• New Year's Resolutions: Fix Your Finances

  
  Web and mobile personal-finance tools are more abundant and useful than ever. It's a good year to consider using them.

• Your Backup Resolutions: Five Strategies to Back Up Your Data, Now

  
  We help you find the perspective and the technology to put yourself on the path to smoother backups.
• Simple Hack Beats Biometrics
• Powerpoint Karaoke -- More Fun Than Pie Charts
• IT Execs Are Making Less
• Ballmer Should Skip Pep Talk at CES
• Phishing Scam Bursts Twitter's 'Trust' Bubble
• Survey: Microsoft Has Strongest Patent Portfolio
• Intel, Adobe Want to See Flash on TV Screens
• Let Your Computer ID the People in Your Photos

Editor's Software Picks

• Top 5 Gaming Desktop PCs These powerful desktops use overclocked CPUs, one or more ultra-high-end graphics cards, and gobs of high-speed storage to put performance above all else.

Software Reviews

• Serif Digital Photo Suite 2009 Easy-to-use imaging software holds appeal for home hobbyists and novice users who want to organize their stash of photos and do some light editing.
• Mindjet MindManager 8 Solid mind-mapping application, but some new features are glitchy.
• Google Chrome Web Browser Google's streamlined and speedy browser offers strong integrated search and an intriguing alternative to Firefox and Internet Explorer.
• Cyberlink DVD Suite 7 Ultra Disc-Burning Software Cyberlink's burning suite is easier to use and almost as powerful as the competing offerings from Nero and Roxio.
• Adobe Illustrator CS4 Graphics Software Support for multiple-page documents (at last) and lots of improvements make this a worthy upgrade.

Software News

• Microsoft Layoff Rumors Persist With the market share of Windows and IE slipping, some analysts claim Microsoft may be ready to issue pink slips.
• IT Execs Are Making Less Recession knocks down overall payments to CIOs -- but not everyone is feeling the pinch.
• Simple Hack Beats Biometrics In the case of tape vs. biometrics, tape wins -- hands down.
• Powerpoint Karaoke -- More Fun Than Pie Charts How to make presentations so bad that they might make others laugh.
• Survey: Microsoft Has Strongest Patent Portfolio U.S. technology companies led an annual survey rating the strength of corporate patent portfolios, with Microsoft coming out...

Software Playing in PCW Video

• 
  Golf Simulation: Take Real Golf Swings at Tokyo Bar A new bar in Tokyo lets golfers swing clubs at real balls after work in a software simulation area.
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  Filtering Web Porn: Competition Puts Software to the Test A shootout competition between competing web filtering software packages.
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  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Launch Preview New server OS emphasizes security, virtualization, Web productivity and business intelligence changes.

Software Slideshows

• 10 Gifts for the Hard-Core Techie Gadgets, kits, and hacks for the geek who has everything.
• Photo Contest: Hot Pics for November Subscribers to Dave Johnson's Digital Focus newsletter took these shots.
• Video Games: The 12 Best Holiday Bets In this list of the 12 video games of Christmas, we show you the good, the rad, and the (slightly) ugly.
• Microsoft Windows 7: A Closer Look at Your Next OS? Pre-beta code for Windows 7 released this week addresses many complaints about Windows Vista--and introduces a slew of changes intended to make the OS faster, easier to use, and more customizable. Take a look at some of the more visible features, including a redesigned UAC, handy Jump Lists, and more.
• Microsoft Word Turns 25 A look back at the changes and challenges Microsoft's flagship word-processing program has been through during its first quarter-century.

Software How-Tos

• Your Backup Resolutions: Five Strategies to Back Up Your Data, Now We help you find the perspective and the technology to put yourself on the path to smoother backups.
• Let Your Computer ID the People in Your Photos Picasa, PicsMatch, and Windows Live Photo Gallery give you a peek at the future of face recognition.
• Is it Safe to Just Ignore Windows' Service Packs? Don Dalton installed Vista's SP1 update, encountered "a multitude of problems," and uninstalled it. Can he safely go on indefinitely without it?
• Productivity Tips From Hassle-Free PC PC World blogger Rick Broida helps you use common apps more effectively, including Firefox, Adobe Reader, and Microsoft Word.
• Selectively Delete Some of Your Browsing History An anonymous reader wants to erase tracks that show he's visited certain web sites, but without erasing his entire surfing history.