Maximum PC - USA (2022-06)

Linux—choose the LTS

branch if you favor stability

over new features. If you

dislike Ubuntu’s Gnome

desktop, try an Ubuntu

variant such as Mint

(https://linuxmint.com/)

or Elementary (https://

elementary.io/). Create

live media to explore

each environment without

committing to a full install.

Regarding the Outlook

sticking point, if you’re

happy with Outlook’s

web-based version (https://

outlook.office.com) then

try a desktop wrapper such

as Prospect Mail (https://

github.com/julian-alarcon/

prospect-mail). If you’re

looking to replicate the

desktop version of Outlook,

your biggest issue will be

accessing an Exchange

server. Both Evolution

(https://wiki.gnome.

org/Apps/Evolution)

and Thunderbird (www.

thunderbird.net) should

work with Exchange servers,

but if you’re struggling, look

at DavMail (http://davmail.

sourceforge.net/), which

can act as an intermediary

between Exchange and your

Linux email app.

Lazesoft rescue issue

Lazesoft Recovery Suite was

recommended in your March

2022 issue, so I downloaded

and installed the app on a

USB flash drive—the problem

is that it doesn’t boot. Three

other flash drives containing

Windows 10, Windows 11, and

my backup/restore/clone app

all boot perfectly.

Lazesoft installed three

folders and two files on my

USB flash drive. The folders

are: boot, efi, and sources,

and the files are bootmgr,

and bootmgr.efi.

I can’t understand why the

app won’t boot. Any advice?

—Jerry Bell

THE DOCTOR RESPONDS:

We’ve tested the Lazesoft

emergency boot disk

extensively enough to know

there’s no known compatibility

issue with it, despite the fact

it hasn’t been updated since

Windows 11 was released.

We had no problems creating

the disk on our Windows 11

test system using the default

settings, and it worked

fine regardless of whether

Secure Boot was enabled, and

whether CSM was disabled.

We contacted Jerry and

discovered he was able to get

the rescue disk working on

his Dell Inspiron 5585 laptop,

but only after entering his

BIOS and disabling both the

Firmware TPM setting under

Security and UEFI option

under Boot. He was keen

not to leave these settings

like that, so reverted to their

defaults. The key thing here

is that he’s found a way to get

the Lazesoft rescue

disk working should he

need to use it.

A search online reveals

that Dell’s Inspiron laptops

are notorious when it

comes to getting certain

types of boot disk to work.

Many won’t work at all with

GPT-partitioned flash drives

for example. If Jerry wanted

to dig deeper, he could

try creating the Lazesoft

recovery disk as an ISO file,

then using a tool like Rufus

(https://rufus.ie) to create a

bootable flash drive from it.

Rufus allows you to control

all aspects of the drive setup

and formatting process—

experiment with the partition

scheme (MBR or GPT), target

system (BIOS or UEFI), and

file system (choose FAT32)

settings to see if you can get

a bootable drive to work with

your system without having

to tweak the UEFI first.

Win11-compatible CPU

My wife uses an HP Pavilion

590-p0024 PC powered by

an AMD Ryzen 3 2200G and

8GB RAM. Can I upgrade its

processor to one that will

support Windows 11, as this

appears to be the only block?

She uses this computer for

working with MS Office apps

and photos with ACDSee

and feels left out when she

sees my upgrade. I cannot

convince her that upgrading

will not gain that much for

what she does.

—Edmund ‘Ted’ Shaw

THE DOCTOR RESPONDS:

The HP Pavilion in question

is powered by a Sunflower

motherboard, and a glance

at its specifications online

(https://support.hp.com/

us-en/document/c05939208)

reveals that TPM 2.0 support

is built into the board.

However, the stumbling block

here was Microsoft’s decision

to exclude first-generation

Ryzen chips (which include

the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen

5 2400G). This means only two

processors on the Sunflower’s

compatibility list support

Windows 11: the Ryzen 5-

and Ryzen 7-2700.

Although the Ryzen 7 has

more cores and threads—

and 16 compared to 6 and 12

on the Ryzen 5—the pair are

closely matched, and indeed

the Ryzen 5’s slightly faster

clock speed (3.4GHz to the

Ryzen 7’s 3.2GHz) gives it the

edge in several benchmarks.

At t he t ime of writing, both

are still available online,

the most cost-effective

way to get them is through

AliExpress (www.aliexpress.

com ) where the Ryzen 5

costs around $120 and the

Ryzen 7 around $160. Ted

will also need a discrete

graphics card but plans to

reuse an old ATI Radeon

card. So long as it supports

Windows Display Driver

Model (WDDM) 2.0 or later,

and DirectX 12 API or later,

he should be fine.

Looking for

inspiration

I’ve been wondering about

programming: if there’s a

piece of the IT universe that

I’ve never explored, this is it.

Maybe it would allow me to

restart from scratch and find

new mysteries, connections,

and discoveries behind those

strings that, at the moment,

are obscure to me. Do you

think that would help?

There’s a huge choice, so

is there any direction you

would suggest, especially

now that you know my tastes?

After all, I loved MS-DOS,

and I still enjoy any moment

I can put my hands on some

CMD, PowerShell, Terminal,

or similar window.

—Nicola Di Pietro

THE DOCTOR RESPONDS:

This was part of a longer

letter from Nicola, who

is looking to rekindle his

love and enthusiasm for

computers. As he identified

programming as a potential

outlet, the Doc recommends

looking at the Raspberry

Pi ( http://www.raspberrypi.com)

ecosystem. The Pi 400

combines computer and

keyboard in a way not seen

since the days of 16-bit

machines and the barebones

Pi 4 Model B lets you

customize a PC from scratch.

More importantly, the Pi

encourages you to try out

new things—there are a

myriad of hardware projects

Nicola could explore.

However, given his love of

the command line and desire

to program, perhaps the

greatest gift would be an

introduction to the world of

Python ( http://www.python.org),

which underpins so many

Pi projects (hardware and

software).

This has been selected by

the Raspberry Pi Foundation

as its primary language,

so comes preinstalled with

the Raspberry Pi OS. Visit

https://projects.raspberrypi.

org/ to see if inspiration

strikes.

© RASPBERRY PI FOUNDATION

Rekindle old computing magic

with the Raspberry Pi.

JUN 2022 MAXIMU MPC 15