I hate those pics which pop up when mousing over the right panel of the start menu in Vista and 7. This will work for XP as well.
I had to find a way to get rid of them. I think Giz told me how to do it, so I’m gonna share it with anyone who is like minded.
You'll need SkinStudio and Windowblinds, of course.
So, let’s pick a skin to change: Alluminate 2 (7) (by vStyler). One I like a good deal, and it's one which I haven’t modded yet. Remember to save a backup copy of the skin you wish to alter!
Baseline, the Start Menu looks like this: 
Now, open the wbconfig window:
and choose “Skin Options” and “Edit in SkinStudio”:
You’ll get this Choose the substyle you wish to edit:
And you’ll get this. SKS is now open:
Now choose “Edit Startmenu and Taskbar“(on the left) and “Edit Start Menu” (just below the picture of the skin) and all the way at the bottom, choose the “Extra Settings” tab. Now a window should open:
Now choose “Top Part” (on the left) and in the scroll menu, choose “Hide the user picture”. Just to the right of that scrolling menu, you’ll see a box “Enabled”. Check that.
Close this window, and the prior one. A dialog text should open asking if you wish to save the changes you have made to the skin. Choose “Yes”. That should cause SKS to close:
Now, go back to the wbconfig window and apply a different skin (if you had Alluminate applied before) if not, choose Alluminate2(7) and apply it. You should get this:
Voila… you’re done!
Just remember, when you do this you can reverse it the same way. 