Display Control Panel applets in acascading menu

Maybe you'd like to bypass the Control Panel altogether. If so, you can force Windows to display Control Panel applets in a cascading menu when you choose Control Panel from the Start button, as shown to the right.
To do this in Windows XP, right-click the taskbar and choose Properties --> Start Menu. Choose the Start menu radio button, click the Customize button next to it, and choose the Advanced tab. Under the Control Panel heading, choose Display as a menu. Click OK twice.
In Windows Vista, right-click the taskbar and choose Properties --> Start Menu. Then click the Customize button next to the Start menu item, scroll down to the Control Panel heading, and select Display as a menu. Click OK twice

Unlock the supersecret Administrator account:

Deep inside the bowels of Windows Vista, there's a secret Administrator account, and it's different from the normal administrator account you most likely have set up on your PC. This Administrator account is not part of the Administrator group. (Confused yet? You should be.) It's a kind of superadministrator, akin to the root account in Unix, and by default it's turned off and hidden. (In describing this hack, we'll always use the capital "A" for the secret Administrator account, and a lowercase "a" for a normal administrator account.)
In versions of Windows before Windows Vista, the Administrator account wasn't hidden, and many people used it as their main or only account. This Administrator account had full rights over the computer.
In Windows Vista, Microsoft changed that. In Vista, the Administrator account is not subject to UAC, but normal administrator accounts are. So the Administrator can make any changes to the system and will see no UAC prompts.
Turning on the Administrator account is straightforward. First, open an elevated command prompt by typing cmd into the Search box on the Start menu, right-clicking the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the Start menu, then selecting Run as administrator -- or just use the shortcut you created in the previous hack.
Then enter this command and press Enter:
Net user administrator /active:yes
From now on, the Administrator account will appear as an option on the Welcome screen, along with any user accounts you may have set up. Use it like any other account. Be aware that it won't have a password yet, so it's a good idea to set a password for it.
If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter:
Net user administrator /active:no

Remove shortcut arrows from your icons

Do the large shortcut arrows on your desktop icons offend your aesthetic sensibility? Then remove them. Get rid of them in Windows Vista using the free Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover (also called FxVisor). Run it, and you can choose to either make the shortcut arrow smaller and lighter or remove it altogether.
As you might suspect, Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover won't work with Windows XP, but XP users can use Microsoft's free TweakUI PowerToy to accomplish the same thing. Run it and choose Explorer --> Shortcut. Choose Light arrow if you want the arrows to be smaller and lighter, or None to remove them completely. You'll have to log off and then log on again for your changes to take effect.

Remove shortcut arrows from your icons

Do the large shortcut arrows on your desktop icons offend your aesthetic sensibility? Then remove them. Get rid of them in Windows Vista using the free Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover (also called FxVisor). Run it, and you can choose to either make the shortcut arrow smaller and lighter or remove it altogether.
As you might suspect, Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover won't work with Windows XP, but XP users can use Microsoft's free TweakUI PowerToy to accomplish the same thing. Run it and choose Explorer --> Shortcut. Choose Light arrow if you want the arrows to be smaller and lighter, or None to remove them completely. You'll have to log off and then log on again for your changes to take effect.