Chart It's probably your last working day of the year. In under two weeks time you'll be back at your desk, your cholesterol count almost as high as your credit card debt, and your short term memory shot to pieces.

You need to get back on top of things quickly, but how?

Well don't despair. Using the miracle of computers, we've produced a list of the 10 most important issues of the last 12 months, as decided by... you. Or put another way, it's a the 10 most read stories to have graced El Reg. Read them now in a vain attempt to retain some information ahead of the coming booze storm. Then read them again on 2 January just to ease yourself back into the real world.

So, starting at the top:

1. Vista product activation unpicked

You read a lot about Vista in 2007. In fact, we're pretty confident more people read about Vista than have actually bought the thing. Or even tried to use it. So it was no surprise to see that our story on attempts to circumvent the OS's product activation was the top story of the year.

2. Ann Summers love egg fails to crack Cyprus

Product activation of a different sort made the number two slot, with our news that Anne Summers' Love Bug – described as a "deceptively powerful matt silver love egg" – was available for online sale, with the proviso "not for use in Cyprus". We've no idea why. Certainly, the fact it's in the EU should mean there's free movement of goods between Cyprus and the rest of the EU. Clearly, "free movement" within Cyprus is another matter.

3. Secret mailing list rocks Wikipedia

Knowledge is a dangerous thing. So it's no surprise to find a Wikipedia story in the number three slot. Cade Metz reported on how "a rogue editor revealed that the site's top administrators are using a secret insider mailing list to crackdown on perceived threats to their power". One editor told the Reg: "I've never seen the Wikipedia community as angry as they are with this one." That was before he saw what came in at number four – but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

4. Microsoft threatens its Most Valuable Professional

Another angry community was that of Microsoft developers, after we reported how the company had decided that Jamie Cansdale should no longer be one of its Most Valuable Professionals. Cansdale had developed an add-on for Microsoft Visual Studio which allowed unit test suites to be run directly from within the Microsoft IDE. He had been giving away the gadget on his website, and initially received the praises of Microsoft. But things changed when Microsoft took umbrage at the fact it worked with the Express version of Visual Studio. Last time we looked, Cansdale is sticking to his guns.

5. Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain

Wikipedia was back in at number five. Cade Metz delivered more revelations about the Illuminati who are pulling the strings at the world's online knowledge jumble sale. The details are way too complicated to explain here – but if you ever wanted to know the truth about naked short selling, you need to read this story.

6. Fairly realistic flying car offered for 2009 delivery

While anything to do with Wikipedia, or Microsoft and development, will cause rifts and division among our dedicated readers, if there's one thing that pulls them together, it's the opportunity to chant: "I want my flying car, and I want it now."

So it's no surprise that our sixth most popular story saw our very own Lewis Page declaring the "fairly realistic" prospect of a flying car for 2009 delivery, in the shape of the Terrafugia Transition. This is essentially "a normal light aircraft which can fold its wings at the touch of a button and become a car”". Ah, you're saying, it's going to need some kind of anti-gravity technology developed by NASA from crashed flying saucers. Not a bit of it – apparently it runs on unleaded. [What's this got to do with longstanding flying car advocate Paul Moller some of you ask? Absolutely nothing – we did write about him here though]

7. Vista first look: Bugs and confusion

Back to Earth with a bump then... and Thomas Greene picked apart Windows Vista – once he'd saved up his cents to buy the thing. Thomas was partly impressed – but mainly because it reminded him of the Mac OS. He was less impressed by Microsoft's stances on pricing and "edition". You may have come to the same conclusion, which is why PC World is still suffering from inde-Vista-gestion a year down the line.

It's worth mentioning that back in February, when Bill Gates was quizzed as to why Europeans were being forced to pay substantially more for the product, he claimed that Microsoft "tries to keep prices largely in line country by country". Bill said he had "not followed how the exchange rates made that drift", and added that rates "can go out of alignment as currencies go up or down". Let's hope Bill's gotten a bit more of a handle on the global markets since then, otherwise he'll have a few surprises when it's time to put his tax returns together in the new year.

8. Windows for Warships nears frontline service

Yes, a lot of people decided they would stick with Windows 98, whatever Microsoft said. Even the Royal Navy was avoiding Vista, in favour of Windows for Warships. OK, what we're talking about here is essentially a locked-down version of Windows 2000. This was the OS underpinning the RN's latest generation of Type 45 destroyers.

Clearly, plenty of readers were horrified intrigued by the idea of Microsoft being responsible for defending HM's ships from air attack. Lewis put this in perspective, positing the idea of Windows being rolled out to the UK's nuke submarine fleet.

This was actually less scary than it sounds, Lewis concluded, as subs, unlike destroyers, are not poised on a hair trigger. Submariners were presumably reassured when Lewis explained that Windows for Warships was a software programme, not a refenestration programme.

9. Welcome indeed to the billionaire toyshop

Sticking with a nautical theme, Lewis whetted your appetites for the days when those stock options turn to gold before your very eyes – or when your lotto numbers finally come up.

Sadly, as Lewis pointed out – and one look at Bill Gates confirms – getting rich does seem to blunt the imagination somewhat. Apparently for all the megayachts out there, hardly any billionaire oligarchs have yet sprung for one with a built in personal sub. Similarly, the personal live-aboard sub has yet to find a mass market. Which leaves us thinking investing your pension in an air yacht or personal space station maker is probably not the best move.

10. Psion: the last computer

Talking of play things, Anderw Orlowski went truly nostalgic with what has to absolutely be the final word on the history of Psion. Think all those grey cases with yellow lettering are just a relic now? Think again. If it hadn't been for the late lamented so-much-more-than-a-PDA vendor, you might be finding your way home this Christmas by reading a map as you change discs on your portable CD player. Not sure what we mean by that? Read the piece to find out.

As always, it's interesting to see what didn't make the top 10.

Notable in the second 10 are the iPhone. Apparently the second coming of the Jesus Phone, otherwise known as the UK launch, was not quite the new Jerusalem some were expecting. Course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and we'll just have to see how many devices have been stuck in lofts, car boots, under beds, etc, waiting for a mass activation next week.

Paris Hilton – an old workhorse for El Reg if ever there was one - made it to number 14, as you thrilled to the news that the website ParisExposed was set to go live. Of course, the multi-talented heiress topped any possible embarrassment that the site could cause by going to jail later in the year, and, more recently, attempting to kidnap a smurf at a Christmas market in Germany.

And, as they say, finally, just outside the top 10 at time of writing, was the shocking news that the robo-"Santa" conversing with kids courtesy of MS Messenger was prone to discussing oral sex when he wasn't dispensing insults.

So there you have it. 2007 – if you can't remember all the above, you weren't there. Have a very merry break, and see you all in the New Year. ®