In 2015, I saw the best demo that you’ll probably never see: the press-only demo of the Microsoft HoloLens. This week, Microsoft celebrates its 50th anniversary on April 4, 2025, and at PCWorld we’ll be spending some time looking back on how it got here. But PCWorld also celebrated something else even more important: the life of our colleague, Gordon Mah Ung. Gordon passed away from cancer last December, and over the weekend PCWorld staff both past and present gathered together to talk about what made Gordon special. For me, it was a time to reflect. My own career began about 30 years ago, about the same time that Gordon moved over from newspapering into technology journalism. Now that he’s gone, it’s made me realize something our society struggles with; asking Gordon about his life would be a tacit acknowledgement that it was ending. It’s a shame. I wish I asked him what PCs, products, and demos made the biggest impact on him over his decades of covering technology in magazines and on the web. What stood the out strongest to a person who saw almost everything tech had to offer this century? In honor of Gordon, and just in time for Microsoft’s 50th, I want to share the coolest tech demo I’ve ever seen: the closed-doors HoloLens hands-on that Microsoft showed off on Jan. 21, 2015. Microsoft The mother of all (Microsoft) demos Microsoft doesn’t often invite journalists to its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and for me this was my first time stepping foot on its campus. In 1968, Douglas Engelbart gave what’s known as the “mother of all demos,” showing off what became the computer mouse, hyperlinking, and more. For Microsoft, that day was pretty close! Microsoft showed off Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, the HoloLens, and related apps and services, such as the Windows Xbox app. I was there for the news, but most importantly for the demos: how everything looked, felt and worked. And at the end of the presentation, there was the HoloLens. Thurrott.com’s YouTube channel shows off what the journalists in the room saw: Microsoft made a number of computers, tablets and phones available for us to try out Windows 10 and the new Windows Phone OS, and I remember being pretty impressed with Windows 10 and especially Cortana, a cheery, responsive “AI” who could answer questions and perform a number of tasks. Microsoft’s operating systems usually swung back and forth between a professional business focus (Windows 2000, for example) and excessively consumer-y, such as Windows 8. Windows 10 felt like it took some of the best elements of both worlds. While my memory of that day is a little fuzzy, what I do recall is that the HoloLens wasn’t just available to try on. It was a curated experience, and required signing up for one of several groups. At a certain time, a small cohort of reporters was escorted downstairs into the basement to try out the HoloLens in a series of one-on-one demonstrations. The most important thing for a HoloLens viewer was getting the inter-pupillary distance correctly measured. Looking the HoloLens was a bit like looking through a porthole, as the field of view was limited. Naturally, it was important to get that aligned correctly with our eyes. The demo HoloLens that the world saw that day was the slick, Daft Punk-inspired headset that eventually shipped, but we were strapped into a two-piece visor and NUC-like device, tethered by a cord. This was it: Minecraft magic I chose to highlight a virtual walk on Mars as the highlight of the HoloLens launch event, but what still sticks with me, years later, is the Minecraft (“Holo Builder”) demo. We all know Minecraft. It’s a first-person game, where you walk about and, well, mine and craft weapons and tools and building materials. While the game is randomized, the interface isn’t. You’re just a blocky person with a sword or pickaxe, wandering about. The HoloLens changed all that. I walked into a standard living room: sofa, coffee table, a couple of chairs, maybe a plant or two. The HoloLens turned them into the game. This Microsoft concept art is as close as you’ll see to what I saw. I just remember it being less complex but much more vibrant.Microsoft That blew my mind. I’d never thought of actual physical surfaces as a game board, even for someone who had thought that the “battle chess” holographic setup in Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon was pretty cool. The HoloLens allowed me a godlike view, walking around Minecraft plateaus on the couch — even allowing me to peer through “holes” in the coffee table into the fiery Underworld of the game. Of course, there was TNT — and that blew up, too. Could you flick Creepers into the abyss? I don’t really recall if “I” as a player was represented, meaning that I’m not sure if the perspective allowed by the HoloLens really allowed a “game,” per se. It was a fantastic demo, certainly, but that’s all it ever was. But that was part of what made the HoloLens (for the time) so cool; its ability to “scan” your surroundings and apply virtual reality to it. Microsoft did this with several HoloLens apps you likely never saw: a murder mystery that put “clues” in your vision, and a surprisingly fun version of the Conker platforming franchise that allowed you to basically send your character bouncing off desks and stairs. When I had my own HoloLens I literally snuck into an office building and tried playing Conker in an empty room with a staircase and other furniture. Then some lady came out and threatened to call the cops on me, ending that little adventure. Little did she know how close she was to a piece of computing history. The HoloLens would have been a great assistant What sticks with me as the second best demo was the integration of Skype into the HoloLens. Microsoft asked us to rewire a light switch — a real one, with live current flowing through it. As someone who had almost spot-welded a socket wrench while changing a car battery, I had and still have a healthy respect for electricity. What Microsoft had us do was connect to someone who knew what they were doing via Skype, allowing me to share what I was seeing. The remote person then visually highlighted what I needed to do and how to do it. Sure, it was child’s play for someone who knew what they were doing, but it validated all of the “remote assistance” business cases that Microsoft would promote throughout the life of the HoloLens and beyond. Today, how-to YouTube videos have basically replaced this idea, unfortunately, and if you still don’t understand, a handyman or plumber is always on call for a substantial fee. But a decade ago, it seemed like if I could call a call center for assistance, why shouldn’t they be able to remotely help me via the HoloLens? Objects in space may be cooler than they appear One of the people I saw this past weekend was former PCWorld games guru Hayden Dingman, who wrote a superlative series of articles on gaming and the emerging VR space. He and I both loved Tilt Brush, the “painting in space” application that both Hayden and I originally saw in 2015. Microsoft had its own take on Tilt Brush, known as Holo Studio, which allowed you to create 3D objects on the fly, basically allowing you to create them and then pin them various places in virtual space, if I remember correctly. Again, it lacked the emotional resonance that characterized Tilt Brush, and served more as an introduction to showing how the HoloLens could preserve objects in 3D space, even when you weren’t looking at them. Looking back, I’m not really sure why I loved the final demo so much, a HoloLens excursions across the surface of Mars. To be fair, the HoloLens “painted” the ground, preserving the illusion that you were walking on another planet. But peering at virtual rocks and landmarks seems less momentous now than it did at the time. (I still say — as I do every time I think about the HoloLens — that there’s still a fantastic opportunity to recreate Dream Park, the 2017 novel by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes where players LARP an augmented-reality game overlaid over real actors and objects.) Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair A year later, I was in a hotel room in San Francisco, getting an exclusive look at the HoloLens days before Microsoft allowed other reporters to test it out. In 2019, I couldn’t help but bring it out again for a night of playing with it in a darkened office and a retro review. What strikes me, of course, is that the HoloLens ultimately failed, probably doomed by the same lack of applications that ultimately led to the Windows Phone’s demise. Microsoft did produce a HoloLens 2, only to get rid of it, too. Windows Mixed Reality, the offshoot marketed at PC makers, bombed even harder. So did the metaverse. Alex Kipman, the creator of HoloLens, departed Microsoft after allegations of harassment. Ultimately, the HoloLens is the iconic product representing an entire generation of VR failure. I’ve seen early versions of smartphones and computers and consumer electronics, and even prototypes that I agreed not to talk about. One of the only other products that left me dumbfounded was the ability to “pause” live TV during the launch of TiVo and ReplayTV. But really, that was simply because of the instant, transformative effect on culture. The iPhone? No, not even that. For me, the single most mind-blowing tech demo I’ve ever experienced was the ability to peer into a coffee table, light a fuse, and launch skeletons into the air via a virtual block of TNT. I’d love to see something as cool as that yet again. Read...

By now, you’ve heard of the U.S.’s decision to levy tariffs on imports—all goods made in China, as well as select materials worldwide, like steel and aluminum. At the time of this article’s publishing, taxes on products coming from Canada and Mexico also were likely to begin early April, with additional tariffs proposed for more materials and products worldwide. I covered the details about these tariffs in a FAQ, as well as a set of highlights for a shorter way to get up to speed on the situation. I also created a breakout of sample cost increases so you could better see what actual purchases could look like. But most news has focused on the immediate dollars-and-cents effect of these new taxes. What’s been talked about less are the other ways tariffs will impact the tech industry—consequences that could dampen or even drive back certain aspects that we currently take for granted. At best, we’ll see a temporary blow. At worst, we could feel this hit for years to come. Harder to obtain Technology has become more available to the masses over time. Long ago, personal computers were a rare luxury, found only in homes of enthusiasts or the well-to-do. But as popularity rose, devices and hardware became easier to get. People wanted to spend their money on fresh gear—and so supply became more plentiful. Remember when EVGA made graphics cards? Yeah, they don’t any longer, after looking at the cost of that part of their business. Let’s hope the tariffs don’t cause other companies to make similar moves within tech.Brad Chacos / Foundry But when prices go up, demand goes down. Companies already have an incentive to slow the rollout of new products due to the economic instability brought about by the tariffs. If you add on a weakened appetite from consumers for discretionary purchases, vendors have reason to pull back on the production. They may become slower to release successors to products or even a wider variety of products. In particular, smaller companies decide to pause or stop product lines.  Industry insiders expressed this very sentiment to me when discussing the tariffs and their effect. Without the ability to make accurate forecasts, businesses have to proceed with more caution. They’ll either produce less of their usual devices or hardware—or opt out of selling certain items altogether. After years of ever-growing options for consumers, shrinking down to fewer choices will be a sad step backward. Price stagnation (or even increases) Intel’s Kaby Lake Core i7-7700X launched just a couple of months before AMD’s first-generation Ryzen CPUs, sporting a 4-core, 8-thread processor. By fall, its Coffee Lake Core i7-8700K successor had added two more cores and four more threads. Competition makes a difference.Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Innovation and competition help lower costs for technology. Manufacturing becomes more efficient, growing demand spreads production costs over a wider field, and/or the tech is succeeded by something even fresher. But if tech gear becomes less varied and harder to get, those factors won’t be as dependable as an influence on price. How much you’ll pay for a laptop, phone, or piece of hardware will likely stick where it is—or go up. As my colleague Gordon Mah Ung loved to point out, Intel sold consumers 4-core, 8-thread CPUs for years, always at similar MSRPs. And when Team Blue launched its first 10-core processor, the suggested price was a staggering $1,723. Fast forward a year, after AMD released its first generation of Ryzen chips, and Intel’s top consumer chip had inched up in core count, with the $359 Intel Core i7-8700K sporting 6 cores and 12 threads. Its closest rivals? The $329 Ryzen 7 1700 and $399 Ryzen 7 1700X, both of which sported 8 cores and 16 threads. This history lesson shows that consumers get less value when fewer options exist. Companies can charge whatever they want when faced with less pressure to keep pushing the envelope. Slower release of new products Should early adopters become more reluctant to try out new gadgets, companies could stop trying novel new form factors, like this tri-fold smartphone.Luke Baker If you’re a company facing economic uncertainty, how much would you want to invest in different products? Likewise, if you’re a consumer looking at devices with fewer or smaller upgrades that cost as much as the previous model, will you want to buy anything new? It’s a bit of a standoff, and one that the tariffs could spark. For example, let’s say you’re used to buying a replacement phone every two years. But if the features don’t change dramatically, and prices remain high (especially for flagship models), perhaps you’ll stick to what you’ve already got in your pocket. Companies might then not push novel form factors as hard, like tri-fold phones and other variants. Similarly, Nvidia and AMD could continue to delay their attention to budget gamers, instead choosing to focus on graphics cards that will bring in more cash. Sure, Intel is the lone holdout for the budget range, but its market share remains low, and its launches aren’t as regular. Budget gamers might then continue to hold out, biding their time with progressively lower graphics settings and frame rates. (But real talk, if your GTX 970 still does it for you, keep rocking that GPU until its well-deserved retirement.) So while engineers will continue to announce newer protocols and standards (think Wi-Fi 7 or PCIe 7.0), the time to an actual launch may be much further in the future than we’re used to. And that pace change could feel like a screeching halt compared to the boom of the past couple of decades, depending on how big a slowdown is. Unpredictable pricing A close up of a circuit board. Copper is often used in circuit board traces.Michael Schwarzenberger / Pixabay Until recent years, technology’s progress also often resulted in a predictable routine for prices, too. Current devices got cheaper, and the stuff that replaced them often stayed the same price or even lowered, thanks to improved manufacturing or higher demand. Before the tariffs, that reliability in pricing trends started to waver due to factors like rising production costs. And now with these additional taxes dropped on top, we consumers may no longer be able to trust in steady pricing. First, as companies shift manufacturing locations, their logistical costs will increase. But how much is still to be determined, based on resources (e.g., new staff hiring, training, etc.) and the ability for a business to absorb current tariff costs. Some larger corporations may take a hit in an effort to keep their part of the industry more stable, for example. Additional tariffs could also cause sudden changes to MSRPs. Given how the current U.S. import tariffs were enacted, more could be announced very suddenly as well, with a notice of just a few days. Graphics cards enthusiasts (and just PC gamers in general) know how painful supply shortages can be, especially when it comes to street prices.EVGA The prospect of new tariffs looms large, too—in February, the U.S. executive branch proposed a 25 percent tariff on all semiconductors, with the intent to sharply raise the tax over time. More recently, a 25 percent tariff on copper was suggested. (You’ll find copper in circuit boards, wiring, and a lot more related to tech.) If these tariffs stack on top of the existing 20 percent on all Chinese-made goods, you could see a sharp rise in costs for products with multiple components affected by these additional taxes. Another wrinkle: When I last spoke with industry insiders, multiple sources told me they were still learning exactly how the tariffs would be applied. So they themselves are scrambling to adjust and adapt. Finally, if costs go up and availability decreases (as discussed above), you may have more trouble predicting actual retail prices. Street prices could go a bit wild, too. We can look at the GPU market for a glimpse into that chaotic, terrible universe: Few cards are available at the announced price, and any remaining stock is higher due to partner cards adding on extras. Any other cards are only available through resellers at huge markups. Before the pandemic, you could easily shop for devices and hardware, with the expectation of regular sales or discounts. Now surplus budgeting may be a requirement whenever you’re preparing for a new purchase. Read...

The bells are ringing for Windows 10, and many users who have waited are now choosing to update to Windows 11. If you’re one of them, congratulations on continued security updates and new features, but also on an operating system that has received a lot of criticism since its launch in 2021 — sometimes justified, but often exaggerated. Because when you look beyond the glassy surface with its rounded corners and the Start menu in its strict position, the differences are not that insanely big actually. It’s not like switching to Mac or Linux, not by a long shot. In many cases, these are fairly small changes that you can quickly get used to. In many cases, it’s even possible to restore or mimic old behavior, and new additions you don’t need can often be turned off or hidden. We recommend: Windows 11 Pro Relax and enjoy the ride and everything will be easier, right? Microsoft has become a bit more like Apple in one area in recent years. Where the company used to make an effort to step aside and let users choose how they want to use their computer, it now prefers you to do certain things in a certain way. Foundry The most obvious example is that you’re almost forced to sign in with a Microsoft account instead of a traditional local account. For example, it is not normally possible to choose a local account when installing the system. This can be circumvented fairly easily, but Microsoft keeps harping on about all the benefits of its account. In a way, the company is right. With a Microsoft account, for example, you don’t have to worry about registering Windows because the licence key is linked to the account and it’s easy to reactivate if you make changes to the hardware. I find this very useful as I sometimes boot my Windows installation directly and sometimes in a virtual machine — even though the hardware is completely different, the system has no problem with activation. Windows 11 Home can encrypt the local storage with Device Encryption, but it requires a Microsoft account to store a copy of the recovery key — so if you want to use a local account you need a Pro license to encrypt the disk. Further reading: Windows 10 will hit end of life in 2025. Here’s what to expect Other benefits include synchronization of settings and applications installed from the Microsoft Store between computers and automatic authentication for all other Microsoft services and applications. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription for Office, it will be much easier if you are logged into Windows with the same Microsoft account. But if you don’t subscribe to Microsoft 365, don’t use OneDrive, have no need for disk encryption, and rarely or never change hardware, there’s no practical gain from a Microsoft account. If you prefer, you can then opt for local account anyway, even with Windows 11 Home. Create local account with Rufus Rufus The easiest way to do this when reinstalling the system and not updating from an older version is by creating an installation media with the Rufus program. Download an .iso file of Windows 11 from Microsoft and select it in Rufus. Select a connected USB stick of at least 16 gigabytes that has nothing important on it (all current files will be deleted) and click Start. In the dialog box that pops up, tick Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account. You can also tick Create a local account with username and fill in the account name you want, so you don’t have to do it during installation. The Start menu Microsoft The most visible difference in Windows 11 from its predecessor is that the Start menu and program icons have been centered in the Taskbar instead of being on the far left as in all previous versions. But it’s a quick thing to change if you prefer to have it the way it used to be (go to Settings > Customization > Start and change to left-aligned). The big difference lies in the content of the menu. As soon as you click on the Start icon, it is obvious that it is not the old familiar Start menu. There is no list of installed programs, but instead a number of preselected “favorites” are listed in a grid under the heading Pinned. Below these is an area called Recommended, where you can find recently opened and added programs, files, and more. Further reading: Windows 10 support ends soon. Here’s how to upgrade to Windows 11 You can switch off all these recommendations, but the section will still be there. Microsoft hasn’t made it easy, but at the time of writing there is a method that works in the latest version. It requires three additions to the registry. You can save the below code in a plain text file with a .reg extension and import into the Registry Editor. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start] `HideRecommendedSection`=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Education] `IsEducationEnvironment`=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer] `HideRecommendedSection`=dword:00000001 After a reboot, the pinned items area fills the entire center section of the menu. Foundry With a trick, you can get rid of Recommendations and get a cleaner Start menu. What you can’t do anything about, however, is that the Start menu doesn’t show a list of all installed programs. You can still access such a list by clicking All in the top right, but there doesn’t seem to be any hidden setting to make it open that list automatically. In the narrow strip at the bottom you will see the on/off button and an icon for your account, but you can also add other shortcuts in Settings > Customisation > Start > Folders. The Taskbar Aside from the default placement in the center, the big change in the Taskbar is that programs group all their windows behind one icon instead of one icon per window. But just like the placement, you can easily restore the old behavior. You can find the different settings in Settings > Customization > Taskbar (or Taskbar Behaviors). The Explorer Foundry In Windows 11, Microsoft has given Explorer an updated interface with a modern, airier design. If you have a small screen, it can be distracting to have fewer icons. You can change that by choosing View > Show > Compact view. The menu tab area that existed before has been replaced by a narrow toolbar with only a few common functions. Other functions can be accessed via the context menu — click on Show more options to display the old context menu with all options. You won’t miss the fact that functions like copy and paste have become icons. A big improvement is that the program now has built-in tab support, so you can have multiple folders open without having multiple separate windows. Ctrl+T opens a new tab just like in browsers, and you can drag and drop a tab from the tab bar at the top to detach it into its own window. Tab layouts and tab groups Foundry Hover over the maximize button at the top right of an application window and you’ll soon see a small menu of options to quickly adjust the size of the window to take up, say, half or a third of the screen. These are called tick layouts, and if you fill the screen with two or more programs using the feature, they are automatically lumped together in something called a tick group. You can quickly view such a group of programs either by hovering over one of the included programs in the Taskbar and selecting the group there, or by clicking on the new Task View button to the right of the search button and selecting there. Foundry Unfortunately, pinned groups do not save after a restart and if you switch off one of the included programs, the group disappears. A quicker way to pin a window to one half of the screen is to grab it and hold it against the edge of the screen on the side you want it. If you already have an application taking up, say, a third of the screen, the next window will be two-thirds instead of half. Widgets and Copilot Foundry On the far left of the Taskbar (if you have the Start Menu centered — otherwise on the far right before the System Tray) is a new icon which normally shows the current weather in your location. It may also show news headlines of various kinds. Hover over or click it to reveal Windows 11’s new widget feature. To be honest, it sucks, so it’s a good thing Microsoft has made it easy to switch it off. Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and turn off Widgets. Another new feature that is now also included in the latest version of Windows 10 but has been included for longer in Windows 11 is Copilot, which in a way replaces the old voice assistant Cortana. Microsoft The Copilot icon is located in the Taskbar next to the Task View icon (which shows all open windows and virtual desktops), and opens a spartan web-based interface that looks exactly like copilot.microsoft.com. The company has been criticized for not developing a proper Windows application but settling for a web view. But Copilot is one of the more competent free AI chatbots, so you can still use it to brainstorm ideas, proofread texts, and more. If you have a subscription to Copilot Pro, you can log in to access the more advanced features, but otherwise you can skip it. Unlike in Word and Excel, for example, the system doesn’t automatically log you in with the same account you log in with in Windows, but that account should show up as a preset when you try to log in. Updated classics If you come to Windows 11 today and not right after the launch, you will notice a change that has come with updates to the system. Microsoft has gone to great lengths to update some of the oldest but still most used programs in Windows: Paint and Notepad. In addition to an updated, modern interface, both programs have been enriched with AI features. It’s not that the Copilot chatbot itself has been baked in, but specific features for each program. Microsoft In Paint, you can use a new tool to remove distracting objects or blur the background of images. Users with a Copilot Plus computer can also use generative fill to add new objects to images. Notes have been given more features for rewriting text. For example, you can ask Copilot to rewrite in a formal tone or in the form of a poem. The AI can also expand or shorten text. Soon, a function for writing summaries of texts will also be added. Microsoft Other examples of applications you might not recognize are Clock — which has a new design and new features — and the brand new Media Player application, which replaces the old Windows Media Player. Key settings and where to find them Joel Lee / Foundry Microsoft has redesigned the Settings application in Windows 11. Not only have many more settings that were previously in Control Center moved into the modern application, but it also has a new interface that makes it easier to browse settings. In Windows 10, Settings had a separate list of different settings on the left for each category, and to go to a different category, you had to first go to the home screen and then click into that category. In Windows 11, the left-hand column is instead filled with a list of categories, and a menu of different kinds of settings under each category appears on the right. Click on one of these to open the settings included in that sub-category. For example, Bluetooth & devices > Devices where you will find related settings. Some more advanced settings may be hidden in another level of submenus and others behind expandable groups. For example, in Display, the Color Profile and HDR settings are in submenus, while the Multiple monitors settings are expandable. The search function in Settings is really good and if you’re looking for a particular setting and can’t remember exactly where it is, it’s often the quickest way to find it. Read...

TL;DR: Upgrade your PC to Windows 11 Pro for $14.97 before codes sell out (reg. $199). Fewer than 80 are left in stock. Microsoft has officially started the countdown clock on Windows 10. If you’re still procrastinating the upgrade, now is the time to act—before you’re left with no future security updates and paying full price for Windows 11 Pro. While codes last, you’re able to save a whopping $184. These Windows 11 Pro keys also upgrade two compatible PCs, like your personal and work computers, to the latest, most advanced operating system to date. Enjoy a refreshed user design, new productivity tools, improved gaming graphics with DirectX12 Ultimate, and enhanced security with Smart App Control and TPM 2.0. Since this is the Pro version of Windows 11, you’ll also get remote desktop access for viewing files and running programs from your mobile device. There is also BitLocker device encryption for protecting your hard drive in the case of device loss or theft, plus Azure AD, Hyper-V, and Windows Sandbox for professional use cases. Don’t miss this Windows 11 Pro discount—we don’t have many codes left at $14.97 (reg. $199). No coupon is needed to get this price. Microsoft Windows 11 ProSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros File, partition, and drive imaging to common VHD format Full-fledged partition manager Disaster recovery Optional retro command-line and character-based recovery interface Cons Needs to properly vet destination space Minor visual bugs and workflow peccadilloes Our Verdict R-Drive Image offers a ton of great backup features, including disaster recovery and newly expanded support for all the most popular online storage services. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Retailer Price R-tools Technology $44.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: R-Drive Image Retailer Price R-tools Technology $44.95 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket I’ve truly enjoyed reviewing the various iterations of R-Drive Image — it’s been my go-to imaging/backup utility for nearly two decades. It’s a great program, and has still never created a bad backup in my hands. However, bugs, while rapidly fixed once reported, have reared their head in my last few looks. Including one that created an endless failure loop in 7.3. Come on now… What are R-Drive Image 7.3’s features? The big news for this dot upgrade is expanded support for cloud storage services — including the Amazon S3 and S3-compatible repositories, something I bemoaned the lack of in my review of version 7.2. Okay, bemoaned is a bit strong. Wished for? R-Drive Image’s main page. Also new in the cloud arena is support for Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, though only in R-Drive’s pricier Technician and Corporate tiers. Most end-users will be more interested in Dropbox, OneDrive, and the cheaper S3 and S3-compatibles, which the consumer program supports flawlessly. The salient R-Drive Image features include: file, folder, partition, and whole drive imaging in both proprietary and non-proprietary VHD/VHDX formats; copying and cloning discs; a full-featured partition editor; and a bootable recovery disk with a choice between the modern and old-school, character-based interfaces. The R-Drive Image boot disk interface. The character-based interface (shown below) on the recovery disk is still my favorite for freaking out my friends and IT customers. Its appearance is as dated as my own, but it too is a hoot. Most users will prefer the modern interface shown in the previous image. You don’t have to use this retro-interface on the recovery disc. I do, but most users will use the one that mimics the Windows version. There are also Tasks, R-TT speak for jobs. These feature very granular scheduling and even media rotation in the pricier versions. Scripts are the same thing as tasks, but for command-line use. Yes, you can use R-Drive the old-fashioned way. Another feature I love in R-Drive Image 7.x is its replications. These are copies of the image saved to other destinations. In other words, you can define one data set to back up, and back it up to multiple locations using the same “script,” aka job. The R-Drive Image task schedular. If you’re looking for the ability to back up non-Windows computers, the recovery disc allows you to image FAT/exFAT, NTFS, ReFS / ReFS2+ (Resilient File System, Windows 2012/2016 Server), HFS/HFS+/APFS, XFS, Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris), and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS (Linux). Whew. That said, Apple, a tough-to-love company, makes it nearly impossible to boot from unsigned media these days, so backing up your Mac using R-Drive Image no longer works. I mention this because I tried and was disappointed that the FAT32 USB boot stick didn’t even show up. One R-Drive Image complaint is that while the program supports mounted network drives, WebDAV, and FTP, there’s no way to add files from a network location that’s not mounted as a drive letter by Windows. You can type in a network URL in the file name field for the destination though, and R-TT was asking me how to ameliorate this lack as I wrote this article. Expect this addition soon. My only other complaint is that the program will mildly warn you, but not stop you from trying to write an image to a destination that doesn’t have room for it. The latter became particularly apparent as a flaw during testing. More on that in the performance discussion below. You can define one data set to back up, and back it up to multiple locations using the same ‘script,’ aka job. How easy to use is R-Drive Image 7.3? For basic operations, R-Drive Image is quite easy to use. It walks you wizard-style through selecting files/folders, drives, or partitions, then where you want to write the resulting image. Creating recovery discs is simple as well. Where the program could use a bit of work is in the Tasks/Scripts area. The way they’re portrayed in the interface, it’s not immediately apparent that tasks are for the GUI and scripts are for command-line use. Yes, RTFM. You can specify media rotation options for any task. But only in the pricier professional versions of the program. I certainly appreciate that you can save ad-hoc jobs as command-line scripts, but it would be nice if you could save them as a task as well. Tasks, or recurring jobs, can only be created in the Tasks pane. This is also where you’ll find the retention options and scheduling. I’d also like to see an “Execute” button in the task bar. As it stands, you must right-click over the task to run it. R-Drive Image doesn’t make heavy use of right-click context menus, so this wasn’t something I immediately thought of. Double-clicking starts editing. I would’ve reversed those choices. How much is R-Drive image 7.3? The end-user version of R-Drive Image, good for one computer is $45. The transferrable-seat Technician version is $299, the Corporate version I tested is $189, and there are multi-seat and transferrable-seat versions for $500 and $900, respectively. You can see the full list and the feature differences at this link. How does R-Drive Image 7.3 perform? You may notice that this section of the review isn’t titled “How fast is…?” That’s because reliability and bug-free operation are every bit as important as how quickly backups are created. I’ve touted R-Drive Image as the most stable and reliable backup program I have ever used, and until version 7 — it was. It still is, when operations complete, but I discovered a couple of small visual glitches plus a rather large bug in testing 7.3 (7304) that I actually traced back to 7.0. The company fixed the issues within two days, which is fantastically responsive, but they should’ve been caught by the company before release. It’s not this error message that was disturbing, it was that clicking on cancel just brought it up again. Ending the program via Task Manager was required. Basically, before the fix, if R-Drive Image ran out of room on the destination media during a file imaging task it went into a closed loop with the error dialog that you couldn’t cancel out of. I had to end the program using Task Manager. Drive and partition imaging jobs showed the error dialog, but you could cancel out of it. Then there were the overlapping buttons shown below. Anyone using the program could spot them, which tells me that this version was likely rushed out the door. These overlapping buttons indicate that not enough people at the company are kicking the tires of new releases before they go public. Aside from the one fatal operational glitch and mis-drawn buttons, R-Drive Image performed as I’ve come to expect — admirably. Around a dozen operations to and from internal and external storage, NAS boxes, and online storage services (Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive) went off without a hitch. The recovery media also booted just fine and backup/restore operations were glitch-free. This is more what I’m used to with R-Drive Image. In the final analysis, while the program had some issues with not enough space, all backups that succeeded retained their integrity and were mountable and restorable. That’s the most important aspect. Should you buy R-Drive image? Despite the glitches, which didn’t affect the ultimate sanctity of the backups, I still trust R-Drive Image’s backup engine. Additionally, with the new online support and multiple destinations per job, it’s one of the most complete backup solutions available at the price. I will continue to use and recommend it, but stop letting these faith-challenging bugs out the door, R-TT. Read...

Google has released Chrome version 134.0.6998.177/178 for Windows, while Chrome updates for macOS, Linux, and Android have yet to be announced. The security vulnerability closed by the update is apparently already being exploited by malicious actors. The makers of other Chromium-based browsers are likely to follow suit quickly. In the Chrome Releases blog post, Srinivas Sista names the eliminated vulnerability CVE-2025-2783, which was discovered by external security researchers and reported to Google. Google classifies the vulnerability as high risk. It’s an exploitable bug in Mojo on Windows that occurs under unspecified circumstances. (Mojo is a collection of runtime libraries for inter-process communication.) The vulnerability was reported to Google on March 20th by Boris Larin and Igor Kuznetsov, who are security experts at Kaspersky. According to Google, there are indications that this vulnerability is already being exploited for attacks in the wild. These indications are likely to have come from Larin and Kuznetsov, who presumably discovered the issue while analyzing malware attacks. It remains unclear who is attacking whom, but the attacks are apparently targeting Windows computers, as Google only provided this Chrome update for Windows. A week ago, Google released a security update for Chrome that closed two other security vulnerabilities. Chrome usually updates itself automatically when a new version is available. You can trigger the update check manually using the menu item Help > About Google Chrome. Google plans to release Chrome 135 in the coming week. The makers of other Chromium-based browsers are now required to follow suit with updates. Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge should be updated with this security vulnerability fix later this week. Opera is still stuck on the outdated Chromium version 132. All of this once again highlights the importance of having good security software on your PC. Vulnerabilities exist everywhere and attackers can exploit them before app developers like Google are even aware of them. Antivirus suites offer an additional layer of protection, so check out our recommended PC antivirus software if you aren’t using one. Read...

The firewall is one of the most important security features in a computer environment. In the classic sense, a firewall is set up on an appliance, such as a computer that fulfills just a single, narrowly defined task — those found in companies, public authorities, and scientific institutions, for instance. A firewall of this type monitors the connection between two networks, such as the internal LAN and the internet, to prevent against unauthorized access. There are also personal firewalls such as the one that’s preconfigured in Windows, or available as freeware or as a paid software solution. In contrast to a classic firewall, a personal firewall does not protect an entire network, but only the individual computer on which it is installed. It’s the barrier that prevents any harmful elements from accessing the files that you have stored locally. The Windows firewall Microsoft calls the integrated Windows firewall the Windows Defender Firewall. This is the most important thing to know about the Defender Firewall: As the configuration of a firewall is a complex matter and requires a lot of prior knowledge from the user, Microsoft has defined three standard configurations for the Defender firewall. Which of these is activated depends on the selected network profile. If you select the public profile in the Windows Settings under “Network and Internet,” Windows seals off the computer from the outside world. In this case, the computer cannot be found on the network and it is not possible to share files and printers with other users. If you are not connected to a domain, you can choose between two network profiles in Windows, “Public” and “Private.” If you select “Public,” Windows largely closes the doors.Chris Hoffman / IDG However, if you set the private profile, you can share folders, files, and printers with others and use apps for internal communication. Windows also provides a domain profile for professional networks. Windows Firewall in practice The Windows firewall is active immediately after the operating system is installed and analyzes all incoming data packets to determine whether they have been requested by an application. This is called Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI), so the Windows firewall is a Stateful Packet Inspection firewall. However, programs such as Facebook Messenger or remote maintenance tools such as Teamviewer would not work if they were unable to receive unsolicited messages or calls. When they are installed behind a firewall, they therefore open one or more ports via which they receive incoming messages. They also customize other firewall settings. Readjustment by the user is not necessary. Teamviewer and other applications that react to signals from outside set the Windows firewall accordingly during installation. Foundry Verdict on the Defender firewall The Windows firewall protects the computer from malware that has infiltrated another PC and now wants to spread via the network. It is therefore strongly recommended not to deactivate it. However, at least in the default setting, it cannot prevent malware that has managed to infect one computer from trying to spread it to other PCs. Specialized firewall applications can do this better. Firewalls from third-party manufacturers The Comodo firewall can block applications, hide the PC in the network, and list which programs are currently connected to the internet. However, it only comes in a complete package with an antivirus program.Comodo If you travel a lot and use your notebook to connect to other people’s LAN and WLAN networks, you naturally have no control over the router settings. In this case, we recommend using a third-party firewall. The Comodo Firewall, which is sold as part of the Comodo Internet Security package, is widely used. Unfortunately, the package can only be installed as a whole, and the setup also includes the Comodo antivirus program. Once the installation is complete, click on the shield icon labelled “Protection” on the left-hand side and click on “Firewall” in the next window. You can then prohibit or allow applications to connect to the internet, you can block incoming connections via port blocks or have them reported, you can manage your network connections and the active connections to the internet. If you are travelling and in a foreign WLAN, for example, it is advisable to hide the ports and only allow the applications that you actually need. In some cases, you may need to allow several program files to access the internet. You can often find information on this from the manufacturer or in the help forums on the internet. Mobile PCs require a more comprehensive protection function than stationary computers. A more configurable and feature-rich firewall from a third-party manufacturer is recommended for them. Sandbox for isolation Sandboxes are a component of many personal firewalls. Under “Protection,” you can access Comodo’s sandbox function, which is called “Containment” here. A sandbox is used to run individual, selected applications in a closed memory area where it cannot cause any damage to the rest of the PC. In a sandbox, for example, suspicious downloaded EXE files and other programs can be executed without the user having to worry about catching a virus. You must first activate the Windows sandbox via “Programs and Features” in the Control Panel.Foundry Windows Pro also has a sandbox, but you have to activate it first. (It’s not available for Windows Home.) To do this, open the Control Panel and go to “Programs and Features” in the icon view. In the following window, click on “Enable or disable Windows features,” scroll down, and tick the box next to “Windows sandbox.” get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro After confirming with “OK,” Windows installs some files and then reboots. After logging in, you will see a window with a second Windows desktop. To test programs there, you can copy them to the sandbox using the clipboard. You can close the sandbox window like any other window. To open it again, enter Windows Sandbox in the search field of the taskbar and press Enter. Further reading: Be safe! How I set up a ‘Paranoid PC’ with Windows Sandbox to surf the risky web Professional firewall for home use Professional firewalls usually run on appliances, i.e. their own hardware, and therefore cost several thousand dollars. However, there is a cheaper option: The free open-source firewall Ipfire is also available for the Raspberry Pi from version 4b with 1GB RAM and more. The software can shield entire networks from the outside world, is easy to use, and even offers an optional intrusion detection system (IDS) that monitors for changes that are typically caused by malware. With IDS, however, the memory expansion should be 4GB or more. Read...

At HP Amplify 2025, the company’s big annual conference for showcasing its latest products and services, HP unveiled nearly the entire set of its new PCs for the year. I lost count at some point, but HP claims over 60 new models of laptops and PCs. While technically true, it’s a bit fudged—the company counts some variants of the same computer as separate. For example, if the same laptop comes in Intel, AMD, and Snapdragon options, then each one is a distinct “model” even if everything else is the same. That also goes for screen sizes, 2-in-1 variants, and so on. The calm before the storm, just before HP Amplify 2025 kicked off.Mattias Inghe / Foundry Even so, there were a lot of computers. I was there in person, wandering around the showroom with everything on display, along with plenty of other innovations (especially for business customers), such as management systems, security and printing solutions, etc. But I was there for the computers, from neat little desktop PCs to mighty workstations to laptops of all kinds. There were so, so many laptops. OmniBook takes over the laptops It was hard to tell them apart, but HP aims to make them easier to distinguish than before. The older, confusing sub-brands—Pavilion, Envy, and Spectre—have been scrapped and replaced by OmniBook. HP ushered in that line with a few OmniBook laptops last year, but now everything will be OmniBook going forward. These OmniBooks are then divided by suffixes. For example, the OmniBook 3 is cheap and simple, the OmniBook 5 more “normal” and mid-range, the OmniBook 7 more luxurious and lighter, and the OmniBook X supposedly at the top… except for the OmniBook Ultra, which is really the high-performance tier. Lots of new business laptops being shown off at HP Amplify 2025.Mattias Inghe / Foundry Are HP’s laptops now easier to parse? Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll have to come back in a year or two when all the older models have disappeared and OmniBook reigns alone. But to make matters a bit more confusing, there’s also the new OmniDesk line of desktop PCs and OmniStudio line of all-in-one machines. HP’s gaming PCs retain the names Omen and Victus (with only a single model launched in the latter). Business laptops are still called ProBook and EliteBook, but specialized model names are apparently being phased out here as well. (I didn’t see any new “Dragonfly” ultra-light business laptops, for example, but some EliteBooks were really slim.) I saw all kinds of consumer PCs, like these stylish desktop OmniDesk models.Mattias Inghe / Foundry Finally, there’s the Z series of powerful workstations for professionals, which get to keep their names. Plenty of new ZBook laptops and Z desktop PCs were also on show. AI is creeping into everything It’s no secret that HP is making a major investment in AI. Expect all new releases, starting with the OmniBook 5 and up, to be equipped with an NPU that can run local AI features. What about the budget-focused OmniBook 3? It’s unclear whether that one will also come with AI capabilities. I didn’t see any, but maybe with time. And even more computers! It just never ended.Mattias Inghe / Foundry I couldn’t quite figure out if there was Copilot+ certification across the board, but HP has added several of its own AI features to its machines, right down to the cheapest models. For example, there are Poly Studio (which adds webcam effects and controls, plus noise reduction for microphones) and AI Companion (HP’s own AI app that indexes local documents and lets you do semantic searches via a chat interface). All of this happens locally on your computer’s NPU to keep your data private and secure. My 5 favorites from all the ones I saw Mattias Inghe / Foundry HP Omen 16 Slim. The new gaming laptop that’s barely 0.89 inches thick and only weighs 5.29 pounds but has a fast 16-inch display, massive cooling elements, and heavy performance under the hood with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics. Learn more about it in PCWorld’s hands-on experience of it. Mattias Inghe / Foundry HP OmniBook 7 Aero. A very stylish 13-inch laptop that weighs about 2 pounds and packs plenty of performance thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI 300 processor. It has decent graphics performance, 50 TOPS for AI, and low-power operation. I’m really looking forward to trying this one. Mattias Inghe / Foundry HP OmniBook 5. This one comes in sizes from 14 to 16 inches and feels very stable, comfortable, and well-built for something that starts around $800. That’s a great price for a quality laptop with AI performance, and it could be many people’s first AI PC. Mattias Inghe / Foundry HP Z2 G1a. When I tested Asus’ monster ROG Flow Z13 tablet, I wondered what a compact desktop PC with the same processor (Ryzen AI Max Pro 395) could do with more cooling and higher power. The answer is here. HP has put it in a compact mini PC format and is selling it as an HP Z workstation. It really does go fast—and it costs. The AMD rep I spoke to said it would be released globally, but couldn’t say for sure if it was for all markets. I hope so because I want to test it. Mattias Inghe / Foundry HP EliteStudio 8. This all-in-one computer seriously lives up to its “all in one” epithet. With a large, built-in Poly webcam that pops up, speakers built for clear voices, and AI-powered microphone management, along with Poly Studio software, this machine is perfect as a video conferencing workstation. With its last-gen Intel Core Ultra processor, AI performance isn’t quite up to scratch, but it’s good enough for most tasks. KVM functionality means you can also use it to dock your laptop. It certainly seems complete and very all-in-one. There could of course be more highlights in the deluge of computer news. If I were to ask HP, they’d say every single one was a highlight, so I was none the wiser. But these made my tester fingers itch and I hope all of them can be found and reviewed during the year. Read...

Far be it from me to tell the most valuable company on the planet what to do. But Nvidia, you do realize that your whole schtick is graphics cards, right? You know, GeForce, those chunky go-fast gadgets you’ve been selling for 25 years or so, to let people play video games? Because based on some recent news, they don’t seem to be the company’s biggest focus. New Nvidia-designed Arm desktops After a couple of months of graphics card launches that have been frustrating at best and a complete retail disaster at worst, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took to the stage at the company’s self-branded GPU Technology Conference. Now, to set the proper tone for a bit of admittedly entitled whinging, Nvidia has rebranded the initial portion of this yearly event as an “AI conference,” so it’s hardly surprising that AI computing is the lion’s share of the two-hour keynote talk. Even so, I can’t help but feel a little miffed that Huang fawned over new Nvidia-branded desktop computers it’ll be selling directly to the AI industry and individuals. The DGX Spark mini-PC and DGX Station desktop are based on the new Grace Blackwell AI-focused GPUs. This sort of setup was previously available only in datacenter hardware. The specs for the larger DGX Station aren’t available yet, but the Blackwell GPU in the smaller Spark (previously revealed as Project DIGITS) will be paired to a custom Arm CPU. Nvidia Despite being loaded with up to 128GB of memory and 4TB of storage, this thing isn’t going to make a good fit as a conventional desktop — and at a $3000 pre-order price, it wouldn’t find many buyers anyway. Nvidia is positioning both the DGX Spark and DGX Station as all-in-one solutions for running local AI models, along with a token mention of “researchers, data scientists, robotics developers, and students.” Nvidia will be partnering with Asus, Boxx, Dell, HP, Lambda, and Supermicro to manufacture and sell both desktops “later this year.” Didn’t Nvidia use to sell graphics cards? Again, it’s not as if it’s illegal or even distasteful to for Nvidia to branch out into other markets beyond gaming chips for PCs, or even beyond gaming entirely (remember that Nvidia powers the Nintendo Switch with Tegra mobile chips, after abandoning the smartphone market over a decade ago). And Nvidia hardware is in a lot of things you might not expect, including connected cars, medical devices, and other industrial hardware. But as a PC gamer myself and an advocate for other gamers, I can’t help but feel a little betrayed. While retailers, AIB partners, and scalpers are eating good on the scarcity of new GeForce cards, Nvidia is preparing entirely new product lines for the AI industry. And not just the “big iron” hardware that’s made it an unstoppable juggernaut of tech over the last few years, relatively small, targetted devices for individual users. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Nvidia can make both, of course…but even a big green giant only has so much chip production capacity. I don’t have any empirical evidence to prove it, but I’m not the only one who feels like the woefully inadequate supply of new RTX 50-series graphics cards has something to do with all these new industrial chips and brand new Arm processors being made for customers with even deeper pockets. It doesn’t help that Nvidia has been evasive, if not entirely deceptive, in addressing its supply issues as RTX cards vanish from shelves the second they arrive. Nvidia jumped from one peak to the next by riding the crypto boom right into the AI boom. And while recent developments have caused it to look more like a bubble, Nvidia stock is still more than double what it was at the beginning of 2024. The cold calculus of profit suggests that the company is far more concerned with AI, for the present if not the future, than it is with PC gaming. As my grandpa used to say, make hay while the sun shines. Opportunities for AMD and Intel But that focus can’t help but alienate PC gamers, and it sure doesn’t help that Nvidia seems to be making a lot of money off of that, too. It creates an opportunity for the competition. If AMD can’t make infinite money off the AI industry, it can sure sell some graphics cards, especially to the large chunk of PC gamers who can’t afford four figures for a new GPU. While Nvidia still dominates to the point of monopoly for discrete graphics, recent sales data indicates that AMD is clawing back some market share, especially in markets like Japan and Taiwan. And if AMD is making a play for the mid-range, newcomer Intel is doing the same thing for the budget space with its second generation of Arc cards. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Nvidia announcing new AI PCs isn’t necessarily at the expense of its ability to deliver gaming GPUs. But it isn’t happening in a vacuum, either…and Nvidia is failing to deliver gaming GPUs. If you’re considering an upgrade or a new purchase, maybe give the competition a try. It’s not as if Nvidia even needs a desktop GPU monopoly anymore. And if the AI bubble bursts, and the company is no longer flush with cash…a little ego bruising might be good for it when it decides that it wants to sell graphics cards to PC gamers after all. Read...

The time has come! Microsoft is now sending out emails to Windows 10 users reminding them that end of support for the still-very-popular operating system is imminent. Users have begun receiving the first of these emails in their inboxes, reports Windows Latest. The emails begin with a heading that boldly proclaims “End of support for Windows 10 is approaching.” Below that, there’s a button to “check upgrade eligibility” (presumably for bumping your PC up to Windows 11) as well as a link to “Explore new computers” (for users who are still on older PCs that aren’t compatible with Windows 11). And below that, ther’s an FAQ on what Windows 10 end of support means. Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro While Microsoft explains that Windows 10 will no longer be supported after October 14, 2025, the FAQ fails to mention that Microsoft is offering paid extended support for at least another year. The FAQ also gives some advice on what to do with a retired Windows 10 PC, emphasizing that Windows 10 PCs won’t simply stop working after end of support hits but will grow increasingly more susceptible to malware and hacker attacks because the company won’t be providing security updates that address newly discovered security flaws. The FAQ ends with the inevitable claim that Windows 11 is the most secure Windows ever and that you should please upgrade to it. How to continue using Windows 10 As mentioned above, Microsoft’s email fails to bring up the company’s offer of one year of extended support for a $30 fee. Alternatively, you can use 0Patch to keep getting updates after support ends. If neither suits your fancy, you can also look into some other ways to save your PC once Windows 10 hits end of life. What you shouldn’t do is keep using Windows 10 without further security updates as that’ll leave you exposed and vulnerable to all kinds of cybersecurity shenanigans. If you decide to do this anyway, make sure you’re protected by reputable antivirus software and VPN services. And if you continue using your Windows 10 computer, Microsoft also advises that you back up your files to OneDrive. Read...