Turning on special features in Windows Both Windows XP and Vista provide simple access to customisation features, albeit in slightly different ways. Windows Vista's Ease of Access Center replaces XP's Accessibility Wizard, providing all the same features from a single menu. There's also an option to receive recommendations about making your computer easier to use, which launches a question-and-answer session that helps you to choose the best settings.

As the features are largely the same, we'll use XP as an example of how to customise Windows to suit your needs. Click the Start menu, select All Programs followed by Accessories and then click Accessibility. Listed separately in this section are Windows Narrator (which reads items on the screen and in dialogue boxes aloud), Microsoft Magnifier (which magnifies areas of the screen for enhanced legibility) and On-Screen keyboard (a miniature keyboard that can be operated by mouse clicks). Alongside these is the Accessibility Wizard: a centralised means of changing numerous settings that would otherwise have to be hunted down in several locations.

The wizard starts by offering to provide larger text for the title bars of windows and menus, and optionally invokes Microsoft Magnifier. It then uses a set of interactive . adjustments to help those with poor vision change the sizes of scroll bars, window borders and icons. Further options include switching to a high-contrast colour scheme, enlarging the mouse pointer, changing the width of the text cursor and making it blink faster or slower. For people with less than perfect hearing, the wizard switches on a tool called Sound Sentry, which provides visual warnings to accompany the standard Windows warning sounds.