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Purge broken shortcuts from Windows Start Menu
Tags: It is my opinion that Microsoft has already begun the transition away from the Start Menu navigation system introduced first in Windows 95. It started with Windows XP where the Start Menu was expanded into a dual panel where the left hand side maintained a running list of the most used 5 or 6 applications – typically removing the necessity for the user to traverse the Start Menu searching for their popular applications. Then, in Vista, Microsoft brought searching into the fore-front by integrating it into the base of the Start Menu and giving it keyboard focus by default. Now, if the application you need isn’t in your list of most popular you can find it quickly by searching. Results are returned in real time and narrowed down as you continue to type. This process is extremely efficient as compared to navigating the Start Menu and trying to find the application directly. Finally, in Windows 7, applications can be docked onto the taskbar for even easier access. I suspect the traditional Start Menu’s days are numbered.
In the interim, you probably have a pretty cluttered Start Menu littered with dozens of application folders. Worse, even if you uninstall an application often times it will leave behind remnants, like a broken shortcut, in your Start Menu. This severely complicates the process of finding the desired application as your visual display is polluted with extraneous and non-valid information. Microsoft, of all vendors, has a solution to this problem!
Chklnks, included with Microsoft Server 2003 Resource Kit, can scan the Start Menu and provide a simplified interface with all the broken shortcuts from which they can be purged. So simple and useful is this utility, I’m left wondering why it’s not included with Windows. The only caveat is that Chklnks will only remove broken shortcuts and not any empty folders left behind. For that problem I suggest checking out Remove Empty Directories, which I wrote about last year.
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