NORMALLY, AN UNEXPECTED pop-up is a reason to worry: Is your PC infected with a virus? Is this pop-up an ad? With one particular pop-up from Microsoft, you’re supposed to worry—but the message is legit. In its ongoing bid to encourage Windows XP users to move to Windows 7 or Windows 8, Microsoft began pushing … Read more
WINDOWS 8’S MODERN interface didn’t go over well out of the gate. Although the live tiles and touch-friendliness offered a lot to like, usability experts panned many of the design choices, and power users felt abandoned. But beyond bridging the gap between PC and tablet, Windows’ immersion in the interface formerly known as Metro may … Read more
TBS Technologies is known primarily as a manufacturer of digital TV tuners that you can add to your PC. With the Matrix, TBS is branching out to the single-board PC market. The Matrix can work with the TBS’ USB TV tuners (as you might guess) to extend its functionality as an HTPC. It’s capable of … Read more
AFTER THREE DECADES, THE AGING BIOS HAS FINALLY BEEN USURPED BY EFI, BUT IT WASN’T AN EASY JOURNEY. GARETH HALFACREE CATCHES UP WITH UEFI FORUM PRESIDENT MARK DORAN, TO FIND OUT WHAT WAS INVOLVED. Replacing a widely deployed, decades-old lump of legacy code with a system suitable for the modern era is no small task, … Read more
Matthew Lambert investigates the performance of AMD’s new graphics API in Battlefield 4 and Star Swarm. Marred by delays since its announcement in September 2013, AMD’s Mantle API has finally made its debut. It’s available to try now in Battlefield 4 and a demo called Star Swarm, which is freely available on Steam. It was … Read more
You’ll need this windows Any version of Windows from the last decade will have the features used in this article. Utility bills are always on the rise, and we’re all becoming more aware of the power used by our devices in and around the home. Indeed, many utility providers now give away monitors that enable … Read more
Two months from now Microsoft will withdraw all support for Windows XP. We explain how to keep XP running safely beyond that point W indows XP is a fast, dependable operating system (os) that runs on a third of the world’s PCs and is the most popular operating system after Windows 7. We know many … Read more
If your PC seems sluggish, you can revive its performance using these simple techniques. STR shows you how. Computers slow down over time. What was once a fast system can become slow and irritating to use after a couple of years. A new PC always impresses with the speed at which it starts up and … Read more
Make pop-up notifications less annoying Avast (www.avast.com) is our favourite free antivirus (See our cover feature, Issue 415) but every time you launch it, a pop-up will ask you to upgrade to the paid-for version. You can adjust the duration of this pop-up by changing Avast’s settings. Click Settings, Appearance and scroll down to Sounds. … Read more
What happened? Mozilla has said it plans to run advertisements in Firefox for the first time, in a bid to raise funds. The ads will appear in the “directory tiles” – the nine boxes that appear in the Firefox window each time you open a new tab (see screengrab, above). At the moment, they start … Read more
A new CEO, rumours of Windows 9 conning in 2015 and signs of change within Microsoft. David Crookes grabs his crystal ball he paint has barely dried on Windows 8, and already excitement is building for what Microsoft will do next. Almost as soon as 8.1 was released last October, people began to talk about … Read more
Adobe Lightroom 5 is a must-have application for any aspiring digital photographer. Ben Pitt shows you how to manage, edit and improve your snaps. WE’VE BEEN SINGING Lightroom’s praises since it first appeared in 2007, so it’s about time we showed you what all the fuss is about. Lightroom integrates library management, editing and sharing … Read more