PC World (April 1996)

Cover of the April 1996 issue of PC World
Though I was never really a subscriber to PC World, I did get the occasional issue over the years. It was probably the best general magazine dedicated to the PC though I preferred Maximum PC which came along a little later. The April 1996 issue of PC World includes:
Cover Story
- Windows 95 at Warp Speed - Tips from PC World editors on using Windows 95 including advice for managing your files, on shortcuts, performance tips, and more.
- Close Encounters With Windows 95 - Readers speak out about what they like and dislike about Windows 95.
Special Report: Small Office, Home Office
- Home Office Before and After - A guide to transforming a room in your house to a home office.
- The Procrastinator's Guide to Last-Minute Tax Tips - Help with your taxes.
- Hot Picks for the Home Office - Choosing the right chair, laser printer, operating system, and more to choose for your home office.
Personal Finance
- Quicken Versus Money - A comparison of the latest versions of Microsoft Money and Quicken for Windows 95.

Table of Contents from the April 1996 issue of PC World
Top 20 PCs
- The Top 20 Power Desktops - At the top of this list is the Dell XPS P120c featuring a Pentium 120, 1GB hard drive, and 16MB of RAM. I was a big fan of Gateway 2000 so I would have probably chosen number 15 on this list, the Gateway 2000 P5-166XL featuring a Pentium 166, 1.5GB hard drive, and 16MB of RAM.
- The Top 20 Budget Desktops - Coming in at the top of this list is the Dell Dimension XPS P100C featuring a Pentium 100 CPU, 16MB of RAM and a 1GB hard drive.
- The Top 20 Notebook PCs - The top power system is the Toshiba Satellite Pro 400CDT featuring a Pentium 75, 800MB hard drive and 16MB of RAM. The top budget system is the Dell Latitude LX 4100D featuring a 486 DX4-100, 420MB hard drive and 8MB of RAM.
Top of the News
- Turbocharge Your Pentium PC - A look a the performance of Intel's latest overdrive processors. There was the OverDrive-120 for upgrading Pentium 60 systems, the OverDrive-125 for Pentium 75 systems, the OverDrive-150 for upgrading Pentium 90 systems, and the OverDrive-166 for upgrading Pentium 100 systems.
- Internet PCs: Next Wave or Nonsense? - So called Internet Appliances were a relatively short lived fad. The idea was that these would be cheap, (very) low end PCs to be used for internet access. A few are mentioned here including the TransPhone, Sun's Java Terminal and the ViewCall America WEBster. These devices were around $500. However, despite being cheap for their time, they just didn't offer enough bang for the buck. They were basically modern terminals.
- DVD Drives: Giant CD-ROMs and Movies - The DVD standard had just been finalized with Toshiba to ship the first DVD player later in the year (for about $600). By the end of the year, $500 DVD-ROM drivs for PCs were expected.
- Completely Focused: New NEC MultiSyncs - A look at the NEC 15-inch M500 monitor for $599 and the 17-inch M700 for $849.
- HP Targets Small Business - A look at HPs Vectra 500 series of machines with CPUs ranging from the Pentium 75 to the Pentium 166.
Top 10 Printers
- Personal Printers: Quick, Cheap, and Colorful - The top monochrome printer in this list is the Panasonic KX-P6100 while the top color printer is the HP DeskJet 850C.

Table of Contents from the April 1996 issue of PC World (continued)
Top 10 Hardware
- Top 10 15-inch Monitors - The best 15-inch monitor in this month's list is the NEC MultiSync XV15 for $460.
- Top 10 Graphics Boards - The best graphics board this month is the Diamond Stealth64 Video 3200 featuring the S3 Vision968 chip and 2MB VRAM for $269.
- Top 10 Modems - The top external modems were the Microcom DeskPorte 28.8P and Motorola ISG Lifestyle 28.8 though out of this list I would have picked the U.S. Robotics Sporster V.34 which is number three here. The top internal modem is the Zoom V.34C Model 520.
Here's How
- Help Line - Questions answered about resiszing the task bar in Windows 95, copying system files from .CAB files, using your modem from DOS, and more.
- Spreadsheets - Questions answered about moving averages, truncating, deleting empty rows in Excel, and more.
- Word Processing - Questions answerd about timestamping WinWord files, selecting large text blocks, underscores in WordPerfect, and more.
- Windows 95 Advisor - A guide to running your programs in a batch.
- Hardware - Questions answered about Plug and Play, preventing Windows 95 crashes, write back cache, and more.
Departments
- Letters - Letters from readers about disk compression, hard drive upgrades, AOL, e-mail glitches, and more.
- Real Problems, Real Solutions - Adding TV capabilities to existing PCs.
- Full Disclosure - The difficutly in getting data into programs.

Back cover of the April 1996 issue of PC World
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