The Windows Start menu is more than a decade old. Apparently, Microsoft got it right the first time, because it has changed very little in the years since, and the construct has been copied by others, including several Linux desktops.

Windows Vista's iteration is the first to make minor usability changes to Start that actually matter. The best change is that Microsoft has worked out a nifty fix for the problem of the pop-up Programs submenu (or All Programs, as Vista calls it) that popped away from the Start menu as a separate element. Sometimes it got too big and would attempt to run off the screen. Microsoft tried the "scroll" setting, but it really wasn't any help for many of us. Submenus from XP's Start menu were unwieldy.

Under Vista, the All Programs submenu stays within itself. When you click the All Programs button, the submenu appears on the left side of the Start menu, replacing the top-level menu items. When you click into a folder on the All Programs submenu, that folder expands and a real scroll bar appears automatically (instead of top arrow and bottom arrow over the menu items). Perhaps best of all, the new Start menu supports a scroll-wheel mouse. The addition of the scroll bar and the scroll-wheel support make scanning a lengthy Start menu perfectly acceptable, and they let Microsoft eliminate the giant pop-up Programs menu.

The other notable feature of the new Start menu is the ability to search for programs to launch in the "Start search" area at the bottom of the Start menu, just above the Start button. As you type a program name, such as gpedit.msc or msconfig.exe, the left side of the Start menu changes to display all the possible programs you might launch that match the letters you've typed so far. The search facility on start can also return the names of folders, music files, images and other data you might want to access as well. It's a great feature, and one that will surely get a lot of use.

9. Live Taskbar thumbnails, Flip and Flip 3D