In particular, you can use this grouping of settings to make the laptop more suitable for presentations, such as replacing your personalized desktop with a more neutral one so that meeting attendees don't see, for instance, wallpaper of you and your dog on vacation. In addition, Windows Vista has a new wizard for connecting to a projector, long a clumsy task for Windows users.

Sync Center

The second major change related to mobility and mobile devices is Sync Center. This is a one-stop center for synchronizing information on the PC with a variety of devices, such as smart phones, audio players or other PCs. As with Mobility Center, Sync Center is primarily about centralizing functions, such as tweaking settings for, say, syncing your MP3 player with a music service.

However, there is a potential problem with Sync Center for some users: A driver must be available to make each device work. In many cases, that driver is built into Windows Vista. I was able to sync, for example, my 4-year-old Creative Labs audio player without any fuss or locating a Vista-compliant driver. However, Microsoft is not guaranteeing all devices will be supported.

Windows Mobile Device Center