It was made to overcome the shortcomings of Program Manager in previous operating systems. The Start menu was introduced in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, but had been worked on at Microsoft since 1992, originally being labelled as 'System' to testers of the time. Until Windows Vista, the Start menu was constantly expanded across the screen as the user navigated through its cascading sub-menus. Windows XP's Start menu was expanded to encompass various My Documents folders (including My Music and My Pictures), and transplanted other items like My Computer and My Network Places from the Windows desktop. Later enhancements via Windows Desktop Update included access to special folders such as 'My Documents' and 'Favorites' (browser bookmarks). Traditionally, the Start menu provided a customizable nested list of programs for the user to launch, as well as a list of most recently opened documents, a way to find files and obtain assistance, and access to the system settings. It has different names in different operating systems and window managers, such as Kickoff Application Launcher in KDE, Dash in GNOME, Launcher in Unity, and Start screen in Windows 8. It provides a central launching point for computer programs and performing other tasks in the Windows shell. The Start menu is a graphical user interface element used in Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 and in some other operating systems.

Start orbs para windows 7