Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Make Menus More Mindful

Ever noticed the half-second or so delay between the instant you move the mouse over a menu item and the moment the menu is opened? By default, Windows waits 400 milliseconds (just under a half-second) before opening menus, but if you eliminate the delay, menus will open instantaneously, and your PC will feel a little more alert.

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
3. Double-click the MenuShowDelay value. If it's not there, go to Edit → New → String Value, and type MenuShowDelay for the name of the new value.
4. The numeric value you enter here is the number of milliseconds (thousandths of a second) Windows will wait before opening a menu. Enter 0 (zero) here to eliminate the delay completely.
   If you ever have trouble holding your mouse perfectly still, you've probably found it frustrating to navigate menus- particularly those in the Start menu-in Windows 7. Try typing a very large value (65534 is the maximum) here to stop menus from automatically opening altogether, which should make them easier to use.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor when you're finished. Log off and then log back in or restart Windows for this change to take effect.

Note that another way to navigate touchy menus is to use the keyboard. In any application, press the Alt key by itself to jump to the menu bar-or press Ctrl-Esc or the Windows logo key to open the Start menu-and then use the arrow keys to navigate. (Or skip navigation altogether and type the first few letters of a program to launch it.)

To make menus open even more quickly, turn off the Fade or slide menus into view and Fade out menu items after clicking options covered earlier in this tutorial.