Innehållsförteckning för Feb-15 från PCWorld

IT’S OFFICIAL, FOLKS: Windows 10 is coming to the people. After kicking off Windows 10 with a bevy of business-friendly features, Microsoft drew back the curtain on the operating system’s new consumer-focused features, while simultaneously driving home a vision of an operating system designed to deliver a singular, cohesive experience across a myriad of device types. And it’ll be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users (go.pcworld.com/winfree), who can snag the operating system for nada in the first year after Windows 10 hits the streets. After Microsoft operating system chief Terry Myerson announced that crucial tidbit, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore took the stage to run through some features coming to Windows 10 Preview that are designed to make using the operating system a smoother experience. First, Belfiore showed off…

I CALLED NETGEAR’ Nighthawk X4 “a disappointing ‘Wave 2’ effort” when I reviewed it in early September. This router performed so poorly during benchmarking that I promised I would revisit the device when Netgear came out with new firmware that would take better advantage of its underlying hardware. That time has finally come, and this story completely replaces the earlier one. My original benchmarks were based on Netgear’s firmware version 1.0.0.52. My new and much stronger benchmark numbers were achieved with firmware version 1.0.0.76. If you purchased a Nighthawk X4 and haven’t updated its firmware, I strongly encourage you to make sure you have the latest version. Netgear Nighthawk X4 (model R7500) PROS: • Dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) • Supports four spatial streams (4x4) • Dual USB 3.0 ports,…

THERE WAS A time in the late 90s or early 2000s when The Last Tinker: City of Colors (go.pcworld.com/lasttinker) would've been a blockbuster game. It was a time when mascot-driven platformers ruled consoles. Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil, Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter—they were everywhere. And The Last Tinker, with its vaguely human protagonist and colorful claymation art style, would've been quite a spectacle. The 3D platformer boom times are gone, but all that really means is that The Last Tinker hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. And it deserves quite a bit of attention, because this is a great (if simple) game. Hand-built The Last Tinker looks like a kid's game, and it could be a kid's game. It's definitely pretty simple as far as…

Feature-stuffed LET’S BE HONEST: Most of us don’t update our graphics drivers religiously Okay, maybe you do, Mr. Hardcore #PCMasterRace enthusiast, but a vast swath of gamers fiddle with drivers only when they absolutely have to—when something breaks, or when a new game is acting funky. AMD’s new “Catalyst Omega” driver and its underlying philosophy are designed around that behavior. Catalyst Omega marks the beginning of a new driver release schedule for AMD. The usual game updates and bugfix drivers will continue to roll out continuously as before, but going forward, AMD plans to reveal a major release brimming with new features once per year, to entice even the most stubborn of holdouts into updating their software. Catalyst Omega is just such a goodie-stuffed driver—and it’s also the start of…

FOR YEARS NOW, the quick way to enter Safe Mode, Windows’ stripped-down, minimum-driver environment has been to press F8. But that trick doesn’t work for all Windows 8 PCs. And even in older versions, it’s not always the easiest form of entry. Safe Mode gives you a low-resolution, visually ugly, feature-limited Windows environment useful for diagnostic and repair purposes. You wouldn’t want to create a PowerPoint demonstration there, but if things are misbehaving, it can be a fruitful place to visit. For instance, if a program’s uninstall routine keeps failing, it just might uninstall properly in Safe Mode. Among the things that standard Safe Mode cannot do is networking. However, because network and Internet access are needed for some diagnostic chores—such as malware scanning and updating drivers—Windows also provides an…

THE FORD GT may get your pulse racing, but ultimately when Joe Public walks into a dealership, he’s likely going to drive out with a Ford Taurus. That’s arguably what Nvidia introduced with its surprisingly cheap $200 GeForce GTX 960 (full review at go.pcworld.com/gtx) that appears designed as much to hit an ailing AMD while it’s down as it is to keep the core gamer happy. Rather than a high-end $1,000 or $500 GPU most gamers can only dream about, the new GeForce GTX 960 fills that all-important performance segment of gamers who actually buy far more video cards. Based on the company’s newer GM206 core, the GeForce GTX 960 promises 1080p gaming at the gold standard of 60 fps. Although Nvidia is likely loath to describe its new affordable…

What is to be done when Windows wouldn’t update on your PC and system restore is down as well? A malware infection seems likely. Here are some symptoms that could suggest foul play. I’m received countless letters from readers who think they have a “virus.” The problems they describe—Blue Screens of Death, no audio, grinding sounds inside the PC—can be attributed to virtually anything but malware. Real malware is generally designed not to be noticed. The people who write these programs don’t want you to clean them off of your computer. But if you know what to look for, you can recognize a symptom that might be caused by malware. Sometimes malware is obvious. Ransomware, such as CoinVault (go.pcworld.com/cv), announces itself clearly. But then, ransomware is basically an extortion racket.…

THE CONFIGURATION OF the i7 X99 that AVA Direct sent us comes as close as any PC I’ve seen to perfectly melding class and gaming flash. I was not alone in my opinion. No fewer than three of the staff here at PC World commented on this gaming system’s good looks—a rare Event for anything not Apple or thin-and-light. Of course, AVA Direct has to share the credit with Corsair for the Graphite Series 760T case, as well as with EVGA for the GeForce GTX980 cards with their glowing neon-green call-outs. I did mention that the i7 X99 is fast, didn’t I? It is. AVA Direct i7 X99 Gaming PC PROS: • Great overall performance and gaming • Classy case • Expandable for days CONS: • Naked DIMMs blemish the…

WITH THE RISE of multiplayer voice chat comes the rise of headsets. This once-luxury peripheral is now about as standard as a mouse and keyboard when it comes to the core PC gaming crowd. And as with the mouse and keyboard, there’s plenty of competition. Boutique brands have pushed the headset to soaring price points, with the Astro A40 and the SteelSeries Elite coming in at $200, and the wireless Astro A50 coming in at a wallet-murdering $300. It doesn’t have to be that way, though! Regardless of whether you’re a gaming headset veteran or just want to test the waters without breaking your budget, there are plenty of affordable, entry-level headset options that will have you screaming orders in the heat of battle for well short of $100. We…

THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY has worked hard to make sure that a lot of the gadgets we use are mostly plug-and-play. In other words, you just fire up the device, login and you’re ready to go—no configuration necessary. One device you should never consider “plug-and-play,” however, is your home’s network and wireless router. After the technician leaves your house there are a few important things everyone should do. Change your router admin details The first thing you should always do when you have a new router is log into its control panel. You want to do this so you understand where to change the Wi-Fiaccess password, change the type of security protocol your router is using, change the router name, et cetera. Most importantly, however, you need to login to…

ANDROID LOLLIPOP MAY bring with it tons of neat new features (go.pcworld.com/lollipop) and aesthetically pleasing visual changes, but its rollout has been bumpy. Google’s been working out the kinks, however, as evidenced by a recent thread in the AOSP bug tracker. One particular fix, for rampant use of RAM, is reportedly slated to show up in the next Android update. The issue tracker mentions a memory leak that causes apps either to run slowly or to crash without any warning. Android 5.0.1 apparently takes up as much as 1.3GB of RAM, which is particularly detrimental to devices that top out at 2GB. There are even a few Reddit (go.pcworld.com/reddit) threads devoted to complaints about this particular issue. A ticket (go.pcworld.com/ticket) for the RAM issue opened up on Google’s AOSP issue…

WE ALREADY REVIEWED one set of mechanical keyboards, (go.pcworld.com/mk) but believe it or not there have been enough new releases in the months since that we’re able to put together an entire second set of reviews. The craziest bit? Out of the five mechanical keyboards in this roundup, only one (the Corsair K70 RGB/K95 RGB) uses Cherry MX switches—long the de-facto standard for all brands. That means my typical spiel (go.pcworld.com/ spiel) about the four main kinds of Cherry switches (Red, Black, Brown, Blue) is basically worthless. If you are looking for that information because you’re planning to purchase a K70 RGB or K95 RGB, I recommend checking out our previous roundup (go.pcworld.com/roundup). It really makes you wonder, though: Now that Cherry’s patent has run out, how many manufacturers will…

THE HP ENVY 23xt Beats Special Edition All-in-one is red. Beat-red, if you’ll pardon the pun. I liked the color and it reminded me just how boring electronic black has become. Intended to inspire the budding DJ with good audio and some creative music applications such as eDJing, and Music Maker Jam, the Beats AIO has a very nice 1080p IPS touchscreen display and fine-sounding Beats Audio speakers. Fine enough to make up for the unit’s slow hard drive? Not in my book. Even the Hybrid SSD/HD offered as a $50 upgrade on this unit won’t cut the mustard for me. And with this AIO costing close to a grand… Hewlett Packard Envy 23xt Beats Special Edition All-in-One PC PROS: • Good audio for an All-in-One CONS: • Slow, slow…

How to build, maintain, and fix your tech gear. SETTING UP A new Chromebook is much easier than setting up a PC. Chromebooks don’t require major updates or antivirus software. You start simply by signing in with your Google Account (or creating that account, if you don’t already have one). All that said, Chromebooks have some unique quirks—such as limited offline capabilities, and a wonky method for connecting a printer. Here’s everything you need to know to set up your new Chromebook up the right way—starting with the tools that let you replace the Windows software that just won’t work on a Googley laptop. Chromebooks thrive on the web, survive offline Yes, Chromebooks are primarily conduits to the web. But aside from very specific computing demands, such as high-end gaming…

Norm Arlt asked “How do I stop the How-To video from auto-matically starting in my browser when I click on an article?” I sympathize. We all deal with this annoyance. In fact, I’m willing to bet that everyone reading this article who hasn’t already solved this problem knows exactly what I’m talking about. Most of these videos run on Shockwave Flash, so I’m going to concentrate on that technology. The trick isn’t to block Flash entirely, but to make it work only with your permission. How you do this varies with each browser. So I’ll offer instructions for the three most popular ones. Christopher Breen of Macworld offered these alternative fixes (go.pcworld.com/more) as well. Chrome 1. Click the menu icon on the upper-right corner and select Settings. 2. Then…