WebUser – 21 August 2019

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Ask the Expert

21 Aug - 3 Sept 2019 67

Windowscan speed it up.I

found the ‘Reset this PC’

option in the Settings app

and used it. However, I

realisedtoo late that I’d

chosen the option that

doesn’tkeepyour files.I

now have a fast, clean PC,

but I’ve losteverything!

How do I getmyfiles back?

Is iteven possible?

Colin Moore, via email

A

Have you ever created

any backups onan

external USB drive? Have

you usedFile History in the

Control Panel to store copies

of your filesona USB drive?

If you have, you can copythe

contents of the Documents,

Pictures, Music andVideo

folders back.

Did you syncthe

Documents, Desktop andPictures

folders with OneDrive? You dothis by

right-clicking OneDrive in Explorer and

clicking Settings, thenselecting the

‘Back up’ tab andclicking ‘Manage

Open Settings, select Accounts and

click ‘ManagemyMicrosoft account’. A

browser opens, taking you to account

.microsoft.com, andsigns you in. Click

‘More actions’under your namein the

top-left corner andselect ‘Edit profile’.

Onthe next page, click ‘Manage how

you sign in to Microsoft’.

You’ll see all the email addresses

associated with your Microsoft account,

one of which is labelled Primary. Is

Freeserve set as your Primary address?

If it is, click ‘Make primary’ next to a

different address. You should have at

least one @outlook.comaddress, and

there is a linkto add anextra email

address if you needone.

Once you’ve switchedyour primary

account fromFreeserve to an@outlook

.comaddress, you should be able to use

the Remove linkto get rid of the old

one. However, we’d advise keeping it for

a while to make sure your new primary

email address works before deleting it.

GENERAL PC

Restore files lost

when refreshing PC

Q

Mycomputer has been quite slow,

but Iread somewhere thatrefreshing

Q

I have an assortment of

working but obsolescent

pieces of hardware, includinga

couple of laptops. Arweave’s

Permaweb (www.arweave.org)

and Maidsafe (maidsafe.net) offer

cryptocurrency inreturnfor

hosting encrypted files onyour

PC as part of a driveto create a

decentralised, serverless internet.

Doyou have any details on the

PC specificationsyou needfor

this? I can’t find much about it on

Arweave’s or Maidsafe’swebsites.

Ian Smith, via email

A

You can use Arweaveeither as a

mineror an archiver. Amineris a

computer that’s set upto store web

pages, and an archiver is someone

who submits web pagesto bestored.

The MiningGuide ( bit.ly/mine482)

provides details onbecoming aminer,

which is what you want to dowith

your old computers. It has guides for

Linux andmacOS, althoughit warns

against using Windows. You also need

a static IP address, which is rare for

homeinternet connections.

A minimum of 8GB of memory is

recommended. Details of disk space

andprocessor requirements are

sketchy, but like all cryptocurrency-

related processes, you needlots of

computingpower to take part. In

otherwords, this isn’t ajob for old

hardware, andyou’re unlikely to

make muchmoney.

Being an archiver is mucheasier.

You simply browse the web, then

submit pagesto be archivedin the

systemusing the ArweaveChrome

extension ( bit.ly/arew482). Archiving

Make money by cryptomining on an old PC

CRYPTOCURRENCY

a pagecosts money, though.

MaidSafe is the creator of

the Safe Network, which is

similar to Arweavein many

waysbut is simpler and

requires lesspowerful hardware.

Instead of miners, it recruits

farmers, who store datain

vaults ontheir computer.

If you become afarmer

and store data, you can earn

Safecoin cryptocurrency when

someonerequests datafromyour

vault. However, your computer has

to compete with others to deliver the

data, and not every successful data

delivery results in payment, so you’re

not guaranteedanincome.The

value of cryptocurrencies changes

like the weather, too.

If you’d like to explore the Safe

Network, goto bit.ly/saf482and

install the Safe Browser, thenrequest

aninvitationfromthe samepage.

Readthe FAQ at bit.ly/safaq482for

more information.

backup’. This stores the contents of

these folders online. Goto the OneDrive

website andsee if your filesare there.

OpenanExplorer window, right-click

the Documents, Pictures, Music and

Windows backs up some

folders automatically – check

for previous ve rsions

To access the Safe Network, you

need a special browser that’s only

available by invitation