Gary Coleman, Don McMillan, Family Gifts
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Top Features
Gary Coleman Takes Over "The Screen Savers" is proud to welcome actor and game enthusiast Gary Coleman to its dysfunctional extended family of celebrity co-hosts. Watch today as Coleman runs the show with Martin. And don't miss The Gary Coleman Web-a-Thon | What We Really Want for Christmas Comedian Don McMillan doesn't need another computer for the holidays. He needs a telemarketer zapper. Read through McMillan's entertaining tech wish list. Software Family Gifts |
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Download of the Day: Santa Claus in trouble
Help Santa Claus save Christmas.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
To commemorate the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," we've got coverage of the new LOTR game. Click on the link to read the review. On the show, watch for the following segments.
- 'The Two Towers' review
Extended Play host Adam Sessler takes a look at the new game in the "Lord of the Rings" saga. Does the game live up to the greatness of the movie? - The making of 'The Two Towers' videogame
Neil Young, vice president of production for EA games, will visit to talk about the creation of the 'The Two Towers' game. He'll discuss the process of adapting a game from a movie, what they changed from the film, how long it takes them to put together fight scenes, why they ditched Frodo, and more. - 'The Two Towers' cheat codes
Uncover hidden features of the videogame with these cheat codes from PS2 Cheats.
Clean XP's prefetch
Prefetching basically decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and other programs. Keep your PD tidy by cleaning out the prefetch.
- Find the Windows folder on your C drive.
- Look for a folder called Prefetch and open it.
- Delete away.
Pocket PC PDAs and Tablet PCs
Fresh Gear host Sumi Das reviews lowcost Pocket PC PDAs and Windows XP tablet PCs.
- Dell Axim X5
- ViewSonic Pocket PC V35
- Windows XP Tablet Edition
- Popular Tablet PCs at a Glance (includes the Compaq TC1000 and Viewsonic V1100)
- Samsung DVD-L100
Windows Tip: Customize your IE logo
Morgan shows you how to customize that spinning logo in the upper right-hand corner of Internet Explorer to be anything you want.
Martin's favorite 'Switch' parodies
Apple's recent Switch marketing campaign has created more buzz than a beehive convention. It's also generated its fair share of humorous rip-offs. Here are Martin's favorites:
Site of the Nite: Map of Middle Earth
As this "Lord of the Rings" fansite so eloquently puts it, "There is no limit to what a bored nerd can do!" Enjoy the product of one man's freakish obssession.
New browser windows
You're surfing the Web and you suddenly realize that you need to milti-task; you need two brwoser windows open. What do you do?
- In Internet Explorer, click on the File menu.
- Mouse over New, and click Window. Or you can press Ctrl+N on your keyboard.
This also works in Mozilla. By the way, the latest build of Mozilla is available.
Photoshop Challenge
The results are in! Admire the winners of last week's challenge and get a jump on the next victim.
Send us email
- Got something for the show notes? Email us.
- This page is updated throughout the live broadcast of the show at 7 p.m. Eastern.
- Looking for a past article? Find it in our archive, which keeps a list of articles up to a year old.
Live Calls
Speed up Pentium IIBrendon in St. Louis wants to know how to speed up his Compaq computer. It has a 450-MHz Pentium II with 94MB of RAM, and Brendon is running Windows XP.
Adding more RAM will help. Microsoft recommends a minimum of 128MB, and we suggest 256MB.
What you really need to do is upgrade your processor. A Pentium II doesn't quite have the power to run Windows XP adequately, in our opinion. Microsoft says all you need is a Pentium-class processor, and that's true. But the older the processor, the slower XP will run.
Since you have a Compaq PC, chances are you have a proprietary case that won't let you upgrade your CPU and motherboard. At this point, Martin and Gary suggest saving your money for a new computer. There are plenty of cheap computers available; yesterday, we had a cheap PC roundup.
Optimize the hard drive
Chris in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, wants to know what hard drive defragmentation is and how to do it.
Defragging your hard drive optimizes the hard drive for better performance. It essentially reorganizes the data on your hard drive so it's using the storage space more efficiently. Learn how to defrag your hard drive.
Startup applications
Ian in Klamath Falls, Oregon, wants to know how to stop applications from launching when he boots his Windows machine.
There are several ways to fix this.
- From within the application that launched, go to the options and look for a setting that tells the application to start at boot. Where this setting is located varies from application to application.
- Perform a Find File or Folders on your PC and look for the Startup folder. Delete any applications that you don't want to launch. These are shortcuts, so it's OK to delete them. You won't delete the actual application.
- Open the Run box and type msconfig. Click on the Startup tab. You will see a list of applications that launch at boot. Uncheck the ones you want to turn off.
Router
Matt in Laurenceville, Georgia, wants to know what a router is.
A router is a device that allows multiple computers to access a network. Most people use routers to share a broadband connection among multiple computers. The computers connect to the router, and the router connects to the Internet connection.
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FEATURES
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Site of the Nite: Map of Middle-earth
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Photoshop Challenge: December 17-January 7, 2002
The Big Winners |
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Family Software for the Holidays
Gift ideas that mom, dad, and the kids can enjoy. |
