mikeg

Like Rhema7 I use MusicMatch Jukebox. But unlike Rhema, I do not subscribe to their On-Demand service. I can still download songs for 99 cents. I do not pay any periodic fees.

I think that if your password uses the 24 or 26 character maximum you will have excellent protection.

I would consider Slimdevices' Squeezebox. http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html

If one has made changes to the system or performance, is there a way to restore the default settings of Windows?

I would recommend that you call Dell. Your call will be transferred to India.

Check out this cool new dock coming soon.

There should not be a problem using Musicmatch. Be sure that under the tab Options/Recorder/Source there is a check next to Line-In.

Isn't there a disadvantage in turning off Java and/or Java Script? Won't this create problems when using various programs which employ Java, of which there appear to be many?

I have Windows XP Home. I have Ad-Aware SE Personal, Spyware Blaster, and Spybot Search and Destroy. These are in addition to McAfee Personal Firewall Plus and McAfee Virus Scan. Is this overkill? I don't want competing programs doing the same thing if this is going to create problems, slowdowns, or risk crashes. Does anyone have suggestions for the best of these programs and which would be best to uninstall? Would it be preferable to uninstall the Ad-Aware, Spyware Blaster, and Spybot Search and Destroy and in their place subscribe to McAfee's Privacy Service and Spam Killer? Since the latter

I found that my system slowed down after following a few of BV's suggested eliminations. I think that one can accomplish far more toward increasing system efficiency by choosing "Adjust Windows for best performance" rather that the default "Let Windows decide what's best for my computer" in System/Advanced/Performance". Does anyone know of any disadvantage in making this adjustment?

I dislike being told by Firefox that I need to make a "critical" update to a version which is only a beta version, still under development.

I would first check File Associations to be sure that the appropriate file suffixes for his music filenames are checked for Windows Media. Go to My Computer/Tools/Folder Options.

Thank all of you who responded. You have been most helpful. It looks as though the TV-out is the most dispensable part of the setup since DVDs can be created for playback and I already have 2 DVD players, one a standard stand-alone and the other in a computer. I see little advantage in playing videos stored on the hard drive on a TV screen. Everything looks, as you say, quite doable, at least from the desktop which will be wirelessly networked with the laptop.

Thank you. Am I correct in thinking that the new laptop will not accommodate all those cards: video capture card, sound card with line-out, and video card with TV-out. My desktop Dell is supposed to have NVidia GE Force 4 Ti 4200 with TV out but I was told to install a newer, updated driver and the system no longer mentions TV out as it did before I updated the driver. Is the PVR-150 a video capture card? I do expect to network the desktop and laptop. The whole thing sounds quite complicated and problem prone, but I could be wrong about this.

Thank you. I'll check it out further. I wonder whether that setup requires Windows Media Center. I expect to have Windows XP on both computers.

Hello all: I'm new here. Have Dell Dimension 8200 desktop, 2.26 GHz which makes DVD+RW discs. Have Windows XP Home and superfast DSL, nominal downloads @ 2.9 Mbps. Am contemplating buying a laptop and creating a Linksys network. Would appreciate any advice on hookups with cable TV/stereo system, probably with portable keyboard with a view toward management of TV and stereo from the laptop as well as recording TV programs. I know I can buy a DVD recorder and do pretty much the same things but why have 3 DVD recorders? Would gratefully receive suggestions from those with similar setups.