{"id":36521,"date":"2026-01-30T18:55:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=36521"},"modified":"2026-03-13T01:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T05:48:12","slug":"pc-world-april-1996","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2026\/01\/30\/pc-world-april-1996\/","title":{"rendered":"PC World (April 1996)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/magazines\/index.php?twg_album=Computer_Magazines%2FPC_World%2F1996-04&amp;twg_show=PC_World_1996-04_001.jpg\" class=\"keychainify-checked\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-755x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"755\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-36525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-755x1024.jpg 755w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-768x1042.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-1133x1536.jpg 1133w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-1510x2048.jpg 1510w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-88x120.jpg 88w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_001-scaled.jpg 1888w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 755px) 100vw, 755px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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:<\/p>\n<h1>Cover Story<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Windows 95 at Warp Speed<\/b> &#8211; Tips from PC World editors on using Windows 95 including advice for managing your files, on shortcuts, performance tips, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Close Encounters With Windows 95<\/b> &#8211; Readers speak out about what they like and dislike about Windows 95.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Special Report: Small Office, Home Office<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Home Office Before and After<\/b> &#8211; A guide to transforming a room in your house to a home office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Procrastinator&#8217;s Guide to Last-Minute Tax Tips<\/b> &#8211; Help with your taxes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Hot Picks for the Home Office<\/b> &#8211; Choosing the right chair, laser printer, operating system, and more to choose for your home office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Personal Finance<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Quicken Versus Money<\/b> &#8211; A comparison of the latest versions of Microsoft Money and Quicken for Windows 95.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=36524\" class=\"attachment wp-att-36524 keychainify-checked\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-734x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"734\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-36524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-734x1024.jpg 734w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-768x1071.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-1101x1536.jpg 1101w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-1468x2048.jpg 1468w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-86x120.jpg 86w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_010-scaled.jpg 1835w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 734px) 100vw, 734px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Top 20 PCs<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Top 20 Power Desktops<\/b> &#8211; 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Top 20 Budget Desktops<\/b> &#8211; 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Top 20 Notebook PCs<\/b> &#8211; 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Top of the News<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Turbocharge Your Pentium PC<\/b> &#8211; A look a the performance of Intel&#8217;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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Internet PCs: Next Wave or Nonsense?<\/b> &#8211; 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&#8217;s Java Terminal and the ViewCall America WEBster. These devices were around $500. However, despite being cheap for their time, they just didn&#8217;t offer enough bang for the buck. They were basically modern terminals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>DVD Drives: Giant CD-ROMs and Movies<\/b> &#8211; 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Completely Focused: New NEC MultiSyncs<\/b> &#8211; A look at the NEC 15-inch M500 monitor for $599 and the 17-inch M700 for $849.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>HP Targets Small Business<\/b> &#8211; A look at HPs Vectra 500 series of machines with CPUs ranging from the Pentium 75 to the Pentium 166.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Top 10 Printers<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Personal Printers: Quick, Cheap, and Colorful<\/b> &#8211; The top monochrome printer in this list is the Panasonic KX-P6100 while the top color printer is the HP DeskJet 850C.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=36523\" class=\"attachment wp-att-36523 keychainify-checked\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-734x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"734\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-36523\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-734x1024.jpg 734w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-768x1071.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-1101x1536.jpg 1101w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-1468x2048.jpg 1468w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-86x120.jpg 86w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_011-scaled.jpg 1835w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 734px) 100vw, 734px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Top 10 Hardware<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Top 10 15-inch Monitors<\/b> &#8211; The best 15-inch monitor in this month&#8217;s list is the NEC MultiSync XV15 for $460.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Top 10 Graphics Boards<\/b> &#8211; The best graphics board this month is the Diamond Stealth64 Video 3200 featuring the S3 Vision968 chip and 2MB VRAM for $269.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Top 10 Modems<\/b> &#8211; 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Here&#8217;s How<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Help Line<\/b> &#8211; Questions answered about resiszing the task bar in Windows 95, copying system files from .CAB files, using your modem from DOS, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Spreadsheets<\/b> &#8211; Questions answered about moving averages, truncating, deleting empty rows in Excel, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Word Processing<\/b> &#8211; Questions answerd about timestamping WinWord files, selecting large text blocks, underscores in WordPerfect, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Windows 95 Advisor<\/b> &#8211; A guide to running your programs in a batch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Hardware<\/b> &#8211; Questions answered about Plug and Play, preventing Windows 95 crashes, write back cache, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Departments<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Letters<\/b> &#8211; Letters from readers about disk compression, hard drive upgrades, AOL, e-mail glitches, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Real Problems, Real Solutions<\/b> &#8211; Adding TV capabilities to existing PCs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Full Disclosure<\/b> &#8211; The difficutly in getting data into programs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-731x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"731\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-36522\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-731x1024.jpg 731w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-768x1075.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-86x120.jpg 86w, https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/PC_World_1996-04_360-scaled.jpg 1828w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and much more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8211; 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 &#8211; Readers speak out about what they like and dislike about Windows 95. Special Report: Small Office, Home Office Home Office Before and After &#8211; A guide to transforming a room in your house to a home office. The Procrastinator&#8217;s Guide to Last-Minute Tax Tips &#8211; Help with your taxes. Hot Picks for the Home Office &#8211; Choosing the right chair, laser printer, operating system, and more to choose for your home office. Personal Finance Quicken Versus Money &#8211; A comparison of the latest versions of Microsoft Money and Quicken for Windows 95. Top 20 PCs The Top 20 Power Desktops &#8211; At the top of this list is the Dell XPS P120c featuring a Pentium 120, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[486,600,2362,1934,3946,1935],"class_list":["post-36521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-arcana","category-dos","tag-computers","tag-dos","tag-retrocomputing","tag-windows","tag-windows-3-1","tag-windows-95"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36521"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36686,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36521\/revisions\/36686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}