The Windows installer may have dumped over a gigabyte of software onto your hard drive, but it was only warming up. Plenty of second-tier programs and features came on the Vista DVDstuff that Microsoft didn't want to burden you with right off the bat, but copied to your hard drive just in case.

To see the master list of software components that you have and haven't yet installed, choose Start->Control Panel->Classic View->Programs and Features. Click the "Turn Windows features on or off" link at the left side of the window.

You've just launched the Windows Features Wizardbasically a list of all the optional Windows software chunks. Checkmarks appear next to some of them; these are the ones you already have. The checkboxes that aren't turned on are the options you still haven't installed. As you peruse the list, keep in mind the following:

• To learn what something is, point to it without clicking. A description appears in a tooltip balloon.

• Turn on the checkboxes for software bits you want to install. Clear the checkboxes of elements you already have, but that you'd like Windows to hide.

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  Note: In Windows Vista, turning off an optional feature doesn't remove it from your hard drive, as it did in Windows XP. Turning off a feature simply hides it, and doesn't return any disk space to you. You can make a feature magically reappear just by turning the checkbox back on (without having to hunt down your Vista installation disc).

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• Some of these checkboxes' titles are just titles for bigger groups of independent software chunks