Windows Vista includes a new search box that can be found in the Start menu. This search box is great for finding files and programs, but it can be a bit difficult to power up. In this article, we’ll show you how to make your search box even more powerful. ..

Coolness:  0.5Usefulness: 0.8Show-Off Factor: 3.9

Vista Start Menu Health With Start++

Coolness:  14.2Usefulness: 999.9Show-Off Factor: 24.9

As you can see, significant stat increases just from installing Brandon Paddock’s Start++ Start menu enhancement, mostly in the area of usefulness. What’s this all about, you ask?

Start++ is a small add-on application that lets you create aliases of words and characters to commands or searches. You can set the commands to run with administrator privileges. You can even save commands as “Startlets” and share them with your friends.

Here are some Start++ usage examples:

Search Google by typing in g Search Dictionary by using d Search Wikipedia by using w Search IMDB by using imdb Search anywhere by making a custom search command:  Use sudo before any command to make it run as administrator: Finally, a sudo command for Windows Vista! Search for music to play and open in Media Player. You could use “Play Nickleback”, for example. I’m looking forward to testing out these commands. Start++ even works from the command prompt. Create an alias for anything you want. You could set “i” to open Internet explorer, and “f” for Firefox, for instance.

Download Start++ From Brandon Paddock’s site now.

I’d also recommend subscribing to the Start++ updates feed on Brandon Paddock’s site, because he’s been releasing new versions left and right.