The Public folder was first introduced in Windows Vista and it has appeared in every version of Windows since. It is not much of a feature - just a folder with a slightly special setup that can be useful in certain scenarios. To help you understand what the Public folder is, how to use it and when it is useful to use it, we created this guide which explains the important bits you need to know.

Network locations were first introduced in Windows Vista. At that time, they somehow managed to feel half-baked and confusing to users. They were improved in Windows 7 and later on in Windows 8. Now they have a simple implementation and they are a very useful way to manage network connections and network sharing. Let’s learn together what they are, how they work and why they are useful.

A while ago I wrote about how I installed Windows 8 on my old Toshiba NB-505 netbook, which wasn’t really supposed to work with Windows 8. The installation went reasonably smoothly and when I finished the article, Windows 8 appeared to be working fine. I’ve had the opportunity to use that netbook for nearly a month now, so I thought I’d post an update on the experience. Is Windows 8 running well on a netbook? What issues will you encounter? Was it worth the effort? Should you do this at home?

Do you remember a day when all children wanted to do was get outside and play in the sun? Unfortunately, kids these days are more likely to spend every waking hour perched in front of a computer screen playing games. If you aren’t a fan of this trend and you want to limit your child’s computer use to reasonable hours and time limits, Windows 8 has the tools to help you. Using Family Safety, you can monitor your child’s computer use and prevent him/her from logging in after hours or spending too much time in front of the screen.

While you’ll certainly want your children to be able to take advantage of great things the Internet has to offer, you’ll also want to make sure they avoid the seedier sides of the web. One of the best ways to protect your child while online, is to enable web filtering. This allows you to choose which sites your child may or may not view as well as what sort of material is OK for him or her. Luckily, Windows 8 users don’t need to seek out third party software for this feature, it’s built right into Family Safety. Let’s see how it works.

On the Windows 8 Start screen you will find a small tile named Camera. It is a shortcut to a little Windows 8 app that can be used to record videos or take pictures. Even though its interface is very simplistic, it is not that easy to understand how to set it up and use it to record videos or take pictures. That’s why I decided to write this tutorial and help you out.

If your computer is running poorly and you can’t fix it, Windows 8 gives you the option to refresh the operating system without having to lose your files. In certain scenarios this is the best cure and the fastest way to make the computer run smoothly again. Let’s see how the Refresh feature in Windows 8 works and why it is useful.

Have you ever removed a Windows Phone app, only to wish you hadn't? You can navigate through the Windows Phone Store to find it again, or use a third-party reinstalling app, which will only take you to the app's page on the Store. Or, you can use WindowsPhone.com to reinstall any app that you've ever downloaded from the Store. It is easy and this tutorial will show you how it works.

I’m sure you wondered at least once: what makes Windows run and offer so many features to so many different applications? An important portion of the answer is Windows services. With the use of services, Windows is able to manage your network connections, plays sound in your speakers, remember your passwords and credentials, display colors on your screen and so on. This article will try to shed some light on what Windows services are and the basics of working with them. To learn more don’t hesitate to read on.

The Internet is not only home to viruses and spyware, it can also house other threats in the form of child predators or objectionable material that could potentially lead your children to harm. Until your children are old enough to understand the risks of Internet usage, you’ll want to make sure they aren’t doing anything unsafe. Windows 8’s Family Safety features give you the tools you need to monitor their usage, block them from harmful material and even limit how long they spend in front of the computer. In this first article I will share what’s required for enabling Family Safety, how to activate it on the Windows 8 computer used by your child and how to deactivate it when it is no longer useful.

I would like to help you decide which Windows 7 and Windows 8 services are safe to disable and when. While disabling unneeded services can have a positive impact on performance, disabling the wrong services can have a big negative impact on the overall performance and stability of your system. I will do my best to guide you and provide balanced and useful advice.

We do want to test more and more Windows Phone devices here at 7 Tutorials. In order to evaluate their performance in a measurable and comparable way, we asked ourselves: which are the best apps for benchmarking Windows Phone devices? We did a bit of research and lots of testing and compiled this list with the best benchmark apps. Read on to learn which benchmarks are worth installing on your smartphone.