For me the Start Menu is a bit like a catalogue.  There are programs in there that I use so infrequently that I don't remember their names.  Being able to look at the icons and file names lets me visually sort through the stuff I have in storage.  I have made a bunch of categories that help finding programs and I have extracted the useful executable onto the category's top level, with the program's install folder given a number for the rare occasions when it is useful (so as not to conflict with initial key navigation of the menus).  I also have a number of commonly used programs that are accessed via the initial keys.  (winkey), p, o, e launches Excel.  I don't use Excel every day, but often enough that I remember the shortcut.  Likewise there are a bunch of top-level entries that are there right away: (winkey), 1 opens my browser; (winkey) 2 opens Nero; (winkey) 4 opens my password manager and so on.  If for some reason, I want to open my video editing software (I haven't used it other than to explore the interface a couple of times) I can open programs and video and see what's in there.  Look at the attachment for my setup.  Please ignore the first image.  For some reason the screen capture utility didn't see the Start Menu, so I had to do it the hard way (printscreen and paste etc)

Buffer Zone @ 30% off???

    
 
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Is that on the half-price offer, or are we supposed to pay more than visitors to their web site??? ;D

Sorry, but my tray is messy enough without another icon and possibly a few menu icons as well.  More important, for me, is that it does not work with key strokes yet - especially for invoking the different menus.  My desktop is occupied with current projects and reminders of recent discoveries, so having the menus stay open after use would be a nuisance.  I am somewhat more at home with the keyboard, so I would be much happier using keys to open and navigate the launch menus than using the mouse to find and open the menus.  Keyboard invocation of the menus would also avoid having another tray icon - or four.  My current Start Menu has about 500 entries in it.  It is fairly well set up now, but you can see that there is room for better sorting of the entries, especially since I have not yet implemented web address access via the Start Menu.