Facebook Windows Help User Manual

Download

Page 1

P A GES OF WINDOWS

STEP-B Y-STEP GUIDES

DO MORE WITH YOUR PC

REIN STALL WINDOWS!

STREAMLINE YOUR SYSTEM FOR A BETTER PC

ESSENTIAL

APPS

 HP ELITE X2  SAMSUNG GAL AX Y FOLD  SONY A7R IV  ASUS ROG MOTHERSHIP  FREE PHOTO EDI TING A PPS

 SY ST E M TOO LS  PH OTO AND VIDEO ED ITING  SECURITY

WI-FI 6

IN-DEPTH

THE LA TEST

WIRELESS TECH

Use Alexa

with you r PC

Get the most

out of Dropbo x

Edit photos with

AI in Lum inar 4

WHAT TO DO WHEN

YOUR HARD DISK

IS FULL

OUT OF

SPA CE?

Page 2

;OLZV\YJLMVY[LJOI\`PUNHK]PJL

techradar.com

Page 3

Don’t mis s our NEXT I S SUE , when we will show you how to…

Use Windows Timeli ne Mak e your PC password - free Customise the

Windows Taskbar

Manage ebooks with Calibre Use a password manager

Si g n up f or ou r ne ws le tter at www. wi ndo w sm ag . c o . u k

ISSUE

ON SALE

6 December

2019

Cover image credits : Microsoft, HP

Hello, and welcome to Windows Help and Advice issue 168. This month you can discover the 50 best free apps with which to put your PC through its paces. There’s everything from office suites to photo editors to security sof t war e, all the programs you could want, without spending a penny. And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve got a full guide to the latest wireless network technology, Wi-Fi 6, which promises to shake up an otherwise dull sec tor. There’s also a look at what to do if your PC runs out of space.

Elsewhere, you’ll find the usual

mix of tutorials and reviews. There’s a look at the new Dropbox app, a guide to the freshly release d Luminar 4, and tips on using Alexa with Windows 10. We review a ‘portable’ PC that needs two power bricks , a phone that folds in half, and some sensible Ultrabo oks too.

Whatever you plan to do with your PC t hi s month have fun doing it.

Welcome

SUBSCRIBE TO THE MA G T OD AY AN D SAVE

– TURN T O P A GE 20!

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

Ian Evenden Editor

www.facebook.com/windowsmag

Page 4

6 Discover New hardware and software

from Microsoft. The importance of secure passwords. And more besides…

20 Subscriptions

35 Back issues

Missed an issue? Don’t

miss out – order now while stocks last!

68 Digi tal issues

Get the world’s best

Windows mag on your phone or tablet

90 Next month

Find out what’s

coming up in the Christmas 2019 issue

REGULARS

FEATURES

64 Get answers to your

technical questions with help from our PC ex perts

SUPPORT

| |

December 2019

24 The Windows 10 Dropbox app

offers a lot of options: here’s your complete guide to file syncing

27 The new Luminar 4 brings AI

smarts to photo editing

30 Use Alexa on Windows 10

32 Manage lists with ToDo

38 Download videos from

YouTube easily and for free

42 Use Scribus to create a

professional magazine layout

< ʝʦ ɠ ʔʦL ȫ ɏ ,ʋ ɚ (Ƀ ʑQȫ ʑ ɚ Vʋ\ ɡ

“If you ’re looking for better ways t o use y our ho me compu ter, then thi s is t he plac e to start. We ’l l sho w you al l the t ip s and tri c ks the experts use and more!”

EXPLORE

The best PC tutorial s

12 50 free apps

Avoid spending money on software by using programs that cost nothing

48 Wi-F i 6 is here

A deep dive into the technology and promise of the latest wireless standard

55 Out of space?

Our complete guide to what to do when your PC’s internal storage fills up

Page 5

December 2019

77 Our expert reviews

78 HP Elite x2 80 Asus ROG Mothership 82 Sony Alpha A7 R IV 84 Samsung Galaxy Fold 88 Best free image editing tools

Buy print and digital together – get a USB charger free!

F ind o ut mo re on p ag e 20

SUB S CR I PTIO N

BUNDLE OFFER

UPGRADE

w uss …

wwwwww.twitter.com/windowsmag

www.facebook.com/windowsmag

Get a complet e suit e of PC software for nothing

Wi-Fi 6 is here, and promises to shake up the world of wireless networking. We explore its new tech

Your PC is full. What do you do? Read this before it happens

Page 6

NEW TH ING S T O DO AMAZING WEBSITES FASCINATING FACTS

| |

Dec emeber 20 1 9

Page 7

The Knowledge…

Microsoft’s October event, held in New York, threw up a whole host of exciting new devices, like the Surface Duo twin-screen phone – but none, for our money, stole the show quite as much as the Surface Neo. We don’t know what it’ll cost, and there’s no ﬁrm release date, but the Neo looks set to change the way we think about computers: it’s ﬂexible, foldable, and super compact, like a hybrid between today’s coolest phones and tomorrow’s neatest laptops.

Keep your personal web browsing private

LLL

ȫȫȫ

ɏɏɏ

ʖʖ

ɚɚɚ

ɿɿ

ʋʋʋ

ʖʖ

ɚɚɚ

ʣʣ

LLɳɳɳKK

ɢɢɢ

ervices like Facebook and Google have tentacles that reach far across the web, and

they’re watching what you do. Although they rarely tie your activ ity to any p er so nal infor mation, that which they do learn is sold to advertisers, who target you with ads that th eo retically ﬁt your interests. Ever looked at a sofa online then been bombarded with ads for sofas for the nex t month? That’s why. If this makes you uncomfortable – it’s mostly b enign, but we can certainly understan d b ein g against it – there are a few things you can do to stop it.

First, consider changing your web browser. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge don’t (yet) include any signiﬁcant technology to s top tracking, though it ’s apparently coming to Chrome in a future version. Try using Firefox (get ﬁrefox. com), Opera (opera.com) or V ivaldi (vivaldi.com) which each build in tracking protection – in the case of

Opera, there’s also an ad blocker built in. As Google and Facebook are the biggest t wo culprits for tracking, you could consider using alternative platforms – tricky if you’re tied to using Facebook (or other services in its family, like Instagram and WhatsApp) but you could tr y using DuckDuckGo (duckduckgo.com) as an alternative to searching through Google.

Lastly, try using a VPN, or virtual private network, like NordVPN (nordvpn.com) or Private Internet Access (privateinternetaccess.com). These have many uses, but keeping your web browsing private is the aim; for the ultimate in tracking evasion, browsing through the Tor Browser (torproject.org) means everything you do online is automatically routed through diﬀerent points in the world. It’s a little slower, but there’s no way someone’s following you if you appear to be in Stockholm one minute and Antarctica the next.

The web is w at c hi ng. I t’ s not as sca ry as it sounds, but it’ s no t hard t o hi de y ourself a wa y

Windows 1 0 X

Is that a roman num eral?

It is not. This isn’t W ind ows 10 10: the ‘X’ is Microsof t’s favourite coo l letter (see: Xbox, Surface Pro X et al), and i t ’s the designation gi ven to a sp ecia l ver sion o f Windows made speciﬁcally for dual-screen or folding d evi ces. M icros of t c alls it an ‘expression’ of Wi ndow s, en hance d for gadget s like the Surface Neo.

Why crea te a speci al versio n o f Windows for that?

It’s not so much that Microsoft has created a spe cial ver sion , more that Windows ha s now b eco me a l ot of thi ngs all at once. Signiﬁ ca nt parts of Wind ows run on loa ds of di ﬀe rent d evi ces an d have done for so me tim e, of te n imp ercep tibl y. To use a car analogy, Windows is the engine which the re st of the ch assis is built around.

But it doesn’t look much like the Windows we know.

That’s bec ause the W indow s 10 that you’re running o n your d esktop compute r or laptop simpl y wouldn’ t work fo r this platfo rm. I t ’s likely that this won’ t be the last mobile version of Windows 10, and you can exp e c t the Wi ndow s name to b e frac ture d b et we en a w ho le ho st of n ew, diﬀerent versions soon.

So what’s diﬀerent?

There’s a new st ar t m enu, w hich f ee ls a lot more like the smartph one inter f aces we’re all used to by now, and a lot less clutter – we’d be surpr ise d if it inclu de d any draggable ﬂoating program windows. T her e isn’t, we ’re delighte d to learn, any signiﬁcant incompatibility: Windows 10 X may look di ﬀe rent b ut it should sti ll run th e apps yo u’re familiar with.

So can I get it?

No. You’ll have to wait a year for the Surfa ce Ne o to, er, surf ace, an d so f ar that’s the only machine we know of that’ll run W ind ows 10 X. It won’t b e somethin g you c an ins tall o n a lap top or desktop PC, though don’t be surprise d if Mi croso f t com es up w ith a new version f or the h ome by th en .. .

SPLIT SCREENS The Surface Ne o c o ns i st s o f t w o

side-by side 9-inch screens.

SMART KEYS The magnetic keyboard can be

moved to reveal Windows 10 X’s nifty Wonderbar.

MANY MODES The 360-degree hinge m eans you can

use the Neo like a laptop , l ike a tabl et, or lik e a book.

IMAGES: MICROSFOT

NEO CLASSICAL Microsoft reinvents the PC

Discover

Online privacy

December 2 01 9

Page 8

Download this…

www.facebook.com/windowsmag

www. twitter.com/wi ndowsmag

December

Fri

dd yy

NEXT UE ON SALE

asswords are a big issue for security. They’re the keys to your accounts, yes, but imagine that someone had

swiped a copy of your house key without you knowing: they’ d be able to get in whenever they liked until you wised up and changed the locks. If one of the services you use online has had some kind of password breach – perhaps their own security was not strong enough, or a hacker stumbled upon a master key – the problem could be even worse than that. Your credentials could be ﬂoating around any number of illicit communities, your house keys copied and handed out to every ne’er do well in the dark corners of the pub. But how would you know?

First of all, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your incoming emails. If any service you’ve used has been struck by a data breach, they’ll normally send a big apology and ask you to reset your password, which you should absolutely do. All being well, that aﬀected service will use this misstep as an opportunity to sure up its defences, and your new password will be better protected. You

can also try checking directly . The service Have I Been Pwned (https://haveibeenpwned.com), run by Microsoft regional director Troy Hunt, keeps its nose to the ground on major data breaches, and includes a way to search for the appearance of your email address in any of them. Google has recently started to oﬀer a similar service in the form of Password Checkup, which has been integrated into the Google Passwords service at passwords.google.com.

The last step is the most critical. Never reuse a password on more than one service. Do this, and a data breach on one would mean your account credentials could potentially let attackers into any of your other accounts. Google Passwo rd s can

help you generate super-secure passwords and remember them on your behalf, and there are stack of other services out there (LasPass, Dashlane, et al) which can do the same. If you’re oﬀered the option of using two-step authentication for any service, use it – that second layer of protection could also alert you to a loose password.

Has one of your passwords been comp rom ised ?

+HUH· V KRZ WR ÀQG RXW DQG KRZ WR VWRS WKH GDPDJH

((

ɃɃɃ

ʑʑʑ

ʢʢ

ʝʝȸȸȸ

ɏɏɡ

WWɪɪ

ɸɸ

ʘʘʘ

ʖQQ

ɒɒ

ɪɪ

EEE

ʝXXɢ

Which of these is

typically used by

a laser printer?

A Toner

B Ink C Paint

How many inkjet cartridges are used

worldwide per year?

A 11 million

B 101 million C 1.1 billion

According to Which?, what would a litre of

top brand printer ink cost?

A £123

% &

What temperature does a laser printer’s

fuser reach?

A 205ºC B 50ºC

C 425ºC

Which company made the first

commercial laser printer?

A Xerox

B Hewlett Packard C Canon

Which of these is not a printer

technology?

A Dot matrix

B Daisy wheel C Hammer action

3ʑQɡD ɢʃ ȱ ɏȾHDʏ ɨ\ʝʦ ɠʤ ʖ ȷ ɏVWʋUWɡQʝɦ

7+( 6( &ǖǕ 'ƹƾ,=

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

Password problems

Unchecky

unchecky.com

We all love free so f t w are, bu t we do n’t love sneaky software – if you’ve ever clicked through a n inst all er an d not p aid quite enoug h at tentio n whil e doi ng it , you’ll know how p ainf ul d ealin g with th e little ‘extras’ many packages tack on can be. Unchecky makes that process s o much easier: it k nows w he n you’re runnin g a soft wa re inst allation , it can sni ﬀ out thos e devious check boxes and, as it s name suggest s, it ca n unche ck the m on your behalf. No more unwanted software, no more bundled adware.

If an installer is dodgy, if it’s going to install that s of tware any way, but it ’s likely Unchecky already k now s abo ut it . Install som ethi ng susp ec t an d it ’ll ﬂ ash up a big warnin g so you k n ow ex ac tly what you’re get ting in to. Un che ck y has a minimal performance impact and updates it se lf, so it’s a ﬁre and forge t app.

STO P R IG H T T H E RE No unwanted software

will get past Unchecky’s watching eye.

| |

Dec ember 20 1 9

Page 9

Of the UK’s

mobile data

traffic was c ar r ied

on the 4G

network in 2018,

accordin g to

figures from

Ofcom. That ’s a

rise of 11% over

the previous year.

Was the peak number of viewers of the off icial

Fortnite Twitch channel as the popular

multiplayer game sat there doing nothing last

month. To cover server upgrades associated

with the end of its first ‘chapter’, the entire

game world was sucked into a black hole,

which stayed for nearly two days before

regurgitating a new level.

Is when the next big Windows 10

updat e will be avai la ble . Known as 19H2

as it has passed through the Insider

testi ng rings, the final name is the

Window s 10 Novem ber 201 9 Upda te.

Brace yourselves.

Is the shocki ng rise in tax-based phone

scams being reported to HMRC. There

were 60,000 such inci den ts in the six

months t o Ja nu ary 2019, over th ree ti mes

higher t han t he previ ous s ix mon ths

Of the high–profile partners in the Libra Association – the teams building Facebook’s putative digital currency – have quit the consortium. This includes big names such as PayP a l, eBay , Visa and Mastercard.

12.10.19

360%

85%

171, 000

29%

Of the global smar tphone

market is entirely China, where over 10 0 million handsets were sold in the third quarter of 2018 alone.

Discover

Facts & figures

December 2019

Here we reveal some mostly useless yet highly fascinating numerical facts...

Page 10

Incoming

All image credits: Microsoft

Hololens is dead . Lo ng li ve Ho l olens. A new headset, lighter, mo re powerful an d w ith a w i d e r ﬁ e ld of v iew than the o n e that failed to set the world on ﬁre three years ago, is now available to pre-order – as lon g as you’re a business.

The cheery images of families gathered round playing Minecraft, or other friendly mixed-reality pursuits, have fallen away to be replaced with a focus on engineers calmly ﬁx ing things w ith ho l o gr ap hic he lp, or shoppers using headse ts in-store to see how a new purchase will ﬁt in with their existing home fur nishings.

Also new is an Azure develop e r kit, underlining the link between the headset and the cloud rather than with an indivi dual W in d ows PC. Developers can license the te chno l ogy this time around rather than buying it outright, opening the do o r to custom headse ts tailored to speciﬁc industrial app licatio ns an d ap ps to support them.

$3,500 microsoft.com

The hottest new Windows hardware on the horizon

| |

December 2019

Page 11

Page 12

Page 13

Whatever you want to do, get the software to do it, and pay absolutely nothing for it. By Alex Cox

ree, that’s the magic number. At least, it is when it comes to PC

software. Why break the bank populating your PC with applications when enterprising individuals and organisations have created a ra ft of softwa re th at do e s the job adequately for not a single pound down?

Now, we’re well aware that there are several di fferent categories o f free so ftware. There’s the stuff that comes from the open-source community, which is usually a little rough around the edges owing to its many-cooks approach to development. But open-source software has its own advantages: sometimes it’s home to experimental features that those

in the commercial market might hold back on; or perhaps it’s designed for a niche that commercial developers can’t

SURÀWIURP7KHUH·VDOVRWKDW

guarantee that your software is going to stay free – while it might take an age to update and basically come with no warranty, open-source software suddenly attempting to dig around in your wallet is a rare occurrence.

The other side of the coin is “free” so ftware, in qu otat io n marks. There’s a swathe of it in this list, but we’ve done our best to dodge anything too feature-light. Essentially, as has been the case for decades, software publishers will often offer a taste of the goods in an effort to get y ou hook ed enough

to buy the real thing. Often, that taste is adequate on its own. And sometimes, it’ s no t really a taste for you as much as it is for the business market, where expensive perseat licences can be a real money-spinner. You can hav e the software for free if for personal use, but these g uys LQWKHLURIÀFHneed to pa y.

Whatever the reason for a package being free (or “free”), we’ve tried to avoid picking out any time-limited trials or painfully poor options in this collection. There are 50 options for 50 distinct jobs – and 50 alternate suggestions, if our top pick doesn’t give you exactly what you need. It is entirely possible to populate a PC with completely free apps.

December 2019

Wind ows 1 0

Ess ent ia l free ap ps

Page 14

PHOTO EDITING

POLARR

http:// polarr .co

Polarr has crept up on us over the past few years, but since it made the jump from mobile to PC app, it’s proved to be one of the coolest and most capable photo-tweaking tools available, paid or not.

Alternately: Adobe Photoshop Express

IMAGE EDITING

GIMP

http:// gimp.org

Stupid name aside, we’ve known for about a decade that Gimp’s Photoshop-esque toolset and

ODXQGU\ OLVW RI ÀOWHUV PDNH LW DQ

essential desktop tool. Save often,

EHFDXVH LW FDQ GHFLGH WR EH ÁDN\

at a moment’s notice.

Alternately: Pixlr

DIGIT AL PAINTI NG

KRITA

http://krita.org

Best enjoyed with a pressuresensitive tablet, but viable for anyone who wants to create art with a mouse, Krita is an surprisingly accomplished paintbox as perfectly suited to

illustrators as it is to any budding Bob Ross.

Alternately: MyPaint

VECTOR ART

INKSCAPE

http://inkscape.org

Inkscape can create scalable vector graphics and tweak text to your heart’s content, making it perfect for logos and such. Inkscape is analogous to Adobe Illustrator (although a whole lot more free), and is also fully SVG compliant.

Alternately: Gravit Designer

MUSIC MAKING

CAKEWALK

http://bandlab.com

Originally a DOS sequencer launched in 1987 and coming to Windows in 1991, Cakewalk recently came under new ownership and is back from the dead – those new owners decided the app was best given to the world for free. Pro-level recording, all the tools you need to mix and master tracks, not to mention a host of software instruments and effects.

Alternately: Ardour

C REATIVITY

TRY LINUX WITHOUT HAVING TO INSTALL IT

Yes, this is Windows Help and Advice maga zine, but one of the mos t beautif ul things about Linux , be sides its inherent freeness, is that people are able to package i t up with all k inds of also-free software, and send the wh ole thing ou t in one big bundl e.

Given that it ’s (usually) possibl e to run a Linu x installa tion in Live form (that is, w ithout installin g it and makin g a mess of your W indows installations), this can be a good way to keep those rarely used utility package s at hand , or get your hands on a w hole bunch of sof t ware all at once. So, pick up s ome USB sticks , get the se apps installed, an d be ready for anything.

FOR PRIVACY

TAILS

http://tails.boum.or g

When you’re get ting a ll clandestin e, turn to Tails. It automaticall y route s ever y thing thro ugh the To r ne two rk, k ee pi ng your online ac tivit y pr ivate, and includes a b unch of cry ptographic to ols to ensure all of your dat a is as diff icult to inter cept as possible. It’s also handy if you want to scrub something of f a dr ive without dire ctl y using it .

Alternately: Whonix

FOR DRIVE MANAGEMENT

GPARTED LIVE

http://gparted .org

For messin g with drive partitions or at tempting to fix partition t able e rror s , GParte d is a pret t y

essential app – and it s Linux distr o incarn ation keeps things ver y simp le, packagin g it with a fe w ver y straight for war d but power ful f ile manipulati on tools and lit tle e lse. Pe r fec t

single-serving distro fare.

Alternately: Clonezilla Live

FOR YOUR MEDIA CENT ER

OSMC

http://osmc.tv

An unof ficial m eshing

Live ima g es l i ke G Pa r t e d g ive yo u o p t io n s wh e n yo u l oa d , an d yo u c a n even install them alongside Windows if you’re brave.

Polarr’s ﬁlters give any image a professional touch in seconds.

| |

December 2019

Page 15

skeletally animating a collection of

ELWPDSV 6\QÀJ JLYHV \RX WKH

necessary tools. It’s adept enough to produce some professional results – although the quality of your work is down to you…

Alternately: OpenToonz

MEDIA

together of the D ebian

Linux distribution,

noted media center app

Kodi, and some cus tom

tweak s to ma ke its

interfa ce as usabl e and

simple as possible, OSMC

is a great distr o for that

living room P C – or wh en you want to let som eone watch some films on your PC withou t ac tually giving them f ull acces s to your file s.

Alternately: LibreELEC

For se cur it y t est ing

KALI LINUX

http://kali.org

How tough are your computer s? How bad-guyproof is your n et work? Find out with Ka li Linux , which carr ies a hug e

package of tool s to help the whi te ha t ha cker f ind vulnerabilit ies in sys tems . You’ll ne ed to make sure you use the to ols properl y to avoid a worr y ing knock on the door, b ut there’s none bet ter for testing security.

Alternately: BackBox

FOR CREATIVITY

UBUNTU STUDIO

http://ubuntustudio.org

Whether you’re producing video or audio, Ubuntu Studio is bursting with tools. Its ef f ec tiven ess will, given L inux’s u sual awkwar dness , depe nd on the precis e hardwar e you have insta lled, b ut it ’s free . Worth trying before investing in ex pen sive pro production packages.

Alternately: AV Linux

Just because you can make vector images in Inkscape doesn’tmean you should.

WRITING

FOCUSWRITER

http://gottcode.org/focuswriter

A beautiful, serene background

image. The clickety-clack of a

typewriter accompanying your

keystrokes. You, your words, and

no ugly distractions. If there’s

something you need to get written,

you should forget big clumsy

RIÀFH DSSV .HHS LW VLPSOH

Alternately: Typora

GAME CREATION

GODOT

http:// godotengine.org

While there are plenty of game

engine options out there, they’re

often pretty demanding when it

comes to eventual royalties; Godot

is completely free and rapidly

maturing, with Vulkan support on

the way, and a huge swathe of

documentation to get you started.

Alternately: Amazon Lumberyard

3D MODELING

BLENDER

http://blender.org

Blender recently ditched its game

engine portion in order to focus on

the features it really excels at: every

step of the 3D pipeline. So, whether

you’re creating, sculpting,

rendering, or animating, there’s a

tool here to help – and 17 years of

maturity to back them up.

Alternately: 3D Crafter

DTP

SCRIBUS

http://scribus.net

There is no sense in trying to lay out complex documents in Microsoft Word, given its propensity to tear a hole in space-time whenever you slightly resize a text box. Scribus is a much more sensible option for desktop publishing, with a powerful text engine and strong image options.

Alternately: Lucidpress

ANIMATION

SYNFIG

http://V\QÀJRUJ

Whether your 2D animation needs consist of tweening vectors or

MOVIES

VLC

http://videolan.org

Other apps periodically vie for the crown, but we’ve never found another free player compatible with so many codecs and ready to cope with so many potential rendering glitches. Dig under the surface, and VLC can do a whole lot more – it’s great for latching on to streaming services, too.

Alternately: MPC-HC

AUDIO

MUSICBEE

http://getmusicbee.com

Yes, iTunes is free. Yes, you can use iTunes if you like. But if you care about your system resources and want to organise your entire music library away from Apple’s sticky grasp, MusicBee is a great (and skinnable) choice.

Alternately: Winamp

Fancy a v irtual au d i o ra c k? Ub un t u St u di o c an p r ov id e j us t t h at .

Wind ows 1 0

Ess ent ia l free ap ps

December 2019

Page 16

Fill your PC with software or take advantage of o nline tools? It’s a tough one. In certain circumst ances, this isn’t an option – we don’t know, for example, of an online tool that can h elp repartition your hard drive – but moving your wo rk online does have a long list of advantages. Your ﬁles will theoretically always b e where you left them. There’s no need to manually update a piece of online software to keep it in line with the latest developments. And your local machine stays uncluttered and unslowed by the overheads of installed soft wa re. We might have presented a list of 50

DO IT ONLINE

programs, bu t we don’t expec t yo u to be ma d eno ugh to install them all.

There’s an ever- growing string of online tools turning up. For the oﬃce, Google’s Docs suite (http://docs.google.com) has matured to a surprising level of competence, and Microsoft’s own Oﬃce Online (http://oﬃce.com) oﬀers up a decent cut-down version of its desk top oﬃ ce tools, an d integrates nicely with OneDrive. Want to edit photos? Photopea (http://photopea.com) is a Photoshop-esque image editor that, in some c ases , even manages to do more than the soft w are it ’s

emulating – we even recommend it over G IMP, given that Photopea d oesn’t include ‘randomly crashing’ among its list of hobbies.

Many of the desktop tools that made our list also have an online component, and in some cases it’s prefe rable over its installe d counter part. LastPass is best managed online, TeamViewer works

great through its Chro me plugin, Sp otif y’s web interface is a little strong er than its deskto p versio n, and you can employ the s er vices of http://userstyles.org to mess with the CSS and customise it to your liki ng.

If you don’t want to install something, check o ut it s website and look for an online component.

LIBRARY MANAGEMENT

PLEX

plex.tv

For a large vid eo coll ec tion , a large audio co llec tio n, or e ven a huge photo library, keeping ever y thing e asily a cces sible is vital . Luck ily, Plex can d eal with streamin g all your m edia , and makes get ting to i t fro m outside yo ur net w ork an absolute breeze.

Alternately: Kodi

TRANSCODING

HANDBRAKE

handbrake.fr

HandBrake is a miser ably u gly program . It ’s not eas y to get star te d with . But on ce you’ve done the work , it ’s just abo ut the most powe r f ul vid eo conversion to ol the re is – perfect for transcoding individual f iles , or e ven larg e batches of them, into the format you need.

Alternately: Freemake Video Converter

VIDEO EDITING

SHOTCUT

shotcut.org

Shotcut has been carving out its own niche in the video-editing world, and w hile it ’s still catching up to the big b oys , it’s also entirely free – no surprises, no restrictions. Unless you lo ok on th e Microsoft Store, where it’s inexplicably paid-for. Don’t do that.

Alternately: OpenShot

VIDEO GRADING

DAVINCI RESOLVE

blackmagicdesign.com

You can just as easily us e Resolve fo r editin g, b ut gradin g and post-production effe ct s are its re al str ength . It ’s a professional tool that’s seen use in numerous Hollywood produc tions , and the f re e version is perfec t for color correc tion , too.

Alter nat el y: C olo r Fixe r Pr o

AUDIO EDITING

AUDACITY

audacityteam.org

Audacit y almos t annoys us : We’re absolutely desp erate to recommend something differ ent in this sl ot, b ut ther e’s still nothing el se that c an hold a candle to it for audio cutting or tweak ing. It ’s a tool that ever yone sh ould have in st alle d at all times.

Alternately: Ocenaudio

PODCASTS

GROVER

Via Windows Store

Style d to loo k a lit tle like Groove Music (if you remember that, we bet yo u had a Zun e too), Grover is a good way to manage po dc as ts if yo u’re still doing it on your de sk top. It ’s probably b et ter th an doing it through iTunes, at lea st .

Alternately: Juice

AUDIO STREAMING

SPOTIFY

spotify.com

You are spoiled for choice in the streaming mar ket, b ut (despite its oppressive ads) Spotif y ’s massive libr ar y and straightfor ward interface still makes it our to p choice – though the fr ee tie r force s you to listen to yo ur playli st s on shuff le sn d limits yo ur skipping of track s .

Alternately: Deezer

VLC includes tons of controls to alter video playback, whatever the source.

Photo p e a is a s c ap a b le o f r ui n in g yo u r p ic s a s a ny ot h e r ap p .

| |

December 2019

Page 17

OFFICE

LIBREOFFICE

OLEUHRIÀFHRUJ

Pret t y m uch a free equivalent to Microsoft Of fice, and compatible with the same file formats, LibreOff ice is a non-paid essential. It even does m ore: There’s a f ull database and a comple x formula editor included.

Alternately: Apache OpenOffice

PDF VIEWER

FOXIT READER

foxitsoftware.com

Foxit’s big selling p oints are its connec te d featur es , which tell you w he n a PDF has b ee n scribbled on or tweaked, but we’re b ack ing i t fo r it s ability to open PDFs quickly without eating all of our s yst em resour ces . Th at ’s not a big ask .

Alternately: Adobe Reader

EM CLIENT

emclient.com

While many of us manage our mail on the web thes e day s, eM Client’s free ti er allow s yo u to take desk top contr ol of two accounts . It ’s fully compatibl e with the more comp lex features of Outlook an d Gmail accounts, and super- eas y to us e.

Alternately: Thunderbird

SOCIAL

HOOTSUITE

hootsuite.com

Dig through the p ricey corporate options and find Hoot suite’s thre e-acco unt free plan: You can sch edule posts, manage multiple social ser vice s, an d se e your searches in their own live- updatin g columns. It ’s social me dia t aken to the nex t leve l.

Alternately: TweetDeck

COMMUNICATING

FRANZ

meetfranz.com

It’s tough being co nnec te d. There’s the family What s App, the work Slack , the gaming Discord, th at one guy who won’t stop using ICQ for some reason. No problem: Mash them all together usin g Franz . You can even take your combin ed account bet we en comp uter s .

Alternately: Pidgin

TO-DO

MICROSOFT TO-DO

Via Windows Store

Microsof t ’s app is a supe rb way to list all of the things you’re procrastinatin g on, the things you haven’t quite don e ye t, and the things you won’t do in a million years . If you try really hard, maybe, just maybe, you’ll b e able to check one off.

Alternately: Wunderlist

VPN

PROTONVPN

protonvpn.com

VPNs are essential. Problem is, the free V PN mar ket i s hampered by bandwidth restrictions. Not so with ProtonVPN – you c an use its free version as much a s yo u like; the annoyance is transfe rre d to a spee d limit instead.

Alternately: Hotsp ot Shield

REMOTE DESKTOP

TEAMVIEWER

teamviewer.com

How of ten have you tri ed to diagnose a technical problem over the phone and ended up bashing yo ur h ead on your key bo ard? N o mo re. TeamV ie wer i s ea s y to set up, super-se cure , an d c an gi ve you direc t access to your desktop (or an el derly relative’s) via a browser.

Alternately: TightVNC

NOTES

NOTEPA D++

notepad-plus-plus.org

There’s a who le l ot of co ntextual format ting in Notepad++ ( it is , after all, made for sketching code in all manner of languages), but it’s just as much a s traight forward and capable alternative to Microsoft ’s Notepa d. A nd that’s a go od thin g.

Alternately: Atom

PLANNING

TRELLO

trello.com

Got a bi g pr oje ct coming up? Put it on virtual notecard s, pin it up on a v ir tual board, an d spread th ose tasks out bet we en ever yon e you’ve roped in to help. Hop ef ully, they ’ll a c tuall y chip in, rath er than just bein g virtually present.

Alternately: Evernote

There’s no music and podcast library quite as big or convenient as Spotify’s.

Tea mV iewer’s cross-platform abilities mean you can u s e it to control any other computer, even Macs.

ORGANISA TION

THE RENAMER

therenamer . c om

You’ve got lots of file s. V ide os , music, all from legitimate sources – bu t ther e’s no consisten c y in naming or storage. Sort them out without the e f fort using The Renamer, which does exactly what you think it doe s.

Alternately: Bulk Rename Ut ili t y

WORKING

Wind ows 1 0

Ess ent ia l free ap ps

December 2019

Page 18

UNDELETING

RECUVA

ccleaner.com/recuva

No guarantees, but if there’s a ÀOH that’s gone to the big data graveyard in the sky, you may be able to convince it back to life with Recuva. Generally, deleting only removes the

UHIHUHQFHWRWKHÀOHQRWWKH ÀOH LWVHOI5HFXYDÀQGVZKDW·V

left behind.

Alter na te ly : Un de le te 36 0

DISK RESCUE

TESTDISK

cgsecurity.org

Whole drive letting you down? Mechanical disk giving you the click of death? T estDisk can ignore all the usual safeguards and ÀOHV\VWHPVLQRUGHUWR wade through the raw data, sector by sector, giving you one last chance to rescue

\RXUÀOHV

Alternately: Paragon Rescue K it

DESTRUCTION

ERASER

eraser.heid i.ie

As Recuva and T estDisk prove, deleting something won’t k eep it from the determined data sniffer. Eraser is the equivalent of a cross -c ut s hredder, securely

RYHUZULWLQJÀOHVRUDQHQWLUH

drive) with your choice of destruction standard.

Alternately: BleachBit

MOVEMENT

TERACOPY

codesector.com

Windows’ copying procedures can leave a lot to be desired; if

\RX·UHVKXIÁLQJÀOHVIURPSODFH

to place, TeraCopy (which uses advanced buffering techni ques) can do the job a lot faster and much more rel ia bly.

Alternately: Ultracopier

MANAGEMENT

MUL TI COMMANDER

multicommander .c om

Whether you come from t he era when it was popular or not, the Norton Commanderstyle WZRSDQHÀOHPDQDJHPHQW of Multi Commander is a natural and KLJKO\HIÀFLHQWZD\WR rename, view, copy and move ÀOHV and folders from one place to the other.

Alternately: FreeCommander

ARCHIVING

7-ZIP

7-zip.org

Do away with that 2,000-day expired shareware version of WinRar: 7-Zip supports way more than just .7z archives, and it’s free. Whether co mpress i ng or GHFRPSUHVVLQJÀOHVLW·VDQ essential component of any good Windows i nsta l l.

Alternately: IZArc

PREVIEWING

XNVIEW MP

xnview.com

XnView MP is a great way to preview images, taking you bey ond the ‘extra large icons’ school of picture glimpsing to a quickly browsable and logical graphical interface – you can use it for batch processing or conversion, too.

Alternately: IrfanView

EXPLORING

TABLACUS

tablacus.github.io

Quite why Windows Explorer doesn’t have tabs in 2019 we don’t know, but Tablacus solves that

SUREOHP,W·VDÀOHPDQDJHUWKDW

yes, includes tabs. It also lets you tile folders in panes, and disable any components you don’t need.

Alternately: XYplorer

CLOUD STORAGE

ONEDRIVE

onedrive.com

The integration of Micrsoft’s cloud platform with Windows makes it a top choice merely for ease of use – there’s basically nothing to set up. It may not have the largest capacity, but where o ther integrations falter, OneDrive will be standing tall.

Alternately: Mega

UNINSTALLING

IOBIT UNINSTALLER

iobit.com

Oh, sure, Windows can uninstall software. But how thorough is it? Does it hunt through your drive to ÀQGHYHU\DVVRFLDWHGÀOH"'RHV it fully scrape that space clean? IObit’s neat program ensures that removed apps are actually removed the right way.

Alternately: Geek Uninstaller

BACKUP

COBIAN BACKUP

cobiansoft.com

Cobian Backup is one of the most capable free backup pac kages there

LV6HQG\RXUÀOHVRIIWRDQH[WHUQDO

drive, send them to a network location, send them to an FTP server: whatever works.

Alternately: EaseUS To do B ackup

PASSWORD MANA GEMENT

LASTPASS

lastpass.com

There are plenty of solutions for managing your precious passwords, but LastPass wins points for the generosity of its free offering – there are a few desirable features as part of its paid offering, but nothing essential.

Alternately: Dashlane

SYSTEM CLEAN-UP

CCLEANER

ccleaner.com

CCleaner does all those long, laborious clean-up tasks in one place. You can either run a selective

Eraser is like putting your hard drive through a shredder, except it still works afterwards.

FILES

SECURITY

| |

December 2019

Page 19

NETWORK MONITORING

AXE N CE NETTOOLS

axence.net

A full suite of 10 network tools, from monitoring to scanning to tracing routes. There’s even a little cheeky internal Windows tomfoolery, all spun off from Axence’s pro-level IT management suite.

Alternately: PRTG Net work Monitor

NETWORK TROUBLESHOOTING

WIRESHARK

wireshark.org

A bit heavyweight, but Wireshark does its job so well that we have to recommend it. If you want to know what’s going on with your network and why a function won’t play ball, it’s the most accomplished protocol analyser around.

Alternately: Colasoft Capsa

FIREWALL

TINYWALL

tinywall.pados.hu

Don’t rely on your router, or even Windows, to do the job of batting back misbehaving packets, or stopping snoopers from probing your ports. TinyWall is superlightweight and makes for a useful additional line of defence.

Alternately: ZoneAlarm Free

The Tor br ow se r has a bad reputation but its privacy strength is unmatched.

scrubbing job, or set up a batch job to deal with everything at once. Just be wary of the pop-ups.

Alternately: Advanced System Optimizer

ANTIVIRUS

BITDEFENDER FREE EDITION

bitdefender.c om

Many free antivirus packages are not worth the drive space they’re written on. Bitdefender is: It’s not too heavy on the hassle, includes a quality AV engine with frequent updates, and a slick interface.

Alternately: Windows Defender

POST-INFECTION

SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY

safer-networking.org

Install pre-emptively: If you suspect something untoward is on your system, Spybot is likely to be able to hunt it down and exterminate it.

Alternately: Malwarebytes

ENCRYPTION

BOXCRYPTOR

boxcryptor.com

Do you trust your cloud storage provider? Enough to store your

PRVW SHUVRQDO ÀOHV RQOLQH ZLWKRXW

obfuscation? Probably not. But with Boxcryptor, you can construct an

encrypted storage area – and if the provider encrypts, it’s double safe. Alternately: VeraCrypt

INTERNET PRIVACY

TOR BROWSER

torproject.org

RRXWLQJ \RXU ,QWHUQHW WUDIÀF YLD 7RU

PDNHV \RX YHU\ GLIÀFXOW WR WUDFN

and helps you resist online

ÀQJHUSULQWLQJ 7KH 7RU EURZVHU

makes doing so incredibly easy.

Alternately: Iridium Browser

Windows is still worth the cash compared to open source operating systems.

Hear us out as we use this box in an ar ticle about free apps to tell you not to us e them: some times it just pays to pay.

There are times when a fre e p ackage can’t do the exac t thing you want – for example, if you ’re interacting with a busine ss with ver y precise standards, a docume nt that LibreO f fice produces might have subtle differences that make it look terrible on that f irm’s Microsof t Office-packing machines.

An open-source package comes with no guarantees, no suppo rt and no comeback if every thing goes wrong. It might have a forum full of e nthusiastic amateurs and some off icial looking documentation, but it doesn’t have any

DON’T CHEAP OUT

guarantee of professionalism. If it’s mission critical, don’t re ly on free sof tware.

Often, free apps either lack critical features (many exist simply to tease a paid upgrade) or can’t keep up with the quality of the ir paid-for alternatives. For instance, whil e we’ve recommended ShotCut as a free vide o e ditor, it is nowhere near as complex or well built as so mething like Adobe Premiere. Even Cakewalk, our pick for free audio recording and editing and a formerly paid-for app, isn’t the best choice in its sector because it ’s a lit tle behind the cur ve.

Then there are the niche apps for which the re is no free alternati ve. While there is no harm in experimenting

with Linux , it is n ot, for most, a produc tion OS. In comparison, Windows 10 is rock soli d, compatib le w ith just abo ut ever y thing, has a huge sof t ware library, and

despite the fac t that you can run it in unac tivated mode, you really should pay for the licence, or at leas t at tempt to transfer an ol d W in 7 licence up th e chain.

Wind ows 1 0

Ess ent ia l free ap ps

December 2019

Page 20

JUI

P OWER

The Juice®Power

Station’s battery can

charge your iPhone 6

ɖȵژɎȒɀǣɴɎǣȅƺɀǔȸȒȅȒȇƺ

single charge!

The Juice

Power Station

ƬƏȇɀǣȅɖǼɎƏȇƺȒɖɀǼɵ

charge devices, and hold

ƬǝƏȸǕƺǔȒȸɖȵɎȒɀǣɴ

ȅȒȇɎǝɀِ

Along with the Juice

Power Station, y ou get a

ƬƏȸȸɵȵȒɖƬǝƏȇƳژxǣƬȸȒٮ

È³ ɎȒÈ³ ƬƏƫǼƺِ

The pe rfect g ift

for j u st £24.99

WORTH

£29.9 9

Page 21

or call 0344 848 2852

ww .myfavour it gazines. . k/wom/xmas192

نÁƺȸȅɀƏȇƳƬȒȇƳǣɎǣȒȇɀيSavings calculated against the full RRP (single issue price x frequency). Gif t is only available for new UK subscribers and is subject to availability. Please allow up to 60 days for the delivery of your gif t. In the event of stocks being exhausted, we reser ve the right to replace with items of similar value. You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Payment in non-refundable after the 14-day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. Your statutory rights are not affected. All gift subscriptions will start in January 2020. Prices correct at point of print and subject to change. Full details of the Direct Debit guarantee are available upon request. For full terms and conditions, please visit bit.ly/magtandc. Of fer ends 31st December 2019.

Your special

! ǝ ȸǣɀɎȅ Ə ɀ Ȓǔǔƺȸ

Free Juice®¨Ȓɯ ƺȸ ³ɎƏɎǣȒȇ ɯȒȸɎǝ گאחِחח

0ȇǴȒ ɵ׏אȅȒȇɎǝɀȒǔáǣ ȇƳȒ ɯɀRƺǼȵۭ

ƳɮǣƬƺȅƏ ǕƏɿǣ ȇƺǔȒȸǴɖɀɎگגחِחח٫ɎǝƏɎټ ɀ

only £4 per issue!

Receiv e ev ery issue deliv er ed

direct to your door

ɎǝȒɖǕǝɎǔɖ ǼǕǣǔɎɎǝƏɎǸ ƺƺȵɀ

delivering throughout the year

Instant access any Ɏǣȅƺً Əȇɵɯǝƺȸƺ

zƺɮ ƺȸ ȅǣɀɀ Əȇ ǣɀɀɖƺ Ȓǔ áǣ ȇƳȒ ɯɀ Rƺ Ǽ ȵ ۭ ƳɮǣƬƺ

Available on

 iOS or Andr oid

Upgrade to include digital

ǔȒ ȸȒ ȇǼɵگד

Su bscribe a nd rece ve

UK subscription offer

Page 22

http://bit.ly/sub-maxpc

Print or Digital subscriptions available!

Delivery of MAXIMUM PC,

in your choice of Apple Newsstand, Google Play, or Zinio

Search for MAXIMUM PC

d i ’

on your device’s app store to download now

MAXI MU M PC AT ITS BEST

ANYTIME, ANYWHERE!

Page 23

WINDOWS TIPS INTERNET ADVICE EXCI T I N G N EW P ROJ E C T S

Our promise to you…

Get more from Windows, software and all your favourite sites

Packed with informative tutorials

Every issue, we guarantee to pack the

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

Customise Windows to work your way

We all know how to do the basics but

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

Get more from your favourite websites

We all have our list of favourite sites but often we miss out on great features

EHFDXVH WKH\·UH GLIÀFXOW WR XVH RU KLGGHQ IURP

sight. We’ll show you how to do more online, for a more satisfying web life.

Discover new programs with our help

From speed-up and security software

to superb photo apps, there’s always something new to try on your PC. The Windows Store in Windows 10 and Windows

8.1 is packed with software to download.

Welcome

Every month in Explore you’ll discover some great ways to do

more with your PC, whether it’s mastering the basics, or getting productive with all kinds of apps.

This month, you’ll learn how to use the new Dropbox app to sync files between your PC and the cloud (p24); meet the new Luminar 4 photo editor (p27); use Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant on your PC (p30); manage lists with Microsoft To Do (p32), and download YouTube videos (p38). There are plenty of other clever tips and tricks too, making time spent with Windows a breeze. Have fun!

Ian Ev enden

Editor

[email protected]

7 ʦʢɚ Wɛ SDȰɏ  Wɛʓ ʖQ ɍʝXɢP ʝȾɏ

)ʅɸɗ ʙLVʤʖQɒ

December 2 01 9

24 Dropbox has a new app, and it’ s

perfect for file synchronisation

27 Luminar 4 is the latest image-

editing ap p from Skylum. We pu t its AI tools through thei r paces

30 Bring Amazon’s Alexa to

Windows 1 0 and ga in vo ice co ntrol

32 Use Microsoft T o Do to crea te

and manage multi ple checkl ists

36 Meet Microsoft PowerT oys,

where play meets usefulness

38 Download videos from YouTube

the easy way , a nd for free

< ʝʦɠʔʦLȫɏ

'ʋɚ*U ɪ ɬKʋəVʋ\ ɡ

“ A lexa on Windows is a con v e nie n t wa y t o c om ma nd your de vic e s and s ma rt home”

Page 24

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Use Dropbox in Windows 10

“Dive int o one of the most

SRZHUIXOÀOHPDQ DJHPHQ WWRR OV DYDL O DEO H RQ :LQGRZV  µ

ropbox is an app that, at its heart, sy nchronis es a fo ld er

on your PC with other computers – the same ﬁles are available everywhere. You can also access them via the web o n any device, although the ﬁles aren’t stored on your device unless you choose to download them. In many ways, it works very similarly to Microsof t’s OneDrive.

Dropbox isn’t really meant as a cold storage system – its p lans fo r l ots of storage are rather expensive, and it’s recently been targe ting b usiness users over consumers. But for managing the stuﬀ you’re working on right now, it’s unparalleled. We often work across multiple devices and use it as the main place to store our ﬁles instead of Documents. What’s more, you can share ﬁles with other peop l e, and easily ﬁnd things, too.

Dropbox is free for 2GB of s tor ag e – beyond that you will need to pay.

Download the app

Firstly, go to dropbox.com to download and install the desktop app. There is also an app in the Windows Store, but it’s more like the mobile version of the app and doesn’t do the file synchronisation we want to show here. You may be prompted to buy a Dropbox plan (above) but you don’t need to do that. You also don’t need to set up an account until the next stage.

Sign into th e app

You will need to sign into the app to ‘link’ it to a Dropbox account. Don’t have a Dropbox account? Then you can sign up at the bottom of this window. You can also use Google to sign into the app should you have an existing Google account. Creating a Dropbox account is a really simple process and the app won’t ask you for extra details it doesn’t really need.

Step-by -step (YHU\WKLQJ\RXQHHGWRNQRZD ERXW'URSER [IRU:L QGRZV

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ'ʋ ɚ*Uɪɬ Kʋ əVʋ\ɡ

THE WEB INTERFACE

The web interf ace replicates features you get in the desktop and Windows Store apps.

FILE MENU

Here we’ve opened the menu on one particular ﬁle so you can see the various ﬁle management options available.

Anyone can do it

Straightforward

T ri cky in parts

Windows 10

Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

6NLOOOHYHO«

6XLWDEOHIRU «

| |

December 2019

Page 25

Selective folders

You can either choose to sync everything to your computer from your Dropbox or use what’s called Selective sync. With this you choose which Dropbox folders to synchronise with this particular PC. With new Dropboxes this won’t be a problem, but we’re demonstrating this with a (nearly full!) Dropbox to show you how everything works as it wouldn’t be much good if we had no

Share screenshots

When you start up Dropbox for the first time you’ll get this prompt. It asks if you want Dropbox to manage screenshots is you take them – this can be useful as they’ll pop into a Screenshots folder in your Dropbox and sync right away. Similarly you can ask Dropbox to instantly take photos from cameras you plug into Windows and it’ll prompt you about that when you plug one in.

-DUJRQ EXVWHU

Cloud sto r a g e

Online storage systems such as Dropbox or OneDrive are often referred to as ‘cloud storage’ – cloud services are any services online.

Dropbox plan

Dropbox oﬀers several diﬀerent plans for consumers and businesses. The basic one is free, bu t if you want more than 2GB of storage, you will need to pay. It can quickly get expensive, so it’s best for the ﬁles you need currently rathe r than long-term.

Synchronisation

This is what Drop box does between multiple computers – if a ﬁle is edited on one PC, it ’ll app ear on the other in seconds – providing that computer is connec ted to th e internet, of course!

FILE LISTING

The main part of this screen shows the ﬁles in our Dropbox. We can previ ew, delete or rename them from here.

FOLDER OPTIONS

You can create a folder or upload ﬁles should you wish to do things that way instead of synchronising them.

Dropbox’s search is fast. You can ﬁnd things quickly and it can often b e mo re rapid than searching within Windows.

SHARE YOUR FILE

Sharing is also a key tenet of Dropbox . You just need an email address so you can send ﬁles or folders to others.

ƧǄ16%Ǌ67ƼǏ3 3Hʝɿȵɏ\ʝɤȿʑQɍʓɵȵHɡWɛXʣʖQɒ 'UʝɿEʝɧGʝɚɢȸȭHɍWɛȩɏ 'UʝɿEʝɧXȿʑUɡWɛDFȪHVɡ ʋQɍGʝʨɻORDɍʃȱʑə

Exp l o re

Windo ws 1 0 Dr opbo x ap p

December 2019

Page 26

Search for anything

At the top of the app menu is a search bar. As well as names and icons, Dropbox will also show you other file information, such as size and when it was last edited. You can also see where in your Dropbox the file is stored – you might have a January.xlsx in a 2019 folder, but also one in 2018 and 2017, too. The ‘link’ icon gets you a link to the selected file directly from this window.

The app menu

Finally we see the Dropbox app! It sits in your notifications area looking like it’s doing nothing. In fact, it’s keeping an eye on your files and making sure they synchronise. Clicking on the Dropbox icon brings up this menu – it shows you all the recently edited and synchronised files and when they were modified. This menu will also show you any notifications you need.

The Dropbox folder

This is the key window of Dropbox – the local (on your PC) folder that shows everything that’s currently in your Dropbox. As you can see, Dropbox overlays icons – these blue spinning icons indicate synchronisation taking place. A green tick means that file has been synchronised. Dropbox updates in real time, so if a file is edited somewhere else, the change will be reflected right away.

Managing files

There are stacks of other file management options in the main Dropbox menu. Select a recently uploaded bunch of files and you can unfurl the bundle to see each one individually. You can share it, get a link, star it for easy retrieval or open the file. What’s more, you can open it in specific apps – so if you want to send an image to Photoshop, you can do that from here. Q

For you

The For You menu here looks a little blank, but it’ll populate with tailored access to files you use often. Here it’s showing our Current Work folder which is one of our most-used folders. Note that synchronisation is taking place here – you can see progress at the very bottom of the window where Dropbox will tell you how many files there are left to process.

Sharing files

You can share files from just about anywhere in Dropbox – here’s how to share in Windows. Right-click a file and go to Share alongside the Dropbox icon. You’ll then see this rather plain window which enables you to write a message and say where the file is going – add an email address. You can also share by copying a Dropbox link that you can send in other ways, like in a text.

| |

December 2019

Page 27

Opening an image

There are two ways of getting your images into Luminar. The first is to point the application at existing folders full of image files and allow it to build a catalogue. This way, you get to scroll through your collection, and edit those that stand out to you. The other is to open a single image in Quick Edit mode, which replaces the catalogue on the left with the lone file you’ve chosen.

Looks

Luminar’s Looks are its one-shot filters. They live at the bottom of the interface, and cover everything from simple image enhancement to B&W conversion to super sharpness or a soft, airy blur. To use one, just click on it. There will be a short period of processing, then the altered image will snap in. The before and after view makes seeing exactly what has changed easy.

AI Image Enhancer

One of our favourite Looks is the AI Image Enhancer, the first in the Essentials grouping. It analyses the image and improves contrast, sharpness and exposure. As with all Looks, there’s a slider on the thumbnail that’s generated along the bottom of the interface that allows you to tone down the effect if it’s too strong.

Layers

If you change the Look, you completely overwrite the previous one. To build up an edit from Looks, you need to put each one on a layer. Click the Layers button at the top right, and add a new Adjustment Layer using the ‘+’ button. On this new layer, you can add a new Look, and blend it with the layer beneath using the opacity slider and drop-down menu of blend modes.

Edit photos in Luminar 4

“As it gears up for the release of a major new v ersion, here’ s the basics on Skylum’s latest clev er image-ed it i ng app”

uminar is one of those apps that deserves to be better known.

Luminar 4, which will be release d on November 18th, improves on previous versions with new features, including some clever ‘AI’ tools. There’s also a full house of one-shot ‘ Lo o ks’ to transform

your images quickly, along with a layerand-mask-based editing suite to really get the best out of a photograph . The app works on just about any image you import into it, including JPEGS and raw ﬁles.

A free trial of Luminar can be obtaine d

from http://skylum.com/luminar (drop

down the Luminar menu at the top) where you’ll also ﬁnd a full beginner’s guide. We produced this tutorial using a pre -release version of Luminar 4, and while the basic functionality will be the same, some interface features may look diﬀerent on the ﬁnal public release version.

Step-by -step Edit in Luminar 4

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ,ʋ ɚ(Ƀ ʑQ ȫ ʑ ɚVʋ\ɡ

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Exp l o re

Edit photos in Luminar 4

December 2019

Page 28

LOOKS

One-shot ﬁlter s that will radically change your image’s colours, contrast etc. Can be built up using layers.

FILE MENU

Luminar spreads its tools all over, but import and export are still on the File menu, and Undo on the Edit menu.

Layer masks

If you only want a Look to apply to part of an image, use a Mask. Above, we’ve used the AI Image Enhancer on the background image, then created a new Adjustment Layer which has the Classic B&W Look applied. By dropping down Edit Mask from the Layer, we’ve used the brush to paint over the figure on the right, meaning only she has become black and white.

Crop, rotate , clone

basic editing tools are available from the Tools button at the top right. Cropping and rotating works much as it does in any other app. Erase lets you paint over objects that are then removed from the picture and the background filled in. It sometimes leaves a smeary pattern behind, which you can deal with using Clone, where you sample an area of the image and use it to paint with.

Edits

Along the right-hand side of the interface are the Edits, which you can build up on a single layer or apply to Adjustment Layers depending on how you like to work. These include more controllable versions of B&W conversion and AI enhancement, including AI enhancers for portraits, landscapes and skies. Noise can be reduced and details brought out, all controlled via sliders,.

Further Edits

Edits can be turned off using a switch at the top of their respective panels, and reset with an arrow next to the switch. The Portrait Enhancer, in the Portrait subset, can identify the face in your image and apply itself there, brightening it up against a dark background, or slimming the face and enlarging the eyes for a caricatured look. All these Edits can be applied as a painted mask.

Images : Artem Beliaikin on Pexels

| |

December 2019

Page 29

Jargon buster!

Layers

Splits your image into slices that blend vertically into one another.

Looks

Luminar’s term for one-shot ﬁlters. You can deﬁne your own, or get more from the website.

Masks

Painted or othe r wis e deﬁned areas that a Look or Edit only applies to. A bit like selections in Photoshop.

EYE/S PLIT VI EW

Use the Eye button to see your original, untouched image. The split view shows before and after edits .

LAYERS

Build up an eﬀect using Look s an d Edits on layers, and blend them together using a full list of blend mo d es.

TOOLS

Click here for the cropping, erasing, cloning tools. Erase works much like Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill.

EDITS

Edits are more hands-on than Looks, and are divided into sets down the right-hand side of the interface.

ƮǄ16%Ǌ67ƼǏ3 /ʦʛʖQʋɠGȹHʣɚɢVʋɃɏʝɃʑɠ \ʝʦɠʝʢLʔʖQɪɗʖPDȰɏʤȾHDʤʖQɒ LɢʙɵȴɏɈȸHJDʤʖɃɏ\ʝɤFʋɚJɛ EDɭɖWɛDJʋʖɚʋQɍDJʋʖɚ 

AI Sky Replacement

One of our favourite features of Luminar 4. This recognises the sky in your images, replaces it with a new one, then adjusts the colour balance of the image to match. Find it in the Creative set of Edits, and flick through the included images until you find one you like, or add one of your own. Use it to cheer up a drab beach photo, or to add drama to any image with a sky in.

Exporting

Exporting your edited image is as simple as clicking on the Export button that’s to the right of centre along the top. Choose Export to Image, and you’ll get a pop-up with all the usual options, such as where yo save your image, what format, how large you’d like it to be and whether you’d like sharpening applied. Hit Export, and you’ll have an image to share. Q

Anyone can do it

Straightforward T ri cky in parts

Windows 10

Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

Skill level…

Suitable for …

Exp l o re

Edit photos in Luminar 4

December 2019

Page 30

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

How to use Alexa with Windows

“Amazon ’s Alexa is a powerful digital assistant and now you can easily use it with your Windo ws 10 PC, too, using a Windows St ore app – we’l l show you how”

ou can now easily add Amazon’s Alexa assis t ant to

your PC. Ale xa on Windows is a convenient way to command your devices and smart home if you’re already invested in it.

Alexa is available for Windows 10 PCs in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, and will be coming to more locations in the coming months.

Microsoft’s own Cortana assis tant hasn’t gained a whole lot of trac tio n since its d e b ut . The early promise of a voice assistant inside Windows has been left hanging because other devices don’t support it and, well, Cortana just isn’t as good as Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant at sorting stuﬀ out.

Instead, Microsoft has op te d to work more closely with lo ng-time collaborator and fellow Washington State resid ent Amazon s o their voice assistants can work to g e ther (and you can summon Alexa within Cor t ana).

Download and install the app

Open the Microsoft Store on your PC and search for the Alexa app – it’s called Alexa rather than Amazon Alexa. You might be prompted to gibe the password to your Microsoft account. Click on the blue install button to add it. If you ever want to remove it, go to Add or Remove Programs in Settings. Some new Windows 10 devices now have Alexa preinstalled.

Sign into your A mazon a cc oun t

Once the app is downloaded and you’ve opened it, you’ll be prompted to sign into your Amazon account. If you’ve ordered something from Amazon in the past, chances are you’ll have one. Make sure you’re using the same account credentials to set up Alexa on your PC that you’ve used with any Alexa devices in the past, otherwise things won’t work together.

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ'ʋ ɚ*Uɪɬ Kʋ əVʋ\ɡ

ƧǄ16%Ǌ67ƼǏ3 <ʝɤFʋɚɢȿHɢʦɞɈȸʑɦ(ɭKɛ ȫʑʧLȪɏʖɚ:ʖQGʝZɡ\ʝɤ ȸȭHɍWɛGɛʃʕLɡʧLɈʃȱɏ$ȵʑ[Ɉ ʋʠɞIʝɠɔǖ6ʝɠ$QʏUʝLɍ

Step-b y-step

Getting to know Ale xa on Wind ows 1 0

Anyone can do it

Straightforward T ri cky in parts

Windows 10

Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

Skill level…

Suitable for …

| |

December 2019

Page 31

Fine-tune settings

You can go to the Settings in the Alexa app at any point. So what can’t it do? It doesn’t work with video or voice calling using Alexa, and it’s also incompatible with some third-party music providers – it can’t act as a Spotify Connect speaker like other Echo devices. Alexa on Windows also can’t control your PC – yet. Amazon says that “PC-specific capabilities will be added” soon.

Troubleshooting

If Alexa isn’t working, first ensure you’re connected to the internet. If that’s fine, yet the app still isn’t working, make sure you’ve updated to the latest version. Select Quit App from the app menu, and then open the Alexa app for PC again. If a new update is available, you may now be prompted to install it. If not, you can also check out updates in the Microsoft Store. QQ

Choosing other options

You’re also able to fine-tune other aspects of Alexa’s operation on your PC – you can choose to disable the sounds at the start and end of an Alexa request. It’s a matter of taste, but we find it useful to know when Alexa is actually listening, or if she hasn’t heard us. The app will launch automatically when your PC does and you can also choose to turn this off should you wish to.

Enable mic acce ss

When prompted, allow Alexa to have microphone access, otherwise the assistant won’t be able to hear you – even if you don’t want it in always listening mode. While you can use Alexa on your PC without an associated Alexa device, we recommend that the app is only truly useful if you have one of the Echo smart speakers or an Alexa-supporting device from another vendor.

Ask Alex a

Now you can ask Alexa anything. So you can find out the weather or news, turn off the lights if they’re Alexa-enabled or play stuff on your Echo device. If you don’t have hands-free mode enabled, you’ll need to use the push-to-talk option, so you’ll need to use [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [A] or press the Alexa button within the app to get Alexa to listen to you.

Enable hands-free mode

You’ll then be asked if you want to enable hands-free mode. That means that Alexa will be ‘always listening’ on your PC. It means you could be the other side of the room from your PC and still command Alexa. It’s also worth noting that if you have hands-free mode enabled, there is a small impact on battery life for laptops and other mobile Windows devices.

Exp l o re

Use Alexa with Windows

December 2019

Page 32

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Manage lists with To Do

“Keepi ng on top of what you need to do and remem ber is a breez e than ks to Microsoft T o Do”

hether a simple shopping list or the complex steps for a

project you are working on, just about everyone can make use of a to-d o ap p. B ein g ab l e to make a list and tick things oﬀ as you go is an eﬀective way to keep track of what you’re doing, so you can better manage your time.

Microsoft has its own to- d o ap p, appropriately named M i cros oft To Do. It is free for Windows, Android, iOS and macOS, as well as online. You can create checklist s s o you c an tick things oﬀ as you do them, and cross-platf orm synchronisation means you can access them from diﬀerent devices – such as your computer and your phone.

Microsoft To Do is about more than just simple lists, however. You can also use it to store notes, create alert s , and manage recurring items – as you will see as we expl o re this incredibly useful tool .

Download and insta ll To Do

The Microsoft To Do app is available for free download in the Microsoft Store. Launch the Store app from the Start menu or taskbar shortcut, search for “Microsoft To Do” and click the Install button. You should be automatically signed into your Microsoft account the first time you launch the app, but if not you can do it manually – this helps with synchronisation between devices.

Creating lists

Lists are at the heart of To Do, and you can create one by clicking the New list button label in the left-hand panel. Type a name for the list to make it easier to identify when you later create more. Click the ‘…’ button to the upper right, and you can choose a colour theme which not only changes the main background colour, but also the text in the list of lists.

Step-by -step Y our first steps wit h Mic rosoft To Do

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ0ʋ ʁɖ: \ʎL϶ ʙ ɵɖ:ɵOVʝɚVʋ\ɡ

TASKS

Tasks are individual things to do. If you need to complete them by a certain date or time, you can add a reminder.

LISTS

Lists are checklists of related things to do. It could be a shopping list, or the steps of a recipe you want to try.

NEW LIST

Create a new list here. You can use an existing list as the basis for a new one by right clicking and selecting ’duplicate’.

No app would be complete without a search tool. This is a handy way to track do wn individual items.

Anyone can do it

Straightforward T ri cky in parts

Windows 10

Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

Skill level…

Suitable for …

| |

December 2019

Page 33

Adding tasks to lists

A blank list is of little use, so you’ll need to add items. To Do refers to items on a list as a task, and you can start building up your list by clicking the Add task button that appears at the bottom. Add as many items to the list as you need. You can use the Star icon to the right to mark something as important, and click the checkbox to the left to mark it as complete.

Other list options

If you right click on an item on a list, you can do things such as moving it to the My Day section for increased visibility, and set a due date. In the Settings menu you accessed in the previous step, you can opt to re-order the list based on the due dates assign to entries, and also choose to hide completed items – this can be particularly handy when it comes to shopping lists.

Jargon buster!

Web app

In addition to the downloadable apps for various plat forms, Microsoft To Do is also available as a web app – an interactive website that functions jus t like an application which you can access from any computer.

Pin to Star t

Opting to pin My Day to Start means that your tasks for the day will be added to a Live Til e in the Start menu, so it is easily accessible at all times.

List sharing

Microsoft To Do lets you invite other people to collaborate with you on list s. When a list is shared, others can not only see what ne eds to be done, but also make changes and additions to it.

MY DAY

My Day is a panel that keeps you informed and up to date with the things you need to get done today.

MY DAY LIST OPTIONS

Here you can change the appearance of My Day by selecting a background image.

Ƴ$Ǜ.6%Ǌ67ƼǏ3 ,ɑ\ʝɤKʋɃɏXȿHɍ: ʦQȫʑʁʙLVɢ ʃȱʑȾɏLɡɈKʋQʏɨʝSʤLʝɚWɛ ʖʛSʝUɢ\ʝʦɠɼOɍGDWɈʇȱʑɚ \ʝɤʓʖUVɢOʋʦQɭɓʃȱɏȸʑɦʋʠɞ

Exp l o re

Man age l ists wit h Mic ro so ft To Do

December 2019

Page 34

Reminders and attachments

If you need to complete tasks to a deadline, To Do lets you add a reminder. In the right-hand panel, use the ‘Remind me’ option to add an alert, or just set a due date. You also have the option of making tasks into recurring items. Towards the bottom of the panel you will find the option to add notes and even attach files which you may need in the course of working on the project.

Creating tasks

Tasks are rather more versatile than lists for a number of reasons. Tasks can be made up of multiple steps, and you have the option of attaching files and notes to them – all perfect for larger, more complicated projects. It is also possible to assign reminders to tasks so you don’t miss an important deadline. Click Tasks to the left and then click Add task.

Grouping lists

Sometimes it makes sense to group lists together, perhaps to break a large project down into smaller components, but still keep them linked. It’s a great idea for things you may be working on at work, a building project, or an event. Click the button to the right of the New list label to create a new group which you can then name. You can create and drag new sub-lists into the group.

Microsoft T o Do on line a nd on mobile

The beauty of To Do is that you can access it from just about anywhere. You set things up on your desktop or laptop, but the Microsoft To Do website (to-do.microsoft.com) is essentially identical to the downloadable app. There are also versions of To Do for Android and iOS, so you can use your smartphone to check your shopping list when you’re in the supermarket. Q

Adding task steps

Click the task you have created, and a panel will appear with further options. By clicking ‘Add step’ and ‘Next step’ in this panel, you can add sub-tasks to a task which can be ticked off one by one. You’ll notice that the main task entry indicates how many steps it has, and how many have been completed. Tasks can also be customised with coloured backgrounds like lists.

Sharing lists

In the case of shopping lists or larger projects, it can be helpful to have collaborators – and To Do enables you to share lists with others. In the upper right-hand corner of a list, next to the ‘…’ Settings button, you’ll see the ‘Share list’ button. Click it, and you get an invitation link you can send to people. If they accept, they will be able to not only see, but also edit the list.

| |

December 2019

Page 35

MISSED AN ISSUE?

Our website stocks up to six months’ worth of back issues – we deliver worldwide and all prices include shipping

From £5.99

ISSUE 166 OCTOBER 2019

From £5.99

ISSUE 167 NOVEMBER 2019

From £5.99

ISSUE 163 JUL Y 201 9

From £5.99

ISSUE 165 SEPTEMBER 201 9

From £5.99

ISSUE 162 JUNE 20 19

From £5.99

ISSUE 164 AUGUST 20 19

FO R BAC K IS S UES G O T O

www .myfav ouritemagazines.co .uk

December 2019

Page 36

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Discover Windows 10’s new PowerToys

“A blast from the past – PowerT oys are back! Mic roso ft has revived the popular util it ies for Windows 10, and we’ re exc i ted to see their return”

f you have been using a PC since the days of Wind ows

95, there is a chance you remember PowerToys. They were handy little utilities pro du ced by Microsoft w hich a d ded new to o ls and options to Windows, such as quickly changing screen resolution and browsing folders through contex t menus. With Windows XP came a second batch, including the famous TweakUI for customising Windows.

Now Microsof t has begun releasing PowerToys for W in d ows 10. This time around, PowerToys is open source, s o other developers can produce utilities of their own.

It is early days, but there are two you can try out now: FancyZones an d the Windows key shortcut guide. The ﬁrst takes windows snapping to the next level with cus tomis ab l e grids to deﬁne the layout of your open windows, while the second is a way to learn new shortcuts.

Downloading PowerToys

PowerToys isn’t yet on the Microsoft Store. For now, it has to be downloaded from GitHub, a site owned by Microsoft. Pay a visit to github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases and click the Assets links at the bottom of the most recent listing. Now click the PowerToysSetup.msi link to start the download before running through the installation, restarting Windows if prompted to do so.

Power Toys settings

When you launch PowerToys, it puts an icon in the system tray to access settings for individual utilities as well as the app as a whole. Simple toggles are available that you can use to disable any of the PowerToys you do not need (remember, more will be added over time), and another lets you enable or disable automatic startup (if you have not done so during installation).

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ0ʋ ʁɖ: \ʎL϶ ʙ ɵɖ:ɵOVʝɚVʋ\ɡ

Ƴ$Ǜ.6%Ǌ67ƼǏ3 <ʝɤɸɗȩɏDʂȴHɍLɑ3ʝɄʑɠ7ʝ\ɡ FʋɚORDɍDɢ:ʖQGʝZɡVWʋUʤʦɞ ʃʕLɡPɪȴHɡʃʕʖQJɡʛXɭɓ HDʣȲʑɠVɛʤLɭɖʃȱɏEʝɧ

Step-b y-step

Introd uc ing P ow erT o ys for Wi ndows 1 0

Anyone can do it

Straightforward

T ri cky in parts

Windows 10

Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

Skill level…

Suitable for …

| |

December 2019

Page 37

Using FancyZones

With zones set up and your preferred layout selected, you’re ready to actually start using FancyZones. To snap a window into a zone, grab it by its title bar and press the Shift key to highlight the available zone. Drag and drop the window into place and it will snap and resize to fill the zone. Repeat the process with any other windows you want to place into particular zones.

FancyZones settings

FancyZones’ settings are in the main PowerToys app. The options here all have self-explanatory titles, such as overriding the default snapping hotkey, ensuring windows open in the same zone on subsequent openings, and maintaining zones across multiple desktops. You can also change the colour of zone highlighting to better suit your desktop scheme. Q

Creating zones

The first thing you need to do is to define the zone that you would like to divide your screen into for the purposes of window snapping. In the Templates section there are a number of ready-made zone layouts that you can use, and by default these are made up of two zones. If you would like to be able to snap more windows into zones, just click the ‘+’ button to add more.

Using Shortcut Guide

Shortcut Guide, while very simple, is also incredibly useful, as it will help you to learn time-saving keyboard shortcuts. Press and hold the [Win] key for a second, and an overlay will appear on the screen showing you all of the shortcuts available to you. In Shortcut Guide’s settings you can adjust how long the [Win] key has to be held for .

Creating custom zones

It may be that you don’t like any of the available templates, and want to create a zone layout of your own. Move to the Custom tab, select the ‘Create new custom’ option and click ‘Edit selected layout’. Click ‘Add new zone’ and then position and resize the zone outline as required. Repeat for as many zones as you need, enter a name for the layout, and click ‘Save and apply’.

Getting started with FancyZones

FancyZones is rather more interesting than Shortcut Guide, but it is also more complex and requires some setting up. The tool works by dividing your screen up into a grid into which you can quickly snap open applications and windows to improve multitasking. In FancyZones settings, click the ‘Edit zones’ button, or press the [Win] key and [~] to access the zone editor.

Exp l o re

Discover the new Power Toys

December 2019

Page 38

Images : Y ou Tube, OpenMedia LLC

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Download YouTube videos for free

“4K Video Downloader enables you to download Y ouT u be cli ps to your PC. That’s really handy if you’ re going somewhere way beyond the reach of Wi-Fi”

treaming from YouTube is brilliant, but it’s not always

easy. Som e tim e s you’re in an area where you can’t get a reliable connection, so the video stutters at the best bits. An d s o m e tim e s you can’t get a signal at all becaus e you’re nowhere near Wi-Fi or you’re somewhere where the Wi -Fi b l ocks anything other than web browsing. Hurrah, then, for apps like 4K Video Downloader (4kdownload.com) that can download clips to play oﬄine.

The app is really easy to use and packed with handy features, but it’s worth noting som e important issues. First, not all videos can be downloaded. And secondly, unauthorised “ripping” of streams is against YouTube’s terms of service so you may su d d enly ﬁn d the ap p blocked without warning. Don’t download if the copyright owner – usually the TV or ﬁlm studio or creator – doesn’t say it’s OK .

Install the app

4K Video Downloader doesn’t include any nasty surprises in its installer: just an option to launch the app when installation is done. When you launch it for the first time you’ll see this screen here, which shows you the basics of how to use the app. Don’t worry about the Not Activated bit: that’s just to show you haven’t paid for the Pro version of the app yet.

Find your film

The next step is to go to YouTube and find something you want to download, for example by searching for “public domain”. Here we’re going to download a clip where the copyright owner has given us express permission; if you don’t know if you have such permission, you should always assume that you haven’t. Select the address in the Address Bar and copy it.

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ&ʋUʢȲ ɏ0ʋUʂK ɪ ɸ ɗVʋ\ɡ

ȉ$5ƺ,(6%Ǌ67ƼǏ3 'ʝɚɢZʋQɢɈʇKɼȵɏʧLȫHɛ" 5LɳKɢɭʙLɭɖDɢʃȱɏSʝʖQɢ\ʝɤ ZʋQɢʋQɍȿɰȵHFɢ&ʝʠɨʧLȫHɛ 8Ǜ/DɢʎʦʢȾʑQɢʤʖȷɏ

Step-b y-step

Quick clicks to download clips

Anyone can do it

Straightforward T ri cky in parts

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

Skill level…

Suitable for …

| |

December 2019

Page 39

Get in the queue

One of the most useful features in the app is queuing. You don’t need to wait for one download to finish for another one to start, and you can pause if you’re on a rubbish connection and resume later when you’re on something with better download speeds. That’s handy for really big files. The app shows you each clip’s duration, size and the current download speed for each one.

Download smarter

Chances are the quality settings you use for one video or audio download are the same you want for other ones too, and 4K Video Downloader’s Smart Mode enables you to tell it the quality settings you’d like to have for each download. It then gives you one-click downloads at the quality of your choice; if your chosen option isn’t available you’ll get the next best available. QQ

Get the music

If you just want to download the sound from a video, 4K Video Downloader can do that. It’s useful if you’re downloading a presentation to listen to on the bus, or if the video’s just a lyric video for a song (although as ever, make sure you have permission to download). Click on the drop-down menu that says ‘Download Video’ and select the ‘Extract Audio’ option.

Return to the app

Once you’ve copied the clip address, return to 4K video downloader. You should now see a little red play button on the green Paste Link button. This means that 4K Video Downloader recognises the address you’ve copied and is ready to do something with it. Click on the Paste Link button and you should see this window, which may stay on your screen for a little while.

Pick your format

Sound quality here isn’t brilliant: 128k MP3s are OK for speech but they aren’t fantastic for music. Unfortunately, 4K Video Downloader can’t download what isn’t there, and 128k is the highest audio quality for many YouTube clips. What you can do, though, is select the audio format: you can choose between MP3, M4A or OGG.

Choose your file quality

The ‘parsing…’ window was telling you that the app was finding out what download options are available, which it then shows you in the next window. Here we can see that we have a choice of formats ranging from the frankly rubbish QCIF format up to 720p High Definition. You can also change the format from MP4 to MKV or change the filename and download location.

Exp l o re

Download YouTube videos

December 2019

Page 40

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Take control of your downloads

´$ GRZQORDG PDQDJHU PDN HV VDYLQJ ÀOHV IDVWHU DQG HDVLHU 2QFH \RX· YH WULHG LW \RX· OO QHYHU JR EDFN WR GRZQORDG LQJ LQ \RXU ZHE EURZVHUµ

ot so long ago, software, music, movies and TV shows

were only available on CDs and DVDs, but those days are long behind us. Now if you want to enjoy a new album, ﬁlm or boxset, you have two other options: stream it, or download it. Streaming has a few advantages – mainly that you can begin watching or listening to the media immediately – b ut if you w ant to keep the ﬁle forever then you’ll need to download it.

That’s where download managers come in. These progr ams c an slash the amount of time it takes for ﬁles to download by breaking them up into smaller chunks. They can als o resum e downloads automatically if your Internet connection e x periences a hiccup, and so m e c an even convert ﬁles to diﬀerent formats. In our opinion, Ninja Download M anager is one of the best download mana ge rs around – and it’s completely free.

Get Ninja Download Manager

There are two versions of Ninja Download Manager: free and paid. To get the free one, visit ninjadownloadmanager.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and select For Windows. Run the setup file, read the terms and select‘I accept the agreement’. Click ‘Next’ to finish installing the app, then click Launch NDM. When the program launches, select ‘Continue in free mode’.

Copy a file link

We’ll start by downloading an e-book that’s in the public domain. Visit www.gutenberg.org and select or search for a book. When presented with a list of file download options, right-click one of the EPUB options and select ‘Copy link location’. You can do exactly the same thing with video and music files, which will download noticeably faster than they will in your web browser.

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ&Dɢ(ɸ ʙLɡVʋ\ ɡ

ȉ$ 76%Ǌ67ƼǏ3 <ʝɤFʋɚɢGʝʨɻORDɍ<ʝɤ7ʅȩɏ ʧLȫHRɡʨLʃɓ1ʖʜMɈ'ʝʨɻORDɍ 0ʋQDȰʑɠʃȱʑɨȾɏʝɻʙɨȷHʋQɢ WɛȩɏʧȲʑɄHɍʖɚ\ʝʦɠʍUʝZȿʑɠ

Step-b y-step

0DN HGRZQO RDGL QJHIIRUWOHVV

Anyone can do it

Straightforward T ri cky in parts

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

Skill level…

6XLWDEOHIRU «

| |

December 2019

Page 41

Download links directly

You can also right-click links in your web browser and select ‘Download with Download Ninja’ to add them to the download queue. To change the order in which files are downloaded, right-click them and move them up or down. To do something else online while the files download, you can limit the download speed as well, so you’ll have enough bandwidth for other tasks.

Enjoy faster do wnloads e v ery day

Now you understand the basics, the next time you want to download a file (or a free program like LibreOffice, shown here), Ninja Download Manager will make the process easier and faster. The pause and play options at the bottom of the window let you pause and resume downloads, and you can easily manage all your downloaded files in the playlist. Happy downloading! QQ

Detect links automatically

You can set Ninja Download Manager to detect copied links and give you the option to download them instantly. Click the Settings button (top right) and check ‘Show an alert when a URL is detected in the clipboard’. Return to Project Gutenberg and select another link, and a notification will appear in the top right of your screen. Click this to start downloading the file.

Paste and do wnload

Now return to Ninja Download Manager and click the ‘+’ icon. You’ll see that the URL is pasted from your clipboard automatically. You can download other files at the same time by selecting the ‘Add multiple downloads’ link, and choose where the downloaded files should be saved. When you’re happy, click Add and the file will begin downloading.

Add a browser extension

To make Ninja Download Manager easier to use, click the Settings button, then ‘Browser setup’ and choose Chrome, Firefox or Opera. Follow the on-screen instructions to install its extension (there’s no option for Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer at the moment, sadly). Now, when you visit a web page, click the NDM icon to send downloads straight to Ninja Download Manager.

Manage the download queue

Current and completed downloads will appear in a queue, ordered from oldest to newest. Right-clicking downloaded files gives you the option to restart the download, open the file, move it to a different location, and move it up or down the list. It’s a good idea to leave downloaded files in the list; the search bar at the top is much more convenient than Windows’ search function.

Exp l o re

Manage your downloads

December 2019

Page 42

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Design a professionallooking magazine

John Kn ig h t attemp ts t o make sense of magaz ine pu bl i sh ing a pp Scribus,DQGÀ QGVW KDWW KH c om ple xi ty is al l part of t he fu n…

e had a certain trepidation tak ing o n Scribus. Although it’s much more

powerful than som ething like Microsof t Publisher, the interface is completely diﬀerent to what most peopl e are used to, which gives it an intimidating reputation. But this rep utation is undeser ved, and it c an b e an excellent way to get into do it yourse lf p ublishing.

Covering all of Scribus could ﬁll an entire magazine, so instead we’ll take you through the primary element s of the interface, giving you enough to get star ted. We’ll be focusing on making a magazine, but the same principles can be applie d to anything like a village newsletters or a school newspaper.

The easiest way to ge t into Scribus is to work from a temp late, and for many projec t s it may be suﬃcient to simp ly ﬁnd a template you like and just replace the text and images . So we’ll b egin with a template, and then s tar t from scr atch to explore the rest of the app.

No new ideas

When you s tar t Scribus, the New D ocument window will open automatically with the New Document tab, ready to star t from scr atch. We’re not quite ready for that yet, so if you look to the right, the nex t tab is c alled New fro m Template. Here you’ll ﬁnd a reasonably large

selection of temp lates with a description on the right. To keep things simple we decided on ‘Newslet ter 1’. It’s quite straightforw ard in its layout, its images are all free, and its autho r has designed it so you can simply replace any tex t or images with your own.

Although the controls in Scribus can get quite technical, at its heart it’s quite simple and revolves around two concepts: every thing sits in frames, and it ’s all stacked in layers.

Scribus is designed primarily around Text Frames and Image Frames. Whether you’re working on tex t or images, either k ind of fram e can be resized or reshap ed to taste, an d you can generally replace any existing content with whatever you like. Let’s star t with text.

Addin g t e xt

Pick any text frame you like and right-click . A menu will appear with quite a number of options, but for now we’ll b e look ing at t wo: Get Text and Edit Text. G et Text will take the content from an ex ternal ﬁle and p ut it str aight into the frame. Very cool, b ut you’re more likely to just copy and paste into Edit Text.

Edit Tex t op ens the Story Editor window, which resembles a basic word pro cessor. Most of the controls you should be able to guess, though there are a few oddities. When you ’re done editing you can just click the big gree n tick button. However, there’s no preview function in the Story Editor, so you’ll need to keep clicking Edit Text ever y time you want to make a change.

It’s better to move the Story Editor to the side so you can see the original text frame you want to edit. Then when you’ve made some changes, click Update Text Frame from the Story Editor’s main toolbar and you’ll see your original tex t frame change in the main window.

Image control

To replace an image, right-click in the frame and choose Get Imag e. This will o pen a ﬁle browser. Click OK when you’ve chosen your image. The pic ture fram e will now have your image but unless the aspe ct r atio was the same the dimensions will probably be wonky, with some white space lef t in the f rame, or only part of the image.

To alter an image’s dimensions right-click the image and choose Proper ties. In the Properties wind ow, click the Image tab. The

Linked text frames is the killer feature that could woo you away from that word processor.

BEST TIP

Pick a font and stick with it. A lot of magazines just use one or two fonts. Your choice will help set the feel of your magazine, so choose wisely.

| |

December 2019

Page 43

options Scale To Frame Size and Propor tional might be enabled. If so, then one p ossible ﬁ x for a badly ﬁlled fr ame is to uncheck the Proportion al box, w hich will then stre tch the image to ﬁt the frame.

However, this may look horrid, so you can ﬁne-tune the image by click ing the Free Scaling option, where you can move and stretch the image to your heart ’s content. Or you can resize the picture fram e to ﬁt.

In the Newsletter 1 template the image an d text frames are locked in place, meaning that you can’t resize them. To unlock the frames, right-click any image or text f rame and unche ck the option ‘Is Locked’, and you can now resize the frame as much as you want.

With any luck, work ing fro m a template will have been suﬃcient to create the document you wanted. If so, save your work and ex por t it . Th e native Scribus format is .sla, bu t if you’re sending your work to anyone other than a fellow Scribus user, you need to use something more universal like PDF. That’s easily done, by clicking File>Exp o r t>Save as PD F.

Note that in both exp or ting ﬁles an d in Print Preview you’ll likely encounter warning messages. That’s quite normal – Scribus can be prett y pe dantic! Ignore them, you’ll pro bably be ﬁne.

A document from scratch

If you have something more speciﬁ c in mind a template probably won’t cut it, me aning you’ll need to build up your own docum ent from scratch. But don’t worr y, we’re here to take you through the basics.

For a starting p oint, if you have something like a magazine whose st yl e you want to imitate it ’s worth get ting out a ru ler and m easuring the dimensions of every box, row, image, and column. The Scribus layout can be se t to operate within physical dimensions, meaning you should be able to replicate the format ting element s of your favourite magazine.

My brother and I have been trying to replicate the sty le and fee l of Commodo re Format from the early ’90s, s o we can work on our own book and provid e a cool template for other retro gaming authors. Aside f rom copying the physical dimensions and styling language, those magazines usually had a three column layout, so that’s a good place to begin. Bring some format ting ideas of your own an d we’ll get started.

Click File>New to start afresh and the New Document wind ow will app ear, where you deﬁne your layout. To keep things simple we’ll stick with a Single Page layout. Other w ise everything’s fairly conventional except the choice of Default Unit, which is “Points (pt)”. That’s a ty po graphic unit of measurem ent, with 72 points to the inch, but it ’s not very useful s o switch it to something everybody understands, like millimetres.

Now you can easily deﬁne the pag e margins on the left , and if you check the “Automatic Text Frames” box, you c an set the numb er of columns and the gap betwe en them. If you just want a normal full page of text leave Columns as 1, but most magazines use two or three or even seven columns, and newspaper s usually use four.

Text frames

When you click OK you’ll have a blank page with three columns, if that was your choice. The column markers will act as visual guides, and if you check your work in Print Preview you’ll see these ugly things are thankf ully not include d! The obvious place to star t would be w ith some text, so l et ’s create our ﬁrst Text Frame.

In the middle of the main toolbar is the Inser t Text Frame but ton . On your blank p age click and place your ﬁrst frame w herever you like. You can even overlap the column guides and page border s if you want – this can b e changed though, see the box on guides for more information (page 45). Note that Scribus will switch back to Select Item mode after you’ve inserted a frame, so you’ll need to click the button each time you want to ge nerate a new text fr ame.

To add text use the same method as before, right-clicking and ch oosing Edit Text. I f you happen to run out of space in your ﬁrst fr ame, don’t worr y. Create a few more blank frames

USING THE GRID

If you click View > Show Grid, an overlay in the style of technical graph-paper will appear, with big cubes (the major grid) containing smaller cubes (the minor grid). You can either use this grid as a simple visual guide, enabling you to still draw freehand and place things where you like, or you can make objects rigidly ‘snap’ to it. If you’re making a

JDULVKPDJD]LQHZLWKIUHHÁRZLQJREMHFWVWKHQOHDYHLWDVLWLV%XWLI

you’re making something quite conservative with many pages to produce, you want the snap function.

%y default the grid will simply act as a visual guide, but if you want to enable the snap function, from the main menu choose Page > Snap to Grid. However, the default grid sizes are a bit weird and the page

PDUJLQVGRQ·WÀWZLWKLQWKHPSURSHUO\

To make the grid more useful, change its settings by clicking File > Document Setup, and in the new window click Guides. If you enable the Show Page Grid option this will let you modify the grid settings. The default spacing is 35.278mm for the Major Grid and 7.056mm for the Minor Grid. If you change these to an even 35mm and 7 mm,

UHVSHFWLYHO\WKHSDJHPDUJLQVZLOOQRZÀWZLWKLQWKHJULG

Our advice to any Scribus first timer would be to find a template that appeals to you, and then jump in fearlessly and experiment with changing almost every aspect of it.

Exp l o re

Desi gn with Sc ribu s

December 2019

Page 44

and we can explore o ne of the cooles t features in Scribus: linked text f rames, w here tex t ﬂows seamlessly from one f rame to the nex t .

Start by sele cting the f rame f rom which all other frames will be linked . If you click Link Text Frames from the main toolbar, your mouse pointer will change to an imag e of two tex t fram es with a link ing arrow. When you click the nex t frame they w ill be linked.

Now you never need worr y about having too much text for on e box. Jus t write away to your heart ’s content and whatever doesn’t ﬁt in the ﬁrst frame will simp ly run into the nex t . You can do this multiple times to create elaborate designs. You can link frames up or down, in any direction. You can even skip over other frames, leaving space in the middle.

Whenever you link multiple frames Scribus w ill use arrows to show which frames are linked and in which direction . You’ll know if a frame is linked if you click it and you’re given the option to use the Unlink Text Frames but ton . If you do so, Scribus will actually p oint to the frame ab out to be Unlinked, just to be helpful.

Image frames

Inserting an imag e frame is the s ame pro cess as a text fr ame. Click the Inser t Ima ge Frame but ton in the main toolbar, then click and drag the dimensions of the frame to suit. Ri ght-click inside the frame and choose G et Image w hich opens the ﬁle browser. Like text frames you need to click the Insert Image Frame but ton each tim e you want to make a new one.

As in the template section, your image will probably be the wron g size and resolution fo r the frame you’ve just made. To ﬁx it, right-click the image and choose Proper ties. In Properties click the Image tab and choose Sc ale To Frame Size.

If Propor tional is checked, the imag e will maintain its original aspect ratio. If so then there will likely be some leftover bits of frame, so you’ll need to move back the borders to suit the image. If you leave Proportional unche cked the image will be stretched to ﬁll the fram e.

For elements such as clipar t an d small logos , you’ll probably want to have transparent backgrounds. Transparent backgrounds enable you to have a background colour, and placing a new image over the top won’t leave clashing borders or colours . It ’ll also help in the next t wo se c tions, with b old shapes you want to layer over something else, or when having text ﬂow around a fram e.

Contro l l ayer s

Once you start g et ting into images used w ithin layers, that’s where Scribus really s tar t s to get interesting. With layers you can create complex imagery and wo rk on par t s of a scene independently w ithout upset ting any thing else.

For instance, you can have a static background image and then place your own images on top – which by the way, is a primary technique in animation. In fact , if you think of an animator with pieces of celluloid, where they stack individual drawings over backgrounds, it’s the same concept. Anything you do in one layer won’t aﬀect whatever is ab ove or below it.

Indeed, if you tr y to appro ach Scribus f rom a reference point of something perhaps like

Solid background

GIMP is the image editor used by Scribus. First, make sure your image has a solid background colour that can be easily di fferentiat ed b y t he co mput er from the rest of the image. White is good, or green. Y ou’ll need to add an Alpha

&KDQQHOLQWKH/D\HUVSDQHOÀUVWWKHQ«

Colour to Alpha

With your image open, from the main menu click Colours > Colour to Alpha, and click OK. If all goes well it should detect everything automatically and separate the object from the background. If not, you may need to use the Color Picker tool.

Export yo ur ima ge

If you don’t have the option to choose Colour to Alpha, change the image WR5*%PRGHE\FOLFNLQJ

,PDJH! 0RGH !5*%1RWHWKDW\RX

have to save your image as either a 31* RU*,)DV-3(*ÀOHVGRQ·WKDYH background transparency.

*,9(<2853,&785(675$163$5(1&<:,7+*,03

You can obtain templates from sites like opendesktop.org or they might be available in your package manager. Some distros even include them with Scribus itself.

QUICK TIP

Print Preview is usually set to a low resolution and generally looks quite rough. To smooth everything out, click Enable Antialiasing in the Display Settings field in the top-right hand corner.

| |

December 2019

Page 45

Microsoft Word, ever y thing will app ear alien and nightmarishly complicated. But if you think in terms of actual pieces of paper, celluloid, and scissors then it all become s much easier to grasp.

For a good example of layering we thought we’d look to the vintage gaming magazines that we’re imitating, where they take bright edgy shapes and use them for eye- c atching boxouts. First we’ll put a coloure d pol ygon in an image frame, then put a tex t f rame o n top. Finally, we’ll put a prett y b ackground behind it all.

First we created the image fram e to ﬁt both an image and a separate tex t f rame inside it , which meant deliberately sp illing over the column borders (which was a very ’9 0s thing to do!).

To achieve the right size we opened the frame’s Properties, and op ened the Image tab. From here we enabled Scale To Frame Size but didn’t enable Proportional, which meant we could resize the shape and frame to per f ec tly ﬁt a paragraph inside. Ne x t, we drew a text frame on top of the shape and inser ted som e informative and entertaining tex t.

Now is a good point to e xplo re Scribus’s layer controls. For now the text is sit ting ab ove the image as it should be, but what if mis- clicking an option somehow got it the wrong w ay around – how would you correct that? So for now we’re deliberately going to obs cure the tex t layer behind the image layer, but then bring it back.

Right-click the tex t fram e and choos e Level > Lower. The text should now be hidden while the image sits on top. To bring back the text, you’ll need to lower the level of the image, so rightclick and choose Level > Lower again. T his will move the image back behind the tex t an d restore the text layer to the top.

Now to give it all a background. We already

prepared a simple background with a pretty colour-fade in using GIMP, though any por tr ait image should do. Then we simply drew an Image Frame across the entire page and inser ted an image. Initially this just obscured everything, but by clicking Level > Lower to Botto m it put every thing else ba ck in the foreground whil e providing a nice background.

7KHWH[WPXVWÁRZ

For the last piece of the puz zle, Scribus makes it possible to place graphics any where you like within text and fo rce the surrounding tex t ﬂow around it. If you create an image frame that overlaps text frames, you c an tr y out the feature by right-clicking on the image, choosing Properties, and o pening the Shap e tab. In the ﬁeld Text Flow Around Frame we want to focus on four options: Disable d, Use Frame Shape, Use Bounding Box, and Use Contour Line.

Disabled turns oﬀ the feature entirely an d tex t will just run over or under the image, ignoring its shape altogether. Use Frame Shape will make your text stric tly adhere to whatever shape you have given the frame. Use Bounding Box will make sure that text will always conform to a perfe c tly rec tangular ﬁe ld around the image. This can leave big empty gaps, b ut it may be just the look some pe ople are going fo r.

For the advanced users out there, there’s the Use Contour Line option. This is hard to explain without a live demonstration, b ut this adds a second shape for tex t to ﬂow around, independent of however the imag e may look

right now. The contour will be based o n whatever the image’s original frame was, but by clicking Edit you can make the shape jus t ab out anything you like using fairly intricate controls.

Ready for mor e?

After you’ve ﬁnished your formatting and established a feel, you can create an entire magazine base d up on your own s t yl e an d t astes. You can also use this as a template, creating a distinct s t yle your readers may enjoy.

This month we’ve only covered the basic s of a magazine layout, taking a more text-based approach. N ex t month we ’ll fo cus more on graphics, su ch as covers, pos ters, and so on.

Obviously this isn’t an environment to replace your word processor, but if this were something like Word or Libre Oﬃ ce Writer, you would agonise endlessl y trying to get a gr aphic to sit in the right place, constantly afraid you would upset the f ragile format ting. In Scribus you just click this, dr ag that , and you’re done. The interface isn’t necessarily diﬃ cult, it’s just diﬀerent. Stick with it and you ’ll b e rew arded.

USING GUIDES

Guides are a tricky thing in Scribus. If you open the main menu and click View > Show Guides, it turns on the big ugly lines that show where everything goes. This may or may not be enabled by default according to the whims of the document. Turning them on or off will probably result in nothing with a brand new document, as they are generally things you

QHHGWRGHÀQH\RXUVHOI

For new documents, Page > Snap to Guides is less useful than Snap to Grid, because it will only snap to the page borders and not the columns – one would assume Snap to Guides would work with columns from the outset. Unfortunately, if you want to have your frames snap to columns, you will need to enter these manually in the Guide Manager (from the main menu click Page > Manage Guides). This is a right faff and we just don’t have space to cover it this month.

For most people, drawing boxes freehand with a visible guide will

VXIÀFHWKRXJKLI\RX·UHJRLQJWREHZRUNLQJZLWKLQWKHVDPHOD\RXWGD\ DIWHUGD\LW·VSUREDEO\ZRUWKGRLQJ%XWZH·OOOHW\RXZRUNRXWIRU\RXUVHOI

where each row and column sits as it’s beyond tedious to try and write about! Maybe next month. Maybe.

Here’s we’ve created our own magazine all about the Commodore 64, the faithful home computer from the 1980s.

BEST TIP

The Sample Text function is very handy, especially the option for different languages. If you use different languages between Text Frames, you can spot linking errors you mightn’t otherwise see.

Exp l o re

Desi gn with Sc ribu s

December 2019

Page 46

/ Hʋʢ ɚKʝɦWɛ

Easily transfer photos from your iPhone

“Back up your photo s and videos to your PC quickly and easily, and avoi d iT unes, with this free alternative”

he iPhone was a revolutionary device when

it launched in 2007 and continues to lead the way today, but it’s always had one weakness: the way it conne cts to a PC.

Until iOS 6 broke the link betwe e n your iPhone and computer, we were forced to use the clunky and unreliable iTunes software to do almost anything with our prized portable possession. Today, you hardly need to hook an iPhone, or its iPad and iPod touch siblings, up to a computer, as everything is done through dedicated apps. Unl ess , that is, you want to copy images or videos directly from your iPhone to your PC’s storage drive.

Try to do this, and i Tunes rears its head again, making life slightly more diﬃcult than it needs to be. There are alternatives to using Apple’s s o ftware, however, including WinX MediaTrans, which we’ll look at here.

Install

Find WinX MediaTrans at www.winxdvd.com/mediatrans. Download and run the installer. Once installed, you’ll need to download its drivers for Apple products, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. We found this took a long time, but it’s possible the server or our Internet connection was having a bad day. Once it’s done, you can run the app and plug in your iPhone.

Plugged in

You’ll know if your iPhone has been detected by your PC because, if it’s the first time you’ve connected them together, a notification will appear asking what you want to do when it’s plugged in. In WinX MediaTrans, the ‘Not connected’ line (top left) changes to the name of your device. If you can’t get it to connect, try plugging its cable into a different USB port.

< ʝʦ ɠʔʦLȫ ɏ,ʋ ɚ(Ƀ ʑQ ȫ ʑ ɚVʋ\ɡ

Step-b y-step

Transfer iPhone pho tos to y our PC

Anyone can do it

Straightforward T ri cky in parts

Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 7

At a glance

Skill level…

Suitable for …

| |

December 2019

Page 47

Transfer your videos

MediaTrans can transfer videos to your PC just as easily as it can with photos. From the main window, select Video Manager from the top row of icons, and you’ll be presented with all the videos you’ve recorded with your iPhone’s camera. You can select and import them just as you did with photos, but this time they’re saved into the Videos folder in your User folder.

Remove all limitations

MediaTrans is free to download, but limits the number of photos and videos you can export per day unless you pay for a registration key – you can either buy a one-year licence for $39.95 (£29.18), or pay $59.95 (£43.80) for a lifetime licence – it’s worth it if you need to transfer a large number of photos and videos on a regular basis. Registering also unlocks additional features. Q

Change default folders

By default, your images are saved on your PC in the Pictures folder within your User folder. To change this in WinX MediaTrans, drop down the menu from the cogwheel at the top right of the interface, and choose Settings. From there, you’ll be able to pick the folders the app saves photos, videos and music to by clicking the pen icon next to their name, and navigating to a new folder.

Find your photos

Choose the Photo Transfer option from the top row of icons in the app’s main view. It will think for a moment while it accesses the data on your iPhone or iPad, then display your images sorted by date. Drop down the arrow next to a date to see the images taken that day, and click the checkbox next to the arrow to select them all. Click on individual images to select them directly.

Othe r s ettings

Also in the Settings you’ll find options for converting videos from the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Codec) introduced with iOS 11 to the less space-saving but more commonly supported MP4/H.264. This format is likely to be used by TVs and set-top boxes that haven’t yet had an update to the newer filetype and, of course, your PC will have no problem playing it.

Expo rt your p hotos

The Export button turns blue when there’s something selected, ready to export. There’s a drop-down menu with the option to export your files as they are, or convert HEIC (High Efficiency Image Codec) image files to JPEG. HEIC is a file format Apple introduced in iOS 11, and it gained Windows 10 support in version 1809. Check the Store for a plugin if it won’t open the files.

Exp l o re

Easily transfer photos

December 2019

Page 48

Wi-Fi 6 is coming, and promises big things for our

wireless networks. Here’s what to expect. By Matt Hanson

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

WI-FI 6

| |

December 2019

Page 49

i-Fi 6 is probably the most exciting thing to happen to your wireless network in 2019. Now it’s launched, you’ll start to hear the term increasingly bandied about by router makers and ISPs. But what exactly is

:L)L  DQG KRZFDQLWEHQHÀW\RX"+HUHZHWDNHD

close look at what Wi-Fi 6 promises and explain the impact it can have on home networks. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about the standard, including how to upgrade your network to get the most out of the new tech.

You may have already come across Wi-Fi 6’s previous name: 802.11ax. Thankfully, the Wi-Fi $OOLDQFHDQRQSURÀWRUJDQLsation t ha t e ns u res Wi-Fi products meet certain standards, acknowledged that the former naming conven tions were far too convoluted. As Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of the Wi-Fi Alliance, explains:

“For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi users have had to sort through technical naming conventions to determine if their devices support the latest Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi Alliance is excited to introduce Wi-Fi 6, and present a new naming scheme to help industry and Wi-Fi users easily understand the Wi-Fi generation supported by their device or connection.”

“Wi-Fi 6” is certainly going to be a lot easier to

remember than “802.11ax,” which supersedes

802.11ac (now known as Wi-Fi 5). It brings the naming convention more in line with 3G, 4G, and 5G. Going from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 is a clear upgrade – whereas it’s not c lea r whet her 80 2 . 1 1ax is newer or older than 802.11ac.

If your current router is only a few years old, it’s likely to be a Wi-Fi 5 model. While Wi-Fi 6 is backward compatible with older devices, you’ll need

D:L)LURXWHUWREHQHÀWIURPWKHIXOO SRWHQWLDO RI

the new technology.

December 2019

Technology

Wi-Fi 6

Page 50

Earlier this year, a Wi-Fi 6 certiﬁcation progr am was announced for devices to support the new st andard, stating that produ ct s nee d to oﬀer s everal features and meet cert ain criteria to be Wi- Fi 6 certiﬁe d, with the program star ting in the third quar ter of 2019 – which is pretty much now.

In fact, W i- Fi 6 capabl e devices were on display as early as the Consumer Electronic s Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January of this year, and you might have noticed that some Wi- Fi 6 routers have already gone on sale – including the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 and AX4, TP-Link ’s Archer AX600 0, and the Asus RT-AX88U. These early devices generally still have the old 802.11ax labelling, though.

Does that mean you can go out and bu y a Wi- Fi 6 router today? Well, not quite. These early routers are based on the draft st andard of Wi -Fi 6, which at the time of their re lease has not been ﬁnalised. I f cert ain aspec t s of the certiﬁ cation change, then these early routers may miss out on features that other Wi-Fi 6 - cer tiﬁed dev ices boast . As always with early adopters, it ’s a risk you’ll have to take if you want the new technolog y as so on as possib le.

What do I need for Wi-Fi 6 ?

Of course, having a Wi- Fi 6 - capable router is onl y the ﬁrst step toward beneﬁtting fro m the new technolog y. While your older Wi- Fi produc ts w ill be able to connec t to a Wi - Fi 6 router, to get the features of Wi- Fi 6 (which we’ll get to in a moment), you’ll also need Wi-Fi 6-certiﬁed devices. And at the moment, those are r ather thin on the grou nd.

The good news, though, is that we should start seeing a steady stream of Wi- Fi 6 - enabled dev ices hitting the market. Most ﬂagship smartpho nes will feature the technolo gy – for example, the Samsung Gala x y S10 is the ﬁrst smartphone with Wi- Fi 6 built in. At the moment, W i- Fi 6 could be conﬁned to the more expensive handse ts, bu t hopef ully that will quickly change as Wi -Fi 6 ad option grows.

We should also see numerous Wi- Fi 6 laptops coming to the market in the near future, with major manufac turers announcing Wi-Fi 6 -e quipped notebo oks back at CES.

Wi-Fi 6 speeds

Wi-Fi 6, like other leaps in Wi -Fi technolo gy, brings improvements to both the speed an d coverage of wireless networks, but what kind of speeds should we expect from Wi-Fi 6? Early ﬁgures sugge st that we could see sp eed boosts of around 30 percent over Wi-Fi 5.

That’s a pret t y decent improvement, and W i- Fi 6 should theoretically oﬀer spe eds of up to 10Gb/s. While that’s still not enough to challenge wired net work s, you could see a decent jump in spee ds if you’re upgrading from Wi-Fi 5.

Wi-Fi 6 will achieve these sp eeds by f ully utilizing the

2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the s ame time. By combining the bands, rather than keep ing them sep arate, as in previo us Wi-Fi generations , and using MU- MIMO to increase the capacity of the net work , Wi -Fi 6 could be a se riously tempting upgrade for anyone who’s frustrated wi th the sluggish per formance of their Wi -Fi net work . The improved MU-MIM O (multi-user, multiple input, multiple output) features of Wi-Fi 6 will allow eight users o n both up and downlink (Wi-Fi 5 only allows four users at once on

the downstream). However, there are rumours that this feature may not be present at launch – another reason why early adopters might be wise r to wait until Wi- Fi 6 is more established.

Wi-Fi 6 will also eventually make use of the 1GHz and 6GHz bands when they become available, and the wi dening of the spectr um will allow for more ban dwidth, which can then b e split into sub- channels, smar tly routing conne ctions b et ween devices for better sp eeds .

Because of this, pe ople w ho use Wi -Fi 6 in conges ted environments – for example, hous eholds with l ots of diﬀerent Wi-Fi- enabl ed devices all v ying fo r an Internet connec tion – will likely see the bigges t leap in per f ormance.

With the number of smar t devices in our homes (which require an Internet connec tion) constantly increasing, Wi- Fi 6 could be a real game changer – quite literally, if you have a house full of Fortnite addicts.

It’s not just in your home that Wi- Fi 6 can help w ith congestion, however. If you live in a street or apartm ent complex with a lot of competing wirel ess net work s, some of the clever technology introduced w ith Wi- Fi 6 can help reduce conﬂicts with your neighbour s’ wireless net work s .

One such technolog y is BSS (Base Ser vice Station) Colour. This identiﬁes and marks frames from neighbouring network s that don’t originate from your household, allowing your router to eﬀectively ignore them. It ’s a rather elegant way of ensuring that signals from nearby networks don’t interfere with each other.

Bands on the run

The fact that W i- Fi 6 should in the future make use of additional bands alongside 2. 4GHz and 5GHz is bi g news. For what seems like ages, many routers have been providing those two bands. T he probl em is, 2.4 GHz has long b een overcrowded with consumer electronics, as so many older or

Asus has already launched a number of Wi-Fi 6 routers.

Look for the logo on Wi-Fi 6-certiﬁed hardware. The Wi-Fi Alliance has simpliﬁed Wi-Fi naming conventions, with logos for Wi-Fis 4, 5 and 6.

| |

December 2019

Page 51

Wi-Fi 6 routers

All the big router manufacturers have Wi-Fi 6 routers available already, or are due to launch them imminently.

)RU H[DPSOH $VXV·V 57$;8 LV WKH FRPSDQ\·V ÀUVW

Wi-Fi 6 router. It’s dual-band and offers up to 6,000Mb/s of Wi-Fi throughput, along with four antennas, and eight LAN ports. It costs £300.

Asus also has the gaming-oriented ROG Rapture GT-AX11000, a tri-band router that can keep one 5GHz band dedicated to gaming, and costs £380. There’s also the Asus AiMesh AX6100 Wi-Fi System, which is a mesh Wi-Fi system that can cover the whole home. It should launch around the time you read this issue.

As one of the biggest names in networking, it’s no surprise that Netgear is going all-out on Wi-Fi 6, and the company has a number of Wi-Fi 6 routers already available. The Netgear Nighthawk AX8 (RAX80) offers eight streams of wireless connectivity, 160MHz channel support, and 6,000Mb/s throughput over two bands. It also looks like something you’d expect a Sith to Á\ DURXQG LQ ,W·V DYDLODEOH QRZ IRU £300.

The Netgear Nighthawk AX12 (RAX120) ups the ante with 12 Wi-Fi streams, plus Alexa and Google Assistant support, and Netgear claims it’s the most powerful router the company has ever produced. It is also available now for around £400.

Netgear is also updating its excellent Orbi mesh Wi-Fi system to support Wi-Fi 6, which the company claims will offer gigabit speeds across the entire mesh network, with the ability to handle 12 streams at once, along with MU-MIMO and OFDMA support, and is available to pre-order at the time of writing.

D-Link was early to the Wi-Fi 6 game, launching a number of devices back in 2018. It’s also got a new Wi-Fi 6 router, the D-Link DIR-X6060, which is due to launch some time in 2019.

TP-Link has a few Wi-Fi 6 routers, too, including the Archer AX6000 (available now for £350), Archer AX11000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Gaming Router (available for £380), and the Deco X10 Mesh Wi-Fi System, which is due to launch in late 2019.

As you’d expect, Netgear is pushing Wi-Fi 6 hard.

budget devices use that b and. Me anwhile, 5GHz isn’t just getting more crowd ed as more d evices are release d that use that band, but its sp ec trum is too limited to supp or t wide r bandwidth channels. Not o nly that, but p ar ts of the 5GHz spectr um are still restric ted in how they are use d.

This has lead to many manufacturers p ushing to expand the number of bands availabl e for Wi- Fi devices, with a proposal by so me of the bigge st names in networking su ggesting that the 6G Hz band would be “essential to meeting demand for the next generation of wireless broadband services.” Fans of wordy, overly technical document s can read the entire pro posal at http://bit.ly/6GHzProposal. The bot tom line is that Wi -Fi network s nee d more space. If you think of net work s as roads, the more data (vehicles) there is, the more congested they become. Adding additional ban ds would be similar to opening up more lanes on a highway, to allow traﬃc to pass more easily.

It looks as though, w ith Wi- Fi 6, those demands for more bands will be me t. This could b e one of the most import ant changes the new technolo gy usher s in – particularly b ecause of our increasingly conges ted wireless networ ks . So, while there will b e an improvement in speeds with Wi - Fi 6, it seems as though the bigg er focus with the new technolog y is making sure that Wi -Fi networks have enough capacity to support the demands of modern connec ted homes, wh ere every smar t dev ice

Netgear’s ex cellent Orbi routers

are getting a Wi-Fi 6 upgrade.

TP-Link and D-Link have both announced Wi-Fi 6 routers.

Technology

Wi-Fi 6

December 2019

Page 52

Wi-F i 6 smartphones

If you’re after a Wi-Fi 6-enabl ed smartphone, your choices at the moment are pretty limited. Basically, you’d better like Samsung phones. The Samsung Galaxy S10 family of smartphones were

WKHÀUVWKDQGVHWVWR

support Wi-Fi 6, and this includes the Galaxy S10, S10 Plus, and the (slightly) more affordable Galaxy S10e. Meanwhile, t he Galaxy S10 5G offers both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G support, making it the best smartphone if you want to experience the latest network technology . These phones don’t come cheap , however. The S10 costs $899 for the 128GB model, and features a 6.1 -inch QHD+ screen, 8GB of RAM, and a triple-lens rear camera, with a 12MP regular lens, 12MP optically zoomed telephoto lens, and a new 16MP ultra-wide lens. Meanwhile, the S10 Plus costs a huge $999 for the 128GB version, and packs a 6.4-inch QHD+ screen, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, and that same triple-lens camera. Even the supposedly more affordable Galaxy S10e is still a very pricey proposition at $749 for the 128GB version, which comes with 6GB of RAM, a 5.8-inch 1080p screen, and dual-lens camera. As Wi-Fi 6 adoption grows, we should see a wider range of smartphones from a variety of manufacturers being released with Wi-Fi 6 support, and we hope that the new Wi-Fi technology won’t be FRQÀQHGWRXOWUDH[SHQVLYHÁDJVKLSVPDUWSKRQHVHLWKHU – we’d love to see it appear on more affordable handsets. At the time of writing, Apple has just released its new iPhone 11 smartphones, and while there were rumours circulating that the handset will feature both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, it turns out that this generation wasn’t ready for 5G just yet. They do support Wi-Fi 6 though – great news if you’re not a fan of Android. While smartphone manufacturers are understandably more excited about 5G support than Wi-Fi 6, our phones are probably the devices we use the most to connect to Wi-Fi networks, so we hope they embrace the new technology with future handsets.

You can have any bra n d o f Wi-Fi 6 smartphone… as long as it’s Samsung (for now).

needs a fast and s table intern et connec tion. Plus, w ith home broadband sp eeds ge tting ever f aster (for those of us lucky enough to live in areas with decent infrastructure, at least), there’s an added pressure to ensure that our Wi-Fi networks don’t become bottlenecks for ultra-fast ﬁber broadband.

Expanding coverage

Another key advantage of Wi- Fi 6 will be e xpanding the coverage of Wi-Fi net work s. For anyone who’s had to put up with a wireless net work that stru ggles to reach cer tain parts of the ho me, this will be go od news.

One way that Wi- Fi 6 is improving coverage is with beamforming. While Wi - Fi 5 also boasted b eamforming functionalit y, it could only support four antennas, w hile Wi-Fi 6 can supp or t eight. B eamforming essentiall y direc ts Wi-Fi signals toward speciﬁ c devices in various places, ensuring that those devices get the best p ossible connection to the wireless net work . This is par ticularl y import ant for devices that move around a lot – such as smartphones and ta blets , which are carrie d around your home.

Wi-Fi 6 can also oﬀer w ider coverage (and greater stability) thanks to its longer O FDM [ortho gonal fre quenc y division multiplexing] s ymbol . Now, this gets a bit technical, but OFDM is a way of transmitting data by dividing it among smaller sub- car riers. W ith Wi- Fi 6, the OFDM symbo l is four times longer, which means there are four times as many sub-car riers, increasing b oth coverage and spee d. To cut a long stor y shor t (and skip over a lot of jargon), it should mean that a Wi-Fi 6 net work will reach W i- Fi 6 devices over a much wider area, such as multiple ﬂo ors in a house, while remaining fast and stab le.

Wi-Fi 6 is also more e ﬃcient thank s to OFDMA (orthogonal frequenc y-di vision multiple access), which is brand new for Wi-Fi 6, although the technology has be en used in 4G LTE mobile phone net work s. Esse ntially a multi- user version of OFDM, it allows up to 30 clients to share a channel (rather than waiting for the channel to become available), and can combine diﬀerent types of net work traﬃc . Router maker

We hope to se e Wi-Fi 6 laptops soon as well .

| |

December 2019

Page 53

Industry perspectiv e

Why should we get excited about

Wi-Fi 6? We chatted to Lionel Paris,

dir ector of product mark et ing ,

con s ume r products, at Netgear,

about how Wi-Fi 6 can upgrade

our home networks

“Wi-Fi 6 is exciting in a number of ways. Although Wi-Fi has been around for 20 years, understanding it has always been a challenge for consumers. This year, the Wi-Fi Alliance has answered the need for clarity by using numbers (4, 5, and 6) to differentiate Wi-Fi generations. It’s a lot easier to understand the step up from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 than 802.11ac to 802.11ax, so we’re really pleased about that progress. Not only that, but it will help with educating consumers on the different speeds and versions available, to ensure that when it’s time to upgrade, they’ll know they are buying the latest standard. “ As you might expect, Wi-Fi 6 brings major improvements in both speed and coverage. While each improves up to four times, of equal importance is that the new standard is much better equipped to deal with the modern home full of connected devices. With the average UK home predicted to have 50 connected devices by 2023, it’s crucial to bring in a standard that has the capacity to deliver great performance under increasing demand.”

TP-Link explains the te chnology by comparing W i- Fi connections to a series of deliver y tru cks that de liver data packets to your devices. In previous versions of Wi-Fi, these delivery trucks could only deliver one parcel to one device at a time. However, with Wi-Fi 6 and OFDMA, each truck can deliver multiple p arcels to multiple devices simultaneously. In the real world, this would certainly speed up Amazon de liveries, but in the case of W i-Fi 6, it leads to more eﬃcient data deli very, and could help boost the speeds of uplo ads and downloa ds.

Bette r ba tt e ry l ife

You might not realise it, but how your device connec ts to Wi-Fi net work s can be one of the bi ggest drains on its batter y life, and with W i-Fi 6, the Target Wake Time (T W T ) feature makes this more eﬃcient . It helps control when mobile devices wake up to send and receive wireless data, and by b etter managing this , those mobile devices can remain in their sleep state for lo nger. This, in turn, leads to noticeably longer batter y lives for your mobile devices.

This technology will also beneﬁt low-powered Internet of Things (IoT) devices. With our homes becoming ever more packed with this k ind of smar t gadget , this is good news.

Should you be ex ci ted ?

For many people, Wi- Fi is something that ’s always there and, most of the time, just work s, so it can b e diﬃcult to get excited about it. However, there are some scenarios where Wi-Fi 6 can really make a diﬀerence. If you live or work in an area with a lot of competing wireless net work s, or your home is full of devices (and people) all hammering the Internet, Wi-Fi 6’s increased speeds and ban dwidths can b e a real bonus. Plus, as our homes be come ever more connec ted with an increasing number of smart d evices, while we also demand more from our net work s and Internet connec tions, thanks to 4K streaming (and upcoming game streaming services such as Google Stadia will add to that strain), Wi-Fi 6 will seem ever more essential.

Few smartphones support Wi-Fi 6,

but we hope that changes soon.

Technology

Wi-Fi 6

December 2019

Page 54

F asci nati ng reports fr om the bl eedi ng edge of t ech

Inn ovation s, cultu r e and geek cultur e explor ed

Join the U K’s leadi ng on li ne t ech c o mmu nity

EXPLORE NEW WORLDS OF TECHNOLOGY

GADGETS, SCIENCE, DESIGN AND MORE

Not your average technology website

www.gizmodo.co.uk

twitter.com/GizmodoUK

facebook.com/GizmodoUK

Page 55

December 2019

Wind ows 1 0

F ree u p some s pac e

FREE UP SOME

SPACE

ou have run out of disk space”. There it is, unequivocal. It wasn’t that long ago that Windows

started popping up “You are running out of disk space” messages, swiftly followed by “Y ou are running very low on disk space”.

1RPDWWHUWKHGD\KDVÀQDOO\ DUULYHG< RXUKDUGGULYHKDVÀQDOO\

run out of space and now you’ve got to do something about it. The question is: what?

These days, running out of disk space should be impossible. With terabytes of storage available to

\RXKRZGR\RXPDQDJHWRÀOOLWDOO

up? One reason might be that you don’t actually have terabytes to start with: perhaps you’re running on a

laptop that only came with 128GB to start with, or a 2-in-1 tablet whose 32GB is barely enough to

ÀW :LQGRZV RQ QHYHU PLQG DQ\

apps or data.

Don’t panic, though, because over the course of the next eight pages we’ll show you everything you need to know to solve the problem. Y ou’ll learn to spot the early warning signs, plus take steps to keep your hard drive as clean as possible. We’ll also examine ways of adding extra storage capacity, enabling you to move your data off your boot drive to free up space. And if all else fails, we’ll show you how to upgrade your PC’s boot drive, plus migrate everything from old to new drive. It’s all here, so turn the page now to solve your disk space issues.

How can you ensure your PC doesn’t run out of

storage capacity? Nick Peers has some pointers…

Page 56

| |

December 2019

Monitor your drive space

Find how what happens when you run out of free space, and how to keep an eye on how much is left

hat low disk space warning we ﬂagged in the introduction is unlikely to be the ﬁrst indication you get that

you’re running out of disk space. It’s not designed to appear until you have 200MB or less free disk space – a mere drop in the ocean these days. Instead, Windows’ ﬁrst warning will likely appear when you open File Explorer to the ‘ This PC’ view to se e your drive’s usage is represented by a red bar rather than the regular blue on e. This appears when your drive has less than 10% free space left, although the seriousness of the warning does depend on the size of the drive. For example, a 64GB drive with un der 6GB l ef t is more worry ing than a 2TB drive with around 180GB free space still available.

More drive alerts

Windows Update will also throw up an alert when it discovers there’s insuﬃcient space to install the latest round of updates – this usually appears when you don’t have secondary storage attached to your PC for it to use as temporar y ﬁle stora ge. It can po p up when there’s as much as 11GB still free on your drive for major feature updates, but of more concern is if it shows when you’re trying to install a cumulative update, which indicates your drive has less than 3GB left.

All computers make use of small

recovery par titions (anywhere from 500MB for a basic Win dows recover y partition to 8GB for a par tition housing the ﬁles needed to reinst all Windows). Sometimes, these re covery par titions can be assigned drive let ters in Windows – often in erro r. Because they’re designed to store speciﬁc ﬁles and not anything else, they can be ﬁlled almost to capacit y, which results in Windows throwing up a low space disk warning.

The solution is simple: t yp e ‘disk’ into the Search box and click ‘Create and format hard disk partitions’ to

open Disk Managem ent. Loc ate your Recovery par tition in the list, then right-click it and choose ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’. Click Remove

An alt ern at ive view

If you’re looking for a slightly different approach to viewing your drive’s makeup, try SpaceSniffer (www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/) instead. It has a more modern user interface, but more importantly provides a visual view that helps

\RXLGHQWLI\ZKLFKIROGHUVFRQWDLQWKHPRVWÀOHV

Again, be sure to run it as an administrator. Unlike WinDirStat you must focus a view on one drive at a time, but thanks to its labelling system it’s easier to spot which folders contain the most data as they’re FOHDUO\QDPHGDQGWKHLUÀOHVL]HOLVWHG6LPSO\ double-click one to zoom in to view its contents or double-click its parent folder (displayed above it) to zoom back out.

,I\RXNQRZZKLFKÀOHVDUHOLNHO\WRWDNHXSPRVW

VSDFHRQ\RXUGULYHXVHWKH)LOWHUER[WRLQSXWDÀOH

type (such as * .mp4) and click the Filter button to focus on that instead. Right-clicking a displayed folder will bring up the File Explorer context menu, allowing you

WRGHOHWHXQZDQWHGÀOHVTXLFNO\LI\RXZLVK

A red ba r in d i ca t es t h a t le s s t h an 10% f re e

space remains on the drive in question.

To conﬁgure Storage Sense, navigate to Settings > System > St o ra g e an d c l ic k ‘ S ho w mo r e c at e go r ie s ’.

Treemapping is a method of displaying hierarchical data , su c h a s t he f o l de r s t r ucture o n a larg e ha r d dr i ve, i n a l o gi c a l way, ma k i n g it e a s y fo r a h um a n to u n d e rs t a nd .

IMAGES: Microsoft, Uderzo, WinDirStat

Page 57

Wind ows 1

F ree u p some s pac

December 2019

View a summary

You can choose to monitor all

GULYHV RU IRFXV RQ D VSHFLÀF GULYH

Make your choice and click OK. Wait

IRU :LQ'LU6WDW WR ÀQLVK LWV DQDO\VLV DQG

you’ll see a three-paned window. The bottom provides a colour-coded ‘map’ of your hard drive according to how it’s being used.

Inves tigate in detail

Click an item on the map and

LWV ÀOHQDPH DQG SDWK ZLOO EH UHYHDOHG

in the top left pane, which shows a traditional folder view. Right-click and choose ‘Zoom in’ to view a map

RI WKH QH[W OHYHO GRZQ HLWKHU D VSHFLÀF

drive or the folder containing your

WDUJHW ÀOH

RHPR Y HODUJHÀOHV

:KHQ\RX·YHLGHQWLÀHGDÀOH

you think is safe to remove, select it and open the Clean Up menu. You can delete it d i rectly from here or

FKRRVH§¶([SORUHU+HUH·WRRSHQD

File Explorer window pointing to the parent folder, allowing you to examine it more closely .

followed by Yes at the warning and ﬁnally OK. Bingo, no more w arnings for that drive.

Monitor disk usage

It’s all very well k nowing that your free space is disappearing, b ut what ’s taking up all that room? Your ﬁrst stop on the quest for knowle dge should be Win dows’ own to ols: nav igate to Settings > System > Storage and af ter a short while, W indows will reveal what type s of ﬁle are tak ing up the most space on your system drive. You’ll see categories for Apps & features and Temporar y ﬁles, and you c an click ‘Show more categories’ for a more pre cise listing of usage by categories as v aried as Mail, Document s and Vid eos.

Click an entry in the list and you ’ll be able to not just view mo re de tail, but take remedial action: fo r e xample, if your Temp ﬁles are gobbling gigaby tes of space, click this to manually clean them up – note, the Temp set ting now covers ﬁles stored in your Downloads

folder, althou gh they are e xcluded by default. A s you’ll see over the page, you should make use of Wind ows’ new Storage Sense feature to manage this automatically, removing temporar y ﬁles as required to prevent your PC from running low on disk space.

Although Windows provides an ‘Other’ view to cover large folders, it ’s not capabl e of easily highlighting those individual ﬁles and folders that are taking up the most space on your hard drive. To s earch for these requires a third-par t y tre e -mapping tool. Tree-

mapping tools provide a visual representation of each ﬁle on your hard drive(s) in the form of block s, with the size of each block corresponding to the size of the ﬁle in question.

One such free tool is WinDirStat (https://windirstat.net / ), w hich you can download and install from its pa rent website or add to your PortableApps toolkit for running on -demand. To add it to your toolk it , o pe n th e Port able Apps platform and click ‘Apps > Get More Apps > By Catego r y ’ – you’ll ﬁnd WinDirStat in the Utilities section . O nce

installed, right-click the program shortcut an d cho ose ‘Run as adminis trato r ’ to all ow it to check your entire drive, then che ck ou t the step-by-s tep guide to ﬁnd out how to use it to both target and – if necessary – de lete in dividual ﬁles. Check out the box for an alternative tool should WinDirStat’s somewhat garish user interface put you oﬀ.

Once you’ve determined where all your drive sp ace has gone, you can move on to decide how to tack le the problem. Turn the p age to ﬁnd out how.

Monitor disk space with WinDirStat

“You should make use of W indows’ new Storage Sense featur e to remove temporary files automatically to prevent y our PC fr om running low on disk space”

Quickly reclaim space

by examining what temporary

ﬁles a re o n yo u r s ys t em a n d

choosing which to remove.

Page 58

$UFK LYH RO G ¾O H V

Another way to save space is to move folder s an d ﬁles on to a secondar y storage dri ve, such as a USB drive. I f you don’t have this luxur y, then save space by zipp ing up these r arely used ﬁles and fo lders instead. R ight-click the item(s) in question and choose ‘Send to > Compresse d (zipp ed) folder’, then wait for it to be combined into a single zip ﬁle. Right-click this and choose Proper ties, then compare its size to the original ﬁle. If there’s a signiﬁcant saving, delete the original ﬁle or fold er, then repeat to keep freeing up more space.

| |

December 2019

reeing up space on your PC has neve r been easier thanks to Windows 10 ’s new Storage Sense feature,

which is designed to render third-par t y apps like CCleaner redundant. Your ﬁrst job, therefore, is to employ i ts s er v ices to f re e up additional space on your drive. Navigate to Settings > System > Storage and click the ‘Conﬁgure Storage Sense or run it now’ link. Flick the Storage Sens e switch on and choose when to run the diskcleaning tool: by default, it ’ll run wh en you run low on disk space, but if you want to take a more pre- emptive approach you can run it monthl y, weekly or even daily.

Scroll down to conﬁgure more options – for example, removing tempor ar y ﬁles, emptying ﬁles fro m the Rec ycle Bin af ter a set period and pe riodically cleaning out the Downloads folder. You can also conﬁgure OneDrive’s on-demand feature so downloade d content revert s to online-o nly if unopene d for 1, 14, 30 or 60 days. Desperate for more sp ace?

Click ‘Clean now’ to per f orm a one time cleanup.

Files on - demand

If you’re a Microsoft OneD rive user, then chances are you’re already taking advantage of a relati vely recent feature known as “on-demand”. Instead of keeping every thing physically stored o n your computer, a series of shortcuts are created instead pointing to the online ﬁles. These take up a frac tion of the space, while ensuring your ﬁles are always accessible (so long as you’re

connected to the internet). Simply open a ﬁle in the normal way and it’ll b e downloaded to your PC, kept there indeﬁnitely or – if conﬁgured as outlined above – until the ﬁle hasn’t been touched for a set perio d, at which point it’ll rever t to online - only to free up space on your PC until you next op en it.

Verify the feature is on by rightclicking the OneDrive icon and choosing Settings > Set tings tab, then ensuring ‘Save space and download ﬁles as you use them’ is ticked.

Track down duplicates

It’s amazing how easily we generate copies of ﬁles – or near-duplicates in the case of digital photos, with multiple attempts to get the p er fec t shot all somehow being left on your drive at the end of the process. In the past we’ve looked to Duplicate Cl eaner Free (ww w. digitalvolcano.co.uk/duplicatecleaner. html) and AntiDupl (https: //ermig1979. github.io/AntiDupl/english/) to cover these bases for free. The Pro version of Duplicate Cleaner – £23.95 – can also hunt out similar ﬁles, but before investing why not give AntiTwin (www. joerg-rosenthal.com/en/antitwin/) a g o?

Despite not having been updated since 2010, this no-frills tool works perf ec tly in Wind ows 10 and can cover all your bases as the step- by-step guide reveals. Your selec tions are clearly marked before you commit to any deleting of ﬁles, and when you click to delete you’re given the option of moving them to a folder on the same drive for transferring elsewhere, sending them to the Recycle bin or de leting them directly.

Look too for the option to replace the ﬁle with a symb olic link to the ﬁle you ’ve kept – this means a program referencing the ﬁle you’ve deleted will be re direc ted to the remaining ﬁle instead, ensuring it continue s to wor k cor re c tly.

Clean up your PC

Before deciding if you need to invest in more storage, make sure you’re not wasting the space you already have

Provide yourself with a safety net before you weed out unwanted duplicates in AntiTwin – just in case.

IMAGE S: M ic r o so f t, Jeor g Ro s e nt h al

If conﬁgured correctly, Storage Sense will do much to tid y u p after you a n d ke e p d ri ve sp a ce f r e e.

Page 59

Remove duplicates with AntiTwin

Wind ows 1 0

F ree u p some s pac e

December 2019

Remove duplicates

5LJKWFOLFNDÀOHWRGHFLGHZKHWKHUWRNHHSRUUHPRYHLW

²\RX·OODOVRVHHRSWLRQVWKDWDOORZ\RXWRPDUNVSHFLÀFIROGHUVDV

duplicates (see main text). After making your selections, use the

OHJHQGWRYHULI\\RX·YHSLFNHGWKHULJKWÀOHVWRGHOHWHEHIRUH FOLFNLQJ¶'HOHWHVHOHFWHGÀOHV·

Review results

If you chose two paths, read the warning, but click OK as

this would only be an issue if they were both pointing to the same

IROGHU$OLVWRIDOOGXSOLFDWHVDQGVLPLODUÀOHVZLOOEHVKRZQ

grouped together. Images can be compared by selecting one to reveal a pop-up window.

Pick your comparison method

%\GHIDXOWÀOHVDUHFRPSDUHGDFFRUGLQJWRWKHLUFRQWHQW RQO\EXW\RXFDQDOVRFRPSDUHE\QDPHDQGÀOHVL]HLI\RXZLVK 7KH¶0DWFKPLQ·ÀJXUHDOORZV\RXWRPDWFKVLPLODUEXWQRW LGHQWLFDOÀOHV²WKLVLVEHVWOHIWIRULPDJHVHDUFKHVRQO\2QFH

done, click the Search button

Wai t for scan

A progress window will appear – don’t be surprised to

VHHLWIUHH]HRFFDVLRQDOO\DVÀOHVDUHFKHFNHG<RXFDQSDXVHRU

cancel the search at any time. After the folder contents have

EHHQUHDGÀOHVZLOOEHFRPSDUHGWRVHHZKLFKDUHGXSOLFDWHV

and (if selected) close matches.

Select hard drive

Open AntiTwin. Click ‘Select folder’ next to ‘Basic folder’ to select the root of your drive if you’re looking to clear up space on one drive only. Tick ‘2nd folder’ to select another folder path or drive if you’re looking to clear space across two hard drives by weeding out duplicates.

Focus search

/HDYH¶,QFOXGHVXEIROGHUV·WLFNHGDQGFOLFNWKH)LOHÀOWHU« EXWWRQ< RXFDQH[FOXGHVPDOOHUÀOHVIURPWKHVHDUFKDQGVSHHG LWXSE\VHWWLQJDPLQLPXPÀOHVL]H&OLFNWKHGURSGRZQDVVKRZQ WRIRFXVRQVSHFLÀFÀOHW\SHVDQGWLFN¶&RPSDUHLPDJHVSL[HOV·LI

you’re looking for visually similar images.

Page 60

| |

December 2019

he march of technology inevitably leads to increased demands on your system, particularly if you’ve discovered a

new space-hungry hobby such as gaming or 4K video editing. If you’re simply looking to expand available stor age for your ﬁles , you have two basic options. The ﬁrs t, of course, is to invest in additional storage. Desktop user s can investigate whether their PC case has the room for a second internal hard drive – with 4TB drives shipping for under £100, you can solve all but the most demanding nee ds with a single purchase.

Before splashing out, power down your PC, open the case and verif y there’s a spare drive bay to ﬁt it in. Also check your power supply has a spare SATA power socket (see photo – if not, Google ‘molex to sata power adapter’ to ﬁnd a cheap adapter) and a spare SATA slot on the motherboard. You’ll also need a SATA data cable – these c an be had for under £1, but make sure it’s SATA III (6Gbps) and consider a rightangled connector on one end for hard-to-reach s ockets.

Alternative upgrades

An internal hard drive is better than an external m odel for reas ons of spee d, but this isn’t always a practical option – for example, if you have a laptop. External drives may be more suited to long-term

storage such as ba ckups or archivin g, but they can at a pinch be used fo r day-to-day use, although it’s still a good idea to keep frequently accessed ﬁles on your internal drive.

If you want to go down the external drive route, then you have two options: USB or NAS. USB prices are incredibly competitive – slightly cheaper, in fact, than internal models – so you c an pay £90 for 4TB or push the boat out and get 6TB for £120. All models should now be USB 3.0, so for best performance be sure to plug them into a USB 3.0 port (typically marked in blue) on your PC.

Expe ct to pay a small premium for smaller, laptop-fr iendly 2. 5-inch e x ternal drives, or consider Network Attached Storage (NAS) instead. These are slower,

Int o the cloud

Another storage location you can make use of is your cloud provider. We’ve already seen how you can use OneDrive to free up space on your computer, and other providers offer similar features within their paid-for plans – Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) calls its equivalent Smart Sync, for example. Here you need to navigate to a folder inside your Dropbox folder, right-click it and choose ‘Smart Sync > Online-only’, or browse to ‘Preferences > Sync’ , select your account and choose ‘Online-only’ to make it the universal default.

If you’d like to access Google Drive or Dropbox folders in this way without a paid account, then for a one-off fee (€35) you can use a brilliant tool called Mountain Duck 3 (download a free trial from https:// mountainduck.io/). This can create a series of virtual drives connecting to a range of online storage services and supports on-demand access like that found in OneDrive across all connected services. Just be sure to

VHW&RQQHFW0RGHWR¶6PDUW6\QFKURQL]DWLRQ·WKHÀUVW

time you connect a new cloud account.

Move your files

7DNHWKHVWUDLQIURP\RXUKDUGGULYHE\PRYLQJ¾OHV elsewhere – on to another drive or into the cloud

Chec k t he p l e t h or a of c a b l es c o mi n g o ut o f yo u r p owe r

supply for the L-shaped SATA power connector.

Mountain Duck can mount your cloud storage as virtual drives, with ﬁles kept online to save space.

Page 61

“In most cases, your new data drive will be slower

than your Windows drive, particularly if you boot

from an SSD , so be prepared for a performance hit”

Wind ows 1

F ree u p some s pac

December 2019

Set up new folders

You can choose to monitor all

GULYHVRUIRFXVRQDVSHFLÀFGULYH

Make your choice and click OK. Wait

IRU:LQ'LU6WDWWRÀQLVKLWVDQDO\VLVDQG

you’ll see a three-paned window. The

bottom provides a colour-coded ‘map’

of your hard drive according to how it’s

being used.

Mov e us er folders

Browse back to This PC. Rightclick Documents and choose Properties > Location tab. Click Move… to browse to and select the Documents folder you just created. Click ‘Select Folder’ followed by Apply. When prompted,

FOLFN<HVWRPRYH\RXUÀOHVDQGIROGHUV

to your new drive.

Rinse, repeat

Now repeat the process for all the other folders listed – be prepared for a long wait if you have large folders to move across to your new drive. The

EHQHÀWRIWKLVDSSURDFKLVWKDWRQFH

complete, you’ll have freed up space on your system drive without having to delete anything.

Move data to a new drive

but use your network conne ction , so may be a more practic al alternative should you not wish to have your laptop permanently connec ted to a USB drive.

Once your new drive is set up, you’ll want to transfer your data across – the step-by-s tep guide below reveals how to do this for all your user folders, which are where the bulk of your data can be found.

Move some apps

If you’re running Windows on a very small boot drive – say 32GB – then it’s not enough to move data oﬀ your system drive, you’ll quickly run out of space for new apps too. Where it’s not possible to upgrade your system drive for a larger model (see over the page), you can also investigate ways of moving your programs from your system drive to your data one. One caveat: in most cases, your new data drive will be slower than your Windows drive, particularly if you bo ot from an SSD, so be prepared for a performance

hit and try to keep those apps you us e most often on your b oot drive.

There are two ways to move apps to a new drive: ﬁrst, Windows Store apps (including those pre -ins talled w ith your PC like Photos) can sometimes be moved via ‘Set tings > Apps > Apps & features’. Click the app in question and look for a Move button – if it ’s not greyed out, click it, selec t which drive to move it to and ﬁnally click Move again.

Regular programs are s o well integrated into the operating system that you can’t simply move their folder

from the Program Files folder to your new drive. One option might be to uninstall and reinstall, bu t that comes at a cost of losing your preferences and assumes the program in questio n allows you to choose where to reinstall the program too.

A simpler, foolproof option is to use SteamMover (www.traynier.com/ soft ware /steammover). This clever tool moves your program ﬁles to your data drive but leaves a “symbolic link” in it s place. This shortcut fools Windows into thinking the programs are still o n your C

drive, so they continue to work seamlessly. It’s easy to use: click ‘…’ under ‘Steam Apps Common Folder’ and select C:\Program Files, Ctrl-click on the programs you plan to move based on their size and how fre quently you use them, then click the right arrow button to move them all across. Changed your mind? Simply select your program and click the lef t ar row button to move it back, no questions asked. Windows 64-bit users should also check the C:\Program Files(x86) folder for 32-bit apps to move.

Steam M ove r al l ows y ou t o m ove a ny pr o g ra m on yo u r P C to a n ot h e r d ri ve wi t h o ut r e i ns t al l in g i t .

Page 62

“Switching from a hard drive to an SSD is like leaving the Stone Age. Windows loads in under a minute”

| |

December 2019

hy not turn your problem of storage space – or lack of it – into an opportunit y? If you’ve not done so

already, now is the perf ec t tim e to investigate one of the most eﬀe ctive upgrades money can buy: a fast solid-state hard drive to run Windows and your programs on. Switching from a clunky old hard drive to a SSD is like leaving the Stone Age. Windows lo ads in under a minute, ap ps open in a mat ter of seconds and your computing life is no longer held up by clicking and waiting for ﬁles to load.

With SSD prices tumb ling to put even relatively large amounts of storage space in your hands for a mo dest sum, there’s never been a bet ter time to make the move. T he upside? Your old drive can stay in use as a dedicate d drive for dat a, with tens – if not hundreds – of gigaby tes of space freed up by moving Windows and your programs to the new drive.

It’s a three-s tep pro cess: ﬁr st, work out what your PC c an accommodate and pick the appropriate drive for the task. Once done, investigate the p ractic alities of ﬁtting it to your PC, and th en ﬁnally follow a method for migrating every thing (or the key elem ents) of your old drive to the new one.

Choosing the right drive

If you’re a laptop user, you’re basically looking for a larger single drive to accommodate Win dows, applications and a decent amount of pe rsonal data.

This may involve moving from a relatively small SSD drive (say 128GB or less) or migrating from a large (say 1TB or larger), but cumbersome drive. As always, while it’s tempting to save money in the shor t term, tr y to stretch your budget to futurep roof your purchase for as l ong as possibl e. W ith 500GB SSD drives weighing in at un der £60, this should really b e your minimum spec. Increase your budget to £100 and you’ll ﬁnd several 1TB SSD drives f alling within your grasp too. You’ll then need to invest in a USB or NAS drive for those ﬁles you access less f reque ntly.

If you’re look ing to upgrade a desktop PC, then check to see if your case can accommodate a second drive in ad dition to your current one. Chances are it can, giv ing you get the best of both worlds: a new SSD drive that can be smaller (say 256GB, or 500GB for those with a gaming habit or the need to run virtual machines), p lus your old drive now e xclusively used for data storage.

If you have a modern PC with support for the M2 NVMe interface (a small slot on the b oard into which SSD drives shaped like RAM sticks are plu gged), then pay the small premium for this type of SSD storage as it’s up to six times faster than SSD, never mind regular hard drives. Samsung’s 970 EVO Plus is currentl y the best – 256G B w ill set you back around £75, and 500G B around £120.

Fitting the drive

The step -by -step guide opposite reveals how to clone your drive using Macrium Reﬂec t Free. There’s one major caveat here: both o ld and new drives need to be connec ted to your PC at the same time. For d esk top us ers, this means screwing in your new drive to an available 2. 5- inch o r 3. 5 -inch bay if connected via SATA , o r c arefully slot ted into the NVMe slot b efore being pushed down and held horizontally in place using the s crew sup plied.

Laptop users have a choice: if you plan to keep the old drive as additional storage, invest £10-15 in a cheap USB 3.0

2.5- inch enclosure and ﬁt the new drive in there. If not, purchase a USB-to-SATA adapter from eBay for as little as £3 online and use that to temporaril y connect your new dri ve to a spare USB port . O nce the old drive has be en cloned to the new one, s wap the t wo around and your laptop should boot with all settings and data intac t.

Upgrade your hard drive

Another way to increase storage is to migrate Windows to a separate, faster SSD drive

Watch Wi n do ws 10 (and s t artup ap ps) l oa d i n u nd e r 30 seconds with NVME storage like this Samsung.

2.5-inch drive enclosures are relatively cheap, cer ta i nl y p l e nt i f ul , a n d ea s y t o sl o t yo u r dr iv e in to .

This £3 adapter makes it easy to attach any bare drive to your PC or laptop’s USB port.

Page 63

Wind ows 1 0

F ree u p some s pac e

December 2019

Migrate to a new drive

Fit new SSD drive

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

Wai t as driv e is cloned

Click Finish. Untick ‘Save backup and schedules as an XML

%DFNXS'HÀQLWLRQ)LOH·DQGFOLFN2.WRSHUIRUPWKHFORQLQJ RSHUDWLRQ(DFKSDUWLWLRQLVFRSLHGLQWXUQDTXLFNÀOHFKHFNLV

performed and then the actual cloning process will take place. Be patient – this may take some time.

Select partitions to clone

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

Set target disk

Select your new SSD drive – the one with no partitions assigned. Drag each partition across – you will need to click ‘Cloned Partition Properties’ to resize your main partition after dragging it across. Set ‘Free Space’ to match (in MB) the last

SDUW LWLRQ·VVL]HFOLFN2.DQGGUDJWKHÀQDOSDUWLWLRQLQWRSODFH

Partition old drive

Desktop users planning to migrate Windows and apps to

D66'GULYHZKLOHOHDYLQJWKHLUGDWDEHKLQGVKRXOGÀUVWXVH

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free (www.partitionwizard.com): choose ‘Split Partition’ and drag the slider as far left as it can go. Click OK followed by Apply. Reboot when prompted.

Move data to new partition

Once complete, follow the guide on page 61 on moving data to your new drive, using your newly created partition as the target. Next, download and install Macrium

5HÁHFW)UHHIURPZZZPDFULXPFRPUHÁHFWIUHHDVS[LI\RX·YH

not already done so.

Page 64

WI NDOWS H ELP HARDWARE FIXES SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS I NTERNET TIPS

IMAGES: Paciﬁc Mountain Productions, TagLine Television, NBC Universal, MSI, Microsoft

Windows

STOP SHARING A WINDOWS ACCOUNT

My wife and I share a Googl e

account, email and so on, but I use Windows 10 on a PC in my study and she uses the same o n a laptop in the lounge.

She has recently upgrade d to a new laptop which I set up for her, but whereas her previous laptop had her name on the welcome screen, it now has mine, as it

appears on my own PC welcome screen. Is there any way we can change the welcome screen name on my wife’s laptop?

Martin Gulliver

Ian’s solution

This occurs because you’re sharing the same

Microsof t Account to log into both PCs. The logical step is to set your wife up with her own Microsof t Account. If you g o d ow n

this route, start by copying everything inside C:\Users\martin into the C:\Users\Public folder, then use CloneApp (ww w.mirinsoft.com/ ms-apps/cloneapp) to back up any program settings you can’t easily recreate in the new user account.

Once done, create the new account via ‘Settings > Accounts > Family & other users’ (click ‘Add a family member’, choose ‘Add an adult’ and then click ‘The person who I want to add doesn’t have an email address’ before following the prompts to create the account, making sure they have administrator access).

Once done, log oﬀ the Martin account, then log on as your wife. Navigate to C:\users\Public to copy the folders to your new user account. Verify all her existing progra ms are p res ent – some may need reinstalling if they were installed for a single user rather than all users – and then ﬁnally run CloneApp to restore her preferences.

Once you’re happy everything has been transferred across, clean

Do you have a PC problem? Get in touch…

Email full details of your problem to the support team and we’ll do our best to help

windowsmagazine@ futurenet.com

FREE PLAYER Play

video DVDs on

your PC with VLC.

| |

Dec ember 20 1 9

Page 65

Jargon buster!

things up by emptying the Public folder and then deletin g th e old user account via ‘Settings > Accounts > Family & other users’.

Microsoft Store

DVD PLAYER APP MISSING

I purchased the Windows DVD

Player app fro m the Mi croso ft Store, paying £12.49 by PayPal. A few days a g o, I was forced to reset my laptop, after which this app had disappeared. I’ve tried to get help from Microsoft support, b u t it’s been a ver y f r ustrating exercise. Can you please help?

Will Jobling

Cat’s solution

Ordinarily, any sof tware you’ve purch ased

through the Microsoft Store should b e available to download again after reins t alling Windows – open the Store, verify you’re lo gg ed into the correct account and then click the ‘…’ button and choose ‘My Libr ary’ to view all previous purchases and installations. Select ‘Ready to install’ to ﬁlter the list f urther if necessary.

After Micros oft instructed Will to pay for the app again, he decided to look elsewhere. Luckily, armed with our advice he was more than happy to install the completely free VLC Media Player (www.videolan.org/vlc) ins tead.

Hardware

PC SLOW TO REACH POST

I’ve just bought a new PC with MSI X470 Gaming Pro

motherboard, and it ’s lightning

quick – except for one crucial aspect . It t akes as lo ng (around 20 seconds) to display the POST as it does to boot into Windows. Can you help eliminate this annoying delay?

Frank Charlton

Carrie’s solution

Sadly, this is normal behaviour on many MSI

motherboards, b u t th ere are some things you can do to improve matters – one of which is to head into the BIOS, switch to the Boot tab and ensure ‘B oot m ode select ’ is set to UEFI as opposed to ‘Legacy + UEFI’. Frank had also installed a BIOS u pdate to extend compatibility to the latest R yzen

Quic kfire questi ons

FIND THE SOLUTION! Simple spreadsheets with Excel Easy

Visit www.excel-easy.com for a website devoted to providing beginner-friendly advice to using Microsoft Excel.

How do I verify that Comod o Internet Securit y is r unning my browser in a sandbox?

Sarah Hadley

Open the Comodo widget, then click the browser shortcut icon to open it within Comodo’s sandboxed virtual desktop. You should see a green border around the program window.

How do I restore an earlier version of a note in Joplin?

Dev Lawford

Click the ‘i’ button to open the note’s properties, then click ‘Previous versions of this note’ – use the dropdown menu to review diﬀerent versions, then click Restore.

“A Wi-F i booster simply acts to relay signals to hard-to-reach places”

POST

Power On S e lf Test, a series of hardware checks p e rformed by your PC’s motherboard before Windows star t s to load.

GPT

Stands for GUID Partition Table and is the current standard for arranging partitions on a computer’s hard disk.

LEGACYFREE Switch to pure

UEFI for faster boot times.

DISABLE MIC

Audio problems in

games may down

to your headset.

Support

Technical help

December 2 01 9

Page 66

Create hotstring

Hotstrings work in the same way as autocorrect entries in Word. Click the ‘+’ button to create your first hotstring. Type the shortcut or frequently misspelled word into the Hotstring box and the correct text where directed.

First steps

After installing (or adding to your portable toolkit), launch Texter – it’ll appear in your Taskbar notification area. First steps is to right-click this icon and choose Manage Hotstrings to bring up the main Texter Management window.

GET A SYSTEMWIDE AUTOCORRECT TOOL

Can you sugges t a free autocorrect tool th at works

outside of Microsof t Word?

Peter Hope

Cat’s solution

Try Texter – visit http://bit.ly/texter-win

for download links. Although 12 years old, it works perf ectly in Windows 10. It’s a text substitution app that saves you countless keystrokes by replacing abbreviations with commonly used phrases you deﬁne. Here’s a quick guide to how it works.

Quic kfire questi ons

It also alleges to provide a stronger, faster broadband download speed. This suggests that broadband providers don’t give you the speed initially promised?

Harold Haywood

Alex’s solution

Wi-Fi signal boosters have no eﬀect on the

speed of your internet connection as it’s delivered to your home by your broadband provider, but they can improve download speeds over Wi-Fi. To see how this works, ﬁrst visit ww w.speedtest.net in your browser on a PC connecte d to your router modem via Ethernet cable. The results here provide the benchmark speed of your intern e t connection to your home.

Now repeat the test on a Wi-Fi-enabled device (if you’re on a mobile, install the free Speedtest app) at diﬀerent points in your

Whatever I do, I can’t get OneDrive to open. I’ve downloaded and reinstalled it, but still: nothing. I’m running Windows 10 Pro.

John Perkin

Press [Win] + [R], typ e ‘gpedit . msc’ and hit [Enter]. Navigate to Administr a ti ve Templates\ Windows Components\ OneDrive under Computer Conﬁguration, double-click ‘Prevent the usage of OneDrive for File Storage’ and set it to Disabled. Click OK.

After inst alling the 1903 update, my taskbar and Start menu are now light grey. How can I change this to something less insipid?

Helen Foster

Navigate to Setting s > Personalisation > Colours . S e t Dark mode as your default, then scroll down, choose a diﬀerent accent colour and then tick ‘Start, taskbar and action centre’ to apply it to these elements.

How can I display the diﬀerence in time between two dates in Microsoft Excel?

Brian Willock

Use the DATEDIF function – for example, =DATEDIF(D9, E9, “d”) returns the diﬀerence between the dates in cells D9 and E9 in days. See http://bit.ly/datedifexcel for a complete guide.

3000-series chips – unless you’re intending to install such a chip, we recommend avoiding this update as it’s also been known to slow down the POST process.

Gaming

BLUETOOTH AUDIO PROBLEM

When using my Bluetooth

headphones and playing a game, the sound often cut s out when the game starts, having played perfectly well before opening the game, and on the game’s menu screen. Open the game, however, and after a short crackle it’s completely silent. This behaviour isn’t consistent with every game and makes me wonder if it’s something to do with DirectX. Any pointers?

Dean Vineen

Nick P’s solution

We traced the cause of this problem to the

Bluetooth headphones’ built-in mic. Many us ers have complained of similar issues, and the workaround for those who don’t use the mic is to simply disable it: right-click the speaker icon in the Taskbar notiﬁcation area and choose ‘Open Soun d s e ttings’. Scroll down to the Related Settings section and click ‘ S oun d Control Panel’. Switch to the Recording tab, right-click your Headset’s entry and choose Disable, which should resolve the problem.

Internet

CAN WIFI BOOSTERS IMPROVE MY INTERNET CONNECTION?

There have been numerous

adverts re lating to a Superbooster W i-Fi booster that claims to provide stronger broadband throughout the house.

EXTEND RANGE

Improve wireless performance with a Wi-Fi booster.

| |

Dec ember 20 1 9

Page 67

Jargon buster!

Function (spreadsheet)

Spreadsheet formulae are used to calculate the value of a cell. Functions are predeﬁned formulae that simplify this.

Sandbox

A virtual container inside which programs can b e r un in complete isolation. Untrusted applic ati o ns c a n be tested without worrying about introducing problems – including malware – to the rest of the system.

Test your hotstrings

Open any program and type the misspelling or hotstring before (if applicable) clicking the trigger key. You’ll see the text magically change along with a sound effect. Choose Tools > Preferences to configure Texter further.

Set trigger

You’ll see four options for triggers: pressing [Enter,] [Tab], or [Space], or ‘Instant’ which means the text is automatically changed as soon as it’s typed. We’d recommend ‘Instant’ for misspelled entries only; other shortcuts should have a trigger.

“Another reason for sourcing and downloading drivers yourself is t o troubleshoot hardware pr oblems ”

home. You’ll see the results vary, with download speeds dropping oﬀ the further you travel from your router. A Wi- Fi b o oster simpl y acts to relay signals to hard -to-reach places in your home, bo osting download speeds to the levels enjoyed by your w ired d evices.

Windows

DUALBOOT WINDOWS 7 AND WINDOWS 10

The pressure to upgrade is

mounting, but I’m not ready to give up o n Windows 7 yet. I’d like to install a second SSD in my PC and install Windows 10 on a separate drive. Is there some way to choose w hi c h system to boot into on s t artup?

Tim Kaye

Ian’s solution

First, install your new drive and boot into

Windows 7. Press [Win] + [R], typ e ‘diskmgmt.msc’ and hit [Enter]. Scroll down to locate the new drive. Right-click the drive’s unallocated space and choose Initialise. Choos e ‘GPT (GUID Partition Table)’ and click OK. Next, prepare your Windows installation media on DVD or USB ﬂash drive using the Media Creation Tool (http://bit.ly/msmctool).

Following on from this, reb oot with the installation media plugged in and opt to b oot from the drive when prompted. Now simply follow through a regular Windows install pro cess: choos e custom when prompted and be sure to select your new dri ve as the target for the new installation . The installer will d e tect the presence of Windows 7 and will set up a dual-b oot menu to allow you to switch between Windows 7 and 10 each time you start your PC.

Hardware

UPD ATING DRIVERS

What’s your recommendation

on updating drivers? Let Windows Up date handle it, use a third-party too l like D r i ver B ooster, or some other option?

Ebi Baqri

Nick O’s solution

Broadly speaking, if your comp u ter is

working as you expect it to, then it’s best to leave Wi n dows Update in charge of driver updates. There are, of course, exceptions. If you’re a gamer, for example, then you’ll want the latest graphics drivers your card support s – ins t all the latest one from NVIDIA or AMD and it ’ll w ill keep itself updated going forward.

Another reason for sourcing and downloading drivers yourself is to troubleshoot problems you believe related to hardware. Start by visiting the suppor t o r d ownl o a ds section of the re l evant manufacturer – peripheral, component, motherboard or PC – to see if newer drivers are available (along with tools for keeping those drivers updated in the future).

Tools like DriverBooster (www.iobit.com/ en/driver-booster. php) come into their own for keeping all your drivers updated for perf o r mance reasons, b ut als o come in handy when you’re struggling to ﬁnd drivers for your system – for example, wh en your hardware manufacturer stops supporting a particular product.

UPDATE DRIVERS DriverBooster can track down elusive driver updates.

Do you have a PC problem? Get in touch…

Email full details of your problem to the support team and we’ll do our best to help:

windowsmagazine@ futurenet.com

Or write to the support team and we’ll do our best to help:

Support Squad, Windows Help & Advice magazine, Future Publishing Ltd, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA 1 1A U

Support

Technical help

December 2 01 9

Page 68

*Free issues not available on Zinio.

AVAILABLE ON YOUR DEVICE NOW

MONTHLY SUB SC RIPTION :

£1 . 99 – SAVE 38%

SINGLE ISSUE: £2.49

GET OUR

DIGITAL EDITION!

(READ ON YOUR PC AT ZINIO.COM OR PLAY.GOOGLE.COM)

WHEN Y OU

TODA Y*

TWO

FREE

ISSUES

Page 69

WINDOWS 10 TIPS FEA TURES EXPLAINED NEW TIPS AND TRICKS

Welcome

Windows 1 0 is always evolving, and looks quite different to the way it did back in 2015.

It’s alwa ys worth install ing the latest security and cumulative updat es for your PC – the benefits far outweigh any dangers, and problem updates can easily be rolled back. Big feature updates aren’t to be feared either , even if they can take a long time to download.

On p70 we find out how to repair Windows 1 0 without rein stal l ing , while on p7 2 we perform a full, destructive rein stal l of the OS. Fina ll y, p7 4 has a guide to all the other reinstall and recov ery options.

Matt Hanson

Associate Editor

)HD ʤ ʦ ʢʖ Q ɒ

Windows 10 tip of the month Switc h between lig ht and dark modes

It seems like everything has a dark mode these days, especially if you’ve got an Android phone. F acebook, Twitter, even the Chrome browser can be set to use dark colours. Windows 10 has one too, but the May 2019 update introduced the complete opposite – a light mode that introduces a new, brighter version of the default blue WIndows logo wallpaper and some lighter shades of grey throughout.

The da rk side , and the light

Windows 10

DARK MOD E Search for and open t he Settings app,

then under Personalization, click on Colors.

LIGHT MODE You’ll ﬁnd switches to change both

Wind ows itse l f and ap p s from d a rk to li gh t mode.

:ɰOFʝȷ ɏɏɏ WWɛɛ

www.facebook.com/windowsmag

SEE PA GE 12

Image credits: Microsoft

GR EAT

FREE APPS

December 2019

70 Repair a faul ty

Windo ws insta ll ati on

72 A full, destructive,

reinstall at ion

4 Ot h er re in sta l l at i on

and recovery options

Page 70

| |

December 2019

Repair a Windows install

,I\RX ¶UHWU\LQJWR¾[DSUREOH PDUH IU HVKRUUHS D L ULQ VWDO OP D \EHWKH EHVWURXWHWRJRGRZQ+HUH¶VZKDW\RXQHHGWRGR«

ot all reinstalls require a complete wipe of your hard drive. A repair or refresh installation leaves your programs,

settings and ﬁles in place, and restricts it self to inst alling a fresh copy of your Windows ﬁles over the top of your existing copy. If your problem is linked to a corrupt ﬁle or Windows setting, the rep air installation can usually ﬁx it.

All repair installs share one common characteristic: you must launch them from Windows itsel f. You can’t boot from your install me dia and repair Windows through that; you need to boot into Windows, then st ar t the repair process from there. If you’re unable to boot into Windows, theref ore, you’ll need to skip to page 72 and perform a full destruc tive recover y instead.

Start the repair

Starting a repair install varies dep ending on your PC model and what version of Windows you’re running. Windows 8.1 and 10 users should (at least initially) avoid the Refresh/Reset options provided under Set tings > ‘Up date & recovery’. These options will preserve your ﬁles and any apps you’ve installed through the Microsof t Store, but any desktop pro grams you’ve inst alled will be wiped along with Windows itself.

Instead, you should ‘upgrade’ your

copy of Windows, which performs a

similar non-d estruc tive reinstall to Refresh/Res et with the add ed bo nus that your apps – including those you’ve installed outside of the Microsof t Store – will be preserved. To do so, you’ll need your Windows installation media – see the step-by-s tep guide on the facing page if you don’t have the latest version.

Why do you need the latest ins tall media? It’s because upgra de installs only work if the version of Windows on your PC matches that on your install media, so if you’ve installed Service Pack 1 in Windows 7, for e xample, you nee d up-to- date inst allation m edia to avoid

the laborious task of ﬁrst at tempting to uninstall Ser vice Pack 1 through Windows Update (assuming that you’re able to), then reinstalling Windows and

P o st-r e pa i r st e p s

Start by stress-testing your desktop to verify that everything works as it should – sometimes the repa ir can introduce more problems than it solves, in which case if you’re running Windows 8.1 or 10 you can undo the changes. Go to Start > Settings > ‘Update & recovery’ > Recovery and look for an option to go back to your previous version – click ‘Get started’ and then follow the prompts.

If the repair doesn’t appear

WRÀ[\RXUXQGHUO\LQJSUREOHP

Windows 8.1 and 10 users can take o ne m o re inter med i a t e step – the reset or repair. It will

see you waving goodbye to all those desktop programs you’ve

LQVWDOOHGLQFOXGLQJ062IÀFH

and your third-party security software), but it will preserve

\RXU0LFURVRIW6WRUHDSSVÀOHV

and Windows settings. Leave your install media inserted, then head over to the ‘Update & recovery’ > Recovery section under Settings. This time, click the ‘Get started’ button under the Refresh (Windows 8.1) or Reset (Windows 10) option and follow the prompts.

If this more drastic approach doesn’t work, or you’re running Windows 7, then to page 72 for destructive reinstall options.

Windows 10 users can launch a repair install directly from the Media Creation Tool.

Both Windows

8.1 and 10

oﬀer a similar way to repair

your Wind ow s

installation.

Windows 8.1 and 10 users can perform a more drastic repair install via the Re s et o r R e fr e s h op t i o n – be w a rn e d , yo u ’l l l os e yo u r de s k t o p ap p s .

All image credits: Microsoft

Page 71

Basic

5H SDL UD:LQGR ZVLQ VWD

December 2019

Windows 10

Head to www.microsoft.com/

software-download/windows10 and

click ‘Download tool now’. Once downloaded, open MediaCreation Tool.

H[H :KHQ SURPSWHG VHOHFW ¶&UHDWH

installation media’ and follow the prompts

WR FUHDWH HLWKHU D 86% ÁDVK GULYH RU DQ ,62 ÀOH IRU EXUQLQJ WR '9'

Windows 8.1

Download the Media Creation Tool from www.microsoft.com/ software-download/windows8 – input your language, edition of Windows 8.1 and PC architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) and

WKHQ FOLFN 1H[W &KRRVH WR FUHDWH HLWKHU D 86% ÁDVK GULYH RU DQ ,62 ÀOH DQG WKHQ

follow the prompts to the end.

Windows 7

Go to www.microsoft.com/

software-download/windows7 and

enter your product key – choose a 32-bit or 64-bit version as required.

2QFHGRZQORDGHGGRXEOHFOLFNWKHÀOH WREXUQWR'9'RUXVHWKH:LQGRZV86%

Download Tool (https://wudt.codeplex. comWRFUHDWHD86%ÁDVKGULYH

then downloading and reinstalling Service Pack 1, along with all of your other updates.

Windows 10 users can also launch the repair process directl y from the Me dia Creation Tool by choosing Upgrade when prompted, but given the amount of time it takes to download the ﬁles, you might as well create your install media instead – just in case the up grade install doesn’t work and you de cide to go down the path of a full -blow n destructive install.

Launch the repair process

The procedure fro m this point onwards varies according to which version of Windows that you have. If prompted to download updates, do so to save time post-install.

Windows 8.1 and 10 us ers will b e

asked what they want to keep. Windows

8.1 users should ﬁnd settings, personal ﬁles and ap plications are selec ted by default (click ‘Change settings’ if this isn’t the c ase), while it ’s ‘ Keep personal

ﬁles and apps’ in the case of Windows 10 (don’t worry, in this circumstance, ‘apps’ also applies to any desk top programs that you have installed).

Windows 7 users ne ed to pop in their install me dia, double- click setup.exe and follow the regular reinstall process. When prompte d, click ‘Go online to get the latest updates for installation (recommended)’ to download post-SP1 security ﬁxes now, then accept the licence agreement and choose Upgrade when prompted.

The upgr ade process can take up to an hour on whichever version of Windows you’re repairing, even on the fastest machine, so be patient. Your PC will rebo ot s everal tim es. If you’re reinstalling Windows 7, you’ll be prompte d to ente r your produ c t key again, so have it handy.

Windows 8.1 and 10 will relaunch with the same setup wi zard you’d see when upgrading f rom an earlier version of Windows. It ’s all very straightfor ward, but don’t skip throu gh the Exp ress

settings (if they appear); make sure you review all settings to lock down p rivac y.

If all goes well, you should ﬁnd yourself at the desk top, ready to see if your proble m has been ﬁxed – star t by seeing if the spe ciﬁc issue that you were experiencing be fore has been solved, then check to see that the rest of Windows still works as it should – if it ’s not, follow the adv ice in the ‘Post-repair steps’ box on the facing pag e. T here’s also a possibility – par ticularl y w ith Windows 7 – that the repair install will result in a non- booting PC. If this happens, dig out the rescue m edia you created using Macrium Reﬂ ec t Free (see page 51 of issu e 146 for how to do this) and use it to res tore the drive imag e yo u took before embarking on the repair. Then turn the pag e for more options.

Get the latest install media

“Start by seeing if the specific issue has been solved, then check t o see that the rest of Windows still works ”

Choose the Upgrade option when prompted to repair Windows 7.

Page 72

| |

December 2019

A full, destructive reinstall

,I\RX ¶UHORRN LQ JW RZLSHWKHV O D W HFO H D QRUQHHGWRU HFRYHUIURP PDMRU LV V XH VWKHQX F OHDURSWLRQL VDO Z D \VWKHEHVWRQH

einstalling Windows from scratch – namely, wiping your system drive to install a fresh version of Windows on to it – is

the ultimate choice for anyone looking to revive a slow PC or resolve a major, non-hardware issue. Here we’ll step you through the entire process – if you’re simply looking to repair an existing Windows ins tall, turn to our guide on page 70.

Before you begin, make sure your PC is fully backed up by foll owing the ‘ Back up Windows 10’ tutorial on page 43 of issue 148. A full reinstall really is destructi ve – nothing lef t on your C drive will exist once you’ve ﬁnished.

If you’d like to transfer selected program set tings from o ld installatio n to new, download the portable CloneApp tool (www.mirinsoft.com) to your backup drive. Once complete launch the tool by right-clicking CloneApp.exe and choosing ‘Run as adminis trator ’ and go through its list of 247 supported apps to see if yours are there. If any are, tick the box beside each one you want to save the settings for. If any apps aren’t covered – or you want to back up additional settings – then cho ose Custom where you manually specif y the ﬁles, folders and Regis tr y keys where your program set tings are stored . You should also follow the step-by-step guide on page 71 to ensure you have the latest installation media for your

target version of Windows. T his will ensure a cleaner, more up-to-date installation from the oﬀ.

It’s also worth sourcing networking and graphics drivers now rather than relying on Windows. Consult your PC or motherboard manufac turer’s website for these, or visit your Wi- Fi adapter o r graphics card manufac turer’s site – download them to your backup drive.

Uninstall any produc ts that require activation – this should deac tivate the licences and allow you to use them with your new install. Be sure to have pro duc t keys and program installer s to hand.

START YOUR REINST ALL

A full destruc tive reinstall should always be started by booting from your installation m edia, be it a DVD or USB

Restor e progra ms, settings and data

Once Windows is reinstalled, open Windows Update to bring Windows fully up to date – don’t be surprised if there are hundreds of updates still to apply in the case of Windows 7 and 8.1. Once it’s fully up to date, consider reinstalling

0DFULXP5HÁHFW)UHHDQG WDNLQJ\RXUÀUVWGULYHLPDJH

– a vanilla backup you can restore in future instead of reinstalling Windows itself.

1H[WLW·VDFDVHRI

reinstalling your core apps. Once in place, open CloneApp from your data drive. If you click the Restore button, every single program setting you

backed up will be restored – if there are any backup settings you don’t want to restore, select Options to locate the backup folder, then open it and move any program folders you want to ignore out of the folder temporarily before clicking the Restore button. Now, take your second

0DFULXP5HÁHFWEDFNXS²D

‘perfect’ snapshot, as it were.

)LQDOO\RSHQ)LOH+LVWRU\RU

the Windows Backup and Restore tool and take steps to restore any data you backed up, then make sure the tool is

FRQÀJXUHGWRFDUU\RQEDFNLQJ

up going forward.

Windows 10 users can launch a repair install directly from the Media Creation Tool.

Win

dows 7 and 8.1

users will ﬁnd a large number of updates waiting

to be installed

after reinstalling.

Open File History, link it to your previous backup and then you can

restore all your data back to its original location with one click.

All image credits: Microsoft

Page 73

Basic

$IXOOG HVWUXFWLY HLQ VWD

December 2019

Reboot for media

If you’re running Windows 7, or

KDYH )DVW %RRW GLVDEOHG LQVHUW \RXU ERRW

media and start your PC. Look for a ‘Press

DQ\ NH\ WR ERRW IURP &' RU '9'· RSWLRQ HYHQ LI \RX·YH ERRWHG IURP D 86% ÁDVK GULYH ² SUHVV WKH NH\ DQG \RX VKRXOG ÀQG

the Windows install process starts.

Tweak boot options

If you boot back into Windows,

restart your PC again, but this time press

D NH\ VXFK DV >)@ ZKHQ SURPSWHG WR

open a boot menu. Do so, select your

ERRW PHGLD FKRRVH 8(), LI WKH RSWLRQ

appears) to boot; otherwise, enter Setup to change the boot device order.

Windows 8.1/10

,I)DVW%RRWLVHQDEOHGRSHQ

Settings in Windows and navigate to ‘Update & recovery’ > Recovery, then click ‘Restart now’ under ‘Advanced start-up’. When the boot op ti ons ap pear, choose

¶8VHDGHYLFH·WRVHOHFW\RXU86%ÁDVK GULYHRU'9'IURPWKHOLVW

ﬂash drive. Check the step-by-step guide on page 71 for some pointers. The reinstall process do esn’t diﬀer much across Windows 7, 8 .1 or 10. You’ll be asked to verify your language, location and keyboard are s et correc tly, then it’s a case of clicking Install Now. If prompted, enter your produc t key or click Skip if you’re running Windows 10 on a PC you upgraded during the f ree period. When asked what t y pe of installation you wish to per for m, choose the Custom option.

Next comes the trick iest p art of the process. A list of drives and partitions will appear – you need to se lec t the one Windows is currently install ed on. B y default, it should be detected and selected , but verif y it ’s correct befo re clicking Format (click the advanced Drive Options button if it’s not visible). Click ‘OK’, then once formatted, verif y the drive is still selec ted and click Ne x t. You’ll see a check list of task s to b e perfo rmed – sit b ack and wait. W hen Windows rebo ots, you may a ‘press any

key’ prompt to boot from CD or DVD. Ignore and let the installer continue.

SET UP POST-INSTALL

The post-setup prompt begins with Windows 7 users b eing p rompted fo r their produc t key, then it’s a case of setting up a user account. W indows 8.1 users will get an Exp ress S et tings prompt – click the option to customise these and go through them caref ully.

Post-Creators Up date, Wind ows 10 no longer gives you an Express Settings

option. For now, conﬁrm your l ocation and keyboard, set up your net work if required and choose ‘personal use’ when prompted. You c an either sign in with your Microsof t account or click ‘Oﬄine account’ > ‘Maybe later’ if you plan to s tick with the old-st yl e W indows 7 local user account. If you opt for the Microsoft account option now is a goo d time to s et up a PIN to spe ed up future logins (note: the PIN is tie d sp eciﬁc ally to this PC , and you can always by pass it using your re gular account password

should you fo rget it at any point). You’ll then be asked to set up Cortana – this is where Windows 10’s notorious privacy settings come into play, so review all of the options carefully, ﬂicking the slider to Oﬀ for any you don’t ne ed or use.

That’s the end of the setup process – Windows will conﬁgure itself based on your choices and you’ll se e a series of messages appear on -screen . W hen all is ready, you’ll ﬁnd yourself back at the familiar Wind ows desk top screen of a fresher, faster, smoother-running PC.

Start the install process

“Next comes potentially the trickiest part of the process. A list of drives and partitions will appear – you need to select the one W indows is curr ently installed on”

Make su r e yo u ’ve go t n e t wo rk a n d gr a ph i c s dr i ver s s o ur c e d.

Page 74

| |

December 2019

o far, we’ve covered both traditional reinstall techniques, but there are other reasons – and methods – for

reinstalling Windows. First up is the recovery optio n. Most pre-built PC s come with a built-in manufacturer ’s recovery par tition that enables you to restore Windows to its factor y shipp ed condition. T he main advantage of this me thod – aside fro m being cheaper and easier for the manufacturer, of course – is that your PC is restored to a guaranteed working state, with all the drivers it nee ds to function. T he downsides are that a lot of ex tra unwanted software is usually installed alongside Windows, you nee d to exercise e x treme caution not to lose every thing on the dri ve, and that if the recovery p ar tition corr upts – t ypic ally due to hardw are f ailure – you’re lef t with no means of reinstalling W indows.

If you’re planning to reinstall Windows by this m ethod, look for a prompt to start recovery when you ﬁrst boot Windows or look for the option under the ‘Advanced start-up’ menu (see below) – consult your computer’s documentation or manuf acturer ’s website for de tails. Remember that mos t recovery options are fully d estruc tive, so be sure to have backed up your system before you begin – and that includes creating a compl ete dri ve image.

DOWNGRADE WINDOWS

Another reason to reinstall Windows is to revert to an earlier version. If you’re pining for Windows 7 or 8.1, then it ’s usually possible to downgrade your copy of Windows – rememb er suppor t for Windows 7 ends in Januar y 2020, and Windows 8.1 in January 2023. Before reaching for your old Windows me dia, however, you need to do some homework ﬁrst.

First, if you upgraded your PC to Windows 10 from an older version of

Windows, restoring that version should be str aight for ward in the sense you can use your manuf ac turer’s recover y partition if it still holds the original version, or you can try installing from an old, unused copy of Windows 7 or 8.1 – just follow the guides to p reparing and reinstalling Windows earlier on in this feature. D o source the correc t drivers for your PC ﬁr st, though, and verify that your new sof t ware is backwards compatible (desk top apps should be, but Microsof t Store apps won’t work in Windows 7, and some may not work in Windows 8.1 either).

If your PC came with Windows 8.1 or 10 preins talled , then going b ack to Windows 7 will be trickier and possibly even impossible. Before emb arking on this, check the web to see if others have had similar success. You’ll need to source your ow n Windows 7 installation media and valid licence, and you’ll almost certainly need to have access to your PC’s UEFI settings – if Fast Boot is enabled, op en Settings > ‘Up date & recovery’ and click ‘Rest ar t now ’ under ‘Advanced start-up’. When prompted, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Set tings.

Once inside your PC’s UEFI settings you need to loc ate and change thre e settings. First, disable the Fast Boot

feature. Second, disable Secure Boot. And ﬁnally, look for a CSM (Compatibility Suppor t M odule) optio n an d make sure it’s enabled . All three s et tings ne ed to be made to supp or t Windows 7 – if you can’t ﬁnd them, consult w ith your PC or motherboard manufac turer.

Once done, you should ﬁnd you’re able to boot f rom your Windows 7 installation me dia, enabling you to revert to the earlier copy of W indows.

SET UP A DUAL-BOOT PC

Our ﬁnal scenario is o ne w here you install two versions of Windows side-by-

side. This is a step for advanced us ers only, and if you’re me rely planning to install an older version of Windows next to Windows 10 for compatibility purposes, explore alternative optio ns, namely se tting up a virtual Windows 7 machine using a tool such as VirtualB ox (www.virtualbox.org), which runs inside your main W indows ins tallation.

If you are determined to dual -bo ot your setup, the step-by-step guide on the facing page covers the process of installing an older version of Windows alongside your current on e.

Before you begin also make sure you take a f ail-safe drive image using Macrium Reﬂ ec t Free and b e sure to create the rescu e m edia, too.

“If you’re pining for Windows 7 or 8.1, it’s usually possible to downgrade your copy of Windows”

Other reinstall options

*HWWKHORZ G R ZQRQWKU HHIXUWKHUWHF KQ L TX H V UH L Q VWDO OIUR PDUHF R Y HU\ SDU WLWLRQGRZQJUDGH:LQGRZVDQGVHWXSDGXDOERRWV\VWHP

Fetch the drivers for whichever

version of Windows you install.

Look u nd e r t h e ‘Adva nc e d s t ar t - u p’ menu for factory restore options.

Image credits (left to right) , HP, AOMEI Software, ASRock, Microsoft

Page 75

Set up a dual-boot PC

Post -install steps

:KHQ :LQGRZV UHERRWV IRU WKH ÀUVW WLPH \RX·OO VHH D ERRW

menu appear listing the different versions of Windows you have installed. If the 30-second delay is too long, or you want to change the default, Click ‘Start’ > Run, type PVFRQÀJ and

SUHVV >(QWHU@ WKHQ PDNH FKDQJHV IURP WKH %RRW WDE Q

Install new copy of Windows

Once the new partition has been created (check in Windows), reboot using the installation media for your target version of Windows. The install process is almost the same as for a regular Windows installation, but be sure to choose the newly created partition as your target during installation.

Add new Windows partition

Now select the newly created Unallocated space to the right of drive C and click ‘Create Partition’ under Partition

2SHUDWLRQV9HULI\17)6LVWKHÀOHV\VWHPDQGFOLFN¶$GYDQFHG·

to give the partition a suitably descriptive label, such as Win7 before clicking OK. Click ‘Apply’ > Proceed and reboot.

TZHDN 8(), VHWWLQJV

If installing Windows 7 alongside Windows 8.1 or 10,

\RX PD\ QHHG WR UHERRW LQWR \RXU 8(), VHH WKH PDLQ WH[W WR

enable the Compatibility Support Module (CSM), plus disable

)DVW %RRW DQG 6H FXUH %RRW 2QFH GRQH \RX VKRXOG EH DEOH WR

boot successfully from your Windows 7 installation media.

Partition hard drive

You’ll need to partition your drive to free up space on which to store your copy of Windows. The best tool for the job is AOMEI Partition Assistant (www.aomeitech.com/aomei- partition-assistant.html). Start by clicking Make Bootable Media under Wizards to create rescue media.

Shrink main partition

Select your Windows drive (typically C:) and click Resize/ Move Partition under Partition Operations. Use the slider to free up at least 30GB space to the right of the Windows partition. If your drive is an SSD, click ‘Advanced>>’ and tick ‘Allow partition alignment…’ Click ‘OK’.

December 2

Page 76

TERMS AND CONDITIONS Prices and savings quoted are compared to buying full priced UK print and digital issues. You will receive 13 issues in a year. You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Your subscription is for the minimum term specified and will expire at the end of the current term. Payment is non-refundable after the 14-day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. Your statutory rights are not affected. Prices correct at point of print and subject to change. Offer ends December 30 2019. For full terms and conditions please visit bit.ly/magtandc.

INTERNATIONAL READERS CAN SUBSCRIBE TOO!

WHY SUBSCRIBE?

Stop paying overseas cover

prices and save yourself money

Never miss another issue All 13 issues a year will be delivered direct

to your home or workplace by airmail

Don’t wait for the latest issue to reach your local store – subscribe today and let Windows Help & Advice come straight to you

TO SUBSCRIBE

Live in Europe?

Pay just €3 1 every 3 months

/LYHLQWKH86$"

Pay just $43 every 3 months

/LYHHOVHZKHUH"

Pay just $45 every 3 months

Helpline opening times are: 8am to 9.30pm weekdays, 8am to 4pm on Saturdays (BST)

TO SUBSCRIBE GO TO

P\IDY RXULWHPDJD]LQHVFRXNVXEZKD

Or call our helpline on ( +44) (0)344 848 2852

Page 77

NEW HARDW ARE ESSENTIAL A CCESSORIES LA TEST GADGETS

The march of the laptops continues, with new models flooding from

the usual suspects.

We ’v e got a g reat 2-in-1 model from HP th is mon th, along with something quite specia l. The Asus R OG Mothership isn’t really a lapto p – we w oul dn ’t w an t it on our lap – bu t it’ s the high est-specced portable comput er we ’v e seen. As far as you can cal l somet hi ng that needs two pow er bri c ks portable, anyway .

To balance it out, we’ ve go t a group test o f Ul tra books, and Samsung ’s bendy phone.

Whichev er you c hoose, enjoy yo ur PC.

Nick Odantzis Deputy Ed itor

Welcome

windowsmag azine@futurenet. com

RATING EXPLAINED

Superb GoodVery good Disappointing Poor

tion is your key to finding out about the latestThe Upgrade sect

gned to help you get more from your PCproducts, all desig

TTT

Y ou can trust our reviews

Our reviewers are 100 per cent

independent, with years of experience in the world of computing. Our rigorou s t est ing procedu res mean that only genuine, high-quality products are awarded high star ratings. If you see an item of hardware bearing

DKLJKVFRUH\RXFDQEHFRQÀGHQWWKDW

it is an excellent product.

We choose the best products

Thousands of new PC products

are released every year and choosing between them can be an impossible task. Our experts select only the best hardware and software to feature in this magazine. Even better, our star rating system makes it simple

WRÀQGWKHEHVWSURGXFWVJLYLQJ\RX

a fast, trustworthy guide.

How we review

Our expert reviewers guarantee

to test every piece of har dware rigorously and thoroughly, using only acknowledged experts to estab lis h th e wo rth of a produ ct. We always review f rom the viewpoint of our reade rs; the day-to-day practic a lity and quality of a product is paramount.

December 2019

84 Samsung Gal axy Fold

Relaunched after a delay to fix its hinge, can a folding smartphone really work?

78 HP Elite X2

An elegant 2-in-1 model with premium design and strong performance.

80 Asus ROG Mothership

A PC we’d suspect was a joke if we hadn’t seen it with our own eyes. Unique.

86 Best Ultraboo ks

Thin, light and powerful, do these premium laptops really offer it all?

This issue’s highlights

Page 78

Images : HP

he general consensus is that Microsoft’s early attempts to

get Windows running on both desktops an d tablets was a bit of a disaster, but several years down the line the endeavour now has a happy ending: a wealth of versatile 2-in-1 laptop/tablet Windows devices.

The Surf ace Pro might be the gold standard, but plenty of other PC makers are trying their luck as well, including HP. Here we ’re looking at the latest HP Elite x2 2-in-1 – technically called the HP Elite x2 1013 G3, the latest incarnation of the computer that’s on sale now.

As 2-in-1s go, this is a premiumlevel one: that’s reﬂected in the specs, and in the d esign, an d, we ll, in the fact that HP has made it . It’s a laptop/ta blet intended to tempt the business traveller more than students or home workers, but it’s still got broad app eal.

That appeal may be limited a

little by how much you’re going to have to spend to get one, with prices starting north of £1,600 and going up from there (check the widgets on this page for up-to-date deals). It’s going to cost you quite a bit of money, but is it worth it?

Design and build

HP has been making computers for a long time now, and the newest version of the HP Elite x2 tick s all the boxes in terms of aesthetics: it ’s slim, it’s understated, and it mi xes grey and black and silver very well indeed. At 13.2 mm (0.52 inches) thick and with a weight of 1.18 kg (2.6 lbs), it’s great from sliding into a backpack or a briefcase, and taking with you wherever you go.

The HP Elite x2 comes with a detachable keyboard that doubles as a cover for the screen, and we found it a pleasure to type on (and easy to connect and disconne ct, by the way) – much better than, say, the oﬃcial keyboard Apple bundl es

with the iPad Pro. Around the back of the tablet itself is a kickstand, for using it in laptop mode and for propping it up when you’re watching movies.

As for the screen, it’s 13 inches corner to corner, running at a very respect able resolution of 3,000 x 2,000 p i xels. The bezels are reasonably chunky, but that’s ﬁne – and that extr a w idth an d d e pth helps when you’re using the HP Elite x2 in tablet mode. Colours are crisp and bright, details are sharp, and the computer scores highly whether you’re typing an essay or watching movies (Netﬂix look s reall y g o od on this device, for example).

After using the HP Elite x 2 we ’ve got no complaints at all about the design and build quality, as it’s right up there with what Microsoft an d Ap p l e are do ing . We’re not 10 0 percent convinced by the slightly recessed ports around the edges, but there are at

HP Elite x2

From £1,600 | $ 2 , 000 www .hp. com

A hig h-qual ity 2-in-1 with pl enty to o ﬀer , bu t can it ju stify the pri ce ?

| |

December 2019

Page 79

– the design, build quality and

specs are particularly can’t be

beaten by anything Microsoft or

anyone else is making at the

moment. It’s actually a pleasure to

use, and is going to take care of a

lot of computing tasks for you

without a problem (just some

excess heat, perhaps).

Windows has now evolved to the stage where it’s perfec tl y usable in tablet form, whether you’re watching streaming video while you’re away from holiday, or trying to take handwritten notes while out for work (we should note the HP Elite x2 supports a stylus , though this is an optional extra). It’s not quite as slick as what Apple is doing with iPadOS, but it’s more versatile.

On the downside, the battery life isn’t brilliant, and it’s going to cost you a substantial amount of money – those are two reasons why you might want to opt for one of the many other 2-in-1s on the market. If your needs are more simple, then something like the HP Envy s e r ies might be more suitable.

This is going to appeal most to the business user – it provides all the perfor mance needed, it’s really nicely designed and solid to use, and it can switch between tablet and laptop modes very easily indeed. It’s harder to recommend for anyone else, especially with so many great 2-in-1s and standard laptops available.

Overall, this is a slick and well-equipped 2-in-1 that’s going to appeal if you’re at the premium end of the market, though you may ﬁnd better valu e e ls ew h ere.

With powerful sp e cs and a keyboard that’s a pleasure to use, this 2-in-1 certainly feels premium.

least a lot of them: three USB-C port s , a m e m o ry card reader, and a 3.5 mm headphon e jack.

Specs and features

You can pick up the HP Elite x2 in a variety of conﬁgurations, but the

model we tested came with an 8th- g e n Inte l Core i7-8650U

1.90GHz CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. Graphic s are powered by an Intel UHD 620 chip. Those are very g ood specs for a lightweight 2-in-1 device like this, and that is of course reﬂecte d in the p r ice.

We found the HP Elite x2 perf e ctly capable of handling all the tasks we put it up a gainst, although it does start to chug a little when you have several large images or a video opened up. As long as you’re staying away from jobs that you should really be using a desktop or high -end laptop for – like top-level gaming or video editing – then you’re going to be ﬁne with this tablet/laptop.

The back of the device did tend to get rather hot during our testing, even when we were just browsing the web and checking emails – though this is a drawback with 2-in-1s in general, as they just don’t have the space to ﬁt in a

comprehensive cooling system. The bottom line is that for everyday tasks, the HP Elite x2 is going to zip along – and will do for years to come, as well.

HP says batter y life c an hit 10 hours when you’re watching video, but in our experience it was a lit tle less than that, in the region of nine hours between charges. If you are going to be away from the oﬃce (or your home oﬃce) for the entire day, then the HP Elite x2 should last you until you can get back… but not much more than that.

That price though…

If you’ve decided that the 2-in-1 Windows form factor is the one for you, then you can’t do much bet ter than the HP Elite x2 in a lot of areas

“The design, build quality and specs can’t be beaten by anything Microsoft or any one else is making ”

Upgrade

HP E lit e x2

December 2019

HP Elite x2

Supplier HP Operating system Windo ws 10 Pro Processor Core i7-8650U Storage 515GB SSD RAM 16GB Graphics Intel UHD 620 Connectivity Nano SIM, Wi-Fi 5,

Bluetooth 4.2

Weight fdssfkg Screen size 13-inch Display resolution 3 000 x 2000

Page 80

sus’ ROG lineup regularly features impressive

speciﬁcations, RGB lights aplenty, and price tags that you’ll have to do a double-take over.

The Asus ROG Mother ship follows in these footsteps, and might be the company’s most ambitious device ever. Part laptop, part desktop, it features some insane speciﬁcations, and an equally eye-watering price tag to go along with it. And while it clearl y has its sights set on gamers, it’s actually built like an entry-level workst atio n, s o th os e l ooking for sheer power for intense applications like 3D rendering or AutoCAD may actually beneﬁt from owning one of these.

This is a machine that pretty much sticks wi th you o n ce you’ve bought it – upgrading a few internal components is possible (more on that later), but whatever conﬁguration you get should hopefully be good enough to

last you for at least the next four to ﬁve years.

Design and display

It’s entertaining to refer to the Mothership as a laptop, because the only time it looks like one is when it’s closed and ly ing ﬂat o n a table. Prop it up, and an automatic kickstand deploys at the back to provide suppor t . You can then lower the bottom lip to reveal the keyboard and trackpad, similar to a Microsoft Surface.

Should you want a bit more ﬂexibilit y wh en using the Mothership, you can quickly det a ch the keyboard and fold it in half, turning it into a wireless keyboard, or even tether it via the included USB-C cable. Asus says this was done to make the Mothership more adaptive to diﬀerent use scenarios.

There are ports aplenty o n the Mothership, so connectivity is not going to be an issue. There’s a decent number of USB Type-A

ports, as well as Thunderb olt 3 / DisplayPort 1.4 and an HDMI 2.0 port for driving external displays.

An unfortunate side eﬀect of having this much power available is that you actually need two power bricks to drive the Mothership, which makes it a little less eﬀe ctive if you decide to take it anywhere. The machine itself is heavy, so if you’re adding two power brick s to your backpack, you’re not going to be carrying this for very long.

Despite sporting just a Full HD display, you’ll still get enjoy 14 4Hz refresh rates and Nvidia G -sync technologies, so gaming on the Mothership is an absolute dream when it comes to response times. While the Full HD panel only provides sRGB support, it’s still quite decent for multimedia work such as video or ph oto e diting .

Viewing angles are also fairly decent, though we imagine that most of your time will be spent looking at the Mothership hea d-on,

Asus ROG Mothership

£5,4 5 7 | $ 6,800 www .asus.com

Thi s moth er of al l PCs is go ing t o turn he ads w here ver it’ s set u p

Images : Future

| |

December 2019

Page 81

just yet. You’ll get just under three

hours of life out of it, and that ’s

from normal usage and not

attempti n g to run any games.

Our advice would be to set the

Mothership up in one space,

and only use it on battery if

you need to brieﬂy r elocate

it somewhere.

Upgrading the Mothership is in theor y possible, but is a slightly daunting aﬀair. There are a number of screws hidden away around the chassis, proving that Asus doesn’t want consumers to go tinkering around inside. But should your curiosity get the be tter of you like ours did, it is entirely possible to unscrew the back and peek inside.

Here you’ll be greete d by the three SSDs ﬁrmly screwed to the motherboard, sitting under their own heatsink. We’d wager that RAM is also upgradeable as well, but that is hidden away under its own more complicated-looking heatsink that we didn’t quite feel like disturbing.

The Asus ROG Mothership is certainly a feat of engineering, with plenty of powerful components hidden away in a fairly deceptive form factor. It crosses a weird line betwee n the wo rld of laptops and desktops, an d we ’re impressed by what Asus has managed to pull oﬀ.

But what ultimately stands out is not the perfo r mance of the Mothership, but its price tag. Could you build an equally powerful de sktop PC for the same amount or le ss? Possibly. Would it look as cool as this? Probab ly not.

Gets a lot right for a ﬁrst attempt, but still needs a b i t o f tweaking to make it truly ﬂawless.

rather than trying to swivel it around to show something to someone nearby.

Performance with e xternal screens was ver y g ood, both across HDMI and Thunderbolt 3, so those looking to use 4k disp lays won’t be disappointed. Th e M othership was able to comfortably drive two external displays without issues .

Key s and gaming

The keyboard is an interesting feature of the ROG Mothership. Detach the keyboard an d you have

to wait a second or two for the system to au to m a ti cally detect that it’s now running in wireless mode. There’s a manual switch on the keyboard that turns the wireless mode oﬀ or on, but leaving it on doesn’t cause any issues, even when it’s attached.

Typing is quite comfortable, as the keys have been slightly curved to cradle your ﬁngers better. With

2.5mm of key travel, you don’t have to press as hard to register a keystroke, so long hours of gaming shouldn’t be a problem. The keybo ard also sup ports per-key RGB lighting, so you can pick a visual styl e that matches your preferences, or just turn oﬀ the lighting altogether.

A point to note is that when the

keyboard is att a che d , there ’s an alarming amount of ﬂex to it at the part where the hing e is attached just above the keys. We’d be quite worried if something heavy fell on this keyboard, as it most certainly would cause some damage to it.

The other annoyance is the second hinge the connects the keyboard to the Asus ROG Mothership often t akes a bit of ﬁddling to properly connect. It’s not as quick as connecting a keyboard cover to an iPad or even the Microsoft Surface, so you’re

going to spend a good few se conds wriggling things about until the keyboard is seated properly.

Given that the ROG Mothership bundles an RTX 2080 GPU, we were keen to see how it would handle ray tracing, which is being introduced to more and more games. Firing up Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Ultra with ray tracing enabled clocked in 82fps, which is still very impressive. Likewise, Remedy’s Control gave us a steady 98fps with ray tracing enabled, turning an already excellent-looking game into a visual treat.

Battery and upgrades

The Mothership does have a batter y, but don’t get too excited

“An unfortunate side effect of having this much power is that y ou need two po w er bricks t o driv e it”

Upgrade

Asus ROG Mothership

December 2019

Specs as reviewed

Asus ROG Mothership

Supplier www .asus.com CPU 2.4GHz Intel Core i9-9980HK GPU Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 RAM 64G B Storage 3x 512GB NVME SSDs Connectivity 802.11ax Wi-Fi,

Bluetooth 5.0 Weight 4.8kg

Page 82

ony isn’t a company that tends to do things by halves when it comes to camera releases.

Sensor resolution may have taken something of a back seat to improvements to performance in other areas in recent years, but the ‘R’ line has always been ab out resolution, and it ’s unquestionably the main pull of this new model.

The 63MP sensor outputs 61MP images as standard and, as with the sensor inside the previous A7R III, boasts a b a ck-illuminated d e sign for better light-gathering. Sony promises up to 15EV of dynamic range from the sensor, which is also what it promised for the A7R III.

As is now standard on Sony models of this calibre, SteadyShot Inside image stabiliz atio n has als o been incorporate d into the b ody. This promises a maximum 5.5EVstop compensatory eﬀect, and is happy soldier on whether you’re shooting stills or capturing vide os .

This system is also behind the

Pixel Shift Multi Shift shooting mode, a feature we saw previously but one that ’s been given a signiﬁcant boost here. T his c aptures a series of images that can be subsequently merg ed to create a single, super-high-resolution ﬁl e.

So what’s diﬀerent? Whereas the A7R III was able to capture images destined for 169.6MP composites, with its higher-resolution sensor the A7R IV promises to deliver ﬁles at a staggering 240MP. The catch is that this can’t be done in -camera; you need to use the Imaging Edge software suite that’s bundled with the camera.

Processor and screen

The latest iteration of Sony’s BIONZ X Processing engine allows the camera to capture images at a rate of 10fps with autofocus and auto-exposure enabled; while not quite class-leading, that ’s still very impressive when you consider the higher sensor resolution here.

Sometimes you’ll need 61MP images less than you will extra reach from your lenses, and the good news is that the Sony A7R IV will let you shoot in an APS -C crop mode (1.5x crop factor), with resulting images output at 26.2MP. This is another feature that has existed befo re, b u t it’s been upgraded here with increased output resolution. APS -C lenses can also be used on the body if you have any of these, with images again output at this resolution.

The sensor and p rocessor also work together to capture 4K v ideos to a maximum 30p, which can be captured in both full - frame and Super 35mm formats. When using the latter, the camera records 6K footage with full pi xel read out an d no pixel binning to help improve the quality of footag e, before downscaling this to 4K.

Another key change from the A7R III concerns the viewﬁnder. It’s still a 0.5 -inch electronic

Son yAlpha A7R IV

£1,755|$3,498 www.sony .co.uk

More megapixels than you could ever possibly need

Images : Sony/F uture

| |

December 2019

Page 83

and only rarely adjus t exposure

compensation this may not be too

great an issue for you.

Autofocus performance

Straight out of the box, the Sony

A7R IV is not only capable of

keeping track of a moving subject ,

but happy to switch the focus to

the face when it detects that it’s

looking at a p erson, with eye

detection kicking in as the subject

gets closer. The fact that it sw itches

betwee n the two modes

automatically is a huge help, and

it’s this that really separates the

camera (and indeed, other Sony

models) from their competitors

right now.

When using the standard AF-S mode, the Sony A7R IV is capable of focusing on a subject w ith impressive speed. On a sunny day, when partnere d w ith the FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM, the camera would typicall y be able to focus as soon as the shutter-releas e button had been half-pressed. It continues to focus with very little delay in moderate light, even without the AF assist lamp, which only seems to wake up in more testing conditions – this is handy in situations where you might need to shoot discreetly, and where the illumination from the lamp might attract attention.

And while it ’s launch price is high, it’s not all unreasonable, although the premium over the A7R III is considerable right now, so you really have to need the extra pixels to make it worth your while. Still, when you consider the cost of some rivals, you’re getting a f air chunk of camera in exchange for your cash here.

While the A7R IV isn’t without ﬂaws, Sony has made it one of the most desirable cameras out there.

iewﬁnder w ith an OLED panel that refreshes at up to 120fps (or 100fps in PAL regions), and has a magniﬁcation of 0.78x in 35mm terms, but the resolution has leapt from 3.69 million dots to

5.76 million do ts.

The rear display beneath it, however, has stayed the same, measuring three inches in size and

with a resolution of 1.44 million dots. Once again this can be tilted up and down for shooting from awkward angles and can be controlled by touch, although touchscreen operation is a little more limited here than it is on some rival cameras.

Like the A7R III, the A7R IV has a pair of SDHC/SDXC card slots around its side, and Sony has ensured that both slots support UHS-II cards (the A7R III only had both UHS- I an d UHS-II support in one slot, and just UHS-I support in the other).

Batter y life has als o b een improved, with around 530 shots able to be captured when using the viewﬁnde r, and around 670 when using the LCD screen – as always,

these are CIPA ﬁgures that are fairly conservative compare d to what will actually be achievable by the average photographer.

Build and handling

The exposure comp ens atio n dial o n the top plate now mirrors the mode dial in having a locking button in it s centre. This only needs to be

pressed once to lock and unlock, which, on a dial this small, is far more convenient than having to hold it down whenever you want to turn it .

The rear command dial that was half embedded into the body on the A7R III now sits proudly on the top plate. This dial has a pleasingly soft click to it, although it do es make the mode dial next to it a little harder to access than on the A7R III, particularly as its locking button nee ds to be p ress ed down throughout its rotation.

There’s no getting around the fact that having three dials in this area means each has to be small, and a little too close to the other s for ideal operation, although if you tend to stick to one exposure m ode

v th

“It will not only track a moving subject, but switch focus to the face when it detects it’s a person”

Upgrade

Sony Alpha A 7R IV

December 2019

Specs as reviewed

Sony Alpha A7R IV

Supplier www .son y.co .uk Sensor 6 1MP full-frame, back-

illuminated Exmor CMOS

Lens mount Sony FE Burst 10fps AF points 567 phase-detect and 425

contrast-detect Weight 578g

Page 84

he Samsung Galaxy Fold is the most forward -thinking

smartphone of 2019, ﬁnally delivering on the promise of a foldable phone, and instantly turning heads out on the streets. And yet, it’s still not some thing we can recommend to most peo p l e.

Wherever we went wi th the Fold, people wanted to know what this thing was and how it worked. We demonstrated how it folds d own to a 4.6- inch outer screen, and folds out again to become a 7.3-inch mini-tablet – and it always amazed .

But there’s a second wow-factor too: it’s twice the price of today’s best smartphones, and has a troubled track record with regard to durability, which could prove a deal-breaker.

Samsung has reﬁned the Fold over the course of a ﬁve-month delay to its launch, reinforcing the points where it broke in the hands of early reviewers. But we’re still in constant fear of pixel

tearing, or damaging the vulnerable plastic screen .

Design and features

Good news: at the time of writing the bendable screen of our G alaxy Fold review unit is as pristine as the day we unboxed it a week ago. It comes with a crease down the middle, but this is only visible wh en it catches the light. A bigger deal is the uneven refresh rate: as you scroll pages, one sid e la gs ever so slightly behind the other – it’s barely perceptible, b ut you can’t unsee it once you realise it’s there.

The Galaxy Fold is the best example of why foldable is the future of smartphones . Its 7.3 -inch screen is built for productivity. We multi-tasked with three apps o pen as if it were a tablet. Editing photos is easier, gaming takes a gigantic leap, and showing someone a complicated spreadsheet is do ab l e.

Its folded size is satisfying for one reason: we loved carr ying a small

phone again. It’ll go unappreciated in photos, and the extensive bezel around the 4.6- inch s creen makes it feel cramped; but hold this t all, chunky, yet narrow phone and you’ll swear glass phones aren’t slipper y after all. We felt conﬁdent one-handing it on busy streets.

The Fold inherits the power and cameras of the Galaxy S10 Plus, which is nice, but we missed some photo and video mo d es oﬀered by the Note 10 Plus – that ﬁve-month delay means Samsung’s latest and most cutting -edge phone isn’t actually its mos t c ap a b l e. You also won’t ﬁnd an S Pen stylus (which it wouldn’t be wise to use on a plastic screen anyway).

At 4,380mAh, the Fold’s battery is Samsung’s biggest, and lasted us a day-and-a-half. But battery life varied based on how long we ha d that big screen open – we killed it in less than a day when we tried.

The Fold feels like the biggest sensation since the original iPhone

Samsung Galaxy Fold

From £109/month www . s a ms u n g . com

The most f orward- thi nking ph one you s houl dn’ t buy

Images : Samsung/T echradar

| |

December 2019

Page 85

case that came in the box. This

ease of handling is one of the

things that struck us the most in

our testing – while everything else

about the Fold has a futuristic vibe,

its narrow size took us back to a

time when phones were easy to

hold in one hand.

If you love big screens, but are tired of juggling big phon es , this is the biggest pho n e we ’ve tested… and smallest (recent phone) at the same time. It ’s an idea that’s been more than 10 years in the making and, as Samsung likes to say, went through 1,000 diﬀerent prototypes. It’s not a bad start, but there’s surely more innovation to come.

Samsung has outﬁt te d the Galaxy Fold with HDR10+, which bumps up the contrast ratio considerably on supported video content, and m ade it bright enough to be solidly visibly outdoors. You will ﬁnd glare literally shines a light on the middle crease, indoors or outdoors, and you can feel the groove. The good news: like a notch, your brain will ignore it in time.

Harder to ignore is the uneven refresh rate. Scroll through a text-ﬁlled webp a g e an d you ’ll notice the words shift unevenly across the 7. 3-inch display. Samsung makes the best phone displays, so this is a compromise we didn’t expec t. Its bezel-heavy

4.6- inch cover display also shouts “ﬁrst-gen pro duct”. Yes, the foldable future is great, but it has some obvious pain po ints you should know about.

Still, it’s a technical marvel, with technical limitations, and makes us hopeful for a more round ed sequel.

Delivers a ‘wow’ factor that no other phone oﬀe rs. Yet we only recommend it to early adopters.

– and, really, that’s the only reason to take the ﬁnancial risk on it. This phone is strictly fo r early a d o pter s with money to burn and a need to impress, and it’ll en d up in a dr awer with Google G lass an d other gadgets so sadly ahea d of their time. Everyone else should wait for something cheaper, better, and more durable in a few months .

Durability

The arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Fold gives you the opportunity to own the future of smartp ho nes an d

tablets, with a 2-in-1 design that just makes sense – if the bendabl e screen technology holds up.

The key to the Galaxy Fold’s book-like foldable design is a 20-part, dual-axis lock ing hinge that prevents the display from overextending past 180 degrees. Whereas the screen is delicate, the hinge feels like it’s been meticulously engineered to withstand abuse.

Opening and closing the Fold feels buttery smooth, and closing it ends with a satisfying magnetic click, like you’ve just clos ed up a book. Remember what it was like to hang up on people with a ﬂip phone or even an old telephone? That feeling is back – only now, you’ll probably swallow them up

in a video call. Also coming ba ck is smartphone hef t . In it s folded state, the Galaxy Fold is 17.1mm thick and weighs 276g; for comparison, the big-and-heavy Note 10 Plus is just

7.9mm and 196g. However, it’s narrower than

you might think, and despite its thickness it isn’t hard to slip into a jeans pocket – it’ll even ﬁt into tight-yet-deep jacket pockets that other phones can’t ﬁt into, although there’s no escaping the fact that it’ll look like you’re packing two phones back-to-back.

Unfolded, it’s a reasonable

7.6mm thick. You’ll ﬁnd a

ﬁngerprint sensor, power/Bixby key, and volume rocker on the right (all accessible when the Fold is open or closed), and two speaker s at the top and bottom. It’s easy to cover up the powerful Dolby Atmos stereo speakers when you’re playing games or watching videos in landscape orientatio n . Pro tip: instead of uncomfortabl y cho king up your grip, try rotating the Fold 180 degrees – most apps will rotate just ﬁne.

When it’s closed, the all -glass

design envelopes the phone’s outside. The glass is slippery, but we found its folded size so easy to grasp that we didn’t feel the need to use the two-piece Aramid Fiber

“It’ll end up in a drawer with Google Glass and other gadgets so sadly ahead of their time”

Upgrade

Samsung Galaxy Fold

December 2019

Samsung Galaxy Fold

Supplier www .s amsung .com Resolution 2152 x 1536 / 1680 x 720 CPU Octa-core Kryo 485 RAM 12GB Storage 512GB Rear cameras 16MP + 12MP + 12MP Weight 276g

Specs as reviewed

Page 86

ULTRABOOKS

Sophisticated and slim laptops that deliver ex ceptional

performance for productivity and creative endeavours

1 Matebook 13

£1,200, www.huawei.com

Huawei has been biding its time to take on the best Ultrabooks. But now, their time in the limelight is here. Like the Huawei MateBook X Pro before it, the Huawei Matebook 13 packs a ton of powerful hardware into a gorgeous shell, all while offering it at a price that’s more than reasonable. Those d iscret e g raph ics are also worth a mention – the Huawei Matebook 13 may be one of the tiniest laptops out there to come with an MX150 GPU. It’s not hard to see why the Huawei Matebook 13 is the best Ultrabook right now.

2 XPS 13

£1,100, www.dell.com

The Dell XPS 13 has been king of the Ultrabooks for years, and while it’s been unseated by the Huawei MateBook 13, it remains one of the Ultrabooks to beat in 2019. This time around, Dell has moved the webcam from the bottom of the display back to the top, fixing one of the biggest flaws that held back the XPS 13 for years. Add the updated internal components to the mix, and the Dell XPS 13 still makes the best Ultrabooks list – even in the face of tough competition.

3 MateBook X Pro (2018)

£1, 000, www.h uaw ei .c om

Sometimes an Ultrabook arrives that totally changes everything. When the 2018 model of the Huawei MateBook X Pro hit the scene, it did just that. This beautiful Ultrabook brings high-end components into an elegantly designed package that puts even the MacBook Pro to shame. It really is one of the best Ultrabooks on the market, despite its 2019 successor’s attempts to best it with an Intel Whiskey Lake processor. It’s still the 2018 model that’s captured our computing cores.

Winner!

| |

December 2019

Page 87

6 Y oga C930

£9 00 , www.le n o v o . c om

The Lenovo Yoga C930 has quite a few of the makings of the best Ultrabook – from an absurd 14.5 hours of battery life and dual Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C ports to internal components that will easily handl e t hose daily productivity tasks. That’s without even considering it’s a 2-in-1 that offers form versatility so you can squeeze in some light gaming and movie-watching once you’re done working. It has a few cherries on top as well, specifically the integrated self-charging stylus and the fab speaker system.

4 Spectre x360

£1,000, www.hp.com

If an arresting Ultrabook housing 2-in- 1 functionality and a ton of power satisfies what you’re looking for, it’s hard to find a better laptop than the HP Spectre x360. This slim and light Ultrabook isn’t just filled with the latest Intel Whiskey Lake processors and plenty of RAM. It also might just be the most exquisite laptop you can buy today. The HP Spectre x360 won’t just get you through your workload, but will also make you smart and stylish in the process.

5 Surface Laptop 2

£1, 000, www.m ic roso ft.c om

The original Microsoft Surface Laptop was a great Ultrabook, but had relatively weak internals and Windows 10 S. Fortunately, Microsoft rolled out the Surface Laptop 2 in late 2018, offering quad-core processors and the full-fat version of Windows 10. It’s through these fundamental improvements that the Surface Laptop 2 is able to bring the purest Windows 10 experience to a laptop – not to mention, join the ranks of the best Ultrabooks available right now – at a price that won’t make you

run in the opposite direction.

he bes t Ultrab o o ks are more than just st atus symbols. They’re the

ideal grab and go mach i n es, which means t hat you can e d it your phot o s, rend er your vide o s a nd power through your

work, no matter if you’re on a train i n E u rope, at a c af é , o r i n between classes.

Ever so lig h t a n d c o mpact, they now pac k m o re power than ever before, coming equipped with the best process o rs and SSDs out the re.

They tr u ly are powe rful little de v i c es that c a n help you breeze t h rough projects like no one’s business. And, freq u ently, that power is pa i r ed with a pretty extraordinary bat t ery life that m ay l a s t yo u an entire wo r k day on one fu l l charge .

December 2019

Upgrade

Ultrabooks

Page 88

GIMP (the GNU Ima ge Manipulation Program) is the best fre e ph oto editor around. It ’s packed with the kind of image enhancing tools you’d ﬁnd in

GIMP

www.gimp.org

RA TING

premium sof t ware, and more are being adde d every day.

The photo editing toolkit is breathtaking, and features layers, masks, curves, and levels. You

can eliminate ﬂaws easily with the excellent clone stamp and healing tools, create custom brushes, apply perspec tive changes, and apply changes to isolated areas with smar t selection tools.

GIMP is an open source, free photo editor, and its community of users and developers have created a huge collectio n of p lu gins to extend its utility even further. M any of these come pre-installed, and you can download more f rom the oﬃcial glossary. If that’s not enough, you can even install Photoshop plugins.

RA TING

If you’ve got a lot of ph otos that you need to edit in a hurry, Ashampoo Photo O ptimizer 2019 could be the too l for you. Its interface is clean and unclut tere d, and utterly devoid of ads

(although you’ll need to submit an email address be fore you can st ar t using it).

Importing pictures is a bree ze, and once they ’ve be en a dde d to the pool, you can se le c t s everal at

once to rotate or mirror, saving you valuable tim e. You can also choose individual ph otos to enhance with the software’s one- click optimization too l. In our tests this worked particularly well on landscapes, but wasn’t always great for other subje c ts .

If you want to make manual color and exposure corre c tions, there are half a dozen sliders to let you do exactly that . It’s a shame you can’t also apply the same color changes to a whole set of pictures at once, but this is otherwise a br illiant fre e photo editor for quick corrections.

If you want to lear n G I M P, ther e ’s a weal t h of material online.

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 201 9

www.ashampoo.com

For more advanced editing, check out Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 7 – the premium version.

THE BEST FREE PHOTO EDITING SOFTWARE

Get you r pi ctur es looki ng t hei r best, fo r free

Winner!

image credits: GIMP, Ashampoo, Canva, Fotor

| |

December 2019

Page 89

Canva is a photo editor that runs in your web browser, and is ideal for turning your favorite snaps into cards, posters, invitations and social media p ost s. I f you’re

Canva

www. canva.com

interested in maintaining a polished online presence, it ’s the perfe c t too l for you.

Canva has two tiers, free an d

paid, but the free level is pe r fe c t

for home users. Just sign up

with your email address and

you’ll get 1GB free cloud storage

for your snaps and designs,

8,00 0 templates to use and edit ,

and two folders to keep your

work organise d.

You won’t ﬁnd advanced tools like clone brushes and smar t selector s here, but there ’s a set of handy sliders for apply ing tints, vignette eﬀec t s, shar pening, adjusting brightness, saturation and contrast, and much more. The tex t editing too ls are intuitive, and there’s a great sele c tion of backgrounds and other gr aphic s to comple te your desi gns .

Fotor is a free photo editor that’s ideal for giving your pictures a boost quickl y. If there’s speciﬁc area of retouching you need

Fotor

www.fotor.com

RA TING

doing with, say, the clone brush or healing tool, you’re out of luck.

There’s a foolproof tilt-shift tool,

for example, and a raft of vintage

and vibrant colour tweaks, all easily accessed through Fotor’s clever menu system. You can manually alter your own curves and levels , too, but without the complexit y of high-end tools.

Fotor’s standout function, and one that’s sorely lack ing in many free photo editors, is its batch processing tool – feed it a pile of pics and it ’ll ﬁlter the lot of them in one go, perf ec t if you have a memory card f ull of holiday snaps and need to cover up the results of a dodgy cam era or shaky hand.

py g

RA TING

A paid Ca nva account includes access to more than 1,000 fonts.

If your needs are simple, Fotor’s stack of high-end ﬁlters really shine.

Software Test

Best free pho to ed iti ng softwar e

December 2019

Page 90

*Hɢ PʝȾɏ ʓUʝə \ʝ ʦ ɠ :ʖQGʝZɡ 3 &

w w w.windowsmag.co.uk

In the

next issue...

HOW T O

Ȼ U se Windows Timeline Ȼ Log on wi thout a passwor ȻCustomise the taskbar ȻReinstall Windows

* Contents subject to change

Catch up with us on…

www.twitter.com/windowsmagwww.facebook.com/windowsmag

| |

December 2019

A member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations

Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA

Editorial

Editor Ian Evenden

[email protected]

Art Editor Jamie Schildhauer

Deputy Editor Nick Odantzis

Editor in Chief Graham Barlow

Senior Art Editor Jo Gulliver

Contributors

Alex Cox, Cat Ellis, Dan Grabham, Matt Golowczynski, Christian Guyton, Matt Hanson, Carrie Marshall, David Nield, Nick Peers, Nick Rego, Matt Swider, Mark Wyciślik-W ilson

Photography

Future Photo Studio, Thinkstock.com All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected

Advertising

Media packs are available on request

Chief Revenue Oﬃcer Zack Sullivan Commercial Sales Director Clare Dove Head of Commercial - Technology Dave Randall Senior Advertising Manager Sasha McGregor Account Director Andrew Tilbury

[email protected]

International

Windows Help & Advice is available for licensing. Contact the International department to discuss partnership opportunities International Licensing Director Matt Ellis [email protected]

Subscriptions

Email enquiries [email protected] Order line and enquiries +44 (0)844 848 2852 Online orders & enquiries www.myfavouritemagazines.co .uk Head of subscriptions Sharon Todd

Circulation

Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers

Production

Head of Production Mark Constance Production Project Manager Clare Scott Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson Production Controller Nola Cokely

Management

Chief Content Oﬃcer Aaron Asadi Vice President of Content & GEIC Bill Gannon Head of Art & Design Rodney Dive

Printed by William Gibbon & Sons Ltd, 26 Planetary Road, W illenhall,

West Midlands, WV13 3XT

Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place , Canary Wharf, L ondon, E14 5HU

www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9001

ISSN 2050-5906

We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certiﬁed forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill holds full FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certiﬁcation and accreditation

All contents © 2019 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered oﬃce: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not aﬃliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.

If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications, in any format published worldwide and on associated websites, social media channels and associated products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents, subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. We assume all unsolicited material is for publication unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.

Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR)

www.futureplc.com

Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne

Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford

!ǝǣƺǔˡȇƏȇƬǣƏǼȒǔˡƬƺȸ Penny Ladkin-Brand

Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244

USE A P ASSWORD MANAGER

Don’t l eave i t to cha nce, and d on’ t

reuse passwords. Secu re your o nlin e

accoun ts the easy way

ON SALE

Frida y

6 December

201 9

What to look out for, which apps to

install, what not to do: your complete

guide to using a brand new PC

Your first 30

minutes with a

NEW PC

Page 91

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE!

www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/t3subs

ON SALE NOW!

Available at WHS mith, my favo uritemagazin es. co.uk

or simply search for ‘T3’ in your device’s App Store

Page 92

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE!

www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/WHI/

SALE

NO W!

DIGITAL ONLINE PRINT

9000 9001