Tune up Windows for faster performance with these free apps IoLo System Mechanic Review www.iolo.com IoLo System Mechanic is a brilliant free PC optimisation tool that removes junk files and unwanted apps, blocks bloatware and unwanted auto-run settings, clears out RAM and wipes various logs, browser histories and caches. Not only does this free up key … Read more
Why Microsoft’s built-in virus scanner is probably good enough (and why you might still look elsewhere)? JARED NEWMAN reports For years, I’ve assumed that most people don’t need third-party antivirus tools and have cheerily passed this suggestion along to others. Read our Is Windows AV software still necessary in [wpsm_custom_meta type=date field=year]. After all, Microsoft’s Windows Security … Read more
Bitwarden has taken the world by storm. The open-source password manager offers superb programs for Windows, tablets and phones, as well as extensions for the most popular browsers, and we’ve been recommending it for some time. Read our Access all your passwords on any device. by Nik Rawlinson What you need: Bitwarden Time required: 60 … Read more
As part of our series focusing on Linux distributions from outside the Debian-Ubuntu family, this time around we are going to look at SliTaz GNU/Linux. Read our SliTaz 5.0 Review. SliTaz is a very lightweight distribution that is aimed at older hardware, much like Puppy Linux, but with some interesting differences that make it worth a close look. Background SliTaz … Read more
Released on 21 April, 2022, this new long term support version (LTS) of Lubuntu is the eighth one with the LXQt desktop, and the 25th overall release, depending on how you count them. Read our Lubuntu 22.04 Review. The development cycle of three standard releases since the last Lubuntu LTS, leading up to this LTS version, have seen very few changes. It … Read more
Of all the video-editing software we’ve reviewed over the years, CyberLink’s PowerDirector has the best mix of simplicity and power. When you first start, you’ll probably only use a limited but very handy set of basic tools. Then, as you get to grips with the software, you’ll uncover some very dynamic options that lie deeper … Read more
THE EMERGENCE OF SMALLER, faster boot drives has resurrected an age-old problem: how to stop your hard drives from filling to capacity. What wasn’t such an issue with a 2TB drive is now a hot topic as you struggle to maintain Windows 11 and your apps on a super-speedy 256GB NVMe boot drive. In this tutorial, … Read more
Thunderbird 102 www.snipca.com/42560 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, macOS or Linux Ten years after it was temporarily ‘discontinued’ by Mozilla, Thunderbird is still going strong and remains the most popular open-source alternative to Microsoft’s Outlook. Version 102 of the email program is a major release that adds several useful features and … Read more
Q Please could you explain what the difference is between a browser and a search engine? What is the relationship between them? Who owns them and who controls the data you enter? John Beattie A In simple terms, a browser is a window that looks out to the major part of the internet, known as … Read more
Not so long ago, uninstalling your antivirus software was considered a reckless and foolish decision – especially if you had decided to rely solely on the protection offered by Windows. Every time you went online, you’d risk your PC being infected with malware and hackers stealing your data, just for the sake of saving a … Read more
Winaero Tweaker isn’t just our favourite tool for tweaking Windows settings, but one of the best free programs of any kind, so we’re delighted that a new version is now available. This adds several useful options for improving Windows 11, as well as tweaks for previous versions of the operating system. Winaero Tweaker automatically detects … Read more
Everyone loses files at some point. Roland Waddi love shows how to prevent this and how to recover them when disaster strikes Disk drives are supposed to keep our files safe and sound, and mostly they do. Sometimes they keep them safe for five or more years, and in some cases there have been disk … Read more