Summary

In this article, you will learn how you can customize the delay speed of the Start Menu. Microsoft Windows does not provide any option in the user interface however, by changing a single value in the registry, you can increase or decrease the speed as per your needs.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit.exe and click OK to launch Registry Editor.
2. In the left pane, expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel and click Desktop.
3. In the right pane, look for a value named MenuShowDelay and double-click it. If its not present already, click Edit menu and under New, click String value, type MenuShowDelay and press Enter key.
4. Double click MenuShowDelay.
5. In the resulting dialog box, type a numeric value (representing the number of milliseconds) and click OK.
6. In File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
7. Logoff/restart your computer.

Additional Information

By default, the delay speed is set to 400 milliseconds. This means that when mouse is hovered over a menu item that in turn has a sub menu, Windows will wait 400 milliseconds before it shows the sub menu. By following the procedure given above, you can set this wait time to anywhere between 1 and 4000 milliseconds. If you set this value to 0, Windows will wait for a mouse click on the menu item before its submenu is displayed.

External Links

1. Why is there a menu show delay, anyway?