Love it or hate it, Apple's iTunes is one of the most popular digital music players around thanks to the success of the iPod. For years, even diehard Windows fans have been sucked into the iTunes ecosystem because it was the only easy and free way to work with Apple's ever-popular MP3 player. It's simply something we all have to live with.

As much as the iPod contributes to the player's overall popularity, iTunes does have a decent interface, great library management, and numerous other features going for it. Things like Party Shuffle and the new Genius playback mode are great alternatives to your standard "shuffle" playback. Even the Cover Flow view, while on the surface seems mainly like a waste of screen real-estate, adds a welcomed visual element to browsing your music collection.

In my last post, I explained why people shouldn't reach for their Windows XP discs and downgrade from Vista to XP. In case you're on the cusp of giving up on Vista, here's 5 tips that should improve your user experience and bring you back from the brink.

Tip 1. Use search liberally
One of the major changes in Windows Vista is a fundamental emphasis on search. All aspects of your computing experience is made searchable out of the box. This means that you can search and open programs, documents, and files right from within your Start menu. You can even search the web from your Start menu too!