In the third and last part of our Windows Calendar series, we will show you how to subscribe to online calendars and publish your own calendars to remote locations such as a web host.

In the second part of our Windows Calendar series we will show you how to export and import your calendars. By using the import and export functions you can make a quick backup of your calendars or you can move them on different PC's or use them in different applications.

Windows Calendar is one of the new applications delivered with Windows Vista. This application looks like many other similar applications and offers all the expected features: support for the iCalendar file format, support for publishing or subscribing to web-based calendars, options for creating and managing tasks, several calendar views and so on. In fact many criticized this application for resembling with iCal - a personal calendar application available for MAC OS X users. Even if there is some resemblance, Windows Calendar is nonetheless a great application and the first calendar application to be included in a Microsoft Windows operating system.

We are currently working on a series of articles about Windows Calendar which will be published gradually these days. The series will serve as a complete guide on how to use and configure your Windows Calendar.

This first article covers the basic functionalities of Windows Calendar: creating personalized calendars, customizing them, creating appointments, tasks and reminders.

Windows Contacts is a new application distributed with Windows Vista, that replaces the old Windows Address Book. This application has all the features of its predecessor and some new ones such as the ability to add pictures to your contacts, a new XML based file format for storing contacts and better extensibility for integration with other applications.

As you can imagine, Windows Contacts integrates with Windows Mail. When you create an e‑mail message in Windows Mail, you select the recipient from your Contacts folder. Even if you do not use Windows Mail as your default e‑mail client, you can still use Windows Contacts to store all the contact information about the people you know.

Windows Mail is the successor of Outlook Express and ships only with Windows Vista. This new solution builds on the foundation of Outlook Express, adding a variety of new features that aim to provide improved productivity and security.

The list of new features includes: a new interface, a junk mail filter that blocks spam messages, improved reliability when working with large data files, a phishing filter which lowers the risk of you being the victim of online deception techniques and newsgroup features which allow you to manage newsgroups.

In this article we will show you how to setup your first mail account in Windows Mail. As you will see, it is pretty easy.

One of the good things about Windows Vista is the fact that, compared to Windows XP, it incorporates a set of really good troubleshooting tools. You no longer have to buy third party tools or go to a specialist to learn what is wrong with your system.
Now everybody can easily check the health status of their systems. All you have to do is to use the Reliability and Performance Monitor included in Windows Vista.

The Accessibility Tools are some of the least known applications included in Windows XP. However, that doesn't mean they are not important or useful. Practically these tools are a life-saver for people with disabilities. The Accessibility Tools allows them to adjust settings that make it easier to see their computers, use their mouse and keyboard or other input devices.

In Windows Vista these tools were updated to provide more configuration options. Also, their location and some of the application names were changed.

In this tutorial we will show you how to use the Windows Sidebar - a new application included in the Windows Vista operating system. You will learn how to tweak it, how to add or remove gadgets and where to find them on the internet.

Windows Sidebar is situated by default on the right side of your screen and initially it has three gadgets: Clock, SlideShow and Feed Headlines. It offers the following customization options: it can be hidden, kept on top of other windows, you can add and remove gadgets from it or detach gadgets to place them on your desktop.

Sticky Notes is a very small and easy to use application that allows users to create short handwritten or voice notes. The notes are arranged in a stack on the desktop, similar to paper sticky notes.

It was first included in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and it also made it to the Windows Vista Tablet PC list of components. To find it go to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Tablet PC.