CNET Editors' review
Tidy Start Menu is an intuitive way to organize the programs in your Start menu. Although the program is easy to use, we found that some of the features we most like to see in such programs are available only by upgrading to the Pro version.
The program's interface is clean and moderately attractive. The program comes with nine categories, such as Games, Programming, and Entertainment, and a series of check boxes allows users to specify what programs they would like to have appear in each category. Users can also drag and drop programs from one category to another. The categories then show up in the user's Start menu, allowing users to quickly find their programs. All of this works well and is easy to do, and the program's built-in Help file answers any questions a user may have. The aspect of the program that disappoints us is the fact that some of the most useful features are only available to users who upgrade to the Pro version of the software. Users of this version of Tidy Start Menu cannot create, delete, or edit categories. Although the categories that the program provides will likely be adequate for many users, this extra level of customization makes it easier for users to organize their programs in the way that is most meaningful to them.
Tidy Start Menu is free. It installs desktop icons without asking but uninstalls cleanly. We recommend this program to all users who are looking for a way to organize their Start menus and don't require a high level of customization.
Publisher's Description
From OrdinarySoft:
Are you tired of searching for programs in a long Start Menu list? If so, this program is for you. It allows you to arrange all the shortcuts in the Start Menu. Your Start Menu looks neat, and you can easily, and quickly find any program you want. For example, you can create a special Games category, and when opening the Start Menu you will see a Games section (instead of a list of the games) in which you will find the game you need.
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All versions:
3.3 starsout of 9 votes
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Results 1-9 of 9
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"Dirty in a Different Way"
Version: Tidy Start Menu 4.1
Pros
"10 characters minimum"?
Cons
Browser launch on uninstall
Summary
When one disinstalls this product, it launches a browser to take one to a comments page. Launching a browser without first getting user permission to do this is inexcusable. I will never again trust any code from this firm or from this programmer.
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"Organises your start menu, like Ubuntu."
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.43
Pros
Allows you to organise your software by type: Games, Graphics, Internet, Office, etc. so you can to find your software much quicker and improving the appearance dramatically.
Cons
The interface could be improved to look better, but it's still easy to use.
Summary
If you've ever used Ubuntu operating system, you'll know that the start menu is much more organised than Windows. It organises software by type: Games, Graphics, Internet, Office, etc. This is what Tidy Start Menu brings to Windows, the ability to easily organise your software by type, without having to go through the trouble of moving and creating folders yourself.
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"excellent free software"
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.43
Pros
does what it says and really tidys up your start menu programs
Cons
none it works fine
Summary
as stated keeps your start menu programs tidy and uncluttered and easier to find things than the usual windows own version that comes with pc/laptop
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"Completely unnecessary program"
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.43
Pros
none, everything this program does you can do manually in a few clicks
Cons
Anything that you can do with this program or the paid upgrade you can do manually by right clicking on all programs and opening all users, then open the programs folder and then create as many folders as you want,
Summary
name them what you want and drag and drop your your programs into your new folders.
Why the editors would give this useless program 3.5 stars is beyond me -
"simple mode works well, have to pay for advanced"
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.42
Pros
the simple mode does what it says it does
Cons
the more advanced mode, "Explorer mode", costs money, when all it does is open two windows and allow you to drag and drop the files from one to another, which is built into XP
Summary
it's simple enough for my parents and it helped save Windows 7 RC when I had a problem with programs appearing in all programs, but when my XP all programs got too full the simple mode was too simple. I ended up just opening two start menu windows and dragging the files over to category files. It was faster and allowed me to look into the folders and see what the programs were (not all programs are named intuitively)
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"Easy to use & improved my menu system organization."
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.4.01
Pros
I liked being able to organize and alphabetize my menu system easily.
Cons
The basic or free version could stand more flexibility.
Summary
Overall excellent rating. Not a real complicated program but it does what it is intended to do.
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"Works good"
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.4
Pros
Free version was to limited for me so I did purchase it. Comes in handy, keeps programs organized. Works well.
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"Works Good"
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.4
Pros
Pro: Simple. Non-resource hogging. Works as advertised. It organized my Start Menu so that all the many games were in one place etc etc. For the first time I could just look at it and quickly find what I was looking for. If you are looking to organize your Start Menu a bit more but not too much, then this is good freeware.
Cons
Con: Nothing. You get what you pay for, so if you want to rename the main files you have to fork over. If you are looking for a more robust Start Menu interaction then go another direction, like VistaStartMenu.
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"This program works but has one flaw."
Version: Tidy Start Menu 3.4
Pros
This will make your program list shorter. You simply open tidy start menu and it has two modes, simple mode and explorer mode. Simple mode is recommended, now click start work.
Next select a category like games and you can put all games in that folder. And there are other categories like office, utilities, entertainment, programming, and more. You can also just check a program, to remove it from the program list.
Cons
The one flaw it has is when you uncheck a program, to put it back on the program list. Is that the programs you put back on the list will not be in their original order.
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