When you install a new faster CD-ROM drive on a Windows 95 system, don't forget to adjust the optimization settings for the new drive in the Control Panel. Choose Start, Settings, Control Panel. Choose the System icon, then select the File System button under Advanced Settings. Then choose the CD-ROM tab. All CD-ROM drives that you would purchase today are faster than 4X speed, so set the Supplemental Cache Size to Large and Optimize Access Pattern for: Quad-speed or higher. This procedure will ensure that you see the speed benefits of your new CD-ROM under Windows.

The latest file system from Microsoft is called FAT32. It's available in the OSR2.1 release of Windows 95 and in the upcoming Windows 98. If you're running on FAT32, you no longer need to partition your hard drive into multiple logical drives--like C:, D:, and E:. Under the old file system, unless you partitioned your large hard drive, you ended up wasting valuable disk space. FAT32 completely solves this problem, so you can store all your applications and data on your C: drive.

Even the very latest DVD-ROM drives, so-called third-generation or DVD-3 drives, that arrive this summer will not be compatible with any of the new rewritable DVD formats (DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, and so on). If you're positioning your PC configuration to work with rewritable DVD media, you should wait until the fall, when fourth-generation drives will begin to arrive.

Carefully check the specifications of that DVD-ROM drive that's included in that new PC you're considering. New faster, third-generation DVD-ROMs will be shipping this summer from Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Pioneer. These DVD-3 drives are much more suitable as CD-ROM replacements than the slower DVD-2 drives that some manufacturers are still offering in new PCs. DVD-3 drives run DVD titles at 4X or 6X speed and play CD-ROM titles at 24X or 32X speed. DVD-2 drives, on the other hand, play DVD titles at 2X speed and run CD-ROMs at only 9X or 12X rates.

Some PC manufacturers try to cut costs by offering DVD-ROM drives in their new systems that use software rather than hardware for the MPEG-2 decoding of DVD titles. Software MPEG-2 decoding places a much greater strain on your PC's processor than PC configurations that include a hardware chip for MPEG-2 decoding. If you were to monitor CPU utilization in DVD setups (as I have), you'd find hardware decode configurations use about 10 percent of the CPU, while software decode configurations use three or four times that amount (up to 40 percent CPU utilization). If you were to play a DVD title without simultaneously running any other task, you reallywouldn't notice any difference between software or hardware MPEG-2 decoding. But if you were to multitask with DVD, such as keeping an Internet connection running in the background, you would probably notice slower performance on a PC using software MPEG-2 decoding. So if you're shopping for a new computer that includes a DVD-ROM drive, try to buy a system that features hardware MPEG-2 decoding. One option is to buy your system without a DVD-ROM drive and then separately purchase a DVD-ROM upgrade kit (with hardware MPEG-2 decoding).