First off, I have been searching the forums.. for months!

This topic is about Classic Start Menu in Win XP, and how to get small icons by registry tweak.

When changing the setting by clicking Toolbar->Properties->Start Menu->Classic start menu->Customize->Show Small Icons in Start meun, regmon shows the following:

When switching on (to use small icons):

1) This key is first set:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_LargeIcons"=dword:00000000
2) Then immediately gets deleted

When switching off (to use large icons):

1) This key is first set:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_LargeIcons"=dword:00000001
2) Then immediately gets deleted

When I use similar registry monitoring apps, that takes snapshots, no change is noticed when switching this option, since the value is deleted after being altered.

All topics previously found in the forums (by me) deals with small icons in lots of other places, like IE toolbar, Explorer toolbar, etc.. this is something else.

I have a vague memory of reading about hex altering the data under:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\ShellBrowser]

Someone must know this? =)

Cheers!

Well first off just in case you dont know you can have it set to the classic style through the winnt.sif

[shell]

DefaultStartPanelOff = Yes

Specifies whether to use the classic Windows Start menu instead of the Windows XP Start menu, and displays icons for My Computer and My Documents on the Windows desktop.

Now one thing I do know is the startmenu and the taskbar shar alot of the settings under one reg key.

Thats how I get the quick launch bar to show.

Your answer may lie there. exsperiment with it with this reg key

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop]

"TaskbarWinXP"

I allready have the classic start menu, the question was how to get small icons on the classic start menu by changing the registry?

All values under the key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop]

are unaffected by changing the "Show small icons in start menu" toggle.

Thx anyways =)

even the value of "TaskbarWinXP" cause that is a huge vaule key. So many things in it are affected.

Just try this for a test and see. sethe the menu and taskbar the way you want it then export the vaule of the "TaskbarWinXP".

Then on your other computer import that key and reboot.

Cant hurt to see if it works.

I dont know if it will work I just know at least 10 different things are pulled from that key most likly a lot more.

Ok, i have tried this:

a) I first made sure that i had small icons on the classic start menu.

B) I exported these keys (and all sub values) from the registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\ShellBrowser]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams]

c) I then disabled the small icons on the classic start menu by clicking:

Toolbar->Properties->Start Menu->Classic start menu->Customize->"Show Small Icons in Start meun" (not checked)

d) I once again exported the above keys from the registry.

Attatched are the two exported key sets, one set for small icons, one for with large icons.

If you do a file compare on these, you will see that they are identical, ie. no changes where made to them by toggling the small icon setting.

Cheers!

regfiles.rar

OK I will also do a reg compare on my system.

I will responde back in about 10 min.

Ok I see the problem your having, but after some research I may have found a solution.

Problem is, is that I will need to write a program for you to do it.

For starters I found the reg key that changes the icons to big or small for the standard startmenu but not for classic. Bad thing is it is in a part of the regisrty that is different for every user account (same problem I had with visual effects, but I wrote a app to take care of that in this forum)

Now what I did see is once the small icons where set to small and I changed to classic start menu the setting transfered over.

So in thery I can write a app that sets the start menu to normal, changes it to small icons, then sets it to classic since the settings transfer over.

What do you think?

Why do you need to write a program, would adding this in a reg at cmdlines.txt:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_LargeMFUIcons"=dword:00000000;for small icon, 00000001 for large

and then adding this in a reg at GuiRunOnce or from runonceex.cmd:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSimpleStartMenu"=dword:00000001;force classic menu, 00000000 for default menu

not do the same thing?

No they dont the key that it is under that change are under HKU not HKCU

and since the key under HKU that the settings are under are different for every user account then simply using a reg file to import it wont do.

I have already been exsperimenting with this and I have gottin it to work. But it is picky

Anyways this sucks anyway you look at it.

You can easily set small icons for the standard startmenu but not so easily for classic.

My trick works, but only sometimes so that isnt good enough.

I to have scanned the reg for changes 6 times using different methods and I can never find a thing about the classic small icons.

So most likely the BEST solution would be for me and you to google some research and try to find a script or a API call and I can write an app to simply do it.

I found a solution! =)

The information on this page was great help.

In order to modify the Start Menu Options via a Regedit or programmatically

you need to make the modification first, then either log off or end task the

shell (explorer.exe) and your new settings will take affect. The reason is

that these settings appear to first be stored in volatile memory and are

then written to the Registry when you log off. The GUI apparently makes

some kind of undocumented API call to have Explorer reload its settings,

which you are not able to do with a simple Regedit change. There also

appears to be a state that can't be achieved via the GUI, which is to use

the Classic Menu and Small Icons, but can be done via Regedit.

Large icons:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects2]

"Settings"=hex:28,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,02,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,3c,00,00,00,1e,\

  00,00,00,fe,ff,ff,ff,e4,03,00,00,02,05,00,00,02,04,00,00

Small icons:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects2]"Settings"=hex:28,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,06,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,3c,00,00,00,1e,\

  00,00,00,fe,ff,ff,ff,e4,03,00,00,02,05,00,00,02,04,00,00

The difference is marked in bold (CODE tag and B tag dont mix? :/)

After importing these keys, you have to login/logout or kill/restart the explorer.exe proccess.

Bare in mind that importing these values will change many more settings, see the above url for details.

Cheers!

Good I am glad you found it.

Good ol google LOL.

I found a way to do it via RunOnceEx and a cmd file...

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;gopid=832840

Edited February 3, 200917 yr by meowing