Did you know that, by default in Windows, there is a 400 ms delay between the time you press the Start Menu button and when the display process actually starts? You can easily remove this delay by making a simple registry entry change:

1. Open Start > Run.
2. Enter: regedit
3. Click Ok. The Registry Editor will open.
4. Browse to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop
5. Double click on the entry “Menu Show Delay”.
6. Change the value to 0 to remove the delay.
7. Close the Registry Editor.

Now there will not be an imposed time on load of the Start Menu. This works for both XP and Vista, although I am not sure about 2000 (probably so though).