Windows Vista is the current offering from Microsoft's operating system department. Unfortunatey, Vista hasn't received all that good press, and has been considered by the tech' industry as a flop.
Despite that being said above, Vista does provide a pretty user interface, and since the release of service pack 1, has become (or is becoming more) stable. I've started using it on and off for basic work, so this section should increase in size as I use it (no guarantees though). :-)
Disable UAC Permission Prompt
That's the annoying 'Windows need your permission to continue' prompt you get when you click on well, anything.
Hide Users from the Welcome Screen
This is a Windows XP article, but applies to Vista. See the note at the bottom of the page regarding Vista.
Roaming Profiles
To prevent compatibility issues with Windows NT, 2000 and XP, Windows Vista stores it's roaming profiles in a slightly altered location to previous versions of Windows.
How To Setup Windows Vista Telnet Client
Windows Vista does not come with the Telnet client installed. This explains how to enable it.