Page 58 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

Letting W indows 10 updates
1ruin your day
Forget TVs, dishwashers and s andwich
toasters - t he greatest invention of the
20th Century w as the ‘ snooze’ b utton o n
alarm clocks. M icrosoft added t he option
(see screenshot below) to the W indows 10
Creators Update (released i n A pril), letting
you p ostpone u pdates for u p t o t hree days.
Y o u c an also click ‘ Pick a t ime’ to schedule
when you w ant a n u pdate i nstalled.
It’s probably the m ost h elpful t hing
Microsoft did i n 2 017. No longer w ill huge
updates f orce themselves o n y our P C
unannounced. This o ption appears only
for M icrosoft’s twice-yearly major updates
- i n 2 018 t hey a re codenamed R edstone 4
(Version 1803, d ue March) and R edstone
5 ( V e rsion 1809, due i n A utumn). 8 m i s t a k e s y o u

s h o u l d ’ v e s t o p p e d

Click ‘Snooze’ to postpone Windows updates
for u p t o t hree days

Using s oftware t o d efrag m a k i n g i n 2 0 1 7
2your computer
Piriform makes f our e ssential p rograms.
ade a ll ll
e
Co
Actually, m ake t hat t hree. W hile we Computeractive Editor Daniel Booth has mmputeractive Editor Daniel Booth has m ade a
recommend S peccy, R ecuva a nd CCleaner these istakes i n t he past. H e’s l earnt h is lesson now,
istakes i n t he past. H e’s l earnt h is lesson now,
these m m
(when i t’s n ot smuggling A vast on to your
and w w
ants to help you d o l ikewise
PC - s ee page 16), we’re l ess k een o n and ants to help you d o l ikewise
Defraggler. S uch defragging tools w ere
once essential t o k eep y our h ard d rive
healthy , but most modern PCs can do parking’. W hen y ou’re r eady to return to in time and a void incurring a fi ne.
the j ob themselves. your car, t ap the ‘ Y o u p arked h ere’ pin Apple u sers may b e f orgiven f or smiling
In Windows 1 0 i t’s b etter t o u se the (see screenshot below), then Directions. smugly b ecause the c ar-finding o ption
Optimise Drives t ool. Windows r uns i t o n Y o u c an make notes about where y ou was a dded t o i Phones six m onths e arlier,
a s chedule, so you s hould never n eed to parked by tapping ‘Parking location’ a t when iOS 1 0 l aunched. Apple p rovides
open it manually. I t’s b est t o l eave it get the b ottom, and s et a t imer so you r eturn instructions at www.snipca.com/26452.
on with the j ob. Th e g olden r ule o f
defragging is that it’s unnecessary on Using O ffice 2 007
SSDs. W orse, i t c an even damage t he 4 When making their p lans for 2 017,
drive. Windows 1 0 k nows this, s o hackers w ould have ringed the d ate ‘ 10
automatically t urns off Optimise Drives October’ in their c alendars. I t’s w hen
when it detects y ou’ve i nstalled an SSD. Microsoft ended ‘ Extended’ s upport f or
Office 2007, m eaning it’ll n ever receive
Forgetting w here y ou another s ecurity u pdate. Y o u c an still use
3parked your car it, b ut with every d ay that passes it
None of the w orld’s 10 largest car parks becomes less s afe. It’s time to move on.
are i n t he UK (they’re all i n t he US and Y o u h ave t hree realistic options:
Canada, s ince you a sk), but it can still be upgrade t o t he latest version of Office;
infuriatingly t ricky to locate your vehicle switch to a n on-Microsoft office s uite like
in airports, t heme parks a nd shopping LibreOffice ( www.libreoffice.org); or
centres. It’s one o f t he problems Google swap downloadable desktop programs
solved in 2017 with an update to its Maps for o nline o ffice t ools.
app i n M arch. Upgrading t o t he new v ersion involves
Once you’ve parked, o pen G oogle M aps a c hoice b etween Office 3 65 (subscription
on your phone, t ap the b lue d ot that only; £5.99 a m onth, o r £ 60 a y ear) and
indicates y our l ocation (and therefore Google Maps now s hows you w here y ou Office 2016 (a one-off payment o f £ 120).
where y our c ar is), then tap ‘Save y our parked your car In contrast, s witching to LibreOffice

58 20 December 2017 – 2 J anuary 2018