How to: Reletter a drive

Windows turned drive F: into drive G:, so the PC's owner asked the Answer Line forum how to change it back.

By Lincoln Spector | 31 October, 2009 04:23

Tags: hard drives, Windows Explorer, Windows

TV on the Internet

After reading Ditch Cable and Satellite for Free Internet TV, Warren Kernaghan asked where on the Internet he can find television programs comparable to what's on cable.

By Lincoln Spector | 06 October, 2009 03:38

Tags: HDTV, digital tv, internet tv, streaming television

How to Upgrade From XP to Windows 7

You had good reason to stick with XP and skip the Vista experience entirely. But now that the folks at Microsoft have created a new operating system that's worth moving to, they haven't made the upgrade easy, because you have to perform a clean install of the OS. Here are the issues you need to be aware of, and how to handle them. Then read the main article, "How to Upgrade to Windows 7" for more information on the process.

By Lincoln Spector | 02 October, 2009 00:20

Tags: Windows, Windows 7

Windows 7: Upgrade Checklist

Confirm that you have all of the following at hand before you start the upgrade.

By Lincoln Spector | 02 October, 2009 00:21

Tags: Windows, Windows 7

3 Key Tweaks for Windows 7

As an environment to work and play in, Windows 7 beats Vista, hands down. But it isn't perfect, and you may find yourself missing a few features that have disappeared. Here's how to get them back.

By Lincoln Spector | 02 October, 2009 00:21

Tags: Windows, Windows 7

How to Upgrade to Windows 7

Upgrading your operating system is always fraught with problems and anxiety, and quite often with disaster. But by taking the right precautions, gathering the needed materials, and hoping for the best while preparing for the worst, you can upgrade your PC without losing functionality or gaining gray hairs. I'm here to tell you how.

By Lincoln Spector | 02 October, 2009 00:18

Tags: Windows Vista, windows xp, Windows 7

Play music from an external hard drive

Daniel Shaughnessy wants iTunes and Windows Media Player to see the music on his external USB hard drive.

By Lincoln Spector | 18 September, 2009 02:53

Tags: music, hard drives, iTunes, Windows media player

Replace a laptop's crashed hard drive

Don Homan's hard drive crashed the day after his laptop's warranty expired. What should he do?

By Lincoln Spector | 18 August, 2009 03:13

Tags: data recovery, notebooks, hard drives

How-To: Run applications from a flash drive

Joseph Mott wants to know if he can put applications, specifically Microsoft Office applications like Word and Excel, onto a flash drive.

By Lincoln Spector | 13 August, 2009 02:00

Tags: flash drive

You can't trust GPS

An 11-year-old boy is dead, and too much dependence on GPS may be partly to blame.

By Lincoln Spector | 11 August, 2009 02:52

Tags: GPS

Brand-name LCD HDTVs get cheaper

Anyone familiar with LCD HDTVs expects their prices to decrease, and for TVs from established companies to cost more than models from upstarts like Insignia and Vizio -- but no one expects the top-shelf brands to come down in price faster than the value brands. Yet that is exactly what's happening. Higher-end brands no longer carry the premium they once did: The delta between the value brands and the big-name brands can be as little as $100 these days.

WiMax Forum forecasts 100 launches this year

It may not have made a huge splash in the United States, but WiMax coverage continues to grow in many international markets. According to the WiMax Forum, about 100 carriers worldwide will offer the 4G wireless technology for the first time this year.

By Lincoln Spector | 09 March, 2009 10:44

Tags: WiMax

Steve Wozniak's enterprise play

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been involved in a lot of technology startups since leaving Apple in the 1980s, many related to the mobile and consumer electronics industries. His latest venture: An enterprise storage firm based in Salt Lake City.

By Lincoln Spector | 09 February, 2009 10:21

Tags: woz

Self-fueling robot will 'eat' plants for power

Robotics Technology is developing a robot that consumes biomass, such as plant material, and converts it to electricity to power itself. The whimsically-named Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) is intended for jobs where regular, conventional fueling would be impractical, such as military recognizance.

By Lincoln Spector | 31 January, 2009 10:04

Tags: robotics

Software algorithm visualizes large data sets

Scientists have more data at their disposal than ever before -- often more than they can properly examine. But a new algorithm should make it easier for them to visualize huge data sets. And cheaper, too; software based on the algorithm can run on personal computers with as little as 2GB of RAM.

By Lincoln Spector | 19 January, 2009 11:58

Tags: research