PCMagazine Vista

							FIRST LOOKS: DUAL-CORE PCs

EASY WAYS TO BACK UP APPS TO GO
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T H E I N D E P E N D E N T G U I D E TO T EC H N O LO GY SEPTEMBER 6, 2005

Save Your Data Before It’s Too Late

Windows Vista
First Hands-On Walkthrough of Microsoft’s New “Longhorn” OS
Exciting New Look • Faster Search • Better Security

BETA PRE
VIEW

S P EC I A

L

MICHAEL J. MILLER

Forward Thinking
Vista: I Can See Clearly Now
So we finally have a name for the operating system formerly known as Longhorn—Windows Vista. The Microsoft folks I talked with say the name reflects the operating system’s ability to give you a clear view of all of your information and to help you find and manage it more easily. And, sure enough, new search tools integrated in the OS, virtual folders, and an improved Internet Explorer are in the current beta version that we worked with for our cover story starting on page 104. Many of the concepts in Vista aren’t new. Apple’s Spotlight search tool in its Tiger OS has been available for several months, and Microsoft has been talking for years about integrated search in a new file system called WinFS, which is not scheduled to ship with Vista. And the Opera and Firefox browsers have had tabbed browsing for a long time. But what is new for Windows is the deep integration of the search capabilities. Microsoft isn’t much concerned about Macintosh and Linux, because Windows runs on more than 95 percent of all desktops. Instead, the company is trying to get more people to use computers and upgrade to the new platform. Upgrading to a new platform is always a tough sell. In fact, plenty of companies are still running on Windows 2000. For Vista to succeed, Microsoft must get corporate IT departments to upgrade and keep developers happy with the platform. Those things are much more critical than dazzling end users with cool new features. This urgency is reflected in the most-repeated word I’ve been hearing from the Windows team: confidence. We all want an operating system we can depend on, but in the past couple of years Windows has fallen short of that goal. Although Windows XP is more stable than previous versions of Windows, it’s still not stable enough. And the rapid spread of malware—viruses, spyware, and phishing attacks— is making us distrust our computers. Microsoft needs to change that perception.

The rapid spread
When I talked with Chris Jones, VP of the Win- of malware—viruses, dows Client team at Microsoft, he stressed that spyware, and phishing Microsoft’s priority was to change the process of developing Windows to ensure that the underlying attacks—is making code was tighter and more secure. This means get- us distrust our comting rid of buffer overflows and writing drivers at a higher level so that they don’t have access to lower- puters. Microsoft level functions and don’t bring needs to change that down the system if they crash. Jones also talked about Vista’s perception. security layers, starting with the basic hardening of the OS and the limited-rights mode that most people will use, rather than the completely open administrator accounts. The system will also have a variety of anti-malware features, including a two-way firewall and antiphishing tools. Vista is packed with features for developers. Microsoft is encouraging hardware makers to write more secure and stable drivers that will work on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista. And Microsoft is giving software developers the built-in .NET Framework, new search tools, the Avalon graphics engine, and integrated RSS, all with the hope that developers will deliver new applications. This beta is aimed primarily at developers and IT shops for “evaluation and trial, not for mainstream use,” says Jones. Toward the beginning of next year, Microsoft plans to release Beta 2, aimed at mainstream users. Microsoft says that Beta 1 is a “foundation” release—meaning that the basics are all there, but it’s not designed to be a production machine. It worked well enough, however, for me to use it to write this column. A number of features Microsoft had initially slated for this OS won’t be ready for Vista. Microsoft plans to issue the WinFS object-oriented file system in a later release, although Jones says that the end-user value is reflected in Vista’s search features. But application developers won’t get a new rich data store. And although Microsoft did make lots of security improvements, it did not include the Next-Generation K
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Forward Thinking
MICHAEL J. MILLER

Secure Computing Base, which promised hardware virtualization to isolate computing systems on a single machine. Including that feature would have presented software developers with too big a change. I expect we’ll see some more advances in both the file system and security over time, but the process is slow. Microsoft is more concerned with

compatibility and stability than with new features. When I first heard the official name of this latest version of Windows, I had visions of driving on a highway and pulling over for a vista—a good view of the surrounding area, of places where I hadn’t yet arrived. In many ways, Windows Vista may just be that: a glimpse of the future of desktop computing.

Back-to-School Software
Lately, I’ve been disappointed with the lack of great educational software for kids. A few years ago, four or five companies competed in every genre. You could walk into your local computer store and find shelves full of new titles for every age. Remember the JumpStart series, Reader Rabbit, and Math Blaster? Then along came the Internet boom and the gaming frenzy. Suddenly, the educational software companies were acquired by bigger companies, and packaged educational software became passé. I’m pleased to see some signs of life, though (see our After Hours roundup on page 146). Knowledge Adventure, recently spun out from Vivendi, is reviving the JumpStart and Math Blaster brands. Riverdeep Interactive Learning (which now owns Broderbund and its Reader Rabbit brand) is talking about new versions as well. And for older children, Microsoft Student looks really great. It’s a shame, however, that you can find dozens of first-person shooters on store shelves but not a decent supply of constructive, educational programs for kids. Some small developers, such as Kutoka Interactive, School Zone, and Viva Media, are struggling to get good products out there, but the industry owes it to our children to do much better.

Safe Surfing for Kids
With the start of school, kids will be spending more time on the computer and the Internet, so here are some suggestions for keeping them—and your computer—safe. It’s important to talk with your kids about what is and is not acceptable practice. Here are five points to get the conversation going: 1. Acceptable and unacceptable Web sites. Explain to your kids what they should do if they land on an inappropriate site. Often, these sites are just a typo or a click away from acceptable ones, so I recommend filtering software. But keep in mind that a determined teenager can get around a filter. 2. IM behavior. Most kids today use IM constantly, so you should remind them not to give out personal information in an IM conversation, especially to people they don’t know well. Also, IMs are not encrypted, so people outside the conversation can read them. 3. Chat room behavior. Many parents block chat rooms altogether, but if your kids use them, make sure they know the rules. Kids should never give out personal information or arrange to meet in person anyone they met in a chat room. 4. Acceptable and unacceptable games. Lots of games depict violent, antisocial behavior. Know what games your kids are playing and set limits. 5. Downloading content. Make sure your kids understand the legalities of downloading copyrighted music, movies, and games. If they use Kazaa or BitTorrent, find out what they’re downloading. And make sure they understand that most spyware finds its way onto computers while they’re downloading. Here’s how you can keep your computer safe: 1. Back Up. I know it’s a pain, but odds are you’ll need to do this eventually. Our feature story, starting on page 120, gives you several great ways of backing up. 2. Create a restore disc and put it in a safe place. You’ll want this in case something really bad hits your computer and you have to reinstall your OS. 3. Update your antivirus, firewall, and antispyware software. I recommend a security suite, which usually includes antispam and content filtering as well. Set the software to scan at regular and frequent intervals. 4. Run a separate, additional antispyware program regularly. This is especially important if your kids download. 5. Periodically check the logs on your filtering software or on your router. Tell your kids in advance that you’ll be doing this. It’s a good way to know what’s going on with your computer.

MORE ON THE WEB: Join us online and make your voice heard. Talk back to Michael J. Miller in our opinions section, go.pcmag.com/miller.

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www.pcmag.com First Looks
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Desktop PCs • Falcon NW Mach V (AMD X2) • Falcon NW Mach V (EE 840) • Velocity Micro Promagix DCX • Velocity Micro Vision 64 X2 • Dell Dimension 9100 • HP Media Center 7070n Photosmart PC Applications • Quicken Premier 2006 • MS Student Online Services • MSN Virtual Earth (beta) Digital Cameras • Nikon Coolpix 7900 • Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 K Imaging Software • Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Photo Printers • Canon Selphy CP600 • Sony DPP-FP50 Printers • Dell Laser Printer 1100 K • Konica Minolta magicolor 2450 Displays • Sony MFMHT75W M • Samsung SyncMaster 915N Productivity Software • OpenOffice.org 2.0 (beta) • ThinkFree Office 3.0 Security Software • ZoneAlarm Security Suite 6.0 Networking • Symantec Mail Security 8240 • blueRoam

CONTENTS
SEP TEMBER 6, 2005 • VOL. 24 NO. 1 5

40 49 50

Hands On
with the

C OV E R STO RY

104

53 54 56

60

Next Windows
It’s been four long years since Windows XP came on the scene—but there, on the horizon, is the next version of Windows, with promises of increased simplicity, better security, and greater stability. Will it deliver? We take a close, in-depth look at the first beta version of Windows Vista.
ON THE COVER
Windows Vista: Special Beta Preview page 104 Dual-Core PCs page 32 Easy Ways to Back Up page 120 Apps to Go page 84
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64 67 72

Top Products
38 52 58 62 Desktop PCs Digital Cameras Printers Displays

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Online
B A C K U P S T R AT E G I E S

www.pcmag.com
UTILITY DOWNLOAD
Instantly and automatically back up important data Take the hassle out of backing up and protecting critical files and folders with InstaBack, our latest premium utility-library addition. (go.pcmag.com/instaback)

120 Back Up, or Else!
You know those digital photos, MP3 files, and financial records you have stored on your PC? They’re not as safe as you think. You need to set up a backup scheme that keeps your precious data protected. We show you the best and easiest ways—via traditional backup, continuous backup, imaging software, home network backup, and online services. So do it, now!

W I N D O W S V I S TA
What you need to know Find all the information you could possibly want or need about Microsoft’s next major release here. (go.pcmag.com/windowsvista)

Pipeline
23 23 23 23 24 24 26 26 28 Sharp unveils two displays in one. Wireless subscribers outnumber landlines. Could xMax be the next big wireless standard? Spam—a big business time sink. Take a gander at New York’s Real Time Crime Center. Wurld Media’s PeerImpact lets you make money trading tunes.
MDKeeper: A doctor inside your watch offers 24/7 medical monitoring.

FIRST LOOKS
New reviews every week! Coming soon: •HyperKore HK-Xtreme PC •JBL Encounter 2.1 speakers •Lexmark X3350 (go.pcmag.com/ firstlooks)

Virus-fighting costs for U.S. companies plummet, says a new study.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: JVC Everio G Series, Konica Minolta DiMage X1, Olympus VN-960PC, Rohos Welcome 1.20, ViewSonic PJ256D,

TO O L S YO U C A N U S E
Discussions: Log on and participate! (http://discuss.pcmag.com/pcmag) Downloads: Check out our indexed list of utilities from A to Z. (go.pcmag.com/utilities)

Xmultiple FlashPoint ShareDrive.

Solutions
84 The Ultimate USB Key: Your USB flash drive is good for a lot more than just data transfer. Now you can carry a desktop’s worth of apps with you. 90 Desktop: If you have audiobooks on CD, it’s easy to rip them so you can use them on a portable music player. 92 DIY: Software: Keep track of your documents with version-control software—it’s not just for geeks anymore. 94 Security Watch: Should “good” worms be sent forth to undo the ravages of bad worms? 96 Business: For corporate recruiting, Jobster goes where the candidates are—even those not actively looking. It’s not your typical job-posting site. 99 User to User: How to create a drivespecific icon, protect shared Word and Excel documents, and more.
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Opinions
7 Michael J. Miller: Forward Thinking 77 John C. Dvorak 79 John C. Dvorak’s Inside Track 81 Jim Louderback 83 Bill Machrone

E XC L U S I V E C O L U M N S DVORAK ONLINE K Each Monday, John C. Dvorak gives you his take on what’s happening in high tech today. Visit go.pcmag.com/dvorak. ULANOFF ONLINE K And, each Wednesday, Lance Ulanoff puts his own unique spin on technology. Visit go.pcmag.com/ulanoff.

After Hours
146 Plugged-In Learning: In our annual Back-to-School story, we focus on educational gadgets and software. 148 Gear & Games: Adesso CyberTablet 8600; webcams from Logitech and Creative; Eidos’s Imperial Glory.

Also in This Issue
75 Feedback 150 Backspace

Coming up: • Keeping your PC healthy • The dual-everything system • Spectacular sound from your multimedia speakers (www.extremetech.com)

go.pcmag.com/pipeline

PIPELINE
T E C H N O L O G Y T R E N D S & N E W S A N A LY S I S

Display Times Two
A new technology from Sharp displays two different images at once.
say, watch a video. Other innovative applications are planned for the two-way viewing displays, which Sharp plans to make available to manufacturers for delivery later this year. For example, a display installed in a car could let the driver view a map and a passenger watch a movie. Or a passerby on the street could see one advertisement while a person going the other way sees a different one. The displays aren’t cheap to make. “We would like to supply these displays at a price not more than twice that of conventional displays,” says Mikio Katayama, a Sharp executive. “If we can expand total manufacturing quantities, we would like to set a target price around 50 percent higher than existing displays.” Also, the only way to get around the problem of having two different audio streams is for one viewer to wear earphones. The prototype LCD that was shown at Sharp’s press conference had only one audio system, but shipping versions are likely to have two. Time will tell whether there’s a market for dual viewing.—Sebastian Rupley

Unwired City
In the crowded field of emerging wireless technologies, a new candidate is in trials: xMax. From xG Technology, it delivers broadband speeds over the low frequencies used by radio and TV stations. The radio-based technology produces signals that desktop and mobile antennas can receive. xMax inventor Joe Bobier claims that just one $350,000 base station could bring 40-Mbps broadband speeds to an entire city, and xMax looks promising for rural regions too. “We’re building a base station between Miami and Fort Lauderdale and will cover most of both cities with one tower,” Bobier says. xMax will be unveiled in November, with products out in mid-2006. No ratification effort is under way by any standards group, however. Stay tuned.—SR

LENDING AN ENTIRELY new meaning to the concept of double vision, Sharp has developed an LCD that can show two different full-size images to two different viewers at once. In the photo seen here, a mirror is held next to the display, and the image on screen is different from the one seen in the mirror. How is this legerdemain achieved? The display sends light from its backlight separately to the right and to the left. It’s built on a number of proprietary technologies, including a parallax barrier superimposed on an ordinary TFT LCD, which direct the light in different directions. So someone sitting to the left of the display sees one image—a Web browser, for instance—while a person sitting to the right can,

ANOTHER DIMENSION California-based Deep Light plans to ship 3D rear-projection television sets next year that don’t require viewers to wear special glasses. The sets will offer 1,280 lines of resolution, compared with 500 on standard TVs.

What? You’re Tethered?
THE WORLD OF wireless telecommunications just rushed past a much-awaited milestone. The number of wireless subscribers in the U.S. now exceeds the number of wired service lines, according to a report on local telephone competition from the FCC. Specifically, as of December 31, 2004, there were 181.1 million wireless subscribers, compared with 178 million wired lines. “It’s not just about talking anymore,” says Steve Largent, president and CEO of the CTIA wireless industry group. He cites gaming, Web browsing, and many other untethered activities for the rise in wireless service.—SR

The Spam Time Sink
The cost of spam in the U.S. has now reached $21.58 billion annually in lost productivity, according to new survey data. The lost productivity comes not just from reading spam but from time spent trying to get rid of it.

Percentage of spam recipients who...
...open spam to see what the message says ...sweep their accounts free of spam at least once a week ...receive at least 40 spam e-mails a day

ILLUSTRATIONS BY NORA KRUG

14% 68% 78%

Based on 418 survey responses, 2005 annual survey. Source: Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Rockbridge Associates.

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P I P E L I N E • go.pcmag.com/pipeline

The Cellular Home
Five percent of U.S. homes have no landline service and use only cellular phones, according to a recent Forrester Research report. “Customers in nearly a third of American households make at least half their long-distance calls at home from their cell phones rather than their more reliable and often cheaper land lines,” says Forrester analyst Charles Golvin. One new product is tapping into this trend. The RCA Cell Docking System ($149.99 list) is designed to let you place and receive cellular phone calls using any standard telephone in your home or office, and it is also a charging base for your cell. It’s compatible with approximately 60 cell phones, listed at www.rca.com. The docking system includes a base with a recharge cradle and a cordless handset. Your cell phone connects to the docking system base with included cables, and the cordless handset (up to three, at $69.99 each for the extra ones) can hook up to your existing telephone line. You can then choose to place or receive calls using your home or cellular service. (A future version may add Wi-Fi calling.) RCA advises that the docking base be kept in the room with the clearest cellular reception, which may take some experimentation. To evaluate what mix of cellular and landline calling might work best for you, consider your calling plans and your long-distance behavior.—SR

Real Time Against Crime
WHILE IT DOESN’T quite match the centralized police systems seen in Judge Dredd and Minority Report, the New York Police Department’s new $11 million Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) is one of the organization’s largest technological leaps ever. With 15 workstations at their disposal, the 26 investigators and analysts working there around the clock can access the past five years’ worth of city crime records, 31 million FBI crime records, and over 33 billion public records. Prior to the RTCC, detectives on an investigation were chiefly responsible for gathering records and analyzing possible linkages and trends on their own. The RTCC automates much of the work by giving them the ability to refer to multiple databases instantaneously. They can search for key characteristics of crime suspects’ nicknames, tattoos, weapons used—and cross-reference them to area crime reports, 911 calls, and other information. Results of searches can be overlaid on a satellite image map. “We must continue to implement innovative strategies in order to drive crime down even further,” said NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg at the press conference announcing the launch. “More and more, these efforts are involving the sophisticated use of information to identify and stop emerging crime spikes before they become dangerous crime trends.” For now the RTCC is dedicated to homicides and shootings, but it will expand its functionality as warranted.—David Murphy

E-PAPER ARRIVES Fujitsu engineers have developed the first bendable color electronic paper— based on film substrate—with an image-memory function. Color images on the paper, contained in three display layers (red, blue, and green), are not affected when the image is bent. And because the paper requires electricity only when an image is changed, a picture can be displayed continuously without using power. Public display advertising, including displays of information on curved surfaces, is one of several expected applications. The paper is to be commercialized in 2006.

Pay to Peer: A New Spin on Music Sharing
WHEN IS IT OKAY to share copyrighted music files online? When you pay for them, of course. So several services are aiming at ways for legitimate peer-to-peer (P2P) systems to work. One group has a novel answer: Pay users for referrals. The service is Wurld Media’s Peer Impact, and the company has already signed up EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner to offer over a million songs. You buy tracks as you would from iTunes, except that files can be stored on your machine and purchased and downloaded from your machine. download stores and Peer Impact, says Wurld Media CEO Greg Kerber, is that P2P delivery systems offer greater bandwidth and storage efficiencies. “We knew it wasn’t enough to sell one thing a million times,” explains Kerber. “You needed to sell a million things one time.” So through the use of a technology similar to BitTorrent’s, files can be split up among participating hosts and downloaded quickly. “Peer-to-peer is a really good thing,” says Adam Klein, an executive VP at EMI. “It’s the illegal use of peer-to-peer that’s not a good thing.” —John R. Quain

If a Peer Impact user recommends a song and another person buys it, the original buyer can earn up to five percent of the song’s price as credit for further purchases. Peer Impact’s tunes are primarily in the protected Windows Media format—so iPod users can’t participate. The big difference between typical

SPIDEY ONLINE Microsoft has been granted exclusive rights to publish multiplayer online games for the Xbox 360 console featuring Marvel Entertainment’s stable of famous superheroes, including Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. The first titles will arrive in 2008.
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P I P E L I N E • go.pcmag.com/pipeline

Nail Byting
The next time you find yourself reaching a finger up for a quick nail-nibble, watch out: You might be destroying precious data. Researchers at the University of Tokushima’s Department of Optical Science and Technology have managed to encode data on the human fingernail, and they aren’t stopping there. Skin, teeth, and more might soon join the fingernail as biological USB drives of a sort. Researchers used a femtosecond laser to encode the data. When parts of a finger-

NET CALLS A new Frost & Sullivan report estimates that the number of residential Voice over IP (VoIP) lines in the U.S. will grow from 1.5 million last year to 18 million by 2010. It also notes, though, that many consumers remain leery of making phone calls on the Net.

Watching Over You
ROUND-THE-CLOCK medical monitoring for at-risk patients could soon be as easy as a flick of the wrist. The MDKeeper, from Tadiran Spectralink, is worn like a watch and integrates various medical sensors, a Siemens GSM/GPRS radio module, and a built-in cellular speakerphone and processing unit to measure and transmit data to caregivers. Designed for those who need continuous monitoring, such as cardiac and circulatory disease patients, disabled seniors, and the chronically ill, the MDKeeper measures vital signs, including pulse rate, cardiac rhythm (ECG or EKG), and blood oxygen levels. It can either store the data and transmit it to a medical center at a later time or, in the case of an emergency, transmit the information “immediately in real time using the built-in cellular phone while sending an alarm to a caregiver,” says Ofer Atzmon, business development manager at Tadiran. The MDKeeper combines medical and cellular technology uniquely. “Unlike with other remote-monitoring products today,” says Atzmon, “MDKeeper users never need to hook up any electrodes to their body, open their shirt, or dial any phone numbers. It can detect certain critical situations or deterioration in physiological condition and send automatic alerts in real time.” Final testing will be completed this year, with the launch expected early in 2006. The price will vary, Atzmon says, according to service packages and insurance coverage.—Karen Jones

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY NORA KRUG

nail get zapped, the microscopic sections emit increased fluorescence levels. These levels can then be read by observational technology, such as blue-laser diode illumination, CCD sensors, or imaging lenses. While an average of 5MB of data can be encoded at varying depths, the data will last only about six months, or the amount of time it takes a fingernail to grow out completely. “We don’t have serious problems in recording and reading the data on the nail. The important things for practical use are to ensure the safety and to reduce the costs,” says researcher Yoshio Hayasaki. “For low costs, we need to continue the study.” Authentication remains the primary application, comparable to identifying a person with a digital fingerprint scan. The laser encoding process currently comes with a high price tag, though, so don’t expect to replace your driver’s license with your body right away.—DM

Beyond Viruses
THE COST TO U.S. COMPANIES of doing battle with network attacks has fallen significantly. That was a piece of excellent news from the tenth annual CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey for 2005, which gathered survey data from 700 information-security professionals at businesses and government organizations. Not all the news is rosy, though. Losses from the theft of proprietary information—especially as hackers pursue databases full of online identities—rose dramatically last year. Respondents reported that network attacks cost them $203,606 in 2004 on average, down from $526,010 in 2003—a 61 percent decline, thanks in part to better antivirus technology and more awareness. “Viruses are still a big-ticket item,” says Robert Richardson, a director of the Computer Security Institute, “but theft of proprietary information is growing fast. I think it’s indicative of a shift in cybercrime toward consumers.” The fastest-growing computer-security threat to organizations is Web site defacement, according to the study. A whopping 95 percent of respondents reported more than ten Web site incidents in the past year, compared with only 5 percent a year ago. While virus attacks are hurting companies less, the CSI/FBI survey did put some numbers on the damage from electronic theft of proprietary information. It cost the average firm $355,552—up from $168,529 a year ago. That’ll take a bite out of a company’s virus-fighting savings.—SR

WHO ARE YOU? Microsoft is developing a new scheme for managing digital identities, dubbed InfoCard. With InfoCard, you drag a visual card on your Windows desktop onto Web sites and applications to present your identity. Your credentials and personal information are stored on the card. “What our smart cards offer to InfoCard users is the portability of the credential, for privacy and prevention of identity theft,” says Diane Harvey, a director at Axalto, which is working with Microsoft on smart cards. Harvey foresees people using both electronic and physical InfoCards.

P I P E L I N E • go.pcmag.com/pipeline

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Project Thyself Compact Shooter Eliminates the Jitters
ick up the Konica Minolta DiMage X1 digital camera, and you’ll be saying, “Blur, begone!” by the time you fill your first memory card. At an impressive 8 megapixels, the sleek shooter is the highest-resolution compact camera on the market. Not only can you take bigger shots, you can take better shots as well: The camera’s proprietary Anti-Shake technology steadies the CCD for crystal-clear photos, even if your hand is less than still.—David Murphy he ViewSonic PJ256D digital projector produces wall-size presentations (or movies or video games, when your work is done) from a tiny 2.2-pound package. Even smaller than the latest Harry Potter hardcover, the unit can easily fit in a backpack or travel bag. The XGA (1,024-by-768) projector is rated at 1,500 lumens, and supports 720p and 1080p HDTV signals.—DM

T

P

$1,500 street. ViewSonic Corp., www.viewsonic.com.

Price TBD. Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A. Inc., www.konicaminolta.com.

Voice Transfer Made Easy
udio recording and transferring has become a step easier with the Olympus VN-960PC digital voice recorder. With twice the storage capacity of previous models, the VN-960PC lets you record up to 16 hours of audio in LP mode at an increased sampling rate of 5.75 kHz. And once you’ve got your audio snippets, you can toss them on your computer using a simple USB connection—no additional software or computer trickery required. Two triple-A batteries get you 25 hours of recording life, the company says.—DM

A

No Media Need Apply
ired of stuffing your bag full of DV tapes or miniDVD blanks every time you take the camcorder with you? The JVC Everio G Series units record directly to built-in hard drives (20GB and 30GB models are available), eliminating the need for media. And with a hard drive literally at your fingertips, accessing and manipulating hours of video footage becomes a snap. The video records as a DVD-quality MPEG-2 file, freeing you from unnecessary file conversion.—DM

T

$800 list and up. JVC Americas Corp., www.jvc.com.

$79.99 list. Olympus America Inc., www .olympusamerica.com.

No PC? No Problem
Suppose you want to transfer files from your USB flash storage device to a friend’s, but there’s no computer in sight. If you’ve got an Xmultiple FlashPoint ShareDrive, that’s no problem. Just plug the memory key into the female connector on the ShareDrive, and with the press of a button you can copy the contents of one thumb drive to the other. The ShareDrives range in capacity from 128MB to 2GB, and plug right into your computer’s USB port.—DM
$69.99 direct and up. Xmultiple, www.sharedrives.com.

True USB PC Key
Teslain’s Rohos Welcome 1.3 converts any USB drive into an access key for Microsoft Windows, replacing the Windows Login. Simply insert the key to sign on. You can configure it to log off, hibernate, or shut down when the key is removed. One PC can accept multiple keys, and one key can be configured to unlock multiple PCs.—Neil J. Rubenking
$25 direct. Teslain, www.rohos.com.

For more new products see go.pcmag.com/productbulletin
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F I R S T
H A N D S - O N T E S T I N G O F N E W P R O D U C T S • www.pcmag.com/first looks
36 Dell Dimension 9100 36 HP Media Center 7070n

Photosmart PC
38 Our Top Desktops 40 Quicken Premier 2006

40 49 50 50 50

Microsoft Student 2006 MSN Virtual Earth (beta) Nikon Coolpix 7900 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 Canon PowerShot S2 IS

50 50 52 53 54

Casio Exilim EX-S500 Konica Minolta DiMage Z20 Our Top Digital Cameras Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Canon Selphy CP600

Dual-Core Shootout
THE MAGAZINE WORLD’S LARGEST COMPUTER-TESTING FACILITY

BY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO

In the market for a screamingly fast multimedia machine? Then dual-core is the way to go. Our testing has shown that a dual-core processor—that is, a chip with two CPUs on board—excels at multitasking (in which two or more applications run simultaneously) as well as at running apps designed to take advantage of

multithreading (in which a single application runs more than one process simultaneously). So with dual-core parts now widely available from AMD and
Intel, we gathered five highend desktops to see how they would fare on our multimedia and gaming benchmark tests. Who should take note? Certainly those who create digital content for a living (or as a serious hobby). Applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere are multithreaded and can take advantage of a dual-core CPU ’s prowess. Even Musicmatch Jukebox gets a boost. And if you’re tired of your PC slowing to a crawl as your antivirus program churns along, a dualcore PC is your answer.

Falcon Northwest Mach V (Athlon X2)
Brilliant red and accented with gold leaf, this Falcon Northwest Mach V is fueled by a dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor, along with dual nVidia GeForce Ultra cards in an SLI configuration. With its overclocked AMD processor and SLI graphics, the Mach V made short work of our benchmark tests, proving its worth as a monster content-creation rig that excels at multitasking, and also as a killer system that can frag your opponents during gaming sessions.

THIS RED RIG

is equally adept at work and play.

Of the recently reviewed systems with AMD or Intel dual-core processors, the Mach V is the best performer on Adobe Photoshop and Premiere tasks, as well as on the Microsoft Windows Media Encoding/Norton AntiVirus multitasking test (where we encode a video file in the foreground while running a fullsystem virus scan in the background), which we run on all dual-core desktops. Although the Mach V doesn’t include any content-creation software of its own, its 600GB of hard drive space, dual-layer DVD writer, and spectacular SYSmark 2004 Internet Content Creation scores rocket it to the top as a contentcreation system. Performance was excellent on the Office Productivity (OP) test; the Mach V placed in the top 5 percent of the dual-core systems we’ve tested. (The OP test is decidedly single-threaded and does not take advantage of the dual-core X2 4800+ processor.) But the dual-core processor can really flex its muscles on the WME/NAV multitasking test, and here, the Mach V comes out on top. It

BENCHMARK TESTS
L High scores are best. M Low scores are best. Bold type denotes first place.

SYSMARK 2004
Office Productivity Internet Content Creation

Processor

Graphics chipset

OVERALL

Anti-aliasing/Anisotropic filtering K

Falcon NW Mach V (Athlon X2) Falcon NW Mach V (EE 840)
PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOM O’CONNOR

Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (overclocked to 2.5 GHz) Pentium EE 840 (overclocked to 3.8 GHz) Pentium D 840 (3.2 GHz) Pentium EE 840 (overclocked to 4.0 GHz) Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (overclocked to 2.6 GHz) Pentium EE 840 (3.2 GHz)

256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 256MB ATI Radeon X850 XT PE 256MB nVidia GeForce 7800GTX SLI 256MB ATI Radeon X850 XT PE

219 211 166 232 217 189

341 329 254 311 334 285

273 263 205 267 269 232

HP Pavilion d4100y Velocity Micro Promagix DCX Velocity Micro Vision 64 X2 Dell XPS Gen 5*
RED denotes Editors’ Choice.

* Reported for comparison.

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P C M A G A Z I N E SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 www.pcmag.com

L O O K S
WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN: lllll EXCELLENT l llllm VERY GOOD l lllmm GOOD l llmmm FAIR l lmmmm POOR

54 56 56 56 56

Sony DPP-FP50 Dell Laser Printer 1100 Konica Minolta magicolor 2450 Kyocera FS-C5020N HP LaserJet 1020

56 59 60 60 60

HP LaserJet 1022n Our Top Printers Sony MFM-HT75W Samsung SyncMaster 915N Eizo FlexScan L578

60 60 62 64 64

NEC MultiSync LCD2335WXM Sony SDM-HS75P Our Top Displays OpenOffice.org 2.0 (beta) ThinkFree Office 3.0

67 ZoneAlarm Security Suite 6.0 72 Symantec Mail Security 8240 72 blueRoam

RED type denotes Editors’ Choice.

needed just 8 minutes 1 second to complete the encoding task. The system also held its own on our gaming tests, thanks to the SLI graphics setup: Both of our test games ran smoothly at all resolutions, even with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering turned on, thanks to the dual 6800 Ultra graphics cards. With numerous cooling fans, the Mach V is a little loud. Wrapped and routed internal cables help cooling air flow. At this point, the system is mostly state-of-the-art, but there is plenty of space in the case to move things around and upgrade if you so choose. The Mach V is priced way above the Dell XPS Gen 5 and the HP Pavilion d4100y and, without the special paint job, is just $100 less expensive than its dual-core sibling, Falcon’s own Pentium EE 840–based Mach V. If you have roughly $7,500 of disposable income to drop on a high-end system, the Athlon 64 X2-based Mach V offers an attractive combination of flash and performance. This system can keep many a video producer or richcontent Web producer very happy—and productive—with
3DMARK05
1,024 x 768
L

its ability to perform several tasks simultaneously instead of the painfully slow “click Start, encode, then go out for coffee” procedure to which they have become accustomed.
Falcon Northwest Mach V (Athlon X2)
With AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5 GHz), 1GB 400-MHz DDR SDRAM, two 300GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID Level 0), two 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards (SLI), 19-inch LCD monitor, dual-layer DVD±RW drive, DVD-ROM drive, Klipsch 5.1 Ultra speakers, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, $7,490 direct. Falcon Northwest, www.falcon-nw.com. OVERALL llllm Music: 80 (out of 100); Photos: 70; Video: 88; Gaming: 100.

THE EE 840 CPU

in this Mach V is a little slower than the Athlon X2.

Falcon Northwest Mach V (EE 840)
Our other Falcon Northwest Mach V entry—this one configured with an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840—features components that should thrill gamers and graphic artists alike: a dual-core processor, two overclocked nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards in an SLI configuration, twin 300GB SATA hard drives in a RAID 0 array, and 1GB of RAM, all housed in an ICON case. Falcon’s Mach V line, which also includes the Mach V (Athlon 64 X2 4800+), reHALO: COMBAT EVOLVED (fps)

viewed above, aims to please a specific audience: those who will pay someone a lot of money to build and support a truly unique PC. As configured, the Mach V will certainly give well-heeled gamers and multimedia enthusiasts a lot to play with. But unless those people are also vehemently pro-Intel, there are better choices out there. A 3.2-GHz Pentium EE 840 (overclocked to 3.8 GHz) sits in Falcon Northwest’s top-end ICON case, which forgoes the automotive (and expensive) paint job of its AMD sibling.
Windows Media Encoding/NAV multitasking
min:sec M

DOOM 3
(high quality, fps)
1,600 x 1,200 L 4X/8X

(medium 1,600 x 1,200 quality, fps)
L

(ultra quality, fps)
1,600 x 1,201 L 4X/8X

1,024 x 768
L

1,600 x 1,200
L

CineBench 2003
(xCPU) L

1,024 x 768 L Off/Off

Default

4X/8X

Off/Off

Off/Off

10,309 8,424 3,710 6,339 11,256 5,944

5,104 4,801 1,665 3,553 9,406 3,366

128 101 78 106 117 87

74 71 22 40 94 40

70 69 21 37 90 31

136 113 76 124 136 88

112 100 43 81 130 72

660 728 522 767 650 612

8:01 9:34 8:50 8:20 8:19 10:43

Since the Pentium EE 840 runs warmer than the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ when overclocked, Falcon had to install a sealed liquid-cooling system, which is similar to that of the Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX, reviewed below. But while the ProMagix DCX’s radiator is mounted on the side door—a major inconvenience—the Mach V’s is topmounted. Falcon’s setup allows much easier access to the roomy interior of the system. Still, cooling fans in the case mean a lot of noise: This Mach V is one of the louder systems we’ve heard in a while. Though it isn’t a harsh noise, it’s constant and rarely fades completely into the background. The air-cooled Mach V is a bit quieter, but you wouldn’t call it silent, either. The Mach V’s across-theboard performance lags that of the Athlon 64 X2–powered Mach V and Velocity Micro Vision 64 machines reviewed here. The machine needed 9 minutes 34 seconds to complete our WME/NAV multitasking test, the slowest of the PCs in this group. It outperforms the Dell XPS Gen 5, but then again, the XPS’s Pentium EE 840 wasn’t overclocked. (Users can manually overclock the CPU in the XPS up to 3.6 GHz, but we ran our tests at 3.2 GHz, which is how the system ships.) The Mach V’s SYSmark Internet Content Creation score of 329 shows that it has the power to perform, but not as well as its AMD X2-based Mach V sibling, which got a 341 and is $100 cheaper. The Mach V has more than enough power for games like

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FIRST LOOKS
Desktop PCs
Doom 3 and Halo. You’ll get rock-steady rates on both games at 1,600-by-1,200, and since 60 fps is the “magic number” for Doom 3, the Mach V is golden. The Pentium EE 840– based Mach V delivers top-end performance, but there are slightly less expensive systems that can do a little better.
Falcon Northwest Mach V (EE 840)
With Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 (3.8 GHz), 1GB 675-MHz DDR2 SDRAM, two 300GB SATA hard drives (RAID Level 0), two 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards (SLI), 19-inch LCD monitor, dual-layer DVD±RW drive, DVD-ROM drive, Klipsch 5.1 Ultra speakers, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, $6,595 direct. Falcon Northwest, www.falcon-nw.com. OVERALL lllmm Music: 85; Photos: 80; Video: 89; Gaming: 100.

jects out of the box. With a total of 148GB of RAID 0 storage plus a 250GB hard drive, there’s a decent amount of room for additional programs and projects. All told, the Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX will satisfy users who require a lot of power, such as those who do a lot of encoding and heavy multitasking.
Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX
With Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 (4.0 GHz), 1GB 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM, two 74GB 10,000-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID Level 0), 250GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive, 256MB ATI Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition graphics, 19-inch LCD monitor, dual-layer DVD±RW drive, DVDROM/CD-RW drive, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 7.1 speakers, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, $5,434 direct. Velocity Micro Inc., www.velocitymicro.com. OVERALL lllmm Music: 92; Photos: 90; Video: 92; Gaming: 98.

THE DCX

uses a liquid cooling system.

Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX
Velocity Micro has a history of creating high-powered systems for professional use as well as for gaming. The ProMagix DCX is aimed more at high-powered video, photo, and film editors than at gamers, though it will satisfy gamers, too. The DCX is a front-runner in the Intel-powered dualcore content-creation field, though some system problems we ran into held it back from scoring higher. The system’s dual-core 3.2GH z Intel Pentium EE 840 processor (overclocked to 4.0 GHz) and the aforementioned drives helped the DCX return some excellent test scores. Its SYS mark Internet Content Creation score of 311 topped the 285 earned by the Dell XPS Gen 5, which uses the same processor—though in Dell’s case, the processor was not overclocked. The DCX, however, lagged behind the Pentium EE 840–based Falcon Northwest Mach V, which is overclocked to 4.0 GHz, and got a 329. The DCX’s 3D gaming scores were similarly stellar for a single-graphics-card

solution, again beating the XPS Gen 5. As expected, gaming scores fell short of the SLI configured graphics found on both Falcon systems and Velocity’s other entry here. Because of an unwise design decision, the DCX isn’t as expandable as you might expect. Unlike the top-mounted liquid cooler used on the Mach V, the DCX’s cooling radiator is located on the case door, making it almost impossible to get into the case without dismantling the cooling system. Short tubes lead from the CPU to the radiator, preventing the user from opening the case more than a few inches. These tubes are sealed, so as long as you’re careful, there’s no need to worry about spilling liquid coolant all over your desktop. But you’ll need to remove the cooling block covering the CPU (which is similar to the heat sink found on air-cooled systems) in order to move around in the system. While not impossible, this procedure could be nerveracking for those unaccustomed to upgrading or installing CPU chips. The DCX comes with the Ulead digital-creation suite, which includes PhotoImpact, DVD Movie Factory, and Video Studio, so you’ll be able to work on content-creation pro-

Velocity Micro Vision 64 X2
The Velocity Micro Vision 64 X2 is a monster performer, with an overclocked AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor, twin 74GB 10,000rpm SATA drives in a RAID Level 0 array, and dual nVidia GeForce 7800GTX graphics cards in an SLI configuration. The Vision 64 X2 is a gaming system with content-creation capabilities. It can easily breeze through today’s games and is prepared to take on future games as well. With scores off the charts on our performance tests, this system is not for the faint of heart. Inside the signature windowed Velocity Micro case reside two wonders of the modern tech age: the aforementioned dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor and two nVidia GeForce 7800GTX graphics cards. There is plenty of room in the case for future expan-

sion, and the cables are all neatly routed (with some wrapped) for better airflow. Interestingly, the Vision 64 X2 and the Falcon Northwest Mach V (Athlon X2 ), which both use an overclocked dualcore AMD X2 processor, are air-cooled—unlike their Intel counterparts, which are liquid-cooled. This is a plus for the AMD systems, since aircooled systems tend to be easier to upgrade and have fewer breakable parts. Velocity Micro, like most of the boutique vendors at this high level, “optimizes” the components in the PCs it sends us, and in doing so crushes the benchmark tests we use to measure performance. FutureMark typically revises its 3DMark test after systems on the market hit the magic 10,000-point barrier on that test. The Athlon 64 X2–based version of the Mach V recently hit that mark, and now the Vision 64 X2 (also with the Athlon 64 X2) destroys it. Even at the higher 1,600-by-1,200 resolution, the Vision 64 X2 surpasses 8,000 points. On our SYSmark tests, both the Velocity Micro and the Athlon-based Mach V performed at the top of the pack, though the Mach V scored slightly higher. The machine completed

THE VISION 64 X2 is great for

gaming and multimedia.

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FIRST LOOKS
Desktop PCs
our MWE/NAV multitasking test in a respectable 8:19. The Velocity Micro fared even better on gaming tests: Both Halo and Doom 3 are fully playable at 1,600-by-1,200 with the eye candy (anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, and other graphics-quality settings) turned on. It scored above 90 frames per second on both the SYSmark and the FutureMark tests, so there should never be a point where the system bogs down during play. So if you miss a shot or die during the game, you won’t be able to blame the system. On the Content Creation and Office tests, the Vision 64 X2’s scores aren’t quite at the top, but they still show that the machine handled these tasks easily—and blazingly fast. Although the HP Pavilion d4100y and Dell XPS Gen 5 did not perform as well, they may be better suited for 2D contentcreation work, since they don’t carry the cost of an extra graphics card. After all, the Vision 64 X2 costs over $4,000 before you add a monitor and speakers, while the XPS Gen 5 is under $4,000 with all those peripherals included. In the Vision 64 X2’s defense, you do get the Ulead Digital Creation Suite and a couple of games, including Far Cry. As a gaming performer, the Velocity Micro Vision 64 with the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor and twin nVidia GeForce 7800GTX cards is impressive. Those who want to eke the most fps from a game will lust for it. Content-creation users, however, will find almost the same performance elsewhere at a much lower price.
Velocity Micro Vision 64 X2
With AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.6 GHz), 1GB 500-MHz DDR SDRAM, two 74GB 10,000-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID Level 0), 250GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive, dual 256MB nVidia GeForce 7800GTX graphics (SLI), 19-inch LCD monitor, dual-layer DVD±RW drive, DVDROM drive, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 surround speakers, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, $5,375 direct. Velocity Micro Inc., www.velocitymicro.com. OVERALL llllh Music: 87; Photos: 90; Video: 87; Gaming: 98.

Dual-Core for Multimedia Mavens
BY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO While the other premier dual-core systems here are clearly targeted at the gaming set, the HP Pavilion d4100y is aimed at the multimedia enthusiast interested in encoding video, touching up photos, and creating music. And armed with the new dual-core Pentium D 840 processor, the d4100y delivers. The black-and-silver Pavilion d4100y sports a functional, clean front panel. It includes two USB 2.0 and two six-wire FireWire ports, microphone and headphone jacks, and an integrated 8-in-1 multimedia card reader. Inside, you’ll find a 400GB (7,200-rpm) SATA hard drive, with plenty of space for three more drives. The case is easy to maneuver in and work on. Also present are a DVD-ROM drive and a dual-layer DVD±RW writer with LightScribe. (LightScribe allows the user to flip the disk over after burning the data and burn an image label on the disc.) The Pentium D 840 processor is similar to the Pentium Extreme Edition 840, except that it doesn’t include HyperThreading technology, which means it can handle only two streams of data—unlike the EE 840, which can handle four. Since there are two real cores in the Pentium D, however, it handles simultaneous tasks better than a single-core processor, such as the Pentium 4 640 (3.2 GHz). Thanks to the HP’s 3.2-GHz Pentium D 840 processor and speedy hard drive, the d4100y can handle content-creation tasks with ease, as indicated by its SYSmark Internet Content Creation score of 254. The d4100y lagged behind the Dell XPS Gen 5
(with its similarly clocked Pentium EE 840 processor) on the CineBench 2003 test because the XPS Gen 5 uses four data streams, as opposed to two, thanks to Hyper-Threading. The d4100y’s 8:30 time on our multitasking test shows that it’s quite capable of handling simultaneous tasks, such as encoding video while running antivirus software in the background. Enthusiasts who want to work on video-encoding, photo-retouching, and music creation projects can be confident that they won’t have to turn off antivirus protection just to keep their computer from freezing up. It’s a good thing, too, since the d4100y comes with Norton’s complete Internet Security suite and Trend Micro’s SpySubtract antispyware software, both of which can run in the background. The d4100y isn’t really a gaming box, nor is it aiming to be, but its 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 card returned playable numbers for Doom 3 (at 1,024by-768) and for both Halo tests (1,024by-768 and 1,600-by-1,200). On the 1,600-by-1,200 Doom 3 test, the d4100y’s numbers (22 frames per second) show it can’t quite keep up at the higher resolution, but then again, you really need higher-end graphics cards in an SLI configuration to get steady 60 (or more) fps numbers on this test. If 3D gaming performance is your primary goal, look at the Falcon NW Mach V (Athlon 64 X2 4800+) or the Velocity Micro Vision 64 X2 with SLI graphics.

NEED DUAL-CORE POWER but don’t have

$5,000 to spend? Consider the HP d4100y. With iTunes for music, an abundance of software for HP digital camera and printer support, Microsoft Works for productivity, and the aforementioned security software for protecting your system from outside threats, the d4100y is an attractive system fresh out of the box. All in all, the HP Pavilion d4100y is a very good choice if your computing needs are extensive, especially when it comes to multimedia. This system is a good investment and will keep you creating and editing, while staving off system sluggishness, for a good time to come.
HP Pavilion d4100y
With 3.2-GHz Intel Pentium D 840, 1GB 533-MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 400GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive, 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 graphics, 21-inch widescreen LCD, dual-layer DVD±RW drive, DVD-ROM drive, Microsoft Windows XP Home, $2,775 direct. Hewlett-Packard Development Co., www.hp.com. OVERALL llllm Music: 98; Photos: 92; Video: 86; Gaming: 89.

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FIRST LOOKS
Desktop PCs

The Divine Dell Dimension
BY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO The Dell Dimension 9100 is Dell’s followup to the successful Dimension 8400 series, which has defined the high-end content creation PC category—until now. With Intel’s new Pentium D 840 processor, over 300GB of hard drive space, Windows Media Center Edition 2005, and a lovely 20-inch widescreen monitor, we think it will find a home with digital creation and multimedia enthusiasts. The difference between the 9100’s processor and the dualcore Pentium EE 840 that we’ve seen on high-end gaming systems like the Dell XPS Gen 5 is that the Pentium D 840 does not have Hyper-Threading activated, which is fine for anyone who isn’t running workstationlevel applications. The Dimension comes with a TV/FM tuner for the Media

Center functionality, 1GB of DDR2 system memory, and a digital media card reader (which resides in the spot formerly occupied by the now obsolete floppy disk drive). The 320GB hard drive in our tested configuration should be enough for most nonprofessional users, but if you need more, you can configure the 9100 with two 400GB or 500GB drives for a staggering 1TB (1,000GB) of data. What the system can’t accommodate is additional internal hard drives; if you really need more storage space, we suggest an external FireWire or USB 2.0 drive. As expected, the 9100 is a powerhouse on performance, speeding through the SYSmark 2004 benchmark tests. The 9100’s Internet Content Creation score of 268 bests most of its competition; systems with overclocked EE 840 and Athlon 64 X2 processors will beat the

MULTIMEDIA

enthusiasts will love the Dimension 9100.

9100, but at a much higher price. The 9100 is very good on most gaming tests but lags a little on the higher 1,600- by 1,200-resolution Doom 3 test (22 fps). As a Media Center/multimedia digital creation box, the 9100 works very well, with lots of space for both multimedia projects and recorded TV programming. The dual-core processor, for the most part, can ensure that even if you’re recording or processing some-

thing in the background, your foreground tasks will be unaffected. All told, the 9100 has power for now, plus plenty of room to grow.
Dell Dimension 9100
With Intel Pentium D 840 (3.2 GHz), 1GB 533-MHz DDR2 SDRAM, two 160GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID Level 0), nVidia GeForce 6800 graphics, duallayer DVD±RW drive, DVD-ROM drive, 20-inch widescreen LCD, Dell 5650 5.1 speakers, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, $2,799 direct. OVERALL llllh Music: 95 (out of 100); Photos: 92; Video: 92; Gaming: 80.

Media Center for the Home Office or Den

I

BY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO f you’re mulling the purchase of a machine based on the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition OS, you have a decision to make: tower, or an AV rack–friendly horizontal design. The HP Media Center 7070n Photosmart PC is a tower MCE 2005 PC that is sleek enough to put next to the TV, but it is perhaps more at home as a desktop that serves as the multimedia hub for your home. It’s a very good choice for anyone who wants more experience with photos, music, and video. One advantage the 7070n has over our current Editors’ Choice in the

category, the Sony VAIO VGCRA830G ($1,799.99 direct), is its Media Drive slot, which can accept HP’s 160GB and 300GB hard drive cartridges—providing virtually unlimited storage for your TV programs and video projects. The 7070n also has a swappable top panel, so you can easily dock your HP camera or iPod. Other components include media card slots, an IR remote, a 250GB hard drive, and I/O ports on both the front and the back of the case. Thanks to its 3.2-GHz Pentium 4 640 procesTHIS MCE

PC delivers enticing value.

sor, this PC performed well on our tests. The machine’s score of 203 on our Internet Content Creation test shows that it has the muscle to power through most multimedia tasks without breaking a sweat. But its gaming performance (as with most MCE models) is lackluster, because of its entry-level ATI Radeon x300 graphics card. If you’re serious about playing 3D games, you’re better off buying a high-powered system customized for gaming. The 7070n comes with a nice bundle of multimedia software beyond all the bells and whistles of the MCE OS, including HP Image Zone Plus for organizing, editing, and sharing photos; InterVideo WinDVD Creator with LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling support for editing and recording digital home

videos to DVD; and muvee autoProducer for creating professional-looking home videos. You’ll also get Norton Internet Security 2005 and Quicken 2005 New User Edition. The HP Media Center 7070n is most appropriate for users who have advanced beyond the beginner level, but it might be a little too tame for hard-core multimedia enthusiasts. It will, however, cover the broadest range of people interested in digital music, photos, and video.
HP Media Center 7070n Photosmart PC
With Intel Pentium 4 640 (3.2 GHz), 1GB 400-MHz DDR SDRAM, 250GB 7,200rpm SATA hard drive, 128MB ATI Radeon x300 graphics, dual-layer DVD±RW drive, DVD-ROM drive, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, $1,249.99 direct. Hewlett-Packard Development Co., www.hp.com. OVERALL llllm Music: 90 (out of 100); Photos: 87; Video: 82; Gaming: 57.

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FIRST LOOKS
Top Products
$399 list Excellent daylight images and very good flash shots. Good menus Tiny and tough. Mediocre recycle times. Smallish LCD, llllh Optical viewfinder placement could be better. The Canon PowerShot SD300 Digtal Elph takes great pictures, despite its tiny size. It’s stylish,built like a very smal tank, and fun to use. 4MP, 16MB built-in memory; Secure Digital slot; 35mm equivalent: 35mm-105mm; 2,272 x 1,704 max res. 15fps video capture (640 x 480)

Our Top Desktop PCs
CONS Limited internal drive expansion. No HDTV tuner. Could use a wireless keyboard and mouse at this price. When the case is upright, it’s annoying to open because the kickstand can get in the way. BOTTOM LINE

Visit go.pcmag.com/desktops for the full reviews of these and scores of other systems.

GAMING/MULTIMEDIA Dell Dimension 9100
NEW
$2,799 direct llllh

PROS Dual-core power for multitasking. Quiet design. Easy to open and service. Bright 20-inch widescreen LCD. Too many to list, but here are a few: dual-core processor, dual TV tuners, good gaming performance for a single-card solution. Compact gaming case. More gaming performance for much less money than our previous FragBox 2. Good hardware mix. Smashes most of our 3D benchmark test records to date. Latest nVidia graphics. Not as flashy as some gaming PCs.

SPECS AND SCORES Intel Pentium D 840 (3.2 GHz), 1GB RAM, two 160GB hard drives, nVidia GeForce 6800, 20-inch widescreen LCD. Doom 3 (10x7): 80 fps. Intel Pentium EE 840 (3.2 GHz), 1GB RAM, two 250GB hard drives, ATI Radeon X850 XT PE graphics. Doom 3 (10x7): 87 fps. AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4 GHz), 1GB RAM, 600GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics. Doom 3 (10x7): 103 fps. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.6 GHz), 1GB RAM, three drives (398GB), dual nVidia GeForce 7800GTX, 19inch LCD Doom 3 (10x7): 117 fps.

If you crave an upgrade from that aging PC sitting on your desk, the 9100 can take your audio/video/ photo hobby to the next level. If you’re ready for high-end computing, the XPS Gen 5 should be near the top of your list.

Dell XPS Gen 5
$3,999 direct lllll

Falcon Northwest FragBox 2
$3,225 direct llllm

Still a lot of money for a system without a monitor.

The FragBox 2 gives gamers exactly what they want: hot gaming performance for a price that doesn’t require a trust fund. The Vision 64 is a monster gaming system that scored off the charts on our tests. Subtle in design, it’s not for the faint of heart.

NEW Velocity Micro Vision 64
$5,375 direct. llllh

Not as flashy as some gaming PCs. Not cheap.

MEDIA CENTER HP Digital Entertainment Center z545
$2,000 street llllh Excellent execution of a livingroom Media Center PC. Quiet. Connects to legacy audio and video devices. Dual tuners. Camera and iPod docking port. HP Media Drive hard-drive slot for unlimited expansion. 250GB drive standard. Good price. Liquid cooling means a quiet tower PC. Large storage capacity for videos. Better 3D performance than with other Media Center PCs. Requires separate amplifier (or powered speakers). No HDTV tuner (yet). The z545 is everything you’d want in a Media Center PC for the living room. It replaces the DVD player, CD changer, FM tuner, and DVR. The 7070n is a solid midrange system that can serve as a multimedia PC or a Media Center for home entertainment. The VGC-RA830G is a near-silent desktop that can serve as both a PC and the central repository of your digitally connected home. Intel Pentium 4 530 (3.0 GHz), 512MB RAM, 200GB hard drive, 160GB removable drive, ATI Radeon X300 SE graphics, MCE 2005. Intel Pentium 4 640 (3.2 GHz), 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, ATI Radeon x300 graphics. SYSmark: 184. Doom 3 (10x7): 14 fps. Intel Pentium 4 550J (3.4 GHz), 1GB RAM, two 160GB hard drives, nVidia GeForce 6600 graphics, MCE 2005. Doom 3 (10x7): 50 fps.

NEW HP Media Center 7070n Photosmart PC
$1,249.99 direct llllm

Internal drive expansion limited. No monitor or speakers. Wired (not wireless) keyboard.

Sony VAIO VGC-RA830G
$1,799 direct llllh

Tower chassis is less living room–friendly than models designed like AV gear. No HDTV tuner.

ALL-IN-ONE Apple iMac G5
$2,103 direct lllll Simple, stunning design. Quiet. Just one cord (for power), thanks to optional Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Gorgeous 20-inch screen. Bright widescreen display. Great TV tuner. Wireless keyboard with built-in touch pad. Wireless mouse. Lots of included software. Can’t upgrade graphics. Built-in speakers don’t deliver much bass. Apple has another design coup on its hands with the iMac G5. It’s about time someone designed a computer like this. In the spirit of the Apple iMac, the PC components reside behind the VGC-V520G’s 20-inch LCD. But Sony adds a TV tuner and a DVR. PowerPC G5 (1.8 GHz), 512MB RAM, 160GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics, 20inch widescreen LCD, DVD-R drive. Intel Pentium 4 (3.2 GHz), 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce FX Go5700 graphics, 20-inch LCD. SYSmark: 174.

Sony VAIO VGC-V520G
$2,699.99 direct llllh

A little pricey. No HDTV support. Needs TV/volume controls on the PC/TV case bezel.

VALUE AND MIDRANGE Dell Dimension 5100
$999 direct llllm Quiet design. Dell Media Experience is like Media Center Edition. Memory card slots (finally!). Dual-layer DVD±RW drive. Large-capacity hard drive. Plenty of room for upgrading. No FireWire ports. We would prefer a 17-inch LCD at this price point. The forward-looking technology, quiet design, and low price should please the general user, budding multimedia mavens, and students. A solid value machine with some great features, the 2800NF2-MX is upgradable for taking multimedia to the next level. The Vector SX-V offers the latest technologies, a wide upgrade path, and enough horsepower to satisfy gamers and multimedia enthusiasts. Intel Pentium 4 531 (3.0 GHz), 512MB RAM, 160GB hard drive, ATI Radeon X300 SE graphics, 15-inch LCD. SYSmark: 167. AMD Sempron 2800+ (2.25 GHz), 512MB RAM, 120GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce4 MX440 graphics. SYSmark: 133. Intel Pentium 4 540 (3.2 GHz), 512MB RAM, 120GB hard drive, nVidia GeForce 6600 graphics. SYSmark: 188.

Polywell Poly 2800NF2-MX
$699 direct llllm

No built-in modem, FireWire port, or memory card reader. Mediocre processor.

Velocity Micro Vector SX-V
$999 direct llllh

Better-than-average graphics card. Motherboard supports the latest technologies. Loaded with multimedia features.

Only one optical drive.

BUSINESS IBM ThinkCentre S50
$1,200 street lllll

H00XX.TW

Comprehensive management tools. IBM guarantees that its systems will support the same software image for a full two years.

None significant.

Unsurpassed management tools, a stable platform, a serviceable 0 COLUMNS WIDE X 00 LINES of a thing DEEP chassis—we can’t think not to like about the S50.

VERSION

3/4/05

Intel Pentium 4 (2.8 GHz), 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, Intel Extreme Graphics 2. Business Winstone 2004: 19.0.

NAME

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P C M A G A Z I N E SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 www.pcmag.com

FIRST LOOKS
Applications

Quicken Makes More of Money
BY KATHY YAKAL The new Quicken Premier 2006 shows more innovation than we thought possible in a mature (22 years and counting) software package. It breaks down existing features into more productive tools while also making advances in areas like reporting and document management. So while the new Microsoft Money 2006 () is still an excellent personal finance manager, Quicken supplants it as our Editors’ Choice this time around. If you don’t like Quicken’s default home page for quick navigation, you can customize it and create multiple views. These pages can include just about anything you want from the program, including graphs and data illustrating your history, current standing, and progress toward financial goals. You can quickly see whether, for example, you have scheduled transactions,

which Quicken now you need to sell a creates). If you can stock, or a credit card create a file, you can is bumping up against attach it to a transits limit. Every finanaction and open it cial slice covered, like with one click. This cash flow and planis important for users ning, has its own who rely on elechome page guiding tronic records, since you to the tools most banks maintain offered and the related a database of only a data you’ve collected. few months for user With this version, access. It’s also a lot Intuit introduces very of work. But Money common-sense feadoes nothing like this. tures that simplify THE NEW Instant Insights feature in Quicken gives We would need money management you a quick view of payee and category history. a very compelling reaeven more than Quicken’s simple, intuitive in- center. Six new crucial spending son to suggest switching perterface already has. First up is reports are now in the mix, in- sonal finance programs. The Instant Insights. When you’re in cluding spending by payee and process can be inelegant, and a register, you can click on an category, and spending versus you don’t want to lose even one chunk of data as you move. For icon next to a payee or category average by category. and pop open a bubble that disWe have mixed feelings newcomers, we’re suggesting plays recent history. Money re- about the most interesting new Quicken Premier 2006 this year, quires an extra click or two, feature. Using standard Win- and propose that users of older depending on how you do it. dows tools, you can attach doc- versions upgrade. Click once more and you can uments like cancelled checks Quicken Premier 2006 get a complete report. Intuit has and receipts to account transac- $79.95 direct. Intuit Inc., also revamped Quicken’s report tions (including PDF files, www.quicken.com. lllll

Make Homework Less of a Chore

H

BY MOLLY K. MCLAUGHLIN A welcome addition would be projects, science projects, art omework can be stress- the ability to customize these projects, and oral presentations. ful—and not just for templates for each user, as well For foreign-language assignstudents. By the time as a way to save Favorites in one ments, the software provides children begin to struggle with place. Still, each tutorial is easy verb conjugations, spell-check, complex assignments in middle to navigate, with extensive and translation tools for French, and high school, most parents guidelines to help students start German, Italian, and Spanish. are a bunch of years out of the their essays, research papers, Students also have access to educational loop and not well book reports, creative writing common phrases for most equipped to provide other languages. assistance. But now Microsoft Student there’s hope: Microsoft provides help with Student 2006 producmath homework ontivity software offers line through an includhomework help for ed subscription to MSN Encarta Premium. Stua range of subjects. dents can access their At the heart of the textbooks (most major software is Learning publishers are repreEssentials for Stusented) and receive dents. This module step-by-step instrucadds tutorials, tooltions and hints for bars, and templates to solving math problems Microsoft Word, Ex- MICROSOFT STUDENT’S graphing calculator can in four categories: cel, and PowerPoint. help you visualize complex math problems.

basic math, algebra, advanced algebra, and geometry. The program’s graphing calculator software lets students hide buttons they don’t need, mouse over buttons for quick descriptions of their function, store and easily change variables, and see the solution to their problems as both fractions and decimals. To help visualize a problem, students can create 2D and 3D graphs and view, rotate, and animate them on screen. You’ll need a legitimate copy of Office 2003 or later for Student, and an Internet connection (dial-up is okay) is required for some features. With seamless integration into Office and a simple browserlike interface, this software will be a valuable addition to any student’s desktop.
Microsoft Student 2006
$99 direct. Microsoft Corp., www .microsoft.com. llllm

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P C M A G A Z I N E SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 www.pcmag.com

J U M P T O N E X T PA G E >>

FIRST LOOKS
Online Services

The World According to Microsoft

M

BY RICHARD V. DRAGAN As you find what you need, sored links (as there are with level at our local coffee shop). icrosoft’s new MSN Google, which tends to return Using a wired connection only, Virtual Earth has several ways Virtual Earth service more results, but at the risk of it guessed within several miles. to save and work with your adds some strong cluttering what you see). Up to This ability can help business search results. A really handy mapping capabilities to the three sets of search results can travelers find their way around feature here is the Scratch Pad, MSN portfolio, including digital be shown at once, with color- even if they are new in town. which lets you collect up to five satellite imagery and nicely coded and numbered locations for later reintegrated local search. Aiming results conveniently trieval by clicking on at keeping it simple, Microsoft’s displayed. a displayed search entry into advanced interactive location. From here, As with MSN’s tramapping shows a lot of promise. ditional Maps & Diyou can e-mail or There are some limitations in rections feature, you blog points of interthe public beta, but the service can view a standard est to yourself or should only improve as better road map (along with others. (The browser coverage of U.S. and world loca- annotated points of pulls up your e-mail interest). Of course, tions is added. client or the MSN MySpaces blogging With Virtual Earth, Microsoft the real reason to go Web site if you have has Google Maps and, to some with Virtual Earth is an account there.) extent, the slick Google Earth to toggle on the aerial For saving and (go.pcmag.com/googleearth) view option, which restoring an enclearly in its sights. Like Google displays the actual THE SERVICE CAN find your location automatically tire view, including Maps, Virtual Earth adds real- satellite image of each over wireless networks—with good accuracy—using Scratch Pad entries, world satellite imagery to the location. More useful the Location Finder utility. Virtual Earth lets mix of roadmaps and local is the combination of The initial release here con- you save the state of your sessearch. Virtual Earth requires the two: You can overlay the only a browser to use, with no road diagrams and place names centrates on the United States sion in a URL (called a Permaalmost exclusively, though we link), which can be e-mailed or separate client to download on top of the satellite imagery. For road warriors, a useful were able to scroll around loca- bookmarked for later. and install. A compromise here We also liked the ability to is that its library of digital im- (and unique) feature is the Lo- tions around the globe, at least agery at higher magnifications cate Me option (which requires from on high; if you zoom in too call up driving directions from tends toward black-and-white you to download and install close in the satellite view, you any displayed point of interest imagery. Like the Google a 4MB client applet). Clicking often get a “no image” icon. using the Drive To or Drive offerings, Virtual Earth lets you a button locates you against Microsoft clearly has some From options. Currently, drinavigate smoothly over a vir- a database of millions of known catching up to do to match the ving directions are still disworldwide coverage played in a separate Maps & tual map. (Academic available in Google Directions Web site, but users archives of digital Earth. And the per- can expect further integration imagery traditionally spective in Virtual with Virtual Earth in the future. don’t let you move Earth (like that in It’s a big advantage to be able to around the frame in Google Maps, but un- toggle seamlessly between real time.) like that in Google a road map and the satellite Finding a business Earth, which permits image views without losing with the site is easy, as tilting the displayed your place on the map. you can search by Though there’s room for imagery), is always keyword (like a busistraight down. Micro- improvement, the initial release ness or category) or soft is planning, how- of MSN Virtual Earth does a fine by address. For examever, to integrate job of combining local search ple, we searched for highly detailed pho- results with actual digital imItalian restaurants, tographs of major agery. Microsoft clearly has put golf courses, and ac- MSN VIRTUAL EARTH lets users view actual aerial cities at a 45-degree some energy into this already tivities like hiking and photographs of search result locations within an easyangle in the fall re- very capable service—one that biking near several to-use, browser-based interface. lease of the service. puts geographical digital immajor U.S. cities. Resulting local search hits are Wi-Fi (and wired) network ad- A demo of this technology, agery paired with easy-to-use shown, restricted by the current dresses and moves the Virtual from Pictometry International, location-based search into the geographical view. Matching Earth window to that location showed impressive detail and hands of everyone. hits include local Yellow and for you. In midtown Manhattan, was preferable to the chunky MSN Virtual Earth (beta) White Pages directories. At least the service was able to locate us representations of buildings Free. Microsoft Corp., http://virtualearth.msn.com. lllhm in the beta, there are no spon- fairly exactly (down to the street you get in Google Earth.

www.pcmag.com SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E

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FIRST LOOKS
Digital Cameras IN SHORT Canon PowerShot S2 IS

Coolpix 7900 Sets the Scene

W

BY TERRY SULLIVAN hile the 7MP Nikon Coolpix 7900 is a fine compact camera, it isn’t for everybody. Beginning and intermediate users will love the creative possibilities of the 7900’s scene modes, but the compact camera lacks the manual settings that experienced shooters will want for more control. One of the more practical features of the 7900 is the Face Priority AF mode, a portraitfocusing feature included in the Portrait Scene Assist mode. Another of the camera’s impressive features, and one that worked quite well, was the Panorama Scene mode. With each successive photo you take in your panorama, you get a sliver of the previous scene masked (at about 25 percent opacity) over your live image on the LCD screen. It’s

a wonderful way to take the guesswork out of the panorama process and help you line up your images correctly. One disappointment is the 2-inch LCD, especially when 2.5- and even 3-inch LCDs are becoming more common. The display worked well in bright daylight, though, and the camera also includes a viewfinder. Our daylight test image had very little noise and fringing, though a warm, slightly orange cast skewed

the color accuracy a bit in the test shot. But the Coolpix 7900 did a fine job of picking up the subtle textures of our still-life model. Flash coverage in our flash test image was excellent, with no areas blown out by the flash. The colors in the flash image appeared a bit dark, due to underexposure, but saturation looked quite good. For a 7MP camera, the 7900 came in a little low in terms of resolution, posting an average of 1,525 lines of resolution. The camera booted up in 3.9 seconds, which was acceptable if a bit slow, but its recycle time was very good, clocking in at 2.3 seconds. Testing revealed a slightly noticeable shutter lag; in Auto mode, it failed to capture the action we wanted, which is certainly a problem.
Nikon Coolpix 7900
$399.99 list. NikonUSA, www.nikonusa.com. lllhm

Pros: Great picture quality. Wide variety of scene modes. Good image stabilization and superlong 12X optical zoom. Cons: Very slow recycle time. Small LCD. Poor electronic viewfinder. Bottom line: The Canon PowerShot S2 IS boasts good picture quality, but the small LCD and poor electronic viewfinder make it problematic for use in bright light.
$500 street. Canon U.S.A. Inc., www.usa.canon.com. lllmm

Casio Exilim EX-S500
Pros: Excellent picture quality. Useful and accessible scene modes. Speedy performance. Cool look for the digerati. Cons: Flash can be too powerful. No manual modes. No viewfinder. Bottom line: The Casio Exilim EX-S500 is a very good choice for style-conscious shooters. It boasts excellent image quality, great usability, and a gorgeous design.
$399.99 direct. Casio Inc., www.casio.com. llllm

NIKON’S 7900

has strengths and weaknesses.

Big Screen, Long Zoom

B

BY TERRY SULLIVAN oxy but well-balanced and sporting a large 2.5inch LCD screen, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1 delivers a wide array of features, shooting modes, and performance for just under $500. The camera has a long 12X optical zoom lens, which is quickly becoming the

SHUTTER LAG

holds the Sony DSC-H1 back.

new standard for superzoom cameras. The one glaring problem was the camera’s shutter lag—a big hindrance if you’re trying to capture that fleeting moment. One mode that worked well in our real-world testing was the burst mode, which lets you capture nine frames at the highest-quality setting in a steady burst. We also liked the useful Bracketing mode, which lets you pick your favorite shot. Our daylight test shots looked quite good. There was very little noise, and the overall exposure was good, but we saw some fringing in the color chart. In the flash image, the flash was too strong and resulted in a loss of detail and blown-out

highlights. (The flash is adjustable, though we suspect that most users won’t get around to adjusting it.) The camera also sends out a pre-flash signal that sets the exposure properly. In all, though we found the flash to be overpowering in our studio, you can get different results in real-world shooting situations. The DSC-H1 averaged 1,450 lines of resolution, which is very good for a 5MP camera. It had an excellent boot-up time of 2.1 seconds and a recycle time of 3.2 seconds, which is also quite good. But our testing revealed significant shutter lag in the flash shots, which can make it very difficult to capture action when you need to.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1
$499.99 list. Sony Electronics Inc., www.sonystyle.com. lllhm

Konica Minolta DiMage Z20
Pros: Very good color matching and dynamic range. Flashy design and welcome 8X zoom. Cons: No image stabilization. Tests revealed some fringing and noise in flash and daylight shots. Bottom line: Although it’s not quite a superzoom, the Konica Minolta DiMage Z20 boasts a good 8X zoom that works well in a variety of conditions. We only wish the picture quality were better.
$330 street. Konica Minolta Photo Imaging U.S.A. Inc., www.kmpi.konicaminolta.us. lllmm

For an in-depth look at these products, go to go.pcmag.com/cameras.

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P C M A G A Z I N E SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 www.pcmag.com

FIRST LOOKS
Top Products

Our Top Digital Cameras
Visit go.pcmag.com/cameras for the full reviews of these and scores of other cameras.

ULTRACOMPACT Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital Elph
$350 street llllm

PROS Excellent daylight images and very good flash shots. Good menus. Tiny and tough.

CONS Mediocre recycle times. Smallish LCD. Optical viewfinder placement could be better.

BOTTOM LINE The SD300 takes great pictures, despite its tiny size. It’s stylish, built like a very small tank, and fun to use. The SD500 is a versatile, accurate, and fun compact that performed very well on our tests and will appeal to a wide range of shooters.

SPECS/PERFORMANCE 4MP, 2-inch LCD, 3X optical zoom (35 mm to 105 mm), SD slot. Resolution: 1,225 lines. Boot: 1.8 sec. Recycle: 5.5 sec. 7.1MP, 2-inch LCD, 3X optical zoom (37 mm to 111 mm), SD slot. Resolution: 1,625 lines. Boot: 2.7 sec. Recycle: 2.3 sec.

Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital Elph
$460 street llllm

Quick performer. Excellent image quality. Unique My Color feature. Good ergonomics. Sleek and attractive.

Macro mode did not produce good results. Flash had some problems in backlit situations.

COMPACT Canon PowerShot S70
$470 street llllm Takes excellent photos. Very solidly built. Zoom lens starts at a true wide angle so you can get it all in. Can shoot in RAW format. Large, bright LCD and 4X zoom. Simple menus and on-screen help for beginners, with higher-end features for more advanced shooters. Fast at everything it does, at least when the flash is off. Takes very good pictures. Decent zoom range includes true wide angle. Mediocre video capabilities. Zoom isn’t always precise. If you’re looking for a camera that takes excellent photos but don’t want the heft or expense of a larger model, the S70 is a worthy choice. The EX-P600 is a good choice, whether you’re a pro or a beginner who wants a camera to grow with. 7.1MP, 1.8-inch LCD, 4X optical zoom (28 mm to 100 mm), CF slot. Resolution: 1,550 lines. Boot: 4.6 sec. Recycle: 2.5 sec. 6MP, 2-inch LCD, 4X optical zoom (33 mm to 132 mm), SD slot. Resolution: 1,300 lines. Boot: 3.0 sec. Recycle: 4.0 sec. 6.3MP, 2-inch LCD, 4X optical zoom (32.5 mm to 130 mm), xD slot. Resolution: 1,550 lines. Boot: 2.0 sec. Recycle: 4.1 sec.

Casio Exilim EX-P600
$550 street llllm

Slow recycle times. Some dark exposures.

Fujifilm FinePix E550
$350 street llllm

Underpowered flash can slow camera down. Uses more expensive xD memory.

You won’t miss shots with the E550, and you’ll be very satisfied with the photos you create.

SUPERZOOM Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ15
$370 street llllm Leica 12X zoom lens with constant f/2.8 aperture and image stabilization. Very comfortable, SLR-like feel. Leica 12X optical zoom lens with image stabilization. Very comfortable, SLR-like feel. Large and heavy for a superzoom. Poor video mode. The DMC-FZ15 takes good pictures, and its long zoom lens and short recycle times make this the best superzoom for shooting action. If we could take only one camera with us on vacation, this would be high on our list: There are few scenes it couldn’t handle. 4MP, 2-inch LCD, 12X optical zoom lens (35 mm to 420 mm), SD slot. Resolution: 1,275 lines. Boot: 5.0 sec. Recycle: 1.5 sec. 5MP, 2-inch LCD, 12X optical zoom lens (35 mm to 432 mm), SD slot. Resolution: 1,550 lines. Boot: 5.0 sec. Recycle: 3.5 sec.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
$550 street llllm

Large and heavy. Poor video mode.

ENTHUSIAST Canon PowerShot G6
$600 street llllm Excellent picture quality. Easy-tonavigate menus for beginners, plus features advanced users will like. 30-second maximum for movie recording at just 10 fps. Doesn’t use USB 2.0 for file transfers. With a sleek, ergonomic shape, a powerful optical zoom, and a multitude of pro-level features, the G6 is a winner. The DiMage A2 offers a good combination of quality, features, and performance. 7.1MP, 2-inch LCD, 4X optical zoom (39 mm to 117 mm), CF slot. Resolution: 1,650 lines. Boot: 4.3 sec. Recycle: 2.7 sec. 8MP, 1.8-inch LCD, 7X optical zoom (28 mm to 200 mm), CF slot. Resolution: 1,600 lines. Boot: 2.1 sec. Recycle: 1.1 sec. 8MP, 1.8-inch LCD, 5X optical zoom (28 mm to 140 mm), xD slot. Resolution: 1,775 lines. Boot: 1.5 sec. Recycle: 1.9 sec.

Konica Minolta DiMage A2
$600 street llllm

Exceptional functions. Excellent handling characteristics.

Performance is a mixed bag.

Olympus Camedia C-8080 Wide Zoom
$850 street llllm

Images have rich colors, are well exposed and sharp. Flash shots show very good illumination. Solid body, quick boot and recycle times.

Manual focus requires using the jog buttons. Menu navigation is slow.

The C-8080 is a solid workhorse and a quick one, too. Although it takes some hits on ease of use, it produces excellent images.

DIGITAL SLRs AND HYBRIDS Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
$999.99 list lllll Fantastic range of features, including two auto modes. Superb burst mode. Compelling value. Small LCD. Screen is hard to see in bright daylight. No TIFF support. This versatile, user-friendly camera is a pleasure to use and doesn’t break the bank. 8MP, 1.8-inch LCD, 2.5X optical zoom (18 mm to 55 mm), CF slot. Resolution: 1,750 lines. Boot: 1.2 sec. Recycle: 0.9 sec. 8.2MP, 1.8-inch LCD, 2.5X optical zoom (kit lens: 18 mm to 55 mm, native), CF slot. Resolution: 1,800 lines. Boot: 0.2 sec. Recycle: N/A. 5MP, 2-inch LCD, 5X optical zoom (38 mm to 190 mm), SD slot. Resolution: 1,300 lines. Boot: 2.8 sec. Recycle: 6.0 sec.

Canon EOS 20D
$1,500 street lllll

Incredibly clear, detailed images. Excellent color, exposure, and tonality. Intuitive controls, extensive features. Carry one device for stills and video. Options for capturing what happened shortly before and after capture button is pressed.

Deserves a kit lens option more befitting the camera’s quality and capabilities. Slightly clipped highlights on auto settings. Test shots are a bit dark. No quickreview button to view photos. No optical viewfinder.

Excellent design, fast performance, and fine image quality make the EOS 20D the current top gun among digital SLRs under $3,000. The EX-P505 shoots good 5megapixel snapshots and 640-by480 MPEG-4 videos. It performs both jobs well.

Casio Exilim Pro EX-P505
$500 street lllhm

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FIRST LOOKS
Imaging Software

Microsoft Digital Image Suite Gains New Power

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BY GALEN FOTT s an all-around digital photo editing, organizing, and sharing package, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 was an also-ran when compared with offerings from Adobe, Jasc, and Ulead. But the new Digital Image Suite 2006 is now a contender, at least when it comes to organizing and sharing photos. Most of the new features are found in Library, the suite’s image-organizing component. As before, Library lets you create keywords and assign them to individual images. That makes it easy to find, say, all the photos of your brother Sam that were taken in Hawaii. But rather than having to sort through a long alphabetical list of keyword tags, Library now makes it possible to organize

from the previous verthe keywords themsion. The clumsy inselves, creating deeply terface is the same, hierarchical categories and outside of a flexifor people, places, and ble tool for converting events. There’s also color images to blacka ready-made five-star and-white, new imagerating system for rankediting features are ing images. Though negligible. But you can Library’s graphical innow easily resize photerface still isn’t as tos for display on moelegant as that of Photobile devices, and sync shop Elements 3, the to those devices to upsuite now offers roughload photos and video. ly the same power for ONE NEW IMAGE-EDITING feature in the suite is a tool to convert images to black and white. Digital Image Suite tagging photos. 2006 can’t beat PhotoThere are other smaller but thoughtful en- we reported earlier, Photo Story shop Elements 3’s top-notch hancements to Library, includ- is a total overhaul of Microsoft’s image editing and overall inteing a new feature that makes a Windows XP–only slide-show gration, but Microsoft has made large thumbnail image pop up utility, with motion and music significant improvements to its when you hover your cursor effects that easily outstrip Pho- already competent package. over a smaller thumbnail. But toshop Elements’ capabilities. Microsoft Digital Image Suite Unfortunately, Editor, the 2006 Digital Image Suite’s most dynamic new feature is the in- suite’s image-editing compo- $130 direct. Microsoft Corp., clusion of Photo Story 3.1. As nent, is largely unchanged www.microsoft.com. lllhm

Special Advertising Supplement

R-TOOLS: SAVING USERS FROM THEMSELVES
It seems like the amount of data you have to manage doubles every year. Bigger hard disks on every desktop, notebook and server seem to multiply as you deal with an ever-growing volume of e-mail, multimedia, and application data. What you need is a toolbox for dealing with all that disk storage – wherever it resides – to help manage growth and solve problems, and it’s available from R-Tools Technology Inc. (www.r-tt.com). So, when you get the call from the boss saying: "Hey, I was working on a huge customer presentation, and somehow I deleted it", you can turn to R-Studio, the comprehensive data recovery utility that can bring that file back, whether it was on a local disk, RAID or networked disk, even if encrypted or compressed. If the O/S can see the drive, R-Studio can read the data on it. Often users have the opposite problem – a disk full of unnecessary files left behind by web-surfing, cookies, history, and all the other disk-clogging megabytes left behind by everyday use. R-Wipe&Clean frees up all that space to increase performance and create more room for useful information.
R-Tools offers a comprehensive array of utilities that makes managing information easier, including:

R-Guard data security software to keep information safe from theft or damage R-Drive Image which can create exact disk copies used for disaster recovery or for installing multiple copies of the same drive image R-Mail which can recover deleted emails or repair damaged .dbx files R-Word which recovers, repairs and reconstructs lost or damaged Microsoft Word files.

For more information on these and R-Tools other utilities, please go to: www.r-tt.com.

FIRST LOOKS
Photo Printers

Fast, High-Quality Photos

T

BY M. DAVID STONE he Canon Selphy CP600 is the faster, more polished cousin of the Canon Selphy CP400. Like the CP400, it’s a thermal dye–based, dedicated photo printer, designed primarily for 4- by 6inch photos but able to handle a variety of paper sizes from credit card size to 4 by 8 inches. In addition to offering better speed than the CP400, it prints better-looking output and comes with a rechargeable battery for full portability. The CP600 can print from a computer or directly from a PictBridge camera (but not from memory cards), and it offers output that’s both waterproof and smudgeproof. At 2.3 by 7.0 by 5.2 inches and weighing just 1 pound 14 ounces (plus 8.5 ounces for the included battery), it’s small and lightweight enough to be brought along on trips without a second thought.

And thanks to the battery, which Canon says is good for 35 photos, you can print on the spot, even if you’re nowhere near a power outlet. Printing our suite of 4- by 6-inch photos from a computer took 1 minute 18 seconds for each photo (compared with around 1:30 for the ink jet–based Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition). Printing from a Canon PowerShot S60 camera was slightly faster, at 1:13 to 1:14. Output quality is another strong point. Most output qualifies as true photo quality. One photo printed from Adobe Photoshop, however, turned the straight spokes of a bicycle wheel into jagged lines. When we printed the same photo using the included ZoomBrowser EX 5.1 program, we did not see the same problem. But

THE CP600 is light-

weight and portable.

the photo lost detail in bright areas, which was not a problem when printing from Photoshop. Cost per page for most thermal-dye printers is relatively high, rarely dipping much below 50 cents per photo. So it’s not surprising that if you buy Canon’s 36-print pack of dye roll and paper, at $19.99 (list), the running cost for the CP600 is 56 cents per print. But Canon also sells a 108-photo pack and has dropped the price to $39.99 (list), which works out to 37 cents per print. That’s

much closer to the magic 29 cents per print that you’ll find at most local drugstores—or with the Epson PictureMate printers. Among dedicated photo printers, we still give the edge to the Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition for its combination of output quality, speed, cost per print, and other features. But if you want a smaller and arguably more portable printer, the Canon Selphy CP600 is the thermaldye alternative of choice.
Canon Selphy CP600
$249 direct. Canon U.S.A. Inc., www.usa.canon.com. llllm

Preview Your Photos on Your TV

T

BY M. DAVID STONE he Sony DPP-FP50 is an admirable thermal-dye photo printer that lets you print 4- by 6-inch prints as well as preview photos on your TV. In fact, in many ways the DPP-FP50 is more of a consumer appliance than a computer peripheral. Sony does a good job of making the printer easy to use with a TV. The DPP-FP50 comes with an appropriate cable for the RCAvideo input on most TV sets. Simply plug it in, set the TV to view the input, put a memory card in the printer, then sit back and use the printer’s remote to view the photos and menus on the TV screen. In addition to letting you print through on-screen menus,

the DPP-FP50 allows you to edit photos with commands to crop, resize, remove red-eye, and more. You’ll also find built-in card- and calendar-creation programs. And the back of the DPP-FP50’s photo paper (some of which is bundled with the printer, along with a dye roll) is designed as a postcard, so you can send your

THE DPP-FP50

connects to your TV.

creations by mail. One potential issue is that the printer can accept only CompactFlash, SD, and Sony Memory Stick cards directly. If your camera doesn’t use one of these cards, you can still take advantage of the TV connection, but only if you get an appropriate adapter elsewhere. A more troublesome problem concerns using the LCDbased menus instead of menus on a TV screen to print from memory cards: The LCD is almost impossible to read, and the front-panel controls are confusing. Fortunately, the LCD and menus don’t come into play if you’re printing from a camera or a computer. Performance is on the

fast side of the typical range for dedicated photo printers, at 1 minute 1 second to 1:10 for printing a 4- by 6-inch photo. Photo quality is a touch below what we’ve seen from competitors (namely Canon’s Selphy models and Epson’s PictureMate series). That said, the only important flaw we saw was a tendency to lose detail in light areas. As with most thermal-dye printers, running costs are high. Sony’s packages of dye roll and paper run to about 56 to 63 cents per 4- by 6-inch photo. By contrast, the ink jet–based Epson PictureMate produces prints at only 29 cents per photo. On balance, the DPP-FP50 is a reasonable choice. But if you won’t be using the TV connection, you can easily find equivalent printers without that feature for less.
Sony DPP-FP50
$199.99 direct. Sony Electronics Inc., www.sonystyle.com. lllhm

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FIRST LOOKS
Printers IN SHORT Kyocera FS-C5020N

A Laser Printer for Under $100

W

BY M. DAVID STONE ith a price tag of just $99 direct, the Dell Laser Printer 1100 doesn’t have to offer much else. But, in addition to being extremely affordable, it delivers respectable performance, excellent text quality, and better-looking graphics than most monochrome lasers. Setup is simple: Install the toner cartridge, plug in the USB cable, and pick Typical Installation from the first screen in the setup program. Then hit the Finish button and you’re ready to print. Output quality is the best we’ve seen from lasers that cost $250 or less, and it compares favorably with far more expensive monochrome lasers. The 1100 can handle any of your text documents. More than half the test fonts were easily readable at 4 points, and none needed

more than 8. Graphics were also impressive. We saw some minor to moderate dithering and a tendency for extremely thin lines to break up. But the output is certainly good enough for school and internal use. Performance is surprisingly good for the printer’s 15-pagesper-minute Samsung engine. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic’s hardware and software), we clocked

the 1100 at 10 minutes 49 seconds, compared with 10:12 for the 19-ppm HP LaserJet 1020 and 8:09 for the 22-ppm Samsung ML-2250. Paper handling isn’t great, as the 1100 has only a 150-page input capacity. Another minor annoyance is that the bundled toner cartridge is rated for only 1,000 pages, and low toner warnings started appearing after about 500 pages. Standard cartridges, rated at 2,000 pages, are $65 direct from Dell. That sounds like a lot, but the claimed 3.25 cents per page for toner is within a reasonable range. The simple truth is that the Dell Laser Printer 1100 delivers good value overall. And it’s hard to go wrong at this price.
Dell Laser Printer 1100
$99 direct. Dell Inc., www.dell.com. OVERALL lllhm Text lllll Graphics lllmm Photos llhmm

Pros: Better-thanaverage quality overall for a color laser. Unusually low claimed cost per page. Cons: Slow performance, both for the price and for the engine rating. Bottom line: The Kyocera FSC5020N favors output quality over speed, worthwhile for any small office that needs professional-looking documents. Low running costs make it a potential money saver over time.
$2,509 street. Kyocera Mita America, www.kyoceramita.com. OVERALL lllmm Text lllll Graphics lllhm Photos lllhm

HP LaserJet 1020
Pros: Small size. Excellent text. Reasonably highquality graphics and photos for the price. Cons: Low input capacity at 150 sheets maximum. Bottom line: The HP LaserJet 1020 is a truly personal monochrome laser. It takes up little space and delivers excellent text along with reasonable speed.
$179 street. Hewlett-Packard Co., www.hp.com. OVERALL lllmm Text lllll Graphics llhmm Photos llhmm

THE DELL 1100 is the first

laser printer under $100.

When Output Quality Matters Most

B

BY M. DAVID STONE y today’s standards, the Konica Minolta magicolor 2450 is expensive for a personal color laser. But it justifies the price by producing unusually high-quality photos. The desktop-size 2450 measures 13.4 by 16.9 by 19.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 44 pounds. Physical setup is straightforward, and network setup is largely automated, except that you can choose between a PCL driver and a PostScript driver. We installed both: PCL for our business applications suite and PostScript for our photo suite. Output quality, particularly photos, is among the best we’ve seen for any color laser. Text reproduction is excellent and color graphics are impressive.

Unlike most laser printers, the 2450 can print in 16 possible shades of each toner (cyan, yellow, and magenta). That yields 4,096 possible colors for each printer dot, which makes it easier to reproduce things like skin tones that change smoothly from one color to the next. The

biggest problem was a slight loss of detail in light areas on some photos. Performance, unfortunately, is not as impressive. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic’s hardware and software), the 2450 handed in a relatively slow total of 31 minutes 14 seconds. For photos, it averaged a respectable 57 seconds for each 4-by-6 photo and 1:44 for each color 8-by-10. If your primary need is speed, this is the wrong printer. But if you need high-quality output for text, graphics, and photos, this one is hard to beat.
Konica Minolta magicolor 2450
$699 direct. Konica Minolta Printing Solutions U.S.A. Inc., http://printer .konicaminolta.com. OVERALL llllm Text lllll Graphics llllm Photos llllm

HP LaserJet 1022n
Pros: Small size. High-quality output. Better graphics and photos than most monochrome lasers. Includes a network connector. Cons: Paper capacity is only 250 sheets standard and maximum. Bottom line: The HP LaserJet 1022n delivers high quality and good speed for the price. The network connector is great for a home or small office.
$300 street. Hewlett-Packard Co., www.hp.com. OVERALL lllhm Text lllll Graphics lllmm Photos lllmm

The 2450 puts the emphasis on quality.

For an in-depth look at these products, go to go.pcmag.com/printers.

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FIRST LOOKS
Top Products
$399 list Excellent daylight images and very good flash shots. Good menus Tiny and tough. Mediocre recycle times. Smallish LCD, llllh Optical viewfinder placement could be better. The Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital Elph takes great pictures, despite its tiny size. It’s stylish,built like a very small tank, and fun to use. 4MP, 16MB built-in memory; Secure Digital slot; 35mm equivalent: 35mm-105mm; 2,272 x 1,704 max res. 15fps video capture (640 x 480)

Our Top Printers
CONS No memory card slots.

Visit go.pcmag.com/printers for the full reviews of these and scores of other printers.

PHOTO PRINTERS Canon i9900 Photo Printer
$499.99 list lllll

PROS Fast printing on photos. True photoquality output. Direct printing from PictBridge cameras. Fast enough to serve as an all-purpose printer. Prints from computers, memory cards, PictBridge cameras, and USB drives. True photo quality. Color LCD to preview images.

BOTTOM LINE Eight ink colors give the Canon i9900 true photo-quality output; 6,144 nozzles enable it to print photos at breathtaking speeds. This PictureMate offers high-quality output, plus the ability to preview images on a color LCD before printing. It can even run on battery.

SPECS AND SCORES Photo or all-purpose ink jet; 8 colors; 13x19; direct printing from cameras. 4x6 photo: 0:30.

Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer
$249.99 direct llllh

Limited to a maximum photo size of 4x6.

Photo ink jet; 6 colors; 4x6; direct printing from cameras and memory cards. 4x6 photo: 1:30.

ALL-PURPOSE INK JETS Canon Pixma iP4000
$149.99 direct llllm Fast performance for photos and business applications. Direct printing from cameras. Duplex printing. Two input paper trays. No memory card slots. The iP4000 is a good choice thanks to its speed, very good output quality, and unusually sophisticated paper handling for an ink jet. All-purpose ink jet; 4 colors; legal size; direct printing from cameras. Business app suite: 15:48; 4x6 photo: 1:05.

ALL-IN-ONE PRINTERS Brother MFC-8840DN
$650 street llllm Good performance. High-quality text and better-quality photos than from most mono lasers. Duplex printing and 50-sheet ADF. Good to very good print quality. Fast performance. Transparency adapter for slides and 35-mm film. Can print directly from slides. Fast performance for photos and business applications. Direct printing from cameras. Duplex printing and 35-page ADF. Fast. Very good graphics and photos. Ethernet and wireless networking. 50-page ADF. Prints from memory cards and cameras. Graphics and photos show subtle dithering patterns. The MFC-8840DN offers lots of features, including a built-in fax modem. Output quality is better than for most monochrome printers. Equipped with a transparency adapter, the MP760 can scan and print directly from slides and film. Print, scan, copy, fax; monochrome laser; 21 ppm; legal size; Ethernet. Business app suite: 8:42.

Canon Pixma MP760 Photo All-in-One
$299.99 list llllm

No ADF. No fax features.

Print, scan, copy; photo or allpurpose ink jet; direct printing from cameras and cards. Business app suite: 15:27; 4x6 photo: 1:08. Print, scan, copy, fax; legal size; direct printing from cameras. Business app suite: 15:41; 4x6 photo: 1:06. Print, scan, copy, fax; 6-color ink jet; legal size; direct printing from cameras. Business app suite: 16:11; 4x6 photo: 1:51.

Canon Pixma MP780 Photo All-in-One
$299.99 direct llllm

Fax driver but no dedicated fax utility, so you need to send a document from within the program you created it in. Text quality is acceptable for most users but less than ideal for those who need extremely small type.

The MP780 Photo packs a printer, scanner, standalone fax, and a copier. It’s a good choice for text, graphics, and photos. The 7410 offers fast performance, good to very good quality, a 50page ADF, and Ethernet and 802.11g wireless connections.

HP Officejet 7410 All-in-One
$499.99 direct llllm

MONOCHROME AND COLOR LASERS
NEW Dell Laser Printer 1100
$99 direct lllhm Low price. Excellent text. Better graphics than most monochrome lasers. Reasonable speed for a personal printer. Low price. Good performance. Excellent text. Includes Ethernet connector. Low input capacity (150 sheets) is both standard and maximum. Starter toner cartridge prints only about 1,000 pages. Output quality for photos and graphics is slightly below that of more expensive color lasers. For less than $100, the 1100 delivers excellent text quality, betterlooking graphics than most printers, and reasonable speed. With its low price, the 2600n could readily replace an ink jet as a personal printer. It could even serve a few users on a network. The 4650n delivers fast performance, good to excellent output quality, and good paper-handling options. The AP410 marries fast performance to excellent text quality. It’s a good match for a small office or an individual power user. The ML-2250 is faster than most personal monochrome lasers, and the 550-page maximum capacity is enough even for sharing the printer. The 5500DN offers high speed, high quality, and heavy-duty paper handling. Monochrome laser; 15 ppm; legal size. Business app suite: 10:49.

HP Color LaserJet 2600n
$400 street llllm

Color laser; 8 ppm mono and color; legal size; Ethernet. Business app suite: 21:09; 4x6 photo: 0:31.

HP Color LaserJet 4650n
$2,099 direct llllh

Fast performance. Excellent text quality, near-excellent graphics, and good to very good photos.

Claimed 1.6 cents per monochrome page is a higher cost than that of an equivalent monochrome printer.

Color laser; 22 ppm mono and color; legal size; Ethernet; optional duplexing. Business app suite: 9:27; 4x6 photo: 0:53. Monochrome laser; 28 ppm; legal size; optional Ethernet; optional duplexing. Business app suite: 5:45; 4x6 photo: 0:08. Monochrome laser; 22 ppm; legal size; optional networking; optional duplexing. Business app suite: 8:09.

Ricoh Aficio AP410
$530 street llllm

Excellent text quality. Fast performance. Default 600-sheet input capacity.

No network connection or duplexer in the tested version (and both of those options are relatively expensive). Photo quality is at the low end for inexpensive monochrome lasers, though it’s acceptable for newsletters and the like. Paper-handling options turn it into a floor-standing unit.

Samsung ML-2250
$230 street llllm

Compact size. Excellent text quality. Good performance. Ample paper handling for a personal printer. Blazingly fast. Outstanding output quality. Paper-handling capacity and options suitable for departmental printing.

Xerox Phaser 5500DN
$3,399 direct llllh

Mono laser; 50 ppm; tabloid size; Ethernet; duplexing. Business app suite: 3:51.

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FIRST LOOKS
Displays IN SHORT Eizo FlexScan L578

A Do-It-All LCD
BY ROBERT HERON The Sony MFM-HT75W is a versatile 17-inch widescreen LCD / TV hybrid with impressive picture quality. If you are looking for a high-definition computer display that doubles as a hub for multimedia gear, the MFM - HT75W should be on your short list. An integrated NTSC TV tuner lets you watch television on the monitor, and we love the well-designed remote. The panel’s native 1,280by-768 resolution qualifies it as a true highdefinition display (but you need to add a dedicated HDTV tuner to receive HD content). A springloaded folding stand on the rear of the MFM-HT75W provides 20 degrees of verticalangle adjustment, but the base lacks any height or swivel adjustments.

The MFM-HT75W uses Sony’s XBrite display technology to increase contrast levels and color saturation using a clear-coat filter. The downside of XBrite (and similar glossy display technologies) is increased screen reflectivity, so this unit is best suited for a light-controlled environment. In the lab, the MFM-HT75W’s factory default Movie mode came very close to the stated 800:1 contrast ratio,

with a measured 748:1. In our tests with DisplayMate, the MFM-HT75W rendered text legibly down to 6.8 points. Fullscreen tests revealed just a hint of glare in the corners with dark colors. Viewing angles were excellent all around. The panel’s 16-ms response time caused no noticeable motion smearing when watching movies or gaming. We were pleased that its picture-inpicture (PIP) function worked with any input and scaled HD content properly. The Sony MFM-HT75W is a “do-it-all” display that offers great image quality in a friendly design. If your desktop widescreen display requirements include a TV tuner and component video input, the MFM-HT75W will satisfy your cravings in HD style.
Sony MFM-HT75W
$599.99 list. Sony Electronics Inc., www.sonystyle.com. llllm

Pros: Good image quality. Wide viewing angle. Both analog and digital inputs. Cons: Expensive. So-so speakers. No portrait mode. Bottom line: The Eizo FlexScan L578 delivers better-thanaverage image quality and is well suited to the needs of imaging pros. Just be ready to pay more, as it’s priced well above the cost of most 17-inch LCD monitors.
$600 street. Eizo Nanao Corp., www.eizo.com. lllhm

NEC MultiSync LCD2335WXM
Pros: HD resolution. Includes NTSC tuner as well as PC inputs. Good color accuracy. Cons: Digital video interface lacks HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection). Poor black levels. Bottom line: The NEC MultiSync LCD2335WXM is an admirable PC display, though it falls a bit short as an HDTV. Still, for office use where you want it to pull occasional double-duty as a TV, it’s a good bet.
$1,149 list. NEC Corp., www.nec.com.
lllmm

HDTV,

monitor in one.

Aiming for Gamers

T

BY JOHN DELANEY he Samsung SyncMaster 915N is a moderately priced ($400 street) 19inch LCD with a fast pixelresponse rating, 1,280-by-1,024 pixel resolution, and a stylish design. It does a good job of displaying moving images and offers good color quality, though there is room for improvement. With a single analog input and no USB, DVI, or component jacks, connectivity to external devices is severely limited. The 915N has an 8-ms pixelresponse time, based on the typical bidirectional measurement of how long it takes the LCD’s pixels to go from black to white, then white to black. Using our PC Magazine Labs motion tests, we compared the 915N with an LCD panel rated at 16 ms. In gray-to-gray mode, in

which pixels typically take longer to respond and change, we could not see much of a difference in the amount of smearing around the leading and trailing edges of a moving image. The panel did fare slightly better on the black-towhite test, where we could see slightly less smearing on the 915N than on

the 16-ms panel. Where the faster response time should have an impact, according to Samsung, is in less eye fatigue when you are watching an entire movie or playing games for an extended period. On our DisplayMate performance tests (www.displaymate .com), the 915N turned in mixed results. While we were pleased with the monitor’s color tracking and text readability, color bars with a low percentage of color saturation were nearly invisible on a white background, as were the brightest grays. Viewing-angle performance was disappointing. But for budget-conscious business buyers, the 915N is worth considering.
Samsung SyncMaster 915N
$400 street. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., www.samsung.com. lllmm

Sony SDM-HS75P
Pros: Fast pixel response time. DVI and VGA inputs. Cons: Poor display uniformity. Restrictive base design. Poor vertical viewing angle. Bottom line: The Sony SDM-HS75P’s unique shape and cool features are offset by its poor display uniformity and a restrictive base design. Gamers may appreciate the panel’s fast performance and dual video inputs, but image quality mavens should look elsewhere.
$449.99 list. Sony Electronics Inc., www.sonystyle.com. lllmm

THE 915N is

a good choice for gamers.

For an in-depth look at these products, go to go.pcmag.com/displays.

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FIRST LOOKS
Top Products
$399 list Excellent daylight images and very good flash shots. Good menus Tiny and tough. Mediocre recycle times. Smallish LCD, llllh Optical viewfinder placement could be better. The Canon PowerShot SD300 Digtal Elph takes great pictures, despite its tiny size. It’s stylish,built like a very smal tank, and fun to use. 4MP, 16MB built-in memory; Secure Digital slot; 35mm equivalent: 35mm-105mm; 2,272 x 1,704 max res. 15fps video capture (640 x 480)

Our Top Displays
CONS Minimal picture adjustments in DVI mode. Takes up a lot of room for a desktop LCD.

Visit go.pcmag.com/displays for the full reviews of these and scores of other monitors, projectors, and HDTVs.

MONITORS Dell Widescreen UltraSharp 2405FPW
$1,199 direct LLLLH

PROS Impressive image quality. Exceptional resolution (1,920-by1,200 WUXGA). Aggressive price. Built-in 9-in-1 memory card reader. Good image quality. Wide viewing angle. Both analog and digital inputs.

BOTTOM LINE This is an astonishing value for a 24-inch, widescreen LCD, delivering a bright, gorgeous picture.

SPECS 24-inch LCD (1,920-by-1,200), 16:10 aspect ratio, 12-ms claimed pixel response rate.

NEW

Eizo FlexScan

L578
$600 street lllhm

Expensive. So-so speakers. No portrait mode.

The L578 delivers better-thanaverage image quality and is well suited to imaging pros. Just be ready to pay more. The SyncMaster 213T is an excellent monitor, from the high-quality LCD panel to the design detail throughout.

17-inch LCD (1,280-by-1,024), 5:4 aspect ratio, 12-ms claimed pixel response rate.

Samsung SyncMaster 213T
$899 list LLLLH

Portrait-mode rotation. Excellent image quality. Analog and digital connections and cables.

Weak printed documentation. Smearing on moving images.

21.3-inch LCD (1,600-by-1,200), 4:3 aspect ratio, 25-ms claimed pixel response rate, portrait mode.

PC MONITOR/TV HYBRIDS Samsung SyncMaster 930mp
$700 street LLLLM Excellent viewing angle. Good image quality. Built-in TV and FM radio tuners. Stand lacks height adjustment and does not swivel. Does not include DVI cable. Featuring built-in TV and FM radio tuners and a wide array of connection options, this multipurpose display is worth every penny. Delivering great image quality and a useful selection of A/V features, the MFM-HT75W handled everything we threw at it with ease. 19-inch LCD (1,280-by-1,024), 4:3 aspect ratio, 25-ms claimed pixel response rate. Contrast ratio: 1,000:1. 17-inch LCD (1,280-by-768), NTSC tuner. 16:10 aspect ratio. 16-ms claimed pixel response rate. Contrast ratio: 800:1.

NEW Sony MFM-HT75W
$600 street llllm

Great image quality. Well-designed remote control. Incorporates analog A/V inputs and an integrated NTSC TV tuner.

Screen technology is best suited for light-controlled environments.

PROJECTORS Dell 1100MP
$799 direct LLLLH Lots of premium features at an extremely low price. Generally good image quality. Rugged carrying case. Versatile connectivity, including support for USB thumb drives. Strong networking features. Clever captive lens-cover design. Small and lightweight. Quick unplug and go feature. Clever lens-cover design. Focus is soft in upper corners. No mouse function on remote. Standard warranty covers only one year. Auto-sync feature required manual tweaking. No digital signal connection. Dell has created a winning projector by paying attention to detail. The 1100MP delivers much more than its stripped-down competitors. Excellent image quality and extensive networking support make it easy to overlook the LT245’s few flaws. The V-332 weighs less than three pounds and projects a bright image with good quality. SVGA (800-by-600) DLP engine, 1,400 claimed lumens (1,429 tested), 4.9 pounds.

NEC LT245
$1,900 street llllh

XGA (1,024-by-768) DLP engine, 2,200 claimed lumens (1,823 tested), PC Card slot, Ethernet, 7.1 pounds. XGA (1,024-by-768) DLP engine, 1,200 claimed lumens (1,037 tested), 2.8 pounds.

Plus V3-332
$1,995 list. LLLLH

Remote mouse support is optional. No video or sound cables included.

Toshiba TDP-T91U
$1,899 direct LLLLH

Removable document camera. High brightness. Comes with two remote controls.

Larger than some other projectors. No auto-sync button on remote control.

The TDP-T91U delivers excellent image quality, room-filling brightness, and a document camera, making it a versatile choice.

XGA (1,024-by-768) DLP engine, 2,000 claimed lumens (2,018 tested), document camera, 8.2 pounds.

FLAT-PANEL HDTVs Dell W4200 HD Plasma TV
$2,799 direct llllm Solid image quality. Good onscreen display controls. Dual builtin tuners (NTSC and ATSC). Very competitive price. Solid image quality (on visual inspection tests) at a very affordable price. Needs some color/brightness/contrast adjustments out of the box, since default settings look a bit washed out. No individual color/brightness/ contrast settings for different inputs. Lacks HDMI input and ATSC (over-the-air HDTV) tuner. It’s tough to beat this deal. The 42-inch Dell W4200 HD Plasma TV delivers very good image quality at a very competitive price. With a combination of impressive performance and a nice price, the LT32HV delivers good bang for the buck in an LCD HDTV. 42-inch plasma, 1,024-by-768, NTSC and ATSC tuners. Supported resolution: 720p. Viewing angles: 170 degrees. Contrast ratio: 2,300:1. 32-inch LCD, 1,366-by-768, NTSC tuner. Supported resolutions: 480p, 720p, 1080i. Viewing angles: 178 degrees. Contrast ratio: 1,200:1.

Syntax Olevia LT32HV
$1,150 street lllhm

REAR-PROJECTION HDTVs Epson Livingstation LS57P2
$3,300 street lllmm Vibrant colors. Integrated dye sublimation printer and media card slots let you view and print digital pictures without a PC. Big 61-inch widescreen but only 7 inches deep, which is slim for a rear-projection TV. Good performance. Very good on-screen controls. Green bias. All inputs share a common set of adjustment presets. External tuner consumes one of two available component inputs. Not cheap. So-so contrast-ratio performance. Clunky remote control not backlit. The Livingstation adds photo management and printing to the A/V mix. It also carries a very competitive price tag. The 61md10 delivers a very big picture with an equally hefty price tag. Its performance and features make it an interesting HDTV option. 57-inch rear-projection LCD, 1,280by-720, external ATSC tuner. Supported resolutions: 420p, 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p, 1080i. 61-inch rear-projection DLP, 1,280by-720, CableCard tuner. Supported resolution: 720p. Viewing angles: 160 degrees. Contrast ratio: 3,500:1.

InFocus ScreenPlay 61md10
$6,500 street lllhm

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FIRST LOOKS
Productivity Software

Office Software on the Cheap

F

BY EDWARD MENDELSON or better or worse, Microsoft Office file formats— especially .doc, .xls, and .ppt—are what everyone expects in the documents they send and receive. But for many home, school, and business users, Office is too big, too complicated, and too costly to be the suite they choose for creating and editing files. If you want a low-cost productivity suite designed from the start for the smoothest possible exchange with MS Office, there are several choices. We tested the latest versions of the free OpenOffice.org and the lowpriced ThinkFree Office, both available in Windows, Macintosh, and Linux versions.

documents, although ThinkFree Office Word macros—notoLike OpenOffice.org, rious for security ThinkFree Office 3.0 problems—won’t run is a productivity suite in OpenOffice.org. for users who don’t Heavily formatted need the high-tech Word files opened features of MS Office, and it’s particularly in Writer almost exaimed at schools and actly as they did in businesses, which Word, even when can license large they included tracked numbers of copies for changes, drawing obas little as a dollar per jects, and other admachine. The suite vanced features. We comprises the Write didn’t expect Word’s THINKFREE’s interface has a bold, clear appearance word processor, Calc (largely ignored) ani- that makes navigation easy. spreadsheet, and mated text to translate into Writer, and it didn’t. tables tended to be blank. We Show presentations software, Writer adds a PDF-export found Calc’s menus and dialogs each using MS Office formats as feature that Word doesn’t offer, easier to navigate than the cor- their native file format. a find-and-replace feature that responding dialogs in Excel. ThinkFree Office has all the uses wildcards and regular ex- The Impress presentations features you need to create pressions, and an impressive software is feature-rich and complex documents with OpenOffice.org macro and scripting feature easily managed, with tabs for hyperlinks, cross-references, If you can remember the name that organizes your macros in notes, outlines, slide-sorting, footnotes, endnotes, tables of of OpenOffice.org, you can a tree-structured display. Ad- and other conveniences. contents, and updatable fields remember where to download it vanced find-and-replace operaBut the program can’t do such as the current date and for no charge. If you tried the tions (such as those involving everything that the MS Office the name of the file’s author. suite can do. There’s But you won’t find automation previous 1.1.4 version, no online collabora- features such as macros or the 2.0 beta version tion or Smart Tags, advanced search features. currently available for example, no will be a pleasant surIn our testing, text-only grammar checking, Word documents imported prise. Unlike the and no highly flexi- perfectly into ThinkFree Write, slow, ugly, and underble outlining, smart but files with drawing objects powered earlier vertable formatting, or and other graphics fared less sion, 2.0 is swift, research task pane. well, with 3D objects displayed smooth, and highly And being free soft- as flat, and line drawings recompatible with Ofware, it has no tech duced to a tiny fraction of their fice documents. Even support in the tradi- original size. Also, when we better, it has plenty of tional sense. But the tried to open a Word document features that you Web site does host that included tracked changes, can’t find in MS Office itself. a huge community- ThinkFree displayed a new, The 76MB down- OPENOFFICE.ORG 2.0 offers a clean, customizable inter- based support forum empty document instead. Our load expands into face with pop-up toolbars for features such as tables. where you can usu- test Excel spreadsheets with five applications: ally get fast, detailed complex functions opened perthe Writer word processor, fonts and attributes like italics) answers to any queries not cov- fectly, as did most of our Excel Calc spreadsheet, Impress pre- are easier to manage in Writer ered under the FAQ section. charts. But spreadsheets with Anyone who doesn’t want to pivot tables didn’t open at all. sentations program, Base data- than in Word’s confusing Find base program, and Math dialog, although Word makes it pay Microsoft’s premium prices The low-frills Show presentaequation editor. OpenOffice easier to find special characters for rarely used features may pre- tions program lets you add fer this free suite. It does most notes to each slide and opens .org uses an XML -based file like dashes. format by default, but it opens The Calc spreadsheet everything that typical users basic PowerPoint files with no and saves files in MS Office opened most of our test Excel need it to do, and does some trouble, but it lacks outlining format seamlessly, without files with few problems (save things better than MS Office. and other advanced features. special prompts or warnings. for some minor mislabeling OpenOffice.org 2.0 (beta) ThinkFree Office 3.0 Our tests showed impressive and misalignments in charts), Free. OpenOffice.org, $49 direct. ThinkFree Corp., compatibility with MS Office though charts based on pivot www.openoffice.org. llllm www.thinkfree.com. lllmm

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P C M A G A Z I N E SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 www.pcmag.com

FIRST LOOKS
Security Software

ZoneAlarm’s Superb Security Suite
BY NEIL J. RUBENKING To protect yourself against malware effectively, you want to stop it before it gets on your system. This is what any good antivirus program does against viruses and worms. Most antispyware programs, however, haven’t been as effective at stopping spyware from getting onto your PC; rather, they identify it once it’s there. And unfortunately, once it’s made it onto your system, the damage is often already done. But not ZoneAlarm Security Suite 6.0. The new version adds an integrated antispyware module that aims to cut off attacks from the start. Based on our testing, it appears to be the most effective spyware prevention tool to date, though its removal skills lag behind the best. In addition to this new module, ZoneAlarm’s powerful personal firewall—already one of the best in the business—gains another layer of protection. The SmartDefense Advisor for program control (formerly AlertAdvisor) is smarter than ever, and the antivirus module is a bit more flexible. The heart of any security suite is its firewall. ZASuite’s firewall passed all Web-based port-scanning tests, as always. It resisted all of our attempts to disable the firewall in the ways a malicious program might employ. It even ignored attempts to turn off protection using simulated mouse clicks, an attack that few firewalls resist. Besides blocking outside attacks and keeping unauthorized programs from using an Internet connection, this release adds a new layer of defense for the operating system—Zone Labs calls it a Triple Defense Firewall. The new OSFirewall layer is particularly evident in the firewall’s protection against leak tests (programs that evade normal program control in the

same way malware does). For full leak-test protection, previous versions required that the Program Control level be set to High, which forces the user to respond to more pop-up confirmation requests. Version 6.0 blocked ten different leak tests without raising Program Control above its default level. In most cases, it

which were all automatically blocked and easily dismissed as a group. In testing spyware removal, we again found that some executable files were left on the system, but they were completely inactive. A full antispyware scan took about 4 minutes, in line with the faster standalone products. Though there’s no indication on

ZONEALARM SECURITY SUITE 6.0 stops most spyware in its

tracks—before it can load itself onto your system.

clearly reported the specific dangerous behavior attempted by the leak test. The new firewall layer also helps block spyware installation and activity, delivering excellent real-time protection. On our tests, ZASuite blocked 10 of 11 threats from installing successfully. It completely prevented the spyware from performing any malicious action, though in some cases it did not prevent installation of one or more executable files. ZASuite blocked one of the four keyloggers in our test set and prevented two others from logging keystrokes. And a check box in the dangerous-behavior pop-up automatically blocks all further dangerous behavior by the same program. One spyware threat immediately attempted 35 more dangerous behaviors,

the main scan page, the product defaults to a less thorough (and much faster) quick scan. We had to dig into Advanced Options to select a full scan. By default, ZASuite automatically deals with the worst spyware immediately on discovery rather than waiting for confirmation—a very nice touch. If removing a particular adware module disables a related program, you can restore it from quarantine and mark it to be left alone in the future. ZASuite’s antivirus engine, licensed from Computer Associates, received the Virus Bulletin VB100% award and is certified by ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs for virus detection, but not for removal. This version adds a full quarantine system and the ability to pause and resume antivirus scanning. Early personal firewalls were

infamous for the annoying flurry of confirmation prompts they’d pop up. Zone Labs got around that problem by developing SmartDefense Advisor, a database of over 18,000 known good programs and 52,000 known malicious programs. ZASuite automatically allows access to good programs and denies it to bad ones, without hassling the user. Version 6.0 refines the permission process with three distinct trust levels. Restricted programs are blocked from behaviors deemed suspicious or dangerous. Trusted programs are allowed actions that would be considered suspicious. And those with Super permission (typically Microsoft Windows components) aren’t limited at all. Another new trust level is Kill: When a process with this trust level launches, ZASuite kills it immediately. The effective antispam module, licensed from MailFrontier, can now scan existing folders on demand but otherwise has not changed significantly. Other features, such as Parental Control, E-Mail Protection, ID Lock, and IM Security, are likewise little changed. Just when we thought ZoneAlarm’s firewall had reached its peak, Zone Labs has found a way to make it even better, increasing its power against spyware and leak-test malware techniques. Its program control is more flexible than ever, with different levels of trust and the ability to kill the worst programs instantly. The combination of kernel-level firewall techniques and signaturebased spyware recognition already offers unusually powerful spyware blocking and decent removal. Overall, ZoneAlarm continues to be a superb security suite.
ZoneAlarm Security Suite 6.0
$69.95 direct. ZoneLabs Inc., www.zonelabs.com. llllh

J U M P T O N E X T PA G E >>

www.pcmag.com SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E

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FIRST LOOKS
Networking

Powerful Mail Protection from Symantec

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BY LARRY SELTZER ll of the most sophisticated and powerful features of mail protection developed by Symantec are rolled into one convenient package in the Symantec Mail Security 8240 appliance. It isn’t cheap, but it’s good value for money. The 8240 is designed for use by 100 to 1,000 employees (an 8260 model, with higher-end components, scales higher than that). Running Red Hat Linux as the OS, the 8240 is easy to set up. It protects against spam, viruses, and other mail-based attacks and provides enforcement of content compliance rules. The unit implements cutting-edge antispam techniques like traffic shaping, under which the box slows down the transmission of spamming sites, even if they try to speed it up. The 8240 should slip right into the average business network running Active Directory

SYMANTEC’S ADMINISTRATOR CONSOLE software shows statistics

on the spam and viruses that the 8240 mail appliance has blocked.

with Exchange Server installed. (In addition to Active Directory, the 8200 Series supports Exchange 5.5, Sun’s iPlanet Directory Server 5.1, and OpenLDAP.) Setup was a joy compared with that of other appliances, thanks to Symantec’s decision to include VGA, keyboard, and mouse support instead of requiring a browser interface for

all configuration. A large enterprise can deploy many 8200 Series boxes for both administration and filtering. In our testing, the 8240 relied on Active Directory for the administration of users’ quarantines and group policies. We were able to let different users and groups have different content rules. A good example of

how practical this can be is that the 8200 Series lets administrators allow and disallow mail in specific languages; a branch office abroad might have different language requirements from the U.S. offices. Users on the system have their own spam quarantine and receive a periodic e-mail listing its contents. By the end of the test period, very little spam was getting through, and no viruses ever got through. The 8240 unit itself costs $1,995, but antivirus, antispam, and other functions must be subscribed to on a per-node basis. For example, a one-year subscription for 100 nodes to antivirus and antispam costs $2,880. This starting price is somewhat expensive, but relative costs decline afterwards, and the manageability of the unit is worth a great deal.
Symantec Mail Security 8240
$1,995 direct and up. Symantec Corp., www.symantec.com. llllm

Let Your Staff Roam with blueRoam

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functions, including creating drives on the remote network or BY CRAIG ELLISON nlike other VPN alter- new users, are performed on connect to remote PCs. natives, blueRoam is a secure Web-based console at A Web-based management a software-based solu- blueRoam’s site. When you cre- console lets you set security and tion that runs on one of your ate a new user, an e-mail is sent manage users and active sesexisting network PCs or servers. to that user with instructions on sions. Amid the security setThe software turns that ma- how to download and install the tings, you can specify which chine into a VPN hub on your client software. An access wiz- applications can and cannot be network for up to 20 simultane- ard helps the user either map running in order for a client to ous clients. The solution log on. You could, for exstill has a few rough edges, ample, specify that antibut it’s a viable alternative virus must be running for providing secure rebefore anyone can log on. mote access to a smallUnfortunately, this version office network. lacks a detailed enough Deploying the blueRoam means of determining VPN is a simple process: virus-update pattern dates. Install the hub software, Though our initial concreate an account, and crenection to our test hub ate users. The hub software was successful, we did exinstalls a virtual VPN netperience problems with work adapter that opens DNS name resolution durand maintains a secure SSL ing an active VPN session. session with blueRoam’s BLUEROAM’S WEB-BASED management We were able to solve this servers. All management console has a clean, open look. problem by manually

specifying DNS server addresses in the site management page of the management console, but the problem might confound many potential users. On the plus side, we were impressed with the performance of the blueRoam VPN: Observed throughput approximated the maximum performance of our two DSL circuits. blueRoam’s VPN is priced as a monthly service, with the cost based on the number of sites (that is, hubs) and the number of concurrent clients. The entry price of $49 per month covers one site and licenses for two concurrent users. Five concurrent users would cost $99 per month ($49 for the site and $50 for five clients). All told, blueRoam is a cost-effective way for a small business to roll out a VPN.
blueRoam
$49 per month and up. blueRoam Inc., www.blueroam.com. llhmm

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go.pcmag.com/feedback

‘‘

FEEDBACK
You want a universally compatible operating system, you have to take it warts and all.

’’

N O O P TI CA L FI N D E R ? N O SA LE . “Save the Optical Viewfinder” (Feedback, August 9, page 65) was right on target. As a photographer with significant vision corrections required for close and intermediate subjects, I find viewing any non-flip-and-rotate LCD to be a struggle when outdoors. Since the close correction is on the lower portion of my glasses, I must tilt my head in a “look to the sky” position to see the LCD. Now, I must contend not only with glare on the LCD but with sunlight shining in my eyes and reflecting off my glasses, making viewing uncomfortable and difficult. With millions of people wearing glasses for both distant and close vision correction, my situation can’t be unique. With a flip-and-rotate LCD, I can position the camera and LCD like reading a book at chest level, which is a major improvement. For me, no optical finder means “no sale.” Greg Patchan T H E W R O N G S I D E O F H I S TO RY As a World War II Navy submarine veteran, I found your review of Silent Hunter III (After Hours, August 9, page 141) particularly offensive. Considering the present world conditions, and the terrible loss of our men and ships to these destructive marauders, the listing of this application was totally tasteless, as well as offensive to the surviving relatives and friends of those lost to their marauding along our coasts. Ted Breisch D.M. Conway (co-signed) We are truly sorry you and others felt offended by our choice to review this game. Please understand that our objective is to review popular products. We will certainly keep your comments in mind when we choose products for stories like this in the future—Editors A N O S FO R T H E WO R LD First, let me confess that I have a PlayStation 2 and will never buy the Xbox 360. That aside, I think that people are being unreasonably hard on Microsoft. Case in point: “Wanted: A Decent Microsoft OS” (Feedback, August 9, page 65). I think that

Microsoft is the only company burdened with the task of providing an OS for the entire world. Not only must it cater to the needs of billions of people, it has to address an almost equal number of developers whose very survival depends on their applications’ compatibility with Windows. You say Apple? I say: It is easy to program for what is essentially a minuscule percentage of worldwide computers, with every hardware component under your control. MS has to consider millions of peripherals and components, not to mention the increasingly absurd power and complexity of graphics cards, sound cards, modems, chipsets, processors, optical disk media, hard drives—and a little upcoming ditty called a physics card for games! Sure Windows XP is buggy, but you don’t get to see the blue screen that much, do you? And as a humble home user, I can testify that it is getting better all the time. Live with it, folks: You want a universally compatible OS , you have to take it warts and all. Talha bin Hamid A N O S TO C H A LLE N G E WI N D OWS I’m sure Apple thought long and hard about switching to Intel before announcing it, but it will be a shame if Apple discounts the gains it can reap from positioning Mac OS as a Windowsreplacement OS and natively running Windows programs. Apple is more respected now than ever, and it can parlay that respect into an installed base of at least 40 percent of home desktops. Many users who dislike Microsoft’s heft, who are fed up with the barrage of security warnings, and who want a PC that doesn’t require the same weekend maintenance their homes do will switch in a heartbeat. Apple nearly doomed itself in the eighties and nineties by eschewing compatibility and refusing to license its products. Let’s hope it doesn’t make the same mistake twice. Apple is on the verge of offering PC users and buyers a more secure, feature-rich, easier-to-use OS while giving Microsoft the stiff competition it has never faced. Consumers always win when there is competition. Zach Acox

How to Contact Us
We welcome your comments and suggestions. When sending e-mail to Feedback, please state in the subject line of your message which article or column prompted your response. E-MAIL pcmag@ziffdavis.com. MAIL Feedback, PC Magazine, 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016-7940. All letters become the property of PC Magazine and are subject to editing. We regret that we cannot answer letters individually.

Corrections and Amplifications
■ In “Unwired for Speed” (June 7), the graphs that appear on pages 122 and 126 are incor-

rectly labeled. The top labels, to denote the throughput speeds of the routers we tested, should have read “Megabits per second” rather than “Megabytes per second.” The error made the throughput speeds appear inflated by a factor of 8. The speeds are correctly stated in the text of the article; the error was introduced during the production process. We regret the confusion that this caused among some readers.

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PC MAGAZINE

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John C. Dvorak
Truth, Magic, and the Internet

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eaders of this column understand the inner workings of their computer and the Internet. But many people don’t understand these and most other modern technologies. The general public considers these technologies magic, although nobody would admit that publicly. Let’s look at it from the perspective of someone with no cultural clues—say, an alien or a hermit. You have a screen, a keyboard, and a mouse. You move the mouse, and a cursor magically moves around the screen. You have a keyboard on which you push buttons in various sequences, commanding something somewhere to produce a visual image on screen. This image may contain information you seek. It may show you a movie. People from other parts of the world can talk to you. By any traditional definition, this is magic. Real magic, not trickery or stage magic. Subconscious magic, too. Is it possible that even though you and I know how this all works (more or less), our brains are actually interpreting it as magic? This means that on some deeper level, we also perceive it as magic. In other words, you know this isn’t magic, but still react to it as if it were. I only bring this up since it may explain certain phenomena that seem to be exaggerated in an online “magical” environment. I have always been fascinated by the ease with which people believe bogus information when it comes over the computer, especially over the Internet. Mysterious reaction to e-mail. Add to this the strange phenomenon of e-mail. E-mail should be exactly like something written on paper, only written on the screen and delivered over the magical network. After years of using e-mail, it’s obvious that e-mail is different. Unlike regular mail, it requires all sorts of etiquette. You can misinterpret it more easily. It encourages the use of emoticons, because no matter how hard you try, you cannot make clear your level of seriousness. Emoticons are used to transmit this information. Over the years people have tried to rid e-mail of emoticons. The English professors were the first to grouse, saying that there is no reason to use them since a well-structured sentence could do the trick. This reasoning made sense until you tried to build that well-structured sentence. There are hidden attributes in the structure and delivery

of e-mail that make the use of emoticons imperative in many instances. I’m convinced that this is part of the magic. If you took the exact wording of the e-mail and handwrote it on a piece of paper, an emoticon would be out of place. If you used one, you’d seem like a silly high-school girl. Try it. E-mail causing IQ to fall. Even more interesting was some largely ignored research out of King’s College, London, into the effects of e-mail. The study claimed that e-mail use has addictive aspects and that it causes a temporary IQ drop of up to 10 points—a bigger drop than that caused by inveterate pot-smoking. Have you noticed that your addicted boss who is forever hammering away on his BlackBerry is acting a little flakier than usual? The BlackBerry incorporates both e-mail and an addictive mechanism. That mechanism is the click-reward system that works with slot machines and pigeon feeders. It’s highly addictive to humans. This is exacerbated by its ritualistic nature—and ritualism is often found with addictions. I have never known a BlackBerry user who has not pulled out the device numerous times in my presence, almost like a cigarette smoker fiddling with a pack. When combined with the apparently IQ -sapping e-mail delivery, it begins to sound like something from a creepy science fiction story where an alien device enslaves a population. The magical aspect of this little device cannot be ignored either. IQ is bound to drop when we turn ourselves over to magic. Gullibility up. The other important aspect is the gullibility factor. People believe what they read on the Internet more easily than what they see in print. People talk a big game about Internet skepticism, but still fall for bunkum. There are more hoaxes than ever. The Nigerian scam letter is now distributed like mad, with incredible variations. A number of issues concerns me. The first is that the IQ of the general public may spiral downward. The second is the potential for targeted abuse by an insidious government or entity that could take full advantage of the weaknesses inherent in the system and exploit the public at large. It’s possible that we’ve created some sort of monster here with our technology, and we don’t even know it.
MORE ON THE WEB: Read John C. Dvorak’s column

Have you noticed that your addicted boss who is forever hammering away on his BlackBerry is acting a little flakier than usual?

every Monday at go.pcmag.com/dvorak. You can reach him directly at pcmag@dvorak.org.

www.pcmag.com SEPTEMBER 6, 2005

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JOHN C. DVORAK

Inside Track
W
eirdness with Longhorn Depar tment: The stories about the rollout

of Longhorn are getting weirder by the minute. I have no way of verifying this, but now I’m told that a shopping-cart engine will be part of the OS . Apparently this stems from Microsoft’s reluctance to integrate antivirus and antispyware systems fully, out of fear of triggering another antitrust action. So Longhorn will let you instantly buy any of those systems already on the market. It’s believed that Microsoft will, in some way, actually sell all those systems, while users who don’t buy them can choose the Microsoft software. You can be sure that if a shopping cart is indeed built into the OS, Microsoft and others will exploit it in all sorts of different ways. Sounds to me like this is the only new feature. Hello! Mom? Department: As many of you know, Skype (www.skype.org) is on a worldwide roll in computer-to-computer VoIP, so the clones have now started to appear. One of the most interesting of them is Gizmo, funded by the affable Michael Robertson (MP2 .com, Lindows/Linspire). Instead of Skype’s proprietary system, Gizmo uses SIP, which most people had thought would be the dominant VoIP protocol. Gizmo is available at www .gizmoproject.com. I have found two cool things about Gizmo that all the VoIP companies should implement. One is that the entire system, including phone books, software, and call logs, can be installed on a USB thumb drive without worrying about the Registry. This is the way that all software should work: standalone and portable. Company principals tell me that they run Gizmo on their laptops on Lufthansa flights that have 802.11 Internet connectivity. They make phone calls as they fly across the Atlantic! I like! The second cool thing it has—and you should be aware that this feature is probably going to be standard on all VoIP systems in the future—is a record button. You can digitally record the call while chatting. I have mixed feelings about this idea, but it is an obvious feature. Just be careful what you say while you’re chatting on the phone. Important note to executives: If you think casual e-mail confessions are embarrassing in court, these will be worse! Researching the Obvious Department: Apparently a research report indicated that only one person in eight would be interested in receiving mobile video via cell phone. It will be interesting to see how much money will be lost developing something people do not care about.

Wi-Fi Mania in Europe Department: Apparently, the Europeans are going to open up some new bands for Wi-Fi expansion in the 5-gigahertz spectrum. According to EE Times, market analysts are predicting that the “global use of wireless LANs will quadruple over the next three years, from 120 million at present to 500 million. Western Europe has about one-fifth of present-day wireless LAN users, at 25 million.” Huge numbers. The Podcasting Phenomenon Poised to Skyrocket Department: Podcasting refers to the distribution

Within a few years, you’ll be getting celebrity podcasts. ”Hi, I’m Britney Spears, and this is my podcast!”

of homebrew radio shows via downloads to media players, typically iPods. I originally pooh-poohed it, but I’ve come to appreciate the idea and have to conclude that my original complaints were more about the amateurish nature of the early podcasts than about the concept itself. Either that, or I’ve sold out. (Wink.) Yes, you can also hear me on a couple of the professional podcasts, including the TWiT broadcast (TWiT stands for This Week in Tech), which is mostly an open-ended gabfest of ex-ZDTV/TechTV talking heads blabbing about nerdy topics. You can find out more at www.twit.tv if you want to hear me once in a while. It’s run by real broadcasters and led by tech-junkie Leo Laporte, so it has a genuine professional quality to it. Most podcasts will be like this in the future—polished. According to current research, there are about 4.5 million listeners to various podcasts. The scene is poised to grow exponentially until it hits 60 million by 2010, according to the Diffusion Group. This phenomenon is driven by the huge popularity of iPods and MP3 players, and by the better gadgets’ excess capacity. Some of these devices can hold 15,000 songs. Few normal people actually have 15,000 songs, and if they did, they probably would not want to listen to them. Thus they are loading up with these podcasts, which tend to be anywhere from 15 minutes to hours long. What this amounts to is an interesting kind of IP radio that is a twist on streaming and the early Internet radio initiatives. The media players act like audio TiVo devices, and we’re witnessing the most advanced form of true narrowcasting. This is a form of broadcasting that has been predicted for years, but never quite appeared. Now it has, and I think it’s gone past critical mass already. I may have been an early critic, but now I’m on board. Within a few years, you can be certain that just like celebrity blogs, you’ll be getting celebrity podcasts. “Hi, I’m Britney Spears, and this is my podcast!” Nothing is perfect.

www.pcmag.com SEPTEMBER 6, 2005

PC MAGAZINE

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Jim Louderback
Cheap Digital Cameras: Rough Terrain

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hat if Lewis and Clark had had a digital camera? Imagine what their moblog would have looked like. I can just see the photos of Sacagawea’s baby, and the first shots of dawn breaking over the Continental Divide. Alas, digital cameras (let alone inexpensive ones rugged enough to handle the rigors of their trip) wouldn’t emerge for nearly 200 years. But today, technological advances and market pressure have upended the high-cost world of digital photography, resulting in amazingly cheap digital cameras. Even free cell phones have built-in cameras, and standalone cameras start at well under $100. But are they any good? I did some exploring of my own and discovered a range of cameras available for as little as $25. I picked up four low-cost digital cameras, to see if you really could get good photos for less. I felt like Lewis and Clark as I unwrapped the cameras—I was traversing a vast uncharted prairie, populated by unfamiliar products from Digital Concepts, FlatFoto, and Gemini. Even the one brand I recognized—Concord—called for a mental adjustment: I’ve been underwhelmed by that company’s offerings, even denouncing its 5062AF as one of the ten worst products of 2004. The sharpest-looking of the lot, the red, credit card–size FlatFoto from RadioShack, claims 3 megapixels, and even includes a 1.5-inch LCD screen—the only image display here. But for $80, the highest price in the test, the FlatFoto camera was disappointing. Its 16MB of internal memory hold a paltry seven pictures—expandable via the SD slot, but you’ll have to buy a separate card. The built-in flash was weak, and though rechargeable via USB, battery life was short. I picked up the Concord 1500 at Target for 48 bucks. It delivers 1.3MP resolution and includes a puny built-in flash as well. Its 8 MB of internal storage hold around 20 pictures, expandable via a built-in SD slot. It runs on double-A batteries—a plus when you’re stalking the wild cucumber— and even shoots short AVI movies. But if Lewis and Clark had outfitted their party with Concord products, they wouldn’t have made it beyond the outskirts of St. Louis. After shooting one set of photos and exhausting a set of batteries, the cam-

era refused to come back to life. Even with fresh batteries, its tiny status screen would simply flash ON, and then OFF. What a waste. The other two entrants, a $25 Digital Concepts camera from Fry’s, and a $30 Gemini Micro Slim model obtained from Walgreens, had few redeeming features. Each topped out at just 640-by-480, included a tiny LCD screen for status info only, and lacked even a dim flash. Both were made of cheap plastic, operated on disposable batteries, and lacked an expandable memory slot. The proof of any camera, though, is in the snapshots. I sent indoor and outdoor shots from each camera to Snapfish to see if the photos would partially make up for the physical frailties. Sadly, that was not the case. None of the 4-by-6 images were worth sharing. Even the slightest hand motion while snapping a picture resulted in noticeable blurring—both indoors and out. The color representation and detail were sorely lacking—even in images from the 3MP FlatFoto. Low-light performance was terrible, color streaking abundant, and pixelation rampant. I’ve seen better results from mobile phones. Bad design, bad results, anemic storage, and flimsy construction were only a few of the deficiencies of these products. I cannot recommend a single one of these sub-$100 digital cameras, unless you need to placate a whiny toddler. Searching for a cheap camera? Spend a little bit more and pick up the Canon PowerShot 510. At around $170, it’ll deliver much nicer images and last a lot longer than these ticky-tacky products. Cheap Geek Tip: Photo printing revisited. A number of folks wrote me after my test of photoprinting services and recommended Costco and Wal-Mart. According to one reader, Costco’s online service is powered by Snapfi sh—my current favorite—and you can also pick up photos in-store. Wal-Mart offers even cheaper refinishing, at 12 cents a photo. That seems to be the new price floor, as shortly after I finished my comparison, Snapfish dropped its 4-by-6 price to 12 cents too. If you live near one of these stores, there’s little reason to buy a printer anymore—except for convenience.
MORE ON THE WEB: You can contact Jim Louderback

If Lewis and Clark had outfitted their party with Concord products, they wouldn’t have made it beyond the outskirts of St. Louis.

at Jim_Louderback@ziffdavis.com. For more of his columns, go to go.pcmag.com/louderback.

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Bill Machrone
Web Publishing Still Unsettled

M

y blog, Serious Personal Audio (http://spa.machrone.net), is up and running, warts and all. I quickly discovered that using blogging software as a bargain-basement content management system has its drawbacks. The month changed, for instance, and all my articles written in the previous month disappeared from the main page, archived away. Blogging tools expect you to update often and can’t grasp the concept that you’d like to control the articles on the main page independently of the date. But that’s exactly what you’d want to do if you were publishing a site for a club or an organization—or if you just want to leave a welcome message up. Movable Type, the software I chose, has a plugin that allows you to keep items fi xed on the page, but I haven’t had a chance to install it yet. Ideally, I’d like an expansion field in the article database for an article number, and logic in the main page code that would sort the main page based on that number. Right now, my brain-dead hack is simply to push the article dates far into the future, so they don’t archive off at the end of the month. I can change the sort order by changing the dates, but that changes the permalink, or article URL , which is bad if others are linking to my articles. I can also change the code to make the article date invisible, and then add a nonsorting date at the top of the article. I’ve received lots of mail from readers urging me (and PC Magazine) to explore this contentmanagement-system-on-the-cheap route. And others who already use blogging software creatively have sent notes of encouragement, plus useful links. Adrian Bacon, who runs Apple Log, Linux Log, and Microsoft Log, as well as his own site, said I should take a look at WordPress (WP), the free blogging tool offered by my ISP. He runs four WP blogs, although all seem to use the standard template. I’m going to try it, although I don’t really like the stock look. I’ll also investigate replacement templates. I found several sites with downloadable WP themes and hacks, such as www.alexking.org, as well as an ambitious generator that builds a two- or threecolumn layout based on fields that you complete: www.erisfree.com/d2/apart.php. You can find these and other WP resources at http://wordpress.org. A couple of readers strongly recommended Expression Engine (www.pmachine.com/ee). Their

fervor alone is enough to get it on to my to-look-at list. Another reader said that b2, the ancestral code of WordPress, is alive and growing again at www .b2evolution.net. If you need a real content management system, check out www.opensourcecms.com. This site has user ratings on many systems, and lets you testdrive most of them. The site also covers blog software, forums, groupware, and more. AUDIO PERFORMANCE QUESTIONS My article “Bass Performance in Digital Audio Players” evolved from my PC Magazine column “Shuffle’s Got a Secret” (go.pcmag.com/shufflesecret). It, in turn, has raised many reader questions on how to get the best fidelity from their audio players. The most commonly asked question: Do you get maximum fidelity when you’re playing into a stereo or powered speakers instead of headphones? Yes, because an amplifier presents a high-impedance load to the player that doesn’t drag down bass performance. Which led to the next question: How do I get the best performance from headphones/earphones? A few players have more amplifier power and can drive earphones properly, but many don’t. I’ve detailed some at my site and am adding others, plus more headphone reviews. But the way to be sure you’re hearing everything that’s on the recordings is to use a headphone amplifier. In addition to the commercial ones, some of the amplifiers that come up when you search eBay for “headphone amplifier” are surprisingly good. Most are built around a circuit designed by an engineer named Chu Moy, and signify their parentage with phrases like “CMOY ” in their descriptions. They’re packaged in Altoids tins and the like, and use one 9-volt battery. They off-load the player and can drive earphones hard. You’ll see the usual claims and counterclaims of superiority and a laundry list of features, but almost any of them can turn your player into a private concert hall. I’ll continue to explore these and similar issues in my ongoing quest for perfect tone—and easy Web publishing.
MORE ON THE WEB: You can contact Bill Machrone at

I’ve received lots of mail from readers urging me to explore the contentmanagement-onthe-cheap route.

Bill_Machrone@ziffdavis.com. For more of his columns, go to go.pcmag.com/machrone.

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SOLUTIONS
MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR YOU
on your hard drive, but Java applets will run only if Java (which will work only if it finds settings already specified in the registry) is installed on the host machine. You also won’t be able to view PDF files if no PDF software is installed on the host, so download the fast and tiny (less than 1MB) Foxit PDF Reader 1.3 for standalone viewing Your USB flash drive is good for a lot more than data transfer. of PDF files. You’ll need to download PDFs instead of viewing them in the browser. It can be a whole office on the go. BY EDWARD MENDELSON (www.foxitsoftware.com lllmm ) If you install the Firefox Bookmarks SynSB thumb drives have shown have it installed? Or perhaps you just pre- chronizer extension, you can upload new themselves to be a superior fer to steer clear of the spyware potentially bookmarks to an FTP server and import alternative to other portable lurking inside Microsoft Internet Explorer, them to your home machine when you remedia such as diskettes the more popular browser? Firefox leaves turn, or download your bookmarks on the and writable optical discs. no clues to your browsing activities on the road if you forgot to update them before They’re smaller and can hold tons of data, remote computer, something you can never you left. If you use Portable Firefox on a and most current operating systems recog- be sure of when using IE. Developer John host computer that doesn’t have Firefox nize them without needing any special Haller has created portable versions of already installed, it creates two directories drivers. We’ve seen 1GB drives for under Firefox, Thunderbird, the Sunbird calen- on the host, but your settings, cookies, and $100, and drives with smaller capacities dar application, and the NVU Web-page other private files remain on the thumb editor (all can be downloaded from http:// drive. (addons.mozilla.org llllm ) start at under $20. Portable Thunderbird 1.0.2 (beta; Most people don’t realize that these johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla). Portable Firedrives can also carry enough applications fox has minor limitations when run from a llllm ), based on the excellent Mozilla.org mail client, works without problems on a to serve as a personal office on the road, USB drive, but the others work perfectly. Portable Firefox 1.0.4 (llllm ) renders USB drive. You’ll get the best results if you and can even contain a complete bootable operating system to provide total security most sites exactly as it does when installed have an IMAP account that lets you leave messages on the server instead of when you are computing away from transferring them to your drive, as home. There are plenty of reasons you normally do with conventionto carry applications or an operatal POP mailboxes. Although not as ing system on your USB drive: You’ll have your e-mail and instant meshigh-powered as Microsoft OutA 512MB USB key can fit a variety of saging accounts, Internet booklook for calendars and scheduling, applications and still have plenty of Portable Sunbird 0.2 (l l l m m ) marks, log-on passwords, and even room for your files. gets the job done and may be document templates instantly availOpenOffice 127MB 24.9% enough for anyone whose work able on any computer you find in a Windows CE doesn’t require carrying an Outhotel’s computer center, a home, or Emulator 32MB 6.3% look-equipped laptop everywhere. an office that you might visit. You APPLICATIONS Trillian 24MB 4.7% Portable NVU 1.0 Preview Release can also be certain that your set258.5MB (l l h m m ), a basic HTML editor tings will stay on your USB drive 50.6% and won’t be stored in the browser still in early development, is also AntiVir 17MB 3.3% Firefox 16MB 3.1% cache or anywhere else on a remote trouble-free on a USB key but Sunbird 14MB 2.7% doesn’t compare to Dreamweaver machine. Here’s what we put on our Thunderbird 10MB 1.9% or Microsoft FrontPage. ultimate USB drive; the programs Pass2Go For FTP and Secure FTP, FileZilla are free for personal use, unless (RoboForm Portable) 7MB 1.4% FREE SPACE FileZilla 5MB 1.0% 2.2.14b lets you choose between a noted. Most of the apps we describe FOR DATA Ad-Aware secure mode that never stores can run entirely from the USB drive 253.5MB SE Personal 3MB 0.6% passwords and a less-secure mode without installation. 49.4% Foxit PDF Reader 2MB 0.4% that stores passwords in an XML KeePass Password Safe 1MB 0.2% YOUR INTERNET OFFICE file on your thumb drive. FileZilla XMPlay 0.5MB 0.1% ON THE ROAD doesn’t have the prettiest interface Enthralled by Firefox but frustrated you’ve seen on an FTP client, but that many PCs you use still don’t it’s fast and secure, and worth con-

The Ultimate USB Key

U

Packed and Ready to Go

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90 DESKTOP: Ripping audiobook CDs

92 DIY: SOFTWARE: Keep track of your documents.

94 SECURITY WATCH: Good worms?

96 BUSINESS: Jobster: Not your typical job posting site.

99 USER TO USER: Tips and tricks.

SECURITY Every time you plug a USB key into someone else’s computer, you risk catching a virus or other malware. For a scanner that checks the full range of viruses found in the wild, download AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic, which can be installed to your USB drive and run from any host computer. (It puts a few Registry entries on your hard drive, which you can remove or ignore.) One minor problem with AntiVir on a USB drive: If you haven’t used the drive for a day or two, you should run the AntiVir updater as soon as you DESPITE THE CLUTTERED interface, XMPlay is a good freeware plug your drive into a media player that fills less than 1 megabyte on your USB key. new machine. But after you run the built-in upto a USB drive. The result is a trouble-free dater, the updater component remains in universal IM client that leaves no traces on memory, so the Safely Remove Hardware the host computer. (www.trilliananywhere icon will tell you that you can’t remove your USB drive safely. You can use the Windows .com llllm ) John Haller has also created USB- Task Manager to close down the AntiVir friendly versions of the OpenOffice.org process before removing the drive, or simoffice suite; you can choose between a ply pull the drive out without further ado if stable 1.1.4 version and a faster and slick- you’re certain that no other program on it is er 2.0 Alpha version. The 2.0 version fills still running. (www.free-av.com lllmm ) 127MB, so you’ll need a generous-size USB If space is at a premium, make sure your drive, but it guarantees you a full-featured USB drive has at least a reduced antivirus productivity suite compatible with program that focuses on a few Microsoft Office wherever you plug in the high-risk attacks; McAfee’s drive. You may need to click through the Avert Stinger is probably the license agreement on each new host ma- best. (http://vil.nai.com/vil/ chine, but that’s a minimal inconvenience. stinger llmmm ) Ad-Aware SE Personal Edi(johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_ tion 1.06 isn’t the most poweropenoffice lllhm ) All work and no play makes for a dull ful spyware remover—and USB key. Fortunately you can store your faideally needs to be used in vorite tunes on your thumb drive and lis- combination with other programs—but ten to them with XMPlay, a miniature but you can carry it with you on a USB drive, high-powered media player. It has the tiny, and it’s infinitely better than nothing. Inoverelaborate interface typical of freeware stall it in the normal way to your hard disk, media players, but with downloadable then simply copy its folder to your USB skins that can slightly improve it. Alterna- drive. (www.lavasoft.de lllmm ) You’ll also want to save your passwords tively, consider CoolPlayer, a compact open-source MP3 player that can be ex- securely. The most efficient way to save tended via plug-ins to handle almost any Web passwords and forms is with Pass2Go

sidering for your desktop machine as well as for your thumb drive. (http://filezilla .sourceforge.net llllm ) The free Trillian Basic 3.1 instant messaging client works with AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger, but it isn’t designed to be run from a portable drive. The third-party Trillian Anywhere Web site provides simple instructions for setting up Trillian on your hard drive, creating all its settings, and then transferring it

current media format. (XMPlay, www .un4seen.com/xmplay.html, lllhm ; CoolPlayer, coolplayer.sourceforge.net, lllmm )

MORE ON THE WEB
See go.pcmag.com/usbkey
($39.95), also known as RoboForm Portable, a version of our Editor’s Choice RoboForm form filler. If you browse the Web by running IE from the host computer while using a USB drive, then you can simply run Pass2Go from the USB key; the host’s copy of IE will display the RoboForm toolbar and use your stored log-on information. If you use Portable Firefox, you’ll also need to download the RoboForm Mozilla Adapter and follow the specific instructions on www.roboform.com/removeable.html for Portable Firefox. While running, Pass2Go writes files (but not your private settings) to a Temp folder on the host’s hard drive. It cleans up after itself when you exit, leaving only a copy of the executable Pass2Go program on the host drive, and no other settings. (www.roboform.com lllll ) Among traditional standalone password storage programs, a good first choice is KeePass Password Safe, a high-powered open-source utility that uses AES and TwoFish encryption and is designed so that passwords won’t be visible to keystroke loggers or any other snooping software. It has special storage for the use-once TAN (transaction number) passwords used for online banking. The keyboard interface is somewhat unreliable; accelerator keys such as Alt-F for the File menu or Ctrl-O for Open database sometimes don’t have any effect. (keepass.sourceforge.net llllm )

COOLPLAYER IS AN open-source MP3

player that can be extended to handle other media formats.

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To secure programs and data against prying eyes, you can use USB drives that come with encryption already on the drive or software-only solutions that can be installed on any thumb drive. Kingston Technology (www.kingston.com) uses a combination of hardware and software encryption on its DataTraveler Elite USB drives. Other vendors, such as Lexar (www.lexar.com) and Trek 2000 (www .thumbdrive.com), use software-only encryption that can be installed only on the same vendor’s USB drives. In either case, the drive comes with software that divides it into a normally visible region and an encrypted region. When you unlock the encrypted region with a password, the visible region disappears, and the same drive letter that the system assigned to the visible portion of the drive is assigned to the encrypted region. When you log out of the encrypted region, the visible portion regains its original drive letter, and the encrypted portion becomes invisible. Some new drives, such as Lexar’s JumpDrive TouchGuard and SanDisk’s upcoming Cruzer Profile line (www.sandisk .com), include fingerprint authentication.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR DRIVE’S AUTOPLAY ACTION, DRIVE ICON, AND DISK LABEL
You can set up your USB drive so that it automatically runs a program when you plug it into a Microsoft Windows XP SP2 computer, and so it will display a custom icon next to its name in Windows Explorer. You can also give the drive any name you like—not just the standard 11-character drive label normally permitted by Windows. To do all this, create a text file named Autorun.inf in the drive’s root directory, with contents something like this:
[autorun] open=PortableFirefox.exe action=Start PortableFirefox icon=PortableFirefox.exe label=Portable Internet The open= line and action= lines are used only by the AutoPlay feature of Windows XP

SP2. They specify, respectively, the action that the AutoPlay dialog will offer to perform and the text that the dialog will display to describe that action. The files you specify can be anywhere on your drive, but if they’re not in the root, you need to give the full path. Be sure to omit the drive letter, because you can’t predict what letter your drive will receive on a host computer. The icon= and label= lines indicate the icon or name of the drive as displayed in Windows Explorer. The icon can be a program file’s built-in icon or any other icon resource such as a DLL or ICO file. The first icon in the file is used by default, but you can use other icons by following the filename with a comma and a number specifying the icon; numbering starts with 0, so use Filename.exe,2 to specify the third icon in the file.

FOLDER LOCK CREATES a passwordprotected folder that is invisible until you run the program to unlock it.

The software in these combined solutions works only with specific drives sold by the same vendor. Software-only solutions that work with any USB drive include Folder Lock ($35), which offers multiple levels of encryption and a clear but graphics-heavy interface. The program creates a password-protected folder that isn’t visible in Windows Explorer or any

other directory listing until you run the program to unlock it. When you lock the folder and exit the program, it completely cleans up after itself. The encrypted folder is visible if you plug the drive into a Macintosh or Linux system, although the contents and filenames are still encrypted. (www.newsoftwares.net llllh ) Other drive-encryption programs tend to be less convenient. StorageCrypt 2.0.1 ($29.95) works only with drives that are formatted with multiple partitions, each with its own drive letter. You install the software on a partition that remains visible, and you run the software to encrypt or decrypt a second partition. It’s easy to use despite the badly translated dialogs. StorageSafe ($29.95) doesn’t require a partitioned drive to start with but works by completely reformatting your existing drive, wiping out any data that may be on it and creating a public area and a protected, encrypted area that you unlock by running the program and entering a password. Unfortunately, you need to install StorageSafe on any host computer from which you want to access the protected area, and the host computer may be set up so that you can’t install anything. (StorageCrypt 2.0.1, www.magic2003.net, l l m m m ; StorageSafe, www.modsol .com/StorageSafe, llmmm .)

Windows CE or Linux system on your USB drive. You don’t need to carry a PDA to use the Windows CE operating system and its small-screen versions of IE and Windows Messenger. Just follow the instructions on Steve Makofsky’s weblog to learn how to download Microsoft’s free Windows CE emulator to your USB drive and use a batch file to launch the emulator and save its settings on the same drive. Make sure to read all the comments posted on the weblog to find essential modifications to the method described in the initial post. After you run the emulator for the first time, it restarts instantly with the browser or IM client already open and ready for action if you left them open earlier. You don’t get an e-mail client or Firefox’s powerful browsing, but nothing else on a USB drive gives you the same instant-on conve-

ENVIRONMENTS TO GO To protect your privacy on the Web, you may not need to have special security software. Instead, launch an emulated

STORAGESAFE REFORMATS a drive,

creating both a public area and a private, encrypted zone.

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RUN WINDOWS CE from your USB key with

Microsoft’s Windows CE emulator.

nience, and you’ll need only 32MB for the whole package. No one seems to have figured out how to add other applications to the default setup. (www.furrygoat.com/ 2004/12/portable_ce.html lllmm ) For even more security, you can run a miniature Linux system from your USB drive without rebooting. Metropipe’s Portable Virtual Privacy Machine is a 125MB Linux environment that uses the opensource QEMU emulator software to allow

the Linux system to run either in a window or full-screen on a Windows system. The Linux system is Damn Small Linux, based on the popular “live CD” Knoppix distribution, and includes Firefox, Thunderbird, and other open-source applications (see the sidebar below). All settings are stored inside the files used by the Linux system. On our 3-GHz test machines, the system was painfully slow to start, the Technology Preview release available during testing was buggy, and configuration programs that required the keyboard did not respond to the keystrokes needed for navigating them. (www.metropipe.net/ ProductsPVPM.shtml llmmm )

YOU CAN RUN Linux with Metropipe’s

Portable Virtual Privacy Machine,

AN EASIER FUTURE Starting in fall 2005, you’ll be able to buy many commercial software products— including the ZoneAlarm firewall—in portable versions based on the new U3 standard (www.u3.com), using a single launcher for all U3 programs on the drive and drivers that automatically clean up all traces of your programs when you detach

your drive from the host machine. Though this will make things easier, the software will require U3-compatible USB drives and probably won’t be compatible with your existing drives. But since there are already so many good apps that can run on current USB keys, there’s no reason to wait until the new drives are out. Go ahead and load your thumb drive with apps for your next road trip. Edward Mendelson is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.

MAKE YOUR THUMB DRIVE BOOTABLE
minimal bootable DOS floppy to bootable Windows XP repair disks Your USB drive can be your emergency toolkit at home and away, and if the host machine supports booting from a USB drive, you and even a fully customizable USB version of the popular BartPE boot CD-ROM, based on the Windows XP preboot environment can boot to a USB key that you’ve prepared in advance. USB drives can boot to MS-DOS (including the DOS that comes with Windows (www.nu2.nu lllll ). If you build your BartPE disk carefully, you 95/98/Me), specially prepared versions of Linux, and the Wincan load it with maintenance and repair tools. You may have to dows preboot environment (which experiment with floppy and hard permits minimal file management drive–style formatting of your drive and other troubleshooting but before FlashBoot can make your doesn’t load the full Microsoft drive bootable, but we had more Windows GUI). success with this program than with The job of making your USB drive most manual techniques. We were bootable may be simple or frustratable to make all our test drives ing, depending on the hardware in bootable, though some of our test the host computer and the size of computers could boot only some the USB drive. (Some BIOSs treat all combinations of drives and software USB drives smaller than 512MB as and not others. In general, the newer floppy disk drives, unless you tell the the motherboard, the more different BIOS to treat the USB drive as a hard PRIMEEXPERT’S FLASHBOOT 1.2 lets you make a custom- combinations of software and USB izable USB equivalent of the BartPE boot CD-ROM. hardware could be used for booting. drive or CD-ROM.) Creating a bootable MS-DOS USB drive is easiAn IBM ThinkPad T42 was able to est on a Windows 98 system, where you can often use third-party boot from everything we plugged in. software like Symantec’s PartitionMagic or Acronis Disk Director Installing Linux on a USB key isn’t a trivial task, but you can find plenty of helpful hints on the Web. For best results, download Suite to format a USB drive and mark its partition as active, and then use Windows 98’s FORMAT /S command to make it bootable. Damn Small Linux (www.damnsmalllinux.org), and proceed in one of two ways: Burn it to a CD, boot it from the CD, and use the Alternatively, you can find detailed manual instructions through right-click Tools menu to install it to a USB drive; or—working Web searches, but be warned that methods that worked for some entirely within Windows—follow the instructions found at users won’t work for others. http://fuzzymunchkin.dyndns.org:8080/tdot/usbkeyfob/index The most reliable and flexible software for making USB keys bootable is FlashBoot 1.2 (19.95 euros—about $24, www .php. Using both methods, we created USB drives that booted on most, but not all, of our test systems. .prime-expert.com llllm ), which can create anything from a

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DESKTOP

Ripping Audiobooks
Want to listen to audiobooks on your iPod or MP3 player? Here’s how. BY KIRK MCELHEARN

hile most people use their iPod will be much smaller, and you’ll be able to or MP3 player to listen to put long books even on a small-capacity music, many audiobook fans MP3 player. (War and Peace, at this bit have discovered that these devices are rate, only takes up about 800MB for 60 perfect for getting their daily literary fix. hours of text.) iTunes is one of the best proYou can buy digital audiobooks from Audible.com (www.audible.com) or the grams for ripping audiobooks. It iTunes Music Store, but if you already lets you rip CDs at low bit rates have audiobooks on CD, it’s a simple mat- (Windows Media Player, for exter to rip them so you can use them on ample, won’t let you rip MP3s your favorite audio player. at less than 128 Kbps) and has Audiobooks don’t need the sound fideli- other great features. If you’ve ty that music does, so they don’t need to be got an iPod, you probably use encoded the same way. Also, it’s much eas- iTunes already; if not, it’s a ier to manage audiobooks if they are free download from www.apple ripped as a few large files instead of lots of .com/itunes. Open iTunes Prefersmall ones. Some simple techniques can ences (iTunes | Preferences help ensure that listening to your audio- on Mac; Edit | Preferences in Win- FIGURE 2: When you join a CD’s tracks in iTunes, the books is easy and practical, and that you dows), and click on the Importing program displays a “bracket” showing that the tracks don’t lose a chapter along the way. tab. Choose a format (AAC for are joined. When ripping audiobooks, it’s a good iPod, MP3 for other players), then idea to change your encoding settings. If select Custom from the Settings menu. Windows or Command-A on a Mac—then you’re used to ripping music CDs, you know Select the bit rate you want to use, such as select Join CD Tracks from the Advanced that higher bit rates make your music sound 64 Kbps, then close the preferences. (Se- menu. iTunes shows that the tracks are better. This is because the compression lecting 64 Kbps tells iTunes to use that bit joined by displaying a sort of bracket along used at low bit rates rate for stereo files the left of the track name lists. All you need to do now is click the Imremoves much of the and half that, or 32 detail, especially in Kbps, for mono files. port button to rip the CD as a single track. the high and low freMost audiobooks are For an audiobook that covers several CDs, simply do the same for each CD. quencies. But voices in mono.) If you’ve used AAC encoding, you can don’t require anyiTunes has anothwhere near the 20- to er nifty feature for make your files bookmarkable. Windows 20,000-Hz frequency ripping audiobooks, users can simply right-click on a track and range that music does if you’ve selected the select Show Song File, then change the files’ AAC format: its Join extensions from .m4a to .m4b. (If you don’t (that’s why a teleTracks function lets see extensions, select Tools | Folder Options, phone conversation you rip an entire CD click the View tab, and uncheck Hide Exsounds acceptable at as a single track. The tensions.) If you’re on a Mac, use the Apple300 Hz to 3,000 Hz). advantage of doing Script at www.dougscripts.com/itunes/ Since spoken-word this is that your au- scripts/dl.php?sc=makebookmarkable to do recordings are just diobooks will com- the conversion. voice, you can use FIGURE 1: Click on the Importing tab in prise fewer files and No matter which format you use, you very low bit rates and iTunes Preferences to choose the format and bit rate. will be easier to man- can now carry your audiobooks in your save space. age. Unfortunately, pocket along with your music. Digital audiobooks generally use a 32-Kbps bit rate. If you iTunes can’t join MP3 files, so you’ll have to think this isn’t enough, you can set your en- use a different program, such as Audacity Kirk McElhearn is the author of several coder to a higher bit rate, but you won’t no- (http://audacity.sourceforge.net), a free, books, including iPod & iTunes Garage. His blog, Kirkville (www.mcelhearn.com) featice much difference in quality unless the open-source audio editor. To join the tracks of a CD using iTunes, tures articles about the iPod, iTunes, Mac audiobooks also contain music. The advantage to using a low bit rate is that files insert the CD in your computer. If iTunes is OS X, and much more.

W

set to query the Gracenote CDDB automatically, you’ll see the CD in the Source list, and you’ll see the track names, the artist (in this case, either the author or narrator), the title and the genre. If it doesn’t check automatically, you can select Get CD Track Names from the Advanced menu. Make sure the tracks are sorted by track number on the CD: Click the column header above the track numbers so that the arrow points up. Next, select all the tracks—either by choosing Select All from the Edit menu or by pressing Ctrl-A in

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D I Y: S O F T WA R E

Keep Track of Your Documents
Now you don’t have to be a geek to use version-control software. BY JOHN CLYMAN
f you’re a typical knowledge worker, you know the frustration of trying to stay afloat amidst a raging torrent of documents. When multiple people edit documents, or when you divide your work between a desktop and a notebook, it’s hard to keep track of where the most current version of a file lives, and all too easy to lose critical information. But with Subversion and TortoiseSVN, a pair of open-source software programs, you can worry less about overwriting a critical file or inadvertently making destructive changes. Software developers have long used version control to keep all of their files in a central repository. Individuals can “check out” these files, make changes locally, and then “check in” or “commit” the modified files to the repository. (Checking out a file doesn’t remove it from the repository; instead, it creates a local copy for the user.) More sophisticated than a simple foldersharing arrangement, the version-control system manages all access to the repository. It prevents conflicts among users who try to modify the same file, and tracks changes between successive check-ins, so you can roll back to earlier versions—even for files that have since been deleted. Subversion’s developers specifically intend it as an improved successor to CVS

I

(Concurrent Versions System), which is the dominant source-control system in the open-source world. CVS has limitations that make it appealing only to developers; but Subversion’s capabilities should prove attractive to information workers as well, provided they’re comfortable with basic file system concepts, like directories. In a production environment, you’ll likely install Subversion on a server. But to get started, you can just download the binary package from http:// subversion.tigris.org and install it on your system. By itself, Subversion (aka SVN) uses a command-line interface. TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn. tigris.org) adds a more intuitive interface to the SVN client that integrates with Windows Explorer and common file dialogs. You’ll still use the command line for some administrative tasks, but the majority of your day-to-day work can FIGURE 2: You can see at a glance whether files have been modified; green checkmarks indicate those that be handled with the GUI. Once you’ve installed both pro- haven’t been changed. grams, you can create a repository. Pick a directory, open a command changes, the overlay icons will change accordingly (Figure 2). To upload your prompt, and enter: changes to the repository, right-click svnadmin create /path/to/repository and select SVN Commit. Subversion will Next, run the Subversion server, which object if someone else has already upresponds to commands from Subversion dated the same file in the repository; clients. At the command prompt, enter: otherwise, it will check in the file but preserve previous versions, so you can svnserve -d -r /path/to/repository always undo changes. As long as you use The server listens on port 3690 (open the TortoiseSVN context menu to rename this port on your local firewall if neces- and delete files, Subversion can even sary). By default, the server permits only track those operations. read-only repository access; to change Once you start using Subversion and that, open the file /path/to/repository/ TortoiseSVN, you’ll enjoy the security of conf/svnserve.conf and add the lines: knowing that multiple users can’t trample on each other’s work, and that you can al[general] ways roll back to an earlier version of a file.
anon-access = write

Subversion’s extensive features; visit our Web site at go.pcmag.com/subversion for a more detailed, illustrated walkthrough. To begin managing your documents, open Windows Explorer and pick a directory to put under version control. Rightclick, and you’ll notice that the context menu includes new Subversion-oriented commands (see Figure 1). Choose TortoiseSVN | Import. You’ll be asked for the URL of your repository; enter svn:// followed by your IP address or machine name. Now you can check out files from any machine with TortoiseSVN installed. Pick a convenient location, right-click, and select SVN Checkout. Again, specify the repository URL. Subversion downloads copies of all the files stored in the repository. Notice that file icons are overlaid with a green checkmark, indicating that the files haven’t been modified. If you make

FIGURE 1: TortoiseSVN gives you a more

intuitive interface that integrates with Windows Explorer.

Because our space here is limited, we can provide only the briefest overview of

John Clyman is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.

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S E C U R I T Y WATC H

T H E LO O KO U T

DUCKING SPYWARE

Good Worms?
Self-replicating code doesn’t have to just spread trouble. It could spread a cure too, right? Bad, bad, bad idea. BY LARRY SELTZER

P

ersistent security problems can be frustrating, especially the ones we know how to solve. We know how to apply patches against known vulnerabilities and we know how to remove malware infections—yet many people don’t do this regularly. Out of this frustration, every so often someone decides it would be a great idea to use worm techniques to combat worms. You’d spread the “cure” to defective systems, which would then remove infections and also download and apply patches against known vulnerabilities. It’s a tempting idea, and even respectable researchers have looked into it. But it doesn’t work. A number of examples of such worms have appeared in recent years (CodeGreen, Linux Cheese, and Nachi, to name a few), but they all fail on a number of fundamental points: The authors are unable to do sufficient quality assurance on the systems on which the worm will run, so in the real world, the worms behave in unexpected ways that damage the targeted systems. The authors don’t properly model the impact of their worms’ propagation on network traffic, so the worms can seriously bog down the network. Finally, running a program on someone else’s system without permission is illegal and just plain wrong. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster in an e-mail attachment. The most famous and successful—by which I mean disastrous—example of a
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Larry Seltzer is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.

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ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS SHARP

misguided attempt to use worm technology for the good was Nachi (also known as Welchia). Nachi’s author may have been well intentioned and may have been smart, but he didn’t have the resources and information to create a program that could succeed. What happened in that instance illustrates the value of the kind of testing that only professional software companies can undertake. Emerging in the early aftermath of the MSBlaster outbreak, Nachi attempted not only to disinfect the system of a Blaster variant but also to download and install the Microsoft patches necessary to fill the hole that Nachi itself utilized to penetrate the system. Microsoft’s update was large—1,261K for Windows XP. On a corporate network, you’d apply a patch like this by downloading a single copy and deploying it on the LAN from a central patchmanagement facility. But Nachi’s method had every system on the network downloading its own copy through the corporate Internet connection and attempting to spread itself, all at the same time. That wasn’t the only mistake. Initial versions failed to check Windows 2000 systems to see if Service Pack 3 was installed, as required by the patch. Furthermore, Nachi’s method of detecting other systems on the network, by ping-flooding, inundated many networks and actually brought down the Navy Marine Corps Intranet. In the end, there’s not even much evidence that Nachi was an effective tool in combating Blaster. Nachi may actually have been more destructive than the problem it was intended to solve, and none of the other “good” worms have done any better. Most, like

More that 90 percent of Internet users in the United States have altered their online behavior significantly to counter the threat of spyware programs, according to a study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The report (www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/ PIP_Spyware_Report_July_05.pdf ), written by associate director Susannah Fox, highlights the increased awareness of end users of the invasion of privacy and other threats posed by adware and spyware programs. Overall, the survey found that nine out of ten Internet users have made at least one change in their online behavior to avoid unwanted software programs. These behavioral changes include not opening e-mail attachments unless they are sure these documents are safe and not visiting specific Web sites that they fear might deposit unwanted programs on their computers. One quarter of the respondents have stopped using file-sharing programs because of the way unwanted adware programs are bundled into the peer-to-peer applications. And about 20 percent of the respondents said they switched Web browsers to avoid software intrusions.—Ryan Naraine

CodeGreen and Linux Cheese, are designed to look for and remove a specific threat. The attempts by the Bagle and Netsky worms to remove each other were more like a gang war than a cleansing operation and brought with them the expected amount of collateral damage. Could a professional software company produce a better product? Probably, but even if all the other potential problems were solved, distribution would still mean accessing countless machines without authorization. Self-appointed crime fighters are a good idea in comic books, but not on the Internet. No matter how good you are at writing code, you can’t be sure of what you’ll encounter on myriad machines. And no matter what the provocation, the answer is never to trespass on other people’s systems with the arrogant idea that you know what’s better for them than they do. If you’re an end user, stick with tried-andtrue solutions and avoid any program that replicates without your control.

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BUSINESS

The Talent Network
For corporate recruiting, Jobster goes where the candidates are. It’s not your typical job-posting site. BY SEBASTIAN RUPLEY

I

s the best person to hire for a job necessarily a person who is looking for one? In many cases, the answer is no. Wouldn’t you like to hire LeBron James to play on your basketball team even though he is not seeking the opportunity? In the recruiting business, industry parlance for the potential hire who is not looking for a job is passive candidate, and Jobster (www .jobster.com) is a new Web service designed to help companies identify the best ones. Jobster launched on March 30 and has over 100 companies—including Fortune 500 firms such as Boeing—using it. “Jobster has linked us to candidates we most likely would not have found through other sourcing methods,” says Peter Kingett, senior staffing specialist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. The service runs on an application service provider (ASP) model, and is sold to corporate recruiters, who then get software dashboards that let them reach out to passive candidates in various ways. For example, Boeing has about 100 recruiters and 59,000 employees. With that number of employees, personal contacts become a promising way to identify passive candidates. So employees targeted because they know lots of people get job ads and other content pushed to them regularly from the recruiters’ dashboards. The targeted employees can also choose how they want to receive such information and make it available to outsiders. They can view jobs on Web pages that Jobster hosts and recommend people on those pages. Or they can automatically send postings to people in their Outlook address books, with Jobster keeping track of the contacts made. Jobster’s ASP service is built on a Java and J2EE base and can run on Windows, Linux, and other platforms. On the back end is an Oracle database, and four Tomcat J2EE Web application servers exchange information with that back end. E-mail hiring campaigns are common at many companies, but the results of such campaigns, and the e-mail–based efforts of

employees to reach out to their networks, are usually not centrally tracked. Jobster can manage the ongoing tracking of a “talent network” with which recruiters want to stay in touch. Rather than treating a group of jobs as a one-time hiring campaign, all campaigns, the people they reach out to, the number of recommendations outsiders get, and the skill sets of contacts are stored and categorized. Through the Oracle database, a re-

from managing a network of potential candidates. With Jobster we have a way to catalog candidates’ contact information and skill sets so we can reconnect with these people even years later.” In a sense, Jobster is what you get when you marry an online social network with an online job board. “We enable people touched by the companies to opt in and customize ways that they might want to receive information about available jobs,” says Jobster’s CEO Jason Goldberg. For example, if the employees don’t want to receive e-mails about jobs, they can choose to check blogs periodically where jobs are posted. “We also try to help companies reach candidates through targeted content and placement of ads, where the idea is to reach job seekers where they are.”

Jobster: Behind the Scenes
Designed for corporate recruiters such as those at Boeing, Jobster is an application service provider (ASP) that pushes job information and requests for recommendations to employees and potential candidates. Jobster keeps track of each step of the process.
Jobster relies on an Oracle database at the back end to store and categorize information on jobs and potential job candidates. Corporate recruiters use software dashboards on their desktop PCs to access Jobster's service and push job information to employees and potential candidates.

1

3 4 2
The front end of Jobster's ASP consists of four Javaand J2EE-based Web application servers. Key employees at the corporation access information sent from recruiters and suggest job candidates who then form a “talent network database” that recruiters can access.

cruiter can, for example, pull up a list of passive candidates who were previously contacted about a particular job. The database can sort the list by how highly rated the candidates were by in-house employees. The lists can be sorted in other ways, too. For example, the recruiter can sort for all candidates who have a particular skill. The software dashboard that recruiters use to perform such tasks, and to communicate with in-house employees who make referrals, is somewhat similar to Salesforce.com’s CRM software front end. It also allows recruiters to create customized, graphical ads for jobs. “The real value in using Jobster’s service,” says Millennium Pharmaceuticals’ Kingett, “lies in the long-term potential

Jobster is priced in an unusual way, and at first glance, may seem expensive. Rates scale according to the number of jobs to be filled. So, for example, 100 jobs would cost $300 per job or $30,000. That’s not peanuts, but companies often offer payments of $2,000 or more for a single hiring referral from a current employee, and headhunters can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Goldberg reaches for the analogy of an automated headhunter when describing the service. “What does a headhunter do?” he asks. “He or she looks over a Rolodex, talks to people, and does networking on an informal basis.” At Jobster, the idea is to automate that process. Sometimes, who you know can make all the difference.

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USER TO USER
PC MAGAZINE’S COMMUNITY OF EXPERTS AND READERS
cut’s icon. The Microsoft Windows files moricons.dll and progman.exe, both found in C:\Windows\System32, also contain numerous icons. One technique for assigning a drivespecific icon uses a file named Autorun.inf in the root directory of that drive. Launch Notepad and enter [autorun] on the first line. Enter ICON= on the second line, followed by the full pathname of the iconholding file, a comma, and the icon index. It might look like this:
[autorun] ICON=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHELL32.DLL,12

FIGURE 1: To select an icon, start in the top

left corner with zero and count down each column, then move to the right.

Change a Hard Drive’s Icon
I’d like to change the icon for a hard drive on my system. I know it’s possible, because one of my disks already has a different icon. I must have done it somehow, but I can’t find the tip on how to do that. ODEDD

Save the file as “C:\autorun.inf” (you need the quotes to prevent Notepad from appending the .txt extension). Now restart the computer. When you open Windows Explorer, the drive should display its new icon. The other technique involves editing the Registry. Launch RegEdit from the Start menu’s Run dialog and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. If a subkey named driveicons is present, open

Arrow key and then pressing the Del key. In case this fails, we spelled out the way to delete the “nickname cache” in Outlook (the solution recommended in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base). A number of users asked how to get rid of a problem address without wiping out the entire nickname cache. Microsoft offered cleanup tools for the cache in Outlook versions 2000 or earlier, but not for 2002 or 2003—and this cache is more important than you might realize. As it turns out, “nickname cache” is a poor description of this file. Outlook builds it from the addresses of the people to whom you send mail, whether or not they’re in your Contacts list. The nickname cache typically holds 1,000 entries. When it

There are two ways to create a drivespecific icon. The first step for both is to determine the full pathname of the file containing the icon you want, as well as the index of the icon within that file. To view the icons contained in an EXE or DLL file, right-click any shortcut that links to a file (as opposed to a system shortcut like My Computer) and choose Properties. On the Shortcut tab of the resulting dialog, click the Change Icon button. Click Browse and select the file whose icons you want to peruse. When you find the one you want, count off the icons to determine the correct index. Start in the top left corner with zero and count down each column, then to the right. For example, icon 12 in C:\ Windows\System32\Shell32.dll is a picture of a memory chip. Make a note of the full pathname of the file and the icon index, then click Cancel, and Cancel again—you don’t actually want to change that short-

it; if not, right-click in the right-hand pane, select New | Key and name the key driveicons. Under the driveicons key, find or create a subkey named C (or the letter of the drive whose icon you want to change). And under this C key find or create a subkey named DefaultIcon. Double-click the (Default) entry in the right-hand pane and set its value to the full pathname of the icon-holding file, a comma, and the icon index. Again you’ll need to restart Windows. If one of these techniques seems not to work for you, try the other. If you apply both to the same drive, the Autorun.inf file takes precedence.—Neil J. Rubenking

FIGURE 2: Go to Outlook’s Advanced E-mail Options to turn AutoCompletion or AutoResolution on or off.

More on Unwanted Names in Outlook
Our recent tip “Getting Rid of Unwanted Names in Outlook” (go.pcmag.com/ nickname) explained what to do when old, invalid e-mail addresses show up as AutoComplete suggestions in Microsoft Outlook 2003. Normally you can delete a bad address the way you would any AutoComplete item, by highlighting it using the Down

fills up, new entries push old ones out of the list. Unless you carefully add new correspondents to your Contacts list or at least save their messages, the nickname cache can sometimes be the only repository for a particular address. Also, the nickname cache is the sole source for the AutoCompletion list of addresses. If you start typing an address and see a dropdown list of items that match what you’ve

As it turns out, “nickname cache” is a poor description of the file.
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go.pcmag.com/solutions • S O L U T I O N S S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/solutions

You can protect your Word documents, but the protection is not foolproof.
work, see www.ingressor.com/ autocompletetips.htm. On the same site you’ll find a solution to the problem of fixing a corrupted nickname cache without deleting all the entries—a $35 utility called Ingressor Desktop Edition. In addition to letting you search and edit nickname cache entries, this program will export the cache for sharing or backup and import data to preload the nickname cache with important addresses.—NJR
FIGURE 3: If you want to see two separate spreadsheets in two windows, launch a second instance of Excel from the Start menu.

Excel Times Two

typed so far, that’s coming from the nickname cache. And if you can’t delete a particular item, that’s an indication of corruption in the nickname cache. The Contacts list supplies data to a different feature, called AutoResolution. When you type a partial address into one of the recipient fields and then Tab or click to a different field, Outlook will attempt to match what you typed with the Contacts list. If exactly one contact matches, it will simply enter that address. If multiple items match, it will underline your entry in red, indicating that you can right-click to select an item. This is the same function that can be invoked manually by choosing Tools | Check Names or pressing Alt-K. To turn AutoCompletion or AutoResolution on or off, first choose Options from Outlook’s Tools menu. Click the E-mail Options button on the Preferences tab, and click the Advanced E-mail Options button in the resulting dialog. The check boxes controlling these features are near the bottom. The one titled Automatic name checking controls AutoResolution, and the one whose title starts Suggest names . . . controls AutoCompletion. For more details on how these features

I have a two-monitor system. I don’t like the fact that I can’t see two separate Microsoft Excel spreadsheets open at the same time unless I tile them within one application window. It should be like Internet Explorer or Microsoft Word, where you can have multiple windows open at the same time. Is this option available in Excel? STEVE BOHLER

set to No changes (Read only), or choose Comments —the latter choice will allow the recipients to add comments using Insert | Comment without actually changing the text. Click the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button, and enter a password, twice. Save the document. In Excel 2003, select Tools | Protection | Protect Sheet from the menu. In the list of allowed actions, leave all unchecked except the first two (Select locked cells and Select unlocked cells). Enter your password, click OK, enter it again, and click OK again. Since all cells are locked by default, this will disallow any edits. This will prevent casual modification of your files, but a determined person could still get around such protection. For example, he or she could copy and paste the text of your protected document into a new document, delete the original, and save the

If you open a new workbook from the File menu of an existing copy of Excel, it will load as another window inside that copy. If you launch an Excel workbook from Windows Explorer while Excel is running, the default behavior is for that new workbook to load within the existing copy of Excel. What you need to do is launch a separate copy of Excel from the Start menu and then open your second workbook within that copy. Now you have two distinct Excel windows that you can size and position as you please. Note that you can’t use Ctrl-F6 to move between them, the way you could if they were hosted within the same instance of Excel.—NJR

Protect Shared Documents
I want to protect Microsoft Word and Excel files from any changes when I send them to other people. It seems that the security features in these programs protect files only from users on my computer. Is there some way to lock the format and content when I send them to others? ROBERT BATT

FIGURE 4: You can protect your documents from being changed, but the protection is not that difficult to circumvent.

HOW TO CONTACT US
E-MAIL K pcmsolutions@ziffdavis.com FAX K 212-503-5799 MAIL K User to User, PC Magazine, 28 East 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7940 If we print your tip, you’ll receive a PC Magazine T-shirt. We regret that we cannot answer letters individually.

You can protect your Word documents, but the protection is not foolproof. In Word 2003, select Tools | Protect Document from the menu. Check the box labeled Allow only this type of editing in the document. Leave it

unprotected copy using the same name. There are also numerous utilities available to crack the passwords for Microsoft Office documents. Converting the document to a PDF file or saving it as a bitmap would provide additional obstacles to anyone intent on modifying your document. How far should you go? It all depends on how far you believe your recipients will go to modify the documents.—NJR
See more tips online at go.pcmag.com/usertouser.

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Next Windows
with the
Longhorn no longer, Windows Vista is now looming large. How will the new Windows change your computing life?
BY MICHAEL J. MILLER
fter years of waiting to see the successor to Windows XP, advantage of it should be more stable. (You’ll still be able to run code-named Longhorn, we’ve finally gotten our hands Windows XP devices for compatibility, though.) Privileges—or on Beta 1 of what now will be called Windows Vista. which programs, services, and users get to do what—have been This beta, confusingly still called Longhorn, is aimed rethought. You’ll see a big push toward User Account Protection, at developers and IT shops, and lacks many features that the final meaning that users normally won’t run with Administrator priviWindows Vista, still over a year away, will have. But it has all the leges—or need to. In fact, administrators will also run with limited foundations of the OS and displays Microsoft’s new emphasis on privileges most of the time. In addition, Microsoft promises, Inmaking a system that will be more stable and secure, as well as giv- ternet Explorer 7 in Vista will run in an even more locked-down ing users greater clarity as regards their data. This “clear vision” is state, although that feature of IE isn’t in Beta 1. All these things mean that spyware will no longer find such easy entry. what Microsoft says is reflected in the Vista name. Microsoft’s overall goal here is an environment that offers The early version of Beta 1 we tested shows a focus on enhancements to basic structure—in particular, a lot of changes to better security and has fewer reboots, crashes, and hangs. It’s too the things that users don’t often think about but that turn out to early to know how successful these initiatives will be—no operatbe very important. When Chris Jones, VP of the Windows Client ing system is completely secure—but they clearly show an evoluteam at Microsoft, discusses the team’s goals, he talks first about tion in priorities from Windows XP. On top of this deep change are new features that are more visefficiency and reducing the number of defects, then about inible to users. The OS has a new creasing the “confidence” people Search panel that can—quickly, have in their PCs (including better 2005: July 27: Beta 1 security), and last about improvefinally!—search files by author, date, Mid-September: Beta 1 Refresh at Microsoft’s ments to user experiences, such as keyword, file types, text within, or Professional Developers Conference changes to the user interface. other kinds of metadata. Of course, 2006: First half: Beta 2 These goals are evident in Beta 1. there are plenty of search utilities, Q2/Q3: Vista release to manufacturing (RTM) The device driver model has been rebut the goal here is to make the Holiday season: Vista retail release engineered for increased simplicity Search panel of the operating system and security, so hardware that takes accessible by any application. And

Hands On

Vista...on the horizon

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COVER STORY

Vista’s New Look

An updated and attractive, yet familiar, interface. And fast search available throughout. See page 106

Performance and Reliability An OS for a 64-bit

world. And a focus on building confidence by improving stability. See page 110

Deployment and Management

Simpler installation and maintenance, to lower the pain and cost of ownership for everyone. See page 110
Security

An emphasis on locking down the system without locking out the user. See page 108

Internet Explorer 7

Finally, a Microsoft browser with tabs and RSS support. And built better to block bad guys. See page 114

Vista as a Platform

New ways to build sophisticated, visually striking applications with Avalon and Indigo. See page 114

more on the web
Stay current with our continuing coverage of Windows Vista at go.pcmag.com/vista.
www.pcmag.com SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E

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some innovations, such as “virtual folders,” could change the way we organize our information. The full user interface isn’t finished, but Beta 1 shows the “Aero” interface, which looks more modern than the traditional Windows XP interface and takes advantage of the new “Avalon” graphics. Among the cool new options here is one that lets you see your documents stacked together and see thumbnails of your documents. PCs that have the appropriate graphics hardware will gain visual effects that simplify use; many of these involve translucent UI elements in a system known as “Glass.” Internet Explorer 7 (also to be available for Win XP) is improved, with tabbed browsing, RSS tools, and a new display engine. Several other enhancements, such as antiphishing tools, are expected later. Other new elements in the OS include mainstream support for 64-bit computing, a number of new connectivity and mobility options, and tools designed to help large organizations deploy and manage Vista with greater ease. It’s too early to see how Vista measures up against competing operating systems, but a lot of the more visible features are fa-

miliar. Apple’s Mac OS X “Tiger” already has many 3D visual effects and a search interface, Spotlight. Unix has had usable limited-rights accounts for years. But Vista’s biggest competitor probably isn’t any of these—it’s previous versions of Windows. Microsoft needs to make these features more mainstream and make them attractive to developers, while still retaining compatibility with previous versions. At present, many of the new user “experiences” are absent, awaiting Beta 2. These include a new Windows Media Player, new photo-management features, updates to the Media Center and Tablet PC software, and a lot of the final visual look. Beta 2 is expected around the beginning of next year and will likely be available to a broader group of users. Windows Vista is expected to ship in the second half of next year, and there’s clearly a lot of work that needs to be done between now and then. For now, we’ll take you on a tour of Windows Longhorn Beta 1 and show you some details of Vista’s fundamentals—user interface, security features, IE 7, and more. You’ll find an OS that seems familiar on the surface, but has a lot of changes inside.

Reviewed by John Clyman

Vista’s New Look
To typical users, software is defined largely by the features its interface exposes. There’s far more to an operating system than the UI, though, and Microsoft doesn’t expect to nail down many user-visible aspects of Windows Vista until the release of Beta 2. Still, Beta 1 hints at how Microsoft is approaching the UI challenge, though much of what we describe here is bound to change by the time Vista ships. The OS’s new look-and-feel is known as “Aero.” On suitably equipped machines, Aero will exploit 3D graphics accelerators to implement “Glass” display effects. The venerable shell metaphor of a desktop with overlapping windows hasn’t changed, but Aero Glass uses subtle visual cues to make the experience much more convincing and seamless—we’d dare say even a bit Mac-like. Window and dialog borders are partially transparent, blurring content

AERO INTERFACE WITH “GLASS” EFFECTS

behind them and casting drop shadows to enhance the sense of depth. They appear and disappear, using understated zooming and fading effects. Buttons and controls have a gel-like look and light up in natural-looking ways. Because the “chrome” that surrounds windows and dialog boxes is drawn by the OS rather than by individual applications, and because the bulk of apps written in recent years use common controls within their windows, many of FOLDER WITH FILE PREVIEW the Glass effects appear even when you are running legacy apps. Programs written name, but we expect that Microsoft’s goal to take advantage of Windows XP’s visual of making search pervasive will lead to this styles will automatically use Aero styles. query box becoming an entry point for The familiar Start menu is still there too, systemwide search. although its organization has changed a bit. Running Aero Glass will require moderResponding to complaints that the cascad- ately beefy hardware, including a 3D graphing menus spawned by the “All Programs” ics accelerator that supports DirectX 9 with option were hard to navigate, Microsoft AGP 8X or PCI Express 8X support and at has changed the All Programs list so it ap- least 64MB of RAM. Although that may expears embedded within the left pane of the ceed the capabilities of today’s typical corStart menu. Now you can collapse and ex- porate desktops, it shouldn’t be a stretch for pand it, much as you can do with the tree desktop systems and for the higher-end lapview of directories in Windows Explorer. Additionally, the Start menu contains an embedded search box that lets you search program names incrementally— that is, as you type each letter the list of programs displayed is immediately constrained to those that match your search string. Different users will find it more or less useful to search for applications by FILE STACKS

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tops that will be shipping for saving and loading files when Vista arrives. Hardconsistently reflect these ware that isn’t up to snuff views, making it easier to will be unable to show make informed decisions Glass effects like transon the spot. parency or live icons. A third appearance, Classic, EXPLORER, METAwill be available for compaDATA, AND SEARCH nies that don’t want to have One of the most anticito train staff on a new pated and ambitious feainterface. tures of Windows Vista Our first impressions of was WinFS (Windows FuAero are positive. We are ture Storage), a new dataparticularly pleased to find base-backed file system. that the visuals were enMicrosoft announced last gaging but not gratuitous. THE START MENU year that WinFS wouldn’t In fact, they often add inship as a part of Vista—a formation that makes using the PC faster, major setback for the company, which has easier, and less error-prone, as well as been trying without success to release somore aesthetically satisfying. phisticated new file systems since the early Live icons are one example. When you 1990s. In spite of WinFS’s absence, though, use Windows Explorer to browse through it looks as if many of the most appealing a folder, you won’t see generic icons for the end-user features it was supposed to enapplications that created various files. In- able will appear in Windows Vista. We saw stead, you’ll see an actual preview of the file evidence of their benefits in Beta 1. or the first page of a multipage document. Windows Vista lets files be annotated These icons are scalable to arbitrary sizes. with keywords, comments, and ratings, Folder icons will include thumbnail repre- plus metadata specific to various content sentations of their contents. (Win XP does types. Photographs can include the locathis only with folders full of images.) Even tion they were taken and the equipment file-copy dialogs and the common dialogs used to take them; MP3 tracks can include

the artist, album, year of release, genre, and so on. In some cases this metadata is stored within the files themselves; in others, it’s managed separately by the file system. Providing support for extensive metadata remains a key promise of WinFS, now expected to be in beta release at the time Windows Vista ships. What Vista itself will deliver is support for certain predefined metadata, but because it will use iFilter DLLs, an existing technology used by MSN Desktop Search and the Windows Indexing Service, developers can write iFilters that support their particular brands of metadata. We found that support for editing metadata was flaky, but when it worked, the benefits were easy to imagine. The reason tracking by metadata is so valuable is that it allows for flexible sorting, grouping, and searching capabilities. The

VIRTUAL FOLDERS IN WINDOWS EXPLORER

Glossary: The Long and Short of It
Aero The look-and-feel of Windows Vista. Aero Glass The most sophisticated version of Aero, with 3D graphics, animation, transparency, and other visual effects. Available on systems with advanced graphics hardware. Avalon Vista’s graphics and media application programming interface (API), on which Aero is built. Indigo A programming model for distributed applications based on .NET and using interconnected Web services. Monad Code name for MSH (Microsoft Shell), a new command-line interface. .NET A term encompassing Microsoft’s software development strategy for complex applications and Web services, and the tools and platform for creating these. NGSCB Next-Generation Secure Computing Base. An ambitious new infrastructure, formerly known by the code name Palladium, that would, among other things, let compliant applications run in a special trusted mode while most operations ran in a more open environment. RSS Though the acronym has a few meanings (the most common is Really Simple Syndication), all refer to a way of managing lists of information. Commonly used today for keeping up with blogs and other fast-changing Web sites. Microsoft plans on using RSS and Simple List Extensions for managing all sorts of data. Sidebar Removed from Vista, the Sidebar was essentially an extension of the Windows system tray, residing at the side of the desktop and displaying customizable information. Secure Startup Full Volume Encryption On computer systems equipped with a Trusted Platform Module (see below) almost all of the boot drive will be encrypted. At startup, the TPM will make the drive available. Hackers attempting to boot a different operating system or use the drive in another computer will be denied access. Trusted Platform Module The TPM chip is basically a secure microcontroller on the motherboard, containing cryptographic capabilities and security algorithms. It delivers very secure data encryption and can control access to the computer even before the OS boots. The TPM provides support for Secure Startup Full Volume Encryption and for NGSCB by verifying the identity of the system accessing it. Many enterprise-destined desktops and notebooks include a TPM now; we expect it to become standard equipment. WinFS Windows Future Storage. A database-backed file system that is designed to expand the ways developers and users work with files and other types of data. WinFX Vista’s programming model, incorporating Avalon, Indigo, and eventually WinFS. Successor to the Win32 API.

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Windows Vista shell will then give you the ability to act on this metadata using capabilities like stacking, grouping, filtering, and virtual folders—plus, of course, search. Windows Vista’s virtual folders are a particularly appealing example of how metadata can work. Just as Search Folders in Microsoft Outlook can collect e-mail messages from multiple folders, virtual folders dynamically gather files from all over your hard drive based on specified criteria. You could, for instance, create a virtual folder that contains all jazz songs you’ve rated five stars.

Within Windows Explorer, you can also stack files based on their properties. When you create a stack based on a keyword, files added to that stack receive the keyword automatically. Stacks provide a new visual organizational metaphor that we found immediately intuitive, even though their implementation is still buggy at this point. Another way to keep tabs on your files is using Windows Vista’s list feature, which lets you assemble an ordered collection (that is, ordered the way you want it, not displayed in order of filename or date last modified) of shortcuts and annotate them.

Then there’s search. Desktop Search tools that instantly locate any file or e-mail message on your system based on the item’s attributes or contents have gained a lot of popularity this year, with many big players, including Google and Yahoo!, introducing free products. Windows’ own desktopsearch capabilities have always been mediocre, but Vista integrates Microsoft’s capable MS Search technology, which was introduced in Windows Desktop Search, part of the MSN Search Toolbar. Like Apple’s Spotlight search in Mac OS X Tiger, search shows up everywhere in

Windows Security: This Time for Sure!

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or years Microsoft has promised true Microsoft will fine-tune just what a user security—in the next version of Winaccount can do. dows. Service Pack 2 for Windows XP If a user tries something that requires actually made some progress in the secuAdministrator privileges, an Administrator rity arena, with such features as Windows can enter a password for one-time permisFirewall and Security Center. Instead of sion. In a corporate environment, the IT department can use Remote Access to enter building Windows Vista on top of XP SP2, the password on the user’s computer. And however, Microsoft has built it on Windows even Administrator accounts run with stanServer 2003 Service Pack 1, a more secure dard user privileges whenever possible. By platform, and the company plans to beef up default, Vista requests confirmation before the new OS’s security as much as it can without driving users crazy. Quite a few of taking actions that require Administrator Vista’s security initiatives are functional in privilege. If this request is unexpected, it the Beta 1 release; some others are present NEW PARENTAL CONTROLS might signify a malware attack. but not fully integrated. When legacy programs write to forbidden Microsoft has also recently announced that it will be offering a areas like C:\Program Files or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the system Registry, Vista’s File and Registry Virtualization diverts their data comprehensive suite of security tools for end users, including to a user-specific safe area called the Virtual Store. Nothing is antivirus and antispyware. These, however, will be packaged into actually written to the forbidden areas, so the program can functhe OneCare subscription service rather than being integrated into tion without Administrator privileges. To see the operating system. this feature in Beta 1, create a text file in USER ACCOUNT PROTECTION C:\Program Files, then switch to another Using a Limited account for day-to-day user account—the file is gone! It actually activity in Windows XP will keep out most exists in a folder below C:\Virtual Store. malware. Unfortunately, it will also keep Similar functionality is available to businessyou from performing simple tasks like es today in some third-party products. changing the time zone when traveling or Many security products can’t install their turning off power-management features frequent updates unless an Administrator is during a presentation. In addition, many logged in. Vista won’t necessarily solve this legacy applications (and, let’s admit it, type of problem. Instead, Microsoft encourgames) require access to file-system or ages vendors to modify their update rouRegistry areas that are taboo for Limited tines so they run as Windows services with accounts. Thus most Win XP users run with THE SECURITY CENTER all the needed privileges, independent of the Administrator privileges. logged-in user. Vista aims to avoid any unnecessary requirement for AdminisThe move to using services helps reduce the need to run as an trator privileges, making Limited accounts more palatable. As part Administrator, but hack attacks can take advantage of vulnerabilities of the makeover, the Limited designation will be dropped—they’ll in Windows services. Vista’s Windows Service Hardening works to just be called user accounts. minimize the impact of such attacks by limiting each service to the In Beta 1, User Account Protection (UAP) isn’t enabled until you system activities it actually requires. For example, if all a service turn it on from the Start menu. You still need Administrator powdoes is pass information through specific ports, it won’t be allowed ers to change the time zone, but you can keep your laptop from to write to the disk or Registry. This feature isn’t fully implemented shutting down during a presentation. As the beta test proceeds, in Beta 1, and the necessary privileges have not been defined for

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Vista, from the Explorer file manager to the common dialog boxes used by most Windows applications, although other applications will have to be modified to take full advantage of it. Explorer provides an incremental-search field at the top right corner of its window, so you can begin filtering displayed items by simply typing a few letters. If you hit Enter, you’ll be presented with a more comprehensive search dialog that lets you search system-wide, filter the results based on metadat, and build complex Boolean queries using a straightforward, step-by-step process.

Vista gets rid of the Tasks Bar that was on the left of Explorer windows in Win XP, but exposes more context-sensitive activities along the top of its window, such as a “Share” button with a simplified interface for setting permissions, and the option, in folders containing photographs, to order prints online. The overall appearance of Explorer, we noticed, is a lot like Microsoft’s existing Digital Image Library software. Microsoft is polishing the OS interface in smaller ways as well. Secure that you know whose computer you’re using, Microsoft has dropped the “My”s: “My Documents” is

now “Documents.” “Computer” is much more informative, with drives’ total size and free space displayed along with their names. There’s also a new UI for wizards, redesigned for clarity and borrowing a familiar Web-like feel. The operating system will also integrate support for RSS, making it easier for millions of users to get updates from blogs and other information sources. Windows Vista will eventually include a Common RSS Feed List that maintains a central view of all a user’s RSS subscriptions, regardless of the application where they originated.

most services. For the curious, however, entering sc qprivs rpcss at a command prompt will call up a list of the privileges required by the Remote Procedure Call service—the one that provided entry for the Blaster worm.

to view the resulting logs until Beta 2. Microsoft won’t comment on whether it will implement other parental-control options, such as Web filtering, in Vista.

OTHER SECURITY ELEMENTS INTERNET EXPLORER Vista will enhance the Windows Firewall— While UAP limits users to the system privileges finally—to protect against unauthorized outthey actually need, Internet Explorer will run bound connections as well as its current with even lower privileges. With IE7’s Lowinbound protection. Don’t expect an equivalent Rights mode, users will still be able to visit to your third-party firewall, though. This feaWeb sites, download files, and so on. But ture is aimed at corporate IT managers, not at malware that attempts to exploit an IE vulneraindividual users. (OneCare will likely have a USER ACCOUNT PROTECTION bility will run at IE’s own low-privilege level— more consumer-friendly firewall.) There’s no and thus won’t be able to write files, change database of known good programs, so you’d the Registry, or otherwise damage the system. have to answer an allow/block query for every IE7 will run on both Win XP SP2 and Vista, but program at least once. Beta 1 doesn’t include Low-Rights mode is Vista-specific and isn’t a user interface for this aspect of the firewall, present in Beta 1. though you can get a cryptic view of its IE7 will also have antiphishing capabilities settings by entering netsh firewall show config at a command prompt. built in (see the sidebar “Internet Explorer 7” While reliance on standard user accounts on page 114). Antiphishing isn’t present in will go a long way toward preventing installaBeta 1 either, so those using IE7 under Windows XP will see it first. Briefly, it will block tion of malware, Longhorn will also actively access to known fraudulent sites and flag seek and remove specific threats. Beta 1 inknown good sites with a link to the site cludes the Malicious Software Removal Tool certificate. IE7 will analyze those sites not that runs during automatic updates. Additional ACTION REQUIRING falling into either category and will report malware detection and removal features are ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD any suspicious characteristics, such as links planned for Beta 2 or later. that display one URL but actually go to anFor systems whose hardware includes a other, or that go to an IP address rather than a domain. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, which is common on newer corporate PCs but not on consumer machines, Vista will offer PARENTAL CONTROLS Secure Startup Volume Encryption. In this scenario, all but the UAP means you don’t have to make your kids Administrators just so bare minimum of the boot volume is encrypted; at boot time the TPM transparently allows access. If a hacker attempts to boot they can run The Sims. Vista includes additional protection in the from a different OS or remove the hard disk and start it in a differform of parental controls. For each user, the administrator can limit games to those at or below a specified ESRB rating level and choose ent system, the disk will be unreadable without a password. In whether to permit unrated games. You can also disable all games, Beta 1, there’s no user interface for this feature, but the service block specific games by name, or block games based on more than that makes it work is present. 30 content categories, from Animated Blood to Crude Humor to Vista looks like it’s taking many of the proper steps to minimize Strong Language. the operating system’s popularity among hackers. But only time When Vista blocks a game, it explains parental controls to the will tell whether the operating system will stand up to social user; standard users can view their own parental-control settings engineering, the need to compromise security for backward but can’t change them. There’s also an option to enable activity compatibility’s sake, and Microsoft’s own desire to profit on aftermonitoring on a per-user basis; however, there won’t be any way market security tools.—Neil J. Rubenking

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Performance & Reliability
Microsoft hasn’t yet finalized the features in Windows Vista, let alone optimized them, so there’s relatively little we can conclusively say now about its performance. The most significant element of the performance story is that 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista are being built concurrently, so that users with computationally demanding or particularly memory-intensive applications should be tors of reliability is security, a topic important enough that we’ve broken it out into the sidebar “Windows Security: This Time for Sure!” for more extensive coverage. A number of other reliability-oriented features will make their appearance in Windows Vista. System services that fail will be restarted automatically. Disk and memory diagnostics will try to identify impending hardware problems. The system will monitor its load and resources, and attempt to correct slow shell responsiveness and abnormally long boot times. A start-up repair tool will help fix unbootable systems. Unexpected system shutdowns will result in diagnostics being performed on restart, and not nearly so intrusively as in previous versions of Windows. Microsoft is also changing the way certain device drivers are built, to help reduce crashes. In Windows XP, for example, printer device drivers supplied by IHVs include kernel-mode code that can crash the entire OS if they are buggy. Under Windows Vista, IHVs will write only usermode drivers, which can’t bring down the OS itself when a failure occurs.

SAFEDOCS BACKUP

CONNECTIVITY AND MOBILITY With more and more people using portable devices, Vista will better support common scenarios for mobile and partially connected users. For example, the new synchronization manager is expected to provide for replication and synchronization of files between multiple PCs—just like Outlook 2003’s Cached Exchange mode. An ad-hoc capability for securely sharing presentations wirelessly among participants in a meeting is built in too. Windows Vista’s new sleep mode is supposed to combine the best features of standby and hibernate, and reduce the confusion of having two different modes for putting systems into an inactive state. Sleep mode will, like today’s standby mode, switch into a low-power mode from which the PC can resume rapidly. But it will also, like today’s hibernate mode, write a memory image to the disk, so that all won’t be lost if power is completely drained. Other connectivity-related features include support for Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) and the ability to access applications and desktops over the Internet without a VPN. In this area, developers have new features as well, including presence APIs and the Indigo framework for building service-oriented applications.

able to choose a 64-bit version of Vista from day one, provided they have a 64-bit processor to run it on. (The other potential roadblock for running 64-bit versions of Windows is the availability of device drivers, so Microsoft is leaning on independent hardware vendors [IHVs] to provide 64-bit versions of their device drivers.) Microsoft has said that its preliminary performance testing shows that 32-bit applications often run faster in 64-bit Windows. Additionally, Microsoft says it aims to improve speed in other areas, such as the time required to boot the system. A new sleep mode is meant to supplant standby and hibernate modes, combining the resume speed of standby and the lower power drain of hibernate. One of the largely invisible areas where Microsoft says it’s making major investments is in reliability: stability and security, what the company grandly terms the “confidence pillar.” In the words of Brad Goldberg, general manager for the Windows client, “If we don’t nail the confidence pillar, we don’t earn the right to talk about the other features of the product.” Microsoft says it’s tackling the reliability problem from a number of angles, including changes in its own design and development process. Of course, one of the most crucial fac110
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Deployment and Management
Both large-scale IT organizations and individual users know that deploying and managing Windows can be a costly and painful task. Windows Vista will include a variety of features intended to reduce that burden and ultimately lower the total cost of ownership. These include an imagebased install process and tools for managing images; a restart manager to reduce the incidence of reboots; better upgrade and settings-transfer capabilities; a new unified sleep mode, a new event manager, and a new task scheduler; improved backup and new file-synchronization capabilities; and better support for managing portable and occasionally connected devices. Microsoft says its goal for corporate environments is to reduce deployment cost 25 percent. For home users, the goal is to reduce the time and the intimidation and frustration that installation engenders. Let’s start by looking at the initial OS installation. Unlike current versions of Windows, Windows Vista uses an image-based install process. What that means is that Windows Vista DVDs will contain not thousands of individual files to be copied from the DVD drive to the hard disk, but instead byte-by-byte snapshots of a working Vista installation—much like the disk image created by products such as Norton Ghost. That image will be copied wholesale onto the hard drive, which is a much faster operation than reading and writing all those small files one by one. Then the installation will proceed with a minimum of user input. We found that installing Beta 1 on each

OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Michael J. Miller is editor-in-chief of PC Magazine. John Clyman is a contributing editor of the magazine and president of technology consulting firm Narrative Logic. Cade Metz is senior writer at PC Magazine. Mary Jo Foley is the editor of Microsoft Watch, which tracks the people, products, and strategies of the software giant. Features editor Sarah Pike and PC Magazine Labs lead analyst Neil J. Rubenking were in charge of this story.

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of our test beds required about half an hour, a time we expect will grow shorter as Microsoft optimizes the process. To our satisfaction, we were not required to provide any input beyond the serial number and specifying an install partition. Upgrades from current Windows installations were not supported in the build that we tested, but Microsoft intends to use the image-based install process even for upgrades. To help reduce the number of images enterprises must maintain for different hardware, nearly all Windows Vista installations will use the same HAL (hardware abstraction layer). Currently, the existence of multiple Windows HALs means that different images are required to support different underlying hardware. (Microsoft notes there may be some exceptions to the single-HAL model for older, pre-ACPI, hardware, which should be rare by the time Windows Vista is released, and for unusual configurations such as 16- or 64-processor servers.) Microsoft will also reduce the number of images required to support multilingual environments. The attention to images doesn’t end with the initial installation. Microsoft demonstrated command-line tools for mounting images as if they were disks, so you can

ERROR ANALYSIS

browse files and edit image contents directly (this wasn’t available in our Vista build). These tools should help reduce the effort required to keep images current. Another nuisance Microsoft is working to reduce is the need to reboot systems after installing new components or applications. Windows Vista’s “restart manager” will analyze dependencies to determine whether restarts are truly necessary. Microsoft’s goal is to cut the number of restarts required in half. Vista will also provide application developers with tools that allow upgrades even when their apps are running, if they code for it. Additionally, it will give developers tools to apply patches without requiring users to shut down their applications; in effect, a developer will be able to freeze the state of the application, apply the patch, and resume running the program, to provide a

more seamless user experience. In another effort to streamline things, fast user switching (currently limited to workgroup configurations) will work even within domains, a feature Microsoft says has been widely requested for multiuser environments where security is still paramount, such as hospitals. Administrators will have an array of improved tools to work with, including some that were active in the build we tried. Among these tools are filtering capacities and a new event manager that is XMLbased and includes triggers to attach a task to an event. Similarly, a new task scheduler provides far more flexibility over setting up tasks, allowing complex conditions such as running a process only when the system is idle or a notebook is on AC power. Microsoft is also looking at several ways to reduce the total cost of ownership, particularly in large companies. It estimates that a more effective sleep mode will save $35 to $40 a year in energy costs per PC. We saw the stub of a “SafeDocs” automated backup tool that looks as if it’s intended to help make backup painless and reduce the risk of lost data. Windows Vista will also give system OEMs and corporate IT departments the ability to customize help content, to reduce costly user inquiries.

The Beta Program
ho actually gets to use Longhorn Beta 1? Several thousand software developers, hardware manufacturers, and IT professionals with close ties to Microsoft —not to mention a few lucky members of the media. Over the course of several months, these chosen few will put the new OS through its paces, reporting bugs back to Microsoft and maybe even suggesting a design change or two. About 10,000 testers belong to the official Longhorn/Vista “beta program,” around half drawn from an existing database of companies that have tested Windows in the past. “We have a very large database of beta testers, and we screen it to find out who’s actually been reporting the bugs they find,” says Tom Laemmel, a Windows Client product manager. Many of these companies belong to Microsoft’s Certified Partner program. The rest are companies recommended by Microsoft employees and partners. These testers provide most of the feedback on how well the new OS is holding up and what needs to change. But Microsoft has also posted Beta 1 code to MSDN, an online service for software developers, and Microsoft TechNet, a similar service for the IT community; any subscriber who downloads the OS from these services is free to report bugs as well. Definition 6, an Atlanta-based consulting firm that builds communication and collaboration systems for clients like

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Georgia-Pacific and Church’s Chicken, has beta-tested all the major Windows desktop and server releases dating back to Windows 2000, and will take a look at Longhorn Beta 1 as well. “As soon as possible, we want to know what the new OS is going to mean to our customers, how it’s going to affect their infrastructure, and how they can take advantage of it,” says Paul Hernacki, Definition 6’s CTO. At this stage, the company’s application development and hardware infrastructure groups will simply load the beta on several PCs, getting a feel for the interface, trying new tools, and installing applications. It’s not a systematic process. “Generally, we just load the current version of our own application—and maybe a few older versions as well— and just play with it,” says Scott Testa, COO of Mindbridge Software, another Microsoft Certified Partner. “We’ll see how the OS reacts, what’s good, what’s bad, what blows up, what doesn’t.” If a beta tester comes across a bug at any point during the process—or wants to suggest a design change—there are two basic ways of relaying information back to Redmond. One, Microsoft will provide a downloadable application, called a “problem-reporting tool,” that lets testers report bugs over the Net. Two, Certified Partners often have the luxury of phone conversations and face-to-face meetings with Microsoft representatives, where they can freely exchange ideas.—Cade Metz

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Vista as a Platform
Despite the attention we’ve given to Windows Vista’s user-visible aspects, one of the new OS’s most important contributions, and one of the explicit goals of Beta 1, will be to developers of both hardware and software for the Windows platform. New application programming interfaces embodied in Avalon, Indigo, and eventually WinFS will give developers entirely new ways of constructing sophisticated, visually striking applications. Microsoft initially pitched Avalon, Indigo, and WinFS, a set of APIs together known as WinFX, as the three “pillars” of the new operating system. Last year, when it announced that WinFS would not ship as part of Windows Vista, the company added that Avalon and Indigo would also be available as downloadable add-ons for Windows XP. Since WinFX is essentially an evolution of the .NET framework for

Internet Explorer 7
Discovery option on the browser’s Tools menu or clicking a button that changes color when new feeds are discovered. If you select a feed, you can preview it. And with a third click, you can add it to your Favorites. During testing at PC Magazine Labs, our IE7 beta rarely discovered all the available feeds, but once the kinks are ironed out, this tool should be a high point of the new browser. On the more practical side of things, the beta includes a new Delete Browsing History tool that lets you instantly erase not only the list of all the sites you’ve visited, but also your saved cookies and passwords, Web form data, and temp files. With IE6, this was a multistep process, and the steps weren’t obvious. Microsoft also plans to include three new security tools with IE7. Beta 1 offers an Add-On Disabled mode that lets you run IE with all browser add-ons turned off, but we’ll have to wait to test two other tools: a new Protected Mode, which protects against spyware and other malware, and a Phishing Filter, which protects you from fraudulent Web sites. Each time you visit a site, the browser’s phishing filter will check the URL against an online list of known phishing sites and

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NEW TASK MANAGER

application developers, this is a logical step; current versions of the .NET framework are similarly available for download via Windows Update. The significance of this move is that it should dramatically increase the installed base for WinFX components. Application developers won’t necessarily have to wait for Vista to reach critical mass, which may take years in corporate environments, to start building on top of WinFX capabilities. Avalon is the name of Microsoft’s new graphics API. A key benefit it provides for developers is that its graphics are vectorbased, rather than bitmapped, so they can be scaled to arbitrary sizes and transformed without loss of fidelity. This capability underlies features like the live icons that appear in the shell. It also means that Avalon applications can more easily take advantage of emerging screens with higher-thanstandard dpi (dot-per-inch) resolutions.
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onghorn Beta 1 isn’t just our first look at Microsoft’s new operating system. It’s also our first glimpse of Internet Explorer 7. Nearly four years after releasing Internet Explorer 6, in the face of growing competition from Mozilla’s Firefox browser, Microsoft is finally giving the old IE a facelift. If this early release is any indication, the new version is sure to be a real improvement. According to Microsoft, IE7 will make its official debut well before the arrival of Vista. But the company hasn’t said when this will happen, and though a beta of IE7 for Windows XP was released along with Longhorn Beta 1, we were unable to test it before press time. The “IE7 for Vista” beta is still a long way from the finished product, but in many ways, it’s already far more powerful than the aging IE6. Most notably, it offers a tabbed interface, letting you move between loaded sites by selecting tabs running across the top of the window. This is very similar to Firefox, Opera, and many browser add-ons that sit on top of IE6, but Microsoft’s take on the tabbed interface is arguably even easier to use—and better implemented than the tabbed browsing in the current MSN toolbar for IE6. You don’t have to create new tabs: Each time you load a site in one tab, IE7 creates a new blank tab for you. And if you use your middle mouse button to click on a link (or Ctrl–leftclick), it opens in a new tab. Yes, you can configure other browsers to do similar things, but offering such features by default is a big boon for everyday users. Taking another page from Firefox, the IE7 beta also has a built-in RSS reader, letting you discover, preview, and subscribe to online news feeds. When you surf to a new site, you can browse a list of available feeds by selecting the Feed

PRIVACY REPORT

a list of known legitimate sites. If there’s a match, it will simply block or allow the site as appropriate. If not, it will look for “characteristics common to phishing sites” and warn you if it finds any. At present, IE7 has trouble rendering some Web pages. According to Microsoft, these sites need to update their detection code for IE7. Most of the tools available with the Vista version of IE7 will also be in IE7 for Win XP, with a few exceptions. One is that IE7 for Win XP will not include the new Protected Mode, which is specific to Vista’s new design.—Cade Metz

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Avalon also gives application developers a simplified way to construct portions of their interfaces. With XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language), an XML-based, HTML-like markup language, developers or even designers can specify the location and look of controls by using relatively simple text descriptions, rather than by writing code. Avalon also provides lower-level capabilities relating to typography and color matching, and it simplifies work for developers by unify-

ing features that are currently scattered across the Windows API, such as multimedia support, in one place. While Avalon underlies application components that users will see, Indigo provides some of the complex communication plumbing that exists below the service. Indigo is designed to make it easier for application developers to exploit the benefits of service-oriented architecture (SOA), breaking their applications into pluggable components that can be distributed on multiple machines and can interact securely. Indigo’s goals are similar to those of architectures such as DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) and CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), but are particularly designed to deal with the complexities of handling asynchronous transactions in long-latency environments, such as dealing with Web services. Although WinFS won’t be part of the

initial Windows Vista release, the new file system should also appeal to application developers, as it will let them effectively assume that a standard database-like store is available for their use. In Microsoft’s long-term vision for WinFS, an application like Outlook might store each individual contact and e-mail message in a WinFS object that various OS components, as well as Outlook itself, could manipulate. Windows Vista’s integrated support for RSS and its Simple List Extensions are also designed to make it easy for application developers to exploit RSS browsing, searching, and subscriptions. Simple List Extensions build on RSS by providing explicit ordering and supplying sortable properties for each list element. COMPATIBILITY One constant challenge Microsoft tackles every time it releases a new OS is assuring compatibility with older applications, which may make assumptions that no longer hold in the new environment. A beta version of the application-compatibility

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
he “Longhorn” outlined by Microsoft brass more than two years ago was going to be all things to all people. The best version of Windows ever. Able to remove nasty bathtub rings, slice and dice carrots—even get you organized. It was almost as all-encompassing as Cairo (the Windows object-oriented file system that never materialized), for you Windows veterans. In fact, the list of “fundamentals” Windows Vista is set to address is substantial. And while the Windows that ships next year will likely be the best yet—new versions have improved on their predecessors, with the notable exception of Windows Me—it will bear little resemblance to the original, overhyped Longhorn. Because of developer, customer, and partner “feedback,” Microsoft chose to make Vista a less dramatic upgrade. Rather than risk backward incompatibility, Microsoft decided against making its .NET Framework the crux of the OS. Developers and customers also convinced Redmond officials that it would be wise to backport features (such as the Indigo and Avalon subsystems) to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to help build momentum for them. Good idea—except that making the Indigo and Avalon pillars available on older versions of Windows diminished their cachet. And then there’s the famous WinFS.

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The Windows that ships next year will bear little resemblance to the original, overhyped Longhorn.

locked into Software Assurance contracts, under which they expected new product upgrades at least every three years, were getting antsy. Internally, more and more Microsoft product teams, such as Office, SQL Server, and Visual Studio, were growing tired of having their schedules pegged to the new OS. Finally, a number of teams went public with their decision not to wait for the OS by avoiding building Vista dependencies into their products. There had also been hints that the Windows team was having trouble getting the new file system to function as promised. In early 2004, word had it that WinFS couldn’t be made to work over a corporate network. Company officials acknowledged last year that continuing with the new Windows as originally outlined would push its ship date to 2007—at the earliest. Microsoft decided to ax the WinFS search/file/retrieval system—which Bill Gates once described as “the most ambitious, the most shocking advance that we’ve got in the [Longhorn] system.” The truth is, many of WinFS’s user benefits will be present in Vista—full access to existing metadata, the ability to apply keywords to files, and virtual folders and stacks. But the loss/delay of WinFS has further tarnished Vista’s marketing luster.

WHITHER WINFS? The Windows team also succumbed to ship-date pressure, both external and internal. On the outside, Microsoft shops that were

MORE CASUALTIES Besides creating a negative marketing buzz, excising WinFS also resulted in the removal of WinFS-dependent features—most

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THE NEXT WINDOWS

toolkit for ISVs will ship concurrently with Beta 2 of Vista—an improvement over Windows XP SP2, with which the appcompatibility toolkit didn’t ship until well after the service pack’s release. Although it’s a bit unfair for us to characterize compatibility at this stage of development, we can’t help but note our experiences while using Beta 1. Of a selection of 15 applications and utilities that we tried to install to test compatibility, five failed to install outright (among them, Webroot’s Spy Sweeper and WordPerfect Office 11), one reported an error during installation but functioned anyway (QuickBooks Basic 2002), and one installed successfully but then refused to run (Google Earth beta). Microsoft has repeatedly stated that application compatibility is a priority, so it’s clear that much work remains to be done here. Vista, like Windows XP, does include a programcompatibility manager that lets the OS emulate certain features of older versions of Windows, to help fool applications. Our experience with hardware compatibility was likewise mixed. Vista installed

NEW LISTS FUNCTION

without complaint on some of our systems, but refused to install on others. Also, it didn’t recognize some hardware devices, such as sound or network cards, and other features, such as the ability to connect to network printers, weren’t yet available. In some cases, downloading the Windows XP drivers solved the problem.

THE LONG ROAD TO WINDOWS VISTA Many of the issues we encountered with compatibility and stability are only to be expected from an early beta release. For the most part, our experience was quite positive. Many basic features and applications did work, and we were impressed with what we’ve seen so far of Aero and Aero Glass. We’re also heartened by Microsoft’s continuing efforts to improve the security, reliability, and resilience of the operating system, as well as by its attempts to make Vista easier and less costly to deploy and manage. Our sense is that Microsoft is serious about improving Windows not just because it wants to sell an upgrade, which of course it does, but because it really wants to help solve the frustrations that users, and particularly IT organizations, face daily. Now that Beta 1 has gone out the door, the pace of Microsoft’s public releases will surely pick up. You can be certain that we’ll keep you updated about the latest developments here in print and at www.pcmag.com/vista. E

notably, the Microsoft Busimers and system admins who ness Framework (MBF). MBF had come to know and love was set to be a layer of class the nifty tool that is the Linux Microsoft has had over two years (so far) to make good on the OS it announced in libraries and other developerscripting shell had been drool2003, and will have more than another year before Vista is actually released. Here’s centric technologies that ing over Monad. Now it sounds what has been taken out since Bill Gates announced the “Longhorn generation.” would ride atop .NET. By creatas if Monad will be an add-on When dropped ing an additional level of abthat Vista users can download Feature/Technology or scaled back Reason straction, MBF was supposed in the 2007 time frame. Next-Generation Secure Developer pushback due to to make programming easier Spring 2004 Computing Base (NGSCB; backward-compatibility issues. code name “Palladium”) SO, WHAT’S LEFT? and faster. But as with WinFS, Many developers have been there is no hard ship date or WinFS (Windows Would have delayed Longhorn August 2004 Future Storage) release past 2006. predicting that Vista won’t be a ship vehicle for MBF at the major Windows release at all. moment. WinFS is set to go to Microsoft Business August 2004 Dependent on WinFS. One Microsoft development Beta 1 when Vista ships. Framework (MBF) partner, who (not surprisingly) In 2004, the testers who saw Late 2004– asked to remain anonymous, Microsoft’s first-pass plans for Sidebar UI pane No reason given. early 2005 said: “[Vista] is going to be the Palladium Windows security pretty tame. It’s going to be system balked, claiming that Microsoft is evaluating shipping Monad scripting shell Summer 2005 options, based on customer feedback. Windows XP, plus Service Pack the system, as designed, would 3, plus some bundling of antirequire them to rewrite many spyware, plus a watered-down XAML/Avalon framework.” third-party and custom applications to take advantage of the securiThe partner isn’t alone in his sentiments. But despite mounting ty system. Known these days as Next-Generation Secure Computing fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding Vista’s value-add—and Base (NGSCB), the security system is still part of Vista. But the new, it’s true that the known Vista features and enhancements pale in diluted NGSCB—which won’t wreak the kind of backward-compatibility havoc expected from the original Palladium design—is set to comparison with WinFS and the Vista-only Avalon and Indigo roll out more gradually than the original version. subsystems Microsoft promised originally—Microsoft is sticking The Sidebar user task pane that Microsoft began demonstrating to its claim that even without these elements, Vista will be as over a year ago is another casualty. At the Windows Hardware momentous an upgrade as Windows 95 was. Will the RedmondiEngineering conference this spring, Microsoft execs admitted what ans be able to convince the Windows community that these kinds testers already suspected: Sidebar was not going to be included. of fundamentals make a must-have upgrade? Stay tuned. We still have no word on the reason it fell by the wayside. —Mary Jo Foley, editor of Microsoft Watch newsletter and Web And Monad, the Windows scripting shell, is out too. Programsite (www.microsoft-watch.com)

The Incredible Shrinking Longhorn

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So much of your life is digital now—from your family photos to your personal and business financial records— which means it’s only as safe as the next virus, system crash, or inadvertent press of the Delete key.

What’s it going to take to make you realize you have to. . .

BACKUP OR
By Robert P. Lipschutz

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Illustration by Geoffery Grahn

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verybody loves paging through old pictures of vacations and family events, recalling special times and memories. But imagine how you’d feel if these mementos disappeared. If you’re using a digital camera and keeping those photos on your PC, it could happen. In fact, your world is digital now—your memories, your financial data, your crucial documents—and you need to protect what’s important to you. For peace of mind, we urge you to take stock of your digital assets and learn about the various techIn This Story nologies and products that can help you protect 122 Traditional Backup them. Everyone will want to safeguard personal 126 Continuous Backup data, such as documents and pictures, and given the 128 Imaging Software 130 Backup for Home Networks prevalence of viruses, spyware, and adware (all of 132 Online Backup Services which can slow down your PC or destroy your hard 123 Backup Best Practices drive), backing up your computer’s system files and 127 Backup Functions at a Glance applications also makes sense.

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For years, we’ve told you to back up. And for years, we’ve run extensive reviews of backup products. Yet we know that most of you still don’t back up. More of you now realize what’s at stake, though, so we’ve taken a different approach this time. Rather than reviewing every backup program out there, we selected some of the best examples of several different types of backup tools, and we focus on helping you find a strategy that you can implement now. Often, people complain that backup is too time-consuming. Fortunately, slow, expensive tape drives have given way to fast and inexpensive external USB 2.0

hard drives. With any recent versions of Windows, you can attach the drive to your system and within moments, you’ll be able to use it just like any other drive. You can even use your iPod’s drive to store backup data. Large drives (300GB and more are readily available) let you store multiple backup sets. Affordable DVD writers and media provide another useful backup alternative. A single-layer disc stores 4.7GB and a duallayer stores 8.5GB. Nothing’s easier than hard drive backup (including clever network hard drive solutions), but CD/DVD backup gives you the option of storing discs in a safe location. There are also a va-

riety of online backup services that make sense for automated off-site storage that’s accessible from anywhere. We haven’t yet reached the point where you can “set and forget” a backup solution, but we’re getting close. For the moment, if you want to make sure your data is safe, you need to take an active role. In this story, we give you the know-how and show you the tools available to make the right choices. The products we review help you set the right schedules and choose the right data to protect. So, c’mon. It’s time you started backing up. Ostriches don’t really stick their heads in the sand. And neither should you.

Traditional Backup
Traditional backup software makes you decide what gets backed up and when. In the past, this category has been notoriously difficult for consumers: Businesses have the resources to wade through esoteric concepts like progressive media rotation (for managing reels of tape) and open file protection, but home users have been left out in the cold. With some exceptions, however, the latest breed of traditional backup products provides easier paths to data protection.
After you install the software, it makes a complete backup of the data you want to protect, sending the information to an external hard drive or writing it to CD or DVD. Then it adds new and modified files to the backup set on a schedule you determine or whenever you launch a backup manually. This approach tends to require more thought and effort than continuous and online backup, but it provides the most efficient and reliable storage. A number of new external hard drives targeted at the home backup market come with traditional software. For example, the Maxtor OneTouch II ($250 street and current Editors’ Choice) features one button that users can press to launch a backup

merly owned by Dantz, showed its maturity with outstanding features in a relatively user-friendly interface. You might spend a little time learning about concepts like backup sets, but the end result is a great product that does almost everything you need. Argentum does not protect system files but does protect data files, and it’s very easy to use. BounceBack, like Retrospect, is powerful—especially in terms of full-system restore and versioning—but it’s somewhat complex in its execution. NICE ’N’ EASY If you have better things to do than wrestle with backup, then the raw simplicity of Argentum Backup 2.50 ($25 direct; Argentum Corp., www .argentuma.com lllhm ) will please you immensely. The product finds your My Documents folder, Internet Explorer favorites, and Outlook mail, as well as other common folders and settings, automatically, and then it backs those up (along with any other folder you designate) in their native file formats or familiar ZIP archives. Nothing could be simpler. Argentum does not provide complete system backup (just file backup) or CD/DVD archiving, so if you are worried about recovering from a system crash, we would recommend using it along with an imaging product like Norton Ghost. Argentum uses simple templates to create backup jobs. The templates specify file locations, common file extensions (like .mp3), and options for backing up the files (manually or on a schedule, for example). The main screen lists several templates, and you can create your own easily. Because Microsoft Windows and many utilities support ZIP archives, browsing

ARGENTUM offers a very simple interface for

selecting which files to back up.

BOUNCEBACK’S interface requires too many decisions and may confuse home users.

anytime. Scheduled backup is also enabled automatically. The hard drive is bundled with a custom version of EMC’s Retrospect, called Retrospect Express HD. This is an effective way to keep backup top of mind for home users. Although these new bundles and hardware breakthroughs are interesting, the software is getting better, too. Some products use a proprietary format to store files, some use native file formats, and some use ZIP compressed files. Each approach has its advantages. We looked at three traditional products that vary in their complexity and feature sets. EMC’s Retrospect, for-

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BACKUP

Backup Best Practices: Read This First!
he terms we throw around in this story—incremental backup, system versus data protection, single-file restore, and disaster recovery—may make the whole idea seem daunting. But backing up your data (documents, photos, Quicken files, and such) is not an option; it’s a necessity. And we recommend you back up your OS and applications, too, so you can recover from a disaster that wipes out or corrupts your hard drive. In truth, both the Home and the Professional editions of Windows XP come with simple backup functionality. The problems are: No one knows where to find it; it doesn’t do single-file recovery; and the Automatic System Recovery (ASR) available in Windows XP Pro requires a floppy disk to use (many systems don’t have floppy disk drives anymore). Here, we present our tips and recommendations to guide you in setting up a backup plan that makes sense for your needs.

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> Separate your data from your operating systems and applications. Ideally, you should save data files on a separate drive or partition. This will make protection easier in many ways, and it could save your bacon. For example, you can restore your system to a previous state without reversing your data to that point in time. Our favorite partitioning tools are Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0 and Norton PartitionMagic 8.0. > Purchase an external USB 2.0 hard drive for your backups. It’s a worthwhile investment that pays for itself with one system recovery. Dedicate the drive to backup; don’t use it for anything else. > Distinguish between protecting your system (operating system, settings, applications), so you can recover from a crash, and protecting your data (documents, digital pictures, music, settings). Some backup tools work better for system files; some work better for data. > Identify what you absolutely can’t afford to lose—pictures of your kids, financial information, and so on. > Do you have the installation CDs for all your software? If not, you need an image of your system and its dozens of applications. > Store a duplicate of your most crucial data off-site, using DVDs, an online service, or a second external drive. > Schedule a full-system backup once a week and smaller, incremental backups (that store only changes to files) daily or nightly. > If you encounter file problems, the most recent backup of that file may have the same problems. So don’t be too quick to overwrite older backups. > As you learn the ropes, don’t be afraid of mixing and matching for better protection. Multiple solutions, such as continuous backup and traditional backup, give you both quick recovery and long-term protection. > Storing backups on a separate partition of your hard drive (as

WHICHEVER SOLUTION you choose, the software should make

setting up a backup schedule easy and intuitive. Norton GoBack does) makes them easily accessible but won’t protect you from a physical disaster. If you need this kind of protection, keep a system backup off-site, either online, on an external drive, or on optical media. We fit our Windows XP OS and a hoard of applications (about 9GB total) on two DVDs. > Note that most solutions can’t restore individual e-mail messages, because they see your whole mailbox as a single file. (As a safeguard, make sure your e-mail accounts keep a copy of every message on the server.) > Typical consumer backup products don’t save open files. So if you never close your mail file, or you keep a status-report spreadsheet open all the time, it may never get properly backed up. > Test restores often. We’ve heard too many horror stories of readers convinced that they were backing up properly only to find that nothing was actually written to the disk. The specific method you choose will depend on your appetite for risk, your budget, and the value of your data based on time, real dollars, and sentiment. Only you can choose the right solution. Here are some combinations that we like: > EMC’s Retrospect with an external USB 2.0 hard drive and secondary, off-site DVD storage gives you the best of most worlds—data protection and system rollback. > Norton Ghost for weekly or monthly system images—consider its new incremental features for interim image creation, but make sure you have a full image, not a baseline with incrementals, for a reliable full-system recovery. If you want easy singlefile access and version storage, combine Ghost with a simple backup product like Argentum. > Online services are a good choice if you don’t have a huge amount of data to back up, as they can be incredibly slow.—RPL

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BEST OF MOST WORLDS through backup sets is as Retrospect 7 for Windows Professimple as browsing through sional ($90 street; EMC Corp., Windows folders and copywww.dantz.com llllh ) has been ing back the files you want around for years yet keeps getting to restore. better. Now owned by EMC, which focuses In raw/native file-copyon the enterprise market, Retrospect reing mode, the backup opermains a great product for home users or ation is truly incremental home networks. It seems to do it all—full—only files that have been system restores, single-file backup, and changed since the time of point-in-time restores. All of this functionthe most recent backup are ality is accessible through wizards for beprocessed. In ZIP compression mode, the backup is ginners; veterans get an advanced interface. semi-incremental. To upThe base product works well for a single date any single file in a ZIP RETROSPECT gives you a friendly, clearly explained intercomputer and up to two additional PCs, archive, the entire file has face for setting up backups. making it a good solution for home network to be re-created. Files that backup. Retrospect clients sit on the other haven’t changed are simply copied from have to share the space. One advantage of machines and back up to the host machine. an old backup file to a new one, so these a dedicated drive is that you can just re- The program backs up files intelligently by operations are still fairly quick. Argen- place a broken hard drive with the creating a snapshot of your system. A catatum’s stacking feature lets users specify BounceBack drive and boot your ma- log file (essentially a list of every file on the settings for keeping multiple versions of chine as if nothing happened. system) ensures that single-file recoveries files in any time frame—storing last BounceBack creates its backups using and full-system restores go smoothly. week’s and last month’s versions of a file, native file formats and handles incremenExternal USB 2.0 hard drives are Retrofor instance. tal revisions efficiently. The product not spect’s sweet spot, but the software supAs part of our testing, we used Argen- only supports standard backups but also ports CD and DVD drives natively as well. tum to back up several video files to an ex- handles synchronization and ternal drive. We scheduled it for once a versioning. Unfortunately, it week, and we launched manual backups does not support CD and easily. Argentum can also back up shared DVD writing. BounceBack network storage or shared drives on other gives users extensive feedmachines, as long as they’re accessible back as it performs various through Windows networking; this is con- actions—almost too much, in venient for a home network with multiple fact—but we prefer verbose communication to none at all. computers or shared storage devices. Still, using BounceBack wasn’t always easy. For examPOWERFUL, BUT COMPLICATED Although BounceBack Professional 6.0 ple, if you want versioning, ($69 direct download, $79 CD; CMS Prod- you create a special versioning A WELL-DESIGNED Activity Monitor in Retrospect Proucts Inc., www.cmsproducts.com lllmm ) backup job. The problem is, fessional displays past, present, and future job status. has many outstanding features, they are restoring file versions happens Retrospect calls its backup technology overshadowed by a confusing user inter- through the Version Administrator, but norface. Starting at installation, BounceBack mal file restore works through the Quick- “progressive backup.” After an initial full requires too much savvy from the average Restore utility. These really need to be backup, each subsequent backup creates a home user. The product is best suited for integrated with each other or, better yet, in- restore point with only changes in the file system copied. In fact, EMC rolls increpower users who want total control over tegrated with Windows Explorer. their backups. BounceBack doesn’t use standard Win- mental backup data back into its full backLike the other products reviewed here, dows interface elements like the Open up file regularly, so you always have an BounceBack works best with an external box, relying instead on poorly designed di- updated full backup at your disposal. hard drive. The difference is that Bounce- alog boxes for tasks such as adding new Given this and its single-instance storage, Back doesn’t just use the external hard folders. Also, if you want to use a network backups are highly efficient. Restores leverage the catalog to display drive—it stakes out the whole thing. The share, you need to map a drive. Argentum installation routine asks if you will be and Retrospect work with Windows’ My versions cleanly from various snapshots in using an external drive, and then requires Network Places interface to choose net- time. Retrospect handles versioning better a complete reformat of the drive, erasing work shares and folders. than other products, intelligently keeping CMS offers ABSplus USB 2.0 ($329 any existing data. Passing on disaster reversions around in the short and long term. covery is the only way you can use the direct), which bundles the software with In fact, Retrospect doesn’t delete anything external drive as is. Of course, you can a 250GB external hard drive. We would until it has to due to space constraints, and move files manually, but that’s time- like to see a user interface overhaul that then it flushes only the oldest file. It never consuming and complicated. We recom- would make the many powerful features deletes all the versions of any single file. mend that you dedicate the external drive of the product more accessible to the If we could buy only one backup prodto backup only, so BounceBack doesn’t average user. uct, Retrospect would be the clear choice.
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Continuous Backup
Imagine that every time you save a file, a backup copy is also created. No need to remember to archive. No need to create schedules. That’s the theory behind continuous backup software. The products sit in the background and make copies of changes in your system and data files as they happen, so that if disaster strikes, you can turn back time. And while most backup products typically make you go back to the previous night for a copy of your files (since you’re best off scheduling backups during long periods of system idle time), continuous backup lets you travel back mere moments.
Of course, because continuous backup products are most active when you’re most active, you’re more likely to notice a performance hit from them than from scheduled backup products, though faster computers are making the slowdown less noticeable. Some continuous backup apps, such as Norton GoBack, store the backup on your primary drive and limit how far back you can roll, so you’re much less protected against hardware failure. Tanagra’s Memeo, one of the market’s new offerings, lets you store data files on an external drive or keychain device, or on an off-site server, which is truly the ultimate in data protection. But Memeo isn’t quite ready for prime time. These continuous backup apps should not be anyone’s sole form of protection yet, but they can be a good first line of defense. ROLLING BACK TIME Given Symantec’s history and reputation, it comes as no surprise that Norton GoBack 4.0 ($50 street; Symantec Corp., www.symantec .com llllm ) is a well-designed, economical product, though the company has done

NORTON GOBACK lets you search backed-up

files by entering dozens of variables.

Backing Up in Style
pple iPods have gained incredible popularity as music players. But at the heart of the iPod is a hard drive, and with a little tweak to iTunes, it can be used as a standard backup drive in Windows Explorer. You can use any free space on your iPod to back up data, and you get the benefit of a portable storage location. Compared with most USB 2.0 external drives, the iPod doesn’t require external power, and its portability makes it well suited to protect your laptop on the road or synchronize files between your home and work PCs. Tanagra’s Memeo works with the iPod, YOU HAVE TO check Enable Disk Use and in addition to its standard backup capa- in iTunes before you can use the iPod for backup. bilities, Memeo backs up Outlook e-mail, calendar, contacts, and notes to the iPod’s corresponding programs under the Extras menu (see the iPod mini photo above). The data is read-only, but it’s still handy when you’re away from your PC and PDA. The feature worked as claimed, but we prefer to use a PDA or smartphone that allows you to add or edit contact information. Memeo works only with PST files, so you can’t download your Microsoft Exchange mailbox data. To let Windows see the iPod as an external drive, check the Enable Disk Use box in the iTunes iPod preferences. Unfortunately Memeo can’t do this step for you. When deciding which iPod to buy, consider getting some extra capacity to store your files. Using an iPod as a backup device may be the smartest thing you do with the player.—RPL

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little with it since acquiring it from Roxio in 2003. Our experience indicated that its real strength is system rollback, but GoBack is a decent file-recovery solution, too. We got GoBack installed quickly, and the software took about 20 minutes (an average speed) to back up our system and data files. A couple of days later, we tried our first system rollback. We picked a Safe Point, which is a system snapshot GoBack takes every few hours, and let her rip. The entire rollback process took 20 to 30 minutes. When completed, GoBack presented us with a list of all the files it was going to delete, which came in handy because we needed to retrieve a couple of documents headed for oblivion. The only downside was that finding those files required scrolling through an extremely long list. A sorting option would be nice. Of course, this wouldn’t have been an issue had we followed our own advice and put data on a separate partition or drive. Other useful features for restoring system integrity include two new additions: Auto Rollback and SafeTry mode. Auto Rollback is a scheduled daily rollback that restores your system to the way it was when the day started. This is useful for family machines that lots of people use to download games, images from the Web, and other miscellaneous junk. The SafeTry mode lets you download, install, and try new applications while leaving open the option of rejecting the app and returning your system to its preinstall state. It worked well when we tried it out with a couple of apps—one we kept and one we rejected, launching a minirollback automatically. The product also includes hard drive restore features for full or selective recovery, and the ability to create a virtual drive

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BACKUP

keep as many versions of your files as you want, encrypt them or not, and receive alerts when a file is backed up. Our problems started when we attempted to restore files. From both the online option and our hard drive, it took about 15 minutes for the file list to appear in the restore window. Searching for and retrieving files was equally tedious. Our file search never worked with the MEMEO has limited search capabilities, which makes online offering, and retrieving backed-up files more difficult. it took about 10 minutes from our hard drive. fact, new builds became available from Norton GoBack took a minute Tanagra’s Web site during the course of or less to conduct a similar our testing; we tried some, and the upoperation. We would also like grades went smoothly, but Memeo is still to see Tanagra incorporate very much a work in progress. GOBACK creates Safe Point restore points every few hours, more granular search capabilThe good news here is that you can give so you can roll back to a previous, stable system state. ities into Memeo; it currently Memeo a test run. A 30-day trial version of lets you search only by broad the software is easy to set up, so you can date, location, size, and type. You can also file categories. GoBack lets you search see if the product is to your liking before right-click on a given file and choose by at least 50 different file types committing to the purchase. Also, as TanaShow All Versions to see previous incar- and characteristics. gra refines Memeo, it will likely become nations of the file. Tanagra officials assured us that all the unique and pragmatic offering it seems During our testing, Word crashed with these problems were being addressed. In destined to be. several documents open (this had nothing to do with GoBack). The auto-restore feature built into Word retrieved the most reB A C K U P F U N C T I O N S AT A G L A N C E cent unsaved version of the file we were Depending on how valuable your data is, and how risky your computing habits are, you working on, but GoBack did not, because may want a backup program that’s simple and quick, or one that requires more effort it waits for a save command before backbut provides very thorough protection. Nearly every product we review backs up data ing up the file. But this is a relatively small files like photos and documents. Not surprisingly, each lets you retrieve a file that’s limitation—one shared by many products lost or corrupted. They start to differ in the areas of system restore, which protects here—in an otherwise solid solution. you from a hard drive crash; rollback, which lets you reset your system to a previous state; and off-site archiving, which provides an added layer of safety. GOOD IDEA, POOR EXECUTION Sometimes, software is like a budding athlete: You can see the potential, but current Off-site performance is a bit disappointing. This is Single-file Full-system archival (DVD System Data backup restore restore rollback or online) certainly the case with Tanagra’s Memeo TRADITIONAL ($24.95 direct; Tanagra Inc., www.tanagra Argentum Backup 4 4 .com llhmm ). The idea behind the prodBounceBack Professional 4 4 4 uct is great—a backup data solution that Retrospect Professional 4 4 4 4 4 manages multiple destinations, including CONTINUOUS subscription-based online storage, hard Memeo 4 4 4 drives, and USB keys, from one software 4* Norton GoBack 4 interface. But a backup-and-restore offerIMAGING ing needs to do both well, and right now, Acronis True Image 4 4 4 4 4 restoring data with Memeo is a long, Norton Ghost 4 4 4 4 4 painful process. HOME NETWORK Downloading and installing Memeo was Mirra Personal Server 4 4 easy, and even the initial data backup was ONLINE not too bad. We backed up about 3GB of 4* Connected DataProtector 4 4 4 4 data on our hard drive and Memeo’s InterIBackup 4 4 4 net Disk, Tanagra’s online storage (which RED denotes Editors’ Choice. * Although the product offers this feature, we found it difficult to use. runs $11.95 a month for 5GB); we were impressed with the available options. You can
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(that contains the previous state of your machine) to compare against the current state, so you can see what changes, if any, took place. GoBack also lets you recover individual files, such as Microsoft Word documents. You can search through the backed-up files by full or partial filename, last-saved

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Imaging Software
Imaging products back up entire hard drives or partitions by copying every bit on the drive rather than copying files one by one. Traditionally, these programs were used by IT departments for setting up new computers or testing groups of machines. But the best imaging products now support incremental images, which makes nightly or regular daytime backups feasible; automated scheduling to create zero-touch operation; and image browsers, which make single-file restores practical.
No other product category backs up a hard drive faster and makes full-system recovery easier. Imaging products grab everything, including the operating system, patches, applications, settings, and files, without a hitch. If you practice highrisk computing and install new things all the time, imaging software may be the logical choice. Note, though, that if you’re using the imaging tool’s incremental backup, you may want to avoid defragmenting your source drive. Since, under the covers, the imaging tools see your hard drive as a collection of sectors and clusters, a hard

drive change like a defrag requires a new backup of every bit of data that was moved to another physical location on the drive, even if the actual file contents didn’t change. Going back to previous versions of files is a bit cumbersome in the two imaging programs we looked at. In addition, neither product provided any useful shortcuts or helpful tips to facilitate getting to the My Documents folder, where most data files are stored. NOT THE SHARPEST IMAGE With many of the same features as Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image 8.0 for Windows ($49.99 list; Acronis Inc., www.acronis .com l l l h m ) was just a little bit harder to use, and although it performed well on full-image recovery, we encountered difficulties with single-file restores. Acronis issued a fix that solved the problems, however. We recommend a separate hard drive for image storage, but Acronis does have a reasonable solution for those with only a single hard drive and partition. The software creates what it calls the Acronis Secure

CREATING IMAGES is a snap with Norton Ghost’s intuitive interface.

Where To? External Hard Drives
of the drive, will kick off a backup with the few years ago, most people who actually included Retrospect Express HD softbacked up would use tape drives to ware, an integrated version that is store their data. In the same way that digital video recorders like the TiVo customized for Maxtor. As of this writing, EMC reported that the latest have leapfrogged VHS for television recording, external hard drives have bypassed tape version of Retrospect Professional inas the preferred backup medium. In fact, only cludes push-button support as well, so you large business systems use tape nowadays. can upgrade from Express HD to the full version and still enjoy this feature. External (or internal) hard drives can handle very In any case, you’ll want to dedicate a drive to large amounts of data without swapping media, and backup. Purchase a drive with about two or they’re incredibly inexpensive. 300GB drives THE MAXTOR OneTouch II hard cost about $250, and we’ve seen weekend three times the amount of space used by the drive is a great choice for backup. specials on smaller capacities for well data you’re backing up. A good rule of thumb is, under $100. (At these prices, you may want buy more than you think you need. That will to buy two.) They’re also much faster, and the backups are leave room for multiple full backups and a good number of available in real time when you need them to restore files. versions. Don’t plan on compression helping you much; you can’t All new computers have USB 2.0 ports (which transfer data at squeeze much out of most big files, such as JPGs and MP3s, speeds up to 480 Mbps), but if you have an older computer, plug because the formats are already compressed. in the hard drive and see whether 2.0 is supported on your One small warning: Because external hard drives are so easy machine. Windows XP will tell you right away. If you want to to disconnect and take with you for off-site storage or for sharcheck your system before you buy the hard drive, look in Device ing data between home and work computers, they are also easy Manager under the Universal Serial Bus Controllers section for to steal. So protect your data with a password or, better yet, the Enhanced host controller, which indicates USB 2.0. The good encryption. Many of the software packages, such as Retrospect, news is that when you plug one of these hard drives into Winprovide this option, and some of the drives have it built in as dows XP, it just works. well. The Maxtor OneTouch II, for example, provides a hard Some drives, like the Maxtor OneTouch II, have features specifidrive–level password that must be entered before you access cally suited to backup. The OneTouch button, located on the front any data on the disk.—RPL

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Where To? Optical Drives
ackup is easier than ever, thanks to easy-to-attach external hard drives. But optical discs—recordable CDs, which typically store 700MB of data, and DVDs, which store 4.7GB (single-layer) to 8.5GB (dual-layer)—are well suited for small backup sets and off-line backup. If you use software that supports CD and DVD media natively, you can just leave the media in the drive for full and incremental backups. Both Retrospect and Norton Ghost, for example, write to CD and DVD devices. And the popular CD/DVD-authoring suites, including Roxio’s Easy Media Creator, Nero 6 Ultra Edition, and NTI CD & DVD Maker, come with backup software. CDs and particularly DVDs also make good choices for off-site archiving, given their small form factor and longevity. Common scenarios include performing a monthly full backup spanning multiple DVDs, and creating a full-system image on an external drive every few weeks using a product like Norton Ghost. For monthly off-site backups, lessexpensive, write-once discs are the way to go. And DVDs are plenty fast for data backup, too: A 16X drive can write at just over 20 MBps, or about 1GB in 50 seconds. So how long will data on DVD last? Estimates range from 20 to several hundred years. DVDs are read by lasers that never make physical contact with the disc surface, and longevity depends on the dye used to create the DVD. But always use your software’s tools to verify that data was written properly, and plan to test your DVD backups in about 5 years.—RPL

B

NORTON GHOST stores backup images

locally, on the network, or on optical discs.

Zone, a protected area of the system hard drive, where you can store images. If a hard drive is compromised by a virus or corrupted in some other way, this separate image will remain intact. Acronis also supports image creation to CD, but it does not have native support for DVD writing. Like Norton Ghost, Acronis can create incremental images, and we were able to recover full partitions using any combination of full and incremental backup files. But when we tried to restore single files using the Explore Image feature, which creates a mapped drive that points to the image files, we found our Word and PowerPoint files were corrupted and could not be opened. Text files, however, worked well. Acronis acknowledged the problem and fixed it during our testing; after the update, we were able to restore Word and PowerPoint files with no problems. GHOST IN THE MACHINE Norton Ghost 9.0 ($69.95 list; Symantec Corp., www.symantec .com llllm ) is based in large part on PowerQuest’s Drive Image, which Symantec acquired in late 2003. Norton Ghost shines at full-system recovery, and with its new incremental image

ACRONIS’S interface is nicely visual, but a

little too complicated for our tastes.

feature, it becomes viable for single-file and folder restores as well. Ghost can create backup images of your entire hard drive to local storage, network drives, and optical discs (including DVDs), so you’ll be certain that every bit of information is copied without fail. Norton handled media spanning flawlessly; Acronis does not support DVD writing. The new incremental feature lets you create a baseline image, and then smaller incremental images moving forward, typically multiple times per day. Full images can take a long time to complete and can slow down your SORTING THROUGH the images in Ghost is a little foreground operations (if you’re inmore work that we’d like. voking a backup before installing

something new, for instance). We measured a 30 percent CPU drain during the full imaging, but incrementals are fast. If you need to restore a file or folder from a full or incremental image, the Symantec Backup Image Browser lets you view and extract individual files and folders from your images. We found it a bit inconvenient to have to choose the image to restore from first. We would prefer to choose the file first, and then be presented with a list of restore points. Also, the interface would be more helpful if it presented links to common file storage areas like the My Documents folder and the desktop. Norton Ghost 9.0 is easy enough for anyone to use and provides an outstanding level of protection for your system. Those considering Norton Ghost might find Symantec’s Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier ($99.95 list), which includes Ghost, GoBack, and other useful utilities, a good value.

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Backup for Home Networks
Home networks link computers via Ethernet or Wi-Fi so everyone in the family can get to the Internet and share printers and files. So why not handle backup the same way? We look here at some techniques and products that offer conveniences, additional benefits, and, in some cases, better pricing for backing up multiple home PCs.

The easiest answer is to back up each PC independently. The downside is you’ll need to purchase software and external drives for each machine, and responsibility for the backups will be distributed throughout the house. The next step up involves designating a shared drive on one of the computers—or a network-attached storage (NAS) device—to be THE MIRRA PERSONAL SERVER has a simple the central backup repository. interface that works for the average home user. Retrospect Professional includes a client agent and two client licenses, centralize data storage and so you can back up three machines to a sin- therefore greatly help the gle shared drive. Other products we liked, backup process, but their main such as Argentum, Memeo, and Norton purpose is storage, not backup. Ghost, can all write to a shared network We think it’s best to have MIRRA’S RESTORE INTERFACE clearly shows deleted files drive or NAS device, though it should be everyone store all their data and then all versions for each file. noted that many backup software products files on the central drive. don’t recognize NAS boxes. Then you can perform backups software on each networked machine An always-on device has on the NAS device to protect (Windows only). An install wizard suggests some advantages over a your important data. The tra- that users protect folders such as My Dochard drive attached to one ditional software packages uments and Favorites. Users can also desigof the networked PCs. can back up a NAS device to nate additional folders for backup using the You don’t need to keep an external drive without a Mirra interface or by right-clicking on any the computer turned on, problem. Of course, if you folder in Windows. Once a folder is and backup jobs won’t afwant to protect your systems selected, all content within it is backed up. fect the host PC’s perforand apps, you’ll need a system Mirra provides continuous backups as files mance. A number of NAS restore/backup program on are created or saved. Home users will like drives have made their each computer. the simple interface for all activities. way into the home-netFinally, you can use a prodThere are no fancy technical bells and work market, and they curuct specially designed for home whistles, such as backups that record only rently run about $100 more network backup. We looked at the file changes, or versioning algorithms to than their USB 2.0 counterMirra Personal Server, which makes control when versions are saved. What this parts. The Maxtor Shared backing up data on your home network means is, if a large file changes slightly, Storage Drive ($360 street for computers very easy. Another product, the Mirra copies the entire file to the server, so 300GB) and Buffalo LinkStation ($380 LiveVault InSync (prices vary; not re- space may be used up quickly. Also, if you street for 300GB) offer large drives with viewed), which is targeted at small busi- save a document eight times over the fairly straightforward installations. The nesses, goes one step further with an course of a few minutes (as we often do), LinkStation includes a 30-day trial license appliance that can synchronize data to an all older versions are lost. Although we’d of Memeo. The devices typically have a off-site location for disaster recovery. Ex- like to see Mirra just upload file changes Web-based administrative interface for pect these kinds of features to seep into and do smarter versioning, most users creating shared folders and access per- the home backup and online service mar- won’t experience this potential limitation. missions, and they often have USB ports ket soon. The integration of on-site backThe Mirra Personal Server is a very for printer sharing or storage expansion. up with off-site synchronization is the good platform for home network backup, NAS devices provide a good means to ultimate in data protection. and its simplicity can’t be beat.

PROTECT THE NETWORK The Mirra Personal Server M-250 ($499 list; Mirra Inc., www.mirra.com lllhm ) backs up and restores files from multiple PCs in your home network effortlessly. The device attaches to your Ethernet network. Software installed on each PC communicates with the Mirra to perform continuous backups, with up to eight versions stored for each file. The product protects important data, such as documents and pictures, but not system files. The server is accessible by browser, and you can even designate certain folders to share so friends and family can access your files. You’ll need to install the

Our contributors: Robert P. Lipschutz is president of the technology firm Thing 7 (www.thing7.com) and a contributing editor of PC
Magazine. Features editor Michael J. Steinhart was in charge of this story.

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FLEXIBLE, BUT MORE COMPLEX When it comes to flexibility in service offerings, options, and depth of features, Online backup services are a great option for consumers and home- IBackup for Windows ($9.95/month for office/small-office users. They offer the kind of protection big business has 5GB; Pro-Softnet Corp., www.ibackup.com lllhm ) is no slouch. But it’s not as easy to enjoyed for many years—a secure, off-site facility for storing critical data. use as DataProtector. Getting the software Like enterprise solutions, today’s online backup services are increasingly so- installed and launching the initial backup phisticated. Connected (now part of Iron Mountain) and IBackup deliver was straightforward enough. Like DataProtector, however, IBackup took approxibasic data and full-system backup. This means users can get system rollback mately 16 hours to upload 3GB of data. and restore services with the same service that backs up their digital pho- (According to the vendor, you can plunk tos. And in the case of IBackup, on-site storage is part of the portfolio as well. down an additional $5 per month for IBackup Professional, which is zippier on But online backup is not without its the uploads, thanks to Once the backup is comwarts. You must have high-speed Internet plete, only the deltas (or more dedicated bandaccess (in the upstream direction), and changes) in the files are width at the service site.) even then, backups can be painfully slow. uploaded to Connected’s We also found that setYou also need to make sure you’re com- servers. As with IBackup, ting up automatic backfortable with the security. Data transmis- however, a multimediaups wasn’t as intuitive as sion and file encryption are must-haves heavy 3GB data set took with DataProtector and for most people, so double-check those around 16 hours, which IBACKUP’S toolbar shows you wasn’t built into the infeatures before deciding on a provider. highlights a shortcoming of how much of your allotted stall as seamlessly. This And, of course, there’s price. Online back- online backup in general— space is being used. was characteristic of IBackup’s wizards and up services start at about $80 per year for it’s slow. And with most 2GB or so of backup space and climb consumer broadband offerings maxing out features in general; the functionality was rapidly from there. With the rock-bottom at 256 to 512 Kbps upstream, it’s going to excellent, just tough to wade through. prices of external drives and system back- remain that way for a while. Once we got the hang of IBackup, it up software, it may be hard to justify the DataProtector’s backup rules and proved to be rich indeed. The Sync feature expense of an online service. scheduling features are flexible and easy lets you synchronize your desktop and In the end, the argument boils down to to change. A nifty Heal Wizard is built in, backup files, and even prompts you to oruser comfort. If you feel confident that your letting you roll back your system if your ganize your files neatly to facilitate syncing. existing home or office solution can keep machine becomes sluggish or unruly. Also, IBackup does not handle system files and your data backed up regularly and free from if your system crashes, you can call Con- rollback, however. IBackup’s toolbar shows how harm, an online service is probably much of your allotted storage space overkill. But if you’re the kind of peris being used. Also, sharing files with son who likes to have a—pardon the multiple users is easier and potenpun—backup plan, then you should tially more economical than with consider at least the data portion of DataProtector, thanks to a workservices currently available online. group service plan for small businesses or home networks. As many YOU’VE GOT CONNECTIONS Connected DataProtector as 25 users can access the same files ($14.95/month for 2GB; Confor fees ranging from $10 per month nected Corp., www.connected for 500MB to $75 per month for 5GB. .com l l l l m ) is a service In addition, IBackup recently that embraces simplicity, which is launched an on-site backup software good news for consumers and smalltitle called IBackup Personal. It has office users. It is extremely easy to the features typically associated with use, yet it offers features geared CONNECTED DATAPROTECTOR offers a Heal Wizard to traditional backup products, and you toward advanced and higher-end help you restore your system after a crash. can integrate the software with the users who require more sophistiprovider’s online service. We tested cated systems backup. nected and order CDs that will let you re- the integration component, which was The DataProtector software installed store both your system and your data; the easy to set up and schedule, and it worked quickly and helped us designate which cost is built into the subscription fee. Data- as advertised. The draw here is that setting files to back up. The software prompted us Protector also offers some file-sharing up a two-tier plan, with on-site and online to set up an automatic backup schedule. capabilities courtesy of iRoam, which al- storage, is easy to accomplish. IBackup has done a nice job of giving Like IBackup, DataProtector encrypts the lows secure Web access to the backup users choices. The price you pay is a higher link and offers storage encryption as well. account from any Web-connected PC. Connected’s price rises as your storage learning curve. But if you think you need a Our initial 4GB-plus data set, which consisted mostly of system files, took about 10 capacity does (up to 30GB), but the service greater diversity of service options, IBackhours to back up. remains the same otherwise. up is a good place to safeguard your data. E

Online Backup Services

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AFTER HOURS
T EC H N O LO GY O N YO U R T I M E

T

Plugged-In Learning
BY TROY DREIER

Arrow keys—won’t repeat if held down for long, so that kids don’t accidentally type a long string of letters. The keyboard has a USB plug and comes with a PS/2 adapter. To help kids learn their way around this keyboard, it comes with Disney’s Adventures in Typing with Timon & Pumbaa, a discontinued learning game that runs on Microsoft Windows XP but only on Classic versions of the Mac OS.
$29.95 direct. KidzMouse Inc., www.kidzmouse.com.
lllhm

he trick with any learning toy is to make game play so compelling that kids don’t notice or mind that they’re learning. We found several winners in this year’s new batch of educational electronic gadgets—toys that catalyze creative, humorous play instead of dragging kids through dull, repetitive drills. We were assisted with most of the reviews by a group of four young testers, ages 7 to 9. • Again this year, some learning gadgets mimic the look and behavior of traditional gaming systems—perhaps because that makes it easier to lure kids in. The Color Pixter, Leapster L-Max, and V.Smile Pocket all take the traditional handheld shape. We saw other interesting designs as well, especially the LeapFrog FLY, an ingenious pen/computer hybrid that we predict will become a breakout star with the preteen set.

Mattel Fisher-Price Color Pixter
Mattel extends the Fisher-Price Pixter line with the Color Pixter, a handheld game system for kids ages 4 and up. The Color Pixter looks similar to the original, except for its rounded shape and brightly colored screen; it has a tethered stylus that kids use to tap and write on the screen. Kids can also use the stylus to draw and color, or they can plug in cartridges ($20 each) to play new games. With the included adapter, the Color Pixter even works with older black-and-white Pixter cartridges. The Color Pixter’s games are simple and slow-paced, but they rated especially highly with our younger testers, who found the Color Pixter easier and more fun to use than other handhelds. One small problem was that the kids needed to push hard with the stylus to make an impression on the screen.
$85 list. Mattel Inc., www.fisher-price.com.
llllm

Kidz Delight Datamax
With its black-andsilver exterior and squared-off shape, the Datamax looks more like an earlymodel PDA t ha n a toy for you ngsters ages 7 and up. It even comes with a stylus as thin as any for an adult device—not rounded for young hands and not tethered to the toy. Add in a grayscale screen and no backlighting, and we’re WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN not surprised that our l l l l l EXCELLENT young testers had a negal l l l m VERY GOOD l l l m m GOOD tive impression before l l m m m FAIR they’d even tried it. l m m m m POOR The Datamax offers vocabulary and mathematics activities along with an assortment of other games and tools. The games don’t hold one’s interest for long; it was the first toy our testers put aside. And it simply delivers drills on subjects instead of teaching things. Finally, the Datamax doesn’t use cartridges, as do other

handheld devices, so there’s no way to add other games later.
$59.99 direct. Kidz Delight Ltd., www.kidzdelight.com.
llmmm

KidzMouse Disney Keys
Lu re you r l it t le one to the computer with the child-friendly KidzMouse Disney Keys keyboa rd. It ’s na rrower tha n a standard keyboard, as the function keys, the number pad, and several other less-important keys have been removed. The keys themselves are full-size, and they’re color-coded to help young typists distinguish different areas. Best of all, most keys—except the Hyphen, Enter, Space, and

Mattel Fisher-Price InteracTV
You ngsters ages 3 a nd up may be intrigued by the InteracTV, essentially a giant, extra-durable DVD remote that lets kids interact with their favorite television characters. Parents program the toy to work with the family DVD player by plugging in the right code from the user manual.

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special FLY paper (which has a dot pattern for the scanner), so you’ll need to buy FLY notebooks. Other add-on cartridges and games impressively extend what the FLY can do, making it a great tool for study or play. It’s a remarkable toy, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it became very scarce around the holidays.
$99.99 direct. LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., www .leapfrog.com. llllh

MORE ON THE WEB
go.pcmag.com/afterhours
See Personal Technology online for more Quick Clips and Gear + Games reviews.

To p l a y, kids insert the i n c l u d e d DV D — which features Elmo, Dora the Explorer, and SpongeBob Square Pants—into a DVD player. The characters ask multiple-choice questions that kids answer by pressing the correct button on the toy. The InteracTV doesn’t have to point directly at the DVD player to work, which should keep kids from getting frustrated. The on-screen questions are simple and repetitive—just right to stimulate young minds. When kids answer incorrectly, the characters gently lead them to the right response. Arrow buttons on the left and right sides let them repeat a section or skip ahead. Additional DVDs sell for $15 each.
$40 list. Mattel Inc., www.fisher-price.com.
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LeapFrog Leapster L-Max Learning Game System
New in LeapFrog’s line of educational toys is the Leapster L-Max, a handheld for kids 4 to 10 years old that connects to your television. Unlike the V.Smile, which transfers the same image on its screen to the TV, the L-Max puts one image on the TV and a second one on its screen. This lets kids interact with the handheld while they watch the action unfold above. We tested it with an L-Max cartridge called Letters on the Loose, in which kids are instructed to draw letters on the L-Max by an instructor on the TV. It’s a clever way for them to interact with the game and get feedback. The L-Max requires special cartridges ($29.99 each) for dual-screen play, but it can work with existing Leapster titles. Older titles won’t play on dual screens, though, and may not project to the TV.
$99.99 list. LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., www .leapfrog.com. llllh

backlit color screens did. The games and graphics are too simple and repetitive for prolonged play, so expect kids to tire of it quickly.
$49.99 list. VTech Electronics North America LLC, www .vtechkids.com.
llhmm

VTech V.Smile Pocket
The portable version of the V.Smile console system, the VTech V.Smile Pocket, rated extremely high with our young toy testers, who kept returning to it long after they’d grown bored with some of the other devices. Given its bright, crisp graphics and imaginative games, we can see why. Although the original V.Smile required a TV hookup, the V.Smile Pocket is portable and has easy controls that can be adjusted for left- or right-handed users. The V.Smile Pocket ships with one game cartridge; parents can buy others for $19.99 each (appropriate for kids from 4 to 8, depending on which ones you buy). All game cartridges offer several learning games grouped in two areas: Learning Adventure, where players work their way through a longer story line, and Learning Zone, which offers drills on key subjects. Both the V.Smile and the V.Smile Pocket use the same cartridges, so parents don’t need to worry about buying the wrong ones.
$89.99 list. VTech Electronics North America LLC, www.vtechkids.com. lllll

LeapFrog FLY Pentop Computer
Aimed squarely at kids 8 to 13 years old—who are getting too old for electronic games that look like toys— the FLY is a product sure to draw gasps whenever it’s used. The FLY combines a scanner, computer, and pen, so that it sees what you write and responds appropriately. Start by writing an M and drawing a circle around it to activate the main menu, then tap the M to scroll through commands. The FLY can do some astonishing things: You can draw a calculator on paper and tap the numbers to use it, or draw a piano keyboard and tap the keys to play a song (a small speaker in the FLY plays the correct sounds). The basic package comes with learning tools and games that are fun even for adults. One catch is that the FLY works only with

VTech Nitro Notebook
Some kids play at being astronauts, superheroes, or ballerinas. The Nitro Notebook is for that rare child who dreams of being in middle management. Looking quite a bit like a real notebook computer, complete with a full working keyboard and mouse, the Nitro actually contains dozens of simple learning games organized into categories. It also comes with two cartridges that can be plugged in for additional games. Meant for kids 5 and older, the Nitro did a reasonable job of holding our testers’ attention, although not as well as toys with

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GEAR + GAMES
Dueling Webcams

T

he CMOS-based Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Deluxe clips to the top of your notebook screen and has a built-in microphone, as well as an activity light to show you when the camera is active. There’s also a button on the QuickCam for capturing still snapshots. The camera has face tracking and a digital zoom. The software it comes with is limited but includes download links to IM clients from AOL , MSN, and Yahoo!.—Craig Ellison
$59.99 direct. Logitech Inc., www.logitech.com. lllmm

iPod Personality

S

lide your 4G iPod or iPod photo through the flap in the Speck iGuy’s rear, and your music player is charmingly anthropomorphized, with stubby legs and posable arms. You can bend the iGuy so that he holds simple objects or sits on your docking station to recharge your iPod. Though he always provokes a smile, we’re sorry to say that the fun is short-lived. The iGuy is too bulky to carry, and the baseball-bat arms are too simple and thick for much posing. For a bendable toy, the iGuy is kind of a stiff.—Troy Dreier
$34.95 direct. Speck Products, www.speckproducts .com. llmmm

The clip-on Creative WebCam Live! Ultra for Notebooks USB 2.0 has a wide-angle lens, a digital zoom, and effective face tracking, so the camera offers a lot of flexibility. The control center provides access to live capture, motion detection/recording, interval recording, and broadcasting via Yahoo! Messenger. A separate microphone/ headset rounds out the package. The WebCam Live! Ultra costs more than the Logitech QuickCam, but the software bundle and wide-angle CCD make it a winner.— CE
$99.99 direct. Creative Technology Ltd., www.creative.com. lllhm

New Tablet in Town
acom has cornered the drawing-tablet field, but a new challenge has arrived: the Adesso CyberTablet 8600, which offers an 8- by 6-inch drawing area, as well as both pen and mouse inputs. It’s sensitive (the pen has 512 levels of sensitivity, as do Wacom pens) and a pleasure to use: The CyberTablet improves on the Wacom tablets with a curved design that’s easy to rest on one leg and a row of software-customizable Function keys along the top. The pen lacks an eraser (which Wacom tablets have), but when you factor in the bargain price, the CyberTablet is a winner.—TD

W

$129.99 direct. Adesso Inc., www.adesso.com. llllm

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go.pcmag.com/afterhours • A F T E R H O U R S

Educational Software
BY TROY DREIER

QUICK CLIPS

The educational-software market isn’t as rich as it once was (or as it may soon be again, if a few companies we’ve spoken to recently have their way). Still, we found some titles we liked in the current field of learning games. Also check out our review of Microsoft Student, a fantastic new set of learning tools for older students, in this issue’s First Looks section or on the Web at www.pcmag.com.

MaxxPlayer
This Microsoft Windows Media Player plug-in uses the same technologies as Waves’ professional audio products to increase apparent volume levels, punch up the bass and treble, and expand the sound field of your system’s audio output. MaxxPlayer works as billed most of the time but couldn’t perform miracles—your notebook will never shake the floor—and its benefits were more dramatic with some types of source material and sound hardware than with others. Most listeners will appreciate how well it compensates for the limitations of many types of PC sound systems.—Don Labriola
$30 download. Waves Audio Ltd., www.maxxplayer .com. lllhm

JumpStart Reading with Karaoke
With colorful, friendly graphics and silly, rocking tunes, JumpStart Reading with Karaoke teaches 4- to 7-year-olds about letter sounds, and then ha s t hem spea k ta rget words i nto a microphone. The game has two areas: On HipHop Avenue, kids work through eight different games with the help of animal friends. They earn tickets that they can use in the Karaoke Clubhouse, where they can sing and record 24 songs that reinforce the lessons. The games are enough fun for repeat play, and the songs all have a great beat. Our only complaint is with the included microphone, which doesn’t pick up voices clearly enough.
$29.99 direct. Knowledge Adventure Inc., www .jumpstart.com. llllh

ABBY: GORDONNE’S SECRET

Abby: Gordonne’s Secret
Abby is a little girl with superpowers who grows suspicious of greedy businessman Gordonne’s plans. The game has an appealing, cartoonish look, and we especially like the 3D movies that come between the game sequences. Abby has six levels of difficulty—for grades one through six—but the learning games (lots of math and grammar) are poorly thought out and not well integrated into the action. The game asks players multiple-choice questions about subjects that don’t necessarily tie into the plot of the game. We found that most players could easily get past them by guessing.
€18 (about $22) direct. CMY Multimedia USA Inc., www.cmymultimedia.com. llhmm

Making History: The Calm and the Storm
This strategy game places you in the political mess known as Europe in the days preceding World War II. Teachers, students, and history buffs will find the Scenario Editor powerful and easy to use to develop turn-based, historically accurate strategy games. Network play lets different people take on leadership roles, compete against one another, and learn how different actions can affect the outcome of history.—Matthew D. Sarrel
$39.99 direct. Muzzy Lane Software, www .muzzylane.com. lllmm

Flash Action Addition/Subtraction
Flash cards go digital with this mathem at ics helper f rom School Z one Publishing. Flash Action Addition/ Subtraction helps kids around 6 years old drill on addition and subtraction problems using the numbers 1 through 12. With the program’s colorful graphics and simple interface, most kids shouldn’t have any trouble starting a drill or playing against a friend. They can even choose to focus on a particular number to help them conquer an especially difficult area. The game is enjoyable for a short while, but there’s not much to it other than the drills, and we doubt that kids will want too many replays.
$12.99 direct. School Zone Publishing Co., www .schoolzone.com. llhmm

JUMPSTART READING

Phonics 3B Advanced Level II
Phonics 3B, part of a series, stands apart from the others in this roundup by being both more serious about teaching and a little less enthralling as a game. Using a framework of sports, it teaches 7- to 13-year-olds the building blocks of reading and writing. Kids pick an area to study, learn about it from a “coach,” and sound out vocabulary words, then play a learning game to earn a medal. Although it looks less polished than the others, the graphics have charm and the lessons are worthwhile—but you might have to encourage your child to stick with it.
$24.95 direct. Help Me 2 Learn Co., www .helpme2learn.com. llllm

Imperial Glory
The French emperor Napoleon used his military and diplomatic skills to subdue half of Europe. You can try to do better while controlling one of the five major powers of the era. In the turn-based management mode, strategize by making treaties, building armies, and improving your nation’s infrastructure. You can also jump into the game’s epic real-time combat mode, which re-creates this era of warfare. The computer won’t go easy on you—but did Napoleon have it easy?—Peter Suciu
$39.99 list. Eidos Interactive Ltd., www .eidosinteractive.com. llllm

www.pcmag.com SEPTEMBER 6, 2005

PC MAGAZINE

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BACKSPACE
SPECIAL EDITION: 10 YEARS AGO IN PC MAGAZINE
Edited by Don Willmott Ten years may not seem like much time in the overall scheme of things, but in the world of computing it’s a lifetime . . . and then some. Back in the waning summer days of 1995, PC Magazine heralded the much-anticipated arrival of Windows 95 with a big fat issue analyzing the new OS and describing the hardware you’d need to run it. (We also managed to make a mention or two of that new Internet thing.) Here’s a sampling of what we were saying ten years ago this month. BILL HOWARD SAW A FLAT-SCREEN FUTURE EDITOR ROBIN RASKIN SAW THE FUTURE CLEARLY

“Color LCD panels will hit 12 inches shortly, and that’s roughly equivalent to a 14-inch CRT display, except in cost. If I were a monitor maker with skills only in traditional CRTs, I’d be worried about being in business in the year 2000, when we’ll have 17-inch flat panel LCDs. But that’s long-term.”
HE SAW SOMETHING ELSE COMING, TOO

“The danger we face now lies in our ability to construct separate electronic realities that may cause us to lose touch with one another. . . . Harper’s editor Lewis Lapham wrote, ‘The marvel of postmodern communications—500 television channels, CD-ROM, the Internet—invites each of us to construct a preferred reality. We need never see or talk to anybody with whom we don’t agree.’ ”
M DVORAK . . . A LITTLE LESS ACCURATE

“We’re on the verge of a new I/O connector standard called universal serial bus (USB). A year and a half from now a PC might have only USB connectors. Think of it as a mini-network . . . with thin cables and phone-style connectors. . . . That’s one feature I’d wait for.”
J A MONITOR COST HOW MUCH?

“With prices as low as $599, business and home users can upgrade to a 17-inch monitor that lets them spread out their spreadsheets and see more of their multitasked tasks.”
HERE’S A THOUGHT FROM DVORAK’S INSIDE TRACK WHICH SERVICE DID YOU USE BACK THEN?

“The PowerPC may have represented a new standard platform for high-end users. Instead, we are going into the 21st century riding a rocking horse called Windows 95.”
M DVD CHANGED THE BALANCE OF THIS EQUATION

“If you want to know what’s happening with Windows 95, you can browse WinNews: • Internet: Go to ftp.microsoft.com/peropsys/.win_news. • CompuServe: Type GO WINNEWS. • GENie: Go to WINNEWS Download area in Windows Remote Terminal Connection. • Prodigy: Type jumpword WINNEWS.”
K GET THIS NOTEBOOK ON eBAY

TODAY FOR 99 CENTS

“The Toshiba Satellite Pro 400 comes with a 75-MHz Pentium CPU, 8MB of EDO RAM, a 770MB hard disk, a 10.4-inch display, an infrared port . . . an internal power supply . . . and a quad-speed CD-ROM drive. . . . A lithium ion battery provides over 2 hours of use. List price: $4,899.”

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PC Magazine, ISSN 0888-8507, is published semi-monthly except monthly in January and July at $44.97 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7940. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10016-7940 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Address changes to PC Magazine, P.O. Box 54070, Boulder, CO 80328-4070. The Canadian GST registration number is 865286033. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40009221. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to P.O. Box 503, R.P.O. West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6, Canada. Printed in the U.S.A.

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