Many of you may have Windows Vista and hate the new start menu. All the programs are there but the fact that they don’t fill up your screen when you move your mouse over programs might seem foreign. I personally like the way Vista works because of the search and because there is less clutter but here is how to make your start menu look like Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98 etc. There are many ways to do this but here is what I like best

1. Hover your mouse over the Windows Logo (where is used to say start in previous versions) and right click.

2. From there select properties from the box that pops up.

3. You will see a set of tabs in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties Dialog box. Task Bar, Start Menu, Notification Area, etc. Select "Start Menu"

4. With the Start Menu tab selected, select "Classic Start Menu."

5. At this point you can click "ok" in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box and you are finished or you can click customize to customize your Classic Start Menu.

Now your start menu looks more or less like previous versions of Windows.

Credit where credit is due! I got all this information from Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv while exchanging emails about her iyule screensaver.

Scenario: You have some cool video in the .wmv format, you have Vista, and you want to know how to use the video as a cool screensaver.

Steps in Vista:

1. create a new folder and call it whatever you want and put the .wmv video file in the folder. The folder can also be wherever you want

2. Right click on the Windows Desktop and select "personalize." You can also select "personalization in the control panel to get you to the same place.

3. Select Screen Saver.

4. Then select "Photos" in the drop down menu in the screen saver settings dialog box.

5. click the "settings" box to the right of the drop down menu

6. Check "use pictures and videos from" and click the "Browse" button.

7. Navigate to the place where you created the folder where you put the .wmv file and select the folder. Dont click save yet.

8. You need to now select the theme. Some will not work and some will not look good but one I know that works is "Fade" so for this example I would choose fade to see if it works. I also leave the speed at medium. Ok now you can select "save."

9. Hit the "preview" button to make sure everything works. I would give it a minute because the video does not come up right away.

10. If you are satisfied with all the settings, you can click the "ok" button in the screen save settings dialog box and you are all set.

If nothing worked, check the type of video or try starting over following my steps. I have not test other ways of doing this but I know this works for me. I am making the assumption that this works in all versions of Vista but I have not tried them all, I have done this in Vista Ultimate. Please let me know if it does not work in other versions. I should also note, there is no sound with this technique.

In my case, I purchased the iyule video from Cali Lewis at www.iyule.tv, so now I have a warm fire as my screen saver.