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Good article on all these services. What I suggest to people who ask me is, all those “cloud based” services are fine for vacation pictures, committee agenda Word documents, etc. but I would NEVER send my tax return, Quicken data or wills or anything personal up there. No matter what they say, they can be hacked. One rogue server admin can delete or copy your info. I know, you might say they are encrypted. But I say, there are some really smart guys on the bad side so why take a chance. Thanks for the good work.

The “Turmoil at Microsoft” article yesterday is very much appreciated. I have a small part time “retirement income” computer fixit/upgrade business” and I have been warning my older clients about “Disaster 8” since that preview edition in March or April 2012. I thought surely they were joking then and would fix/change it but the RTM and real ship versions still were unusable by most people over 50 with a lot of windows experience behind them. The thing that made me mad was that MS had all the retailers clear the shelves right away of Window 7 machines so many unsuspecting people got Windows 8 from places like Best Buy and Office Depot/Max. I don’t know anyone that said, “I like it”. Thank goodness for Classic Shell and Start 8. But the boneheads at MS keep me in extra pocket change so I guess I should not complain. It’s really great to see someone who knows a lot more than I do say that MS really missed this one. Obviously, they never really listened to their most loyal customers or had independent repair people like me test the product to tell the about how dumb leaving off the start menu was. Thanks for this great work. The corporate insights are much appreciated.
Let’s hope Windows 9 or whatever they call it next year is a more usable product on the traditional PCs. Thanks, Tom

Thank goodness there is some sanity as far as the reception of the “non-update” of windows 8 called 8.1. Why is adding the standard Win 7 Start button and All programs back the “almost looking” desktop such a big deal AND how can all these writers one reads on the internet think experienced users and people that fix computers won’t miss it. I just can’t believe it. To me it is the biggest boneheaded thing MS has done since Millenium Edition as is right in there with User Account Control. Thank you Woody for a voice of reason!! keep it up!!! Tom

I thought there was a quick cure to the Vista backup but I was trying Win 7 backup and I can’t see how one specifies a folder within an external drive. You can specify a drive but no subfolder on that drive. Is this the way it is supposed to work. Just when you think there could be an improvement, you find a shortcoming. But Win 7 is better than vista. Tom tom@tomtexas.com