Page 52 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

5 Start Menu X
Sadly , it looks like o ne of
our f avourite free tools m ay well
be heading f or that big c loud
server in the s ky next year. Th e c reators
of Classic S hell recently decided t o s top
developing it after eight y ears, c iting l ack
of time and W indows 10’s frequent updates
as two o f t he main factors. O riginally
built t o r eplace the s orely m issed Start
menu in Windows 8 , C lassic S hell had
continued t o b e p opular with Windows
10 users b ecause of its option to restore a
more traditional Start m enu t o t he
operating s ystem, a s w ell a s p roviding
many clever ways t o t weak the i nterface.
The source code for t he last v ersion of
Classic S hell – v ersion 4.3.1 – h as been
posted o nline i n t he hope t hat s omeone
may c ontinue d eveloping it. B ut,
ultimately, i f n o f urther updates a re made
available, t hen C lassic S hell will eventually
become u nsafe a nd may s top w orking With Classic Shell b eing discontinued, w e r ecommend using Start Menu X i nstead
when Windows 1 0 i s n ext u pdated.
StartIsBack+ (http://startisback.com) a nd aren’t stupid. Th ey’ll a lways l ook f or flaws
Start 1 0 ( www.snipca.com/26434) a re in programs used by millions. OTHER W INDOWS 1 0
both good replacements, but cost money . An extreme r esponse is to never i nstall CHANGES IN 2018
The best free option is probably Start software again, maybe e ncasing y our
Menu X ( www.startmenux.com, s ee computer in concrete just to be sure. As well as more d esign t weaks, the
screenshot above r ight), which d oesn’t A m ore r easonable reaction is to use Redstone 4 u pdate ( due M arch) i s l ikely
have as many features but lets you c hoose Sandboxie (www.snipca.com/26372). to include Near Share, l etting y ou send
a ‘ classic’ menu style a nd customise its This r ing-fences a ny programs you i nstall, files between nearby computers u sing
look and f eel. preventing them from harming your PC. Bluetooth (though n ot to everyone’s
Instead of running them as normal, liking – s ee James G ourley’s letter o n
6 Sandboxie right-click t he program fi le or shortcut page 12). There will be new t ools added
One o f 2 017’s most successful and s elect Run S andboxed ( see to Edge too, including ( hopefully) t he
(for the b ad guys) a nd shocking screenshot below l eft). Sandboxie is free ability t o m ute a udio coming f rom a
(for the r est o f u s) security scares to use, though after 30 days you’ll be specific tab, a nd saving ebooks i n t he
was S eptember’s C Cleaner h ack, where occasionally pestered t o b uy a l icence. EPUB format. Cortana, rapidly becoming
malware w as found i n t he popular an essential W indows tool, will have
PC-cleaning tool. Th e i nfected u pdate i s 7 Foxit P DF Reader or Xodo a n ew Collections section suggesting
thought t o h ave b een i nstalled by more With little fanfare things you’ve shown an interest in, s uch
than 2.27 m illion users. That s uch a (probably h oping n obody as books, TV shows and r ecipes.
respectable t ool c ould be infiltrated would n otice) Microsoft
highlights how d ifficult it is to know has r evealed i t w ill be retiring Reader, i ts
which p rograms you c an trust. Hackers Windows 1 0 P DF reader app, on 15 its sleeve – y ou can annotate d ocuments,
February 2018. Th e c ompany’s somewhat for e xample – b ut it’s clearly n o m atch
unhelpful a dvice i s t o s witch t o u sing for a d edicated P DF tool. I nstead, y ou
Microsoft Edge for r eading P DFs. Edge could go for F oxit Reader 9.0 (www.
has a h andful of PDF-friendly tricks up foxitsoftware.com/pdf-reader), which h as
more features than Basil B rush has ‘ boom
booms’. These include new k eyboard
shortcuts (using just one k ey - n o n eed to
press t he Windows k ey), and t he Reflow
Mode, w hich r eformats t he text in a P DF
when you z oom i n.
As a d ownloadable program, Foxit i sn’t
an exact l ike-for-like r eplacement for
Microsoft’s desktop app. If that’s what
you w ant, get t he free Xodo PDF R eader &
Editor from the W indows Store ( www.
Click ‘Run Sandboxed’ to run p rograms s afely Y o u c an add items to your Christmas list using snipca.com/26370). Its a nnotation tool is
on your PC Xodo’s a nnotation tool very easy to use ( see s creenshot left).

52 20 December 2017 – 2 J anuary 2018