If you have more than a few programs installed, your Start menu is probably so cluttered that you can’t find an app when you need it. This never got better with Windows XP, but with Windows Vista, you can find any program by clicking Start, typing a few letters from the name of the application, and then clicking the program’s icon when it appears.

If the program is at the top of the list, just press Enter to launch it. To launch it with elevated privileges, press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Then, press Alt+C to confirm the UAC prompt.

You can use the same technique to find any file on your computer–just type a few letters from the file’s name or even the file’s contents. It’ll appear in the Start menu after a few seconds. To browse search results in a separate window, click See all results. To search the whole Internet, click Search the Internet.