It should be noted up front that this method only covers software that is registered in Add/Remove in Windows. Other software (like PuTTY or JkDefrag which are standalone executables) won’t show up in a list like this. But if it’s in Add/Remove, it will. Why would you want to do this? There are several good reasons:You plan on upgrading from XP to...

I received a question in the PCMech Premium area that asked if Windows 7 will have an improved Add/Remove that will completely uninstall programs compared to the way XP does it. My answer was an easy no, and I explained why. In this article I go into detail on that. First I’ll say programs that leave crap behind is definitely not a Windows-only thing. On...

IRC is one of those things that either you get or you don’t. You probably know IRC as chat rooms. But if you said that to a diehard IRC user, he or she would give you a dirty look or two because "chat room" is a term originally popularized by AOL. And to be technically correct, IRC has no chat rooms. They’re called channels. Maybe...

More people these days are getting away from instant messenger programs and using the in-browser way, because there really isn’t too much reason to use an IM app these days. Years ago a large chunk of the IM functionality was provided by the application, but that’s not the case anymore. You can do voice, webcam, manage your buddy/contact list and...

CPU-Z is a freeware application for Windows that is as easy as it gets when it comes to getting quick – and useful – system information about your computer. Let’s take a look (see screenshot below): Above is a screen shot taken from my older Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. On the first tab, CPU, you’re told what kind of processor you have,...

What is a "cloud" application? It’s any application that has the power of a desktop (as in installed locally to your computer) app – except it’s all on the web. You probably use cloud apps already and probably didn’t even realize it. Do you use Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail? That’s all in the cloud. But this is about...

Literally defined, a "killer application" a.k.a. a "killer app" is software that is revolutionary and popular (must be both). In layman’s terms, a killer app is the software giving you the reason to use a computer (or possibly a specific computer) in the first place. The history of killer apps basically have two generations, that being...