Click on the Start Button, navigate to the program shortcut in your 'All Programs' list that you want to pin, right click, and click on 'Pin to Start Menu'.

Dragging is much easier. Good call crissy.

Oracle73
You should be able to right click on the icon, bring up its properties. then click "change icon". You should be able to change it to what ever you want. There may be additional icons for the particular program in its folder, or you can find additional system icons in windows/system/shell32

another way to change the icon is to make a shortcut to the program and change its icon and then drag it onto the menu. the only problem with it though is that if you change the icon you have to remove the shortcut from the start menu and then drag it back on. By making shortcuts you can also include links to websites. I have an item on the leftside that is a link to wincustomize.

you can put icons in the right too. just a little tricky.

its a registry trick. You can change the links to the folder my music. also with the right program you can change the manufactures link into an actual link. So you can change two things. Maybe more, but this is all that I have been able to change so far.

Open up regedit. browse to currentuser/software/microsoft/windows/explorer/usershellfolders

change string in my music to whatever folder you like.

Now for the manufacturers link you need a preogram called branderxp: http://download.com.com/3000-2195-9013683.html

that should set you for now.

be sure to back up the registry in case you mess something up. I don't think in this case it would hurt anything major, but you can never be to careful with the registry