26. Eliminate That Warning
Windows Vista hates it when you don't use an antivirus program, a firewall, or some other security feature. But if you don't need one part of the built-in security, you also don't need the Security Center shield icon to pop up constantly in the system tray. Right-click the icon and click Open Security Center. Then, in Security Center, click Change the Way Security Center Alerts Me. You want to select Don't Notify Me and Don't Display the Icon (even though Windows tells you it's "Not Recommended").

27. Add Photos Faster
Most digital cameras come with proprietary software for importing pictures into Windows and cleaning off the camera's memory card, generally a two-stage process. You can do it all in one step with Windows Photo Gallery, which has an auto-erase feature. It lets you dump photos and erase your camera's memory card with one click, preserving a bit of battery life and simplifying yours. Select Options from the File menu, and under the Import tab, select Always erase from camera after importing. Good? Maybe. Potentially dangerous? Definitely. Proceed with caution.

28. Get The Power Prompt
The Command Prompt, though buried in the Start menu, is an enduringly versatile application. Too bad it's hampered by User Account Control, which will prevent certain apps from running properly because of a lack of permissions. To upgrade its capabilities, navigate to the Accessories folder in the Start menu, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator. If you find yourself doing this frequently, try this shortcut: The search box in Vista's Start menu can serve the same function. Simply enter a command, hold the Shift and Ctrl keys, and press Enter.

29. Be An Icon Artist
You may have noticed that by simply holding down the Ctrl key you can use your mouse's scroll wheel to resize a folder's icon. But you may not have noticed that this works on the desktop itself. You can resize from standard 48-by-48-pixel icons to full 256-by-256 photo quality renditions. Power users: Go to Computer and click the arrow to the right of the View menu, where you'll find a slider with an endless selection of icon sizes.

30. Know Your Velocity
Everyone knows about the Windows Experience score, but a power user won't find the information there as comprehensive or useful as one could wish. Skip it in favor of Microsoft's Management Console. Right-click on Computer and select Manage. Then select Reliability and Performance and take a look at your system's Reliability Monitor in the collection of monitoring tools. This system stability index gives a weighted value of how stable your PC is based on data collected over its lifetime. Little red X's show where specific failures occurred. It's a great troubleshooting tool.

31. Create an XPS Document
XPS (which stands for XML Paper Specification) can be very useful; it's effectively an open-standard version of the popular-but proprietary Adobe Acrobat format. What does it all mean? You can create, edit, print, and save the documents without paying Adobe for a license. To create an XPS document, create a file in any word processor (Notepad, WordPad, Word, and so on) and click Print . . . . Then select the automatically installed XPS Printer to "print" the document to an XPS file.

32. Sync Everything!
Need to sync to something that's not supported? Say, to a digital camera, across folders, or even between different computers? SyncToy 1.4, a PowerToy from Microsoft, now supports Windows Vista and will let you sync a folder to a removable hard drive, a network share, and other things. You can pick up the tool for free from Microsoft's Download Center.

33. Set Affinity
Multitasking is an efficient way to spread resources across multiple CPUs—or the multiple cores of a dual-core CPU (or quad-, or octo-, or whatever!). But if you have a single application that consumes a large amount of the system's resources, such as Norton AntiVirus, bypass the multitasking and set it to run exclusively off a single core, potentially improving its efficiency. Bring up the Task Manager, find the resource-hogging process (for Norton, it's called nprotect.exe), right-click it, and select Set Affinity. Then deselect one of the cores, isolating the process and boosting its efficiency.

34. Move Your Stuff
Personal folders are handy, but they may not live where you want them to. Fortunately, you can relocate your own folders fairly easily. Click your username at the top right of the Start menu to open your profile. Right-click Documents and choose Properties. Then click Location | Move and select the new location, or even create it at this time. You'll be asked if you want to move your documents; hit Yes, of course. Don't try this with the Public folder, though: There's a Location tab, but no Move button.

35. Know your Autoplay
XP's Autoplay functionality was merely a thing the OS did, but Vista makes it useful with a control panel applet (including Blu-ray and HD DVD support!). Type Programs in the Start menu and hit Enter and you've got complete control.

36. Create zipped files (again)
Vista opens password-protected ZIP files, but it no longer creates them (Microsoft says passwords don't afford serious security). Your best bet: Download SecureZIP. It's a stable—and free!—alternative.

37. Restore your files
In XP, System Restore fixes OS problems but won't do squat if you accidentally save a file rather than quitting. In Vista, it creates "shadow copies" of your files daily; just right-click a Word, Notepad, or Wordpad file to roll it back to earlier versions.

38. Improve Windows Sidebar
Though the Sidebar is handy, an overcrowded Sidebar merely adds desktop clutter. For gadgets that don't provide "glanceable" data, right-click the gadget and set opacity to 40 percent. It'll fade out when not in use.

39. Go International
Need to know the time in Lima? Or Monaco? Searching for time zones in the control panel will reveal an option to add clocks for different time zones

40. Gain Speed
Does Vista seem slower than XP to you? A default power setting in the "Power Saver" plan limits the CPU to 50 percent. Open the Power Options control panel and change it to "High Performance" to give it full throttle.

41. Search Elsewhere
Internet Explorer's default search engine is MSN.com. Boo! Click the drop-down menu next to IE's magnifying-glass icon and select "Find More Providers…" Adding Amazon, eBay, and MTV make searching much more fun.

42. Launch Apps Faster
Want to find that program? Don't search through all those menus on the Start button, just type the first couple of characters into the bar at the bottom and the name will appear.

43. Keep Personal Data Private
You can add titles, ratings, and more to songs and photos. But you want to share files, not your personal notes. Right-click a file, choose Properties, click the Details tab, and click the link at the bottom to "Remove Protection and Personal Information."

44. Search By Voice
Enable the built-in natural language search feature; it's on the Search tab in the Folder Options control panel. Now you can type, say, files created last month or music by Tom Lehrer.

45. Take a Meeting
Vista has a calendar that lets you share your schedule with others online. Type Calendar into the Start menu to launch it. Add a few appointments and click the Share menu and you're off!

46. Send Faxes
You may have a cable modem, but the odds are good that your PC has an integrated fax modem, too. Take advantage of it with Vista's built-in fax-center software.

47. Improve Compatibility
Stuck with an old program you love that just won't run in Vista? Search Help and Support for compatibility mode, and start the wizard to get that program going in the new OS.

48. Get a Digital Keyboard
Windows Vista comes with a virtual keyboard, handy if your real one breaks. Simply punch OSK into the Start menu's Search field and hit enter to bring up the on-screen keyboard and use your mouse to "key" in data.

49. Hire a Robot Secretary
Get CDYNE Corp.'s Phone Notify sidebar gadget from Microsoft's gadget gallery. Then type a sentence and a phone number into its sidebar field and the tool will instantly translate your text into speech and place the call. Cool!

50. Get Animated
Vista Ultimate users are privy to an Extra called DreamScene, which adds video desktop wallpapers. Buy Stardock's DESKScapes instead, which lets you set computer-generated animations as wallpapers too.