How to select files in a directory by typing the first letter of the
name like in XP

Something has changed on my copy of Vista 64-bit Home Premium, and
now when I try to type the first letter of a filename to jump to it,
instead Vista puts it in the search box in the upper right hand corner
of the window instead of jumping to the filename like in all previous
versions of Windows.

This is counter-productive, and annoying the hell out of me. I
want to jump to the filenames starting with that letter, not wipe out
the display and show stuff that isn't in the current directory.
Especially since I'm regularly working with older versions of windows.

How do I fix it so that I can type filenames like in all previous
versions of Windows since at least Windows 95?