The web’s top free video calling provider further cements its position with this latest release. In SightSpeed 6.0, totally revised, fully SIP-compliant code drives Windows and Mac compatibility, improved video, and a streamlined interface.

After a simple setup, the Basic service gives anyone with at least a 128-Kbps connection and a webcam free, brilliantly clear PC-to-PC video and voice calls, chat sessions, 30-second video e-mails to other service members, and more. The text-chat feature has an improved look-and-feel similar to that of Skype, lets you open multiple chat windows and takes a more prominent place. The reasonably good IM, however, still can’t match that of services like AOL and Yahoo!. But Version 6.0 introduces SightSpeedTV, an exciting capability that lets PCs with TV tuners stream to Internet-connected devices.

With the premium service, you can record live video calls to your PC. Other benefits include unlimited voice mail, video mail, and video conference calls; group text messaging; lifetime video e-mail storage; and a Web page. Making calls to and receiving them from landline and cell phones requires the fee-based SightSpeed In and SightSpeed Out services, respectively. The features and improvements to this already excellent service.

Your legacy applications won’t work under Windows Vista? Run it under an older operating system you’ve loaded into Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (VPC 07). The utility may not be quite as full-featured as VMware Workstation, but it has one big advantage, because it’s free!

VPC 07 runs under Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, plus XP Professional and Tablet Edition, but not Vista Home or XP Home. You can install nearly any PC-compatible OS inside its virtual machines, though. I got DOS 6.22, Red Hat Linux, Windows 95, Windows 98, and two instances of XP working. The virtual machines can all read the system’s CD and DVD drives and can take turns using the floppy disk drive. But for USB support, you need a competitor: VMware or Parallels Workstation.

VPC can save and restore a VM’s state but has nothing like VMware’s multiple snapshots. It does have an equivalent to VMware’s “linked clone” feature, and wizards ease the creation of VMs and disks. All told, I found VPC 07 intuitive and stocked with everything casual users need to manage programs that don’t like Vista.

Date thieves can’t steal what they can’t get to. That’s the principle behind Secure it Easy, which blocks access to your PC for all USB storage devices except those okayed by an administrator. On install, the software prompts you to examine the list of connected devices and mark those you trust. By default, the program issues alerts when it blocks access, but you can turn that off. The utility can also e-mail you whenever an untrusted device tries to connect.

The product doesn’t block FireWire or PC Card devices, however, and it offers no control over floppy disk, CD or DVD-ROM drives, or other storage devices. Secure it Easy also crashed more than once during testing, and the user interface, while attractive, has some quirks: Trying to change the trusted status of more than one device at a time, for example, may fail which the company acknowledges. On some settings pages, forget to click on Apply, and the changes you’ve made vanish. And other than a PDF manual, you’ll find no context-sensitive or online help system. Secure it Easy runs under Vista, but I’d expect a lot more from this, the most expensive endpoint security product I’ve reviewed.

Armed with USB storage device, a PDA, a CD or DVD drive, or a FireWire storage device, anyone can steal data. VolumeShield’s AntiCopy Personal Edition 2.5 tries to prevent such hardware from connecting to your PC without authorization. The company hopes you’ll like this free version and will tell the boss to get the Enterprise release. That could be a career-limiting move.

Except for the boot drive, upon installation AntiCopy blocks access to every drive it can control even additional internal ones. Worse, after asking for your Windows log-in credentials to authorize access, it fails to say which drive you’re authorizing. Alarmingly, during testing, the utility also spontaneously disabled my authorized additional drives, refusing to relent. Only a reboot restored access.

Unlike its competitors, AntiCopy fine-tunes device ID by using a drive’s volume label, so changing the label revokes authorization. And although the app can block access to CD and DVD drives, it can’t do the same with floppy disk drives or media cards. Repeatable errors I got during testing and a severe vulnerability. This app costs nothing and provides little more

Those who want serious endpoint security for one computer or a hundred can get it with DeviceLock. This impressive utility lets you control access to USB and removable hard drives, digital media cards, and floppy disks, as well as writable CD and DVD drives. It seals off unused communications ports and even lets you define specific permissions for particular users or time periods. You’ll have to work a little harder to set it up, but the effort pays off.

The Enterprise Manager interface does batch processing of configuration changes, and the Management Console lets you directly administer individual systems. Either will let you lock down serial and parallel ports as well as infrared, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connections. With USB and FireWire ports, you can block certain device types but allow others, such as keyboards and mice. You can even whitelist particular USB storage devices. Doing so takes more effort than with the other products, but the feature gives you more flexibility.

Installing DeviceLock doesn’t grant you instant control over endpoint security. But once you read over the friendly user manual and master the art of configuring the product, you’ll have some truly solid protection. For endpoint security, I submit DeviceLock as the logical choice.

Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 is a safe, affordable bet for home users looking to protect multiple PCs. It comes with three licenses per $49.95 package, plus free tech support. It’s an able shield for everyday computing.

The software has a friendly interface, and its features are intelligently grouped and organized. The Overview screen gives you a brief rundown of your protection status, including the dates of your most recent scan and software update (plus buttons to perform both immediately). Other groups include Virus & Spyware, Personal Network & Firewall, and Internet and E-mail. The app’s antivirus engine has been certified by both ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs.

One of our favorite tools was the scanner’s ability to detect any necessary Microsoft Windows Updates, something we wish more security suites included. Other helpful additions: a personal wireless-network monitor, the ability to manage the security of other PCs on your network, and even a chat monitor for protecting instant-message conversations.

We didn’t understand why Trend Micro didn’t activate certain critical features by default, especially the data-theft-prevention function (for protecting sensitive information such as your name, address, and credit-card number) and the spam e-mail filter. And while we liked the software’s extensive built-in help, the resources on the company’s Web site were more limited.

If you don’t mind taking a slightly more hands-on approach to your PC’s security, Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 might be right for you. If more-advanced protection is what you’re after, however, we’d recommend a competing app like Norton 360.

Many desktop enchancement programs are complex all-in-one packages that require knowledge of a programming language to completely customize the Windows Desktop. But not Winstep Xtreme.

This $39.90 program brings two new interface elements to Windows: NextStart, which replaces your Start menu with a more-powerful alternative that includes file viewing, disc copying, and more; and WorkShelf, for organizing folders and programs for easy launching. Nexus, a subset of WorkShelf, creates a rotating workshelf (a highly configurable taskbar) at the top of your screen, featuring some important program shortcuts.

Several additional modules let you load, move, and customize some new desktop items, similar to the Widgets and Gadgets in Mac OS X and Windows Vista. These include a clock, a CPU monitor, RAM and Net meters, an e-mail checker, a miniature weather display, and a goldfish that spouts silly or interesting quotes when double-clicked.

Winstep Xtreme can also quickly build menus and tabbed workshelves using a pair of excellent wizards, each of which has its own extensive, searchable help system. We really liked the ease and speed with which the average computer user, with no previous experience, can quickly customize his or her desktop using Winstep Xtreme.

This surprisingly simple app, which supports Windows 95 through Vista, isn’t for everyone. But if you spend a lot of time at the Windows Desktop attempting to make order out of chaos, find yourself frustrated often over the lack of organization among your shortcuts, or maybe want to customize a screensaver backdrop with password accessible hotspots for your kids, Winstep Xtreme handles such tasks with panache.