Configuring the Control Panel Start Menu Display

For power users and speed freaks, there's an even faster way to access individual Control Panel utilities-directly from the Start menu. Let me show you how.

By default, when you open the Start menu and click Control Panel, the Control Panel opens in its own window. You can, however, configure the Start menu so that the individual configuration utilities appear as a submenu when you select the main Control Panel menu item. Just follow these steps:

1. From the Control Panel, select Taskbar and Start Menu.
2. When the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears, click the Start Menu tab.
3. Click the Customize button.
4. When the Customize Start Menu dialog box appears, go to the Control Menu item and check Display as a Menu.
5. Click OK; then click OK again to close both the dialog boxes.

When you click Start, Control Panel, you now see a large submenu of all the available configuration utilities. Click any submenu item to launch that utility.