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PAGES OF WINDOWS STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES

MAKE YOUR PC PERFECT

IMPROVE WINDOWS 10 GET READY FOR THE NEXT WINDOWS UPDATE

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SXUH-ÀUH WLSV from the experts for making your PC as good as new

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Welcome The Autumn Creators Update may well be winging its way to your PC by the time you read this – and to make sure you’re ready for the inevitable changes it will bring, we’ve assembled some brilliant tips, tricks and tweaks to help you make the most of it.

Starting on page 11, our ‘Speed Up Your PC’ feature explains how you can breathe new life into any computer by reducing clutter, optimising system processes and adding hardware tweaks to make sure your PC is the best it can be.

And on page 60 we’ll also explain the secret to creating flawless backups, so all of your most important files are kept safe when it comes to upgrade time.

On page 52, you’ll also discover some super-shortcuts and other secrets that can save you time and make using Windows easier, faster and more productive.

And starting on page 23, you’ll find 27 pages of step-by-step guides to help you do even more.

Enjoy the issue,

Rob Mead-Green Editor

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We pride ourselves in being the only magazine on the shelves to show you exactly how to get the very best from the Windows operating system, whether you’re using Windows 10 or Windows 8.1. Also, don’t forget to take a look at how you can read the magazine on your laptop, smartphone or tablet.

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11 Speed up your PC

Give your computer a new lease of life with these top tricks, tips and tweaks

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Here’s how to backup your essential files

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42 How to make your PC safer 44 How to sync documents and notes across your devices

30 How to declutter your PC

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NEW THINGS TO DO

AMAZING WEBSITES

LOCK IT DOWN Browse in confidence – and keep your passwords secure – by using a password manager.

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| October 2017

FASCINATING FACTS

Discover Stay protected

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Power up passwords quickly and easily

The Knowledge…

If you want to keep your online accounts safe, it’s time to change the locks for something much more secure We all have to use passwords every day, the websites you are using it on gets and it’s very tempting to use passwords compromised – and your password gets which are easy to remember. Perhaps released into the wild – hackers may they’re based on dictionary words, attempt to use that password on other websites for which you have accounts. In maybe with a number replacing a letter one moment, your entire online life or a little bit of punctuation peppered in. could be opened up. So it’s important to But the easier your passwords are to use a unique password for each account remember, the easier they are to crack. when you register it online. You could Actually perhaps this isn’t true. One of apply the four-word method, of course, the most secure ways of setting a although this will quickly become a password is to select more than one serious memory test. dictionary word. For Instead, password instance, look Using the same managers can help around you right password on multiple you keep track of now and select four objects, then stitch sites can be a big risk your credentials for each website you them together into a use or even, if you wish, generate secure password: KeyboardCoffeeWalletScreen, perhaps. Those four words will be easy to passwords for those sites that even you remember, particularly if you can set a don’t know. All you will need is a single story around them. And while a single master password. Probably the best word can be cracked in a few hours, it password manager – one we’ve covered may take ages to pass through four. before in these pages – is LastPass (www.lastpass.com). It’s very simple to set up and, as long as you don’t reveal PASSWORD MANAGEMENT your master password to anyone, you’ll Using the same password on multiple never get locked out. sites can be a big risk, because if one of

SURFACE DRESSED DOWN Acer aims high

Massdrop What is it?

Massdrop (www.massdrop.com) is a website which harnesses people power to work out deals. Potential buyers register their interest in a product and, if a certain threshold is reached, manufacturers agree to produce that product for a reduced price – a ‘drop’ – or, perhaps, to produce the product in the first place.

So it’s like Kickstarter?

Not really. Kickstarter, Indiegogo and the like are usually focused on funding products which are in the development stage. Massdrop, on the other hand, is designed for stuff that’s completely ready to go – its products typically just need funding and interest to justify a smallscale manufacturing run.

What kinds of things, then?

As you might expect, Massdrop excels at niche items. It divides its drops into a number of different communities, including categories such as audiophile tech, watches, mechanical keyboards and DIY, but a recent expansion has seen it hitting other hobby markets including knitting, stitching and beauty.

What’s the catch?

The Massdrop site is a little hard to fathom at first glance, and you’ll need to be quick to get on board with drops as they usually run for a limited time. Shop around, too; certain things pushed as bargains may already be available elsewhere for a good price, and while a successful drop means you’ll get your items, there’s often a long wait attached for more obscure products.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro might be the top dog in Windows tablets right now, but it’s far from being the only pup in the race. Acer’s brand new Switch 3 and 5 tablets are remarkable tablets that pull off most of the Surface’s tricks for a fraction of the price. The Switch 3, based on a Pentium processor, costs around £450 – half that of the Surface – while the more powerful Switch 5, using an Intel Core i5 or i7 chip, still manages to undercut its rival by a good £200.

WRITE RIGHT The Switch range includes an active pressure-sensitive stylus for drawing on screen.

QUIET TIME The Switch 3 runs completely silently thanks to a clever passive cooling design.

TYPE ON A keyboard cover is included in the price – on the Surface Pro, that’s a £100 add-on.

How do I get involved?

Sign up at www.massdrop.com to set up your own account and give Massdrop your taste profile. The next time you visit the site, you’ll see community discussion and drops that will be of potential interest to you. Keep tabs on your credit card spending, though; being on the cutting edge can be a very tempting thing…

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ÉŞEĘ?Xɢ (É&#x192; Ę&#x2018; ʢ\Ę?ȸ É?Â&#x203A;ÉĄ WWÉŞ ɸ Ę&#x2DC;Ę&#x2013;QÉ&#x2019; ÉŞ

The hidden internet

Should you be worried by the so-called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;dark webâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;? It turns out thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not as much to fear as you might think

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hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a divide on the internet between the web we know and love and the so-called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;dark webâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, a collection of sites that arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t indexed by search engines. You may already have heard of it; the dark web was the home of the notorious Silk Road, a site which sold various illicit goods before a high-proďŹ le FBI investigation shut it down in 2013. More recent activities have seen two further criminal marketplaces shuttered, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re unlikely to be the last. So should you be concerned about the dark web?

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to understand what the dark web actually is. The term can refer to any online content that canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be found by conventional means, which can mean private databases or hidden folders, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s often applied to sites only available when running your internet traďŹ&#x192;c through The Onion Router, or Tor. Tor is usually used for privacy, since it anonymises your internet traďŹ&#x192;c and conceals your location online.

The concept of Tor isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t illegal, and the service itself is not responsible for criminal

activity, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not hard to see why it could be attractive to those skirting the law.

Individual machines on the Tor network can be set up as secret sites. Those who want in need the address â&#x20AC;&#x201C; generally a jumble of letters and numbers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and this can change frequently. Transactions also usually take place using currencies such as Bitcoin, which are themselves built on protecting privacy.

However, the dark web isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as some corners of the media may suggest â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a hive of scum and villainy and nothing else. And correlation is not causation; the use of privacy tools does not make you a criminal. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next to impossible to stumble onto something you shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t on the Tor network. The vast majority of its users simply use it to anonymise their web traďŹ&#x192;c â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and as more and more governments decide to snoop on their citizens (including in the US and the UK), the importance of privacy tools is only going to rise.

The web had criminal marketplaces before Tor, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have them after. It is not the tools that are the problem â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is the users.

Download thisâ&#x20AC;Ś Dication IO dictation.io

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fancy typing? Fancy speaking to your PC instead? Google Chrome includes a complete speech recognition engine, and you can make the most of it with dictation.io, a simple site that uses your PCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s built-in microphone to turn your speech into words on a page. It really is easy. Just jump to the site using Chrome, click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;start dictationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, and speak naturally.

The dictation.io site is built to recognise not just single words, but sentences as well, and you can add punctuation as you go. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not absolutely perfect, of course, but the resulting output is easy to clean up once youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re done. Just click copy, and paste it into your favourite word processor. If you are a hunt-and-peck typist, this will save tons of time; even if you do not ďŹ nish your prose in one go, you can come back to your dictation at a later time as itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s saved in-browser.

SPEAK TO TYPE Save your typing ďŹ ngers with the brilliant dictation.io website.

Follow us onâ&#x20AC;Ś www.twitter.com/windowsmag

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1

What was the name of Microsoft Officeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annoying assistant?

A Clippy B Clippit C Clappy

2

Which purple desktop assistant sneakily collected personal information?

A Bonzi Buddy B Barney Buddy C Boots Buddy

3

What was the name of the short-lived replacement desktop for Windows from 1995?

A Steve B Bill C Bob

4

Which key would you normally press to access Windows help?

A F1 B Tilde C Question mark

5

From which popular PC game does Cortana get her name?

A Banjo-Kazooie B Halo C Super Mario World

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Which assistive technology is activated by pressing [Shift] five times?

A Sticky keys B Yucky keys C Slimy keys

Answers 1A, 2B, 3C, 4A, 5B, 6A

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OCTOBER R

Discover Facts & figures

Rob Mead-Green reveals a host of fascinating digital facts

330

Number of terabytes of uncompressed data that can be stored on a palm-sized data cartridge jointly developed

by IBM and Sony. The cartridge uses prototype sputtered magnetic tape and is said to be ideal for use in cloud backup situations. There’s no news yet on a launch date.

Number of completely electric vehicles that British company Arrival claims it will produce each year at its factory in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The company has recently joined up with Royal Mail to produce nine all-electric trucks that will be used in London and the surrounding areas.

1,069 Number of robots – all called Dobi – which recently broke a Guinness World Record for the ‘most robots dancing simultaneously’. The Dobi robots beat the previous record by 62.

FIFTY FIFTY FIFTY

Size in micrometres of the world’s smallest self-driving car. Developed by the University of California San Diego and China’s Harbin Institute of Technology, the vehicle is properly described as a ‘spherical micromotor’ The aim is to use the vehicle – Fantastic Voyage-style – to diagnose disorders, deliver drugs and perform surgery within the human body.

Maximum number of transactions delivered each second by Microsoft’s Coco, a framework for dealing with superfast payments in Blockchain – the technology used by digital currencies, such as Bitcoin.

October 2017 |

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Incoming

The he hottest ho es new e Windows ndo do s ha hardware d dware a eo on the t e ho horizon o o

Elgato St Price £191.81, www.elgato.com If you’ve ever fancied joining the legions of gamers and YouTubers who live broadcast their every waking moment to the world, then the Elgato Stream Deck is just for you. It enables you to take multiple streams of content from all kinds of sources (audio, video, GIFs, social media) and then seamlessly switch between them as you livestream, without your viewers ever seeing the join. It’s the kind of thing broadcasters have been using for years, professionally. Only the Elgato Stream Deck puts that power into everyone’s hands.

Designed to work with PCs running Windows 10 64-bit, it comes with 15 colour, customisable LCD keys that can trigger up to 150 separate actions. It even offers direct integration with popular streaming services such as Twitch.

The next television revolution is here. We’re all programme makers now.

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| October 2017

Windows Speed up your PC

Discover all the tips, techniques and hardware upgrades you need to boost your PC’s performance and lengthen its life

D

oes your PC struggle to keep up with the demands you place upon it? Do you think that it might be time to bite the bullet and buy a new one? If your PC is under ten years old, there’s a good chance you can extend its life without having to incur the cost of a total replacement. In this guide, we’ll show you all the tips and tricks you need to speed up your PC – and many of the techniques we reveal won’t cost you a penny.

There’s the inevitable clean-up of course – most speed problems can be traced to increasing the load on your computer over time, so we’ll start by stripping things back. Then

we’ll help you examine the time it takes your PC to start up – not only will our tips and tricks eliminate boot-time bottlenecks, but you’ll also free up more system resources and give your PC a new lease of life.

We’ll then look into some clever system tweaks that can free up your machine even further, helping to improve its responsiveness and performance when heavier demands are placed on it. And we’ll Ànish by revealing which hardware components you might want to swap out for faster, newer ones to give it a real lift. Follow our guide to its end, and you’ll wonder why you ever thought about replacing your PC as it frees itself from its shackles and really starts to Áy.

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Perform a quick clean-up

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tep one to speeding up your PC means giving it a clearout â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve followed our previous features on the subject, you might be tempted to skip this step, but youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be surprised by how quickly detritus can accumulate, so these tips are worth following even if your last spring clean wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t long ago.

First, we need to make sure thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a suďŹ&#x192;cient free space on your system drive â&#x20AC;&#x201C; aim to leave at least 5GB (and preferably much more) spare. Open File Explorer, right-click your drive and choose Properties. Click the Disk Clean-up button, wait for the scan and then click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Clean up system ďŹ lesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to ďŹ nd more ďŹ les to clear out. You may need to scroll through the list and tick further items to clean up; be sure to select them ďŹ rst to read more about them since some â&#x20AC;&#x201C; such as ESD ďŹ les â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are best left in place if possible.

If you want to push things further â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still lacking free space â&#x20AC;&#x201C; follow the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Clear out using CCleanerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; boxout on the facing page. You can download and install CCleaner from www.piriform.com

Clear out unused apps

It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter how diligent you are, at some point youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll start to accumulate redundant programs on your PC, each one demanding its own share of space and system resources. You can manage these from the Programs and Features

Streamline your fonts and you might reclaim valuable system resources on low-end systems.

Control Panel (Windows 7 or 8.1), Settings > â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Search and appsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; > App sizesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Windows 8.1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Store apps only) and Settings > Apps (Windows 10 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both desktop and Windows Store apps).

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all well and good, but programs leave bits of themselves behind â&#x20AC;&#x201C; leftover ďŹ les and Registry entries. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t plan to reinstall the app again, these can be safely deleted with the help of a third-party program, such as Revo Uninstaller Portable (www. revouninstaller.com â&#x20AC;&#x201C; click Downloads followed by â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Free Portableâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;). Note Revo Uninstaller only works with desktop

programs. You can clear out both desktop programs and Windows Store apps (including those pre-installed with Windows) using IObit Uninstaller 6 Free

Revo Uninstaller is fast and unobstrusive, if a little basic.

Registry cleaning Third-party clean-up tools â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including CCleaner â&#x20AC;&#x201C; include Registry cleaning tools, with the promise of streamlining and speeding up Windows.

These tools scan areas of the Registry for supposedly redundant Registry entries, offering to delete them with one click. Hundreds or even thousands of entries get removed at a time, but even if your cleaning tool doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t accidentally delete an important Registry entry (and it will sooner or later), Registry cleaning offers no beneĂ&#x20AC;t to performance whatsoever.

You can potentially improve performance â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but not by

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much â&#x20AC;&#x201C; by defragging the Registry Ă&#x20AC;les (known as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;hivesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;) using a dedicated tool, such as Registry Defrag Free (www. registry-clean.net/freeregistry-defrag.htm). Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll analyse the Registry and tell you if signiĂ&#x20AC;cant â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;bloatingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has taken place; if it has (more than 10%), you can take a Restore Point then let the program compress and defrag the Ă&#x20AC;les.

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re running Windows on an SSD, however, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s little beneĂ&#x20AC;t in defragging the Ă&#x20AC;les. In most cases, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll also Ă&#x20AC;nd that Windows has done a reasonable job of keeping the hives in good order, making the process redundant. | October 2017

On rare occasions, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see that the Registry needs defragging â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in most cases, however, Free Registry Defrag will tell you itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not required.

Windows Speed up your PC (www.iobit.com/en/advanceduninstaller. php) instead. Make sure that you skip the pop-up offer when you come to download it, and we also recommend installing Unchecky (www.unchecky. com) first – this will ensure you don’t inadvertently agree to installing the complete IObit Advanced SystemCare suite, as well as helping to keep other unwanted software off your system.

Both CCleaner and IOBit Uninstaller 6 Free work in the same way: take a System Restore point if offered, then let the program’s own uninstaller do its job.

Don’t reboot if prompted; instead, run the scan to view and delete both leftover files and Registry entries. For more details, see the ‘Registry cleaning’ boxout on the facing page.

While you’re going through your installed apps – particularly on lowpowered machines – consider ditching resource-hungry programs for their lightweight equivalents. Microsoft Office too much for your tablet or low-end laptop? Remove it and then install WPS

Start your clear out with Windows’ own Disk Clean-up tool.

“If you have a lot of fonts installed on a low-memory PC, they will have a knock-on effect on performance” Office 2016 (www.kingsoftstore.com) or LibreOffice (www.libreoffice.org) instead. Also try switching to portable apps, where possible, to prevent clutter from accumulating on your PC’s main storage drive – save these to a separate partition or drive instead and they’ll also survive Windows reinstallation with all your settings intact too.

Finish your clean-up

Most of our lives are spent on the internet, so if your web browser is starting to creak at the seams, consider

taking steps to give it a clean-up and refresh. First, perform an audit of all the browser add-ons you’ve installed – the procedure for reviewing what’s installed varies from browser to browser: Chrome users should type ‘chrome://extensions/’ into the Address Bar, for example, while Firefox users can use ‘about:addons’.

Disable or remove any add-ons or extensions that you no longer need – if you have a lot of items and multiple browsers to process, then you’ll find that both CCleaner (Tools > Browser Plugins) and IObit Uninstaller (Toolbars &

Plugins) make it easy to manage everything from one convenient spot.

Another area to focus cleaning on are fonts. If you have a lot of fonts installed on a low-memory PC, they will have a knock-on effect on performance.

Manage them using AMP Font Viewer (www.ampsoft.net/utilities/FontViewer. php), which makes it possible to uninstall those you don’t use regularly, loading individual or groups of fonts back into memory for temporary use when the need arises.

There’s one major area we’ve yet to look at and that’s the start-up process.

Turn the page for a complete guide to both monitoring the boot process and optimising it to speed up how quickly your PC starts up. We’ll also explain how to optimise system resources further.

Clear out with CCleaner

1

Start cleaning

Launch CCleaner. Go through the Windows and Applications tabs in the Cleaner section reviewing each item, unticking those that you wish to keep. Pay particular attention to the Windows Explorer section. Once satisÀed with what you’ve selected, click the Analyze button and wait for the scan.

2

Review carefully

When complete, a summarised list will be displayed. Be sure to right-click any questionable items and choose ‘View detailed results’. You can protect individual Àles from being deleted by right-clicking them and choosing ‘Add to Exclude list’ or untick the list and click Analyze to perform a fresh scan.

3

Rinse, then repeat

When you’ve Ànished reviewing everything, click Run Cleaner. Read the warning – this is your last chance to turn back – and click Yes to delete the Àles.

Going forward, you can run further scans or quickly right-click individual categories in the list and choose Analyze or Run Cleaner for a targeted clean-up.

October 2017 |

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Speed up Startup

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ver time, you’ll notice how much longer it takes Windows to start up. Optimising Startup times isn’t simply about getting your PC to boot faster, it also has a beneficial effect on general performance. That’s because as you install programs on your machine, several will configure themselves to load at Startup. The process of loading these start-up apps naturally lengthens boot times, but they also consume additional resources, producing a drag on your computer’s overall performance too.

Some Startup processes – your security software for one – are essential and shouldn’t be touched. Others, such as your cloud sync app, are best left running too, but you’ll find many apps and programs aren’t used often enough to justify allowing them to gobble up resources in the way that they do. The trick is identifying and disabling these.

Monitor boot times

Startup programs aren’t the only things that slow down Windows boot time. The step-by-step guide on the facing page

If Fast Boot is supported on your PC, verify if it’s been enabled.

You can use a power plan to make your PC boot-up faster.

“Start-up programs aren’t the only things that slow down Windows” shows you how to monitor your boot time and manage Startup programs using the free BootRacer app.

You’ll see it divides the boot process into four stages. The first is pre-boot, and covers the time it takes your PC to initialise its hardware and run various checks before handing over control to Windows. The figure should be three to five seconds on a PC with Fast Boot enabled – see the ‘Fast Boot’ boxout below for more details.

If it doesn’t appear to be enabled, type ‘power’ into the Search box and click ‘Choose a power plan’. Click ‘Choose what the power buttons do’ – if ‘Turn on fast start-up (recommended)’ isn’t ticked, click ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable’, then tick the box and click ‘Save changes’. Should you need to access the UEFI settings going forward, go to Settings > ‘Update and recovery’. Click ‘Restart now’ under ‘Advanced start-up’ then select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings.

Speed up Windows Boot

+RZ )DVW %RRW ZRUNV When you switch on a Windows 7 PC, it always starts from a ‘cold boot’, which has to load Windows from scratch. With the advent of modern PC hardware and the launch of Windows 8.1 (and now Windows 10), supported PCs can be instructed to switch on Fast Boot instead. This uses ‘hybrid shutdown’, a feature that effectively hibernates your PC rather than shutting it down completely by storing the contents of memory in a special file (hiberfil.sys).

When starting back up, the file is loaded back into memory – a much quicker process than starting Windows from scratch.

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The Windows Boot section refers to the time your PC takes to get to the login screen. This is determined by the version of Windows you’re running as well as the speed of your drive – under ten seconds on a fast SSD, for example – as well as on the drive’s condition.

If the time has got noticeably longer (minutes rather than seconds), check the condition of the drive. To do that, open a Command Prompt window with admin privileges – Windows 8.1 and 10 users can choose ‘Command Prompt (admin)’ after pressing [Win] + [X], then type the following and hit [Enter]: chkdsk c: /f /r /x Reboot your PC to run the Disk Check.

Be patient – it may take some time to complete and appear to be stuck at certain points. If errors are found and fixed, you should find that Windows boots more quickly than before.

If you’re running Windows 7 on a non-SSD drive, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter to analyse and – if necessary – defragment the drive.

Again, if defragmentation is required you should find performance improves.

Windows Speed up your PC Measure and improve boot times

1

First steps

3

Detailed analysis

5

Monitor apps

Download bootracer_freeb.zip from www.greatis.com/ bootracer and extract the MSI Àle inside. Double-click this to install the program. Click Finish when complete. The main window opens automatically – click Boot Time Test and then click Yes to restart your PC and perform the Àrst boot test.

BootRacer splits the results into four parts – see the main text on the opposite page for a detailed explanation of each.

BootRacer will perform the same test each time you restart Windows, so restart again to repeat the test at least once to get more results to compare. Click History to see the trend over time.

Now when Windows reboots, Startup apps are paused until the desktop has Ànished loading, then each one is timed.

Keep an eye out for programs that taking much longer than others to complete loading – click ‘Which programs slow down start-up?’ to analyse the results in greater detail.

2

Test and review

4

Take control

6

Manage startup

Windows will restart as normal with one difference – when the desktop appears, you’ll see a countdown timer appear in the bottom-right corner. When complete, a stopwatch showing your boot time will show. When the summary screen appears, click ‘Know more’ to review the result in detail.

BootRacer can be used to monitor (and control) individual Startup programs and processes. Click ‘Startup Control’, then click the button next to Disabled to enable it.

Click ‘Next’, leave the Enabled box ticked to measure program start times and click ‘Restart your PC and Analyze Results’.

Click Startup Control and you can disable (clear the tick) or even delete Startup items like other apps, such as CCleaner.

Click ‘Set Order’ and you can even change the order in which Startup programs are run, ensuring important apps launch before others. Click Finish Reordering when you’re done.

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15

Tune up Windows

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ouâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve cleaned up your computer, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still plenty of room for improvement. If your PC is still struggling on a day-to-day basis â&#x20AC;&#x201C; particularly if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a low-powered model with 2GB of RAM or less â&#x20AC;&#x201C; then itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth exploring additional ways to free up more resources by optimising which services â&#x20AC;&#x201C; low-level processes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are running in the background.

Doing this by hand is a tricky and time-consuming task, which is where a program called Easy Services Optimizer (www.sordum.org/?p=8637) comes into play. This makes it easy to disable a range of services safely to recover those resources you need. Once downloaded, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be able to quickly tweak your system one of four ways: Default (your existing setup); Safe (a good choice for most people); Tweaked; and Extreme.

Note, the higher up you go, the more likely it is youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll lose key functionality, such as support for printers or Bluetooth devices. If one option doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work for you, simply roll back to Default.

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather temporarily suspend resources while running a speciďŹ c application â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a game, say â&#x20AC;&#x201C; try JetBoost (www.bluesprig.com/jetboost.html) instead. Once installed, launch the program and click the big blue button to shut down services. Run your app, then after closing it click Restore to put things back the way they were.

Shut down unused Services to free up more system resources and speed up your PC.

Advanced users can click Customize to see what services are suspended, and add custom processes, services (typically non-Windows services, but avoid key ones like your security software) and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, which includes settings such as ensuring your power settings are set to high performance.

theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re found at all. Let Windows add these locations to its index, and future searches will be much quicker. To do this, open File Explorer in Windows 8.1

Tune up search

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not adverse to keeping documents and other ďŹ les outside your key user folders, then chances are Windows takes a long time to ďŹ nd them when you perform a search â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if indeed

If you have two internal drives, spread virtual memory across them to boost performance.

Speed up your browser If your web browser is groaning under the weight of all those open tabs, you might be able to improve performance without having to close them all. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a Firefox user with lots of RAM, open Settings > General and untick â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Use recommended performance settingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, then if itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not greyed out, up the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Content process limitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to four or even higher to see if it helps.

Following on from our â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Essential Windows Timesaversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; guide (see page 52), here are some browser-related efĂ&#x20AC;ciency tips for you to try.

First, enable your browserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bookmarks bar, giving you

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one-click access to favourite sites. Also, right-click frequently used tabs and look for a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Pin Tabâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; option to make them permanently available.

Speed up logging into websites â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and make them more secure at the same time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; using either the LastPass (www.lastpass.com) or KeePass (www.keepass.info) password managers. Finally, make better use of search engine timesavers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Google users can perform quick conversions direct from the search bar (â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ÂŁ5 to CADâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;), and search a speciĂ&#x20AC;c websiteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s content by preĂ&#x20AC;xing the search terms with â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;site techradar.comâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, for example. | October 2017

The latest web browsers have focused on delivering speed improvements â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Mozillaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Firefox has recently been given multi-process support, for example.

Windows Speed up your PC or Windows 10 and click inside the Search box to open the contextsensitive Search tab on the Ribbon, then click the ‘Advanced options’ button and choose ‘Change indexed locations’.

Windows 7 users should type ‘indexing’ into the Start menu’s search box and click Indexing Options.

From here, click Modify to add the folders containing your files to the index – while you’re here, consider removing those locations you don’t need indexed to keep things streamlined. Once done, Windows will take some time to index the new locations fully – this is much quicker on SSDs, obviously.

If you’ve partitioned your drive, move your search index off your Windows system drive and you’ll be able to easily restore it after reinstalling Windows in the future. To do this, click Advanced followed by Select New under ‘Index location’ to choose another drive or partition to place it on.

Optimise memory settings

The following tweaks aren’t necessary if your PC is packed with RAM or you’re running an SSD, but it will help PCs with 2GB or less running 32-bit Windows on a regular hard drive. You’ll need a USB 2.0 or better flash drive with 4GB of free

Make sure Windows is indexing all your data folders.

Explorer, right-click the USB drive and choose the Properties > ReadyBoost tab to set it up manually.

The second tweak requires that your PC has two internal hard drives – both

“If you have partitioned your drive, move your search index off your Windows system drive and you’ll be able to easily restore it in future” storage space – enabling you to use the spare capacity on larger drives for other purposes. Windows should be able to automatically detect when you’ve plugged it in and offer to use all or some of it for ReadyBoost. If not, open File

non-SSD. It enables you to move your paging file – which Windows uses for virtual memory – to the second drive, which can also give overall performance a boost. Press [Win] + [Pause/Break] and click ‘Advanced system settings’, then

switch to the Performance tab and click Settings. Switch to the Advanced tab and click the Change button.

Untick ‘Automatically manage paging file size for all drives’, then select your current Windows drive (usually drive C).

Choose Custom and enter ‘800’ into both the Initial and Maximum Size boxes before clicking Set. This 800MB file is required to enable Windows to boot.

Now select your second drive (or – if it’s been partitioned – the least-used partition on that drive) and choose ‘System managed size’. Click ‘Set’ again, then click OK three times and reboot.

Once done, return to this screen to verify the correct settings (800MB for drive C; and ‘System managed’ for your second drive) are in place. This should lead to performance improvements.

Tame rogue programs

Process Lasso really earns its corn on low-powered PCs, such as 2-in-1 tablets, by helping to stop them from grinding to a halt periodically.

If your PC occasionally – or even frequently – Ànds itself grinding to a halt before mysteriously coming back to life again, it’s likely a rogue process or program is attempting to claim more system resources than are available. Again, it’s a problem that affects older and slower machines, and the solution lies in a program called Process Lasso (https //bitsum.com/).

Process Lasso runs in the background and offers several performance beneÀts, the key one of which is ProBalance.

This keeps an eye out for those processes attempting to grind your system to a halt. When October 2017 |

Process Lassoo spots one, it immediately reduces that process’s priority level to prevent it from stealing too many system resources, and so keeps your PC running smoothly as a result.

Be sure to download either the 32-bit or 64-bit version, according to your system type – older and low-memory PCs tend to be running 32-bit Windows, but conÀrm this by pressing [Win] + [Pause/Break].

The free version of Process Lasso is all that you need, and since everything is done automatically, you can leave this handy tool to its own devices once it’s installed. |

17

Upgrade your PC

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W

hen you really want to speed up Windows, there’s simply no substitute for upgrading your hardware. That doesn’t mean showing your existing PC the door, though – if your budget doesn’t stretch to a new top-of-the-range model, you can look at selected upgrades that will revolutionise the way you use your machine.

Let’s start with the biggest potential bottleneck: your computer’s hard drive.

The emergence of solid-state drives (SSDs) ensures that you can noticeably speed up your system with just one upgrade – moving your Windows install on to an SSD will achieve far more than all the cleaning and system tweaks combined, however useful they are.

SSDs are priced at a premium, which limits the amount of storage you can have. That might be an issue if you’re upgrading a laptop, but if you’ve have a desktop with a 500GB hard drive and space to spare, you can add a relatively small SSD – 128GB or even 64GB if you don’t have that many apps – and use that exclusively for Windows and your programs, keeping all of your data on your older, slower hard drive.

The process doesn’t have to be a difficult one – the step-by-step guide on the facing page reveals how to clone Windows from an existing hard drive to an SSD without having to reinstall.

More memory please

The other way in which you can give your Windows machine a new lease of life without incurring too much expense is by maxing out the RAM. Go to a website like https://uk.crucial.com, select your PC or motherboard make and model and discover how much memory your PC can support, then aim to buy as much memory as you can afford – 4GB is a comfortable minimum, while 16GB will really help your PC to fly.

Fit RAM in pairs for maximum performance benefit.

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If you only upgrade one PC component, make it your hard drive.

If your computer only has two memory slots, then chances are you’ll be replacing the memory you already have, but if it has four slots, you should be able to add to your existing RAM, thereby helping to keep the cost down.

Prices vary depending on the type of memory you need, but expect to pay around £40 for 4GB, £65 for 8GB and £130 for 16GB – buy memory in pairs for maximum performance.

Other upgrades

Laptop users are pretty much stuck with extra memory and a new storage drive.

consider buying a new processor. The problem here is that unless your PC or motherboard is relatively new, you may not be able to source a more powerful CPU for it, such as an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7. That’s because processors get refreshed on an annual basis, and aren’t backwards-compatible. This means that you’d also have to factor in the cost of a motherboard upgrade, although you’ll also gain from other improvements if you do that – new motherboards are likely to include USB 3.0, which is ten times faster than USB 2.0, as well as SATA-III drive ports, for example.

“The problem is here is that unless your PC or motherboard is relatively new, you may not be able to source a more powerful processor for it” Desktop users have some additional options, although the cost will start rising. If you’re a gamer, you may be tempted by a new graphics card.

Modern processors include powerful graphics onboard – capable of supporting 4K Ultra HD video for example – but a discrete card has some advantages, including coming with its own memory and being clocked at higher speeds. When choosing, be aware that NVIDIA cards are supported for much longer than AMD ones.

If you regularly perform CPU-intensive tasks, such as HD video encoding or editing, then you might be tempted to

| October 2017

The downside of embarking on such an upgrade cycle is that the costs soon start to mount: replace the motherboard and processor and you’ll probably have to replace your RAM too. You may even need a higher-rated power supply and then there’s the question of Windows. A motherboard upgrade will trigger a reactivation of Windows, which isn’t a problem if your copy is a retail one, but if Windows came pre-installed when you bought your PC then you’ll have to purchase a new licence. If that’s the case, you may find it’s cheaper to just buy a new PC – see our April 2017 issue for more advice.

Windows Speed up your PC Clone your hard drive

1

Prepare your drive

3

Select partitions to clone

5

Wait as drive is cloned

Right-click your C drive and choose Properties. ‘Used Space’ needs to be at least 15GB less than the capacity of your new drive to allow for various factors, including future usage. If you can’t clean enough Àles off the drive to do this, move large data Àles to a secondary drive.

Launch Macrium. Select your Windows drive and click ‘Clone this disk…’ Make sure only those partitions you need will be copied across. These are System Reserved; your actual Windows partition; and any hidden partitions at the end of the drive. Untick any others, then click ‘Select a disk to clone to…’

Click Finish. Untick ‘Save backup and schedules as an XML Backup DeÀnition File’ and click OK to perform the cloning operation. Each partition is copied in turn, a quick Àle check is performed and then the actual cloning process will take place. Be patient – this may take some time.

2

Connect the new drive

4

Set target disk

6

Fit new your SSD

Fit your new solid-state drive (SSD) into a spare bay (desktop PC) or external USB drive enclosure (laptop). Connect it using the appropriate cables (SATA and power for desktop, USB for laptop). Start your PC and install Macrium ReÁect Free (www. macrium.com/reÁectfree.aspx) if necessary.

Select your new drive – this will be the one with no partitions assigned to it. Then simply drag each partition across in turn – Macrium will automatically shrink your C drive to Àt. If necessary, click Cloned Partition Properties to verify that the alignment settings are ‘Vista/7/SSD’.

Shut down your PC. Laptop users should swap out the current drive for their new SSD; desktop users will need to reboot and make sure the new SSD is the primary boot device in the UEFI/BIOS settings. If all is well, Windows should boot – and it’ll now do so much quicker than before. Q

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Not your average technology website

EXPLORE NEW WORLDS OF TECHNOLOGY GADGETS, SCIENCE, DESIGN AND MORE Fascinating reports from the bleeding edge of tech Innovations, culture and geek culture explored Join the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading online tech community

www.gizmodo.co.uk

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WINDOWS TIPS

INTERNET ADVICE

Welcome This month’s Explore section is packed with tips and tricks to help you make the most of your PC – from fast fixes for common Wi-Fi problems (page 36), to some clever ways to get creative with your favourite photos (page 24).

You’ll also discover how you can use SimpleNote to sync all your notes and documents across all your devices (page 44); and even how you can use Windows’ built-in dictation features to create documents and emails without living a typing finger (page 46). We’ll also show you how to make your PC safer too (page 42).

EXCITING NEW PROJECTS

)ʅɸɗ ʙLVʤʖQɒ 24 Create artistic image effects

48 Make your PC child-proof

27 Make movie magic with green screen effects using Shotcut

50 How to create and publish content on your first blog

30 How to de-clutter your PC 32 Change the way your PC looks 36 Fix common Wi-Fi problems 39 Fast fixes for audio issues 42 Make your PC safer 44 Keep text documents and notes in sync across all your devices 46 How to write documents and emails using your voice alone

Rob Mead-Green Editor rob.mead-green@futurenet.com

<ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ *ʋʢɨ 0ʋUʂKɪɸɗ Vʋ\ɡ

“Give your favourite pics a lift by mastering Photos’ image editing tools” 7ʦʢɚ Wɛ SDȰɏ Wɛ ʓʖQɍ ʝXɢ PʝȾɏ

Our promise to you…

Get more from Windows, software and all your favourite sites

Packed with informative tutorials

Get more from your favourite websites

Every issue, we guarantee to pack the magazine with great tutorials teaching you all the best things you can do with your PC. Each article features step-by-step instructions to make learning new skills fast and enjoyable.

We all have our list of favourite sites but often we miss out on great features because they’re difÀcult to use or hidden from sight. We’ll show you how to do more online, for a more satisfying web life.

Customise Windows to work your way

Discover new programs with our help

We all know how to do the basics but getting the most from Windows isn’t always easy. Our dedication to the operating system means you get the very best tips and tricks for all versions of Windows.

From speed-up and security software to superb photo apps, there’s always something new to try on your PC. The Windows Store in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 is packed with software to download.

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/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Create artistic image effects <ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ *ʋʢɨ 0ʋUʂKɪɸɗ Vʋ\ɡ

MAIN IMAGE This is where you see the effects of filters: changes will appear instantly, without altering the original photo.

“The Photos app is packed with features to Àx photos, and Àlters can make them look even better”

At a glance Skill level…

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable for…

Windows 10 Windows 8.1

Windows 7

T

he camera never lies, but apps can: if you want to make a photo look like you took it in 1973 or in the days before colour film was invented, Windows 10’s Photos app can do it with a single click. It’s all down to filters, which you can use to transform any image. We’ll show you how over the next couple of pages, and as you’ll see it couldn’t be simpler.

Photos isn’t the only app that offers filters. Fhotoroom, which we’ll also experiment with here, does too – and, of course, some apps such as Instagram are famous for filtering pretty much everything. It’s particularly rife on social media, where even selfies are filtered beyond recognition.

There are three keys to successful filtering: start with a good quality photo, don’t get carried away, and don’t overwrite the original in case you change your mind in future.

Step-by-step Add filters to your photos

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your photographs 1 Find In order to use filtering we need an original image. Photos

ready to filter 2 Get Photos’ interface is very simple and straightforward: there’s

automatically displays your images grouped by collection, but you can switch to Albums or Folders if you prefer. You can also import photos from an external drive, USB drive or microSD card if they’re connected. You can filter anything, but portraits and action shots tend to produce the most interesting results.

no sign of the various palettes, toolbars and inspectors that so many image editors have. Instead there’s just one simple toolbar at the top of the screen with options for sharing, printing, displaying and editing your pictures. The one we want is the Edit tool towards the right of the toolbar, so let’s click it.

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CROP AND ROTATE Takes you to the Crop and Rotate tools, which enable you to change the shape or angle of your picture.

Explore Create artistic image effects -argon buster!

Exposure Your go-to tool for fixing dark photos: increasing the exposure makes an image look as if it was taken longer, with more light entering the lens.

ENHANCE OR ADJUST The Enhance tool offers filters and effects, while Adjust enables you to change attributes.

Enhancement Improving a picture.

Apps such as Photos have an algorithm that looks at the image and tries to calculate the best changes to make.

AUTOMATIC ENHANCEMENT The white line is a slider: drag it left or right to use Photos’ enhancer for instant improvements.

Filter A preset effect that you can apply to an photograph to make it look different.

Filters often replicate old types of film or old cameras.

PHOTO FILTERS One-click access to pre-defined filters, which change the way an entire image looks. Replicates old film and cameras.

UNDO AND SAVE Your changes don’t affect the original until you hit Save.

Use ‘Save A Copy’, which keeps the original too.

the automatic option 3 Try You should now see a number of thumbnails. Let’s look at the top one, ‘Enhance your photo’. The white line near the centre is a slider, and if you drag it backwards and forwards you’ll see your photo change. This adjusts the level of automatic enhancement, which is Photos’ best guess at improving your picture by adjusting brightness and other attributes.

with the filters 4 Fiddle If enhancement doesn’t do what you want, it’s time to use a filter. Scroll through the list of available filters at the right of the screen and click on the one you want to try. Everything here is non-destructive, so you don’t need to worry about overwriting the original image with a filter you don’t want. The slider at the bottom of the image adjusts the intensity of the effect.

October 2017 |

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the effect 5 Adjust You aren’t limited to the filter’s default settings. If you click on Adjust at the top of the panel you’ll see a selection of sliders that you can use to fine-tune or completely transform the filter. If a label has a jaggy bracket (>) next to it, clicking that uncovers more options – so if you click on the Light label you’ll be given options to adjust exposure and related settings.

another app 7 Try While Photos’ filters are good, other apps have different

a vignette 6 Add In addition to the individual settings for light and colour, you can make other changes in the Adjust panel: you can remove red eye from photos; use spot fix to remove minor blemishes; and you can use the Vignette tool to add a vignette effect as shown here, where the edges of the photo fade out. No changes are saved until you click Save, so you can experiment safely.

in the app 8 Experiment As you can see, Fhotoroom’s interface is a bit more complex

filters available so it’s a good idea to experiment with a few to find filters you’ll use most often. A popular option is Fhotoroom, which has a selection of free filters and some paid-for ones. The app opens with a selection of other people’s images. To edit your own, click on Open Photo – it’s the box with an arrow in it.

than Photos’, but it’s actually quite straightforward. The bit we’re interested in is the Presets icon at the top right of the screen. This gives us access to the app’s various photo filters. As with Photos, just click on the filter you want to try and you’ll see the results instantly. Changes aren’t saved until you click Save.

the effects 9 Adjust The Exposure tool enables you to adjust the characteristics

before you buy 10 Try If you click the three-dots or More icon you’ll see additional

of your image – increasing the exposure level you can make the image much brighter, for example. You can also change colour saturation, sharpen the image, adjust highlights and shadows and generally mess around to your heart’s content. The trick here is to make small adjustments: too much can mean losing detail.

filters including Tilt Shift, which is great for making landscapes seem as if they’re models, and denoise, which can improve grainy photos. The other filters here are in-app purchases, but you can try them out to decide if they’re worth paying money for. You’ll probably find that you can manage happily without them. Q

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Explore Create a green screen effect

/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Create a green screen effect Give your videos a touch of Hollywood magic by replacing a plain background with something special using chroma key compositing

G

reen screen editing – also known as chroma key compositing – is how Hollywood movie studios take footage of actors performing in a studio and replace a plain green background with a city skyline, the interior of an alien spaceship, or some other amazing location. It looks very impressive, and thanks to a free video editor called

Shotcut, you can recreate the same effect on your home computer.

Windows used to come with its own video-editing software – Windows Movie Maker – which was great for simple editing tasks, like trimming unwanted footage from the start or end of a clip, but it was otherwise very limited. It was last updated in 2012, and Microsoft has now officially

discontinued it and removed the installer from its website.

That’s not a problem, though. There are plenty of other free video editors available instead, including Shotcut. Unlike many free apps, Shotcut isn’t a cut-down version of a premium product; all the tools you see are available to use for free. It won’t add watermarks to your videos either.

Step-by-step Chroma key compositing

a background 1 Pick First, you’ll need a plain background. We’re lucky to have a green wall we can use, but there are other options. It doesn’t even have to be green – the key requirement is that it’s a solid colour that’s different from your subject’s hair, skin, and anything they’re wearing. Blue and green are the most commonly used colours. If you don’t have a suitable wall, you can use coloured card or paper.

your video 3 Record Next, record your video. It’s a good idea to use a tripod to keep the camera steady, or ask the person who’s doing the recording to lean against something sturdy and stable like a piece of furniture or a wall. Once you’re happy, transfer the video to your PC in the same way you would normally – wirelessly or using a USB cable – and then go to www.shotcut.org.

the right lighting 2 Get The background should be evenly lit to avoid harsh shadows. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to shoot your video during the day, in natural light, making sure you’re not standing directly in front of a window. You might need to experiment with closing the curtains or blinds, and positioning yourself in different places around the room.

Shotcut 4 Get Click the red ‘Click to download’ link at the top of the page, then choose either the 32-bit or 64-bit installer, depending on your version of Windows. If you’re not sure which to choose, follow the instructions from Microsoft at http://bit.ly/2rtEwhG. Once it’s downloaded, run the installer, leaving all the default options selected, then launch the program.

October 2017 |

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KEY COLOUR Use the eyedropper to select the green or blue background in your video and reveal the image that lies below.

your video 5 Prepare Shotcut may look intimidating, but don’t worry – it’s well designed and you’ll soon get the hang of it. First, click ‘Open file’ and select an image you want to use as a background, then drag it onto the space labelled Timeline at the bottom of the screen.

Click ‘Open file’ again and select your recorded video. It will play automatically. Watch it and note anything you want to change.

HUE, CHROMA AND INTENSITY These sliders let you define the range of hues that will be filtered from the video you’re making.

to size 6 Crop If you’d like to crop your video – if there’s something visible in shot that you’d rather remove, for example – select the Filters option from the top toolbar (it looks like a funnel) and click the ‘+’ icon. Click the PC monitor icon to just see video filters, then select Crop. You can now use the sliders to adjust how much should be cut off the top, bottom, left and right of your video.

a new track 7 Create Now select the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) under the word Timeline and click ‘Add video track’. Drag the video from the preview window onto this new track. You’ll see that the video in the V2 track is considerably longer than the photo in the V1 track, so click and drag the left edge of the photo until the two tracks are the same length.

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VIDEO TRACKS You need to create two tracks in the timeline: one for the video, and another for the background image you’re using.

the background colour 8 Isolate Click the V2 track, click the ‘+’ icon and select ‘Chroma key: advanced’. Use the eyedropper to select the background colour and the picture will start to show through behind it. The results won’t be perfect at first, so click the Hue-Chroma-Intensity button and experiment with the sliders until you’ve achieved the look you want. Set the Edge option to Normal to avoid harsh edges.

Explore Create a green screen effect FILTERS All the tools youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll need for editing video, including colour adjustment, chroma keying and much more.

Jargon buster!

Chroma keying A post-production technique, which involves replacing a particular colour in a video or movie.

Compositing Layering several diďŹ&#x20AC;erent images or videos together.

MP4 A video ďŹ le format thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supported by almost media players and video editors.

JOBS Exporting long projects can take a while. This panel shows how much of the current video has been processed.

At a glance Skill levelâ&#x20AC;Ś

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

PREVIEW WINDOW Here you can see what your ďŹ nished video will look like once both video video tracks have been composited.

Suitable forâ&#x20AC;Ś Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

Č&#x2030;$7Â&#x203A;6 %Ç&#x160;67 ĆźÇ?3 (É&#x192;Ę&#x2018;ʢɨ É­KĘ&#x2039;QČ°É? \Ę?ɤ PÉŞČ´É? XĘŁĘ&#x2013;QÉ&#x2019; É&#x2C6; +É&#x201A;É? &Ę&#x2022;UĘ?ȡÉ? Ę?É ,QÉ&#x20AC;Ę&#x2018;QĘŁLʤɨ Ę&#x201A;Ę&#x2122;LČŤĘ&#x2018;É KDÉĄ Ę&#x2039;É&#x161; HIČŻHFɢ Ę?É&#x161; Ę&#x192;ČąÉ?

RĘ&#x192;ČąĘ&#x2018;É Ę¤ZÉ&#x203A; $Ę&#x2013;É&#x2122; IĘ?É EÉŞOĘ&#x2039;QČŞÉ?

and save 9 Export Play your video all the way through to make sure it looks

it online 10 Share Once Shotcut has finished processing your video, it will be

okay (it will play more slowly than normal because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being processed on the fly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worry), then once youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re happy click File > Export Video. There are lots of options here, but the default MP4 setting is best. Click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Export fileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, name the video, and click Save. If exporting fails, uncheck â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Parallel processingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and try again.

ready to watch in your favourite media player, uploaded to YouTube or shared on Facebook. Have fun experimenting with different backgrounds and amaze your friends with professionallooking results that are surprisingly easy to achieve â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and to think, you managed to do it all with a completely free program! Q

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/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

De-clutter your PC with CCleaner <ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ $ȵʑɧ %Oɪȴɏ Vʋ\ɡ

“Over time your PC will accumulate all sorts of cruft that will slow it down. Unclog your computer and get it running smoothly again with our handy guide!”

At a glance Skill level…

aAnyone can do it

Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable for…

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

Y

ou’ll be amazed by how much rubbish there is bunging up your computer under the surface. Thankfully, there’s a free program that can sweep away the cobwebs, get your PC back up to speed, and restore order to the universe (maybe not that last bit).

That program is CCleaner – with a few simple clicks you can clear out gigabytes of unwanted and unnecessary data that could be slowing your computer to a crawl.

You should be careful, though.

Don’t run CCleaner’s Drive Wiper and Wipe Free Space features if Windows is installed on an SSD. Similarly, the usual warnings apply to the program’s Registry cleaner – only do that if you know what you’re doing, and back up the Registry beforehand in case anything goes wrong.

That said, CCleaner is a quick, user-friendly way to free up space on your drives. Let’s get started…

Step-by-step Clean the cruft from your PC

up unwanted files 1 Clean Tell CCleaner what to clean by selecting items on the Windows and Applications tabs. Check this carefully so you don’t accidentally remove all your saved passwords, for example. Then click Run Cleaner. CCleaner will clear out your internet caches, temporary files and more, based on what you selected. Run for the first time, it can clear gigabytes of unneeded data.

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DŽ/NJ; 6 %NJ67 ƼǏ3 $QRʃȱʑɠ ʝSʤLʝɚ" :ʖɚ'ʖɠ6WDɢ Lɡ Ɉ ʓȾȭɏ ʠURʔUʋə ʃKDɢ ʂKʝZɡ \ʝɤ ʇKDɢ ʓɵȵHɡ ʋȾɏ WɪʘʖQɒ ʦɞ ʃȱɏ PRVɢ ʣSDȪɏ ʝɚ \ʝʦɠ 3&

up the Registry 2 Spruce To clean up broken or missing Registry items, first click the Registry button, then ‘Scan for Issues’ (CCleaner’s developers recommend leaving all settings checked). Once the scan is done, click ‘Fix selected Issues…’, then click Yes to back up your Registry (that’s a must). You can then go through each issue and fix them individually, or tell CCleaner to fix them all at once.

Explore Declutter your PC

uninstall programs 3 Quickly You can uninstall programs from Windows’ Settings menu,

startup permissions 4 Choose A lot of programs set themselves to launch whenever you

but CCleaner’s version (Tools > Uninstall) is better. It’s cleaner, shows more info, and each column can be sorted, enabling you to quickly find old programs you no longer need. Once you’ve found one you no longer want, simply click Uninstall. You can also rename programs, exclude them from the list, and export the list.

log in, meaning Windows can take a long time to load. To fix this, click Tools > Startup and find the program you want to stop loading on startup. Next, right-click it and click either Disable or Delete. Disabling means you can re-enable the program if you change your mind; it removes it from the startup list completely.

the Disk Analyzer 5 Run CCleaner can help identify space hogs. Click Tools > Disk Analyzer, select which file types to include and which drive to scan, then click Analyze. CCleaner will display the files on that drive, sorted into categories and the percentage of space they’re using. Sort the files by size, click the checkbox by any you want rid of, right-click, then click Delete Selected Files to clear them.

your cookies 7 Manage Cookies are small files that ensure you stay logged in to the websites you visit, among other things. CCleaner has a function to clear them out, but you might want to keep some for your favourite sites. Click Options > Cookies, browse the list of cookies, then move any you want CCleaner to keep to the right-hand column. CCleaner will pass over them when deleting cookies.

down duplicate files 6 Hunt Use your PC for a while and you’ll soon pack it with duplicate files. To remove them, click Tools > Duplicate Finder.

Choose your search parameters and drives to search on, then click Search. CCleaner finds files that match not only by name, but by date, file size and even content, to ensure they’re not just similarly named. Don’t do this on your system drive, just to be safe.

CCleaner on auto-pilot 8 Run CCleaner can monitor your PC and prompt you when it might be a good time to clean up. To enable this, click Options > Monitoring. The free version is limited to prompting you when you can clear up to 0.5GB of files. In the Pro version you can change this, get CCleaner to clear the files without prompting, and clear unwanted data when you close your web browser. Q October 2017 |

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/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Personalise your PC

PERSONALISATION Choose which part of Windows you want to personalise here. Most of the changes you make are applied instantly.

<ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ ,ʋɚ (ɃʑQȫʑɚ Vʋ\ɡ

“Make your Windows computer feel really yours by changing its pictures and colours”

At a glance Skill level…

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable for…

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

T

he world would be a boring place if all our PCs looked the same. And we might make a mistake and end up reading our boss’s personal email… which would be embarrassing.

To avoid such professional faux pas, Windows PCs can be personalised in all manner of exciting ways. Beyond just altering the desktop background, you can customise the sounds it plays, the picture that shows on the lock screen, even the Start menu.

Microsoft wants you to personalise your PC, to develop a bond with it, so it’s made customising the look of Windows really easy, especially if you’re using Windows 10, which has a streamlined personalisation window compared to that in Windows 7.

And don’t forget the outside of your PC. Laptops and peripherals can be adorned with all kinds of vinyl stickers. Your computer is yours, so why not make it unique?

Step-by-step Get your PC the way you want it

Windows 1 Activate If you haven’t activated Windows, personalisation is one of the things Microsoft withholds from you. You’re stuck with the blue Windows logo background with a message at the bottom right that can’t be removed. You also can’t change your account photo or syncing your settings across devices. To activate Windows go to Settings > ‘Update & security’ > Activation.

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picture 2 Account That photo of your face that adorns your lock screen, or the animal or symbol you picked from a small selection when you created your Microsoft account, can be changed. In Windows 10, go to Settings > Accounts and under Your Info click ‘Manage my Microsoft account’. A browser window will open taking you to the the Microsoft website, where you can add a new profile picture.

Explore Personalise your PC Jargon buster!

YOUR THEMES Any custom themes you have saved are listed here, so you can easily click on one to see how it will look.

CHANGES Click here to change individual items, from backgrounds to sounds to colours and even the shape and size of cursors.

STORE THEMES Some of the best themes for Windows 10 are available on the Windows Store, many of which are completely free.

background 3 Desktop This is a major change in how your PC looks. Right-click the desktop and select Personalise, and the first screen in the window that appears is for changing the background. You can choose a picture, a solid colour or a slideshow, and can choose any picture that’s on your PC, how often it changes, and how it fits to your screen if it’s not quite the right shape.

ICONS Click her to change the icons on your desktop. You can find out how to do that in our Basics section on page 73.

POINTERS Click here to change your mouse pointer.

There are plenty of pointers built into Windows, and you can easily add more.

Theme Changes many aspects of Windows’ appearance at once.

You can use the free ones, find more on the Windows Store or make your own.

Icons If the Windows 10 desktop icons aren’t to your taste, you can change them.

Changing to a new Theme will often switch them back to the defaults, though.

Activate To activate Windows you’ll need evidence you have paid for it in some way – like an activation code.

ƮDŽ1 6 %NJ67 ƼǏ3 <ʝɤ Fʋɚ ʎȾHDɀɏ Ɉ ȸʑɦ ʃȱʑȷɏ ʍɨ PRʏLʓʪʖQɒ ʋɚ ʑʩLVʤʖQɒ ʝȸɏ ,ɢ ʨɵɸɗ ȩHFʝȷɏ Ɉ ȸʑɦ &XVWʝə ʃȱʑȷɏ \ʝɤ Fʋɚ VʋɃɏ

Windows 7…

4 In Things work in a very similar way in the older operating system, the same right-click and selection of Personalise, but the window that appears is a little different. It takes you straight to Themes, which you can use to change your desktop, but if you just want to change the background there’s a link below, marked Desktop Background, that allows you to change just the picture.

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your colours 5 Change In Windows 10, Settings > Personalisation > Colours lets you pick an accent colour for windows and the Taskbar. Tick the ‘Automatically pick…’ box to have a new accent colour chosen each time your desktop background changes, or choose a coloured block to have it stay the same. Use the two ‘Show the accent colour’ boxes to colour the Taskbar and window headers.

your lock screen 7 Set Whether you lock your PC every time you step away from it

the dark side 6 Join At the bottom of the Colours window are options to switch between Light and Dark modes, and access high contrast themes.

The screenshots on this page were taken in Dark mode, but Light is the default. Dark mode only applies to apps, so any folder windows you open will have black-on-white text. High contrast themes are accessible from a link below the mode toggle.

or change a theme 8 Choose A Theme changes many things about the appearance of

or leave it to timeout, the lock screen can be used for more than inputting a password. You can set apps to display there, along with incoming emails or messages. In Settings > Personalisation > ‘Lock screen’, you’ll find options for Cortana, how long it takes for your PC to lock itself, and any screensavers you may be using.

your PC at once, such as desktop background, accent colours, sounds and more. Some themes are built-in, while others can be found on the Windows Store. You can also create your own themes. Any changes you make to a theme turns it into a Custom Theme, which you can name, save, and come back to anytime.

9 Start Windows 10’s Start menu doesn’t have to always look the

10 Taskbar The Taskbar doesn’t have to be boring, or along the bottom

same. You can change its colour, its proportions and its contents.

Pop up the Start menu and drag its edges with the mouse pointer to change its size in both directions. You can also change its colour in Settings > Personalisation > Colours, and use Settings > Personalisation > Start to modify its contents.

of your screen. Use this last entry in the Personalisation settings to change it to the side if you want, and whether or not it should hide itself to maximise your screen space. You can change the size of its buttons, and enable desktop peeking from here too. There are also options for taskbars across multiple displays. Q

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/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Fix Wi-Fi problems

<ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ ,ʋɚ (ɃʑQȫʑɚ Vʋ\ɡ

“Networking not working? Try our tips for re-establishing contact and getting back online”

At a glance Skill level…

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable for…

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

W

i-Fi is basically magic, the way it communicates wirelessly and handles much of the setup for you. Anyone who’s tried to set up a network in the days of DOS or Windows 95 will appreciate the ability to simply enter a password and connect. It’s even easier to use than Bluetooth, which although much improved in recent versions, can be finicky about settings.

This means, however, that when it does go wrong, you can be exposed to a mess of settings and protocols that you’ve never seen before, as you played no part in their setup. Part of the problem can be identifying what’s gone wrong, and at which end of the wireless link the fault is.

So if your internet connection is missing in action or your router has turned invisible, we have some suggestions for how you can restore the wireless link and resume your online activities.

STATUS Tells you whether you’re connected or not. Makes it easy by declaring ‘You’re connected to the internet’. Or not.

WIFI Gives you a toggle to turn your Wi-Fi on and off, and cocks a snook at the Wi-Fi Alliance by omitting the hyphen.

FLIGHT MODE Switches your computer’s wireless communications off, either in their entirety or on an individual basis.

Step-by-step Get back online

it off…

1 Turn And on again. The oldest tip in the book, but it is amazing what a power cycle can do. Find the off switch for your router and use it, find the restart option in its Admin panel, or turn it off at the wall. Count to 30, and switch it back on again. It will take a while to come back to full operation – routers are like little PCs, so need to restart in the same way. It might just work!

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the problem?

2 Where’s Finding out whether the problem is with your PC or the router is a major part of getting it fixed. Windows’ notification area, at the bottom right of the screen, contains a network status icon, which looks like a series of arcs and a dot. Hover your pointer over this, and you should get a connection report. A red ‘X’ or yellow ‘!’ indicates a connection problem.

Explore Fix Wi-Fi problems ĆŽÇ&#x201E;1Â&#x203A;6 %Ç&#x160;67 ĆźÇ?3 <Ę?ĘŚÉ UĘ?XÉ&#x20AC;Ę&#x2018;É Â&#x203A;ÉĄ DĘ?Ę&#x203A;Ę&#x2013;É&#x161; SDČ°É? FĘ&#x2039;É&#x161; É&#x20AC;ɰɸÉ&#x2014; \Ę?ɤ É&#x2C6; ORɢ ÉŞEĘ?Xɢ \Ę?ĘŚÉ :É&#x201D; )É&#x201D; ȸHʤZĘ?Ę É&#x2013; Ę&#x2013;QÉ­Ę&#x2122;XĘ?Ę&#x2013;QÉ&#x2019; Ę&#x192;ČąÉ? Ę&#x153;ʌɺȊĘ&#x2018;É RÉ&#x2018; FĘ?Ę&#x153;ȸHFÉ&#x20AC;HÉ? ČŤĘ&#x2018;ʧLČŞHÉĄ

Jargon buster!

Driver A small piece of software that tells a device how to function. Frequently updated and messed around with by hardware vendors.

SSID Service Set IdentiďŹ er.

The name of a wireless network broadcast by the router. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what you look for when you want to connect.

SHOW AVAILABLE NETWORKS Scans for Wi-Fi connections in the vicinity, and enables you to choose which one to connect to.

WIFI SERVICES Suggested open hotspots for free internet access. May not be secure.

moving about 3 Try Wireless access points have a limited range, and things like walls, furniture and interference can get between you and your browsing. Try using the speedtest.net website at different points in your home and varying distances from the router, to see if this makes a difference. Buildings with thick, stone walls can block Wi-Fi signals more effectively than ones that use plasterboard.

netsh Short for Network Shell. This is a command line utility that can conďŹ gure your network adapters, or provide reports on them.

RANDOM HARDWARE ADDRESSES Secures the MAC addresses of your wireless adapters, so you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be tracked.

or 5GHz? 4 2.4GHz The frequency of the Wi-Fi network can make a difference. A 5GHz network is generally faster, less congested and not as open to interference from other devices than the more common 2.4GHz spectrum. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not the one in charge of the access point thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s little you can do, but many modern routers enable both kinds of network, often with different SSIDs. October 2017 |

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your speed 5 Check If you’re connected to the access point but your connection is very slow, the problem might be outside your control. Point a web browser at speedtest.net, and when it loads, run its test. You can compare the result against what you expect to be getting, and talk to your service provider about the difference. This is no good if you’re not getting any network traffic at all, of course.

your drivers 6 Check Bring up Device Manager by popping up the Start menu and searching for it. Select Network Adapters and pick the wireless network adapter. There will be an exclamation mark against any hardware that’s not functioning properly, but to check for a driver update, right-click the adapter and select Update Driver, then tell it to search automatically.

7 Disable/enable A bit like turning it off and on again, but for your network

a Wireless network report 8 Generate By running Command Prompt as an Administrator (right-

adapter. Right-click to bring up the same menu as in Step 4, but this time select Disable. Wait a moment, do it again, then choose Enable. If the adapter still doesn’t work, choose Uninstall from the same menu. Count to 10, then Action > ‘Scan for Hardware Changes’. This should reinstall your adapter, kicking it into action.

click it in the Start menu) and typing ‘netsh wlan show wlanreport’ you can get a readout of all the Wi-Fi activity over the last three days. The report is saved as an HTML file you can open with a web browser. Any network traffic errors are shown as red circles. Select them to see more information about each one.

Reasons 9 Disconnect The network report is quite detailed. Very detailed, in fact.

a different adapter 10 Try If you’re using a PC with a built-in wireless adapter, you can

One area that’s useful if you have Wi-Fi problems is Disconnect Reasons, which shows you all the recent disconnections from the wireless access point and the reason for it. ‘Disconnected by User’ suggests normal use, while ‘Specific Network is not Available’ suggests a problem communicating with the router.

test whether it’s working or not by plugging in a USB one. It’s not the sort of thing people generally have laying around, but they’re available for less than £10 online and may provide a stop-gap while yours is repaired. If the USB adapter works where the built-in one doesn’t, at least you know where the problem is. Q

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Explore Fix audio issues in Windows

/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Fix audio issues in Windows If you’re having problems hearing sound through your PC’s speakers, this walkthrough will help you to solve them

F

or all the benefits that come with upgrading to Windows 10, there have been reports of issues to do with sound output for some, including not being able to hear music, movies or anything else through a PC’s speakers.

The problem seems to be particularly prevalent in PCs that are equipped with

VIA HD Audio cards, with sounds only working in certain apps.

Fortunately, there is a workaround if you’re affected by this issue. Right-click Playback Devices, right-click the audio output device and set it as the default device. Then select the device with your left mouse button, choose Properties,

select the Enhancements tab and check ‘Disable all enhancements’. That should help fix the problem.

If you don’t have a VIA HD Audio card and are still having sound problems, then try the steps outlined in this tutorial. You might be surprised by how straightforward and effective they can be.

Step-by-step Get audio sounding great again in Windows

issues 1 Driver The most common sound problems are due to users not

updating the device driver for their PC’s sound card or audio chip.

Open the Start menu and type Device Manager in the search field. Launch the utility by clicking it and you’ll see a list of icon options. Choose ‘Sound, video and game controllers’. If your PC has a sound card, you’ll see it here. Click the card profile to open it.

driver 3 Generic If updating your sound card driver fails to fix the problem, try

Window’s generic audio driver. Open Device Manager, right-click your sound card and choose ‘Update driver software…’. Choose ‘Browse my computer for driver software’, then select ‘Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer’. Click ‘High Definition Audio Device’ from the list, click Install and restart your PC.

driver 2 Update Next, click on the Driver tab and look for the option to Update Driver. Select it and Windows will start to search for the correct driver online and download it. If the search comes up empty, visit your sound card manufacturer’s website to find the applicable driver to download. Once the driver update is complete, restart your PC and check the issue has been resolved.

issues 4 Browser If your sound issue is restricted to not being able to hear sound online when using Edge, it could be a problem with Adobe Flash Player. Open the Edge browser and you’ll see a button in the top corner of the window with an ellipsis (…) in it. Click this button, select Settings and then ‘Advanced settings’ from the list of options. Ensure the toggle is on next to Adobe Flash Player.

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DEVICE PROPERTIES The Properties page lists details for your sound card make and driver.

won’t listen 5 Cortana When enabled, Microsoft’s virtual personal assistant,

UPDATE DRIVER You can update the driver for your card using this button.

Cortana, is meant to listen to your commands when you say ‘Hey, Cortana’. If it can’t hear you, first check that your microphone is switched on. Then open Cortana, head to Settings (the cog icon on the left) and make sure the Hey Cortana toggle is switched on.

PLAYBACK DEVICE The Sound control pane lets you set the default audio device.

your connections 6 Check Inspect speaker and headphone ports for loose cables, jacks, and flex the wires to to see if there’s a poor connection.

Also, check your power and try turning the volume controls up.

Some apps and speakers have separate volume controls too. Your speakers may be silent because your headphones are plugged in.

default device 7 Set If you’re connecting to an audio device using USB or HDMI, you might need to set that device as the default before you hear anything. To do so, open the Start menu, type ‘Sound’ into the search box and select it from the list of Settings results. Next, click the Playback tab, select the device you’re trying to connect, and click Set Default. If this doesn’t work, connect the device to another port.

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enhancements 8 Bad Sometimes the issue can lie with the audio enhancements that Microsoft or third parties have designed. Happily, you can turn them off. Open Start, type ‘Sound’ into the search box and select Sound Control Panel from the list of Settings results. Select the Playback tab, right-click the Default Device and choose Properties.

On the Enhancements tab, check ‘Disable all enhancements’.

Explore Fix audio issues in Windows Jargon buster!

ƟƎ0Â&#x203A;6 %Ç&#x160;67 ĆźÇ?3 $ÉĄ ʨLĘ&#x192;É&#x201C; PRVɢ LVĘŁÉ&#x201A;HÉĄ GĘ?É&#x161;Â&#x203A;ɢ ĘŚQČŤĘ&#x2018;ČžHVʤĘ&#x2013;PDÉ&#x20AC;É? Ę&#x192;ČąÉ? SĘ?É&#x201E;Ę&#x2018;É RÉ&#x2018; É&#x2C6; ĘŁĘ&#x2013;Ę&#x203A;ɿȾÉ? ČžHVWĘ&#x2039;Uɢ 7KDɢ Â&#x203A;ÉĄ â&#x20AC;ŤŢ?â&#x20AC;ŹĘ&#x2018;É&#x161; ɪɸÉ&#x2014; Lɢ WÉŞČ´HÉĄ WÉ&#x203A; ČžHVÉźĘ&#x2122;É&#x192;É? É&#x2C6; Ę UɟɏȾĘ&#x2018;É&#x2122;

Device Manager A native Windows utility that displays information about the driver proďŹ le for all the hardware present on your system.

DEVICE MANAGER Find your audio device under â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sound, video and game controllersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Audio driver A piece of software speciďŹ cally coded for your audio hardware that enables Windows to integrate it into the system.

Sound card A removable PCB that ďŹ ts in a socket on your PCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s motherboard if the latter doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have an onboard audio chip.

ENHANCEMENTS TAB Disable any audio enhancements to see if that resolves issues.

At a glance Skill levelâ&#x20AC;Ś

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

ADVANCED TAB Here you can test diďŹ&#x20AC;erent audio formats to ďŹ x issues.

Suitable forâ&#x20AC;Ś Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

audio format 9 Change Sometimes, incompatible drivers or third-party audio software can affect playback, so check if an audio format is the source of your issue. In the Sound Control panel, select Playback, right-click the Default Device and choose Properties. Select Advanced and under Default Format, change the setting, then re-test your audio. If that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work, try another format.

10 Troubleshooter If all other efforts fail to solve the problem, try Windows 10â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s native audio troubleshooter. Occasionally, it can resolve an issue youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re having. To run it, open Start, type â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;troubleshootingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; into the search box and select it from the Settings results. Then, under â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Hardware and Soundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Troubleshoot audio playbackâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and click Next in the window that appears. Q

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/HĘ&#x2039;ʢÉ&#x161; KĘ?ÉŚ WÉ&#x203A;Â?

Make your PC safer in the Creators Update <Ę?ĘŚÉ Ę&#x201D;ĘŚLČŤÉ? (É? 5LÉ­Č´É?Ժɥ VĘ&#x2039;\ÉĄÂ?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The new Windows Defender Security Centre make it even easier to keep your PC safe from viruses and malware, plus provides plenty of other beneĂ&#x20AC;tsâ&#x20AC;?

At a glance Skill levelâ&#x20AC;Ś

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable forâ&#x20AC;Ś Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

W

indows Defender was always an essential part of Windows 10, checking and protecting against malware, but with the latest Creators Update, it has become even more useful. Now renamed Windows Defender Security Centre, it provides a one-stop-shop for ensuring your computer is protected against viruses and malware, enabling you to manage the ďŹ rewall, providing controls for restricting access to websites, and much more.

Apart from the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Family optionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; settings, each set of controls displays a colour-coded icon so you can instantly check their status. A green tick shows that everythingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s working as it should. A yellow exclamation mark indicates that thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a recommendation for you to look at, and a red cross indicates that a setting needs immediate attention, because your machine might be at risk. Now, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s protect your PC!

Ç&#x160;'Â&#x203A;6 %Ç&#x160;67 ĆźÇ?3 7ČąÉ? Ę?SʤLĘ?QÉĄ Ę?É&#x161; Ę&#x192;ČąÉ? )Ę&#x2039;Ę&#x203A;ÉľĘ&#x2122;ɨ 6HWʤĘ&#x2013;QJÉĄ É&#x201E;É°É&#x160; SDČ°É? Ę?ÉťĘ&#x2122;ɨ Ę&#x2039;Ę ČźHĘ&#x2039;É Ę&#x2013;É&#x161; ,QÉ&#x20AC;Ę&#x2018;ʢȸHɢ (ĘŠÉżOĘ?ČžĘ&#x2018;É Ę&#x2039;QÉ?

(GČ°É? QRɢ RĘ&#x192;ČąĘ&#x2018;É Ę?UĘ?ZČżĘ&#x2018;UÉĄ

Step-by-step Make the most of Windows Defender Security Centre

to the Centre 1 Welcome Remember youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll need to install the Creators Update if you

to virii 2 Bye-bye In â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Virus & threat protectionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, you can see the last time your

havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t already. The first time you open the Windows Defender Security Centre youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see something like this. All the settings are at their defaults, with the firewall and anti-virus components turned on â&#x20AC;&#x201C; meaning your PC is protected. To access individual settings, either click the large icons or the smaller ones to the left.

PC was scanned for viruses and malware â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Quick scanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to do just that. As the name implies, this just checks vital parts of Windows such as system files, startup files and the current working memory. Usually this is enough, and such scans are run regularly by default. To modify scan settings, click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Advanced scanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

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Explore Make your PC safer

do 3 Scan The ‘Full scan’ option checks every single file on your PC –

protection racket 4 The In ‘Virus & threat protection’ settings, you might want to

not just executable files (programs and apps), but data files, such as text files, too. With the ‘Custom scan’ option, you can specify individual files and folders to check. The last option is designed for persistent viruses and malware: it reboots Windows, starts in Safe Mode, then does a full scan. You don’t normally need this.

temporarily turn off real-time protection if, say, you have a slower PC and need to copy lots of files – it will turn on again after a while. ‘Cloud-based protection’ and ‘Automatic sample submission’ are best left on, but if you’re worried about privacy, turn them off.

Exclusions lets you specify files or folders you don’t want scanned.

routine check-up 5 A The ‘Device performance & health’ section brings together

with me 6 Firewall There are a lot of options in ‘Firewall & network protection’,

results from other tools in Windows to provide a snapshot of your PC’s health. For example, if there are Windows updates pending installation, you’ll be told here – click the heading to be taken to Windows Update. Similarly, if a device driver is missing or not behaving, click ‘Device driver’ to run a troubleshooter.

but if Windows Firewall is turned on and using its default settings (which is recommended), you’re unlikely to need many of them.

The top two headings show you the status of Windows Firewall for both private (home) connections and public ones. The bottom five options take you to the Windows Firewall itself.

smart approach 7 The In ‘App & browser control’, you can set how Windows SmartScreen works. SmartScreen watches out for files, websites and Windows apps that it doesn’t recognise as being safe, and can alert you about them before you use them. Usually, the default Warn option strikes the best balance, but if you want to be extra-careful, set the top two options to Block.

someone think of the children?

8 Won’t In ‘Family options’, clicking ‘View family settings’ opens your web browser so you can see and change any family settings you need. For example, if you’ve added a child as a user in Windows, you can block access to inappropriate websites and apps, restrict screen time, gift them money to spend in the Windows and Xbox Stores – or stop them buying apps from the Stores altogether! Q October 2017 |

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MENU BAR You can export your notes in plain text from the File menu.

Use the View menu to change fonts, styles and more.

/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Keep your notes in sync <ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ 1Lɭɖ 3ȭʑUɡ Vʋ\ɡ

“Keep text-based notes in sync across all your devices with Simplenote. It’s fast, easy and free”

At a glance Skill level…

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable for…

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

W

hat if you like the idea of keeping notes in sync across all your computers and mobile devices, but don’t need the bells and whistles of cloud-based tools, such as Evernote and OneNote?

Well, then look no further than Simplenote. This free tool uses the cloud to keep your notes in sync like the other two apps, but is fast and easy to use thanks to the fact that it’s limited to storing plain text notes – with Markdown formatting an optional extra if you want it.

Simplenote apps are available for all major platforms – Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android included. You can even access your notes through any secure web browser at www. simplenote.com. Additional benefits include offline access, versioning backups, and even tools that can help you share notes and collaborate with other Simplenote users. Read on to find out how it all works.

FILTER VIEW Click the Tag icon to filter the notes list by keyword tags, view the Trash to retrieve deleted notes, or view ‘All notes’.

SEARCH Type here to search both notes and tags for matching keywords – the notes list will filter itself accordingly.

Step-by-step Create, sync and share notes

steps 1 First Head to www.simplenote.com and click the ‘Download for Windows 7+’ link. Once downloaded, install the program and let it launch when finished. Then click the ‘Sign up’ link to create your account – all you need is an email address and a strong password.

You’ll then find yourself logged into your new account – read the example note, then click the New Note button to get started.

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basics 2 Simplenote Type your note into the right-hand pane. All changes are synced automatically to the cloud. Simplenote enables you to add keyword tags to your notes to make it easier to identify them, and find them later using filters. Install the Simplenote mobile app on your phone, and you’ll be able to sync and update your notes when you’re on the go. The app will also work offline.

Explore Keep your notes in sync

SWITCH VIEW When Markdown is enabled, you can use the Preview tab to see what your text looks like using its formatting.

Jargon buster!

Markdown A special markup language that allows plain text to be formatted using <tags> and symbols.

These can then be converted into other formats, such as HTML, for display.

HISTORY Click here and use the slider to view previous versions of your notes. Click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Restore Noteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to bring a version back.

Tags Special keywords that can be attached to notes to help categorise, identify and ďŹ lter them. Not to be confused with Markdown <tags>.

Versioning A form of backup that stores multiple revisions of a document or ďŹ le, enabling you to roll back to an earlier version if you wish.

TAGS Assign and view keyword tags to your notes, which are shown here with the email addresses of any collaborators.

and share 3 Collaborate Click the Share button. Invite other Simplenote users to view and edit the note from the Collaborate tab â&#x20AC;&#x201C; enter their Simplenote email and click Add Email followed by Done. You can revoke access at any time by clicking Remove next to a name.

Switch to the Publish tab to create a read-only web link to the note that you can share via email, social media or even a blog.

Ć´,Ǩ.Â&#x203A;6 %Ç&#x160;67 ĆźÇ?3 &Ę&#x2122;LÉ­É&#x2013; Ę&#x192;ČąÉ? Â&#x161;É&#x201D;Â&#x203A; Ę?XÉ&#x20AC;WĘ?É&#x161; WÉ&#x203A; Ę Ę&#x2013;É&#x161; Ę&#x192;ČąÉ? Ę&#x17D;ʌʢȞĘ&#x2018;Qɢ QRÉ&#x20AC;É? WÉ&#x203A; Ę&#x192;ČąÉ? WĘ?É&#x17E; RÉ&#x2018; \Ę?ĘŚÉ QRÉ&#x20AC;HÉĄ Ę&#x2122;LVɢ Ę&#x2039;QÉ? Č°Hɢ ZĘ?UÉ? Ę&#x2039;QÉ? É­KĘ&#x2039;UDFÉ&#x20AC;Ę&#x2018;É FĘ?ĘŚQWÉĄ

formatting 4 Markdown Simplenote supports Markdown language on all platforms (except the Mac), enabling you to format text by enclosing it in special characters â&#x20AC;&#x201C; such as single asterisks for italics, or double asterisks for bold text. Markdown also lets you embed links and online images, and set up lists. Open a note and click the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; button, then flick the Markdown switch to On to enable support. Q October 2017 |

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/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Write documents and emails using your voice <ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ 0ɈԼ +ʋQVʝɚ Vʋ\ɡ

“The Dictate add-on for Microsoft OfÀce lets you write documents and emails using your voice alone.

Best of all, this feature is free!”

At a glance Skill level…

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable for…

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

V

oice-to-text software has become ever more powerful and accurate, and Microsoft has created a free add-on for its Office apps that enables you to use state-of-the-art speech recognition technology to type what you say. It’s a great way to compose emails or write Word documents if you’re a slow typer – or if you find using a keyboard uncomfortable or difficult.

While you usually have to pay for voice-to-text software, the Dictate add-on is free. That doesn’t mean it lacks features, however, since it uses the same speech recognition software that powers Microsoft’s virtual assistant, Cortana. Of course, to use Dictate you will need a recent version of Microsoft Office. It works with Word, Outlook and PowerPoint programs, plus it supports 29 spoken languages. So, if you have Microsoft Office, as well as a microphone for your PC, then give it a try.

Ƴ$Ƽ7 6 %NJ67 ƼǏ3 &ʝQʤUɼɗ :ʖQGʝZɡ ʨLʃɓ \ʝʦɠ YʝLȪɏ 7ʪȼɏ :ʖQGʝZɡ 6ȼȭHɭɓ 5HFRʔʜLʤLʝɚ ʖQWɛ ʃȱɏ 6WʋUɢ ȷʑʜɤ ȿHʋUɭɓ Eʝɧ Iʝɠ ʝSʤLʝQɡ

Step-by-step Installing and using Dictate

the Dictate add-on 1 Install To install the Dictate add-on you will first need to ensure that you have Microsoft Office installed. Then, head to the Dictate website (http://dictate.ms/) and press the button that says ‘Download for Office 32-bit’. It’s most likely that you have 32-bit Office installed, but if not, there’s a 64-bit version link too. Once the file has downloaded, click to start the installation process.

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Dictate 2 Launch With Dictate installed, open an Office app. If one was already open while you installed Dictate, save your work, close it, then re-open it. A brief window will appear saying add-ons are loading. Once your Office app of choice has loaded, you should see a new entry in the top-right corner of the screen, which will say ‘Dictation’. Click it to to view the voice options.

Explore Write using your voice

up your microphone 3 Setting You’ll need a microphone to use the Dictate add-on. If you use a laptop or tablet, it’s likely that one is built in. If not, you’ll need either a standalone mic, or a headset with one. Once plugged into your device, open the microphone settings by right-clicking the volume control and selecting ‘Recording devices’. Speak into the mic and the level bar should go green.

your voice 5 Using Now your mic has been set up, go back to the Office app you were using. To start turning what you say into text, click the ‘Dictation’ Ribbon, then Start. As you speak you will see the words you’ve spoken appear in the Response box. If you pause speaking, the text that Dictate has recognised will be placed into the open document, followed by a full stop. Press ‘Stop’ when you’re done.

voice control 7 More There are a number of other commands you can say as you use Dictate, which will help edit the text that appears without you needing to use your PC’s mouse or keyboard. For example, if you say ‘delete’, the last line you dictated will be removed. If you want to start a new line, just say ‘new line’. To stop Dictate typing out what you’re saying, say ‘stop dictation’.

your microphone 4 Configuring It’s a good idea to let Windows configure your microphone so the voice recognition feature of Dictate works as best as it can.

In the ‘Recording devices’ window, click the Configure button to open a new window, then click ‘Set up microphone’. This will start a wizard that will ask you questions about your microphone, then set appropriate settings so that you get the best results.

punctuation 6 Using By default ‘manual’ punctuation will be turned off. This means Dictate will analyse your speech and add what it thinks is appropriate punctuation. This may not always be accurate, so you can switch to manual punctuation by clicking the Manual Punctuation button. Now, if you say ‘full stop’ it will add a full stop, saying ‘question mark’ will add a question mark, and so on.

your speech 8 Translate Another cool feature of Dictate is that it can translate the words you speak into a different language – from a choice of 60.

This is very useful if you’re messaging people in another language, or need to translate something. In the From menu select the language you’re speaking in, then in the ‘To’ drop-down list box, select the language you want your speech to be translated into. Q October 2017 |

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/Hʋʢɚ Kʝɦ Wɛ

Childproof your Windows 10 PC <ʝʦɠ ʔʦLȫɏ 7ʖə +ʋUʏʨLɭɖ Vʋ\ɡ

“Control what your kids can and can’t see and do in Windows 10 with child accounts”

At a glance Skill level…

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable for…

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

T

he internet is an amazing information resource that brings convenience to our everyday lives. But with such freedom come drawbacks, particularly when it comes to child safety. Few would deny their children access to the web, but how do you ensure they are protected from unsuitable content?

Happily, Windows 10 offers a solution in the form of child user accounts.

If you’re sharing your PC with your kids, giving them their own account allows them to go online safely by letting you set up age restrictions.

That way, you can ensure they aren’t visiting websites that aren’t right for them, and prevent them from downloading and/or launching apps or games they aren’t old enough to be using. These steps also explain how to set time limits on usage, so you can be sure your kids won’t be surfing all night.

ƼƮ0 6 %NJ67 ƼǏ3 :ɰEʣLɀHɡ Fʋɚ ʝɻʙɨ ȩɏ ɬORɭȴHɍ ʖɚ (GȰɏ %ORɭɖ Rʃȱʑɠ ʍUʝZȿʑUɡ ʖɚ ʃȱɏ $ʠSɡ JʋȷHɡ VʎȾȭʑɚ ʝɚ \ʝʦɠ ɭʕɵOɍ ɡ DȪFʝʦQɢ SDȰɏ

Step-by-step How to set up child accounts

a family member 1 Add With a child account, your kids will get their own desktop layout, their own set of user folders and their own Start menu. To set them up in Windows 10, choose Settings from the desktop Start menu and click on Accounts. Next, select ‘Family & other people’ from the left pane, click the ‘+’ button next to ‘Add a family member’ on the next screen, and then select ‘Add a Child’.

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a child account 2 Add Next you’ll be asked to enter an email address associated with the new account. If your child doesn’t have a Microsoft account or they’re too young to have an email address, that’s okay. Just click ‘The person I want to add doesn’t have an email address’, and you’ll be prompted to create an account and an @outlook.com email address for them. Click ‘Confirm’ to finish.

Explore Childproof your Windows 10 PC

an invite 3 Accept One of the benefits of a child account is that your children

permission 4 Parental Once you’ve logged into their email account and accepted

can use theirs to log onto any device you own. Before they can do that however, they may need to accept an invite that Windows sends to the email address associated with the new account. If they’re too young to understand, you can do this for them using the account details you added in the previous step.

the invitation, the child will be prompted to log into their account.

If the administrating Microsoft account lists your child as being under 13, you’ll need to sign in yourself and confirm them as a family member. A screen will appear titled ‘You need a parent’s permission’; click the button that says ‘Have a parent sign in’.

up permissions 5 Set Windows may ask you for your credit card number to verify

family 6 Your A list of user accounts that come under the family category

you’re an adult. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to set up the child’s permissions. Back in the Windows 10 account settings menu, select the option to ‘Manage family settings online’. A browser window will open and load the Microsoft website. Once you’ve logged in you’ll be able to control family member access.

will be displayed. Select the child from the list that you’re setting up the account for and you’ll see a number of options. The first, ‘Recent activity’, lets you see what websites they’ve been visiting, what apps or games they’ve been downloading or playing, and how much time they’ve been spending on their devices.

and apps 7 Browsing In ‘Web browsing’, you can choose to block or allow specific

time and spending 8 Screen Screen time lets you set time limits and time of day for your

sites and to restrict sites rated beyond a certain age. If you have very young children, you can choose to allow them to only visit websites you’ve decided are safe, by entering the URLs and clicking Allow. From the ‘Apps, games & media’ screen, you can block inappropriate apps and games in the Windows Store.

child to use their account. You can let them use it more at the weekends, for example. You can also use the ‘No later than’ fields so they can’t use their account beyond a certain time. Finally, ‘Purchase and spending’ lets you add money to their account so they can buy items from the Windows Store. Q October 2017 |

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/HĘ&#x2039;ʢÉ&#x161; KĘ?ÉŚ WÉ&#x203A;Â?

Get blogging from your Windows PC <Ę?ĘŚÉ Ę&#x201D;ĘŚLČŤÉ? &Dɢ (ɸĘ&#x2122;LÉĄ VĘ&#x2039;\ÉĄÂ?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now easier than ever to share your hobbies, interests and passions with these brilliant free blogging toolsâ&#x20AC;?

At a glance Skill levelâ&#x20AC;Ś

Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts

Suitable forâ&#x20AC;Ś Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

T

he internet is packed with passionate people sharing tips, advice and much more about their favourite pastimes. And thanks to free blogging tools, you can also become part of that vibrant community of enthusiasts with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to look at three of the best blogging platforms â&#x20AC;&#x201C; WordPress, Blogger and Weebly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; all of which have their own special features and options. Roughly speaking, Weebly is the most straightforward of the three, letting you drag and drop images and text into place, whereas WordPress and Blogger require a little more eďŹ&#x20AC;ort, but provide more advanced features (including scheduling, tagging and more).

None of these tools will cost you a penny though, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be ready to make your ďŹ rst blog post in just a few minutes. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got something to say, so hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how to say it!

Č&#x2030;$7Â&#x203A;6 %Ç&#x160;67 ĆźÇ?3 ,ɢ Â&#x203A;ÉĄ JČšRÉ? WÉ&#x203A; SRVɢ ČžHĘ&#x201D;Ę&#x2026;OĘ&#x2039;Ę Ę&#x2122;ɨ VÉ&#x203A; FĘ?QĘŁLČŤĘ&#x2018;É Ę¨Ę˘LʤĘ&#x2013;QÉ&#x2019; ČżĘ&#x2018;É&#x192;Ę&#x2018;UÉŞÉ&#x2014; SRVWÉĄ Dɢ Ę?QČŞÉ? Ę&#x2039;QÉ? Ę&#x192;ČąĘ&#x2018;É&#x161; VÉ­ČąHĘ?Ę&#x2026;ČľÉ? Ę&#x2021;ČąĘ&#x2018;É&#x161; WÉ&#x203A; Ę Ę&#x2026;ÉŹĘ&#x2122;LĘ&#x201A;É&#x201C; Ę&#x192;ČąĘ&#x2018;É&#x2122;

Step-by-step Start your own blog

started with WordPress 1 Get First, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s try blogging with WordPress. Go to www. wordpress.com and click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Create websiteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to get started. Choose a topic (weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve selected â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Family, Home and Lifestyleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; > Travel) and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be presented with a selection of templates for your new blog. You can always pick a different one later, but think about the type of content youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to be posting when you choose one.

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a domain and plan 2 Pick You now need to choose a domain for your blog. You can pay for a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;.comâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; web address, or use WordPressâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free option, which ends in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;.wordpress.comâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Type in the address youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like, to see which options are available (with variations if your chosen name is taken). Next, select the plan and create an account using the form provided, then verify your email address.

Explore Blogging from Windows

your first post 3 Make You can now see your new blog! To get started, select Add beside ‘Blog posts’ from the menu on the left. Type a title, then enter the text for your post. To include photos in your post, click the ‘Add media’ button on the left, then click ‘Upload media’, choose the pictures from your PC, decide how to arrange them and click Insert. Once you’re happy, click Publish.

with Blogger 4 Begin Blogger is owned by Google, so if you already have a Google account then you won’t need to register again – simply go to www.blogger.com and sign in. Confirm that you want to post using your Google account, then click the ‘New blog’ button. As with WordPress, you’ll need to enter suitable a title and domain, and choose a template from the selection provided.

a Blogger post 5 Write Select ‘Posts’ from the menu on the left, then click ‘Create a

places and scheduling 6 Labels, Adding labels will make it possible for readers to find posts

new post’. The page you’ll see next looks and works much like a document in Microsoft Word. Enter a title for your post, then type your text in. Adding pictures is simpler in Blogger than WordPress – you can drag each file straight from your desktop into the editing window, then use the options to resize and position it.

by topic once your blog has plenty of content. Select ‘Labels’ from the left menu and enter a few topics, separated by commas. You can also use this menu to set a location for your post – ideal if you’re starting a travel blog – and to schedule when your post should be published. Once you’ve finished, click Publish.

with Weebly 7 Work Getting started with Weebly only takes a moment – go to www.weebly.com, click ‘Sign up’ and log in with either your Facebook or Google account. Now pick a theme from the list of blog templates. As before, bear in mind the type of posts you’ll be making – will they mostly feature pictures or text? Choose a domain and you’re ready to get creative.

drop and publish 8 Drag, Enter a title for your blog, then type a little bit about yourself in the Author box. Weebly uses a drag-and-drop interface for creating posts. Click the ‘New post’ button, type a title, then drag the Text element underneath and type your content. Images, maps and other elements are also added by dragging them into place. Once you’re happy, click Post. Q October 2017 |

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Feature Windows timesavers

ESSENTIAL

WINDOWS

TIMESAVERS Rethink how you use Windows 10 to speed things up. By Nick Peers

W

e all want our PCs to run faster, but that doesn’t simply involve fitting a new processor, doubling the amount of RAM, or tweaking system settings in an effort to boost Windows’ raw speed (turn to page 11 for more). It also involves reappraising the way you use your computer, finding new shortcuts, and basically forcing yourself to work in a more efficient way. There are dozens of hidden tips and shortcuts that can revolutionise the way you interact with both Windows and your favourite programs, saving you a huge amount of time in a relatively short period.

How much time can you save? Taken in isolation, each tip we reveal over the following five pages will probably shave a few seconds off here and there, but when you start using them regularly, things soon start to add up.

Imagine: One tip that saves you five seconds, used 12 times a day, will save you a single minute, but over the course of a year, that adds up to six hours – from one tip. That means you don’t have

to apply that many of our recommended keyboard shortcuts and tweaks before your annual savings stretch into days, or even weeks, simply by familiarising yourself with the contents of this feature.

We’ve focused primarily on Windows 10 here, although many of the tweaks and tips also work with Windows 7 and 8.1. We optimise the way you use the desktop, Start menu (and its little brother, the Quick Access menu), and the Taskbar, and we reveal which Settings tweaks can streamline the way you work.

We also take you on a tour of time-saving keyboard shortcuts, investigate ways of using the right-click menu more efficiently, and unlock ways to search faster using File Explorer. There’s even time to look at creating your own custom Jump List commands, reacquaint yourself with the Run dialog box, and speed up the way you use Microsoft Office (along with other apps).

Start implementing these tips now, and discover how to make your Windows PC even more productive.

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Access your entire PC’s contents from the Taskbar.

Let’s begin our efficiency drive by streamlining your desktop and making things more accessible. If you’re not already doing so, start by placing shortcuts to your favourite apps on the Taskbar. This puts them a single click away – if you need to open a second instance of a program alongside the first, simply hold the [Shift] key as you click on the Taskbar icon to do so.

The simplest way to do this is to open the app in question – you’ll see its icon appear in the Taskbar, so just right-click it, and choose ‘Pin to taskbar’, then drag

it into place. You might, for example, want to group related apps together, so office apps in one part, web apps in another, and so on.

Another advantage of running apps from the Taskbar is that many use Jump Lists to give you two-click access to recently opened documents – right-click the Taskbar icon to access them all. To permanently attach an item to this list, roll your mouse over it, then click the Pin button that appears.

If you run out of space for items on the Taskbar, create a folder inside which

you place all your shortcuts, then right-click the Taskbar and choose New > Toolbars > New Toolbar. Point it to this folder, then you can click the ‘>>’ next to the newly created toolbar to access your shortcuts. Or go further, and create your own custom Jump Lists (see below).

Start menu shortcuts

The Windows 10 Start menu enables you to pin favourite items from the main list into the right-hand pane – just rightclick the item in question, and choose ‘Pin to Start menu’ (you can also pin the

Create custom Jump Lists Extend your application Jump Lists with Jumplist Extender (http://bit. ly/2wxVcdZr) – despite its age, this open-source tool works perfectly with Windows 10. Simply select your program, then create app-related tasks you can add to the list of options that appear in

Build your own Jump Lists for added convenience.

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the program’s Jump List. The best news?

Jumplist Extender edits the Registry to create and edit your Jump Lists – it doesn’t need to run for them to work.

For example, launch the program and choose ‘Start a new jump list’. Type ‘snipping’ into the Search Programs bar, and select the Snipping Tool. Click ‘Open’ followed by Run Snipping Tool to launch it. When it loads, click the Snipping Tool window to select it, then click OK in the Jumplist Extender window.

Type ‘Rectangular snip’ into the Name box in Jumplist Extender, then hold down [Alt] and press [N] – you’ll see ‘Alt+N’ appear in the ‘Press keyboard shortcuts’ window. Now press [Alt] + [M], then press [R] on its own – it should now read ‘[Alt+N] [Alt+M] R’. You can add other screen-capture options with the

| October 2017

right key combination by pressing the green ‘+’ button – for example, [Alt+N] [Alt+M] F’ for a Freeform snip, or ‘[Alt+N] [Alt+M] W’ for a Window snip.

Once that’s done, choose File > ‘Save and Apply to Taskbar’. Pin the Snipping Tool shortcut to the Taskbar, and close the program. Now right-click its Taskbar icon, and you’ll see the options you have created, enabling you to capture screenshots without having to open the Snipping Tool Àrst.

You can then apply this technique to any other program using keyboard shortcuts to trigger tasks – if no direct keyboard shortcuts exist, see the main text for the [Alt] workaround. Jumplist Extender can also be used to create a custom list of Àles to open using the program in question.

Feature Windows timesavers

“If you run out of space for items on the Taskbar, create a folder inside which you place all your shortcuts” item to the Taskbar from here via the More sub-menu). Once it appears in the list, you can then drag and drop related items together, change icon sizes (regular program shortcuts can be small or medium), then name the group for easy identification (click the ‘=’ button next to a group to rename it). Also, click and drag the title bar via its ‘=’ button to reorder groups, placing your more frequently accessed groups at the top of the list.

You’ll also notice some handy shortcuts down the left side of the panel – click your user photo to quickly access account settings via the ‘Change account settings’ option that appears (you can also switch users without logging out from here, too, and lock

your PC). Other shortcuts – including Settings and File Explorer – can also be found here. You have a limited choice over what you can display, including a selection of user folders (and indeed a link to the parent folder itself), plus Homegroup, and Network. To change these, go to Settings > Personalisation > Start, and then click ‘Choose which folders appear on Start’.

and tools, but why stop with the options provided? You can add your own with the help of Win+X Menu Editor (http://bit.ly/2xsJ36i). This portable application enables you to edit what’s there, rearrange items, and – crucially – add your own.

Once you launch Win+X Menu Editor, click ‘Add a program’ to add your choice of programs, Control Panel items, or Administrative Tools. Select ‘Add preset’ and you’ll find some handy shortcuts to hidden tools and power options as well. You can also organise your items into groups to keep related items together, and make things easier to find.

Use Quick Access

More Settings tweaks

The Start menu has been streamlined slightly in the Creators Update, but it’s still no substitute for the Quick Access menu that appears when you rightclick the Start button or press [Win] + [X]. This contains many useful shortcuts to various system settings

You can customise what appears on the Quick Access menu.

The following tweaks all help save on clicks and unnecessary navigation, and can be found under Start > Settings (or use [Win] + [I] for even faster access).

Start by heading over to Devices > Mouse, and – if necessary – flicking the ‘Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them’ switch to on. You can now roll your mouse over any open window and scroll it, without first selecting the window in question. If you’re a trackpad user, click ‘Additional mouse options’, and look for a tab that gives you access to specific gestures and other trackpad-only settings that can speed up how you use your PC. If you regularly switch between printers, head to Devices > Printer, and enable ‘Let Windows manage my default printer’ – this makes whichever printer you used last the default. Select ‘Typing’ if you want to disable autocorrect and remove text suggestions, although in most cases these are welcome timesavers. Finally, select AutoPlay if you want to pick a default option when you plug in external devices such as DVDs, USB drives or flash memory cards.

Go to System > ‘Notifications & actions’ to tweak which Quick Actions appear in the Action Centre – useful shortcuts include toggling quiet hours and tweaking network settings. Then select ‘Multi-tasking’ to change how virtual desktops behave – you can show open windows from all desktops on the Taskbar to speed things up if you frequently switch desktops, and configure [Alt] + [Tab] to show all open windows – not just those open on the current desktop. There’ll be more virtual desktop tweaks later.

Go to Accounts > ‘Sign-in options’ and set a device-specific PIN to save you time whenever you’re asked for your Microsoft account password.

Finally, it’s also worth exploring the ‘Ease of Access’ section to see if any of the accessibility options on offer can improve your Windows experience to make things easier (and quicker) to use.

If you want to save time entering your password, use a PIN instead.

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Master the keyboard

Assign a keyboard shortcut to launch favourite apps.

The [Alt] key accesses menus and Ribbons alike.

Point-and-click is convenient, but it’s no substitute for fast keyboard action.

Luckily, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to your favourite programs to quickly launch them – saving you precious time. First, let’s examine the Taskbar: The first 10 entries to the right of the Task View button can be triggered using the shortcuts [Win] + [1] through to [Win] + [0] (left to right).

Alternatively, right-click a program shortcut (or right-click its Taskbar entry, then right-click the program entry in the Jump List), and choose Properties.

From here, click inside the ‘Shortcut key’ box, then hold down your choice of key combination to launch the app – possible combinations include [Ctrl] + [Alt], [Shift] + [Alt], or [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Alt] plus your choice of key.

The [Win] key is also gateway to many useful tools: [Win] + [Pause/ Break] opens the old System Control Panel, for example, while [Win] + [A] opens the Action Centre. If you would like to pair the [Win] key with [Ctrl] and [Alt] for more keyboard shortcuts, download WinHotKey from www. directedge.us/content/winhotkey, which works fine in Windows 10.

It’s also worth exploring your favourite apps and programs for useful keyboard shortcuts. There are some useful shortcuts universal to all apps (and Windows itself), such as the [Ctrl] + [C], [X], and [V] shortcuts for copying, cutting, and pasting to and from the clipboard. [Ctrl] + [Z] undoes the last action (including file operations in

Use the Run dialog The old Start > Run dialog may not be shown by default on the Start menu anymore, but you can still invoke it by pressing [Win] +

[R]. The more you use the Run dialog, the better it becomes, thanks to autocomplete.

Typing paths is also quick, because all available subfolders pop up as you type, helping you to locate and travel through your Àlesystem.

Let’s start with a Windows 10-only tip. The new Settings menu can be labyrinthine to navigate, but the Run dialog gives you access to any section with the following syntax: ‘ms-settings:<shortcut>’ You need to replace ‘<shortcut>’ with your choice of location, such as ‘mssettings:windowsupdate’, or ‘ms-settings:lockscreen’.

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The Run dialog also speeds up access to the Control Panel, though many of the shortcuts now redirect to their Settings equivalent, such as ‘control desktop’. Those that don’t include ‘control admintools’, ‘control system’ (System Control Panel), and ‘control sysdm.cpl’ (System Properties).

You can see a complete list at http://bit.ly/2xvoGpr. Others include ‘devmgmt. msc’ (Device Manager), ‘taskmgr’ (Task Manager), ‘cleanmgr’ (Disk Cleanup), as well as any program shortcuts or program Àle names (such as ‘winword’ for Microsoft Word).

Another use for the Run dialog is to browse hidden user folders – speciÀcally those containing your application data. This is done using

| October 2017

The Run dialogue box is a time-saving superstar.

environment variables – ‘%AppData%’ points to C:\ User\<Yourname>\.AppData\ Roaming, for instance, while ‘%LocalAppData%’ redirects to C:\User\<Yourname>/.

AppData\Local. Type ‘%AppData%\’ and you’ll see a list of sub-folders; keep typing,

and they Àlter down until you can select one.

Other environment variables include ‘%OneDrive%’ (your OneDrive folder), ‘%windir%’ (your Windows directory) and ‘%ProgramData%’, which points to the location of the ProgramData folder.

Feature Windows timesavers

Send To Toys is a free app that gives you many more ‘Send:to’ options.

Windows), while [Ctrl] + [Y] redoes or repeats the last action.

Most keyboard shortcuts are clearly labeled within a program’s menus, but where no shortcut is forthcoming, always remember the [Alt] trick – press [Alt] and the highlighted letter of a menu, and you open the menu.

Combine this with the underlined letter of a specific menu option – [Alt] + [F] + [O] for File > Open, for example – and you trigger that menu option.

Office 365 users should press [Alt] once – you’ll see a list of letters appear above the various Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar options. Hold [Alt] as you press the corresponding key to access that option – if it’s a Ribbon tab,

more letters appear next to various Ribbon options, enabling you to select those options quickly. For more Office tips, see the ‘Speed up Microsoft Office’ boxout on page 58.

Use right-clicking

The right-click menu – also accessible by pressing [Shift] + [F10] to trigger it

at the current cursor point – is packed with useful, context-sensitive options, particularly in File Explorer. Hold down [Shift] as you right-click, and you often reveal hidden options – for example, ’Copy as path’ for a selected file or folder, or to load more destinations under the ‘Send to’ sub-menu.

To add your own custom apps and locations to the ‘Send:to’ menu, open the Run dialog, type ‘shell:sendto’ and hit [Enter]. Place your shortcuts in here, or use Send To Toys (www. gabrieleponti.com/software) to add more options, such as the clipboard, Command Prompt, and so on.

The right-click menus can become cluttered by third-party apps adding their own options, which can slow navigation down. If there’s no option to disable these within the application itself, there are a few third-party tools that can help clear the clutter for you.

If you’re using CCleaner (www.piriform. com), then go to Tools > Startup > Context Menu tab. If you want more control – including options for adding more entries to the menu – then use the portable Context Menu tool (http:// www.sordum.org/?p=7615) instead.

Choose File > ContextMenuCleaner to review and scrub unwanted entries.

“Most keyboard shortcuts are clearly labeled within a program’s menu, but where no shortcut is forthcoming, always remember the [Alt] trick”

Switch open apps quickly with the old-school [Alt] + [Tab] combo.

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Speed Up File Explorer

Speed up Microsoft Office

File Explorer is packed with timesaving tips and tools. Here are some of the best. First, make use of the Quick Access menu in the Navigation pane – drag frequently accessed folders here for quick and easy access.

If you’re still using [Ctrl] or [Shift] to select multiple folders or files, switch to the View tab of File Explorer’s Ribbon instead, and select ‘Item check boxes’ – now you can select each file or folder by using its checkbox.

File Explorer’s search box is still the go-to location for file and folder searches – learn to make the most of its filters to find what you need. The Search tab on the Ribbon provides you with two-click access to these, but you can input your own filters directly into the search box, including ‘type:’ (filetype), ‘kind:’ (type of file, such as document), ‘date:’ (date or date range), ‘size:’ (file size), and even ‘tag:’ (tags).

The Search box also supports all standard Boolean operators, so enclose exact phrases inside double quotation marks, precede unwanted terms with a dash (-), and use AND, OR, or NOT. Visit https://msdn.microsoft. com/aa965711 for a comprehensive guide. If you store key files outside of your user folders, it’s worth getting Windows to index those locations to speed up future searches. On the Search tab, choose Advanced Options > ‘Change indexed locations’ to do so.

If you’re an OfÀce user, you’ll Ànd lots of time-saving shortcuts are waiting to be discovered. Start by saving yourself a trip around the Ribbon hunting down frequently used commands; instead, locate a popular command, right-click its button, and choose ‘Add to Quick Access Toolbar’. This pins it to the top of the Ribbon for easy access. There’s space for a Ànite number of commands, so click the ellipsis (…) or More button to the right of the Quick Access toolbar, and choose ‘Show below the ribbon’ to move it to a more accommodating area.

You can customise the Ribbon, too, with your favourite commands, either by placing them under a tab, or by assigning custom keyboard shortcuts to any frequently used tools: Choose Options from the File tab, and select ‘Customise ribbon’ to set up the Ribbon as you want it. While you’re here, click Customise next to Keyboard Shortcuts to assign shortcuts.

If you frequently waste time styling up individual passages of text, use Word’s Styles instead. This makes it easier to make wholesale – and consistent – changes across your document. You can apply keyboard shortcuts to styles, and quickly update styles using the currently selected text (simply right-click the target style, and choose ‘Update… to match selection’).

Finally, save time performing repetitive tasks by recording them as macros. The simplest way is to use the Record Macro button on the Developer tab of the Ribbon to record your command clicks or keystrokes – note it only works with items selected using the keyboard, which can restrict its usefulness somewhat. Go to https:// support.ofÀce.com and search for ‘macros’ to Ànd out more – be aware that macros can harbour malicious code, so only allow macros that are digitally signed, by clicking ‘Macro Security’.

Windows desktop

Let’s finish with some handy keyboard shortcuts for navigating your desktop.

Aero Snap enables you to pin two windows side-by-side by dragging them to either edge of the desktop.

You can also snap windows via the keyboard: Hold [Win] and press the left or right cursor keys respectively. Once there, press [Win] + [Up] to move the window to the top corner, or [Win] + [Down] to move it down to the bottom corner, allowing up to four windows to be on screen at once.

Place favorite commands on the Quick Access toolbar.

“You can customise the Ribbon, too, with your favourite commands, placing them under a tab”

You can pin two windows side by side-by-side using [Win] + the left or right cursor keys.

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Finally, start making good use of Windows’ task- and desktop-switching tools with the help of some [Tab] key combos. The new visual Task View may not be to everyone’s tastes, but you can easily invoke it with [Win] + [Tab]. Once open, use your keyboard’s cursor keys to select your desired window, and hit [Enter]. If you prefer the old-school view, then hold down [Alt] and press [Tab] instead – you can cycle left and right using [Tab] (right) and [Shift] +

| October 2017

[Tab] (left), all the while continuing to hold down the [Alt] key.

[Alt] + [Tab] only displays windows from the current virtual desktop, while you can configure Task View (see earlier) to display windows from all desktops, making it quicker to switch.

Speaking of which, hold [Win] + [Ctrl] + [D] to create a new virtual desktop, and [Win] + [Ctrl] + [F4] to close the current one. You can also move between virtual desktops using [Win] + [Ctrl] and then the left or right cursor keys.

As an aside, if you’re navigating a multi-tabbed application, such as your web browser, then use [Ctrl] + [Tab] and [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Tab] to cycle backward and forward through the tabs. Q

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| October 2017

Feature Back up your PC

Protect your precious data from any disaster with our essential advice

B

ackups may not be the most glamorous of subjects, but they’re worth paying attention to. Think about what your data is worth. Some Àles are more valuable than others – it could be a matter of the time taken to create a document, while other Àles, such as photos hold sentimental worth.

Most people know the importance of backing up, but can you be sure your backup plan is up to scratch? Many people keep one backup copy of their Àles, but what happens if it is destroyed along with the original? Seeing as most people keep their backup drive in the same location as their PC, that’s not a fanciful notion.

We’ll help you create a multi-layered backup of your data, ensuring it’s stored in at least two separate locations, and preferably more. We’ll reveal the best tools to use – both Windows’ own

backup tools, as well as great thirdparty tools. We’ll also look at backing up your entire system drive, so if you run into problems, you can roll back to a working Windows installation without having to reinstall.

These days, keeping at least one backup in a remote location usually means taking advantage of cloudbased services, such as Dropbox or Microsoft’s OneDrive. There are many potential issues with relying on third parties, whether it’s security, constantly changing pricing plans, or what happens to your data if the company ceases trading. If these are dealbreakers, we’ll look into alternatives, from sharing backup space with family members to setting up your own encrypted cloud storage, where you have no worries about subscriptions.

We’ll also make sure you know what to do should disaster strike and you need to restore a copy of your data.

October 2017 |

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61

Y

Make File History your ďŹ rst port of call.

ou may already have a basic backup plan in place â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Windows 10 makes this easy by offering you two routes, including both â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Backup and Restoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from Windows 7, and File History from Windows 8. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re easy to access and set up â&#x20AC;&#x201C; search the Start menu or Cortana for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;backupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Both focus on producing backups of key documents, photos and other data, and can back up to any drive thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visible to your PC, including network-attached storage.

Rule one of our backup strategy is to make use of multiple backup locations (see â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Select your backup deviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, below-left). Neither â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;File Historyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; nor â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Backup and Restoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; allow you to back up to alternate locations, but if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re running Windows 10, you can employ both together to get around this restriction. ConĂ&#x20AC;gure â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;File Historyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to back up to one location â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we recommend a drive physically attached to your PC â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and use â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Backup and Restoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to back up to another drive, preferably a shared folder on your network drive. File History constantly monitors for changes and backs up as necessary, while you should schedule â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Backup and Restoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to run weekly at a time that wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t interfere with PC use.

System backups

Windows 7â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Backup and Restore is available in Windows 10.

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| October 2017

Your data is taken care of, but what about Windows? If disaster strikes, you could Ă&#x20AC;nd yourself spending days getting your PC set up again â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but if you take a full system backup (known as a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;drive imageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;), you can have your PC up and running again within an hour.

Windows offers to create a system image when you set up â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Backup and Restoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, but there are weaknesses. First, each backup requires tens of gigabytes of space on your PC. Second, images &ORXG VWRUDJH LI \RX arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t veriĂ&#x20AC;ed when theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re created, so KDYH D IDVW XQOLPLWHG LQWHUQHW youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve no way of knowing if you can rely FRQQHFWLRQ XVLQJ D WUXVWHG on them. And third, images are only VHUYLFH VXFK DV 'URSER[ stored on a single drive.

0LFURVRIW 2QH'ULYH RU Eliminate all three weaknesses by *RRJOH 'ULYH LV DOVR DQ employing the services of our favourite RSWLRQ $JDLQ XVH 9LLYR WR drive-imaging tool, Macrium ReĂ ect.

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Feature Back up your PC recording the changes made since the last backup was taken.

Launch Macrium ReÁect Free once installed, and click ‘Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows’. Next, set your destination – a folder on your backup drive. You might want to change the Àle name to something more easily recognisable, and take the time to click Advanced Options to select Auto Verify Image to ensure your backup is checked for errors after it’s been taken. Once done, pick a backup schedule – we recommended pairing one monthly full backup with weekly differential backups, or choosing the Differential Backup Set template for more frequent daily backups. Click ‘Next’ followed by Finish.

In the spirit of data redundancy, you should then repeat the process, creating a second deÀnition rule pointing toward your secondary backup drive – speed things up by right-clicking the rule you just created and choosing Duplicate.

Don’t forget to create the rescue media (DVD or 4GB USB Áash drive) when prompted by Macrium – this ensures you’ll be able to restore your system even if Windows won’t boot.

If you want more features – including incremental backups, and the ability to back up Àles and folders – upgrade to Macrium ReÁect Home Edition.

product, as users of Wuala and AVG LiveKive cloud storage services have discovered to their cost over the years.

In terms of fees, consider prioritising what data you store in the cloud – do you need your videos backed up online, for example? As you have a local backup in place, you could focus on storing important documents and photos in the cloud, where you’re unlikely to run out of space quickly. That way, you can usually get away with free storage plans.

If you don’t trust your cloud provider’s encryption, add a secondary layer of encryption to sensitive Àles before uploading them to the cloud. The best tool for this purpose is Viivo (https:// viivo.com), which works with multiple cloud providers, and includes tools for sharing access to Àles with family and friends. It’s free for personal use, but make sure you keep a separate, unencrypted backup of this data somewhere safe, too, to ensure you’re not locked out of your Àles.

Alternate strategies

There are two main alternatives to putting your data in the hands of a third-party provider. Both can be used over the internet if you have a fast and unmetered connection, but you can also use them exclusively over your local network, too, ensuring your data never touches the cloud in any shape or form.

The Àrst of these options involves syncing data from selected folders directly between two or more computers. It works over your local network, as well as the wider internet, if necessary. It’s perfect for keeping Àles in sync between computers you own, and creates a copy of your Àles, so there are no issues with proprietary Àle formats.

Naturally, the connection is encrypted, and the software is open source.

The program in question is called Syncthing, and it works across Windows, Linux and Mac, and can even be directly installed to selected network drives. We recommend installing the GTK build

The power of the cloud

These days, backups are synonymous with the word ‘cloud’, the logic being that storing backups in the cloud ensures one copy of your data is kept off-site in a secure location in case of Àre, theft, or worse. It makes sense, although there are some drawbacks. The obvious choice when backing up to the cloud is to employ a known solution – Microsoft’s OneDrive service is baked into Windows 10, but alternate trusted sources include Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) and Google Drive (https://drive.google.com).

Each service offers limited free plans of around 5-15GB of free storage space, which is Àne for personal Àles, such as documents, photos, and even some video, but if you run out of space, you’ll need to upgrade to a monthly or annual subscription. One of the best value solutions is to install OfÀce 365 – your subscription includes 1TB of cloud storage and access to the latest version of Microsoft OfÀce for up to Àve users.

However, there are some reasons to treat cloud storage with suspicion.

These include ongoing costs, the security of your data, and what happens if the company in question either goes out of business or discontinues its

We’ve trusted Macrium for over six years.

Microsoft’s OneDrive offers a remote backup solution.

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from https://github.com/syncthing/ syncthing-gtk â&#x20AC;&#x201C; install it on both computers, then select the folder you wish to sync on your main computer, before connecting it and your other PC together. Once done, the Ă&#x20AC;les are kept in sync automatically whenever Syncthing runs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; conĂ&#x20AC;gure it to start with Windows, to ensure itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always backing up.

Files are transferred directly between computers, so they both need to be on and connected for Ă&#x20AC;les to sync. If you wanted to store backups remotely on other PCs, take a look at BuddyBackup (www.buddybackup.com), which encrypts your data so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unreadable on the computers you back it up to.

Your personal cloud Worried about sensitive data? Viivo adds more encryption.

Keep data synced (and backed up) across all your PCs with Syncthing.

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to store Ă&#x20AC;les centrally (creating an additional backup of your Ă&#x20AC;les in the process), without relying on a third party, then consider setting up your own using a spare PC or network hard drive as the Ă&#x20AC;le server.

Some network drives come with their own proprietary cloud systems â&#x20AC;&#x201C; My Cloud from Western Digital, for example â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but we recommend choosing something open source and more widely supported, such as OwnCloud (https:// owncloud.org) which works across a variety of platforms. The server part can be installed to many network drives â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including Zyxel and Synology (the latter via https://synocommunity.com) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as well as Linux-powered PCs, including the Raspberry Pi 3, if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for a low-cost solution. You then download and install the desktop and mobile clients on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android,

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You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t recover ďŹ les directly from Windows backups.

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Feature Back up your PC iOS and other supported platforms, to enable you to both sync and access your Ă&#x20AC;les from anywhere.

Think of OwnCloud as being your own personal cloud storage system â&#x20AC;&#x201C; youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not tied to any third parties, there are no fees, and your cloud can be restricted to your local network or opened up for access over the internet. It works with multiple users, too.

Some initial conĂ&#x20AC;guration is required, but everythingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point-and-click, with a useful manual on hand to steer you in the right direction. When asked to set up your initial account, be sure to click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Storage & databaseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to select the MySQL option, rather than the default SQLite one. This will dramatically speed up the serverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance when it comes to syncing large batches of Ă&#x20AC;les.

Restoring from backups

Disaster has struck â&#x20AC;&#x201C; youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve lost data, so what next? Thanks to your backup plan, you should Ă&#x20AC;nd youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re able to restore the data you lost. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve used File History, navigate to the folder with the missing data in File Explorer, and click the History button on the File tab.

A window opens displaying all the backed-up Ă&#x20AC;les in that folder â&#x20AC;&#x201C; doubleclick the missing Ă&#x20AC;le to preview it, then click the Settings button and choose Restore to save it to the current location, or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Restore toâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to save it somewhere else.

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re trying to recover an earlier version of a Ă&#x20AC;le, use the left and right buttons at the bottom of the page to navigate between available versions.

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re recovering from â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Backup and Restoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, browse to the drive or folder containing your backup, then doubleclick it and choose â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Restore my Ă&#x20AC;les from this backupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Choose a different dateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for older versions

%DFN XS žOH UHYLVLRQV 2QH RI WKH EHQHžWV RI IROORZLQJ RXU EDFNXS SODQ LV PDQ\ RI WKH WRROV RQ RIIHU UHFRUG PXOWLSOH YHUVLRQV RI \RXU žOHV HQDEOLQJ \RX WR XQGR FKDQJHV WR žOHV DV ZHOO DV UHVWRUH ORVW GHOHWHG RU FRUUXSW GDWD %RWK :LQGRZV EDFNXS WRROV VXSSRUW WKLV DOWKRXJK )LOH +LVWRU\ÂśV GHIDXOW VHWWLQJV RI XSGDWLQJ \RXU žOHV HYHU\ KRXU UDWKHU WKDQ ZHHNO\ DV ZLWK WKH %DFNXS DQG 5HVWRUH WRRO JLYHV JUHDWHU ÂżH[LELOLW\ ,I \RX EDFN XS žOHV WR 2QH'ULYH 'URSER[ RU \RXU RZQ 2ZQ&ORXG VHUYHU DFFHVV \RXU DFFRXQW WKURXJK \RXU ZHE EURZVHU WKHQ ORFDWH WKH žOH LQ TXHVWLRQ 2ZQ&ORXG XVHUV VKRXOG FOLFN WKH 9HUVLRQV RSWLRQ QH[W WR WKH žOHQDPH RWKHUZLVH ULJKW FOLFN WKH žOH DQG FKRRVH WKH of your Ă&#x20AC;les, or use the search and browse buttons to locate what you want to restore. You can restore them to their original location, or choose another â&#x20AC;&#x201C; make sure you leave â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Restore the Ă&#x20AC;les to their original subfoldersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ticked, before clicking Restore.

Need to recover your entire PC? Macrium ReĂ ect makes things straightforward. If you can boot into

Restore your PC even when it wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t boot with Macrium ReďŹ&#x201A;ect.

RSWLRQ WR UHVWRUH D SUHYLRXV YHUVLRQ WR VHH ZKDWÂśV DYDLODEOH EDVHG RQ WLPH DQG GDWH <RX FDQ SUHYLHZ HDUOLHU UHYLVLRQV E\ FOLFNLQJ WKHP 6\QFWKLQJ RQO\ VWRUHV RQH UHYLVLRQ RI D žOH E\ GHIDXOW EXW \RX FDQ FKDQJH WKLV RQ D IROGHU E\ IROGHU EDVLV 5LJKW FOLFN WKH IROGHU EDU LQ 6\QFWKLQJ *7. DQG FKRRVH (GLW WKHQ VHOHFW DQ RSWLRQ IURP WKH )LOH 9HUVLRQLQJ PHQX Âą HDFK RQH KDV D GHVFULSWLRQ DQG \RX JHW FRQWH[W VHQVLWLYH RSWLRQV VXFK DV WKH QXPEHU RI YHUVLRQV WR NHHS 2QH FDYHDW VWRULQJ PXOWLSOH YHUVLRQV RI žOHV UHTXLUHV PRUH VSDFH WKDQ VWUDLJKW RQH WR RQH EDFNXSV %HDU WKLV LQ PLQG ZKHQ FKRRVLQJ ZKDW VL]H EDFNXS GULYH WR EX\ Windows, launch the app and switch to the Restore tab; otherwise, boot from your rescue media. Select the backup you want to roll back to from the list given, or click â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Browse for an image Ă&#x20AC;leâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to locate it manually. Select â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Restore Imageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to restore the image, or choose Browse Image to mount the image as a virtual drive, enabling you to browse it as a virtual drive in Windows itself â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a good option for recovering individual Ă&#x20AC;les and folders from the backup. Tick â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Enable access to restricted foldersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to allow you to recover data from user folders and other protected places.

Restoring Ă&#x20AC;les from the cloud isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t usually an issue, but if you need to restore a Ă&#x20AC;le youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve deleted, then taking OneDrive as an example, log into your account through your browser. Click the main menu button and select â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Recycle binâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; under your PCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entry.

Recovering data from OwnCloud is simple, too â&#x20AC;&#x201C; when you reinstall the software and log in as your own user, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re prompted to choose which folder on your hard drive to store your OwnCloud content on â&#x20AC;&#x201C; once done, the folder syncs up with whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online, restoring any missing data, or you can log on through your browser to download individual Ă&#x20AC;les. Q

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WINDOWS HELP HARDWARE FIXES SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INTERNET TIPS Apps

ONE CALENDAR PROBLEMS Do you have a PC problem?

Get in touch…

Email full details of your problem to the support team and we’ll do our best to help windowshelpline@ futurenet.com

Q After you dealt with my

calendar query in issue 138, I bought the One Calendar app. It’s a big improvement, but although I can colour-code events on screen, only one colour appears when printing. I also get a sync error message at the top of the screen – I thought I’d paid for the full version.

Tony Lawrence

Nick O’s solution We’d purchased One Calendar before recommending it, so knew this wasn’t normal behaviour.

We tracked down the sync error problem to the fact that Tony had been attempting to save events to a read-only calendar, typically one shared by another user – One Calendar isn’t smart enough to recognise read-only calendars and prevent you from saving changes

to them. The solution is to contact the calendar’s owner and ask for full access, or log on to your calendar account online to see if there’s a setting you can change.

Failing that, recreate the event in a calendar that isn’t read-only – select the event and click Copy to quickly do this, then delete the original event.

As for the print error, we were unable to replicate this on our PC – basically, One Calendar colours events according to the calendar they’re assigned to (change these colours via Settings > Options > Colors). Tony subsequently reported that the print function worked correctly when he set the app up on his laptop, suggesting it might be related to a printer driver issue on his main PC. Internet

TOR WON’T RUN Q Any ideas on how to get

Windows 10 to run the Tor browser? I’ve looked at various settings, but nothing’s obvious.

John Ireland

MULTICOLOURED Events are printed in colour according to their calendar.

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| October 2017

Support Technical help

FIND THE SOLUTION! Real-world Outlook Q&As Visit www.msoutlook.info where you’ll find a host of answers to various Outlook-related questions and problems.

Quickfire questions My OfficeTab plugin for Office keeps getting blocked by Malwarebytes. Is there a practical alternative?

Liam Wren Try TidyTabs (www.nurgosoftware.com) – choose the portable version at the bottom of the pricing page to avoid cluttering up your system.

I seem to be able to no longer right-click on a program window to resize it using the latest version of Resizer (www.brianapps.net).

Neil Ashford Simply select the window in question and press [Ctrl] + [Win] + [Z] and the Resizer dialogue box will pop up.

SANDBOX Run Tor in a virtual machine for security..

Rob’s solution John was running a Windows Insider build – effectively a beta of the Autumn Creators Update. That creates a problem in that it appears the Tor browser – based on Firefox – appears to be incompatible with this future build, and is unlikely to be made compatible prior to the official release of the Autumn Creators Update.

John was able to install a separate instance of the 64-bit version of Firefox on its own, but we suggest that he runs the Tor Firefox browser in a virtual machine for now, either running an earlier version of Windows or a flavour of Linux (such as Ubuntu 16.04). This has the added advantage of effectively sandboxing the Tor browser from the rest of Windows, providing an extra layer of security while you’re using it.

you’re left with two basic choices: the first is to bite the bullet and perform a full, destructive install that should clean out all your PC’s glitches and get Edge working again. See last issue for full details.

This approach is overkill if your PC is otherwise running well and it hasn’t been that long since your last reinstall. In the past, Microsoft’s browser was the standard and life without it wasn’t practical because Windows Update required it to function. That’s no longer the case, and now the browser market is more fragmented – with Google’s Chrome the dominant force – websites must support a wide range of browsers.

Long story short? Many people – ourselves included – get by with

“This approach is overkill if your PC is otherwise running well ” Jargon buster!

BIOS Basic Input Output System.

This is the interface between a computer’s hardware and operating system on older PCs.

FILTER JUNK The built-in Junk tool in Outlook is, sadly, no longer being updated.

UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. Replaced the BIOS on newer machines to offer more features and repair options.

Internet

EDGE NO LONGER WORKS Q About a four to six weeks ago,

Edge just stopped working.

I’ve tried an upgrade install as outlined in last month’s issue twice, have contacted the Windows Helpline and had two online conversations with their staff to no avail. Can you help? I’m currently using Firefox without a problem.

Geoff Watt Mayank’s solution Geoff’s email is one of a number we’ve received since the Creators Update release. Unfortunately, when even a repair installation fails October 2017 |

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67

Quickfire questions

never opening or using Edge. If Firefox proves insufficient, installing Chrome or Opera (which uses the same browser engine as Chrome) will prove a much better choice than worrying about how to get Edge working.

How do I link my new mobile number to my Microsoft account please?

Graeme Liner Click Start > Settings > Accounts and click ‘Manage my Microsoft account’ under your account photo to visit your account page. Click Your Info > ‘Manage your sign-in email or phone number’ and enter your account password to make the changes you need.

I’m heading to the US with my laptop – will I need a new power adaptor for the 110V electric supply?

Tam Barker Unlikely – verify your laptop’s power adaptor has a voltage range of 110-240V and all you’ll need to do is source a two-pin travel plug adapter so it can plug into the local sockets.

Why won’t Outlook accept my Microsoft account password?

This is the same one that I use to sign into Windows.

Karim Campbell If you’ve switched on two-step verification you’ll need to generate a special app password via your online account – select Security and click ‘more security options’, then after entering your account password click ‘Create a new app password’.

Microsoft Outlook

CAN’T BLOCK SPAM WITH FILTER Q Spam always finds a way of

evading spam filters, so I’ve set up rules for dealing with unwanted mail using trigger words in the subject line. But somehow these words aren’t being detected and email keeps coming through.

Can you explain why and how to fix this going forward?

Ian McAndrew

ROGUE ADDON Browser extension Fireshot can hijack key shortcuts.

Cat’s solution Outlook’s junk mail capabilities are no longer that effective thanks to Microsoft no longer updating its SmartScreen spam filter as of November 2016. Try running the rule manually – if it works, then the rule itself may have corrupted (try deleting and recreating it), or you may need to delete and recreate the Send/ Receive settings file. To do this, close Outlook, then press [Win] + [R], type ‘%AppData%\Microsoft\ Outlook’ and hit [Enter]. Rename the .srs file you find inside with an .old extension. Then restart Outlook and try again.

If this doesn’t work, or you want a more effective spam-blocking solution, then investigate a third-party mail cleaning tool such as Mailwasher (www.mailwasher. net) or PopTrayU (http://poptrayu. sourceforge.net/), which blocks spam at the server level – and is a more effective way of keeping it from your mailbox.

Internet

BROWSER ADDON HIJACK Q I was looking for a browser

extension to capture a screenshot of an entire web page and settled on Fireshot, but after a recent update I’ve found it’s now somehow installed itself to my Taskbar Notification area. How do I now get rid of this?

Tim Ellis Ian’s solution This is rather sneaky behaviour, as Fireshot has added a desktop instance of itself, which basically runs whenever your browser is open. You can close this manually without closing your browser via its Taskbar Notification area icon, but you can’t remove it permanently.

If this is a dealbreaker – it was for Tim as the program hijacked key shortcuts from other programs – then you’ll need to remove Fireshot completely. Tim was using Firefox, so we instructed him to type ‘about:addons’ into the Address Bar. Locate Fireshot and click Remove, restarting Firefox to complete the process.

RECOVER DATA AND SETTINGS FROM BACKUP Q I followed your latest reinstall

guide to fix my non-booting PC. Can you tell me how I recover data from the fail-safe Macrium drive image I took please?

Anthony Parsons

Nick P’s solution First, reinstall Macrium Reflect Free. Then follow the step-by-step guide to recover files from your image – when done, right-click the drive icon in File Explorer under This PC and choose Macrium Reflect > Unmount Macrium Image.

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drive image 1 Open Browse to the folder containing your fail-safe drive image. You should see that it’s marked as a ‘Disk Partition image’ with a blue drive icon. Simply double-click the drive image and click Yes when you’re prompted to open it with Macrium Reflect Free.

| October 2017

as drive 2 Mount The Backup Selection window will open.

Tick the largest partition – your Windows drive – and be sure to tick ‘Enable access to restricted folders’ to bypass permission issues.

Click OK. Macrium Reflect Free will assign a drive letter and open the image.

Support Technical help Hardware

LAPTOP OR TABLET? Q Can you help me determine

whether a 2-in-1 Windows tablet or a standard laptop would be in my best interests? I’m looking for something that can run Word and Excel, and browse the internet.

Ian Baker Rob’s solution If we’re honest, we find Windows tablets a little underpowered for running the full-blown versions of Word and Excel, and a little slow in general. They’re perfect for light browsing, keeping up with email and watching movies, but struggle a bit with apps. Where tablets excel is with their small footprint – even with the keyboard clipped into place – and battery life, making them good for those on the go.

Laptops have a definite edge when it comes to performance, typing and if you’re planning to use it as a standalone device.

If you do go down the tablet route, be sure to source lightweight versions of software to reduce the load – for example, WPS Office 10 Free (www.kingsoftstore.com) is designed to run on lower powered machines and offers alternatives to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

several screens and then halts. I can access the BIOS/UEFI settings and have access to my wife’s PC. Can you help me recover my system?

Miles Mead Nick P’s solution Download and launch the Media Creation Tool on your wife’s PC from www.microsoft.com/softwaredownload/windows10 – choose to upgrade another PC when prompted, then create bootable media (preferably a USB flash drive).

Insert this into your malfunctioning PC and attempt to boot from it – if necessary, enter Settings to make the drive the first bootable device.

When you come to the Setup screen, click the Repair option then follow the prompts to access the automatic repair tool to see if

Windows can resolve the problem.

If this fails you may need to try the Refresh option to recover your files, settings and Windows 10 apps (but not desktop programs). Miles subsequently reported success in getting Windows working again.

Sofware

HELP TRANSCRIBING AUDIO INTERVIEWS Q Can you recommend a

transcription tool that will help me write up to five hours of audio interviews?

David Parker Cat’s solution Try Listen N Write Free (elefantsoftware-en. weebly.com) It’s a tool that automatically pauses during playback so you can keep up. Q

Do you have a PC problem?

Get in touch…

Email full details of your problem to the support team and we’ll do our best to help: windowshelpline@ futurenet.com Or write to: Support Squad, Windows Help & Advice magazine, Future Publishing Ltd, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA

Windows

CAN I RECOVER WINDOWS?

TABLETFRIENDLY WPS Office 2016 is fast and light on low-powered PCs.

Q While updating Windows 10 I

stupidly switched off, and now it won’t boot. It goes through

“When you come to the Setup screen, click the Repair option then follow the prompts to access the automatic repair tool to see if Windows can resolve the problem” Jargon buster!

Virtual machine An emulated computer that shares hardware resources with the host computer and which runs in an isolated (or bridged via virtual networking) software environment.

files 3 Recover You can now browse the image’s contents like any other drive, then simply copy off any files you wish to recover to a folder on your new storage media. Open Users > Username to locate your personal data, such as documents and photos.

program settings 4 Find Your user folder also contains an AppData folder – look inside the Local, LocalLow and Roaming folders for program folders containing your settings. Also look inside ProgramData and both Program Files folders on the drive root.

Tor Browser A Firefox-based web browser that uses a series of relays to stop anyone from learning about your internet habits by watching your connection – ideal for privacy protection.

October 2017 |

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:ɰOFʝȷɏ Wɛ

Windows 10

WINDOWS 10 TIPS

Welcome

FEATURES EXPLAINED

NEW TIPS AND TRICKS

)HDʤʦʢʖQɒ

72 How to master the Just starting your Windows 10 desktop Windows journey?

Confused by the changes Microsoft has made to the Creators Update? Maybe you just want to learn something new about Windows 10. Well, this is the section for you!

There’s not enough space to tell you absolutely everything you need to know here, but Windows Help & Advice always has your back. In our essential Basics section, we’ll show you how to: master the desktop and make it work for you; customise the Start menu and quickly access favourite items using tiles; and how to get the best from Windows 10’s virtual personal assistant, Cortana.

74 Change the way the Start menu works

MAKE YOUR PC EVEN FASTER! FIND OUT HOW ON PAGE 11

Matt Hanson Associate Editor www.facebook.com/windowsmag

Windows 10 tip of the month

76 Discover the ways Cortana can help you

Customise your Notifications

Change your Notifications settings Like many smartphones and tablets, Windows 10 includes notifications or alerts (banners and sounds) to help you stay up to date with what’s going on in your world. If you find you receive too many notifications, or that you get them from apps and services you’re not interested in, you can change this. Head to Settings > System > ‘Notifications & actions’ to start. To customise individual alerts, click them to reveal more options.

ALERTS Scroll down to Notifications and toggle the options buttons for the alerts you want to receive.

MORE ALERTS Now head to ‘Get notifications from these senders’ to customise apps & services alerts too.

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Master the desktop

You’ll spend a lot of time there, so here are some great ways to make it work for you…

hen not actually using applications, the Windows desktop is where you’ll spend much of your time, moving files about, hunting for that obscure application you installed six months ago and suddenly need, or lining up your windows so that they fill the space perfectly (a time-wasting

W

pastime that’s all but dead now thanks to window snapping).

In Windows 10, the desktop and the taskbar get a few new tricks that make working with files and folders even easier, and the new search bar means pulling up an application you don’t use often is a breeze. Follow these tips to a happy start…

desktop/peek 1 Show The Show Desktop button isn’t marked, and some people

desktops 2 Virtual If you find your desktop frequently getting overcrowded as

don’t even know it exists. Press this anonymous section at the extreme right of the Taskbar, and all your open windows will minimise. Hover the mouse pointer over it, and you’ll get a preview ‘peek’ at the desktop that reverts when you move your mouse pointer away. It’s very useful when you’ve got a chaotic number of windows open on your desktop.

you work, why not offload some of the mess onto another one?

Click the Task View button to the right of Cortana’s search box on the Taskbar, and you’ll be taken to a screen that shows your open apps, and also your desktops. Add a new one, or even more, and you’ll be able to flick between them with different apps open on each. It’s a great way to stay organised on your PC.

inactive windows 3 Scroll An annoyance for anyone who’s come to Windows from

snapping 4 Window A real godsend for those who used to tease their window

using the Mac, the ability to scroll the window your pointer is currently over – instead of the one that’s currently active – is new in Windows 10. So, if you have a browser and a word processor open, and are reading one while typing in the other, you can now scroll down in the browser without having to take your focus away from your text document.

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| October 2017

edges out until they exactly matched the edge of the screen, snapping in Windows 10 enables you to have two or more windows open that completely fill their areas of the screen. Pick up a window and move it to the extreme left or right edge of the desktop to try it (you’ll see it ‘snap’ to the new half screen format).

You can adjust how much of the screen they take up too.

Welcome to Windows 10 Master the desktop

icons 5 Desktop The Windows 10 desktop icons have a pixellated look, and if this offends you it’s easy to change them. Luckily, there are icon packs available online – including the shinier Windows 8 icons.

Download the icon pack you want to use, then go to Start > Settings > Personalisation > Themes. Click the ‘Desktop icon Settings’ and select the icons you want to place on the desktop, then use the Change Icon option to change their look.

7 Notifications The notifications panel – or Action Centre – slides in from the right of the screen, with a button in the system tray, and will house any messages that apps or Windows components want to send you. It’s where you’ll find links to details of Windows updates that have been installed on your machine, and any social media messages or upcoming calendar events. You can customise it so it’s as intrusive as you can deal with.

to minimise 6 Shake This may sound like something left over from a tablet build of Windows that needs a built-in accelerometer, but picking up a window with your mouse pointer and shaking it back and forth will minimise every other window, leaving you with a clear and uninterrupted view of the one you want to work with. It’s much faster than clicking several minimise buttons, and it’s a fun little quirk that’s a good one to remember.

management 8 Window In addition to window snapping, you can arrange your windows in some other ways too. Right-click on the Taskbar to reveal three window arrangement schemes: ‘Cascade windows’; ‘Show windows stacked’; and ‘Show windows side by side’. These are similar to the Window menu’s functions that have been available all the way back to Windows 3.1, and can make it quick and easy to find what you’re looking for.

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Customise the Start menu The Start menu in Windows 10 is more powerful than ever – here are some easy tips to make it work for you

he Start menu’s return was big news when Windows 10 launched, and it has evolved as the operating system has been updated. It’s become a fast, and efficient way to access apps and settings – Windows 8’s full-screen monstrosity is now a distant memory, thankfully!

However, if you don’t like how the Start menu looks when you first pop it up on your fresh

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install of Windows 10, it doesn’t have to stay that way. It’s fully customisable in ways that were never possible in earlier versions of the operating system, and can be made to work in just about any way you want, standing out from its background for ease of reading, or automatically blending in with the colour scheme of whatever theme you have currently set on your desktop.

1 Colour Your Start menu’s background can be any colour you like

2 Size To make space for all the customising you can do to the

– all you have to do is untick a box. Open up Settings, then Personalisation and finally Colours. Untick the ‘Automatically pick an accent colour from my background’ option and you’ll be able to pick a colour from the palette. So your Start menu can be a contrasting red or yellow rather than a dull blue or grey. Play around to find a combination that works for you.

Start menu, you can easily resize it to your liking. Just move your mouse pointer to the top-border or right-border of the Start Menu, the pointer will change into arrows, and you’ll be able to increase or decrease height and width, dragging it out to completely fill the screen if you want to. This is particularly useful if you have a PC filled with programs that you access regularly.

and tiles 3 Folders Your Start menu is made up of lists and tiles, and some of

program lists 4 Hide By default, the Start menu will show you lists of both your

these can be shortcuts to folders such as Documents. Settings > Personalisation > Start enables you to tinker with this, so if you never shoot videos you can stop the empty Videos folder from taking up space on the menu. You can turn the links to the Settings window, and the one that opens an empty File Explorer window, on and off too.

most used programs and the most recently opened ones. This can end up repeating itself, so if you want to get rid of one or the other of the lists, or both, open up Settings > Personalisation > Start, from where you’ll be able to toggle the lists on or off. You can also prevent apps from appearing on the lists so you only get a view of the things you really need from day to day.

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it to search with 5 Use Hitting the [Win] key on your keyboard to pop up the Start menu’s Search box is one of the fastest ways to look for anything in Windows 10. Just type a few characters and you will get suggestions for applications and documents stored on your computer that match your initial query. You can also use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate the Start menu, if you’d rather not use the mouse.

tiles and shortcuts 7 Pin If there’s something you need to be able to find quickly, but which gets lost in the lists of the Start menu, you can pin and reposition it so it’s always prominently placed. To do that rightclick an item and choose ‘Pin to Start’. It will now appear in tiles.

Now click and drag the tile to where to want to move it to. To resize the tile, right-click, choose Resize then the tile size you want. You can pin shortcuts to the Taskbar for easy access too.

tiles 6 Live Live tiles are tiles that are constantly updated with data, usually gleaned over the internet to make them up-to-date.

There’s one for the Mail app that shows your most recent messages, one for the Weather app that uses your PC’s location to tell you what’s going on outside the window, and so on. If you find them distracting, you can turn them off by right-clicking them and choosing the appropriate option.

back the Start screen!

8 Bring It may have been almost universally mocked and reviled in Windows 8, but the fullscreen Start menu is still there in Windows 10, ready to block out all your work at a single press of the Windows key! But, if you liked it, go to Settings > Personalisation > Start and tick the box marked ‘Use full-screen Start when in the desktop’. Note that wording: it now won’t actually cover up your apps like it did in Windows 8.

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Get to know Cortana

Meet the digital assistant that’s here to help you – she can even recognise the sound of your voice

icrosoft’s virtual personal assistant takes its name from a character in the Halo series of videogames. That incarnation of Cortana – an AI who is outwardly female (having been created from the brain patterns of a female scientist) and never seems to have been provided with quite enough clothes – can hack alien computer encryption and fly captured spaceships.

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The Windows 10 version is perhaps a little less powerful, but comes in useful all the same. She can search using natural language terms, and by using voice activation just like Siri does on your iPhone. And if the idea of voice controlling your PC alarms you, or perhaps your computer isn’t equipped with a mic, then you can still interact with Cortana through the keyboard, typing your queries for Cortana to answer.

up 1 Set Depending on how your PC has been configured, you may need to switch Cortana on in order to work with her. The first time you try to search your PC, she’ll ask if you want to use her. Say no, and the search box remains functional, but without the extra features that Cortana brings. You’ll need to be connected to the internet to use Cortana of course, because that’s how results are queried and returned to you, just like Apple’s Siri.

down your search 3 Narrow To stop Cortana searching things she doesn’t need to, and speed up the return of those internet results, you can tell her exactly what you’re looking for, which is great when it comes to finding apps and files in particular. So if it’s definitely an app you need, rather than a picture or video, start your search query with ‘app:’. If it’s a setting, type ‘setting:’. For a document... you get the idea. You can force a web search with ‘web:’ too.

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Cortana 2 Personalise To make Cortana as useful as possible she needs to address you personally. Tell Cortana your name and where you live and she can adapt herself to you. If you’ve opted for her to speak results back to you, she’ll call you by name and allow you to correct her pronunciation if she gets it wrong. Tell her your interests, and appropriate news snippets will appear when you open Cortana’s panel. You can do all this from the settings.

Cortana for tech support 4 Use If there’s something you want to know how to do in Windows 10, a publication like this one can help of course. If you need to know really quickly, try asking Cortana instead. Type your query in, and it will appear in the list of results under ‘Can I help?’

Clicking this gets you the Microsoft help files, and in the case of many common tasks a walkthrough will show you how it’s done.

Don’t forget the tips on these pages though!

Cortana in Edge 5 Use Cortana can also help you as you browse the internet. To enable it in Microsoft Edge, go to Settings > Advanced Settings > View Advanced Settings and under ‘Privacy and Services’ enable ‘Have Cortana Assist Me in Microsoft Edge’. Now, as you explore the web, you’ll get helpful additions such as song lyrics if you’re listening to music, or links to apps if the site you’re using has one.

Cortana to only reply to you 7 Train It’s hilarious to shout ‘Xbox off!’ at someone else’s Xbox with Kinect voice control switched on, shutting the box down in the middle of what its poor user was doing, so train Cortana to respond only to your voice by selecting the ‘Learn my voice’ option in Settings and speak the test phrases. You’ll find that Cortana keeps learning anyway, so over time the more you use Cortana the better she will be at just about any task!

voice commands 6 Use Click the microphone icon next to the search box, and you can speak your questions and instructions to Cortana. You must have ‘Search online’ enabled in Cortana settings to use voice search, otherwise the mic icon disappears. If you select the option, she will respond to a cheery ‘Hey Cortana’ – but this will increase battery usage on portable devices, so is only worth turning on if you’re sure you’ll use it.

natural language to search 8 Use If you want to set yourself a reminder, you don’t need to find a calendar app and input what you want to do, and when, just type or speak it into Cortana as you would when talking to someone. Saying ‘Remind me to take a screen break in an hour’ or ‘Remind me to buy flowers on the way home’, for example, will trigger a notification at the appropriate time. Now there’s no excuse to forget that meeting or important date again!

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NEW HARDWARE

ESSENTIAL ACCESSORIES

Welcome

LATEST GADGETS

7ʕLɡ LVʣɂɏ ɡ ʕLɳɴʙLɳKWɡ

While many apps pepper your PC with support files dropped in all kinds of places, portable apps are made to be self-contained.

You can simply add them to a USB flash drive or external drive and use them at work, home or anywhere else and they’re light on PC resources too. You’ll find four of our favourite – and free – portable apps on page 88. We also take a look at Lenovo’s brilliant Yoga 720 2-in-1 (page 80); PC Specialist’s highly capable Lafite III laptop (page 82) and the Nest Cam IQ – the latest in smart security cameras (page 84).

U UPDATE E

80 Lenovo Yoga 720 15 laptop

82 PC Specialist Lafite III laptop

84 Nest Cam IQ security camera

88 Best free portable apps

An incredibly powerful 2-in-1 that will meet your every computing need

Nick Odantzis Deputy Editor windowsmagazine@futurenet.com w

Our pr

Much improved over its predecessor, the Lafite III is the 13.3-inch laptop to beat

A state-of-the-art smart security cam with some crowd-pleasing features

Take your favourite apps everywhere with our pick of four of the very best

…

The Upgrade sectttion is your key to finding out about the latest T products, all desig p gned to help you g y get g more ffrom yyour PC

You can trust our reviews

Our reviewers are 100 per cent independent, with years of experience in the world of computing.

Our rigorous testing procedures mean that only genuine, high-quality products are awarded high star ratings.

If you see an item of hardware bearing a high score, you can be conÀdent that it is an excellent product.

RATING EXPLAINED

Superb

We choose the best products

Thousands of new PC products are released every year and choosing between them can be an impossible task. Our experts select only the best hardware and software to feature in this magazine. Even better, our star rating system makes it simple to Ànd the best products, giving you a fast, trustworthy guide.

Very good

Good

How we review

Our expert reviewers guarantee to test every piece of hardware rigorously and thoroughly, using only acknowledged experts to establish the worth of a product.

We always review from the viewpoint of our readers; the day-to-day practicality and quality of a product is paramount.

Disappointing

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Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) £TBC | $1,199 www3.lenovo.com You’ve never seen a 2-in-1 laptop this powerful

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ust like its 13-inch £949/$800 sibling, the 15.6-inch Lenovo Yoga 720 is a solid contribution to the 2-in-1 laptop space. It feels every bit as comfortable as a tablet as it does as a laptop, only this time it’s a bit heavier than the 13-incher, weighing 2kg instead of a measly 1.3kg. Oh, and its complement of ports is marginally different.

Rather than two USB-C ports and one USB 3.0, the 15-inch Lenovo Yoga 720 packs a pair of legacy USB Type-A ports and a single USB-C connection. And, of course, the proprietary single-pin Lenovo connector is still being used for charging, a qualm we’ll address in more detail below.

The specs on the 15-inch Lenovo Yoga 720 creep eerily close to that of its smaller counterpart. Luckily, we were given the chance to review one of the configurations sporting an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 for added graphics prowess, bringing the Lenovo Yoga 720 up to snuff

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with competitors, such as the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro and the HP Spectre x360 15.

Design For the most part, the Lenovo Yoga 720 is built like a dream. Everything about it screams comfort, from its aluminium finish to the six-row backlit keyboard. The key travel feels a lot better than the butterfly mechanism found in Apple’s MacBook Pro, plus every key is rounded off at the bottom for improved ergonomics.

Although the trackpad isn’t as satisfying or as precise as Apple’s Force Touch trackpads, it’s still one of the better ones we’ve used on a Windows laptop. Better yet, the silvery border which surrounds its clicker only adds to the prestige of the Lenovo Yoga 720.

Airflow is handled simply and smartly on the Lenovo Yoga 720, with a single vent pointing from the rear of the machine. So while it’s

not completely silent, the fans are positioned in such a way that they’re never distracting.

It’s surprising Lenovo was able to pull this off given the use of Intel’s standard voltage, quad-core ‘H’ series Core i7-7700HQ processor, the first of its kind to be featured in a 2-in-1. You would think that paired with a GTX 1050, the Lenovo Yoga 720 would get loud, especially during heavy gaming sessions, but it typically does not.

Despite its power, the 15-inch Lenovo Yoga 720 still bears a relatively compact frame, making it the ideal candidate for kicking back and watching a movie or three in bed. While the 1080p Full HD model won’t look as good, there is the option of a 4K Ultra HD screen that starts at $1,349 (US only).

The Full HD version is fine on its own, but we’re far too adjusted to the crystal clear quality of QHD and UHD screens at this point not to complain about the washed-out

Upgrade Lenovo Yoga 720 KEY FEATURES Lenovo Yoga 720 (15-inch) Supplier www3.lenovo.com CPU 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ (quadcore, 6MB cache, up to 3.8GHz) Graphics Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (2GB GDDR5); Intel HD Graphics 630 RAM 8GB Display 15.6-inch, Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) Storage 256GB PCIe SSD Connectivity 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.1; 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt; 2 x USB 3.0, headphone jack

settings (including the resolution) cranked up. So, if you plan on using the Lenovo Yoga 720 for light – or legacy – gaming, it’s a surprisingly worthy candidate.

Battery life

appearance of a standard 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display – especially seeing as there aren’t any spicy brightness enhancements to make it competitive with the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro. Speaking of watching movies, don’t plan on doing so without a decent set of headphones, as the speakers here are down-firing, thereby muffling the sound in practically every position. Given the lack of ports, they could have easily been integrated on the sides or above the keyboard, but instead

a good chunk of the accessory duties. Next time, we hope to see USB charging from Lenovo, preferably without any clunky power bricks involved.

Performance Performance-wise, the Lenovo Yoga 720 demolishes everything in its path. Because it uses an H series processor instead of the usual U series, the HP Spectre x360 15 and Samsung Notebook 9 Pro didn’t stand a chance in our benchmarks.

Even with half the RAM, the Lenovo

“Even without a full array of ports, you can get everything done that you need with this hybrid” we’ve been disappointed once again by tinny sound on a laptop.

Then there are the ports which, as was the case with the 13-inch Lenovo Yoga 720, are notably disappointing. Limited to just two USB ports, a single USB-C port, a headphone jack and a single-pin proprietary Lenovo charging deck, you’ll need to purchase an adaptor or two if you want to use an HDMI monitor or an SD card reader.

At the very least, Lenovo should have gone the way of the HP Spectre x360 or the Huawei MateBook X and included the necessary cables for these elemental functions, but alas that’s not the case. Instead, the company is still relying on its own charging connector and appointing USB-C to

Yoga 720 model we were sent experienced better results than the HP Spectre x360 in every test. And, with the exception of the Geekbench 4 single-core, PCMark 8 Home and our movie tests, it significantly outperformed the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro as well.

This system won’t be able to run, say, NieR: Automata at a stable 1080p and 60fps with the graphics settings cranked all the way up, nor is it intended to. But, with its specs, you can expect to run modern triple-A games at medium settings and at a standard HD (1,366 x 768) resolution. We did, however, spend some time taking BioShock Remastered for a test drive on the Lenovo Yoga 720; a game that runs flawlessly with all the graphics

Despite coming out short in our movie test, wherein the film Guardians Of the Galaxy is looped until the computer dies, compared to the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro, the Lenovo Yoga 720 has a strong battery life as well.

At seven hours and seven minutes, it clearly bested the HP Spectre x360 15 (five hours and 31 minutes), even with its higher voltage requirements. And, although it didn’t touch the eight hours and 23 minutes achieved by the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro, it wasn’t too far from the ‘up to nine hours’ promised by Lenovo.

Summary You may think 15 inches is too big for a hybrid, but the Lenovo Yoga 720 could be the laptop to convince you otherwise. Neither too heavy or too big, this laptop is well-rounded, notwithstanding a few minor gripes. If your aim is to get the most power from your 2-in-1 without compromising battery life, the Lenovo Yoga 720 is a good bet.

Even without a full array of ports, you can get everything done that you need to with this hybrid. It’s not particularly the ‘best’ at any one specific task, but rather the Lenovo Yoga 720 is a multi-faceted powerhouse, and one that flips 360 degrees whenever you need it to. Q The Lenovo Yoga 720 is fantastic value, with a killer combination of raw power and good battery life.

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PC Specialist Lafite III £938 | $1,240 www.pcspecialist.co.uk

A laptop with a compelling spec sheet, but some drawbacks

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e came across this laptop’s predecessor, the Lafite II, at the beginning of 2016, and it was an encounter that left us pleasantly surprised by the potential of the PC Specialist brand.

The company has since rejigged its portfolio, but is still heavily reliant on Taiwanese company, Clevo, as an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM). So much so that PC Specialist doesn’t even hide this fact; the Lafite III is also known as the Style Note N131BU.

Design PC Specialist took a winning combination and tweaked it with an enclosure, which the company says is stronger and a fraction thinner than the one used by the Lafite II. We couldn’t substantiate the former claim, though. The Lafite III uses aluminium, but instead of embracing the unibody design of, say, the Chuwi LapBook 12.3, PC Specialist opted for one that isn’t as

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elegant, especially when it comes to the finish, which is simply not clean enough. The matte grey colour scheme also makes this notebook look rather cheap compared to a traditional brushed aluminium finish. You won’t find any logo on the Lafite III, which saves you money and keeps the design as minimalist as possible.

With a footprint slightly larger than an A4 sheet (330x225x17.8mm) and a weight of 1.3kg, the Lafite III is bigger and heavier than what you’d expect from a 13.3-inch laptop, such as the Dell XPS 13 or the HP Spectre.

One design aspect that left us baffled was the size of the bezels, hitting a jaw-dropping 35mm at their thickest. This would have made sense if the Lafite III sported a touchscreen display – but it doesn’t. Indeed, we suspect that the large bezels are just an artefact, a remnant of a decision where flexibility and upgradability forced

designers to come up with a larger case rather than a tightly integrated one that cannot be upgraded. Note that there are also four status lights on the front edge of the laptop.

Specifications The Lafite III comes in three flavours: Master, Elite and Pro. The model sent to us for review was the top-of-the-range notebook which carries a price tag of £938 ($1,240) including delivery.

A fully jacked-up model can take a Core i7-7500U CPU, a whopping 32GB RAM (ours came with one single 16GB memory module), two hard drives (2.5-inch and/or an M.2 SSD, both of which are optional), 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

One aspect where the Lafite III outflanks the competition is when it comes to IO ports. Other than the power port, there’s a USB Type-C, a pair of full size USB 3.0 ports, a pair of audio inputs, a mini-DisplayPort, an HDMI port, an SD card reader

Upgrade PC Specialist Lafite III KEY FEATURES PC Specialist Lafite III Supplier www.pcspecialist.co.uk Operating system Windows 10 Home Processor 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500 (dual-core, 4MB cache, up to 3.5GHz) Storage 256GB M.2 SSD; 1TB hard disk RAM 16GB DDR4 (2,133MHz) Graphics Intel HD Graphics 620 Connectivity 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0; 2x USB 3.0; 1x USB-C; HDMI; miniDisplayPort; SD card reader Display 13.3-inch, 1,920x1,080 Full HD

respectively. A generous amount of system memory (although not in dual-channel mode) and a fast SSD means that there’s no real bottleneck for mainstream use cases. It can also carry out more specialist scenarios like RAW image editing or financial analysis, but be aware of its limitations.

Summary

and a Gigabit Ethernet port. This means that in theory – because Intel HD Graphics 620 can power up to three monitors – you should be able to run at least two 4K Ultra HD monitors (one at 60Hz, the other at 30Hz).

Uniquely among the laptops that we’ve reviewed, this one also comes with a SIM slot. However, this isn’t mentioned in the spec sheet, mainly because it is in fact a dummy slot rather than a fully functional one with a 3G/4G modem attached to it.

angles, along with vibrant and accurate colours.

The keyboard is a backlit affair with keys delivering good feedback – albeit on the softer end of the spectrum – and excellent travel.

This is (subjectively) great for anyone looking for a good touch-typing laptop. True, there is some flex in the keyboard but not enough to have a negative impact on the typing experience.

The Lafite III’s touchpad is excellent, however, and highly responsive, as well as being nicely

“One aspect where the Lafite III outflanks the competition is when it comes to IO ports” The notebook runs Windows 10 Home (optional) and is powered by a 36Whr battery, which is charged by a small 40W brick charger. Also worth noting is the presence of a TPM 2.0 module and a 90-day trial for BullGuard Internet Security.

In use The first thing you notice when powering up the PC Specialist Lafite III is just how noisy it can be even at rest. Switching the machine on, the CPU spiked to 3.5GHz momentarily before slowing down to a more moderate 800MHz. Once you get used to this occasional white noise, using the Lafite III is a pleasurable experience – the 13.3-inch matte screen is an IPS model, meaning great viewing

integrated with the palm rest, and benefiting from a thin silver border that delineates the area.

The two integrated speakers deliver an average audio experience which was, again, to be expected. As for the laptop’s battery life, it reached three hours 50 minutes on our count-up timer test, which was a disappointment but understandable given the components used – remember that this review model also includes an additional hard disk drive.

If you want an Ultrabook that can support up to 32GB of RAM, multiple storage drives, multiple displays and offers tons of connectivity options, then the Lafite III is the ideal candidate – especially if you don’t want to spend a huge amount of money.

The laptop is not without its flaws, however. The warranty should be better, as the baseline coverage is a pitiful one month only. However, note that upgrading to a 12-month collect-and-return service only costs £5 – it’s hard to see why PC Specialist simply doesn’t absorb this minimal cost and make that the default warranty.

At any rate, if you do buy this notebook, make sure you select the warranty upgrade, since it would be foolish not to do so for the sake of saving a fiver.

Another downside is the finish of the Lafite III, which should have been better considering the cost of this notebook. If far lesser known companies like Chuwi or Jumper can do it, then PC Specialist (and indeed its ODM, Clevo) simply has no excuse. That and the warranty are the only real flaws in an otherwise good product.

The Lafite III is a stonker of a laptop, with lots of connectivity options for not much money.

Performance The Lafite III performed admirably throughout all our benchmarks as one would expect, scoring 2,112 and 4,075 in our single-core and dual-core GeekBench tests October 2017 |

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Nest Cam IQ

£299 | $299 https://nest.com If you want to see your kids, pets and burglars in Full HD, look no further

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lthough The Connected Home feels like its attracting the interest of those who are not nerds, rich folk and/or early adopters, there are only two areas to date that have really thrived.

One is Alexa and Google Home – soon to be joined by Apple’s take on home AI, the HomePod – and the other is smart security cameras.

If you do want a camera of this type, the Nest Cam IQ is as good as it gets. Of course, given its price – which is almost double that of the last Nest Cam, and nearly triple that of something like the old Logitech Circle or Nokia Home – it should be.

Design and setup This really is an exemplary product in terms of setup. Unbox, plug in via a lengthy USB cable that fits seamlessly into the base, open the Nest app, click the big ‘+’ button and scan the QR code on the base.

Obviously if you don’t have the Nest app you’ll have to download it

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and set up a Nest account. But that’s still perfectly straightforward.

The Cam IQ is quite attractive and feels premium and weighty.

You can crane its neck up or down and even when looking down from a height, the heft of the base makes toppling unlikely. The Nest Cam IQ can also easily be mounted on wall.

However, since there’s no weatherproofing, the Cam IQ is unsuitable for outdoor use.

Security also seems sound, with 128-bit AES with TLS/SSL secure connection and the option of two-step verification of any account changes, with a code being sent to a specified device to be entered before any change is allowed.

Video quality This is where the Cam IQ earns its high price. The sensor here is of 4K resolution. For streaming purposes, that is downgraded to Full HD, but the quality is noticeably higher. This is, of course, subject to the quality

of your home Wi-Fi and your phone’s mobile data connection, though, especially if you’re watching a live stream.

Seen on your mobile via the Nest app, footage can easily be paused, panned and zoomed, and if you have Nest Aware (more on this shortly), the software also makes a pretty good stab at auto zooming on any humans it detects – don’t worry, as well as showing a zoomed view, it is still filming the full frame, so you can switch between both.

The Cam IQ’s 4K sensor is also used at full resolution to capture still images of people that it spots.

Now 4K in this case, equates to an 8MP still, but it still gives clearer and more identifiable results than most smart cameras. Video footage is stored in the cloud for three hours, or if you have a Nest Aware subcription for 10 days at £8 per month or 30 days at £24 per month.

The real question is, do you really need the Cam IQ’s greater clarity?

Upgrade Nest Cam IQ KEY FEATURES Nest Cam IQ Supplier https://nest.com Camera 1/2.5-inch, 8-megapixel (4K) colour sensor with 12x digital zoom and enhance; Video Up to 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) at 30 frames/sec; H.264; HDR Night Vision High-power infrared LEDs (940nm) with IR cut filter Audio and lights High-quality speaker, 3-microphone array, LED light ring Security 128-bit AES with TLS/SSL Weight 357g

for people, excluding everything else. Doorways are an obvious example, and, when pointing your camera out of the window, the area immediately in front of your door, so you pick up visitors but not passers-by. Getting these zones the right size and shape throws up some problems, but it’s helpful.

Nest Aware can also alert you to sounds – specifically dogs barking or human voices.

Summary For security purposes, maybe not.

In most cases, you’ll be able to tell if a person in your house is a familiar face or an intruder even at lower resolution. Theoretically, a clearer face shot might be useful in subsequently securing an arrest or conviction, but if they’re wearing a mask, all you’ll have is a higher resolution view of their balaclava.

Additional features The Cam IQ works effectively as a two-way communications device thanks to an excellent mic array

blowing past the window – would trigger an alert.

Nest Cam IQ, because of its much greater processing power, is able to recognise that a shape is a person and notifies you only when it spots a person, as opposed to anything else. This does reduce the number of alerts. However, you are still going to get them every time any one of your housemates, family or friends comes into view, and in a busy household, that gets old fast.

The same applies if you set it up to snoop on the road outside. On a

“The Cam IQ’s 4K sensor is used at full resolution to capture still images of the people that it spots” and very clear speaker. There is a bit of a time lag over a 3G/4G network, but it’s usually acceptable. Over Wi-Fi, you could use the Cam IQ as an intercom quite easily, however.

Night vision is also seriously impressive, and unlike on older cameras, there’s very little in the way of visible infra-red light to give the game away to burglars.

App and Nest Aware It was something of a bone of contention with the original Nest Cam that it required an £8 per month/£80 per year subscription to Nest Aware to make it useful.

That’s because smart alerts were impossible without one. Any movement of any kind – household pets, shadows or even a plastic bag

busy street, it’ll pick up anyone walking by and let you know. So realistically, you do still need Nest Aware, and every Cam IQ comes with a 30-day trial subscription.

That’s because this cloud-based service offers a raft of features that should be offered as standard, including detection of familiar faces and the ability to name them.

We only had the Cam IQ up and running for three days and it was already pretty good at recognising members of our household, and stopped notifying us every time we walked into our own office. You can turn off notifications when you’re at home entirely, though.

Nest Aware also enables you to set specific zones within the camera’s field of view that it scans

The Cam IQ is a great piece of hardware. One obvious trick that Nest has missed out on, though, is including an alarm element. It makes the Protect smoke alarm; why couldn’t its cams trigger that when an intruder is detected?

That could be either an automatic function – although that would almost certainly lead to false alarms – or by you firing it via the app after being alerted. Bosch’s new suite of connected devices do offer such a function.

For keeping tabs on your family, in a non-sinister way, the Cam IQ does have its uses. With its ability to recognise familiar faces (albeit only with Nest Aware), Cam IQ is ideal for getting those reassurances about your loved ones.

Less useful, but more valuable, these kind of cams are all great for capturing video and stills of kids and pets at play, or doing amusing things that may earn you many likes and shares on YouTube. This one just happens to do it at higher resolution and with greater clarity than all its rivals. Q The state of the art in connected cameras, although we’d sooner have a proper security system.

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Au Z

£2 9 99 | $340 £259.99 $ www.asus.com

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he Asus ZenScreen MB16A Portable Monitor is a stylish USB-powered display that’s designed to make it easy to use multi-screen setups when you’re working on a notebook.

Having a second screen to extend your desktop is a great way to improve productivity, but for laptop owners – who might benefit the most from extra screen space – that’s not always convenient, especially if you travel a lot.

With the ZenScreen MB16A, Asus has come up with an attractive device that’s easy to carry, and which makes extending your screen space incredibly simple.

However, at £259.99 (around $340) it’s an expensive proposition, so does the MB16A do enough to warrant its price tag?

Design The ‘Zen’ part of the ZenScreen MB16A’s name makes it clear that Asus sees this device as a

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companion to its stylish ZenBook range of premium laptops.

ZenBooks are well known for their slim and attractive designs that utilise metallic silver, grey and black colours, and the ZenScreen MB16A clearly takes its design cues from those devices.

The MB16A’s dimensions are 360x226x8mm, making it just a bit bigger than an Apple iPad Pro. If this sounds a bit on the big side, remember that this is still far more portable than a standard monitor, and with a weight of 800g, it’s also much more comfortable to carry around. The slim bezels at the sides and top of the screen also mean the majority of the body can be occupied by the 15.6-inch screen.

The bottom bezel is wider, and contains three buttons – two for navigating the on-screen menu and adjusting the blue light level of the backlight, plus a power button. The design of these buttons continues the Zen design ethos, and again

helps to make the ZenScreen look very nice indeed. On the left side of the body is the ZenScreen MB16A’s only input, a USB Type-C port.

This single port helps to keep the design of the Asus ZenScreen MB16A clean and simple, and it’s versatile enough to provide power to the monitor while also displaying 1080p Full HD images. A USB-C-tostandard USB adaptor is included if the machine you’re plugging the MB16A into doesn’t have a USB-C port, which is a neat touch.

The ZenScreen MB16A comes with a magnetic screen protector that can also be folded into a stand, in a similar fashion to the iPad’s Magic Cover. It’s another thoughtful touch, and combining screen protection and a stand in one thin device helps to make this an easy accessory to carry around.

However, the process of turning the cover into a stand is a bit fiddly, and it would have been nice to have some clearer instructions –

Upgrade Asus ZenScreen MB16A KEY FEATURES Asus ZenScreen MB16A Supplier www.asus.com Display 15.6-inch widescreen, IPS Resolution 1,920x1,080 Full HD Brightness (max) 2250cd/m2 Contrast ratio 800:1 Video preset modes 8 Connectivity USB Type-C Weight 800g Dimensions 359.7x226.4x8mm

although if yyou’re accomplished at a origami then yyou shouldn’t have o too much of a problem.

The back of the ZenScreen MB16A will look familiar to anyone who’s used a ZenBook laptop – it has a smart metal design with the Asus logo etched in. Overall, this is a very nicely designed screen, and reminds us that Asus has a real flair for creating attractive devices.

If you have a ZenBook laptop this screen will be a lovely complement to it, although of course it’s compatible with any other laptop

We first u used d it with a PC without ou port, so we needed to use a USB-C p the adaptor, and download the necessary drivers from the Asus website. This wasn’t a problem, although once Windows 10 had installed the drivers and we turned on the screen, Windows 10 set the scaling to 120 percent.

This makes texts, icons and windows larger, which can make things easier to use, but in our view it looks a bit ugly. Setting the scaling to 100 percent made things look much better.

“The good news is that, on the whole, the ZenScreen MB16A performs admirably” or desktop, and will look equally good alongside those.

Performance As the Asus ZenScreen MB16A is a mobile monitor that derives both its power supply and video feed via USB, we’re not expecting image quality that rivals expensive standard monitors – but at the high price Asus is asking for, we’d still want to see very good image quality that makes the monitor comfortable to use.

The good news is that, on the whole, the ZenScreen MB16A performs admirably, with the IPS panel rendering 1080p content well. However, we did need to make a few tweaks before we were happy with how the display looked.

We also found the brightness to be quite dark initially, so we upped it to 100 percent. We’d usually never have to go anywhere near on standard monitors – and doing so would blow out the colours, and quite possibly our eyes – but even at this high level the ZenScreen MB16A’s screen was still quite dim.

Of course, if you’re running this second screen from a laptop that’s powered by a battery, its lower brightness levels will help prolong the battery life of your machine; however we’d have liked the option to make it a little brighter.

Using the on-screen menu is simple thanks to the front-facing buttons on the bottom bezel. There a number of presets you can choose from – you can also save a

configuration to easily revert to later on – as well as other features such as a blue light filter for using at night, and an auto-rotate setting that can be easily enabled.

Viewing angles on the Asus ZenScreen MB16A are good, which is handy for a relatively small display, although the glass screen does reflect light quite easily. It’s also worth noting that while the ZenScreen MB16A looks like a tablet, it’s not a touchscreen.

On the whole, performance is good. We wouldn’t recommend this screen for gaming or watching media on, but that isn’t what it’s designed for. As a second screen for displaying additional windows and applications it does a fine job, although you may need to tweak a few settings to get picture quality that you’re happy with.

Summary If you regularly work on the road and need a second screen that’s easy to carry and looks nice and stylish, then the Asus ZenScreen MB16A Portable Monitor is an excellent accompaniment. Its light and slim design makes it easy to carry around, while the supplied screen protector that doubles as a stand is a great touch.

If you use an Asus ZenBook then this is an even more compelling purchase, since this is a great companion device that utilises the same design language.

However, it is an expensive monitor, so if pure portability isn’t your primary concern you’d be better off looking at less costly monitors that will also offer better picture quality. Q The Asus ZenScreen MB16A is one of the nicest USB monitors we’ve seen, and is packed with features.

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THE BEST FREE PORTABLE APPS 2017

Your favourite software, anywhere…

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ZZZ OLEUHRIILFH RUJ GRZQORDG SRUWDEOH YHUVLRQV LibreOffice Portable is the largest portable app here, but it’s still amazingly compact considering it’s a full MS Office substitute.

You’ll need an external hard drive if you want to carry it, but you can easily keep it in the cloud (the free

version of OneDrive, for example, gives you 5GB to play with, while DropBox gives you 2GB).

LibreOffice Portable includes almost all the programs from the installable version: Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets),

:LQQHU The portable version of LibreOffice is almost as fully featured as the installable version.

Impress (presentations), Draw (vector drawing), Math (formulae), and Base (databases). The only thing missing is Charts – although you can create graphs and other visualisations using Calc.

Like many portable apps, LibreOffice Portable is made using open source code. This takes some time, so it’s a few versions behind the installable version of LibreOffice. However, that time has been well spent and it’s well optimised for use on the move, with easy access to documents stored on a networked drive, an FTP server, or Google Drive.

RATING

2 *,03 3RUWDEOH

KWWSV VRXUFHIRUJH QHW SURMHFWV SRUWDEOHJLPS The portable edition of GIMP (AKA the GNU Image Manipulation Program) – the finest photo editor money can’t buy – is too large for all but the most expensive USB

sticks – particularly if you want to change settings or download extensions – but is ideal for other storage media such as external hard disk drives.

Get your image editing kicks with the portable version of GIMP.

It’s a hefty folder thanks to all the necessary resources, including brushes, plugins and fonts. The need to access all of these means GIMP Portable takes a little while to launch, but once it does you’ve got the perfect tool for advanced photo editing, wherever you are.

It’s easy to open files from a local drive, networked storage, or even a URL, making GIMP Portable brilliant for editing almost any picture remotely.

The portable edition is based on the full version’s current stable release, so you’ll get all the latest features and built-in extensions.

RATING

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Software Test Best free portable apps

3 9/& 0HGLD 3OD\HU 3RUWDEOH KWWS ELW O\ [Y14Q[

VLC, from the VideoLAN project, is one of the most capable and widely-supported open source media players around. Its main appeal lies in its ability to play

pretty much any audio or video file (including MKV, MP4 and WMV), plus almost any audio or video stream, without the need to download additional codecs.

VLC Media Player Portable is one of the most versatile audio and video players around.

That flexibility makes VLC Media Player Portable particularly handy.

Keep it in reserve and if you come across an awkward file that won’t play nicely with your regular music or video software, then you’ve got the perfect tool for the job.

VLC Media Player Portable can handle files from any location, including local drives, network storage, and streams. You can even supplement it with easy-toinstall and freely available extensions to integrate it with specific services – although you should bear in mind that this will add to the application’s 22.3MB p p y portable footprint considerably.

RATING

4 &&OHDQHU 3RUWDEOH

KWWSV ZZZ SLULIRUP FRP FFOHDQHU GRZQORDG SRUWDEOH CCleaner from Piriform is the biggest name in computer system maintenance – and is a perennial favourite here at Windows Help & Advice magazine.

It makes it easy to clear out clutter like temporary files and cookies that not only takes up valuable space, but can also put your privacy at risk.

Quickly solve PC problems with this CCleaner Portable.

CCleaner Portable is a handy toolkit that you can run on any PC in need of a good spring clean.

The download includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the program, so you can pick the right one for the OS that is running on the afflicted machine.

CCleaner Portable is ideal for helping out friends and family members whose machines have started to slow down – although you should always check before deleting their cached logins.

Oh yes, and if you’re running it from your Downloads folder, don’t worry – it won’t try to delete itself.

RATING

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