Home portal to the ZDNet empire - their channels offer more current technical info
than anyone else - if you have a fast Internet connection see their 1000+ technical webcasts.
Comparison shopping - "product pictures, descriptions and specifications, user-provided merchant and product ratings with narratives that give you the lowdown on products and merchants as well as BottomLinePrice that estimates total delivery cost including applicable sales tax and shipping charges."
"Find best online deals & coupons on computer hardware & software, consumer electronics and more!" Similar to TechBargains, but might find some additional deals. Seems somewhat better organized than TechBargains.
"Provides deep technical content about new products and technologies. It reaches committed, active technology users, managers, and enthusiasts through detailed reviews, analysis, tutorials, extensive resource links, and
interactive, discussion-based community."
"Explains resources used in Plug-and-Play (PnP) such as addresses, interrupts, etc. Covers both the PCI bus (inherently PnP) and PnP on the old ISA bus. If PnP did it's job right, you wouldn't need this howto. Otherwise, this will both explain PnP and help you detect and assign resources to hardware (low level configuring). It doesn't cover what's called "Universal Plug and Play" (UPnP)."
"This download creates a self-booting DOS diskette to run the DFT utility. The Drive Fitness Test (DFT) provides a quick, reliable method to test SCSI and IDE hard disk drives, including Serial-ATA IDE drives. The Drive Fitness Test analyze function performs read tests without overwriting customer data. (However, Drive Fitness Test is bundled with some restoration utilities that will overwrite data.)"
"A humble little site for empirical modem, ISDN, DSL and Ethernet connection information and optimization."
Linux
The Internet Resources Linux links have been moved to the Linux page
Device Drivers for Windows
If you can't find the drivers you need at these sites, you can always check the manufacturer's web/ftp sites directly - see the Computer Hardware Manufacturers on this page.
Searchable
driver database for Win 3.X, Win 95, & Win NT, plus Troubleshooting
for modem, monitor, printer, sound and video drivers - now they charge
for the priviledge - it had to happen sooner or later
From "Cleaning your registry" to "Remove unused programs" and more - some easy tricks to wring more performance out of XP. Most of these apply to Vista as well.
"A complete system optimization guide for Windows XP users. It contains an enormous amount of detailed descriptions and resources together in one free 175 page downloadable PDF file. Everything from the correct installation of Windows and critical software and drivers, through to recommendations for every significant setting in XP, all the major performance, visual and convenience tweaks, and descriptions of XP's functionality."
In Windows 95/98/ME you can bring up the Task List by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. In Windows NT4/2000/XP you bring up the Task List by right-clicking on the Task Bar and choosing "Task Manager."
Product Guide section for an overview of the new operating system. Windows 2003 news, reviews, and columnists. See Upgrading to Windows 2003 section for compatibility and system requirement information. Consult the Technical Library area for deployment guides, technical white papers, the Windows 2003 Resource Kit, and Windows 2003 Help.
In Windows 95/98/ME you can bring up the Task List by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del. In Windows NT4/2000/XP you bring up the Task List by right-clicking on the Task Bar and choosing "Task Manager."
"How can I gain access to a Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 computer if I forgot the administrator's password? How can I reset the administrator's password if I forgot it?" Another method here.
"A+ Certification is a testing program sponsored by CompTIA that certifies the competency of entry-level (6 months experience) service technicians in the computer industry."
"A technical training and certification publication designed to deliver the most current information available about technical certification programs from a variety of vendors."
Computer Reference/Ezines