Simply search. This little program is like wheels on luggage - why wasn't it thought of sooner and why didn't I find it sooner. It seems to have been around since June 2006. I know you can get all sorts of search bars by yahoo and google and many more but they are clutter, this is clean and takes up so little room, my only complaint being the colour and the fact you can't change it :)

This little drop down box sits on your task bar and when you want to open anything on your computer you just type a few letters in and it finds it. This can range from programs to any file type and I believe it can open folders too. In the screenshot I had typed eleg in and this is what happened. I can now just click the pic to open it.

When you first install SmartStartMenu it will only search places like your start menu and your desktop for shortcuts. You need to tell it what you want to be able to search for. Left click the green box with the down arrow and choose Settings... which will take you to a window like the one on the left. You will need to Add in the folders you want searched and you will also need to add or change the extensions you want to search for. I left in the .exe extension which is required for programs and added in extensions that open pictures and documents. You might also want to add in extensions such as .gif (animations), .doc (Word Documents) .xls (spreadsheets). Make sure you use a semi colon (;) between each extension.

Download Instructions:

You can download the programme from either of the links above. At the end of installation you will get a message telling you what to do to get SmartStartMenu on the task bar

**Thanks to Shaun Harrington for the programme**