Are you rocking Windows Vista RC2? Ready to start tweaking it (or tweak it a little more, as they case may be)? Take a look at these 10 expert tips and tweaks for Windows Vista from ZDNet's Ed Bott. Bott shows us how to add an extended shortcut menu, take quick screenshots with the Snipping Tool, get a quick system checkup, ditch Security Center nagging, and more. These are tips for power users, but if you weren't a power user you wouldn't be using Vista RC2 anyway, would you?

Ed Bott is probably my favorite person to read when it comes to covering Windows and other Microsoft software. Today I noticed a little post he had regarding a way to fix Windows Live Messenger in case you find yourself unable to log in. I didn't think much of it, until my wife asked me why she hadn't been able to log in to her messenger for a few days. I quickly went back and read Ed's tip, then logged in remotely to her machine and deleted the registry key mentioned, and voila - she's back online.

So if you're having problems with your Messenger, the registry key you want to delete is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\Policies

Give it a shot - it might well fix your problem!

Thanks, Ed.

Venerable Windows expert Ed Bott has been carefully documenting his misadventures with Windows Genuine Advantage for a few months now. As evidence mounted that the WGA system was not as bulletproof as Microsoft would like to have us believe, Ed decided to get statistical on their ass, so to speak. After scouring Microsoft's own help forums looking for people reporting problems with WGA, Ed found an extremely disturbing trend: a full 42% of the Windows installations that are flagged by WGA as not valid turned out to be perfectly legitimate. That's a far cry from the "almost perfect" and "we know of no problems with WGA" drivel that Microsoft continues to spout. And consider that the numbers used here are only for Windows users that were actually willing and able to find Microsoft's support forums and use them. I'd wager the real number is far worse.

Realistically, Microsoft didn't ever expect their user base to actually like WGA. As with all DRM software, there is absolutely nothing in it for the end user; the best case scenario is that the vendor (be it a media or software vendor) is going to inconvenience a number of their customers. The worst case scenario is this one; the vendor makes a large number of false positive detections, and significantly alienates a large percentage of their customers.

I should be clear that in opposing WGA, I'm not advocating software piracy. It's reasonable to expect Microsoft to try to protect their interests. What Ed's saying, and I'm agreeing with, is that Microsoft's first attempt at a tool to prevent piracy is horrifically flawed, and is resulting in nightmarish situations for many of their users.

Lucky for all of us, WGA is baked right in to Windows Vista. Gee, I can't wait for that.

Both Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7, both in beta, are being positioned by their makers as the most secure web browsers for Windows, but which is really the best? ZDNet's Ed Bott has written an in-depth comparison of the two browsers' security features, which covers not only code vulnerabilities, but phishing and malware as well. Bott doesn't indicate a clear winner, instead concluding that "Both IE7 and Firefox 2 add extra layers of protection and provide additional information to users to help them make intelligent decisions. In the final analysis, though, no browser can force a user to make smart or sane decisions. They can only point the right way." The article, which includes a big screenshot gallery of the browsers' screenshot features, is definitely worth a read if you're following this second round of the browser war, of if you're just trying to figure out what browser to recommend to your mom (mine uses Firefox).

Remember when Windows Genuine Advantage became nagware, notifying you over and over again when it thought your copy of Windows wasn't legitimate? And remember when it started "checking in" with Microsoft every day? All's fair in the name of anti-piracy, Microsoft seems to be saying, and the latest rumor is that this fall Microsoft will make WGA mandatory on all Windows PCs, and what's more, will introduce a "kill switch" for Windows that will cause the operating system to stop working if the currently optional anti-piracy 'feature" isn't installed. Sounds peachy, huh? ZDNet blogger Ed Bott has more details. (P.S. If you're currently in WGA notification hell, My Digital Life has 15 ways to kill the WGA nag screen.)

Much has been said about the new User Account Control (UAC) system that will be shipping with WIndows Vista. UAC is supposed to usher in a new era of security for Windows by preventing, for example, unauthorized programs from making changes to system files. Vista beta-testers are finding it to be a bit of a nuisance, however, with UAC prompts popping up for all manner of seemily-innocent operations. Over at ZDNet, Ed Bott explains the reason for these prompts and how to work around them. It's an interesting look at how Microsoft is dealing with security in Vista, and also a preview of some of the trouble less-technical users are going to be having come next year.