Gerald from South Africa writes:

" Dear Clif,

I look forward to your weekly letters with great anticipation for I am always finding useful programs to experiment with and some to retain. I now have so many programs in my Start -> Programs Folder that there are now 3 full columns. How do I alter the columns into one long column? Also when I right click on the programs in the list I no longer get any response from the right click button so I am unable to remove those shortcuts that I no longer wish to retain.

Clif's response:

A freeware version of Tidy Menu comes to mind. From the web site:

" As time goes by, the list of the programs in the Start Menu becomes too long. As a result, each time you want to launch a program, it takes too much time to find it in the menu. The 'Tidy Start Menu' program will help you to put the menu in order and make your work comfortable. For setting the menu in order, the program offers you to categorize the Menu. For example, the Internet programs can be put into the 'Internet' category, while all games can be included in the 'Games' category. Thus, after using the program, you will have a compact menu, which will contain nothing but categories' names. "

http://www.tidystartmenu.com/index.shtml

Dennis has also written an easy guide which features a "drag and drop" approach to Tidying up the Start Menu:

Organized Cluttered Start Menu

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