NEC MultiSync E232WMT touchscreen monitor review: Get the tablet experience right on your desktop

The Windows 8 user interface is designed for touching, tapping, pinching and swiping, but desktop touchscreen displays just haven’t gained the popularity that monitor makers had hoped for. At a time when you can buy a very good 23-inch non-touch monitor for less than $300, NEC’s MultiSync E232WMT doesn’t make a strong enough case that you should spend twice as much for a model that supports 10-point touch.

The MultiSync E232WMT has an interesting dual-hinged stand that easily collapses into a flat position. This renders its touchscreen more comfortable to use than when it’s vertical. The stand connects to the display by way of a standard 100x100mm VESA mount, which means you can replace it with most any third-party mount (such as an articulated arm).

The MultiSync E232WMT's double hinge allows it to be adjusted to almost any angle, including flat as a tabletop. 

The E232WMT connects to your PC via HDMI, DVI, or VGA, but it does not support DisplayPort. The high-quality AH-IPS screen has native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, and mercury-free LED backlighting. Niceties include a built-in webcam with a stereo microphone for video conferencing, a 4-port USB 3.0 hub, a headphone jack, and a pair of internal 1W speakers. As you might imagine, the speakers sound pretty thin, but they’re good enough for system alerts and such.

No extra software is needed to use the E232WMT’s 10-point touch features with Windows 7 and later. Mac users are out of luck. I used the NEC with Windows 8.1 and found the display’s touchscreen to be responsive when tapping, using gestures, and typing with the onscreen keyboard.

NEC's engineers wisely placed the control buttons on the side of the bezel, where they're less likely to be pressed unintentionally. 

The IPS panel provides a wide angle of view. I saw no shift in color or loss of contrast when moving my head to the left or right from the center of the display. Text was clear and legible, even at small point sizes. Photos looked good, with accurate colors, lots of detail, and smooth skin tones.

The only issue I had with the display was the glare from its very glossy screen. Our offices, like many business environments, have overhead lighting. When I moved the display into a flatter position to use the touchscreen, the glare was very strong.

If you need a touchscreen for your desktop, NEC’s MultiSync E232WMT should be on your list to consider. Its high-quality screen, responsive touch capabilities, and flexible stand render it a strong—albeit expensive—contender.

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Huzzah! Windows 8.1 Update May Boot to Desktop By Default

Talk about a reboot. After going back and forth about how it intends to use its Start Screen and Start button in Windows 8 devices, Microsoft is reportedly preparing an update for Windows 8.1 that will boot to desktop mode by default.

An upcoming “Update 1? for the Windows 8.1 operating system may also bring shutdown and search buttons to the Start screen. According to The Verge, Microsoft will also add the familiar bar with Minimize, Close and Snap buttons to Modern apps. This would make the transition from desktop to Modern mode a lot less awkward.

MORE: Windows 9 Rumors: New Start Menu, Apps on Desktop, More

Microsoft has been heavily criticized for Windows 8 and 8.1's touch-centric interface, which many keyboard and mouse users feel is a step down from the traditional desktop in Windows 7. The company brought the Start button back in Windows 8.1 last year, but the button was a mere ghost of its former self, only letting users switch between Modern and Desktop environments and tweak some properties with a right click or long-tap.

Windows 8.1 also allows you to boot to the desktop, but that option is disabled by default. The update may also let users pin Modern apps to the desktop taskbar so they can launch them without heading to the Start Screen.

Though Microsoft has not confirmed any of the Verge’s report, these rumors dovetail with what we’ve heard from other sources about the company’s new strategy. Earlier this month, we heard that Windows 9, the next major version of Microsoft’s desktop OS, will have a fully-functioning Start Menu and the ability to run Modern apps on the desktop. This Windows 8.1 update sounds like a step in the same direction. 

via The Verge

Cherlynn joined the Laptopmag team in June 2013 and has since been writing about all things tech and digital with a focus on mobile and Internet software development. She also edits and reports occasionally on video. She graduated with a M.S. in Journalism (Broadcast) from Columbia University in May 2013 and has been designing personal websites since 2001.

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The best Ultrabooks, hybrids, tablets, and desktop PCs of 2013

Have you heard the news? Sales of personal computers are dropping faster than the price of Detroit real estate. But if that’s the reason we saw so many great new PC designs in 2013, I hope the trend continues for a while. People need reasons to upgrade the machines they have, and the industry has been pumping them out like gumdrops this year.

My definition of “personal computer” extends to all forms of PCs—provided they run Windows, that is. So this list includes all-in-ones, desktop towers, hybrids, Ultrabooks, and tablet PCs. The machines you’ll see here are the best of the best of what we saw in 2013, but they’re not ranked in any particular order (and there are at least two machines in each category).

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Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p Tiny review: A tough yet petite desktop PC

Most of the desktops I deal with are so big that they can barely fit underneath your desk—let alone on top of it. But Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M93p Tiny lives up (down?) to its name: This small-form-factor PC measures 7 inches tall, 7.2 inches wide, and 1.35 inches thick, which makes it smaller and more portable than some laptops.

The Tiny packs a fourth-generation Intel Haswell processor into a compact, rugged chassis that weighs less than three pounds (sans power supply and accessories). Lenovo says the machine complies with 8 Mil-Spec criteria: dust, shock, temperature extremes, humidity, and impact.

ROBERT CARDIN

Lenovo's ThinkCentre M93p Tiny lives up to its name. The machine is just 7 inches tall when vertically oriented.

The machine is ostensibly designed for business users—it has a zero footprint if you mount it to the back of display, on a wall, or underneath a work surface (the plug in a wired USB keyboard, and you can power-on the PC by pressing Alt + P). Consumers can also create their own all-in-one this way, or they can stash it in an entertainment center and use it as a home theater PC, like Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) . Unlike the NUC, this machine is also rugged enough to serve duty in a warehouse or on a factory floor.

The M93p Tiny isn’t super-cheap: Our review model costs $750 as configured. This gets you an Intel Core i5-4570T processor (with Intel’s vPro management technology), 4GB of DDR3/1600 memory, integrated graphics, and a 500GB platter hard drive. You also get Windows 7 Pro, an integrated 2x2 Wi-Fi adapter, and a USB keyboard and mouse. Our version of the Tiny doesn’t come with an optical drive (something you may or may not want for your home theater setup), but you can add a slim external DVD Recordable drive for $75.

Performance-wise, the Tiny is good but not great. It scored a 136 in our WorldBench 8.1 benchmark tests, which means it’s 36 percent faster than our reference machine (an Acer Aspire U A5600U-UB13 with a third-gen Intel Core i5 processor). Compared to the most recent NUC, however, the Tiny falls quite a bit short. The NUC Kit D54250WYK scores 241 on WorldBench 8.1, thanks in part to its SSD (the Tiny has a conventional platter hard drive).

The Tiny also falls behind the NUC in other tests. It’s slower to start up (taking 24.6 seconds instead of the NUC’s 20.9 seconds), uses more power while working (3.5 vs. 1.6 watts) and while idle (12.3 vs. 7.7 watts), but it’s still a fairly speedy, low-power PC when compared to tower desktops. Take the Maingear Shift Super Stock Z87, for example, a powerful gaming desktop whose working power usage is 20.4 watts and whose idle power usage is 106.7.

The Tiny does fairly well in our graphics tests. It’s no gaming powerhouse, but you’ll be able to play plenty of average-quality games on this machine if you so desire. In our Dirt Showdown test (low-quality settings, 1024 by 768 pixel resolution), the Tiny managed a playable 43.8 frames per second. In Bioshock Infinite (low-quality settings, 1024 by 768 pixel resolution), the Tiny managed 26.4 fps. By comparison, the NUC managed 29.7 fps in the same test. Less than 30 fps isn’t exactly playable, but it’s still pretty good for the casual gamer.

ROBERT CARDIN

For a PC this small, Lenovo's M93p Tiny delivers plenty of I/O ports (you can order yours with HDMI if you'd prefer).

The M93p Tiny has plenty of hook-ups for your home theater system, but HDMI isn’t a standard feature (you can specify one when you place your order, or you can buy a $10 DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter). On the front of the compact chassis you’ll find the power button, one USB 3.0 port, microphone and headphone jacks, and an “always-on” USB 2.0 port for charging mobile devices. On the back of the PC, you’ll find another three USB 3.0 ports, two DisplayPort outputs, VGA out, gigabit Ethernet, and a Wi-Fi antenna.

Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M93p Tiny is aptly named, but it will be of more interest to businesses than consumers. If you’re looking for a small HTPC, Intel’s even smaller NUC might be a better choice (it has a Mini HDMI port). The Tiny’s rugged design and VESA mounting options are just the ticket for a business to deploy to an office full of employees.

Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy."
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Toshiba Qosmio X75 A7298 review: A desktop replacement that won’t break the bank—or your back

Toshiba Qosmio X75 A7298 $1,900.00 Toshiba's Qosmio X75 is loaded with high-end components and delivers impeccable performance. If you need a desktop-replacement laptop, this is definitely one to consider.

Most manufacturers throw weight considerations out the window when they set about designing a desktop-replacement notebook. Not Toshiba’s engineers. Despite packing a 256GB solid-state drive plus a 1TB hybrid hard drive, a Blu-ray burner (not just a player), Nvidia’s second-fastest mobile GPU, and a 17.3-inch high-res display, the Qosmio X75 A7298 weighs a modest 7.3 pounds.

It might sound odd to classify 7.3 pounds as modest. After all, the Qosmio X75 won’t even fit in some laptop bags. But considering that this laptop can play games, create and edit digital media, and handle pretty much any other task you’d normally rely on a desktop computer to perform, a 7.3-pound weight is pretty remarkable. After all, how easy would it be to lug a desktop PC, a 17-inch monitor, and an uninterruptible power supply from location to location?

Robert CardinToshiba packs desktop performance into a highly mobile machine. (Click to enlarge.)

Intel’s Core i7-4700MQ, a quad-core mobile CPU, forms the Qosmio X75's heart. It’s paired with 16GB of DDR3/1600 memory and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 770M mobile graphics processor (which has 3GB of GDDR5 memory all its own). A dedicated GPU is great for playing hard-core games, but it will speed other tasks too.

Demanding applications such as Photoshop, for instance, will tap the hundreds of microprocessor cores inside the GTX 770M chip to accelerate image processing. In the GPU-accelerated image-processing segment of our Notebook WorldBench 8.1 suite, the Qosmio X75 required just over 60 seconds to complete a task that Lenovo’s IdeaPad U430 Touch—which relies on integrated graphics—took more than 5 minutes to finish.

Toshiba’s Qosmio X75 A7298 delivered a Notebook WorldBench 8.1 score of 430, one of the best performances we've seen to date. (Click to enlarge.)

The display is bright and beautiful, but it isn’t a touchscreen (as is common with gaming laptops). Since I’ve grown accustomed to using touchscreens with Windows 8, I couldn’t stop myself from swiping my finger across the panel, which has a native resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, to bring up the charm bar. I’m sure I would eventually adapt to using the large touchpad for that. Lucky owners of a 4K television can output 4K video from this computer’s HDMI port. The HDMI 1.4 port is limited to a refresh rate of 24Hz, but that’s fine for movies—no one in their right mind would try gaming at 4K.

The chassis is wrapped in textured aluminum, painted flat black to give it the look of carbon fiber. An attractive (or garish—you be the judge) accent stripe, bright red and highly reflective, runs around the laptop’s edge.

You can play a blazing-fast game of BioShock Infinite at low resolution on the Qosmio X75. Crank the game up to 1920 by 1080 pixels with visual quality at the Ultra setting, and you'll still get nearly 30 frames per second. (Click to enlarge.)

The island-style keyboard is backlit with red LEDs to match the machine’s color scheme. The keys aren’t sculpted, but they offer long travel, so you don’t need to worry about unintentionally depressing them while your fingers are resting on the keyboard. When you’re playing a stealth game such as a Splinter Cell title, there’s nothing more frustrating than accidentally giving away your position because your hand grew heavy over the WASD keys (which Toshiba has helpfully labeled with arrow symbols).

The size of the display allows Toshiba to provide adequate space between the keys and to include an embedded numeric keypad, but it’s unfortunate that the arrow keys beneath the Enter key (and the function keys at the very top) are half-size.

Because the wrist rest sitting beneath the keyboard is especially wide at 4.5 inches, Toshiba was able to place a large (4.5 inches wide by 3.1 inches tall) and very responsive multitouch touchpad in this area. A large speaker grille resides above the keyboard, directly under the display. The Qosmio X75’s audio system, designed with the assistance of DTS and Harman/Kardon, is excellent: The speakers deliver crisp highs and deep, well-defined bass response.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Qosmio X75 deliver 2 hours, 22 minutes of battery life. That's impressive for a notebook that offers so much performance. (Click to enlarge.)

The Qosmio X75 has plenty of real estate to hold ports, and Toshiba took full advantage, placing two USB 3.0 ports and a gigabit ethernet port next to the Blu-ray burner on the left side. Two more USB 3.0 ports, separate mic and headphone jacks, VGA, and HDMI-out occupy the right side, and a multiformat media-card reader sits in front. I was disappointed, however, to see Toshiba give short shrift to wireless networking: A $1900 laptop deserves better than a single-band (2.4GHz) 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter.

I was surprised at how quietly the Qosmio X75 ran, considering all the high-performance hardware stuffed inside it. Less surprising is the brief battery life, though 2 hours, 22 minutes is still more than enough time to watch a full-length movie (not that this behemoth would fit on an airline tray table). This computer can do it all and anywhere, so it's a great choice for a desktop replacement.

Note: This review is part of a roundup of the 5 best Haswell notebooks as of September 2013.

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Acer Aspire V3 review: "Budget desktop replacement” needn’t be an oxymoron

It might seem as though every new Windows laptop has a bright, glossy touchscreen. After all, Windows 8 is a touch-centric operating system, and Intel requires any notebook powered by a fourth-generation Core processor to have a touchscreen. The hulking desktop-replacement models that gamers gravitate to, on the other hand, rarely have this feature. That omission has two reasons: First, gamers prefer to use wired mice or gamepads. Second, large touchscreens are expensive.

Acer’s Aspire V3 (model V3-772G-9402) isn’t necessarily a gaming machine, but it does have a 17.3-inch display (with resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels) and a powerful discrete graphics processor. Acer describes it as a “versatile entertainment powerhouse,” and its $1100 price tag puts it in budget territory for people who don’t mind lugging an 8-pound machine.

The absence of an SSD suppressed the Acer Aspire V3's overall benchmark performance numbers compared with the pricier Toshiba Qosmio. But its Haswell-class Core i7 processor and 12GB of memory helped it beat the older Asus VivoBook. (Click to enlarge image.)

It’s powered by one of Intel’s fastest fourth-generation Core (aka Haswell) processors, the Core i7-4702MQ; 12GB of DDR3/1600 RAM; and Nvidia’s third-fastest discrete mobile GPU, the GeForce GTX 760M. But Acer skimps on storage by equipping the machine with just a 500GB, 5400-rpm hard drive. That component choice explains the Aspire V3’s somewhat unimpressive Notebook Worldbench 8.1 score of 177.

While that score marks the Aspire V3 as 77 percent faster than our reference machine, the Asus VivoBook S550CA, pricier gaming notebooks have delivered scores well north of 400. But when you look at some of the gaming benchmark results that go into that composite score, the Aspire V3 looks a little better. With Dirt Showdown and BioShock Infinite at resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels and visual quality set to low, it delivered very playable frame rates of 65.6 and 69.7 frames per second respectively.

And having a discrete mobile graphics processor boosted its performance with demanding games. (Click to enlarge image.)

Spend an additional $800 to buy something like Toshiba’s $1900 Qosmio X75, on the other hand, and you’ll experience those games at 119.7 and 165.3 frames per second respectively (and at lower—but playable—frame rates at higher resolutions).

The Aspire V3 is an attractively designed, well-built machine constructed mostly from plastic, but with a finish that looks like brushed aluminum. Its island-style keyboard is well spaced, includes a numeric keypad, and delivers very good tactile feedback. But if you like to play in the dark, you won’t like the fact that it’s not backlit.

ROBERT CARDINThe Acer Aspire V3 has four USB ports, but only two are USB 3.0. A DVD burner is nice to have, but a Blu-ray player would be better. (Click to enlarge image.) 

Since it’s not a touchscreen, the 17.3-inch display has a nonglare finish (most touchscreens are highly reflective, which can be problematic if you’re using the computer near a bright light source). I didn’t miss the touchscreen, because the large multitouch clickpad supports most Windows 8 gestures. You can pinch to zoom, for instance, and swipe in from the right to reveal the charms bar and in from the left to switch application windows.

Don't plan to be away from a power source for more than two hours—that's about all the Acer Aspire V3's battery will last. (Click to enlarge image.)

The screen looks good, for the most part. It displays crisp, clean text and images with an accurate color balance. But I did notice a few issues with it: First, I saw some occasional shimmering, even in static images. Second, I had intermittent problems with the machine’s brightness setting: Occasionally, when I turned the computer on, the display would be set to maximum brightness and refused respond to changes (even when I changed the power scheme). A restart resolved the problem each time it happened.

ROBERT CARDINThe Aspire V3's other ports include gigabit ethernet, VGA, and HDMI-out. (Click to enlarge image.) 

The Acer Aspire V3-772G-9402 isn’t for everyone. It’s big and heavy, it’s a little clunky, and it doesn’t deliver top-shelf performance. If you’re looking for a powerful gaming laptop, or if you want to watch Blu-ray movies, Toshiba’s Qosmio X75 is the better choice. But if you need an inexpensive desktop replacement with a big, high-resolution screen, the Aspire V3 is one of the better choices on the market right now.

Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy."
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Review: Gateway's DX4870-UB2C is an affordable workhorse desktop

Desktop PCs come in all shapes and sizes these days, but Acer’s Gateway DX4870-UB2C is pretty old-school: A midsize desktop tower, it delivers solid—but not spectacular—productivity performance and 1TB of hard disk storage for a modest $550; however, you must provide a monitor, and headphones or speakers for audio.

That profile makes it a good candidate for a student (it’s no coincidence that it appears during back-to-school season) or anyone on a budget who might have a display and audio gear from a previous system. In fact, the Gateway DX4870-UB2C (who comes up with these names, anyhow?) has an analog VGA port to accommodate the older LCD or (gasp!) CRT, as well as an HDMI port to accommodate a newer digital display (but there’s no DVI or DisplayPort).

This machine is no barn-burner, but it did outperform our reference machine.

Outfitted with an Intel Core i5-3330 quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM (expandable to 32GB), integrated Intel graphics, a 1TB (7200-rpm) hard disk, and Windows 8, the DX4870-UB2C scored 153 on PC WorldBench—well above the 100 score for our reference system (Acer's Aspire U all-in-one), but hardly stellar compared to scores in the 200s, 300s, and even 400s racked up by recent high-performance systems.

This Gateway shapes up as an affordable way to upgrade to reasonably current desktop components.

The lack of a discrete graphics card and a solid-state drive probably account for the poorest test results—in file compression, storage, and GPU-accelerated image editing, and—most tellingly—gaming. The DX4870-UB2C otherwise hovers in the middle of the pack on almost all benchmarks, and should capably handle any routine student or small-business tasks. Its power consumption was modest, another plus for cash-strapped and/or eco-minded buyers.

ROBERT CARDINThe Gateway DX4870-UB2C is about as flashy as its name; but for the price, it presents a solid value for students, households, or small and medium businesses on tight budgets.

In appearance, the DX4870-UB2C generally observes the conventions of current midtower desktop design, with a top that curves upward toward the front, ending in a protruding edge affording easy access to microphone and headphone jacks, a memory card reader, and a couple of USB 2.0 ports. The power toggle itself is adjacent in the center of the top edge.

A couple of covered bays reside beneath this ledge, the topmost of which contains a DVD burner that supports multiple formats (DVD-RAM/±R/±RW). The second bay is empty, providing room for expansion.

In the back are six more USB ports (two USB 2.0 and two 3.0), the aforementioned display connections, a gigabit ethernet port, and additional audio-in and -out ports. The motherboard has four expansion slots: three supporting older PCI Express x1 cards and one for the faster PCI Express x16 add-ons. You also get Bluetooth support and 802.11n Wi-Fi support on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

ROBERT CARDINThe machine relies on Intel’s integrated graphics, but one PCIe x16 slot on the motherboard allows you to add a discrete graphics card.

The optical mouse and keyboard are both wired, however, and plug in to old-style dedicated PS2 ports on the top of the back. I would have liked to see wireless peripherals or USB at the very least. The keyboard felt cheesy, with somewhat wobbly action. But streamed video looked fine on a high-def HDMI-attached monitor, and the audio sounded great on a set of borrowed headphones.

Gateway’s software bundle, which appears as a mass of tiles on the Windows 8 desktop, is decidedly consumer focused, including a couple of games and the usual trial versions of security apps. The presence of a couple of dictionaries and a link to the human-guided search engine ChaCha signal the obvious outreach to students. While these don’t add significant value, I have to say I did enjoy my first game of Cut the Rope.

Overall, the Gateway shapes up as an affordable way to upgrade to reasonably current desktop components without spending a fortune to also acquire routine peripherals that you might already have. It may lack the svelte lines of a small-footprint desktop, but those machines tend to be significantly more expensive—and for everyday desktop use, the trade-off may well be quite acceptable for the intended audience.

Contributing Editor Yardena (Denny) Arar is a San Francisco-based freelance writer, avid online shopper, media junkie, consummate foodie, and proud possessor of a private pilot's license.
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Review: Raptr Desktop App makes gaming social

Raptr Desktop App Raptr is the perfect place to store all your gaming data and lord your stats over your friends, and the desktop app adds tasty extras.

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Social networks are great for family and friends to share their favorite details of life, but there aren't enough places specifically for gamers to congregate. Gamers need a place to use a handle instead of a name and emphasize gaming skills over baby pictures. Social network Raptr connects all your gamer friends in one place, stockpiles a ton of gaming data, and ranks you among the masses. In the latest version of Raptr's PC desktop app, you can show off your skills to the world with the newly integrated video streaming feature via Twitch.

The Raptr Desktop App lets you keep all your games in one place and launch any of them with one click.

Raptr tracks your Xbox, Playstation, Steam and other various games installed on your hard drive. Just add your PSN, Steam, and Xbox Live accounts and use the game scanner to find everything not in your Steam library. It's ridiculously easy, and it imports all your playtime and achievements automatically. While on the PC, the Raptr Game Launcher can launch any game you have installed, whether DRM-free or through Origin or Steam. It's like the mega-Steam, perfect for the organized aficionado.

Raptr comes with a desktop-based dashboard packed with robust widget options that you can be activate while in a game, much like the Steam overlay. Most of these launch into Raptr's own little Web browser and display things like Gmail, popular gaming sites, social networking sites, and YouTube. You can also take screen shots and, of course, open your Raptr-related profile and games page.

Raptr Desktop App's summary of your game session shows your time played and rank.

Perhaps the most exciting feature, and the newest included widget, is the ability to stream video via Twitch—no extra software needed. Simply log in to Twitch via Raptr, and your stream automatically starts up with the touch of a button. You can manage the stream, share it via social networks, and participate in the chat without having to leave the game. This is a welcome feature that is incredibly helpful to anyone who wants to jump in on the popular pastime of video game streaming.

Like a competitive game, Raptr scores and ranks you against everyone else on the service after every game session. The more you play and earn achievements, the better you rank against everyone else. Even if you're looking at just your own stats, you can work your way from Newbie to Elite. After each game session, a little popup informs you of your progress and your rank. It's a fun meta game.

You can get some pretty sweet stuff from Raptr just by playing your games. The Rewards feature offers things like cosmetic items, coupons, DLC, and special offers for completing requirements in game. Most of the requirements revolve around being a certain rank in a game, having a verified email, and installing the desktop app. It's a fun little incentive that only expands that meta game mentioned above.

With the Raptr Desktop app, you can use any of Raptr's tools from inside your game—no minimizing required.

Raptr has a lot to offer gamers, whether they're casual or hardcore. The streaming feature alone is worth the free download, but the fact that it's great for organizing your game library and tracking your gaming statistics while ranking you against your peers makes it the perfect gaming social network tool.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the desktop app.

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5 free remote desktop apps for Windows 8

You're away from the office when you get that sinking feeling. Maybe that file you need is locked on your desk PC in London while you're visiting Shanghai. You don't need to sweat, thankfully. Remote desktop apps let you log on to your PC or tablet and access a faraway computer as if you were there in person. Here are 5 options for Windows 8 slates and PCs. Read on to find which app is the best fit for your business.

Remote Desktop lets you see a PC without dialing in via VPN.

If you’re looking for a full Windows 8 experience from a remote location, you could do worse than turn to Microsoft’s Remote Desktop app (free, Windows Store). Promising a touch-friendly user interface, Remote Desktop lets you see all your remote connections on the home screen. It even shows your five most recent connections and published resources as Modern-style tiles.

You can switch, copy and paste between RDC sessions, connect to multiple remote desktops, and continue to multi-task with the Windows 8 Snap feature. In addition, you can use the Remote Desktop app (via a Remote Desktop Gateway) to connect to a corporate PC without having to establish a VPN connection.

TeamViewer supports Windows keyboard shortcuts.

One of the first remote desktop vendors to jump on the Windows 8 bandwagon was TeamViewer, which rolled out an app of the same name back in October. It’s no surprise that the TeamViewer app is one of the simplest and fastest solutions available, allowing for desktop sharing and file transfer, all while behind any firewall.

You can be up and running with TeamViewer as soon as the is software running on both PCs, with an Internet connection running smoothly on each device. From there, the controls are trouble-free.

After you step through the authentication steps, you can share files and presentations, and even take part in online meetings. As a further bonus, you can use popular Windows 8 commands such as the open Charms sidebar, the Ctrl+Alt+Del hotkeys, and the Windows 8 Snap feature for multitasking during remote access. TeamViewer is free for individuals and available from the company’s website.

Splashtop 2 is available for an array of OSs.

Splashtop is a familiar name in remote desktop software that isn’t afraid of tackling a plethora of operating systems. To date, the firm has launched software on Mac, Windows, Android, iOS and even WebOS and MeeGo.

To use Splashtop on Windows 8, you'll download the software onto at least two of the devices from the company’s website, and register for a Splashtop 2 account. Next, the device with which you wish to connect to your host PC displays connected devices that you can control. There are options for minimizing the screen and muting the host PC, for starters. Upgrading to "beta" lets you block people from seeing what you are doing when you remotely control the PC. Splashtop 2, unfortunately, is a real power hog.

PC Monitor lets you control more than one machine from afar.

If you’re looking for something that can go beyond a one-to-one remote desktop experience and actually control multiple computers, PC Monitor (free, Windows Store) is worth downloading.

As with TeamViewer, it's free to non-commercial users and it promises to keep an update of up to three computers. PC Monitor can see if the PCs are logged into, view and kill processes, run scheduled tasks, and get granular detail on PC information about memory usage, operating temperature and the CPU.

You can also check and install Windows updates, and monitor the list of installed applications—handy if you want to keep employees on task.

JoinMe is dead simple.

LogMeIn’s JoinMe may lack the power and finesse of some of the above applications but it’s a more than just useful for remotely viewing other screens and online meetings.

The Modern-style app (free, Windows Store) supports ARM (for Windows RT devices) and x86-based Windows 8 PCs, including tablets and mobile phones. It's simple to set up. All you need to do is download the app. After that, you'll be able to receive invitations to screen-share from colleagues or friends.

A Pro version costs $19 a month or $149 per year. This adds the capability to customize notes when sending out meeting invites, to view your meeting history, and to schedule follow-up meetings.

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Review: Easy-to-use window manager Mosaico makes sense of your desktop

If your desktop deteriorates into a morass of windows, look to Mosaico to help you tile them neatly.  You can use this $10 window manager (14-day free trial) to create different desktop snapshots for various situations.

The simple interface revolves around taking snapshots and restoring them.

Once you're happy with the way your windows are laid out, click the snapshot button to save the arrangement. You can save up to eight different desktop snapshots, and restore them easily from the program's snapshot browser.

When restoring a snapshot, Mosiaco will open relevant programs if closed, and will minimize others that are not part of the snapshot. It cannot, however, go as far as opening specific documents.

Snapshots aside, Mosaico also comes with an enhanced window-snapping feature which can be accessed by clicking the arrows on the program's interface, or by dragging windows around. The latter can be achieved by enabling the "Arrange manually" option in the toolbar, or by pressing the "M" key. Mosaico supports multiple monitors well, and features a built-in button for moving windows between monitors.

Position previews make it easy to drag windows to an exact position on the screen.

Mosaico's main weakness is its current state of Windows 8 compatibility. Although the program runs fine on Windows 8, there are some small quirks such as random display issues, inability to set custom keyboard shortcuts, etc. These issues do not occur on every Windows 8 system, and will be fixed in the program's next update.

Note: The Download button will download the software to your system.

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Review: MightyText wields control over desktop texting

Free texting service MightyText actually manages to live up to its name.

The hardest part of using MightyText is the initial setup. Like many desktop texting services, it works with Android devices only, and requires that you install a mobile app on your phone. Once the mobile app is installed and you're ready to use MightyText on your computer or tablet, you have to do a bit of tinkering with your browser's settings if you'd like to receive notifications of new messages. But MightyText guides you through the process— which involves changing some security settings in Internet Explorer or installing a third-party add-on in Firefox—and it's a one-time thing.

Mighty Text's Power view displays phone-sized fields on your PC, which display recent messages in conversation form.

MightyText's Web app is slick, and it lets you choose between a "classic view" and a "power view." The classic view uses a layout similar to Microsoft Outlook, where you see information about the sender in the first column and then message details in the next column. The power view, meanwhile, displays phone-sized fields on your computer screen that display recent text messages in conversation form. The power view lets you see more messages at once (it fit eight on my screen), while the classic view gives you more space for viewing message details. Switching between them is easy.

To send a message, you click the new message button, and a small window for composing it pops up in the lower right corner of the screen, reminiscent of how Google's Gmail works. And, much like Gmail, MightyText also puts a message composition window at the bottom of the conversations you view, making it easy to send a reply message.

MightyText lets you mark favorite messages, browse through contacts, and easily adjust the settings (which include whether pressing enter should or should not send your messages and whether you want to get pop ups to notify you of new messages and calls). It also displays your phone's battery life and notifies you of incoming and missed calls via pop-ups.

Mightytext's classic view uses a column-style layout, similar to Microsoft Outlook.

MightyText is slick, seamless, and—best of all—free. It's my desktop app of choice for my Android phone.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

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Review: DeskSMS doesn't rise above the other desktop texting apps

DeskSMS is one of a number of services that lets Android phone users text from a PC or Mac. Unfortunately, its $5 per year price tag and its plain-vanilla interface make it hard to recommend.

To use DeskSMS, you must install the Android app on your phone and grant it permission to access your Google account. You then open a browser window on your computer and head to desksms.appspot.com. (Like BrowserTexting, DeskSMS is available as Web app that works in most browsers, and as an extension for Firefox and Chrome.) Here, you log in and grant the Web app the same permission to access your Google account. You can choose to sync your Google contacts, too.

Then, you're ready to begin texting—although that's not immediately apparent, due to DeskSMS's barren Web interface. You simply get a blank screen, with the DeskSMS logo, a login button, and a field for entering a name or number at the top. I kept trying to logi n, thinking that this button was displayed because my login hadn't worked. After several attempts, I decided to try entering a number in the available field instead, and was pleasantly surprised to see my contacts appear as soon as I began typing.

DeskSMS doesn't offer a conversation view; instead, it has you compose new messages (which are limited to 160 characters) in a field that appears on your computer screen.

Once you enter a number or contact name, DeskSMS displays a field on the site for entering your text message, which is limited to 160 characters. You can also call the number you've entered, but the phone call will be placed from your actual Android phone, not your computer. This could be a handy way to make calls if you're already wearing a headset, but beyond that, it's not terribly useful.

More useful is DeskSMS's integration with Google. It sends a copy of text messages that you've received to your Gmail or Google Talk accounts, if you'd like. This allows you to see and respond to your messages from yet another interface, which is handy if you're already using those services.

Still, DeskSMS has its limitations. It doesn't allow you to send MMS messages, and I wish that it offered a conversation view. It doesn't display your texting history, which would allow you to view past conversations. And even when you get a text in response to one you've sent via DeskSMS, the Web app only displays it in a pop-up notification, it never adds it to the texting field you use for composing messages. When you consider that these limitations come in an application that costs you $5 a year, well, that makes DeskSMS even harder to recommend.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

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Review: Fences 2 makes desktop icons smarter, cleaner, and more useful

I have no icons on my desktop. I have two wide-screen monitors totaling almost 4,000 horizontal pixels, and not a single icon— because one icon often begets many, ending up with a messy, disorganized desktop and crowding my beautiful wallpapers. But $10 utility Fences 2 has me rethinking my anti-icon stance.

Fences makes it easy to get started by automatically categorizing your existing icons.

Stardock's Fences 2 eliminates all of the annoyances traditionally linked to desktop icons, and makes what's good about them even better. Installed, it feels like such a natural part of Windows, it makes me wonder how come Microsoft doesn't build a feature like it right into the OS.

Fences integrates tightly with Windows, becoming part of the Control Panel.

At its simplest, Fences groups your icons into virtual folders on the desktop. You can have a bunch of icons for your favorite applications, and another bunch for frequently used documents, and yet another for Internet bookmarks. It's a similar system to what some fastidious users may already be doing on their own–but it makes the process of grouping your icons together easy enough for the rest of us. When you first launch Fences, it offers to group your existing icons automatically, so you get three fences to begin with. They won't be perfect, but they're easy to customize: You can rename them, pull icons out or put new ones in, and move them around the desktop.

For reasons of both aesthetics and privacy, you may not always going to want icons cluttering up your wallpaper, so Fences can hide the icons once you leave the desktop idle for a while. When you want to reveal the icons again, double-click anywhere on the desktop and all of your Fences pop back into view. It's instant, and it's my favorite feature because it lets me enjoy my wallpapers and still use the icons whenever I want them. You can also disable the timeout and opt to hide or show the icons yourself.

The default fences may not categorize well the icons you already have on your desktop, but they're easy to customize.

Taking a cue from the world of smartphones, Fences 2 introduces a feature called Desktop Pages. Just like home screens on a smartphone, you can have multiple "pages" on your desktop. Bring your mouse to the edge of the screen, hold the mouse button down, and drag: The screen swipes over, revealing more space for fences. This sounds like it could conflict with some Windows 8 gestures which also use the edges of the screen, but on my desktop it doesn't. If moving your mouse all the way to the edge of the screen is too much work, you can also click the desktop, hold down Alt, and rotate the mousewheel to quickly flip pages.

Another interesting feature new to Fences 2 is Folder Portals, which let you place interactive shortcuts to folders on your desktop. If you have a folder with many files and subfolders, you can create a Folder Portal for it, and then get at those files directly. It's basically like having that folder constantly open on your desktop. It's an interesting feature, but has drawbacks: You can't use the keyboard to quick-search within a folder, and you can't drill down to subfolders (clicking a subfolder just opens it in your file manager).

The Folder Portal feature lets you quickly put the contents of an entire folder on your desktop.

Fences was an excellent product to begin with, and Fences 2 keeps the good parts and largely manages to avoid bloat. I'm not convinced Folder Portals are all that useful, but Desktop Pages are a welcome addition, and feel fast and natural. Even if you're not the sort of user who enjoys having icons on your desktop, Fences 2 may convert you. Give it a shot.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
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Review: Enjoy slick Web apps on your desktop with Cubiez

Web apps are great when you're on your PC, but they require a browser. Mobile apps, on the other hand, require nothing but a smartphone, but are not very convenient to use while working on your computer. So why choose? A new platform called Cubiez (currently in public beta) offers the best of both worlds: Light and responsive apps that feel almost like mobile ones, don't require a browse, and run on your computer. Very similar to the better-known Pokki, Cubiez is an online marketplace for apps through which you install and then run a variety of apps.

Cubiez's app icons sit in your tray—the more apps you install the more icons you have.

Cubiez is fairly new in its field, and therefore doesn't offer many apps yet. While its biggest rival Pokki includes hundreds of different apps, Cubiez has only a few dozen at the moment. There's no way to view Cubiez apps online, but you can check them all out by installing Cubiez and clicking on its taskbar icon. You can look at all available apps, only new apps, or apps you have installed. There is no way to view apps by category, but since not many apps are available, this doesn't make much of a difference.

Cubiez sits on the leftmost side of your taskbar—right next to the Start button (if you still have one)—and each app you install adds an icon on the taskbar as well. This is nice at first, but when you've installed seven apps, it starts to get crowded, and there's no way to put Cubiez to sleep or collapse all the icons into one. Installing apps is a breeze: After choosing an app from the marketplace and clicking the install button, you can't even count to five before the app is installed and available for use. Cubiez and its apps are all highly responsive, and there were no unexplained lags, sluggishness or unresponsiveness in any that I've tried.

Installing apps takes virtually seconds, and only one click.

Of all the apps Cubiez offers, about half are games. Among these, you'll find some big names such as Kingdom Rush, Little Alchemy, and Plants vs. Zombies, some classics such as Pacman, and some super-addictive ones such as Unicorn Robot Attack. Aside from games, you'll find useful apps such as Calculator, Facebook, Google Maps, Google Search, NewsHub (an RSS reader), and Weather. If you're looking for a specific app, you can use the search box to find it quickly, but note that search strings are case sensitive, so searching for "facebook" will yield no results. The apps all run in a small window that can be moved around the screen, but cannot be resized.

Looking closely at some of the apps, I found that while they're all generally good, some are still somewhat lacking in features. The Facebook app, for example, is a great take on a Facebook client, with a News Feed, birthdays and events calendar, a photos tab, an inbox, and a notification area. Some actions, such as comments and likes, can be done straight from the app, while others, such as writing a message or viewing a friend's profile, send you to your browser. The app even includes badge and pop-up notifications, but it doesn't manage to refresh properly, and keeps showing old updates when there are in fact newer ones to be seen. The Weather app can only show one location at a time and doesn't let you save locations, and the RSS reader includes a tiny number of publications, which, combined with an inaccurate search feature, forces you to enter the exact feed URL for almost any website you want to add.

The Facebook app for Cubiez is convenient and useful, when it updates properly.

These problems are in the minority, though, and most of the Cubiez apps are a joy to use. The games, especially, are a very nice combination between Web-based games, mobile games, and PC games, and literally give you the best of all worlds: instant, browser-less gaming. But don't let the browser-less apps fool you: All Cubiez apps, even games, require an Internet connection in order to work, and when one isn't available, most will not return any error, but will simply fail to load.

Considering its beta status, Cubiez is a very impressive take on the fairly new world of HTML5 desktop apps, and is open to developers who want to add apps of their own. It's still missing too many big names to be really useful, but more apps, new features, and some polishing, will surely turn it into something we would all want to have on our computer—even quicker access to productivity tools, information, social networks, and entertainment.

Note: By default, Cubiez's installer also includes a browser add-on called Cubiez Shopping Buddy. Despite the unfortunate name, this is a legitimate shopping add-on, and is one of the company's revenue streams. You can easily opt out of installing it. If you choose to install it and then change your mind, uninstall it through the control panel. The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Yaara is a foodie, horse-lover, and biologist who enjoys being a geek as a full-time job.
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