69. Run any application as administrator with a few keystrokes

If you don't want to disable UAC, but you're annoyed with the constant security interruptions and elevations every time you try to do something of consequence with Vista, try this handy little shortcut. You should already be using the start menu search command to start most of your applications if you heeded Tip #13 above, so let's make the process a little more useful.

After you type the name of the application you are going to launch in the search bar, but before you press ENTER, hold down CTRL and SHIFT, then press Enter. This will automatically launch that application with administrative privileges.

70. Configure Windows Vista autoplay manually to suit your preferences

The Windows Vista autoplay menu has marginally more useful options than its XP predecessor, but it's still a bit of a pain to click through every time you insert media. Microsoft has included a quick config utility that can make setting your preferred options for each type of media much easier though.

To set autoplay preferences:

Open the 'start' menu and type 'autoplay' in the search bar. Hit Enter.

From this screen, you can select what you want to happen when each autoplay-enabled media type is inserted. Leave the 'use autoplay for all media and devices' option at the top checked unless you want to disable autoplay altogether. It is required to use the rest of the options on this screen. When you are done, scroll to the bottom and hit 'save.'

71. Disable security notifications

If you've made one or two of the changes in this article, like disabling UAC for example, and are getting fed up with the Windows security center notifications popping up in the taskbar and nagging you about what you've done, here's how to disable them.

To disable Windows Vista Security Center notification:

Open the 'start' menu and type 'service.msc' in the search bar. Do not press Enter.

Mouse up to the 'services.msc' search result, right-click it and choose 'run as administrator' (this is assuming you have not already disabled UAC as per tip#11, in which case the run-as is not necessary).

In the services window, scroll down to the 'Security Center' service, right click it and hit 'properties'.

In the 'startup type' dropdown box, change the value to 'disabled', then click the 'stop' button below to stop the service immediately. Hit 'ok.'