Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008 (Free)

Microsoft has made available an updated version of its Office Accounting. There is a free version called Express and a paid version that has several more features.

If you manage your home-based business and are just looking for a way to manage your accounts, track your invoices and bill payment, the free version might be what you're looking for. Otherwise you will have to buy the full version to use all the features.

Some of the features include:

• Create quotes, invoices, and receipts.
• Write checks, track expenses, and reconcile online bank accounts.
• Convert a quote into an invoice without having to transfer information from one program to another.
• Track employee time.

Resource links:
Product information
Download the program

Don't get burned by driver-update scams | WindowsSecrets.com

Windows Secrets reports: "Although you can find free tools to help keep Windows and your other software up-to-date, you'll have to pay to get the best tool for scanning your system's drivers and downloading the updates you need."

I have never been a big fan of these driver version update tools, because they never really helped me but some people like them. Although, here is a article that talks about some of the issues with this class of tools and recommends some of the better products that you might want to check out.

Remove all remnants of the Windows Vista SP1 installation files

TechRepublic did a great job of documenting the removal of Windows Vista SP1 installation files. Here is an except from the site: "When you install Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the installation process leaves behind about 800 MBs of original Windows Vista files–in case you later want to remove SP1. Relative to current hard drives, 800 MBs isn’t that much space. But, it’s still enough space to store a couple hundred MP3 files or a few video clips. Personally, I just don’t like useless files taking up space on my drives. In this IT Dojo video, I show you how to remove all those old files using the SP1 Files Removal Tool."