Shankar Ganesh

Just another WordPress site

Windows Vista Start Menu for XP

with 43 comments

ADVERTISEMENTS



The Vista Start Menu emulator adds a neat Vista like start menu to your Windows XP desktop. The start menu is not just graphically emulated, but also in terms of functionality.

The Vista Start Menu Emulator makes the Windows XP start menu to look and behave like the Vista one.

Vista Start Menu

Though the program seems to be bit unstable, overall it offers a search feature, just like you have on Windows Vista. You’ll be able to wade through your program list by typing in application names.

Additionally, it also offers you a single-pane menu – that means that the ‘All Programs’ list will expand in the same pane, rather than opening in another long menu list.

Overall, this program is a good add if you want to bring the style and features of a Vista Start Menu to your Windows XP machine.

Download Vista Start Menu Emulator from here.

Written by admin

July 21st, 2007 at 10:59 am

Posted in software

  • http://www.kuanhoong.com/ kuanhoong

    This would be good if you are into Windows Vista but you don’t own Windows Vista now.

    For me, I am happy with my Windows XP :)

  • http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/ Brown Baron

    How unstable is it? Does it use a lot of resources?

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Brown: Not much, it seemed to show some errors. May not be on all PCs. Try it out :) It isn’t resource hoggy, I say.

  • http://www.reviewsaurus.com ReviewSaurus

    All these can just slow down the pc. Good for show off :)

  • http://www.techlivez.com shashank

    In my early days i used to experiment with these type of programs a lot…later i realised these programs are resource hungry and slows down computer so now i don’t use these type of addons..

  • http://www.sizzledcore.com Haris

    I’ll give it a try if it doesn’t eat a lot of resources.

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    So nobody is interested in spicing up their PC with visual styles kinda stuff :D

  • http://techyantra.net Beta3

    Nice but i somehow hate having the all programs in the left pane. I guess i am too much used to with XP :P

  • http://www.myokyawhtun.com Myo Kyaw Htun

    I’m afraid of installing those kind of things. Because I reinstalled more than four times my OS after I installed some transformation packs (i forgot those names). I tried to uninstall, but nothing worked. So that I never try since then.

  • http://www.cristianr.com CristianR

    Sounds like a great tip , I’ll give it a try :) .

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Beta3: I still like this single pane one.
    @Myo Kyaw Htun: It happened to me too. Stopped installing programs that replace DLLs.
    @CristianR: Thanks for dropping by! Glad you liked the post.

  • http://www.cristianr.com CristianR

    No problem Shankar , keep up the good work .

  • http://www.sizzledcore.com Haris

    I like your logo in the top :) It suites your blog.

  • http://www.sizzledcore.com/2007/07/22/sunday-linking-1/ Sunday Linking #1 | Sizzled Core

    [...] Shankar explains how you can change your XP’s start menu to look like Vista’s. [...]

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com Shankar Ganesh

    Thanks, Haris!

  • http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com Ken Xu

    I’ve tried the Vista Transformation Pack V6 before. All messed up and I need to reformat my windows to and nearly couldn’t recovered my important data. :(
    Is it safe to install this emulator, Shankar?

  • http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com/index.php/2007/07/22/whats-other-talking-about-today-2/ What’s Other Talking about today? | The Tao of Blogging to Wealth

    [...] Vista Style Start Menu for XP [...]

  • http://www.wishlost.com Wishlost

    Ganesh,

    I’ve tried this one before, it’s good if you want to show your friends you have something which they don’t :) .. but lemme warn you, it hogs a bit of resource and eats up a lot of threads.

    Those who do not worry about performance can definitely try it :) .

    My 2 cents.

    ~Gautam

  • http://www.reviewsaurus.com/2007/07/23/thanks-to-my-readers-2/ Thanks to my Readers # 2 | ReviewSaurus – The Techie Dino!

    [...] 8. Make XP’s Start menu look and work like Vista’s start menu – By Shankar [...]

  • http://www.techlivez.com shashank

    every program of this type is heavy on resources don’t go with them if you don’t have around minimum 1 gb of RAM..

  • http://www.seaykopitiam.com/ jamy

    Wow Shashank, my dear, you are really a tech guru !
    So much info for me to digest. I really wish I have 48hrs a day, so much to do.
    I was thinking how am I going to memorize all the 100 med names that are assigned for me to read plus going through all the 50 gold stocks chart that I owned and plus going to my reader’s blog to comment as a reciprocal act to their kindness to drop in my blog ?
    Shashank, shashank, please help me ? :) :):):)

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Ken Xu: The same happened to me earlier. I can’t guarantee that it’ll be safe, take ‘risk’ if you need it :D
    @Wishlost: Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Gautam.
    @Shashank: Yep that’s right. Time to uninstall it :D

  • http://www.rishiraj.info Rishi

    I use Launchy which is better than any Start Menu :) Ever used Launchy?

  • http://www.benh.org/techblog Benedict Herold

    Search option in the start menu in VISTA is one of my favorite. I really don’t need to through the entire list to figure out the program which i need. but IMO, I would not give a try for such apps in lower version OS.

  • http://www.techzilo.com TechZilo

    Resource hog? I am out of it……My PC is squeaky clean, without any unnecessary apps. Bloated apps just slow down PC, and when cool graphics appear slowly, it is an even bigger pain.

  • http://www.techlivez.com shashank

    @jamy
    Thanks for calling me a techguru :D

    plz let me know how can i help you dear..???

  • Mathurankan

    Good work

  • AJ

    Try ViStart! u don’t have 2 change anything!
    http://www.lee-soft.com/vistart/

  • http://vseproject.extra.hu FogelSoft

    Hi,

    yep, it needs a little resource but it is safe to use it. u can easily get back your old-style start menu and it doesn’t change any system file (or folder). it’s a stand-alone app… give a try.

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Hey Fogelsoft, thanks for that bit of clarification :)

  • http://www.sarbaaz.com ajaz

    What a site

  • http://vseproject.extra.hu FogelSoft

    what’s the problem with the site?

  • Joseph4.0

    I agree with AJ ViStart is a great program. Its fast, stable, and usefull.

  • http://www.guimod.com/ GUIMod4

    VSE (Vista Start Menu Emulator) requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, and it runs very slow. It has a LOT of errors. I would highly recommend not to use this. If you do, you are a total idiot…

  • http://www.guimod.com/ GUIMod4

    …and a mental person who wants to get his computer ruined. Why don’t you just buy Vista?

  • http://vseproject.extra.hu FogelSoft

    its not so slow that u say if u have the rite config. anyway, write a better one if u can. and y doesn’t everbody buy vista? maybe they have not engough dough or they like xp better. i hate those guys who scarifies other work while they can’t make a better one. what kinda bugs r u talkin bout? would u plz mention at least one of those lots of? thnx

  • Luis

    Hey erm…how do you download it??

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Luis: You can download it from here: http://vseproject.extra.hu/vse2211update.zip

  • nytin

    Hey i love the idea of searching in start menu. But i dont want to compromise on my system performance. Is there anyway to include the search feature without compromising the system performance? I dont care about the looks. I even enjoy the old windows 2000 look.

  • http://trilinearjet.wordpress.com/2007/07/22/sunday-linking-1/ Sunday Linking #1 « Trilinearjet’s Weblog

    [...] Shankar explains how you can change your XP’s start menu to look like Vista’s. [...]

  • ibrahimfa

    i will try.

  • http://www.dannytye.piczo.com Daniel Tye

    I’m justabout to move onto Vista Start menu on my Gran’s xp Machine.
    It betta bi good!
    So look out Microsoft, because if this aint good, I’m coming to get you!

    x

  • Tily

    I adore VistaStartMenu. It’s both for XP and Vista.