Basically I almost never use the Start menu for launching apps. All my day-to-day softwares are pinned or in the Quick Launch. If not the case typing is usually quicker than looking in the start menu.

But as I said : I "ALMOST" never use it. I don't want it to disappear.

If you delete things from the start menu there's no way left to find them (other than rummaging through your whole hard drive for executables). Things I want to launch often go in quick launch or on the desktop; the start menu is always the interface of last resort.

An application install will add a new folder with the company name, the application launch icon, and a bunch of supplementary icons including an uninstall. I delete all that crap, except the app icon, and move it to an appropriate folder. Launching Visual Studio, for example, involves me clicking Start -> Programming -> Visual Studio. I'm not deleting application icons (unless they're built in and I don't use them).

I used to do the same, but I ran into too many problems with uninstallers. Specifically, I would try to uninstall an application and it would begin by trying to delete the start menu items it had created. Since I'd deleted 90% of the crud, those items were gone and the uninstaller would crash.

Of course, this is back in the 9x days. Have you run into this issue recently?

Never happens -- I install and uninstall crud all the time; no problem with uninstallers crashing if their icon isn't found. The only downside is if you move the icon the uninstaller won't find it.

I put all my Start Menu items in the same folder that contains the Programs folder. My programs folder then just contains the crud I haven't decided to keep yet or haven't otherwise organized.

I have ClassicShell configured so the class start menu appears if I click but the Win 7 start menu comes up if I use the keyboard (for searching).