Wireless networking support has been significantly improved as well. Windows Vista is designed for a world that's increasingly wireless, and in which many people connect to multiple networks, at home, at the office, and in public hotspots.

The connection screen not only lets you view all nearby wireless networks, but if you hover your mouse over one, you'll see all of the network's vital statistics, including the type of network (802.11b, 802.11g, and so on), whether security is being used, and if so, what kind.

When you first make a connection, you can name each new wireless connection and save it. Vista will then connect to that network automatically when you're in range. Vista also saves security information about the network -- whether it's a public network or a private one -- and changes your security settings to reflect that.

If you're in range of two wireless networks that you've saved, you can configure your wireless connections so that one wireless connection takes precedence over another. Windows XP automatically connects to the strongest nearby network, which causes problems if the strongest network isn't necessarily the one to which you wanted to connect. With Vista, you first have to accept a wireless connection as one of your permanent ones before it will connect automatically. That way, you'll automatically connect to only the networks you want, even if more powerful ones are nearby.

Another nice touch: If you connect wirelessly as well as via Ethernet to the same network, Windows Vista automatically recognizes that it's the same network. It will even include both adapters on a network map. And it will automatically use your Ethernet connection rather than your wireless connection to make use of Ethernet's superior speed.