Most printers are pretty good, and also pretty inexpensive. This is not a purchase you need to sweat. Printers go on sale all the time. It's probably OK to check out this week's fliers and buy something that looks good and is on sale.

If you want to think your options through carefully, Consumer Reports offers an excellent Printer Guide, which covers the whole printer landscape.

Opinions differ on how safe it is to send confidential information by email.  But let's take it as given that, every now and then, you want to send something by email and be reasonably sure that no one but the intended recipient can read it.  Let's also assume that you don't want to spend any money, and that it has to be as easy as possible for the recipient to read your message. 

Recommended Free Utilities

• Disk cleanup
• System information
• Internet Connection
• Backup
• Photo editing and organizing

CCleaner

An excellent free utility that will help you clean your

What's All That Junk?

A field guide to the boxes, cables and wires cluttering up your space

Cords/Wires/Cables

Ethernet (network) cords have clear plastic connectors that are almost identical to phone jack connectors, but slightly larger. They can be used to connect you to your home network and, ultimately, the Internet.