Page 59 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK
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means a c hoice b etween nothing and Activate
nada. Y es, i t’s f ree, and i s q uickly becoming Windows’
a f avourite with Computeractive readers ‘Storage sense’
to keep your
and w riters alike ( we’ll s tart including i t PC free of
soon in our M ake O ffice B etter p age). unwanted files
These downloadable programs are i deal
for h eavy office u sers. I f y our n eeds are
less a dvanced, try Microsoft’s free Office
Web A pps ( www.snipca.com/25198) a nd
Google Drive (https://drive.google.com).
The latter is more versatile b ecause it
works o ffline. M icrosoft is unlikely to
provide this because it still wants p eople
to cough up for t he paid-for versions of
Office.
Using p oor s creen-recording
5apps on iPhone and i Pad
One o f t he best things about an update commentary to your recording. Y o ur
to Windows, iOS a nd Android is they videos are s aved on your Camera Roll, s o THE £ 75M B ITCOIN MISTAKE
come with new t ools built i nto t he system, open the P hotos app t o w atch and e dit
meaning you n o l onger n eed to use them. Whatever mistakes you m ade this y ear,
shoddy apps made by other d evelopers. be thankful n one cost you £ 75m. That’s
One o f t he most useful in 2017 was t he Letting o ld files clog up the a pproximate v alue of 7,500 Bitcoins
new s creen-recording t ool i n i OS 11, 6 your PC stored on a h ard d rive that James
released a t t he end o f S eptember. With a n ew Paint 3 D a pp, M icrosoft Howells, an IT worker from Newport,
Y o u fi rst n eed to add i t t o y our C ontrol wanted the C reators Update to inspire t he threw away in 2013. A t t he time i t w as
Centre by tapping Settings, C ontrol inner a rtist i n a ll of us. M ore u seful worth a f ew hundred thousand pounds.
Centre, C ustomise Controls, t hen t apping though was t he ‘Storage sense’ t ool, But as the p rice o f t he cryptocurrency
the g reen button n ext t o S creen which a utomatically d eletes temporary has rocketed (by o ver 1 ,000 per cent
Recording. Next, open the C ontrol Center files that your programs aren’t using. this y ear), so has the v alue of his l ost
by swiping u p f rom t he bottom of your The Fall Creators Update, r eleased i n hard drive. Howells s ays i t’s b uried i n
screen. Y ou should see t he red S creen October, added t he option to delete files a l andfill site o wned by Newport C ity
Recording b utton i n t he bottom-left in the D ownloads f older t hat h aven’t Council, and i s s eeking permission to
corner (see screenshot below). When you changed i n 3 0 d ays. ‘Storage sense’ i s look for i t. But he accepts t hat it’s a “ big,
tap this to start a r ecording, you’ll be turned off by default. Activate it by expensive and r isky p roject”.
prompted to turn the m icrophone on or going t o S ettings, S ystem, S torage, t hen
off. T urn i t o n i f y ou want to add a clicking the ‘ Storage s ense’ s lider ( see
screenshot above). attacked by ransomware. Y our fi les should
now b e b eyond t he reach o f h ackers. J ust
Hoping that ransomware make sure you d on’t ditch y our h ard d rive
7 will go away in a l andfill site (see box a bove).
There are t wo strategies for d ealing w ith
ransomware. O ne is what we call the Emailing l arge files
stick-your-fingers-in-your-ears-and- 8 One p rogram that deserved greater
hope-it-goes-away method. It’s tempting, plaudits in 2017 was t he free FileDirect
but deeply fl awed. A nother i s t o d evise a (www.oo-software.com/en/filedirect)
clever backup p rocedure to keep your from German software company O &O.
files safe. Th at’s the p lan we prefer. Released i n M ay, i t l ets you s end fi les of
The key t o s urviving an attack is saving any s ize w ithout having to attach them to
your files to a h ard d rive that’s not an email. Y o u n eed the p rogram installed
normally connected t o y our P C. Free on your PC, b ut the r ecipient doesn’t.
program V eeam Agent ( www.snipca. Instead you s end t hem a d ownloadable
com/26464) d oes t he job. It can back u p link b y e mail which t hey o pen i n t heir
files on a s chedule, but we recommend browser ( Chrome, F irefox and O pera; i t
choosing t he option to back u p w hen t he doesn’t w ork o n E dge a nd iOS d evices).
‘target’ is connected. This m eans it will Also new t his y ear w as Firefox S end
automatically b ack u p fi les when you (https://send.firefox.com), which s ends
attach your hard drive. Also tick t he ‘Eject files up to 16GB (though Firefox
removable s torage once backup i s recommends no bigger than 1GB f or
completed’ option. Y ou should save “reliable o peration”). The email l ink
Tap t he bottom-left S creen R ecording b utton V e eam’s R ecovery M edia fi le to a U SB received by the r ecipient self-destructs
to record a v ideo i n i OS 11 stick s o y ou can access your files from it if after 24 hours.
20 December 2017 – 2 J anuary 2018 59