If you have bought a PC at any poJnt over the past 18 months, ies likely you have already experienced Windows Vista. Ies the operating system (OS) that comes installed on most new PCs . (and has also been available as an upgrade) since January last year. That might make it sound like old news, but since the lifespan of Microsoft's previous as - Windows XP - covered more than six years (and counting), Vista is still very much the new kid in town.



Now that the initial fuss has died down, however, it's plain to p that, while Vista is, on the surface, disarmingly simple to use, it still has plenty of surprises up its sleeve. In addition to the software's well-documented selling points, there are many, many more features to uncover, including entire alternative methods to control your PC, help solving technical problems, and a virtually limitless number of ways to tweak or combine various settings in order to get your computer to look, sound and act the way you want it to.

Over the next 150 or so pages, we'll be uncovering many of these lesser-known features and functions, revealing things you may not even have known your PC could do. We'll also be examining the hidden flaws that lurk within Windows and demonstrating how, with the help of our sover CD, you can plug some of the gaping holes left in the as. But before we do any of that, ies important to establish the basics. And to do that we need to go right back to the beginning.