Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

JASON

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Sendyour questionsto:

Jason D’Allison

Micro Mart

Dennis Publishing

30 Cleveland Street

London

W1T 4JD

ContactJasonby emailat:

[email protected]

Whilewe try to coveras many

questionsas we can, we regret

that Jason cannotansweryour

questionspersonally, but he’llcover

as manyas he possiblycan each

week.Pleaseask one questionper

letterand rememberto includethe

full specificationof yourcomputer,

includingits operatingsystem.

Jason

Meet Jason

D’Allison,a veteran

of Micro Mart’s panel

of experts.He’s here

to help with any

technicalquestions,

includinganything

to do with tabletsor

smartphones,as well

as PCs

KeepItClean

On the recommendationof a

friend,I’m runningAVG PC

TuneUp.The initialscanhas

founda numberof problems

withthe Windowsregistry, and

I’m wonderingif it’s safeto let

the programfix thesefor me.

Couldit causedamage?I know

thatalteringthe registryisn’t

usuallyrecommended.

Also,is the programworth

buying?It seemsto includea lot

of usefulfeatures, in particular

the file-recoverytool and disk

defragger. At the momentI’m

usingthe 15-daytrial.I admitI’m

not especiallytech-savvy, so I’d

appreciateyouradvice.I don’t

wantto wastemy money.

S Stevens, Gmail

Registry cleanersaresnakeoil,

really. Tomyknowledge,removing

redundantentrieshasnever

beenproventospeedupa PC’s

performance.Thesamegoesfor

registry defragging.There’s usually

noharm– I’veneverpersonally

runintotrouble,thoughit’s true

thatmessingwiththeregistry is

a dangerousbusiness– butthe

benefitsareonlypsychological.I

guessit’s nicetoknowthingsare

neatandtidy.

That’s nottosaythatPC

TuneUpis rubbish(somereaders

mayknowit betterasTuneUp

Utilities).It’s decentenough.My

issueis that,asyousay, there’s

a price.DirectfromAVG,a one-

year, one-PClicencecurrently

costsa staggering£23.74(goo.

gl/mwkC5E),thoughonthelikes

ofAmazonit canoftenbefound

forundera tenner. Inmyview, it’s

notgoodvalueeventhen.

You see,othertoolsare

availablethat’lldoallofTuneUp’s

tasksforfree.Todefragan

HDD(don’tletit within 100

yardsofanSSD,ofcourse),try

Defraggler:goo.gl/3m6NAw.*

Fora duplicate-filefinder, try

SearchMyFiles:goo.gl/9P03KW.

Forfilerecovery,try Glary

Undelete:goo.gl/GDNEBv.And

if youreallydowanttoclean

yourPC’s registry,try CCleaner:

goo.gl/bezxmR.

Tomanagestart-upprograms,

simplyuseWindows.InWindows

8.xandWindows10,right-click

theStartbutton,openTa sk

Manager, andhittheStartuptab.

InpreviousversionsofWindows,

type‘msconfig’inthesearchbar,

presstheenterkey, andagain

hittheStartuptab.Thestart-up

managersinprogramssuchasPC

TuneUparejustfancyfront-ends

forthesamefunctionality.

* Thebenefitsofdefraggingan

HDDarevastlyoverstated.Some

peopleliketodefragona weekly

basis,butthat’s usuallypointless.

Undernormalusage,it cantake

many, manymonthsfora diskto

becomefragmentedenoughto

significantlyaffectperformance,

andit’s mostlya factoronly

oncea diskis closetobeingfull.

Adefragevery sixmonthsis

probablymorethanenoughfor

mostusers.

jPaid-foroptimisationsuitesare

usefulif youwanteverythingin

oneplace,but thereare countless

individualprogramsavailablethat

will performthe sametasksfor free

BitsAndPCs

This weekI havebeenmostly...

...readingthatthe councilin a townin North

Carolinahas rejectedplansfor a solarfarm

on the groundsthatit wouldsuckup too

muchof the sun’s energy(no, it’s not satire

• seegoo.gl/5Z5cS8).
  ...playingwithmy retro computersand
  consolesas I sort themout in my loft and
  properlydocumentthem(the current
  favouriteis a GoldStar3DO,and nextout of
  the box will be an Amiga1200).
  ...watchingan old advertfor the awesome
  Evel KnievelStuntCycle(goo.gl/5O7XxC),
  a toy thatwas verynearlyas goodas the
  advertdepicted(I had two,havingworn the
  first one out).
  ...listeningto my sisterrantaboutMicrosoft
  becauseher CanonPIXMAMP220printer

doesn’t workunderWindows10 (thisis

really Canon’s fault,of course).

...feedingthe neighbour’s cat (I think

she spendsmore timehere thanthere,

sometimescurlingup at the bottomof my

bed and stayingovernight).

.

jAnybodystill got one?