Windows 8 is all about shortcuts. People with touch-enabled PCs use touch gestures, users without touch devices must learn the mouse shortcuts, power users use keyboard shortcuts on the desktop and novel command-line shortcuts, and you can even use special swipe gestures on your laptop’s touchpad. Here we collected all the shortcuts you need to master Windows 8. If you’ve upgraded to Windows 8 or bought a new PC that came with Windows 8, you’ll find that a lot has changed.

So you want to get rid of your computer. To keep your data secure you will want to securely wipe the drive. This ensures that no one can recover the deleted files. However, you might not want to remove the entire operating system itself. Just re-installing your operating system or restoring from your recovery partition isn’t enough to guarantee that your files won’t be recoverable. When getting rid of a PC that has potentially sensitive data, you should wipe the drive to be sure your data can’t be recovered.

Android comes with Google Play, but that isn’t the only app store you can use on Android. Android allows users to use third-party app stores, and Amazon has stepped up with a competitor of its own — the Amazon Appstore for Android. Once US-only, the Amazon Appstore is now available in nearly 200 countries around the world and is a true, global competitor to Google Play. So how does it stack up against Google Play? Are you missing out by not using Amazon Appstore for most of your app purchases?

Windows 8′s Start screen and “Modern” apps can feel awkward to use on a non-touch PC, but they really start to make sense when paired with a touch PC. If you’re not ready to go out and buy a new Windows 8 laptop with touch, tablet, convertible, or all-in-one PC, here are some ways you can add touch support to your existing system. There is a reason Microsoft is pushing hard to integrate touch support into all future PCs. None of these methods is as ideal as having a PC that comes with native touch support.

Are you tech support for your family or friends? Do you receive frantic calls because they’ve installed malware or somehow managed to break their computer and they need you to fix it? This can be extremely obnoxious — not to mention time-consuming. If you’re tech support, here are some tips to help you make your users’ computers more newbie-proof. Once you’ve got everything set up right, your users will hopefully leave you alone so you can get on with your life and have more precious free time.

Whether you need to jot down ideas for your next project or items you want to pick up at the store, it’s always good to have something ready for taking notes. Many people carry around a pen and paper in addition to their smartphones — a pen and paper is just faster than many note-taking solutions. We’ll try to beat a physical notepad by looking at the fastest way to take notes on Android.

Logging into your Windows 8 computers with a Microsoft account enables access to the Windows Store and other Modern apps, but it’s also used to sync Windows 8 settings with the Cloud. Your settings will be synced between all your Windows 8 computers and tablets, or backed up with your Microsoft account. Syncing is enabled by default. However, you can choose to disable sync entirely or sync only certain types of settings between your computers and tablets.

Is Windows 8 a failure? People who dislike Windows 8 generally say it is. But has Windows 8 really failed in the marketplace, or do we just think Windows 8 has failed? One thing’s for sure: Windows 8 definitely hasn’t succeeded in the short term. However, Microsoft is playing the long game with Windows 8 — they’re laying the groundwork for future success. Whether they’ll succeed is unclear, but Windows 8 hasn’t failed yet — it’s preparing for the battle to come.

Before downloading a free program, you should be sure it’s trustworthy. Determining whether a download is safe is a basic skill, but one everyone needs — particularly on Windows. Use these tips to ensure you download only trustworthy and safe free software, not bad software that will infect your computer with adware, spyware, or maybe even something worse.

Using the Windows desktop involves managing windows. Some people may use full-screen windows, but power users know that the key to being productive is having multiple windows visible at a time, whether you’re using multiple monitors or the side-by-side Aero Snap feature in Windows. Sadly, the Windows desktop still lacks many useful window-management features. However, you can get many great new Windows desktop features by installing third-party utilities.

If it’s about time you purchase a new computer, that computer is probably going to come with Windows 8. Microsoft hasn’t included a tutorial with Windows 8 — aside from the cryptic “move your mouse into any corner” line — so you’ll need to do a bit of research to get up to speed with the latest version of Windows. Most users agree the key to getting along with Windows 8 is ignoring as much of the new interface as possible. Start with finding the desktop.

Microsoft removed a variety of features from Windows 8. Many of them aren’t great losses to most people, but they are if you depended on them. Luckily, Windows 8 isn’t yet a locked-down mobile operating system, no matter how hard Microsoft is trying to make it into one. Most important features can be restored with high-quality alternatives, but replacements for other features are nowhere near as polished as Microsoft has removed the necessary theming code.

Steam is packed with a variety of useful features you may not be aware of, but third-party developers have made utilities and websites that add even more features to Steam. From moving installed games to other hard drives without re-downloading them to managing your game backlog and seeing just how much money your Steam library is worth, these tools add a variety of missing features. Steam has gradually added features you once needed third-party programs for.

If you’re like me, there’s a good chance you install lots of Android apps to try them out. From the latest popular mobile games to new and potentially useful utilities, these apps build up over time. They eventually begin to clutter your app drawer with icons you never tap and fill your storage with app data you’ll never use. Luckily, there’s a fast way to uninstall multiple apps at once.

Tablets running Android 4.2 support multiple user accounts. User accounts work just like they do on a PC — each account has its own apps, settings, and other data. If you share your tablet with another person, you can use user accounts to allow each person to have their own environment — including the launcher setup, Google account sync, and other settings. This helps give each of you more privacy when you’re using your tablet, and also allows each of you to log in with your own Google account and see only your own email and other data.