How to remove the extras (icons, ticks etc) from menus in apps, or make them react slower?

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 9, 2023

When I use the menus in any program, I'm constantly infuriated by them changing to the next menu just because I moved my mouse over the next one for a millisecond. I would like either:

1) Stop them jumping to the next menu unless I click on them, or pause for longer.

2) Remove the seldom used bit on the left where icons or ticks go (completely blank in my example image), so I'm less likely to move the mouse diagonally to get to part of the menu I'm using.

Hope this image explains it, the red arrow shows I've clicked "file", then am moving across to an item in that menu, but since I just touched the very corner of "edit" on the way, the edit menu appears:

Rollback_Jockey · Jul 9, 2023

Don't move your mouse over something selectable if you don't want to select it.

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 9, 2023

What a ridiculous comment. I was moving the mouse from A to B. Passing over C for 1 millisecond does not imply in any way I want to interact with C. I have to get to B in some way, why should I make the effort to go round C?

It's becoming an increasingly nasty habit with designers to make assumptions about what people want. For example, my mouse cursor has to be somewhere at all times, even when I'm not touching the mouse. There's hardly anywhere left on the screen I can put it without some kind of popup appearing, like those stupid taskbar previews in front of what I'm trying to read. If I want to interact with something, that's what the buttons on the mouse are for. If you walk into a hardware store, the clerk doesn't assume you're buying the mower you just walked in front of. You may well be walking past it to buy something else.

wiganken · Jul 10, 2023

Have you tried slowing down your mouse speed? This should give you more cursor/pointer control and prevent theissue.

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 10, 2023

It's not my cursor isn't controlled well, its me moving the cursor in a straight line from A to B. Apparently we're supposed to draw a curve to avoid anything inbetween.

This is a very basic design flaw, modern thinking appears to be stuff should open by itself, apparently people are becoming lazy and want to click less. But in this case it's utterly ridiculous. Under what circumstances would I want the second menu to open when I've clicked the first? If I really wanted that, because I'd clicked the wrong one for some reason, I'd click the second one myself. No click, nothing should happen, there should be no assumptions. What's next? The first menu opening itself because I hovered over it? Strange that doesn't happen, yet this does.

wiganken · Jul 10, 2023

If you have WinAero Tweaker installed see photo. If not this might help: -

How to speed up menus in Windows 10 and change the menu delay

Windows 10 allows you to speed up menus. It is possible with a simple registry tweak which I will cover in this article.

winaero.com

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 10, 2023

I don't have winaerotweaker, but I assume all it does is the registry edit in the first link. I looked there and already have it set to 400, but menus open instantly. I notice though it says SUB menus. Maybe it doesn't apply to the main menu bar in apps? Mind you, I changed it to 1600, the link doesn't say I have to reboot, but an app with submenus still opens them in about 400ms. Really weird I've got menus opening faster than submenus!

JAM83 · Jul 10, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
It's not my cursor isn't controlled well, its me moving the cursor in a straight line from A to B. Apparently we're supposed to draw a curve to avoid anything inbetween.

This is a very basic design flaw, modern thinking appears to be stuff should open by itself, apparently people are becoming lazy and want to click less. But in this case it's utterly ridiculous. Under what circumstances would I want the second menu to open when I've clicked the first? If I really wanted that, because I'd clicked the wrong one for some reason, I'd click the second one myself. No click, nothing should happen, there should be no assumptions. What's next? The first menu opening itself because I hovered over it? Strange that doesn't happen, yet this does.

The fastest way between two points is a straight line

hehehe

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 10, 2023

JAM83 said:
The fastest way between two points is a straight line hehehe

I don't understand what you're getting at.

Brink · Jul 10, 2023

No need for a 3rd party program when you can easily change it natively.

Change Menu Show Delay Time in Windows 10

How to Change Menu Show Delay Time in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 10, 2023

Brink said:
No need for a 3rd party program when you can easily change it natively.

Change Menu Show Delay Time in Windows 10

How to Change Menu Show Delay Time in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

WiganKen already mentioned this. It has no effect on my machine (phased out with Windows 11?), and looks to be intended for sub menus, I'm talking about main menus. I want to stop it opening the Edit menu when I've clicked File and accidentally strayed across the Edit title.

Edwin · Jul 10, 2023

Do the Alt thing instead...

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 11, 2023

Alt doesn't work in all apps.

And I'm a visual person, I prefer the mouse.

Surely that column to the left of the menu items which is totally blank on your image can be done away with? Your file menu actually looks like it's under the edit menu! The words don't line up with the title.

wiganken · Jul 11, 2023

Okay, I tried my own suggestion in post #6 and edited the registry.

First off I noticed that WinAero Tweaker did not work regarding this tweak. I had set the WinAero slider to 600 but when I went into the registry it was still set at the default 400 value so I altered the registry myself to increase the value from 400 to 600 then restarted the computer.

After doing this I can now see what you mean in post #11 where you say "looks to be intended for sub menus, I'm talking about main menus.".
Editing registry to 600 value has slowed down the sub-menu opening but has no effect on the header text opening speed. Straying horizontally across the main menu (rather than down and then across) still causes those sub menus to open very quickly.

I am afraid the only answer is one that I have had to adopt and that is more disciplined mouse movement control. I make sure that I move the mouse cursor down then right. No diagonal cutting corners (as you show with red arrow in your original post). It's annoying and not what you want to hear but it works for me.

Good luck.

Edwin · Jul 11, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
Surely that column to the left of the menu items which is totally blank on your image can be done away with? Your file menu actually looks like it's under the edit menu! The words don't line up with the title.

I suppose the blank space is reserved for checkmarks...

The blank space is still a clickable area, just make sure you move your cursor straight down...

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 11, 2023

I didn't reboot because the page didn't say I had to. I thought we'd got past the days of "We have detected your mouse pointer has moved, Windows must be restarted for this change to take effect".

Moving down and to the right is not something I can learn. It's like walking along the edge of a room instead of straight across to the door, it's just unnatural.

Sometimes there are checkmarks, sometimes I've seen icons, but why have the space when nothing in the column is using it?

It's unnatural to click in a blank space instead of the word I'm after. I'm just going to have to continue cursing at the moronic programmers at Microsoft.

wiganken · Jul 11, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
Moving down and to the right is not something I can learn.

That sounds negative. I am learning all the time and I am not far off 80 years old. I suggest you try. You'll get used to it. Or maybe you have a medical condition which is stopping you from learning? If so then I am sorry to to hear this and I understand. Or is it that you do not wish to adapt? That's your choice but then live with the consequences.

I'll stop trying to help from this point.

Lamberto Vitali · Jul 11, 2023

Learning a language, how to type faster, yes easy. But learning to go against common sense, impossible. If I want to move the cursor from A to B, anything other than a straight line is totally absurd and involves unlearning basic muscle memory learned when you're 3 years old. Microsoft's interface design is absolutely intolerable, and gets worse with every version.

glasskuter · Jul 11, 2023

Unless I'm reading your problem (and some of the responses) incorrectly, I can not duplicate the problem. My mouse movement over any selectable item never opens that item unless I click on that item. Therefore I do not see if being a Microsoft issue.

I suggest you test using another user account to see if it happens there. If it doesn't, that narrows the problem down to YOUR user account and your settings. The way I see it, if it happens using another account as well, it narrows it down to some global setting, a defective mouse, or a corrupted file in Windows itself.

Edwin · Jul 11, 2023

glasskuter said:
My mouse movement over any selectable item never opens that item unless I click on that item.

Yes, but once you click on one of them, the rest become live by mouse hover...

Hell, even 10forums has live menus via mouse hover...

How to remove the extras (icons, ticks etc) from menus in apps, or make them react slower?

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