How do i get the start menu to read the D partition?

H

Headbust

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 10, 2003
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I install things on my D partition and would like the start menu to recognize programs that i install on it and show up in the menu.

Anyone know how to accomplish this?
 
Uhhmm, huh? It should. If you install a program, and during the install process tell it to install on D, then it will put shortcuts on the start menu that point to D.
 
What programs don't? They really all should. Its just a shortcut really.

Assuming Windows XP:

Open c:\documents and settings\username\start menu

where username is what you use to login to the PC.

Then create a shortcut to the program in there.
 
I don't think I've ever wanted to install something out of the C drive, as it's bad computer practices, but if the installer is written correctly, it should show up in the Start Menu. If they don't, simply make shortcuts.
 
Alternately, if you want to default program installs to the D drive, use TweakUI from MS and change the "Program Files" directory.
 
djnes said:
I don't think I've ever wanted to install something out of the C drive, as it's bad computer practices, but if the installer is written correctly, it should show up in the Start Menu. If they don't, simply make shortcuts.
Click to expand...

Ok, I just gotta ask, why do you think it's bad computer practice to put things on other drives besides C:?

I've used a C: and D: partition/drive since I had a 386 with DOS. I keep most programs on D:, and every one of them is linked in the start menu.
 
jimnms said:
Ok, I just gotta ask, why do you think it's bad computer practice to put things on other drives besides C:?

I've used a C: and D: partition/drive since I had a 386 with DOS. I keep most programs on D:, and every one of them is linked in the start menu.
Click to expand...

Because software that isn't written to allow for different paths may have trouble finding certain components. It's one of the fundamentals that's taught to Windows Application developers. I at one time used to think I'd be slick and install software to my second drive. I always encountered problems with different apps, and I decided from that point on, I would only use logic and common sense for my computer. C gets the OS, apps and games. D is reserved solely for storage. Therefore, rebuilding is much much easier.
 
In all my years I can only remember two programs that didn't work when I put them on a different drive. Back when I had that 386, I put all of my games on D:\Games. I can't remember the name of the game now, but it would only work if it was in the root directory of C:. Another was Falcon3 which wouldn't work if it was in a subdirectory (D:\Games\Falcon3), so I had to put it in D:\Falcon3..
 
jimnms said:
In all my years I can only remember two programs that didn't work when I put them on a different drive. Back when I had that 386, I put all of my games on D:\Games. I can't remember the name of the game now, but it would only work if it was in the root directory of C:. Another was Falcon3 which wouldn't work if it was in a subdirectory (D:\Games\Falcon3), so I had to put it in D:\Falcon3..
Click to expand...

I come across errors all the time on client machines where people install different apps to a D drive. It's one of those things where there's no good reason or need to ever install anything on your D drive if you use a little common sense when laying out your config. So why bother?
 
The Start Menu can't "recognize" anything, it's just a folder. There's no magic or special code behind it at all.
 
djnes said:
Because software that isn't written to allow for different paths may have trouble finding certain components. It's one of the fundamentals that's taught to Windows Application developers. I at one time used to think I'd be slick and install software to my second drive. I always encountered problems with different apps, and I decided from that point on, I would only use logic and common sense for my computer. C gets the OS, apps and games. D is reserved solely for storage. Therefore, rebuilding is much much easier.
Click to expand...

^ which is my general understanding of the issue
personally never saw much point in installing to a seperate partition on the same drive,
but considerable advantages on occassion on an ap by ap basis for install on a seperate drive
(performance positioning on the platter for lower latency and higher sustained transfer)
I do install many aps to folders in the C directory to control their placement in conjunction with a defrag ap capable of name organization (O&O)

many Adobe aps will install to C:/Adobe instead of C:/Program Files by default
 
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