PCTools produces several programs including, firewalls, anti-virus but the company is probably most well known for its SpywareDoctor software.  SpywareDoctor has won plenty of awards for its detection rates, low false positives and fast updates for new threats.  Previously, only pay versions of the program were available but partnering with Google, there is now a free “starter edition.”

If you have to have the latest and greatest updates installed on Vista then this will be good news for you.  Microsoft has released the latest Vista SP1 RC version to the public, labeling it Vista SP1 RC “refresh.”  Anyone wishing to install the new version must uninstall the old Vista SP1 RC before proceeding.

Microsoft ships Vista with a better firewall than previous versions of Vista but it’s configuration isn’t so great right out of the box and unless you want to set up rules manually, yourself, it’s just better to run a third party firewall.  But that can pose entirely new problems.

It was bad enough that Microsoft all but required one to have a new computer with relatively high end hardware to run Vista and even more so if you play games.  Now, it seems that if you want to continue to do so you will need to buy more new hardware.

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) advised British schools not to make the upgrade to Windows Vista or use Microsoft Office 2007.  The agency stated in its report that it would be too expensive to make the upgrades with few exceptions.

Vista is far from perfect but it’s possible to make it a little more perfect and a little more useful by downloading and installing some free utilities for it. If you have no idea where to start or which programs to look for, here are some that will get you well on your way.

Microsoft made a lot of promises before the release of Vista and made a lot of promises right after it released.  Not many of those have come to pass, not even the promise of "Ultimate Extras" which were to be additional add-ons, games and special features for users of Vista Ultimate.

It’s important for all users of any version of Windows to keep it updated with the latest patches from Microsoft and it should be as easy as clicking the “Check for Updates” button but that’s not always the case.  Certain third party firewalls may prevent Vista from checking for updates.

The Windows Security Center which is included with Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista is a nice way of seeing the security status overview of your system but sometimes it makes mistakes after you have uninstalled one or more programs and replaced them with others.  Here’s how to correct those problems with Security Center.

Taking the stage for his last time at CES in Las Vegas, Bill Gates claimed that Vista had shipped 100 million copies since it released last year.  In doing so, he unintentionally revealed that Vista is less popular than Microsoft would like it to be.

Taking the stage at the Las Vegas CES (Consumer Electronics Show), Bill Gates announced that Windows Vista has sold 100 million copies, meaning that 12 million copies sold since last October.

If you’ve been looking for a Windows+Tab or Alt+Tab replacement for Windows Vista, this free utility might just do the trick and mimics the Expose feature of Mac OSX.

Vista may not be the success Microsoft wanted it to be, with almost all the reviews being negative but that won’t stop Vista from reaching the masses since every new PC sold comes with it.

If you’re one of the types that is just so annoyed with Vista that you would rather be using XP but not have to reformat your hard drive then you might want to give this a read.

It’s just too easy for people to pick on something these days and Vista has become everyone’s favorite punching bag.  Complaints usually surround performance issues, file transfer problems or the fact that it doesn’t support older peripherals.