Hi,
I don't understand how to fully work the vista start menu myself, but I know how to get it to work like XP:
Start>Control Panel>Appearance and Personalisation>Taskbar and Start Menu>Customise the start menu
Click on the start menu tab, choose 'Classic start menu', then ok. Now it should be identical to the start menu in XP
You can probably customise the vista one to do it, I just haven't figured it out yet, if I do I'll give you a shout.
Do I get good karma for this (only joking)
John