Windows Vista is filled with a lot of customization, user interface, administration and security options. If you’re wrestling with running Vista in an optimized way, or if you’re deploying it in a workgroup, there are a number of great resources online that can offer help.
In this post, I’ll focus on what’s available from Microsoft itself and from other sites on the web. These resources should help you get much more out of the operating system.

The Vista Team Blog. The team behind Windows Vista at Microsoft runs its own blog, which is full of a lot of good content. At the site, the best way to navigate is to use the Search tool on the right of the home page. For example, if you search on Aero, there are lots of posts on disabling the new graphical interface in Vista if you choose to do so for speed and battery life reasons, there are posts on Aero and battery life in notebooks, and much more.

There are many reader comments for most posts on the Vista Team blog, and members of the team will answer questions about Vista in the comments sections too. You’ll also find that Vista team members post Q&A-style material on a regular basis, which is worth reading.
Online Tutorials. There are also quite a lot of rich media Vista tutorials available on the web, which can really speed up the learning process. C/Net has a good collection of them They include tutorials on tweaking the Vista sidebar, running a dual-boot system with Vista, and more.
Uber-VAR CDW also has a good collection of educational Vista webcasts and podcasts online (leveraging C/Net content). You’ll find podcasts on how to use the Application Compatibility Tool in Vista, how to migrate a business to Vista, and more. (Scroll down the page at the link above to find the Vista podcasts.)

For Power Vista Tweakers. If you want Vista advice on steroids, including robust options for customizing everything from the interface to performance, take a look at the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion available online as a free download (there’s also a good one on Windows XP tweaks). It’s basically an online book full of cool customization options. I’ve written about Tweakguides before on this blog.
Finally, if you want really automated and rich software-driven ways to customize Vista, look no further than Tweak VI from TotalIdea Software. It’s one of the best free downloads you can get, as I described a few posts ago.

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