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About the editors

Brian Livingston, editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com, is co-author of "Windows Vista Secrets," "Windows Me Secrets," and nine other books in the Windows Secrets series. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 6th annual Internet Content Summit in New York City on May 8, 2006.

Ian "Gizmo" Richards is the senior editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He formerly edited the Support Alert Newsletter, which merged with Windows Secrets on July 24, 2008. Gizmo writes exclusive ratings of free software twice a month in the combined newsletter's paid content.

More on our staff

In our latest articles...

Microsoft will soon install a new version of Windows Update on your computer, even if you've set your PC not to download and install any updates. With such a potential for confusion, it's a good idea for you to know what's going to be done to your machine by this important but often misunderstood tool. Read more »

Topics in our free content:

• Get an exclusive excerpt by Fake Steve Jobs

• Time for a summer break — see you on Sept. 4

• The true tech challenge: keeping it simple

• Groove is in the history books

Topics in our paid content:

• Best alternatives to Microsoft Outlook, part II

• Bootable rescue CDs can fix your damaged Windows

• IE security holes lead Microsoft's patch parade

Recent headlines from past articles

Don't count on Microsoft to shut down ActiveX vulnerabilities when they arise, as Microsoft Access users learned last Patch Tuesday when the company had no fix to offer for a leaky ActiveX plug-in. ActiveX security holes appear all the time, so you need these tips and tools to keep your system safe from flawed or malicious Internet Explorer add-ins. August 7, 2008

Although you can find free tools to help keep Windows and your other software up-to-date, you'll have to pay to get the best tool for scanning your system's drivers and downloading the updates you need. I found some good driver updaters but also one full-on scam — Prosoft3D's Driver Update 5 — that simply points you to Windows' Device Manager and tells you to do the job yourself. July 31, 2008

As free Web-based e-mail services get better and better, you may soon be able to leave your desktop e-mail apps behind. But which of the Big Three webmail services — Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail — has the features that meet your needs? July 24, 2008

These days, even the software we like often comes with hidden annoyances designed to help the vendor at the expense of us poor customers. Here are five examples of sneaky marketing — snarketing, as I call it — and what you can do to mitigate the practice's ill effects. July 17, 2008

When your computer is behaving strangely, you want answers and you want them in a hurry. My hands-on tests evaluated a dozen searchable sites to find the ones that get you the answers you need. July 10, 2008

I'm extremely proud to say that Windows Secrets is joining together with the Support Alert Newsletter, a major tech publication. When our two newsletters merge on July 24, we'll reach over 400,000 subscribers in total and add new content from one of the world's best sources of Windows software reviews. July 9, 2008

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