Fox replaced the magazine's veteran editor Harry McCracken, who resigned that spring,[3] after some rocky times, including quitting and being rehired over editorial control issues in 2007.

[5] Some of the non-English PC World websites now redirect to other IDG sites; for example, PCWorld.dk (Denmark) is now Computerworld.dk The publication was announced at the COMDEX trade show in November 1982, and first appeared on newsstands in March 1983.

Many well known technology writers have contributed to PC World, including Steve Bass, Daniel Tynan, Christina Wood, John C. Dvorak, Stephen Manes, Lincoln Spector, Stewart Alsop, David Coursey, James A. Martin, and others.

[10] Based in San Francisco, PC World's original edition is published in the United States; however it is also available in other countries (51 in total), sometimes under a different name: In May 2007, McCracken resigned abruptly under controversial circumstances.

According to sources quoted in Wired, McCracken quit abruptly because the new CEO of PC World, Colin Crawford, tried to kill an unfavorable story about Apple and Steve Jobs.