Faster Menus

Do you find that your menus seem a bit sluggish? You can usually speed up their display speed. This trick is most noticeable for sub menus (like on your Programs menu).  It makes your computer seem a bit faster and more responsive.

Warning: This tip requires you to edit your registry. As such, it falls into the advanced users category.

If you're at all unsure of yourself in the registry editing arena, it may be a good idea to back up your registry. Once you're in the Registry editor, just hit the File menu, Export to make a backup copy.

 1. Hit the Start button, Run.

2. Type:

regedit

and hit Enter (or click OK if you prefer).

3. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Once you open the Desktop folder, scroll down to the "MenuShowDelay" item on the right.

Special Note:

If you don't see a "MenuShowDelay" item, you can make one. Just right-click a blank area in the right hand pane. Select New, String from the resulting menu.

Next, type in:

MenuShowDelay

Exactly as shown. Once that's done, you can proceed to the next step:

Double-click the "MenuShowDelay" item and change the value to a lower number (default is 400 or 500 depending on the system). Those numbers are in milliseconds; we found 100 worked well (enter 0 for instant menus). Be sure to enter something here if you had to create the value using the special note above!

Hit OK, exit the registry editor, and restart your computer.

Once you're restarted, click to the Start button, then Programs. Play around with the sub menus and I think you'll find they are much more responsive. Keep in mind if your system resources are maxed out - or if the thing is just plain slow - you may not see much improvement.