October 18, 2007
Get Fred Langa's wallpaper for your desktop
Our editor-at-large, Fred Langa, is back from a 5-month motorcycle tour of the U.S. and Canada. Through Oct. 24, all paid subscribers are eligible for a bonus download, Wallpaper of the Journey — 25 high-quality images Fred that you can use as desktop wallpaper. Read more »
Free software on USB enables portable computing
USB flash drives are good for more than just storing and transferring files — with the right software, your flash drive can become a tiny computer. Fortunately, you can find plenty of great software that not only runs on a USB flash drive, but is also completely free. Read more »
Get official and unofficial fixes for Excel
Despite the hotfix that Microsoft recently released for Excel 2007, as I described on Oct. 11, some math errors that you should know about still lurk in both Excel 2007 and Excel 2003. I'll bring you up to date and explain how you can get better results from Excel. Read more »
Go a little ape with human Donkey Kong
Almost everyone has heard of Donkey Kong, the 1981 arcade in which the heroic Mario makes a laborious climb to rescue his sweetheart Pauline while dodging moving obstacles from a barrel-hurling gorilla. (Ah, the good old days!) Read more »
Part four: WU, Symantec suite can slow PCs
This week, a Windows Secrets reader learns what has been hogging his computer's resources and causing sluggish performance. In this article — the fourth in a series of eight on my Housecalls with readers — we identify the Symantec/Norton security suite as the main culprit responsible for a PC's drastic drop in performance. Read more »
Good ways to protect your sensitive data
Protecting your data is paramount, especially with the ever-growing risk of Trojans and phishing attacks. This week, I tell you about three new tools that can help defend your data and ensure than any files you delete are not easily recoverable. Read more »
Internet Explorer 7: missing in action or not?
Internet Explorer 7 is back, having been missing in action after the IE team announced that WGA testing was being removed from the IE 7 download. In other post-Patch Tuesday news, Sun Java starts advertising Open Office, and I revisit my misgivings about the recent Outlook Express patch. Read more »
