it's a little code hack.
the easy way is something like that in the username check section of register.php:
PHP Code:
// vb.org check for a valid username (has to start with 0-9 or a-z or A-Z
if (!(($_POST['username']{0} >= '0' AND $_POST['username']{0} <= '9')
OR ($_POST['username']{0} >= 'a' AND $_POST['username']{0} <= 'z')
OR ($_POST['username']{0} >= 'A' AND $_POST['username']{0} <= 'Z')))
{
$errors[20] = "Invalid Username";
}