MS-Windows is extremely flexible. So one of the things you can do is delete your Start menu. It's a good way to prevent people from starting the "wrong" software. Now, without that menu and a few icons, what do you do?!

The Start -> Run menu is accessible using a Window key (held down) and the R key (W-R). This will open the Run window in which you can run all sorts of programs. It is a console reduce to its minimum! (Invented by Microsoft, thank you!)