Now that Tablet PC features are built into all premium versions of Windows Vista (everything except Vista Home Basic), you can take advantage of this cool tool on any desktop or notebook. It lets you capture all or part of a screen and paste it into an e-mail message or document or save it as a graphics file.

Type snip into the Start menu Search box to quickly find the Snipping Tool shortcut. Right-click that shortcut and pin it to the Start menu or add it to the Quick Launch bar for easy access. When you run the Snipping Tool, click the drop-down arrow next to the New button to select what you want to copy: a portion of the screen, a window, or the full screen. Click the Options button to open a dialog box where you can specify custom settings. I recommend getting rid of the red ink border; you might want to ditch the prompt to save files each time you exit the tool as well.