I decided to do some cleaning of unwanted files on my PC, which has had occasional stretches of non-use. I now get an “access denied” message on my D: drive. I have all the latest drivers and updates for Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I poked around the Properties menu and am getting confused about how to regain access permissions. The creator is not listed. I don’t even remember what’s on the drive; it could possibly belong to my old user/admin account before a restore or reinstall. I cannot get ownership of the drive to open it. Any suggestions?

If I wear latex gloves to handle PC components like videocards, processors, memory, and hard drives, do I still have to worry about static electricity?

Read our answer to Reggie's question after the jump.

To the shooter enthusiast who laments auto-aim, refuses regenerating health, tires of over-protective cover systems, balks at recoilless rocket launchers, and rolls his eyes at infinite respawns, Arma 2 is a love letter perfumed in cordite.

You’re a member of Razor Team, a Marine squad deployed by the United States to assist the Chernorussian government against a well-armed insurgency. Your fire team hits the ground with weapons and equipment modeled after real-life counterparts, tackling objectives with patient tactics as the conflict evolves into a full civil war.

But narrative (even if it’s more of an asset to Arma 2 than its predecessor) isn’t the draw. For gamers who grew up with titles like Comanche, the original Rainbow Six games, and Operation Flashpoint (which was also created by developer Bohemia Interactive), Arma 2 is a platform of comprehensive war realism that appeases those who value complexity, don’t mind obscure keyboard shortcuts (hit Enter on your Num Pad to change between first/third person), appreciate accurate audio modeling (if a tank explodes a mile away, you’ll hear it five seconds after it actually blows up), and know that an M-16 can’t kill someone from three miles away (hello, Call of Duty).

Continue reading this review after the jump.

I have a roughly year-old refurbished computer, and for the past few months the fan has been rather loud, and more recently the computer has been shutting down on its own, especially when I’m playing games, or even when I’m just on AIM or surfing the Internet.

I believe the computer might be overheating from dust caught in the fans, but I’m not entirely sure. If that is the case, how do you recommend I clean the computer? I’m quite comfortable working on the computer, but unfortunately I have very little experience working on the insides of my machine, so I have some fears about actually opening up my PC and accidentally breaking something or damaging it. Any advice, Doc?

Read our advice for Michael after the jump.

By now, many of you will have a fresh copy of Windows 7 in your hands, ready to load up onto your PC (we show you the right way to do it). But while that stock Windows install may be OK for your mom, but is it good enough for you? Never! You deserve a Windows that soars above the clouds, swift and strong. That’s why we collected our team of Windows experts and spent countless hours mucking around in the registry, downloading little-known tools, and searching for new keyboard shortcuts to bring you this, our finest Windows tips guide of all time.

Dig it: we give you the definitive list of kick-ass, Maximum PC–approved tips and tweaks for Windows, whether you run XP, Vista, or Windows 7. While some are specific to Microsoft’s latest OS (you’ve upgraded, right?), many will work on XP and Vista, as well. So sit back, relax, and get ready to make Windows better.

Read on to learn how to supercharge Windows!

Windows 7's launch is the main topic of this week's No BS Podcast. The gang compares the new Microsoft store that's opened in Arizona to Microsoft's first retail store in San Francisco from a decade ago. We give out pointers for upgrading to Windows 7 from XP, Vista, and the Win7 Release Candidates, answer some listener questions, and dish out a rant. This episode also features a contest for some free games. Listen to the show to craft your submission, and send entries to contests@maximumpc.com 

Do you have a tech question? A comment? A tale of technological triumph? Just need to get something off your chest? A secret to share? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are standing by.

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337

Since the dawn of Windows, power-user tipsters (us included) have proffered hundreds of suggestions with the promise of improving your PC’s performance or streamlining its operation. The tip-givers have the best of intentions, but do all of those tweaks, registry hacks, utilities, and “undocumented secrets” really make any difference? To our surprise, in a number of cases, it turns out that tips that sound great on the surface don’t actually do anything when you put the screws to them. And some of those complicated registry hacks are more easily done with tools like TweakUI, saving you a lot of hassle.

We put 25 of the most commonly published XP and Vista performance tips and registry hacks to the test. Do the speed tweaks yield dividends? We clocked performance with PCMark and timed boots and shutdowns repeatedly after making the changes suggested in the tips. In the end, we found that many tips were right on the money, but some were outright wrong or just a waste of time. Some tips fell into the gray area in between, offering some improvement but perhaps not enough to merit the trouble of the hack to begin with.

Read on for our results. You’ll never tweak the same way again!

Lately I’ve been having an issue on startup with my PC. During POST, my system will hang and fail to load past the Asus splash screen. My keyboard stops responding altogether, so I cannot hit Tab to see the POST messages. (I’ve changed keyboards and the issue persists.) When it does load past POST, it hangs just before the GRUB boot loader. When this happens, I usually have to hit the reset button and go through the process three times before I can load an OS. Other than the keyboard swap, I’ve made no major changes to my system that I think would prevent my PC from POSTing and I run everything at stock clocks. When I do load into an OS, everything is rock-solid and stable with no issues.

I have an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ on an Asus M2-N32 SLI Deluxe motherboard, 3GB DDR2 RAM, and an XFX 8800 GT. My keyboard is a Logitech G15. My PSU is a Cooler Master 600W eXtreme Power Duo.

My bet is on the PSU, but I really don’t have an easy way or the cash at the moment to test this. Please let me know if I’m on the right track.

Read our response to J.P. after the jump.

It's time to update the entries in your browser's links toolbar. But with recent estimates putting the size of the internet at well more than 100 million distinct websites, it's getting harder and harder to get a handle on all the great stuff that's out there. That's why we've compiled this list. And unlike some lists you may have seen, which try to name the very "best" websites, but end up just telling you a lot of stuff you already know, we've chosen instead to highlight 50 of our favorite sites that fly under most people's radar. Think of it as the Maximum PC blog roll (remember those?). These sites represent great alternatives to popular web destinations like YouTube and Hulu, and include useful references, powerful web apps, and the unknown blogs you must absolutely bookmark. 

You might have heard of some of these sites, but we'll bet you haven't heard of all them. Read on and find out. You won't be disappointed. 

It’s odd to write those words, because most of the tech press has been using, commenting and reviewing Microsoft’s new progeny for months now. Maximum PC proclaimed it to be “unquestionably the best version of Windows that Microsoft has ever released, and is the true successor to Windows XP.” I’d certainly agree with Will Smith’s assessment.

Given all the hoopla, Windows 7 almost seems like old hat. (When’s Windows 8 coming out again?) But for normal humans who don’t travel at Internet speeds, Windows 7 arrives on October 22nd. And for Microsoft, Windows 7 is something of a missed opportunity.

Wait, what?

To understand what I mean, we have to go back in time.

A week ago I opened up My Computer to go exploring my second hard drive. However, when I double-clicked the drive to open it, the Windows Search function started up and opened a new window. When I right-click either drive, the Search option is the default. This is really annoying. Many times I forget about this issue and double-click, only to have the computer slow down a bit and open a new box for the search. Is there a way to modify the default option for a double-click?

Read the answer to Dave's question after the jump.

I am getting an HP TouchSmart tx2z Tablet PC in the next couple of weeks for college. However, I need to install Windows XP on it, as it’s a requirement for the engineering software I will be using. Is it possible to repartition the hard drive and still keep the copy of Vista that comes preinstalled? If so, how would I do it? I don’t want to pay for a laptop with Vista on it, just to lose it for XP. Especially with Windows 7 right around the corner.

Read the answer to Andrew's question after the jump.

I am running 64-bit Windows 7 RC1, and can access only 3GB of my 4GB of RAM! I’m running an Asus P5B Deluxe with BIOS v. 8.00.12, a Core2 Duo E6600, and four 1GB DDR2 DIMMs. Asus’s website says that my motherboard can go up to 8GB of RAM, so why does it say only 3GB is used? I have taken out all the DIMMs and tested them individually and they all seem to work fine by themselves.

Read our answer to Joshua's question after the jump.

So much in life is unknowable. Will the economy rebound? Hard to say. Will oil prices skyrocket? Maybe, maybe not. Will Brangelina add to their brood? Frankly, we don’t care. But one thing’s for sure: Technology is ever-changing and each year guarantees new advances for the PC user.

As we do every year around this time, we got on the horn with our industry contacts—experts in their respective fields—and pressed them for details about what new and exciting hardware power users can look forward to in 2010. Some of what we learned was expected (SATA speeds will double), some came from out of left field (six 30-inch panels on a single videocard?!), and some just plain make sense (like a Nehalem chip for the masses).

In your “Better, Faster, Stronger” article (July 2009), one of the tricks you recommend is to defrag my computer. I have Vista and I am trying to do a full defrag through the command line. It will not allow it without an “administrator command prompt.” What is an administrator command prompt? I am the only user and my account is an administrator account. Any advice?

Regardless of the operating system you are using, data loss is inevitable. Sooner or later, it will happen to you—the only question is how much data you will lose. Although RAID can act as an insurance policy for hardware failures, it was never designed to serve as a backup and will not perform this task well at all. Human error is always the greatest concern since important files can be accidentally overwritten or deleted at careless moments. It is easy to fall behind on your backups or get complacent; without recent backups you have no recovery strategy. This guide will help you automate your backups on your Linux rig so you will always have your files up to date.

Read on to get started!

We like you. We spend all year being nice to you—giving you the scoop on hardware, software, games, and news from the industry. We may not always be nice to companies or products, but we're always nice to our readers.

Well, nearly always. You see, every year the editors at Maximum PC get together in a big room with no windows or doors or air and hash out a series of questions for our annual Geek Quiz. Some are easy. Some are not. Some might have you pulling out your hair in frustration (those are our favorites).

But we're not doing this just to be cruel. See, if you do well, you get the satisfaction of showing us up, plus a standardized score that you can show people to prove how awesome you are. And if you don't do so well, hey, you get to learn stuff! Looking up answers on your favorite search engine, by the way, is strictly verboten.

So, whip out those #2 pencils and that slide rule, step away from the Google, and get ready to prove your mettle.

Take the Geek Quiz after the jump.

Designing and manufacturing a modern CPU is a huge project. It requires both backward compatibility and an understanding of where PC workloads are going in the future—a delicate balancing act made more difficult by the huge engineering staffs and massive dollar outlays involved. Let’s take a look at the steps needed to build a Core i7 or AMD Phenom II processor.

Before the manufacturing plant starts churning out chips, there are a few critical preliminary steps. Prior to the first circuit being laid out or the first simulation run, the designers need to know exactly what it is they’re designing. This phase takes input from many sources. Marketing gets involved, with predictions of what users will need when the CPU actually ships, usually two to four years in the future. Engineering and performance teams feed in billions of traces of actual applications being run on current-gen CPUs, so the designers can see how existing CPUs perform under real-world conditions.

Continue reading about the CPU production process after the jump.

I often get questions in email, or at conferences or parties, about points of IP law. I try to explain that I Am Not A Lawyer or that, dang, this is a party, but most people’s questions about what’s illegal are easy to answer (ripping DVDs: yes; ripping audio CDs: no; drunkenly singing “Happy Birthday” through a bullhorn at a wedding: yes; making a mashup song: depends what state you’re in). But I’ve realized that’s not really what people are asking me, because there’s a big difference between telling you what’s illegal and telling you what not to do.

Unlike much of law, copyright law requires that the rights holder go to the trouble of suing. If they don’t want to, you can claim their masterwork as your own and do a rendition in armpit farts on national TV, make a mint selling the recording, and never have a spot of trouble with the authorities.

Continue reading after the jump!