Leaving laptop on 24-7?

Actually, Vista will shut itself down for you when it wants to update.

Actually, you can threaten it with a club* to not do that, especially when you don't want it shutting down WHILE YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING THAT THE WHOLE WORLD DEPENDS ON!!!!!!

*check security updates in Control Panel to find out what it does with updates.

Hey I'm wondering if this is a good idea, cause I just got a shop permit.

Will leaving my laptop over night kill it or shorten it's lifetime?
(btw the screen automatically turns off after 5 min inactivity, so that's ok)

You should be fine, but do be aware of adverse effects if you leave your laptop running for weeks on end or something. Rebooting once in a while is good.

Actually, another thing you should be aware of is leaving it plugged in for too long. There comes a point where the laptop battery is fully charged (especially old ones), then the hardware, depending on what it is, will just sit there thinking "battery is fully charged!" instead of checking the power levels, while in reality the battery slowly leaks power. Then, if you wait too long, once you unplug the laptop, it'll shut down because the battery has no power =D

I haven't had that happen yet, but I do have different issues with my laptop power >_>