I’ve always thought Windows guys should put more time into learning scripting. That’s always been one of the big advantages of UNIX–the platform has had an incredible scripting infrastructure, and UNIX admins always knew how to create scripts to automate their work.

Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and especially Windows Vista have greatly improved scripting. Now, you can do almost anything from the command-line or a script. Windows PowerShell takes those capabilities to the next level. If you’re in IT, I highly recommend reading up on it–you’ll save yourself time in the long run. If you have development or scripting experience, it’ll be that much easier to learn. If you don’t, it’s still very much worth your time.

Download the 32-bit version here, and the 64-bit version here. Also, check out the Windows PowerShell blog.

First, congrats on upgrading to Windows Vista. You’ll have fun with it, and over the long term, the upgrade will make you more productive.

You’re officially an early adopter, though, and whether you’re buying a car in the first model year or installing a newly released operating system, problems are much more likely during the first year of production use. Here are some tips to make your first weeks with Vista as fun and productive as possible:

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Lots of apps check the operating system during installation to make sure the version of Windows is supported. This is designed to prevent the user from installing it in an old version of Windows that doesn’t have the necessary files or features. Sometimes, however, it’ll also block a new version of Windows–such as Windows Vista.

Fortunately, you can configure a program to run in compatibility mode, which causes Windows Vista to lie about the version of Windows. To trick a program (usually a Setup file) into thinking you’ve got Windows XP, follow these steps:

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This isn’t the usual batch of security updates–these improve reliability when transitioning between power states (if you use HD audio, like me–whew), application compatibility (I couldn’t get to the KB article, so I have no more specific information), and some other more minor improvements.

Also, two Ultimate Extras are available for those of us who ponied up for Windows Vista Ultimate Edition:

• Hold Em Poker Game. Haven’t played it, I’m not much of a poker guy.
• BitLocker and EFS Enhancements. BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool (which partitions your drive for BitLocker, making these instructions obsolete), and Secure Online Key Backup, which stores your BitLocker and EFS keys on a Microsoft server in case you lose them. Losing encryption keys means you can’t access your files, so it’s nice that MS is offering to keep a copy for us. In business environments, you can do this internally with the Active Directory.

Windows Vista automatically index the places that matter most: all user profiles (including Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, etc), your Start menu (so you can find applications by name), your e-mail (for Outlook, anyway), your notes (for OneNote), and any Offline Files you’ve configured.

So, if you play by the rules and store everything in Documents, Pictures, or the other standard folders, you’re all set. If you’re a stubborn old coot who insists on storing your files at C:MyFiles or something like that, well, it’s not being index. BTW, I’m a stubborn old coot.

To add a custom folder to the index, follow these steps:

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Got a file that you’d rather not appear when searching? Things like password dictionaries (hey, I’m a white hat security guy) come up a lot because, well, they’ve got a godzillion words in them.

To disable indexing for a file, just follow these steps:

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When people ask me what I like most about Vista, my immediate answer is searching. Sure, you can get desktop search from Microsoft or Google for Windows XP, but it’s just not the same. In Windows Vista, search is integrated into the Start menu, every Explorer window, and even the Control Panel. I find that I use it constantly now, especially from the Start menu.

Search will index most common file types (based on their file extension), but it might not index all file types that are important to you. For example, it doesn’t index .log files, like those generated by Mirc. It does index .XML log files, like those generated by Windows Live Messenger.

To index .LOG files or any other type of file, follow these steps:

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