Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

Issue 623 •19January–1February 2022 67

HowdoIinstall softwarewiwithnoCDdth noCDdririve?ve?

Addaninexpensive

opticaldrivesuch

asthisFroibetzone

toyournewlaptop

Q

My 1 2-year-oldDellXPSlaptopisfailing,soIneedto

buyanewone.Mycurrentlaptophasanoptical

drive,whichwasinvaluablewhenIhadtoreset

Windows10awhileback,becauseIwasabletoreinstallall

myprogramsfromCDorDVD.Newlaptopshavedispensed

withopticaldrives,andmyprogramsaren’tavailableto

downloadfromtheinternet.HowcanItransfermyprograms

toanewlaptop?

JackieStill

A

Wedon’tknowexactlywhichprogramsyouwantto

transfer,butbearinmindthatmanynewlaptops

willcomewithWindows 11 .Ifyourprograms

rununderWindows 1 0, they’llprobablyrununder

Windows1 1 too,butwecanoffernoguarantees.

Thataside,youhaveacoupleofoptions.Itsoundsasif

yourDellXPSisstillworkingandhasanopticaldrive.Ifso,

youcanuseittocreateISOfilesofyourCDsandDVDs.You

canthencopytheseISOfilestoaUSBstickandmountitasa

driveonyournewlaptop.ItcanthenusetheISOfilesasif

theyweretheoriginaldiscs.

DownloadthefreeImgBurntoolfromwww.imgburn.com.

Click‘Createimagefromdisc’,thenusetheSourcedropdown

menutochoosethedrivecontainingoneofyourprogram

discs.Clickthefoldericonbelowandselectadestination

fortheISOfile.Finally,starttheconversionprocessby

clickingthelargebuttonwithapictureoftwodiscs

connectedbyanarrow.Theresultingfilewillhavean.iso

extension.TomountitonyournewWindowslaptop,

simplydouble-clickit.

AnotheralternativeistobuyanexternalDVDdrive.

TheseconnectthroughaUSBportandareprettyinexpensive

thesedays. ThepicturedFroibetzmodelcostsaround£2 3

(www.snipca.com/4 0354 ).

Pres sing Windows key+Iopens Windows’settings;Windows key+1 open syourfirst pinned item

Whywon’t Windowskey+1 openSettings?

Q

Inyourworkshopsandfeatures
youoftentellreaderstopress
Windowskey+1toopenSettings.
However,whenIdothis,‘Quickaccess’
opensinstead.IhaveanHPall-in-one
desk topPCrunningWindows 10.
Shouldthisbehappening?Ifnot,
what’s goingon?
SteveBurns

A

It looks likeyou’reusing a
differen tkeyboardshortcut
to theone we intend –and
that’s whyit’sopening something
othe rthanSettings. In fact,whatyou’re
readingint he magazine as Windows
key+1 (the number one) is actually
Windowskey+I (t hat’sacapi talletter‘i’).
These twocharacterscan be hard to te ll
apartonaprinted page.Inother words, if
youwanttoopenSettings usin ga
keyboard shor tcut,press Windowskey
andthe letter I(seescree nshot).
As youhavediscovered, Windows
key+1 (that’sthe number one) is also a
validshortcut. In Windows, this key

combinationlauncheswhicheveritem

you’ve pinn ed as thefirstentry onyour

taskbar. On your PC,that’sprobabl yFile

Expl orer,sowhenyou pres sthatkey

combination, File Expl orer launches

anddisplaysthe ‘Quick access’ pane .If,

say, your Chromeweb browserwerethe

first item on your taskbar, Windows

key+1 (numberone)would la unch

Chromeinstead.

Incidental ly,pressin gWindows key+2

launchesthe second pinn ed app,

Windows+3 opensthe thirdand so on ,all

theway up to Windowskey+9.