Here's our Windows 95/98 Tip for.. April 27, 1997
Click Here to see a complete list of all of our previously released Tips!
Speed up your Start menu
You've already created new Keys in the Registry; now we're going to create a new String Value. To do this, right-click on the item in the left pane that you want to add this new attribute to and select New|String Value; the item's new data field will appear in the right pane.

Create a new String Value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and name it MenuShowDelay. Set its value as a number from 1 to 10 for blazingly fast menu drop-downs, 1 being the fastest. (The default, by the way, is 250.) This sets the amount of delay time in milliseconds that it takes from when you click the Start button before the various menus start to pop up. To really see if it's working, set this attribute to 10000 and see what happens.

WARNING!! This is a REGISTRY HACK! And as such, you MUST FIRST make a backup of your Registry so that you can recover from any mistakes you might make. The Registry is a very unforgiving place if you don't know EXACTLY what you are doing. An incorrect Registry entry can render your entire system INOPERABLE. DO NOT attempt to change Registry settings without a Backup. Don't say we didn't warn you...

The Configuration Backup Utility is one of the CD-Extras, so if you don't have the CD-ROM version of Windows 95, CLICK HERE to download it now.

Another, perhaps, EASIER way to accomplish this is to use Microsoft's Add-on utility, TweakUI. It comes as part of Microsoft's Powertoys. Among other things, it will automate the process of speeding up the Start Menu. CLICK HERE to download TweakUI now.