The Actual Window Manager ($50, 60-day free trial) includes every imaginable desktop-management feature, and then some. Assuming, of course, that you manage to find your way through the complicated, confusing, and rather unattractive interface.

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It's official: The Windows Blue update will be dubbed Windows 8.1, it'll be available for Windows 8 and Windows RT devices alike, and it will cost you the low, low price of zip, nada, zilch.

Interestingly, the free Windows 8.1 update will be available through the Windows Store, not the usual Windows Update method.

"Windows 8.1 ... continues the journey we first began with Windows 8 last fall," the confirmatory Windows Blog post commented this morning. "Windows 8.1 will help us to deliver the next generation of PCs and tablets with our OEM partners and to deliver the experiences customers—both consumers and businesses alike—need and will just expect moving forward."

What's that mean? Early leaks of Windows 8.1 gave us some tantalizing glimpses into the future, while we have some strong suggestions and logical guesses (hello again, desktop!) of our own.

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Computers just aren't selling like they used to, and many critics, analysts, and longtime Windows users point the blame finger at one culprit in particular: Windows 8. Nobody’s using Windows 8, they say. It’s worse than New Coke, they say. PC shipments are cratering and it's all Windows 8's fault, they say.

But are they right?

Last Tuesday, Microsoft countered the doom-and-gloom by announcing that it has sold 100 million Windows 8 licenses to date. That rate puts the company’s newest OS on par with Windows 7 at the same point in its lifecycle, and Windows 7 is the most widely used PC operating system in the world.

But if global PC shipments are in free fall—IDC called the 14 percent drop in the first quarter the steepest single-quarter decline ever—how can Microsoft keep selling licenses like it’s the good ol’ days of Windows 7?

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Windows 8, the most significant upgrade to Microsoft’s operating system since Windows 95 and one of the most important products in the company’s history, will not achieve enough adoption in enterprises to be considered a standard, according to Forrester Research.

By the time the next major Windows upgrade is released, Windows 8 will be in less than 50 percent of workplace PCs, unable to overtake its predecessor Windows 7.

“I have to believe Microsoft expected better enterprise adoption for Windows 8,” said Forrester analyst David Johnson, the lead author of the report “IT Will Skip Windows 8 As The Enterprise Standard,” released Thursday.

As it is, most enterprises have either recently migrated from Windows XP to Windows 7, or are in the process of doing so. In a Forrester survey of European and North American enterprises and SMBs conducted in last year’s third quarter, Windows 7 was on almost half of respondents’ PCs and Windows XP had a 38 percent share. Respondents further said that they forecast having Windows 7 on 60 percent of their PCs a year later, and Windows 8 on 26 percent.

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We've seen several Linux tablets emerge over the past year or so, but examples with triple-boot capabilities are much less common.

Enter the Python S3, a tablet released on Monday by Italian Ekoore that can boot three operating systems: Ubuntu Linux, Android, and Windows 8.

“The Python series was born with the purpose of uniting in a single tablet multiple operating systems,” explains the Italian Ekoore website. “The components of this device are the result of careful and accurate selection, to ensure perfect compatibility with all operating systems.”

Ready for a look? Here's what we've got.

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Surface RT was a broken promise. When it launched in October, it showed the world a vision of a revolutionary tablet-laptop hybrid, but it couldn’t close the deal. But now we have Surface with Windows 8 Pro, part two of Microsoft’s always fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking Surface saga. This is the hardware everyone has been waiting for. Surface RT was the warm-up act, the proof-of-concept, but the good money has always been on Surface Pro, the Surface sibling with PC-caliber specs and a fully functioning desktop.

image: robert cardin

The good news: Surface Pro is a marked improvement over Surface RT. It has a vastly better display and Ultrabook-caliber components. And thanks to Windows 8 Pro, it can run all the legacy desktop applications that we need for serious productivity. Surface Pro comes much closer than Microsoft’s ARM-based RT offering to fulfilling that elusive promise of uniting a tablet and a PC in a single, uncompromised package.

The bad news: Surface Pro doesn’t run away with the Windows 8 hybrid crown. And based on your needs, it might not be the best Windows 8 portable you can buy in the neighborhood of $1000. This is a problem because Surface Pro needs to stand out as a kick-ass reference design, and not be just another interesting-but-imperfect hardware option for anyone taking the Windows 8 plunge.

Microsoft is Microsoft, damn it! It owns Windows. Its war chest is huge. If it can’t conceive, manufacture, and market the hands-down best Windows 8 hybrid in the world, it’s got unfinished business.

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If it were all about looks, I'd say Vizio hit the nail square on the head with its $1249 CA24T-A4 All-In-One touchscreen PC. It's nearly as classy-looking as an iMac (which it mimics to a great extent), with all the components cohesively-styled in a nice, minimalist, pewter-hued design. Sadly, looks aren't everything and Vizio, a renowned TV manufacturer, lets the CA24T-A4 down by using a display that belongs in a TV, not a computer. The keyboard and performance are nothing to write home about either.

Display and Input Ergonomics

While the C24T-A4's 1920 by 1080, 24-inch display worked well enough with movies and general graphics, it didn't render text clearly. It's been a while since I've knocked a display, but text that's blurry and out of focus is a major impediment to serious computing. You can notice it on desktop icons and Metro tiles, but the defects really stand out when you're word processing, using spreadsheets, etc.

Human input-wise, Vizio takes a slightly different path with the CA24T-A4. The display is touchscreen to allow interaction with the Windows 8 operating system via its preferred method, but Vizio opts for a Bluetooth touchpad in lieu of a mouse. It's a nice, one-piece, rocker unit, but it would be nice to have the option for a little critter. Five minutes trying to compute using a vertically-oriented touchscreen at arm's length, or a touchpad will convince you of that.

Vizio also includes a Bluetooth keyboard, but it's on the small size, the layout is a bit cramped, and the feel is extremely light. It’s less useful than the keyboard in Vizio laptops, like the CA14-A2. On the plus side, there's a wireless remote that allows you to adjust the picture and view content incoming on one of the unit's two HDMI inputs--even without turning on the PC portion of the C24T. That's a nicer piece of legacy from Vizio's TV expertise. I'm a bit surprised there's no TV tuner.

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Acer's Iconia W510 is a 16:9, widescreen Windows 8 tablet with a nicely-designed keyboard dock. When sidled down and locked into said dock, the W5 appears and functions as a small, netbook-sized laptop. Alas, the W5 dock is a pricey option--the $750 W510-1422 and $800 W510P-1406 configurations that include it are $200 more than the otherwise identical dock-less models.

Widescreen tablet

The 16:9 aspect ratio of the Iconia W510's 10.1-inch, 1366 by 768 display is mirrored by the unit's 10.2-inch by 7.3-inch form --a form quite common in the Windows 8 tablet realm. The wide aspect is both good and bad news; While 16:9 is perfect for movies, it's considerably less so when held in portrait orientation to read books or surf the Web--one of the major reasons that 4:3 aspect units have ruled the marketplace. But if video is your focus, the W5's widescreen can be appealing.

Feature-wise, the Iconia W510 is largely your standard Windows tablet. Features include micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports, an SDHC card reader, a headset jack, plus a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 1.3MP display-side Webcam. There are a Windows button to facilitate alternating between the Windows 8 Metro and classic Windows interfaces, and a rotation lock to fix the image in portrait or landscape mode. Wi-Fi is 802.11 a/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 are both on hand for top-notch wireless connectivity.

Ho-hum looks

As conceived and realized as the W510's dock is mechanically, Acer could have done better with its appearance. The W510 looks nice enough on its own, but when combined with the docking station, the two shades of white (dock keys/tablet bezel), black, and silver color scheme give the unit as a whole a vaguely cheap feel. Neither part is cheaply made, but visual impressions can be hard to shake.

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The Toshiba Satellite LX835 starts at $1399.99, which doesn’t exactly put it in the budget all-in-one category (if such a category even exists). But you’d never know that by looking at it—thanks to its be-stickered bezel, unimpressive touchscreen, and cheap peripherals, it doesn’t exactly look like a top-of-the-line machine out of the box.

Our review model is the base $1399.99 model, and sports a third-generation Intel Core i7-3630QM processor, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GT630M discrete graphics card. It also has an impressively large (for the all-in-one category) 2TB hard drive, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, and a DVD-RW optical drive. The LX835 runs Windows 8.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the Satellite LX835 scores 67 out of 100. This means that the LX835 is 33 percent slower than our testing model, which has a third-generation Intel Core i5 desktop processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. This isn’t too surprising—although the LX835 is technically a desktop, it’s an all-in-one desktop with a fairly slim profile, and it has a less powerful mobile processor instead of a desktop processor.

In our individual performance tests, the LX835 lags behind other desktops. It starts up relatively quickly (22.8 seconds), which is about 10 seconds faster than our reference desktop. In our PCMark 7 productivity test, the LX835 scores 1433, which is very low compared to the reference system (4633), but not too bad compared to other desktops sporting i5 mobile processors, such as the Vizio CA24T-A4 and the Acer Aspire 7600U-UR308. Both of those desktops have i5-3210 processors and scored below 1000 on PCMark 7.

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HP’s latest Envy 23 TouchSmart all-in-one desktop computer is a bit pricey at just over $1700, but it’s a relatively good-looking machine with a nice, sturdy build.

Our review model, which costs $1740.99 as configured, has a third-generation Intel Core i7-3770S processor, 12GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics card, and an impressively large 3TB hard drive. It’s also got a 23-inch touchscreen, a Blu-ray disc optical drive, and built-in Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n. The Envy 23 TouchSmart runs Windows 8.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the Envy 23 TouchSmart scores a comfortable 72 out of 100. This means the TouchSmart is 18 percent slower than our testing model, which has a third-generation Intel Core i5 desktop processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. Although the TouchSmart has an i7, rather than an i5, it’s a low voltage Core i7-3770S processor, which means it’s not as powerful as the higher voltage, K-class processors.

Still, the TouchSmart scores better than other desktops in its class, such as the Toshiba Satellite LX835 (a similarly-sized all-in-one), which scored 67 out of 100.

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Earlier this year, we took a look at Dell’s non-touchscreen version of the XPS One 27. Now Dell’s pretty all-in-one is back, with slightly updated specs, Windows 8 Professional, and, of course, a touchscreen. This version of the One is as gorgeous as ever, with the exact same design as its predecessor, and its Quad HD screen looks even better with multi-touch. But now that Windows 8 is out, just about every single computer out there has a touchscreen—so how does the One hold up?

Our review model, which costs $2600 as configured, has a third-generation Intel Core i7-3770S processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 2TB hard drive (alongside a 32GB SSD boot drive). This all-in-one also has a discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics card, built-in Bluetooth 4.0, and a slot-loading DVD-RW/Blu-ray combo drive. The XPS One runs Windows 8 Professional.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the XPS One scores a very good 91 out of 100. This means that the One is just nine percent slower than our testing model, which sports a third-generation Intel Core i5-3570K desktop processor, 8GB of RAM, and a discrete Nvidia desktop-class graphics card. By comparison, the One has a low voltage, S model processor and an Nvidia GT 640M mobile GPU, which is why it’s a bit slower than our testing model (despite the fact that our testing model has an i5, and not an i7, processor).

The XPS One performs well in individual tests, though it’s not quite up to speed with our testing model. It’s quick to start up (20.6 seconds), and reasonably snappy with video and audio encoding (148 seconds and 201.5 seconds, respectively). By comparison, our testing model starts up in 33.5 seconds, and encodes video and audio in 132 seconds and 202.2 seconds, respectively. The One doesn’t perform quite as well in the PCMark 7 productivity test, with a score of 2943 (compared to the testing model’s 4633).

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Windows 8 opens up some interesting design possibilities for computing devices, and Acer's Iconia W700 epitomizes the hybrid desktop/tablet or modular small PC possibility. The W700 can be used as a normal Windows 8 tablet, but ships with a docking station/stand and Bluetooth keyboard that allow you to use it as you would a normal touchscreen PC. It's a good idea that, unfortunately, isn't perfectly implemented.

PCWorld earlier took a close look at an engineering sample of the W700. This review is based on shipping hardware.

Design and Usability

Measuring 11.6-inches wide by 7.5-inches tall and a little less than a half-inch thick, the tablet portion of the W700 is larger than average. Weighing in at 2.1 pounds, this is not a tablet that is comfortable to hold for extended periods, so rest it on your stomach if you plan to read War and Peace.

The W700 controls are the standard Windows tablet variety. On the right side is the power button and rocker volume control. On the front, there's the Windows 8 button for switching between the Metro interface and desktop mode.

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Whether Samsung is trying to confuse buyers into thinking they’re buying a laptop, or can’t make up its mind what it is, the Samsung ATIV Smart PC is (mostly) a tablet. Sure, it’s got a nearly full-size keyboard, but the keyboard is included as a detachable accessory. The slender tablet, just 9.9mm thin, is only three ounces heavier than an iPad. Even the CPU, the Atom Z2760 (“Clover Trail”) is Intel’s attempt to take on ARM-based CPUs. Users expecting a laptop may end up disappointed.

The ATIV Smart PC is really a harbinger of things to come. The Smart PC’s performance as a laptop leaves a lot to be desired, but it keeps up pretty well with the current crop of ARM-based tablets, both Android and iOS. But you can still dock it to its keyboard, carry it around and use it as a standard clamshell laptop. It also runs the full version of Windows 8, not the semi-crippled Windows RT that runs on Microsoft’s Surface RT. But it’s Clover Trail processor is 32-bit only, and while it’s fine for web browsing, email and light duty office chores, you’d never mistake it for a full-featured laptop.

The tablet under the hood

When you dig down into the specs, the hardware mix more closely resembles a tablet than a laptop. The system ships with 2GB of DDR2 memory and 64GB flash storage. The 11.6-inch screen is 1366 by 768 pixels. The screen is large for a tablet, but the resolution is more akin to the Surface RT than the iPad’s Retina display. However, 11.6 inches is small enough that you don’t see individual pixels, so it’s not a major issue.

All major controls are on the tablet part itself. The power button, volume controls, a power jack, one USB 2.0 port and a microSD card slot are built into the tablet. This makes the SmartPC pretty self-contained. The keyboard dock lacks any buttons or controls, but does include two additional USB 2.0 ports and a power connector. The power connector is needed, since the tablet’s power connector disappears into the dock latch.

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The Acer Aspire V5 isn’t a bad-looking machine, considering its price point. It’s heavier than it looks, but that heaviness translates into denseness, which translates into the machine feeling sturdy and stable. It almost looks like an Ultrabook – it’s relatively slim, it has a simple, sleek overall design, and an edge-to-edge glass display. But does this laptop’s performance live up to its prettiness? Read on to find out.

Our review model, which costs $729.99 as configured, sports a third-generation Intel Core i5-3317U mobile processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. This V5 also has a 15-inch touchscreen, built-in Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and a DVD-RW optical drive. The V5 runs Windows 8.

Performance

In PCWorld’s WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the Aspire V5 scores just 42 out of 100. This means that the V5 is 58 percent slower than our testing model, which sports a third-generation i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. This is quite a low score, and even similarly-equipped laptops, such as the HP Envy TouchSmart 4-1102xx (which has the same processor as the V5), perform better. The Envy TouchSmart scored 57 on our WB8 tests.

The V5 doesn’t do much better in individual performance tests. It’s not an Ultrabook, and it has no SSD boot drive, so it takes a good 21.3 seconds to start up. In the PCMark 7 office productivity test, the V5 scores 751 – only the half laptop, half tablet Samsung Xe500T1C-A01 performed worse on that test, with a score of 608.

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Windows RT just can't catch a break. Friday's big news— Apple's refusal to create an iTunes Windows 8 app —was another blow to the beleaguered OS, for even though Microsoft's finger-friendly programs are dubbed "Windows 8 apps," they're truly "Windows RT apps." The ARM processors powering Windows RT tablets can't run traditional desktop programs (like iTunes) and are instead forced to rely upon the lackluster selection in the Windows Store.

Apple's decision to pass on a Windows 8 app doesn't affect hardware running the full version of Windows 8 in the slightest, as those users just grab the classic version. But for people who bought into the promise of the Surface RT and its ilk, the snub cuts deep.

The lack of an iTunes app is a big deal, and not just because the current state of Windows 8 music apps is so …wanting. (The baked-in Music app? Meh.)

More important, iTunes is a juggernaut of an ecosystem, gobbling roughly two-thirds of all paid digital music and video sales alike. If you buy digital media, there's a great chance you have something stashed in iTunes—and, if that something includes any video files or DRM-protected songs, you'll find it utterly inaccessible on Windows RT.

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Dell, following in the footsteps of many other PC retailers, just slashed the price of its only Windows RT tablet to a jaw-droppingly low $300.

For a limited time—though we'll see if that holds true—you can snag the 32GB Dell XPS 10 for a full $150 cheaper than its original $450 asking price. If you’re willing to spend a little bit more you can get the XPS 10 with a laptop dock for $350, or an LTE model for just $500—a whopping $280 reduction off the original price.

Windows 8's struggling baby brother

Dell’s RT bargain basement sale is just the latest in a long line of Windows RT price drops to try and get ARM-based devices off store shelves. As PC industry analyst Patrick Moorhead recently told us, PCs are like produce: the longer they sit on store shelves, the less desirable they become.

And there’s every indication Windows RT is starting to smell a bit ripe. In early April, Windows RT price drops were so widespread that they suggested the OS had failed to gain any traction. Not long after, the market research firm IDC reporte that only 200,000 Windows RT tablets were shipped between January and March.

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One of Microsoft's top Windows executives this week said the company remains bullish about Windows RT and has no intention of dumping the limited-feature, touch-enabled tablet operating system.

Analysts accepted that at face value, but remain suspicious of Windows RT's chances unless Microsoft makes dramatic changes, including dropping the price of the licenses it sells to OEMs.

"Microsoft's strategy to portray Windows RT as for both work and play is not working," said Carolina Milanesi in an interview. "They need to change their tactics to position RT as the OS for consumption devices, to make the hardware a companion to the full Windows experience, not a replacement for it."

Microsoft Defends Windows

Last week, Tami Reller, CFO of the Windows division, went on a mini-PR spree, granting interviews to several media outlets to tout Windows 8 license sales, talk vaguely of changes it will institute in the Windows "Blue" update slated for release later this year, and in some cases, offer mea culpas for mistakes the company made with both Windows 8 and Windows RT.

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Microsoft last week said it will issue ten security updates next week, two of them rated "critical," to patch 34 vulnerabilities, including the zero-day bug that has been used by cyber criminals to poison "watering hole" websites in attacks aimed at U.S. government workers.

"IE is always critical, and we expected at least one update this month," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at Tripwire's nCircle Security, in an interview. "What was surprising was the IE8 fix."

The remaining eight updates, called "bulletins" by Microsoft, were pegged as "important" on the firm's threat scale, and will provide patches for Windows, several applications in the Office family and for multiple communications products, including Lync, Microsoft's enterprise-grade instant messaging platform.

Three of the Windows security updates will affect Windows 8 and Windows RT, Microsoft's newest operating systems; one of the trio will patch only those two editions.

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Two months ago, everything about i-mate’s Intelegent Windows 8 phone screamed vaporware. Today, the handset is back, with specs that suggest it's very much real. Shoot, PCWorld has even seen videos of it in action.

Yes—Windows 8 on a phone

It's no wonder the Intelegent made waves when it was announced earlier this year. In addition to the phone itself—which, to be clear, runs the full-blown Windows 8 operating system, not the Windows Phone OS—i-mate promised a docking station that would turn the Intelegent into a desktop workstation. It was all the Windows 8 you could need, all in one place.

However, i-mate wasn’t actually demonstrating the device in public.

An exclusive story by Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times showed only product renderings, and claimed that the Intelegent would be “unveiled” at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. (Press materials were prepared by i-mate for the show, but the company didn’t release them publicly.) On i-mate’s website, a short message promised “More information coming soon.” And that message remains on the site today.

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Microsoft this week said that it had sold 100 million licenses of Windows 8 in the operating system's first six months. But how many copies are being used?

That's a question Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, had at the top of his list after seeing Microsoft's milestone, which was revealed by Tami Reller, the CFO of the Windows division, in a Tuesday blog post and interviews with several media outlets.

"The challenge is figuring out what that actually means," said Moorhead of the 100-million mark. "It doesn't mean that there are that many devices out the door."

Microsoft counts a license as sold when it provides a customer an upgrade or one of its OEM partners a copy for a new PC, tablet or "convertible" device. The licenses to OEMS make up the bulk of that 100 million. According to Microsoft, the number it regularly cites for Windows 8 licenses sold—and before that, for Windows 7—exclude those sold to enterprises as part of their volume licensing agreements.

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Don't give up hope just yet, all ye desktop faithful.

While news of 100 million Windows 8 licenses sold may make Microsoft seem less likely to implement any backward-looking changes into its divisive new operating system, comments from Windows honcho Tami Reller in a series of interviews hint at a resurgence for the ol' keyboard-and-mouse-friendly interface.

Doing the desktop boogie

"We started talking about the desktop as an app," Reller told the New York Times. "But in reality, for PC buyers, the desktop is important."

Indeed it is—witness the torrent of reaction to PCWorld’s explainer on banishing the Metro interface from your life if you doubt that users still love the traditional desktop. Reller told the Times that Microsoft is doubling down on sales training to push the value of the desktop in Windows 8, but reports suggest Windows Blue will add an option to boot to the desktop, allowing users to bypass the modern-style Start screen completely.

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Change is in the air for Microsoft in response to ho-hum sales of Windows 8, and it sounds like PC makers couldn’t be happier.

Citing various PC industry executives in Asia, the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is being more receptive to their concerns, and could lower its licensing costs to compete with cheap tablets.

Microsoft has already hinted at a desktop resurgence in the next version of Windows. An update codenamed Blue, which will make its way into developers’ hands in June, will reportedly include a boot to desktop option, and may even bring back the Start button. (The update will also bring more features and Control Panel functions into the modern UI—formerly known as Metro—making it easier for Windows tablets users to avoid the desktop.)

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Last October I explained to how to shut down Windows 8—a subject you wouldn't think would require its own how-to guide. And yet.

At the end of that post (which generated quite the conversation), I promised to return with a shortcut that would minimize the hassles of mousing and clicking through the Settings menu to reach the shutdown option. And then I plumb forgot!

Reader Jodie recently called me on it, and rightly so. Here, then, from the Better-Late-Than-Never Dept., is your guide to creating a shutdown tile for Windows 8:

1. It starts, ironically, in Desktop mode, which you can reach by clicking/tapping the Desktop tile or pressing Win-D (that's the Windows key and the letter D).

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A few days ago I showed you how to create a Windows 8 shutdown tile, the idea being to circumvent the ridiculous hoops Microsoft makes you jump through just to turn off your computer.

Some would argue that doing so is an antiquated idea. After all, Windows 7 and 8 don't need regular reboots to continue running smoothly the way earlier versions did. On most modern systems you can leverage sleep/hibernate modes almost indefinitely, enjoying the benefits of quick wake/standby without ever actually shutting down.

Ah, but sleep mode continues to draw a bit of power, so it's not always the best option--especially for battery-conscious laptop users. And, let's face it, some users are just accustomed to turning off their PCs at the end of the day.

It's long been one of the great ironies of Windows that you're supposed to click through a shut-down process rather than just pressing the power button. After all, isn't that the off switch?

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Recently I told you how to take advantage of Windows 8's cool new file-copy feature. What I didn't mention was a small, but potentially significant, change in the way Windows 8 handles certain folder-copy functions.

Specifically, when you copy a folder to a drive or other destination that already has a folder with the same name, Windows 8 will automatically merge their contents.

That's a change from the way Windows 7 handled things, which was to alert you to the duplicate folder with a dialog box offering options: Yes (to go ahead and merge), Skip (to skip the folder being copied), and Cancel.

As noted by Lifehacker, automatically merging the contents of two like-named folders is probably fine in most instances, but it could cause unintended problems. You might end up overwriting old files with newer ones, or merging two folders you'd wanted to keep separate.

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BearPup sometimes wants to open a file in one program, and other times open it in another. He asked the Answer Line forum for an easy way to do this.

Windows uses a file's extension--the part of the file name after the period--to identify what program should open it. When you double-click, say, a .docx file, Windows checks to see what application is associated with that extension (probably a word processor) and opens the file in that program.

You can change these associations yourself, and you can associate multiple programs with a single extension. In fact, there's a good chance Windows has already done that for you.

[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]

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Even for the most tech-savvy users, Windows 8 presents a bit of a learning curve. Just figuring out something as simple as shutting down your PC can be challenging.

Sure, you can read all the great Windows 8-related tutorials and how-to guides here at PC World, or even take a free online course. But sometimes your best bet is a cheat-sheet—something you can keep right beside your keyboard for at-a-glance information.

The folks at TradePub have just the thing: the Microsoft Windows 8 Quick Reference Card. It's a colorful two-page guide to Windows 8's most commonly used areas. And if you don't mind sharing a bit of personal information, it's free.

All you do is supply your contact info and some clues about your company and job role. (Not wild about including your phone number? Sign up for and use your Google Voice number, which is perfect for such occasions.) You'll need to include a valid email address so you can receive a download link for the card, which is provided as a PDF.

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Cydney Bulger bought a used computer that came with unwanted programs and content. What's the best way to make it like new?

Almost every major-brand Windows PC from the last decade came with a built-in restoration tool. This is usually a partition on the hard drive that contains an image backup of the hard drive's contents when it left the factory.

So you need to figure out how to launch this tool on your particular computer. This generally involves pressing a particular key or key combination early in the boot process--before Windows itself starts to load.

[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]

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My new slogan for Windows 8: "It's not all bad!" ($50K and it's yours, Microsoft.)

Misguided though the Metro interface may be, there are some nice under-the-hood improvements to be found in the OS. For example, there's the File History feature I wrote about a couple months ago.

And the other day I did my first bit of file copying. Lo and behold, Windows 8 offers a vastly superior file-copying experience, though you might miss the benefits if you're not paying attention.

Let's say you're moving a bunch of stuff to an external hard drive. As usual, the process goes: drag, drop, and wait. The initial good news is that you'll be waiting less: Windows 8 is generally faster at copying files.

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Over the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to test-drive a couple Windows 8 laptops, and even though I've used the OS intermittently for months now, I still find it jarring every time the Metro interface (a.k.a. Start screen) appears.

Indeed, for anyone brand new to Windows 8, anyone who's already familiar with an earlier version of Windows, that tile-based interface can be startling, confusing, and ultimately very frustrating.

Can you learn it? Sure. Should you have to? No. With a few simple steps, you can make your new Windows 8 PC much more familiar, both in look and operation.

1. Forget that Metro exists

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The Internet? Kind of a cesspool. And as the parent of kids who are now old enough to operate a Web browser, you can bet I'm keen on checking their activities and filtering out the inappropriate content.

Thankfully, Windows 8 offers some solid tools for doing just that. (Windows 7 does, too, but Microsoft made them easier and more robust in the new version of the OS.)

For example, you can limit your child's Web browsing to age-appropriate sites and block or allow specific sites as needed. You can impose time limits, perhaps locking out the PC during hours when you're at work and not able to supervise. And you can control what games and apps can be played and purchased.

To get started, you'll need to set up an account for your child. Here's how to do that in Windows 8:

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