PCWorld July 2023

In recent years, it’s gotten a lot easier to have better password hygiene without using a dedicated password manager. Thanks to built-in password management tools on iOS and Android, and at the browser level on Chrome and Microsoft Edge, you can create secure passwords with minimal efforts. These tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated, such that a separate password manager might not be necessary. But before you tie all your logins with the likes of Google, Apple, and Microsoft, take some time to consider the trade-offs. In exchange for the convenience of their built-in solutions, you’ll lose both the freedom and features that a proper password manager provides. BUILT-IN OPTIONS ARE IMPROVING Relying solely on your web browser for password management used to be a laughable concept. Sure, the auto-fill features…

Pinnable windows floating in midair. Three-dimensional dinosaurs. Video calls. 3D castles emerging from the ground. No, I’m not talking about the capabilities of Apple’s new Vision Pro VR/AR headset. These are all things Microsoft’s HoloLens could do when it launched roughly seven years ago. Apple has a reputation for reinventing technology—and boy, was that underscored by the launch of the Vision Pro at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. For months behind-the-scenes reporting has indicated that even Apple employees have questioned the launch of the Vision Pro, an AR/VR headset that executives said was in the works for years. But what it actually is still isn’t as clear as we’d like. Detailed spec pages accompanied Apple’s launch of the Mac Studio and the new 15-inch MacBook Air. Not the Vision Pro: We…

Internal cable management is the most frustrating part of building a desktop PC. Wait, that’s not right—the most frustrating part is making sure all your parts are compatible. Okay, that’s not right either—the even more frustrating part is how expensive all those parts are. But cable management is definitely in the top five, especially if you like to tinker frequently with your setup. There’s an emerging trend for PC hardware this year, and the PCWorld editorial staff has christened it the War on Cables. PC hardware manufacturers are coming up with ever more elaborate tricks to keep your desktop enclosure nice and tidy, eliminating power and data cables whenever possible, and when not, tucking them all behind the motherboard so the main chamber looks like a minimalist office lobby. (I…

How do you know if a fancy USB4 external storage drive is really using the full speed of USB4? If you’re just looking at a box on a shelf, the answer is, “You don’t.” As a standard, especially if you’re looking for those fast file transfers, USB4 is still a confusing mess of techno-babble that makes it easy for manufacturers to label a substandard drive “USB4” without delivering the performance that this implies. Gordon breaks it down for you in the latest PCWorld video on YouTube. To start with, did you know there’s a difference between USB4 (no space, a copyrighted term referring to the specification from the USB Implementers Forum) and USB 4.0 (note the space)? Well there is, and it affects which controllers the circuit board inside than…

Microsoft may have sent Windows XP off into the great unknown in 2014, but the operating system never fully went dark. Never mind that yet two more versions of Windows have been put to rest since XP’s final days. Against the advice of just about everyone, the efforts to keep XP usable have continued—as evidenced by recent news about a crack that enables offline validation of Windows XP product keys. Previously, getting Windows XP to activate required circumventing Microsoft’s validation process or using a third-party server to fool XP. But as documented by tinyapps, a blog dedicated to floppy-drive-size Windows programs, a new validation technique came to light last year. An app shared in a thread on the Windows XP subreddit not only performs Microsoft’s official activation process, but does…

Laptops have a problem: the screen. There’s only one, and it’s too small, too far away, and too public. Sightful thinks it’s solved that problem with the Spacetop, a laptop that gets rid of the screen entirely and uses augmented reality to create a 100-inch virtual display floating in front of your face. And you know what? It works. It’s immediately apparent that something is different. Clamshell laptops fold flat and thin; the Sightful Spacetop looks more like a rubberized, squarish calzone, wrapped in the sort of protective cover you’d see enfold an Apple iPad or Amazon Kindle. Unfold the cover, and what makes the Spacetop special is revealed: a pair of thin, tethered, augmented glasses that sit where you’d expect to find the laptop’s display planted. Put simply, the…