[ 088 ]
[ TECHLIFE #63 ][] -
GET THE MOST FROM YOUR TECH88 Q&AYOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
94
Mac
VOICE CONTROL YOUR MAC
WITH SIRI96
iOS
MASTER 3D TOUCH SHORTCUTS
ON IOS[ THIS MONTH IN HELP STATION ]
[ SECURITY ]
How to encrypt a USB
flash drive?
I’ve recently bought a new laptop and want to
password-protect the USB drives that I’m going
to use with it. However, I can’t seem to find
BitLocker on my laptop (which is running
Windows 10). Is there a good alternative?
Any advice would be gratefully received!
[ JOHN HOLLINGSWORTH ]Graham Barlow replies: BitLocker only comes
with Windows 10 Pro, but thankfully there are
plenty of alternatives out there. Assuming you’re
looking for something free, then DiskCryptor
(diskcryptor.net) would enable you to encrypt
the entire flash drive, although it can be tricky to
install and set up. In most cases, you’re only looking
to encrypt particularly sensitive files, in which case
Rohos Mini Drive (www.rohos.com) would offer
a more user-friendly alternative. The free version
allows you to create a hidden and encrypted
storage container up to 8GB in size, which should
be ample for most people’s needs and it doesn’t
delete existing files on the drive either.[ MEDIA ]
Region-locked DVDs
won’t play
I have a US laptop set to play Region 1 discs and
recently purchased a few AU DVD boxsets.
I’ve been trying to bypass region-coded discs
by playing them in VLC Media Player, but while
some work, others throw up errors such as
‘VLC cannot set the DVD’s title’. Can you
provide a workaround at all?
[ NATHANIEL AHARON ]Nick Odantzis replies: Our first suggestion
was to install DVDFab Passkey Lite
(www.dvdfab.cn/passkey-lite.htm), which
can bypass region encoding and allow you to
play most region-locked DVDs through any
DVD player, including VLC Media Player.
This fixed our problem, but Nathaniel
reported it ended up disabling his drive
altogether — he had to remove the software
and delete a Registry key to get things
working again. This could be down to the
presence of other third-party DVD software
interfering with the process, but a simple,
catch-all fix would be to purchase a slim
external DVD drive for around $35. Each
drive can be set to a specific region, so the
internal drive could be left to play native
DVDs while the external drive is used
exclusively to play Region 1 discs. [ WINDOWS ]
Blue-screen errors
plaguing new
Windows install
For a long time now, whenever I start or
restart my Dell XPS 8700 PC (running
Windows 10), I get an immediate BSOD
referring to NETIO.SYS and with the
following Stop Code: ‘Kmode Exception
Not Handled’. The computer then attempts
to fix the problem and after several reboots,
Windows will load. I’ve come across the
same error on another PC we own, but this
only occurred once. I’ve tried rolling back
to a system image and numerous clean
reinstalls, all with no success. Hopefully,
you can save me the cost of a new PC!
[ JIM THOMAS ]Nick Peers replies: The netio.sys file is a
generic Windows one, so there were no clues
there. We asked Jim to send us his
HijackThis! log to see what was running on
his PC — he revealed that AVG Internet
Security was installed, and our Google
searches for the netio.sys error did turn up
one that was linked to AVG. Jim dutifully
uninstalled the program and the BSOD
errors immediately ceased. We dug a little
deeper and found numerous references to
AVG causing this kind of error, so Jim has
subsequently switched antivirus products
— Avira (www.avira.com) is one that
currently scores highly for those looking
for free protection. 98 AndroidBACK UP YOUR ANDROID'S DATA
102
Downloads & streaming
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT EBOOK FORMATS91
Windows
WINDOWS 10 FILE EXPLORER:
FURTHER TIPS & TWEAKS100 Home networkingMESH NETWORKING EXPLAINED
104
Photography
MASTER YOUR DSLR:
RADIO-CONTROLLED FLASHYou may need to purchase a secondary DVD drive to play
di[erent-region discs.Rohos Mini Drive allows you to
encrypt your flash drive.