If you feel the menu's in Windows XP are taking a long time to open, this is what you need to do, to make them load faster: Click on "Start" menu, followed by clicking on "Run" In the "Run" window that opens, type "regedit" in the text box and click on "OK" In the "Registry Editor" window that opens, navigate to: My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop On the right pane of the window, locate the key: "MenuShowDelay" Double click on "MenuShowDelay" and in the "Edit String" window that pops up, you can safely set the "value data" to "100" and click on "OK" Close the Registry Editor window. Next, Right click on your Desktop, select "Properties" In the "Display Properties" window, under the "Appearance" tab, click on "Effects" button In the 'Effects" pop up window, uncheck the box before "Show shadows under menus" and click "OK" Click "OK" to close the "Display Properties" window too. Reboot your computer to see the change in effect take place.