[panamarandy]

you tip for turning on the vista firewall. is not correct. I have tried it as you described twice, and all it does is block my internet connection. There must be another way.

[ClemSnide]

Being a disgruntled Vista user, I tried the firewall fix-- and wound up unable to read the rest of the article! Evidently it wasn't actually tested. Sorry, PCWorld, but this article got a thumbs down.



And while you're turning off things that slow down Vista, make sure you advise people to go back to the XP look-- Vista Basic with a few more customizations works for me. Aero just sits there and consumes CPU cycles that would be better used for, oh I don't know, running the programs we've launched.



How about a fix for how Vista places desktop shortcuts under the gadget bar when you prefer it on the left side of the screen? My own fix for this "feature" is to place an icon nearly at the top left of the desktop, then when I notice an occluded icon or two, marquee the visible one and the invisible ones alike, and use the visible icon to move them onto the middle of the desktop. Delete or reposition and put the "handle" icon back in place. Sure it's a lot of unneccesary work, but that's a hallmark of Vista.