GADGETS
Great gadgets for your PC
The PC has revolutionised both the home and office since it came to power in the 1980 ’ s , but for the less technically literate they can be at best challenging and at worst frustrating to a tear-inducing level . But fear not , as Martin Bailey shares some great gadgets for your PC from his new book , The Useful Book of Gadgets , Gizmos and Apps , that ’ ll keep it safe , secure and running in tip top condition .
boost once done . Piriform ’ s third product , Recuva , is great for those times when you ’ ve deleted a file and emptied the recycling bin , only to find that you actually needed it .
It ’ ll scan your entire drive and find files that you thought were long since gone . It ’ s sometimes even possible to retrieve files after a drive has been formatted and Windows reinstalled .
If you do have to go through the painful process of reinstalling Windows you ’ ll know how laborious it is to download and install all those free apps – iTunes , Skype , Chrome or Firefox , DropBox etc .., let alone the rubbish that often gets installed alongside them .
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et ’ s start by getting your house , or to be more specific your hard drive in order with three free tools from the same developer . Windows and your applications create thousands of temporary files over time that clutter your hard drive and simply slow it down .
Piriform
Piriform ’ s ( www . piriform . com ) CCleaner will sift through your drive and only delete temporary files such as browser cache , log files etc . It ’ ll also remove older ‘ system restore points ’, often freeing up several gigabytes of space in the process .
A duplicate file finder and Windows Registry cleaner are amongst some of the other utilities built in .
Once you ’ re done cleaning you can boost the performance of the drive by defragmenting it . This is only suitable for older mechanical drives , not the newer SSDs which won ’ t benefit from it .
Defragmenting works by moving all the files to one end of the drive and also piecing them back together , as over time Windows can break (‘ fragment ’) files as it saves them in smaller free spaces on the drive . Defraggler , also by Piriform does a better job than the standard Windows Defrag tool , and if you ’ ve never run it before expect it to take several hours .
You may , however , see a doubledigit speed
Ninite . com
Ninite . com is a great website that hosts dozens of free applications , providing a oneclick installation process . Just visit their website , check all of the boxes of the software you want to install and click the Download icon . You ’ ll download a very small ( sub 1MB ) file which , when run , will silently and safely install all of your selected programs .
No adverts , no malware or browser plugins – just the software you selected . This can make a big difference in the time it takes to get you back up and running after problems , and you might even find some software here that you never knew about .
Net Spot
Next we tackle the problem of patchy WiFi . If you want to accurately create a heat map of your WiFi so that you can work out where best to place a booster then take a look at Net Spot ( www . netspotapp . com ).
This free app for Windows and Mac lets you walk around with a laptop while it tests and plots your signal strength in each area . You can even overlay a floorplan to get the clearest idea of the biggest problem areas .
Security is an increasing concern , yet many still use the same passwords across multiple sites . If one site gets hacked the first thing that hackers will do is try the same username and password combination on all other major online store , leaving you much more exposed .
LastPass . com A good password manager such as
LastPass . com ( from free ) will not only store all of your passwords but it ’ ll also automatically create random long passwords as you register on new sites and ( for the premium account – a worthwhile $ 12 per year ) even allow you to use fingerprint recognition to log you into sites on your mobile .
Crashplan . com . Finally , if the worst happens and either your hard drive dies altogether or you get hit by the mother of all ransomware , make sure that you ’ ve already subscribed to Crashplan . com .
From around £ 3 per month it ’ ll silently and securely back up your files to the cloud , also keeping incremental backups . The family plan is the best value , at around £ 10 per month , as you can back up unlimited data from up to ten PCs .
Tech solutions don ’ t have to cost the earth , and if you utilise one or all of these great apps your PC should give you years of worryfree service .
Martin Bailey ’ s new book : The Useful Book of Gadgets , Gizmos & Apps is available from Amazon now for £ 9.99 .
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