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NEWS
10

Microsoft changes
course

15

Windows 7
mainstream
support is ending,
but dont panic

16

Rumor: Microsofts
Windows 9
campaign begins
this fall

20

Microsoft gives
away nearly 300
ebooks

22

The military is
studying your
Facebook and
Twitter habits

24

Grim Fandango
remaster conrmed
for PC

Tech and trends that will affect you today and beyond.

Microsoft
changes
course
Satya Nadellas strategy
memo reveals a focus
on productivity.
BY MARK HACHMAN

N JULY 10, with the release of a Microsoft strategy memo

(go.pcworld.com/nadellamemo), CEO Satya Nadella

charted a new course focused on interconnectivity and
productivityone in which the standard-setting Oce
applications and other products and services could slowly blur
together, becoming dierent modes of working with the same data.
Right now, of course, you can still buy Windows, Oce, Windows Phone,
and other Microsoft products and services. But within the next decade,
your interaction with Microsoft products could be radically dierent.
Nadellas strategy memo marks an evolution: Following Steve
Ballmers devices and services strategy and Nadellas own mobile rst,
cloud rst concept, the plan now is to make Microsoft the productivity
and platform company for the mobile-rst and cloud-rst world.
Microsoft has a unique ability to harmonize the worlds devices,
apps, docs, data and social networks in digital work and life
experiences so that people are at the center and are empowered to

NEWS

do more and achieve more with what is becoming an increasingly

scarce commoditytime! Nadella writes.
For Nadella, productivity requires connections, intelligence, and
most of all, ubiquity. He writes at length of the need to reinvent the
companys culture and products to achieve that new reality.

Connections forged
Microsoft has already spent considerable eort connecting its apps to
one another. For example, Microsofts Business Intelligence platform
can tap into Bing Maps, and Excel can connect to live data sources
stored within the Azure cloud. The Bing search engine has morphed
into a knowledge repository powering Cortana and other services. And
Microsoft has responded to the collaborative advantages of Google
Apps and other competing services by making enhancements in its
Oce suite, especially its Web apps (go.pcworld.com/owebapps).

Microsoft has
used its Web
apps to quickly
launch new
features.

Microsofts
Delve outlines
working
relationships
and relevant
information.

Nadella also recognizes the potential pitfalls of the so-called

Internet of Thingsthat we could be overwhelmed by a wave of data
that we simply cant grasp, let alone place in its proper context.
Billions of sensors, screens and devicesin conference rooms,
living rooms, cities, cars, phones, PCsare forming a vast network
and streams of data that simply disappear into the background of
our lives, Nadella writes. This computing power will digitize nearly
everything around us and will derive insights from all of the data
being generated by interactions among people and between people
and machines. We are moving from a world where computing power
was scarce to a place where it now is almost limitless, and where the
true scarce commodity is increasingly human attention.
Its easy to dismiss this notion of reinventing the company as mere
marketing-speak. And Microsofts product portfolio wont change;
Nadella identies Bing, Dynamics, Excel, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook,
PowerPoint, Skype, and Word as components of the roster.
But Nadella also calls out other Microsoft technologies that arent so
much products as servicesnamely its Oslo technology, now renamed
Delve (go.pcworld.com/oslodelve), and Cortana, the digital assistant
powering the latest iteration of Windows Phone. Both technologies
interact in new ways with data that Microsoft has collected elsewhere.
Other services, such as Skype Translator, will help to surmount language
barriers aecting coworkers who are collaborating across continents.

NEWS

Increasingly, all of these experiences will become more connected

to each other, more contextual and more personal, Nadella writes.

Software as services
Microsofts role, as Nadella outlines it, is to facilitate those connections
among devices, people, and data, parsing the data in such a way that
its genuinely useful. All of these apps will be explicitly engineered so
anybody can nd, try and then buy them in friction-free ways, Nadella
writes. They will be built for other ecosystems so as people move
from device to device, so will their content and the richness of their
servicesits one way we keep people, not devices, at the center.
Note his emphasis on people, not devices. Its a hint regarding how
Microsoft will dierentiate itself as the company rethinks its strategy.
Not too long ago, Google regarded oerings such as Google Drive
and Gmail as services that belonged on their own platforms. But thats
less true today. While email can flow across
platforms, its the intelligence on top of your
emailreading a message to learn about an
upcoming flight, say, and determining how soon
you need to leave for the airport, factoring in
tracthats increasingly becoming platformspecic. I can open my Gmail account on my
Windows Phone, but Google Now will ping me
only if I have my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 handy.
Its conceivable, then, that what we currently think of as Microsoft
products may evolve into services as our data flows freely in and out.
In this arrangement, users are invited to partake of the services that
Microsoft, Google, and Apple each oerbut those respective
services never venture outside their corporate walls. (Compare this
approach with the way Wolfram Research handles data in its latest
Mathematica release; see go.pcworld.com/mathematica.)
You can see this idea in action already. You can open a spreadsheet in
Excel, or in Word. You can also manipulate that data via a Web app, if
you like. Or to use Nadellas example, you can take languagewhich is

Microsofts role is to
facilitate connections
among devices,
people, and data.

just another form of dataand interact with it through Skype, Word,

or Outlook, translating it and correlating it to your contacts. Its that
last bit, however, where Microsofts own software is required.
In other words, Excel can run on an iPad, but Excel runs best on a
Windows PC or a Surface tabletnot because of any hardware
limitations, but because Microsoft reserves its digital intelligence for
users who choose Microsoft platforms. In a way, a Windows PC or
tablet authenticates the user, allowing that person access throughout
Microsofts ecosystem.
And thats the direction Microsoft is heading these days. Instead of
encouraging you to purchase a Microsoft Oce DVD, the company
now promotes Oce 365 and asks you to treat the productivity suite
as a subscription, with the promise of new capabilities and features
added over time. Youre simply buying a bundle of services.
Five or ten years from now, Nadella suggests, we may still open
Word, or Excel, or Internet Explorer to do our work. But we may
increasingly regard those apps as remnants of a bygone age.

Oce for iPad

looks great, but
it lacks the
smarts of Oce
on Windows.

NEWS

Windows 7
mainstream
support is
ending, but
BY BRAD CHACOS

IN EARLY JULY, Microsoft reminded the world that

it will stop providing mainstream support for Windows 7
(and a slew of other products; see go.pcworld.com/msftending for the full
list) in January 2015. Immediately, a flood of fearmongering headlines and
articles implied that Windows 7 is following Windows XP into the grave.
It isnt.
The confusion stems from Microsofts maddeningly obtuse naming
conventions. The end of Windows 7s mainstream support means only
that the operating system will no longer get new features or product
tweaks, such as the forthcoming DirectX 12. Once a Windows desktop
OS leaves mainstream support, it enters the extended support phase
the same phase that Windows XP resided in from early 2009 until its
demise earlier this year.
Youll still receive critical security patches during extended support, so
while Windows 7 wont be in active development beyond next January,
Microsoft isnt tossing it to the wolves of the Web, either. The company
will still provide security-related hotxes, too; businesses can sign up for
an extended hotx support plan to cover nonsecurity hotxes. The
extended support for Windows 7 will last until January 14, 2020. (If youre
still curious about how support works, read Microsofts Windows lifecycle
fact sheet at go.pcworld.com/winlifecycle.)
So dont panic. Windows 7 isnt dying for a long, long time.

NEWS

Rumor: Microsofts Windows

9 campaign begins this fall
BY MARK HACHMAN
ACCORDING TO RUSSIAN LEAKER WZOR, Microsoft plans to launch
Windows 9 this fall and back it with a substantial ad campaign.
The Russian blogger also claims that accompanying the release
will be a new distribution method keyed to the users PC and the
online Microsoft Store, rather than an activation key thats sold
and/or distributed to an individual user.
Wzor, who went silent in March after allegedly receiving leaked
information (go.pcworld.com/msftleak) from former Microsoft
employee Alex Kibkalo, resurfaced in early July, posting information to
Russian bulletin boards (go.pcworld.com/win9leak). Wzors latest post
as of this writing spends more time describing the new activation
system than the Windows 9 campaign itselfbut the activation system

Microsoft may
abandon the
Start screen in
favor of smaller
elements.

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Weve got the droid info youre looking for.

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www.greenbot.com

may very well end up being the more signicant announcement.

So far, Microsoft hasnt indicated what its plans are regarding
Windows. Following the recent release of Windows 8.1 Update 1,
tipsters have pointed toward a second, minor update this fall. After
that, reports have claimed, comes Threshold (go.pcworld.com/
burywin8), though whether that release will be a third update or a
new, full-fledged Windows is up in the air.
At this point, the distinctions are purely marketingbut what
important distinctions they are. According to NetMarketShare, the
combined market share of Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 is merely
12.54 percent. Thats more than Apples Mac OS share, but far less
than the 25.31 percent that Windows XP holds, or the 50.55 percent
share that Windows 7 enjoys.
Microsoft long ago stopped disclosing the number of Windows 8
licenses it has sold. And its product releases have steadily moved
away from the bold yet intimidating Start screen toward more
friendly elements, such as the shrunken Start menu that will
supposedly debut with Threshold.

Windows 8
may soon join
Windows Vista
in Microsofts
hall of shame.

NEWS

Its Microsofts prerogative to keep the Windows 8.1 branding if it

wishes. But the company has equal reason to jump ahead to Windows
9 and begin a new chapter in its product development. If that turns
out to be Microsofts strategy, then Windows 8 is indeed the new Vista.

Activation through the Microsoft Store

The Wzor post outlining a new, online-centric method of registering
a Windows purchase states that registration would be bound to a
single PC and activated when the user connects that machine to
the Microsoft Store. Users could also back up their key to a special
ESD-RETAIL format on a flash drive or on
another PC. Users who tried to run a single
copy of Windows on multiple PCs would be
asked to undock the other machines, in Wzors
phrasing, within three days.
A translated copy of Wzors post describes the
Windows 9 marketing campaign as fantastic.
Microsoft communications chief Frank Shaw essentially dismissed
the rumor, tweeting Was there a crazy rumor day declaration that
I missed? without specically referring to the Wzor report.
Whether or not the report is true, the question it raises is an
intriguing one. Each Windows 8.1 release that Microsoft ships
leaves the company mired in that operating systems troubled
history. With a new chief executive, a revamped management
structure, and a fresh mobile rst, cloud rst approach, doesnt
it make sense to turn the page on Windows, as well?

Whether Threshold
will be an update or
a new Windows is
up in the air.

Microsoft
gives away
nearly 300
ebooks
BY BRAD CHACOS
GET READY TO DRINK deep from
the fountain of knowledge. As he
has done in years past, Eric Ligman,
Microsofts senior sales excellence
manager, has collected a trove of
free Microsoft ebooks and resources
(go.pcworld.com/msftebooks),
oering up nearly 300 gratis guides
for your reading pleasure.
To be fair, most of the items (which we rst noticed thanks to
BetaNews) are basic guides, sales materials, or deeply technical
tomes delving into the arcane arts of, say, Azure, Microsoft
Dynamics, and SharePoint. Valuable resources, sure, but maybe
not consumer-friendly resources.
That said, sifting through the bounty reveals some handy
reference items that everyday folks will nd interesting. The
hefty Windows 7 Power Users Guide is up for grabs, and so too is
Introducing Windows 8.1 for IT Professionals, which spans 139
pages. Youll also nd the teen-focused Own Your SpaceKeep
Yourself and Your Stu Safe Online in the collection.
Some of the smaller no-cost ebooks might be worth keeping
near your PC. You can grab keyboard-shortcut guides for virtually
every Microsoft productWindows 7, Windows 8, Oce,

You can nd
helpful guides
for Windows 7
and other
Microsoft
products.

NEWS

You can grab keyboardshortcut guides for

virtually every
Microsoft product.

SharePoint, Outlook, you name it

along with shorter tip-laden articles
such as What to do before you call
tech support and various Oceproduct quick-start guides. IT types
will nd plenty to peruse, too.
Did I mention that all of these Microsoft guides are free? Be sure
to check them out.
If youre looking for even more computing advice, wander over
to the Heres How section on page 103. And on PCWorld.com, we
have way more than 300 articles that can teach novices and pros
alike all sorts of nifty tricks. Our guide to the 17 obscure Windows
tricks too powerful to ignore (go.pcworld.com/obscure) and our
advice on turning your Windows tablet or old laptop into a PC
gaming powerhouse with Steam streaming (go.pcworld.com/
steamstreaming) are just the tip of the iceberg.

The military is studying your

Facebook and Twitter habits
BY CAITLIN McGARRY
IT SHOULD COME as no surprise in the era of Edward Snowden

that the United States military is keeping an eye on your social

media habits. But what you might not realize is that the
Department of Defense is also funding Facebook-style
behavioral experiments.
The Guardian reported in early July that DARPA, the Defense
Departments research arm, has given millions of dollars (go.
pcworld.com/darpa) to projects that examine activity on
Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, Pinterest, and other popular
social networks as part of its Social Media in Strategic

NEWS

Communication program.
According to the newspaper,
one of the studies involved
sending messages to users to
gauge their responses. DARPA
even looked at the Twitter
accounts of Lady Gaga and
Justin Bieber to determine how
messages disseminate across
that network. The military also
examined Kickstarter projects.
Why is DARPA interested in
what you and Lady Gaga are
tweeting about? The SMISC
program (go.pcworld.com/
smisc) is designed to prevent
strategic surprise, according to DARPA, by studying how information
spreads through social networks. Armed with those research results,
the government can then develop tools to support the eorts of
human operators to counter misinformation or deception
campaigns with truthful information.
DARPA claims that it abides by legal and ethical standards for its
studies, and that it seeks willing participants for its experiments.
Some of the studies, however, didnt ask for participation, according
to the Guardian. One project, called Who Will Retweet This?
Automatically Identifying and Engaging Strangers on Twitter to
Spread Information, sought out Twitter users to pass along facts
about public safety and disease.
So if a stranger ever messages you on Facebook or Twitter, be
careful: It might be a government researcher studying you.

What you post

on Facebook
and elsewhere
is coming
under scrutiny.

Grim Fandango remaster

conrmed for PC
BY HAYDEN DINGMAN

IN EARLY JULY, one month after Sony representatives stood onstage

at that companys E3 press conference (go.pcworld.com/e3sony2014)
and announced that Grim Fandango would be available for the rst
time in almost 15 years, we got conrmation that the beloved
adventure game would be on the PC, too. (Oh, thank goodness.)
Yes, despite the implication at E3 that the remastered version of
the game would be exclusive to Sonys PlayStation 4 and Vita, Grim
Fandango will indeed be coming to its true and rightful PC home (go.
pcworld.com/grimpc), as well as to Mac and Linux. This isnt really a
surprise, considering that Grim Fandango creator and Double Fine
founder Tim Schafer tweeted about other platforms during E3,
but stillnostalgic gamers can now heave a sigh of relief.
And lest you blame Sony for making you wait on the edge of your
seat for this announcement, keep in mind that Sony apparently

NEWS

Disney may be the best

thing to happen to
classic adventure
games from the 1990s.

helped Double Fine in the

negotiations to get the rights to
Grim Fandango back after LucasArts
spent a decade and a half squatting,
sticking its ngers in its ears, and
shouting Sell one of the most
critically acclaimed games of all time again so people can actually
play it? I cant hear you! I cant hear you! while George Lucas ran
roughshod over the Star Wars franchise.
Ahemsorry. At any rate, Disney may be the best thing to happen
to Star Wars in a long time, and the best thing to happen to classic
adventure games from the 1990s. We still have no ocial release
date for the remastered adventures of Manny Calavera, though
the July announcement from Double Fine says just a BIT longer.

GO TO STANDUP2CANCER.ORG
CANADIAN BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION, CANADIAN CANCER SOCIETY, CANADIAN INSTITUTES OF HEALTH RESEARCH, CANCER RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CANCER STEM
CELL CONSORTIUM, FARRAH FAWCETT FOUNDATION, FIFTH THIRD BANK, FOX FAMILY CANCER RESEARCH FUNDING TRUST, GENOME CANADA, LAURA ZISKIN
FAMILY TRUST, LUSTGARTEN FOUNDATION, MELANOMA RESEARCH ALLIANCE, NATIONAL OVARIAN CANCER COALITION, ONTARIO INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH,
OVARIAN CANCER NATIONAL ALLIANCE, OVARIAN CANCER RESEARCH FUND, ROOMKEY.COM, SEAN PARKER FOUNDATION, SIEMENS, ST. BALDRICKS FOUNDATION

CONSUMER
WATCH

I L LU ST R AT I O N BY M AT T H E W F L E M I N G

Make smart purchases,

stay safe online.

Youve fallen for a scam!

Now what?
Whats done is done. Heres what you need to do to keep your
mistake from costing your further. BY LINCOLN SPECTOR

YBERCRIMINALS TRICKED FRED into giving away some

sensitive information. Now he wants to know how to mitigate
this situation.
Dont feel bad. We all make mistakes. But with these sorts
of mistakes, you have to act fast to avoid disaster.

What you need to do depends on how

you were tricked. Did you give them your
email password? Your bank and/or credit
card numbers? Your passwords for
Facebook, Twitter, or other social media
sites? Did they remotely access your PC,
or trick you into installing software?
If you have reason to believe that criminals can access your nancial
accounts, call your banks and credit card companies immediately.
Explain the situation and follow their instructions.
Next, change any passwords that might have fallen into criminal
hands. This includes email, social-media, and other passwords.
If youve been using the same password for multiple accounts,
change all of those passwords as well. And stop using the same
password for multiple accounts already!
If you cant change a passwordor even log on to a sitethat means
the crook got there rst. Check the site for instructions on recovering a
hijacked account. Conduct a Web search for hijacked account and the
name of the service in question (Facebook, Google, or whatever) and
follow the directions given on the services website.
By the way, if you set up your account with two-step verication
(most major services oer this), chances are slim that criminals will be
able to access and hijack your account.
Next, call the police and ask to make a report. No, the cops will not
nd the crooks and return what was stolen. But banks, credit card
companies, and other institutions may want to see a police report. It
makes your claim to victimhood ocial. Dont call 911. Unless the
criminal is physically inside your home, its not an emergency.
Were you tricked into allowing someone to remotely control your
PC? Or into downloading software? If so, theres no telling what
information they got, or are still getting.
In that case, change your Windows login password immediately. And
scan your PC for malware (go.pcworld.com/malwarestrikes) using
multiple antimalware tools.

If you cant change a

passwordor even log
on to a sitethat means
the crook got there rst.

CONSUMER
WATCH

A beginners guide to
BitLocker, Windows
built-in encryption tool
BY IAN PAUL
THE CREATORS OF TRUECRYPT shocked the computer security world
recently when they seemingly ended development of the popular
open-source encryption tool. Even more surprising, the creators said
TrueCrypt could be insecure and that Windows users should migrate
to Microsofts BitLocker. Theories immediately began to swirl as to
what might have prompted the surprise announcement.
But in any case, the TrueCrypt incident gives us a chance to explain
BitLocker and how to use it.

What is BitLocker?
BitLocker is an easy-to-use, proprietary encryption program for
Windows that can encrypt your entire drive as well as help protect
against unauthorized changes to your systemsay, by malware
that targets your systems rmware.

Who can use BitLocker

The program is available to anyone
with a machine running Windows Vista
or 7 Ultimate, Windows Vista or 7
Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Pro, or Windows
8.1 Enterprise. If youre running an Enterprise
edition, chances are your PC belongs to a large company, so
you should discuss enabling BitLocker encryption with your
companys IT department.
Most of us buy PCs with the standard version of Windows, which

doesnt include BitLocker encryption. But if you upgraded to Windows

8 during the initial rollout of Microsofts dual-interface operating
system then you probably have Windows 8 or 8.1 Pro.

System requirements
To run BitLocker, you need a Windows PC running one of the OS
flavors mentioned above, plus a PC with at least two partitions and a
Trusted Platform Module (TPM). A TPM is a special chip that runs an
authentication check on your hardware, software, and rmware. If the
TPM detects an unauthorized change, your PC will boot in a restricted
mode to deter potential attackers. BitLocker will run a system check
when you start it up to see if your PC can use the program.

Who should use BitLocker?

Heres the thing about BitLocker: Its a closed-source program. Thats
problematic for folks who are extremely privacy conscious, because
users have no way of looking at the code
to see if, for example, Microsoft was
pressured by the U.S. government into
putting some kind of backdoor into the
program that would allow the
government to access it. (The company
says there are no backdoors.)
So I wouldnt count on this encryption
program defending your data against government actors such as
border agents or intelligence services. But if youre looking to protect
your data from petty criminals and nongovernment types, then
BitLocker should be just ne.

Dont count on
BitLocker protecting
your data against
government actors.

Going crypto, Microsoft style

Heres how to got BitLocker running on a Windows 8.1 Pro machine.
The rst thing youll need to do is re up the Control Panel.
When the Control Panel opens, type BitLocker into the search
box in the upper-right corner and press <Enter>. Next, click

CONSUMER
WATCH
BitLocker
checks that
your PC has
the required
Trusted
Platform
Module.

Manage BitLocker, and on the next screen click Turn on BitLocker.

Now BitLocker will check your PCs conguration to make sure your
device supports Microsofts encryption method.
If it approves your PC for BitLocker, Windows will show you a
message like this one. If your TPM module is turned o, then Windows
will turn it on and encrypt your drive.

TPM
To activate your TPM security hardware, you must shut down
Windows. Then you must manually turn your PC back on. Before you
go ahead with this process, make sure to eject any flash drives, CDs, or
DVDs from your PC. Then press Shutdown.
Once you restart your PC, you may see a warning that your system
was changed. In my case I had to press <F10> to conrm the change
or <Esc> to cancel. After that, your computer should boot back up.
Once you log in again, youll see the BitLocker window.

Recovery key and encryption

After a few minutes, you should see a window with a green checkmark
next to Turn on the TPM security hardware. Click Next.
Before you encrypt your drive, however, you have to save a recovery
key in case you have problems unlocking your PC. Windows 8.1 gives
you three choices for saving this key: Save the recovery-key le to your

Microsoft account, save the le

to a flash drive, or print the
recovery key. You are able to
choose as many of these options
as you like, and you should
choose at least two.
In my case, I chose to save the
le to a USB drive and print the
key code on paper. I decided against saving the le to my Microsoft
account, because I dont know who has access to the companys
servers. That said, saving your key to Microsofts servers will make it
possible to decrypt your les if you ever lose the flash drive or piece of
paper containing your recovery key code.
Once youve created two dierent instances of the recovery key and
removed any USB drives, click Next.
On the following screen, you must decide whether to encrypt only
the disk space used so far or to encrypt your PCs entire drive. If you
are encrypting a brand-new PC, without any les, then encrypting only
the used disk space is the best choice, since new les will be encrypted
as you add them. If you have a PC with a few miles on the hard drive,

To encrypt your drive, choose the option best describes your PC.

Here, the PC
has rebooted
and the TPM is
now active.

CONSUMER
WATCH

you should choose to

encrypt the entire drive.
Then click Next.
Make sure the box next to
Run BitLocker system
check is selected so that
Windows will run a system
check before encrypting
your drive. Then click
Continue and youll notice
that nothing happens.
Top: You have to manually reboot your PC to start BitLockers
Look at the system tray,
disk encryption. Above: And now, the encryption begins.
and youll see an alert telling
you that encryption will begin after you restart the PC. Restart your PC.
When you log in this nal time, you should see another system tray
alert telling you that the encryption operation is in progress.
You can continue to work on your PC during the encryption phase,
but things may run a little slower than usual. Consider waiting to do
anything that might tax your system during the initial encryption,
such as running graphics-intensive programs.
The length of time it takes BitLocker to fully encrypt your les
depends on the size of your drive, or, if youre only encrypting existing
data on a new PC, the amount of data.

Locked out? Get back into

Windows 8 by resetting
your password
BY ERIC GEIER

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY M I C H A E L H OM N I C K

FORGOTTEN YOUR WINDOWS password? Thats not the end of the

world. You dont have to trash your computer, or even restore your PC
to its factory default settings. There are many ways to remove or reset
a Windows password.
Password-reset methods for Microsoft accounts dier from the
methods used for local Windows accounts. If you arent sure which

CONSUMER
WATCH
type of Windows account you have, turn
on your computer and see if an email
address is displayed above where you
enter your password to log in. If you see
an address, its a Microsoft account. If you
dont, its a local account.
Resetting the password for Microsoft
accounts is relatively quick and easy. Resetting local accounts,
however, requires a hack or a third-party tool. Because computers
preloaded with Windows 8 include a new Secure Boot feature and the
Unied Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot method, using a
third-party tool complicates the process further.

Resetting a local
Windows account
requires a hack or a
third-party tool.

Resetting the password of a Microsoft account

If you have a Microsoft-based Windows 8 account, you can use
Microsofts online form (go.pcworld.com/passreset) to reset the
password. You can complete this from another PC, or even from a
smartphone or tablet. Although you can nd a phone number for
Microsoft support, I was told, when I called, that I must use their
online form to reset your password.

The online
form shows a
partial email
address and cell
phone number
that you must
complete in
order to
continue.

BitLocker
checks for the
required
Trusted
Platform
Module.

It will be easier to reset your password online if your current email

address or cell phone number is saved to your Microsoft account.
The online form will show you an incomplete view of the email
address and cell number you have on le. You must then conrm
the full address or number, and choose which one youd like them to
send the reset code to.
If you dont remember the full email address or cell number that
you have on le, or you dont have access to them anymore, you
can ll out a questionnaire that that asks you a variety of account
security questions. If your information checks out, the site will help
you create a new password.
Once you successfully reset your password, you should be able to log
in. Your computer must be connected to the Internet to be updated
with the new password.

Removing the password of a local account

Although its not great from a security perspective, there are many
ways to reset or remove a Windows password for local accounts

The questionnaire
requires you to
answer security
questions, enter
any previous
passwords, and
respond to other
security prompts.

CONSUMER
WATCH
without having administrative access or passing the security checks
from Microsofts online form. These methods typically include using
a bootable CD, DVD, or USB drive. We discussed this approach
which uses a utility called Trinityin a previous article (go.pcworld.
com/localreset) for Windows 7 and earlier, but that particular utility
doesnt apply to Windows 8.
Caution: Resetting a password using these methods means you will
lose access both to any encrypted les utilizing the Encrypting File
System (EFS) built into Windows and to stored passwords for Internet
Explorer and network resources.
There are many other bootable password-recovery and rescue tools
that work with the latest Windows versions, but most require
changing your computers boot settings.
If you have a genuine Windows 8 disc or flash drive, you should be
able to boot from it without having to change the boot settings. If
this is the case, you can use it to perform a so-called Sticky Keys
hack to reset your local Windows account password.

The new Advanced Startup Options screen that replaces the Advanced Boot
Options screen from previous Windows versions.

A previous article describes

how to perform the Sticky
Keys hack (go.pcworld.com/
stickykeys). The article was
written for Windows 7 and
earlier versions of the
operating system, but it still
applies to Windows 8 and
later with a couple of tweaks:
Ignore step 4 from the
rst set of steps and do
the following instead:
Click Troubleshoot,
Advanced options, and
then open the Command
Prompt.
Resume with step 1 of
the second set of steps.
If you dont have a
genuine Windows 8 disc or
flash drive, you can use a third-party tool or utility. For example,
the Oline NT Password & Registry Editor (go.pcworld.com/
ntpassword) is included with other rescue discs like Hirens BootCD
(www.hirensbootcd.org).
Before you can boot up a third-party tool on a computer that
came preloaded with Windows 8 or later, you must temporarily
disable the new Secure Boot and UEFI features. Start by holding
the <Shift> key down while you restart Windows 8, even from the
initial login screen.
Once Windows boots into the Advanced Startup Options (ASO) menu,
click Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, and UEFI Firmware Settings. The
exact settings dier between PC manufacturers, but nd and disable
the Secure Boot and UEFI features, which may include enabling the
Compatibility Support Module (CSM) or legacy boot mode.

You can set up

the new
alternative
login methods
with the PC
Settings app.

CONSUMER
WATCH
After you run the bootable third-party tool and clear your Windows
password, you should reenable Secure Boot and UEFI. Then you should
be able to boot into Windows again and log in.

Prevent future forgotten-password issues

Now that youre back on your Windows account, consider setting up
some alternative log-in methods (go.pcworld.com/altlogin), like a PIN
and picture password, which you can use if you forget your password.
If youre using a local Windows 8
account, you can create a passwordreset disk using a USB flash drive via the
User Account settings in the Control
Panel. If you ever forget the password,
even if youve changed it since you made
the reset disk, you can plug in the flash
drive to reset your password.
You can use a somewhat similar password-reset function for
Microsoft accounts. You can generate a Microsoft recovery code and
then save it and enter it later if you ever forget your password. The
recovery code will work even if youve since changed the password.
To generate this recovery code, visit the Microsoft security settings
webpage (go.pcworld.com/msrecoverycode).

Consider setting up
some alternative log-in
methods, like a PIN and
a picture password.

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time!
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REVIEWS
& RATINGS
CONTENTS
42

Microsoft Surface
Pro 3: A work PC in
tablet clothing

50

Varidesk: A sit-stand
desk with a few
ergonomic issues

54

Toshiba Satellite
P50t: The rst laptop
with a 4K display

60

Karma hotspot oers

no-nonsense pricing

63

NEC MultiSync
EA274WMis
human sensor
puts it to sleep

66

Asus PB287Q: A
budget-friendly
Ultra HD display

REVIEWS
& RATINGS

TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS

In this section, hardware & software
go through rigorous testing.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3:

A work PC in tablet clothing
With a few small changes, Microsoft has made choosing between a laptop
and a Windows tablet far more difficult. BY MARK HACHMAN

Despite the larger

screen dimensions,
the Surface Pro 3
is slimmer than its
predecessor.

HROUGH EVERY ITERATION,

Microsofts Surface Pro tablet

has edged closer to becoming a
laptop replacement. The newest
model, the Surface Pro 3 (go.pcworld.com/
surfacep3), takes several more small steps in
that directionalong with one giant leap.
Youll immediately notice the larger display,
which is 12 inches in diagonal width and 38 percent bigger than the
screen of the Surface Pro 2. Its 2160-by-1440-pixel resolution, an
improvement over the Surface Pro 2s 1920-by-1080 resolution, is
breathtakingly crisp. Just as important, Microsofts shift to a 3:2
aspect ratio adds 1.12 inches of vertical real estate to what already is
a wider tablet. The result is a more luxurious, useful work spaceand
thats critical when youre multitasking in a desktop environment.
Despite the larger screen dimensions, the Surface Pro 3 is slimmer

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY M I C H A E L H OM N I C K

Viewed on edge,
the Surface Pro 3
looks and feels
like a tablet.

than its predecessor, its designers having trimmed 0.23 inch of width
and 0.24 pound from the Surface Pro 2. Yet Microsoft is still oering a
full range of Core processors for the lineup, including a Core i7 that
somehow manages to live happily in a 0.3-inch-thick slate.

A substantial investment
Microsoft is shipping the Surface Pro 3 in ve congurations. Our
evaluation unit, containing a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and
256GB of storage, costs $1300. The low-end Core i3 model costs $800,
a price thats competitive with full-fledged laptops. But a high-end
Core i7 model costs more than $2000 after sales tax, and any future
4G connectivity options will boost prices even further. The new Type
Cover costs another $130, and its a must-have. Microsoft also moved
to a new charger, breaking compatibility with earlier models. And if
you bought a docking station for the Surface Pro 2, it wont work with
the Surface Pro 3 due to a port reconguration.

Compared with
the 10.6-inch
Surface Pro 2
(left), the 12-inch
Surface Pro 3
oers a luxurious
amount of space.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS
Cooling vents surround
the upper reaches of the tablet.
Under load, the fan vents air with
an unobtrusive hiss.

Longtime Surface fans may be disappointed by those drawbacks,

especially if they recently spent four gures on a Surface Pro 2. But if
youre in the market for a new laptop, you should seriously consider a
Surface Pro 3 as your daily driver for work and play.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

PROS:
Larger screen oers 38 percent more
real estate

New Type Cover is much more stable

Stated battery life of 8 hours
CONS:

Pricing still gives one pause

No more free OneDrive cloud storage
Stylus holder is awkwardly placed
BOTTOM LINE:
Microsofts Surface lineup keeps
getting better, with an improved
screen for desktop use and an
upgraded Type Cover for the road.
$1300 (Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM,
256GB storage)

Just like that, its

up and running
The Surface Pro 3 boots
fastso fast that I initially
thought I had left it in
sleep mode instead of
shutting it down. Yes, Ive
been reviewing a clean
machine, and improved
SSD technology plays a
role, but boot-to-password
was on the order of 3 to 4
seconds. (Hold the power
button a bit longer than
normal on rst boot,
however, as a quick press
doesnt seem to trigger it.)
Microsoft claims 8 hours
of battery life during casual
use, but our in-house
battery tests, which entail

a continuous mix of scripted Oce use and video playback, brought

the Surface Pro 3 to its knees after 4 hours, 18 minutes. (The smaller
Surface Pro 2 shut down after 4 hours, 44 minutes.)
Our Core i5based review unit always felt snappy and responsive.
Microsoft describes the chip as a tuned version of the Core i5-4300U,
the upgraded processor that Microsoft adopted midway through the
Surface Pro 2 life cycle. The Surface Pro 3s WorldBench 9 score,
however, was just 72, whereas the Surface Pro 2 achieved a score of 74.
Microsoft has moved to the faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, which
increases potential wireless throughput. The new tablet also has
5-megapixel cameras front and rear, enough for full 1080p Skype chats.
As for ports, the Surface Pro 3 retains the MicroSD slot of previous
generations, as well as the single USB 3.0 port and Mini DisplayPort
connector. The upcoming docking station will include three USB 3.0
ports and two USB 2.0 connectors, as well as gigabit ethernet.

The new stylus is

nice, although a bit
awkwardly placed.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS
Improved digital-ink pen
Our test unit included the latest Windows 8.1
Update. When you shut down the tablet, it
asks you to pull down the window to turn it
o, just as Windows Phone does. One serious
omission on the software front: Whereas the
Surface Pro 2 came with 200GB of free
OneDrive storage, the Surface Pro 3 does not.
Ditto for the years worth of Skype Premium
calling and Wi-Fi access that the Pro 2 oered.
The Surface Pro 3 ships with a chunky new
N-trig pen that features what Microsoft calls
decreased parallax; the digital ink flows more
closely from where the pen touches the
screen. And heres a nifty trickyou can rouse
the tablet from sleep by holding the button
on the top of the pen, which launches a new OneNote note without
requiring a password.
Either you like digital ink or you dont, and the Surface Pro 3 is still too
heavy and awkward for long-term one-handed use. Microsoft wants
you to use the Surface Pro 3 as a digital legal pad, but doing so requires
setting the tablet down on a table.
The pens storage loop in the new Type Cover also needs work, as it
makes removing and stowing the pen too dicult. Securing the pen
within the tablet would be a better solutionthough perhaps
unfeasible, given that the Surface Pro 3s internals are already packed
to capacity with components.

Using the Surface

Pro 3 as a digital legal
pad requires setting it
down on a table.

On a plane, on a train
Surface chief Panos Panay has made lapabilityhow a Surface tablet
stacks up against a traditional notebook when youre resting the
device on your lapone of the selling points of the line. In the service
of improved lapability, Microsoft has reworked the kickstand and the
Type Cover for this model.

The rst generation of the Surface lineup included a kickstand that

folded back to a 22-degree angle. Later, the Surface Pro 2 added a
second, 55-degree angle. With the Surface Pro 3, the limitations
eectively disappear. The tablet still clicks back to the 22-degree
angle, but beyond that the kickstand and its friction hinge can
support any angle up to 150 degrees. Microsoft says it has tested
the hinge to hold up over repeated use.
I used the Surface Pro 3 on a plane from New York to San Francisco,
flying in coach. The Surface Pro 3 t fairly well on the tray table, with
a bit hanging o the edge. Typing was no problem. In key travel and
spacing, Microsoft claims, the Type Cover 3 is essentially the same as
the second-generation model, and the keys are still backlit.
I cant say, however, whether the Surface Pro 3 will remain
comfortable to use if the person ahead of you reclines the seatthe
passenger in front of me slept with the seat in the upright position. To
Microsofts credit, I was able to use the Surface Pro 3 with the Type
Cover comfortably on my lap, and I typed on it for extended periods.
The real key to so-called lapability lies in a tweak that Microsoft
made to the Type Cover 3. Click it in, and it resembles the previous

The Type Covers

redesign gives the
Surface Pro 3
greater stability
when you rest the
tablet on your lap.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS
generations keyboard. Youll notice, however, a narrow strip on its
long, connected edge that uses a second magnetic connection. When
you fold it down, this strip raises the keyboard to a slight angle, and it
reinforces the Type Covers connection across the entire tablet. Earlier
Type Cover designs feel flimsy on your lap, but the additional support
of the Type Cover 3 stabilizes the whole unit. The Type Cover 3 works
with earlier Surface models, too.
When I used the Surface Pro 3 on a swaying commuter train in San
Francisco, the new tablet-keyboard combination oered enough
stability, flexibility, and headroom to make me dismiss the old Surface
Pro 2 combo immediately.
I did encounter two bugs. First, after I folded up the Surface Pro 3
and then reopened it, the touchpad wouldnt work and the cursor
vanished. Rebooting solved the problem. Second, when I snapped the
Type Cover 3 onto my older Surface Pro 2 to check connectivity, it
worked nebut after I reattached the Type Cover 2 to the Surface
Pro 2, the Type Cover 2 failed to connect, even after several reboots.
Another, older Type Cover failed to work as well. Microsoft says
software updates will x such issues with the covers.

Third times the charm?

For all of the Surface Pro 3s attractive qualities, you may be better
served by exploring other Windows 8.1 options, be they hybrids or
traditional laptops. These competitors may not have the Surface Pro
3s gorgeous display, but they will likely cost a few hundred dollars
less, boast longer battery lives, and maybe face the challenges of the
airplane tray table with greater aplomb.
Thats not to downplay what Microsoft has accomplished with the
Surface Pro 3, however. The new model represents an improvement
on all fronts. The original Surface wasnt much of a tablet. The Surface
Pro 3 certainly is.

Varidesk: A sit-stand desk

with a few ergonomic issues
BY MICHAEL ANSALDO
IF YOU HAVENT heard yet, sitting will kill you. The posture in which

most of us spend the bulk of our day has been linked to every lifethreatening malady from heart disease to diabetes to cancer. Because
most of our sitting is done in the workplace, a popular tool to combat
this habit has been the sit-stand desk, which allows you to vary your
posture. The problem is theyre expensive, frequently complex, and
not every workplace oers one as an option.
The Varidesk (varidesk.com) is a compelling alternative: a heightadjustable platform that sits on your xed desk. Unfortunately,
some signicant design flaws limit its usefulness.

Watch the
video at
go.pcworld.
com/varidesk

REVIEWS
& RATINGS
Simple setup

The Varidesk lifts

with little effort
thanks to spring
assistance.

The Varidesk comes fully assembled. However, the

single-monitor model we reviewed (dual-monitor
models are also available) is a cumbersome 41.8
pounds, so that may be a two-person task. Theres no
hardware to secure the Varidesk to your current
workstationits designed to balance its weightso
once its positioned, its merely a matter of loading your monitor,
keyboard, and any other peripherals you want at hand. The most
laborious part of setting up is making sure all your cable lengths will
accommodate both sitting and standing positions.
The Varidesk Single has
a spacious 30-by-23-inch
Varidesk Single
work surface. To change
the height of the Varidesk,
PROS:
you release levers on either
Sturdy construction
side of the platform and
Easy setup
manually raise or lower it
Inexpensive
to one of 11 preset
positions. It lifts with little
CONS:
eort thanks to spring
Cant adjust keyboard and monitor
assistance, but lowering it
independently
takes some muscle.
Too big for a cubicle desk

Must move peripherals each time

you change positions

BOTTOM LINE:
Varidesk Single is a solid entry-level
adjustable desk, but its size and
design quirks prevent it from being
a long-term sit-stand solution.
$275

Rise up
Varidesk trumpets that its
adjustable height desks
can get you from a seated
to standing position in
three seconds. Technically
thats true, but because
the monitor and keyboard
cant be adjusted
independently, getting to

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY M I C H A E L H OM N I C K

an ergonomically correct
standing positionand
back to a seated one
takes considerably longer.
It also quickly became
clear that Varidesks 11
positions arent enough
to accommodate all
statures. At 6 feet tall, I
needed to use the
Varidesk in its fully
extended position15.5
inches above my regular
deskto get the height
that would let me
position my elbows at the
optimum 90-degree
angle. Even then, I had
uses two risers to elevate
my monitor so that the
top of the screen was
close to eye level. And
because the work
platform moves out as it rises up, I had to push the entire Varidesk
back from the edge of my desk to get the recommended 20-30
inches between me and my monitor.
But when I lowered the Varidesk to sit, I had to remove the risers and
move the monitor forward to get the proper viewing height and
distance for a seated position. Because the platform comes to midchest level when fully lowered, the keyboard and mouse need to be
moved to the Varidesks keyboard tray, which slides straight out (but
not up or down) with the turn of a couple of thumbscrews.
All that shuling of peripherals gets tiresome, especially if you want
to change positions once each hour of the workday, as is commonly

The Varidesk
Single sits on
top of your
existing desk.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS
recommended. As a result, youll probably end up
leaving the Varidesk in one position, likely the
most comfortable: sitting.

Is it for you?

Its a fairly risk-free

way to nd out if
you like working
on your feet.

The Varidesk Single retails for $275, making it an

attractive entry point to workplace wellness. If
youre intrigued by the fad, its a fairly risk-free way to nd out if you
like working on your feet. Youll get the best results if your desk isnt
boxed into a cubicle and you use a wireless keyboard and mouse. If
youre committed to the idea of a sit-stand desk, however, the
Varidesk Single is tough to recommend.

The Varidesk is easy

to set up, but it
doesnt oer enough
adjustment for proper
sitting and standing.

Watch the
video at
go.pcworld.
com/tosh4k

Toshiba Satellite P50t: The

rst laptop with a 4K display
BY MICHAEL BROWN
TOSHIBAS SATELLITE P50t boasts two important rsts: Its the rst

laptop to feature a 4K display, and its the rst to be Technicolor Color

Certied. You likely have at least a passing familiarity with 4K video,
but I would argue that the latter claim to famewhich you might
never have heard ofdeserves more praise.
Its easy to go gaga over the Satellite P50ts (go.pcworld.com/
toshibap50t) display, which boasts a resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels.
The laptop is outtted with a 15.6-inch screen, which means it oers
an eye-popping pixel density of 282 ppi. But dont buy this in anticipation of watching your favorite movies and TV shows in glorious
4Kthere is almost no content available in that format right now.
The Blu-ray format, meanwhile, will need to be overhauled before it
can be used to distribute 4K movies. No one expects that to happen

REVIEWS
& RATINGS
before the end of 2014. And the P50t is equipped with a DVD burner,
not a Blu-ray player, so you can forget about the computer upscaling
Blu-ray playback from 1080p to 4K. Even if it could, the P50ts battery
will give up. In our grueling battery-rundown test, Toshibas machine
crapped out in just 1 hour and 52 minutes.

Color calibration
So lets turn our attention to the Satellite P50ts other rst: The
rst laptop to be Technicolor Color Certied. Youve probably seen
the Technicolor brand in the credits of many lms. The company has
provided technical services
to the motion-picture
Toshiba Satellite
industry for decades.
P50t-BST2N01
Technicolor developed
the Technicolor Color
PROS:
Certied specication as
4K display
a means to guarantee the
Technicolor Color Certication
color you see on a consu Mostly high-end specs
mer computer or mobile
display is accurate, withCONS:
out needing to whip out
Very little 4K video content
a colorimeter or other
available
pricey hardware. The
HDMI output limited to 30Hz at 4K
spec focuses on three
resolution
use cases: Entertainment,
No Blu-ray drive
e-commerce, and conBOTTOM LINE:
sumer content creation.
This is one beautiful laptop, but with
In the entertainment
4K content so hard to come by, you
space, Technicolor Color
might be paying for more technology
Certied guarantees that
than you can actually use.
the colors you see on your
display when youre
$1800
watching a movie are
exactly what the director

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY M I C H A E L H OM N I C K

Toshibas Satellite P50t-BST2N01 is

every bit as beautiful as youd expect.

and the cinematographer intended. When it comes to e-commerce,

the spec ensures that the color of the items you buy from online
retailers will match what you saw online when you placed your order.
And when youre producing your own content, you can be certain that
the photos and videos you shoot will look the same on your computer
as they do in your camera.
Technicolor partnered with software developer Portrait Displays to
achieve this goal. Portraits software talks to the computers graphics
and display hardware to automatically control color settings and
adjust color gamut.
Youre not limited to using the Technicolor color space. Using
Portrait Displays Chroma Tune app, you can switch between
Technicolor and a cool color space for working with productivity
apps, for instance.
Put these two technologies together and you get an absolutely
gorgeous display. The 4K demo footage Toshiba preloaded on the

REVIEWS
& RATINGS

Chroma Tune
lets you choose
from ve color
spaces.

machine looks amazing, as do gameswhen you turn the resolution

down to 1920x1080 to get a playable frame rate, that is. At that res,
the P50t delivered BioShock Innite at 37.4 frames per second.
Theres just one major shortcoming: Glare. There are times when the
Satellite P50ts screen looks like a 15.6-inch mirror. The problem is
particularly acute with nighttime scenes.

Specs and performance

Most of the rest of the P50ts specs are impressive: The machine is
powered by Intels Core i7-4700HQ processor, augmented by 16GB of
DDR3/1600 memory. And it has a discrete graphics processor in the
form of an AMD Radeon R9 M265X, which taps 2GB of its own GDDR5
memory. Toshiba includes gigabit ethernet and an Intel Dual-band
Intel Wireless-AC 7260 adapter, so you can take full advantage of your
802.11ac routers excellent streaming capabilities.

Toshiba Satellite P50t Review

BioShock Innite Performance
1920x1080 resolution, medium image quality
Toshiba Satellite P50t
(Intel Core i7-4700HQ)

37.4

Dell Inspiron 7537

(Intel Core i7-4500U))

39.5

HP Zbook 15 Mobile
Workstation
(Intel Core i7-4800MQ)

15.4

Dell XPS 15
(Intel Core i7-4702HQ)

44.0

10

20

30

40

50

FRAMES PER SECOND. LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE.

Games look great on the Satellite P50ts display, but dont try playing AAA titles at
its native resolution.

All four of the Satellite P50ts USB ports are USB 3.0, and theres an
SD memory card reader in front. Although its key travel is very short,
the backlit island-style keyboard felt great under my ngers
In terms of overall performance, The Satellite P50t trailed HPs workoriented ZBook 15 Mobile Workstation and Dells entertainmentfocused XPS 15. But the Toshiba clobbered Dells Inspiron 7537. While
all four machines are outtted with Core i7 processors, the Dells Core
i7-4500U is only a dual core and that PC is equipped with a 5400 rpm
mechanical hard drive. The Toshiba is equipped with a 1TB hybrid hard
drive (a 1TB 5400 rpm hard drive augmented by 8GB of solid-state
memory). The HP has a mechanical drive, too, but it spins its platters

REVIEWS
& RATINGS

Toshiba Satellite P50t Review

Laptop WorldBench 9 Performance
Toshiba Satellite P50t
(Intel Core i7-4700HQ)

87

Dell Inspiron 7537

(Intel Core i7-4500U))

65

HP Zbook 15 Mobile
Workstation
(Intel Core i7-4800MQ)

96

Dell XPS 15
(Intel Core i7-4702HQ)

100

20

40

60

80

100

LAPTOP WORLDBENCH 9 SCORE. LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE.

The Toshibas WorldBench score would be even higher if it had an SSD instead of
a hybrid hard drive.

at 7200 rpm. The XPS 15, meanwhile, comes with a 512GB SSD, and
SSDs have an outsized impact on our benchmarks.

Is it just too early for 4K?

The Toshiba Satellite P50t delivers the highest resolution of any
laptop you can buy today. But you wont want to play games at its
native resolution, and theres almost no entertainment content to
watch on its beautiful screen. The day will come when 4K movies are
as common as 1080p video is today. Until then, dropping $1800 for a
Toshiba Satellite P50t buys bragging rights and a color-accurate
display more than anything else.

Karma is a Wi-Fi
hotspot that
provides a
shareable 4G
connection to
the Internet.

Karma hotspot offers

no-nonsense pricing
BY JOHN P. MELLO JR.
THE TERM PAYASYOUGO seems to mean one thing to mobile
carriers and something else to the rest of the human race.
For instance, with my Verizon Pay As You Go mobile service, I have
to pay for more data every month whether I need it or not. Sure,
Im not stuck in a contract, but if I fail to buy minutes in any given
month, the company will disconnect my phone and wipe my
accumulated minutes clean.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS

The hotspot can

handle up to eight
users without any
performance issues.

True pay-as-you-go service would allow

you to pay a flat amount and only buy more
data when you need itwhether thats next
month or next year.
Thats exactly the model Karma (yourkarma.
com) uses. To get started with the service, you
must buy a mobile hotspot from Karma for $99. You can buy data at
the same time, or purchase it later ($14 for 1GB, $59 for 5GB, or $99
for 10GB). Once you buy it, its yours until you use itfree of any
time restrictions.
You can also earn free
Karma
data: When your hotspot is
on, anyone with a Karma
PROS:
account can connect to
True pay-as-you-go pricing
the Internet with it, and so
100MB of data awarded when
can others without an
someone uses your hotspot to sign
account. These new
up for a Karma account
customers can set up an
CONS:
account on the fly, and
Coverage limited to WiMax in
when they do so, they
80 cities
receive 100MB of data for
Data more expensive than whats
freeand so do you.
available with some carriers
monthly plans
BOTTOM LINE:
Karmas mobile hotspot and pay-asyou-go service is worthwhile for
anyone with intermittent cellular
data needs. You pay more for data
than with some other plans, but it
never expires.
$99 plus data charges

The more,
the merrier

The device itself is 2.25

inches square and a
quarter inch thick, with
LEDs on the edge that
display information about
power, Wi-Fi connectivity,
and 4G coverage.
According to Karma, the
hotspot can handle up to

eight users without suering performance degradation.

When someone connects to the Internet
through your hotspot, Karma charges data
usage to that persons account. This is useful
for families; each member can have a Karma
account, but you only need to buy one hotspot.

Near-LTE speeds
Karma relies on the Clearwire network, which
Sprint owns. That limits Karmas coverage to
about 80 U.S. cities. However, Karma plans to
expand to the full Sprint network sometime
this summer, which will give it nationwide
coverage and access to LTE speeds.
According to Karma, its hotspot delivers
download speeds between 3 and 6 megabits
per second, and upload speeds of about 1.5
Mbps. Those are near-LTE numbers. Speed
tests performed with Ookla Speedtest and
SpeedOf.me backed up those claims.
For common Internet tasks, such as Web
surng and email, Karmas hotspot provided
excellent coverage with no noticeable latency.
Karma oers options for both Android and
Video clips and streaming audio also
iOS, but all you really need is a browser.
played smoothly.
Karma is designed for people who
occasionally need Internet access on the go and who dont stray too
far from major metropolitan areasalthough that will change once
Karma gains access to the full Sprint network. At $14 per gigabyte, its
data prices are more expensive than those of many alternative
services, but less expensive than purchasing access in hotels and
airports. Whats most appealing about Karma is its flexible buy it and
keep it model, which allows you to pay for data only as you need it.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS

NEC MultiSync EA274WMis

human sensor puts it to sleep
BY JAMES GALBRAITH
THE NEC MULTISYNC EA274WMi (go.pcworld.com/necea274) is a
27-inch widescreen monitor with a special talent: It can sense when no
one is nearby and then dim the display accordingly. But even aside from
that power-saving feature, this monitor is impressive, with high-quality
IPS panels, LED backlights, and an antiglare screen.

The specs
The 2560-by-1440-pixel monitor connects to your Mac or PC via
DisplayPort, HDMI, DVD-D, or VGA, and oers a four-port USB
hub for peripherals. You can also connect two sources to the
display and use NECs Picture By Picture feature to view both
simultaneously. The monitor has built-in speakers, as well as a port
for plugging in headphoneshandy features, especially for
people using the display with tower computers. One thing the
EA274WMi doesnt oer is a DisplayPort Out connection,
which is a nice-to-have but rare feature that allows
you to daisy-chain monitors.
The all-black EA274WMi has an ergonomically flexible stand that makes it easy to
adjust to a comfortable computing
position. It can pivot between portrait
and landscape modes, swivel left
to right, and tilt forward and back,
plus it oers a generous ve inches of
height adjustment.
The on-screen menus oer lots of
customization options, with ve colortemperature presets and native,
programmable color settings, and DICOM
simulation for medical imaging use.

The sensor
The EA274WMis aforementioned ability
to know when a person is nearby is due
what NEC dubs the Human Sensor, which
resides along the bottom edge of the
bezel. When it senses that no one is
Among its many adjustments, the stand lets
you pivot from landscape to portrait.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS

You can move side to

side from the center of
the screen and see no
obvious color shifts.

present, the screen dims. When it thinks that

someone is in front of it, the display returns to
its previous brightness settings. You can opt to
have the sensor activate in anywhere from 1
to 255 seconds, you can specify how close
someone should be to the sensor to activate
and deactivate the power reduction, and you
can set the level of dimming to either 51 percent (Light) or 78 percent
(Deep). The feature worked well, but its really a motion sensor, not a
human sensor. Waving a stick in front of the screen will trigger the
feature just as eectively.
The EA274WMis screen looked great in all our tests. You can move
from side to side or up and down from the center of the screen
without seeing any obvious color shifts, thanks to the IPS panel. Grays
were neutral and whites
looked a little warm
NEC EA274WMi
compared to other
displays Ive recently
PROS:
tested, but I nd that
Highly adjustable stand
preferable to the overly
Wide viewing angles
cool screens I often see.
Power-saving features
Skin tones looked natural,
CONS:
and text was easy to read,
No DisplayPort Out connection
even at small point sizes. I
for daisy-chaining monitors
found no dead or stuck
BOTTOM LINE:
pixels in our full-screen
solid-color tests and I saw
If youre looking for a large, highno issues with screen
quality, IPS-based monitor with an
uniformity or light
environmentally friendly disposition,
leakage.
the NEC MultiSync EA274WMi is a
great choice.
$799

Asus PB287Q: A budgetfriendly Ultra HD display

BY JAMES GALBRAITH
UNTIL RECENTLY, SHARPS $3500 PN-K321 was about as aordable as
4K desktop monitors got. With the $649 PB287Q (go.pcworld.com/
pb287q), Asus joins Dell and Samsung in making Ultra HD desktop
monitors aordable for consumers. Are todays applications,
hardware, and operating systems ready to
make the leap? Our

REVIEWS
& RATINGS
tests of the PB287Q revealed mixed results.
The 28-inch PB287Q has an impressive list
of features, including 3840-by-2160-pixel
resolution, LED backlighting, two HDMI 1.4
ports, a single DisplayPort 1.2 connection, a
bright 330 cd/m2 luminance rating, and a
1-millisecond gray-to-gray response time. It
oers picture-in-picture as well as pictureby-picture support, MHL support, and decent
built-in 2W speakers. The highly flexible
stand has height adjustment, pivot, swivel,
and tilt capabilities.

No USB hub
On the downside, the PB287Q lacks a USB hub
for connecting peripherals. Its on-screen menu system is clunky, as
well: Six dots and a power icon near the lower-right corner are
meant to guide you when youre using the physical buttons on the
back. I found myself
hitting the wrong button
Asus PB287Q
more often than not.
PROS:
Frequently the menu
timed out as I ddled
Inexpensive
around trying to press the
Ultrahigh resolution
right combination of keys.
CONS:
You use those menus to
Limited viewing angles
access
the brightness,
Muted colors
color, and speaker-volume
BOTTOM LINE:
settings; as well as eight
If you require an Ultra HD display,
SplendidPlus display
the PB287Q is an aordable,
modes, including Reading,
serviceable option.
Theater, sRGB, Game, and
Standard modes. The
$649
Standard mode proved to

The Asus PB287Q

4K display includes
two HDMI 1.4 ports
and one DisplayPort
1.2, but it lacks a
USB hub.

be the best option for our tests.

Providing four times as many pixels
as 1080p high-denition displays, 4K
monitors require serious graphics
horsepower to run at full resolution
and standard refresh rates. The
PB287Q can run at 60Hz when
connected to a compatible graphics
card via DisplayPort 1.2. Refresh
rates are limited to 30Hz over HDMI
1.4. When its running at 30Hz, you
can almost feel the cursor drag
across the screen. Playing games at
60Hz over DisplayPort 1.2 seemed
smooth enough, however, and Ill
attribute any lag I saw to the
graphics cards struggles to support
the high resolution.

Early days for 4K

Apples 4K support extends only to
recent MacBook Pros and to the new
Mac Pros. OS X 10.9.3 dramatically
improves the look of Ultra HD
monitors in both native and scaled
resolution modes, but many
applications are not optimized for
Ultra HDat full resolution, icons and
menu text are tiny. You can increase text and icon size easily enough,
but many times I found my aging eyes squinting at itty-bitty text.
On PC graphics cards, 4K support is more common. Windows 8.1 does a
good job of displaying its icons, menus, and other screen elements at
reasonable sizes regardless of the resolution setting.
I wasnt able to get my hands on the aordable Dell P2815Q or

The PB287Q
can pivot into
portrait mode.

REVIEWS
& RATINGS

Make sure your

existing hardware is
compatible with
DisplayPort 1.2.

Samsung U28D590D, so I had to compare the

Asus with the much more expensive Sharp
PN-K321 (go.pcworld.com/sharppnk321). Next
to the Sharp and its IGZO screen, the PB287Q
has a limited angle of view: Colors shift as you
move left, right, up, or down from center. Text
on the Asus had a grainy, slightly broken appearance, as if some
pixels were missing; it looked better from a bit of a distance, but it
was never as clean as the text on the Sharp.
The 31.5-inch Sharp has a pixel density of 140 ppi; the Asus, 157 ppi.
That increased pixel density makes icons and screen elements appear
smaller, which is more of a problem at very high resolutions.
In test photos, the colors on the Asus were a little muted compared
to those on the Sharp, but again, the PB287Q costs one-fth as much
as the PN-K321.
If you need an Ultra HD display to view large images or to work
on 4K video, youll nd the Asus PB287Q to be a serviceable choice.
It works best with DisplayPort 1.2, so make sure that your existing
hardware is compatible.

TOP 10
for

FIXES

COMMON
PC PROBLEMS
THE BEST OF PCWORLDS ANSWER LINE
BY LINCOLN SPECTOR
ILLUSTRATION BY MARIO WAGNER

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

Ive

been answering questions from PCWorld readers

since 1997, and I think Ive read about every
problem that Windows and PC hardware can provide.
But some questions pop up over and over again. Others rarely come up,
but nevertheless involve important issues that every user needs to know
about. Still, others are unanswerable, and the only advice I can give is to
have a professional look at the PC.

Attack of the
Blue Screen
of Death

Recover
deleted les

Back up
your data les

PAGE 75

PAGE 77

PAGE 73

Protect your
privacy while
browsing
PAGE 79

Here are
Speed up a slow
PC without
buying new
hardware

10 ANSWER
LINE FIXES
every Windows user needs.

PAGE 81

A slow Internet
connection when
youre paying for
a fast one
PAGE 83

Archive les
so theyll
stay around
for years

One antivirus
program is
better
than two

Securely wipe
sensitive les
or your entire
hard drive

Actually, you
do need to
share your
passwords

PAGE 85

PAGE 87

PAGE 89

PAGE 91

1}

Attack of the Blue

Screen of Death
PROBLEM: Youre working on an important project, and
suddenly your screen displays nothing but white text against a
blue background. If it happens once, you curse, reboot, and hope
for the best. But if youre getting these screens frequently, youve
got a problem that needs xing.
FIX: Microsoft calls these stop errors, but everyone else prefers a
more descriptive label: The Blue Screen of Death (BSoD).
Theyre not as common as they used to be, but BSoDs still
happen (I experienced one two days ago). If you get one, curse,
reboot, and hope for the best. But if youre getting them
frequently, youve got a problem that needs xing.
The trick is to nd information about your particular BSoD, and

Youll nd useful
data below the
rst paragraph
and under
Technical
information.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

You can
also get
info on the
BSoD after
rebooting.

thensince that information usually comes in an obtuse formsearch

the Internet for more practical advice.
What should you look for when the BSoD is in front of you? Youll nd
useful data immediately below the rst paragraph, and under the
Technical information label near the bottom of the screen.
Since you cant use Windows Snipping Tool to capture a BSoD screen,
youll need to write down the important information on paper. Or you
can use a camera or phone to photograph the screen. Just dont expect a
great-looking photoor even an easily readable one.
You can also get information on the BSoD after youve rebooted:
If you get a Windows has recovered from an unexpected
shutdown message, youre in luck. Click View problem details
for information. You can also click Check for solution, but dont expect
much help there.
You can also get information, after rebooting, via the free program
BlueScreenView (go.pcworld.com/bluescreen).
Whichever way you get the info, intelligent use of a search engine can
probably bring up something useful. If it doesnt, here are some other
tests you might try:
Check the health of your RAM with Memtest86+ (memtest.org).
Update your drivers with SlimDrivers (slimwareutilities.com).
Diagnose your hard drive with HD Tune (hdtune.com).

>
>
>

2}

Recover deleted les

PROBLEM: Now you see them, now you dont. Files are like
that sometimes. So where are they? Are you sure you dont have a
backup somewhere?

FIX: Lost les can usually be recoveredif you discover the loss soon
enough. But every time you write to the hard drive, you lower the
likelihood of a successful recovery. So use that computer as little as
possible until the les are recovered or youve given up hope.
Try these solutions, in this order:
Check the Recycle Bin Windows stores deleted les here as a safety
measure. Youll nd the icon in the upper-left corner of your screen. if you

File Recovery
programs such
as Recuva are
easy to use.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

IF YOU BACKUP your

hard driveor at
least your libraries
regularly, then your
les are probably
preserved there.

nd the les there, select them,

right-click them, and choose
Restore.

Use your backup If you back

up your hard driveor at least
your librarieson a regular
basis, your les are probably
preserved there. I dont know which backup program you use, so I cant tell
you exactly how to search for and recover the les. Its generally a pretty
intuitive process.
And if you dont back up, maybe its time to get into the habit. It wont
help you this time, but it could the next.
Try le recovery software Even a le thats no longer in the Recycle Bin
may still exist. Windows doesnt overwrite the actual ones and zeros until
another le needs the drive space. Thats why I told you to avoid using the
PC as much as possible.
There are several good le recovery programs available. I recommend
Recuva Portable (piriform.com). Its easy to use and has a very good track
record. And it sometimes shows you the images that it can recover. (Ive
seen it recover images that it could not preview.) Its also free.
And, since its portable, which means that you dont have to install it, you
can use it on your PC without writing to the hard drive. Download the
program on another computer, and unzip it to a folder on a flash drive. Then
plug the flash drive into the PC with the missing les, and run it from there.
Hire a professional This is the last resort, if none of the above
suggestions work. There are many data recovery services available,
and if your drive is still working, you probably dont need one of
the more expensive ones.
Ive never used one of these services, so I cant recommend a particular
company. Ask friends for a recommendation, or nd someone local on Yelp.

3}

Back up your data les

PROBLEM: Not backing up is like not wearing a seatbelt. You
can go months or even years without a problem, then disaster
strikes and youre in serious trouble.

FIX: Its a simple rule: Never have only one copy of anything.
You absolutely must backup your data les every day. And no, you
dont have to copy each of those les every day. Any decent le backup
program can do an incremental backupcopying only the les that
have been created or changed since the last backup.
By data les, I mean your documents, photos, spreadsheets, songs,
and so on. If you back up all of your Libraries, or everything in the Users
folder, you should get all of these.
You might also consider backing up your systemWindows and your
applicationsalthough this isnt essential. Should some disaster
render Windows unusable, you can always go through the long process

Use a program
capable of
both le
and image
backups.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

of reinstalling the operating system, personalizing the settings, and

reinstalling all of your programs. But if you have a system backup, you
can restore that in much less time and with much less eort.
The only way to reliably backup Windows is with an image backup
which creates a record of everything on the drive or the partition. You
dont have to do this regularly. I back up the system four times a year.
Windows 7 and 8 both come with decent backup programs capable of
both le and image backups. I prefer the free version of Easeus ToDo
Backup (todo-backup.com), which is more versatile and also does both.

Backup options
What do you back up to? External hard drives are reasonably cheap
and fast, and are clearly the best options for the two programs I just
recommended. But you might want to consider online services that
will back your les up to the cloud. Online backup puts a great deal of
physical distance between your computer and the backup--the same
re, flood, or burglar wont deprive you of both. But its slower and, in
the long run, more expensive.
Ive been using MozyHome (mozy.com) for cloud backup for years. I
cant say its better than its competitors, but it works reliably.

Online
services can
back up your
les to the
cloud.

Most browsers
oer a privacy
mode that allows
you to visit sites
without being
tracked.

4}

Protect your privacy

while browsing
PROBLEM: It once sounded like paranoia; now its more
like common sense. Are there some safe and secure ways to access
the Internet without being tracked by crooks, corporations,
and governments?

FIX: Theres no such thing as complete, 100-percent perfect privacy

or security. But you can lock down your Internet access, making a
security breach much less likely.
Your browsers privacy mode
Most browsers have a mode that allows you to visit sites without being
tracked. Theres no history, and no cookies.
But you need to know these modes limits. The sites you visit will still
see your routers IP address. And your ISP still knows who youre visiting.
And what your ISP knows, the government can nd out.
Heres how to enter privacy modes:
Internet Explorer: Select Safety uInPrivate Browsing.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

Chrome: Click the menu icon in upper-right corner and select

New incognito window.
Firefox: Press <Alt> to bring up the browsers menu. Then select
FileuNew Private Window.

Browser add-ins
The right tools can add layers of protection to your browser. Here are two
free ones I recommend.
With MaskMe (abine.com/maskme) in Firefox or Chrome, you can click an
email address field and have it provide a disposable address. Mail sent to that
address will be forwarded to your real address. If you pay $5 a month or $45 a year,
MaskMe can also provide temporary credit card numbers. Another add-in,
Ghostery (ghostery.com) protects you from commercial spies. When you
load a webpage, it displays all the tracking services using that site. You can
block services you dont want. However, Ghosterys parent company, Evidon,
takes money from advertisers, creating a possible conflict of interest.

More complete disguises

These solutions still allow websites to see your IP address and allow your ISP
to track your surng habits. You can use a virtual private network (VPN)
to hide your IP address. Or you can use the Tor Browser (torproject.org),
which runs in privacy mode and routes its signal through a series of servers to
hide where youre coming from. Its about as safe as you can get on the Web.

The Tor
Browser
hides where
youre really
coming from.

Use Windows
Task Manager
to locate the
processes that
are hogging up
resources.

5}

Speed up a slow PC without

buying new hardware
PROBLEM: If a once-fast computer has slowed to a crawl, you cant
really blame the hardware. Sure, you may be able to improve speed by
adding RAM, upgrading the CPU, or replacing the hard drive with an SSD.
But none of those solutions address the underlying problem. Your
hardware isnt underpowered. Its overloaded.

FIX: Cleaning out Windows will very likely speed up a PC. And no, Im not
suggesting reinstalling the operating system. There are less drastic xes.
Look for hog processes Your computer may be running a poorly-written
process thats hogging a lot of resources. To nd out, right-click the
taskbar and select Start Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, then
the CPU column header. The top items will be the ones hogging the CPU.
If you see an obvious culprit, close the program thats running the
process. If that doesnt work, click the End Process button and conrm
that you really want to kill this process.
Should that x the problem, avoid using that program in the future.
Or nd a better-written replacement.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

Otherwise, back on the Process tab, click the Memory column header and see
if you can nd the culprit there.
Clean out autoloaders When Windows boots, it automatically loads
additional programs. These can slow the PC down. The trick is to bring up
Windows list of autoloaders, and by disabling and re-enabling them, and
rebooting, gure out which ones are causing the problem. In Windows XP, Vista,
or 7, click Start, type PVFRQJ, and press <Enter>. Once System Conguration
comes up, click the Startup tab. You can disable items by unchecking them. If
youre using Windows 8, right-click the taskbar and select Start Task Manager. If
you see a Startup tab, click it. If you dont, click More details, then Startup. To
disable an item, right-click it and select Disable.
Check for malware I doubt an infection causes such a problem. But just to be
on the safe side, scan for it, anyway.
Do less multitasking The more programs you run, the slower they will all get.
Try changing your working habits to have less programs up at the same time.
Turn o Aero Windows 7 and Vista use a technology called Aero to improve
the aesthetic look of the screen. Its not necessary, and it slows down the PC a bit.

In Windows
7, Vista, or
XP, you can
disable autoloaders by
unchecking
items in the
Startup tab.

In Windows 8,
you can rightclick the
items in the
Startup tab
and select
Disable.

Malware
scanners
are a good
addition
to antivirus
programs.

6}

One antivirus program

is better than two
PROBLEM: Running two antivirus programs is a bit like mixing a
ne, vintage Cabernet with breakfast cereal. Each is good in its own
right, but the combination may have unpleasant side eects.

FIX: Before I explain why, lets get some denitions out of the way.
The term antivirus has come to mean a program that launches when
you boot your PC and stays running in memory, protecting you in real
time not just from viruses (which are, technically speaking, pass), but
trojans, rootkits, and all other forms of malware.
Two antivirus programs, loaded and running simultaneously, will be, at
the very least, redundant. And in this case, you dont want redundancy.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

Keep in mind that every program running uses RAM and clock cycles,
potentially slowing down every other running program. A well-made
antivirus program has a very small footprint, and doesnt slow things
down signicantly. But two such programs running together will slow
it down twice as much.
And it could be worse. The two programs may conflict with each
otherremember that every time you download a le, both will try to
scan it. Conflicts could result in other programs failing to work and
Windows becoming less stable.
If youre worried that one antivirus program isnt enough, you can
augment it with an on-demand malware scanner. Unlike antivirus
programs, they dont hang around. You load one, update its database,
scan your hard drive with it, and close it when youre done.
I use two of these programsthe free versions of SuperAntiSpyware
(superantispyware.com) and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (malwarebytes.
org). Once a week, I scan my hard drive with one or the other.

On-demand
malware
scanners dont
run constantly
like antivirus
programs.

The free
Eraser
program
integrates
with Windows
Explorer.

7}

Eraser also
oers the
option
to erase les
the next time
you boot.

Securely wipe sensitive les

or your entire hard drive
PROBLEM: When you delete a le, the data doesnt actually go
awayeven after youve emptied the Recycle Bin. The actual bits
remain written on the drive until some other disk activity writes over
them. Even when you format a drive, the les are still there for those
who want and know how to read them.

FIX: If you want to truly and securely delete a le, or the contents of
an entire drive, you need software that will overwrite the space where
the le once sat. Fortunately, several free programs can do this.
First, I recommend Eraser (eraser.heidi.ie) which integrates with
Windows Explorer. Once its installed, you can just right-click a le or
folder and select Eraser. Theres even an option to erase the le the
next time you boothandy if Windows wont let you erase it now.
Another option: Delete the les the conventional way, empty the
recycle bin, then use CCleaner (piriform.com)to overwrite your drives
free space. This extremely useful tool can do all sorts of Windows

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

TO SECURELY
delete a le, you
need software that
will overwrite the
space where the
le once sat.

scrubbing chores. Youll nd

CCleaners Drive Wiper tool in
the Tools tab.
Both of these programs oer
various wiping techniques that
overwrite the drive space
multiple times. The implication,
of course, is that overwriting a
le 35 times is more secure than
overwriting it only once.
But according to Russell Chozick of Flashback Data (a company that
does forensic data recovery for law enforcement organizations as well as
conventional data recovery), one pass is enough with todays drives.
Chozick told me that it used to be possible to see what was overwritten,
but now data is too dense, [making] a single-pass overwrite sucient.

8}

A slow Internet connection when

youre paying for a fast one
PROBLEM: Almost no one gets the Internet performance that
their ISP advertises, but the dierence between advertised and real
speed should be reasonably close.

FIX: Almost no one gets the Internet performance that his or her
ISP advertises. Variables make Internet speeds impossible to predict,
and the providers advertise the best possible theoretical speed.
But the dierence between the advertised speed and the real one
should be reasonably close. If youre regularly getting less than 70
percent of what you were promised, and the price youre paying isnt
amazingly low, youve got a serious bottleneck. (If you dont know how
to test your Internet connection, visit speedtest.net and click the
big BEGIN TEST button.)

Test your
Internet
speed as the
rst step.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

THE BOTTLENECK
may be on the ISPs
end, but it may also
be on yours. A few
diagnostics may tell
you who to blame.

That bottleneck may be on

the ISPs end, but it may also be
on yours. A few diagnostics may
tell you who to blame:
First, try another computer. If
youre getting acceptable
performance on one computer
but not on another, you cant
blame the ISP.
Next, consider and test the way your computer connects to the router.
If youre using WiFi, try ethernet. If youre using ethernet, try another
ethernet port on the router, or try another cable.
Try replacing some other cables, such as the one connecting the
modem to the router. If that doesnt work, try the one connecting the
modem to the wall (and I dont mean the AC power).
Try updating the rmware for the router and, if that doesnt work, the
modem. Check the manufacturers websites for rmware updates.
If none of these tests solve the problem, try plugging the PC directly
into the modem. You may need to change some operating system
settings to make this work. Check with your ISP about them. If this solves
the problem, you need a new router.
Also, consider replacing your modem. Your ISP may provide you one, or
you may have to buy one on your own.
If none of these solve the problem, youre now allowed to blame your
ISP. If they cant or wont x it, consider taking your business elsewhere.

9}

Archive les so theyll

stay around for years
PROBLEM: People worry a lot about archiving digital les for long
periods of time. The concern is legitimate.

FIX: A few precautions and educated guesses will improve the

likelihood that your great-grandchildren will enjoy your wedding photos.
Lets consider software rst.
Stick with popular le formats that everyone uses and that arent
controlled by one company. And just to be safe, if its possible, save the
same les in more than one format.
Save and store documents in .docx, .doc, .pdf, and .html. For photos,

M-Discs are
much more
stable than
other burnable
discs.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

YOU NEED A
special drive to
burn M-Discs. But
once burned, they
can be read on any
DVD drive.

go with .jpg and .png. For music,

use .mp3 and .wav. formats.
Video is a real problem,
because the format standards
arent real standards. A device
that can play one .avi le may
not be
able to play another. Your best
bet is to burn the les to video
DVDs or Blu-ray discs.
Which brings us to the next question: On what media should you
save these les?
First, keep them on your main internal storagea hard drive, SSD, or
cloud service. And make sure the les are included in your regular daily
backup routine.
Then, for added protection, burn them to special, archival optical discs.
Your best bet here are probably M-Discs (mdisc.com). Burning an M-Disc is
a bit like carving the bits in granite, and the company claims that theyll
last for 1,000 years.
Is that claim accurate? I cant tell you for another 999 years. But Ive
seen government test reports suggesting that M-Discs are far more
stable than other burnable discs.
You need a special drive to burn M-Discs. But once burned, they can
be read on any DVD drive (Blu-ray M-Discs are on the way).
I cant say for sure whether optical drives will be available in the
future, but I suspect that they will beeven if no longer commonfor
a very long time. If enough people have discs to read, there will be prots
in making drives.

10}

Actually, you do need

to share your passwords
PROBLEM: In our password-protected digital world, how do you
prepare for that inevitable day when you die or otherwise become
incapacitated? This is no small problem. When youre gone, or have
otherwise lost the ability to remember or communicate, loved ones will
need access to your email, contacts, bank accounts, and more. Without
your pre-planned help, this can be quite a challenge.

FIX: If you dont believe me, check out Googles page for Accessing
a deceased persons mail. You have to gather up and snail-mail several
items, including the death certicate (each ocial copy of which
comes with a price).

Accessing
email without
a password
requires a lot
of paperwork.

TOP 10 ANSWER LINE FIXES

YOULL NEED A
password manager
a program on your
PC that stores
passwords in an encrypted database.

Part 2 of the process will

require you to get additional
legal documents, including an
order from a U.S. court and/or
additional materials.
It would be a lot easier if
someone you trust had your
Google passwordand other
important passwords, as well.
One solution is to print out a hard copy of your passwords and store it in a
safe deposit box. But youd have to repeat the process every time you
change a password. Not so good.

The better option

Pick someone who you really trust. Your spouse is an obvious choice. Or a
very close friend or relative. It could even be your lawyer or accountant.
For brevitys sake, Ill refer to this person as your executor.
Youll need a password managera program on your PC that allows you
to store your passwords in an encrypted database.
Your executor will need a password manager, as well, although it doesnt
have to be the same one.
Give your executor a few key passwordsthose for your Windows and
mobile logons, your email account, and, of course, your password
manager. Make sure they store these passwords safely in their own
encrypted password manager.
If your relationship with the executor is personal rather than
professional, add their key passwords to your manager, as well.
And, of course, when you change these few key passwords, make sure
to put the new ones in the other persons password manager.
Want to get more Answer Line help? Read this issues Answer Line
column, on page 124.

News, tips, and reviews covering phones, tablets,

apps, and all the other tech in your life.

TechHive helps you find your

tech sweet spot.
We steer you to products youll love and show
you how to get the most out of them.
www.techhive.com | Follow us

5
cool ways

to use
business
cards in
EVERNOTE
BY MICHAEL ANSALDO

ILLUSTRATION BY REBECCA MOCK

BUSINESS CARDS IN EVERNOTE

get started

usiness cards get a bum rap.

They create more clutter than
connections, haters say, having been
made obsolete by sophisticated contact
management Web services and apps (go.
pcworld.com/digitizecards). But Evernote
disagrees. Its addition of a business-card
camera to its iOS app and its recent
partnership with LinkedIn (go.pcworld.com/
everlink) suggest that the company is
determined to restore some of the business
cards former glory and transform the way
we use it. Here are ve cool ways you can
leverage Evernotes features to make
business cards work for you.

BUSINESS CARDS IN EVERNOTE

Evernote
pulls in your
contacts
LinkedIn info.

link to LinkedIn

LinkedIns network comprises more than

300 million professionals, and odds are
that the people youre doing business with
are among them. As soon as you scan a business
card, Evernote captures all the owners LinkedIn
contact info, including their photo and, most
importantly, a link to their LinkedIn prole. Now
you can easily see the persons industry
experience, skills and expertise, recommendations, and other professional details. Dont
forget to add them to your network.

BUSINESS CARDS IN EVERNOTE

Geotag where
you met your
new contact for
easy recall.

add context

Names, faces, and places can quickly get hazy after a

whirlwind conference or networking event. To help
you make sense of all your collected contacts once
youre back at the oce, use Evernotes location and tagging
features as soon as you scan that business card. The rst
allows you to geotag the location of your meeting by
dropping a pin anywhere on a global map. The second feature
gives you deeper context and is limited only by your
imagination: Tag all job candidates with the name of the
position youre interviewing for, or tag all the contacts you
met at a meet-and-greet with the name of the event. Doing
this will also make sorting your contacts later a breeze.

BUSINESS CARDS IN EVERNOTE

Set yourself
a reminder
to follow up.

set reminders

The whole point of a business card is to

provide contact information. To make
sure you follow up with your new
contact, turn their business card into an action
item by setting a reminder (go.pcworld.com/
enreminder). If you end up working with that
person in some capacity, you can add reminders
to relevant notes to help you manage deadlines,
stay apprised of meetings, and keep timesensitive tasks on track, or just to remind
yourself that its time to reach out again.

BUSINESS CARDS IN EVERNOTE

Use the notes

eld to record
important
information
about your
new contact.

make notes

Scanning business cards into Evernote

is about more than creating a digital
Rolodex. Because each scanned card
becomes a note, you can add content to it.
Take advantage of this capability to jot
impressions of your new contact, record
notes from subsequent meetings, log your
communications, or capture any other
important information. And if your company
uses Evernote for Business (go.pcworld.com/
evernotebiz), you can create a business
notebook around your new content-rich
contact with your colleagues.

BUSINESS CARDS IN EVERNOTE

Build a
content-rich
notebook
around your
contact to
collect emails,
articles, and
other relevant
documents.

build a notebook

Adding notes to a business card is a great way

to capture ad-hoc information. But as your
relationship with your contact deepens, youll
probably need something more robust. To
accommodate your increasing collaboration, build a
notebook in Evernote around your business card. In it
you can corral all email correspondence with that
person, create more-detailed notes, and add relevant
articles and information from the Web with Evernote
Web Clipper (go.pcworld.com/webclipper). Now
youve centralized all your material about that
contact, with their business card as the visual cue.

BUSINESS CARDS IN EVERNOTE

better
business cards

hese are just a few of the many

ways to put your contacts to good
use. With Evernotes wealth of
productivity and contact-management
featuresand the company is adding
more of them all the timeyou can power
your business card collection in ways your
old Rolodex never dreamed of.
Youll be able to build truly productive
working relationships with your business
contactsnot just a dusty collection
of business cards.

Join The Nature Conservancy to plant a billion trees,

one tree at a time, in the fight to end climate change
at plantabillion.org

HERES
HOW
CONTENTS
104

Passing on an old
PC? Make sure your
data is truly gone

111

Create 3D
worksheets
in Excel 2013

118

121

Hassle-Free PC
Turn any browser
tab into a basic
text editor

124

Answer Line
Dont use the same
external drive for
both backup and
storage

Use an Xbox One

controller for your
PC games

HERES
HOW

How to build, maintain,

and x your tech gear.

I L LU ST R AT I O N BY DA N I E L D OW N E Y

Passing on an old PC? Make

sure your data is truly gone
Deleted les may still be lurking in the shadows on your old hardware.
Take steps to get rid of them for good. BY CHRIS HOFFMAN

TS OFTEN POSSIBLE to recover deleted les from a PC or drive,

and thats a problem when youre passing your tech along to

someone else. You dont want people getting their hands on your
private stu, whether its sensitive nancial data, business
documents, or scandalous photos.

Fortunately, you can take steps to protect your data, whether youre
disposing of a PC, an external hard drive, or a USB stick, or even
getting rid of a mobile device (go.pcworld.com/selltech).

Mechanical hard drives, internal solid-state

drives, external drives
You can recover deleted les from some, but not all, types of drives.
Mechanical hard drive: If your PC doesnt have an SSD, it has an
old-school mechanical hard drive with a
spinning magnetic platter. When you delete
les from these drives, that simply marks the
data as deleted. Until new data overwrites the
relevant sector, snoops can scan the drive and
recover the les.
Internal solid-state drives: Solid-state
drives (go.pcworld.com/ssd), or SSDs, use a
feature called TRIM. When you delete a le
from an SSD, the operating system informs the drive, which then
erases the les data from its memory. Doing so speeds the drive up
its faster to write data to empty memory than to overwrite old
dataand ensures that deleted les are unrecoverable.
External solid-state drives and other removable media: Only
internal SSDs use TRIM. If you connect an external SSD to your
computer via USB, TRIM wont erase any les you delete, so they
remain recoverable. Deleted les can also be recovered from USB flash
drives, SD cards, and other types of removable media.
If you have a PC with an SSD, just reinstall your operating system to
erase your data. For a PC with a mechanical drive, make sure youve
completely wiped your drive before reinstalling your OS. Youll need to
wipe any external drives as well. Heres how you do it.

You can take steps to

protect your data,
whatever device
youre disposing of.

Reset your PC with Windows 8

For many years, geeks had to turn to third-party tools to wipe
mechanical drives before disposing of them. Windows 8 includes a

Select the
Fully clean the
drive option.

feature that makes wiping deleted les and restoring your operating
system much easier.
Use the Reset Your PC feature in Windows 8 or 8.1 to reset your PC
to its factory state (go.pcworld.com/cleanslate). Choose the Fully clean
the drive option, and Windows will overwrite the drive with junk data
and then reinstall the Windows operating system. Youll have a likenew system absent of any recoverable les.

Wipe your drive and reinstall Windows 7

For a PC running Windows 7, which doesnt have this feature built in,
youll want to use a disk-wiping tool (go.pcworld.com/erasedrive) such
DBANs scary
warning isnt
lying: Nuke is
in the name for
a reason.

HERES HOW

After wiping
your drive, you
can reinstall
Windows.

as Dariks Boot and Nuke (dban.org) before you reinstall Windows. This
free tool wipes your computers hard drive by overwriting it with junk
data. If youre disposing of the PC or internal drive, youre doneyou
can leave the PC in this state. If youre passing it along, you can reinstall
Windows (go.pcworld.com/reinstall).
Check out PCWorlds guide to securely erasing your hard drive (go.
pcworld.com/secureerase). Be carefulthese tools will overwrite the
entire drive, including any recovery partitions, so back up any data
(go.pcworld.com/backupguide) you want to keep before proceeding.

Clean external drives

Perform a full format of an external drive to wipe deleted les.
Connect the drive to your computer, right-click it in Windows Explorer
or File Explorer, and select Format. Uncheck the Quick Format box, as
that wont fully erase the deleted les. Repeat this process for each
drive you want to wipe.
In Windows XP, it was possible to recover data from a drive even after
a full format. In Windows Vista and later, according to Microsoft, a full
format will overwrite drive data. You cant perform a full format from
Windows 7s installer thats why you have to use a tool like DBAN
instead of the Format option when reinstalling Windows.

Wipe free space

If youve already reinstalled Windows and dont want to backtrack, you
can try using a tool that wipes a drives free space, obliterating any
leftover datathe Drive Wiper tool in Piriforms CCleaner (piriform.
com), for instance.
Just wiping a drives free space isnt an ideal solution, however. A full
drive wipe is more foolproof because it ensures that youve
eliminated everything.

Check your work: Try to recover deleted

les yourself
Use a le-recovery program like Recuva, also from Piriform, to test
whether you can recover any deleted les from a drive (go.pcworld.com/
recover). Recuva scans your internal or external drives for deleted les,

CCleaner has
an option that
securely
deletes leftover
information
lurking in your
PCs free space.

HERES HOW

displays information about them, and allows you to recover them.

Perform a deep scan when promptedits slower but will nd more bits
of deleted les. If youve wiped the drives properly, Recuva should not
nd any recoverable les.
Recuva relies on the same tricks a wannabe snoop would use to
recover your data. Of course, some attackersparticularly criminal
organizations that target businessesmay have access to more
advanced disk forensics tools.

Use encryption to protect all your les

Encryption (go.pcworld.com/encryptany) secures all your les,
including current and deleted ones. You can enable encryption with

If you can
recover your
data with
Recuva, so can
someone else.

the BitLocker (go.pcworld.com/bitlocker)

feature built into Professional versions of
Windows or the free TrueCrypt, which works in
all Windows versions. (But be sure to read our
story about BitLocker, on page 29, in this issues
Consumer Watch.) TrueCrypt (go.pcworld.com/
usetruecrypt) can create encrypted containers or encrypt entire drives.
Youll have to provide an encryption passphrase to access your les.
If you delete encrypted les, the deleted les will appear as
meaningless gibberish to anyone who attempts to recover them but
lacks that encryption key.

Theres another,
more extreme option
for protecting data
destroy the drive.

Destroy drives
Theres another, more extreme option for protecting your data. When
military organizations get rid of a hard drive (containing, say, nuclear
launch codes), they destroy itthey may even melt it down or crush it
into powder. You can pay to have a magnetic drive degaussed (go.
pcworld.com/destroydrive)this eliminates the magnetic eld and
thus all the data. Or you could just smash the drive with a hammer and
a railroad spike if you want to save cash.
Destroying drives is a waste of still-usable hardware. On the other
hand, if youre running a business and you have an old hard drive
containing customers nancial information, you dont want to run the
risk that such data might fall into the wrong hands.

HERES HOW

Create 3D worksheets
in Excel 2013
BY JULIE SARTAIN

ONE OF EXCELS greatest tricks is the dimensional or 3D reference.

This feature, which allows you to create formulas that refer to the
same cell or range on multiple worksheets, simplies the creation of
complicated documents such as monthly inventories and sales
reports. In Excel 2013, Microsoft beefed it up with enhanced options
and formulas.

To illustrate the power and flexibility of 3D worksheets, well create

a year-to-date (YTD) project that calculates the utility bills for a small
business for each month, with the YTD totals on the rst sheet. This
workbook, which contains of all the worksheets in this project, calculates
the columns, rows, and multiple spreadsheets three-dimensionally.
Because retyping the same data is counterproductive, well create the
month of January rst, add the formulas for the columns and rows, and
then copy this sheet 12 times (one for each month, plus the YTD sheet).
Start by selecting Blank workbook from the Home menu page.

Sheet title and custom date

In cell A1, type January 2014. Excel changes the format to Jan-14.
Right-click that cell and choose Format Cells from the drop-down list.
Choose Date from the format options; youll notice that there is no
format listed for the month spelled out with a four-digit year. Choose

In Excel 2013s
Home Menu,
select Blank
workbook.

HERES HOW

Custom. In the Type eld above the list, enter mmmm yyyy, and then
click OK. Now your title says January 2014.
This sample small business has four designers who rent space.
They divide the rent equally, but calculate the utilities and other
fees by percentage of actual use. Use the percent sign when you
enter these numbers.

Enter data and format cells

In cells A4 through G4, enter this data: Total, Monthly, Carrie C,
Marilyn H, Pat B, Donna A, and Percent Total. In cells A5 through
G5, enter this data: Utilities, Totals, 28%, 32%, 17%, 23%, and
9HULHG. Select cells A4 through G5 and click Center from the Ribbon
bar on the Home menu tab. Note that you can center cell input both
horizontally and vertically.
In cells A6 through A15, enter this information: Electricity,
Gas, Water, Garbage, Shop Phone, Internet, Alarm Service,
Maintenance, Cleaning Services, and TOTALS. Adjust column
widths to t the data entered. In B6 through B14, enter these
numbers: 646, 510, 211, 56, 165, 98, 55, 335, and 400. Select cells
B6 through G15. On the Home menu tab, click Center, and then
click Increase Decimal (two times) to format the numbers to two
decimal places.

Enter
worksheet
data and
format the
cells.

Add and copy

formulas to
worksheet.

Add formulas
This part should go fast if you copy all the formulas. In cell C6, enter
=sum(B6*C5) and click <Enter>. With your cursor on C6, press F2 to edit
the formula. Position the cursor before the B in B6 (between the left
parenthesis and the B). Press F4 three times, until you see a dollar sign in
front of the letter B. Still in edit mode, move the cursor to the left of the
letter C in C5 and press F4 twice (until you see a dollar sign in front of
the number 5). Press <Enter>. Your formula in C6 should look like this:
=sum($B6*C$5). This little trick, called an absolute reference, locks the
pieces of the formula you dont want to change (column B and row 5).

Copy formulas
Reposition your cursor to C6. Click Copy in the Ribbon bar (or press
<Ctrl>-C). Move your cursor to C7, select cells C7 through C14, and

HERES HOW

press <Enter>. With C7 through

C14 still selected, click Copy
again, move your cursor to D7,
select D7 through F14, and press
<Enter>. All the cells will
perform the calculations.
To verify that all the
calculations are correct (in case
theres a typo somewhere),
position the cursor in G6 and
enter this formula:
=sum(C6:F6). Then press
<Enter> (you can also highlight
these ranges and let Excel ll in
the cell locations). With your
cursor in G6, click Copy, select
cells G7 through G14, and press <Enter>. If the numbers in column
G match the numbers in column B exactly, then all your formulas
are correct.
Next, select cell B15 and enter this formula: =sum(B6:B14). Press
<Enter>. With your cursor in B15, click Copy, select cells C15 through
G15, and press <Enter>.

Copy and rename spreadsheets

Copy this spreadsheet 12 times for a full years worth of data. Click
inside the Sheet1 tab at the bottom of the Excel window. Right-click
and select Move or Copy from the drop-down list. Check the Create a
Copy box, select (move to end), and then click OK. Repeat this process.
Double-click the Sheet1 tab and rename it YTD. Double-click the
remaining sheet tabs, Sheet1 (2) through Sheet1 (13), and rename
them with the months: Jan, Feb, and so forth, through Dec. Next,
change the title of each sheet to match its tab (type over January
2014 with the correct title). Note: Keep spreadsheet tab titles as
short as possible for easier dimensional calculating.

Copy the
spreadsheet
12 times.

Access spreadsheets Feb through Dec and enter some random

numbers in the Monthly Totals columncells B6 through B14 (not B15,
which is a formula). In our example, we have included only Jan to May.

Add 3D worksheet formulas

On the YTD spreadsheet, position the cursor in B6 and enter this
formula: =sum(Jan:Dec!B6). Copy this formula from B6 down to B7
through B14 (not B15, because this formula totals this column). Again,
our example includes only Jan through May in the formulas.
Next, select cells B6 through B14, select Copy, highlight C6 through
F14, and press <Enter>. The YTD spreadsheet now has the totals from
the entire year. Every time you make a change in column B (Monthly
Totals) on spreadsheets Jan through Decthat is, every time you
make an adjustment to the individual utility feesthe entire
spreadsheet recalculates to reflect those new numbers.

Copy
dimensional
formulas from
column B to
remaining
columns in YTD
spreadsheet.

HERES HOW

In 2015, delete the numbers in column B from B6 thru B14 on all

spreadsheets from Jan through Dec, and then enter the correct
utility fees each month as the bills arrive. Watch the YTD
spreadsheet totals change as it adds each months totals. Once
youve created these spreadsheets with the formulas, youll never
have to repeat this process.

Future edits are easy

If you have to add or remove a utility from a 3D worksheet, stay inside
the calculated area. For example, say you discontinue the alarm
service in June 2015: Dont change anything. Just enter a zero in that
cell for July through Dec. Then, in January 2016,
place your cursor on that row (on each
spreadshezet, Jan through Dec, including the
YTD spreadsheet) and select Delete Sheet Row
(from the Home menu tab).
To add a new utility, place your cursor
anywhere between cells B6 and B14 and select
Insert Sheet Row. Then copy the formulas for
that row from the row above it. Inserting new
rows inside the matrix ensures that the project-wide formulas include
the new rows numbers and formulas. If you insert rows outside the
matrix, none of your calculations will include the numbers and
formulas on this row unless you adjust all your formulas to include
the new range.
Note that when you insert a new row between B6 and B14, the
TOTALS row moves down to B16, and the formula in that cell (which
totals column B) changes from =sum(B6:B14) to =sum(B6:B15). Stay
inside the original matrix range, and everything will calculate
accurately throughout the entire project.

Once youve created

these spreadsheets,
youll never have to
repeat the process.

Use an XBox One

controller for your
PC games
BY JARED NEWMAN

The Xbox One can now

act as a wired PC
gaming controller.

MICROSOFT HAS FINALLY released Windows drivers (go.pcworld.com/

xboxwin) for its Xbox One controller, allowing the device to pull double
duty as a wired controller for PC gaming.
Unlike the Xbox 360 wireless controller, which required a separate
dongle for PC use, all the Xbox One controller requires on a PC is a
standard Micro-USB cable. The wired connection provides the power,
so you dont even need batteries. (Unfortunately, you cant use the
Xbox One controller wirelessly on a PC at this time.)

HERES HOW

Driver installation
To set up the controller, head to Major Nelsons blog (go.pcworld.com/
majornelson) and download the driver for either a 32-bit (x86) or a
64-bit (x64) machine. (If youre unsure which le to grab, open Control
Panel, type About in the search bar, and click System. Look under
System Type to see what type of machine youre dealing with.)
Open the le you just downloaded. Amusingly enough, Windows
will show an Unknown Publisher warning, even though the drivers
are coming from Microsoft. Click Run in the box that pops up. You
dont have to plug in the controller to install the drivers.
A setup wizard should appear. Read and accept the license
agreement, wait for the installation to nish, and then click Finish.
Now plug in your Xbox One controller. It may vibrate briefly, and

Even though
the drivers
come from
Microsoft, they
will appear with
a warning
message.

you should see a driver software installed successfully message

on the System Tray.
At this point, you should be ready to play. Games that support
Microsofts Xbox 360 controller should automatically recognize the
Xbox One controller without any additional setup (with some
exceptions as described below).

Potential issues
The biggest problem I encountered was that several of the games I
tested, including Dark Souls II, Transistor, and Eldritch, would not
recognize the controller. Other games, including Dishonored, Super
Meat Boy, and Trials Evolution, worked ne. Uninstalling and reinstalling
the drivers didnt help, so hopefully this is just a temporary issue that
Microsoft and game developers can resolve through updates.
Also, the rst time I installed the driver, Windows 7 showed a
runtime error after I plugged in the controller, followed by an
XboxStat.exe has stopped working error message. The controller
still worked, but the messages were a nuisance. They went away after
I reinstalled the driver.
Finally, keep in mind that plugging the controller into a PC will break
its wireless connection to the Xbox One. Youll have to plug the
controller back into the console via USB to pair them again.

The System
Tray pop-up
menu will let
you know that
your Xbox One
controller is
ready to use.

HASSLE-FREE PC

HERES
HOW

BY IAN PAUL

Your Web
browser has a
hidden talent: its
a ne text editor.

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY M I C H A E L H OM N I C K

Turn any browser tab

into a basic text editor
IF YOURE LOOKING for a quick-and-dirty way to take notes on your
PC, you cant beat using your browser. No, Im not talking about
online tools like Google Keep, Word Online, or any other textediting Web app.
An easier way to turn your browser into a note-taking machine is
to use a little snippet of HTML code that creates an oline notepad
in your browser.
Coding, you might ask with a shiver? Dont worry: Its beyond
simple to use.
This notepad trick works because of HTMLs contenteditable
attribute, which can turn any part of a webpage into an interactive

Bookmark this
handy little
HTML notepad in
your browser.

area for editing text. You can use this attribute in Google Chrome,
Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.
Sorry, Internet Explorer fans, your browser of choice wont play nice
with this aspect of HTML.

Editable tabs
First open a blank tab in any of the three browsers mentioned above.
Then copy the HTML code below. You can nd many HTML notepads
online, but this is one of the most nicely formatted Ive seen. The
HTML comes courtesy of Mike Francis, a London-based Web designer
and developer, who posted it to Twitter in late May:
data:text/html, <body contenteditable style="font: 2rem/1.5
monospace;max-width:60rem;margin:0 auto;padding:4rem;">

After youve copied the code, paste it into the address bar of your
open browser tab and press <Enter>.
Thats it. You now have a quick notepad ready to use. You can also
bookmark the open tab so your notepad will be ready to go anytime
you need it.

Saving your notes

Heres the catch: Every time you shut down your browser or close the
notepad browser tab, your notes will disappear. As a result, this

HERES HOW

notepad is easiest to use for

taking notes that dont need
to stick around. Ive been
using it, for example, to create
daily task lists that I dont feel
the need to archive.
If you want to save your
notes, however, you have a
few options. All three
browsers can save your notes
as an HTML document. To do
this in Chrome, click the menu
icon in the upper-right corner
(it looks like three horizontal
stacked bars) and choose Save
page as.
Give the le a name and save
it wherever you like. You can
open your notes later in any browser. Even Internet Explorer will open
notes saved as HTML, and youll also be able to edit them in
Microsofts browser at that point.
Alternatively, you could just save your notes by copying and pasting
them into a regular text-editing app.

Firefox is all about text

Firefox, however, has the best option for Windows users, since it lets
you save an open browser tab as text. In Windows 8.1 using Firefox
29.0.1, just click Firefoxs menu icon and choose the Save Page option.
In the File Explorer window that opens, click Save as type and, from
the drop-down menu, choose Text Files. Name the le and click Save,
and youll then be able to open the le in any regular text editor.
There are many powerful note-taking apps around, but if you just
need a bare-bones, easy way to quickly jot down information, its hard
to beat a simple browser tab.

You can save

your notes
as HTML
documents.

ANSWER LINE

HERES
HOW

BY LINCOLN SPECTOR

Dont use the

same external
drive for both
backup and
storage

Q:

I STORE my media les on a 1TB

external hard drive. Is it safe to use
the same drive for backup?
Marios Papadopoulos

A:

Technically speaking, theres no

reason why you couldnt use the
same hard drive for backing up your internal
drive and storing overflow data that doesnt
t on your internal drive. But in reality, doing
so is a really bad idea.
First of all, if there are les youre storing
exclusively on the external hard drive, you
need to back up those les. Remember the
two primary rules of backup:
One, you should never have just one copy
of anything.
Two, you should never keep the original and
the copy on the same driveor even the
same computer.

You should never

keep the original and
the copy of a le on
the same drive.

Theres another issue: You should only plug in a

backup drive when youre backing up or
restoring from a backup. Why? Because the
same re, flood, burglary, or malware that
destroys your main internal storage could also
take out the backup.
Ideally, your internal storage should be large
enough for all of your les. If it isnt, consider one of these options:
Install a second internal drive: Once its installed, copy the overflow
les that are now on the external drive to their new home. Use the
external drive exclusively to back up both internal drives.
Youll nd this considerably faster and more convenient than storing
les externally. But youll need a PC with a spare drive bay. Thats
common in desktops, but rare in laptops.
Replace your internal drive with a bigger one: This is a fast and
convenient option, and it solves the drive bay problembut it
takes more work to set up. Luckily, Ive already provided instructions
(go.pcworld.com/biggerdrive).
Use two external hard drives: Use one external drive for overflow
les and the other for backup. This is the best option if youre nervous
about installing internal drives, or if your Windows 8 tablet wont allow
you to upgrade them.
To achieve better speeds, I strongly recommend a USB 3.0 connection
for the overflow drive. Also, make sure the backup drive is large enough
to back up the data on both your internal and your external drives.
Send your questions to answer@pcworld.com. Want to get more Answer
Line help? Read this issues feature, Top 10 Fixes for Common PC
Problems, on page 70.

Tech Spotlight
A video showcase of
the latest trends

Watch the
video at
go.pcworld.
com/faceoff.

Tablet face-off:
Surface Pro 3 vs.
circa-2004 slate

PCWorlds Jon Phillips

unearths a ten-year-old HP
Compaq TC1100 and compares
it to Microsofts state-of-the-art
Surface Pro 3. Its hardly a fair ght. The Surface Pro
weighs half as much as HPs tablet, yet oers a screen
resolution thats twice as sharp. And the TC1100 lacks a
touch display. The two tablets do have one thing in
common, though: Each runs a proper Windows desktop.

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