One of the really nice improvements Windows Vista makes is the addition of the Search Bar to the Start Menu. This allows you to easily locate any program installed on your system by simply typing a few letters. A tool which enhances this functionality which you might find useful is Start++.

There is a nice page here which gives a description of what Start++ does as well as shows some screenshots of it in action. Basically, you can define your own shortcuts in the Search Bar which are interpreted by Start++ to perform a certain action.

For example, you could [...] type “g Stuff” to search for the work “Stuff” on Google. You could also launch programs, run scripts with parameters, and more.

This appears to be a pretty nifty utility for those of your who are into keyboard controls.