Features

Ask a PC user what's most annoying about their computer, and one thing you're unlikely to hear is 'Actually, I've never had any problems.' If you do, you're probably talking to the kind of person who thinks a couple of hours fiddling with obscure system settings isn't a problem. For the rest of us, many of the everyday niggles are actually fairly simple to avoid. Boxes popping up warning you that something needs updating, network connections going awry, programs

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grinding to a halt: these can all get rather frustrating, but a little attention to the basics should keep them at bay.

Although Windows Vista has now been available for more than a year, some of its new features and different approaches can still confuse even experienced users. Whether you've upgraded a PC to Vista or bought a new one with it installed, you may be faced with settings and messages you don't quite understand. In this article we'll go through some of the essentials and see how to ensure Vista is working for you, not against you.If you're sticking to Windows XP, many of the same principles will apply, although options may be found in different places.

We'll take you through the useful but sometimes inscrutable Security Center, and see why Vista's User Account Control keeps interrupting everything you do with a message asking if you really want to do it.

Finally, the hard disk plays a vital role in almost every PC, so we've included tipson optimising its performance to keep your whole system running smoothly.