LETTERS
6 MAY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE
Letters
WiththeDigitalDivide continuing togrow alongside anageing population,
onereaderhasasuggestiononhow thegap canbeclosed
[email protected]
Star letter
ReopeningWindows
WhenWindowsXPeXPired, Idecided
tosolve thatproblemwitha
Windows 7machine sourced, used, from
eBay.£50 was not much of arisk, and Idid
not intend to keep it forlong anyway.
Igot to like it and carelessly did not go
forthe free upgradetoWindows 10. With
the Januarydeadline approaching, Imade
another decision. Igot aniceusedCore i
machine with Windows 10 andanSSD
from my localcomputer shop.More than
£50,but lessthanthe sumofits parts.
It was aspontaneous actasIcould see
no real benefit in 10, but the faster PC was
abonus and theworld was not going to
stand still forme. It sat in my study fora
while and then, after reading several issues
ofShopper,Ihad asimple solution. Put the
Windows 7HDD in the Windows 10 PC.
The old HDD was abit small so Icloned
it on to aspare 500GB oneusing Paragon
software from the magazine togiveabit of
extrastorage space.The drivers for the
screen monitor and LANconnection had to
be updated, butafterthatitwas plain sailing.
Fire up Windows 10,holdShift-restart and
select Windows 7. Ialsoupgraded MS Office
from 2003 to 2007 forvisual appeal.
Youcan tell Idon’t like change verymuch,
but Ican now move over in my own time.
Hopefully Iwillbearound long enoughto
getthe hang of it without needingadvice
from my grandchildren.Icouldn’thave
done it withoutShopper.
Tim Wood
Write in and win
Do you wish your computer was faster when booting and loading
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This SSDis 45 times moreenergy-efficient than atypical hard
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Where’sPanda?
Thanksforaveryusefuland
sometimesgreatmagazine.
Iintendtokeepupmysubscription
despitethesituationthatI’ve
described below.
In your article on free security
software (AdvancedProjects,
Shopper384),the Panda package
wasdescribed as “the best free
antivirus”package by Clive
Webster.Onthe strength of this,
Ideclinedtorenew my Norton
Deluxe Security software licence
and installed thePanda setasinstructed.
When IreceivedShopper385, Iwas glad
to see agroup test on security software and
related matters. ‘Now Ican seehow well the
Panda productcompares with all the
well-known offerings,’ Ithought.Can you
imagine my surprise/dismay/annoyance to
see that the Pandaproduct was not even
mentionedinthe whole article?
Would you explain why youleft out what
had been described as the best in its class?
Brian Howe
Wegetoursecuritytest
resultsfromSELabs,which
comprehensivelytestsa
subsectionofpaid-forandfree
antivirus suites. In this case,Panda
wasn’t tested in the latest round of
results, which meant that we
couldn’t include it. That’s not to say
that we have anything against the
software,just that we didn’t have the
test results to give ameaningful
opinion. We’ll look to include more
software in our next test, looking at
multiple sources of test results.
Crossing theDivide
Ifound the article concerning the
Digital Divide (Shopper384) really
interesting, even though, probably in
common with most otherComputer
Shopperreaders, Iconsider myself to be
fully digitally literate.
While Ihavenever seen the appeal of
detailing my personallifeonFacebook or
broadcasting my everyfleeting thought
on Twitter,Iam very comfortable using
onlinebanking,shoppingandotherweb
servicesforalmosteverythingIdo.
However,asIwasfinishingreadingthe
article and metaphorically clearing my
RAM to move on, it struck me that the
problem is highly relevant to even the
mostdigitally competent.
Very fewofuswill reach old agewithout
suffering someloss of memory,manual
dexterityand/or visual acuity,ifnot all
three; others maybeunfortunate enough
to be struck down by Alzheimer’s or other
major physical ailments.
The more ‘wired-in’one is to the digital
society,the worse the onset of such
problems willbe. Forevery adult leaving
school fully digitally competent,someone
elseislikely to lose theirprevious
competency due to old age or infirmity,
meaning that the Digital Divide is clearly
heretostay.
Becauseofabackground in IT,Iam
often asked to assist less confident friends
install new software or setuponline
accounts forthem; this regularly involves
being entrusted withpasswordsorother
