Specia l

300 TH
Issue £300 of full
software
✔ Stop malware attacks
Free Windows
✔ Keep 7 Definitive
hackers at bay Tips ebook
✔ Protect
Plus your network
60 handpicked applications

www.pcplus.co.uk

1 IE customisation 3 Turbo charge taskbar previews 8 Move the Kernel into memory 15 Pin programs to the
taskbar 16 Get the Classic look in Windows 7 17 Configure Windows power buttons 19 Calm down UAC 24
Do more with dual monitors 25 Banish ultra-high resolution gripes 33 Turbo charge file transfers 35 Make
Windows 7 work like Mac OS 37 Manually update Linux packages 39 Upgrade your distro automatically 43
Get restricted features in Linux 56 Play Windows video in Linux 46 Get speedy searches with Gnome-Do
62 Share a 3G connection over a network 64 Find Wi-Fi hotspots before you arrive 65 Save cash with local
SIMs 68 Work smart and safe with portable apps 71 Setup offline email 89 Build the ultimate boot CD 91
Understand PC beep codes 100 Get a better command line 108 Browse your media in 3D with Cooliris 131
Google smarter with Boolean operators 132 Search sites with Google 141 Turn back internet time caching
144 Personalise Google search 156 Spot hackers’ guerrilla psychology 185 Master MAC address filtering 186
Disable SSID broadcasts 191 Boost DNS performance 213 Categorise your Facebook friends 217 System
scan for an easy upgrade 242 Top codecs to play any media 244 Stream media to your console 245 Discover
Orb media 291 Crack Windows 7’s XP mode 292 Master Windows 7 compatibility 296 Run anything with
DOSBox 298 DOG is a gamer’s best friend

300 PC TIPS 1
 Feature
Guide
To celebrate our 300th issue we’ve put together 300 tips 3 Your PC your way with
Registry hacks, p7
to help you get more from the machine you love 3 Click your way to a
better Windows 7, p8

T
3 Break into Linux with
he PC is undoubtedly a that’s capable of making any Xbox or our Ubuntu tips, p10
miraculous device. One single Playstation blush. PC games are – let’s be
3 L eave the desk with
humming machine can show honest – that bit more rewarding and our mobile tips, p12
movies and stream television complete than console-based time killers.
programs with such aplomb And finally, when you’ve had your fun 3 R evive a PC with our
recovery tips, p16
your television will probably feel like it’s watching TV, listening to a little music,
ready for retirement. With a few clicks surfing the internet and all the rest, you  indows from the
3W
that selfsame box will let you surf the can sit down in front of your PC and get command line, p18
internet – the single most complex on with the thorny business of earning a 3 Browser extensions
machine ever created by mankind. It’s an living. No other single machine can do to surf in style, p20
odd thought too that without the PC the all of this and still offer the capacity to
3 Search smarter with
internet probably wouldn’t be what it is do much more. our Google tips, p22
today. Think about it: the network would So, to help you along with all these
be analogous to a water delivery system endeavours we’ve put together a list of 3 Keep a step ahead of
the scammers, p24
in a world without taps. 300 essential tips to get the best out of
If you want more, your PC can deliver your PC. Follow them, and we guarantee 3 G et the smartest
more. With a few extra clicks your box can that your box of electronics will be able home network, p26
transform itself into a gaming machine do and deliver even more. 3 S urefire ways to stay
private online, p28
 ake your games run
3M
smoother, p30
3 Ideas to set your
media free, p32
CONTRIBUTORS: 3 The applications you
Martin Cooper, Richard Cobbett, Alex Cox, must have, p34
Julian Prokaza, Mayank Sharma, Joe Cassels 3 Make Win7 work with
old software, p36

Your PC your way
with Registry hacks
Want to personalise your environment? Set up Windows 7
exactly how you like it with these handy Registry edits
W
3 indows 7 needs far
less of the sleeves-
up shuffling about
that its predecessors
demanded for smooth operation.
It works, and it works well. But that
doesn’t mean you can’t use the
Registry to add nifty features or
change the settings to your liking.
Here are ten things you can do with
the Windows 7 Registry. Just type
regedit in the usual search box
and hit [Enter], then follow our tips.
1
Personalise IE8: Bought
your PC from an over-
zealous manufacturer that’s
gratuitously branded Internet
Explorer with its own name? Just
want to add your own custom
touch in place of the default
‘Windows Internet Explorer’?
It’s easy. In the registry editor,
navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_
USER\Software\Microsoft\
Internet Explorer\Main’ and
create a new string value. Name
it ‘Window Title’, with the space.
Then just double-click it and
enter your desired window title
in the field.
2
Stop Snap: Aero Snap is
arguably a very useful feature
– we say arguably because, as
we’re sure you’ve noticed, it often
decides to kick in and glue your
1 Personalise IE8: You can create a new key simply by right-clicking
and selecting the ‘New’ option. It’s as quick and easy as that!
windows to screen edges when
you don’t want it to. If you’re not
finding the Snap feature useful,
then you might as well turn it off.
First, navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_
USER\Control Panel\Desktop’. There
are a number of settings you could
customise here, but the one that
you’re looking for in this case is
called ‘WindowArrangementActive’.
The value should be 1 – change it
to 0 to make this feature inactive.
Alternatively, just make sure you
never venture too close to the edge.
3
Change stacking
behaviour: This particular
tweak is perhaps of
questionable usefulness, but we
thought you’d like the option
to try it anyway. If you don’t like
the thumbnail display when
clicking on taskbar buttons, then
you can change the action and
force Windows to open the last
opened window of the stack
instead. To do this, open ‘HKEY_
CURRENT_USER\Software\
Microsoft\Windows\Current
Version\Explorer\Advanced’
and create a new DWORD value.
Rename it LastActiveClick and
set its value to 1 to switch this
mode on. Should you change
your mind, you can always go
back and delete the key or set it
to 0 to revert back later on.
1 Quicker taskbar previews:
Hover is much less bother if
it’s sufficiently speeded up.
4
Quicker taskbar previews:
Are you bored of waiting the
couple of seconds it takes for
the graphical previews to pop up
when you hover over icons on the
taskbar? Or would you rather they
took longer to appear? The choice is
yours. Go to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced’
and create a DWORD named
‘ExtendedUIHoverTime’. Now
double‑click to open it, click the
‘Decimal’ radio button, and then
change its value to the number of
milliseconds you’d like the process
to take. The default is 400ms.
5
Change other delays:
Stay in the same key
(Explorer\Advanced)
and you can tweak a couple
of other timings. Add a 32-bit
DWORD into the mix named
‘DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime’.
Switch this to decimal in the
same manner as before, then
change the value data field to
alter the number of milliseconds
it takes for the Aero Peek
function (minimise all windows)
to kick in when you hover over
the icon on the right of the
taskbar. Alternatively, do the
same with a DWORD called
‘ThumbnailLivePreview
HoverTime’ to alter how long
it takes for the windows that
are associated with taskbar
thumbnails to come to the front.
1-10
55 super
quick tips
6 Speed up menus: Make
menu items automatically drop
down a lot faster with this tweak.
Go to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Control Panel\Desktop’, right-click
‘MenuShowDelay’ and click ‘Modify’.
Now change the current string value
to something like 100 – hey presto,
near-instant menu appearance.
7 Stop space checking: Free
up a tiny shred of system
resources. Go to ‘HKEY_
CURRENT_USER\Software\
Microsoft\Windows\Current
Version\Policies\Explorer’, create
a new DWORD called ‘NoLowDisk
SpaceChecks’ and set its value to 1
to switch off disk space checking.
8 Move the kernel: If the
Windows Kernel is in memory, it
will run slightly faster than it would
if it were on your hard drive. Hunt
out ‘DisablePagingExecutive’ within
‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management’.
Change its value to 1.
9
Change the name: Bought
a second-hand machine?
Then you might want to alter the
name of the registered owner.
Go to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\
CurrentVersion\’, double-click on
the ‘RegisteredOwner’ key and
then change it.
10
Boost speed: There’s
one tweak that will make
every hover action much faster,
from tooltips to the Start menu.
Navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Control Panel\Mouse’ and tweak the
‘MouseHoverTime’ value. A word of
warning, though: never choose 0 –
it’s completely unworkable.
3
300 PC TIPS 3
 11-35

Click your way to a better-

looking Windows 7
It’s easy to tweak your operating system for a more personalised
computing experience, and our brilliant tips show you how…

Y 12
3 our fresh installation of
Windows 7 gives a ‘one
size fits all’ configuration,
but there are countless
ways in which you can tweak the
standard operating system to
make it better suit your particular
needs. Built-in customisation
options include the usual controls
over the interface theme and the
way in which Windows alerts you
to important events.
There are also a bevy of free
add-ons, which provide an even
wider choice of customisation
Change the Windows
theme: Customising
the colour scheme of
Windows 7 is one thing, but how
about more drastic changes? Right-
click the desktop, then choose
‘Personalize’, and you can change
the entire interface theme – the
desktop wallpaper, colour scheme,
system sounds and mouse pointers.
A handful of themes are installed
by default, but click the ‘Get more
themes online’ link and you can
download others for free.

13
options – from ways to change Change your user
parts of the OS that Microsoft account picture:
doesn’t cater for, to adding clever Customising your user
new features that make Windows 7 account image is a great way to 1 Customise your user account: Choose from the default account
even more capable. Here are 25 of differentiate quickly between pictures, or choose your own from your image library.
our favourite tweaks. multiple accounts on a single
PC. Windows 7 comes with a for every system event. Go to ‘Start certain tasks. Right-click on an

11
Change the colour of
the Aero UI: Windows
7’s sleek Aero theme
is a definite improvement on
Windows XP’s ugly Luna, but
you may not like its default
colours. Right-click the desktop,
choose ‘Personalize’, then
‘Window Color’, and you’ll be
able to tweak the colours to
selection of images to choose
from – just go to ‘Start | Control
Panel | User accounts and family
safety | Change your account
picture’. The ‘Browse for more
pictures’ link at the bottom of
this window also enables you to
choose one of your own images
and Windows will automatically
resize it to suit.
| Control Panel | Appearance and
Personalization | Change sound
effects’, and you can selectively
change or disable the sounds
that Windows 7 assigns to each
system event. You can also select
from a range of other novel sound
schemes, or opt for ‘No Sounds’ if
you prefer to work uninterrupted.
empty part of the taskbar, then
select ‘Toolbars’ and you can an
address box for quick-launching
URLs, or a desktop button
for ready access to desktop
shortcuts when your screen is
full of windows. Touch-screen
PC users can also add a tablet
PC input panel for quick one-
tap access to the on-screen

15
your heart’s content. Shades of Add a taskbar toolbar: handwriting input.

14
red work particularly well for Switch system Windows 7’s ability to

distinguishing between active
and inactive windows – unlike
the default blue tones. You can
turn off transparency here too,
should you wish to.
sounds: Windows has
long been able to make
noises to reflect just about anything
it does, but not everyone wants
to hear a ding, beep, buzz or click
16
pin programs to the Customise the Start
taskbar has eliminated the need menu: Microsoft has
for the Quicklaunch Toolbar, removed the ‘Classic
but you can still add other types Start menu’ option from Windows
of toolbar for quick access to 7, but you can still alter its look and

510 super quick tips

26 27 28
Customise the
Start button: If you
don’t like the look of the round
Windows 7 Start button, you
can change it with Start Orb
Changer. You can download
the program for free from
http://bit.ly/w7start and
switch to one of 10 ready-
made Start button images,
or use one of your own.
Get Rainmeter:
Rainmeter takes
the Windows 7 Sidebar
Gadgets idea and extends
it to the whole desktop.
A free download from
www.rainmeter.net, it
enables you to integrate
all kinds of useful system
information, along with RSS
feeds and Twitter updates.
Add backgrounds
to windows:
If you like your desktop to
be busy, Windows 7 Folder
Background Changer will
probably appeal. It’s free
from http://bit.ly/w7bc.
After downloading, there’s no
installation – just run it, select
a folder, pick an image and
re-open the Explorer window.
29 Make Explorer
windows more XP-
friendly: To make Windows
7 more familiar, enable the
menu bar from ‘Organize |
Layout | Menu bar’, then turn
off the bottom ‘Details’ pane.
Go to ‘Tools | Folder Options’,
then enable ‘Show all folders’
and ‘Automatically expand to
current folder’.
30 Control window
sizes with the
keyboard: If Windows 7’s Aero
Snap doesn’t offer enough
control, try Window Manager.
This free download from
http://bit.ly/windows-
manager enables you to set
window sizes and positions
for applications, then activate
them with keyboard shortcuts.

4 300 PC TIPS
 11-35

feel to make it better suited to the
way you work. Right-click the ‘Start’
button, choose ‘Properties’ and a
dialog box will open with some
basic privacy settings. Click the
‘Customise’ button and you can
then make more drastic changes to
the Start menu’s appearance.
the Action Center, accessed via
‘Start | Control Panel | System
and Security’ and you can alter
what Windows badgers you
about – including the fact that
UAC is disabled. Just don’t think
that turning off warnings about
inadequate antivirus protection
is a good idea…
23
to save you looking it up in the
web browser. Right-click the
desktop, choose ‘Gadgets’ and
you’ll see a list of available tools,
with a link to download more at
the bottom of the window. To
enable a Gadget, right-click it
and select ‘Add’. Most Gadgets
have individual settings – hover
Change the login
screen: There are
various clumsy hacks
that enable you to change the
Windows 7 user login screen,
but the free Logon Changer
utility from www.tweaks.com/
software/tweakslogon does all
the hard work for you without

17
Change what the the mouse pointer over an active fuss. Just point the program at

20
Start menu ‘power’ Move the taskbar: one to show its ‘spanner’ icon. the picture you want to use and
button does: Don’t like the Windows it will resize it accordingly, back

22
Thankfully, the excessively 7 taskbar at the Stop the screensaver up the original and then make
complex shutdown option on bottom of the screen? Then why interrupting video the change. Simple!
Windows Vista’s Start menu has not drag and drop it to one of the playback: Disabling

been streamlined in Windows 7,
but Microsoft has also changed
the default power button
behaviour from ‘Sleep’ to a full
shutdown. If you want to change
it back, right-click the Start
button, choose ‘Properties’ and
select your preferred option
from the ‘Power button action’
dropdown list.
desktop’s three other sides? You
might need to unlock it first, though
– just right-click on an empty area
of the taskbar and deselect the
appropriate option. You can also
click and drag the edge to the
taskbar to make it wider, which
is ideal if you’ve pinned lots of
applications to it.
24
the Windows screensaver and
setting your monitor to turn off
after several minutes’ inactivity is a
great energy saver, but it’s a pain if
it kicks in when you’re watching an
online video. The solution is Mouse
Jiggler – a free download from
http://mousejiggler.codeplex.
com. Run the tiny program and
it will make Windows 7 think the
Do more with dual
monitors: If you use
two or more monitors
with Windows, but want a taskbar
on more than just the main display,
Ultramon is the software for you. As
well as making windows on each
monitor easier to manage, Ultramon
enables you to assign different
wallpapers to each desktop, and

21
Go Gadget crazy: mouse is moving imperceptibly, enables you move to windows

18
Calm down UAC:
Microsoft wisely opted
to reduce the constant
pestering of Windows Vista’s User
Access Control with the release
of Service Pack 2, but Windows 7
Windows Gadgets
enable you to add
at-a-glance information to the
Sidebar at the right of the screen
even when you’re nowhere near it,
thereby preventing power-saving
options from activating when you
don’t want them to.
around each display with a mouse
click. You can download a 30-day
demo from www.realtimesoft.
com/ultramon – the full program
is available for £25.

25
brings more granular control over Makes Windows
when you’re asked to confirm easier to see: Ultra-
certain system-level actions. Go to high-resolution
‘Start | Control Panel | User Accounts monitors can make certain
and Family Safety | User Accounts parts of the Windows interface
| Change User Account Control tricky to see, particularly if your
Settings’ and you’ll see a slider. eyesight is far from perfect.
The bottom position disables UAC Switching a TFT display to a
completely, but the next notch up is lower, non-native resolution
the best (and least annoying) option will only make things worse,
for safe computing. but Windows 7 offers a better
option. Go to ‘Start | Control

19
Turn off Notification
Area alerts: Windows
7 likes to keep you
informed about the state of your
security settings, but you might
not want to know about every
single thing that crops up. Go to
Panel | Appearance and
Personalization | Display | Make
text and other items larger and
smaller’, and you’ll see two
options for making everything in
1Windows Gadgets: Add a wealth of information to your Sidebar. Windows, from on-screen text to
You can download extra Gadgets if you can’t see what you want. the taskbar, look bigger.

31 Turn off combined

taskbar buttons:
You can disable Windows
7’s combined buttons.
Right-click an empty part
of the taskbar and choose
‘Properties’. Use the ‘Taskbar
buttons’ dropdown to
disable button-combining,
or use it only when the
taskbar is full.
32 Customise the
Notification Area:
Windows 7 tries to manage
the contents of the Notification
area at the right of the taskbar,
but you may need to lend a
hand. Right-click the taskbar,
choose ‘Properties’ and then
click the ‘Customize’ button on
the General tab to see options
for each Notification area icon.
33 Turbo-charge file
transfers: TeraCopy,
a free download from www.
codesector.com/teracopy.
php, supplants the Explorer
copy function with its own
buffered copy. This can be
far quicker and enables you
to preview file operations
before committing to them,
and to pause transfers.
34 Change desktop
icons: Right-click
the desktop and choose
‘Personalize’, then click ‘Change
desktop icons’ and select the
icon you want to change. Click
‘Change Icon’ to see a list of
other icons you can use, or hit
‘Browse’ to use your own –
www.iconfactory.com has a
good, free selection.
35 Make Windows
look like Mac OS: A
simple way to make your PC
ape Mac OS X is with the free
Snow Transformation Pack
from www.winxsoft.com/
stp/download.html.
The changes are dramatic,
reversible and extremely
convincing, with only a
handful of compromises. 3

300 PC TIPS 5
 35-60

Break into Linux with

our expert Ubuntu tips
Fancy dabbling in the world of Linux but not sure where to start?
Our top tips will introduce you to a new world of computing…

T
3 aking a trip into the
weird and wonderful
world of Linux with the
world’s most popular
distro isn’t always the easiest of
tasks, particularly if you’re used to
Windows’ clean embrace. This isn’t
helped by the fact that Ubuntu
isn’t as fully featured as it should be
from the start. Learn a bit about the
OS, and get up and running with
some interesting and helpful tools
by following this guide.

36
Run essential
updates: Any Linux
installation worth its
salt will alert you immediately to
any changes that need to be made
after installation, particularly if 1 Check the Package Manager: Ubuntu provides a quick and easy way to install new software in seconds.
you’ve installed from a Live CD that Dig around in Synaptic Package Manager and you’ll find all kinds of free goodies.
might not be entirely up to date. kick, however. Open a terminal Ubuntu to perform the action disc, sit through a reinstallation
Ubuntu alerts you to this with an window (select it from the as a super user) and apt-get will process and cross your fingers,
orange flash in its taskbar. Click on it, menu, or hit [Alt]+[F2] and type hammer through the list, marking right? Wrong. Type apt-get dist-
enter the administration password gnome-terminal), then type and installing any packages that upgrade to bring your installed
you set during installation and sudo apt-get update to ensure have fallen behind the times. distro in line with current
use the Update Manager to install that Ubuntu’s knowledge of standards automatically.

39
the essentials. You’ll also find it at packages is up to date. Upgrade the

40
‘System | Update Manager’. distribution: Apt Manage

38
Perform package is a monster of a tool. repositories easily:

37
Manually update
packages: The auto-
updater isn't the only
way to get your system up to
speed. The package manager –
which deals with downloading,
installing and configuring new
programs – might need a little
upgrades: The next
step is to turn your
installed packages into the shiny
new versions, which you can do
using a slightly different command
in the terminal window: apt-get
upgrade. Insert it (remembering
to prefix it with sudo, which tells
It can help you stay right on the
cutting edge with little or no
effort on your part. Let's say, for
example, you’ve had an Ubuntu
installation running for a while,
but you want to install the latest
version of the OS. You need to
do a full backup, burn a new
Apt doesn’t conjure
packages out of thin air. It uses
repositories – vast databases of
software packages that ensure
the latest versions of software are
always easily available from (almost)
one place. To add more repositories,
we recommend starting by

510 super quick tips

51 52Change your
wallpaper: Ubuntu
features some pretty – clearly
Mac-inspired – purple desktop
backgrounds, but no operating
system is really yours until
you’ve plastered a picture of
your cat all over it. Right-click
the desktop and choose
‘Change Desktop Background’
to load one in.
Switch window
styles: You can
change the look of your
desktop’s windows from the
‘Appearance Preferences’
window. Click the Theme
tab, then click on a style to
see how it will look. If you
click ‘Customise’, you can
combine elements from
different themes.
53 Install hardware
drivers: To get the
most out of your Ubuntu
desktop, you’ll need the
optimal drivers for your
graphics card. They’re not
installed by default, but if you
go to ‘System | Administration
| Hardware Drivers’, you’ll see
your options. Select the latest
driver, install it and restart.
54 Set up desktop
effects: You’ll get
a fancier looking desktop if
you switch on visual effects
(‘System | Preferences |
Appearance | Visual Effects’).
Install the ‘compiz’ settings
application – search Synaptic
for ‘compizconfig’ – and
you’ll have access to many
more stylish tweaks.
55 Add a dock: There’s
a neat little desktop
application, based on the code
behind Gnome-Do (discussed
elsewhere), that emulates
the dock from Mac OS X. It’s
worth a try. Search Synaptic for
‘docky’, install it, and you’ll be
able to configure its minutest
details by simply clicking the
icon on the far left.

6 300 PC TIPS
 36-60

5Do more with Gnome-Do

46 47 48
Set up Gnome-Do:
Adding functionality
to Ubuntu starts with
Gnome-Do, which simplifies
and speeds up searching
for programs and files, or
activating functions. Look
in the package manager for
‘gnome-do’ (or install it using
apt-get) to add it. You’ll now
find it in the Ubuntu menu.
Understand
the panes: Get
Gnome-Do running, then
hit [Super]+[Space]. [Super]
is the [Windows] key on a
standard PC keyboard. The
left-hand pane contains the
item you’re searching for,
while the right-hand pane
will eventually contain the
action to be applied to it.
Try it out: We’ll use
Firefox as an example
application for Gnome-Do.
Start typing firefox and it
should appear in the left
window after a few letters
– that’s all you need to type.
Now hit [Tab] to switch to the
second pane, and start typing
the action you wish to perform,
such as Minimise or Close.
49 Use further
features: The arrow
keys are a satisfying way to
navigate around Gnome-Do.
Start typing in the first pane,
then hit [down] to see all the
possible options. Use [right]
to expand folders or panels.
Choose one, hit [Tab] and use
the [down] arrow to select
the action to perform on it.
50 Add more plug-ins:
Gnome-Do can act
on just about any software.
Bring up the window with
[Super]+[Space], click the little
down arrow at the top-right
corner and select Preferences.
You can then add plug-ins for
everything from Google tools
and Twitter to music players
such as RhythmBox.

installing a repository manger. Type Administration | Synaptic Package down retro shooter; and vDrift, a from www.ubuntu-tweak.com
sudo wget http://mac4deb. Manager’. Part of the fun of track-based racing simulator. All and, ensuring you don’t already
googlepages.com/addrepo -O / repositories is hunting around them deserve a place on your hard drive. have a package manager open,
usr/bin/addrepo into a terminal for interesting packages – feel free double-click it to open it with

45
window to install addrepo, then to have a poke about! Enable more the GDebi package manager.
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/addrepo tweaks: There’s a Now simply click on ‘Install’,

43
to set its permissions properly. Install restricted single package that and Ubuntu Tweak will appear
extras: Ubuntu is will open up a world of further in System Tools under the

41
Add new repositories:
Adding another source
for software is easy;
once you’ve installed addrepo,
you can do it in the terminal by
typing something along the lines
of addrepo deb http://mirror2.
ubuntulinux.nl/ lucid-seveas
all. If you find new repositories
online, they will usually give you
the right details to enter. You
could also do it graphically by
going to ‘System | Administration
| Software Sources | Third Party
free software, so customisation options, and ‘Applications’ menu, connecting
many features are left out by that's ubuntu-tweak. You can you to a host of system tools
default for licensing reasons. download the DEB package from one useful place.
That doesn’t stop you installing
them yourself, though. To get
the Flash plug-in, support for
MP3 and DVD playback, and
standard TrueType fonts (among
other things), search Synaptic
Package Manager for ‘ubuntu-
restricted-extras’ and install
it. All the essentials are in that
single package.

44
Software | Add’. Get some games:
Ubuntu’s default

42
Check the package
manager: Ubuntu’s
package management
tools are, as you might have noticed,
not restricted to the command
line. Synaptic Package Manager
is an excellent graphical interface
for apt. To open it, go to ‘System |
selection of games
is a little weak. There’s a wealth
of gaming gold on the default
repositories, though. Search for and
check out the following: Tremulous,
a decent first-person shooter;
FlightGear, a seasoned and accurate 1 Get some games: vDrift brings Gran Turismo-style realistic racing
flight sim; Gridwars, a flashy top- to the Linux desktop. It’s definitely worth a try, especially as it’s free.

56 Play Windows
videos: Type this
into a terminal: sudo wget
57
http://www.medibuntu.
org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_
release -cs).list –output-
document=/etc/apt/
sources.list.d/medibuntu.
list. Then run sudo apt-get
install w32codecs to get
the appropriate files.
Install VLC: You’ll find
VLC listed in Synaptic
under a search for ‘VLC’. Like
58
most apps, it installs a number
of other programs at the same
time, which it needs in order to
run. However, it doesn’t install
the Firefox plug-in – search for
‘mozilla-plugin-vlc’ to find it
if you want media handled in
your browser.
Set up Samba:
Sharing files with
Windows computers? You
need Samba. Search for
‘samba’ within Synaptic,
mark the packages ‘samba’
and ‘system-config-samba’
for installation and click
‘Apply.’ You can use the
configuration app to set up
permanently linked shares.
59 Mess with panels:
Ubuntu’s default
layout is a mix of OS X and
60
Windows. To fiddle with its
panels, right-click an empty
spot and select ‘Properties’.
You can also add or remove
elements with the appropriate
command. If you’ve installed
Docky, you may need to shift at
least one panel out of the way.
Unleash GIMP:
There’s one premier
artistry app for Linux, and
that’s GIMP. If there were an
award for ‘most Photoshop
features aped’, it would win
two of them. It doesn’t come
on a standard Ubuntu Live
CD, but it deserves to, so grab
it from Synaptic Package
Manager and get doodling. 3

300 PC TIPS 7
 61-85
Leave your desk behind
with our top mobile tips
If you spend a lot of your time on the road or away from home, our key tips
will help you make sure you can easily access your data, wherever you are…
C 65
3 loud computing,
smartphones and
netbooks mean more
of us than ever before
are free from a desk-bound PC.
To make the most of your mobile
experience, check out our essential
tips for computing on the move…
61
Use a tethered
modem: If you aren’t
away from a wireless
network often, then getting a
broadband dongle might not be
worthwhile. Instead, try tethering
your mobile phone, provided your
network supports it. Essentially, your
laptop uses the mobile’s internet
connection for its data. Some
phones include tethering options,
but there are also tethering apps
for most platforms. Joikuspot
(www.joikushop.com) will do
the job for Symbian-based phones,
while Proxoid (http://code.
google.com/p/proxoid) performs
a similar task for Android devices.
62
Make MiFi work:
You can share the
connection from a
3G dongle across your network
using Internet Connection
Sharing. In the Network and
Sharing Center, choose ‘Change
Adapter Settings’, then right-
click the connection for your
dongle and select ‘Properties’.
On the Sharing tab, tick ‘Allow
1 Dropbox: Mirror your most used files so you can access them from the web if you can’t use your laptop.
8 300 PC TIPS
other network users to connect
through this computer’s internet
connection’. On the Network and
Sharing Center, choose ‘Set up a
new connection or network | Set
up a wireless ad-hoc (computer
to computer) network’. Follow
the instructions. Ad hoc
networks can be flaky, so if you
need to share a connection
regularly, try a MiFi. The telco 3
does pay-as-you-go units from
£50 – see www.three.co.uk/
Mobile_Broadband/MiFi.
63
Call with Skype: Save
money on expensive
hotel phone bills by
making your calls over Skype. If you
have a decent wireless connection
and a laptop with a microphone,
you can buy flat-rate calls to
landlines using Skype for £2.24 per
month, while 3 permits you to make
Skype calls via its 3G broadband
service. Other networks restrict VoIP
data over 3G. Many Wi-Fi-capable
phones support Skype too.
64
Find Wi-Fi hotspots:
Check out where
you’re travelling in
advance to see if there are any
free Wi-Fi hotspots about. To
find them, simply browse to
http://bit.ly/wifi-hotspots and
enter a postcode or location.
It will provide a list of nearby
hotspots and connection details.
Get local SIMs: Call
and data charges for
roaming can be steep,
even when you take EU caps into
consideration. With an unlocked
phone, it could be much cheaper
to buy a local pay-as-you-go SIM.
Check out the providers’ websites
before travelling to see which
company offers the best data plans.
66
Buy a Skype
number: A further
way to save money
on phone calls abroad is to invest
in a Skype number. You can get
one free if you buy a month’s
landline calls. Give this to your
contacts and they’ll be able to
call you at a normal UK landline
rate. If you’re not on Skype when
they call, they’ll be able to leave
you a voice mail. When you call
them back using Skype via Wi-Fi,
you’ll only pay the cost of a UK
landline call.
67
Install Dropbox:
Whether you’re home
or abroad, it helps to be
able to get access, at any time, to
the most recent version of whatever
documents you’re actively working
on. Dropbox provides online
storage and synchronisation with
as many computers as you install
it on (www.dropbox.com). The
first 2GB of storage is free, which is
enough for most people’s active
documents. When you make
changes and save them to your
Dropbox folder on your computer,
these are uploaded to Dropbox
and then replicated on your other
machines as soon as you log on.
68
Use Portable Apps:
If you’re on the move
and your laptop dies,
then you need a way to access
your data and most common
programs. Install Portable Apps
(www.portableapps.com)
on a USB flash drive alongside
your most useful files and you
can enjoy your own virtual
desktop on any public PC,
without worrying about leaving
browsing traces, so long as you
use Portable Firefox. You can
even use your favourite Firefox
plug-ins and carry them around
with you. The full installation
of Portable Apps includes the
OpenOffice.org software suite.
69
Secure your
passwords: Keepass
(www.keepass.info)
is an open-source password
management program that stores
your passwords in an encrypted
file. Install the program on your
laptop and then save the password
database file in your Dropbox
folder. Do the same on any other
computers that are running
Dropbox and you can access
your most up-to-date passwords
from any of your PCs. Ensure that
Dropbox is secured with a strong
password. If your laptop breaks,
you’ll still be able to get to your
password database using the
Portable Apps version of Keepass
and web access to Dropbox.
70
Use the cloud:
Dropbox is a good
example of a
cloud-based service that can
be invaluable when you’re
on the move, but it’s worth
considering using other services
to increase your storage. You

1 Power Options: Eke out more battery life when away from power
by dimming the screen and hastening sleep if your laptop’s left idle.
can use a combination of photo
services, such as Flickr, Picasa
and Photobucket, along with
Google Docs, Zoho and gOffice
for documents. Then you can
get general storage at Humyo
or Mozy, which both offer a lots
of space. Remember to select
encrypted providers for sensitive
information. Most of these
services also provide sharing
options that make sending
someone else a document as
simple as passing on a URL.
71
Set up offline mail:
Even in the world of
mobile broadband and
ubiquitous Wi-Fi, there are still
places where you won’t be able to
get a signal and you’ll have to work
offline. Plan for this by ensuring
that you have an offline mail client
such as Thunderbird (http://bit.ly/
mozilla-thunderbird) installed,
even if you use a web-based email
service. Download your messages
before hitting the road so you can
refer to them and write responses
while you’re offline. For Gmail, you
can install Google Gears or get a
simple backup of your messages by
getting Google Desktop to index
them. An offline client is still the
best option, though.
72
Extend battery
life: Consider ways
to extend your
battery life if you have to spend
extended time away from a
source of power. Set your Power
Options to dim the screen unless
you’re working in bright sunlight
because this extends battery
life significantly. Also try any
tricks that will take load off the
processor: disabling unnecessary
background processes, closing
programs you’re not using and
even turning off Aero. All of this
will ensure that your laptop
consumes less power and you’ll
get more life out of the battery.
73
Optimise for
bandwidth: Consider
ways in which you can
optimise your connection when
you’re on reduced bandwidth.
You might have dropped to a
GPRS connection or even had to
resort to using dial-up. In these
cases, a slow connection can limit
your productivity. Shut down
synchronising services such as
Dropbox and Windows Live Sync.
You can sync up again when you
get onto a better connection. Turn
off any other programs that poll the
internet. Disable pictures in your
browser, plus any other multimedia
you can – the results, while ugly, will
be easier to manage speed-wise.
74
Stay secure: If you’re
using free hotspots or
any that enable you to
connect using an open wireless
connection, ensure that you
have a decent firewall installed.
Comodo (http://personal
firewall.comodo.com), Agnitum
(http://free.agnitum.com) and
ZoneAlarm (download it from
www.zonealarm.com) provide
free firewalls that generally
outperform Windows’ offering.
Consider installing one to turn
on in these circumstances. Just
enable access for your web
browser and email program.
Ensure that you use Windows’
public network settings too.
75
Encrypt files: Consider
what might happen
if your laptop or
thumb drive gets lost or stolen. By
encrypting any sensitive files, you
can make sure the vital data within
it can’t be accessed. Use TrueCrypt
(www.truecrypt.org) to create a
virtual encrypted disk hidden within
a file on your system and place all
your most important files there.
Anyone getting access to your PC
won’t even know that the disk is
there, keeping your data safe.
510 super quick tips
76 Tether your iPhone:
In iOS 4, you can turn on
internet tethering by choosing
‘Settings | General | Network | Internet
Tethering’ – but only if you’re with a
provider that allows it. While it can
be expensive to change in the middle
of a contract, it’s definitely worth
confirming this feature next time.
77
Get audio channels:
If you’re in need of
entertainment and you’ve got a
3G signal, Tuner Internet Radio
is one of the iPhone’s best apps.
It’s not free, but for hundreds of
channels, the £3 fee is a bargain.
It’s available to download from
Apple’s iTunes App Store.
78
Use Mobile Dropbox: Get
quick access to your Dropbox
files on your phone. There’s an Android
app available in the marketplace, and
one for iPhone and iPad in the App
Store. A Blackberry app is on its way.
Learn more at www.dropbox.com/
anywhere or get simple mobile web
access at http://m.dropbox.com.
79 Find yourself: There’s
no need to go anywhere
without access to a map. Google
Maps is available for all popular
phones and mobile devices. See
www.google.com/mobile/
maps for relevant download links
or just point your mobile browser
at m.google.com/maps.
80
Watch the skies: Got time
to look up and see the stars?
If you have an Android phone, then
you can get an annotated map of the
sky wherever you are, thanks to GPS
and Google Sky Map (www.google.
com/mobile/skymap). It adjusts
according to where your phone is
pointing, so you can find out about
any part of the sky.
61-85
81 Keep cool: If you’re using
a laptop plugged in for
extended periods, consider buying
a laptop cooler to prevent it from
overheating. These cost around £20
and plug into a USB port. They use
fans to cool the underside of your
laptop, ensuring you get stable
performance for lengthy use.
82
Take a back-up drive:
Consider carrying portable
back-up media with you, especially
if you’re travelling for any period
of time. A passport drive is small
enough to tuck into most laptop bags
and is USB-powered. Expect to pay
around £60 for a 500GB drive, which
should offer enough space.
83
Charge in the car: A car
charger for your laptop
ensures that you can top up its juice
by plugging it into the cigarette
lighter while you’re driving. Generic
ones are available for between £10
and £20. Try to get one for your
specific model if possible, though –
it’ll cost a bit more, but it’s worth it.
84 Spare battery: If you’re
stuck on a train or plane
with no charging point, a spare
battery can pay dividends. You can
usually find spares at a reasonable
price on eBay and one could
effectively double your working time.
Check the capacity of the battery and
don’t forget to keep it charged.
85
Back up at home: Your
laptop is likely to undergo
greater wear and tear than a
static computer, making it more
vulnerable to data loss. It makes
sense to back it up whenever you
touch base at home or at the office.
Keep a copy of all your important
data on at least one other PC, so
that it’s easily accessible.
3
300 PC TIPS 9
 86-95
Revive a PC with our
disaster recovery tips
Get your PC back up and running after a crash or virus
attack with our essential steps for diagnosis and recovery
H
3 ere’s the scenario:
one minute you’re
working and surfing
quite happily, the next
the Blue Screen Of Death rears
its ugly head and your machine
won’t boot. Whatever’s happened
to Windows is serious and the
problem is confounded by the
absence of backups. You’ve been
promising to make some but never
quite got around to it. Don’t panic!
Just follow these steps.
86
The easy win: Before
you bring out the big
guns – which we‘ll
discuss later – it pays to explore the
easy options. Try using Windows’
own repair and recovery tools,
accessible from your installation
disc. Depending on the version of
Windows that you’re running, the
choices will differ. For Windows
7, the key is Startup Repair. This
will hopefully “automatically fix
problems that are preventing
Windows from starting”.
87
Leave your hard
drive alone: If
you’re dealing with
sensitive data on a crashed PC,
it pays to be careful. It’s safest
to leave the operating system
1 AVG Rescue CD: Despite its flexibility and immense power,
this essential disc has a simple, straightforward interface.
10 300 PC TIPS
alone and try to access data,
files and folders indirectly. This
is particularly true if you suspect
you’re battling a virus attack. By
running the host OS, you give
the contagion the opportunity
to call home, update and send
out more of your data. With all
this in mind, we say don’t boot
a damaged OS – use a Live CD
rescue kit instead.
88
AVG Rescue CD:
If your PC has been
brought to its knees by
a virus, getting back into Windows
with enough control over the
system to remove the contagion
can be tricky. Thankfully, there’s
an easy answer – the AVG Rescue
CD. Download the ISO image from
89
http://bit.ly/avg-cd and burn the
image to a CD or create a bootable
USB key. Whatever you choose, the
Linux-based rescue CD makes it
easy to scan and remove viruses.
The Inside Security Rescue
Toolkit (www.inside-security.
de/insert_en.html) isn’t strictly
a rescue system – it’s
more a tool for forensic
security analysis. It Also in
can, for example,
this issue
examine a huge
variety of different Build a bootab
disaster recove
disc for Windo
p80
90
1 Inside Security: This Rescue
Toolkit lets you scan your PC
for viruses and rootkits.
filesystems, from common NTFS to
more obscure systems. The toolkit
will scan for viruses and let you get
online from a defunct PC. It can also
sniff out rootkits.
The Ultimate Boot
CD: If nothing we’ve
discussed so far has
worked, go for the big guns. It’s
time for The Ultimate Boot CD
(www.ultimatebootcd.com),
a collection of 100 applications
that should help even the most
knackered PC get back
on its feet. The
interface breaks
apps down into
le
categories, such
as BIOS, CPU,
Memory and so
ry
on. Follow the
ws
menu structure.
Given the number
of apps on offer, you
should be able to find one
that will salve your PC’s ills.
GParted: GParted
is a classic among
open-source
applications. It’s essentially a
program that lets you move,
resize, check, copy, create and
delete hard disk partitions. It’s
not uncommon for these to
be damaged during a serious
crash, so having GParted to
hand as a Live CD is essential.
Despite the program’s obvious
power, it’s extremely simple to
55 super
quick tips
91 Free ISO burner: To turn
an ISO disc image into a
functional Live CD, you need an ISO
burner. Newer versions of Windows
feature such tools as standard, but if
you’re after something more feature-
rich, try Free ISO Burner from
www.freeisoburner.com. It can
burn to a wide range of media.
92
Undelete a file: Pandora
Recovery can resurrect
deleted files. Use the portable
version – installing it natively
risks overwriting the data you’re
trying to rescue. Get it from www.
pandorarecovery.com and build
a bootable USB version of the
program on another PC.
93
Ghost for Linux: Norton
Ghost is a classic application
– we’ve used it and loved it since
version one. It’s a partition-cloning
tool and can be vital in a disaster.
To experiment with the concept of
partition cloning, try Ghost for Linux.
It’s an open-source project found at
http://bit.ly/ghost4linux.
94 A beeping PC: If your PC
does little more than
beep after its crash, it’s sending
you an encoded diagnosis of its
ailments. All you need to do –
albeit from a different machine
– is visit www.computerhope.
com/beep.htm, where you’ll find
a complete guide to beep codes.
95 What went wrong? When
you’re back up and running,
you need to work out what caused
your PC to fall over. Here, the Windows
Crash Dump is your friend. Microsoft
does offer some help (http://bit.ly/
ms-support), but for the ultimate
insight, visit Crash Dump Analysis
(www.dumpanalysis.org/blog).
3
 96-105

Whip Windows into shape

with command line tricks
The Windows command prompt is already a great way to perform
back-end tasks, but you can make it even better

D 97
3 espite rumours you
may have heard to the
contrary, the Windows
command prompt is far
from dead. It’s just gone a bit quiet
lately, that’s all. The command
prompt – or DOS prompt, if you
refuse to let go of the past – still
underpins Windows 7, and offers a
quick and technical way of moving
files about, listing directories
and performing a wide range of
back-end tasks that might not have
a graphical interface. There’s a lot
to learn about the humble prompt,
and you can get more out of it with
these helpful hints.
Make it better:
By default, the
command prompt is
quite restricted in its scope. It’s
therefore worth tweaking a few
of the values in the Properties
dialog to make it bigger and
improve its memory. Select the
Options tab and set the buffer
size to 500 to increase the
number of previous commands
to be stored by the prompt, then
toggle ‘Discard old duplicates’
to stop it remembering your
every use of the ‘dir’ command.
Now go to the Layout tab and
make the screen buffer height
somewhere around 1,000, and

96
Customise it: The increase the window height to a
1 Customise it: New colours and fonts can go a long way to making
console’s default colour more reasonable 50 lines.
the dated old command prompt feel like home again.
scheme of white text

on a black screen not doing it for
you? It’s surprisingly straightforward
to alter the look of the command
prompt. Bring up a window by
typing cmd into the Windows 7
search box, or the ‘Run’ dialog if
you’re using an older version of
the OS. Right-click the title bar
and select ‘Properties’, then go to
the Font tab to choose from a few
different typefaces. The Colours
tab lets you determine the hue
98
Add functions: Quite
why Quick Edit, which
is accessible from the
Options tab, is switched off by
default is quite beyond us. Switch
it on and you’ll be able to copy text
by dragging it and then right-
clicking the mouse in the command
prompt. You can then paste text
into the prompt by right-clicking
without dragging. Intuitive.
tedious typing, followed by the
hassle of having to navigate to
the specific folder that you want
to work in. But there's an easier
way to go about it.
In Windows Explorer, hold
the [Shift] key and right-click
the folder in which you want
to open a new prompt, then
simply select ‘Open command
window here’. You can also
open a command prompt
100
Try an
alternative:
While it’s not
possible to replace the Windows
command line, there are plenty of
shells that give it a more advanced
interface. Try out PowerCmd
(www.powercmd.com) for a
multi-pane interface that enables
you to do a lot more, or search for
‘GlassCmd’ to give the console a
Windows 7-style look. Console

of both selected and unselected
text; if the standard shades don’t
take your fancy, you can use the
‘Selected colour values’ boxes to
choose custom colours.
99
Quick command with elevated administration (www.sourceforge.net/
prompts: Opening up privileges with a minimum projects/console) will give you
a command prompt of fuss by right-clicking the a tabbed interface, but for a more
is usually a pretty long-winded folder while holding down the powerful take, try Take Command
exercise that involves a lot of [Shift]+[Control] keys. from www.jpsoft.com.

55 super quick tips

101 102Use the keys:
Can’t be bothered
typing that super-long string
again? Use the [Up] key to
bring up the most recently
used command. Keep pressing
it to browse through your
history, or use the [Down]
arrow to move forward in time.
You can also hit [F7] to bring
up a formatted list.
Tab
Completion:
If you’re interacting with a
file or folder, start typing
the filename and hit [Tab].
Provided it’s in the folder
you’re working in, the name
will be auto-completed. If
there are other files with the
same start string, hit [Tab]
again to skip through them.
103 Drag and drop
There’s a second
way to fill in filenames and
folders, and it’s arguably
even easier than the previous
method. Just click and hold
an item in an Explorer window,
then drag it to the command
prompt and drop it there, and
Windows fills in the filename
and path automatically.
104 Change some
names: The
command title enables you
to, rather pointlessly, alter
the title bar of the command
window from the current
directory to whatever you
affix to the end of it. The
command prompt does the
same for the C:\> part of the
shell itself.
105 Use the history
keys: Did you
know that you can type the
previous command one
letter at a time by hitting [F1]
repeatedly? This is a handy
way of getting to the part you
got wrong if you’re retyping
the last entry. Try using [F2]
and [F3] as well – we’ll let you
discover exactly what they do.
3

12 300 PC TIPS
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 106-130

Browser extensions that

will change how you surf
Whether you use Firefox, Chrome or another popular browser,
a quick click is all you need to make it even more versatile…

T 108
3 he ability to add features what’s possible. It’s available for CooIiris: This is do, you can’t afford to be without it.
to browsers makes Chrome and Firefox, and is built not just a media Now for both Firefox and Chrome,
them the most powerful into Opera as UserJS. browser, but it’s it adds all the options you need to
applications on your an incredibly impressive one too. troubleshoot your designs, from

screen, but with so many to choose
from, where do you start? Too
many and you’ll slow down your
system; not enough and you're
107
AdBlock Plus: CoolIris (www.cooliris.com) highlighting individual elements
Many of us are creates 3D walls of content from to poking at the CSS directly. Get it
virtually immune your favourite social sites, which from www.chrispederick.com.
to online ads by now, but if you doesn’t sound like much until you

wasting an opportunity. Here’s our
guide to the ones you can't afford
to be without.
get a site that goes just that
little bit too far, AdBlock Plus
(http://adblockplus.org/en)
is the best way to slap it into
111
see it in action. Finding that one NoScript: Scripting
photo or video is so much easier technologies have
when you can see all the options made the web a
stretching out into infinity. It works more powerful place, but they

106
Greasemonkey: shape. It strips out everything on your desktop files too, giving sometimes just get in the way.
Greasemonkey from pop-ups to embedded you a great way to read everything. NoScript (www.noscript.net)
runs user-written Flash animations, making your lets you switch them on and off

scripts to completely alter many of
your favourite websites, giving them
a new look, invisibly mashing up
different services and adding brand
new features. Visit the website at
www.userscripts.org to see
109
browsing fast, smooth and less Feedly: An
likely to make you feel the urge alternative
to reach for a Pepsi, the cool, way of reading
refreshing choice of the new Google Reader, now in Firefox
generation. As a bonus, it’ll also and Chrome. Feedly reparses
strip out any malware too. your RSS feeds into a magazine-
style format, making it less
effective as a dedicated research
per page, but because it uses a
whitelist to decide when it kicks
in, you never need to worry
about a rogue page jumping on
your back before you can block
it. It’s only available for Firefox at
the moment.

tool or if you have to read every
last story, but much smoother
if you just want to see what’s
going on right now. An icon on
your toolbar brings it straight up,
and if you want to go back into
full research mode, it’s easy to
return to regular Google Reader.
Get it from www.feedly.com.
112
DownThemAll:
One for hardcore
file junkies, this pulls
every file from a web page at a
click, saving you the effort of going
to each link, clicking ‘Save Target
As’, and pointing it to a directory.
It’s for Firefox only at the moment,
from www.bit.ly/downthemall.
Chrome has its own equivalents

110
Web Developer
Toolbar: As the
name suggests, you
1 Chrome extensions: One-click installs without any need to restart won’t need this one if you never
the browser make Chrome excellent for playing with extensions. play with HTML and CSS, but if you
though, including Download
Selection, Download All that does
the same thing as DTA, and a
range of assorted downloaders
for specific sites.

55 super quick tips

121 122 IE Tab: Not many
of us use IE by
choice, but sometimes there’s
no other option. IE Tab lets you
open up a window in Firefox
(http://bit.ly/ietab-firefox)
or Chrome (http://bit.ly/
ietab-chrome), but using the
IE rendering engine instead. It
gives you all the benefits, and
is easily closed afterwards.
Session
Manager: Most
of us need more than one
website at a time. Session
Manager helps you recover
from crashes by bringing
up complete sets of tabs. It’s
available now for Firefox
(http://bit.ly/sm-firefox)
and the Chrome browser
(http://bit.ly/sm-chrome).
123 PrintPDF: You
can download
web pages easily enough, but
124
if you want to make sure you
see them properly on another
platform, PDFs are the answer.
PrintPDF is a tool that exports
them directly. For Firefox, see
http://bit.ly/pdf-firefox.
Chrome users should go to
http://bit.ly/pdf-chrome.
124Karbon FLV
Downloader:
This is a great way to
download FLV video files
and MP3s embedded in
web page code. For FLVs,
you’ll need a dedicated Flash
player to watch them later
on, at your leisure. You can
download it from http://
bit.ly/karbon-firefox.
125 SearchPreview
For Google:
SearchPreview shows you a
thumbnail of the sites in a
Google search list, giving you
another clue about whether
you’re about to go to the right
place. Firefox users can get it
from http://bit.ly/sp-firefox,
while Chrome users should see
http://bit.ly/sp-chrome.

14 300 PC TIPS

1 CoolIris: A beautiful-looking wall of images, videos and other content. Use it to browse websites,
or files on your hard drive. Look for its icon to open up image collections from your favourite pages.
113
FireFTP: A
complete FTP
client inside
Firefox. It’s not as good as
something like Filezilla if you
use FTP a lot, for either website
management or downloading
lots of files, but if it’s only an
occasional thing these days,
it’s great to have something
like this on hand to handle the
gruntwork. It’s for Firefox only
(www.bit.ly/ftp-firefox). The
closest Chrome equivalent that's
currently available is Chrome
FTP (www.bit.ly/ftp-chrome),
although that’s considerably
less polished at this point.
114
Instapaper: Not
an extension,
but a bookmark
that should work on anything –
although you can get plug-ins as
well. Instapaper stores any long
articles you find and don’t have
time to read. Best of all, as it’s a web
service, there are viewers available
for almost everything, including any
web-enabled computer. Get it from
www.instapaper.com.
115
All-In-One-
Gestures: Gesture
support has to be
used to be fully appreciated.
Opera pioneered it in web
browsers, and when you’re used
to it, it’s impossible to go back.
Navigate, close windows and
more with simple sweeps of the
mouse and it becomes an almost
subconscious act. If this specific
plug-in doesn’t work, there are
others, although Opera still has
the edge in terms of fluidity due
to its built-in support. Get it from
http://bit.ly/aio-gestures.
116
Delicious
Bookmarks:
Another bookmark-
based extension, in both ways.
Syncing bookmarks is fine, but
if you’re like us, you quickly end
up with far too many to manage.
Delicious (www.delicious.com) is
the perfect way to sort, share and
tag anything of interest online. You
can see what other people have
said about them as well, and import
them into almost any web browser
or other link collection.
117
StumbleUpon:
On the other
hand, if you’re
having trouble simply finding
something good to read online,
sit back and let StumbleUpon
(www.stumbleupon.com) show
you the way. Tell it what you’re
interested in and it finds you
a page that might qualify. You
can also add your own favourite
sites to the collection, bookmark
any of interest for later use, and
comment or read comments on
sites from other users.
118
AutoProxy:
Proxy servers are a
godsend if you want
to access content you’re not sup…
to keep your online life private.
And nothing else. Because that
would be Very Naughty. AutoProxy
(http://bit.ly/autoproxy) lets you
switch back and forth between
identities with ease. You’ll still have
to track down the right proxy server
for what you want to do, and you
should be careful that you switch
it off before doing anything crucial
like online banking, just to be safe.
119
Evernote
WebClipper: This
is the ideal way
of keeping snippets of interest,
images or any other clippable
content from around the web.
With the free Evernote package,
you get 40MB a month, which
is plenty for web content, and
you can access it from any
machine or on the major mobile
platforms. An IE plug-in installs
with the desktop client (not
required, but very helpful for
managing your note collection),
with Firefox/Chrome plug-ins
available separately. Get it from
www.evernote.com.
120
FoxyTunes:
Don’t waste time
switching away
from the web just because a Justin
Bieber song ‘accidentally’ found
its way into your music library.
With FoxyTunes, you can control
almost every major music player
from within your browser – which,
despite the name, can also be IE.
Sorry, no Chrome. Media is one
area where Firefox definitely still
has the advantage, with Chrome's
only real plug-ins being for online
players and simple look-up checks
of services like Spotify’s library. Get
it from www.foxytunes.com.
106-130
55 super
quick tips
126 Bit.ly: The most
popular of the URL-
shortener tools out there, Bit.ly takes
any link you give it and crunches it
down into a more Twitter/instant
message-friendly format. For Firefox,
go to http://bit.ly/bitly-firefox.
For Chrome, you need to head over
to http://bit.ly/bitly-chrome.
127 Remember The Milk:
One of the best task
managers around, integrating
beautifully with Gmail and
available on iPhone and Android.
The Firefox and Chrome plug-ins
connect it with Gmail too. See
www.rememberthemilk.com
to download it.
128
Chrome Reader: One
of the most bizarre
and annoying things we’ve noticed
about Chrome is that Google makes
it incredibly fiddly to subscribe to
feeds. This simple but incredibly
effective plug-in fixes that problem
immediately. You can download it
from http://bit.ly/chrome-reader.
129 Unhide Passwords:
Security is rather
pointless when you’re alone, and
Unhide Passwords removes the
starring-out so you can see what
you’re typing. It’s for Firefox only
(http://bit.ly/unhide-firefox),
but there’s a Chrome equivalent
(http://bit.ly/unhide-chrome).
130 Copy Without
Formatting: When you
copy text from the internet, it retains
its formatting when you paste it. This
add-on sits in Chrome and gives you a
shortcut that only spits out plain text.
Find it at http://bit.ly/cwf-chrome,
or get the handy Firefox equivalent
from http://bit.ly/cwf-firefox.
3
300 PC TIPS 15
 131-155

Search smarter with our

expert guide to Google
The information’s out there, but how do you get your hands on it?
Follow our tips to mastering the world’s biggest search engine…

T
3 he good thing about
Google is that generally,
you don't have to be too
precise or bend over
backwards to find things. When
you want something specific,
though, or just can’t find it the old-
fashioned way, these tips will bring
microsoft site:pcplus.co.uk |
site:techradar.com to bring up
lists from both. The order you
get them in will depend on how
much PageRank the individual
articles have, but both of them
will appear in the lists.

133
it right to your fingertips. Check spellings:
Google can also

131
Add context:
Simply typing
in a search term
is usually enough, but you can
help Google along by adding a
little more context to your query.
The easiest way is with Boolean
operators. For instance, type
fish+chips. The most common are
+ and – for adding and removing
elements, but you can also use * as
a wildcard, the tilde symbol (top left
of your keyboard) for similar terms,
and quotes to get only the “exact
phrase you type”. One that almost
zero in to specific
types of search, such as replacing
your dictionary. Do the search
define:portmanteau and it’ll
pull definitions of the word from
a number of different sources,
including Wordnetwb, Wiktionary
and Wikipedia. You can also use a
regular Google search to check your 1 Browse by subject: Start with a general subject and page through
spelling by typing in how you think the categories and related topics using the Wonder Wheel.
a word goes. If you have it wrong,
the correct version will be listed advanced ones include the similar live details, including the
at the top of the search results. Of Faraday Constant, the mass of status of flights in the air, although
course, it’ll still do the search too. Earth and handling distances in to be on the safe side, it’s best to go
Astronomical Units. However, for to the airline company’s own page

134
nobody uses is |, which means ‘or’. Do sums: Google more powerful calculations of for live lookups.
has a powerful that sort, accessing many more

132 136
Search certain calculation databases, try Wolfram Alpha – Search by
sites: Google engine built in. Try a simple www.wolframalpha.com. location:
doesn’t have to sum like 4*25 and it’ll spit out Location-aware

look at the entire internet. By
adding a ‘site: clarification’, you
can point it to just one page (or,
using an ‘I’ as well, multiple). For
instance, if you can’t remember
whether you read an article on
our page or on our sister site
TechRadar, you could ask it for
100 almost immediately. That’s
not the clever part. Try 100
degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius,
or MMX in decimal and Google
pulls the numbers and works
it out. It’s not guaranteed, of
course – often you’ll just get
search results. A few of the more
135
Ask direct
questions:
Simpler searches
will pop up immediately, which can
be very handy. Why mess around
with time zones when you can
just ask What is the time in San
Francisco? You can also look up
search may still be limited, but
you can get a head start by
telling Google where to look.
Say, for instance, that you want
fish and chips. There’s no point
simply typing fish and chips,
unless you’re interested in the
history or cooking details, but

510 super quick tips

146 147 Customise your
search: The
Google sidebar offers a number
of useful customisation
options, including stripping out
shopping sites if you just want
information, or vice versa if
you’re in the mood to buy. You
can also prioritise sites you’ve
visited, sites you’ve yet to see
and much more.
See more results:
It’s said that most
people only look at the first
few results, but if you want
more, you can crank up the
number. Simply visit
http://bit.ly/g-prefs
and you can alter this so it
displays up to 100 results,
although this will obviously
slow down the search.
148 Search safely:
Everyone knows
you can activate SafeSearch
to cut out most of the nasty
content online, but if you
want to be a little safe, ‘Search
Preferences’ also lets you lock
SafeSearch on any PC. It only
applies to the browser you’re
currently using, and you’ll need
a Google Account to do it.
149 Search by
extension:
It’s amazing what you can
find if you know what file
extensions to look for.
Feeling nosey? Do a search
for inurl:view/view.shtml
and you’ll get nothing but
webcam views from around
the world. Think of it as one-
way chat roulette.
150 Monitor social
media: Not
a Twitter or Facebook user,
but want to see the latest
stories being passed around?
Google now acts as a targeted
firehouse for update content.
Do a search, then click on
the ‘Updates’ option in the
sidebar. Any new results are
automatically displayed.

16 300 PC TIPS

add your postcode on the end
of the search – in the case of our
office, fish and chips ba12bw,
and it’ll highlight the nearest
places, give you phone numbers,
show you a map and even
display some reviews.
131-155
Web History – try it out by visiting
www.google.com/history.
This uses a toolbar to track your
movements – not just on Google
– bringing up a timeline of your
actions and searching your archives
online. You can also switch it to just
monitor your searches. Needless

137
Filter your to say, if you’re worried about the
results: Google is privacy implications of this, or that
often smarter than you might accidentally stumble
it appears, given a nudge. In Google onto the ‘wrong’ site, make sure
Images, try a word that could be you leave this one alone.
misconstrued – a name such as

Heather or Raven or Cliff. Down the
left-hand side, you’ll see a dedicated
option to only show faces, stripping
out any non-human entries. The
same panel can also only show
clip art, photos or line drawings,
ignore colour or monochrome as
140
Sort by time:
The explosion
of blogs, Twitter
and live news reporting means
that Google now factors time 1 Search by Timeline: The Timeline brings you news from a wide range
into its searches. Many searches of sources, all sourced from within the dates you specify in your search.
will now display Twitter posts,

you prefer, and even focus solely on
results meeting a particular colour
palette. By default, Cliff mostly
shows, obviously, cliffs. Switch to
faces, and it’s Cliff Richard. Choose
red, and it’s a DVD called Red Cliff.
142 144
videos and relevant news stories, Search for Personalise
but to be even more specific, specific files: your search: The
look in the left-hand column to Trying to find a more you use
zero in by time. This ranges from particular type of file? Google Google, the more it learns about
simply ‘Latest’ to ‘Past 24 Hours’, doesn’t only look for HTML. Type you. By logging in, it remembers
‘Past 2 Days’ (good for factoring what you’re looking for and then what you’ve looked at and
in time distances), or a ‘Custom append the ‘filetype: tag’ on the makes it easier to find things.

138
Browse by Range’ for if you know when end. For instance, ‘filetype:doc’ Of course, you might not want
subject: The something happened. Simply will only bring up those types of that, in which case you can log
Wonder Wheel typing a year into the search box file. This search supports PDF, out. You’ll also want to do this if
gives another way of browsing rarely works. Office formats, Shockwave Flash you're egosurfing or doing SEO
these options. It’s also in the and a few more. work to make sure you’re getting

141
left-hand sidebar, but this time Use the cache: If a the same Google rankings that

143
it produces a chart. The original site’s down, it’s not Optimise your anyone else would.
search provides the starting the end of the world. search results:

node, with paths jutting off in all
directions. Click these and you
move from node to node, getting
further away from the original
search, but hopefully in the right
direction. This is great for when
you’re not sure what you want,
or you just want to explore.
Google caches most of the pages
in its search collection, and you
can access them by entering, say,
cache:pcplus.co.uk – although
hopefully our site is up and running
perfectly smoothly while you read
this! The cache tells you when the
snapshot was taken, and gives you
the option for a text-only view.
If a search isn’t
producing the right results for
you, there are ways in which you
can optimise it. In the left-hand
sidebar, look for the option that
says ‘Related Searches’. At the top
of the search, you’ll find a stack
of other searches that have taken
people to the pages you’re looking
145
Search by
Timeline: The
Timeline lets you
zoom in on any time range and see
news pulled from assorted sources,
including books in Google Books,
newspaper reports and web pages.
Searching for the Anglo-French
Wars, for instance, brings up a

139
Log your Importantly, though, when you click at. Searching for ‘Inception’, for timeline that runs from 1600-2010,
searches: As on a link, it goes outside the cache. instance, offers alternatives ranging stepping down into individual
well as searches, You’ll need to append the ‘cache: from ‘inception meaning’ and years, then months. This is a great
Google can keep a log of the sites tag’ to each page in turn if you want ‘inception 2010’ to ‘inception plot’ way to track the progress of a story
you’ve visited using a feature called to keep browsing. and even ‘christopher nolan’. back through time.

151 Follow trends:

Even if you only
run a simple blog or fan
page, it’s worth spending
some time thinking about
SEO. Google Trends (www.
google.com/trends) lets
you see what people are
looking for around the
world, revealing the most
sought-after stories.
152 Look for title
content: Google
isn’t restricted to searching
page text. If you really want
to be precise, look for content
in the title via ‘intitle: tag’.
This can be used in a few
other ways, such as looking
for directories on an FTP server
by searching for site:myftp.
gov intitle:index of.
153 Add Google
to your site: If
you love Google, you can
integrate searches into
your own pages. Access the
Custom Search Engine beta
at www.google.com/cse.
You can add sites and pages
to its archive, and add the
boxes wherever you like. It’s
$100 for an ad-free version.
154 Get advanced:
If you’re having
difficulty forming a search,
try the Advanced Search
option at www.google.
com/advanced_search.
There are no tags or Boolean
complications, but most of the
same abilities in a very easy
sheet. Click the option at the
bottom for even more tips.
155 Get extra detail:
Not getting
enough information from
Google’s site descriptions?
In the sidebar, look for the
option ‘Page previews’. This
gives you shots of the sites
you might be about to visit,
as well as extending the
site descriptions of the first
couple of entries.
3

300 PC TIPS 17
 156-180

Keep one step ahead of

hackers and scammers
Don’t rely on software alone. You need to keep your
wits about you if you’re going to avoid online crime

O 157
3 nly The Paranoid Survive technical solution. A firewall and Avoid being a business. Your social address
is a tract on corporate antivirus software can protect mule: Working will rightly draw more attention
fundamentals penned your computer, but they won’t from home, earn than your business one – that’s
by Intel’s ex-Chairman keep you and your identity safe. £500 a week commission. It the way you want it to be. If the
Andy Grove. The words should, Social engineering is the black art sounds to good to be true, and former is hacked, it won’t be as
however, be tattooed on the back of influencing people, and it’s the it is. Scammers pass stolen cash nightmarish as losing control of
of every PC owner’s mouse hand. hacker’s best friend. In essence, to unsuspecting people, who your financial address.
The internet is full of thieves and hackers can control us thanks to a transfer it back to the thieves

vagabonds united by one common
goal – to separate you from your
hard-earned cash. Here’s our guide
to staying one step ahead of the
160
refined understanding of human via electronic payment. Your Take care on
characteristics such as trust, job with the work taken out is public networks:
ignorance, greed, the need to be money laundering. Beware. Never, under
liked, the desire to help and plain any circumstances, use a public

bad guys. Follow it and you can
shop, surf and socialise online, and
sleep soundly afterwards too.
old gullibility. Not even the most
sophisticated software can hope to
protect us from ourselves. In order
to stay safe, educate yourself about
158
Set a serious network for financial transactions.
password: Only send your personal and
If you’re struggling financial details over a network
to create passwords that will stump you’ve set up yourself, or one you

156
Guerrilla social engineering. Take a trip to a hacker, check out Microsoft’s know to be secure. Who knows
psychology: http://bit.ly/social-engineering guide to adding complexity to what horrors are lurking on the hard
Don’t be fooled for a brilliant briefing on the subject. access codes in such a way that you disk of that internet cafe machine,
into thinking cyber crime is a If you get keen, check out The Art can still remember the logon. It can or somewhere between it and its
technical problem with a purely of Deception: Controlling the Human be found at http://bit.ly/ms-pass. internet access point? Hackers have
Element of Security by Kevin Mitnick. When you’ve made a password, also been known to set up laptops
you should rate its relative security. to broadcast networks with names
Microsoft offers an excellent such as ‘Free Internet Access’ in
password checking tool, which hotels. They’ll let you pass internet
can be found here: http://bit. traffic through them and harvest
ly/ms-pass-checker. any juicy details as you type.

159
Split your
emails:
Rather than
linking Facebook, Twitter,
newsgroups, forums,
shopping and banking
sites to one email address,
1 Set a serious password: use multiple addresses. As
Change your router’s default settings as a minimum, use one for social
soon as you get it. If you don’t, you’re a sitting target for the bad guys. activities and one for financial
161
Virtualise: The
truly paranoid
should virtualise.
The idea is simple: create a
virtual PC, use it to surf the
internet and, when you’ve done,
destroy it, along with any viruses
that may have infected it while
you were online. Running a
virtual version of Ubuntu from

510 super quick tips

171 172Ditch IE6: If you’re
still using Internet
Explorer 6, shame on you.
Not only are you likely to be
getting less from the internet –
Google and YouTube have now
stopped supporting the ageing
browser – but it’s also riddled
with security flaws. Do yourself
a favour and download a
newer browser.
Check out
Virus Total:
If you’ve received a file
and are worried about its
provenance, upload it to
www.virustotal.com. The
site will run the file through
a number of virus-scanning
engines to find any hidden
malware. It’ll also send you
a handy report document.
173 Listen to
Bruce Schneier:
Renowned security expert,
blogger and self-styled security
guru Bruce Schneier has a
thing or two to say about every
aspect of the topic, ranging
from the virus right up to
national security policy. Visit his
blog at www.schneier.com
and add it to your bookmarks.
174 Check firewall
logs: Firewalls
keep logs of traffic they’ve
rebuffed. Check these and
look for patterns – maybe
a particular IP address is
pinging your network or a
certain port on your setup
is spewing out too much
traffic. These sorts of things
can suggest a viral infection.
175 Stop redundant
services: The
more software and services
you’re running, the greater the
risk you could be compromised.
Be ruthless – delete or
deactivate applications and
services you don’t use. This will
reduce the number of ways
into your machine that are
available to hackers.

18 300 PC TIPS
 156-180
within Ubuntu is likely to be the
easiest way of achieving this
style of computing, and it’s likely
to be very safe too.

162
Anatomy of an
iffy shop: By
making online
shops look slick, official and safe,
online criminals hope to dupe us
into disclosing credit card details.
Fake shopping sites, like much
online criminality, rely on social
engineering. There are, however,
some tell-tale signs that should help
you spot an iffy shop. First, avoid
sites that ask for cash, cheque or
1 Beware geeks bearing gifts: On the day of its release, the internet was groaning with torrents for
virtual cash payments only – only
StarCraft II. However, the downloads were malware, just waiting to be downloaded and executed.
do business with sites that accept
credit cards. Next, ensure that com/victim/assessment- card. Section 75 of the Consumer may be like a Rolex insofar as it
the shop has a physical address, tool.html. Complete the Credit Act (1974) make credit ticks, but that could be your lot.
ideally in the UK – shopping abroad questionnaire and discover what card companies liable to pay

169
throws up more potential problems. you're worth to a scammer… if you’re the innocent victim Act on your
of fraud. Card companies may, doubts: If you

163
Be wary of
Facebook: There
are two key areas
of social networking security
– the technical sphere and the
human one. Technical security
is about setting up your profile
correctly – your favourite site will
explain how, so follow its guides.
Next is the human aspect of
security and our old friend,
social engineering. No quantity
165
Beware geeks
bearing gifts:
Social engineering
can be our worst enemy when it
comes to making us run malware
installers. On the day StarCraft II was
released, security firms reported a
huge number of warez downloads
for the game that were really
wrappers for viruses. On the day
Michael Jackson died, sites sprang
up claiming video exclusives of the
however, avoid paying out if
you’re proved not to have taken
‘reasonable’ care with your card
– doing something like writing
down your PIN, for example.
Credit cards themselves also
offer different levels of fraud
insurance, so shop around
before choosing a card and
make sure you read the terms
and conditions closely.
think an online
shop or service is dodgy, do
some checking. A WHOIS search
may let you see the registration
details of a site. Visit the website
www.whois.net and check out
your suspect site. Companies House
(www.companieshouse.gov.uk)
also enables you to check out
details about company addresses,
owners and the like. Look for big
discrepancies between onscreen

167
of settings and checkboxes can singer’s last moments. Again, these Pump and dump: addresses and physical offices.
prevent a user from willingly were links to malware. Employing Don't be tempted

complying with the bad guys,
and this is what they depend on.
There’s one simple rule to follow
here: don’t do or say anything
online that you wouldn’t do or
say in real life.
the lure of a hot topic as a means
of walking us towards malware is a
common hacker tactic. When you’re
tempted to click a link, follow the
old mantra: if something sounds
too good to be true, it probably is.
170
to follow unsolicited We've found
dead-cert share tips. The senders a virus: Bogus
will probably hold a lot of them. security experts
When you and other victims buy, call unsuspecting PC owners
the price will go up. They'll then sell, claiming they've found a virus on
leaving you holding the baby. their hard drive. All you need do
is pay a fee and they'll remotely

164 166 168

A price on your Choose your Just like that: A remove the nasty. In reality,
identity: If you're flexible friend: common online the scammers are just working
in doubt about Never be tempted action site scam through phone lists, planting the
the value of your credentials, to use or enter details from your is to sell goods that are ‘like’ top seeds of fear and then collecting
visit www.everyclickmatters. debit card – always use a credit brand goods. Your new watch bucketloads of cash.

176 Be cautious:
If you must use
file sharing, do so with the
utmost paranoia about
security. When you’ve
downloaded a file, isolate
it and, if possible, execute it
from a virtual environment
to ensure it’s safe before
letting it into your true
computing environment.
177 Update
software:
Windows 7 and most major
apps are happy to update
themselves automatically,
but you should still run their
update systems manually
to ensure they’re working.
Smaller apps may need
updating manually, so check
their makers’ sites for updates.
178 Enter your own
URLs: Never
follow links to URLs emailed
to you and don’t Google your
bank’s address. Google can
be tricked into moving spoof
sites up its rankings table by
criminals looking to entice
people to sites designed to
harvest logon details. Enter
important URLs yourself.
179 Check site
safety: Download
McAfee’s excellent SiteAdvisor
from www.siteadvisor.com.
The browser plug-in has a
traffic light system that shows
dangerous sites in search
results. Following its green,
yellow and red site rating
icons will help you to avoid
compromised web locations.
180 Test your
system: Test
your antivirus system
using the Eicar string. It’s
a text file that all antivirus
engines should pick up, no
matter how it’s wrapped
or compressed. Get it
from www.eicar.org. It’s
completely safe and won’t
land you in legal hot water. 3

300 PC TIPS 19
 181-205

Get the fastest, safest

and smartest network
From initial setup to continuing maintenance, make your
home network work for you by following these top tips

R
3 unning a home network
is pretty essential in this
day and age. Thankfully,
modern hardware
and software has reduced the
complexities of configuring
networks down to a few setup
walls – but that doesn’t mean you
can just stuff it next to a wall or
cordless telephone, or use it as a
stand for your stack of DVDs. Treat
it with respect. Try to keep it in a
central location, away from other
wireless devices; make sure it’s
whether it’s possible to upgrade its
antennas to something stronger.
However, don’t get disheartened
if your router doesn’t have any
antennas. A wireless repeater
compatible with your router is a
perfect solution.
encryption method, make sure
your network cards and adapters
support it as well. Bear in mind
that older machines – and games
consoles such as the Nintendo
DS – don’t support WPA.

185
screens, and the relevant hardware not in direct sunlight; lift it off the Restrict access

184
often comes free with an internet carpet; and ensure its vents and air Use WEP: to specific PCs:
connection. If you have multiple holes aren’t covered. Running an If you really don’t
computers, the chances are they’re unsecured want to use encryption, you can

183
already talking to each other, either
through wires or wirelessly.
However, while your home
network might be up and running,
optimising it takes some doing.
Follow our simple tips to extract
the last drop of juice from your
network hardware.
Improve
reception: Try as
you might, you’ll
find it’s sometimes not possible to
put the router in a good spot. One
way around the problem is to buy a
router with multiple antennas and
point them in a variety of directions
covering your home. Alternatively,
network will earn you brownie
points from neighbours and
hackers with cars, but that’s
about it. Wireless routers
support a variety of encryption
methods, such as WPA and
WEP, but these aren’t enabled
by default. WPA2 is the most
secure method at the moment,
force your router to only connect to
specific PCs. Your router identifies
each computer by the unique MAC
address of its network gear. Feed it
a list of MAC addresses to connect
to and you save yourself the trouble
of entering a password each time
you log in. The disadvantage is that
you’ll have to add the MAC address

181
Change channel if you’ve already got a router, check but before deciding on an of any new computer before it can
number: Wireless get on your network – which is
routers operate on probably a more annoying way of
a fixed channel. Since most routers getting things done.
ship with a pre-selected channel,

186
the wireless signal may interfere Disable SSID
with other routers in the vicinity that broadcast: All
are operating on the same channel. wireless routers
Changing the wireless channel from have a Service Set Identifier
the factory default is a good starting (SSID) that identifies them to
point if your wireless signal strength network computers. Routers
is poor. from the same manufacturer
generally ship with the same

182
Give the router SSID; ‘Netgear’ or ‘Cisco’, for
space to breathe: example. You should first
The biggest change the SSID to something
advantage of a wireless router is 1 Forward ports: Some routers also support port triggering, which unique to set your router apart
that it can penetrate doors and is the more advanced cousin of port forwarding. from those of your neighbours.

5Install a hardware firewall

196 197 You can198
Get a distro:

configure a firewall on a
Windows or Linux machine,
and there are also a bunch of
third-party software firewalls
available. However, building
a firewall isn’t easy. If you’re
serious about putting one up,
download a dedicated firewall
distro, such as Ebox.
Install the
software: Ebox
is distributed as a Live CD ISO
and there are VirtualBox/
VMWare images as well.
It’s based on Ubuntu Server
8.04. You can also pull in
Ebox packages to a standard
Ubuntu Server 10.04
installation. You can find it at
www.ebox-platform.com.
Configure
settings: Ebox
can be adapted flexibly to
your network. You can use it
to restrict services that can be
accessed and slice the network
to keep some areas more
secure than others. The distro
runs a browser-based interface
for adding, removing and
configuring the components.
199 Filter content:
Besides the
firewall, intrusion detection
(via Snort) and filtering
content (via DansGuardian)
are two other highlights of
the distro. DansGuardian can
also plug into the ClamAV
antivirus scanner and filter
content based on known
virus signatures.
200 Exploit other
features: In
case you’re still not satisfied,
Ebox can also act as a gateway
and provide a host of other
services. It bundles various
applications that enable you to
turn your network into a VPN,
host XMPP chat sessions or run
a Postfix mail server, a Squid
web proxy and more.

20 300 PC TIPS

Then, once all your hardware
has been set up, it’s better to
turn off broadcasting the SSID
altogether. This ensures your
router isn’t displayed in the list of
available networks, and won’t be
a target for potential hackers.
187
Keep the
firmware
updated: Router
manufacturers keep working on
firmware, even after hardware
has been shipped. In addition to
tweaks in the user interface, new
versions might make better use
of the various components in the
router, or add extra features. Just
like with an operating system, it’s a
good idea to upgrade the firmware
of the router regularly – check the
manufacturer’s website for a new
version. In the good old days, there
was the risk of a botched firmware
upgrade bricking your router, but
it’s a lot safer today.
188
Familiarise
yourself with the
router manager:
All routers ship with a browser-
based manager. To use many
of the tips in this article, you’ll
have to log in to this interface
– try typing 192.168.1.1 into
your web browser for the most
common location. It’s a good
idea to familiarise yourself with
the various options and settings
you can tweak from within this
software. Many routers also have
detailed documentation that’s
updated regularly, so hunt out
the latest manual online.
189
Check your
connections:
There’s nothing
more irritating than receiving
a ‘cannot connect to remote
machine’ error. To ensure a solid
connection, use Ethernet cables
where possible. It’s also a good
idea to check the connection
between the two PCs with the
ping command. To do this, simply
open a command line and type,
for instance, ping 192.168.1.2.
You’ll need to replace the address
given here with that of your target
machine. Ping works identically on
Windows, Mac and Linux.
190
Forward
ports: Many
servers and
applications – for example,
file-sharing software, FTP
1 Windows 7: The redesigned Network and Sharing Center screen
has lots of options for advanced users to play with.
servers and music-streaming
servers – need to serve people
outside the network. These
applications accept connections
on specific ports. With port
forwarding – check your router’s
interface – you can poke holes
in your router and ask it to direct
incoming traffic on a particular
port (or, if you wish, a range of
ports) to a specific computer
that’s on the network.
191
Change DNS
providers: DNS
is what fetches
you a website by translating the
human-friendly address, such as
www.pcplus.co.uk, into a bunch
of machine-friendly numbers. It also
displays the ‘404 page not found’
error, corrects misspelt URLs and
finds the fastest route to a web
server that hosts the site you want
to visit, along with lots of other cool
things. Generally, it’s up to the ISP
to put up a DNS server. However,
there are other free services as well,
including the likes of OpenDNS and
Google Public DNS.
192
Use USB
adapters:
These days,
it’s difficult to find a laptop
or netbook without a built-in
wireless module, but if you’ve
used one, you’ll know that they
can’t always be relied upon.
Network cards with antennas
are the best option, but they’re
really only suitable for desktops.
If you really need both mobility
and assurance, make sure you
get a USB adapter. Most of them
ship with a Windows driver, but
many work out-of-the-box on
Linux as well.
193
Enable Dynamic
DNS: The
Dynamic DNS
feature enables you to connect to
your computer remotely. Back in the
day, when real-estate on the web
was expensive, it was a wonderful
option to show off your HTML skills
and host your own website. Now, by
associating your dynamic IP address
with a domain name, DDNS enables
you to connect to the internet-
exposed home computer from
anywhere in the world. In addition
to enabling the feature on your
router, you’ll also have to register
with a dynamic DNS provider, such
as DynDNS.org.
194
Save power
with Wake-on-
LAN: What’s
the point of keeping a print
server on when there’s nothing
to print? The smart way to save
energy is to use the Wake-on-
LAN feature of the network
card. Thanks to this, you can put
the machine to sleep after it’s
been configured to wake upon
detecting network activity.
195
Encrypt your
online activity:
With the range of
snooping tools now available, it isn’t
safe to do anything online without
covering your footprints. There
are lots of tools that promise to
encrypt your online activity, making
it completely unintelligible to
anyone who might be listening in.
Some of the best ones to try are the
Enigmail plug-in for Thunderbird
(http://bit.ly/enigmail), Psi for
Google Talk (http://psi-im.org)
and FireGPG, available for Gmail
(http://getfiregpg.org/s/home).
181-205
5Share
devices
and files
201
Turn on UPnP: Universal
Plug and Play helps
smart devices that support UPnP to
discover each other without any user
intervention. Once turned on from
within your router, UPnP enables
a compatible infrared device, a
Bluetooth phone or a FireWire camera
to see and talk to each other.
202
Write files remotely:
The most logical use
of a network is to share files. This
is the job of the SMB protocol.
Thanks to it, you’ll be able to write
files to a remote network share
via Network Neighbourhood.
On Linux, the SMB protocol is
implemented by Samba.
203
Share printers
remotely: In addition
to sharing files, SMB can be used to
share printers attached to a Windows
machine. Once configured via the
Windows Control Panel, a printer can
be used to accept print orders or even
be managed from a remote machine,
irrespective of its operating system.
204 Format shareable
partitions as FAT:
PCs running Windows can easily
see each other and share files. For
Linux or Mac machines, ensure
the partitions are formatted with
the FAT filesystem. Create them as
Samba shares and they’ll show up
under Network Neighbourhood.
205 Plug in USB drives:
Once, if you wanted
to share files on the network, a
network‑attached-storage, or NAS,
device was the best bet. Not any
more. New routers enable you to plug
in one or more USB devices that are
automatically accessible by all the
users connected to the router.
3
300 PC TIPS 21
 206-215

Surefire ways to protect

your privacy online
If all else fails, you can always change your name and move house, but before
taking such a drastic step, try these methods of keeping your data safe…

P
3 rotecting your online
privacy should be top of
any serious PC user’s list of
concerns. Here’s our guide
to how the bad guys steal personal
data, and tips revealing how to foil
even the most devious villains.
default your name and address
are listed in the Whois database.
Non-commercial users can opt
out of this on .co.uk addresses,
making them a good one to
register for personal sites. For
other domains, many registrars
offer an anonymity service,

206
Be careful which really means claiming the
what you domain belongs to a third party,
put online: but forwarding any information
First, the obvious one. Once you’ve that comes in. This usually costs
released something onto the a few pounds per year.
internet, it’s never, ever coming

208
back. That doesn’t mean you need Watch out for 1 Be careful what you put online: Whether you post photos, opinions
to become an online hermit, but it scams: Always or jokes, remember that once it’s out there, there’s no taking it back.
does mean that everything you put be on the lookout

209 210
out either under your own name or for phishing sites pretending to Don’t trust Only use
a constant pseudonym can come be your bank, favourite game’s the padlock: networks
back to haunt you. homepage, social media service Even if a page you trust:
or similar pages. Never visit one does have the padlock icon, Remember that there’s no better

207
Check yourself
out online:
After Googling
yourself, check out a site such as
192.com, where you’ll be able
to find your details from the
Electoral Roll. The good news
is that you can have yourself
removed by sending in a form at
www.192.com/help/help-home.
Repeat this process on similar
sites to make yourself completely
ex-directory and you should be
clear from at least opportunistic
searchers. Another thing that
people often miss is that if you
register a website address, by
through a link – always type
the address in directly. Most
phishing attempts are woeful, but
occasionally a convincing one slips
through. Whatever you do, make
sure you never enter any payment
or other critical information onto
a site with no padlock icon. This
means the connection is secure.
Without it, anyone could be
eavesdropping on the data you
send. Many services, such as Gmail
and Backpack, also let you use these
‘SSL’ connections while you’re using
their service. It slows them down
slightly, but not to the extent that
you’ll notice.
don’t trust it fully. All it means is
that technologically speaking,
your data is safe, not that the
company will treat it properly.
As boring and over-padded
as they are, it’s always worth
checking sites’ privacy policies
to see what they let their
employees do. As an example,
does that backup site encrypt
your data so they can’t see it, or
do you just have to take their
word that they won’t sneak a
peek? At the very least, you’ll be
able to seek better restitution if
they’re caught with their fingers
in the till.
way for someone to get your
information than by controlling
the computer you enter it on.
Never use email, banking or similar
services from a public terminal,
such as at a cybercafe or in an
airport, or over a non-trusted Wi-Fi
connection. Just because it says
‘Free airport Wi-Fi’ doesn’t mean
it’s not actually controlled by the
man two seats away. At the same
time, you’re not safe just because
you’re at home. Regular malware
sweeps are essential to make sure
you’re the only one with the keys to
your trusty PC, and that your data’s
staying put.

55 super quick Facebook tips

211 212 213
Check your
privacy options:
Originally, everything on
Facebook was locked down.
Now things have changed
and almost everything is
public. Visit http://bit.ly/
fbk-privacy to customise
your settings and switch off
anything you don’t want the
whole internet to see.
Stick to Friends
Only: Anything
you do want to make available,
switch it to Friends Only.
Friends of Friends opens you up
to spammers getting into your
network through friends who
add everyone who asks. It’s
best not to play the numbers
game and only add people you
actually know and trust.
Separate
your friends:
Facebook lets you categorise
Friends by group, separating
work colleagues from friends
or family. It’s well worth doing
this. Remember, it’s not just
what you post – if one of your
friends tags you dancing on a
table at a drunken party, that’ll
appear in your feed too.
214 Check your
permissions:
Facebook now plugs into
many websites, which can
also get their hands on your
data. You should regularly
check that you’ve given them
all permission in ‘Applications
Settings’. If it’s a website
or application you don’t
recognise, cancel its access.
215 Stay alert to
changes: Keep
a close eye on any changes to
Facebook’s privacy options.
It’s made it clear that it wants
people to live more open lives,
if only because the more we
do, the more it can do with our
data. That doesn’t mean you
have to let it. Keep using it, but
remember to stay vigilant.
3

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 216-240

Top techniques to make

your games run smoother
The length of this console generation has given most of us a rest from the upgrade
wars, but if your action is becoming staccato, here’s how to let the killing flow…

A
3 ll computers eventually
start to creak in their
old age, but with a
few quick tweaks and
techniques, you can prolong their
life for years – especially if you’re
Even Windows 7 benefits from a
slash-and-burn reinstall every few
months to get rid of the cobwebs,
memory-resident apps and other
shackles that so easily accumulate
over time. If games are running
version of Windows installed,
you should be good for anything
on the market. If you’re not sure
what you should buy, you can
visit www.crucial.com and run
its System Scanner tool. This will
with a game, updating the
drivers should always be the first
step – it’ll expect you to have
everything ready for it. This can
be a pain, but a necessary one.

220
willing to lose a bit of modern glitz slower than they used to, it’s a very tell you both what memory to Boost your
to play the games that work them good first step to take. buy, and how much you need. CPU: If you
the hardest. Here’s our guide to don’t have a

217 218
enjoying the best entertainment, Install more Change your decent video card, there’s little that
without necessarily spending a memory: video card: any CPU will do for you on its own.
fortune on new hardware. Any major If you didn’t buy a However, it still plays a key role in
component of your PC can be dedicated gaming PC, or your PC is determining how fast your system

216
Clean your PC:
Like all applications,
games benefit
from a clean system. Before you
even think about buying new
hardware, do some spring cleaning.
a drag on your system if it isn’t
powerful enough. Memory is
one of the cheapest to upgrade,
and the easiest – you simply pop
in new sticks and you’re done. If
you have 4GB RAM and a 64-bit
a couple of years old, the graphics
card in it is likely to be mediocre
to terrible. Any 3D game relies on
having a powerful graphics card to
crunch the numbers, but buying
one isn’t necessarily as easy as just
plugging one in. Graphics cards
performs. Dual-core is fine for the
overwhelming majority of modern
games, but quad-core is obviously
better if you can afford it. You don’t
realistically need anything more
than that at the moment, though.

can be incredibly big, and your
case needs both the space and
the cooling to handle that. They
also need to be connected to your
PC’s power supply, and if that’s not
powerful enough, the card won’t
work even after you fit it. Be sure to
check all the specifications before
ordering. Given a choice between
ATI and Nvidia cards, we currently
recommend Nvidia.
221
Forget about
overclocking:
It may sound
like heresy, but overclocking
your CPU is unlikely to make any
real appreciable difference to
most games – a difference, yes,
but generally one that will be
measured in a few extra frames.
If you plan to try it anyway, make
sure your cooling can stretch
that far. Generally, though,

219
Update your
drivers: It’s easy
to forget, but the
best video card in the world will
1 World of Warcraft is a great example of a game that’s old but still struggle without the most up-to-
looks fantastic thanks to its graphical design, rather than technology. date drivers. If you have trouble
overclocking has become
something you do because you
enjoy overclocking, and it can
safely be avoided if you’re not
comfortable getting your hands
that dirty.

510 speed-ups to run right now

231 232 Tweak the
233
resolution:
This is the easiest thing to
turn down if you need a
performance boost, but also
one of the most problematic.
LCD screens are designed to
work with a specific resolution,
and setting it lower will make
your game smeary. If you do
crank it down, don’t go too far.
Turn it down:
Other options
vary from game to game,
but the standard advice is
easy – if it can be lowered,
try lowering it. Games aim
for a mid-range system
by default. Turning down
texture quality is a great way
of speeding up games with
lots of close-up action.
Shut down
other apps:
Before launching your game,
press [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DELETE]
to bring up the Task Manager
and shut down any memory-
hungry applications. Web
browsers, mail clients and
office apps are a particular
drain. Leave your antivirus and
firewall applications, though!
234 Software
solutions:
There’s a diverse range of
235
applications out there that
claim to be able to speed up
your PC, but most of them
can safely be ignored. If you
have the basics covered, your
performance will be fine. If
you don’t, software tweaks
won’t make much difference.
Check for
malware:
Malware could be getting
in your way, without being
as obvious as the viruses of
old. You should be running
antivirus software, but if
nothing else, get something
like Windows Security
Essentials (www.microsoft.
com/security_essentials).

24 300 PC TIPS
 216-240

222
Clean up: On
the other hand, if
you don’t mind a
little dirt, this is a great time to check
the state of your case. If it’s full of
dust and the airways are blocked, it
won’t be getting cooled properly,
which can seriously affect the
performance of your components.
To clean it out, switch the power off
and use a can of compressed air to
clear away the dust. This is especially
important if your PC is on the floor.

223
Consider solid-
state drives:
With all the
pieces in place, it’s time to look
at your hard drive. This is the
perfect time to look at a solid-
state drive for both Windows and
your game files. They’re smaller
than regular drives, but the
1 Neither the Xbox nor PS3 can hold a candle to a modern PC’s power, but if you want to switch on all the
performance more than makes
advanced features at high resolution, you’ll need a hefty machine in order to get a playable experience.
up for that. We recommend

225 227 229

having two drives, the second
one a nice, big, traditional
terabyte model to hold things
like videos and photos, leaving
the main drive entirely for the
applications it does so well.
You’ll want a large one though
– modern games are incredibly
big, and they’re only going to get
larger as the graphics improve.
Check your
PC's v-sync
settings: Now
for the mysterious v-sync. This
is vertical-synchronisation, and
when it’s switched off, you can
encounter problems if your
graphics card is churning out
data faster than the monitor can
display it. This gives an effect
called ‘tearing’, which can make
Remove
reflections:
Real-time
reflections are one of the most
intensive graphical effects
around, but you won’t lose much
by switching them off. We’re
all so used to water being just
a coloured plane that you’re
more likely to notice an effective
reflection for being good than to
Turn down
your effects:
Before you
start switching things off, try
turning them down. We don’t
actually recommend losing all
antialiasing if you can avoid it,
but you probably don’t need it at
8x power. Try dropping down to
just 2x and seeing if that makes
any difference.

224
Cut back: it look as though the game is chafe at its absence.

230
If your games stuttering or lagging when it’s Tinker with

228
are still running actually performing above and Tone down your graphics
slowly, it’s time to start switching beyond. Leave v-sync alone. shadows: card settings:
things off. Be aware that when Shadows are a If the game itself doesn’t give you

you do this, you’re going to notice
the effect of it much more. A lack
of something like antialiasing is
incredibly obvious when you’re
intentionally staring at a jaggy
object. When the bullets are flying,
you’re unlikely to notice as much.
As a case in point, many console
games don’t bother with it at all.
226
Turn off
filtering:
Anisotropic
filtering is similar. It looks good, but
it’s the kind of looking good that
you don’t really notice in the middle
of a game. It does slow down
rendering, though. Switch it off for
an immediate performance boost.
fundamental part of many games’
atmospheres, and it’s a shame to
lose them. Instead, you normally get
to tone them down to something
easier for the game to render – for
instance, switching off soft edges,
or replacing the carefully rendered
shadow with something simpler,
like a blended circle.
any options that you can tweak
to improve its performance,
your graphics card might. The
ATI Catalyst Control Center, for
instance, offers an option called
Overdrive, which lets you do basic
graphics card overclocking on the
fly, without you having to open up
your computer's case.

236 Online issues:

In online games,
the best PC in the world will
struggle if it doesn’t have a
good network connection.
If you’re wireless, make sure
the signal strength is solid,
or look into upgrading your
router/receiver. If you still have
Wireless G (or worse, B), it’s
time for Wireless N.
237 Wire it up: Look
into getting a
wired internet connection.
Depending on how your
house’s electricity is wired
up, you may be able to use a
pair of HomePlugs to create
a wired network using the
power lines, getting faster
performance and removing
wireless interference issues.
238 Check your
PC’s ping:
When online, the easiest way
to check your performance is
to look at your ‘ping’. The lower
it is, the better. Under 100 is
essential for fast action games.
If it’s higher than that, you
need to play on better/closer
servers, or check what else you
have running.
239 Get a gaming
router: Look for
a dedicated gaming router,
or one capable of prioritising
certain types of traffic. This
will give the lion’s share
of the connection to any
games, where every packet
counts, while letting more
laid-back applications do
their jobs as well.
240 Choose games
carefully: If
you can’t get games running
smoothly, look for titles that
are more friendly. Casual
games have low system specs
and can still look and play well.
Check out PopCap’s range at
www.popcap.com, or the
indie Diablo clone Torchlight at
www.torchlightgame.com. 3

300 PC TIPS 25
 241-265

Ideas to set your music,

movies and TV free
Enjoy a more streamlined entertainment system on your
computer with our tips for making the most of your media

F
3 orget hard work – your TV streams around your house – or
PC is a hub of all things over the internet – you’ll need Orb,
entertaining, from games (www.orb.com). It’s an elegant
to videos and music, and solution. Install the software, get it
you’re going to be distracted no running and you’ll be able to point
matter how hard you try to get any browser to the website at
something done. Feel like you’re http://mycast.orb.com to start
achieving something while giving watching your home media –
in to procrastination by making including the output of your TV
your media library bend to your card – from other devices.
every whim.

246
Get more to

241
Get the right 1 VLC Media Player: Go completely mad – watching videos in ASCII
watch: You can
player: Playing mode is impractical, but the results are interesting nonetheless.
probably find
back media places to download TV shows off

properly comes down to two
things: the right player and the right
codecs. You should deal with the
former first, and there are plenty of
choices out there that are more
robust than (but perhaps not as
pretty as) Windows Media Player.
The first option to try out is VLC
(www.videolan.org), a highly
regarded multi-platform player with
a few fairly advanced abilities.
244
simplest thing to do is install a
codec pack, hand-picked by the
community for compatibility.
The primary free one is XP Codec
Pack. Don’t worry about the
name – it’s fully compatible with
later versions of Windows. There
are other packs out there too,
but these aren’t necessarily safe/
legal to use, so tread carefully.
Stream to
consoles:
While your PC
is probably able to play back
multiple file formats, your other
devices might not be. Even the
Xbox 360, which is generally
quite capable of playing back
video, baulks at certain types.
The solution is to transcode that
video and send it to the console
your own back. We’re not about
to incriminate ourselves by
pointing you to the all-too-
obvious illegitimate sources of
material that can be found all
over the web. Finding legal
content is probably more
difficult. Start by checking out
www.clearbits.net, a site
dedicated to helping legitimate
content providers share their

243
Alternatively, try Media Player Classic Tweak the EQ: in a different way, a job that's works by bittorrent, and swing
– less capable, but more compatible Soundcards handled admirably by Tversity by www.legaltorrents.com
with a wide range of formats. often include (www.tversity.com). You can while you’re at it.
advanced interfaces that enable use it to set up a UPnP interface

242 247
Download a you to mess around with the way to stream to consoles, and convert Explore the
codec pack: sound is output. Your results will formats like YouTube directly. classics: If
Codecs are a vary depending on your PC’s sound you just want

tricky business – try to delve any
deeper than installing them and
hoping they work and you’ll be
in for weeks of reading about
exactly what they’re doing. The
245
hardware, but you’ll find the Move Live TV:
settings screen in Control Panel. Go Tversity covers
to ‘Hardware and Sound | Sound’, the task of
find your device in the Playback tab shifting pre-formatted video files on
and then click ‘Properties’. a local network well, but to move
something to watch, why not dig
out something from the olden
days? The Internet Archive, found
at www.archive.org, contains a
wealth of interesting abandoned

5Make Media Center better

256 257 258
Skip the
startup: There’s
no need for the animation
that pops up when you start
Media Center. Luckily, it’s
simple to stop it. Right-click
the shortcut and, in the ‘Target’
box, add the phrase /nostart
upanimation after the text
that’s already there. Click
‘Apply’, and you’re set.
Straight to the
library: There
are other switches you can
add: try /homepage :Music
BrowsePage.xml /Push
StartPage:True to force
the program to start in the
media library. To jump to live
TV, try /homepage: Video
Fullscreen.xml /PushStart
Page:True – Live TV.
Skip further:
The Quick Skip
button hops you forward 30
seconds, but let’s make it three
minutes. Run regedit, go
to ‘HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\
Software\Microsoft\ Windows
\CurrentVersion\Media Center
\Settings\VideoSettings’ and
change the value of ‘Skip
AheadInterval’ to 180000.
259 Integrate
Twitter: Point
your browser to www.mce
zone.com/plugins.php
and grab the plug-in. Unzip
the file, double-click the
installer and find it in Media
Center’s ‘Extras’ section. Log
in with your usual details
and you’ll be able to tweet
while watching.
260 Watch IPTV:
If you only install
one plug-in into Media Center,
make it TunerFree MCE. Grab it
from www.tunerfree.tv and
install it. You’ll then gain access
to the terrestrial TV channels,
as well as all of the various
on-demand content that’s
provided by services such as
BBC iPlayer and 4oD.

26 300 PC TIPS

content from times gone by, and
even modern content that’s
deemed worthy of preservation.
Dig through and find a movie or
slice of audio that you like, and use
the links in the left-hand column to
download the content in your
choice of formats.
248
Grab content
from Youtube:
Miro, formerly
known as Democracy Player, is a
fantastic all-in-one media player
and downloader with one
particular talent – searching
through streaming video sites
and grabbing content for later
consumption. It couldn’t be
easier. Download Miro from
www.getmiro.com, install the
player, open it and use the Video
Search function in the left-hand
column to find what you’re
looking for. Just click the
'Download' button next to the
content you want and it will be
stored in Miro’s video library.
Make sure you start the video
playing and click the ‘Keep’
button if you want to hang on to
it – otherwise, Miro automatically
deletes downloads after a
certain expiry time.
249
Convert to
your mobile
device: Videora
is generally considered the best free
conversion application for getting
all sorts of videos onto your iPhone
or PSP for offline viewing. You can
even convert FLV files, which is
handy if you’ve extracted a bunch
of them with Miro. Download the
program from www.videora.com,
then install it – keeping an eye out
for the chunk of insidious crapware
it attempts to install halfway
1 Miroplayer: It’s easy to grab content from YouTube. Miroplayer is
the most convenient way to download videos straight into a player.
through – and navigate through
the (rather horrible) interface. From
there, video conversion is a simple
point-and-click job.
250
Stream Live
TV: If you’ve
been around
the internet for some years, then
you’ll know of the folly of live
streaming. It’s a great idea, but
not one that works well. You can
try, though! Your first port of call,
for a variety of European stations
and worldwide news, should be
www.tvlizer.com, the latest in a
long line of aggregation sites.
Then you should check out
www.tvcatchup.com for a
decent selection of UK channels.
You can even use this site on
your mobile devices, but don’t
expect miracles.
251
Remote control
VLC: VLC has
a little hidden
functionality that enables you to
control it from any PC in the house.
If you’re using your laptop and have
a movie running on the box under
your TV, for example, just point your
laptop’s web browser to the IP
address of the media PC at port 80
– 192.168.1.2:8080, for example
– and voila! Full remote control
access. There’s a free iPhone app
that performs the same function,
although it’s a little heavy on the
ads for the full (paid-for) version.
252
Find some
more remotes:
The best known
remote control application for
the iPhone is Apple's own iTunes
remote app, and it works
particularly well – if you can
stand to use iTunes. You’ll also
241-265
55 super
find an app for controlling
popular homebrew media centre
XBMC, although this one doesn’t
have a free version. And if you
happen to have an internet-
quick tips
for VLC
connected Blu-ray player and a
bunch of films from Universal,
hunt out pocketBLU. It’s a very
261
specific iPhone remote control Play YouTube videos:
that only works in these If you go to the Media
particular circumstances. Is it
menu and choose ‘Open Network
any wonder the Blu-ray format
hasn’t really taken off yet? Stream’, you can paste in the address
of a YouTube video and have VLC play
253
Back up your the highest-quality version available
library: Make in its own interface. This means easy
a copy of your skipping, multi-monitor fullscreen,
media on an external drive to and you won’t need a browser open.
protect it from electronic death.
Simple! With most applications
262
you’ll need to hunt through your Rip on the fly: Want
various folders and copy files
a quick way to take
manually, but if iTunes has one
saving grace, it’s the program’s clips from DVDs or any other video
ability to make this task easy. Start source? In the View menu, select
by consolidating your library (‘File ‘Advanced Controls’. Play back a
| Library | Consolidate Library’) to video and hit the record button
bring all of your media content into that’s displayed. A recording of the
one folder, and then copy that current video, in MP4 format, will
folder (usually ‘\Documents and
appear in your Videos directory.
Settings\username\My Documents
\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music’) to
263
your backup disc. Set as wallpaper:
254
Master
Pointless it may be, but
metadata: If VLC’s ability to access the DirectX video
you have a huge layer means you can use a video as
music collection, you’ll know your wallpaper. Hit [Ctrl]+[P] to bring
how annoying it is when certain up the Preferences screen and, under
tracks aren’t properly tagged. ‘Video’, choose ‘DirectX output’. Restart
You could wade through and
VLC, then select ‘Enable wallpaper
tweak all of your tags yourself, or
you could download Picard from
mode’ on the same screen. Pretty!
www.musicbrainz.org and
have it do the hard work for you.
The community-supported
audio-tagger uses a vast
database of shared information
264 Take it with you: If
you’re taking videos
around on a hard drive, why not
to get things right, and if there’s include a copy of VLC with them?
something it doesn’t know, you’ll PortableApps has compiled a
be helping the next person
version that’s only 20MB in size
who’s in your situation by adding
to its repertoire. and doesn’t require installation, so
it will run off your external drive.
255
Go completely See www.portableapps.com.
mad: VLC has one
final trick up its
sleeve: it can display your videos in
the classic ASCII style. If you’ve ever
wanted to watch an epilepsy-
265 Download an
alternative: VLC being
a free, open-source application, others
inducing video made up of have taken the code and run with it.
ANSI-coloured text characters, We recommend checking out Kantaris
now’s your chance. Just go to the
for an alternative with a heap more
‘Preferences’ screen, hit the ‘Video’
section and change the output
features built in, notably a gorgeous
mode to ‘Colour AsCii Art’. You user interface. You can download
might need to stop and then restart Kantaris from www.kantaris.org.
your video to see it in action. 3
300 PC TIPS 27
 61-85
Leave your desk behind
with our top mobile tips
If you spend a lot of your time on the road or away from home, our key tips
will help you make sure you can easily access your data, wherever you are…
C 65
3 loud computing,
smartphones and
netbooks mean more
of us than ever before
are free from a desk-bound PC.
To make the most of your mobile
experience, check out our essential
tips for computing on the move…
61
Use a tethered
modem: If you aren’t
away from a wireless
network often, then getting a
broadband dongle might not be
worthwhile. Instead, try tethering
your mobile phone, provided your
network supports it. Essentially, your
laptop uses the mobile’s internet
connection for its data. Some
phones include tethering options,
but there are also tethering apps
for most platforms. Joikuspot
(www.joikushop.com) will do
the job for Symbian-based phones,
while Proxoid (http://code.
google.com/p/proxoid) performs
a similar task for Android devices.
62
Make MiFi work:
You can share the
connection from a
3G dongle across your network
using Internet Connection
Sharing. In the Network and
Sharing Center, choose ‘Change
Adapter Settings’, then right-
click the connection for your
dongle and select ‘Properties’.
On the Sharing tab, tick ‘Allow
1 Dropbox: Mirror your most used files so you can access them from the web if you can’t use your laptop.
28 300 PC TIPS
other network users to connect
through this computer’s internet
connection’. On the Network and
Sharing Center, choose ‘Set up a
new connection or network | Set
up a wireless ad-hoc (computer
to computer) network’. Follow
the instructions. Ad hoc
networks can be flaky, so if you
need to share a connection
regularly, try a MiFi. The telco 3
does pay-as-you-go units from
£50 – see www.three.co.uk/
Mobile_Broadband/MiFi.
63
Call with Skype: Save
money on expensive
hotel phone bills by
making your calls over Skype. If you
have a decent wireless connection
and a laptop with a microphone,
you can buy flat-rate calls to
landlines using Skype for £2.24 per
month, while 3 permits you to make
Skype calls via its 3G broadband
service. Other networks restrict VoIP
data over 3G. Many Wi-Fi-capable
phones support Skype too.
64
Find Wi-Fi hotspots:
Check out where
you’re travelling in
advance to see if there are any
free Wi-Fi hotspots about. To
find them, simply browse to
http://bit.ly/wifi-hotspots and
enter a postcode or location.
It will provide a list of nearby
hotspots and connection details.
Get local SIMs: Call
and data charges for
roaming can be steep,
even when you take EU caps into
consideration. With an unlocked
phone, it could be much cheaper
to buy a local pay-as-you-go SIM.
Check out the providers’ websites
before travelling to see which
company offers the best data plans.
66
Buy a Skype
number: A further
way to save money
on phone calls abroad is to invest
in a Skype number. You can get
one free if you buy a month’s
landline calls. Give this to your
contacts and they’ll be able to
call you at a normal UK landline
rate. If you’re not on Skype when
they call, they’ll be able to leave
you a voice mail. When you call
them back using Skype via Wi-Fi,
you’ll only pay the cost of a UK
landline call.
67
Install Dropbox:
Whether you’re home
or abroad, it helps to be
able to get access, at any time, to
the most recent version of whatever
documents you’re actively working
on. Dropbox provides online
storage and synchronisation with
as many computers as you install
it on (www.dropbox.com). The
first 2GB of storage is free, which is
enough for most people’s active
documents. When you make
changes and save them to your
Dropbox folder on your computer,
these are uploaded to Dropbox
and then replicated on your other
machines as soon as you log on.
68
Use Portable Apps:
If you’re on the move
and your laptop dies,
then you need a way to access
your data and most common
programs. Install Portable Apps
(www.portableapps.com)
on a USB flash drive alongside
your most useful files and you
can enjoy your own virtual
desktop on any public PC,
without worrying about leaving
browsing traces, so long as you
use Portable Firefox. You can
even use your favourite Firefox
plug-ins and carry them around
with you. The full installation
of Portable Apps includes the
OpenOffice.org software suite.
69
Secure your
passwords: Keepass
(www.keepass.info)
is an open-source password
management program that stores
your passwords in an encrypted
file. Install the program on your
laptop and then save the password
database file in your Dropbox
folder. Do the same on any other
computers that are running
Dropbox and you can access
your most up-to-date passwords
from any of your PCs. Ensure that
Dropbox is secured with a strong
password. If your laptop breaks,
you’ll still be able to get to your
password database using the
Portable Apps version of Keepass
and web access to Dropbox.
70
Use the cloud:
Dropbox is a good
example of a
cloud-based service that can
be invaluable when you’re
on the move, but it’s worth
considering using other services
to increase your storage. You

1 Power Options: Eke out more battery life when away from power
by dimming the screen and hastening sleep if your laptop’s left idle.
can use a combination of photo
services, such as Flickr, Picasa
and Photobucket, along with
Google Docs, Zoho and gOffice
for documents. Then you can
get general storage at Humyo
or Mozy, which both offer a lots
of space. Remember to select
encrypted providers for sensitive
information. Most of these
services also provide sharing
options that make sending
someone else a document as
simple as passing on a URL.
71
Set up offline mail:
Even in the world of
mobile broadband and
ubiquitous Wi-Fi, there are still
places where you won’t be able to
get a signal and you’ll have to work
offline. Plan for this by ensuring
that you have an offline mail client
such as Thunderbird (http://bit.ly/
mozilla-thunderbird) installed,
even if you use a web-based email
service. Download your messages
before hitting the road so you can
refer to them and write responses
while you’re offline. For Gmail, you
can install Google Gears or get a
simple backup of your messages by
getting Google Desktop to index
them. An offline client is still the
best option, though.
72
Extend battery
life: Consider ways
to extend your
battery life if you have to spend
extended time away from a
source of power. Set your Power
Options to dim the screen unless
you’re working in bright sunlight
because this extends battery
life significantly. Also try any
tricks that will take load off the
processor: disabling unnecessary
background processes, closing
programs you’re not using and
even turning off Aero. All of this
will ensure that your laptop
consumes less power and you’ll
get more life out of the battery.
73
Optimise for
bandwidth: Consider
ways in which you can
optimise your connection when
you’re on reduced bandwidth.
You might have dropped to a
GPRS connection or even had to
resort to using dial-up. In these
cases, a slow connection can limit
your productivity. Shut down
synchronising services such as
Dropbox and Windows Live Sync.
You can sync up again when you
get onto a better connection. Turn
off any other programs that poll the
internet. Disable pictures in your
browser, plus any other multimedia
you can – the results, while ugly, will
be easier to manage speed-wise.
74
Stay secure: If you’re
using free hotspots or
any that enable you to
connect using an open wireless
connection, ensure that you
have a decent firewall installed.
Comodo (http://personal
firewall.comodo.com), Agnitum
(http://free.agnitum.com) and
ZoneAlarm (download it from
www.zonealarm.com) provide
free firewalls that generally
outperform Windows’ offering.
Consider installing one to turn
on in these circumstances. Just
enable access for your web
browser and email program.
Ensure that you use Windows’
public network settings too.
75
Encrypt files: Consider
what might happen
if your laptop or
thumb drive gets lost or stolen. By
encrypting any sensitive files, you
can make sure the vital data within
it can’t be accessed. Use TrueCrypt
(www.truecrypt.org) to create a
virtual encrypted disk hidden within
a file on your system and place all
your most important files there.
Anyone getting access to your PC
won’t even know that the disk is
there, keeping your data safe.
510 super quick tips
76 Tether your iPhone:
In iOS 4, you can turn on
internet tethering by choosing
‘Settings | General | Network | Internet
Tethering’ – but only if you’re with a
provider that allows it. While it can
be expensive to change in the middle
of a contract, it’s definitely worth
confirming this feature next time.
77
Get audio channels:
If you’re in need of
entertainment and you’ve got a
3G signal, Tuner Internet Radio
is one of the iPhone’s best apps.
It’s not free, but for hundreds of
channels, the £3 fee is a bargain.
It’s available to download from
Apple’s iTunes App Store.
78
Use Mobile Dropbox: Get
quick access to your Dropbox
files on your phone. There’s an Android
app available in the marketplace, and
one for iPhone and iPad in the App
Store. A Blackberry app is on its way.
Learn more at www.dropbox.com/
anywhere or get simple mobile web
access at http://m.dropbox.com.
79 Find yourself: There’s
no need to go anywhere
without access to a map. Google
Maps is available for all popular
phones and mobile devices. See
www.google.com/mobile/
maps for relevant download links
or just point your mobile browser
at m.google.com/maps.
80
Watch the skies: Got time
to look up and see the stars?
If you have an Android phone, then
you can get an annotated map of the
sky wherever you are, thanks to GPS
and Google Sky Map (www.google.
com/mobile/skymap). It adjusts
according to where your phone is
pointing, so you can find out about
any part of the sky.
61-85
81 Keep cool: If you’re using
a laptop plugged in for
extended periods, consider buying
a laptop cooler to prevent it from
overheating. These cost around £20
and plug into a USB port. They use
fans to cool the underside of your
laptop, ensuring you get stable
performance for lengthy use.
82
Take a back-up drive:
Consider carrying portable
back-up media with you, especially
if you’re travelling for any period
of time. A passport drive is small
enough to tuck into most laptop bags
and is USB-powered. Expect to pay
around £60 for a 500GB drive, which
should offer enough space.
83
Charge in the car: A car
charger for your laptop
ensures that you can top up its juice
by plugging it into the cigarette
lighter while you’re driving. Generic
ones are available for between £10
and £20. Try to get one for your
specific model if possible, though –
it’ll cost a bit more, but it’s worth it.
84 Spare battery: If you’re
stuck on a train or plane
with no charging point, a spare
battery can pay dividends. You can
usually find spares at a reasonable
price on eBay and one could
effectively double your working time.
Check the capacity of the battery and
don’t forget to keep it charged.
85
Back up at home: Your
laptop is likely to undergo
greater wear and tear than a
static computer, making it more
vulnerable to data loss. It makes
sense to back it up whenever you
touch base at home or at the office.
Keep a copy of all your important
data on at least one other PC, so
that it’s easily accessible.
3
300 PC TIPS 29
 291-300

Make Windows 7 play

nice with old software
Most modern PCs are designed to run the latest and greatest
software, but if you want to go retro, you can – here’s how!

W 292
3 hether it’s a critical
application or an
old game you want
to play again, the
march of progress doesn’t mean
you’re cut off from the past. Follow
our tips and you can get your retro
kicks on your ultra-modern PC.
an annoying tendency to assume
that any operating system they
don’t recognise is old) and 32-bit
applications in a 64-bit OS. If you
have the Professional, Enterprise or
Ultimate edition of Windows 7, you
can download XP Mode – which
is really Virtual PC – for free from
www.bit.ly/ms-xp-mode.
294
Try out a
compatibility
mode: Short
of emulation, your only option
for old Windows programs is a
compatibility mode. Right-click
a program, choose ‘Properties’
and open the Compatibility tab.
This rarely seems to work, but it’s
Downgrade
Windows 7:
If you have a lot
of old software that you need to
get running, you can’t simply
switch into a compatibility mode
to get 32-bit programs running
in a 64-bit OS. They may work,
but they may not. If you get an

291
Download XP
mode: Most
Windows software
retains its compatibility with
Windows 7, with the main
exceptions being drivers (which
you'll want to upgrade anyway),
installation programs (which have
Otherwise, grab Virtual PC 2007
from the same place. For an
alternative, try VMWare Server
(free) or Workstation (£143), from
www.vmware.com/products/
server. You’ll have to supply the
copy of Windows yourself though,
and install it from scratch.
worth a shot. Set the program
to run in compatibility mode
for any of the supported OSes,
which range from Windows 95 to
Windows Vista, along with their
service packs. The other options
on this screen, including ‘Run in
256 colors’ and ‘Run in 640x480
screen resolution’ do exactly
error message when you try to
run one, your only recourse is to
step back yourself. Windows 7
comes with an installation disc
for its 32-bit version. You lose
out overall if you have more than
2GB of memory though, so don’t
downgrade on a whim.

295
what they sound like, but are Use older
rarely useful these days. hardware: The
nuclear option

293
Set up a
dual-boot:
If your software
doesn’t run directly, you can set up
a dual-boot system and install both
operating systems. It’s not just a
case of running the setup routines,
though – you’ll need to install them
in the right order, partition your
drive and have devices that each
version can use. That modern
soundcard driver won’t work on a
ten-year-old operating system, even
if it works the other way round. See
http://bit.ly/dual-boot-guide for
1Download XP Mode: You can get this very handy tool for free if you a full guide to dual-booting almost
have the Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate edition of Windows 7. every major combination.
is to pick up old hardware and
build a new PC. Look on Ebay and
in second-hand markets, or ask
friends and family if they have an
old clunker they’re willing to
donate. You can pick them up dirt
cheap, but a Windows 3.1-era PC is
the perfect machine for Windows
3.1 and its games and applications.
It’s worth taking the emulation
route first, though. Virtual machines
are happy to translate for these old
operating systems, letting your
existing soundcard and processor
do the talking. They’ll be slower, but
on systems that old, there’ll be no
shortage of power.

5Master DOSBox in minutes

296 297 298
Install DOSBox:
DOSBox is a great
tool, especially for old games
(www.dosbox.com). You
can just run the executable,
but it won’t do much. While it
doesn’t actually sandbox itself
from your files in the same way
as a virtual machine, it doesn’t
give itself automatic access to
them either.
Drag and drop:
To run most
games or applications in
DOSBox, just drag the folder
containing its files onto
the ‘DOSBox’ icon. DOSBox
treats this as a drive, with
the folder as the root. If you
run an installer, it can’t break
out of there to copy any files
without permission.
Download
DOG: For more
complicated applications,
especially involving CDs, it’s
worth downloading a shell. We
recommend DOG, which you
can get from the main DOSBox
site. You create profiles for each
application, along with their
specific needs, then click their
name to fire them up.
299 Use hotkeys:
DOSBox has
many useful hotkeys, but the
main ones are [CTRL]+[F11]
to slow down the emulation
speed, and [CTRL]+[12] to
increase it. Press [ALT]+[F12]
to turn off any limiters. Avoid
[Alt]+[Tab]bing out. You
can do it, but it may causes
problems with colours.
300 Edit a config
file: For games
that won’t play ball, you can
hand-tweak DOSBox’s settings
by editing a configuration
file. This is a very complicated
looking document, but it’s
nothing more than a list of
options. Visit www.dosbox.
com/wiki/Configuration to
see the parameters available.

30 300 PC TIPS