Vista

The Vista Welcome Center is a screen that provides quick links to several common tasks, such as customizing Vista and looking up system specifications.

This miniature control panel is only available on portable PCs. Use it to enable or disable a wireless adapter or an external monitor and to get a quick fix on battery life. It's even easier if you know the easy keyboard shortcut.

Security Center is a nag. The little icon sits in the taskbar, popping up annoying messages and generally making a nuisance of itself. Until you find the switch to make it go away for good, that is.

The cursor that marks the insertion point in a program or dialog box is thinner than Kate Moss. A well-hidden option lets you put a little weight on this skinny pointer.

Did you know that each of the first 10 shortcuts on the Quick Launch bar has its own custom keyboard shortcut?

If you've got the right sound hardware, you can tap into some excellent audio enhancements, including virtual surround sound and tools for cranking up the bass output.

A shortcut buried deep in the Performance and Reliability section of Control Panel allows you to generate a quick, information-packed report that spotlights any problems with your system. Here's where you can find it.

This little utility was originally designed for use with Tablet PCs, but in Vista it's available to anyone running a premium version. Use it to snip all or part of a screen and paste the screen shot into a document or e-mail message.

You're not getting any younger, and neither are your eyes. Use this tweak to keep your monitor running at its high native resolution but bump the size of text up.

You're not getting any younger, and neither are your eyes. Use this tweak to keep your monitor running at its high native resolution but bump the size of text up.