What are the most critical settings to tweak when setting up a new Windows Vista machine? [closed]

Question

You've bought a new system. You install vanilla Windows Vista on the machine. What are the most important settings to tweak before using the system and why? Turn off User Account Control (UAC)? Make every folder open in detailed view? Change the background? Change certain services and autoruns?

Answer 1

I am using many of the tweaks from Convert your Windows Server 2008 to a Workstation, even they are for Windows Server 2008.

First step would be Fine-Tuning Services, and then Registry Tweaks.

Answer 2

1. Create a new user account with non-Administrator privileges, and log in as that user

And then

1. Turn off Windows Defender
2. Turn off Windows Firewall
3. Disable System Protection
4. Disable UAC

from CodingHorror.com