With all the games on the market, how do parents ensure their children will only play the appropriate games at the appropriate times? The upcoming Windows Vista will include a slew of parental game controls that will please parents and perhaps annoy their children who want to sneak in some World of Warcraft before finishing their homework. The new OS can track, limit and even stop game usage for little Johnny or, as Microsoft calls him, Toby. Chris Donahue, Microsoft's Group Manger for Games for Windows, stopped by our Westlake Village, California office to show us exactly how the new controls work and how to set them up. Read more
Microsoft will be rolling out a new web-based service designed to help parents protect their children from unwanted online content. Read more
Even Windows pirates get the security support from Microsoft. Read more
Windows Vista will introduce new tools that aim to make pirated versions less attractive and prompt users to activate a legally obtained copy of the OS. Deeply integrated into the core of the software, Microsoft will reserve functionality such as the Aero Glass interface for Windows Vista versions that are validated. Read more
Once you've used a multi-monitor setup, it's almost impossible to go back to a single screen. Notebook users likely feel this pain most sharply. However, Village Tronic's ViBook proposes a USB-based solution for the folks looking for more display space. Read more
You already know how to build a PC. But do you know how to take desktop hardware components and turn them into a digital audio workstation? John Brandon discusses how he pieced together his latest musical creation, along with the accompanying software. Read more
Windows Vista was never really an option for netbook users, but the release candidate of Windows 7 piqued our interest. Can Microsoft finally retire Windows XP in the netbook space? Even now with RC1 available, the answer seems tied to driver development. Read more
If you aren't regularly backing up your data, now's a good time to start. In this piece we cover some of the basic backup strategies, a handful of available tools, and backup performance over USB 2.0 using Samsung's newest Story Station external drive. Read more