Reducing the menu delay

Whenever you move your mouse over an item that expands in the Start Menu, you have to wait for the system to expand that menu and show you the submenu. By default, your system is configured to wait 400 milliseconds before it automatically expands any submenu. Navigating through the Start Menu is when you will notice this delay the most.

Using the system Registry Editor, you can hack the System Registry to modify the amount of time that the computer waits before it automatically expands a submenu.

The best value for the menu delay is different for every person. You might like the submenu to show up instantly, although others might like it to appear after the mouse hovers over the item for a little while, or vice versa. The best way to fine-tune this setting is by testing it a few times with different values. If you want the submenu to show up instantly, then set the delay to 0. This may have a bad effect for some that do not have very fast computers, as just dragging your mouse over the Start Menu will cause your computer to open up every submenu over which the mouse is dragged. Doing so will cause your computer to do a lot of work, and if your computer's hardware is slow, then everything on your computer will slow down as a result when the menus are expanding. If you have a fast computer, then your computer will have no problem keeping up. I prefer to set my menu delay to 100 milliseconds because this does not open up any menu that the mouse moves over but still gives a very fast response.

Now that you know a little about what the best values for the delay are, follow these steps to change the menu delay on your computer:

1. Start up the Registry Editor by clicking the Start Menu and selecting Run. Then type regedit in the box and click OK.

2. Once the Registry Editor has opened, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Control Panel, and then Desktop.

3. Look for the MenuShowDelay entry and right-click it and select Modify.

4. Enter the new value in the box and click OK.

5. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer to see the new changes.

In the Chapter 10 folder, you will find an undo script to reset the menu delay back to the default value of 400ms.

You may have to repeat the preceding directions a few times so that you get the menu delay just the way you like it.

If you ever have problems after changing your menu delay, such as the submenus never showing up, then go back into the System Registry and make sure that you did not type in a large value by accident. Remember that the default value is 400 milliseconds, in case you want to revert to the default.