Here are two useful Vista tips that I have come across. The first one I believe I have mentioned here before and is strictly for Vista. The second one may be useful in previous OS versions, I don't know.

1) Set Windows Explorer to Folder View (folders in the left pane, files & folders in the right.) Shift-RightClick any folder in the right pane, and you will open a dialog box with an option to "Open command prompt here." This is the best way I know to get a C:> prompt in Vista, and having it already in the directory where you want to do the work is an extra bonus.

2) When you need to force close a program using Task Manager, just highlighting the program and clicking the "End Task" button doesn't always work, and usually takes you to the maddening dialog about "Windows is checking for a solution to the problem..." You can bypass all that and get a definite kill by highlighting the program, and then clicking "Ctrl-Shift-End Task".

I hope these tips are helpful.

tanstaafl.