The Vista Mobility Center

The Mobile PC Control Panel offers links to a fairly broad range of notebook features. A more targeted approach is found in the new Vista Windows Mobility Center, which you start by clicking the Mobility Center link in the Mobile PC Control Panel. (Note that you see the full Mobility Center only in the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Vista.)
The Mobility Center offers information on eight key notebook areas, as well as controls to adjust these features:

• Brightness The current brightness setting of your notebook screen (if your machine supports this features). Use the slider to adjust the brightness.
• Volume The current notebook speaker volume. Use the slider to adjust the volume, or click Mute to toggle sound off and on.
• Battery Status The current charge level of the notebook battery. Use the drop-down list to select one of three power plans: Balanced, Power Saver, or High Performance
• Wireless Network The wireless connection status (Connected or Disconnected), and the signal strength, if connected.
• Screen Orientation The current orientation of the Tablet PC screen. Click Rotate Screen to rotate the screen by 90° counterclockwise.
• External Display The current status of the external monitor connected to your notebook or docking station.
• Sync Center The current synchronization status of your offline files. Click the Sync button to synchronization your notebook's offline files. Presentation Settings The current status of your presentation settings. Click Turn On to activate you presentation settings.

Note, too, that Microsoft is giving PC manufacturers access to the Mobility Center, so we'll likely see the Mobility Center window customized with features that are specific to particular notebooks.