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How to Fix the Biggest PC Annoyances

Had it with Windows glitches, hardware headaches, and Internet irritations? Here's how to get rid of them for good.

Steve Bass

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PDA Problems

Emergency Power for Palms

Illustration: Edwin Fotheringham
The Annoyance: I love my Palm PDA, but I'm lucky if I get a day's worth of battery life out of it. At the office I can easily recharge it while I work; when traveling, however, I used to have to schlep the cradle with me to recharge the darn thing.

The Fix: Now I squeeze more juice out of my Palm by turning the gizmo's backlight brightness way down. When I'm on the road, I leave the cradle at home and instead use Tech Center Labs' $15 Power Adapter for Universal Connector Palms (see FIGURE 7 ). The device connects the cradle's AC adapter directly to my Palm. If you prefer, you can run your Palm with the company's $15 AA Emergency Charger, which uses rechargeable or regular AA batteries. And in dire emergencies, the company's 9-volt Emergency Charger, a $20 gadget, will give your Palm enough of a boost for you to win that last hand of solitaire.

Pocket PC File and Battery Woes

The Annoyance: That last tip was handy for Palm users, but what about all you Pocket PC users out there? You have two problems. Microsoft hides your battery-life indicator in the Settings, System, Power folder, requiring an annoying three clicks each time you want to see how much battery life you have left. And like Windows, the Pocket PC platform doesn't have a useful file management tool--you're stuck using the dreadful File Explorer to keep tabs on your files.

The Fix: First, grab a trial copy of Omega One's Battery Pack Pro, a $20 utility that not only displays a desktop bar indicating your Pocket PC's battery life, but also measures its expected life based on how you use the device. Next, replace File Explorer with Resco's $25 Explorer 2003--a great productivity tool that allows you to move your files in a single window, as well as to search, zip, and encrypt files.

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The magazine version of this article is available for purchase in a downloadable .pdf format. This complete article includes all the formatting, photos, tips, and charts contained in the original.

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