January 2009 ~ pimp-my-rig reloaded

FAQ: Restore Missing "Run" from Start Menu

"There’s No Such Thing As A Silly Question" -- does the cliche sound familiar? In this part of pimp-my-rig reloaded, technical questions are answered. Mail them to me and I will post the answers here. If you have a better answer, by all means share it with us.

FAQ: The "Run" entry in the Start menu is a very handy tool. Have you ever experienced loosing the "Run" option from the Start menu? Well one question recently received is regarding such a scenario. There are several reasons as to why this happened.. but only one very apparent symptom is like the screenshot below.

As previously stated, there are several reasons why the "Run" entry is missing from the Start menu. Let us start with the first restriction.

Explorer Policy Restriction. One reason is the restriction in the explorer policy.

[1] Open the registry editor.

[2] Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and change the value of "NoRun" to "0". Otherwise, deleting it serves the same purpose.

Logout and then log back in for the change to take effect.

Group Policy Restriction. Another reason for the missing "Run" entry in the Start menu is the Group Policy in effect on the machine.

[1] Open the Group Policy Editor.

[2] Under "User Configuration" -> "Administrative Templates" -> "Start Menu and Taskbar", set the value of "Remove Run menu from Start Menu" to "Disabled" or "Not Configured".

Unlike the Explorer restriction, you will not need to logout for the change to take effect. The "Run" entry will re-appear after both of the changes above.

Start Menu Customization. One more possible reason is previously applied customization(s) to the Start menu.

[1] Right Click on Start menu, then select Properties.

[2] On the ensuing window that opens click "Customize". And go to the "Advanced" tab.

[3] Scroll down toward the bottom of "Start menu items". The item "Run Command" should be ticked (like below).

Realizing the value of the "Run" entry in the Start menu is what brought you here. I am a strong believer in the significance of functionality over "security". We should all have "Run" in the Start menu.

I hope this helps your predicament.

INFO: What is RSS?

What is RSS? Whenever I mention this three-letter acronym to most people, their brows would raise like I was born in another planet. Either that or they seem to think I'm a metally challenged retard. So hopefully by posting this, I will just refer them here instead and impart a thing or two about RSS and its practical use(s).

But what really is RSS? RSS is a generally accepted format of web content that is used by millions to keep track of website changes or updates. Webmaster, bloggers, or authors would publish syndicated content of their news, blogs, and other content as an RSS feed to whoever wants it.

These are the generally accepted meanings of the acronym -- RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication. Whichever of the those, when used, pertain to the same thing. RSS feeds are sometimes referred to as news feeds or just plainly a feed.

Think of RSS as a modern implementation of a bookmark. In the ways of the old, you would bookmark a website and regularly check it for updates. RSS in a similar manner is a bookmark to the website, but the biggest difference is you will not have to visit the website. All you need is for an RSS reader or RSS aggregator to do it for you. Instead of you coming to the site for information, it is instead delivered to you. It will make more sense when you start using to use it.

A variety of RSS readers or aggregators are available on the web. Some are free and some are not. We had to go through several of them to get a better feel of the functionalities and complexities of each. The most popular web aggregator is Google Reader.

To get a better feel or looks of an RSS feed, click here to sample a feed of pimp-my-rig reloaded.

The above image is the icon for an RSS feed. Whenever you see that icon or its derivatives, it means the website is advertising its RSS feed available for you to subscribe. And the aggregator will automatically fetch updates for you without having to browse every bookmark. So now that you are aware of RSS feeds, grab an aggregator and start subscription to RSS feeds of bookmarked sites and see for yourself the influence of RSS.