BRR-RING! The phone rings at midnight, interrupting your sleep—or worse, your late night Steam session with your gaming clan. Is someone sick? Did a car hit your dog? Is it your pal, calling to tell you he got the munchies and discovered that, joy of joys, the McRib is back? Perplexed (and maybe a bit hungry), you pick up your handset, and hear the ominous words:

Doubling as unofficial tech support for your family and friends comes as part of the territory when you're a PC geek—and those cries for help frequently come all too often or at inopportune times. Weekends! Holidays! Nights! All gone, consumed by the fight against malware and missing Internet Explorer icons.

It doesn't have to be like this.

Rather than running around and slapping Band-Aids on all the problems, get proactive! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say, and taking the time to set your friends' and loved ones' computers up the right way can dramatically cut back on help-seeking headaches down the line. Not to sound too dramatic, but yes, these tips can help you reclaim your nights and weekends.

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The more I use Office 2013, the more I like some of the little interface tweaks Microsoft made to the suite.

For example, in Outlook 2013, you can now view all your unread email with just one click. (That's one of five surprisingly great things about the new Outlook.)

I've also discovered a nice change to the Ribbon toolbar, which was one of the most controversial changes in Office 2007 and largely untouched in Office 2010.

In Office 2013, Microsoft now gives you the option of three different Ribbon views, which I'll dub full, reduced, and hidden. Here's how to switch between them:

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Microsoft did its best to usher in a new era of desktop computing with the launch of Windows 8, but many businesses and individuals are opting out. Linux-based operating systems, meanwhile, present an increasingly compelling alternative. Benefits include tougher security and superior customization—not to mention that Linux is usually free.

If you're ready to make the leap to desktop Linux, this guide will show you where to begin and how to choose the right OS and software for your small business. With advice on everything from choosing your Linux distribution and desktop software to easing the transition, we'll help you get started on the right foot.

How to choose Linux for your desktop

Flickr: tshik2

There are numerous flavors, or "distributions," of Linux, each offering a distinct experience for a particular taste or purpose. All are based on the Linux kernel, which is its core OS code. On top of that kernel, distributions may add different desktop environments, applications, and features.

Ubuntu and Linux Mint are two of the more popular contenders. But a quick glance at DistroWatch, which keeps tabs on most distributions, shows just how vast the pool of choices is. Most distros, as they're called, are easily customizable, whether with industry-specific apps and modules or varied graphical interfaces. That said, the more your base Linux package delivers what you want, the less time you'll spend tweaking it.

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"Windows 8 on a desktop." The very phrase makes some people recoil and instinctively mouse over their Start buttons.

It's too bad that the modern UI has proven so contentious, because aside from the eye candy—or eye cancer, depending on your perspective—an abundance of welcome nuts-and-bolts changes makes Windows 8 the hands-down best version of Windows that Microsoft has ever released.

But don't despair. Although you can tweak and tuck a few things to almost completely banish the interface formerly known as Metro from your Windows 8 life, you can also try another tactic: not upgrading at all. Many of Windows 8's best under-the-hood improvements can be yours in Windows 7 with the help of a few handy-dandy applications.

Having your cake and eating it too has never tasted so sweet.

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You know those lengthy terms-of-service (TOS) agreements everybody ignores when installing a piece of software or registering for a new Web service?

Turns out, they're kind of important, especially for those concerned about privacy (and these days, who isn't?).

For example, you may recall that back in December, Instagram caused a huge kerfuffle when it made changes to its privacy policy, which were outlined in an updated TOS.

That made national news, but not all such changes get that kind of attention. So how can you keep tabs on your favorite online services to make sure they're not slipping undesirable updates past you?

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Lyman E Bertsch needs to run an application on a relative's computer. Installing the program isn't an option. Can Lyman run the program off a flash drive?

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

Probably not. But you may be able to find another program that does the same thing, but that you can run off a flash drive.

We call these programs portable, because they can be easily moved between computers and don't need to be installed. You can carry these on a portable storage device, such as a flash drive, and run them on any Windows PC. And you would be amazed how much portable software is out there.

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Ankush khandelwal asked about compatibility issues between files created in different versions of Microsoft Office--specifically the big changes in file format that came with Office 2007.

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

With Office 2007, Microsoft introduced entirely new file formats for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Designated by an x at the end of the file extension (.docx instead of .doc, and so on), these were not backward compatible.

Initially, I wasn't happy with this change. I'm generally conservative about popular and established file formats--especially those supported by a great many software venders--and don't want them to be changed. And almost everyone in the office software business has been supporting .doc and .xls for years.

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You haven't got all day. And yet you're typing the same text over and over again: email addresses, street addresses, signatures, boilerplate, and so on.

That's why I continue to be a big fan of PhraseExpress, a text expander that organizes and auto-completes frequently used text snippets.

For example, to quickly insert, say, your email address, you could type "em1" (as in "email address #1"), and PhraseExpress would instantly paste in the complete address.

Likewise, you could type "sig" to insert a custom email signature (complete with images and/or HTML code) at the end of emails.

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Has your computer's hardware started freaking out, freezing up or behaving in weird ways since you've made the jump to Windows 8? Don't lay blame at the feet of a mischievous gremlin. Instead, it’s much more likely that your devices simply aren't rocking the most up-to-date Windows 8-compatible drivers.

Yes, a simple driver update might just fix your Windows 8 hardware woes.

The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant does a decent job of identifying which parts and software in your rig need an update prior to installing Windows 8—and Microsoft's Windows Compatibility Center website offers the same feature for DIY types who prefer to search for specific programs and hardware—but many devices still fall through the cracks, and you'll need to manually update any drivers Microsoft can't snag itself. (Note that the process outlined below works for Windows 7, as well.)

How to update Windows 8 drivers

Before you get your hands dirty, however, you should see if Windows Update has automatically checked for driver updates. Not all drivers are available through Windows Update, but many are and it’s the easiest way to proceed.

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Last week ago I told you how to go back to using iTunes 10, a solution for people who upgraded to iTunes 11 and decided they didn't like what they saw.

I screwed up. Bigtime. And I apologize.

In that original post, I steered you to a site called OldVersion.com, which is home to older versions of hundreds of popular programs, iTunes included.

However, as several readers pointed out, you can't simply uninstall iTunes 11 and then reinstall iTunes 10. Doing so produces an error message and leaves you without access to your music library—and, basically, a broken iTunes. (Readers also pointed out other sources for older versions of iTunes, including Apple, which has iTunes 10.7 for Windows.)

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Problem: Your hard drive is getting full.

Solution: Delete unnecessary data to make more room.

Easy enough, right? Actually, it's not always easy to find the files and folders that are using the most space on your drive. In fact, it can be downright complicated and time-consuming.

Free disk-space analyzer WizTree quickly scans your drive and shows you the names and locations of your largest files, which can help if you're trying to root out and delete "fat" data.

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iTunes 11, which arrived last week, brought some big changes with it. And for the last few days I've been helping you work around some of those changes, like restoring the iTunes sidebar and even returning to iTunes 10.

Today let's talk about another iTunes 11 curiosity: the software no longer includes the option to find duplicates in your song library.

That's a bummer, because it definitely came in handy when working with large libraries accumulated over the course of many years.

Thankfully, there are other ways to de-dupe an iTunes library. For example, you could install a utility like TuneUp, which can not only find and eliminate duplicate tracks, but also fix mislabeled songs, find missing cover art, show song lyrics, and much more.

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Reader Wes sent me this simple plea:

"I recently downloaded the new iTunes 11. I want to go back to the last version. Is there a way?"

I can relate to that desire, Wes. The new iTunes not only has an overhauled interface that some users simply won't warm to, but also eliminates some key features that some users will no doubt miss (like the song de-duper).

Indeed, as I wrote last week, iTunes 11 has no visible sidebar, though at least it's easy to restore. Ultimately, some users may just prefer to stick with old faithful—in this case iTunes 10.

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Are you an iTunes user? If so, by now you may be looking at iTunes 11, which Apple started rolling out yesterday. (Still running iTunes 10? You can get the update by clicking Help, Check for Updates.)

One thing you'll notice right away is the totally overhauled interface, which, just like with Windows 8, can take some getting used to.

Indeed, the big change is the disappearance of the sidebar, which is how most people navigated their libraries and playlists, the iTunes Store, and so on. Needless to say, iTunes 11 can seem disorienting without it.

Fortunately, there's an easy way to bring it back: just press Ctrl-S. That's actually a toggle, so you can press it again to hide the sidebar if you wish.

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Recently my wife came to me, laptop in hand, wanting to know why some Word documents looked different than others.

In other words, some spanned the entire width of the screen and had very large text, while others seemed to show the entire page at once, with much smaller text. Occasionally she'd see a file with two side-by-side pages, as shown in the above screenshot.

What's working all this weird Word voodoo? No, it has nothing to do with font size: It's all about the zoom.

Word's zoom control affects how much of any given document is visible on your screen at a time. The higher the zoom, the bigger your document will appear—and the less of it you'll see.

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Windows 8 has a few new features (like the charms menu, the Start screen, and gesture commands) which may seem pointless or needlessly confusing at first blush. Experienced Windows users running a non-RT version of Windows 8 may be tempted to ignore these new features entirely in favor of working exclusively through the Desktop app.

That's a reasonable sentiment, and it's totally feasible because Windows 8 works equally well whether you stick exclusively to the new Windows 8 interface or the traditional Windows desktop. But Windows 8 really shines when you learn to use the charms and gestures to quickly swap back and forth between the Start screen and the desktop, multitasking and sharing data between new Windows 8 apps and your trusty desktop software.

Before you can do that, you need to get comfortable taking your hands off the keyboard. After a few weeks working and playing with Windows I'm starting to learn how the new control scheme, designed to work equally well on desktops, laptops and tablets, can help you work faster and more efficiently if you take a little time to learn and integrate it into your workflow. With that in mind I've put together a brief guide to helping you get more done in less time on your desktop or tablet by mastering Windows 8 touch controls and their keyboard/mouse equivalents.

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Are you taking the plunge on a new Windows 8 system? Although Microsoft has positioned the new OS to be all about apps, most users will want to run some "legacy" programs (quotations mine—how is something like iTunes suddenly a legacy program?).

Rather than downloading all your favorites manually, or, worse, fishing out a bunch of installer CDs, check out Ninite. This insanely handy tool automatically downloads and installs software, saving you considerable time setting up a new machine.

Even better, Ninite just added Classic Start, which is the open-source Classic Shell program Lincoln Spector wrote about last month. It's a Start button/menu for Windows 8's Desktop mode, which, irritatingly, doesn't have one.

Never heard of Ninite? It works like this: You scroll through Ninite's categorized list of programs, check-marking the ones you want. The service offers the most current versions of nearly every popular mainstream program, including Firefox, Skype, OpenOffice, iTunes, Picasa, Steam, and personal favorite IrfanView.

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Windows 8 is here, but plenty of Windows users are still on the fence about whether to take it for a spin. In the wake of Windows Vista, you can't blame Windows users for being cautious; upgrading unquestioningly to the latest version of our operating system is a luxury we may have envied in our Mac OS brethren, who can (usually) look forward to the newest big cat without reservation.

If you're thinking about upgrading to Windows 8 but you're concerned that you might permanently mess up your PC (or be stuck with an OS you don't like), read on to see whether the new Windows is right for you.

Meet our test PC

For the purposes of this article I decided to use my main desktop PC. It's a home-built system cobbled together mostly from older spare parts, so if anything were likely go wrong with a Windows 8 install, it would probably go wrong with my FrankenPC. The computer packs a decent amount of power--a 3.4GHz AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU in a DKA790GX Platinum MSI motherboard, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, an Nvidia GTX 570 video card, and a pair of hard drives (a 7200-rpm 1TB drive I use as my main Windows 7 boot/data drive, and an older 5400-rpm 100GB drive I used for my previous Windows XP install).

I also have a fair number of associated accessories and gadgets plugged in: two monitors, speakers, a headset, an external mic, a Wi-Fi dongle, a PS/2 keyboard, and a fairly high-end gaming mouse, among other things, so I figured that this would be a good opportunity to see if anything significant broke.

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Windows 8 is all about the apps, so it's important to find the best ones for your unique needs. Unfortunately, you need to sift through a lot of crap apps in the process, especially if you're not using a Windows 8 tablet; desktop and laptop PC users don’t need to worry about the lion’s share of Windows 8 apps, because they're usually single-purpose tools designed to replicate the functionality of a full PC on a mobile device. Since you have access to a full Windows desktop you don’t need just another way to look at photos or surf the Web—you need a way to do those things better.

With that in mind, we’ve taken the liberty of sharing some of our favorite Windows 8 apps in order to help you get up to speed as quickly as possible so that you can take advantage of all that Windows 8 can offer. Microsoft does a pretty decent job of covering your basic computing needs with apps like Messaging, Mail, SkyDrive and Skype, but there are a few excellent third-party apps you should download post-haste.

Problem is, the Windows Store is still in its infancy and thus lacks a lot of free apps for well-known services such as Twitter and Facebook; but even though Microsoft’s digital distribution platform can’t yet match the variety or breadth of apps available in the Apple and Google ecosystems, it still has more than enough Windows 8 apps to make your head spin. We sifted through dozens and dozens of the most popular Windows 8 apps available at launch, then tested a few dozen more and compiled this list of our favorites. While these apps may not satisfy all your computing needs (we just couldn't find a great Twitter management app, for example) they should help you get the most from your Windows 8 PC.

Netflix

The Netflix app for Windows 8 is free to download and easy to use, with an attractive tile-based interface that's intuitive to navigate on a touchscreen. Streaming movies through the app also seems smoother than streaming them through your browser, which is reason enough to launch Netflix right from your Start screen.

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You know the old saying, "Look before you leap"? Let's give that a modern-day twist: Look before you click.

See that screenshot up top? It's from popular daily-download site Giveaway of the Day. On the left, there's a description of the day's freebie. On the right, a big, tempting Download button. Obviously that's what you click to get the software, right?

Wrong. That's actually an ad for something called Download Manager, which itself is actually a collection of garbage you don't want: toolbars, adware, and so on. But many an unsuspecting user will get so far as to install all of it before realizing it's not the program they wanted. Quite the opposite.

This is an increasingly common tactic among advertisers and even spyware distributors: ads that masquerade as Download buttons. When you're looking at a download page for any given piece of software, your eye naturally goes to the large, colorful button that plainly says "Download"--and your mouse pointer instinctively follows.

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Because Microsoft thinks it knows what's best for users and apparently wants to confuse the living daylights out of them, Windows 8 has no Start button.

I'll just say that again so it sinks in: Windows 8 has no Start button.

What it has is a tablet-friendly Start screen packed with tiles. It's very pretty, and probably quite pleasant on a tablet, but fairly crummy on a current-model desktop or laptop.

Things get a lot more familiar-looking if you click the Desktop tile—ahh, there's the Windows we know and love—but once again, Windows 8 has no Start button.

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I’ve amassed more than 30,000 digital photos over the years. I shot most of them; others I scanned from prints gleaned from photo albums and family archives. I’d wager that 95 percent of them are junk—poorly composed, badly lit, over- or underexposed, people with their eyes closed, you name it.

None of them, however, are so terrible that I’d want to obliterate them. As the family historian, I recognize that even the most casual snapshot has some intrinsic value; but who has the time to sort through that many pictures to find the 10 or 20 in a given category that are worth showing off? And what’s the best way to ensure that these best-of-the-best photos not only appear on all my mobile devices, but in places and on services that allow interested friends and family to see them, too?

The secret, not surprisingly, is to let a computer do the heavy lifting. I auditioned three of the latest consumer-oriented photo-editing/organizing tools on the market: ACDSee Pro 6, Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, and Cyberlink PhotoDirector 4 to determine which product was the most capable of helping me separate the wheat from the chaff—and then sharing the wheat.

I didn’t spend a lot of time evaluating the editing tools in these packages, since my primary objective was to find the photos that were worth editing in the first place. I will produce a complete three-way comparison down the road; but for this project, Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 11 quickly rose above the other two to become my favorite organizational tool.

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You may have heard that Windows 7 widgets and other desktop gadgets could go the way of the dodo in Windows 8. According to Microsoft, you shouldn't even be using desktop gadgets in Windows 7 or Vista because nefarious hackers could use them to gain control of your PC. So what's a poor, lazy computer user who wants to track CPU usage and local weather at a glance supposed to do?

Simple: Install Rainmeter, a free desktop widget utility that's superior to the native Windows gadgets in almost every way.

Of course, Rainmeter's not that simple. In fact, it isn't especially user-friendly, though you'll find that it's fairly straightforward once you get your sea legs under you. That's where this guide comes in.

The first thing to consider is vocabulary. Rainmeter lingo differs a bit from the terminology commonly used by techies: for example, what most people would call a widget or a gadget, Rainmeter calls a skin. In Rainmeter parlance, a group of skins with a similar visual theme is a skin suite. And finally, Rainmeter calls a particular group of skins and their layout a theme.

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The build doesn’t end once you've physically assembled the system, however. After putting together all of the components, you must install software on the system before it’ll do a darn thing. Unfortunately, many inexperienced builders simply slap the parts in, burn through an OS installation, and call it a day. Although that may get a PC up and running quickly, several additional steps are necessary to ensure that the computer runs reliably and at peak performance.

System builders should confirm that their components are outfitted with the latest correct firmware or BIOS revisions where applicable, as well as the best drivers. Builders should fully patch and update the operating system, too, and they should complete any tweaks needed to wring additional performance from select components.

Let's get started, shall we?

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Robert Conner asked me to define the various words for different types of programs.

Tech proliferates words like flies proliferate eggs. And they can be just as hard to track.

Here's a quick refresher on common terms for the larger program categories:

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You might think that modern computers, with their mammoth hard drives and lightning-fast processors, can shoulder the heaviest software loads without slowing down. So what if Microsoft Office Professional consumes a minimum of 3GB of space and Outlook by itself eats up 60MB of system memory (on my machine, anyway). That can't possibly put a dent in system performance, can it?

You'd be surprised. The larger the program, the greater the amount of RAM required to run it--and the larger the number of hooks it adds to Windows' Registry, and the more significant the overall drag it imposes on your PC. And as you increase the number of "big" apps your system uses, the total impact on PC performance grows. This cumulative effect explains why you should consider trading in your most bloated applications for smaller, slimmer alternatives, even if you aren't concerned about maximizing the performance of your PC. In fact, let's ignore performance for a moment. If you've switched to a solid-state drive, you may find that plain old storage space is at a premium. You might have a skimpy 128GB or even 64GB to house Windows, your programs, and all of your data--all the more reason to look for the smallest programs you can find.

To help guide you, I've rounded up six of the worst bloatware offenders and presented compact, nimble alternatives--most of which just happen to be free.

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I'm a big fan of cloud-storage services like Dropbox and Windows Live SkyDrive, which make it a snap to sync and share your files.

However, there's one limitation I don't like: To add a folder to your personal cloud, you have to relocate it. If you have a folder called, say, Tax Documents, you can't just earmark it for syncing to your Dropbox or Skydrive account; you have to drag it into a specially designated sync folder.

That's kind of a hassle, because any program(s) that automatically look for your tax documents in their original location will get confused. It's not hard to point them to the new location; it's just a hassle.

The other day I explained how you can sync any folder to your SkyDrive account, a good workaround for users of that service. But allow me to make the case for SugarSync, a cloud-storage service that's a lot smarter at syncing folders.

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Unless you actually want to uninstall the programs (which is a whole other issue), the only way to remove a program entirely from MSConfig's Startup list is to edit the Windows Registry.

That's an inherently dangerous job, so it's best to take precautions. Before you begin, create a System Restore point. See How to Create a Restore Point if you need instructions.

Done? Okay, let's get into the Registry Editor:

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Billiebong wants to remove a program that lacks an uninstaller, and turned to the

Before you try to manually remove a program, make sure there's no uninstaller. Check the Start menu. If the Start menu contains a submenu for the unwanted program, there's likely a link to the uninstaller there.

You should also check Windows' own list of uninstallers. Select Start (Start>Run in XP), type appwiz.cpl, and press ENTER. You'll find all the uninstallers that Windows knows about in alphabetical order.

You should also try Googling the name of the unwanted program and the word uninstall.

If none of these pan out, you're going to have to remove the program manually. Here's how:

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Why is [Program X] always running when I start my PC?

Windows maintains a list of programs that automatically run every time you boot up your computer. Some of these startup programs (such as antivirus utilities) are beneficial, but many of them are not necessary and can slow your PC as they run automatically in the background. Speed up your boot time by disabling Windows startup programs.

Why does my PC keep making a grinding sound?

This can happen for a lot of reasons--and unfortunately almost all of them are bad news. The most likely answer is that a fan or hard drive in your PC is starting to die, causing it to spin off-kilter. PCWorld contributing editor Lincoln Spector wrote a smart guide to pinpointing the source of a grinding-sound problem in this Answer Line column. No matter what the cause turns out to be, you should immediately back up your hard drive, just in case.

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