I know some ppl are going to misconstrue what I ask and suggest stuff like change to Windows classic mode, etc etc. First of all, this is not what I am after. My configuration: 1) Display Properties, Appearance... I have Windows Classic style loaded. 2) Taskbar & Start Menu Properties... Start Menu (I do not want to set "Classic Start Menu"). I like the XP start menu, but just not the lame GUI, so I reverted the color scheme back to classic style through appearance. I do NOT want to use classic start menu. Okay, great. Now for the question... Start Menu: By default, the start menu begins at the bottom of the screen and only goes up about 60% of the screen vertically. I don't know what I did before, but I was able to get the start menu to auto-resize itself so that it reached the top of the screen down to the bottom of the screen. I was clicking and dragging and the darn thing freaked out and auto-resized itself. I am pretty sure the start menu is not supposed to be resized, but if it is possible I'd like to repeat what I did on this installation of XP Pro. So, let me reiterate what I am after... 1) I do NOT want to change resolution to get more shortcuts pinned to the start menu. 2) I do NOT want to change the style of the start menu. 3) I DO want the start menu to resize so that it touches the top and bottom of the screen at the same time. Horizontally, I do not want the start menu resized, just vertically. If anyone can find a link to a tech site with this information (which I was unable to find on a search of my own), I'd appreciate it. Or if anyone knows how to go about doing this, I'd appreciate the assistance. Thanks

G'day Fanatic, not sure if this is what you mean but go to the Start Menu props and select the Customize button then the General tab. There is a choice of how many programs you want to show on the Start Menu, the more you select the higher the Start Menu will go until it cannot take any more items. Also you get the choice of large or small icons as well. Not sure if this is what you mean but I think it might be. You can also add or remove some items from the Advanced tab Just for the record the Start Menu is inside Explorer.exe and can be modified [not resized] using a Resource Editor, that is you can permanently delete,re-order or rename the basic system items there.

Thx for replying, but... Definitely not what I am after. I should have stipulated this before. You can only adjust "recently opened" apps - max of 30 - in that value you suggested. I don't want recently opened apps to appear at all in the start menu. yes, the start menu loads to full screen by doing this, but I do not want "recently opened" apps shown at all, so i set that value to zero. And I always use small icons. I guess I'm stuck either way... Anyone else? Thanks Ronnie for replying though. Cheers

no worries, at you answered unlike some... I don't use the Xp-sytle anything if I can help it so I didn't realise they were the recent docs shortcuts [I don't get them either anymore].

Update: Well, I loaded the value to 30 then started to manually move the recently opened apps to the permanent list above it. Once they were moved up, I went back and reset the value of max programs to zero and the start menu remained full screen... exactly what I wanted. Cheers

Hi If you mean the window that first pops up when you click start button,try drag and drop everything from the right list to the left,I have just tried that and it worked. BOB

how to menu info; Customize the Start Menu: You can choose several options to customize your Start menu including selecting large icons and specifying the number of programs you want to display on your Start menu. The size of icons and number of items on the Start menu can benefit people with vision impairments and cognitive/learning disorders. This procedure tells you how to customize the Start menu through Taskbar and Start Menu Properties in Control Panel. 1. On the Start menu: Select Control Panel. 2. In Control Panel: Be sure you are in Classic View (all Control Panel icons are showing). If not, under control Panel in the left pane, select Switch to Classic View. Select Taskbar and Start Menu. 3. In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box: Select the Start Menu tab. 4. On the Start Menu tab: Select Start Menu. Select the Customize button. 5. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, on the General tab: Under Select an icon size for programs, choose: Large icons, or Small icons. Under Programs: Choose the number of programs you want to appear on the Start menu. Under Show on Start menu: Select an Internet program from the list of installed programs. Select an E–mail program from the list of installed programs. Select OK twice. 6. To close Control Panel: Select the Close button.