PRINTER CONNECTIONS

Let me give you a simplified overview of printer terms, then offer a tip that might save a few seconds someday. (This is basic stuff. If you can tell where I’m leaving things out, then this isn’t for you.) LOCAL PRINTER  A local printer is connected...

SHUTDOWN MYSTERIES

I bet you don’t know how to turn off your computer. Lots of people ask me why their computer doesn’t turn off when they hit the power button on the front of the case after the system crashes or freezes. Hold the button down for 4-10 seconds. The computer...

NOTEBOOK MARKET

The market for notebook computers is growing fast. Notebooks already outsell desktop computers in the US and will outsell desktops globally by next year, according to the New York Times. Here’s a report released yesterday comparing global notebook shipments in...

A TOOL FOR UPGRADE OVERLOAD

I wrote a few months ago about the difficulty of dealing with the endless flood of software updates that is slowly draining our will to live. Microsoft’s system of delivering automatic overnight upgrades once a month is manageable, but the bad guys are now...

WINDOWS SEARCH 4.0 – FINAL

Microsoft released Windows Search 4.0 today in final form. It is a free upgrade to the search features built into Windows Vista. It adds indexed searching to Windows XP; this release is an upgrade to the prior version of Windows Desktop Search that many of you are...