Home Networking Annoyances -- Need a cure for the headaches associated with running a home network? This book tackles all the common annoyances your network dishes up, whether it's wired or wireless, Mac or PC. With a friendly, off-the-cuff approach, this book guides you safely through common home networking glitches, including file sharing, printing, security, and more. Take a stand against annoyances now: this book is your ticket to serenity. Sample Chapter 4, File-Sharing Annoyances, is available free online.

Disk Cleanup Hacks -- No matter how much space you have on your hard disk, it's never enough. In this WindowsDevCenter.com article, Mitch Tulloch shows you how to use, automate, and hack the Disk Cleanup tool to de-junk the hard drive on your Windows XP machine. Mitch is the author of Windows Server Hacks.

Security Centers and Firewalls -- With the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft's latest and most reliable corporate desktop operating system now provides better protection against viruses, worms, and malicious hackers. This book excerpt describes how to use SP2's Security Center, along with everything you need to know about choosing and using a firewall. Knowledge is power; learn to protect your system with Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition.

Top Ten Excel Annoyances -- Curt Frye writes, "The river of Excel annoyances runs deep and treacherous, populated by numerous species of sharp-toothed predators ready to chew up your data." In this article, Curt offers fixes for ten of the most common annoyances, giving you the paddle you need to stay afloat in the currents of your favorite spreadsheet. Curt is the author of Excel Annoyances.

How To Start Hacking Your PC -- Do you want to get under the hood of your PC and start hacking? Jim Aspinwall literally wrote the book on it. In this first part of a two-part article, he teaches you everything you need to know to get started. Jim is the author of PC Hacks.

Network Installation of Windows Printers from Samba -- The combination of Samba and CUPS makes network printing on a mixed Linux/Windows LAN easier than ever. You can share Linux printers with Windows clients, and Windows printers with Linux clients. Carla Schroder shows how to set up and maintain this reliable printer server. Carla is the author of Linux Cookbook.

Customizing the Windows Just-in-Time Setup -- Just-in-time setup is a great way to create multiple user profiles on machines, but there are gotchas you have to watch out for along the way. Learn what to look for and how to solve problems, from Mitch Tulloch, author of Windows Server Hacks.

Create a Letterhead Using OpenOffice.org Writer -- Stop wasting your money paying a print shop for letterheads. Jean Hollis Weber shows you how you can use OpenOffice.org Writer to create letterheads at no cost. Jean is the author of OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word.

Building Simple Lists Using Strings in VBA -- Sometimes string hacking in VBA is a quick and convenient way to solve a problem. In this article, Andrew Savikas shows you how to use strings for simple lists. Andrew is the author of Word Hacks

A New Approach: Excel 2003 DevNotebook -- Dan Mabbutt writes in this review that O'Reilly's book on programming in Excel 2003 is "a 'how to' book written by an author who really knows 'how to'." Further, he says it's a "forward-looking and compact read into the future of programming with Microsoft technologies." If you're working in Excel, breathe in the "light and refreshing" format of Excel 2003 Programming: A Developer's Notebook.

Cooking with Access -- Here are four recipes that offer practical solutions to common problems Access users face. Learn how to perform a mail merge from Access to Word, create a web front end to an Access table, build an object inventory, and export columns to an HTML table. It's all from Access Cookbook, 2nd Edition.

Tips for Improving Graphics Performance -- Whether you're an avid gamer looking to get the best possible image quality for a new first-person shooter or MMORG, or you're just trying to smooth system performance at high resolutions and color depths, getting the most from your graphics subsystem can be a real challenge. Here are seven tips on how to improve graphics performance, from Stephen Bigelow, author of PC Hardware Annoyances.

Building the Perfect Bleeding-Edge PC, Part 2 -- You've gotten all the parts--now it's time for the nitty-gritty of putting it all together. Here are step-by-step instructions for building the PC of your dreams, from Bob and Barbara Thompson, authors of Building the Perfect PC.

Solving XP Application Compatibility Problems -- Programs written for older operating systems such as Windows 95 and 98 have problems running under XP. Learn how to solve application compatibility problems from Mitch Tulloch, author of Windows Server Hacks.

Power Hound Tips for Online Protection -- The Internet is a dangerous place, and sometimes the dangers come from unexpected quarters. So in addition to taking the usual online precautions, the Power Hound offers some tips about how to protect yourself against dangers you may have never even thought of, excerpted from O'Reilly's newly released Windows XP Power Hound.

PC Hacks for Windows -- Here are three must-have hacks for Windows users: give your Plug and Play a lesson in playing well with others by tweaking your BIOS parameters; pick up CPU speed by applying proper CPU cooling techniques; and help your hard drive perform better with less wasted space by setting it up the way you want it. After you've whet your whistle, get all the tips you need to tame your PC from O'Reilly's PC Hacks.

Transferring Files to Your Pocket PC Using Infrared -- It may be old tech, but using infrared is still a handy way to sync up your PC and Pocket PC on the road. See how it's done in this tutorial from Wei-Meng Lee, author of O'Reilly's Windows XP Unwired.

Using Extensions in Firefox -- The Firefox browser has a lot going for it, and one of its best traits is its extensibility: you can download plugins, called extensions, to enhance its features. Wei-Meng Lee, author of Windows XP Unwired, shows you how to find and install them, and tells you about his favorites. For additional favorites from our Windows DevCenter editor, see Preston Gralla's weblog.

Building the Perfect Bleeding-Edge PC, Part 1 -- From processor to power supply, Bob and Barbara Thompson have assembled their ideal mix of high-performance components that will run on both Linux and Windows. For everything you need to know to assemble your own high-end PC, check out their recently-released Building the Perfect PC.

Cooking Up a User Interface -- No matter how much you do behind the scenes to create a solid and robust application, users of the application see only your user interface. Chapter 9 of Access Cookbook, 2nd Edition shows you how to design a UI that is workable, aesthetically pleasing, and helps users get their work done. Learn how to take full advantage of special keystrokes, create a map-based interface and forms that carry data forward from record to record, and much more. If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial subscription.