might be overwritten by installs or system policies.

If changes do not appear immediately, restarting Explorer (or logging off and back on) refreshes the Start menu. This method gives reliable control when you need more than the quick menu tweaks discussed earlier by and .

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Member Avatar for caperjack

hover mouse over any icon in the all program list and right click and chose sort by name,if that doesn't work just hold down left mouse button on icon of choice and drag it to where you want it to be

Member Avatar for welder50

Wow, I feel pretty stupid - this was sooo simple. Must have forgotten the right mouse button.

Thank you very much.

This site is awesome.

Member Avatar for caperjack

Wow, I feel pretty stupid - this was sooo simple. Must have forgotten the right mouse button.

Thank you very much.

This site is awesome.

your welcome ,
I wouldn't be here helping if there wasn't simple things to help with .lol

Member Avatar for gerbil

You may notice there are 2 sections to the All Programs list... top section starts with a few, select M$ shortcuts, but you can drag others into there to keep them at head of the queue, or remove any from there.

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