PCWorld Jun-14

FROM THE BOLD vibrancy of its Start screen to its new digital assistant, Cortana, Windows Phone 8.1 firmly establishes itself as a top-tier smartphone platform. And that’s critically important, considering that Microsoft’s mobile operating system currently holds a market share of less than 4 percent among U.S. smartphone buyers. If you’re eager to try it out, you can sign up right now for Windows Phone Preview for Developers (go.pcworld.com/winphonedev). (Keep in mind that doing so may void your phone’s warranty.) Otherwise, you’ll have to wait a month or two for your carrier to vet the free update: It will be available to all Windows Phone 8 devices, including the Nokia Lumia line. (Update: Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 (go.pcworld.com/winphonerelease) will be released on June 24, according to a Windows Phone support page, although…

THE PERSONAL COMPUTER has endured for more than 30 years. It’s a mature technology. But smartphone digital assistants—the new breed of data butlers designed to make our lives simpler—have yet to climb out of their cribs. The perfect digital assistant would anticipate our every need, retrieving answers from search engines, connecting us with our social networks, and tapping into maps and calendars to guide our travel and appointments. So far, no single digital assistant has figured out how to connect all the dots effectively and intuitively. The three big names in the field are Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, and Google Now. We expect these services to evolve from helpful librarians to full-fledged personal concierges. All of them do an admirable job of responding to queries, but they don’t yet anticipate what we…

MICROSOFT MAY HAVE CALLED IT QUITS for Windows XP, but Avast, a vendor of free antivirus software, projects that for millions of users, that won’t mean squat. Avast previously reported that 23.6 percent of its users were still running Windows XP. In the days before Microsoft ended support of Windows XP on April 8, Avast surveyed close to 165,000 of those users. The results, released in a blog post (go.pcworld.com/avast), indicate that 27 percent of Avast’s Windows XP users don’t plan on doing anything, even though Avast itself has reported that systems running Windows XP are six times more likely to suffer a virus or hacker attack than systems running Windows 7 (go.pcworld.com/attack). Avast, like other antivirus software vendors, has committed to supporting Windows XP for two years or more. Microsoft will…

MOST MODERN PROGRAMS can run just fine on PCs that are several years old. And thanks to the rise of cloud services, older PCs are even less of a drag on productivity these days. Extending the useful life of your computer doesn’t have to involve expensive upgrades. Keeping your system physically clean, following some basic preventive measures, and exercising common sense can add years of life to your machine. Keep your PC sparkling Virtually every computer becomes laden with dust, dirt, hairballs, and other junk given enough time. The grime can suffocate the hardware inside your PC, generating heat and putting stress on the components—which in turn can reduce performance and even contribute to a component’s premature death. Clean your computer thoroughly every 6 to 12 months. For pointers, see our guides to cleaning…

BOOT UP A NEW COMPUTER for the first time, and it may sputter and struggle, burdened with all the junk that vendors dump onto their new machines. Bloatware, also known as crapware, is more than annoying—it actively consumes your computer’s resources. Cleaning it off is worth some time and effort. PC profit margins are low, and preinstalling trial programs and other junk gives computer makers a bit of extra money—and, to be fair, lowers your PC’s purchase price. But many types of preinstalled software are just plain bad. You’ll often find antivirus utilities that attempt to scare you into paying by claiming that your PC is at risk, advertising-filled games you don’t want to play, and demos that give you only an hour before becoming useless. Not every program on a new…

WHETHER IT’S THE NSA, hackers, or marketers, someone is looking over your shoulder whenever you use your PC. You can minimize your exposure, though. Follow these tips to stay on guard and stay off the grid. Conceal your Internet activity Start with private-browsing mode, which prevents your Web browser from keeping a history of the pages you view. Look in your browser’s main menu for Incognito mode (Chrome), the Private Window option (Firefox), or InPrivate Browsing (Internet Explorer). Private browsing doesn’t remove every trace of your Internet activities. Private browsing doesn’t remove every trace of your Internet activities. Any files you save will remain, and your Web traffic is still visible on the server’s side. Any unencrypted data you send is as susceptible to interception as it is in a normal browser session. A more…