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Welcome
As often as we wax lyrical about the benefits of reinstalling
Windows on your PC, I never tire of hearing it. Why? Well, it’s
simply because the act of doing so is the most important
factor in keeping your machine in perfect working order. It
never ceases to amaze me how many of the people in my life
have perfectly capable hardware, held back by a Windows
installation that’s become clogged up with all manner of
nastiness over time.
I fully understand the reasoning behind this, however;
Microsoft hasn’t made things easy. Windows 8 goes some
way to improving the reinstallation process, but it’s far
from perfect, and older versions of the OS are worse
still. This issue’s guide on reinstalling Windows 7 is about
as comprehensive as you can get, so no matter your
circumstances, I’m confident Windows 7 Help & Advice will
easily show you how to bring your PC back to life.

Nicholas Odantzis Deputy Editor

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THE ONLY COMPUTER MAG TO HELP

YOU GET MORE FROM WINDOWS
We pride ourselves in being the only magazine
on the shelves to show you exactly how to get
the best from the Windows operating system,
whether it’s 7, 8, Vista or even XP. Windows 7
Help & Advice also comes with a disc, on which
you can find some of the great apps covered in
the magazine. If you get a chance, take a look at
how you can even read the magazine on your
laptop, phone or tablet.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 3

 NEW things to do amazing websites fascinating facts

Stargazing There’s a wealth of astronomical

info available free, if you know where to look

6 | Help & Advice | January 2014


Th e fin a l front ier
Explore space without
leaving your desk
Thanks to new technology, we can see further into space
than ever before – and you can use the internet to join in
F
or thousands of years, people
have been fascinated by the
night sky. The ancient Egyptians
built huge monuments based
on constellations, and sailors used the
positions of celestial bodies to navigate the
seas in a time before GPS. We’ve learned
a vast amount about the universe since
then, but it still holds many mysteries.
The internet is packed with fascinating
information about the wonders of the
universe. NASA’s site
(www.nasa.gov) is a “Having a poke through
great place to start,
and is packed with
the gallery makes you
feel very, very small”
up to date news and
interesting articles
about our galaxy and planned missions.
NASA also runs a picture of the day site
at http://apod.nasa.gov, which is a great
way to find mind-boggling images of
celestial bodies. The site’s design is a little
basic, but the pictures are stunning and
there’s lots of information beneath each
one. It’s brilliant to be able to discover the
universe in bite-sized chunks, and it’s
worth visiting every day.
look to the skies Spot the station
There are currently six human beings
suspended in orbit 270 miles above Earth.
They’re housed in the International Space
Station, a research lab and observation
platform that’s been occupied since 2000.
It’s the largest artificial body in orbit,
and it can sometimes be seen floating
across the night sky. With NASA’s Spot
the Station you can receive alerts when
it’ll be passing overhead, and if it’s a clear
night you’ll know where to look and when.
Station location On the next page select your
country, followed by region and nearest city.
The BBC’s TV and radio programmes
on space are terrific, and Professor
Brian Cox’s accessible but in-depth series
have sparked the imaginations of a new
generation of astronomers. The BBC’s
space portal (www.bbc.co.uk/science/
space) includes lots of features and videos.
Google has turned its data mapping
to the heavens with Google Sky (www.
google.com/sky). This fascinating site
presents views of the night sky in a Google
Maps format, and
zooming in on bright
spots often reveals
entire galaxies.
You can switch to
Giovanni Maria
Cassini’s maps from 1792 to see how our
view of the universe has changed over
time, and you’ll find links to satellite
maps of the moon and Mars.
Many of Google’s images come from
the Hubble Space Telescope, which has
a dedicated site at www.hubblesite.org.
Here you’ll find incredible images of deep
space. Having a quick poke through the
gallery makes you feel very, very small.
Sign up Visit http://spotthestation.nasa.gov and
click the ‘Sign up’ link on the right of the page.
Mail me Enter your email address and choose
when you want alerts. Then just watch your inbox!
January 2014 |
Discover
Explore space
The Knowledge…
Nvidia Battlebox
Is this some sort of new tank?
Not quite – although Nvidia does describe
it as “Military Grade Gaming”. The tech
company, best known for its GeForce
graphics cards, is working in conjunction
with system builders to create top-of-the-
range gaming computers that are capable
of powering ultra-HD 4K screens.
What’s an ultra-HD 4K screen?
These are the new must-have for tech
lovers. They’re normal-sized monitors,
but they pack twice as many pixels as a
standard HD display, resulting in incredibly
crisp images. But, of course, you need
hugely powerful hardware to display
games on them properly.
Such as?
Nvidia’s Titan
graphics cards.
These form the
core of the
Battleboxes,
with two or
three linked
together to
provide twice
the power of a
standard gaming computer. Battleboxes
are also equipped with the latest high-end
Intel processors, solid state drives and
loads of memory.
Do they work?
We’ve had our hands on a Battlebox,
and it makes games look absolutely
astonishing. It can handle ultra-HD
cinema-quality video, too. 4K is the next
big thing in gaming, and apparently Sony
and Microsoft’s PlayStation 4 and Xbox
One consoles won’t be able to handle
games at such a high resolution, so these
computers are pretty important. But...
But?
The price of Battleboxes is astronomical,
ranging from £2,500 to £4,000 for the
computer alone. Then you have to throw
in a 4K monitor, which currently costs
about £3,000. You will be getting the
best gaming experience on the planet
– but you’ll probably have to remortgage
your house to afford it.
Help & Advice | 7
N AT URE + T ECHNOL OGY + SPACE + HUM A NS + ENGINEERING

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ORGANS COULD
ARE ANY YOU LIVE COULD WE
ASTEROIDS GOING WITHOUT? HARNESS
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WITH EARTH? ASK US YOUR
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SCIENCE QUESTIONS
ON TWITTER!
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 Discover
Windows Insider

R
INCHESTE
HENRY W
ERT
TECH EXP

Send to...
The ‘Send to’ option when you right-click on
a file or folder is incredibly handy, but often
ignored. If you right-click on a folder or file,
then choose ‘Send to > Compressed (zipped)
folder’, it’ll be ‘zipped,’ which results in a far
smaller file for email or sending via a USB
device. Choosing ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’
means you can find it quickly and easily
without ending up with duplicates, and you
can quickly add items to connected drives by
clicking the relevant entry. If you’ve got email
or fax (how quaint!) set up on your computer,
you can choose these options from the ‘Send
to’ menu, too. Hold down [Shift] when you
right-click and you’ll see a host of further
options in the ‘Send to’ menu, including
frequently-used folders.
Disk Defragmenter
Defragmentation is the process of
rearranging information on your hard disk so
that it runs more efficiently – a little like
reorganising your cupboard so you can get
to your baked beans more quickly. In
Windows Vista, it’s scheduled to run once a
week, but this can slow down your
computer. To change its settings, click the
Start button and type ‘Defrag’, then
right-click ‘Disk Defragmenter’ and choose
‘Run as administrator’. Now click ‘Modify
schedule’ and you’ll be able to choose when
it runs. You can also switch it off altogether
by clicking the ‘Run on a schedule’ checkbox,
but remember to run a defrag manually
every now and then, too.
Print Screen
The [Print Screen] key is a throwback to the
early days of computing, when pressing it
would result in everything on your screen
being sent to your printer. Now, it’s used to
copy everything on your screen to the
clipboard, which is handy if you want to send
details of a technical error to someone.
Simply press the button, then open Microsoft
Paint (in accessories) and choose ‘Edit’,
followed by ‘Paste’. You can use the
rectangular icon to the upper left to crop the
image, and then save it by clicking ‘File’ and
‘Save as’. We recommend choosing the JPG
format to keep the file nice and small.

Struggling to get something to work? Need a tip?

Then email us your woes (to windowsmagazine@futurenet.com with the subject line
‘Windows Insider’) and we’ll share your perfect Windows tweaks in a future issue.

Tip of the month Power it up

Straight to the desktop

Return to a more familiar Windows user Windows 8.1 gives you
experience by avoiding the Metro Start screen the option of going
straight to the desktop

Windows’ 8.1 update includes the
ability to bypass the Metro Start
screen and go directly to the desktop.
To enable this option, right-click in an
empty area of the taskbar at the bottom
of the screen and choose ‘Properties’.
Now click on the ‘Navigation’ tab and
click the checkbox next to ‘When I sign
in…’. You can also choose to bring up all
your apps and programs when you tap
the Start button by checking the box
next to ‘Show the Apps view
automatically…’. Clicking the ‘List
desktop apps first…’ tickbox will take
you to installed programs, so it’s far
easier to get straight to your favourite
content. By using all three of these
together, your computer will function
more like a previous version of
Windows, so it’s a great alternative if
you’re unfamiliar or uncomfortable with
Windows 8.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 9

Ja n u a ry
the essential
tech calendar
What’s happening in the world of gadgets, games and more. This
month, the world’s biggest tech showcase and a Viking rampage

Gadget heaven
CES to showcase the best
tech of 2014
The world’s biggest tech
show kicks off in Las
Vegas. Yahoo boss Marissa
Mayer gives the keynote
speech, and there will be a
1
2 17 Fired-up
browser
3 18 Firefox to get a Modern-
style interface
Popular web browser
4 19 Firefox will soon be
available as a Windows 8
5 20
app with a beautiful new
gesture-based UI. It will
support gestures for touch
screens, and developer
6 21 Mozilla has been revising
its preview build for over a
year now. Expect some
7 22 great features from this!

focus on apps – with the

Mobile Apps Showdown,
a hands-on display of the
8 23
best on phone and tablet.
9 24
10 25
11 26 The 20-inch
tablet
12 27 Panasonic to introduce
world’s first 4K tablet
Viking raids Sporting a Core i5 vPro
Turn-based Kickstarter
game finally launches 13 28 processor that powers a
3,840 x 2,560 pixel
Already a multiplayer hit, display, the Toughpad 4K
The Banner Saga’s
single-player campaign, in
14 29 UT-MB5 Windows 8.1
tablet, from Panasonic,
which your conversations will try to find a new
and choices will have
meaningful effects on the 15 30 market niche with the
best display yet seen in a
Viking story, looks set to tablet. It’s huge, though,
become a cell-shaded
adventure classic. 16 31 measuring 20 inches from
corner to corner.

Did you know? Fast facts

Store wars Wearable tech

The Windows Store delivered 1.7
million app downloads every day in
October, a 39 per cent increase from
June. There’s a long way to go before it
takes the lead, but these figures show
the Windows Store is gaining on Apple.
Experts from Juniper Research believe
that by 2018, smart glasses such as
Google Glass will have reached 10
million shipments a year. That’s up
considerably on a modest 87,000 units
sold this year.
Everyone’s talking about… Download this…

Phones of the future

This is My Jam
www.thisismyjam.com
If you’re anything like us, you tend to
Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia has finally borne fruit, have a fairly monogamous relationship
but it’s still a long way off dominating the mobile market with music, listening to one particular
song from an album repeatedly until you

A
fter a shaky start, Microsoft’s
Windows Phone seems to be
gathering momentum. Results
for the third quarter of 2013
from consumer research company Kantar
suggest that Microsoft’s market share
has increased in the UK, and in Italy its
phones now outsell Apple’s iPhones.
Microsoft’s UK share for the period was
11.4 per cent, a huge increase on 4.2 per
cent last year. It’s not a patch on Google’s
Android (58.4 per
cent) or Apple’s
iPhone (27 per
cent), but it’s still
indicative of an
upwards trend.
Some 13.7 per cent
of phones sold in
Italy are Microsoft
devices, whereas
10.2 per cent are
made by Apple.
It’s a vast improvement on previous
years’ sales figures. Windows Phone
devices were officially launched in 2010
alongside the Windows Phone 7 operating
system. Despite an enthusiastic reception
from the press, just 40,000 phones were
Nokia was struggling in the mobile get sick of it, then returning to it a few
months later and thinking, “How could I
market due to its refusal to abandon its
have listened to that!?” This is My Jam is a
Symbian operating system in favour of site for the honeymoon period with songs
Android. However, this partnership may you love. It’s nice and simple: sign up for
well have led to Microsoft’s newfound an account then search for your favourite
success. In order to keep up with Android track – or ‘jam’ – at the moment, then
and Apple devices, Nokia had to push click its entry to select it. You can only
the boat out with its new handsets. Its choose one song at a time, so make sure
Lumia range – which runs the Windows it’s one you love. It can stay on your page
Phone operating system exclusively for up to seven days, but you can change
– features odd but brilliant touches such it before then if you want. It works best
with friends, and you can sign up with
as 41-megapixel cameras, on top
Facebook or Twitter to find people you
of compatibility with ultra-fast 4G
know who are already using the service.
networks. The hardware is great, Follow them, discover their favourite
but the software is still what’s tracks and turn them into playlists.
keeping Microsoft
from competing
with Apple and
Google. Microsoft’s
Windows Store is
still a bit thin on
the ground, and it
lacks innovative
apps such as Instagram, Vine and
Flipboard. It’s a chicken and egg scenario
as developers won’t push these apps to the
phone without a larger market share, but This is my Jam Post your favourite tune
and share it with friends and followers
Microsoft won’t gain that share without
cool apps on its phones.

sold on their release day. At the same time,
200,000 Android and 270,000 Apple
devices were being sold every 24 hours.
Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia,
announced in 2011, had analysts worried.
Follow us on…
It’s clear that Microsoft is doing
something right here. We just feel that
Microsoft and Nokia both need to give
Windows Phone a bit more welly before
it can compete with the big two.
www.twitter.com/windowsmag

The 60-Secondm Q uiz

e sta rts no w!
Pe ns at th e rea d y, yo u r ti
www.facebook.com/windowsmag

1 Analysis of leaked
Adobe user details 3 Toyota’s FV2 concept
vehicle can do what? 5 Which UK
supermarket is set to
install face-scanning ad
A) Change colour
revealed what to be the
most popular password? B) Fly machines?
A) Lidl
NEXT ISSUE ON SALE
C) A utomatically recharge
January

17
A) p hotoshop B) Sainsbury’s
B) password itself
C) Tesco
C) 123456

4 Mentioning which
English delicacy has
6 Microsoft is set to

2 Google Street View

has recently mapped
which military watercraft?
A) A submarine
B) An aircraft carrier
C) A rubber dinghy
caused Facebook bans?
A) Black pudding
buy all the electrical
output from what?
B) Faggots A) A wind farm
B) A solar array
C) Toad in the hole
C) A nuclear power plant
Answers 1 C. 2 A. 3 A. 4 B. 5 C. 6 A. FRIDAY

12 | Help & Advice | January 2014

TAILORED FOR TABLET.
Experience additional multimedia content
in our fully interactive iPad edition

TRY IT
FOR FREE
TODAY!

Computer Arts readers know design matters. That’s why we’ve completely
reinvented our digital edition as a fully interactive iPad experience with
impeccable usability. There’s also additional interactive content,
such as image galleries and bonus videos, which bring the
motion content featured in the magazine to life.

TRY IT FOR FREE TODAY WITH

OUR NO-OBLIGATION 30-DAY TRIAL AT
http://goo.gl/sMcPj (UK) or http://goo.gl/aib83 (US)

Digital replicas also available on Google Play, Nook and Zinio

 There are over

Henry Winchester reveals a host

of fascinating digital facts
17m
tablets in the UK, according
to YouGov’s Tablet Track study.
Twenty-nine per cent of the UK
adult population currently has
access to a tablet, such as an
Apple iPad or a Google Nexus 7,
and there are 17.4 million devices
in UK households. It’s set to grow,
too – 19 per cent are planning to
buy a new tablet in the future.

Which tech One in 10

nightmares keep
you awake at night?
A survey conducted by American IT recruiting
firm Modis revealed that 22 per cent of
participants feared having their personal or
work email account hacked. Nineteen per
cent were scared that they’d lose all the files
or data on their computer, and six per cent
were horrified at the thought of spilling coffee
or other liquids on their keyboards.
US adults…
…use Twitter to keep
up with breaking news
without using other
sites, according to the Pew Research
Centre. With 16 per cent of American
adults using the micro-blogging service,
it could represent a threat to traditional
news outlets. The survey also found
that Twitter news consumers are better
educated and younger than average.

Which naughty activities

have Americans admitted
doing while driving?
58%
talked or texted
13% atewithsomething
a utensil

on their phone 11% participated in

a sexual activity

19%
checked social media, 10% applied
make-up
email or played games Source: Scout GPS

14 | Help & Advice | January 2014


Are you vain
when video
chatting?
Women who regularly chat via
online video services such as
Skype are often comfortable
doing it makeup-free. Four out
of five surveyed by messenger
service www.imo.im said they’d
take a call without makeup,
whereas only one in five would
go to work without cosmetics.
Women aged 55-64 are twice
as likely to wear makeup during
a video call as 18-24 year-olds.
Is London still
the UK’s tech
capital?
Trendy Shoreditch internet
start-ups could become a thing
of the past thanks to rising prices
in London. YouGov polled small
and medium enterprises in the
capital and found that 48 per
cent felt that the costs of running
a business were holding them
back, while 24 per cent couldn’t
find suitably qualified staff.
Would you wear
a smartwatch?
Wearable technology (such as
smartphone-linked watches and
Google Glass-style headsets) is
receiving heavy hype at the
moment, but the public remain
sceptical. Only half of Americans are
even a little interested in wearing
a smartwatch, and a mere 27 per
Discover
Facts & figures
Top BuzzFeed Facts
BuzzFeed (www.buzzfeed.com) was
founded in 2006 as a way to detect and
produce viral content.
The site posts content from its 300 staff
members, as well as users.
It pioneered ‘Listicles’ – easy-to-read
combinations of lists and articles.
Although the site is based in New York, it
has started using translators to reach an
international audience.
BuzzFeed tags articles with badges such as
‘LOL’, ‘win’, ‘OMG, ‘cute’ and ‘fail’.
At the time of writing, the top article of the
week is ‘The 33 dumbest things that have
ever happened’, with 2,566,058 views.
Over the past year, the site’s traffic tripled
to 85 million unique visitors in one month.
It’s not just articles about cats doing stupid
things – the site hired Pulitzer Prize winner
Mark Schoofs to head up an investigative
journalism unit.
Buzzfeed UK writer Tom Phillips created an
elaborate fake Twitter controversy about a
fictional online store selling racist costumes
– which people took seriously.
The site has been described by The Sun’s
editor, David Dinsmore, as “the best thing
on the internet”.
cent are very
interested. Just 36
per cent would strap
a technologically-
enhanced headset or
glasses to their noggin,
according to research
from Harris Interactive.
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 15
16 | Help & Advice | January 2014

Reinstall
Windows
Even Windows 7 isn’t immune to a
hiccup or two, but you’d be surprised
how easily most problems can be cured
C
omputers can be a bit like us
sometimes. One moment they’re
ticking along nicely, and the next
they’re randomly hit by a virtual dose of
the flu. However, just as you and I can
recover from being under the weather,
Illustration © A.k.A represented by Meiklejohn Illustration
so can a PC, even when it seems like it’s
at death’s door. You don’t need to shell
out for specialist medical attention to give
it a clean bill of health either, as you can
cure most problems in less than two hours
and without spending a penny.
As much as we love what Windows 7
can do, it’s likely that after months or years
of hard graft, some small file within it is
responsible for sluggish performance,
random freezes or the odd crash. The good
news is that this can be fixed much more
easily than you may think, with no need
to break out the screwdrivers and delve
Cover feature
Reinstall Windows
under the bonnet of your PC. Many
computer manufactures kindly pre-empt
such issues and hide a second copy of
Windows on your hard drive, preserved
in the state it was in when your computer
was new. All you have to do is fire up the
corresponding recovery software and copy
this data over the damaged Windows files.
Alternatively, a good old Windows 7
installation DVD will solve almost all
glitches and go-slows. Don’t worry if this
isn’t in your digital first aid kit, as you’ll
discover how to download a completely
free alternative that can be installed with
just a USB flash drive. You may not even
need to go to these lengths to get your
PC back to its best though, as Windows 7
includes several invaluable features that’ll
effortlessly cure common computer
ailments in a matter of minutes.
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 17
Quick fixes
Windows packs a range of handy tools
which can help rejuvenate a poorly PC

System Restore
This classic Windows recovery tool makes light work of repairing software problems

W
hen you find that your Turn back time
computer isn’t running A full reinstall isn’t
smoothly or is reluctant to always necessary
– Windows’ System
load Windows, it’s worth checking Restore tool can
out the System Restore feature in be a lifesaver
Windows 7. This tool periodically
takes a virtual snapshot of your
Windows configuration, so in the
event of a problem you can turn
back the clock and return Windows
to the state it was in a few days or
weeks ago. The process only alters
software and system files, so you
can rest easy in the knowledge that
your own documents or media files
will remain unaffected.
Performing a System Restore is a
doddle in Windows 7. Simply click
‘Start’ and type system restore. The
uppermost Recommended Restore
option will rewind Windows to link to see exactly what Windows is using your keyboard’s arrow keys
before your most recent software about to change. until you reach ‘Safe Mode’ and
or driver installation. If you’ve only But what if your Windows woes press [Enter]. Windows will now
recently encountered problems, are preventing your computer from load the bare essential files it needs
selecting this restore point could loading Windows in the first place? to function, hopefully bypassing
well do the trick. Otherwise, you Fear not, as you can still access any issue preventing a successful
can choose a different restore point System Restore via Windows 7’s start-up. Once the desktop loads
corresponding to a time when you Safe Mode. Restart your computer via Safe Mode, follow the same
remember your PC was performing and press [F8] repeatedly until the System Restore procedure, restart
as it should. It’s also worth clicking Advanced Boot Options menu pops your computer and let Windows
the ‘Scan for affected programs’ up. Once you see it, scroll down load as normal.

scrubbing up If your PC is running

slow, malware could be to blame Scan for viruses
Weeding out any viruses could be
all the TLC your computer needs
If you restore Windows but still run into speed or
stability issues, it’s worth scanning to see if viruses
or malicious software are wreaking havoc behind the
scenes. If you already have an up-to-date antivirus
package, run a full system scan to hunt out and remove
any threats. Don’t let the high cost of some commercial
antivirus software put you off this essential protection
though; excellent free packages such as Avast! Free
(www.avast.com) or AVG Free (http://free.avg.com)
will help keep your computer out of harm’s way.
Some malicious software isn’t devious enough
to count as a virus, but could still be making your
computer unstable. Malwarebytes Free (www.
malwarebytes.org) is designed to eradicate these
troublesome nasties with minimal fuss.

18 | Help & Advice | January 2014


Discover Windows
Event Viewer
Fixing a computer problem is good, but it’s
even better if you can find out what caused it
K Could your hard drive be
eeping track of any crashes
or glitches is easier than you
might think. Windows 7’s
Event Viewer monitors every
action made by your computer,
and will inform you of any
problems along the way. You can
access this feature by typing
Repair Windows
Repairing rather than reinstalling Windows is
perfect for fixing frustrating start-up issues
S
ometimes your computer
may struggle to load
properly, but Windows 7’s
built-in System Repair feature is
designed to fix this by replacing
any dodgy system files without
interfering with your apps or
personal data. The procedure
does require a Windows 7
installation DVD though, so if
Cover feature
Reinstall Windows
The Check
Disk utility
eventvwr.msc into the Start
search box and pressing [Enter].
In the folder tree pane on the
left, expand ‘Windows Logs’
the root of the problem?
and click ‘Application’. This
reveals a list of events performed
by Windows and third-party
software, with the most recent
at the top. If you know
roughly when your PC
crashed or failed to
start properly, scroll
down the event list to
this period and look for
any entries preceded
by a yellow warning
triangle or red error
symbol. Clicking one
of these reveals basic
information below,
1 Open Check Disk
To eliminate your hard drive from the fault-
which could indicate finding, open Windows 7’s Check Disk tool by clicking
whether it’s linked ‘Start > Computer’ and right-clicking on the hard
to the problem drive icon you want to test (normally the C: drive).
in question. Choose ‘Properties’, then the ‘Tools’ tab.
your computer didn’t come with
one, skip to the Troubleshooting
section on p24 to find out how to
2 Run the check
Clicking the ‘Check now’ button in the Error-
obtain the correct replacement. checking section will activate the Check Disk tool
Insert your Windows 7 disc and give you two further options. Tick both of these
into your computer and restart it. to perform a full check and repair of any bad sectors
Immediately press [F12] several on the hard drive, then click ‘Start’.
times to reveal a menu listing all
the available drives that your
computer could load from. Select
your DVD drive and the
Windows disc should
ask you to press any
key to confirm that
you’d like to continue
loading its contents.
Once the file loading
process completes,
you’ll be met with a
language preferences
screen. Click ‘Next’,
then opt for the ‘Repair
3 Restart and be patient
Windows may ask you to restart your computer
your computer’ link so Check Disk can have exclusive hard drive access to
you see towards the do its thing. Once the checking process does start, it
bottom left of the could take a while if you have a lot of files. Anything
following screen. up to two hours is normal.
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 19
Prepare your PC
When only a fresh Windows install will do,
spend a little time to ensure it’s done well

Partition your hard drive

Creating a virtual hard drive divide can have speed and backup benefits

R
einstalling Windows means Split it up
you’ll first have to spend time Keep your files
backing up your data onto on a separate
partition and you
external storage, but it’s easy to won’t lose them
avoid this by partitioning your next time you
hard drive into two or more virtual reinstall Windows
drives. With Windows and apps
on one side of the digital divide
and your personal files on the
other, you only need to wipe the
Windows partition next time you
want to perform a reinstallation.
Download MiniTool Partition
Wizard (www.partitionwizard.com)
and let’s make a start.
Once the software is installed
and loaded, take a look at the bar
graph representing the available
space on your hard drive. Right click
on the section where Windows and leave at least 20GB of free space appear in your Windows Explorer
your files are stored (Usually the C: along with Windows to allow for menu, ready for your personal files.
drive) and select ‘Split’ option. future software installation. Click Any alteration to your hard drive
Inside the new window, move the ‘OK’, followed by the ‘Apply’ button. layout carries a small potential for
slider to the point where you’d like The partition will now be created data loss, so it’s worth backing up
your partition, but remember to and another virtual hard drive will important data before you start.

Step-by-step Back up your files

1 Load Windows Easy Transfer

Windows 7 comes with its own Easy Transfer backup tool.
All you need is an external hard drive or a high-capacity USB flash
drive to store your files temporarily. Type easy transfer into the
Start Menu search box and press [Enter]. The software assumes
you’re transferring files from an old to a new computer, but go
ahead and select the ‘Old computer’ option anyway.
2 Select the files to keep
The software will now search for files to back up. If it finds
more than will fit on your external storage, click the ‘Customise’
link and deselect files you could do without. Next you’ll be given
the option to password protect your backup file or continue and
save the data to your external storage. Depending on the amount
you’ve selected to back up, the process may take a while.

20 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Cover feature
Reinstall Windows

Don’t forget drivers

These little pieces of software are essential for
letting your PC’s components talk to each other

T
he virtues of backing up blindly clicking the ‘Next’ The next screen displays a
documents and photos button to save a few seconds list of all the drivers installed
before reinstalling isn’t a great idea, as you’ll on your computer. Click the
Windows are obvious, but never know what superfluous ‘Backup’ button and select the
your computer’s drivers are software may start clogging ‘Back up all drivers option’ to
often forgotten. These clever your computer. set the wheels in motion.
hidden files tell Windows how With DriverMax installed DriverMax automatically
to communicate with your correctly, click the blue ‘Driver saves your drivers into a single
computer hardware and backup and restore’ tile, then file and stores it on your hard
are vital for a speedy and the ‘Backup drivers’ option at drive. Be sure to copy this file
stable PC. DriverMax (www. the top. Note the second tile to your backup storage drive
drivermax.com) will find all on the page labelled ‘Restore though, as it’s liable to be
the drivers installed on your drivers from backup’, as you’ll deleted during the Windows
computer, and specifically need to follow that route after reinstallation process if left in
saves them to be reinstalled in the Windows reinstallation. its current location.
one fell swoop when Windows
is up and running again.
DriverMax is free but there
are subtle catches involved.
Like many similar apps, it tries
to include certain ‘helpful’
extras during its installation.
These are unlikely to harm
your computer, but they could
demand some of its precious
resources. When installing
DriverMax – and indeed any
program – it’s good practice
to choose the ‘Custom install’
option wherever possible to
give you control over exactly
what ends up on your hard
drive. Opting for the automatic
installation alternative and

3 Save the backup

When the process is complete, detach your backup storage
from the PC. If you’re ready to reinstall Windows, unplugging
peripherals like printers or webcams is also a good idea. Finally,
software requiring online activation, such as antivirus packages
and Adobe products, should now be manually deactivated and
reactivated again following the Windows reinstall.
4 Restore your files
Once Windows is reinstalled, open Windows Easy Transfer
again, but now tell it that this is your new computer. Plug your
external storage back in, direct the software to the backup file
it created and sit back while Window’s restores your files to their
previous locations. Any hardware unplugged before the reinstall
can be reattached once the backup restoration is complete.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 21

Reinstall Windows
If your computer isn’t responding to some light
TLC, a full Windows reinstall is the best fix

Option 1: the factory reset

Reinstalling Windows doesn’t get much easier than this

S
ometimes Windows can be FACTORY FRESH
clogged with speed-sapping If Windows has
software or even malicious been slowed down
by malware, try
programs. If this happens, your restoring it to its
best bet is to wipe the slate clean default state
and reinstall Windows afresh.
How you achieve this depends
on the company that assembled
it. Custom-built PCs from smaller
system builders may well include
a Windows 7 installation DVD, but
if your PC comes from the likes
of Lenovo or Sony, you’ll need
to follow a different process that
will restore your computer to its
original factory settings.
Hidden on your hard drive
is something called a drive
image. This is an exact
copy of the Windows
configuration tap [F8] until a menu titled enter the corresponding password
installed on your Advanced Boot Options appears. if necessary. You’ll now be met with
computer when Select the ‘Repair your computer’ a menu titled System Recovery
it was new, which link at the top of the list and press Options. The last link is usually
can be copied the [Enter] key. You may find your the one to activate the computer
over the damaged computer’s recovery software starts manufacturer’s recovery software.
Windows data up straight away. If not, continue On a Dell machine it’s likely to be
with the aid of through a language and keyboard labelled Dell DataSafe Restore, HP
some clever system preferences screen to the point call its software Recovery Manager,
recovery software. where you’re required to select and Sony’s version comes under
Power up your PC and your usual Windows username and the heading VAIO Recovery Center.

PERFECT COPY Make a drive

image for future reinstalls Create a Windows
drive image
Make future Windows
reinstalls even easier
Once you’ve reinstalled Windows, reinstalled your
favourite apps and configured things exactly how you
like, wouldn’t it be nice to save an exact copy of the
whole setup and reinstall everything in one go next
time your computer has a problem?
Well you can, thanks to the wonders of disk cloning.
This technology is designed for copying the entire
contents of one hard drive to another, but works
equally well if you’d rather save the contents for use
later. You’ll need a sizable external storage device on
which to store your hard drive image, plus some
software to create it in the first place. Try DriveImage
XML (www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm) – it’s free
and does exactly what it says on the tin (er, website).

22 | Help & Advice | January 2014


Option 2: reinstalling
from a Windows DVD
The old school way to reinstall your operating
system, but arguably still the best
T Get your refreshed PC off
his method of reinstalling
Windows is also referred to
as a clean install, and is the
ultimate way to give your PC a
fresh start. All of its system files
will be deleted and replaced by
a brand new, unmodified version
of Windows 7.
As you’ll be clearing the whole
hard drive or partition where
Windows is currently located,
make absolutely sure any data
you don’t want to lose is safely
backed up, then restart your
computer and repeatedly press
[F12] to load the Windows DVD.
Set your preferred language and
keyboard layout before clicking
the large ‘Install now’ button.
Windows will now ask which type
of installation you want. We need
the ‘Custom (advanced)’ option,
as this provides the control
necessary for a full reinstall. Next
you can choose which hard drive
or partition to install Windows
on. Select its existing location
(typically the C: drive) from
the list and click the ‘Drive
options (advanced)’ link
beneath. This reveals
several new options, but
we’re interested in the
one labelled ‘Format’.
Clicking this option will
wipe all the data stored
on the selected drive or
partition so Windows
Cover feature
Reinstall Windows
After the
reinstall
can be installed on a clean
foundation, so make sure you
do a final double check to ensure
that you’ve highlighted the
to the best possible start
correct drive, and that everything
held on it is backed up. Finally,
click ‘Next’ to commence the
Windows reinstallation.
Windows shouldn’t need
any more assistance until
you’re asked to enter some
customisation preferences and
your Windows Product Key. This
25-character serial number is
printed on a small sticker, which
should be stuck to the back of a
desktop computer, the base of
a laptop, or on your Windows
disc’s packaging. 1 Remove ‘bloatware’
Restoring your PC to factory settings also tends
to restore some pesky trial software programs, which
often pester you for money. Go straight to ‘Computer’,
click the ‘Uninstall or change a program’ button and
uninstall these freeloading frills.
2 Windows Update
Windows 7 will be fast and efficient, but it won’t
be up to date. Type windows update into the Start
search box and press [Enter] to load Windows Update
and download the latest patches and hardware
drivers to maintain peak PC performance.
3 Install an antivirus package
Now Windows is fighting fit, protect it with a
good antivirus program. Choose a paid package, or
opt for a free alternative. Be sure to first uninstall any
expired antivirus trials that may have piggybacked on
during a factory reset procedure.
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 23
Troubleshooting
Here’s how to clear a few extra hurdles which
may prevent a successful Windows 7 reinstall

Solve a faulty factory reset

It may be the easiest way to reinstall Windows, but it’s not without its problems

T
he most straightforward way Slipped discs
to restore a big-brand PC If your PC was
such as a Dell or HP machine made by a major
system builder, it
to its factory settings is to use the probably came
preserved copy of Windows that with a Windows 7
you can find tucked away in the recovery DVD
depths of your hard drive.
But what if this copy of the
operating system has become
damaged or deleted by a virus or
some other malicious software?
Fortunately, it’s likely that your
computer came bundled with one
or more system recovery DVDs as
a backup for the content stored
on your hard drive. Inserting the
correct disc and accessing it by
pressing [F12] at start-up
should kick off the same
factory reset process
as described in the they ask you to burn your recovery discs. However, the cost
previous section. own when you first log and hassle involved in obtaining
Sometimes PC on to your PC. If, like me, these varies considerably between
manufacturers that all seemed far too companies, so if you don’t fancy
like to save a few tedious to you at the jumping through potentially
pennies and, time and you didn’t expensive hoops, check out the
rather than bother, most system guide on the following page for
include these builders will send an alternative way of sourcing a
discs as standard, you replacement fresh copy of Windows 7.

Step-by-step Install Windows from a USB flash drive

1 No DVD drive? No problem

Thin laptops often lack a DVD drive,
but you can still reinstall Windows 7.
You’ll need a flash drive with at least
4GB capacity, plus an installable copy of
Windows. Follow the ‘No Windows DVD’
guide opposite to get the right version.
2 Download the transfer app
Correctly transferring Windows 7 to
your USB flash drive requires the ‘Windows
7 USB/DVD Download Tool’ from http://bit.
ly/1dUkxyN. Once installed, click ‘Browse’
to locate your downloaded Windows 7 file.
Click ‘Next’, then click ‘USB device’.
3 Create and use
Find your flash drive in the menu
and click ‘Begin copying’. Using your new
Windows 7 USB drive is much the same
as an installation DVD: power up your PC,
tap [F12] bring up the boot device menu
and select your USB drive from the list.

24 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Cover feature
Reinstall Windows

Find your Windows

Product Key
This crucial element of a Windows 7
reinstall has a habit of disappearing

Y
our Windows Product
Key is essential for
activating Windows.
It’s found on Microsoft’s
Certificate of Authenticity
sticker, which on a laptop
is usually stuck to the base,
right where your lap will
wear away the ink over time.
There is another way to
find this vital key number
though. Go to www.
magicaljellybean.com/
keyfinder and download the
evocatively-titled Magical
Jelly Bean Keyfinder. During
(advanced)’ and untick any
boxes for installing extra
unnecessary frills.
The software will
automatically reveal your
Windows 7 Product Key next
to the heading CD Key in the
right-hand pane. If you also
have Microsoft Office 2007
or earlier, you can see its key
by selecting the appropriate
entry in the pane on the left.
No Windows DVD?
Note down your Product
Key in a safe place. If a future Discover how to get hold of this
problem stops you accessing invaluable Windows repair tool
your hard drive, you’ll have

the installation process,
select ‘Custom installation
M
no alternative but to buy a ost comprehensive
new copy of Windows. computer repairs
require a Windows 7
installation DVD, and adding
one to your tech tool box
is easier than you might
expect. If you still have your
Windows Product Key,
you can legally download
Windows 7 and transfer it
to a DVD or USB flash drive.
Downloading Windows 7
is no longer possible via the
Microsoft website, but at the
time of writing you can still
download it from Microsoft’s
file storage partner, Digital
River. The only catch is that
the Digital River site isn’t
designed to be browsed
by you or me. Search www.
techradar.com for Recover
Windows: How To and scroll
down to the section ‘Finding
install media’ for a list of
direct download links to
each version of Windows 7
held by Digital River.
Which link should you
click? Click ‘Start’, right-click
‘Computer’ and select
‘Properties’. Your Windows 7
version will be named under
the ‘Windows edition’
section. Check the ‘System
type’ heading to determine
whether your computer is
currently running a 32-bit
operating system (x86), or
a 64-bit version (x64).

Find elusive drivers

Missing a driver or two after the
reinstall? Here’s how to find them
We’ve covered how to back up all your system drivers
before reinstalling Windows, but there’s a chance a
couple may not have reinstalled properly, or could do
with updating to newer versions. To find out if your
computer is missing any drivers, click ‘Start’, right-click
‘Computer’ and select ‘Properties’. Over on the left hand
side of the next screen, click the link called ‘Device
Manager’ to display a list of all your installed hardware.
Any problems can be identified by a yellow warning
triangle. Right-click the offending element, select
‘Properties’, then click ‘Update driver’. Selecting the
automatic search option may sort things out, but if not,
download SlimDrivers from www.driverupdate.net.
While installing, deselect the box for including optional
backup software. Now start a scan, then click the
DRIVE TIME If your PC ‘Download Update’ link next to any devices listed under
is missing any drivers,
it’s easy to find them
a red banner to replace missing or outdated drivers. ■

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 25

Learn how to…
Organise your
music library Your guide Nick Peers says…
“If your music collection is in a mess,
TuneUp can help you put it back in
order quickly and easily.”
At a glance… hese days, iTunes and
SKILL LEVEL T Windows Media Player both
do a good job of adding the
Anyone can do it correct information about music you PLAYLISTS
Straightforward submit to your library, but even if it’s TuneUp can help you
Tricky in parts not full of entries labelled ‘Track 2’ by review tracks (and
‘Unknown artist’, you may find there identify unknown
Time taken are duplicates lurking, or albums with ones) by creating

1 hour missing artwork and extra details playlists in Windows

you’d like to include. Media Player for
You can, of course, wade through iTunes that you can
suitable for your library by hand, but a much check manually.
better method is to get TuneUp to
Windows 8 do the hard work for you. It’ll use
Windows 7 Gracenote to scan your library for all
Windows Vista kinds of problems, let you review
Windows XP what it has found and then allow you
to fix it, either with one click or by
picking and choosing what to correct.
The trial version lets you fix up to
50 tracks for free, so you can get a
good idea about whether or not it’ll
help you put your library in order by
following our tutorial before you
commit to any purchases.

Step-by-step Get your music library in order

1 First steps
Install TuneUp from your free disc. During installation,
click ‘Skip all’ to avoid installing any additional software when
prompted. TuneUp will launch alongside Windows Media Player
or iTunes. Wait while it syncs your music library for the first time,
which can take a little while. Once it’s done, sign up for a trial
account or enter a previously purchased licence code to continue.
2 Start Automagic
After a short pause, a pie chart will appear revealing the
state of your library – click the ‘Start Automagic’ button and wait
while it scans your library for problems and attempts to find fixes.
You’ll see a message telling you that Automagic is organising your
library, then after a pause it will start to display its results by artist
as their albums and tracks are each scanned in turn.

28 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Explore
Organise your music library

Jargon buster!
Nick’s best tip!
Gracenote
Click the globe button next FILTER VIEW The online music
to an artist to access more Click the ‘Filter’ button to database used by
information on them via the view only albums with TuneUp to help
‘Tuniverse’ tab in TuneUp. duplicate tracks, incomplete identify tracks – it
or complete albums or items contains track
information for more
that you’ve dragged across than eight million
from Windows Media Player albums, from both
for fixing. digital and physical
formats.

IDENTIFICATION
Not sure about a particular track?
Click the play button to listen to
it, or the folder button to view
the file in Windows Explorer for
additional clarification.
QUICK APPROVAL
Click the thumbs
down or thumbs
up icon next to an
album to quickly
have TuneUp either
ignore it or apply
the selected fixes
to your library.
Metadata
Additional
information about a
music file, such as
the track title, album,
artist, release date
and composer, is
embedded in the file
as metadata.
Other Stuff
These are tracks
that TuneUp can’t
process, split into
four categories:
cloud-only files such
as iTunes Match,
unsupported file
formats, files that
generate errors and
files that TuneUp
can’t identify.

TWEAK SETTINGS
Right-click the TuneUp Notification Area icon,
choose ‘Preferences’ and switch to the ‘Advanced’
tab to instruct it to ignore specific track information
(such as composer) across your entire collection.

3 Change album artwork

The library scan can take some time, but as artists start to
appear in the results list you can start to review what changes
TuneUp has identified. First, expand an artist’s entry (click the ‘>’
underneath their name) to view their albums, complete with
cover thumbnails where applicable. If the cover isn’t what you’re
expecting, click it to choose from a list of alternatives.
4 Review track information
To see and review what changes TuneUp proposes to make
to an individual track’s information, expand an album entry. Each
album track is listed – and any possible duplicates are highlighted
by an icon displayed next to the track name. To review what
alterations TuneUp proposes to make to an individual track,
simply click it.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 29

 5 Review the proposed changes
If the track is a suspected duplicate, a list of all copies will be
displayed at the top, with one pre-selected for removal. To review
which files will be removed from your library, click the folder icon
next to one of the tracks to view it in Windows Explorer and help
you determine which version to keep. To keep all the tracks,
untick all the boxes.
7 Select what to fix
Once the Automagic scan finishes, apply the changes.
Quickly accept or reject fixes on an album-by-album basis by
clicking the thumbs up or thumbs down button next to each
one – these will be processed immediately. Alternatively, select
multiple albums and artists using the tick boxes to the left of their
entry, or click the ‘All results’ box and then ‘Fix’.
9 Review changes and fix errors
Once TuneUp has processed your changes, switch to the
‘Reviews’ tab. You can easily undo changes, review failed fixes and
errors (click the ‘Try again’ button next to an entry to re-attempt
the fix), and review tracks that TuneUp can’t identify (labelled
Other Stuff). To review these by hand, create a playlist using the
button next to ‘Unknown Tracks’ in Windows Media Player.
30 | Help & Advice | January 2014
6 Edit track information
Now review the proposed changes to the track’s metadata
– TuneUp’s recommendations are on the left, the metadata is on
the right. Remove the tick next to any information you want to
leave as it is. It’s best to make track changes consistent across the
album – scroll down and tick ‘Apply field settings to whole album
when you click Fix’. Click ‘Apply settings’ when you’re done.
8 Process changes
TuneUp will now start processing all changes. The trial
version will fix up to 50 tracks for you, so you’ll need to purchase
a licence ($39.95 for one year, or $49.95 for a lifetime licence) if
your library is bigger. The process can take some time, so be
patient. When TuneUp comes across a duplicate file, it’ll ask you to
select a folder to move it to.
10 Your music library, fixed!
Once complete, TuneUp has just simplified a task that
would take hours – days even – by hand. Going forward, you can
quickly analyse and fix individual tracks by simply dragging the
file or files from Windows Explorer into the TuneUp window. In the
meantime, you can settle back and relax, knowing your music
library is in much better shape than before. ■
Windows 7 Help & Advice is an internationally licensed title and is

In the next issue...

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17 Januy
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CONTRIBUTORS ary
Editorial Ben Andrews, Dan Grabham, Christian Hall, 2014
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Fix any
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Organise and sync

Next issue on sale 17 January 2014

your to-do list

Access Windows
via a remote device
Unclog and speed
up your hard drive
Detect and repair
Windows problems

A member of the Audit

Bureau of Circulations
Catch up with us on…
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January 2014 | Help & Advice | 31

Learn how to…
Get the Start menu
back in Windows 8
Your guide Christian Hall says…
“If you miss the Windows Start menu, which was
packed with quick links to your favourite things, you
can get it back with this clever free app.”
At a glance… tartIsBack+ fully integrates
SKILL LEVEL S with Windows 8 and restores
the classic Windows Start
Anyone can do it menu experience. It’s not just any old
Straightforward Start menu, though – it’s enhanced
Tricky in parts with many new features that are
designed specially to work with
Time taken Windows 8, and make it easier to use.

10 minutes StartIsBack+ will help you disable Hot

Corners, show the Taskbar on the
Start screen, boot straight to the
suitable for desktop and more. You won’t have to
move your mouse pointer to the
Windows 8 screen corners or perform tricky
Windows 7 swipes anymore – unless you want to.
Windows Vista Another unique function is Show
Windows XP Everything at Once – just hold
[Windows] on your keyboard to
access Charms and Search, as well as Christian’s best tip
all the apps you’re running in both If you tick the box on the
Desktop and Start screen modes. configuration window, you
StartIsBack+ is a brilliant tool if you’re
can go straight to your
having trouble adjusting to Windows
8 or you just miss Windows 7’s desktop on starting your PC.
familiar features.

Step-by-step Get the classic Start menu in Windows 8

1 Install Chocolatey
StartIsBack+ is a little trickier to install than most software.
You first have to install a program called Chocolatey. On the Start
screen, type cmd and click the icon that appears to launch the
Command Prompt. Now go to http://bit.ly/qbvEmi and copy the
line of code under the heading Command Line. Paste this code
into the Command Prompt, then tap [Enter].
2 Get the current installer
You’re ready to download the StartIsBack+ installer package
from http://bit.ly/1eDnJ2h. The current version is StartIsBack+
1.0.5, so scroll down the page until you find it, then click the link
and choose ‘Download’. You can’t double-click the downloaded
file to install the program – you need to go back into the
Command Prompt, type cinst startisbackplus and hit [Enter].

32 | Help & Advice | January 2014


Get the Start menu back in Windows 8
3 Configure StartIsBack+
After installing the program, you won’t be prompted to
restart your computer, but you’ll still need to. Simply press
[Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Delete], tap the power icon and select ‘Restart’. Once
your PC has rebooted, you’ll see a message welcoming you to
StartIsBack+ and prompting you to set it up. Choose ‘Configure
StartIsBack’ to begin tailoring your new Windows 8 Start menu.
5 Change appearance
On the Appearance tab, you can make visual alterations to
your new Start menu. For instance, you can get the old Windows 7
Start orb back instead of the new white Windows logo. There’s
also a link from here to deviantART, which lets you browse
through and download more Start buttons. You can also choose
new visual styles for the whole Start menu.
7 Advanced options
Here, you can make further customisations to your Start
menu. We wouldn’t necessarily call them ‘advanced’, but this is the
place to look if you want to clear recently opened programs and
set up shared hot corners (a very useful option if you use more
than one monitor with your computer). This is also the place to
come if you wish to disable StartIsBack+ temporarily on your PC.
Explore
4 Start menu options
StartIsBack+ will display its options window. From here, you
can configure its many settings. If you want to change something
later, you can bring up the options menu by right-clicking ‘Start’
and choosing ‘Properties’. I’ve selected the Start Menu tab, which
lets you do things such as highlight recently installed programs,
and decide how many recently opened items should be shown.
6 Switching options
Under the Switching tab, you can specify what to do when
you start your PC and log in, and configure the [Windows] key to
perform a certain action if you don’t want it to take you to the
Start screen. You can also configure hot corners from this menu,
so you can perform tasks quickly by moving your mouse pointer
to the corner of the screen.
8 Enjoy the Start menu!
You can now have the same style of Start menu you enjoyed
for years before upgrading to Windows 8. Click the Windows icon
in the bottom left and it will seem just like Windows 7, Vista or
even XP! It’s no replacement for the rich interactivity of the new
Start menu (which you can, of course, still access), but it’s handy
to have both options now. ■
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 33
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January 2014 | Help & Advice | 35
Learn how to…
Share a mouse SCREEN NAME The
screen name identifies
each client computer

and keyboard
to the server. To change
a client’s screen name,
open the Edit menu and
select ‘Settings’.

Your guide Nick Peers says…

“Synergy lets you de-clutter your workspace
by sharing a single keyboard and mouse
between all the computers on your desk.”
At a glance… oo many keyboards and
SKILL LEVEL T mice cluttering your desk?
Fed up with your laptop’s
Anyone can do it touchpad and keyboard, but tired
Straightforward of having to unplug your desktop’s
Tricky in parts peripherals to use instead? Often
working on two or more PCs or Macs
Time taken and find it awkward switching from

25 minutes one mouse to another? If so, you

need a program called Synergy,
which you’ll find on your free disc.
suitable for Synergy is a clever tool that can
free up space on your desk by
Windows 8 allowing you to use the mouse and
Windows 7 keyboard plugged into your main
Windows Vista computer across multiple computers
Windows XP at once. But that’s not all – Synergy
also allows you to share the clipboard ELEVATE If a program on
across your connected PCs, and if you a client running Windows
donate and become a premium user Vista or later requires
you can easily transfer files between administrative privileges,
desktops by dragging and dropping tick this box on the client to
from one display to another. Find out allow the server’s keyboard
how to set it up and use it with our and mouse to control it.
step-by-step guide.

Step-by-step Set up and use Synergy

1 Download and install

Install the latest version of Synergy on your server PC – the
one with the keyboard and mouse you plan to use. You’ll find the
free version on your disc, or you can pay for the premium edition
from www.synergy-foss.org. Choose 32-bit or 64-bit depending
on your version of Windows. You’ll find versions of Synergy for
Mac and Linux here too. Install the program and click ‘Close’.
2 Set up Synergy
Set your language and click ‘Next’. You’ll now be prompted
to become a premium user to access the latest features; make
your choice and click ‘Next’. As this is the first computer you’re
setting up, choose ‘Server (new setup)’ and click ‘Next’ to continue.
For greater security, tick ‘Enable encryption’ and enter a strong
password before clicking ‘Finish’.

36 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Explore
Share a mouse and keyboard

Jargon buster!
NICK’s best tip!
To define dead corners for Administrative
HOTKEYS Define hotkeys a server, use the Advanced privileges
that allow you to jump to The highest level of
Server Settings tab of the
different screens from the access granted to a
server, or lock the mouse to Server Configuration dialog. computer user or
a specific display. program. Since the
launch of Windows
Vista, programs
are no longer
automatically
granted these when
they request them.

Dead corners
Defined area of the
screen where the
mouse cannot pass
through to switch
between desktops.
The size of the
corner is set in pixels
using the Corner
Size setting.
Server
A computer that
PLACE CLIENTS Place each acts as the central
hub of a network,
client on the grid around providing services
your server. Their position – a shared keyboard
determines which edge or and mouse in the
corner of the screen you case of Synergy
need to move the mouse – to other connected
to in order to move computers, which
between them. are known as clients.

DEAD CORNERS These disable

desktop-switching when the
mouse is rolled into the corner
– use the Corner Size option
to increase the size of the dead
corner zone up to a maximum
of 99 pixels.

3 Install client
Switch to another computer or laptop and install Synergy
on it following the same process as before. When running the
setup wizard after installation, log in with your premium account
details (if you chose to make a donation for one), then choose
‘Client (add to setup)’. Tick ‘Enable encryption’, then type the same
password you used in the previous step before clicking ‘Finish’.
4 Set layout
Switch back to your main computer and click the ‘Configure
server’ button in the main Synergy window. The ‘Screens and
links’ tab is where you tell the Synergy server where your client
is physically in relation to it. Click and hold the mouse on the
screen button in the top right, then drag it on the square that
corresponds to your client computer’s location.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 37

 5 Configure client
Double-click the unnamed entry that appears to configure
it for your client. Change its name to the screen name displayed
in the Synergy window on your client computer and click ‘OK’.
You can move this entry to another square by simply clicking and
dragging it, or delete it by dragging it to the trash can. Once it’s
set up correctly, click ‘OK’.
7 Try navigating
You can now use your mouse and keyboard on the client
PC as if they were plugged into it directly. To move control back
to your original computer, just move the mouse back to the edge
of the screen it came from originally – it’ll appear back on the
original screen. You can now minimise or close the Synergy
window without losing the connection.
9 Define hotkeys
On your server PC, click ‘Configure server’ and switch to
the Hotkeys tab. Click ‘New’ under ‘Hotkeys’, click the ‘keystroke()’
button and press your chosen key or keys. Only use combinations
not used elsewhere on any of your systems. Click ‘OK’, select the
key and click ‘New’ under ‘Actions’. Define your chosen action
– such as switching to another display – and click ‘OK’.
38 | Help & Advice | January 2014
6 Connect and test
Now click the ‘Start’ button on your server PC and wait for
the messages to display the message ‘watchdog status: ok’. Switch
to your client and click the ‘Start’ button there too. If all is well you
should see a ‘Connected to server’ sign appear. Now move your
mouse to the edge of the screen corresponding to your physical
layout – you should see the pointer jump to the other screen.
8 Single clipboard
You can copy blocks of plain, unformatted text as well as
selected portions of images from an application on one computer
to another using Synergy’s shared clipboard. Simply select and
copy the text or image on your client or server, then switch to
the corresponding application on the other computer and press
[Ctrl]+[V] to paste it into place there.
10 Keyboard and mouse, shared
Congratulations, you’ve successfully set up keyboard and
mouse sharing between two computers. You can now repeat the
process for other computers and laptops in your home, including
Macs and Linux PCs, using the ‘Configure server’ button on the
server to choose which edge or corner of the screen to use to
move between them. Your desk will never feel cluttered again! ■
 Plus essential tips for
Windows 8, Vista & XP

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Learn how to…
Create your own
fun web address Your guide Catherine Emma Ellis says…
“Don’t settle for that boring old URL – it’s time to
make your website’s address stand out from the
crowd with the fine art of domain hacking.”
At a glance… on’t panic – despite its
SKILL LEVEL D name, domain hacking has
nothing to do with accessing
Anyone can do it someone else’s computer illegally.
Straightforward Instead, it’s the practice of making
Tricky in parts a fun or catchy address for your
website by getting a little creative
Time taken with domain names. Some popular

2 hours sites that use domain hacking are

del.icio.us, bit.ly, goo.gl and post.it.
They’re short, snappy, really easy to
suitable for remember and look great on a
business card or CV.
Windows 8 Before we start, we need to
Windows 7 understand how the domain naming
Windows Vista system works. First, you have your
Windows XP top-level domain. This usually forms
the last two or three letters of the
address (such as ‘.ly’ in www.bit.ly).
This is preceded by the second-level Catherine’s best tip
domain – in this case, ‘bit’. The ‘www.’ If your preferred domain
indicates that this is a world wide name is quite long, try
web server, but you don’t need to
adding dashes between words
enter this in modern web browsers
– bit.ly is enough. Let’s get going! to make it easier to read .

Step-by-step Master domain hacking

1 Get brainstorming
Start by deciding what you’d like your URL to be. It could be
your own name, for example, or the name of your company. The
last two letters need to be a top-level domain (you can find a full
list of these at http://bit.ly/1YRAms). Be careful, though – not all
top-level domains are available to everyone, and not all two-letter
combinations are top-level domains.
2 Where in the world?
Make sure you know which country your chosen top-level
domain is owned by, and whether there are any special rules
associated with it. For example, .ne is the top-level domain for
Niger. You can’t use it unless you have an address there, and it has
had problems with stability. That rules out windows-magazi.ne!
Be sure to have a few ideas, just in case one or two don’t work.

40 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Explore
Create your own fun web address

Jargon buster!
Domain name
A unique name,
which can consist of
letters, numbers and
dashes, and is used
to identify a site on
the internet.

Registrar
A company that
manages top-level
domains for the
general public. A
registrar company
will usually register a
3 National news
Something to bear in mind is that if your site
4 Testing, testing
Once you’ve got a list of options, it’s time to
domain name with
the appropriate
ends in .it, for example, Google will assume that it’s find out whether you can register them. Not all authority on your
Italian, and will rank it higher in searches conducted domain registrars sell all top-level domains, so you behalf as well.
in Italy. Political issues can also affect top-level might need to try a few. Some of the best registrars
domains. In 2010, the Libyan government closed are www.123-reg.co.uk, http://uk.godaddy.com and
many .ly domains for breaching Libyan legislation. www.orangewebsite.com (for .is domains).

6 Explore
your options
Congratulations, you now
have your own catchy
hacked domain name!
What you can do with it will
depend on which registrar
you chose and which
package you’ve purchased,
but most domains are
managed through a simple
system called cPanel, which
is very easy to use and lets
you do things like set up
email and subdomains. If
you need help with cPanel,
5 Add a subdomain
If the domain name you want isn’t available,
check out http://cpanel.
net/website-owners.
consider breaking it up by adding a subdomain.
This comes before the second-level domain, and
can be anything you like. So, if windows-m.ag
wasn’t free, you could register ndows-m.ag, then
add the subdomain wi. to produce wi.ndows-m.ag.

7 Creative email addresses

If your chosen domain has a letter ‘a’ in it, you can use this to
your advantage to make a fun email address. For example, here
I’ve registered the domain therine-emma-ell.is, which means I can
set up the email address c@ to create c@therine-emma-ell.is. I can
then set up a subdomain for my website, so the address of my site
is ca.therine-emma-ell.is.
8 Share it!
Now you’ve got your hacked domain name, you can either
point it to your personal website (see p58 to find our how to
create your own site for free), or redirect it to your Facebook,
LinkedIn or Twitter page. You can also show it off by having it
printed on bespoke business cards. Moo Cards (www.moo.com)
has a brilliant selection of designs to choose from. ■

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 41

Learn how to…
Transfer files to
a new computer Your guide Nicholas Odantzis says…
“Save heaps of time when moving files from an old
computer to a new one – just use Windows Easy
Transfer. It’s easy, and I’ll show you how!”
At a glance… eople often make life more
SKILL LEVEL P difficult for themselves than
they need to. They buy
Anyone can do it a new computer, and then spend
Straightforward hours needlessly copying files across
Tricky in parts from their old PC, folder by folder,
tweaking the desktop so that it looks
Time taken the same as it used to, and adding

1 hour all their shortcuts to the menus.

Sometimes, you’ve just got to
step in and lend a hand, and I’ve
suitable for recommended to many a friend that
they do the job with Windows Easy
Windows 8 Transfer instead. It helps to migrate
Windows 7 files and settings, such as photos,
Windows Vista contacts or favourites, from one
Windows XP PC to a new one – so everything is
ready to use just like before.
Windows Easy Transfer is pre-
installed in Windows 7 and 8. If
you’ve got Vista or XP, though, don’t
worry because you can download
and install it for free. I’ll show you
how in the step-by-step guide below.
Let’s get started!

Step-by-step Transfer data from one PC to another

1 Find it
To start transferring files from one Windows 7 computer to
another, type Windows Easy Transfer into the search bar and hit
[Enter] to open it. If you’re transferring your files from a Windows
Vista or Windows XP computer, you need to download and install
Windows Easy Transfer from http://bit.ly/dhSU1h. Make sure you
choose the right version for your operating system.
2 Choose how to transfer
Once you’ve opened Windows Easy Transfer, click on the
‘Next’ button in the dialog box that appears. The following screen
asks you how you want to transfer items to your new computer.
If you have an Easy Transfer cable, choose this option (visit http://
bit.ly/17iGE06 to find out how to get one). If not, opt to use an
external hard disk or USB flash drive, or transfer via a network.

42 | Help & Advice | January 2014


3 Which PC?
First of all, you’re going to transfer your important files over
from your old computer, so you need to select ‘This is my old
computer’ from the two options that appear. Windows will now
take a good look through your hard drive to see what sort of
items you can transfer to your new Windows computer. This will
take a few moments, so be patient.
5 Select less
If you’d like to customise which files or settings Windows
transfers to your new PC, click on ‘Customize’ underneath your old
computer’s name, and select or deselect folders to choose what
you’d like to copy. To delve even deeper and further customise
what you move across, click on ‘Customize > Advanced’, select
more folders and then click ‘Save’.
7 Transfer it
Once the file has been saved, click ‘Next’, then ‘Next’ again,
followed by ‘Close’. Now turn on your new computer, plug in
the external hard drive to which you copied the Windows Easy
Transfer file, browse to it and double-click it. When prompted,
enter the password, and on the next screen click ‘Transfer’. Your
old items will be moved over.
Explore
Transfer files to a new computer
4 Select what to transfer
If you’re happy with everything Windows has found to
transfer, click on ‘Next’. Windows Easy Transfer will tell you how big
the files you’re transferring are in the bottom right-hand side, so
check there’s enough space on your external drive if that’s how
you’re going to transfer them. If the drive is too small, you’ll need
to deselect some files or folders.
6 Protect and save
All your files and settings are saved in one file, which you
can password-protect. This prevents anyone tampering with it
before it’s moved across to your new computer. Next, choose
where to save the file – we saved it to a portable external drive.
Saving can take a while depending on how big the file is, so do
something else while you wait.
8 Moving stuff
You now have a new computer that looks like your old
one, and all your files have been transferred to the hard drive,
so there’s little left to do except install your old programs. Click
‘See a list of programs you might want to install’ for a report of
which ones you should consider installing, based on what you
were using on your old computer. ■
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 43
to use your PC
Windows 8.1: The
Complete Guide
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been upgraded!
Learn all about 8.1,
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January 2014 | Help & Advice | 45

Learn how to…
Store files with
Google Drive Your guide Nicholas Odantzis says…
“Save files to the cloud and you
can access them from anywhere
with an internet connection.”
At a glance… oogle Drive is a cloud-based
SKILL LEVEL G storage facility that enables
you to upload your files
Anyone can do it to the internet so they’re available
Straightforward anywhere and any time you have
Tricky in parts an internet connection. It gives you
15GB of free space, which should Main menu
Time taken take care of the majority of your To the left of your

30 minutes day-to-day file storage, or you can Drive is a menu that

upgrade to the 100GB or 200GB enables you to create
version, which cost around £3/$5 documents, upload
suitable for and £6/$10 a month respectively. files and choose how
Google Docs is integrated into you’d like to filter the
Windows 8 Google Drive, so when you want to files you see.
Windows 7 create a document, presentation or
Windows Vista spreadsheet, you can do it online.
Windows XP Google Drive also comes in a
desktop version. Once it’s installed, Files and folders
you can easily upload files to your You see files and folders
account by dragging and dropping you’ve added or created
them to the Google Drive folder in the main area. By
on your PC, and when you want selecting files, you can
to download them, you do the move them about or
reverse. It really is easy, and files download them.
are copied across very quickly, too.

Step-by-step Master Google Drive

1 Go online
To start using Google Drive from a web browser window,
simply go to http://drive.google.com and log in using your usual
Google account username and password – they’re the same for
all Google services. In the main area you will see a list of your
uploaded files, and the left-hand and top menus enable you to
do various things with them.
2 Add files
The quickest way to start adding files from your hard drive
to your Google Drive is to click on the ‘Upload’ button, which
you’ll find next to ‘Create’ in the left-hand menu. It’s the one that
looks like an arrow pointing up. When the drop-down menu
appears, select the files or folders you want to upload, then click
on ‘Open’ to add them.

46 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Explore
Store files with Google Drive
Search Jargon buster!
Like the regular Google
search, you can search Cloud
for anything you like in This is a term given
Google Drive. Click here to internet storage.
and type the name of Instead of storing
the file you’re after. files or using
programs installed
on your PC’s hard
drive, cloud services
are all internet
based. This makes it
easier to access files,
but you will need an
internet connection
for them to work.

Sync
Short for synchronise
– sharing files
across computers
so the latest version
appears on both.
Syncing is a great
way to ensure you’re
never without access
Desktop to your vital files.
If you download the
desktop version,
an icon appears
on your desktop
enabling you to
access functions to
help sync your files
with Drive.

More options
Here you’ll find the ability to
switch the view from a list to
a grid of icons, which makes
organising your files a more
visual experience. You can
also choose the way your files
appear in the main area.

3 Convert your files

If you plan to upload a lot of documents to Google Drive,
there’s a feature that enables you to automatically convert them
to the Google Doc format, which will make it easier to share them
with other people later. To do this, click the ‘Settings’ icon (it looks
like a cog), then select ‘Upload settings > Convert uploaded files
to Google Doc format’.
4 Sort it out
To keep files in your Google Drive tidy and help you
find the ones you want more easily in future, use folders to
put things away in categories. This is handy if you want to keep
photos separate from documents, for example. Click on the new
folder icon above ‘Meet your Drive’, and choose a name. Now, any
files in your Drive can be dragged to the folder.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 47

 5 In detail
When you want to do more with one of the files in your
Drive, right-click it and a menu of options will appear for you to
choose from. If you just want to take look at a file, you can either
download it to your computer’s hard drive and check it out at a
later date, or you can view it within Drive by selecting ‘Open with
> Google Drive Viewer’.
7 Offline docs
If you’re planning to go somewhere where you won’t have
access to an internet connection, Google Drive enables you to
view (but not edit) documents and spreadsheets offline. This only
works if you’re using the Google Chrome browser (www.google.
com/chrome). Click ‘Settings > Set up docs offline > Allow offline
docs’. Install the Docs Chrome app to activate it.
9 An app for that
Google Drive is available as an app for smartphones and
tablets, too. There’s an app for Android devices (on Google Play),
and another for Apple devices on iTunes. The mobile version
enables you to access files in the same way as the browser
version, including uploading files from your phone, and
downloading them wherever you are.
48 | Help & Advice | January 2014
6 Starry files
An easy way to keep track of the files that you use most
often is to ‘star’ them – a feature that’s similar to flagging
particular emails in your inbox. When you need to find something
quickly, you can choose to look at only starred items using the
option in the left-hand menu. To star something, just right-click it
and select ‘Add star’, or click the star icon on the left.
8 Desktop app
Once you’re used to the way the browser version of Google
Drive operates, you can try the desktop app. To get started with
the desktop version, click ‘Download Google Drive for PC or Mac’,
and select where you want your Google Drive folder to be. You
can then copy files to Google Drive by dragging them to the
folder on your desktop.
10 More space?
Now you’ve learned how to use Google Drive, you can keep
all your files in the cloud where they remain safe for as long as
you like, and you always have access to them provided you have
an internet connection. Want more space? Click the cog-shaped
icon, then select ‘Settings’ and select ‘Get more storage’ to choose
the option that suits you. ■
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Learn how to…
Keep your PC
safe and secure
Your guide Mayank Sharma says…
“Keeping your PC, laptop or tablet
safe has never been easier, thanks to
the new Windows 8.1 security tools.”
At a glance… icrosoft spends a lot of effort
SKILL LEVEL M improving the security
mechanisms in its operating
Anyone can do it systems. Windows 8.1 builds on the
Straightforward security enhancements of previous
Tricky in parts releases to protect you against
malicious bits of software, such as
Time taken viruses, spyware and other nasties.

20 minutes Microsoft’s Trustworthy computing

team has outlined the security
improvements in Windows 8.1, and
suitable for broken them down into four
categories: trustworthy hardware,
Windows 8 modern access control, protecting
Windows 7 sensitive data, and malware
Windows Vista resistance. The first three are focused
Windows XP on enterprise users, and are geared
towards BYOD (Bring Your Own
Device) scenarios.
The good news for home users is
that Microsoft is also beefing up its
built-in malware resistance. For one,
Internet Explorer 11 will ship with the
Enhanced Protection Mode enabled

Step-by-step Protect your computer

1 Download and install

Malwarebytes is available as a great piece of software, but
it’s also free to download – pay a visit to www.malwarebytes.org
to download a version, or grab it from your free cover disc. When
installing the program on your PC or laptop, make sure you
uncheck the box that enables the free trial of the Pro version –
this will ensure you’re using the right version of the tool.
2 Review settings
The program has been designed to download new malware
definitions automatically – by doing so it keeps itself (and your
PC’s security) fresh and up to date. You can easily switch to the
Settings tab to tweak and customise the behaviour of the
Malwarebytes program, although the default settings you’ll find
there should work fine for most people.

50 | Help & Advice | January 2014


by default, which is designed to safeguard
your data even if an attacker has managed
to compromise the browser or one of its
add-ons. Microsoft has also improved its
built-in Windows Defender tool.
Using Windows Defender
Windows Defender was upgraded to
become an antivirus program with the
release of Windows 8. To bring up the
program, type defender on the Windows
8.1 Start screen. The coloured bar at the
top of the Windows Defender interface
reflects the protection status of your
computer. There are big red warnings if
the program is turned off, or your
database is out of date. Windows
Defender keeps itself updated by
automatically downloading new updates
to its virus database.
The main interface lists four tabs. From
the Home tab, you can run a quick scan or
a full scan by selecting the appropriate
button and clicking ‘Scan now’. With the
custom button, you can scan specific
drives, directories, or even individual files.
If Windows Defender finds something
objectionable, it moves it into a
quarantined area. To view these items,
switch to the History tab, select the
‘Quarantined items’ radio button and click
the ‘View details’ button. This brings up a
list of programs that Windows Defender
has taken action on, along with the alert
level, and the date. From here you can
choose to ‘Remove all quarantined items’,
or remove them selectively.
Sometimes Windows Defender might
accidentally quarantine a harmless
program. In such a case, you can use the
‘Restore’ button to ask Defender to let you
continue using the program. This program
is now listed as an Allowed item, and
Defender will not flag the program in any
future scans of your PC.
3 Scan
If you select the Scanner tab, you can perform either a quick
scan of your PC or laptop, or opt to use a full scan. This course of
action is far more thorough, but it does tend to take a fair bit of
time to complete. The third type of scan offered – known as a
flash scan – is only available to licensed users, so we won’t bother
going into too much detail about that.
Although Windows Defender does a
nice job of keeping your system clean, if
you are really paranoid about malware,
you can use a dedicated anti-malware
scanner, such as Malwarebytes (see
walkthrough below). However, there’s a
particular type of malware, known as a
worm, which specialises in spreading over
the network. Having a well-configured
firewall is an essential safeguard against
this type of malware. It also protects you
against attackers trying to sneak into your
computer, who are exploiting the network
capabilities of trusted programs.
Tweaking Windows Firewall
Windows Firewall is designed to block
unwanted and potentially dangerous
connections. Remember how Windows
prompts you to choose whether a new
network is a home, work or public
network? If you choose a public network,
where your computer could be a sitting
duck for a network attack, the Windows
Firewall blocks almost all incoming
connections or intrusions.
For the most part, there is no need to
configure the Windows Firewall. Most
programs that need to listen for incoming
connections automatically tweak the
Windows Firewall to allow such
connections during installation. However,
Windows does allow users to manually
configure the firewall if they want to. To
bring up the Windows Firewall controls,
type firewall on the Windows 8.1 Start
screen. You’ll notice several options in the
main interface of the Windows Firewall.
The ‘Allow an app or feature through
Windows Firewall’ option gives you a list
of network-aware programs installed on
your PC. Along with these programs are
details of whether they’re allowed to
communicate over private and public
networks. Remember that private
nice and secure
From the Security
section, you can
check on the various
Windows 8.1
security tools
January 2014 |
Explore
Secure your computer
networks are those that allow sharing,
while public networks are those over
which sharing is restricted.
To change the settings for a program,
click ‘Change settings’, then adjust your
options. With ‘Change notification
settings’, you can tweak how Windows
Firewall alerts you – for example, when a
new program is blocked – for both public
and private networks. You also get
options to either completely block
incoming connections, which prevents
you from even browsing the internet, or
to turn off the firewall altogether.
If you wish to tweak Windows Firewall
in greater detail, click on the ‘Advanced
settings’ option. Here you can control
network traffic in far greater detail by
creating firewall rules. For example, you
can restrict traffic to specific ports, etc.
Although incorrect modifications to the
Windows Firewall can isolate your
computer from the network, don’t be
afraid to experiment. You can always
select ‘Restore defaults’ to revert the
firewall back to its original settings. ■
Taking action
One important component of
Windows 8.1 that plays a crucial role in
keeping your computer safe and
secure is the Windows Action Center.
It monitors the most important
aspects of the PC and divides them
into two broad categories: security
and maintenance. You can find the
Action Center within the desktop
Control Panel, under the option called
‘System and Security’.
When something needs your
attention, the Action Center flags up
the problem nice and clearly. It also
handily colour-codes any warnings
that need your attention. Issues
flagged with a yellow border could
potentially affect the security or
performance of the PC, while a red
border is used for highlighting
problems of a more critical nature.
In addition to the colour-coding, the
Action Center also displays a brief
description of a given problem, along
with a link to open the configuration
window of the relevant tool to resolve
the issue in question.
Help & Advice | 51
Learn how to… Hide and seek

Customise
To free up some screen space, you
can keep the Taskbar hidden
when it is not being used by
activating the auto-hide option.

your Taskbar Your guide Mark Wilson says…

“Finding new ways to use the features built
into Windows is always rewarding. Here are
some ways to get more from the Taskbar.”
At a glance… he Taskbar is at the heart of
SKILL LEVEL T Windows. It’s something that
gets used on a daily basis,
Anyone can do it not only when you want to launch
Straightforward programs, but also when you need to
Tricky in parts switch between open windows. It’s
home to both the Start button and
Time taken the Notification Area, so it’s a feature

20 minutes that you’re probably already familiar

with, but you may not be aware of
everything you can do with it. easy access
suitable for There are plenty of advanced Toolbars can contain shortcuts to
Taskbar settings and options that folder, files and programs and you
Windows 8 might not be immediately obvious, can create as many as you have
Windows 7 but which could revolutionise the room for in the Taskbar.
Windows Vista way you use your desktop, saving
you precious time. Whether you’re
Windows XP looking for a way to launch your
most frequently used applications
more easily, keep your shortcuts
neatly organised or even navigate
the contents of your hard drive, your
Taskbar can help. No matter what
you use your computer for, you’re
bound to find something new to try!

Step-by-step Customise the Taskbar

1 Unlock the Taskbar

Before trying to make any changes to the Taskbar, you
should check to see whether it is locked or not. Right-click an
empty section of the Taskbar and look for the ‘Lock the Taskbar’
option in the context menu. If there is a tick next to this setting in
the list, click it so you can move the Taskbar about. If there isn’t a
tick there, leave things as they are and move on to the next step.
2 Create new folder
To help keep things neatly organised, you can create new
toolbars that include shortcuts to all of your favourite programs.
Open your Documents folder, right-click an empty area and then
click ‘New > Folder’. Enter a suitable name and press [Enter], then
open the newly created folder. You can now fill the folder with
shortcuts that you want to access via the Taskbar.

52 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Explore
Customise your Taskbar

Jargon buster!
Auto-hide
MARK’s best tip! A space-saving
Increasing the height of the option that enables
you to hide the
Taskbar is a great way to Taskbar when it’s not
make space for more icons if in use, and have it
you need it. pop into view when
you need to access it.

Taskbar
The bar that runs
along the bottom
of your Windows
desktop, which
includes the Start
button, System
Tray and shortcuts
find your files to programs you
Adding a cascading have installed.
folder to the Taskbar
provides you with a Toolbar
wonderfully quick and A collection of icons
easy way to browse that provide access
to tools, shortcuts
through folders without and more. You can
using Explorer. create multiple
toolbars, and fill
big and bold them with the
You can opt to have shortcuts you need.
icons of different sizes
within the Taskbar, so
the shortcuts you need Location, location
access to most often are The Taskbar usually resides
easier to see and click. at the bottom of the screen,
but when unlocked it can be
moved to the top or side if
you prefer.

3 Create toolbars
After copying existing shortcuts into the folder or adding
new ones, you can transform the folder into a toolbar. Right-click
the Taskbar and click ‘Toolbars > New toolbar’. Select the newly
created folder and click the ‘Select folder’ button. When the new
toolbar is added, you can right click its label and untick the ‘Show
text’ and ‘Show title’ options to remove any text and save space.
4 Stay organised
Adding shortcuts this way is very useful, but you may find
that your Taskbar starts to look messy if you add scores of icons.
To help keep things a little neater, you can add multiple toolbars
from different folders of shortcuts. The separator that appears to
the right of a toolbar not only acts as a divider – you can also click
and drag it to move toolbars around the Taskbar.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 53

 5 Double the Taskbar
If you double the height of the Taskbar, you’ll have space for
more icons. Having ensured that the Taskbar is unlocked, position
the mouse cursor over its upper border so that it turns into a
double-headed arrow. Click with the left mouse button and drag
upwards until the Taskbar doubles in size. You could even make it
larger still, but this reduces desktop space.
7 Adjust icon size
Any new shortcut toolbars that are added feature small
icons. To make the icons you use most often easier to see, you
may want to make them slightly larger. Right-click the separator
for a toolbar and then click ‘View’ followed by ‘Large icons’. If you
want to shrink them down again, you just need to select the
‘Small icons’ option instead.
9 Hide the Taskbar
Whether you are using a standard sized or double height
Taskbar, you can hide it to give yourself more screen space.
Right-click an empty area and select ‘Properties’ from the context
menu. Tick the option labelled ‘Auto-hide the Taskbar’ and click
‘OK’. From now on, to access the Taskbar, move the mouse to the
bottom of the screen and it slides into view.
54 | Help & Advice | January 2014
6 Rows of toolbars
By default, with a double-height Taskbar, each toolbar is the
same height, but you can separate things by reducing them to
single rows of icons. Position the mouse cursor over the separator
on the left-hand side of a toolbar, click with the left mouse button
and drag down before releasing the button once the toolbar has
snapped into position at the bottom of the Taskbar.
8 Navigate your hard drive
It’s possible to navigate your hard drive from the Taskbar,
too. Create a new toolbar and select your C: drive as the base
folder. Use the toolbar separator to move the toolbar to the right
so that only the label is visible. The rest of the toolbar is hidden,
but if you click the small arrow button, the contents of your C:
drive can be accessed through submenus.
10 You’re done!
The scope for customisation is far-reaching. You can create
a virtually unlimited number of toolbars – you’re only really
restricted by the number of shortcuts you need, and the amount
of screen space you have. Spend a little time getting your Taskbar
set up and it can help you to get around your computer’s files and
applications more quickly and easily than ever. n
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Learn how to…
Watch and record TV
with Media Center
Your guide Nick Peers says…
“I’ve turned my PC into a digital TV recorder with the
help of Windows 7 and a TV tuner. I’ll show you how
– it’s easy and will transform the way you watch TV.”
At a glance… indows 7 comes with all the
SKILL LEVEL W software you need to watch
and record TV on your PC,
Anyone can do it but you still need a TV tuner for your
Straightforward computer. The simplest option is to
Tricky in parts purchase a USB TV tuner stick, which
can be plugged straight into a spare
Time taken USB port on your PC. Make sure that

15 minutes it’s Windows 7 compatible before you

spend any money – prices start from
around £30 for a DVB-T (Freeview)
suitable for model. Although most TV sticks
come with a portable antenna, these
Windows 8 are rarely powerful enough to pick
Windows 7 up a signal, so you need to connect
Windows Vista to your home TV aerial for the best
Windows XP results. Also make sure you check
www.freeview.co.uk/availability
before you buy if you don’t currently
have Freeview in your home.
Because this tutorial relies on
Freeview, it will only work in the UK.
If you live somewhere else, take a
look at Microsoft’s guide to watching
TV on your PC at http://bit.ly/1hfJTqL.

Step-by-step Watch and record TV

1 Set up signal
To get started, open Windows Media Center (click ‘Start >
All Programs > Windows Media Center’, or use the Start search
bar). If you haven’t already set up your computer to watch
television, click ‘Settings’ under ‘Tasks’, then click ‘TV’ followed by
‘TV signal’. Click ‘Set up TV signal’ and click ‘Yes’ if any warning
boxes appear on your screen.
2 Set regional settings
Verify that the right location is selected (United Kingdom)
and click ‘Next’. Now enter your postcode and click ‘Next’ again.
Read and agree to both service agreements, clicking ‘Next’
between each one. PlayReady will now automatically download
and install itself on your PC. Once it’s finished doing so, click
‘Next’ to begin scanning for your TV card’s signal.

56 | Help & Advice | January 2014


3 Scan for channels
Now you need to verify that your TV tuner has been
correctly identified – in most cases this is Digital Antenna (DVB).
If it’s correct, select ‘Yes’ and then click ‘Next’. Wait for a few
moments while Windows Media Center scans for TV channels –
they are added in batches as the scan progresses. Click ‘Next’
followed by ‘Finish’.
5 View TV guide
Although it’s possible to record the channel you’re currently
watching, a better way to set up recordings is to use the 14-day
TV guide. To this, click the ‘Guide’ button to the right of the record
button once to bring up the condensed guide, or twice to view
the full channel-by-channel guide. This is very much like the view
you’ll get if you use Freeview on your television.
7 Manage recordings
Your PC must be switched on and connected to the TV
aerial in order for recordings to be made. They record in the
background as you work or browse the net. You can see which
programmes you’ve already recorded by clicking on the ‘TV >
Recorded TV’ menu; click ‘View scheduled’ to see what programs
are yet to be recorded.
Explore
Watch and record TV
4 Watch and pause
You can now return to the main menu by pressing
[Alt]+[Windows]+[Enter]. Select ‘TV’ and click ‘Live TV’ to start
watching television on your computer. Use the controls at the
bottom of the screen to navigate – you can even pause live TV
by clicking the appropriate button. Click ‘Play’ when you’re ready
to resume watching where you left off.
6 Record TV
The simplest way to record your favourite programme
– or set up a scheduled recording – is to do it through the TV
guide itself. Navigate through the guide until you find the
programme you want to record and watch later, then right-click
it and choose ‘Record’, or ‘Record series’ if you want Media Center
to record the entire season automatically.
8 TV mastered!
Now your TV viewing habits can revolve around your life,
not the other way round. You’ve successfully configured your TV
tuner card, plus learned how to both watch and record television
programmes on your computer, enabling you to view it at a time
that suits you. Remember, you still need a TV licence if you’re
watching live TV on your computer. ■
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 57
Learn how to…
Create a
free website Your guide Christian Hall says…
Site navigation
Most of Jimdo’s
templates use a
“It’s never been quicker or easier traditional top bar
to create your own website, and it navigation to let
users move between
won’t cost you a penny!” your website’s
pages. You can
At a glance… ith Jimdo, you really can choose whatever
SKILL LEVEL W get a website online in just
a few minutes. it’s not just
you want to go in
these areas, and
Anyone can do it for hobbyists, either – Jimdo is used change its style
Straightforward by plenty of pros too. The technology and size.
Tricky in parts powering it was developed as a
content management service for
Time taken businesses, so it’s certainly robust,

50 minutes but you don’t need any technical

knowledge to get a website online,
complete with a blog, photo galleries,
suitable for videos, an online store and social
media integration.
Windows 8 Jimdo has a drag-and-drop
Windows 7 WYSIWYG interface, with simple text
Windows Vista editing boxes. You’ll instantly feel
Windows XP comfortable with using it, and you’ll
have a great looking site ready in
moments, but it takes a while to
master the more advanced features.
When you feel ready to take the
next step, it’s easy to upgrade to
the paid-for version, which includes
some more powerful options that
will make your site really shine.
Pictures Jimdo’s templates are
all rather colourful, and most
feature a large central image,
although you don’t have to use
these. There are plenty of options
for displaying pictures on your
site, including smart galleries.
You can also set alternative text
for users who can’t see your
chosen images.

Step-by-step Set up your first Jimdo website

1 Get your domain

Visit www.jimdo.com to sign up for free and begin creating
your own website. Enter your details on the right, including a
.jimdo domain of your choice (you’ll be told if the domain is
already taken, and given the opportunity to choose another).
You’ll then be shown a security code on screen, which you need
to enter to continue.
2 Choose a design
Once you’ve logged into Jimdo, you’ll see that there’s a
default page already set up. It’s best to have a look at other
designs now, although you can choose a different one later.
Choose ‘Layout’ from the sidebar menu on the right to see a list
of templates. Click on one you like, and it will be applied to your
site. You can also click ‘Layout details’ for more information.

58 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Explore
Create a free website
Edit buttons When you Layout This button will
hover your mouse pointer over show you the templates that
a page element, you’ll see an you can use on your website. Jargon buster!
option to begin editing it (the You can swap them at any
message varies depending time, but if you just want to Alternative text
on the page element). Here changes parts of a template, A description of
I’m being given the option to you can use the ‘Style’ button a website image,
change the page header. below ‘Layout’ instead. used to convey the
general sense you
would get from
seeing the image.
Useful for web
accessibility, and
for people who are
using a stripped-
down browser with
images turned off.

WYSIWYG
‘What you see is
what you get’ is a
term that could be
Settings Click here to access more used to describe
advanced options. The menu is always Jimdo’s interface.
available when you’re editing in Jimdo. It essentially means
Some of the features require an upgrade, that the text and
but many are available in the free images you edit
version, such as site header and footers. on screen will look
the same when
someone visits your
finished website.
SEO
Search engine
optimisation refers
to techniques used
to move a website
up ‘natural’ or
unpaid results on
Statistics This is a paid-for upgrade that tells you how search engines.
many visitors you’ve had and what they’ve been up to.
Alternatively, you can link Google Analytics (www.google.
com/analytics) to your site for free, which will give you
pretty much the same information.

3 Set up the navigation

At the very top of your new template, you’ll see a message
informing you that it’s a preview. To accept what you see, click
‘Yes’ and you’ll be ready to begin editing your website. If you
hover over the menu at the top, a bar labelled ‘Edit navigation’ will
appear underneath. Click this to begin entering your own menu
options – the key to your website’s usability.
4 Add a new page
You can rename any of the default menu options in the list
by clicking in the field and typing a new name. Add new ones
with the ‘Add a new page’ button. You can then change how these
options are ordered in your website navigation using the up and
down arrows. You can delete a page, or hide it in the menu if you
don’t want it to be linked from the homepage.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 59

 5 Edit the header
We’re going to start by changing the header to suit the
kind of look we’re after. Hover over the header area and the ‘Edit
header’ option will appear. Click the link and a popup window
will appear where you can change the design and enter your
own text. Choose ‘Custom photo’ if you want to use your own
image, then click ‘Title’ to give your homepage a name.
7 Add your first image
Click on the main default image on your template and a
menu will appear at the bottom. Click the ‘Choose file’ button here
to replace it with your own picture. Once your image has been
imported into Jimdo, you can resize it using the ‘+/-’ buttons and
choose a page alignment (left, right or centre). You can also add a
caption and web link if you like.
9 Edit using HTML
If you prefer, you can edit your website text using HTML
(a language used to write web pages), which is useful if you want
to copy in code from other websites you’ve made using other
software. Click the ‘HTML’ button on the right of the text editing
window and make your changes. If you’re not sure where to
begin, check out the HTML guide at www.w3schools.com/html.
60 | Help & Advice | January 2014
6 Adjust the page title
Stay on the Title tab and use the Position sliders to move
your title text into a place where it’s easy to read. Use the colour
picker on the right to choose a shade for your headline text. Now
click ‘Adjust header’ and use the sliders to tweak the header’s
location. Use the ‘Header height’ slider to increase or decrease
the depth of the header to suit your design.
8 Fine tune other page elements
In this template, the bottom of the home page contains
three text areas: About, Service and Philosophy. You can change
these to suit your own website, or delete them entirely if you
want. I’m going to rewrite the About area and leave it on the
homepage. Just click the text box and it will open an editing
window, ready for you to begin typing.
10 Edit next page
Here I’m going to add a series of my latest photographs by
inserting them one by one. To add a picture, simply hover over
the area where you’d like it to appear and choose ‘New element >
Text with photo’. If you need to copy one of the elements only to
make a slight change choose ‘Copy element’ from the menu that
appears when you hover over an element.

11 Store page items
Jimdo has a really useful feature for reorganising page
elements. It’s much like a clipboard, but specifically for a website.
Grab a page element and try to move it, and a window will pop
up in the top-right of your page. You can drop the page element
here to store it temporarily. You can drag items back and forth
from this area as much as you like.
13 Apply quick styles
As you build your site you’ll want to make sure that all the
pages have the same style, so they all look like part of the same
project. Select ‘Style’ from the toolbar on the right, then pick an
option and choose ‘Save’. You can also pick a background style
here, or get more from the Jimdo store. You’ll asked to confirm the
changes in the preview.
15 Try Jimdo for iOS
If you need to make a quick change to your site on the
move, you can use the free iPad or iPhone app. Download the app
and enter your login details. The Jimdo interface allows you to do
everything you can with the full website, but has a few extra
things too, such as the ability to take a photo using the device
and upload it to your site.
Explore
Create a free website
12 Set up a blog
With Jimdo you don’t have to include ‘Blog’ as one of your
menu items for your site’s main navigation as you can add the
built-in blog element instead. Choose ‘Blog’ from the toolbar on
the right. Depending on your template, it will add a blog area to
your homepage. Once added, click ‘Blog’ again and you can start
editing a post (including text and images).
14 Use basic SEO
Jimdo has basic SEO built in, too; you simply identify
keywords that describe your site in order to get it properly
indexed by the big search engines like Bing and Google. You even
get a handy Google preview at the bottom, which changes as you
type. If you’d like a few pointers about what terms to enter, there’s
a Jimdo support link at the top of this page.
16 Get editing
You now have all the skills and tools you need to set up and
edit a website. If you click ‘Settings’ in the right-hand toolbar, you
can delve into some of the deeper aspects of Jimdo and change
the way your site works. Useful tools like Google Analytics and
Dropbox integration are free, but other tools such as making a
site map or newsletter system require a paid upgrade. ■
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 61
Learn how to…
Extend your
Wi-Fi network
Your guide Neil Mohr says…
“If you can’t get a wireless signal everywhere
you need it, don’t worry – there are lots of
ways to make it stetch further.”
At a glance… he internet is getting
SKILL LEVEL T ridiculous – even some
fridges need a Wi-Fi
Anyone can do it connection now! With this much
Straightforward wireless going on, how are you
Tricky in parts
meant to ensure your whole home
has a good signal?
Time taken One solution is to put a wireless
2 hours router under every cushion, but
conflicting channels mean multiple
routers aren’t a great idea, besides
being the most expensive option.
suitable for
Instead, we’re going to think smart,
Windows 8 and perhaps pinch a few pennies
Windows 7 along the way.
Windows Vista
Windows XP Key questions
Before doing anything with your
network, take a step back and ask
yourself a few questions: where do
you need wireless access? What
speeds do you need? Where can the
router be placed? What standards
do your devices support? These are
Step-by-step Perform a site survey
1 Get a plan
Grab Ekahau Heatmapper from your free disc and install it.
The best way to use Heatmapper is with a floor plan, because you
can easily relate signal strength to areas of your home or office.
There are various sites out there that can help you create floor
plans, but I recommend www.homestyler.com/designer. Once
you’ve made your plan, press [Print Screen] to copy it.
62 | Help & Advice | January 2014
important, because the answers
Jargon buster! will determine which solutions you
can use and the best way to deploy
Modulation them. If you need 100MB/s speeds,
The technology used for example, then wireless might not
to manipulate the
main radio carrier be a realistic solution, and Gigabit
wave that carries Ethernet will be the best choice.
digital information Which standards your devices
back and forth. support is a particularly important
question. Check out http://bit.
WEP ly/16Gtcx2 to find out what the
The original wireless various standards are, and their
encryption standard.
advantages and drawbacks.
It was pretty terrible, As you might have guessed, these
to be honest, and
was soon replaced can make a big difference to your
by themore reliable network. For example, you might
WPA and WPA2. end up with a mix of 2.4GHz in one
area and 5GHz in another. If you need
to support older 802.11b devices,
it’s worth bearing in mind that these
have poorer security, slower speeds
and generally cause additional signal
issues. The same goes for old 802.11g
MIMO and pre-N kit. If any of your
2 Start a survey
The Heatmapper opening screen enables you to load
your created floor plan or work from a blank grid. If you have
multiple floors, these can be combined on the one map, you’ll just
need to run multiple surveys. As you’ll see, Heatmapper offers a
comprehensive help section that you can shrink out of the way,
and on the left there’s a full list of all the detected access points.

devices use these, I strongly recommend
upgrading them.
Cold spots
Where do you actually need access?
For many homes this can be multi-room,
with streaming video to the living room,
a data connection to the office and
general access in the bedrooms. Trying to
diagnose connection issues can be tough,
so take a look at the tutorial below to
see how to create a visual diagram of the
Wi-Fi hot and cold spots in your home.
It offers some useful clues that will help
you choose a better router position, or
find good places for wireless extenders.
If you’ve done a survey, you’ll see a
nice bright green ring close to the router,
which shifts to yellow, orange and red as
you move away. In our experience, orange
3 Check your signal
Walk around your floor slowly, left-clicking your location.
Do a loop of the floor, then right-click to indicate you’ve finished.
To survey another floor, just move to said floor and left-click to
start again. The system is clever enough to physically locate your
access points and overlay the quality of the signal on your floor
plan, but watch for any dual-bands overlaying one another.
isn’t going to give you a great experience
with 802.11g devices or single-antenna
802.11n devices (such as smartphones).
You might be able to shift the router and
improve coverage, but this can depend on
whether a router is fixed in a certain room
due to the telephone or cable connection.
The next step would be to consider
enhanced high-gain antennas, but really
only business-class routers support
external or replaceable antennas at this
point. It’s a shame, because it used to be
easy to whip off old 2dB or 3dB antennas
and attach 7dB ones for increased output.
A few home routers do though, so it’s an
option that’s worth investigating.
The one thing we’ve not covered so far
is what exactly does an extender does.
It’s pretty simple – it’s a device that takes
the signal from a selected router and
New equipment
Buffalo offers
high-gain routers
for extended range
January 2014 |
Explore
Extend your Wi-Fi
re-broadcasts it at full power. It’s a little
more subtle than just re-broadcasting the
original signal, because it processes the
TCP data, and therefore depends on
whether the extender can use its own
SSID, frequency, and so on. However, once
a device is connected, it acts just as if it
was connected to the router.
Get extended
Not all extenders – or repeaters, as they
are also called – are made equal. Some
only work with routers of the same brand,
and others require complex configuration.
We can certainly recommend the Netgear
WN2500RP, which should work with any
router – it’s 802.11n dual-band 2.4/5GHz
capable and supports a 5GHz dedicated
extender link, reserving the 2.4GHz for the
repeating signal (it also offers a 2.4GHz-
only operation). A neat alternative is the
Asus EA-N66, which can act as a bridge,
extender or access point with dual-band
capabilities. You’ll find some models, such
as those from Buffalo, which provide an
easy setup procedure.
Going from B to AC
This is why the latest wireless kit
matters – 802.11b was limited to easily
breakable 40-bit WEP security, and
used the basic CCK and pretty awful
DSSS modulation (the method of
encoding the data on the radio
waveform). This limited data speeds to
below 5Mbps over a very short range,
which was much too slow for modern
demands. The big advance for 802.11g
was the OFDM modulation that was
used with 802.11a.
The move to 802.11n introduced
multi-antenna MIMO (multiple-input
and multiple-output) and a variable
modulation called QAM that could
encode 16 or 64 bits at a time. This
increased the throughput to 450Mbps
on triple-antenna kit, or 300Mbps
on a dual-antenna setup. 5GHz kit
also became part of the standard
with N, which again increases overall
throughput. The latest 802.11ac is an
evolution of N, increasing the QAM to
256, reducing guard timings to 400ns
and taking 40MHz channels to 80MHz
(possibly even to 160MHz).
Help & Advice | 63
 Step-by-step Create an extended network
1 Simple state
Some network extenders require a single press of a button,
while others are brain-achingly complex, so always read any
supplied instructions. Some kit requires the MAC address of both
routers, remembering that 2.4GHz and 5GHz modes often have
their own MACs. Others require dedicated software to be installed
for accessing the Extender. I suggest a wired connection, too.
3 Select your router
After choosing the regional location, which is required to
set the available channels. You’ll be asked to choose the wireless
router from a list of available SSIDs. You can select both 2.4GHz
and 5GHz routers if you have them – ultimately you only need
one or the other. You’ll also need to provide the WPA passcode.
5 The same SSIDs
One option for an invisible extended network is to mirror
the same SSID – the name of the wireless router – over the
original and extended routers. This means that as people connect
to the network, they don’t know which one they’re using, and you
don’t have to explain how to connect to the extender network.
64 | Help & Advice | January 2014
2 Getting in
Unless you’re lucky enough to have a Buffalo kit that
offers the AOSS one-push solution, you’ll probably have to log
into the router using its default IP address via a web browser on a
connected PC. Again, read the manual for any default username
and password. As you can see here, Netgear also prints the
necessary details on the back of the router.
4 FastLane mode
With the Netgear router, there’s an option to initiate
FastLane. This is a clever trick that uses one band – either 2.4GHz
or 5GHz – for the extender link, and the remaining band for
device connections. Turning it on does require you to run back
through the setup process, though.
6 Fully extended
Extended networks tend not to be as fast as the original
network, largely because they rely on the connection back
to the original router, which is usually weaker. By using clever
positioning – or opting for a 5GHz coverage to cut-through
the 2.4GHz noise – you can increase your coverage.
 Explore
Extend your Wi-Fi
Step-by-step Troubleshoot Wi-Fi adaptors

1 Check settings
Laptops sometimes drop a seemingly fine connection.
Open ‘Device Manager > Network adaptors > Wireless adaptor’
and select ‘Advanced’. Disable or set to ‘Lowest roaming
aggressiveness’ – this is how likely the adaptor is to change
routers. Check other settings are set to ‘Auto’ and set to the
fastest modes or latest standard, such as 802.11a/b/g support.
2 Upgrade your adaptor
If your laptop is only 802.11g, consider upgrading its
wireless adaptor. It requires basic technical skills to open the
laptop and you need to check online to see if your laptop can be
upgraded – large manufacturers tend to block you from doing it
– but the speed increase you’ll gain is really worth it. If that’s a
little too scary for you, just opt for a USB adaptor instead.

3 New antenna
Most consumer routers now use internal antennas, but if
yours has an external antenna that unscrews, or it offers small
external connectors, then you can replace them with high-gain
alternatives. Most units use 3dB antennas – high-gain variants
boost this to 7 or even 9dB. Be sure to get correct 2.4GHz or 5GHz
versions, because they’re entirely different designs!
4 Check conflicting channels
Another useful utility that Heatmapper offers is the ability
to map all the local wireless routers in range. Now, we’re not
saying go round smashing your neighbour’s wireless equipment,
but if you note what channels they’re running on, then it could be
there’s a better channel range to use. Effectively, channels one, six
and 12 are the only options due to channel bonding at 2.4GHz.

Is it easier to upgrade or extend?

Creating a wireless map of your home
is extremely useful, especially as it’ll ask
a few key questions about your abode:
can you relocate your existing router to
solve connection issues? Could you tweak
channels to dodge competing nearby
routers, or could a high-gain antenna
help cover a certain area?
If you’re moving beyond these free
or cheap solutions, extending your
wireless network is going to involve
some type of new kit. We are fans of
power socket networks, but they’re
not fast. The wireless Netgear WN2500
extender costs around £69/$70, which
is reasonable as it also provides four
100BaseT Ethernet ports and dual-band
networking – so it’s certainly flexible.
You may think that a range extender
can only increase the range of your
original router by no more 802.11ac routers
than the radius of its push speeds
original signal range. Well, to 100MB/s
it’s true that the extender’s
throughput is limited by
the connection speed to
the original router – place
it too far away and all
you’ll be extending is a
terrible network speed.
However, it’s not true that
it’s extended range would
be just as limited as that of
the original router – the
extender will still have its own rather If you’re looking for something beyond
unique environmental conditions, this, there’s 802.11ac. Laptop adaptors are
placement and transmit settings. Get finally available with the Intel Wireless-AC
these right – in a lofty position, ideally – 7260 mini-PCIe card. It’s only a 2x2
and it can enjoy a greater range than adaptor, but it’s still almost double the
the original router. throughput of 3x3 802.11n. ■

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 65

 Part
fou r
Refresh
Final part in the
series

Windows XP
Make your computer run faster by clearing out unused files, disabling
unnecessary processes and setting up some clever shortcuts
Windows XP time-
saving tips and tweaks
The standard Windows XP installation
is designed for ease of use rather than
outright speed, and once you’ve got
used to the basics there are plenty of
adjustments that you can make so that
both you and your PC can work faster.
Here’s a selection of the best time savers.

Save time with

1 the Send To folder

You can extend the Send To
option by adding custom
entries. It’s basically a folder on your hard
drive to which you copy shortcuts.
To access it click ‘Start > Run’, type
sendto and then press [Enter]. Create
shortcuts to your favourite drives, folders
and even programs and you can access
them from any Explorer window, simply
by right-clicking the file or folder in Get going Use Autoruns to stop unnecessary programs beginning when you start your PC
question and choosing ‘Send To’.
If you select a program you’ve added to Accounts Control Panel, click ‘Change the Add new ‘Copy to’ key
the menu, your selected file is opened
with that program; choose a folder you’ve
added, and the file will be copied to it.
way users log on or off’ and tick the box
next to ‘Use Fast User Switching’. 4 This is another way to add
a ‘Copy to folder’ option to
the right-click menu. In the
Copy and move files Registry Editor, browse to HKEY_CLASSES_

2
Switch users quickly
If you share your PC with
others, giving everyone their
own user account means each
person can set up the computer exactly
how they want it without affecting anyone
else’s experience. The only problem with
having multiple user accounts is if
someone else wants to nip onto the PC for
a few minutes – perhaps to check their
email or copy a file to a CD, for example.
Saving your work and logging off is
time consuming, so switch on Fast User
Switching, which enables you to switch
user accounts without logging off first.
When the other person has finished,
either switch straight back or log them
off before returning to the point you
were at before. To do this, open the User
3 with the Context menu
If you frequently copy or move
files, you’ll have found yourself
juggling windows or copying and pasting
files left, right and centre. You can save
time by adding two options – ‘Copy to
folder’ and ‘Move to folder’ – to the menu
that appears when you right-click a folder
or file. Ordinarily this would mean editing
the Registry (see right), but we’ve found a
time-saving workaround.
Go to http://bit.ly/3nQJfY and find the
‘Copy to/Move to’ link (it’s number 45).
Right-click it and save the reg file to your
desktop. Double-click it and click ‘Yes’
when prompted. The ‘Copy to folder’ and
‘Move to folder’ options will now appear
when you right-click a file. Alternatively,
try the method in the next tip.
ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\
ContextMenuHandlers and create a new
key called ‘Copy to’. Change its default
value to {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-
00C04FD75D13} and then right-click
a file to make sure it works in Windows.
You can also add a ‘Move to folder’
option in this way. From the same
‘ContextMenuHandlers’ key, simply create
a new key called ‘Move to’ and then
change its default value to {C2FBB631-
2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}.
Halve folder and
5 file access times
To open a folder or launch a
program in Windows XP, you
usually have to double-click its icon. You
can cut the launch time in half by opening

66 | Help & Advice | January 2014


“Disabling unnecessary startup
programs will shave at least a few
seconds off your PC’s boot time”
the Folder Options Control Panel and
selecting the option labelled ‘Single-click
to open an item (point to select)’.
Start your computer
6 more quickly
Every time you turn on your PC,
besides Windows XP, various
programs also load in the background.
Over time, this list of programs can grow
and grow, resulting in a slow, sluggish
computer. Many of these programs aren’t
needed straight away, so disabling them
will shave a few seconds off its boot time.
It will also free up memory in Windows XP,
resulting in zippier performance all round.
To do this you’ll need a free start-up
manager called Autoruns (on your free
disc). Once installed, click ‘Run’, then ‘Run’
again. Switch to the ‘Logon’ tab. Select an
entry to see more about it – if you need
help identifying it, right-click it and
choose ‘Search Online’. Never delete an
entry until you’re sure you won’t need it
– instead, untick it to disable it. Reboot
your PC and verify that disabling the entry
doesn’t cause problems. Once you’re sure
you don’t need it, delete it.
If you’re suspicious that there might be
some obsolete entries in the list, right-
click them and choose ‘Verify’. If they are
still working, you’ll see [Verified] appear
next to the publisher’s name; if not, [Not
Verified] will be shown.
Skip the Windows
7 welcome screen
You can choose to log into
Windows automatically and
bypass the welcome screen by making a
simple tweak. To do this, choose ‘Start >
Run’ and enter control userpasswords2
into the ‘Open’ bar. Click ‘OK’ to see a
dialog showing each user installed on the
PC. Clear the box marked ‘Users must
enter a user name and password to use
this computer’. Click ‘OK’. Now restart
your PC and you should be taken directly
to your desktop.
Shut down your
8 computer quickly
Rather than using the Start
menu to shut down your PC,
you can create a desktop shortcut that will
switch it off with a simple double-click.
Right-click an empty section of the
desktop and select ‘New > Shortcut’. In
the box that appears, type shutdown
-s to create a shutdown shortcut,
shutdown -r to create a restart shortcut,
or shutdown -l to create a shortcut that
logs out of the current user account.
By default, when you double-click one
of your new icons, your selected action
will not take place for 30 seconds. To
make things happen instantly, you need to
add an extra parameter to your shortcut.
To create a shortcut that will shut down
your PC after five seconds, for instance,
you would need to use the phrase
shutdown -s -t 05, as your command
string. You can technically change this to
zero, but we don’t recommend it.
Once you’ve created the shortcut, you
can leave it where it is or drag it to your
Quick Launch bar so you can turn off your
PC with a single mouse click. You can also
change the icon to make it more easily
identifiable. Simply click the Change icon
button in the shortcut properties and
select a new one.
Speed up your
9 desktop, part one
Every icon on your desktop
takes up a little bit of memory.
You can reduce the number of icons on
display by deleting some manually, or by
using the Desktop Cleanup wizard to
automate the process.
To access this tool, right-click an empty
section of your desktop and select
‘Properties’, then move to the ‘Desktop’
tab and click ‘Customize desktop’.
While you’re here, it’s also a good idea
to tick ‘Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard
every 60 days’, which will wipe out
unnecessary and unused icons for you
every couple of months. To run the tool
straight away, click ‘Clean desktop now’
followed by ‘Next’. The wizard then tells
you which of your icons haven’t been
used for a while and are prime candidates
for removal. If you’d prefer to keep any
of them, clear the tick box next to them.
Click ‘Next’ and then ‘Finish’.
Speedier drive Defragmenting your hard drive will help it access files more quickly
January 2014 |
Cover feature
Refresh Windows XP
Speed up your
10 desktop, part two
When you configure the
settings for your desktop, it’s
natural to opt for the highest possible
settings. Although you use your monitor’s
native resolution, you can dramatically
speed up your system by reducing the
number of colours that are used.
Rather than opting for 32-bit colour
depth, we’ll drop this setting down to
16-bit. Right-click the desktop, select
‘Properties’, move to the ‘Settings’ tab and
use the Color Quality drop-down menu.
In general use, you’ll notice no difference
between the colour depths, but using the
lower setting frees up far more memory
for applications to use.
Keep your hard
11 drive defragged
One of the major bottlenecks
that can be responsible for a
poorly performing computer is the hard
drive. Due to the way files are organised
on your hard drive, they can fragment
over time, which makes accessing them
slow and also reduces the lifespan of your
hard drive as it has to do more work to
access the files, leading to its components
wearing out that little bit sooner.
The solution is to defragment your
drive. Windows XP has its own built-in
tool for the job, but a better bet is to use
a free tool called Smart Defrag from iOBit,
which you’ll find on your free disc. Once
it’s installed, tick each hard drive and click
the ‘Analyze’ button. Once complete,
follow its advice (typically ‘Fast optimize
and defrag’). The first defrag will take a
while to complete, but once done, Smart
Defrag can be left to its own devices,
working unobtrusively in the background
to keep your drives optimised.
Read text more
12 easily with Cleartype
To achieve better looking,
crisper fonts on an LCD monitor,
Help & Advice | 67
you should try enabling Cleartype font
smoothing for your screen. This can be
done in the following way. First of all,
right-click an empty space on your
desktop and select the ‘Properties’ option.
Now move to the ‘Appearance’ tab and
select the ‘Effects’ option.
Once you’re there, click ‘Use the
following method to smooth edges of
screen fonts’ and then select ‘Cleartype’
from the drop-down menu next to it.
Finally, click ‘OK’ to apply the new settings.
You will experience a richer, less smudgy
looking display on your LCD screen after
making this change, and text will become
much easier to read.
Speed up web browsing in
Windows XP
As we’re all too aware, there are many
times when your everyday internet
browsing just slows to a crawl for no
apparent reason – even if you’re not doing
anything particularly demanding. It’s not
always possible or cost-effective to
upgrade your internet connection through
your ISP, but there are plenty of ways that
you can make Internet Explorer more
efficient. Sometimes it’s a matter of
trading off image quality for speed, and in
“To achieve better looking, crisper
text on an LCD screen, you should try
enabling Cleartype font smoothing”
68 | Help & Advice | January 2014
other cases you may be able to surf more
efficiently by adopting keyboard shortcuts
or using suitable add-ons.
Turn off images
13 on busy web pages
Web pages that lack pictures
will load much faster and you’re
still able to view text, of course. Click the
‘Tools’ button and choose ‘Internet
Options’. Now switch to the ‘Advanced’
tab, scroll down to the Multimedia section
and untick ‘Show Pictures’. Click ‘OK’ and
you’ll see frames in place of individual
images. You can always right-click one
and choose ‘Show picture’ if you need to
see what one is.
Restrict multimedia
14 for faster page loading
Turn off animations and sounds
for faster loading times. Again,
the option is in the Multimedia section on
the ‘Advanced’ tab of ‘Internet Options’.
Now untick ‘Play animations in
webpages’ and ‘Play sounds in webpages’
before clicking ‘OK’. The changes should
take effect the next time you restart
Internet Explorer.
Go back to the
15 previous page
You can return to the previously
viewed page by pressing the
[Backspace] key, or hold down [Alt] and
press the right arrow key on the Number
Pad to go one page forward again.
Organise bookmarks
16 Putting your bookmarks in
order makes it easier to find the
one you’re looking for. Press
[Ctrl]+[B] to open the ‘Organize Favorites’
dialog, and then organise them into
folders for quick and easy access.
Speed up web
17 page requests
When you type a website’s
name into your browser, that in
itself isn’t enough to access the site. The
web address needs to be translated into
a numerical IP address (212.58.224.138 in
the case of the BBC), which is done by a
domain name system (DNS) server. Your
ISP uses its own DNS servers, which aren’t
always the quickest or safest.
OpenDNS provides free DNS servers
that anyone can use. They’re fast enough
to make a difference to your browsing
speed, and you don’t need to install any
software to set them up.
To apply OpenDNS to your entire
network, log on to your router and look
in the setup section for an option to set
static DNS servers. To use it with a single
PC, click ‘Start > Control Panel > Network
and Internet Connections’.
Click ‘Network Connections’,
right-click your main network
connection and choose ‘Properties’.
Scroll down to select ‘Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP)’ and click ‘Properties’ again.
Choose ‘Use the following DNS server
addresses’. The two DNS server
addresses you need to enter are
208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
respectively. Once set, you’ll need to
reboot either your router or your PC
for the changes to take effect.
Get back to your
18 home page quickly
To quickly return to your
browser’s home page
regardless of where you happen to
be on the web, hold down the [Alt] key
and press [Home].
Increase the number
19 of connections
Force pages to load faster
by increasing the number
of connections that are available to
Internet Explorer.
To get started, click ‘Start > Run’,
type Regedit and press [Enter].
Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Internet Settings.
Now you should right-click
‘MaxConnectionsPerServer’,
 Cover feature
Refresh Windows XP

Fast and safe Access web pages more quickly by letting OpenDNS do the hard work instead of your ISP’s own servers

choose ‘Modify’ and select ‘Decimal’.
Enter 6 as the value. Now do the same for
‘MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server’. If neither
of these values exist, you can create them
yourself – choose ‘Edit > New > DWORD
value’ to do so.
Accelerate surfing in
Change the size
23 of the cache
Click ‘Tools’ and select ‘Internet
Options > General’. Click
‘Settings’ under ‘Browsing History’ to
change the cache size – experiment with
different figures to see which works best.
Explorer to do the same for a different
domain name, such as .co.uk if you prefer.
To do this, click ‘Start > Run’, type
Regedit and press [Enter]. Now browse to
the following Registry key: HKEY_
CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Internet Explorer\Toolbar\QuickComplete.
If QuickComplete doesn’t exist,

20 Internet Explorer
Select a portion of text by
dragging the mouse over it
and click the arrow icon that appears
next to it – from here you can access any
accelerators that have been installed by
either you or Internet Explorer 8. For
example, you may find the Wikipedia
Accelerator, which lets you do a quick
search based on the highlighted text.
24
Access sites quickly
with the address bar
If you want to access a .com site
quickly, just type the middle
part of the URL between www. and .com
(for example, microsoft instead of www.
microsoft.com) and press [Ctrl]+[Enter].
That’s all well and good for .com
addresses, but you can instruct Internet
right-click ‘Toolbar’ and choose ‘New >
Key’, calling it QuickComplete. Now select
QuickComplete and choose ‘Edit > New >
String Value’.
Call this QuickComplete, double-click
it and give it a value of http://www.%s.
co.uk to make the change. You can put
what you like after %s – .org.uk, .net or
any other extension you want. n

Re-register a DLL

21 for faster browsing

If Internet Explorer (8 and
above) is behaving sluggishly,
try the following: click ‘Start > Run’,
type cmd and press [Enter]. Next, type
regsvr32 actxprxy.dll and press [Enter],
making sure there’s a single space after
regsvr32. Once that’s done, close the
window, restart your PC and you may
notice a significant speed boost.

Optimise the

22 internet cache
If you’re still on a slow dial-up
internet connection, then a
large internet cache for your temporary
files can speed things up; conversely, if
you have a fast broadband connection,
shrinking the size of the cache will speed
things up, because Internet Explorer won’t
spend so long searching the cache before
downloading from the web. instant access Let Internet Explorer fill in the www and .com parts of web addresses for you

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 69

ways to
share
big files
Send stuff too big for email
with these great services

1Dropbox
Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) is so popular that we’re
wondering if people might soon refer to file sharing
and online storage as ‘Dropboxing’ in the same way
that image editing is now commonly referred to as
‘Photoshopping’. When you sign up to Dropbox you
get 2GB of storage for free and you can share folders or
links to specific files with other registered Dropbox
users. You can even upgrade and purchase additional
space, with prices starting from around $9.99 (about £6)
per month for a tasty 100GB of storage. Dropbox’s
widespread support (at least in terms of first-party and
third-party apps) also adds to its widespread appeal. So box dropping The Dropbox service has been designed to be as simple as possible. The
sign up and get sharing those files! easy-to-use user interface makes storing and sharing files with others a piece of cake

70 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Feature
Easy tools for sharing documents

2Box
The Box service (available at www.
box.com) is similar to Dropbox in
terms of sharing functionality, but its
free option provides a whopping
10GB of storage for those looking to
sign up. The caveat is that you can’t
upload files larger than 250MB unless
you pay for one of the premium
accounts. Paid plans also provide
collaboration options (including
email notification regarding
downloads and commenting on files),
out of the box Being able to access a hefty 10GB of free storage is great news for any but the free option is still great for
user, but you might find the 250MB per file limitation a bit restrictive for certain needs secure ad-hoc sharing.

3SugarSync
You might find the SugarSync service
(available at www.sugarsync.com) is a little
similar to the Dropbox one in some areas,
but it’s actually got a few unique features
that make it well worth a try. A big plus
point is the ability to back up any folder to
the cloud, rather than just being limited to
individual files. From a sharing standpoint
there are no size limitations beyond the
size of your account (60GB for the cheapest
$7.49 per month option), and there are
tools available for group collaboration and sugar smack Similarities to other online sharing services aside, using
businesses as well. SugarSync gives you a whole host of features to store your documents

4MediaFire
One of the more mature entries in terms of
collaboration, MediaFire (www.mediafire.com) gives
© THINKSTOCK.com

you 10GB of space for free, and lets you transfer up to

200MB. Paying $2.49 (about £1.50) per month adds
long-term storage, makes sharing ad-free, and gives
you a FileDrop uploader for sharing content with
others. A document editing feature is also available.

5WeTransfer
We like WeTransfer (which you can download and
use from www.wetransfer.com) a great deal. The
free version is, as you might expect, ad-
supported, but it does give you registration-free
2GB transfers as often as you like. Each individual
upload stays live on WeTransfer a total of seven
days. If you opt to purchase the fancy Plus
version (which has an annual fee of €120), you’ll
get 5GB worth of optionally password-protected
transfers, and a chunky 50GB of long-term
storage. The company’s breezy copywriting
features don’t hurt either.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 71

6Hightail
Originally known as YouSendIt, Hightail (www.hightail.
com) was one of the first companies that latched on to
the ‘fire huge files across the internet’ thing, and it’s
grown rapidly since its inception in 2004. The free ‘Lite’
plan – 50MB transfers, 2GB storage – looks a touch
limited these days, but its enterprise options will certainly
appeal to most businesses.

7 Adobe
SendNow
If you’re in the design industry, large files are
a big part of life. Massive high-resolution
images, audio, video, magazine PDFs – the
works. Adobe offers SendNow (www.acrobat.
com/sendnow) for £14.65/$19.95 annually,
and beyond straightforward sending, you
also get file-tracking and a handy ‘convert to
PDF’ option for your money.

8Egnyte
Most services for sending large documents are aimed at
the widest possible market, but Egnyte (www.egnyte.com)
has concentrated on the enterprise. Security, back-up,
granular permissions and speed are central to the service,
which starts at $8 (about £5) per employee per month for
between five and 24 employees. This plan includes 1TB of
storage and comes with a 2.5GB maximum file size.

biggest fan Whether you opt for the free or paid versions, MailBigFile is a great choice
9MailBigFile
If we’re honest, it was the name that first attracted us to
this British-based company. That said, the usability of
MailBigFile (which you can download via www.
mailbigfile.com) is also great, with some bold but useful
drop-well and handy time/upload indicators. Up to five
files totalling 2GB can be sent for free, while the
premium Pro accounts (available for £2.99 per month)
up the total limit to 4GB. This paid-for version speeds
up transfers, as well as adding extra storage, too.

10 Mega
Founded by Kim Dotcom of Megaupload fame, Mega
(www.mega.co.nz) reportedly amassed 100,000 users
within its first hour live. Despite initial issues with reliability
and speed, the service remained popular, partly due to its
encryption of uploaded files. 50GB of storage is yours for
free – premium accounts start at €9.99 per month.

72 | Help & Advice | January 2014

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January 2014 | Help & Advice | 73

 WINDOWS HELP HARDWARE FIXES SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INTERNET TIPS

Windows I will not be trying to update to My personal advice to anyone

Locked drive Windows 8.1 again. would always be to back up your
attempting update David Holloway computer – including a full drive
Do you have a Q I tried to update to Windows image – before installing any major
PC problem? 8.1 and Windows said that it Adam’s solution operating system update. This
Get in touch… could not update because the hard I can only sympathise would have given you a fall-back
Email full details of your drive was locked. No matter what I with what you’ve gone plan and saved you the pain of
problem to the tried, it would not unlock the drive, through, David. The paying for help.
support team and we’ll and then my troubles started! My Windows 8.1 update process The drive-locking error is not that
do our best to help computer would not restart, and through the Windows Store uncommon, and can be caused
windowsmagazine@ said that the drive had been appears so simple and painless, it by Windows or your PC getting
futurenet.com deleted, which cost me a fair few almost trivialises the fact that you’re confused over which drive is which.
pounds to get sorted. Suffice to say, making major changes to Windows. For anyone else coming across this
problem, try disconnecting any
external drives (including USB flash
drives), which may help clear the
confusion and allow Windows to
complete the reinstall/refresh, or
boot again.
Please don’t let your experience
put you off attempting to update
to Windows 8.1, though, David.
Take a drive image first via the File
History backup tool (click ‘System
Image Backup’ in the main File
TAKE A FAILSAFE History window), which you can
A system image use if you run into problems to
allows you to
restore your
restore your machine. Also click
computer to a the ‘Recovery’ button so you can
working state create a repair CD or USB flash drive

74 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Find the solution! Advent Computers
Bought an Advent computer from Currys PC World? Get support
and drivers at www.adventcomputers.co.uk/product-support.
(512MB required) that will give you
access to repair options even when
the recovery options on the hard
drive don’t work.
Once done, shut down your PC
and disconnect all external drives
before booting up and trying the
update process again. Hopefully, it
will work correctly (if not, you can
restore the drive image you took
using the System Image Recovery
option under ‘Troubleshooting >
Advanced Options’).
Security
Running a
portable browser
Q I need to put a browser on a
memory stick to use abroad to
keep my internet stuff safe. How do
I go about doing this?
Kelly West
Nick’s solution
Download Portableapps
(www.portableapps.
com) to your USB stick,
then install Mozilla Firefox Portable
from the list of available software.
I suggest installing the Private
Browsing portable add-on, too, for
additional security, and consider
adding the Clamwin portable
malware scanner to check the PC
you use isn’t infested with malware
that could be transferred back to
your memory stick or intercept your
mobile browsing. We’ll explain how
to create a portable applications
toolkit in next month’s issue.
Windows
Can’t repair Windows
with disc
Q I tried repairing my Windows
installation, following the
advice on pages 24 and 25 of issue
84, using my Windows 7 install disc,
but it throws up an error saying the
version installed is newer than the
one I’m trying to install.
Brian Harding
James’s solution
This error occurs when
you attempt to repair
a Windows installation
that has been updated with a
Service Pack. Simply put, you need
to create or obtain a Windows
installation disc with the latest
Service Pack slipstreamed into it to
proceed with a repair install.
Luckily for Windows 7 users, you
can download a Windows 7 with
SP1 disc in ISO format from the
Digital River Content website. Use
one of the following four links,
depending on the version of
Windows 7 you have installed:
Windows 7 Home Premium
32-bit: http://bit.ly/vwvQe3
Windows 7 Home Premium
64-bit: http://bit.ly/qdjJoi
Windows 7 Professional 32-bit:
http://bit.ly/nkOeDO
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit:
http://bit.ly/w2Gxep
It’s around a 3GB download, so
be patient. Double-click the ISO file
Support
Technical help
ON THE MOVE
Use Portableapps Quickfire questions
to set up a
mobile version
of Firefox on I recently lost the camera on
your USB stick my Dell laptop after a factory
reset. Can you advise please?
N Loynes
If it was an external webcam,
you’ll need to reinstall the
drivers provided when you
bought it. If it’s internal, visit
the Dell website to see if there
are camera (or OSD) drivers
available that may bring the
functionality back.
I love Keepass, but need a
similar solution that I can also
use when away from home –
say overseas.
Bill Horton
Try a free online service, such
as Lastpass (www.lastpass.
com), which can store online
passwords in the cloud,
accessible from any web
browser for free, or mobile
device for an annual $12
(roughly £7.50) subscription.
Jargon buster!
ISO
A downloadable file containing
an exact image of a CD or DVD
that can be burned manually
to disc.
REPAIR Portable application
REQUIREMENTS A program that stores all its
You’ll need an
updated settings in its own folder,
installation disc allowing it to be run from an
to perform a external drive.
repair install
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 75

Quickfire questions
My Corsair Flash Voyager GT
32GB USB pen no longer
works, and its properties
tell me I can’t use it for
ReadyBoost because it’s
write-protected. Please help.
Phil
Sadly, this is a classic symptom
of hardware failure, Phil – try
plugging the drive into
another PC and see if you can
format it there; if not, you’ll
need to get it replaced.
I’ve just purchased a 2TB drive
formatted as FAT32. Can I
reformat this to NTFS?
Barry Clough
Assuming there is no data on
the drive, the answer is yes.
Click ‘Start > Computer’,
right-click the drive and choose
‘Format’ (followed by
‘Continue’ if prompted). Select
‘NTFS’ under ‘File System’ and
then click ‘Start’ to perform
the process.
I can’t remove PowerShell
from Vista using Microsoft’s
instructions; PowerShell
(KB928439) isn’t on the list.
Liam Stevens
Liam had followed the
instructions to remove version
1.0 of PowerShell, but version
2.0 was installed, which shows
up differently under Programs
and Features. Look for
Windows Management
Framework Core (KB968939)
and uninstall that instead.
Bypass the User
Account Control
dialog
Q I have several older programs
that require administrator
access to run. Is there a way I can
trust these and avoid the annoying
User Account Control prompt?
John
Matt’s solution
A free program called
UAC Trust Shortcut can
be used to create
shortcuts that launch only
programs you trust with the extra
privileges required, all without the
UAC prompt. Here’s how it works.
76 | Help & Advice | January 2014
and follow the prompts to burn it
to a blank DVD, then use that to try
your repair installation again.
Windows
Clicking links has
no effect
Q I’m having a problem with
links in some programs – for
example, if I click the ‘Register’
button in Driver Detective after a
scan, I get a dialog box that states:
“This file does not have a program
associated with it for performing
this action. Please enable a
program, or if one is already
installed, create an association in
the Default Programs Control
Panel”. Similar problems occur with
CCleaner and SlimDrivers.
James Kent
Simon’s solution
James had tried
reinstalling the affected
programs, but the
problem almost certainly lies with
his web browser. The first thing to
try is opening the Control Panel,
searching for default programs
and then clicking ‘Default
programs’, followed by ‘Set your
default programs’. After a short
pause, you should see Firefox
appear in the left-hand pane. Select
it. Does it have all of its defaults set?
If not, click ‘Set this program as
default’, then try those links again.
If this doesn’t work, uninstall
Firefox, then see if the links now
point to Internet Explorer. If they
do, reinstalling Firefox and making
it the default browser should not
only resolve the issue, but leave
your browser settings in place.
Hardware
Screen fades to white
Q My laptop’s screen keeps
fading to white, usually from
the top right-hand corner. I can
1 Download, install, launch
Download, extract and install UAC Trust
Shortcut from itknowledge24.com – choose
the x86 version if you’re running a 32-bit
version of Windows, or x64 if you’re running
a 64-bit version. Once installed, launch UAC
Trust Shortcut from the Start menu.
SET DEFAULTS solve the issue by applying pressure
Problems with to both the front and back of the
non-functioning
screen with my fingers. What could
program links can
be traced to your the problem be?
browser Michael Cork
Adam’s solution
This, sadly, sounds
like a hardware issue
– almost certainly with
the screen. You might be lucky and
find that the cable connecting the
display to the chassis has become
loose or dislodged (try angling the
screen to see if it gets better), but
my best guess is that the display
itself may be on the verge of failure,
and will require replacing.
Hardware
DVD write error
Q I encounter a problem when
attempting to create a fresh
Windows repair disc. The DVD drive
returns error code 0xC0AA0301; this
has happened with DVD-RW and
DVD-R discs several times. When
checking the discs, I see what looks
like severe burning in a small area,
rather than the normal spread.
Al Smith
2 Create shortcut
Give your shortcut a name, then click
‘Browse’ to select the program with
administrator privileges assigned to it. Click
‘Add now’ and a shortcut should appear on
your desktop (if it’s not there, browse to
C:\Users\{Username}\Desktop).

James’s solution
Al eventually traced his
problem to the fact he
was attempting to use
discs with data already stored
on them – you need a blank,
unformatted disc (CD or DVD) for
the process to work. However, if
this isn’t your particular issue with
burning a repair disc, there are
some other steps to try.
First, try burning a CD – this
usually involves a different laser to
a DVD, and so can work when the
DVD laser is faulty. Also check to
see if other discs can be burned
normally. If not, the problem may
be a hardware fault, or it could be
traced to third-party DVD burning
software, such as Nero. Try
removing it normally or, if that fails,
looking for a removal tool that
should do a more thorough job.
Finally, run the appropriate
hardware troubleshooter under
Action Center – Vista and XP users
can download this tool from http://
bit.ly/ehUA8d, and it’s built in to
Windows 7 and 8.
Firefox memory usage was around
800MB). There are two key drivers
for memory usage: first, the
number of tabs you have open
(each tab can be thought of as a
separate Firefox process), plus what
plug-ins are installed.
If you keep an eye on the
memory demands as you close
one or two tabs, you should see
Firefox’s memory consumption
drop. If this doesn’t happen, and
the memory usage continues to
rise even when nothing is
happening, you may have what’s
known as a ‘memory leak’. Firefox
has closed most of its own leaks,
but some plug-ins are still known
to cause problems.
The workaround for dealing with
memory leaks is to shut and reopen
Firefox every hour or so – even if
you’ve set it to reopen all open tabs
Support
Technical help
from last time you should notice
that memory consumption
drops (on my system, it more
than halved). Advanced users
can also try clicking the ‘GC’, ‘CC’ Do you have
and ‘Minimize memory usage’ a PC problem?
buttons you’ll find after typing Get in touch…
about:memory into the address bar. Email full details of your
There’s no real need to remove problem to the
any of the plug-ins you mention, as support team and we’ll
the recently released Firefox 26 do our best to help
now sets all plug-ins to ‘Click to windowsmagazine@
play’ by default – that means futurenet.com
plug-ins aren’t loaded until a
website asks for them, at which
point you will be prompted
whether or not you want to let the
plug-in run. This helps you identify
which site requires which plug-in
(BBC iPlayer requires Flash, for
example), and should make it easier
to track down a memory leak when
it occurs. n

Internet
Is Firefox using too
much memory?
Q I’m using Firefox on Windows
7 Professional 64-bit and
notice that Firefox’s memory usage
in Task Manager is around 300MB.
Is this typical? Other processes
use less than 20MB. Also, several
plug-ins have been added, such as MEMORY USAGE
Most browsers
Adobe Acrobat, Nvidia 3D Vision, consume lots of
Shockwave Flash and Silverlight. memory – Firefox
I guess some of these are essential included
for watching iPlayer and videos,
but perhaps you could advise me.
Eric Howman

Nick’s solution
“Believe it or not, 300MB is normal for Firefox
Believe it or not, 300MB
is normal for Firefox (as
(as I was typing this, my Firefox memory
I was typing this, my usage was around 800MB)”

Jargon buster!
ReadyBoost
A tool for speeding up low
memory PCs by utilising faster,
flash-based USB drives to store
virtual memory.

User Account Control

3 Use shortcuts
Double-clicking one of these new
shortcuts will launch the program in question
with administrative privileges, but without
the UAC prompt. You can move or copy the
shortcut to wherever you like – right-click it
to pin it to the Taskbar or Start menu.
4 Launch at startup
You will still get one final UAC prompt
related to these programs – when you log in
to Windows after starting your PC, UAC Trust
will announce itself and ask if you wish to
launch it. Do so in order to use the shortcuts
you’ve created.
Security measure that alerts
the user when a program asks
for administrator privileges.
PowerShell
A programming language for
automating system tasks that
uses a command-line interface.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 77

 new hardware essential accessories latest GAMES

Welcome This issue’s highlights

The days of your
computer being a
grey box on your
desk are long gone.
You can now take
your PC with you everywhere
you go, ready for whenever
you want to type out a report
or relax with a game.
The latest Wi-Fi enabled 80 Wi-Fi enabled cameras 82 Toshiba Satellite P70
cameras make it easy to share Wireless image sharing is becoming an It’s certainly not the lightest laptop around,
photos online the moment essential feature of new cameras, and we’ve and you wouldn’t want to carry it around all
got our hands on five of the best. day, but the P70 is packed with power.
you’ve taken them, and we’ve
put five of the best through
their paces to help you choose
the one that’s right for you.
We’ve also tested two of
the most powerful portable
computers around – perfect
if you need to get some real
work done when you’re out
and about. Enjoy!
86 Buying guide 96 Spelunky
Nick Odantzis Deputy editor Thinking about investing in a new PC, tablet This platformer is one of the most addictive
nick.odantzis@futurenet.com or phone? Check out our guide to find one games you’ll ever play thanks to levels that
that suits both your needs and your budget. are fun, frustrating and different every time.

Our review guarantee Our awards…

Only the very
We use only acknowledged experts to review products, so you can use finest products
receive our Best
our ratings with full confidence to make your buying decision
On Test Award.
These will have
How we review verdict as to which is the very We guarantee to test every excellent marks
One of the key tenets of our best in that category. The pace piece of hardware rigorously for quality.
review philosophy is that of development in computer and thoroughly, using only
hardware should be compared hardware means that it is very acknowledged experts to Our Best Value
against like products wherever difficult to compare scores establish the worth of a Award is given
possible. It is only when you pit from today with those from, product. We always review to products that
quite simply
the finest products of a certain say, six months ago. Magazines from the viewpoint of our represent the
type against one another – at and websites that review a new readers; the day-to-day best value for
the same time – that you can product on its own run the risk practicality and quality of your money.
really come up with a definitive of confusing or misleading. a product is paramount.

rating explained Superb Very good Good Disappointing Poor

78 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Upgrade
What’s inside…

Full listing
80 Mini test: Wi-Fi cameras
82 Toshiba Satellite P70
84 Asus Transformer Book TX300
86 Buying guide
90 Play this: Football Manager 2014
92 Play this: Spelunky
84 Asus Transformer Book TX300:
a machine that puts a stylish twist 94 Play this: FIFA 14
on the traditional tablet design 96 Play this: Splinter Cell: Blacklist

82 Toshiba
Satellite
P70: a
practical
laptop if
portability
isn’t your
main
concern

“We’ve seen a player jump a tackle, drag the

ball back from another challenge and deliver a
pin-point swinging cross for a simple tap in”
Tu rn to page 90

Our promise to you… We’ll introduce you to new stuff

Wherever we can, we review new
hardware comparatively, pitching
The Upgrade section is your key to finding out about the latest it head-to-head against other similar
products, all designed to help you get more from your PC products. (Full details of our policy can be
found in the opposite page, under ‘Our
You can trust our reviews We choose the best products review guarantee’.) Of course, this isn’t
Our expert reviewers are 100 per cent Thousands of new products for your always possible with new products and
independent, with years of experience computer are released every year and part of our duty to you is to introduce you
in the world of computing. Our rigorous choosing between them can sometimes be a wide range of fascinating new hardware,
testing procedures mean that only an impossible task. Our experts select only software, services and games.
genuine, high-quality products are the best hardware and software to feature The reviews of standalone hardware
awarded high star ratings. Further, very in this magazine, making your decision on and software are just as thorough as our
few are handed our Best Value or Best which one to choose easier. Even better, comparative reviews. However, we do not
on Test Awards. If you see an item of our awards and star rating system make it allocate scores to them because this can
hardware bearing one of these marks, simple to find the best products for your often be misleading. The only exception to
you can be confident that it is an excellent needs, with our recommended products this rule is on our games reviews, where
product. Always check when the award section giving you a fast, trustworthy guide the pace of change is a lot slower and
was given, to ensure it is still up-to-date. to a wide range of hardware and software. single scores can be genuinely useful.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 79

 Panasonic Lumix
DMC-GX7
Price £899 | $1,000 (www.panasonic.com)

Panasonic’s best CSC (Compact System Camera) to

date, this 16MP Micro Four Thirds sensor unit
competes with the E-P5 on price and features, with its
chief selling points being a flip-up, eye-level
viewfinder and a tilting touchscreen, both of them
very high resolution.
The Wi-Fi connection has its own button – one of
three user-definable controls. Options include NFC
connectivity, remote control via mobile and the ability
to beam to TVs, smartphones, PCs, cloud services,
social media accounts and printers. Good thing too;
the superbly detailed images and Full HD videos it
creates are well worth sharing.

Pic-share
perfect
Wireless image sharing is becoming
a must on new cameras, but who’s
got the best connections here?

Samsung NX2000
Price £600 | $650 (www.samsung.com)

A lot cheaper than Samsung’s Android-

powered Galaxy cameras, this nonetheless
offers a big, 3.7-inch touchscreen and NFC,
as well as Wi-Fi, with a dedicated Direct Link
button. It also offers the highest resolution here
– 20.3 megapixels from a large APS-C sensor,
retained from last year’s NX1000.
This ensures pictures are a knockout, and
it also locks onto Wi-Fi devices swiftly, sans fuss.
Menus and options are also clean and clear,
with shooting modes presented as app-like
icons. An excellent choice if your budget
doesn’t run to the Panasonic or Olympus.

80 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Upgrade
Wi-Fi cameras

Canon
PowerShot N
Price £269 | $300 (www.canon.com)

A 12.1MP, 8x zoom, tilting-touchscreened

cubist curio, the Powershot N can be used
any way up, and is also a surprisingly neat fit
for a trouser pocket.
It’s one of a small handful of Canons with
Wi-Fi for uploading, backing up or printing
photos direct from the camera, or beaming
them to smartphone or tablet for sharing
and geotagging – the free CameraWindow
app for iOS and Android is required. The N
finds networks in seconds, and picture
quality is fine – they’re snapshots, but very
good ones. It is quite pricey, and operation
isn’t always as simple as it could be, however.
Nikon Coolpix
S9500
Price £280 | $300 (www.nikon.com)

This slender 18MP ‘travel zoom’ with

1/2-inch CMOS incorporates a massive,
22x optical zoom. Wi-Fi and Eye-Fi card
compatibility are built in, and there’s
onboard GPS for geotagging images.
Another big plus is the fixed,
three-inch, 614k-dot OLED screen,
which gives noticeably better contrast
and deeper blacks than LCD.
Foolishly, Wi-Fi options are squirrelled
away in the menu and are cumbersome.
The Wireless Mobile Utility app sets up
any smartphone or tablet to receive
pics or remote-control the cam. Image
quality? About the same as the Canon.

Olympus E-P5
Price £999 | $1,500 (www.nikon.com)

A step up from everything bar the

Panasonic in price, features, build and
image quality, this 16MP CSC has an
articulated million-dot touchscreen
and is the first Olympus with Wi-Fi.
Pics can be flung to your phone and,
via the Image Share app, said mobile
can also control autofocus and shutter
release. There’s no dedicated Wi-Fi
button, but tap the relevant screen
icon and you’re on your way.
Pics are superb at best, and even
at worst they’re still a cut above your
average point-and-shoot, yet this is
actually simpler to use than the more
basic Canon and Nikon cams. Class.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 81

 Toshiba Satellite P70
£1,199 | $1,399 www.toshiba.com
A high-end laptop that offers a lot of power, but not portability
T
he laptop landscape is ruled
by sleek Ultrabooks, but
we’re pleased to see machines
like this Toshiba Satellite emerge –
a larger laptop that has more
versatility and power than any
ultraportable notebook can hope
to match. It’s built around a
high-end latest-generation Intel
Core processor, and the rest of the
specification is equally impressive:
a discrete Nvidia graphics core,
two hard disks, 16GB of RAM and a
Blu-ray writer. The 17in screen has
a Full HD resolution, too.
The Toshiba Satellite P70 needs
to impress, though, because it’s
up against some heavyweight
competition. The Samsung Series 7
Chronos – now known in some
circles as the Ativ Book 8 – includes
a powerful processor and a superb
15.6in screen in a sleek chassis, and
the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart
features a swish all-aluminium
build. The 15.6in Asus Zenbook
U500 mixes power with the
82 | Help & Advice | January 2014
reassuringly expensive stylings
only found in Ultrabooks, while
Gigabyte’s chunky P2742G has
plenty of power, a 17in display
and reasonable battery life.
Build compromises
However, the Toshiba doesn’t
get off to a great start. Brushed
aluminium is used for the base and
the lid, and it looks good, but much
of this machine is made from plastic
– something that similarly priced
rivals such as the Samsung and HP
machines manage to avoid. We
don’t like the visible seals around
the edges, either – it looks cheap
in an age when unibody laptops
are becoming more popular.
Build quality is average at best as
well – we pressed the base and the
wrist-rest, and there was a little too
much flex for our liking. It’s not as
if the Satellite P70 is a lightweight
laptop, either: its 34.1mm girth
and 3kg weight make it bulkier
than the 2.5kg Samsung Series 7
Chronos, and it’s not far off the
3.2kg Gigabyte P2742G.
So it’s not good-looking or light,
but the Toshiba makes up for this
with practical additions elsewhere.
The keyboard has a firm base and a
snappy, fast typing action, and the
sheer size of this machine means
there’s room for a full number pad.
The Satellite P70 also makes
up for its lack of eye candy with
powerful components. The Core
i7-4700MQ is one of Intel’s new
Haswell chips, and it deploys a
22nm manufacturing process and
several architectural improvements
to boost both performance and
battery life compared to last year’s
Ivy Bridge silicon. This is a quad-
core, 2.4GHz version that uses
HyperThreading and reaches a top
speed of 3.4GHz via Turbo Boost. It
compares well with the chips used
in rival laptops: the Samsung Series
7 Chronos has a similarly specified
last-generation processor, while the
HP Spectre XT TouchSmart has to

make do with a less powerful
low-power Core i5 chip.
Give and take
Graphics power is delivered by an
Nvidia GeForce GT 745M. It’s a step
ahead of most integrated graphics
(many laptops feature only Intel’s
own graphics), but it’s not exactly
a high-end graphics processor; it’s
only got 384 stream processors,
which is half as many as Nvidia
crams inside its mid-range GTX
760M chip. The Toshiba’s graphics
core falls in the middle of its rivals.
“It’s not cheap, but it’s worth the investment if you
prize practicality over the charms of Ultrabooks”
The Chronos has a more powerful
AMD Radeon HD 8800M GPU, and
the Zenbook U500 has an Nvidia GT
650M chip, but the Spectre relies
on Intel integrated graphics.
In our 3DMark Fire Strike graphics
benchmark the Toshiba scored
1,372 – around twice the score of
the Samsung Series 7 Chronos, and
far ahead of the HP’s 399 result.
It’s a little less powerful than the
Gigabyte, though, which deploys
an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M core
for a score of 1,525.
The pair of hard disks – one from
Hitachi and another from Toshiba
– give you lots of space for games
and media, but there’s no room in
the budget for an SSD. We like the
2TB of storage, but it’s not exactly
quick: the two disks used in this
Toshiba Satellite P70
machine had average sequential
read and write speeds of 93MB/s
and 78MB/s respectively – below
the pace we’ve come to expect
from desktop hard disk drives, and
some mobile versions.
The Satellite P70 has 16GB of
RAM, which is more than most
other machines, and there’s a
Blu-ray writer – a step ahead of
the Blu-ray readers included with
most high-end laptops.
Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth
4.0 get connectivity off to a good
start, but there’s no excuse for
single-band 802.11n Wi-Fi in a
machine at this price.
Super screen
It’s the screen that steals the show.
It’s not a touchscreen, which isn’t so
good for the pre-installed version
of Windows 8, but the 17in 1,920 x
1,080 TFT Full HD panel impressed
us in virtually every department.
Colours are both vivid and
extremely accurate, and the
contrast ratio of 613:1 is good, too.
The only drawback here is the
measured black level of 0.54cd/m2.
It’s a little higher than the best
screens, and it means that black
tones aren’t as inky as they could
be – and also that it’s difficult to
distinguish between the deepest
shades. Still, it’s a minor criticism.
January 2014 |
Upgrade
KEY FEATURES
Toshiba Satellite P70
Supplier www.amazon.co.uk
Operating system Windows 8.1
Processor Intel Core i7-4700MQ
Storage 2TB HDD
RAM 16GB
Graphics Nvidia GeForce GT 745M
Connectivity 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, USB 3.0
Weight 4.5kg
Screen size 17.3in
Display resolution 1,920 x 1,080 Full HD
The Toshiba further enhances
its media abilities with a good
set of speakers. The four units are
provided by long-time Toshiba
collaborator Harman Kardon, and
there’s more than enough volume
to fill a room – we’ve rarely heard
laptop speakers this loud. The
treble and mid-range sounds are
high quality and well balanced,
although we do wish that the bass
was a little more substantial.
There’s one sting in the tail,
though, and that’s battery life.
The 4,200mAh battery isn’t what
you’d call capacious, which was
demonstrated in our tests: in High
Performance mode, the Satellite
P70 lasted for 1hr 17mins, and this
figure rose by just 16 minutes when
we enabled Power Saving mode.
This isn’t a laptop you’d take away
from the mains for long – the
Samsung and HP machines, while
less powerful, last much longer.
So while the Toshiba Satellite P70
eschews the style and lightweight
dimensions of its rivals, it makes
up for it in terms of power and
versatility: it’s got a Core i7 Haswell
processor, a discrete graphics core,
plenty of storage and a Blu-ray
writer – but the half-aluminium
and half-plastic chassis won’t win
any awards for style, and it’s not
very portable, either. Performance
is excellent and the screen is a
stunner, but we were disappointed
with the graphics processor and
the battery life. It’s not cheap, but
it’s worth the investment if you
prize power and practicality over
the charms of lightweight, low-
power Ultrabooks. ■
It might sacrifice build quality in
favour of raw power, but this is a
great bit of kit for serious users.
Help & Advice | 83
 Asus Transformer Book TX300
£1,235 | $1,499 www.asus.com
A weighty but thin machine with bags of power and a super twist
W
e first saw the Transformer
Book concept a year ago,
and it’s taken that long for
finished products to start hitting
the shelves. The Transformer Book
TX300 is a ‘hero product’ for Asus,
which means it’s unlikely to be
widely sold, but is a showcase of
the best design and performance.
The TX300 is encased in brushed
aluminium, giving it a sleek finish
that enables it to stand shoulder-to-
shoulder with the MacBook Air in
the looks department.
However, it has a hidden trick up
its sleeve. The screen unclips from
the keyboard base to turn this 13in
laptop into a 13in tablet that’s great
for playing games, surfing the web
or watching movies.
Fresh yet traditional
It’s a new take on the hybrid
form-factor, which has become the
holy grail for manufacturers of
Windows 8 devices. The TX300’s
peers are almost too numerous to
84 | Help & Advice | January 2014
mention: the Sony VAIO Duo 12,
Dell XPS 12, Asus’s own Taichi,
Microsoft Surface Pro and even
Lenovo Yoga 13 all aim to solve
the same problem of bridging the
laptop and tablet divide, yet aside
from the Yoga, this Transformer
Book is unusual in staying rooted
to the traditional laptop form.
It’s a smart move from Asus, and
one that we fully endorse. The
problem with most other hybrids
is that the keyboard docks are
horrifically cramped, while the
machines themselves suffer poor
performance and end up being
more expensive than laptop
equivalents. The only issue here –
and it’s not a small one – is that this
tablet happens to be 13in, weighs
900g and costs over £1,000.
At the heart of this hybrid is a
top-of-the-range Intel Core
i7-3517U processor. However, it’s
from the last generation of Intel
processors, rather than the very
latest line-up. The thid-generation
chip scored well in our benchmark
tests, showing that raw power
shouldn’t be a problem here.
However, in real life testing,
things weren’t so impressive. We
experienced several hangs, and
were regularly made to wait while
apps opened. There’s 4GB of RAM,
which is standard for an Ultrabook,
and should be all you need for a
snappy Windows 8 system.
Sticking with the theme of a
typical Ultrabook experience,
there’s no dedicated graphics
chip, which will disappoint many
potential purchasers at this high
price point. All the pixel-pushing is
left to the integrated Intel HD 4000,
which can handle movie playback
and games from the Windows
Store. You can also play games like
SimCity if you’re willing to turn the
graphics down a little.
Fully stocked
However, that’s where the
similarities with other ultraportable

peers end, and the rest of this
unusual transforming laptop enjoys
a rather storming set of specs.
The first is the screen, a gorgeous
Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 panel. It’s not
just the super-sharp resolution that
makes the Transformer’s display
special, it’s the deep colours and
super saturation. The exaggerated
colours make the screen instantly
enjoyable, whether you’re scrolling
through Windows 8’s Start screen
or watching a movie on YouTube.
The only downside to the
high-resolution panel is that every
“Usability isn’t hobbled by the impossible dream
of perfection in both laptop and tablet form”
on-screen item looks tiny. We found
it tough to read text in places when
sitting a comfortable distance from
the screen, and it makes navigating
the Windows 8 desktop with your
finger even tougher than normal.
Turning the resolution down did
help a little, but the pixelation was
so bad we switched back to 1080p.
The Transformer design enables
a host of benefits that other laptops
can’t enjoy, such as a second
battery and two hard drives. The
TX300 boasts two batteries – one in
the screen and the second in the
base unit. They combine to make
a 5000mAh cell that’s bigger than
most Ultrabooks. The Transformer
Book TX300 wields both a 500GB
HDD and a 128GB SSD, offering
users the best of both worlds, with
Asus Transformer Book TX300
a decent amount of storage as well
as the fast flash.
Detaching the screen is easy, but
reattaching the keyboard means
the system hangs for a few seconds
before the trackpad and keyboard
are usable again. It’s not a big deal,
but it’s not totally seamless.
There are a few other issues
with this package, and connectivity
is one of them. There’s no HDMI,
with DisplayPort preferred instead,
which is awkward for those who
are used to the industry-standard
connection. There are two USB 3.0
ports on the keyboard, but none
on the screen, which limits its
usefulness as a standalone device.
This goes back to our point that
the TX300 is very much a laptop
device, with its tablet form being
better suited to occasional sofa
surfing and media playback.
There’s an Ethernet connection,
which is good for desk-hoppers,
plus an SD card slot, but, these
are on the keyboard dock. On the
screen you’ll find a micro HDMI slot,
as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The second significant problem
is weight. Having been spoiled by
a host of laptops, Ultrabooks and
tablets that weigh around 1kg, such
as the excellent Sony VAIO Pro 13,
we were shocked to discover the
Transformer’s combined weight of
January 2014 |
Upgrade
KEY FEATURES
Asus Transformer Book
TX300
Supplier www.computerpirates.co.uk
Operating system Windows 8
Processor Intel Core i7-3517U
Storage 128GB SSD, 500GB HDD
RAM 4GB
Graphics Intel HD 4000
Connectivity 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth 4.0, Micro HDMI, USB 3.0
Weight 950g (tablet), 1.93kg (laptop)
Screen size 13.3in touchscreen
Display resolution 1920 x 1,080 Full HD
2kg. It’s by no means immobile
and it is slim, but the extra weight is
noticeable compared to the recent
crop of sleek new laptops.
But within this weight there’s
the double battery, the aluminium
chassis and the full-sized keyboard,
which, incidentally, is fantastic to
use. However, do you get anything
the Sony VAIO Pro 13 doesn’t offer,
at double the weight?
Packs a punch
We’d much rather have this
machine’s added power and
spacious design than a tablet that’s
easier to hold, but totally useless
when it comes to writing emails or
doing actual work, but any 13in
tablet is ungainly, especially when
it weighs just shy of 950g.
The dual batteries give a decent
performance, but all-day use isn’t
within the TX300’s capabilities.
It lasted five hours in our tests, and
this could probably be increased
to six with careful management.
The Asus Transformer Book
TX300 is a well-built machine with
bags of power and a unique twist.
It’s one of our favourite hybrids,
because usability isn’t hobbled by
the impossible dream of perfection
in both laptop and tablet form.
However, the niggling glitches
and hangs were a bugbear that
we hope can be addressed via the
maturation of Windows 8, while the
weight remains an issue. If you’re
looking for a great hybrid but don’t
want to give up the comfort of a
laptop, we may have just found a
compromise that works. ■
Bigger than a regular tablet, but
the power and crisp screen make
it far more versatile too.
Help & Advice | 85
 The 12.5-inch The digital pen
Gorilla Glass is great for
screen is the taking notes
main draw or sketching
of the Twist out ideas

Revolutionary Windows 8 Pro

Lenovo Thinkpad Twist Microsoft Surface Pro

£850 | $990 The classic convertible tablet design
is back, and it’s better than ever
Screen It might not be the sexiest hybrid laptop we’ve ever
12.5in seen, but Lenovo’s Thinkpad Twist is a very versatile
touch machine. The screen can be rotated so it faces away
from the keyboard, making it ideal for using as
a tablet, or when giving presentations.
Weight
The 12.5-inch Gorilla Glass screen is the main
1.6kg
draw of the Twist, and boasts a standard resolution
of 1,366 x 768. It’s good for movies, but what makes
the Twist even better is that it’s ideal for more
Battery practical tasks, thanks to the roomy keyboard and
219 versatile options for mouse control, including
mins a touchpad and TrackPoint inputs. And it’s
a touchscreen, of course.
A Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a speedy 500GB
hard drive round off the hardware side of things a treat.
www.lenovo.com
top alternatives
£719 | $899 You can take it all with you if you pick up
the world’s best tablet PC
Screen If you’re familiar with the original Surface RT, the
10.6in Surface Pro has almost all of its advantages and
more. It has the same sturdy but sleek case and an
even better screen; the details are crisp and the
1,920 by 1,080 resolution is ideal for enjoying
Weight
movies. The resolution could even be a bit too high
910g
for Windows 8’s desktop view but, cleverly, software
and web pages on the desktop are magnified
automatically. The screen responds quickly and
Battery accurately to touch input, and you can also tap with
158 up to 10 fingers at once in games or apps, and write
mins with the digital pen. The Surface Pro can run
Windows Store apps and normal PC software, as
well as any peripherals you need. It’s also powerful, but
battery life suffers a little.
www.microsoft.com

Screen Asus Taichi £1,000 | $1,290 Screen Acer Iconia W510 £549 | $750
11.6in The Asus Taichi is just 3mm thick at its thinnest 10.1in The W510 is a great Windows 8
touch and weighs 1.3kg, but what’s really amazing is touch tablet that slots neatly in between
that it has two 11.6-inch Full HD the current choices, with an
Weight touchscreens packed into Weight Intel Atom processor, which
1.3kg the lid – front and 1.26kg offers a good amount of
back. It also has power and battery life. It’s a well
Battery a brilliant sound Battery built device that’s versatile, too.
197 mins system from Danish 310 mins We wouldn’t recommend it
audio expert Bang over a full-size laptop
and Olufsen – ideal for serious tasks, but it
for music and would make a great
movies alike. companion to your main
www.asus.com PC in the home.
www.acer.com
86 | Help & Advice | January 2014
 Upgrade
Buying guide

There’s a vibrant Sat nav

touchscreen
display and an TomTom Go 500
AMD dual-core £200 | $235
The TomTom’s five-inch screen is short on
processor pixels, though it now has multi-touch and
Pixels
the graphics have been redesigned. With
480 x 272
free maps for life, and 45 EU countries
represented, this is a great sat-nav.
Weight
www.tomtom.com
290g

Movie projector

Sony VPL-HW50ES
£3,000 | $4,000
This quiet machine throws out images up to
Everyday computing 300 inches across, with deep blacks and
Weight
lush colours. 3D performance falls a little

HP Pavilion TS Sleekbook
9.6kg
short of expectations, but two pairs of specs
are thrown in. Great for movies.
Noise
www.sony.com
£450 | $550 Can the affordable TS Sleekbook 15 really 21dB

cut it against its mainstream rivals?

Screen The HP Pavilion TS Sleekbook 15 gives you a lot
15.6in of laptop for your money. Sure, you’d hardly call
it slender (at just over 2cm thick) or portable
(it weighs 2.1kg), and it doesn’t have an optical drive,
but what the Sleekbook does have is a vibrant
Sport headphones
Weight touchscreen display, a decent AMD dual-core
2.1kg
processor with some gaming capabilities, and Pioneer SE-E721
a whopping 8GB of RAM.
You also get a generous 1TB hard drive to store £40 | $67
Battery all your files. The Altec Lansing speakers are very These hooked ’phones
462 impressive for movies and music, too. clamp around your ears securely, but are
Weight
mins Battery life in the region of five to seven hours comfy at the same time. With a bassy sound,
6.5g
is certainly not to be sniffed at, and connectivity is they’re ideal for up-tempo workout music.
very well represented, too, with two fast USB 3.0 ports, an Visually extreme, but perfect for a park jog.
Length
HDMI output and more. www.pioneerelectronics.com
1.2m
www.hp.com

Screen HP Envy X2 £699 | $649

11.6in The HP Envy X2 isn’t the most
powerful of laptops, and it’s E-reader
Weight better to think of it as an
1.4kg 11.6-inch tablet with an
added keyboard. The 64GB Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
Battery of flash storage means £109 | $119
462 mins there’s no moving hard The Kindle’s e-ink touchscreen is the finest
drive to add noise and around, though you might miss physical
weight. Battery life is Pixels
buttons for page turning when reading
excellent and the keyboard 222ppi
one-handed. This model includes an
and trackpad are great, adjustable backlight for bedtime reading.
making it easy to use on Weight
www.amazon.com
the move. 213g
www.hp.com
January 2014 | Help & Advice | 87
 Multimedia The fantastic
powerhouse design means it
that’s much turns a room
more than into a slick
a gaming PC office space

big screen laptop Stylish desktop

Toshiba Qosmio X870 Acer Aspire 5600U

£1,430 | $1,500 Monster laptop with impressive
gaming credentials and a nifty 3D display to boot
Screen You don’t need to be a serious gamer in order to
17.3in fully appreciate the impressive specification sheet of
the latest big-hitting Qosmio. Toshiba has created
a monster laptop that fully lives up to the tag of
desktop replacement.
Weight
The 17.3-inch, Full HD, 3D display is perfect not
3.4kg
only for high-octane gaming, but also for watching
Blu-ray movies or editing your high-resolution
images. On the media front, it also helps that there’s
Battery a stereo speaker setup from audio expert Harman
41 Kardon on board.
mins Storing your digital data shouldn’t prove tricky,
either, as there’s a whopping 1TB of hard drive space
on offer, along with a 128GB SSD drive for super-fast boot
times and extra-quick access to those essential files.
www.toshiba.com
top alternatives
£849 | $1,497 With a sleek design and a great display,
this is a true family media centre
Screen This is a slim machine that has more in common
23in with a modern TV than a traditional desktop PC.
touch The screen measures 23 inches, has an HDMI input
for your DVD player or games console and, crucially,
looks great when playing HD content.
Weight
There’s a DVD drive, 4GB of RAM and 500GB of
13kg
storage, which is more typical of an entry-level
laptop than a desktop computer. The i3 processor
isn’t suitable for gaming, and it will struggle with
Battery any demanding creative software.
N/A At this price, you’d expect twice as much RAM
and a Blu-ray player – the storage is more than
enough for most needs. The pay-off for the steep
price is the excellent design, and the Acer could easily be
either an office PC or a small TV in the corner of a room.
www.acer.com

Screen Samsung 5 550P £670 | $940 Screen Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 £1,399 | $1,799
17.3in Quad-core Intel Core power, a vivid 1080p display, 27in The A720 is slim and has a frameless 27-inch
impressive audio – via the JBL stereo speaker and touch touchscreen, with an integrated Blu-ray drive and
Weight Max Boost subwoofer setup – and Nvidia 1TB of hard disk space. Power comes courtesy of
3kg graphics make this one of the Weight a quad-core i7
best pound for pound 11.6kg processor, 8GB of
Battery laptops we’ve seen. It RAM and Nvidia
195 mins looks pretty swish as Battery graphics. The A720
well, and the isolated N/A is equally good as
keyboard is one of a high-performance
the best we’ve seen. workstation, as it
A genuinely tidy little is as a stylish living
package from Samsung. room media centre.
www.samsung.com www.lenovo.com

88 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Upgrade
Buying guide

The sensor and Bridge camera

Carl Zeiss lens
make your Nikon 1 J3 £538 | $697
photos look The third generation Nikon 1 J has had its
resolution boosted from 10.1MP to 14.2MP.
really amazing The J3 is slim, but packed with features. These Quality
include a Slow View mode, which lets you 14.2MP
replay a short scene in slow motion, then
capture a still image at the optimum moment. Weight
www.nikon.com 244g

Wireless speaker

JBL Flip £110 | $100

This speaker delivers a finely-tuned, crisp
sound that belies its tiny size. The speaker
can be oriented horizontally or vertically, and
Smartphone it doesn’t take up much space at all. You can
Weight
350g

Nokia Lumia 920

even make and receive calls via Bluetooth, as
long as your phone remains connected. Battery
www.jbl.com 5 hours
£419 | $450 A great screen and camera combine
to make Nokia’s big phone a winner
Screen Nokia’s flagship phone is one heck of a thing to
4.5in hold. With a 4.5-inch display and weighing 186g,
touch it won’t sit unnoticed in your pocket.
The screen is an absolute beauty, however, with
Weight
a bright and colourful display and the ability to take Action camera
knocks thanks to its tough Gorilla Glass.
186g
It also has a fantastic eight-megapixel Carl Zeiss
camera, which makes photographing life on the Sony HDRAS15
move a pleasure – the results are amazing. £187 | $268
Battery The real win here is the ability to charge wirelessly
N/A with an optional dock, so there’s no need to attach Sony’s action camera is inexpensive,
a cable when the juice is low. but doesn’t skimp on features. It uses Weight
The 920 comes in red, yellow, white and black, SteadyShot and an Exmor sensor to ensure 65g
and you can get accessories such as headphones, wireless smooth filming at HD quality. There’s Wi-Fi
charging stations and speakers in matching colours. too, letting you control it via your phone. Quality
www.nokia.co.uk www.sony.com 1080p

Screen HTC 8S £229 | $430

4.0in The HTC 8S cuts down on size and
touch power for people who want Internet radio
a phone first and a web browser
Weight and digital camera second.
113g The handset is slim and has Logitech UE Smart
a vibrant, edgy design. The Radio £150 | $180
Battery four-inch screen is lacking a little
Logitech’s radio is stunningly versatile: it can
310 mins and the five-megapixel camera is
link to loads of internet music services, Length
a little below par, but it does
including last.fm and Spotify, and its 22cm
come with Dr Dre’s Beats Audio
room-filling sound is every bit as good as
integrated, which boosts music
radios twice the price. Height
and gives it better clarity.
www.logitech.com 12.8 cm
www.htc.com

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 89

Play this…
Four new games available to
play on your Windows computer
Old man Giggs, rolling back the years…
Football
Manager 2014
Easily the finest sheepskin-wearing simulator ever
Price £35
Developer Sports Interactive
Publisher Sega
Multiplayer Hotseat or networked DRM Steam Web www.sigames.com
Recommended specs 2.2GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, DX9c 256MB GPU
The received wisdom
from Football Manager
passim has been to let
the early adopters pick
up the latest iteration of the
annual franchise and have
them go through all the
pain of bug-hunting, patch-
testing and general gaming
frustration that the first few
months traditionally bring.
Then, once the usual
Christmas game-fixing patch
rolls around, it’s time to jump
aboard the bandwagon to
90 | Help & Advice | January 2014
experience one of the finest
footballing simulations ever
committed to code.
But with Football Manager
2014, we’ve been having a
blast since the preview code
arrived in our inbox. Last year’s
game, by comparison, gave
us the saddest experience of
our 21 years playing Sports
Interactive’s managerial sim:
actually having to give it a
negative review.
Prior to the Christmas Eve
patch of FM 2013, the game
was more punishing than it’s
ever been. It was also released
with a brand new match
engine that delivered so little
feedback on why your team
were playing like their boots
were of the Mafiosa-inspired
concrete persuasion, it was
pretty much impossible to
gain any consistent gaming
enjoyment from it.
The biggest problem for us
was the way it barely felt like
anything we did had any
bearing on what happened
out on the virtual pitch. For a
game that lives or dies by
making you think you’re ‘the
special one’ – the one person
having an impact on the
fortunes of your chosen club
– that’s a huge failing.
Fair play to SI, though; it’s a
developer that’s built upon
incredible passion for its one
true game, and from the
studio director down it’s
totally invested in that title –
not just developing it, but
playing it for fun, too. That
meant SI wasn’t happy with
the state of the game, and
continued working on it right
up to that Christmas Eve
patch, which fixed it for a great
many of us. From there on we
found FM 2013 a great game,
and it held our attention until
the first preview code for this
year’s version arrived.
Middle-age angst
Normally when that happens,
we get a certain amount of
iteration angst. By September,
our in-game career with FM
2013 was entering 2030 –
a World Cup year – and we

You can start the game as a national
team coach to guide your country to glory
had high hopes for both our
club and national teams. The
thought of consigning them
both to FM history past and
moving on to the new,
probably very buggy, version
gave us serious pause.
Especially after our painful
experiences 12 months prior.
It didn’t take long for that
concern to evaporate though,
and we’ve barely given our
beloved Stewart Kenyon –
three-time Footballer of the
Year and Bolton and England
captain – a second thought
since embarking on our latest
FM adventure.
So what’s changed? As
usual, there’s a host of major
and minor tweaks, though
the building blocks remain
essentially the same. You’re
still a football manager,
with all the pressures and
responsibilities that entails.
You can take control of any
team from a squillion
countries, and it’s still very
much a role-playing game.
You have to interact with
NPCs, recruit team members
and manage stats across a
huge vista of spreadsheet-like
screens. All it’s missing is a
sheepskin jacket.
For us, the important
changes lie within the match
engine and the way you
create and maintain tactics –
although there are some very
key changes to the layout and
flow of the game, too. We
foresee the change to the
tactics system being the most
The pre-match flow has been extended to
integrate more of the world around your club
All the graphs, stats and gormless
divisive, and we think some
purist FM fans are going to be
rather unforgiving of a change
that could be perceived as
‘dumbing things down’.
So what has SI done that
could be so controversial? It’s
done away with the sliders
– and we mean all the sliders.
Let it slide
Traditionally, tactics in Football
Manager were configured
using individual sliders, with
multiple positions to indicate
how attacking your team
would be, how high the
defensive line would be, how
wide your team would play
and so on. You could set
these up in any combination,
fine-tuning each to your
heart’s content – no matter
how contradictory they might
seem to an actual tactician.
Sports Interactive has
been introducing the option
to hide them behind a more
generalised setup screen,
and now it has eradicated
them completely. Some will no
doubt complain it takes away
the fine-grain control people
can have over their tactics, and
they’ve got a point. Personally,
we’re all about the RPG
elements. There are no sliders
in real football, and this feels
more like the way you would
set up your club’s tactics in
real life. You want your team
to play higher up? Tell them
to push higher up the pitch.
More? Tell them to push much
higher up the pitch.
player pics you could want
As well as giving a more
realistic edge to the tactics, it
also puts a stop to some of the
‘gaming’ of the match engine
that used to be possible by
pushing the sliders to mutually
exclusive settings – in other
words, taking advantage of
some failing or other in the
game’s code. We admit, when
we first saw what SI had done
we weren’t convinced, but
now we’re converted.
Smoothly does it
The match engine itself –
particularly the visuals – has
made impressive strides
forward, too. It’s much
smoother now (depending on
your hardware), with improved
lighting and animations. The
players feel more physically
real and are more likely to
bundle their way through
than get jostled once and
give up the ball. We’ve even
seen a player jump a tackle,
drag the ball back from
another challenge and deliver
a pin-point, swinging cross to
the far post for a simple tap in.
Some of the goals in Football
Manager 2014 really nail that
sat-alone-in-front-of-your-
desk-whooping-and-
punching-the-air effect.
SI has also created a closer
camera view, helping give
individual players far more
personality. There’s more
personality in the game as a
whole, too. Previous iterations
have left us feeling quite
disconnected, but FM 2014
January 2014 |
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Play this…
The new close-up view and animations
give your players more personality
The team instructions screen highlights
the mutually exclusive tactical options
has more feedback to make
you feel part of the footballing
world in general. Sports
Interactive has also upped
its game when it comes to
the press conferences, as
well as media, player, staff
and boardroom interactions.
They’re still not perfect and
you will come across some
odd reactions, but the things
you say feel like they have
wide-reaching impact.
Another important feature
is the ability to scale the UI to
your screen resolution. We’ve
never played FM on a 2,560 x
1,440 panel, mainly because
it was almost impossible to
digest any information from
its many screens. In FM 2014
you can enlarge the text to
make it far more accessible to
higher resolutions.
There’s a host of other little
changes, and some will feel
more or less important to you
depending on where they
appear. However, it’s clear that
Sports Interactive and Football
Manager are once again
moving in the right direction.
This is the finest version of
Football Manager we’ve ever
played, and we’ve played
them all. A lot. ■
Help & Advice | 91
We swear we didn’t
cause this explosion

Spelunky enable us to work out where

Dig into the joyous mistakes of a game that’s different every time
Price £12 | $15
Developer In-house
Publisher Mossmouth
Multiplayer Four-player deathmatch or co-op DRM Steam Web www.spelunkyworld.com
Recommended specs 2.8GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, any 3D card
Having reached
the end of one of
Spelunky’s randomly
generated levels, we
turned away from the exit,
and decided to bomb our way
inside a snake pit instead.
Snake pits are one of the
game’s most exciting random
elements, because they’re
level-deep and filled with not
only snakes, but also jewels,
crates and, buried in the rock
at the bottom, a mattock. The
latter is always too good an
opportunity to pass up; with
the mattock in our hand, we
can mine our way through the
destructible blocks that form
Spelunky’s world, avoiding
traps and gathering gold in
our rush towards Olmec, the
game’s boss.
We placed a bomb at the
corner of the pit’s outer wall,
where it exploded. The
explosion propelled a rock
into our character’s face. We
tumbled backwards, stunned,
and died on some spikes.
When the free version of
Spelunky was released in 2009,
it was one of the first indie
games to take the tenets of
the ‘roguelike’ genre – random
level generation, extreme
difficulty, permadeath – and
make it accessible. It does that
not by being more forgiving
than its inspirations, but by
combining those elements
with the controls and cuteness
of a 2D platformer.
Constant caving
A lot has been written about
Spelunky’s procedural levels
– the ability of the game to
construct the varied and
challenging terrain of your
adventures, and to prevent
them becoming repetitive or
frustrating through endless
new lives. It’s impressive, and
the game wouldn’t be as great
without it, but it’s the parts
that remain the same that
we went wrong.
Your descent into Spelunky’s
underground complex is
divided into worlds, each
with its own menagerie of
creatures, its own traps and
special items. The mines are
home to snakes, spiders, bats,
dart traps and a magical Udjet
Eye that lets you see gems
in the rock. The jungle has
exploding frogs, pools of
chomping fish, people-eating
plants, and a door buried in
rock that leads to a black
market full of shopkeepers
selling the game’s most
valuable items. An ice world
and an Aztec world follow,
with their own population of
aliens, angry yetis and psychic
staff-wielding Anubis guards.
The order and quantity of
these enemies changes, and
you’ll find yourself constantly
surprised and challenged by
randomly deployed special
levels, such as the mine where
the ceilings are covered in
giant spiders, or the ice level
in which the centrepiece is
a tall alien spaceship with a

92 | Help & Advice | January 2014


Mammoths fire a freezing
ice bullet. As in life
We’re about to get
hit by a boomerang
tempting door at the top.
There are mysteries out there
we still haven’t uncovered.
The excitement of exploring
a fresh new world each time is
paired with the satisfaction of
learning a set of rules that are
applicable to every level. We
always begin with four bombs
and four ropes in our pocket,
and we know how much gold
or gems need to be in an area
to make it worth using one.
We know we should always
whip jars twice to burst them,
in case they contain an enemy.
After the hundreds of hours
we’ve played Spelunky, we’ve
internalised all these universal
systems to such an extent that
we can close our eyes and
continue playing even when
away from the computer. The
game is so precise and logical
that we can build a challenge
– plop down three tiki traps,
position a bat, a spike pit and
a frog – and then set the
game in motion. We can trace
the slope of the bat down
towards our character, and
the arc of the frog’s leap.
This is how you tackle every
challenge in the game: look at
it, play it out inside your head,
then try to carry out your plan.
Slowly and surely, Spelunky
turns players into Spelunky
simulators, challenging them
to resolve that gap between
imagination and execution.
That’s a hard hurdle to
overcome. We’ve filled a
mental encyclopedia with
Knowing what to do doesn’t
mean we won’t mess it up
tidbits, but we still occasionally
make a mistake and die on
world one, level one. Spelunky
keeps us from being bored
due to its level generation; it
keeps us from being frustrated
by always acting as we
expect it to; and the endless
opportunity to screw up has
kept us entertained through
over 5,000 deaths.
On a recent run, we reached
the ice world. The mine and
jungle levels are full of tight
spaces, but the ice world is
open, with slippery platforms
floating in an abyss. Luckily we
had the cape, which let us
press ‘Jump’ in mid-air to float
and steer ourselves towards
our desired landing site.
As we drifted towards the
exit on one level, we failed to
notice a rock sitting on top of
a jump pad. The pad hurled
the rock into the air, where it
stunned us, and knocked us
onto a ledge. The rock then
fell back onto the pad, and
before we were able to move,
it was launched at us again.
And again, and again, until
we were dead, defeated
once more by a supposedly
inanimate object.
Spelunky places you in
ridiculous and terrifying
situations with far more
regularity than is reasonable
for a game with procedurally
generated levels. Whether
we’re parachuting into the
abyss or trapped alongside
our own bomb in the worm
level, we’re simultaneously
laughing, groaning and
drafting a message to a friend
to talk about it.
Mine and yours
This latest version – a PC port
of Spelunky HD, the from-
scratch rebuild of the free PC
original – has a feature that
makes the game even more
compelling: Daily Challenges.
Each day a version of the
world is generated that is the
same for everyone, and which
can be played only once.
This has spawned a
community around the game
that never existed before. We
spend a portion of every day,
after we’ve run our own Daily,
watching YouTube videos of
how our friends tackled,
overcame and eventually died
against the same combination
of challenges. It’s pleasing
to know you did better,
heartbreaking to know you
did worse, and gut-wrenching
to know the gift-wrapped
mystery box you decided not
to risk buying on the second
level contained the jetpack –
the game’s best item.
These videos are an
extension of the anecdotes
that Spelunky players have
been sharing with one another
since the first version of the
game. They’re tales that centre
on the player’s death – The
Failure with a Thousand Faces
– but they have never been
more exciting.
January 2014 |
Upgrade
Play this…
Spelunky represents half a
dozen design philosophies we
wish more games would copy.
It isn’t easy, but it’s accessible.
It’s not scripted, but you tell
stories through it. It’s tough,
but always fair. Its procedural
levels make it replayable. Its
Daily Challenges and local
co-op make it an experience
you can share, and we’ve
played the latter for dozens of
hours on its own. Even the PC
version, after an early update,
gives you all the options you’d
want in terms of resolution
and windowed modes.
We could go further and
wax lyrical about how that
bat’s descent angle is carefully
calibrated to mess with you,
about how the game crafts
scenarios that tempt you into
taking risks, and about how
cute the rescuable pug is.
Spelunky’s moving parts are
simple – the free version was
built using the entry-level
game development tool,
Game Maker – but they click
together in ways smart
enough to keep us joyfully
exploring its depths for years,
without reaching the bottom.
You don’t need to be careful
about this. Just try it. ■
Help & Advice | 93
 Kick the ball away from the
golf hole for a double goal
FIFA 14
It’s that time of year again…
Price £32
Developer EA Canada
Publisher Electronic Arts
Multiplayer Up to four players DRM Origin Web www.easports.com/fifa
Recommended specs Core 2 Duo CPU, Radeon 3600, 2GB RAM, 8GB HDD
The long-running
FIFA series strives to
mimic the off-pitch
strategy and on-pitch tactics
of real football, and in the
12 months spent with each
iteration, its fans become
used to the weight of its
physics and the subtleties
of its animations.
As long-term fans of the
FIFA series ourselves, We’ve
come to know all the possible
arcs of an aerial through
ball, and the movements of
teammates off the ball. When
you’ve become so carefully
attuned to all the minute
details that make up a game,
94 | Help & Advice | January 2014
“Look at that small blue
one down there!”
even a sequel that alters
relatively little still manages
to change everything.
You shall not pass
FIFA 14’s mountainous
molehills begin with a small
tweak to player momentum.
Playing FIFA 13 meant keeping
your finger permanently
pinned on sprint, sending your
team of virtual millionaires
hurtling around at unlikely
speeds. Do that now as a
defender, and a brief sidestep
can see you moving in the
wrong direction, with a
significant amount of time
required to turn around. Do it
as the attacker, and a well-
timed challenge will remove
the ball from your feet.
It’s a slower game, more
reliant on passing and creating
holes in defences by luring
defenders to overcommit
to challenges. Sprinting is
reserved for when you’re on
the break, with the pitch wide
open in front of you. To help
you keep the ball at slower
speeds, you’ll rely more on
your body to shield it, and on
the right stick (if you’re playing
with an Xbox controller
plugged into your PC), which
now performs skill moves all
on its own. You’re also more
dependent on the AI steering
your teammates into useful
areas, and thankfully they do
seem more willing to make
breaking runs across and
behind defences.
For the first dozen games,
these changes felt like meagre
tweaks with unsatisfying
results. Slowly, as we adjusted,
we came to appreciate the
more thoughtful flow of each
game, and the expanded thrill
of taking apart an opponent
and flicking the ball into the
back of the net. FIFA’s reign as
the best football game – as a
great game – isn’t in question.
But there are so many ways
in which the experience might
have been improved or
expanded on that it’s hard not
to feel like the series is trapped
passing the ball around in its
own half. Problems from the
old games return, from the
hilariously bad commentary –
 Upgrade
Play this…

This is called the ‘Gary

Lineker’ manouvre

Like Panini football stickers “That giant ball is

crossed with Pokemon chasing me. Get it off!”

They all came to the party

in the same clothes. Awkward

That’s six wickets

to Accrington

Some subtle advertising

from developer EA there

even worse than real football We didn’t regret it, and the
– to goalkeeper snafus, bad
pass assistance and other
money we spent has bonded
us to the players on our team
Foul play
frustrations. Given that in a way we didn’t expect. Why things go wide of
next-gen consoles are getting But that’s the only the mark in FIFA games 20%
a new engine with more unexpected thing about FIFA 25%
advanced physics, it’s all the 14. We do wish that wasn’t the
more disappointing that our case though, partly because
version feels like FIFA 13.5. we really want the series to 6%
try something new after so
Final fantasy many years, or to correct its 5%
Luckily, the game’s saving persistent niggles, and partly 10%
grace remains the same. because we know that it’s 9%
Ultimate Team mode lets going to again eat hundreds
you create your own fantasy of hours of our lives over the
football team, unlocking coming year. It’s a funny ol’ 25%
new players by buying packs game, as Electronic Arts keeps
with gold earned by playing reminding us. ■
matches or with real money.
■ “Not him!” ■ “I didn’t even ■ “Move towards it,
There’s excitement to finding A pass targets the press a button!” you idiot!”
rare players, and if you’re wrong person. The computer gives Player ignores your
away a penalty. control entirely.
canny you can play this mode ■ “That guy!”
forever, and manage your Can’t select person ■ “That was the ■ “...”
nearest the ball. animation! ” You actually made a
team, without spending real Defender sets ball genuine mistake.
cash. We spent £6 and used ■ “Just catch it!” down for opponent.
Keeper palms ball
it to get a goalkeeper and straight to opponent.
multiple premium gold packs.

January 2014 | Help & Advice | 95

One day Ubisoft will give up and just
make games about men fighting dogs

Splinter Cell: Blacklist The supremacy of certain

Sam Fisher hits a few bumps as he stumbles about in the dark
Price £30
Developer Ubisoft
Publisher In-house
Multiplayer Up to eight, competitive and co-op DRM Steam, Uplay Web www. splintercell.ubi.com
Recommended specs 2.6GHz CPU, 4GB RAM,512MB GPU
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
is a stealth game of
the robust, rule-based
kind, where each
environment is a puzzle
waiting to be cracked. You
slip snake cameras under
doors or use sonar to get the
lay of the land, then pick a
route and eliminate each
guard in order. Blacklist has
more of the old Splinter Cell
DNA in it than Conviction
did, but it’s still not a perfect
revival of the series.
It’d really like it if you saw it
that way, though. Protagonist
Sam Fisher has been plucked
out of retirement, shaved and
plonked in command of
Fourth Echelon, a younger and
more energetic take on the
spy agency from the original
games. Fourth Echelon roam
the world in a spy plane
that enables Sam and a
gang of sidekicks to breach
international law wherever
and whenever they please.
On a minute-to-minute
basis, the level design is an
issue. Having a range of
gadgets to use means less if
you don’t need to use them at
all, and Blacklist’s linear arenas
rarely need to be manipulated
as carefully or on as large a
scale as in Splinter Cell of old.
‘Realistic’ difficulty changes
this somewhat, removing
Conviction’s ‘mark and execute’
feature, axing mid-mission
resupply caches and reducing
the usefulness of sonar
goggles. Being forced to rely
on your noisemakers and
sticky cameras is great, but it
doesn’t prevent environments
from feeling narrow and
stagey. When you come across
a climbable pipe, you know
that a developer somewhere
expects you to climb it – and
that it’ll probably lead you
conveniently over the head of
that armoured guard you
couldn’t get past.
gadgets accentuates the
problem. Consider the
crossbow, with its sleeping
gas bolts that instantly wipe
out gaggles of enemies, no
matter which difficulty level
you’ve opted for. On multiple
occasions in the campaign,
Fisher will have to escape an
area with a hostage, relying
on whatever weapon he was
holding when the sequence
began. To help, you get infinite
ammo for no particular reason.
We stumbled into one while
wielding the sleeping bolts.
The result was a ridiculous
charge down a riverside as
Fisher mercilessly ushered
commando after commando
into a deep and restful repose.
Awkward, hand-holdy
sections like this are the
game’s other great weakness.
One early mission begins with
a sniper section where you
must eliminate enemies in
the right order to progress.
Logically, you’d assume that
if you screw up then the
subsequent stealth section
will be harder. Not so – you

96 | Help & Advice | January 2014


In videogames, burning buildings
collapse into obstacle courses
Mark-and-execute makes
for efficient takedowns
have to keep repeating it until
you do it perfectly.
Hard cell
There’s no checkpointing, and
no mid-mission save system.
This turns features that should
be positive – like guard patrols
that vary from run to run –
into crushing negatives.
Flawless stealth is an exercise
in gruelling trial-and-error.
All missions can be repeated
for points, which are assigned
in three categories: Ghost,
Panther and Assault. Ghost
means slipping by undetected
and non-lethally subduing
guards. Panther is similar, but
you’re allowed to kill people,
and Assault is for people
who’d rather be playing a
shoot ‘em up. Blacklist uses
this to provide consequences
for the way you play, but the
main narrative is unaffected,
rendering toothless the
moments when you’re asked
if you’re willing to spare a life.
The game has no central
menu. When you begin the
campaign for the first time
you pick a difficulty level and
That woman could not be less
bothered about this turn of events
If you refuse to choose, they
cuddle forever. It’s better that way
launch directly into the
lengthy opening cutscene,
which is followed by a brief
mission. It’s sort of a tutorial,
but it’s skippable and most of
the work of getting you up to
speed is done once it’s over.
Whenever you begin the
game from this point on, you
load directly onto the plane
and conduct the rest of your
business via the SMI – a giant
table computer. SMI means
‘Sam’s Magic iPad’, if you were
wondering. It’s magic because
it provides whatever info
the team needs to progress,
whenever they need it, it lets
you travel back in time to play
older missions, and it plugs
Sam Fisher into the game’s
multiplayer, which is where
Blacklist picks itself up out of
mediocrity and claims a bit of
magic for itself.
Multi cell
Spies vs mercenaries
multiplayer makes a return.
At its most basic, spies race to
hack nodes that mercenaries
have to defend – but a series
of clever design decisions stop
Sam Fisher: secret agent,
loving father, b-boy
it feeling like any other type
of capture point multiplayer.
In order to stop a hack,
mercenaries have to track
down and kill the spy who
started the process. This
encourages the spies’ allies to
ambush guards, set traps, or
simply try to be distracting.
Different maps emphasise
different strategies. Hiding in
the shadows is an option in
some, while others put the
spies in situations where direct
confrontation is more likely. It’s
a much more organic marriage
of game mechanics and level
design than Blacklist manages
in singleplayer. We enjoyed
sprinting across a room with
gunfire pinging at our heels,
knowing that we were buying
20 precious seconds of respite
for our hacker friend. It’s a
world away from Sam Fisher
trudging glumly down a river,
putting men to sleep with his
infinite ammo crossbow.
Two tech problems are
worth bearing in mind. The
first are the controls: this game
is designed to be played with
a gamepad, and its heavy use
January 2014 |
Upgrade
Play this…
of context-sensitive actions
and radial menus make
keyboard and mouse play
fiddly. The second is Uplay.
Ubisoft’s launcher is necessary
even if you own the Steam
version, and it refused to let
me connect to the game’s
online service until someone
from Ubisoft fiddled with my
account. Then, Uplay deleted
all my saves. I’d taken manual
backups, but could only
restore them by disabling
cloud saving outright.
Blacklist is far from terrible,
but it’s certainly not the classic
that Chaos Theory was and it
learns the wrong lessons from
Conviction. That said, this is
the strongest the series has
ever been in multiplayer,
and for that reason it’s well
worth taking a peek into its
dark corners. ■
Help & Advice | 97
 full products
Your disc
handpicked toolkits essential resources

Welcome This issue’s highlights

Hello and welcome
to your free disc,
exclusive to
Windows 7 Help &
Advice. This month’s
packed CD-ROM features great
programs to help you get the
best from your computer, plus
essential resources for every
Windows user. 28 Messy music library? Let 36 Share your mouse and
This month’s disc is perfect if TuneUp tidy things up for you. keyboard with Synergy.
your new year’s resolution is to
get your life more organised!
We’ve got loads of tools to help
you stay on top of everyday
tasks. There’s also a toolkit to
help you manage your files, so
you can keep your computer in
order as well!

Jeremy Ford Disc editor 50 Use Malwarebytes to keep 62 Identify Wi-Fi dark spots in
jeremy.ford@futurenet.com your PC safe from nasties. your home with Heatmapper.

Step-by-step How to use your free disc

1 Get started
Place your free disc into your computer’s disc drive. The
AutoPlay prompt should appear on your screen and once this
has happened, click ‘Run OWV.exe’ to start up the disc interface.
A new window appears, telling you some important information.
Read it, then click on ‘I agree’ to continue.
2 Browse the categories
Click on one of the categories in the menu underneath the
magazine logo to discover all the programs that are contained in
each. Simply click on an app’s name to find out more about it.
Full commercial products usually have information about how
to register. To try out an app, just click the ‘Install Now’ button.

98 | Help & Advice | January 2014

 Find the solution! How to get your disc to play
If the disc doesn’t start automatically, hit the Windows key, then
Your disc
click Computer. Now double click the DVD drive to get going.
Make the most of it!

Full disc
contents
File management
• CD Recovery Toolbox
• DropIt
• FolderSizes
• Multi Commander
• PeaZip
• Personal Backup
• Smart Defrag
• Supercopier
• TeraCopy
• UltraSearch

Personal
organisation
• Day Organizer
• Efficient Diary
• EssentialPIM
• Evernote
• HomeBank
• Interactive Calendar
• Kana Reminder
• myPortablePIM
• Rainlendar Lite
• Todomoo

Screen tools
• A Ruler for Windows
• BB FlashBack Express
• Dexpot
• DisplayFusion
• Fences
• Monitor Calibration
Wizard
• QuickGamma
• Screenshot Captor
• Synergy
• VirtuaWin

Extras
• AuctionSieve
• Autoruns
• AVG AntiVirus
Free 2014
• Comodo Dragon
3 Install the program
When you begin to install your chosen applications, the
• HeatMapper
• Malwarebytes
disc brings up another message window to take you through the
installation process. Each one of these is different – just follow the • MyFolders
prompts until you get a message telling you that the installation • And more!
is complete. Now it’s time to try out your free apps – have fun!

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