Kim Dotcom has ordered the removal from his Mega file-storage service design plans for a controversial one-bullet plastic gun.

The decision seems an unlikely one for Dotcom, who has become somewhat of an Internet folk hero for fiercely contesting criminal copyright infringement charges levied by U.S. prosecutors over his former Megaupload service.

The legal uncertainty over the distribution of the CAD (computer-aided design) files by Defense Distributed led Dotcom to err on the side of caution while the legal issues around the weapon are discussed, his lawyer, Ira P. Rothken, said Monday.

"I think it's fair to say that we don't need to do a very complex legal analysis to understand that we are dealing with an issue of first impression regarding printing plans for 3-D guns," Rothken said. A case of first impression means there is no precedent for the legal issue at hand in a specific court.

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She's your mom. She's risen to every challenge, not the least of which was raising you to be the fine, upstanding PC enthusiast you are today.

Yet despite all of Mom's successes, you're still the go-to techie in the family. With Mother's Day just around the corner, it's your turn to streamline her desktop, protect her precious data, and put a smile on her face. Just install these apps and gadgets on Mom's computer, and surprise her with a much better PC experience on Sunday morning.

3D printing has been attracting more attention in recent months as a tool to create gadgets, toys and miniature works of art. Now President Barack Obama thinks it can also play a role in strengthening the military and America's sagging manufacturing industry.

Several different applications of the technology were identified by the president as part of a US$200 million federally funded competition to create three manufacturing institutes across five federal agencies -- Defense, Energy, Commerce, NASA and the National Science Foundation. The competition, announced Thursday, is part of a broader $1 billion effort by the Obama administration to reinvest in American manufacturing "after shedding jobs for a decade," the White House press secretary said in a statement.

The three institutes, which will be selected through a competitive process led by the departments of Energy and Defense and will be announced later this year, will serve as regional hubs to bring together research and product development, industry, universities and community colleges, the White House said. The administration hopes the collaboration will foster a sort of "teaching factory" whereby students and workers at all levels could design, test and pilot new products and manufacturing processes.

3D printing is a way of making three-dimensional solid objects of practically any shape from a digital model. The technology, which is also known as "additive manufacturing," could have applications in a wide range of industries including defense, aerospace, automotive and metals manufacturing, the Obama administration said.

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Consumers getting excited about the idea of at-home 3D printers may not want to get their hopes up anytime soon, Gartner research director Pete Basiliere says.

Basiliere, the author of a recent Gartner report predicting enterprise-class 3D printers to drop below the $2000 price mark by 2016, says consumers may be disillusioned about the potential for in-home 3D printing technology. Recent coverage of extravagant and sometimes controversial 3D printing projects has many thinking the devices will soon be as common in homes as traditional 2D paper printers were 10 years ago, Basiliere says.

“When you have President Obama mentioning it in the State of the Union address, when you have coverage of people who are trying to use 3D printing to generate components of weapons, like high-capacity magazines for automatic weapons, that is in the general press,” he says. “And so the hype continues there in the consumer space.”

From here, though, consumer 3D printing is likely to enter the “trough of disappointment” in the hype cycle, “because what the consumers are hearing about 3D printing is not the reality for them,” Basiliere says.

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We’ve spent a lot of electronic ink telling you to avoid low-cost color laser printers, because they’re all slow, with sparse features, and worst of all, really expensive toner. We’d almost advise the same about the $280 (as of March 25, 2013) Dell C1760nw color laser-class printer (it uses LED technology), but it has one thing going for it: impressive graphics quality, which is challenging to find on any office color laser printer at any price point. Choose this one above the rest, if you must, but you might also want to check out the faster, far more economical, office-class inkjets that we’ve seen from Epson and HP.

The C1760nw's two-line LCD display and control buttons are minimal, but effective. The menu structure is nicely laid out, making options easy to find. A blue light directly above the controls indicates the status of Wi-Fi connections. You can also manage the printer via Wi-Fi or Ethernet using the unit's HTML configuration interface. In addition to the PC and Mac drivers, the C1760nw offers remote-printing features, including printing from mobile devices and via email.

As with most low-cost color lasers, paper-handling features on the C1760nw are sparse. The front face folds down to create a 150-sheet, open-faced input tray on the bottom of the unit. A 10-page, removable bypass tray sits directly on top of it. The bypass tray allows you to print envelopes and other one-offs without unloading and reloading that main tray, as required with the single-tray C1660w. The output bin integrated into the top of the unit holds 100 sheets. The C1760nw lacks automatic two-side printing (duplexing), however, onscreen prompts walk you through the manual process. You can easily reach most of the paper path for clearing paper jams by folding down the panel on the back of the unit, and the toner cartridges are accessed via a panel on the right side of the unit.

Though cheaper than the C1660w's, the C1760nw's toner is still no bargain. The 3.5 cents you'll pay per black page is around the average for entry-level inkjets, but the additional 5 cents for each additional color is high. Black toner is sold in $70, 2000-page units and the 1400-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges cost $70 each as well. Those are the high-capacity supplies. Dell also sells the 700-page cartridges the C1760nw ships with, but unless you want to pay over 7 cents per page (cpp) for black pages and over 8 cents per color, we recommend against them.

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Low-cost color lasers like the $329 (as of 03/20/2013) HP LaserJet Pro 200 color Printer M251nw are tempting for small-office users who see laser technology as familiar and reliable (never mind that in this price range, a small-office inkjet is a much better deal). Unfortunately, color laser models in this price range tend to be slow and sparsely featured, with expensive toner. The M251nw sticks to that trend, but it also offers some innovative features and better-than-usual image quality. Still not cheap enough for you? The Dell c1660w has an even lower price tag and even better output quality, but it's a lot slower and has pricier toner.

Touchscreen and brushed-black design

On looks alone, the M251nw could win a lot of fans. With a faux brushed-black-metal exterior (it's plastic, but convincing), and a flip-up, 3.5-inch touchscreen control panel, it's one of the handsomest small office laser printers to come down the pike in a while.

The M251nw features all of the three major connection technologies: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB. We installed using Wi-Fi with minimum fuss. There's both Wi-Fi Protected Setup and the standard setup wizard. HP’s ePrint cloud-printing services are another bonus, including features like remote printing via e-mail and access to Web-based apps and services.

Paper handling features consist of a 150-sheet paper tray on the bottom of the unit, and an integrated 125-sheet output bin on the top--the classic small laser setup. Duplexing is manual, with step-by-step, onscreen prompts.

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The superlow $200 price (as of February 21, 2013) for the Dell C1660w makes color-laser-class printing (using laserlike LED technology) tantalizingly accessible. Its text output looks great, and the color graphics are very nice indeed. Because the toner is expensive, however, the C1660w would be a good deal only if you didn’t print much (as we discovered when we compared inkjet pricing last year). The printer’s modest speed and features reflect the intended, light-volume audience.

Setting up the C1660w couldn't be easier. The small footprint means it can be used virtually anywhere. USB and Wi-Fi connectivity are standard. We used the manual Wi-Fi setup, but there's support for WPS as well. A blue Wi-Fi indicator notifies you that the unit is connected wirelessly. The tiny two-line LCD display and control buttons are minimal, but effective. The software is spare, but you can surf from anywhere on your network to the printer's configuration pages to check status and see if you need more toner. There's also the full gamut of remote printing features, including printing from mobile devices and via email.

Paper handling features on the C1660w are minimal. A front panel flips out onto your work surface to make the bottom of the 150-sheet input tray; a cover piece is included. The classic, indented output bin on the top holds 100 sheets. There's no automatic two-side printing (duplexing), but there is manual support for the process in the form of dialogs telling you how to reinsert the paper. Having an open-faced paper tray makes this process significantly easier. You can easily reach most of the paper path by folding down the panel on the back of the unit. Toner cartridges are accessed via a panel on the right side of the unit.

Probably the least appealing aspect of the C1660w is its pricey toner. The unit ships with 500-page starter cartridges. The 4 cents you'll pay per black page is a little higher than the average for entry-level inkjets, and the additional 16.8 cents that adding color to the average page costs is pricey indeed. Black toner is sold in $50, 1250-page units; the 1000-page cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges cost $56 each. There are, unfortunately, no high-capacity supplies.

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If anyone had the ability to bring out a laser-competitive inkjet, it’d be HP. And that’s exactly what the company’s laser masters in Boise have done, with the newly announced Officejet Pro X576dw color inkjet multifunction.

Now hold on, inkjet haters: This $799 machine is nothing like the $400 small-office inkjet MFPs we’ve lauded in the past, let alone the sub-$100 beaters that drink pricey ink. The Officejet Pro X576dw is faster than any color laser we’ve tested—that’s its competition, not regular inkjets. Its consumables are supercheap; and its output quality is just fine, thank you. This is an inkjet that deserves respect from color lasers, including those from its own company.

HP

Will offices comfortable with laser technology give this supercharged inkjet a chance? HP has to try. “The consumer inkjet market is declining rapidly,” says IDC’s Keith Kmetz. “This means inkjet has to make the move to business markets to be successful longer term. This collides against laser, and there's a well-established laser bias in that market.”

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If you're looking for a small office inkjet MFP with a comprehensive feature set that will handle more than minimal volume printing, the $200 (as of 2/1/2013) Epson WorkForce WF-3540 is a good place to begin. It's quick, and the output looks nice. Equipped with automatic duplex printing and scanning, 500 sheets of capacity, relatively affordable ink, and easy controls, it's quite the bargain. It also connects via USB, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi so you can use it in virtually any computing environment.

Installing the WorkForce WF-3540 is a mere matter of a few dialogs and about 5 minutes. As mentioned, you can connect to it wirelessly, via Ethernet, or directly using USB. The software bundle includes the trusty Epson Scan and Abbyy Finereader Sprint 9.5 for OCR. The control panel features a 3.5-inch LCD with contextually lit touch buttons on the panel surrounding it. The menu structure is quite easy to navigate--far easier to use than its WorkForce WF-2540 cousin we recently reviewed.

Paper handling on the WorkForce WF-3540 is top-notch. In addition to two bottom-mounted, 250-sheet paper cassettes, there's a single-sheet rear feed for photo paper, envelopes and the like. Tip: Push the paper down into the rear feeder until you feel it grab; the paper sits farther down than with most printers.

The scanner features an automatic document feeder (ADF) which scans both sides automatically (by re-feed). The lid to the letter/A4-sized platen doesn't telescope to accommodate thicker materials, but that's the only issue, and a minor one for an office-oriented MFP.

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The Epson Expression Photo XP-850 Small-in-One Printer’s talents may lean toward photos, but along with the superior image quality, it’s also a full-featured, fairly fast color inkjet multifunction (MFP) with automatic duplex printing and scanning. Its $300 price (as of 01/22/2013) is steep, but it includes other premium features, like CD/DVD printing.

The Expression Photo XP-850 is generally a joy to use. Setup is easy, and the touchscreen and contextually lit buttons, plus nicely thought-out menus, make operation simple. The software is the current standard Epson bundle that includes the company's venerable Epson Scan, as well as Abbyy FineReader 9.5 Sprint for OCR chores. There's also mobile printing via e-mail and Wi-Fi. By ‘generally a joy’ we mean that one of these first days, Epson needs to fix a long-standing push-scan issue. This is at least our third printer from the company that has required either tweaking the Windows firewall, or waiting for a number of minutes, before PCs on the network will show up as scan destinations. No other vendor's printers suffer this issue.

Paper and media handling are top-notch for small volumes. Duplex printing is automatic, and augmenting the 100-sheet main paper cassette and 20-sheet photo cassette is a rear, single-sheet vertical feed that allows straight-path (no bending) photo printing. The automatic document feeder (ADF) holds 30 sheets and supports automatic two-sided scanning. The scanning platen itself is letter/A4-sized, and the lid telescopes a small distance to accommodate magazine-thick media. Optical media may be on its way out for some, but on the bottom of the Expression Photo XP-850, you'll find a removable adapter for feeding printable CD or DVD media. The adapter inserts into a slot above the 50-sheet output tray.

Before we quote speeds, note that upping the photo-printing setting from ‘Photo’ to ‘Best Photo’ slows output to a glacial pace, with little improvement in quality. At default settings, monochrome text and graphic pages print at an aggregate 7.1 pages per minute (ppm) on the PC and 6.8 ppm on the Mac—average times. Snapshot-sized (4-by-6-inch) photos print at above-average speeds of 4.6 ppm to plain paper and 1.6 ppm to glossy paper. A full-page color photo prints at about 0.4 ppm--a shade slower than average.

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The $130 (as of 12/24/2012) Epson Workforce WF-2540 All-in-One Printer (copy/fax/print/scan) has a 30-page automatic document feeder, it outputs nice text and graphics, and it has triple-threat USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Those are attractive features on any color inkjet multifunction, but there's bad news: Ink costs are high, and glossy photos print at some of the slowest times we've ever seen. Scan speed is nothing to write home about, either.

Setting up the WF-2540 is a breeze. With USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi all on board, you're free to attach it to a PC or network in any location you wish. The WF-2540's smallish non-operational footprint: 15.4 inches wide, by 14.8 inches deep, by 8.7-inch high also aids in the versatile placement. However, those numbers (shown in a photo on Epson's Web site), are a tad misleading. When you extend the guide for the 100-sheet rear vertical feed (there is no flat input tray), the height climbs to 11 or so inches. With both the guide and control panel in operating position, the depth is more like 17 inches. That's still relatively compact, but not as small as it would be with a bottom-mounted tray.

The WF-2540's software bundle is basic, but capable. The Epson Scan program is intuitive and mature, and it will handle any scanning task you throw at it. That would be everything except automatic two-sided scanning, which the WF-2540 does not support. Abbyy FineReader Sprint 9.5 is on hand to take care of OCR chores and there's also the full gamut of Web and local wireless printing options.

I didn't find using the WF-2540 quite as intuitive as many printers. The 2.5-inch LCD display, buttons, and keypad are fine; there's just something a little off in the implementation. You're forced to hit the OK button at times when the menu/home button would normally function, and there are just enough other little oddities to make the experience less than top-shelf. You'll get used to it, but it could be done better.

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Xerox’s ColorQube product line, including the $2,799 (as of 12/05/2012) 8700/X multifunction (copy/fax/print/scan), is designed for corporate use in busy workgroups, but it’s not a laser. The ColorQube technology uses blocks of crayon-like solid ink, rather than an inkjet printer’s liquid ink or a laser printer’s toner particles. The result is no muss, no fuss, and a lot of fun sliding the ink blocks down their little chutes. With the ink layered on top, like a laser printer, instead of absorbed into the paper, as with an inkjet printer, output is good no matter what kind of media you place in the tray. The ColorQube 8700/X may be expensive, but it offers plenty of administrative features and capacity upgrades that make it a significant step up from color laser multifunction models in lower price ranges.

The ColorQube 8700/X weighs 90 pounds and is sturdily built. It comes with 1GB of memory (not upgradable), plus an 80GB hard drive for storing jobs--a necessity when you're providing secure printing for a large workgroup.

Software setup for the ColorQube 8700/X is simple via either USB or ethernet. The printer ships with PC drivers for Postscript, PCL 5 and 6, as well as XMS. The software is minimal, but effective, with a nice scanning program.

The ColorQube 8700/X is controlled via a spacious, 7-inch touchscreen control panel. Still, the unit is complex to learn. The many high-end features that come with this corporate unit--administrative accounts, lots of options, secure printing, metering, and the like--are great. But having all the options on one screen is rather daunting when you begin, though easier once you know the interface. Also, the touchscreen wasn't as responsive as we'd like, requiring more pressure than expected to operate.

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Everything concerning the Samsung CLX-6260FW color laser multifunction ($1,000 as of 11/28/2012) has class. The appearance and controls, the output, and even the software are first-rate. Even better, the CLX-6260FW wakes up quickly and performs its tasks with skill. Just keep an eye on the toner costs, which can be a little expensive.

The CLX-6260FW has all the connectivity most situations require: Wi-Fi, USB, and gigabit ethernet. The unit is controlled via a 4.3-inch touchscreen, and the menus and options are arranged intuitively. As the CLX-6260FW faxes, a numeric keypad is present for dialing phone numbers as well as entering four-digit secure printing PINs. In addition to the usual cancel and other buttons, there's also an Eco button that switches the printer into economy mode where it uses less toner-- particularly apropos with this unit.

The CLX-6260FW comes standard with 512MB of memory, and it’s upgradeable to 1GB. There's also a USB-to-parallel-port option for $100. The specified monthly duty cycle is 60,000 pages, and the unit carries a one-year warranty. The provided software supports all the chores of which the CLX-6260FW is capable (copy/fax/print/scan), as well as email and Internet printing. There's also scanning directly to social media sites and even conversion to e-Books.

The CLX-6260FW seems a bit short in standard paper capacity, even for a small workgroup. The bottom cassette holds 250 sheets, and the multi-purpose tray that folds down from just above it holds 50 sheets. The output tray, which is somewhat claustrophobically situated beneath the top-mounted scanner, holds 100 sheets. An affordable $189.99, 520-sheet, bottom-mounted auxiliary tray is available to increase total capacity to 820 sheets. The ADF (automatic document feeder) holds 100 sheets. Two-sided (duplex) printing and scanning are both fully automated.

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It's been a turbulent decade at Hewlett-Packard, with board members and CEOs resigning or being ousted for all manner of colorful reasons, including strategic missteps, accusations of spying on journalists and alleged sexual harassment.

The latest moves came last week, when two directors resigned and Ray Lane said he would step down as chairman of HP's board following HP's ill-fated Autonomy acquisition.

The tumult started in 2005 with the ouster of Carly Fiorina, who had disagreements with the board over strategy. It worsened the following year with the so-called "pretexting" scandal and took a surreal turn three years ago when Mark Hurd resigned after an alleged affair with an actress.

IDGNS

In that time, HP's reputation has been dented and its stock price has plummeted.

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See shoes, glasses and jewelry from designers creating fashions using 3D printers—and see them being created.

An new exhibition at the London College of Fashion's Fashion Space Gallery shows designers exploring digital print in fashion and the potential of 3D printing as a tool for design.

A MakerBot Replicator 2 3D printer will be running in the gallery throughout the exhibition, printing objects that will then be put on display.

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Shareholder meetings are almost boring affairs, but today, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, HP’s Board quietly prevailed in several intense battles, including the preservation of its very own membership. The overall message: Let's look forward to the future, and leave our checkered past behind.

HP

There’s plenty the Board would no doubt like to put behind it, including six quarters of declining profit and revenue . Though HP isn't doing quite as badly as expected, sales of its bread-and-butter PCs, workstations, and printers, continue to fall. As a result, shareholders have agitated to oust two of HP’s Board members along with its outside auditing firm, Ernst & Young. And many continue to question the company’s 2011 acquisition of Autonomy, and a Department of Justice investigation isn’t helping. Meanwhile, back at the garage, HP is embroiled in a lawsuit with Oracle over server support.

Against this ragged backdrop, HP’s Board seemed extra-determined to project both sober responsibility and immense excitement. It made no mention of its declining businesses, instead pointing to new opportunities in IT and servers for the burgeoning big-data revolution. In addition, none of the controversial shareholder proposals prevailed.

Shareholder drama fizzles

The biggest flap concerned a campaign by CtW Investor Group to vote down two of HP’s current Board members. CtW blamed John H. Hammergren for his role in the extremely expensive Autonomy acquisition. It also targeted G. Kennedy Thompson for his role in maintaining the high non-audit fees paid to Ernst & Young, which it saw as a conflict of interest with the firm’s role as the company’s financial auditor. When the shareholders voted, however, each Board member received over 50 percent of the votes needed to stay on team HP, and the retention of Ernst & Young as HP’s outside auditor was favored by a very high margin of over 84 percent.

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IDGNS

They say inspiration can come from the most unlikely places. For a scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center, the Xerox-owned lab in Silicon Valley best known as PARC, it came from a tube of toothpaste.

The result is a new manufacturing method that can help make solar panels more efficient and increase the energy density of batteries.

It began when the lab was looking at ways it could use existing Xerox technology, like printing, in other areas. While watching the way the two or three materials help shape each other when they are squeezed through a toothpaste tube nozzle, an engineer had one of those "a-ha" moments.

By squeezing through a print nozzle a silver paste surrounded by a sacrificial material that would eventually get burned off, researchers found they were able to get a very fine silver line—and in electronics, any type of fine, conducting line is usually good.

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Hewlett-Packard's CEO has dismissed persistent rumors that the company might break itself up in a move that could create more value for shareholders.

"We have no plans to break up the company. I feel quite strongly that we are better and stronger together," Whitman said on HP's quarterly earnings call Thursday, responding to a question from an analyst about the company's plans.

Rumors that HP might break itself up have persisted since former CEO Leo Apotheker said two years ago that HP might sell off its underperforming PC business. HP later replaced Apotheker and said it would keep the division.

One rationale for a break-up is that HP's shareholders would get more value if more profitable parts of the business, such as the printer and services divisions, are separated from other divisions.

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Hewlett-Packard reported a drop in profit for the last quarter as printer and PC sales both declined, but said cost-cutting measures the company announced last year are starting to pay off.

HP reported earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal year, ended Jan. 31, of $1.2 billion, down 16 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue fell 6 percent to $28.4 billion, the company announced Thursday.

Sales of PCs and workstations fell 8 percent to $8.2 billion, HP said, while its printer division suffered a 5 percent decline in revenue, to $5.9 billion, HP said.

HP’s Enterprise Group, which sells server, storage and networking gear, saw revenue decline 4 percent to $6.98 billion, HP said. Sales of software and enterprise services also declined.

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10 PC peripherals that push the limits of science and tech

3D printing enthusiasts will get a lot of laser-like precision for their buck from Formlabs.

The Formlabs Form 1 3D desktop printer is in full production, and that is big news for tinkerers and creative tech types.

That’s because the printer employs a process that is significantly different than that used by other 3D printers on the market today.

Most 3D printers use a technique called extrusion, through which the printer melts plastic and lays it down in layers to create a 3D object. But the Form 1 features stereolithography, which uses a laser to cure liquid resin into microscopic layers, resulting in much more precise creations.

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Ninthchamber asked the Printers forum about printing from an Android device.

One usually doesn't associate printing with phones or tablets, in large part because once you have a portable device, you have less need for paper. But it still occasionally comes in handy.

You can print directly from an Android device with the right Wi-Fi or Bluetooth printer. However, as I don't like to give advice that involves spending large sums of money, I'm going to tell you how to do it with whatever printer you already own. The only expenses will be paper and ink.

[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]

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My poor dad has the worst luck when it comes to technology. Seems like every day he's bumping into some new problem with his phone, laptop, or an accessory.

The latest: His Lexmark inkjet printer suddenly refused to print.

Because my dad lives some 1,300 miles away, I used my favorite remote-access solution—LogMeIn Free—to connect to his laptop and poke around for problems.

What I discovered was that the print queue contained a number of failed print jobs—and Windows wouldn't allow me to delete them. Thankfully, I know about Stalled Printer Repair, a free utility that does what Windows seemingly can't.

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Just because you’re on a smartphone or tablet doesn’t mean you can’t print. In a few easy steps, you can set up Google Cloud Print to print from just about any mobile device.

For more extensive mobile printing tips, see PCWorld’s definitive guide to mobile printing

The first thing you need to do is sit down at a desktop or laptop that’s already connected to a printer. Sign into your Chrome browser and go to the Cloud Print page to set up the printers and mobile devices so they match your preferences.

Back on your Android device, go to Google Play and download Cloud Print. It’s a free app. (For iOS users, there are apps out there for you, too—this Macworld video looks at using Printopia to print from you iPhone or iPad.) Once you’re in Cloud Print, you can open something in Google Drive, Dropbox, Google Calendar, or even Mail and send it to the printer that’s linked to your desktop or laptop.

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These days, printer ink will still run you about $20 to $35 per minuscule cartridge, each yielding 400 to 1000 printed pages. In fact, unlike everything else in the world of consumer electronics, ink prices are going up--as much as 30 percent since 2009.

In a business where hundreds of pages are being printed each day, those costs are significant. It’s easy to dismiss a single page coming out of the machine as inconsequential, but with a price per printed sheet (per color used) now hitting anywhere between 3 and 10 cents, a business that goes through 500 sheets a week could be spending $2600 annually on printing--and many times that if staffers regularly print in color.

Printing is a substantial business expense, but ultimately you have more control over it than you might think. Sure, some printing--packing slips, mailing labels, legal paperwork, and so on--may be unavoidable, but there’s a lot you can do to cut printing costs. Here are some ideas, from the relatively painless to the rather aggressive.

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Why is [Program X] always running when I start my PC?

Windows maintains a list of programs that automatically run every time you boot up your computer. Some of these startup programs (such as antivirus utilities) are beneficial, but many of them are not necessary and can slow your PC as they run automatically in the background. Speed up your boot time by disabling Windows startup programs.

Why does my PC keep making a grinding sound?

This can happen for a lot of reasons--and unfortunately almost all of them are bad news. The most likely answer is that a fan or hard drive in your PC is starting to die, causing it to spin off-kilter. PCWorld contributing editor Lincoln Spector wrote a smart guide to pinpointing the source of a grinding-sound problem in this Answer Line column. No matter what the cause turns out to be, you should immediately back up your hard drive, just in case.

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How do you decide? Knowing what you need your printer to do will guide you to the best candidates.

What Any Workgroup Printer Should Have

A workgroup printer is built for speed and capacity, typically ready to juggle the needs of 10 to 20 networked users. It will have its own processor; expandable memory; and a standard or optional hard drive for storing fonts and forms. Its monthly duty cycle will run into the tens of thousands of pages; note that this is an indication of durability rather than of how much you would actually print--usually a small fraction of that number.

Its paper trays will hold hundreds of pages, and its ink or toner cartridges will last for thousands of pages. Helpful paper-handling options include folding, collating, stapling, and optional media drawers or trays so you can have plain paper, letterhead, or envelopes all readily available. Workgroup printers also offer additional management tools such as software that can keep track of pages printed, or control which users can print in color.

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When I'm shocked by the high price of gasoline, I comfort myself with the thought that at least my car doesn't run on printer ink.

Ink cartridges are expensive, and they tend to "run out" suspiciously soon. In fact, the manufacturers seem overzealous in their desire to sell you more high-priced cartridges.

But does that mean you can safely ignore such warnings? Should you keep using the "spent" cartridges for as long as they provide the right colors?

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1. Set Carbon Footprint Goals

Starting off the new year with a vague eco-friendly resolution usually just leads to business as usual. Set goals for how much you can reasonably reduce your carbon footprint, and then get there by purposefully making changes in the products you buy and the energy you use. This business carbon footprint calculator can help establish your footprint. Going a step further, a business energy audit will lead to utility bill savings.

2. Make Fuel Economy a Priority

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Businesses often overlook keeping the printing environment secure. Data security gets a lot of attention, and file servers provide encrypted, access controlled storage. Workstations are encrypted as well, with password and even biometric access required. Databases and even files often require a password just so you can see what’s inside. Then you print that sensitive data, sending it off to a printer that may not be nearly as secure as the rest of your system.

You can avoid most networked printer problems by following the first three basic steps listed below. If you deal with highly sensitive data, then you need to go beyond those by protecting your printout at every step along its journey. HP has detailed information on how to use its products to protect your data, and other printer providers offer similar solutions as well. Regardless of the vendors you use, consider all seven of these steps to keep your businesses data secure through the printing process.

1. Unplug

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