Washington - Tired of having to enter your logon name every time you start Vista? With a simple hack, you can banish the logon screen for good. Open Vista's Start menu and type netplwiz into the Start menu's search box. The Advanced User Accounts Control dialogue box will open. There, you should remove the check mark from the box labelled "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer."

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Washington - Would you like the time in two different time zones displayed in your Windows Vista taskbar? No problem. Left-click the clock, and select Change date and time settings. In the resulting dialogue box, select the Additional Clocks tab. There, you can enter a name for the new clock and choose a time zone.

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Washington - You can lock your Windows PC quickly by creating a shortcut to the lock command. Right-click a blank spot on your desktop and from the resulting pop-up menu, click Start by right-clicking an empty space on the desktop and then selecting New shortcut. In the space below Type the location of the item, type in rundll32. exe user32. dll, LockWorkStation (remember to watch your spacing and case). Finally, create a clever name for the icon besides the default "rundll32"to lock your computer with ease.

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Washington - How would you like to watch television while working on your Windows PC? You can with a television tuner combined with Windows Media Centre which comes with Vista Premium. You can also purchase a television tuner separately for any Windows PC and use the tuner software that comes with it. A number of models from industry leader Hauppauge are available for around 100 dollars and can work with over-the-air television as well as cable.

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Washington - Antivirus software can conflict with the installation of operating systems. So before you upgrade any operating system, disable or uninstall the antivirus software. The same goes for anti-spyware software and any firewall software that you may be running. (dpa)