Disabling Scrolling Menus

One of the more irritating features of the new Windows configurations is the conversion of readable menus into scrolling menus. The original Windows 95 provides a multi-column Start menu - Windows 95c, Windows 98, and Windows NT4 are cursed with scrolling menus. Fortunately, some systems provide a way for the user to select which technique is used. When supported, this "feature" is controlled in 2 parts

HKLM\...\explorer\Advanced defines the user configurable options which are available under Windows Explorer / View / Folder Options... / View
HKCU\...\explorer\Advanced records the user's preference

For specific details, inspect your own registry. In general, HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced is used to define checkboxes and radio buttons which are displayed under Windows Explorer / View / Folder Options... / View. Most keys contain

Type	Either radio, checkbox, or group
Text	This is what is displayed. If it is omitted, the name of the key is displayed.
HelpID	If you click the question mark, and then the selection, this is what is displayed.
Bitmap	This applies to groups (sub-folders) only.
CheckedValue DefaultValue	These apply to radio buttons
CheckedValue UncheckedValue DefaultValue	These apply to checkboxes
HKeyRoot (a numeric handle) RegPath (a string) ValueName	When a change is made, the user selected value is stored in a registry key determined by concatenating these 3 values.
CheckedValueNT CheckedValueW95	Apparently, there are additional options.

As you can see, the available keys depend on the operating system.

Key	Win 98	Win NT 4
ClassicViewState	x	x
DontPrettyPath	c	x	Allows all upper case names
Hidden	c	x
HideFileExt	c	x
MapNetDrvBtn	c	x
ShowAttribCol	c	x
ShowCompColor	c	x	Win 98 - In HKCU but not in HKLM
FullPath	x	x
ShowInfoTip	c	x
StartMenuScrollPrograms			Works in NT 4 but must be entered by hand
DragFullWindows	x	x
FontSmoothing	x	x
HideIcons	c	x

In the Win 98 column, those marked with "c" show up in RegMon as being checked in HKCU. The others, marked with an "x", are in HKLM, but are never checked (as far as I can tell).

Specific settings for controlling Start Menu scrolling
Verified with Win 98 and NT 4

Below are the specific registry settings that you can use to control whether or not scrolling is enabled. However, depending on your screen resolution, if you turn scrolling off, then some of the Start Menu selections may not display and, therefore, can not be clicked. If this happens, you can re-arrange the Start Menu into folders. (Hey, you should do this anyway. Unfortunately, if you do, then most uninstall programs will leave the icons in the menu. Then you will have to locate them and manually delete them.)

(Systems missing SHDOC401.DLL do not allow users to control how the Start Menu is displayed.)

To install the following registry values

Save the following data in a text file (hint: use notepad)
Name the file something.reg (the reg is important)
Right click the reg file and select Merge

 
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\Folder\StartMenuScrollPrograms]
"Type"="checkbox"
"Text"="Enable Start/Programs Menu Scrolling"
"HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001
"RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced"
"ValueName"="StartMenuScrollPrograms"
"CheckedValue"="true"
"UncheckedValue"="false"
"DefaultValue"="true"
"HelpID"="update.hlp"

Because the HelpID is missing a reference number, it will specify that no help is available. If you know the correct number, please let me know.

HKLM defines the dialog (provides the checkbox)

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
   explorer\Advanced\Folder\StartMenuScrollPrograms

HKCU stores the user's selection

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
   explorer\Advanced\StartMenuScrollPrograms

Explorer Versions

This is by no means a complete list of explorer.exe versions (as of Feb 2001, Microsoft lists 15). However, it is apparent that in order to disable the scrolling menu, SHDOC401.DLL is required.

OS	Explorer.exe			IE Version	SHDOC401.DLL
OS	Ver	Size	Date	IE Version	SHDOC401.DLL
Win 95	4.00.950	200 kb	07-11-95	4.72.3110.8	missing	Does not scroll, Old options dialog
Win 95c	4.00.950c	199 kb	08-24-96	5.50.4522.1800	yes	Does not scroll, Old options dialog
Win 95c	4.72.2106.4	165 kb	11-18-97	4.72.2106.8	missing	Menu scrolls but can not be disabled, New options list
Win 98	4.72.3110.1	176 kb	05-11-98	4.72.3110 5.00.2919.6304	missing yes	scrolling can not be disabled scrolling can be disabled On both machines, the menu scrolls and has the new options list
NT 4	4.72.3110.1	174 kb	05-08-98	5.00.2314.1003	yes	Menu scrolls and can be disabled, New options list

The string StartMenuScrollPrograms occurs in only SHDOC401.DLL. Interestingly, the DLL Dependency Viewer does not associate this with explorer.exe, or any other executable. However, it is associated with IE 4 and 5 installations. SHDOC401.DLL has many CLSIDs in the registry. The Start menu CLSID is referenced by shell32.dll, but there is no overt link. (Using version 2.0 Beta 3 of the DLL Dependancy Walker there is an impled/delayed link to shell32.dll. Version 1.0 does not show this type of link.)

It appears that IE 4 broke the Start Menu if the Desktop Update was installed, and that IE 5 allows you to fix it ... if you know how.

References

A partial solution was found via The LangaList. However, the checked, unchecked, and default values were numeric, not strings.
Various registry hacks by John Woram, the author of "The Windows 98 Registry", indicated that the string "false" would work.
Apparently, Windows 2000 allows you to set how the menu is displayed via Start / Settings / Task Bar & Start Menu... / Advanced. (My Windows 98 and NT 4 systems don't have the Advanced option.)
According to Microsoft,
When Windows Desktop Update is installed with Internet Explorer 5, it replaces the traditional Start menu with a scrolling Start menu
Also see problems with a multi-column Start Menu and Adding and Removing the Windows Desktop Update. (available with IE 4 & 5) My Windows 98 and NT 4 systems do not list Windows Desktop Update under add/remove programs.
DLL Hell discusses the problem where loading one application breaks another. The example and discussion refer to the explorer.exe scrolling Start Menu problem.

Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org