The restart now popup which Windows XP insists on popping up annoys me to no end. I've spent entire days clicking that sucker to avoid rebooting; every time I click it I die a little inside. I even resorted to hiding it by pulling it to the bottom of my desktop with only the topmost 2 pixels visible.

The dialog from hell in all its glory:

And here's how to extend the interval at which the dialog appears or disable it altogether.

Luckily Windows Vista does away with this annoying little critter and introduces the notion of postponing the restart for up to 4 hours. And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaay! (bonus points to the person who comes up with the movie from which the quote is taken). Seriously how's that for innovation?

As Apple so thoroughly has shown us it's the little things that count. This Windows Update dialog, however small a feature, is actually a pretty good metaphor for what Windows Vista is: Nice and polished with attention to details. Yes, I'm enjoying my Vista experience quite a bit although I'm still not quite sure when the WOW! actually starts. Microsoft does specify that the Wow starts "Now" but I'm still waiting for it :)