Building the Perfect PC -- For many computer users, a ready-made system is about as satisfying as a frozen microwave dinner: sure, it works, but it's not exactly what you need or want. Don't accept the assortment of components bundled for your price point; build your own PC. With straight-forward language, clear end-to-end instructions, and extensive illustrations, this book covers a variety of complete systems and their components. Regardless of your experience, you can take control and create your ideal machine. Sample Chapter 1, Fundamentals, is available free online.

Power Hound Tips for Online Protection -- The Internet is a dangerous place, and sometimes the dangers come from unexpected quarters. So in addition to taking the usual online precautions, the Power Hound offers some tips about how to protect yourself against dangers you may have never even thought of, excerpted from O'Reilly's newly released Windows XP Power Hound.

Building the Perfect Bleeding-Edge PC, Part 1 -- From processor to power supply, Bob and Barbara Thompson have assembled their ideal mix of high-performance components that will run on both Linux and Windows. For everything you need to know to assemble your own high-end PC, check out their recently-released Building the Perfect PC, and for a chance to win a set of top-of-the-line components so you can build your own, enter O'Reilly's Build a Perfect PC Sweepstakes.

Build a Perfect PC Sweepstakes -- If you've ever dreamed about having a high-end PC that truly meets your needs, here's your chance. Enter O'Reilly's new sweepstakes, and you could win the top-of-the-line components you need to build your own. And if you're looking for inspiration and detailed instruction on how to pull it all together, be sure to see our new title Building the Perfect PC.

How to Cure the SP2 Upgrade Blues -- Preston Gralla offers solutions to the two most common Service Pack 2 upgrade problems: configuring pop-up blocking and configuring the firewall. Don't be put off by SP2 woes; the downloads are worthwhile. Preston is the author of Windows XP Power Hound.

Troubleshooting Printer Problems -- Not being able to print is rather annoying, for both users and the administrators who come to their aid. Mitch Tulloch shows you how to quickly troubleshoot and solve printing problems. Mitch is the author of Windows Server Hacks.

Using Extensions in Firefox -- The Firefox browser has a lot going for it, and one of its best traits is its extensibility: you can download plugins, called extensions, to enhance its features. Wei-Meng Lee, author of Windows XP Unwired, shows you how to find and install them, and tells you about his favorites. For additional favorites from our Windows DevCenter editor, see Preston Gralla's weblog.

Cooking Up a User Interface -- No matter how much you do behind the scenes to create a solid and robust application, users of the application see only your user interface. Chapter 9 of Access Cookbook, 2nd Edition shows you how to design a UI that is workable, aesthetically pleasing, and helps users get their work done. Learn how to take full advantage of special keystrokes, create a map-based interface and forms that carry data forward from record to record, and much more. If you like this chapter, read the whole book (and up to nine others) on Safari with a free trial subscription.

Windows DevCenter Survey -- We're asking WindowsDevCenter.com readers to participate in an online survey. It's your opportunity to help shape our online editorial direction and influence which book titles we pursue. You'll also have a chance to win some of our most popular Windows books. Take the survey.

Top Three Windows RSS Readers -- Which are the best RSS readers out there? Wei-Meng Lee picks his favorites and gives you guided tours of them all. Wei-Meng is the author of Windows XP Unwired.

Finding All Encrypted Files on a Volume -- Windows Server's Encrypting File System (EFS) is a useful tool for preventing unauthorized access to important business documents, but using this feature carelessly can place your business operations in jeopardy. Mitch Tulloch shows you how to find and protect all encrypted files on a volume. Mitch is the author of Windows Server Hacks.

What's New in Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition? -- What's new, what's hot, and what's not in Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (SE)? Wei-Meng Lee gives you the rundown on everything from graphics support to new form factors and dual display modes. Wei-Meng is the author of .NET Compact Framework Pocket Guide.

SafariU: Create, Customize, and Share Teaching Material -- Looking for a way to truly customize your course textbook and offer students exactly the material you choose to teach, while saving them a good bit of money? Become a SafariU beta tester and check out the new web-based publishing platform from O'Reilly that allows you to create custom textbooks and online syllabi.

Hacking Excel, Part 2 -- Learn how to remove phantom links from your workbook, and how to make Excel return the nth occurrence of specified data, in these sample hacks from O'Reilly's Excel Hacks.

Lightweight XML Editing in Word 2003 -- Strictly speaking, you can edit custom XML in Word, but there are limitations that make the process needlessly complex. Evan Lenz presents a lightweight approach to XML editing in Word that works in all editions of Word 2003. All you need besides Word is an XSLT processor. Evan is a coauthor of Office 2003 XML.

Top 12 Ways to Degunk Your PC -- If you want to clean up your PC, and get it running as fast as it should, follow Joli Ballew and Jeff Duntemann's 12-step program for degunking your PC. Joli and Jeff are the authors of the bestselling Degunking Windows, from Paraglyph Press.

Technical Writing Using OpenOffice.org Writer -- If you're in the business of writing technical documents, you could benefit from using OpenOffice.org Writer. In this article, Jean Hollis Weber reviews Writer's many features, including a customizable interface, support for styles, advanced page layout capabilities, and a full macro language. Jean is the author of OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word.

Liberty on Whidbey: C# Generics -- The single most anticipated (and dreaded?) feature of Visual C# 2.0 is the addition of Generics. Jesse Liberty shows you what problems Generics solve, how to use them to improve your code, and why you need not fear them. Jesse is a coauthor of Programming .NET Windows Applications.

Performing Web Queries in Excel 2003 -- Excel's QueryTable object offers a quick way to perform a web query that imports data from a web page into a worksheet. Find out how to do it and how it works in this sample lab from O'Reilly's upcoming Excel 2003 Programming: A Developer's Notebook.

coLinux: Linux for Windows Without Rebooting -- Linux just keeps getting easier to try. A new, free software project called coLinux, or Cooperative Linux, lets you do nearly everything User-mode Linux does--on Windows 2000 or XP. Learn how to install, boot, network, and upgrade coLinux in this article by KIVILCIM Hindistan. You'll find all of O'Reilly's Linux books and articles at linux.oreilly.com.

Upgrading and Migrating Print Servers -- Forget the "paperless office"; printers are still corporate workhorses. That means upgrading and migrating print servers is more important than ever. Mitch Tulloch shows you tools and tricks to make these tasks easier. Mitch is the author ofo Windows Server Hacks.

Rapid Application Development with VB.NET 2.0 -- Jesse Liberty has supported the idea that it really doesn't matter if you program in C# or in VB.NET, since both are just syntactic sugar layered on top of the Microsoft Intermediate Language--the true language of .NET. But that appears to be changing with Whidbey. Get a look at the new My object in VB.NET 2.0 in this article by Jesse, author of Programming Visual Basic .NET, 2nd Edition.

How to Write a Basic Gtk# Program with Mono -- Gtk#, the Mono API for the GTK+ UI toolkit, is the open source alternative to Windows.Forms. This article shows how to install Mono on Windows, how Gtk# works, and how to write a simple Gtk# program. This kind of mini-project is just the sort you'll find in O'Reilly's upcoming Mono: A Developer's Notebook.