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Customizing Windows XP Start menu via registry keys

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Customizing Windows XP Start menu is quite fun but if you are using 10 or more PCs as my job requires me under a workgroup environment then sometimes it becomes tedious. I heard that this can be done using policies but I can’t remember how to do this in a non-domain setup. Anyway, for my personal taste and requirements, I need to hide some items from the Start menu(non-classic mode). Since I am using more than 10 computers, sometimes even more, I was looking for a cheap solution to customize it really quick and easy. Below shows my .reg file that one can use or as a starting point for specific needs. <—– start copying starting from the line below and save the file as xpcustom.reg 
;xpcustom.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
;Show Control Panel as a submenu
"Start_ShowControlPanel"=dword:00000002
;Hide MyDocuments
"Start_ShowMyDocs"=dword:00000000
;Hide Recent Documents
"Start_ShowRecentDocs"=dword:0000000
;Hide My Pictures
"Start_ShowMyPics"=dword:0000000
;Hide My Music
"Start_ShowMyMusic"=dword:0000000
;Hide My Network Places
"Start_ShowNetPlaces"=dword:0000000
;Hide Set Program Access and Defaults
"Start_ShowSetProgramAccessAndDefaults"=dword:0000000
;Hide Printers and Faxes
"Start_ShowPrinters"=dword:0000000
;Hide Help
"Start_ShowHelp"=dword:0000000
;Hide Search
"Start_ShowSearch"=dword:0000000
;Hide Network Connections
"Start_ShowNetConn"=dword:0000000
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartPage]
;Remove Show on Start Menu Internet/Email
"Favorites"=hex:ff

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects]
;Set for best performance
"VisualFXSetting"=dword:00000002
<——– don’t copy this line For more information about the registry keys, visit this link. Note that it is for Windows 2000 but the information serves its purpose for this blog. And last but certainly not the least, I have used Regmon utility extensively while working on what keys to change. See this link for download. Download xpcustom.reg here. ~ts
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