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Fast Windows Fixes

From bullet-fast startups and shutdowns to automatic data protection, here are 31 tweaks to make Vista and XP smarter, more reliable, and more efficient.

Scott Dunn, PC World

With HP wireless printers, you could have printed this from any room in the house. Live wirelessly. Print wirelessly.

Illustration: Edwin Fotheringham

Despite years of refinement and the collective experience of millions of users, Windows remains as buggy, enigmatic, and failure-prone as ever. Each new release of the operating system adds a little glitz and a handful of new features, but also just as many new headaches. Sometimes Vista's new features and improved functions seem to be more trouble than they're worth, and older sibling XP certainly isn't getting any easier to live with as it ages.

Fortunately, you don't have to spend hours researching the cures for Windows' ills. We've distilled the most important fixes, and slick improvements, into steps that you can implement in mere minutes. These tips will accelerate your startups and shutdowns, automate your system maintenance, and even get you browsing at full throttle.

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