Where and how do you list your company network applications?

Question

We used to redirect the top part of the Start menu to a network location where we stored shortcuts to network programs/sites etc (programs that are not installed locally), with Windows 7 this no longer works, well it does but the shortcuts are hidden under Start\Programs\Network Apps\ this isn't as obvious as being on the top of the Start menu (we have many novice PC users).

Any suggestions on how we can provide access to these network apps without hiding them under the programs menu?

I was thinking of using a Classic style menu but I can't find any source code I can customize.

How do you make network apps available to users?

Thanks

Answer 1

You could pin a folder shortcut (which would open a folder window with your network application shortcuts) to the stop of the Start menu, however it doesn't appear that the new start menu supports the old style above Programs folders and shorcuts.

Answer 2

With Windows 7, the search menu is awesome for returning a list of applications based on what you are looking for. You could do something like publish all the applications to the machines with a "corp-" prefix and then the users could return that list just by typing the prefix in the search field.