Start menu catastrophe in Vista

I'm starting to face facts - very soon, I'll have to replace my production computer and that means it will need to be Vista. Until now, I've used a laptop running Vista when I needed to write something Vista related but frankly I don't like Vista at all. Part of this is I don't like the dummed down interface. I need to move around my programs and network fast, and using the default settings is like walking in treacle.

One thing I hate is the new Start menu - give me back the Windows XP Start menu please! If you know how to do it, you can get it back - Yeah! Right click the taskbar and choose Properties to display the Taskbar and Start Menu dialog. Click the Start Menu tab and click Classic Start Menu - this gives you a faux Windows XP version of the start menu - it's not perfect but it beats the Vista version hands down.

Next up - Windows Search sucks big time and what I do to avoid using it!