The shutdown menu in Vista is a pain, and it slows down the process of shutting down your computer. If you want to be able to shutdown, sleep, or restart your Vista computer quicker, a better alternative to the shutdown menu is to create icons for each process that you can then place on your desktop. Click the appropriate icon then performs the desired action without having to hunt through menus.

To create a shortcut like this, right click on the desktop select "New" and then select "Shortcut". You'll then get a popup that asks for the location of the shortcut. Enter one of the following commands based on what action you want the shortcut to take:

To shutdown: Shutdown.exe -s -t 00
To hibernate: rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState
To restart: Shutdown.exe -r -t 00
To lock your computer: Rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation

You then get to enter a name for the shortcut and it gets created. You can do this for each of the actions you take on a regular basis, and then you'll have a much quicker way to shutdown your computer.