Apple menu

The Apple menu has been with the Mac since System 1 and the Macintosh 128K. Consistently anchored at the top left-hand corner of the screen (except for a brief period under the Mac OS X Public Beta), it contains menu items which are useful in everyday work and allows the user to access frequently used items.

System 1
The Apple menu in System 1 was very short -- only an About the Finder... option with five desk accessories.


 * About the Finder...
 * separator


 * Alarm Clock
 * Choose Printer
 * Control Panel
 * Key Caps
 * Scrapbook

System 7 and later
After the Apple menu was open to customisation, the Apple menu could be altered at will by users and a universal (in appearance and in content) Apple menu was relegated to the Macintosh history books. Frequently seen, however, are:


 * Remnants of what used to be DAs
 * Recently used applications, documents and servers
 * Some Apple utility programmes
 * A link into the Control Panels folder, or a submenu of all control panels

The command About This Macintosh remained at the top of the menu.

Mac OS X
The Apple menu is, alas, once more closed to customisation as of Mac OS X. However, a variant of a freely customisable Apple menu still remains as of Mac OS X 10.3; the Apple menu of the Classic Mac OS can still be modified at will (although its conents are no longer under the Apple menu in Mac OS X).

Under Mac OS X, typical items inside the Apple menu include:


 * About This Mac
 * System Preferences
 * Software Update (as of Mac OS X 10.3)
 * Force quit applications
 * Recently used applications and documents
 * Sleep, restart and shut down commands

Items inside the Apple Menu
Items inside the Apple menu were added, modified or removed, as of System 7, by manipulating items inside the Apple Menu Items folder, which is inside the System Folder. This is no longer possible with the Mac OS X Apple menu, although devices for customising the Apple menu exist (e.g. FruitMenu from Unsanity).

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