Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual

Start→My Recent Documents

Actually, you probably don’t see the My Recent Documents menu command in your Start menu. It’s something you have to turn on, using the techniques described in the box below.

Still, the My Recent Documents feature can be useful. It adds, to your Start menu, a submenu list of the last fifteen documents you’ve opened. Using a list of recent documents can save you time when you want to reopen something you’ve worked on recently, but you’re not in the mood to burrow through folders to find its icon.

NOSTALGIA CORNER Restoring the Traditional Folder Listings

Some of the commands that populated the Start menus of previous Windows versions no longer appear in the home version of Windows XP. That’s by design, of course: Microsoft is trying to make its new operating system look less overwhelming to the newcomer.

But if you miss some of the old folders—My Network Places and My Recent Documents, for example—it’s easy enough to put them back. Over time, having them right in your Start menu can save you quite a bit of burrowing.

Right-click the Start menu. From the shortcut menu, choose Properties. Now the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears. Click the Customize button, and then the Advanced tab.

In the scrolling list, you’ll find a checkbox that makes My Network Places appear in the Start menu. Windows 2000 veterans may also want to turn on “Display as Connect to menu” under Network Connections, so that you have a handy pop-up menu of network connections ...