If you hit the Power button in the Start menu of Windows Vista, you might expect your computer to turn off. You'd be wrong. Instead of turning off your computer, the Power button in the Vista Start menu actually puts your computer to sleep. If you like this behavior, great, you're set. If not, here's what you can do so that your Power button will actually do what it claims (it's not called the Sleep button).

Go to Start menu and select the Control Panel. Then choose Power Options, then Change Plan Settings, and finally Change Advanced Power Settings. In the list of things to configure, scroll down to "Power buttons and lid" option and expand it. In there you will find that you can set the action to be taken by the Power button in the Start menu as well as the power button on the computer itself. In both cases you can choose from Shutdown, Sleep, Hibernate, or you can opt to have no action taken.