Powerful, skinnable, and dynamic pop-up menu system that can be used as a replacement or supplement to the Windows Start Menu and Taskbar. NextSTART also offers an incredible amount of flexibility so that the user can customize it to his needs and wishes.

Main Charachteristics

# Powerful Menu System
Unlike many other menu programs, NextStart does NOT require you to re-enter the paths to all the programs listed on your Start Menu. NextStart will automatically read the directory structure of your Programs folder(s) and create a menu for you on the fly! In fact, thanks to NextStart's dynamic menu support, it will create as many menus as you wish based on any hard drive or directory!

If you wish to create your own customized menu system, no problem! You can do this by simple Drag-n-Drop or through the use of the powerful, built-in Menu Editor, both allowing you to create any number of menus. The Menu Editor also allows the use of over 80 handy Internal Commands that give quick access to not only NextSTART specific features but also many popular Windows functions.

# Complete Start Menu And Taskbar Replacement
NextSTART features built-in task management to control running apps and the Windows System Tray. Gain access to your running apps via handy task icons/tiles right on your desktop. Best of all, you can choose the position of the "task list", the style, and even which icons should be displayed for specific applications. NextSTART also allows you to place the Systray anywhere on your desktop!

# Hot Spot Support
Thanks to an incredibly flexible feature utilizing user defined Hot Spots, you can "attach" a menu to not only different areas of your desktop but also other menu programs and applications! Activate your hotspots using different mouse buttons or screen edge 'bumps'.

# Advanced NeXT-Style Look And Feel
The NextSTART user interface was heavily inspired by the original NeXTSTEP operating system. Unlike many other Windows shell replacements and add-ons, the association is more than just skin deep. We've adopted many NeXT style functions and controls both in the menus and in the new and improved NextSTART Preferences Manager. NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP users should feel right at home. We've also expanded on these "classic" ideas and added plenty of our own, creating an advanced and unique menu system for Windows Users.

# Flexible Configuration w/Theme Support
Not happy with the default NextSTART configuration? Would you prefer a menu system that emulated BeOS or Mac? How about transparent menus? No problem...You can configure how the menus look and behave yourself! Choose where scroll-buttons are located, how menu selection is made, which mouse button activates the menus, assign hot keys and more! You can choose the font, the size, the colors (even use gradients and bitmaps with transparency!), 3D effects, custom icons and, still, more! In fact, thanks to the improved Theme support of the NextSTART Preferences Manager you can now import and export themes based on the above options. Share them with your friends or upload them to popular archive sites!

# Drag And Drop
Drag and Drop can be used to move/copy items from one menu to another, re-arrange them and even move/copy files from a menu to an Explorer window and vice-versa.

# Full Multi-Monitor Support
Position your menus, hotspots and startbar on specific monitors.

# Context Sensitive Menus
A context-sensitive menu is a menu with options related to an highlighted object or menu item. Each item in a menu has a context menu, accessible by right-clicking on the item. Options available in a context menu are the ones you would expect to find if you clicked on that same item under Explorer.