Most of you who are running Vista should know by now that Microsoft introduced major updates for Vista.  For a full detailed summary of what is included read The Geek wrote a great article reviewing the updates.  One of the updates includes better Vista Aero performance with NVIDIA graphics cards.  I have to admit I did install these updated when they were leaked ... and what an improvement!  My User Interface is much more sharp and detailed.  However, something still annoyed me about Aero.  That was how by default it shows windows open and closing in a rather obnoxious way ... I do not really know what words to describe it other than you get a kind of pause before a window opens.  It does not just open ... it announces that it is opening.  Here is how to disable that. Right click on Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties.  

Now under Tasks on the left hand pane click on Advanced system settings.

In System Properties and Performance click on the Settings button.

Under Performance Options make sure the Visual Effect tab is selected and choose Custom.  Now uncheck 'Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing'.  Click Apply then OK.

Now your windows will pop up without the annoyance of showing you it's coming up and minimizing.  I find it actually makes the whole user interface a lot more quick and snappy!