John Ellmore

This plugin allows the website administrator to remove the following from the WordPress Administration Panel:
<ul>
<li>menu links (like “Tools”, “Appearance”, or annoying menus from third-party plugin)</li>
<li>submenu links (like “Users > Your Profile”, “Tools > Available Tools”, or annoying menus from third-party plugins)</li>
<li>and dashboard meta boxes (like “QuickPress”, “Other WordPress News”, or annoying meta boxes from third-party plugins)</li>
</ul>
It relies on hardcoded settings in wp-config.php (instead of having yet another admin settings page to deal with). Since the settings are all hardcoded, it can be easily set up by a website administrator and left in place without any users messing with it. It works on both single and multisite installations.

Simplify Admin Panel

Allows easy removal of menu links, submenu links, and dashboard widgets from the WordPress Admin…

feedmeastraycat

WordPress removes the Update Services ability (Settings – Writing) when you create a network (aka enables WordPress MU/Multisite). 
Activate this plugin to get it back.
Note: This is only for WordPress setups with a network, aka multiple sites, aka multisites, 
aka WPMU in WordPress 3 and later.
This plugin might work with older WordPress MU sites. I haven’t tested it though. If you do, please 
let me know how it turned out.
<h3>Files</h3>
<ul>
<li>/activate-update-services/activate-update-services.php</li>
<li>/activate-update-services/README.txt</li>
</ul>

Activate Update Services

WordPress removes the Update Services ability when you create a network. Activate this plugin to get it back.

Simplify Admin Panel vs Activate Update Services