Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on ...

The year is drawing to a close, so there’s a very good chance that you now find yourself staring straight down the gaping maw of Windows 8. Maybe someone gave you a new Windows tablet or PC as a gift.

Windows 8.1 is here. Now what? A year after Microsoft released Windows 8, the highly anticipated upgrade is ready for download as of Thursday, and retail copies will be available Friday. As our ...