Toshiba NB305

The Toshiba 305 is the new netbook from Toshiba. It features Windows 7 starter, has a large 250gb hard drive and comes with 1GB of ram pre-installed.

The MP630 - doing it's bit to save the planet

Here's a pretty cool little printer that might just save you some money... and could just help the environment a bit along the way. The MP630, from Canon, is a multi-function printer that combines a printer, scanner and copier all in one easy to use unit.

Though you can't see it from this picture, there's a flip-up 6.2 cm TFT screen built into the front, that allows you to do all kinds of clever stuff with your photos, including printing them without turning on the PC.

While this technology would have cost an arm and a leg not too long ago, the 630 shouldn't set you back more than about £110. Another good thing about this printer is it's designed to use a lot less resources - paper, ink and energy. So you get to feel good about saving the earth, while saving some cash along the way.

Canon PIXMA MP540, sleek new photo printer and scanner

The Canon Pixma range continues to go from strength to strength. With some very positive reviews from IT and PC/Mac magazines, the Pixma MP540 is a perfect choice for home offices. This compact little printer has a sleek profile and it's good to see printer manufacturers moving with the times and actually considering the appearance of their products.

The 540 offers the finest print heads currently available and has a built in TFT screen for direct printing, and for accessing the menus. The latter is made easier with and handy wheel select system.

The MP540 is also as eco friendly as a printer can be, and doesn't cost a lot to run. There's 4 separate ink carts, so you'll only need to replace the ones as they run out. This multifunction printer also scans, copies and is perfect for small offices or home use.

Customize Your Laptop's Operating System With Nlite

Here's a little known trick, that doesn't cost anything, which can make a huge difference in the performance and customization of your Windows system. It's also something that will be of interest to anyone wqho needs a super speedy version of Windows XP or Vista that will take up a fraction of the drive space.

If you've ever owned a Windows laptop, you'll know that it comes with all kinds of games, tools, and extra bits of software that you'll never use in a million years. They just sit there, taking up space. While it is possible to disable and remove SOME of these components after installation, this seems like a backwards way to do it. Surely there's a way to install XP and Vista without these resource-hogging little extras ever being put on your laptop?

Nlite is a brilliant bit of free software that takes any Windows XP or Vista installation disk (see Vlite for Vista) and lets you create a customized version of it, with as little or as much of Windows as you want. It then creates an ISO that can be burned to disk for installing on your Laptop.

The software allows you to remove any component you want to, and it's all obscenely easy to do, thanks to the step-by-step Wizards. I didn't have any problem seeing what I wanted to remove. And there was a whole host of stuff in Windows that just didn't need to be there.

Full service pack integration

One of the things I like about Nlite is that say you have a Windows XP installation disk. You can download the most recent service packs and Nlite will combine them all into one super-duper new installtion disk. This process is called Slipsreaming. * And the benefit is that you'll only ever need to download the service pack once, and then use your new install disk each time in the future.

* You can also slipstream in the latest version of Windows Media player, although this doesn't seem necessary.

Another useful thing that you can do with Nlite is to customize the way Windows looks and operates after it's installed. If you're going

So who is this really useful for?

• Geeks like me who like complete control over their operating system
• Anyone wanting to create a minimal operating system that runs efficiently
• Users with limited drive space (eg. some Netbook users)
• Anyone who needs to install Windows on laptops regularly
• Folks wanting to do a complete re-format and fresh start

Nlite also comes with a brilliant user forum that covers everything you could want to know about using Nlite - and a lot more besides. And superb guides are included both within the software and on the website. Although Nlite isn't going to be for all users, it's something anyone with more than a passing interest in laptop operating systems should have a look into.

Which version of Windows Vista is best for your laptop?

One of the main things you'll have to consider when you're buying a new laptop is which version of Windows you should get on it. Windows XP is appearing less and less on new laptops and it's likely that your new laptop will have one of the Windows Vista versions on it.

Windows Vista comes in a number of different flavours, designed with different kinds of users in mind. This isn't anything new. Windows XP had a version of business users and a version for home users. It makes sense that someone using a laptop for entertainment won't use certain business features.

Whichever version of Windows Vista you get, the experience you'll have isn't radically different from other versions. They are all very similar at the core. With the exception of Home Basic that doesn't have the much hyped 'Aero Interface' - Vista's special flashy graphics and effects.

All versions of Vista are the most secure version of Windows, featuring firewall protection and also Windows Defender. Although you'll still need to install a good Virus scanner.

The number of versions of Vista can sound confusing. Worldwide, there are 15 different versions of Vista. But, realistically, there are only 4 main ones that you'll come across:

• Vista Home Premium
• Vista Business
• Vista Enterprise
• Vista Ultimate

The most common versions to be bundled on new laptops are Vista Business and Vista Home Premium. With far more laptops having Home Premium on them currently. It's worth mentioning that just because it's got Home in the title, you can't use it for business! My laptop has Home Premium on it and I run my business using it. I've yet to find anything it can't do.

Home Premium is definitely the best choice for most users, including anyone who wants to use their laptop for entertainment. Vista does look a lot better than previous versions of the operating system, although I don't want to get into a discussion on the costs at which this visual overhaul might have come at! (Vista needs a much more souped up system to run smoothly than XP).

If you're looking to set up a media centre, then you'll definitely want to look into using Home Premium. It has all the media centre functionality built in. It's also ideal for watching movies, burning DVDs, and for playing games and music.

So what are some things that Vista Business can do which the Home version can't? For one this version allows you to use remote access. It also has some extra scanning and faxing applications. But realistically these aren't huge advantages and you can get software to take care of all of these needs.

My recommendation is to go for Vista Home Premium. I can't see anything that you'd not be able to do with this system. I've been using it for over a year on my laptop and it looks great, works very smoothly and I've never had any security problems.