I have lately been reading and trying a bunch of different menus such as A-Suite, geek.menu and modifications on PAM (Portable Apps Menu). I find good things with all of these menus, but still have not seemed to find the perfect menu that fits ALL my needs. I was wondering what other people think are the most important features of "The Perfect Menu." I am interested in what other people like for functionality and imagine this kind of information would be useful for developers as well.
I will start with things that I think are most important:
1. The ability to add programs easily to the menu, no matter where the exe or shortcut resides.
2. Being able to add categories and other folders to the menu.
3. Being able to start programs when the menu starts or is exited.
4. Being able to CLOSE programs when the menu is exited.
5. Nice looks.
6. The ability to configure the looks easily (probably with a CSS file).
7. Autostart when USB is inserted.
So far, A-Suite suites my needs the best; geek.menu looks like it is going to be quite slick and I really like the look of it. It would be great to be able to combine the two. I think I would use geek.menu if I could easily add programs and categories and if I could easily start programs when geek.menu starts.
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Hope those helped. Next time do a quick search first, as you'll probably find all the answers quickly.
I know all those things already exist. I am not looking for a way to do them (I have used ALL the menus you mentioned), I am just wondering what OTHER people think are most important. I think it would be cool to have a menu with all the things I listed, but if other people don't think those things are important, then it would not do much good to have a menu that does those things.
I think people think adding application, category support, etc is extremely important. We won't know what's coming till John lets us know unfortunately.
Multiple cat support and loading from a list. That's about all I really need.
I also prefer to keep the right click menu he John put in in the beta release.
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Maybe this will help:
http://software.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?docid=209718
or this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C680A7B6-E8FA-4...
Ed
The others may too, but I haven't found it.
software groups.
Icons that you add to the menu that when selected will launch a group of applications. my most used is one that launches firefox, thunderbird, pidgin, and keepass all at onc.
Key ID: 0xDAE3095F
Fingerprint: 5D98 65D2 1844 21A5 76C1 F0F6 4BE6 D689 DAE3 095F
I use PStart. It provides all the functionality you talked about above, it is just not as pretty as the others. I like the minimalistic menu it provides. It's worth checking out. I've only tested out PAM, but is there a way to make it minimalistic like PStart? If this were the case I'd definitely use it.
Themes are nice, but when I load up my portable at work I want it to blend in, not shout "I'M RUNNING NON IT APPROVED APPS OVER HERE!" To this end I was thinking of making a theme that emulates the right click menu of pstart or asuite. But I have zero graphical skillz. So that may take a while.
Key ID: 0xDAE3095F
Fingerprint: 5D98 65D2 1844 21A5 76C1 F0F6 4BE6 D689 DAE3 095F
That matches your background.
1. The ability to add programs easily to the menu, no matter where the exe or shortcut resides.
ASuite,PStart,SmithTech PortableMenu, I believe the PAM Mod.
2. Being able to add categories and other folders to the menu.
ASuite,PStart,PAM Mod
3. Being able to start programs when the menu starts or is exited.
ASuite,PStart,SmithTech Portable Menu
4. Being able to CLOSE programs when the menu is exited.
ASuite,PStart,SmithTech Portable Menu (the application has to support an "exit" argument)
5. Nice looks.
ASuite,PAM, SmithTech Portable Menu are all themable, you can make them look pretty much anyway you want.
6. The ability to configure the looks easily (probably with a CSS file).
7. Autostart when USB is inserted.
fully automatic is not possible with I believe XP SP2 an up, this includes vista as Microsoft has disabled it for flash type drives.
I believe most of these will make there way into the 1.5 version of PAM but don't quote me on that.
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Awe, you forgot GeekMenu.
Personally I like GeekMenu as you can set your own title to the menu without changing the skin.
But I'm also interested in a skinless menu. (I think you referred to it?) which would make it look like a standard windows window.