Will Vista Have Its Day?

I'm sorry to announce that this is the final edition of Community Scoop. I have enjoyed reading all of your comments, and I hope that you will continue making the PC World Community a great place.
Are you feeling sneaky? We've got a list of 12 sly Web tricks, and not everyone is happy about them. Are these cool tricks, or irresponsible pranks? Join the discussion.
Comcast is capping monthly broadband usage. Is this something for the everyday user to be concerned about?Let us know what you think.
Will Windows Vista have its day? Only time will tell, but our readers do have their opinions. Share yours with us.
Our most recommended stories this week include sly Web tricks, tech habits to improve your life, and Google Earth add-ons. To vote for your own favorites, click one of the thumbs-up icons on an article's page.
We end with product reviews from users like you. Have you gotten any new high-tech goodies recently? Let us and your fellow PC World readers know what you think of them. Go to PCW Shop & Compare to search for your gear and add a review.
Note: To use our interactive features, such as adding comments to discussions and contributing your own product reviews, you must be signed in to the PC World Web site. (Not registered? You can sign up online.) However, you can view the discussion threads and poll results without being signed in.

12 Sly Web Tricks That Put You In Control

Kilme says:: I must admit, the Upside-Down-Ternet is hilarious. I just encrypted my own wireless connection, and wish I had found this sooner. I may give it a try someday.
Publicmenace says:: "Spoof you e-mail address" probably won't work. Most, if not all ISPs use SMPT authentication these days to prevent spammers from spoofing e-mail addresses and using the ISP's servers as open proxies. There are open proxies still available on the Internet, but not through legit ISPs.
Housknecht says:: Maybe I am getting too responsible as a middle-aged adult, but these "tricks" are entirely irresponsible, especially to have been published by a heretofore reputable entity. You are just feeding the fires of trouble that immature people create on the Internet already. You should be ashamed.
Metaphor says:: I absolutely agree! It's also appalling that so much emphasis is put on avoiding legitimate work. All those who aren't self-employed should keep in mind that some hapless employer has actually bought a good chunk of your time and every one of those hours belongs to the organization paying you. Play on your own time! Be glad you have a job--and be very glad you're not a supervisor with a staff of immature people who think these tricks are cool. Hmpf.
Read the posts in this thread and contribute your own opinion.

Critics Question Comcast Broadband Caps

kelmerp says:: My only concern is whether or not this will affect my Hulu/Netflix InstantWatch addition.
Danthalls says:: This is not only unfair to Comcast's "unlimited use" customers, but it hurts future advancement of things like high-def streaming video, games, VoIP, and any other technology out there that relies on high-speed internet. It will hurt everyone if they are allowed to get away with it.
Shasta says:: As a major distributor of pay per view programming, isn't it a little disingenuous for Comcast to place download caps so that you will have to pay to view their offerings? I don't know many people who have Comcast Internet who don't have Comcast cable as well. It's a good way to limit competition, if you ask me.
Mjd420nova says:: As a longtime Comcast customer, this doesn't really bother me. I've measured my download usage: Seldom does it go over 150GB in a month; if it does, it's usually by about 5GB. I think these throttle controls are mainly aimed to stop or limit the spammers that have proliferated throughout Comcast's system.
Read the posts in this thread and contribute your own opinion.

Vista May Still Have Its Day

glassmaster says:: Finally a tech article that sees the current Vista-slam as it really is: simply a repeat of XP's entrance into the mainstream that most of us have forgotten long ago. Good article!
AZITguy says:: I think Microsoft should be paying all of us for beta testing their crappy Windows software.
Tenney67 says:: I could never understand all of the bad press for Vista. I replaced one of my home computers with Vista on a HP computer nearly a year ago and never had any problems with it. Meanwhile my XP computer hangs up every once in a while.
MAcUser21 says:: The problem is that Microsoft has announced a new OS coming in 2010 called Windows 7, so people question whether they should buy Vista.
Read the posts in this thread and contribute your own opinion.


From : http://www.pcworld.com/
Continues : http://www.pcworld.com/

Improving Windows XP Performance Part I

If you’ve been working with Windows XP Professional for some time and you’ve noticed a decline in system performance from when you first started using XP, you may be at a loss to explain the problem. As a Windows power user or IT admin, you most likely keep an eye on your system’s performance with the Task Manager. And you probably run Disk Defragmenter frequently as well as the Disk Cleanup utility. Yet none of these practices seem to be doing the trick.

Here are several built-in XP options you can tweak to adjust your visual effects, memory usage, virtual memory, and processor scheduling, each of which has a direct bearing on how well your system performs. We’ll explore each of them in detail as I show you how to optimize the way your system runs and how to prevent a degradation in performance from occurring in the future.

Tweak XP for better performance

To optimize XP’s performance and keep your workday running smoothly, we’ll show you how to adjust several of your operating system’s settings so you can get the most out of XP. We’ll begin by showing you how to configure XP’s visual effects to troubleshoot performance issues. Next, we’ll delve a little deeper by exploring processor slowdowns, and how you can make some adjustments to memory usage to improve performance. Finally, we’ll explore several quick and easy tweaks you can implement to jump-start your sluggish system.

Visuals

Windows XP Professional’s visual effects encompass such enhancements as animated menus, fade effects, cursor shadows, menu shadows, and more. While these effects are pleasing to the eye and can add to your overall XP sensory experience, they also have a negative effect on how quickly your operating system responds to your requests. The more visual effects you have activated, the slower your system performance. Let’s begin by taking a look at how you can adjust XP’s visual effects settings to improve performance without losing all of the effects that make XP cool.

To access your visual effects, click the Start button and then choose Control Panel. In Classic view, double-click on the System icon, and then in the System Properties dialog box, select the Advanced tab. Then, under Performance, click the Settings button to display the Performance Settings dialog box.

Note: If you’re using Classic view, open Control Panel, click on the Performance And Maintenance link, and then click on the Adjust Visual Settings link.

Now that you’ve located this area, you can allow Windows XP Professional to choose what’s best for your computer, manually adjust these settings for best appearance, manually adjust them for best performance, or choose Custom and pick and choose your own settings. As you can see, you can turn on and off visual effects by selecting or deselecting the appropriate check boxes.

So which options should you choose? For computers that are a few years old and are running with XP’s minimum system requirements, I recommend choosing the Custom setting—which gives you the most control over your system—and deselecting all of visual effect options. Next, use Windows XP as you normally would over the next 24 hours to see if your system performance is improving. Slowly re-enable your favorite visual features and see how your system performs. By conducting this experiment, you should be able to determine exactly how many enabled effects your system can tolerate without experiencing performance problems.

If you find, however, that your system doesn’t respond well to restoring the visual effects, you might want to consider turning off all the visual effects for good. You’ll lose most of the effects of XP’s cool new interface, windows won’t slide into place, and the desktop won’t have its 3-D appearance, but you’ll get some added power and performance. And the loss of the visual effects is a small price to pay to save you the price of a costly upgrade.

Form : http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/