XPS files or XML Paper Specification files, are Microsoft's direct competitor to Adobe's PDF format. XPS Viewer is the tool used to view XPS files, similar to Adobe Reader. While XPS might not be as popular as PDF, it is used by some Windows users. For those of you who use it or would like to try it out, we decided to show what are the main qualities of the XPS format, how to create XPS files and how to work with the XPS Viewer, a tool available both in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Many people visiting our website are interested in our tutorials about working with the Bluetooth technology. That’s why we decided to share more about this technology and its uses. In this article, I will share what Bluetooth is, how it works, where it used and how to get Bluetooth on your own computer. I guarantee it will prove to be an interesting and useful read.

One of the things I do not like about the Start screen in Windows 8 is the fact that it doesn’t show the time and date, as the taskbar does on the Desktop. I wish Microsoft had provided an easy way to add a clock in a live tile. Luckily there are quite a few apps available to fill this gap. The better ones cost money but there are also some free alternatives to consider. In this roundup, I tested the latest free apps and tried to identify the best app for showing the time on the Start screen. Here’s what I found.

One of the best features of SkyDrive is that you can download and install it on any sort of device you might have. There’s an app for a desktop computer, apps for mobile devices and even an app pre packaged with Windows 8 devices. But, did you know that, in order to experience all of the best features that SkyDrive has to offer, you don’t need to install anything? The web interface is a great way to experience SkyDrive and in this article I will share the reasons why this is the case.

Storing your files on a SkyDrive is a great way to make accessing your data more convenient. Once your files are in the cloud, you can view or edit them using any device with Internet access. But what happens if you have a file you need but it isn’t on your SkyDrive. You may think you’re out of luck, but that isn’t the case. As long as you’ve got Fetch configured properly and the computer containing the file is on and connected to the Internet, you can find the file and upload it right from your account interface on the SkyDrive website. Read on to learn how to use this simple yet awesome feature.

The new Start screen is by far the most controversial feature in Windows 8. Personally, I view it as a glorified full-screen app launcher, which makes it easy to start any app you want. But, until you see things my way, you will need to learn how it works, experiment and work with it for a while. To help you become productive, I would like to show how to pin to the Start screen everything you need: Windows 8 apps, desktop applications, folders, libraries, network locations, websites, control panel items, etc.

Even though Windows 8 is hybrid in nature, it doesn’t mean you cannot use iton traditional desktops and laptops. It works just fine and, most times, faster than Windows 7. But Windows 8 does things quite differently from what you may have been used to in previous versions of Windows. You will need to experiment, and you will probably want to do more customization than you have been accustomed to do doing in the past. Once you go through a couple of steps and learning experiences, you are good to go and you will be productive. Here’s how:

Microsoft has announced that in the final version of Windows 8 there is no support for setting the operating system to boot straight to the Desktop and skip the new Start screen. There is no registry setting available, no group policy and most of the hacks that worked with the test versions of Windows 8 no longer work in the final version. Since many people want this feature in Windows 8, together with a very knowledgeable reader, we made some experiments to see if we could come up with a solution. And we did - we found two ways to make Windows 8 take you straight to the desktop after you log in. They work on the final version of Windows 8. We tested on a couple of computers and everything worked just fine.

UPDATE: We included a new solution - an elegant tool created by a german developer.

Not many people know the name Georgian Constantin. But some members of the DeviantART community have heard about Another Outsider - his community member name - and have him in their watchlist. He is 25, worked as a DTP in a well-known branding agency, but now he's in search for a job. He also worked as a graphic artist, a junior art director, a marketing assistant, even HR assistant and PC operator. In this interview he reveals some interesting details about himself and shares some of his digital paintings through a Windows theme that you can download and use on your computers.

Once you get your hands on a copy of Windows 8, you’ll notice it comes packaged with a few useful apps to get you started. These apps aren’t the standard Desktop applications you’re used to, they’re Windows 8 apps, and they’re nothing like anything Windows has offered before.

The first of these apps that we’ll take a look at is Mail. After a short setup, this app can take the place of any mail client you’ve used in the past. You can pull all of your emails, from all of your various accounts into one place, and I’ll show how.

One of the things I was interested to learn about Windows 8 is whether Internet Explorer 10 is a good browser or not. Is it worthy to use as your main browser? Does it offer good enough performance to be considered a relevant browser in the future? I ran a few tests and also compared it with Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera. Also, I compared the data from my previous tests with Windows 8 Consumer Preview, the Release Preview and I have noticed some very interesting changes. Let’s see what I have learned.

Everybody with a bit of knowledge about computers and security has heard about Norton. They have great brand recognition and, over the years they have built some great security products. Therefore I was curious to learn if Norton Internet Security 2013 lives up to its name and high expectations. I took it for a test drive and boy... was I surprised by what I learned.