Windows Vista Annoyances

The Start Menu

Windows Vista is composed of 50 million lines of computer code, scattered across your hard drive in thousands of files. The vast majority of them are support files, there for behind-the-scenes use by Windows and your applications—they’re not for you. They may as well bear a sticker saying, “No user-serviceable parts inside.”

That’s why the Start menu is so important. It lists every useful piece of software on your computer, including commands, programs, and files. Just about everything you do on your PC begins—or can begin—with your Start menu.

In Vista, the word Start no longer appears on the Start menu; now the Start menu is just a round, backlit, glass pebble with a Windows logo behind it. But it’s still called the Start menu, and it’s still the gateway to everything on the PC.

If you’re the type who bills by the hour, you can open the Start menu (Figure 2-3) by clicking it with the mouse. If you’re among those who feel that life’s too short, however, open it by tapping the

key on the keyboard instead.

Figure 2-3. Left: The Start menu’s top-left section is yours to play with. You can “pin” whatever programs you want here, in whatever order you like. The lower-left section lists programs you use most often. (You can delete individual items here—see Section 5.6.3—but you ...