Dentists don't bother me. Due to an absence of nerves, they can repair my mouth and teeth without anaesthetics. The prospect of installing the 64 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate scared me more.

The word-of-mouth on the use of 64-bit Vista has been "leave it for servers" and "be very careful with drivers" to "don't do it"

Rather than succumbing to the hearsay, I decided to install Vista Ultimate x64. Yeah, techies have shortened "64-bit" to x64.

Pleasantly and surprisingly, things just, well, worked. Strike one against hearsay.

Even with the specialised "files" sticking out of them, the folder icons on a Windows Vista desktop can be pretty hard to tell apart, and there's no built-in OS X-like colouring application to aid quick location. The Dumb Little Man blog posts a dead-simple guide to overcoming look-alikes with custom icons. It's fairly similar to how you do the same in Windows XP, but worth revisiting for a more navigable desktop.

Windows Vista only: Free, open source Vista application and Media Center plugin Lifextender removes commercials from Windows Media Center-recorded TV shows, cutting the average 30 minute show down to around 22 minutes. Lifextender scans the directory your Media Center records to, analyzes, and re-cuts the videos one at a time, then replaces the original file with the new, commercial-free one. Not only will it save you time, it'll also save you hard drive space. If you're using Vista's Media Center to record TV, this is a must-have (it even works with extenders like your Xbox 360). If you aren't using your Vista PC as a media center, maybe it's time you turn it into the media center powerhouse it's meant to be.

Windows Dreamscene, the desktop addon to Windows Vista Ultimate that lets you use videos as a desktop wallpaper, has finally been released.

There've been some complaints about Microsoft not pushing out DreamScene and 20 language packs by the "end of summer", which was their previous promise, and this quote from the Vista Ultimate Director doesn't quite help things: "Unfortunately summer never really came to Seattle this year--so we missed our cue." On our admittedly lousy Pentium D machine, turning on Dreamscene to one of the default videos gave us a sustained 15% CPU usage on both cores. Not too bad. [Windows Ultimate]

You cannot be awake 100% of the time to watch what what your children are doing on your computer. Short of hiring a night-time nanny - there are few options.

Windows Vista has Time Limit controls in the Parental Controls.

Step 1:

Integral to the successful use of parental controls is the concept of User Account Control, and individual, non-administrator accounts for each user. I empower Toby by giving him his own logon account, but with parameters that ensure I can confidently give him his independence within that account.  To use the computer, Toby must log into the PC with his username and password.

Step 2:

After creating an account for Toby, I enable Parental Controls on Toby's account through the Control Panel. By limiting what Web sites Toby can visit, what programs and games Toby can use, what time he can use the computer, and I can also access a report on all of his activities. Parental Controls in Windows Vista gives parents the option of taking a more active role in their children's safe computer use, if they so choose, and can facilitate some healthy discussions about boundaries and how to stay safe online.

To encourage a collaborative approach to child safe computing, limitations set through Parental Controls are not hidden in Windows Vista - if Toby tries to access a Web site that I did not give him permission to see, he will see the following screen in his Web browser informing him that the Web site is blocked.

However, the screen also provides a link to "Ask an administrator for permission" to visit the site. If he clicks that link, he will be given the User Account Control over-the shoulder credentials prompt. This way if I feel like this is a site she wants Toby to visit, I can quickly grant permission.

In Parental Controls, there are many controls to ensure that your kids, when using a computer, can do so safely.

And get top marks in their geography assignment. Without your intervention.

You may like having Vista's pretty-fying Aero effects enabled while you're working, but many modern games can make you want to devote every last bit of memory and power to their 3-D awesomeness. The How-To Geek shows how to easily disable desktop effects by editing (or creating) a shortcut for the game (or other program):

Simply right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties, and then the Compatibility tab ... Now on the Settings block check the box for "Disable desktop composition" in order to disable Aero the next time you use the shortcut.

Windows Vista only: Freeware Windows Media Centre plug-in Yougle integrates community video from the likes of YouTube and community images from sites like Flickr and ICanHasCheezburger with Windows Media Centre. Once installed, Yougle provides access to all of those wonderful videos, pictures, and even audio from the comfort of your couch. If this looks familiar, the plug-in is a Vista version of a previously mentioned and no-longer-developed Windows MCE plug-in. Yet another great plug-in for making your Media Centre life better. Yougle is freeware, Windows Vista only, requires a registration at the download site.

Windows Vista only: Vista's Preview Pane can be helpful in determining exactly which file you're looking to open, and PreviewConfig lets you extend its usefulness beyond the handful of files Vista automatically provides text or image previews for. The no-install utility provides a list of file types registered on your system, and you simply select the file and choose to add a text or multimedia preview. Multimedia previews generally work with any video or audio file that plays in Windows Media Player, or pictures that can load with a double-click. PreviewConfig is a free download for Windows Vista systems only. For a registry hack that accomplishes the same thing (with more effort), see the How-To Geek at the via link below.

There is a little addition to the Windows Media Center setup. It is a hidden gem that makes life so much easier.

In our home, we have a Windows Home Server. Thoughtfully named SERVER, it is small and sits quietly near the broadband connection.

After Media Center record TV shows on one PC, I generally like to store the results safely for later viewing.

The *.dvr-ms files created by Windows Media Center, especially on Digital TV transmissions, can be quite large.

So, to fix both of these issues I have installed MCEBuddy

A tool that quietly lives in the background of your PC, it watches the Recorded TV directory. When a show has completed recording, MCEBuddy compresses the show into something smaller (for instance: WMV or even MP4 for iPods!) and transfers automagically to our Windows Home Server.

I highly recommend this little utility.