Frontpage menu maintenance

Hi, I have been trying to work out how to add items to the menu on the frontpage ( ), and also slow down the slider - but to no avail. For example, I want to be able to add icons linked to company homepages, about us, and a business information services (BIS) centre that cannot necessarily exist within the main LMS system. I.e. Company homepages must be accessible to anonymous users as well. The BIS centre could reside within as it most likely needs to be controlled by the GROUP module and I would certainly prefer to avoid the extra complication of adding extra domains, subsites or micro-sites in any case. The access link should be available from the front page though, as business clients for this service, will not necessarily want/need access to the courses. I cannot find any references to it in the user manuals or anywhere else. I have looked at code and admin menu /config pages etc. and found references to both and /node I presumed the designation was a setting within the menu system/blocks, but, have not found any similar references in the menus/blocks relating to the existing menu items 'home' and catalog. I also have vague recollections from Drupal 7 about references to altering code files directly - not a good option for a non-techie site-builder like me. Probably I am looking in the wrong places or, am just plain blind - but either way I cannot find anything. Can anyone help? Kr, Chris