Start Menu's "Start Search" Text Box

In XP and previous version of Windows, I would keep a number of program
shortcuts in the Start Menu so that I could quickly open programs by pressing
the Windows button on the keyboard and then typing the first letter of the
program I wanted to open. Because Vista has added the "Start Search" text
box in the Start Menu, it seems I can no longer do this, unless there is some
way to get rid of this "Start Search" text box. Does anyone know?

Thanks,
Alex