laptop vista problems/ help please

[allycoops]

Mate has a laptop that's giving a couple of problems, any ideas on how to solve would be great Lads

1. Sidebar with gadgets (Clock and Calender) right hand side of screen shows a thin line running top to bottom of screen which darkens the the area behind the sidebar. How can I get it back to transparent with no line??

2. When he goes to start/shutdown a box appears with Sleep, he then has to click on the dropdown menu to get to shut down.
He just wants to be able to click on Start/shutdown and it will automatically Shut down without clicking on drop down menus etc. any ideas??

Thanks Lads

[Shady]

other than the obvious answer of ~~~~ing vista off...isnt tranparency an aspect of aero? is it on the aero theme?
shutdown prob may be fixed here >
sorry that was scheduled shut down

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/change-the-windows-vista-power-buttons-to-shut-down/

[allycoops]

Thanks Shady, I aint seen it yet so don't know what theme its on. getting tonight or tomorrow to have a look.

think I've found answer to shutdown problem though.

The default action for the Power button on the start menu in Windows Vista is Sleep, but you can change it to shutdown the system when you click on it. Follow these steps to change the setting:
- Click on the Start Button then click on "Control Panel"
- If it is not already there change the view setting to "Classic View"
- Then click on "Power Options"
- Then click on "Change Plan Settings"
- Then click on "Change Advanced Power Settings"
- This will open a window that has a long list of options to choose from.
- Find the "Power buttons and lid" option
- Click on the (+) next to it to expand that option
- From here, click on the "Start menu power button" option
- from that option you can change what the power button in the start menu does.