Customizing the Windows Start Menu with Symenu

elmoteroloco · Aug 11, 2023

Hello forum, n00b from LatAm here, seemed like a good place for first post...

Although I've set up my (barelly yesterday installed) WinEleven desktop with the start button on the left, and voted in the survey accordingly, I believe it would be misleading not to mention that I've been using a third-party app (portable, opensource, freeware) of name Symenu to launch pretty much everything I've runned (in infamous way) since the XP glory days and with excellent response.
The launcher I use as a result is neither on the left nor in the center, but in the System Tray place, where the clock, language bar, audio volume controls, and other tiny icons inhabit. (also"MiniBinder", imho, a top notch solution ¨to not have to have¨ a trash can over the desk table)

So, that's all, I guess. I insert a .png to illustrate the entry.

Cheers!

Right side of the SysTray ^ icon are sited Symenu (displayed), MiniBin and Greenshot, respectively. Greenshot only shows if in use, course

glasskuter · Aug 11, 2023

Welcome to the forum. Glad you have your machine set up to suit you. Let me give you a word of caution for the future. Using any one (let alone 3) third party apps that alters the GUI can result in unexpected issues especially when windows updates. Microsoft is always making changes to the GUI. So be aware of that going forward when/if things don't work as you feel they should.

elmoteroloco · Aug 11, 2023

glasskuter said:
Welcome to the forum. Glad you have your machine set up to suit you. Let me give you a word of caution for the future. Using any one (let alone 3) third party apps that alters the GUI can result in unexpected issues especially when windows updates. Microsoft is always making changes to the GUI. So be aware of that going forward when/if things don't work as you feel they should.

Very much appreciated welcoming.

I'm intensive portable apps tester/user, usually have a good bunch of they on the bag, on times over a hundred, right now I has sixty five (give or take) on the go. That made the flow and overwatching issue a priority to me, and was solved when found this kind of "fully customizable menu" that the Symenu suite brings as launcher, I also know that (long years before things like ¨chocolatey¨ was something) Symenu had automated installing/updating/uninstalling options for the aplications of the suite (plus than 1300... nowadays) and other interesting behaviors that I never use... actually I don't use the suite as it

only the launcher, and, coincidentally, some of the portables but I like and enjoy to find and download apps by my own searches, and on author's web, despite the risks (maybe for that?)

Anyway, I've got Symenu running for over twenty years, and like fifteen for the (unfortunately discontinued) MiniBin, with no problem on their end (sometimes I get... experimental, then, even problems aren't a problem)

Also (and even before...) I found a demo of XYplorer on a magazine promotional CD, the icon pinned to the right of Opera in the image, if anyone is wondering, so I had tabs (and a file manager complex and profoundly efficient) decades ago.
The latter was not open source and versions are no longer free after the 17.4 but it is a solid asset for those who need to manage large amounts of files and folders (and/or if you want some quality of life on your platform... ) highly customizable and reliable, double tray, folder tree, task automation... I'm using it by default since Win98 without complaining at all

...With all that said, I absolute agree that all this ¨custom stuffs¨ are extremelly fringe and require a deep caution to be used (I'm talking about VMs, sandbox and safe enviroments) having full backupped and been certainly ready for a ¨clean reinstalling¨ of the entyre system from scratch (because, as almost everybody knows, s* happends)

hdmi · Aug 12, 2023

I recently tried SystemTrayMenu. It is similar to what you describe, but comes with a few additional advantages that I really hadn't expected so, TBH this was a pleasant surprise. I use it alongside multiple other tweaks such as Open-Shell, ExplorerPatcher, Winaero Tweaker, Ultimate Windows Tweaker, etc.. There are no compatibility issues between these that I have found. (It's one of those reasons why I am an exalted member of the "file managers like XYplorer are nothing but a pure waste of time" society.)