By Carla Thornton PC World (US) November 27, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO – Except for an abrupt keystroke and uninspired sound, the Sony VGN-NR485 has few flaws. It performs well, looks handsome, and comes fairly loaded for a laptop that you can snag for well under US$1000. A Windows Vista Home Premium laptop powered by a [...]

By James A. Martin PC World (US) November 13, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO – And now for something completely different: a bit of bright economic news. Several laptops with reasonably robust specs are available for US$500 to $700. It’s probably no surprise that laptop prices have continued to fall. But those who need a new laptop [...]

By Jon Brodkin Network World (US) February 17, 2009 FRAMINGHAM- A startup called Neocleus is preparing to ship a bare-metal desktop hypervisor that it promises will improve endpoint security and let IT shops manage how virtual desktops interact with each other. The current desktop virtualization market is dominated by Type 2 hypervisors, which run as [...]

By Lincoln Spector PC World (US) January 21, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO – The “show desktop” icon disappeared from Rusparadox’s Quick Launch toolbar. He asked the Answer Line Forum how to get it back. Once again, I have different directions for XP and Vista. XP: Select Start, the Run. Type regsvr32 /n /i:u shell32.dll, then press [...]

By David Murphy PC World (US) January 06, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO  – Acer’s Aspire Predator is a peculiar power desktop. We see this particular configuration more as a sturdy base with room to grow than a power PC in its own right; a little more detail work on its guts could push it toward the [...]

By Rick Broida PC World (US) December 10, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO – Ever wish you could access your Outlook calendar and other data without, you know, running Outlook? Then here’s the utility for you: Outlook on the Desktop, which pins your calendar, contacts, and other PIM-formation to your Windows desktop. The program was designed mostly [...]

By Jeff Bertolucci PC World (US) January 21, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO  – Reliability and Service: Printers Printers in 2008 were slightly more reliable than desktops or laptops, according to our survey participants. About 3 in 10 respondents reported having one or more significant hardware or software problems with their printers during the preceding year. That [...]