ZDNet Must Read

• Stay safe online: 5 secrets every PC (and Mac) owner should know

  How do you protect yourself online? I share the five steps I teach to friends, family members, and clients who want to avoid malware, scareware, phishing sites, and other online scams.

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• How much online privacy do you really have? Less than you think

  By Ed Bott | February 12, 2012, 4:40pm PST

  How much privacy do you have on the web? An independent group called PrivacyChoice has undertaken the formidable effort of assigning a numeric score to popular websites, measuring their published policies and how much tracking they allow. The results are eye-opening.

• Windows 8 Consumer Preview due February 29: why it's not called beta

  By Ed Bott | February 8, 2012, 10:06am PST

  The Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available for download on February 29. Why isn’t it called a beta? Blame Google. And Apple. And Microsoft. Especially Microsoft.

• Did Google withhold malware protection details from partners?

  By Ed Bott | February 6, 2012, 6:59pm PST

  Google’s Safe Browsing API is a core security feature of Chrome that Google shares with Firefox and Safari. Now, a security research firm that specializes in measuring the effectiveness of these filters says its most recent data suggest Google is not playing fair with its partners.

• Apple's lawyers clean up the sloppy iBooks Author EULA

  By Ed Bott | February 3, 2012, 12:53pm PST

  Today, Apple released version 1.0.1 of its iBooks Author program. There’s no new code, only a new license agreement. The sloppy language in the original license agreement is cleaned up, but the fundamentals are unchanged: Apple retains exclusive rights to anything an author wants to sell in its new format.

• Microsoft, Apple, and Google: where does the money come from?

  By Ed Bott | February 2, 2012, 6:47pm PST

  After reading last month’s SEC filings, I was inspired to make some pie charts. Microsoft’s a software company. Apple’s a hardware company. What business is Google in? If you said search, guess again.

• What are your plans for the Windows 8 beta? (poll)

  By Ed Bott | February 1, 2012, 10:31am PST

  Over the past few months, Windows 8 has been publicly demoed and discussed in detail more than any other software program I can remember. Has all that information made you more eager to try Windows 8? Or are you starting to feel post-PC ennui? Vote in my poll, and help me focus my coverage.

• Legal legend David Boies won't get another crack at Microsoft

  By Ed Bott | January 31, 2012, 3:04pm PST

  Barnes & Noble thought it had a strong defense against allegations that its Nook e-reader infringes on Microsoft patents. It even hired a legendary antitrust lawyer to lead that part of the case. Now a judge appears to have given Microsoft a key victory.

• Symantec says it's safe to use pcAnywhere again

  By Ed Bott | January 31, 2012, 5:53am PST

  Last week Symantec told some 50,000 pcAnywhere users to stop using the software until it could fix a critical security flaw. Those patches are now available, and the company is offering free upgrades to anyone using older, unsupported versions.

• Looking ahead to Windows 8: five big questions for Microsoft

  By Ed Bott | January 30, 2012, 5:13pm PST

  The beta release of Windows 8 is just a few weeks away. It should be nearly feature-complete, and expectations will be high. So what’s keeping managers in Redmond awake at night? Here are my top five questions.

• What does the Office 15 schedule say about Windows 8?

  By Ed Bott | January 30, 2012, 10:21am PST

  In recent years, Windows and Office have moved on parallel development tracks. Today’s announcement of an Office beta “later this summer” offers some useful hints about the Windows 8 schedule. Will Microsoft spring a big upside surprise?