If your PC isn’t working properly then Microsoft’s Fix it Solution Center is a great place to start looking for solutions. It has troubleshooters to address problems with performance, stability, security, media playback and a whole lot more, and most of these can be launched in just a couple of clicks.

Of course if your PC isn’t connected to the internet, and network connectivity might be the very reason you need some help, then the site isn’t going to be able to help. But fortunately there’s also a local version available in the shape on Microsoft Fix it Portable, and while it has some problems the program could be a welcome addition to your troubleshooting toolkit.

These days, more and more of us watch video in a variety of different ways. The ease and versatility of modern media can leave you looking at your old collection of videos and DVDs with some annoyance. While you can play DVDs on your notebook or desktop, you can’t insert them into your smartphone or tablet, and what happens if they get scratched or damaged?

Never fear, because we’ve put together a list of useful tools, many of which are completely free to use, to help you not just rip and capture video from archaic sources, but to access it from other devices, too. You should carefully check your own country’s copyright laws before following this tutorial because even with Blu-rays, DVDs and videos you legally own, you may find you’re prohibited from making personal copies, even for backup purposes.

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development, an initiative set up by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the UN's Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a report on Monday, concluding that Information and Communications Technologies --specifically mobile broadband and cloud computing architectures-- actually help reduce greenhouse gases.

At first blush, it seems obvious: The better connected we are, the less we have to travel to meetings or to send documents, subsequently, less fuel is burned. Likewise, the less physical data and communications equipment we use in the workplace, the less energy we will need.

Simply stated: customer satisfaction. Lots of it. Oh, yeah, and the new display.

Apple started selling its newest tablet on March 8. Between the 22nd and 28th, ChangeWave surveyed new iPad buyers; 82 percent claim to be "very satisfied", which is up from February and 74 percent of iPad 2 owners. When combined with "somewhat" responses, 98 percent of new iPad owners are satisfied, compared to 97 percent for the previous model. The difference is the increase in "very" satisfied versus "somewhat".

Consumer Reports does it again. Lo and behold, after causing a media firestorm over its blatant attempt at whoring for pageviews, the supposedly impartial source for product reviews is now actually going to recommend the new iPad as the top tablet available.

You read that right. "Heatgate" was supposedly a big enough issue to cause the company to write several posts on it, without quantifying that the iPad is not hotter than other competing tablets or (basically) every laptop on the market. CR is doing an about face, now saying the device's heat generation is no longer a problem.

Gavrila Martau has released version 6 of his Windows programs removal tool, Total Uninstall. The program is capable of completely uninstalling applications using one of two techniques: the first allows it to detect and analyze existing installations to build an installer log file that can be used to remove the program even when the original installer is missing or corrupt. The second method sees Total Uninstall monitor all changes made by a setup program when installing a new application, allowing the user to remove the program more thoroughly than the supplied installer., which allows users to remove applications even when the original program uninstaller is missing.

Total Uninstall 6.0  adds a number of new features to its three modules -- monitored programs, installed programs and cleaner -- while also introducing various performance improvements, including native support for 64-bit versions of Windows.

Microsoft competes the old-fashion way with its web browser -- innovation and marketing -- and that's a fairly recent trend. There are reasons companies advertise their products. Promotion raises awareness and, ideally, product adoption. Finally, after years of steady decline, Internet Explorer has sustained growth, at least for five months -- that's a quantifiable trend. In fact, IE was the only major browser to increase usage share in March. Additionally, Microsoft finally sees payback from its risky strategy of not making IE9 Windows XP compatible.

Net Applications releases new data the first of every month, but I waited a day to make absolutely sure this statement was no April Fools prank: "With a gain of .99 percent last month and a net gain of 1.2 percent global usage share over the last five months, Internet Explorer has stabilized and even reversed its usage share declines of the last few years".

Dell on Monday announced it will be acquiring top thin client maker Wyse Technology for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help grow Dell's desktop virtualization portfolio and drive alternative compute models such as cloud client computing.

Now that the consumer PC market is no longer the growth vehicle it once was, Dell has been gradually shifting gears to focus on enterprise solutions.

If you need to check how your kids, employees or anyone else might be using a shared PC then you could install a complex parental controls or monitoring tool to record every detail.

Or, alternatively, you might just download NirSoft’s UserAssistView. It’s free, and a tiny 35KB download, but is still powerful enough to show you which programs are being launched on your PC, and when.

Security vendor NoVirusThanks has released SSDT View, a 64-bit (only) tool that can show you the contents of your System Service Descriptor Table, perhaps highlighting changes made by rootkits and other stealthy malware.

There are of course plenty of antirootkit tools around that can do something similar, and a whole lot more, but these are generally aimed at Windows experts. SSDT View is safer, and far simpler, which makes the program accessible to a far wider audience.

Fancy the idea of using the Windows 8 UI but don’t feel like going as far as installing the consumer preview version of the OS? Look no further than a transformation pack to give your operating system a makeover and a completely new look. If you’re working with Windows 7 you can use Windows 8 UX Pack 4.0, while Windows 8 Transformation Pack 4.0 can be used in everything from Windows XP and up. Both apps bring the look and feel of Windows 8 to your desktop with no need for complex tweaking.

The two skinning app’s  version numbers have been brought in line with each other, and there are a number of changes to investigate. Windows 8 UX Pack 4.0 now better mimics the look of Windows 8 thanks to the switch to using the Segoe UI font and inclusion of all of the desktop wallpapers from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Today, hacktavist group Anonymous put to rest one of the most important debates about Barack Obama. Is he really a US citizen? Only native-born Americans are legally permitted to be president, and early during his 2008 election campaign Obama fought off accusations that he was born in another country and not the great state of Hawaii. The accusations turn out to be true. But his place of origin is farther out. Barack Obama was born on another planet.

Anonymous published the stunning revelatory material to Pastebin, marking its most courageous hack to date. For anyone questioning the group's motivations, the stolen material puts to rest any doubt about being a force of good. Hacktavists obtained emails and other documents from Obama's BlackBerry, along with foiled plans to invade the earth. The White House immediately issued a denial, calling the disclosure a prank.

Small and medium sized business are quickly moving to the cloud to reduce IT costs, a new study shows. The number of cloud services is expected to double over the next five years, and the number of small business using at least one cloud service will triple during that same period.

Cloud computing offers small business the opportunity to access the computing power of much larger corporations at a fraction of the cost. In fact, the survey shows that half of all SMBs see the cloud as becoming more important to their business.

Another week --  month, actually --- is behind us and a huge number of software releases to keep track of. If you feel like you may have missed out on some of the biggest releases, this roundup is here to get you back up to speed.

iolo System Mechanic Free 10.8.3.51 is a great free tool for optimizing your system, but if you’re more concerned about protecting your privacy by securely deleting files, take a look at Disk Wipe 1.5. Auslogics Disk Defrag 3.4.1.0 is a free utility to replace Windows’ defragmentation tool which now offers better stability and performance. There’s also a Pro version of the program available –Auslogics Disk Defrag Pro 4.0.1.50. Infamous system cleaner CCleaner 3.17.1689 and CCleaner Portable 3.17.1689 feature improved cookie options, better support for Chrome and a host of other fixes and enhancements.

For all the talk about the post-PC era and rise of alternate chip architectures, Intel defies gravity's pull. The microprocessing giant's dominance grows stronger, not lesser, which is strange juxtaposition to analyst predictions about media tablets and smartphones running ARM processors ending the PC's decades-long supremacy.

This week, iSuppli reports that Intel's share of the semiconductor market reached its highest level in a decade, 15.6 percent, largely based on its core chip business. "Intel in 2011 saw its revenue jump by 20.6 percent", Dale Ford, head of iSuppli Electronics and Semiconductor Research, says. "This outpaced every other semiconductor supplier in the Top 20 with the exception of Qualcomm Inc. and ON Semiconductor, both of which also saw exceptionally high levels of growth based on a combination of organic expansion and key acquisitions".