By now you have probably noticed the big SYSTEM MENU text in the top-right corner of your screen. Clicking this element will open the ARES main menu, from which you will be doing most of your interaction with the system. A few notes:

• If you don't see the SYSTEM MENU graphic or it is partially off-screen, you probably need to move it. See Interface Customization in Operating ARES for detailed instructions.
• If nothing happens when you press the SYSTEM MENU widget, then one of the programs involved in its function may have crashed. Try the following commands, checking after each to see if the problem is fixed: @reset menu
  @service variatype restart
  @service interface restart
  =ddt reset In most cases the first command will suffice.
• If the menu seems to be doing the wrong thing, especially if it seems to be "lagging behind" by processing what you told it to do one or more clicks earlier, reset the menu script, as described above. (We think this bug is mostly extinct, but it can crop up again if the program responsible for refreshing a menu is missing.)

Accessing menus of others

There are several other ways to access the ARES menus. These are intended for users rather than the unit.

• If the unit's main controller has a holographic menu system, clicking the housing once will open the holographic menu. (For the NS-476 Aegis, only the lid responds this way.)
• If the controller has a physical menu screen built into its housing, clicking on the screen area will refresh the menu session and allow use.
• If the controller does not have a holographic screen, clicking the body will send (or, if possible, auto-attach) the AMLite menu HUD which allows convenient on-screen access with far more informational density than standard SL dialogs.
• Controllers that have holographic screens can still be used with AMLite by clicking the body after the screen is open.
• If the user has the ARemote HUD equipped, ARES will send ARemote a menu invite instead of the AMLite HUD. ARemote is a mobile terminal for power users, and provides an interface similar to the built-in system menus that the unit sees. It also provides command line access.

Menu overview

The main menu looks like this:

personalities...	See tutorial: Personas
power control...	See tutorial: Power: The subsystems menu
chat filtering...	See tutorial: Chat: Manipulating chat messages
scripts...	See chapter in main manual: Scripting ARES
extensions...	See manual appendix: Extensions
applications...	Some programs you download and install (see Managing Installed Software) will appear here
move...	See chapter in main manual: Navigation
file system...	See chapter in main manual: Filesystem Introduction
settings...	Explained throughout the Operating ARES main manual
access control...	See chapter in main manual: Security (already partially covered in Guests and consent, Users, Managers, and Owners, Bans and disabling self access)
devices...	See chapter in main manual: Devices
system status	Reports current power usage; explained more in tutorials Power: Recharging and battery health and Power: The subsystems menu and chapter in main manual Power & Subsystem Management
help	Provides quick access to the command reference
about	Reports current identity settings
shut down	Immediately shuts down the unit's power
reboot	Shuts down and then restarts the unit

These items are discussed in detail in later parts of the manual.

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