If you’re looking to install Windows 8 and your computer doesn’t have a DVD drive, you’re not alone. Whether you have a Windows 8 DVD or a Windows 8 ISO file you’ve downloaded from Microsoft, you can use a free Microsoft tool to copy the Windows 8 installation files to a USB drive and install Windows 8 from the USB drive.

PDFSam, short for “PDF Split and Merge,” is a great utility for quick PDF editing. You can combine multiple PDF documents into a single PDF document, split a PDF into multiple files, extract pages from a PDF, reorder the pages in a file, or create a new PDF file that contains pages from multiple files. If you want to do some basic PDF splitting, merging, and reordering, PDFSam is the application for you.

Both Google and Windows Live calendars can be synced with the other calendar service, allowing you to see your calendars in one place. This can be useful for effortless syncing – for example, if you add your Windows Live calendar to your Google Calendar account, it will appear in the Android calendar app with no additional account setup required. The same goes for Windows Live applications.

ISO files can be created from any CD or DVD you have lying around. They’re called “disc images” because they’re an exact image of a disc. An ISO file contains an exact representation of the contents of a disc, allowing you to create backup copies of discs and store them digitally. These ISO files can be used as if they were physical discs, making them particularly useful I you have a computer without a disc drive.

Duplicate files come in a variety of flavors. In addition to exact copies of files, you may have very similar images, music files that contain the same song ripped from different sources, or text documents that are almost the same but contain a few lines of unique text. These tools will help you whip your file collection into shape and free up valuable disk space.

Security can be an overwhelming subject – there are so many potential problems we need to think about when securing our computers, our online accounts, and our wireless networks. This list should help simplify things – follow this checklist and you’ll be well on your way to staying safe on a dangerous Internet. Many security problems are caused by other people, whether it’s a company releasing software with dangerous security holes or a website getting hacked.

Many services offer website uptime monitoring and SMS alerts when your website goes down, but most of them charge money for this service. Using a clever Google Docs trick and the SMS capability built into Google Calendar, you can quickly set up free text message alerts when your website goes down. This script will try to connect to one or more websites every five minutes. If it can’t connect, you’ll receive a notification by email and text message so you can deal with the problem immediately.

Bluetooth is an alternative to wires – with Bluetooth, you can connect Bluetooth-enabled phones, mice, headsets, printers, keyboards, tablets, and many other devices with a Bluetooth-supporting computer. You can transfer files back and forth, use a mouse or keyboard as a wireless input device, or use a wireless headset for audio input and output – Bluetooth can do many things, depending on the type of Bluetooth device you have.

Our computers aren’t made for reading long-form articles, but Kindles are. You can send websites to your Kindle and read them later, just like you’d read eBooks on your Kindle. This lets you use your Kindle to read long articles in comfort, outside in the sun on an e-ink Kindle or sitting on your couch with a Kindle Fire. If you’ve got a Kindle Fire, you’ll also want to check out Pocket, a great application for saving webpages to read later.

Do you know how the web services you choose use your data? Do they claim a broad copyright to it, remove your rights to a class-action lawsuit in the USA, or share your information with other companies? Or are they a well-behaved service that respects your rights? The answer to this is in each website’s terms of service – unfortunately, no one has the time to read those.

Oracle’s Java plug-in has become less and less common on the Web, but it’s become more and more common in the news. Whether Java is allowing over 600,000 Macs to be infected or Oracle is sitting on their hands and only patching a serious Java vulnerability four months after it’s initially reported, news about the Java plug-in is rarely good. The reality is that you probably don’t need Java installed.

Have you ever seen an advertisement in Android’s notification area? Some apps abuse their notification permissions to display advertisements when you aren’t even using them. The good news is that you can determine which apps are showing the annoying ads and block them from appearing. Google is starting to crack down on apps that abuse notifications, but many apps still use them.

Windows 8 is full of surprising changes – whatever you think about Windows 8, Microsoft certainly isn’t being timid this time around. From integrated antivirus protection and less-disruptive updating to the removal of the Windows Aero 3D interface and the lack of DVD or Blu-Ray playback support in Windows 8, Windows 8 is sure to be full of surprises for the average Windows user. Here are some of the biggest ones you may not have already heard of.

The Windows Hosts file allows you to define which domain names (websites) are linked to which IP addresses. It takes precedence over your DNS servers, so your DNS servers may say facebook.com is linked to a specific IP address, but you can have facebook.com go anywhere you want. The Hosts file can be used to block websites, redirect them, create shortcuts to websites, create your own local domains, and more.

Have you ever pulled out your laptop in public and had to fumble for the mute button as its speakers blasted loud sounds? Or have you used your computer late at night and accidentally woke people up when a video appeared on a webpage? Unfortunately, our computers can’t read minds (yet) and don’t know when we want them silent and when we want them loud. There are some settings you can tweak – and a useful application you can install.