Use Windows Vista to revitalise, revamp and remodel your BBQ experience!

The summer barbeque is often characterised by wasps hanging about looking for victims, piles of meat screaming “food poisoning,” the last edible drumstick stolen by the dog and exhausted parents trying to prevent their kids from running into the burning briquettes. No more! It’s time to call in the power of Windows Vista to revitalise, revamp and remodel your barbeque experience.

Setting up

The perfect barbeque demands the perfect setting, so design your garden and patio to suit your needs exactly. IMSI FloorPlan 11 Pro is a fabulous tool that enables you to lay out, plan and manipulate your space so you can make the best out of it. Alternatively, you can download a copy of Realtime Landscaping Plus – the demo here doesn’t offer as many features as FloorPlan, but it can be a fun way of starting out for free.

Aside from changing the layout of your home and garden, you can also prepare for the party using AccuWeather.com from Windows Live Gallery for up-to-date weather forecasts. Then, when you email everyone the invite, you can be positive (OK, vaguely optimistic) that the event won’t be rained off.

For the über organised home economist, use Microsoft Office Excel to keep track of what foods you have to buy and which ones need marinating and defrosting. Now you can ensure that there’s enough to go around and that both veggies and meat eaters are catered for. You can also use the spreadsheets to assign tasks to family members so everyone gets involved.

Getting ready

Microsoft Windows Vista is exactly what you need for stage two of the barbeque operation – online shopping. First up, you need an antidote for the wasps. Now you’re probably thinking of sprays, candles and fly swatters. Instead, simply warn them off with the RC Dragonfly (£39.99 from iwantoneofthose.com). Not only will this giant dragonfly give the largest of wasps pause for thought, but it will also provide the kids with hours of fun.

If you’re a bit concerned about the skills of the head chef, invest in the Electronic Burger Flip (£12 from efx.co.uk); the tool will tell you when you should flip your burger and when it’s ready to eat, once you’ve inputted the weight of the meat and the heat of your barbeque.

Day dawns

The day has dawned bright and sunny and the only clouds are artistic stripes in the sky. It’s time to make the marinade, tenderise the meats and prepare the desserts. Try out sites such as planetbarbeque.co.uk for recipe ideas and cooking tips.

With everyone outside, you’ve got a great excuse to play with your wireless streaming, so get everyone’s favourite songs lined up on the PC to play throughout the day. And if your teenage guests are getting restless, put them in charge of the playlists to keep them entertained – just keep an ear out for any lyrics that could offend your guests.

At this point you should have the perfect barbeque sizzling away in front of you, so it’s time to open a beer, stare at the fire and talk about anything under the sun.

Tamsin MacKay contributes to Windows Vista: The Official Magazine, and works as a freelance journalist.