Windows Vista’s User Account Control feature is a constant annoyance for many users, but turning it off entirely can leave your system vulnerable to online threats. Fortunately, you can do a bit of fine tuning via the Group Policy Editor to disable the most irritating parts of this feature without ditching it altogether.

Here’s how to tweak the appropriate settings in this configuration tool. Click Start, type gpedit.msc, press <Enter>, and then click through the UAC prompt. In the left pane, find Local Computer Policy/ComputerConfiguration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options. Now with Security Options selected in the left pane, look for ‘User Account Control options’ on the right.

To retain the benefit of UAC, leave it turned on but set it to stop prompting you. Double-click User Account Control: Behaviour of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode. Choose Elevate without prompting, and click OK. A pop-up will complain that UAC is not on, ignore it.

You can also surpress UAC prompts entirely. It’s not as safe as the defalt settings, but it’s more peaceful.

Vista Home Premium doesnot have the Group Policy Object Editor. To make the change in that version, you will have to edit the registry. This is something that we do not recommend for the average user.

Microsoft recently dropped two strong hints that the next version of its Windows operating system will arrive in 2009, up to a year sooner than anticipated.

The hints might signal Microsoft’s intention to cut its losses with Windows vista, which customers, especially large companies, have grudgingly accepted or shunned.

The company has long said that it wants to release Windows 7 about three years after Vista, and most outsiders had pegged 2010 as a likely arrival year for the new OS. But recently in Miami, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates reportedly said in response to a question about Vista, “Sometime in the next year or so we’ll have a new version”.

And in announcing plans to extend the availability of Windows XP Home for low-cost laptops, Microsoft said it would retire the OS only after June 30, 2010, or one year after the release of Windows 7, whichever came first.

The annoucement’s wording implies that the company may be targeting the middle of next year as a release milestone for Windows 7.

Microsoft has divulged few of the changes planned for the new operating system.