Dell has made it easier to purchase several models of its popular laptops and personal computers from a Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Staples or Sam’s Club near you. Unfortunately, there’s an annoying caveat that I feel my readers should be aware of. Most folks are not aware that Dell will refuse to provide support services to you when you need it because, according to Dell, the retailer you purchased your computer from still “owns” it, not you.

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M’excusez-vous, avez-vous vu mon dictionnaire?

If you use Outlook Express as your e-mail client but have decided to install Microsoft Office 2007 — Microsoft’s latest flavor of its flagship office productivity suite — you will no longer have an English spell-checking dictionary available in Outlook Express.

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I promised to discuss other PC upgrade options this week, so here we go.

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This week, a reader writes:

I have a computer that is several years old. My kids would like to use it to play games and such but it either won’t run the programs or it just doesn’t run them well. So my question is, is it more cost effective to upgrade my current machine or just purchase another one? If I just purchase another one, what can I do with the old one? When does someone just need to make the decision to do away with the old to get the new? And, how can I do either one without spending a lot of money?

I’m typically rather conservative with my clients when it comes to upgrading. The first question I ask is, “What does your computer not do that you want it to do?” In your particular case, you have software that requires more “oomph.” I’m lacking some important details about your situation - the processor, memory, hard drive capacity and operating system in your computer - but I’ll give you an overview of what you should be looking for when you are considering a decision between an upgrade or a new computer.

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If you’ve had your computer for a while, take a look at your mouse. Pay particular attention to the left mouse button — the one you’re used to clicking all the time. Is the plastic a little bit worn from where you’ve clicked it several thousand times? Perhaps there’s a bit of “finger-dirt buildup” lingering right around the sweet spot where you normally rest your finger.

Now, look at your right mouse button. If you noticed much “wear and tear” on the left button, see how the right button compares. If it looks like you’ve never clicked that neglected button, this is for you.

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You’ve got to love the Portable Document Format, fondly known as “PDF.”

If you use your computer often, a PDF has almost certainly been useful to you at least once. You may not have known what PDF stood for, nor recognized it as the kind of file that Adobe Reader is usually employed to view, but it was useful all the same. PDF is the format the Internal Revenue Service uses to distribute electronic copies of tax forms on its Web site. It’s the format most often used by manufacturers to distribute electronic literature.

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Let’s take a little time today to discuss wireless networking. Wireless networking is not as mysterious as you might believe, but it’s commonly misunderstood.

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Dear “Ask The Geek”

I have a high speed (Broadband) connection to the Internet, but sometimes it seems really slow. Any suggestions?

— Bill

Remember when you got your shiny new broadband Internet connection? If you’re like me, you went straight to the Web sites that you struggled to view before and downloaded files that would have choked your dial-up connection. It’s addictive. When those speeds are fleeting, you feel angry. Perhaps betrayed.

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All but one of the following sentences have something to do with your computer. You’ve probably heard at least a couple of them, or used them yourself:

• “Where is the driver disk that came with your printer?”
• “Grab the latest driver from their Web site.”
• “There was an issue with a driver that caused your computer to implode.”
• “I can’t find the driver, will this putter work?”

Drivers - they seem so important, yet so unapproachable, like the secret service.

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This week, a reader writes:

I have two offices with desktop computers and, while not a total road warrior, when I travel, I do so with a laptop. I would like to consolidate all my e-mail, contacts and calendars so that no matter which computer I am using I can access the same information. I have Outlook, as part of Office, on all the computers, so I’d like to do this with Outlook as opposed to deploying other technologies. Can you help?

Signed,
Moving Target

This issue plagues anyone who regularly uses Microsoft Outlook on more than one computer, especially if you don’t have a Microsoft Exchange server sitting on your network to keep Outlook in sync automatically.

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