Returning the Menus to Their Rightful Place

Microsoft seems to hate pull-down menus, for some reason. Over the past few years, Microsoft has hidden the menu system in many programs, and gotten rid of it altogether in Office 2007 (although the old menu keystroke combinations still work). In those programs where the menus are merely hidden, you can display them at any time by tapping the Alt key. This works in Windows Explorer, too, and that's a good thing because Windows Explorer's pull-down menus have several useful commands that simply aren't available through the taskbar, keyboard shortcuts, or even by right-clicking.

Still, it sticks in my craw that accessing the Windows Explorer menus requires the extra step of Alt, particularly if I'm in mouse mode. If you feel the same way, follow these steps to force Windows Explorer to display the menu bar full-time:

1. If you have a folder window open, select Organize, Folder and Search Options. (No folder windows open at the moment? Click Start, type folder, and then press Enter to select Folder Options in the search results.) The Folder Options dialog box appears.
2. Click the View tab.
3. Click to activate the Always Show Menus check box.
4. Click OK. Windows Explorer (perhaps a tad grudgingly) restores the menu bar to its rightful place.