On the back of most power supplies is a switch with two settings: 115V and 230V. If you are in the United States, you will want to have it at 115V, in Europe, at 230V.

If the proper setting for you is 115V and you set it to 230V, the PC won’t work but it won’t be deadly for your power supply. If you need it to be at 230V and you set it to 115V, you may blow up your computer.

KVM stands for “keyboard, video, mouse”. It allows you to operate two (or more) computers with one keyboard, one monitor, and one mouse. To switch between the two computers, you will have to flip a switch. I can’t think of any uses for this off the top of my head, but with many different companies offering such a product, there must be someone using it.

I think multiple monitors is a better idea.

If you don’t know if Vista will work on your computer, download Microsoft’s Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. It will tell you about compatibility issues and if your computer stacks up to the hefty system requirements.

One of the new features of Internet Explorer 7 that Microsoft is boasting about is the ability to add add-ons to the browser. The add-ons are categorized into 4 categories, Security, Time Savers, Browsers, and Entertainment.

The number and quality of add-ons are limited, and disappointing when compared to Firefox. This is probably because Firefox has a devoted community that is constantly turning out extensions that provide innovative and cool features. Internet Explorer’s add-ons are produced by the company and while they may be useful, they aren’t anything special.

You can .

Most of the time, it does not.

With the prices for new PCs coming down under $400, most used PCs don’t make any sense from a financial standpoint. Head on over to Dell to check out the deals there, and compare them to the used PC offer. Most of the time, you will get a better deal new.

If you decide to buy used make sure you’re getting what they say you are. Make sure you are getting legal versions of software, and that everything you need is included. You probably won’t be getting a warranty, so make a note of that.

If in doubt, buy new.

There is not an option in the Windows control panel to make the NUM LOCK key not activate at startup,

you will need to go under the hood for a few seconds and do some registry editing.

Open regedit by going to the Start Menu, clicking Run, and then typing in regedit.

Browse to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard

Modify the string called InitialKeyboardIndicators, change it from 2 to 0.

Close the editor, and you’re done.

Making sure that the NUM LOCK key doesn’t enable itself at startup is.

To open a previously closed tab, just press SHIFT+CTRL+T.

Note that if you close and then reopen Firefox, the tab history is lost.

It’s that time of the month, the day Microsoft unloads a ton of patches for Windows and other products. The highlights include Internet Explorer exploit patches, and fixes to holes in Flash Player and XML Core Services.

Make sure you run Windows Update and get everything up to date.

The last year has been the year of the Firefox and there has been so much hype surrounding that browser, that a great browser has gone relatively unnoticed. Opera, long the third or fourth browser in the “browser wars” has recently released version 9 and it is a sight to behold.

Installation

Lightning quick and pleasant - it installed about as quickly as Firefox did. There’s not much to comment on here but there was a lack of options on what you could install. For instance, there is an integrated email client that I didn’t really want because I use another one.

First Impressions

This browser is clean and FAST. It uses little memory compared to Firefox and it feels very polished. It loads instantly from startup on my computer, even without being integrated into Windows. The menus are a little confusing when coming from the Firefox camp, mainly because there is so much here - but once you get used to it, everything makes sense.

Tabs are well done in Opera, and when you create a new tab you get a really cool drop down which lets you access your top accessed sites, Bookmarks, or Home page.

Features and Stuff

Bookmarks and the Management of

The browser automatically brought my Firefox bookmarks over, that was a nice touch. Management of bookmarks is very easy and when you delete a bookmark, Opera stores the bookmark in a file called Trash so you can easily get it back if you accidently deleted it.

Feeds

Opera includes the best management and reading of feeds I’ve seen. All you have to do is click the standard feed icon next to the web address and select the feed you want to subscribe to. It subscribes you and you will now have a bloglines-like service in your browser.

Widgets

Widgets are small, possibly useful, applets that you can load inside your browser. They can keep you up to date with your stocks, the news, let you play a game, and more. I don’t use this feature, but some people may like these Widgets - some look pretty cool.

Wand - Password Saver

Opera has a power password management system called The Wand and it works well for me. It also allows for quick entry of commonly entered data like Address and Name if you so choose.

Easy Settings

If you find a particular site that you don’t or do want to use say cookies for, you can disable and enable functions on very quickly. Just go to the Tools and then Quick Preferences. You will see a list of functions enabled and disabled. You can do this on the fly.

Security

Opera has a terrific security track record - you rarely if ever hear about exploits for this browser. If you’re privacy and system security is important to you, Opera is probably a great choice.

Conclusion

I’ve probably missed some of the features, but this browser has it all and has become my browser of choice. It renders all the pages I visit regularly properly (only had a few problems on some sites) and the Feeds interface is what seals the deal. If you are looking for a fast, powerful, and feature-rich web browser - I suggest you give this latest version of Opera a try.

I give it a 9.5/10

You can download Opera at Opera.com

Originally Published: June 23, 2006

Microsoft’s next generation MSN, er,Windows Live Messenger is feature rich, easy to use, and looks futuristic. Just released from BETA a day or two ago, I decided to load it on my machine and test it out.

Installation was swift, but it could certainly be painful on a slow connection as the download weighed in at just over 15 MBs. Keep an eye on what you’re doing when you install this thing, it wants to install Rhapsody (Real’s Subscription Music Service) by default - I don’t know what exactly Rhapsody has to do with Instant Messaging, but this will be a theme throughout my use of the program.

Once installed, it loaded very quickly and asked me for my Windows Live ID (a Passport will work just fine). I put in my email and password and it connected pretty quickly. The interface once fully loaded looked like the screen shot below:

I really don’t like these “Today” screens, so I went and disabled by clicking on the little check box in the lower right hand corner, before even looking at the content. That’s nice that they allow you to do that with great ease. AIM doesn’t make it that easy.

Now to the important part, the actual IM interface. It’s quite clean and not too cluttered save for the strip of icons on the side and the video advertisement at the bottom. There’s way too much content here - I just want to send and receive IMs! Also, the content may be considered inappropriate to some people - an example would be the screenshot above.

The actual dialogue for receiving and sending IMs is simple and to the point. I don’t like the advertisement on the bottom, but its not too annoying - at least it’s not graphical.

Microsoft looks like they are really trying to push their other services here. Across the top you see little icons that lead you to Open your email inbox”, “View your sharing folders”, “go to your space”, “go to Windows live today”, “Make a phone call”, and “change your color scheme”.

Customization is really easy and looks like it is a very important element of this release. There are a myraid of things like emoticons, display pictures, and winks that you can use. These are not really business level things, but are more for kids - which are probably the majority of IM users (I may be wrong).

Good Points

The interface is improved over previous versions and customization on a superficial level is very easy.
The program itself seems faster and more responsive than previous versions.

Potential Negatives

The interface is very customizable on the superficial level but not customizable at all (to my knowledge) where it is important that it be. I couldn’t remove any of the annoying icons on the sidebar (though you can hide all tabs), so while one or two might be useful, there is a Try Rhapsody for Free tab right in my face all the time.
Too much content. I just want to IM, I don’t want to know the news. I can find that just fine myself, thank you very much.

Conclusions

I won’t be giving up GAIM any time soon, but Windows Live Messenger is a step in the right direction (for people that love simplicity, but it could be perfect for those who like lot’s of features) and is leaps and bounds better than AIM and a bit faster than Yahoo! Messenger. Overall, I would give Windows Live Messenger a 8/10 and would give it higher if it allowed for more customization on lower levels.

Certainly though if you use VoIP with Instant messaging there are few better product I hear. I didn’t get to test that part out myself, I probably should have, but from what I hear - it works excellent.

You should try and download this version and if you’re using an older version of MSN Messenger, I would recommend downloading and using this one.

What I didn’t test out

The VoIP service. Supposedly Windows Live Messenger gives you the ability to talk over the net using your computer. Sounds neat, I should try it sometime.
Webcam features.

You can download it here.