So you just purchased a new PC, or upgraded from Windows XP. Already tired of the default Windows Vista background, icons, or sounds? In this article, we will discuss various safe, easy and free ways to customize your Windows Vista desktop.

First of all, you may want to change your logon icon. This is the first thing you will see when you start up your PC. Your machine will come preloaded with dozens of logon icons, but if none of these are right for you, there’s also LogonStudio Vista, a free program with hundreds of downloadable logon icons available. Alternately, if you have a photo of your own you’d like to use, changing the logon is as easy as drag and drop.

Tired of the default Windows theme? Its possible to change everything about the way your desktop looks by downloading new themes. To test this out, try downloading WindowBlinds, a program that includes several high-quality skins for Vista, with thousands more available to download. Not only can you change your background and visual style, you can also change the skin color, transparency, desktop icons, and much more.

Now that you’ve customized your background and overall theme, here’s some extra utilities you may want to use to further customize your desktop. Changing your icons by hand would take a lot of effort and time. The best way to change Vista icons is by using an icon pack, which will switch nearly every icon for a corresponding one in the new pack. For a whole slew of downloadable icon packs, you can snag a trial version of IconPackager.

If you wish to continue on with your Vista customization, the next step is changing your cursor. CursorFX is an extremely popular free program that can transform your arrow cursor into anything you can imagine. Changing to the cursor you want is as easy as double-clicking, and reverting to a default cursor is just as easy.

You may be wary of changing the visual aspect of Windows Vista, or you may be wondering if customizing your desktop will slow down your performance in any way. This is not the case. As long as you follow the methods outlined in this article, every change you make is both reversible and makes no major changes to your operating system. In fact, some of the methods of customization may make the operating system run a little smoother.

Of course, you don’t have to use all these tools at once. Feel free to pick and choose, and use a search engine to dig a little deeper for other customization programs. It’s all about personalization, and what suits you best.

Though some people have speculated that Windows 7 will simply be an extension on the core engine used for Microsoft Windows Vista, many Windows users are waiting to see what changes will be introduced in Windows 7 before starting to form their opinions.

Microsoft has stated publicly that Windows 7 will be a major release for the company, lending credence to the theory that Windows 7 will have a number of changes and refinements; here is what is known thus far about what changes will be introduced in Windows 7 and what will remain the same from Vista.

User Account Control or UAC, better known to many Vista users as the annoying warnings that pop up every time you try and do something, will return. While many Vista users turn off UAC almost immediately because of the annoyance of constantly having to approve actions that they initiated, the Windows 7 version is hinted to be much more streamlined and easy to deal with.

Microsoft has taken a large amount of user feedback into consideration so that they can provide a UAC system that does what it was designed to do without causing undue annoyance for the users of their operating system.

Windows 7 is also purported to have a feature known as “pervasive multi-touch”, meaning that the operating system will be able to make efficient use of a touch screen as a method of control. This will take Windows 7 far beyond previous versions of the Windows operating system in regards to user interactivity, as the new touch screen interface is being designed to allows users to directly manipulate the OS and its applications in ways that simply weren’t possible before.

Windows users who are wondering what changes will be introduced in Windows 7 will be happy to note that these aren’t the only changes planned for the operating system, but are merely two examples of how Microsoft is taking features or compatibility issues from previous OS versions and advancing them to the next level of user interface.

Windows 7 is being built off of the kernel for Windows Vista, but the company is working hard to improve upon Vista’s features and make an operating system that is even more customizable so that it can be appreciated by both power users and those users who are much more casual in their computing. User feedback from Vista is being considered to better streamline the Windows 7 user experience, while new Windows 7 exclusive features are being developed behind closed doors.

Keeping a PC running smoothly is something that seems to elude a lot of people. Too many times I’ve seen people running their PC to a crawl and then wondering what the problem is and why everything seems to be running so slowly. Inexperienced users seem to pick up a huge amount of spyware and viruses, as well as a plethora of programs designed to eradicate such things. All things combined can turn even the fastest of machines into something resembling a computer built in 1990. Hopefully I can give a few words of advice that’ll help keep your PC fast and healthy.

Most mistakes that people make when using PCs are made browsing the Internet. Bad surfing habits can seriously affect your PC and load it with junk and spyware. These range from small programs that run in the background relaying data about your Internet use to full-blown viruses. Obviously a PC that is infected with either isn’t going to run so well. Too many background processes and it’ll start to put too much load on your RAM when performing intensive tasks, such as gaming or photo manipulation. Your computer will eventually have to use portions of the hard disk as overflow memory and you’ll notice a big slowdown.

To ensure that you don’t pick up malicious programs I would recommend using Firefox to browse the web. As Internet Explorer is by far the most widely used browser it is the one that the most viruses are written for. Using Firefox will cut out a lot of the attacks that you can be affected by. However, Firefox is second to Microsoft’s program and you’ll still need to be aware. Try not to visit less-than-reputable sites with a lot of low budget flash adverts and pop-ups. Never click yes to anything that does pop up, and ignore any messages that try to alert you about the condition of your PC. These are scare tactics to get inexperienced users to download unnecessary software, clogging up your PC.

Many people swear by their virus protection software, claiming that it helps keep their PC clean. I’ve kept my PC virus-free for over seven years without a single piece of virus protection software. I found that having it constantly running in the background and checking everything slowed my PC down. Constant update and checking popups started to get annoying as well and in the end I decided I could do without it. So long as you’re careful while online you can do just fine without any virus protection software. Without it, your PC will run much faster and smoother.

A lot of people seem to get infected with spyware when opening malicious emails. The key here is to have a decent spam filter on whatever email client that you’re using, and having a good eye for what to open and what to delete. My general rule is that if I don’t know who the sender is then I just delete the mail without reading it. Avoid emails from friends that seem suspicious as well, as often a virus will send itself to everyone in the infected person’s address book. Don’t follow any links or open any files. Above all else, never ever download or run a .exe file. It’s almost guaranteed to be a virus.

Make sure you defragment your hard disk around once a month. If the data becomes to fragmented then it’ll take a long time for the head to read the data from the platters, slowing the PC again. By defragmenting you’re keeping the files arranged more orderly on your disk and therefore making it easier to read. Many people never even bother doing this and then find that their PC takes ages to read files and get going.

Make sure that you don’t install too many useless programs. Many programs will launch on startup and sit in the background, not really doing anything until prompted. Although they feel like they’re not there they’re still using up valuable system resources. Allow this to build up and you’ll end up with a slow PC. A good way to tell if you’ve got a lot of these programs is by checking the number of icons in the bottom right of the screen, try to have as few as possible.

Keep Windows up to date. This is vital as often in updates there are crucial security updates that can make a world of difference. The same applies to browsers and any anti-virus software you have installed. By making sure everything is fully up to date you’re far less likely to encounter problems later on.

Keeping a PC running well isn’t a difficult thing to do, it just requires a little care. Making sure you get things right to start with will help you with the headaches that occur with virus infections and computers slowing to a crawl. Hopefully in the future you’ll look after your PC well and have a fast machine that runs smoothly.

As the time pass the technology changes, as we see around all the things have changed since times like the ways of communication, the moving style of people and so on. Technology will keep on changing. Even we see in case of computer we used to have Pentium 1 2 or 3 and now we have Core 2 Duo and other such processors.

Likewise the operating systems have changed over since. We used to have window 98 then came the windows XP and now we have the window VISTA in market. Ever since the windows is changing same are the changes which are made in these windows. Now we have to what are the differences that appeared in the start menus of these two operating systems which are windows XP and window vista. There were many advances that were made in the vista start menu from the past window XP start menu.

First we see the difference between the buttons which are provided in xp for shutting down the computer and logging off the computer. In windows XP a button is provided to select shut down then to select from an pop window what to do and same is the case with log off button which can be directly selected and then by giving ok command in a pop up window we can log off our system.

While in Vista we have two buttons directly and a arrow list. On first button the action can changed manually about what will happen if that button is pressed that is by default set to hibernate or sleep. The second button is directly to lock the computer. All the other options like restart etc can be selected from the arrow list provided beside these two buttons.

Secondly there is difference between the pop style of the all programs list in both these windows. In windows XP the list is a pop list which pops up when we go on all programs while in window vista we have a non pop up list which opens itself in the shortcuts area instead of popping out. This list is also a scrolling list which can be scrolled down for the other programs.

In window vista the shortcut to the user folder is directly provided then and there only.

There is a major significant difference in the searching style of the search provided in the bottom of the start menu of the window vista. In this search option when we start typing the programs are displayed even for the single letter typed in the search box which makes it a very efficient option for searching in vista

These were major differences in start menu of XP and Vista.

For anyone moving across from Windows to using a Mac the first few days can feel a little strange. The interface is superficially the same but fundamentally different. The Mac operating system, OS X has a number of really useful features and shortcuts that Windows lacks that can make working on a Mac really easy. While Windows has many functions not present on Apple’s operating system this article will focus on a few tips to help transitioning over to a Mac a little easier.

The first thing to note is that Macs are far more shortcut driven with the user able to do a lot more things more easily through cunning use of the keyboard. On a Mac the Apple key replaces the functionality of the Ctrl key on a Windows keyboard. Notice that is where the Alt key is on a PC keyboard, so start using your thumb rather than your little finger to start using the keyboard shortcuts. There is no Windows key and in its place is the Alt button, with Ctrl and shift remaining in the same places.

A lot of the most widely used Windows shortcuts are replicated on a Mac, so Apple+C is for copy, Apple+V is for paste and Apple+X is for cut. Learning these keys and making full use of them is an excellent time saving tool when doing long, boring repetitive tasks that don’t require much thought but a lot of clicks. In a similar fashion Apple+F is useful for finding and searching through documents and web pages, much like the Windows variant.

What is much easier on a Mac than a PC is taking screenshots of areas on your desktop. Simply hit the key Apple+Shift+4 and your cursor will change to a crosshair that you can use to drag a box. When you’re done dragging, a screenshot will be created of the area inside the box that you made, creating an image on your desktop. Very simple and easy and something that Windows lacks in such an easy format.

So if you need to see your desktop you’ll notice how easy it is in Windows, you can simply click the show desktop button on the taskbar. OS X does not have this button as the taskbar works differently. However they have what I consider to be the best feature of the Mac operating system, and that is hot corners. To see the desktop just drag your mouse cursor into the bottom right or bottom left hand corners of your screen. You’ll notice all your windows are minimised and you can view the desktop to open up any files that you need.

Another great feature of hot corners is the ability to move the cursor into one of the top corners of the screen to be able to see every window you have open at the time. You can then just click the window you want and it’s brought to the front. This feature is a really great addition if you tend to work with a lot of windows open at one time and need to switch between them a lot. This one feature is what Windows is really lacking and is the only thing that I miss from OS X when working on a PC.

Hopefully these tips will help you a little when changing to using a Mac for the first time as it can be a little unsettling at first. In time you’ll come to appreciate the different features of each operating system and only wish that someone would bring together the best features of both into one system that you could use.