With Windows Vista getting "very close" to release to manufacturing, Jim Allchin, the top Windows dog who is retiring when the product is out the door, now has "a little more time" to share his thoughts on the new operating system. He posted an entry last night to the official Windows Vista team blog page on one of his favorite features.

He highlighted Remote Assistance, which allowed him to help "someone in my house" with a computer problem -- actually a server problem -- while Allchin was still at work. (Yes, we read that right, Allchin has a server in his house, which he acknowledges is a bit unusual ... "but that's not the key part of the story.")

His message: The improved feature in Vista allowed him to be the IT hero from afar.

"Without Remote Assistance, the problem would have had to wait until I could physically get to her machine or I would have had to try and talk her through the problem on the phone," Allchin wrote. "... call me a geek, but that defines cool for me!"