As Windows has developed there have been more and more versions of the same release. There was only one Windows 98 but now there are around eight for Vista (depending on whether you consider 64-bit to be a distinct version). Some of that is due to the merging of the home and business lines but there are still three main home versions: Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate.

The confusion has to be a bad thing from the point of view of ordinary users. I've been told by people that they've got Windows 97 many times having mistaken the Office splash screen for Windows. I wonder how many people really know whether they have Home Basic or Premium. That's a problem if I tell them to try out hand writing recognition.

I agree with Adrian that Windows 7 should have a much simpler approach.

You may, if you're lucky, even have an A3 inkjet printer, in which case it'll look much the same but about twice the size. And, if you're really into photography, you may have forked out for an HP Designjet - again, these look much the same, but run to four or so feet wide. And that's presumably about as large as inkjet printers get. Isn't it?

As it turns out, the answer is an emphatic "no". Today I was taken to meet the HP Designjet L65500, which looks like this:

The effect of seeing a printer like this in the flesh is a little like being hit by a shrinking ray: it looks just like a gigantic DeskJet. To give some idea of how big it is, the printer takes six ink tanks, each one holding three litres of ink, it takes around three seconds for the printhead to move across the page, and it can produce 800 square feet of print per hour. These printers aren't generally available yet, but when they appear you could expect to pay around $100,000 for one.

And that's not even the biggest inkjet hidden away in HP's San Diego lab. Meet the HP Web Press:

The web press is the size of a few cars parked end to end, and can churn out 400 feet per minute when printing on both sides of 30 inch wide uncoated paper, using technology that's essentially the same as the printheads inside a desktop inkjet. So, next time you have to fork out £15 for a new ink cartridge, spare a thought for anyone who has to keep one of these running.

Opera 9.6 has been improved to show web pages even faster along with a collection of other bits and pieces.

  The email client in Opera is often forgotten, which is a shame because it is very powerful. Firstly it gives emails tags rather than putting them in folders. I prefer tags to folders because an email can be given several tags but only put into one folder.

Opera 9.6 has a new low bandwidth mode which should improve the download speed when on a slow connection. I'm guessing this is a similar technology to the mobile version of Opera, Opera Mini. The web pages or emails are sent to the computer via an Opera server that compresses them.

Opera Link has been improved. This is a synchronisation service that now shares bookmarks, SpeedDial settings, notes and even the browser history between different Opera installations using a My Opera account.

Opera is also worth trying just for mouse gestures, which are included by default (Firefox can do this with an addon)

Not only does it synchronise all of my contacts and appointments but it will display incoming text messages. The limitation is that there is quite a delay between the text arriving and it appearing onscreen but this is more than made up for by being able to write a reply on the computer instead of the phone.

The only danger is that it is very easy to write an email rather than a text and spend lots of money. Luckily there is a counter that shows how many messages will be required.

The other great thing about PC Suite is it's the only synchronisation software I've ever got to work with Bluetooth. Don't even think about asking about ActivSync for Windows Mobile.

It follows the philosophy of doing one thing but doing it very well. And that is extracting files from compressed archive.

What really caught my eye is support for the RAR format, often missing from other programs.

More info can be found on the ExtractNow homepage.

What's starting to worry me a little are the tales on the web of problems when trying to contact Google about problems with the email.

But if you don't pay for something, what level of support can you really expect? Granted Google displays ads on the site but in the three years I've used the account I don't think I've clicked on more than two.

My advice would be to prepare for the worst. I have a computer downloading all of my emails so I wouldn't lose any in the event of being locked out (well no more than 10 minutes worth). I wouldn't be able to access any emails in the meantime but it's a start, and I have other email addresses that could be used in the meantime.

My worries also pose the question, is having the ability to use the Google search engine to look for emails more important than other levels of service, and at what cost?

While I'm pondering that, I ought to try and make the time to learn some useful keyboard shortcuts thanks to the Official Gmail Blog.

There is a big difference with the new version as the menus have been moved out of the toolbox. A new window now appears when there are no open files. The good part of this is that it gives somewhere to drag and drops files on to but I'm not really sold on it yet because the menus are not shown in the main toolbox any more.

Some of the menus have also changed with a new option in the File menu called Create. The options to create web buttons and arrows have been moved in here. This makes a lot of sense.

While singing its praises, I am aware that the GIMP can be a little daunting for new users. I recommend persevering and getting to know it and there is plenty of help online, like this collection of 5 essential tips.

And if you're interested, a list of all the latest changes in 2.6 can be found on the GIMP website.

It is a clever feature built into some graphics card drivers to account for monitors that can be rotated into portrait mode rather than the normal landscape. It's great for editing long documents but only if Windows rotates as well to match.

The keyboard shortcuts for the four different modes* are

• Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow: Normal
• Ctrl + Alt + Right: Rotated 90 degrees to the
• Ctrl + Alt + Left: Rotated 90 degrees to the
• Ctrl + Alt + Down: Upside down

*That includes upside down, though the possible rationale behind this other than 'because we can' escapes me.

The change forces Firefox to transfer all of it's information to the hard drive and out of system memory. Windows moves information around like this anyway but maybe not as soon as we'd like.

You will need to change the settings in the about:config page (the one with the 'Here be dragons' warning!). I haven't tried it yet but I wonder if it will make Firefox a little sluggish when you return to it. A good reason not to get distracted by the internet then...

Between 11am and 4pm the white version will be available for just £118 here, and the black version for just £140 here. Stocks are, unsurprisingly, limited.

It saves a little time but it is more useful if you are not entirely sure what the password should be. Several sites have had three or more saved passwords on my computer, only one of which is correct because I didn't know to wait.

As the screen shot below shows, by waiting for the password to be accepted or rejected you can opt for 'Not now' and then try again with the correct password.

Firefox does this as well. Sadly it didn't work on Internet Explorer 7. That browser won't send the password until you decide whether or not to save.

There are three Extras in the pack

• Microsoft Tinker: A puzzle game 'set in a warm, calming environment'.
• Ultimate Extra Sounds from Tinker: A sound scheme for Windows based on the above.
• Another content pack for Dreamscene with three nature setting videos.

There are some screen shots of Tinker over on the Digital Existence Network.

I have to admit I'm still not convinced that these are really enough to win people over to the extra premium.

This utility works in the Windows Sidebar and give the reference number for colours onscreen. There are all kinds of uses for this, from finding out the colours used in web designs to getting inspiration for designs from photos.

More information on the Colour Picker can be found at the Windows Live Gallery.

And, best of all, they've spelt colour properly! That does make up for the warning about an unverified submission.

Interestingly it is only really Internet Explorer that says anything about what the new tab is. Firefox is blank by default and Opera has the Speedial page.*

The IE8Blog has some information about how tabs will work in the next version of Internet Explorer.

The New Tab screen looks quite impressive with some useful hints and tips for using tabs.

I also like the list of closed tabs. I've appreciated this feature in Opera many times in the past and the simple 'Undo closed tab' option in Firefox has always seemed limiting in comparison.

* I like Speeddial, and use it myself, but it doesn't provide much help for the new user.