Intended For Windows XP Windows 2003 Windows 2000 Windows Me Windows 98

• Right-click on an item in the folder you want to sort, and select Sort by Name.

Here's the hard way, which allows you to sort all the folders in your Start Menu at once:

• Open the Registry Editor, and expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder.
• Delete the MenuOrder key, and close the Registry Editor.

Here's how to sort the entire Start Menu automatically every time you turn on your computer:

• Write a script to delete the registry key described above. Full details on how to do this are in Windows 98 Annoyances, the book.

Written by: Annoyances.org
Last updated: Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Previous discussions about this article:
(open a message to see applicable responses, if any)

• [Windows ME] Comment about 'How do I sort the Start Menu alphabetically?' (Ric: Friday, August 24, 2001)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I sort the Start Menu alphabetically?' (lilsassy: Friday, September 7, 2001)
• [Windows 98] Question about 'How do I sort the Start Menu alphabetically?' (Rachel Weix: Friday, October 5, 2001)
• [Windows 2000] Question about 'How do I sort the Start Menu alphabetically?' (Gidi Avrahami: Saturday, October 20, 2001)
• [Windows XP] Will not stay in order i place it (omoshima: Tuesday, November 19, 2002)
• [Windows Me] Question about 'How do I sort the Start Menu alphabetically?' (sandor: Monday, April 21, 2003)
• [Windows XP] ''Sort by name'' no longer works in start menu (taryuu: Monday, September 8, 2003)