One of the things that I liked about Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution) is the centralized software manager that you can use to search, download, install and update applications. The same software manager notifies you when there are updates available for any of the software installed on your system. I always wanted such a feature for Windows Vista. After a bit of research I found Update Notifier, a freeware application which does exactly what it says, it notifies you when there are updates available for the software that you have installed. In this article I will show you where you can find this tool and how to use it.

One of the problems with Windows Vista's Backup and Restore Center is the fact that it provides different functionality based on the Windows Vista version you have. For example, Windows Vista Home (Basic and Premium) users cannot make a complete backup of their PC. They need to purchase Windows Vista Business or Ultimate or go for a third-party solution which offers all the backup and restore features they need. The good news is that these users no longer need to spend money on a complete solution. A company called GFI has launched GFI Backup 2009 Home Edition, a software tool which offers all the backup and restore features you need, free of charge. In this article I will review this tool and summarize its main features and how well they work.

Many of our readers asked us via e-mail if we know any free tools which work on Windows Vista that can be used to convert movies to the format(s) supported by iPhone. Therefore, we decided to test some free video converting applications and then make a tutorial on how to use the best tool we could find. In this article I will give you a step by step guide for a tool called Handbrake. At the end, I will also give you a list of other possible alternatives.

In 2007 we published an article about how to uninstall Windows Vista when you have a dual boot configuration. In that article we were using VistaBootPro to remove the boot entry for Windows Vista. However, this tool is no longer free and many of our readers requested another alternative. In this new guide, we will show you how to do the same using EasyBCD, a tool which works just as well and it is free.

The right-click context menu is one of the most helpful interface elements in Windows, but sometimes, especially when we have lots of applications installed, it can be slow and filled with shortcuts we don't actually use. I always wanted to simplify it so that it would include only the options I want to use. After a bit of research, I found three freeware tools which allow you to clean up and customize the right-click context menu and have it as you want it to be. In this article I will show you where to find them, what they do and how to use them.

In this article I will talk again about Windows Speech Recognition and how you can enhance its functionality by using macros. I will show you how to create macros which do things such as: insert specific blocks of text, run programs with specific parameters and send keystrokes to any application. You will also learn how to create aliases for existing Windows Speech Recognition commands which are are hard to remember and replace them with more meaningful voice commands. At the end I will detail how to create macros which execute more advanced commands such as searching weather information for a given location.

In previous articles I talked about how to use Windows Speech Recognition and how to take advantage of its advanced configuration options so that you can have a great experience. In this article I will talk about Windows Speech Recognition Profiles and how to easily backup and restore them any time you need to. As you will see for yourself, the procedure is very simple and involves using a small tool.

Lots of people are having problems with their computers and many of them are caused by the applications they have installed. Some hate the fact that, all of a sudden, their documents are opened with another application instead of Word, or their movies are opened by some other application instead of the one they are used to. Others have problems with their browser not working properly due to some strange toolbars. Others receive lots of annoying messages at startup. All these kinds of problems are caused by the fact that, when installing applications, many people blindly click on the Next button until the installation ends. In this article I will give you five reasons why doing this is a very bad practice which leads to countless problems. Hopefully, I will manage to convince you to stop for a few seconds and read the windows & messages you receive during the installation of any application.

Many people, including myself, have been hassled by the fact that you cannot add any custom entries to the AutoPlay menu in Windows Vista. You can only choose from the applications that Windows Vista wants to give you access to. To solve this problem, some suggest using TweakUI, which was designed for Windows XP, and run it in compatibility mode. Unfortunately this solution doesn't work, especially on Windows Vista 64bit. After a lot of research and testing I managed to find a rather unknown application which works both on the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Vista and gets the job done very easily. The application is called Autoplay Repair v2.2.2 and it was developed by a programmer named Darius Baczynski. To learn how to use it, click on 'Read more'.