Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

In Windows Vista, Microsoft makes its biggest nod yet to a raging trend in computing: portability. Laptop sales are trouncing desktop PC sales. In some industries, palmtops or touch-screen PCs are even replacing laptops. And for millions of people, the computing platform of choice isn't a computer at allit's a cellphone.

That's why Vista is crammed with special features for the peripatetic PC. For example, it has new features for laptops, including a way to change your power-consumption configuration with a quick click on the battery icon in the Notification Area, and a new Mobility Center that lets you switch quickly among networks and workplaces.

Working with a Tablet PC (a touch-screen laptop or slate) is now easier than ever, too, thanks to new or beefed-up features like pen control, digital ink text input, handwriting recognition, and more. (This stuff used to be available only in a special Tablet PC edition of Windows; for the first time, it's part of the basic operating system.)

And finally, if you're a fan of Pocket PC palmtops, Windows Mobile smartphones, or Ultra-Mobile PCs, Vista offers the new Sync Center. It keeps your address book, to-do lists, and email synchronized with your main PC.