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| PC World - 11 hours ago (PC World)Your PC is capable of running not one, but two Windows apps designed to protect you and your system against online threats: Windows Security and Microsoft Defender.
Telling them apart can be tricky, though. Thanks to a few name changes, what’s old sounds new and what’s new sounds old. If you haven’t kept up with the updates, it may not be clear which one you want — or if you actually prefer to run both.
To help you decide, I’ve broken down what each app does. Let’s dig in.
What is Windows Security?
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Previously known as Windows Defender, Windows Security is the most current name for the app that ties Microsoft’s basic antivirus and network protections together. Similar to third-party antivirus software, you get a unified interface to make changes to the app and access manual scans. Separate tabs break out various settings:
Virus & threat protection: From this tab, you can run manual scans (Quick, Full, Custom, or Offline), change how your system screens for threats, and set up more stringent ransomware defenses.
Account protection: Guard the Microsoft account tied to your PC, as well as strengthen Windows’ login process.
Firewall & network protection: Refine your settings in order to tailor screening of incoming and outgoing traffic.
App & browser control: Adjust how Windows screens apps for suspicious behavior, and if Edge runs in an isolated, sandboxed environment.
Device security: Get information about your PC’s deeper security protections in Windows — core virtualization, security processor (TPM), and secure boot.
Device performance & health: See a quick overview of the general “health” of your PC with regard to software issues or storage drive issues.
Family options: Filter viewable content for users on the PC, as well as see breakdowns of device usage. You can manage your family group through the web portal.
Click on the arrows (desktop) or swipe (mobile) to see each tab in the Windows Security app.
What is Microsoft Defender?
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Confusingly, the Microsoft Defender app shares its name with the antivirus engine powering Windows Security’s malware protection — but they’re not directly tied. Instead, the Defender app offers additional defenses against online threats for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers. It works equally with either Windows Security (including the Microsoft Defender Antivirus engine) or third-party antivirus software.
Identity theft monitoring: Through a partnership with Experian, Microsoft Defender will alert you to data breaches and any fraudulent activity on your credit reports. The service also provides up to $1 million in restoration costs and $100,000 in lost funds if you are a victim of identity theft.
Device protection: You can watch to see if your devices (up to four) or those linked through your Microsoft Family Group have any suspicious activity occurring and be notified through this app. Notifications will be sent through Windows’ notification system and you can also view them through the Defender app.
Previously, the Defender app also offered an encrypted VPN feature called Privacy Protection, which provided up to 50GB of data per month, detected unsecure Wi-Fi connections, and supported multiple platforms. However, in February 2025, Microsoft ended support for Privacy Protection and removed it from the Windows app.
Click on the arrows (desktop) or swipe (mobile) to see the different sections of the Microsoft Defender app.
Windows Security vs. Microsoft Defender
Windows Security and Microsoft Defender are complimentary apps rather than competing.
Windows Security defends against online threats, including ransomware, and it’s included for free with a Windows license. (Heads-up: If you ever see a popup notification telling you to call a phone number or pay to renew, you’ve either visited a compromised website or your PC has been directly compromised — time to run an antivirus scan ASAP.)
Microsoft Defender then rounds out those protections by letting you shield your online activity from other users on the same network, keeping you informed of data leaks and credit fraud, and monitoring your devices for vulnerabilities.
Should you use Microsoft Defender?
Windows Security and Microsoft Defender paired together can rival basic third-party antivirus suite subscriptions.Alaina Yee / Foundry
If you’re already a Microsoft 365 subscriber, having both Windows Security and Microsoft Defender set up and active is comparable to a very simple third-party antivirus suite subscription — and you don’t have to pay extra.
However, if you’re not yet a paid Microsoft 365 user, want additional integrated features (like a password manager), or prefer a different interface, independent antivirus software will be a better fit for your needs. You can check out our top recommendations in our best antivirus software roundup, which covers all types of plans. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 3:55AM (PC World)If you’re in need of a budget laptop for browsing the web and other simple tasks, then you have to stop what you’re doing and take a look at this amazingly cheap Google Pixelbook Go at B&H. It’s on sale for just $280 right now, a 57 percent discount off its normal $650.
In our review of the Google Pixelbook Go, we named it “a perfectly good Chromebook that elevates the category” and really appreciated its overall design, performance, and speed.
This is a 13.3-inch Chromebook with a touchscreen that comes in handy when you’re using other apps beyond Chrome. The 1080p display delivers great visuals no matter what you’re doing, whether that’s running browsing the web, streaming videos, or working.
The Pixelbook Go runs on an 8th-gen Intel Core m3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of SSD storage. It’s a solid daily driver machine with two USB-C ports, one for charging and one for accessories.
It has a mobility-focused design, so it’s particularly great for working on the go. “The Pixelbook Go is delightfully thin and light,” our review notes, such that you can take it with you everywhere without worrying about your backpack being too cramped or heavy.
Get yourself this super-affordable Chromebook for just $280 at B&H. The one catch is that this deal is only available today! Don’t delay and snatch it before this awesome opportunity expires.
Today only! Get 57% off on this Google Pixelbook Go laptopBuy now at B&H Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 3:15AM (PC World)Online safety doesn’t have to be complicated. With some simple steps, you can easily protect your PC from malware and safeguard your personal data with very little extra effort.
The best part? None of these tips cost money. In fact, most important security tools you need are completely free. You can keep yourself and your PC safe online without spending a single dime. Here’s how.
1. Use an antivirus
Antivirus software is a must-have for any PC. Thankfully, you don’t have to go out of your way to get one anymore because all Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs come with Windows Security and Microsoft Defender, giving you access to a minimal-yet-capable antivirus.
It automatically scans your system in the background and checks the files you download and the applications you run, spotting malware before it can take hold. You can go further and configure Microsoft Defender for extra security if you want.
Or you could opt for a third-party antivirus, many of which come with extra security features. If you decide to take this route, know that we currently recommend Norton 360 Deluxe, but any antivirus will do if all you care about is basic protection.
Recommended: The best antivirus software for Windows
Just be sure to leave your antivirus’s real-time protection feature enabled. Don’t turn off real-time scanning because mistakes can happen to anyone—and when they do, you want your antivirus to be active.
2. Use a password manager
Once you start using a password manager, you’ll never go back—it’s that life-changingly convenient. So, if you aren’t using one yet, we highly recommend using a password manager. (A free one, even!)
Recommended: The best password managers worth using
The unfortunate truth is that many companies—no matter how big they are or how reputable they seem—end up facing data breaches and leaks that release their password databases to the public.
That’s why the biggest risk you can take online is reusing the same password for multiple accounts. If your password gets leaked in a data breach, hackers can use your email/password combination to break into your other accounts that use the same password.
The solution? Use strong passwords that are unique every single time.
The problem? Remembering so many passwords is almost impossible—and that’s why you need to be using a password manager.
A password manager remembers all of your passwords and associates them with their respective sites, apps, accounts, etc. All you need to do is remember the master password; the password manager will fill in the appropriate password whenever you need to log in.
3. Keep your software up to date
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Modern operating systems and all the applications on your system receive regular security updates that fix exploits and vulnerabilities. If you skip these important patches, you’re opening yourself up to risks.
The good news is that most modern applications—whether it’s Windows, Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, or something else—regularly check for and automatically install such updates.
If you’ve disabled automatic updates, you should reconsider. There may be a niche reason to do so, but most of the time you’re just putting yourself in danger.
And yes, sooner is better than later. If your operating system or web browser says it needs to restart to install updates, do it. Sure, it’s inconvenient to restart your Windows PC or web browser in the middle of something, but it just might protect you from an attack.
4. Stop using unsupported operating systems and applications
It’s one thing for operating systems and applications to get automatic updates—it’s another thing when those updates are discontinued.
No software lasts forever. Eventually, developers and companies end long-term support and stop issuing security updates for older hardware and software. At that point, the hardware/software should be treated as unsafe and you should stop using it as soon as you can.
What happens if you keep using it? Older software and unsupported devices gradually grow increasingly more vulnerable to attack, and it’ll only be a matter of time before you get hit with something.
For example, Windows 7 is no longer supported and using it puts you at risk because newly discovered security holes aren’t being patched. The same is true for individual applications—like Office 2016 and earlier versions of Microsoft Office, which no longer receive security updates.
While an older version of Office might work well for your needs, it could open you up to an attack. For example, you might download a malicious Word document that exploits an Office vulnerability to hack you.
That’s one reason why Microsoft Office 365 is a good deal: you’ll always have access to the latest versions of Office on all your devices.
5. Be mindful when browsing the web
How you browse the web is important. In an ideal world, you shouldn’t have to worry about the sites you visit and whether something could go wrong—but the world is far from ideal.
Untrustworthy websites can attack your browser through unpatched security flaws. More commonly, sketchy websites may try to download malware onto your PC, trick you with misleading advertisements, or get your personal information with phishing scams.
Take care when browsing the web and be mindful. Think twice before downloading software, avoid dodgy sites that make promises that seem too good to be true, and don’t enter personal information on any website that you haven’t vetted and trust 100 percent.
6. Only download files and software from trustworthy sites and sources
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Any time you download software, you have to be very careful. Even something as innocuous as a PDF or Word document can potentially wreak havoc on your PC if it exploits an unpatched flaw in your PDF reader or Microsoft Word.
Any file you download off the internet can do nasty things to your PC, and only an antivirus that recognizes it will protect you. So, you should only download, install, and run software that you completely trust—and only if you get it from a source you trust.
Also, stop ignoring Windows SmartScreen! On Windows, SmartScreen warnings pop up when you try to run software that few people have downloaded and run before. You can tell Windows to run the application anyway, but you should always pause and consider whether you truly trust the application. If you don’t, then you shouldn’t run it. When in doubt, stick with known-as-trustworthy applications.
7. Learn to identify phishing scams
Phishing scams have grown into a huge problem over the last several years, and you’re at risk whether you’re using a Windows PC, a Chromebook, a smartphone, or anything else.
Long story short: a phishing scam is one where someone tries to bait you into giving away sensitive information or installing malware. This is usually done by tricking you into clicking a deceptive link.
More on this: The most common types of phishing scams
Phishing scams are tricky because they’re usually disguised as coming from a trusted source: a reputable company like Microsoft, a widely used service like USPS, or even a friend or family member. That’s why is so important to learn how to identify phishing emails and text messages.
A password manager can help here, too. Let’s say you click a phishing link and end up on a fake site pretending to be your bank. If you were on your real bank’s website, your password manager would know and automatically fill in your login details. But since it’s an imposter site, your password manager won’t fill in—a clue that something is amiss.
8. Don’t click unsolicited links
Every link should be treated as questionable, whether that’s on a website, on social media, in an email, or even a text message. If you never click on unsolicited links, you can drastically reduce your risk of malware.
For example, let’s say you get a text message about a package delivery failure and you need to click this link and provide personal information to make sure you get it. You don’t know whether it’s a scam or not—but you aren’t expecting a delivery, so you treat it as questionable. In most cases, you just successfully avoided being scammed.
The same goes for when you get a link that purports to come from Amazon, PayPal, or your credit card company. It may have an alarming angle to it, such as claiming your account has been banned. This is meant to induce panic and cause you to lower your guard. But if you have a general policy of not clicking unsolicited links, you’ll be okay.
When in doubt, avoid unsolicited links and go straight to the source. Got an alert email that claims to be from your bank? Don’t click it. Instead, manually navigate to the bank in your web browser. Got an urgent alert about a package from FedEx? Don’t click it. Go straight to the FedEx website yourself and confirm if it’s true.
9. Use a standard Windows user account
Chris Hoffman / IDG
When on Windows, we recommend using a “Standard” account type rather than an “Administrator” account type for day-to-day activity.
Yes, Administrator accounts are more convenient because they can install software at the system level with fewer hurdles. But being logged into an Administrator account also makes it easier for malware to take hold.
For passive protection, it’s better to create a secondary Windows user account with Standard user permissions. That way if malware does try to infect you, it will have a harder time doing so.
For best results, only use an Administrator account to set up your PC and install software, then switch to a secondary Standard account for your day-to-day computer usage. Microsoft has a detailed help website with information about creating new user accounts.
The good news is that Microsoft is making some changes to Windows that may make this unnecessary soon.
10. Set up two-factor authentication for your accounts
Two-factor authentication is non-negotiable these days. With this extra layer of protection for an account, even if someone knows your account’s password, they still won’t be able to sign in.
Why? Because the intruder will also need a specific two-factor authentication code: perhaps a code sent to your phone, a code generated by an app, or even a physical security key.
I recommend setting up two-factor authentication with all accounts that support it, particularly bank accounts and email inboxes. It may be a tad more inconvenient to sign in—you’ll have to provide a code in addition to your usual password—but it’s an important way to stay safe online.
Outdated practices that don’t really help
I think you’ll agree with me that the above tips and tactics aren’t very difficult at all. Some are one-and-done (like using a Standard Windows account), some are repeated (like keeping software updated), and some are passive (like never clicking unsolicited links), but they’re all simple.
Now that you know what to do, you should also check out my other advice on what you shouldn’t do. In fact, there are several outdated security practices that may have been useful in the past but are no longer helpful. It’s better to stop doing them now. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 12:35AM (PC World)The AI chatbot ChatGPT from Open AI has triggered the hype surrounding generative artificial intelligence and dominates much of the media coverage.
However, in addition to the AI models from Open AI, there are other chatbots that deserve attention. And unlike ChatGPT, these are also available for local use on the PC and can even be used free of charge for an unlimited period of time.
We’ll show you four local chatbots that also run on older hardware. You can talk to them or create texts with them.
The chatbots presented here generally consist of two parts, a front end and an AI model, the large language model.
You decide which model runs in the front end after installing the tool. Operation is not difficult if you know the basics. However, some of the chatbots offer very extensive setting options. Using these requires expert knowledge. However, the bots can also be operated well with the standard settings.
See also: What is an AI PC, exactly? We cut through the hype
What local AI can do
What you can expect from a local large language model (LLM) also depends on what you offer it: LLMs need computing power and a lot of RAM to be able to respond quickly.
If these requirements are not met, the large models will not even start and the small ones will take an agonizingly long time to respond. Things are faster with a current graphics card from Nvidia or AMD, as most local chatbots and AI models can then utilize the hardware’s GPU.
If you only have a weak graphics card in your PC, everything has to be calculated by the CPU — and that takes time.
If you only have 8GB of RAM in your PC, you can only start very small AI models. Although they can provide correct answers to a number of simple questions, they quickly run into problems with peripheral topics. Computers that offer 12GB RAM are already quite good, but 16GB RAM or more is even better.
Then even AI models that work with 7 to 12 billion parameters will run smoothly. You can usually recognize how many parameters a model has by its name. At the end, an addition such as 2B or 7B stands for 2 or 7 billions.
Recommendation for your hardware: Gemma 2 2B, with 2.6 billion parameters, already runs with 8GB RAM and without GPU support. The results are generally fast and well structured. If you need an even less demanding AI model, you can use Llama 3.2 1B in the chatbot LM Studio, for example.
If your PC is equipped with a lot of RAM and a fast GPU, try Gemma 2 7B or a slightly larger Llama model, such as Llama 3.1 8B. You can load the models via the chatbots Msty, GPT4All, or LM Studio.
Information on the AI models for the Llama files can be found below. And for your information: ChatGPT from Open AI is not available for the PC. The apps and PC tools from Open AI send all requests to the internet.
The most important steps
Using the various chatbots is very similar. You install the tool, then load an AI model via the tool and then switch to the chat area of the program. And you’re ready to go.
With the Llamafile chatbot, there is no need to download the model, as an AI model is already integrated in the Llamafile. This is why there are several Llamafiles, each with a different model.
See also: The AI PC revolution: 18 essential terms you need to know
Llamafile
Llamafiles are the simplest way to communicate with a local chatbot. The aim of the project is to make AI accessible to everyone. That’s why the creators pack all the necessary files, i.e. the front end and the AI model, into a single file — the Llamafile.
This file only needs to be started and the chatbot can be used in the browser. However, the user interface is not very attractive.
The Llamafile chatbot is available in different versions, each with different AI models. With the Llava model, you can also integrate images into the chat. Overall, Llamafile is easy to use as a chatbot.
IDG
Simple installation
Only one file is downloaded to your computer. The file name differs depending on the model selected.
For example, if you have selected the Llamafile with the Llava 1.5 model with 7 billion parameters, the file is called “llava-v1.5-7bq4.llamafile.” As the file extension .exe is missing here, you must rename the file in Windows Explorer after downloading.
You can ignore a warning from Windows Explorer by clicking “Yes.” The file name will then be: “llava-v1.5-7b-q4.llamafile.exe.” Double-click on the file to start the chatbot. On older PCs, it may take a moment for the Microsoft Defender Smartscreen to issue a warning.
Click on “Run anyway.” A prompt window opens, but this is only for the program. The chatbot does not have its own user interface, but must be operated in the browser. Start your default browser if it is not started automatically and enter the address 127.0.0.1:8080 or localhost:8080.
If you want to use a different AI model, you must download a different Llamafile. These can be found on Llamafile.ai further down the page in the “Other example llamafiles” table. Each Llamafile needs the file extension .exe.
Chatting with the Llamafile
The user interface in the browser shows the setting options for the chatbot at the top. The chat input is located at the bottom of the page under “Say something.”
If you have started a Llamafile with the model Llava (llava-v1.5-7b-q4.llamafile), you can not only chat, but also have images explained to you via “Upload Image” and “Send.” Llava stands for “Large Language and Vision Assistant.” To end the chatbot, simply close the prompt.
Tip: Llava files can be used in your own network. Start the chatbot on a powerful PC in your home network. Make sure that the other PCs are authorized to access this computer. You can then use the chatbot from there via the internet browser and the address “:8080”. Replace with the address of the PC on which the chatbot is running.
Msty
Msty offers access to many language models, good user guidance, and the import of your own files for use in the AI. Not everything is self-explanatory, but it is easy to use after a short familiarization period.
If you want to make your own files available to the AI purely locally, you can do this in Msty in the so-called Knowledge Stack. That sounds a bit pretentious. However, Msty actually offers the best file integration of the four chatbots presented here.
IDG
Installation of Msty
Msty is available for download in two versions: one with support for Nvidia and AMD GPUs and the other for running on the CPU only. When you start the Msty installation wizard, you have the choice between a local installation (“Set up local AI”) or an installation on a server.
For the local installation, the Gemma 2 model is already selected in the lower part of the window. This model is only 1.6GB in size and is well suited for text creation on weaker hardware.
If you click on “Gemma2,” you can choose between five other models. Later, many more models can be loaded from a clearly organized library via “Local AI Models,” such as Gemma 2 2B or Llama 3.1 8B.
“Browse & Download Online Models” gives you access to the AI pages www.ollama.com and www.huggingface.com and therefore to most of the free AI models.
A special feature of Msty is that you can ask several AI models for advice at the same time. However, your PC should have enough memory to respond quickly. Otherwise you will have to wait a long time for the finished answers.
Msty
Pretty interface, lots of substance
Msty’s user interface is appealing and well structured. Of course, not everything is immediately obvious, but if you familiarize yourself with Msty, you can use the tool quickly, integrate new models, and integrate your own files. Msty provides access to the many, often cryptic options of the individual models, at least partially in graphical menus.
In addition: Msty offers so-called splitchats. The user interface then displays two or more chat entries next to each other. A different AI model can be selected for each chat. However, you only have to enter your question once. This allows you to compare several models with each other.
Add your own files
You can easily integrate your own files via “Knowledge Stacks.” You can choose which embedding model should prepare your data for the LLMs.
Mixedbread Embed Large is used by default. However, other embedding tools can also be loaded. Care should be taken when selecting the model, however, as online embedding models can also be selected, for example from Open AI.
However, this means that your data is sent to Open AI’s servers for processing. And the database created with your data is also online: Every enquiry then also goes to Open AI.
Chat with your own files: After you have added your own documents to the “Knowledge Stacks,” select “Attach Knowledge Stack and Chat with them” below the chat input line. Tick the box in front of your stack and ask a question. The model will search through your data to find the answer. However, this does not work very well yet.
GPT4All
GPT4All offers a few models, a simple user interface and the option of reading in your own files. The selection of chat models is smaller than with Msty, for example, but the model selection is clearer. Additional models can be downloaded via Huggingface.com.
The GPT4All chatbot is a solid front end that offers a good selection of AI models and can load more from Huggingface.com. The user interface is well structured and you can quickly find your way around.
GPT4All
Installation: Quick and easy
The installation of GPT4All was quick and easy for us. AI models can be selected under “Models.” Models such as Llama 3 8B, Llama 3.2 3B, Microsoft Phi 3 Mini, and EM German Mistral are presented.
Good: For each model, the amount of free RAM the PC must have for the model to run is specified. There is also access to AI models at Huggingface.com using the search function. In addition, the online models from Open AI (ChatGPT) and Mistral can be integrated via API keys — for those who don’t just want to chat locally.
Operation and chat
The user interface of GPT4All is similar to that of Msty, but with fewer functions and options. This makes it easier to use. After a short orientation phase, in which it is clarified how models can be loaded and where they can be selected for the chat, operation is easy.
Own files can be made available to the AI models via “Localdocs.” In contrast to Msty, it is not possible to set which embedding model prepares the data. The Nomic-embed-textv1.5 model is used in all cases.
In our tests, the tool ran with good stability. However, it was not always clear whether a model was already fully loaded.
LM Studio
LM Studio offers user guidance for beginners, advanced users, and developers. Despite this categorization, it is aimed more at professionals than beginners. What the professionals like is that anyone working with LM Studio not only has access to many models, but also to their options.
The LM Studio chatbot not only gives you access to a large selection of AI models from Huggingface.com, but also allows you to fine-tune the AI models. There is a separate developer view for this.
LM Studio
Straightforward installation
After installation, LM Studio greets you with the “Get your first LLM” button. Clicking on it offers a very small version of Meta’s LLM: Llama 3.2 1B.
This model should also run on older hardware without long waiting times. After downloading the model, it must be started via a pop-up window and “Load Model.” Additional models can be added using the Ctrl-Shift-M key combination or the “Discover” magnifying glass symbol, for example.
Chat and integrate documents
At the bottom of the LM Studio window, you can change the view of the program using the three buttons “User,” “Power User,” and “Developer.”
In the first case, the user interface is similar to that of ChatGPT in the browser; in the other two cases, the view is supplemented with additional information, such as how many tokens are contained in a response and how quickly they were calculated.
This and the access to many details of the AI models make LM Studio particularly interesting for advanced users. You can make many fine adjustments and view information.
Your own texts can only be integrated into a chat, but cannot be made permanently available to the language models. When you add a document to your chat, LM Studio automatically decides whether it is short enough to fit completely into the AI model’s prompt or not.
If not, the document is checked for important content using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and only this content is provided to the model in the chat. However, the text is often not captured in full. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | ITBrief - 18 Feb (ITBrief) A Juniper Research study forecasts the number of Internet of Things devices protected by cybersecurity will double to 28 billion by 2028, amid rising complexity. Read...Newslink ©2025 to ITBrief |  |
|  | | PC World - 18 Feb (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
Pros
Solid antivirus protection
Comprehensive protection against online threats
Cons
Notable performance impact on some PCs
User interface is a little scattered
Many of the tools and services feel a bit underbaked
Password manager is difficult to use
Our Verdict
McAfee+ Ultimate offers strong antivirus protection and a vast array of online protections, but its apps, services, and tools could use more polish. Its scans also can tangibly decrease performance on mid-range and budget PCs. As attractive as this comprehensive all-in-one package is, it’s currently a hard sell.
Price When Reviewed
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Best Pricing Today
Among the top-tier antivirus software plans, McAfee’s version is an especially loaded offering—and less common in how it bundles together an extraordinary number of online protections.
Many rivals have a premium antivirus suite, then offer services like a VPN, password manager, and identity protection and recovery as separate subscriptions. McAfee instead stuffs everything into one package. This simplifies how much you have to think about, of course, but there’s just one problem—this security suite lacks the polish you’d expect of such a premium product.
Further reading: See our roundup of the best antivirus software for Windows PCs to learn about competing products.
What does McAfee+ Ultimate include?
The full list of features in McAfee’s flagship subscription is exhaustive. Antivirus, link screening, and firewall protection are just the start. You get other major online protections as well—password manager, VPN, web link screening, identity monitoring on the dark web, tracker removal, and if you’re signed up for a family plan, parental controls.
McAfee next throws in its Social Privacy Manager, which offers privacy settings suggestions for social media services; Scam Protection, an AI-powered tool to help screen for risky links in text messages; Online Account Cleanup, which helps you find and delete unused accounts; Personal Data Cleanup, which scans data broker sites and helps you remove yourself from them; and live assistance in setting up your plan’s privacy and identity protections.
McAfee+ Ultimate’s list of online protections is exhaustive.
Finally, on top of all that are financial protections. McAfee+ Ultimate will keep tabs on your bank and credit card transactions, investment and loan account activity, potential bank takeovers, possible payday loans taken in your name, and your credit reports and score. It also offers a centralized interface for locking your credit and placing security freezes on credit, banking, and utilities. And the company provides direct assistance with identity theft restoration, as well as up to $25,000 of coverage for losses related to ransomware and up to $2 million related to identity theft losses and restoration efforts. McAfee even helps with replacing identification, credit, and debit cards for a lost wallet.
Family plans allow you to share these benefits among a maximum of six people—two adult accounts and four child accounts. Each adult account gets its own loss coverage, for a total of $50K ransomware and $4 million for identity theft.) And only adult accounts have access to the data broker and financial protections.
How much does McAfee+ Ultimate cost?
When you buy McAfee+ Ultimate through the McAfee website, an individual subscription is $200 for the first year, then goes up to a full price of $280 afterward. A family plan costs $250 for the first year, and then reverts to $425 per year thereafter. Plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee. Be aware that McAfee enrolls users into auto-renewal by default—and charges for the next year a whole 30 days before your current subscription ends.
McAfee+ Ultimate (Unlimited devices)
$200 for the first year (Individual plan)
$280 per year thereafter (Individual plan)
$250 for the first year (Family plan)
$425 per year thereafter (Family plan)
All McAfee+ Ultimate plans let you protect an unlimited number of devices, with software support for Windows, Windows for Arm, macOS, ChromeOS, iOS, and Android. (Not all features are multiplatform, however.) Family subscriptions offer up to six seats, split between two adult and four child accounts.
Unfortunately, you can’t bring down the cost of a McAfee+ Ultimate plan further by purchasing it from an online retailer. You can only get it through McAfee.
Key features of McAfee+ Ultimate
Installation and user interface
The McAfee app has a clean and modern look, but it feels oddly disorganized despite its simple aesthetic. On the home screen, you get just four shortcuts to main features—antivirus, VPN, Tracker Remover, and Personal Data Cleanup. A fifth helps you add McAfee to more devices, and the sixth leads off to McAfee’s protection score, which rates how completely you’ve set up your plan’s protections.
The main menu for accessing most of McAfee+ Ultimate’s features.
To access all of McAfee’s major features, you must use the left navigation bar. Clicking on the icon with four squares opens a slide-out menu with scanning and web protection options; access to the VPN; firewall info; shortcuts to tools; and links to identity and privacy monitoring, as well as the password manager.
The bottom-most icon in the left navigation bar leads to subscription info, general settings, app updates, help, and privacy and legal terms. These are very simple, and there’s not much you can configure.
Frustratingly, the most premium parts of the McAfee+ Ultimate subscription are nowhere to be found within the app. Instead, you must to head to the McAfee Protection Center portal site (protection.mcafee.com). There you’ll find the links to financial transaction and credit monitoring, parental controls (if you have a family plan), and the Social Privacy Manager browser extension.
The McAfee Protection Center website.
Until you’ve poked around thoroughly, remembering if a feature is located in the McAfee app, a separate app, one of three McAfee websites, or a web browser extension can take a while. The apps and the websites don’t always behave quite as expected, either. When I set up Identity Monitoring, adding a second email address triggered new findings (alas), but those results wouldn’t show until I’d refreshed the website. Nothing was wrong, per se, but the experience lacked the kind of polish I expected from an expensive, top-tier security suite.
Unfortunately, this vibe extends through much of McAfee+ Ultimate’s features—not just the methods that you access them through.
Virus, malware, and threat protection
Real-time protection
As you use your computer, McAfee+ Ultimate continually evaluates the files you open and also monitors apps for unusual behavior. While the program does a good job on this front (it earns high marks in independent testing—more info on that below), you’re largely removed from the process, as you never get to see behind the curtain.
Unlike with major rivals, you can’t do things like specifically select folders to protect from ransomware, change settings related to email attachment and script scanning, choose which apps have access to your webcam, or see how external drives are handled. The interface is so simplified that you only have the choice of leaving real-time scanning on, or turning it off. (Presumably only for troubleshooting purposes—otherwise, you lose much of the software’s point.)
For protection while surfing the web, you must install the McAfee WebAdvisor browser extension, which scans for dangerous links and content as you browse online. It gives search engine results safety ratings, warns you about clicking on a possible bad site, and blocks malicious content on compromised but legitimate sites. It works well enough, but oddly, Bing is not on the list of supported search engines. (Sorry, Bing fans.)
The McAfee WebAdvisor extension in action—those green checkmarks are its safety ratings.
Scheduled and manual scans
By default, McAfee+ Ultimate scans your system once a month, during the wee hours of the morning. You can change the day to another of the three presets, or create your own custom schedule that runs weekly, every other week, or the first week of the month.
If you want to run a manual scan, you get just two options: Quick and Full. Quick focuses just on PC locations typically targeted by threats, while Full examines all the drives and folders on the PC (except for network drives). You can also scan individual files and folders by right-clicking on them and choosing Scan in the context menu that appears.
Firewall
Rather than replace Windows’ built-in firewall, the Advanced Firewall feature works alongside it. It lets Windows screen incoming connections, while McAfee evaluates outgoing connections. If an app tries to connect to what McAfee believes is a bad site, it’ll put it on the block list—at which point you can leave it there, or choose to allow the connection.
Scam Protection
McAfee recently launched a new AI-based tool to help screen text messages for fraudulent links. For it to work, you have to install the McAfee Security & Wi-Fi Privacy app (iOS) or the McAfee Security: VPN Antivirus app (Android). Afterward, it runs in the background, screening messages. To see any that are flagged as dangerous, you’ll have to go to your filtered messages for iOS. On Android, you can see reports about questionable text messages within McAfee’s app.
Scam Text Protection in the Android app.
VPN
On PC, you can access McAfee’s VPN in two ways—through the McAfee app, or by separately downloading and installing McAfee Safe Connect. The main difference between them is their interfaces.
In the McAfee app, the controls are consolidated onto one screen. You can turn the VPN on or off, select or change your location, choose auto-connect settings, and turn on the safe reconnect feature (aka kill switch—it automatically shuts off the internet if your VPN connection is disrupted).
If you instead use the McAfee Safe Connect app, it separates VPN use from the settings, putting them on different screens. You can view usage stats and help files related to Safe Connect as well. The Safe Connect VPN works on PC, Chromebooks, and smartphones, with a limit of five devices connected simultaneously.
When using the Safe Connect app, I ran into some bugs. After I installed it and connected to a server for the first time, I couldn’t disconnect afterward—it was only fixed after a reboot. Safe Connect also behaved erratically if I tried starting it before my Wi-Fi finished connecting. A pop-up notification appeared saying I had to upgrade, and then wouldn’t clear. I had to force-quit the program and restart to resolve the issue.
The VPN interface within the McAfee app is cleaner and more modern.
This VPN offers servers in 47 countries, which span Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Password Manager
McAfee’s password manager, True Key, covers the basics and not much more. Presumably, the company kept things simple on purpose, but it’s at the expense of better security. For example, your two-factor authentication methods are limited—there’s no way to use OTP software codes, much less a hardware key.
More damningly, True Key’s login protections are flawed. New devices require verification through an emailed link before you can log in. However, McAfee doesn’t always send that email before the login request expires, which happens after about a minute. Sometimes the email wouldn’t hit my inbox until ten minutes after the login attempt. I almost gave up at one point, and then the system worked for a brief moment and I managed to successfully complete the process. This isn’t a new issue, either—look at McAfee’s forums and you’ll see complaints about this dating back years.
McAfee True Key is a simple, basic password manager, but its weaknesses make it feel unreliable.PCWorld
You’re also only able to use True Key through a web browser extension or a mobile app (iOS and Android). If you’re ever in a position where you can only log into a website for access, you’re out of luck. Plus, when you first setup the service, you have to manually enter an activation code—and if you can’t find the email with that information, you’ll have to dig into McAfee’s account portal (head to Downloads & devices) or McAfee’s Protection Center (My protection) to find it.
All this to say, True Key doesn’t feel like a reliable feature. You’re better off using a standalone service—even a good free password manager outperforms McAfee’s offering by a lot.
Parental controls
Parental controls are managed through a separate piece of software called Safe Family. You install it on the device(s) used by the child, but also on a device managed by the guardian—no web interface exists for monitoring your kid’s usage.
Each child gets their own profile, so you can tailor your restrictions based on age and needs. Safe Family automatically applies default rules based on the stated age of the kid—for example, the app automatically blocked my (imaginary) 13-year old from viewing dating, gambling, and sexually explicit sites, but let them use search engines and view streaming, entertainment, and shopping sites. You can further refine (or overhaul) the default settings, though.
McAfee’s parental controls may look a bit outdated, but they’re easy enough to navigate.
App rules can be created as well, which let you allow or block specific apps on Windows, Android, and iOS. (These are the only devices compatible with Safe Family.) Screen time limits can also be put in place, though you only get two different rules. One’s meant for the weekdays and the other for the weekends, but you can adjust as you see fit.
You can track device location for phones as well, including visits to known places (as set in the app), though I had trouble getting it to work consistently on Android.
Identity and financial protections
McAfee+ Ultimate’s premium features—that is, the reason you pay so much more for this plan compared to the others below it—lie in its identity and financial protections, and they cover quite a bit of ground.
Identity Monitoring scans data from breaches and leaks for your personal information. You have to provide your details to McAfee, which allows you to add credit cards, bank accounts, email addresses, usernames, and phone numbers (up to 10 each); tax IDs, passports, driver’s licenses, and health IDs (up to two each); and your social security number (SSN) and date of birth. The results aren’t always as helpful as they could be; for one email address, several of the listed breaches didn’t give the name of the breach or circumstances, making it harder to know what specific follow-up steps to take. McAfee only gives general advice on how to protect yourself, which is helpful for security newbies but less so for more seasoned internet users.
Personal Data Cleanup helps you find which data brokers have you in their system, and assists with removing you from those sites. Data brokers comb public records and other databases to collect info like your name, current and past addresses, birthdate, phone number, and the names of your relatives. In order for the scan to work, you’ll have to provide your name, birthdate, and full physical address. (You can also optionally add an email address and up to three phone numbers.) McAfee will send removal requests on your behalf, too, but the results can take anywhere from 30 to 45 days. However, for some data brokers, you may have to still follow up on your own.
McAfee’s identity monitoring helps keep track of your leaked personal data on the web.
Investment, 401(K), bank, and credit card transaction tracking is done through Envestnet Yodlee, which handles this monitoring for McAfee. It centralizes the types of alerts you may already be receiving (provided you set them up) from your financial institutions. You must log into your accounts via McAfee’s Protection Center portal to link them to Yodlee.
Credit monitoring keeps track of changes to your credit reports at the three major bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax). McAfee also gives you access to your daily credit score, lets you lock and unlock your credit, and helps set up security freezes for credit, banking, and utilities as desired.
Identity theft coverage includes the previously mentioned $2 million to cover losses and restoration expenses, as well as $25,000 for losses related to ransomware. (Again, the family plan offers this coverage to each adult account, for a total of $4 million identity theft coverage and $50,000 ransomware coverage.) Identity theft assistance includes access to “identity restoration experts,” or agents who help clean up the aftermath of identity theft. (Note: You must grant a limited power of attorney to McAfee in order for agents to act on your behalf and handle the bulk of the work.) McAfee also offers lost wallet protection, where the company helps cancel and replace identification, credit, and debit cards that are lost or stolen with your wallet.
Additional features
Browser extensions
McAfee+ Ultimate isn’t complete if you don’t install its affiliated browser extensions—though arguably, only one of them is vital.
As mentioned above, McAfee WebAdvisor scans for risky links and content while you browse online, though it won’t evaluate Bing search results. You won’t see a safety rating for any of the links, the way you would for a search through Google. (Yahoo and AOL are still supported, though.) You also won’t immediately see them for the Chrome extension—I had to go into the extension’s settings, scroll down to Secure Search, and choose Tell me if a search result is safe in any search engine.
In Chrome, I had to manually change the extension settings to show the safety ratings for search engine results.
Meanwhile, McAfee True Key—the password manager in the security suite—won’t work on PC unless you install the extension. You can’t log via a website, as you might another service. That said, True Key isn’t my pick for a good password manager, as explained above. I recommend going with a different password manager and installing its browser extension instead. (It makes using a password manager less cumbersome.)
For strengthening your online privacy, you can also install McAfee’s Social Privacy Manager extension. It screens the privacy settings for Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google accounts, then suggests improvements. McAfee’s findings are pretty decent—but asking the extension to apply the changes doesn’t always work.
File shredder
To prevent someone from recovering a deleted file, McAfee offers a built-in tool called File Shredder, which overwrites the data using the Department of Defense (DoD) standard. You can use the tool to blanket-erase whole batches of files at once (Recycling Bin contents, temporary internet files, or a custom folder of your choosing), or individual files.
However, this tool comes with one big caveat—you should only use it for files and folders stored on a hard-disk drive. This method of secure erasing doesn’t work as well on solid-state drives (SSDs), which are found in most modern laptops and desktops. It can also shorten their lifespans. You’re better off using other methods for securely wiping an SSD.
Online Account Cleanup
Unused online accounts can hold data you might not want to leave on file—like your credit card details or home address. Data breaches are just too common these days, and when they happen, you could end up losing sensitive data. It can be hard to keep track of the riskiest sites to leave unattended, though.
McAfee tries to speed up the process of cleaning up dormant accounts with its Online Account Cleanup tool, which you’ll use through the McAfee Protection Center portal. It scans one email address from Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo for associated online accounts, then flags the ones it thinks are vulnerable. If you no longer need the account, you can have McAfee delete it for you—or at least, try to. I found that, like McAfee’s other privacy tools, Online Account Cleanup is helpful for pointing you in the right direction, but doesn’t always eliminate as much work as it’s supposed to.
Social Privacy Manager
The Social Privacy Manager actually suggests useful changes to privacy settings.
If you need help locking down your social media accounts—that is, keeping your private life out of the hands of advertisers and random snoops—McAfee offers a browser extension that scans five different services (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google), then suggests privacy changes. The proposed changes are generally good, but the issue I ran into was having the extension automatically make them. I also had some problems manually finding the settings in order to do the updates myself.
Customer support
If you need help with McAfee+ Ultimate, you can find it on McAfee’s support website (either through the knowledge database or the virtual assistant), community forums, social media (Facebook, X/Twitter, and YouTube), or by contacting the company though chat or phone. You can reach out to McAfee at any time of day, though the support pages are generally an easy place to start.
However, one problem with McAfee’s support is that their help files can be out of date—some don’t accurately reflect how the interface looks and behaves now, making it harder to figure out what’s a currently available feature (and how to access it).
Updates and maintenance
By default, updates run automatically in the background. For best protection, it’s best to leave this setting as-is. However, if for some reason you’re on a limited internet connection, you can also choose to tweak the settings so that updates are downloaded automatically but not installed automatically, or only be notified when updates are available.
You can also perform a manual check for updates by heading to Help and then Update App.
Performance
For online protection, McAfee performs well in tests performed by leading security research institutes. In AV-Test’s zero-day attack and malware tests for November and December 2024 (the most current results released by the organization), McAfee’s engine caught 99.5 percent of the 389 zero-day malware samples. For widespread and prevalent malware, it caught 100 percent of the 12,159 samples.
In AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test for July through October 2024, McAfee detected 99.8 percent of the 471 test cases, with 10 false positives. (A false positive is when the antivirus software blocks a legitimate website or download.) The samples cover exploits like drive-by downloads, malicious web addresses, and URLs linking directly to malware. The software performs similarly in AV-Comparatives’ September 2024 malware protection test, which tests the ability to detect and block malware locally on a PC. When connected to the internet, McAfee does a good job of on both fronts, with a 97.1 percent online detection and 99.94 percent online protection rate of the 10,078 samples.
AV-Comparatives’ real-world test results for July through October 2024.
AV-Comparatives
However, McAfee’s weakness is its offline detection rate in the same malware protection test—it caught threats only 68.4 percent of the time. Put another way, McAfee won’t protect your system well without an active internet connection, and it has a slightly higher chance of mistakenly detecting a threat. For comparison, Microsoft’s Windows Defender (which is free) has an offline detection rate of 68.8 percent, while the top performers clock in at 94 percent and above.
In AV-Comparatives’ October 2024 Advanced Threat Protection Test, McAfee scored an 8 of 15—meaning that it’s currently weaker than rivals like ESET and Bitdefender against targeted threats like fileless attacks and malicious scripts. While none of the antivirus software evaluated in this test hit perfect marks, you’ll have to still tread a bit more cautiously online and not trust McAfee to save you from everything. (Which, in fairness, is a smarter attitude to take in general.)
AV-Comparatives’ malware test results for September 2024.
AV-Comparatives
When running heavy scans, McAfee can notably affect performance on mid-range and budget PCs. Running a continuous full scan during PCMark 10’s benchmark, which simulates web browsing, video chatting, gaming, and editing in open-souce programs like GIMP and LibreOffice for images and documents, dropped the test scores by about 21 percent.
More dramatically, our UL Procyon scores dropped by 41 percent. This particular benchmark simulates using Microsoft Office apps—constantly working in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, with a fair amount of editing and updating multiple documents. Meanwhile, in Handbrake, the time it took to encode a large video into a smaller 1080p30 file increased by almost 29 percent.
That’s not the whole picture, though. McAfee isn’t a complete killer of performance. When the app was quietly hanging out in the background, watching for threats, benchmark scores in PCMark, Procyon, and Handbrake were virtually the same as before McAfee was installed. And these numbers don’t show how McAfee usually handles full scans. After an initial thorough examination of all files on a PC and any attached external drives, subsequent ones look for new or altered files, which speeds up the scan time considerably. (That then reduces the impact on system resources.)
All this to say, if you don’t transfer or update a ton of files on your system often, you won’t see as much of an effect. But if you do, and you’re running mid-range to budget hardware, then you could feel the impact of a scan while working. McAfee does schedule its full scans for off-hours by default, though.
This error window popped up randomly and frequently enough to be irritating.
Instead, I’d say McAfee’s biggest performance issue is a bit different right now—and relates to how it behaves in Windows. After completing my hardware benchmarks, a Windows error notification began to pop up periodically (“mc-wns-client.exe – This application could not be started”) while I evaluated the software features. The steps suggested by McAfee’s help forums—updating the Windows App SDK, uninstalling and reinstalling McAfee+ Ultimate, and manually downloading and installing the latest Windows App Runtime package—did not solve the problem, either.
When I spoke to the company about the issue, McAfee said it was still working with Microsoft, and that a resolution was expected in “early 2024.” That’s a long time to wait for a pretty annoying issue to go away.
How private is my data when using McAfee?
With the amount of sensitive details McAfee asks for—social security number, addresses, birthdate, etc—you might wonder how safe it is to hand over the whole set to one entity. McAfee outlines how it handles your info in its privacy and legal terms, but I also asked the company who specifically sees the data and the protocols used to safeguard it.
McAfee says that it partners with Transunion (one of the three major US credit bureaus) for matters related to identity theft and power of attorney, and Yodlee for transaction monitoring. As for the data itself, McAfee says AES-256 encryption is used, and the engine that monitors for threats keeps only a hash of the values. (That is, it stores the result of encrypting your social security number or full name, etc, rather than the details themselves.) It’s only decrypted when a user views reports related to these sensitive pieces of information. McAfee says those unencrypted, plaintext versions of the data is only ever kept on the backend server, and “never exposed to the front end.”
While this methodology is reasonable enough, you’ll have to decide for yourself how comfortable you are with it—as well as the general principle of having your most sensitive info so centralized.
Conclusion
With more polish, McAfee+ Ultimate would be an ideal security suite for someone who wants an easy-to-understand yet still comprehensive set of online protections. Its interface has a look and feel that’s friendly toward people less familiar with online security; the antivirus protection is solid; and its features span everything you’d want to safeguard. But until its tools and services can nail their promises, and the performance glitches are resolved, McAfee+ Ultimate is a hard sell right now—especially at full price.
Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 18 Feb (PC World)The USB port on your router is often unused and yet it offers practical functions that can make everyday life easier. You can do things like saving and sharing files, mobile charging, or even an automatic backup of your data. We’ll tell you exactly how this works and what else you can do with your router’s USB port below.
Further reading: Best USB-C cables 2025: Get quality charging and data transfers
What can the USB port on the router do?
The USB port on the router offers various functions depending on your model. Here are some of the most useful applications:
Printer sharing: Connect a USB printer to the router to make it available as a network printer for all devices on the network. This saves you having to change cables or drivers back and forth.
Network-attached storage (NAS): Connect an external hard drive or USB stick to store files centrally. You can make documents, photos or videos accessible to all devices in the home network and, with some models, even stream content such as films and music directly.
Backups: Many routers support automatic backups. Files from the network are automatically backed up to a connected USB storage device, either time controlled or in real time as soon as new files are created. You can find instructions for this further down in this article.
Power supply for IoT devices: Some USB ports are suitable for powering small devices such as IoT hubs, smart LED lamps, or chargers. A practical solution if there is no free socket nearby.
Mobile internet: If your router supports LTE dongles, you can easily switch to a mobile data connection in the event of an internet outage. This is particularly useful if you need a stable connection and your landline connection fails.
Charge devices: Some router models allow you to charge smartphones, tablets, or other devices via the USB port.
Fritzbox with connected hard drive as router NASAVM
Which devices can you connect?
The type of supported devices also depends on the router model. Check the operating instructions to see which devices your router supports and which connections are compatible.
How to use the USB port for automatic backups:
Connect a USB hard drive or stick to the router. In most cases, the storage device will be recognized automatically.
Log in via the router’s user interface and search for options such as “Backup” or “Storage.”
Select the option “New Backup Job” or a similar function and follow the instructions of the wizard.
Decide whether you want a scheduled backup or a real-time backup that saves changes immediately.
Perform the first backup manually to ensure that everything is set up correctly.
Further reading: Solve your Wi-Fi problems with these smart router settings Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | BBCWorld - 18 Feb (BBCWorld)It is the latest move from Meta to invest more in global connectivity rather than its apps. Read...Newslink ©2025 to BBCWorld |  |
|  | | PC World - 18 Feb (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
Pros
Great keyboard
Respectable battery life
Strong build
Cons
Chunky bezels take up a lot of screen real estate
Blah design
Only one charging port
Our Verdict
The Acer Chromebook Spin 315 delivers reliable day-to-day performance as well as a comfortable typing experience, but there are a few things holding it back.
Price When Reviewed
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For a day-to-day machine, the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 does a lot of things right. It chews through daily web applications and lighter workloads, the display produces crisp-looking images, and the keyboard is comfortable to type on and the keys have a nice clicking sound to them.
But is it enough to justify the full retail price of $449, a higher price than most Chromebooks? Keep reading to find out more.
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Specs
The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 appears to have just one configuration, which comes with an Intel Core i3-N305 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of flash storage. The specifications are the same as the ones seen in the Chromebook Plus models–a curious thing as to why the word “Plus” was dropped from the Spin’s name. I’ve reached out to Acer to ask if this was intentional.
Model number: CP312-1HN
CPU: Intel Core i3-N305
Memory: 8GB
Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics
Display: 12.2-inch 1920×1200 touch enabled, 60Hz
Storage: 128GB eMMC
Webcam: 1080p, physical privacy shutter
Connectivity: USB Type-C, USB Type-A, HDMI 1.4, 3.5 mm headphone/speaker
Battery capacity: 50 watt-hour
Dimensions: 11.41 x 8.07 x 0.78
Weight: 2.84 lbs
MSRP: $449
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Design, build quality
IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo
As far as design goes, the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 doesn’t stand out in any meaningful way–it’s just a light gray rectangle. The only splash of color is the Chromebook logo at the top left hand corner on the lid. That’s not a bad thing, especially if the subtle design is your cup of tea, but it’s definitely not a head-turner. Still, it’s meant to be affordable and functional, so a snazzy design isn’t necessarily expected here.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is a solid laptop, full stop. The keyboard is easy to type on, the build feels rugged (despite it being all plastic), and, on a performance level, it breezes through day-to-day tasks.
The build quality is surprisingly good for an all-plastic machine. The hinge feels strong and firm, and there isn’t much flex around the display area. The keyboard deck is especially strong, I couldn’t get it to bow even when pressing down with both hands. I wasn’t able to open the lid with a single finger, though–a crumb-sized nitpick coming from me. The laptop also feels equally strong and firm in tent mode.
I was a little taken aback by the weight of the Acer Chromebook Spin 312, especially upon first handling. It’s not the heaviest laptop I’ve ever used, as it weighs just 2.84 pounds, but I expected it to be lighter than it was. It’s not going to break your back or anything, but you can really feel the weight of it in your hands.
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Keyboard, touchpad
IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo
I adapted to the keyboard straight away, which surprised me because I consider myself a clumsy typist. The second my fingertips touched the keys, I was typing away at my usual speed with minimal typos. This is likely because it’s a smaller laptop with a smaller keyboard–the keys aren’t too spaced out, either. It’s just better suited for smaller hands, which I conveniently own. The keys themselves also have a nice clicking sound to them.
The touchpad is equally easy to use, I was able to click and swipe to my heart’s content. It’s not a haptic touchpad, which uses miniscule vibrations to simulate the feeling of a click, but that’s totally fine. Personally, I prefer a touchpad that sits parallel with the display (aka center aligned) and that’s exactly where it is on the Acer Chromebook Spin 312.
It’s a smaller touchpad but that makes sense because it’s a smaller laptop (the display measures just 12.2-inches). If you’ve got bigger hands, the touchpad might feel a bit cramped.
One cool thing about the touchpad is that it contains ocean-bound plastic (otherwise known as OceanGlass tech), which makes the surface of the touchpad feel as smooth as glass. Not only does it feel great on my fingertips, but it’s also more sustainable. I’ve become more invested in the sustainable laptop movement as of late, so I’m pleased with Acer’s choice to make this machine more environmentally friendly.
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Display, webcam, speakers
IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo
The 1920×1200 display is sharper than I expected (yay for more vertical pixels!). When I was watching a streamer play the new Civilization VII game, the viewing experience was comfortable and smaller details like city spires and temples looked crisp. My only issue is that the display isn’t that bright, which isn’t surprising given the affordable price of this machine. Not official data on the nit level, but to my naked eye it looks about 250 nits. That said, it’s not a bad display–I just expected slightly better for a MSRP of $449.
I should also mention that it’s a touchscreen, though it doesn’t come with a stylus. I found that it registered my swipes and taps without fuss. This is a pretty common feature now on 2-in-1 laptops (like the Acer Chromebook Spin 312!), but there’s something nice (and kind of luxurious) about being able to navigate the content on your screen with a single finger. It’s a good touch (literally!).
What I like best about this display is its taller 16:10 aspect ratio. The taller screen makes it easier to scroll through documents, navigate spreadsheets, and so on. I’ve always got PCWorld’s homepage open and I find it’s much easier to scroll through all of the newly published stories on a taller screen. The bezels are thick and do take up a lot of the screen, which bugs me. I know it’s an affordable Chromebook and not a souped-up content creation laptop with 4K resolution, but I expected a bit more screen, especially as measures a small 12.2-inches.
The webcam is usable, but nothing special. The 1080p resolution is what I’ve come to expect from most laptops now no matter the price or form factor. I look fine on the webcam camera, but it’s nothing miraculous. It’s about as good as you can get for a Zoom meeting, but I was surprised by how well the webcam handled natural light.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 has both downward firing and side firing speakers. If it weren’t for the side firing ones, the audio would probably sound more muffled, as downward firing ones yell into whatever surface they’re on. I tend to crank up the volume when I watch videos on laptops, especially if I’m watching something in the kitchen with my husband. With that context in mind, the speakers were loud enough to fill a medium(ish)-sized kitchen/dining room area.
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Connectivity
IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo
The connectivity selection on the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 will satisfy most people. You’re getting one USB Type-C, two USB Type-A, one HDMI 1.4, and one 3.5mm headphone/speaker. That’s pretty run-of-the mill as far as ports go, yeah?
But I’m frustrated that only one side supports charging (via USB Type-C), and I know I’m not the only one that feels that way about laptops in general.. This makes it annoying to use the cable, as you can only use it one way really. It’s not a huge gripe of mine, but it’s there and it’s hard for me to forget that it’s there. Other folks may not be as bothered.
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Performance
The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 handles lighter workloads just fine. I was able to jump from tab to tab with no noticeable lag and bootup times were pretty fast. Performance-wise (in terms of numbers), it sits squarely between the Lenovo Chromebook Duet ($359) and the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus ($699.99). It scored better than the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which features a MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor, but it fell behind the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, which features a more powerful Intel Core 3 100U processor.
CrXPRT 2: 140
Speedometer 2.0: 201
Basemark Web 3.0: 757.51
Kraken: 710.9ms
Jetstream 2: 206.055
The Intel Core i3-N305 processor inside of the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is fine for light tasks, but it will likely struggle with heavier workloads. It has eight efficiency cores and can boost up to 3.8 GHz. It’s designed with energy-efficient performance in mind, so that might explain why it has better battery life than the more expensive Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Battery life
The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 ran for almost 14 hours during our standard battery test, which continuously loops videos and various tasks until the laptop runs out of juice. That’s a respectable result. In fact, it outpaced the more expensive Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus ($699.99), which lasted about 12 hours on a single charge. With the Chromebook Spin 312, you don’t have to go hunting for an outlet.
Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Conclusion
The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is a solid laptop, full stop. The keyboard is easy to type on, the build feels rugged (despite it being all plastic), and, on a performance level, it breezes through day-to-day tasks. That said, the display could be brighter and the chunky bezels take up a good amount of real estate. In addition to the single charging port, the aesthetic isn’t that exciting either.
So, the question remains. Is it worth buying? If it’s on sale, then sure. The chunky bezels on the display, the single charging port, and the blah design are enough to give me pause at its full $449 MSRP. Fortunately, as of this writing, the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is currently on sale for $379 at Amazon. That’s a more reasonable price for a solid Chromebook like this.
Further reading: Best Chromebooks 2025: Best overall, best battery life, and more Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 18 Feb (PC World)The notorious “Blue Screen of Death” — or BSOD for short — is the biggest disaster that can befall a Windows user. The system shuts down with a cryptic error message on a blue background and is only ready for use again after a restart.
Unsaved data is lost. After the restart, Windows runs for a while until the error occurs again. In some instances, the BSOD can re-occur immediately and perpetually every time Windows is started. The system is then unusable and repairs are only possible via a second or rescue system.
This article shows several ways to access a system that no longer shows a desktop.
The causes of the complete crash are varied and not always easy to discern. We describe how the error can be investigated in more detail and what measures can be used to repair a defective Windows system.
1. Why a blue screen occurs
A Windows system crash with a blue screen is always due to a driver or the hardware.
It can also be a driver that is not directly related to the hardware, such as a virus scanner component. Drivers run in a privileged mode and have direct access to main memory areas and hardware interfaces.
If a serious, unavoidable problem occurs, the system is stopped with a stop error to prevent damage, for example to the file system. In such cases, the Windows kernel displays an error message on a blue background with white text — known as a blue screen. The system is then restarted automatically.
In some cases, the message contains the name of the driver that caused the crash. While drivers that are supplied with Windows are rarely affected, such errors occur more frequently with subsequently installed third-party drivers. This can happen immediately after installing a new driver or after an update.
Changes made by Windows updates can also lead to a crash, especially if important system functions are customized. An incompatible driver that cannot cope with these changes can then work incorrectly and bring the system to a standstill.
The blue screen often only displays a general error message that cannot be assigned to an individual driver (see point 11). An error code is also displayed, which can help to analyse the problem.
See also: Deep clean your Windows PC: 10 professional tricks and tools
2. Prevent restart
By default, Windows is configured so that the blue screen only appears very briefly and is barely legible. To keep the message visible for longer, adjust the configuration. You should take this preventive measure with every Windows system to be prepared for problems.
If Windows still starts and only crashes after some time, call up the “Settings” (Win-I) and go to “System > About” (otherwise continue reading in point 3). Click on “Advanced system settings.”
You will find the link in Windows 11 behind “Related links” under “Device specifications,” in Windows 10 on the right-hand side of the window under “Related settings.” The “System properties” window opens. (A quick way to get here is via the “Run” dialogue (Win-R): Type SystemPropertiesAdvanced and confirm with “OK.”
In the “System Properties” window, go to the “Advanced” tab and click on the “Settings” button under “Startup and Recovery.” Remove the tick next to “Perform automatic restart.”
Under “Save debug information,” select “Small memory image (256KB).” In the event of a crash, a file with the extension “.dmp” is now created in the folder “C:\Windows\Minidump,” which can be analyzed later (see point 13).
Display errors: Deactivate “Automatic restart.” Otherwise the blue screen will only appear briefly and you will usually not be able to read the error message.
Foundry
3. Fix problems with on-board tools
If Windows crashes repeatedly and shortly after starting with a blue screen, you cannot change the setting as described in point 2. However, Windows has set up a minimal Windows on a separate partition (WinRE, Windows Recovery Environment) during installation on the hard drive, which you can use for repairs.
If access to WinRE fails, continue reading in point 5.
To access the repair system: Switch on the computer using the power button, wait briefly until the Windows logo appears and Windows starts to load. Switch the PC off again by holding down the power button a little longer.
Repeat the process several times until Windows starts the automatic repair. This is usually the case after three false starts. You can recognize the mode by the message “Automatic repair is being prepared.”
Windows will attempt an automatic repair and there are two options once it is complete: The system restarts on its own and you find yourself in the same situation as before.
In this case, switch the PC on and off again repeatedly until the automatic repair starts. After several attempts, “The PC did not start correctly” appears with the “Advanced options” button. However, it is also possible that this button is already visible after the first auto-repair.
After clicking on “Advanced options,” go to “Troubleshooting > Advanced options > Startup settings” and click on “Restart.” The “Advanced startup options” menu appears, in which you use the arrow keys to select “Disable automatic restart after failure” and confirm with the Enter key.
Windows will now not restart automatically in the event of a blue screen and you can read the messages. You can also use the menu to start Windows in safe mode, which can be used to rectify errors (see point 8).
Important note: If you have encrypted the system partition with Bitlocker, you must have the recovery key ready and enter it when you are asked for it. You saved the key when you activated the encryption.
This applies to this tip, but also basically to all accesses to the installed system, which we describe in the following points. It does not matter whether you start a rescue system from the hard drive or a USB stick.
In the Windows Recovery Environment you can select to disable automatic restart after failure.Foundry
4. Advanced start options
In previous versions of Windows, you could use the F8 key to call up the advanced start options or safe mode. This no longer works with Windows 10 and 11.
Due to the fast start mode, Windows starts so quickly, especially from SSDs, that it is almost impossible to find the right time to press the F8 key. Microsoft has therefore decided to no longer query the key at all. However, if you want to be prepared for an emergency, you can change this. The trick is to reactivate the menu of the classic boot manager.
To do this, use the tool Bootice tool, which you unzip and then start the file BOOTICEx64_2016.06.17_v1.3.4.0.exe.
Step 1: Go to the “BCD” tab and click on “Easy mode.” The option “BCD of current system” must be activated.
Step 2: After clicking on “Add,” create a new boot entry with the name “Windows secured.” Customize the options so that they correspond to those of the existing entry for Windows 10 or 11.
Step 3: Deviating from this, select the entry “Safe Mode w/ Network” after “SafeBoot:”. Click on “Save current system.”
Step 4: For both boot menu entries, remove the tick in front of “Metro Boot Manager (Win8)” and click on “Save current system.” Under “Global settings,” tick “Display boot menu” and click on “Save global settings.”
When you restart Windows, the classic boot menu appears on a black background. Press the F8 key to access the menu with the advanced boot options: “Repair computer” (WinRE), “Safe mode,” “Disable automatic restart in case of system errors”.
Or you can directly select the new entry “Windows secured” in the boot menu.
Edit boot menu: Use the Bootice tool to add new entries to the Windows boot menu, for example for safe mode.
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5. Start repair system
Defects in the file system, an incorrectly configured boot manager or dysfunctional drivers can prevent the automatic repair from starting and the “boot settings” from being called up (see point 3). You should therefore always have a rescue system ready for system repairs.
Ideally, you already have one if you have installed Windows yourself from a USB stick. If not, create a USB stick for the Windows installation on another PC, which also contains repair tools.
To do this, use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool for Windows 10 or for Windows 11. Alternatively, download the ISO file for Windows 11 directly (under the heading “Download Windows 11 drive image (ISO) for x64 devices”) and create the USB stick with Rufus. The system can also be used to repair Windows 10.
Reading tip: 10 things I’d never, ever do as an IT professional
If you are using a Windows 10 ISO or Windows 11 prior to version 24H2, proceed as follows:
Step 1: Boot the PC from the installation stick. You may need to change the boot sequence in the firmware/BIOS setup under “Adjust the boot sequence.” When starting, the message “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” appears. Press any key to activate the start of the USB stick.
Step 2: Click on the “Next” button and then on “Computer repair options.”
Step 3: Go to “Troubleshooting” and then to “Startup help.” Select the target operating system and wait for the startup repair to complete. Click on “Shut down” and switch the PC back on.
Windows should now start again from the hard drive, but this measure does not usually resolve the cause of the blue screen. However, the repair system offers further options for repairs (see points 6 and 8).
Windows 11: Since Windows 11 version 24H2, the setup tool looks slightly different. It greets you with the “Select language settings” window and you click on “Next.” You can then adjust the keyboard settings if required and click “Next.” Then select the “Repair my PC” option and click “Next.”
On the next screen, click on your preferred language for the keyboard layout. Then continue with “Troubleshooting” and “Startup help” as described in step 3 above.
Tip: “Computer repair options” or “Repair my PC” only provide a few tools. A self-created Windows rescue system offers significantly more options.
It starts from the USB stick and can be operated in almost the same way as you are used to with Windows. You can use the system for repairs, but also for data recovery and searching for malware, for example.
Using the rescue system: The system starts from the installation medium and offers a “Startup help” option that can be used to resolve some startup problems.
Microsoft
6. Deactivate auto restart
The installation and repair system started from the USB stick (point 5) does not offer the option of calling up the advanced start options. Microsoft does not intend to switch off the automatic restart from here when a blue screen occurs. This is only possible if the rescue system was started from the hard disk.
You can still prevent the restart using a trick:
Step 1: Start the repair system from the USB stick. When the window with the title “Windows 11 Setup” appears (Windows 10: “Windows Setup”), hold down the Shift key and press the F10 key.
Step 2: Type regedit and confirm with the Enter key. The registry editor displays the registry of the repair system. To change this, go to the registry branch “Hkey_Local_Machine” and then to “File > Load structure” in the menu. Navigate to the “Windows\System32\config” folder on the system drive, click on “SYSTEM” and then on “Open.”
The system drive may be located under a drive letter other than “C:”. Under “Key name,” enter the letter Z and confirm with “OK.” This mounts the registry of the installed system under “Hkey_Local_Machine\Z.”
Step 3: Go to the key “Hkey_Local_Machine\Z\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl.” After double-clicking on “AutoReboot,” enter 0 under “Value” and click on “OK.”
Step 4: Go to “Hkey_Local_Machine\Z” and then to “File > Remove structure” in the menu. Confirm with “Yes.”
Step 5: Exit the registry editor and the command prompt. Close the setup window and confirm the cancellation of the installation with “Yes.”
If Windows restarts now, the blue screen will remain visible until you switch off the computer.
Note for Bitlocker users: You can only gain access to the system drive if you unlock it in the command prompt. To do this, use the command
manage-bde -unlock C: -recoverypassword [recovery key]
Prevent automatic reboot: In the rescue system, you can switch off the reboot by making an entry in the registry. “AutoReboot” is given the value “0”.
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7. Start repair system directly
You can access the repair system from the running Windows as follows: Click on “On/Off” in the Start menu, hold down the Shift key, and click on “Restart.” Windows will restart and you will see the “Select option” screen.
After clicking on “Troubleshoot,” “Advanced options,” “Startup settings,” and “Restart,” you will be taken to “Advanced startup options” and you can select “Disable automatic restart on system errors” or “Safe mode.”
However, if Windows crashes immediately after starting, this option is blocked and you must use the rescue system as described in point 6. As an extension of point 4, you have another option to prepare for this situation in good time.
If you include the rescue system (WinRE) directly in the boot menu, you do not have to take the diversions via the “boot settings.” However, this requires that the hard drive is accessible and that there is no hardware defect. Otherwise, the rescue system cannot be started from the hard drive and you should try the method described in point 5.
Set the Bootice tool to create a start menu entry for WinRE:
Step 1: Go to “BCD” in Bootice, leave the option “BCD of current system,” and click on “Professional mode.” Under “Application objects” you will see that there is already an entry labelled “Windows Recovery Environment,” but it is not displayed in the boot menu. It is called up via the Shift-“Restart” combination.
Step 2: Right-click on “Windows Recovery Environment” and select “Duplicate this entry” from the context menu.
Step 3: For the new entry, double-click on “Description” and enter “WinRE” as the new name, for example. Close the window.
Step 4: Click on “Easy Mode” and check the settings for the new entry “WinRE.” The entry after “Partition” must refer to the recovery partition, for example “GPT3.” Behind “Boot file:” is “\Recovery\WindowRE\Winre.wim” and behind “SDI file” something like “(hd0,3)” and “\Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi.” Below “Options” behind “Boot file:” is the entry “\windows\system32\winload.efi.” If the configuration on your PC is different, correct the information.
Step 5 (optional): Remove the tick in front of “Metro Boot Manager (win8)” from all boot menu entries. This activates the classic boot manager on a black background, which displays its menu before the operating system starts.
The new Metro Boot Manager first activates the standard system in the background and displays the system selection in a graphical interface. This means that the standard system is ready for use quickly, but it takes a little longer to start WinRE.
If you restart Windows now, the installed system will be loaded automatically after a timeout of 30 seconds. Select the new boot menu entry “WinRE” to start the rescue system directly.
8. Faulty updates
Irrespective of the error message in the blue screen and without knowing the exact cause, simple measures usually help to eliminate the BSOD problem.
We assume that Windows was running correctly immediately after the computer was reinstalled or started up for the first time and that the error was only triggered later by a change to the system. Recent Windows or driver updates, the installation of new software, or even a software update are suspected.
If Windows is still starting: In the “Settings” (Win-I), go to “Apps > Installed apps” (Windows 10: “Apps > Apps and features”). Under “Sort by,” set “Date of installation.” The most recently installed programs will then appear at the top of the list.
After a plausibility check, uninstall the most recently installed program(s). Programs that start automatically and use system services or drivers are possible sources of error.
Proceed in the same way with Windows updates. Go to “Windows Update” in the “Settings” (Windows 10: “Update & Security > Windows Update”). Set a longer period behind “Suspend updates,” for example “Suspend for 4 weeks.” This will prevent a faulty update from being reinstalled immediately.
Windows 10 users click on “Advanced options” and set a date in the future under “Suspend until:”.
Click on “Update history” or, for Windows 10, on “Show update history.” Under headings such as “Quality updates” and “Driver updates,” you will see chronological lists of installed updates with the corresponding KB numbers.
Clicking on an entry takes you to a Microsoft page with further information on an update. An internet search for the respective KB number can provide information on whether errors or crashes are already known in connection with this update.
Which updates have just been installed? The “Update history” shows the Windows updates in chronological order. The KB number can be used to search for information on the internet.
Foundry
Click on “Uninstall updates” below “Related settings” (Windows 10: “Uninstall updates” link at the top of the window) and remove the update that is causing the blue screen.
In Windows 10, the link in the Control Panel leads to “Uninstall updates.” However, not all updates can be removed because they build on each other. Windows 11 therefore only shows the latest updates that you can uninstall. Windows 10 also shows older updates, but the “Uninstall” button only appears if you click on one of the newer entries.
If Microsoft has corrected the error in the Windows update, the update can be reinstalled. The set update delay should provide sufficient time for this.
Carry out repairs in safe mode: If Windows does not run stable enough in standard mode, try safe mode. To do this, call up the “Startup settings” as described under point 3 or 4 and select “Enable Safe Mode.” Windows will then only load the most necessary drivers, which makes a blue screen less likely.
Windows updates and programs can be uninstalled in safe mode in the same way as in standard mode. You can also call up System Restore (see point 9).
Uninstall updates via the rescue system: If Windows no longer starts and even safe mode does not help, boot the PC from the installation disc (see point 5) and start “Repair my PC” (Windows 10: “Computer repair options”). Click on “Troubleshoot” and then on “Uninstall updates” in the “Advanced options” window.
As a rule, select “Uninstall the latest quality update,” which will remove the latest Windows update. Click on “Uninstall the latest feature update” if you installed it shortly before the blue screen first appeared.
Under “Advanced options” you can also click on “Restore system” and select a previously saved restore point (see point 9).
Remove updates: If a recent Windows update is suspected of causing a blue screen, it can be uninstalled.
Foundry
9. Use recovery
Windows and some setup programs create a restore point before making major changes to the system. The prerequisite for this is that System Restore is activated (see box “Using restore points for a backup”).
In Windows 11 from 24H2, press Win-R, type rstrui and click “OK.” In the “System Restore” window, the option “Recommended restore” is preset, which displays the date of the last restore point.
As a rule, select this if the date is shortly before the first occurrence of the blue screen. Otherwise, activate the option “Select another restore point.” After clicking on “Next,” select the desired restore point.
In the “Confirm restore point” window, click on “Search for affected programs.” System Restore will now show you programs, drivers, and Windows updates that were installed after the restore point was created.
Make a note of the contents of the list so that you can reinstall these programs later. However, this could also include the software that caused the problem. Personal documents are always retained during the restore.
Back in the main System Restore window, click on “Finish.” Confirm the process with “Yes.” Windows will begin the restore process and then restart.
The process is similar for older Windows 11 versions and Windows 10. After clicking “Next” for the first time, you will see a list of restore points from which you can select the desired entry. Tick “Show more restore points” to see older versions. Then continue as described for Windows 11.
10. Eliminate driver errors
The measures described under points 8 and 9 can be used to remove drivers or undo driver updates. If the error message in the blue screen refers to a specific driver, this can also be dealt with specifically. If you do not know which device a driver belongs to, search the internet for the name of the driver.
While Windows is running, open the Device Manager, for example by pressing the Win-X key combination or right-clicking on the Start menu, which will take you to the menu for administrative tools.
Go to the affected device, right-click on the entry, go to “Update driver” and then to “Search for drivers automatically.” If an update is available, install it. Alternatively, you can also go to the hardware manufacturer’s website and check for updates.
Undoing an update: If a newly installed driver does not work properly and causes a blue screen, restore the previous version of the driver via the Device Manager.Foundry
Use older driver: If a driver has become unusable due to an update, revert to the previous version. In the Device Manager, go to “Properties” in the context menu of the affected hardware and click on the “Driver” tab.
Click on “Previous driver” — if available — and select a suitable option under “Why do you want to revert to the previous driver?” Click on “Yes” and the driver will be replaced.
Use the rescue system: If Windows no longer starts, boot the PC from the installation medium (see point 5). As soon as the window with the title “Windows 11 Setup” appears (Windows 10: “Windows Setup”), hold down the Shift key and press the F10 key.
A command prompt opens, in which you type notepad and confirm with the Enter key. Go to “File > Open” and select “All files” after “File type.” The “Open” dialogue can now be used as a file manager.
Go to “Windows\System32\Drivers” in the system drive and search for the problematic driver. Use the “Properties” context menu item to display the manufacturer of the driver on the “Details” tab.
As a rule, you should not do anything with a Microsoft driver unless you know exactly what the consequences are. If it is a third-party driver, rename the file, for example from “Driver.sys” to “Driver.sys.bak.”
Windows will then be unable to load the driver and the system should boot without errors. However, the associated device will no longer work. For a permanent solution, install an updated driver or search for a solution in the manufacturer’s support forums.
Use restore points for a backup
To be prepared for an emergency, you should check whether System Restore is active. You can find the options in the Control Panel.
For a quick call, press Win-R, type SystemPropertiesProtection and confirm with “OK.” Go to the “System Protection” tab. If the value “On” is shown in the “Protection” column under “Protection settings” for the system drive, the backup function is active.
Otherwise, click on the system drive and then on “Configure.” Activate the “Turn on system protection” option. Use the slider under “Disk Space Usage” to specify how much space the operating system should reserve for backups.
Select a two-digit gigabyte value and confirm the change with “OK.” Back in the previous window, click “Create” to create a first backup.
Windows sometimes creates restore points automatically, for example before updates or when installing new software. However, you cannot rely on this. You should therefore create restore points manually before making major changes.
Turn on System Protection in Windows before making changes to your system, so you can revert to the previous state if something goes awry.
Foundry
11. Unspecific errors
Sometimes the blue screen displays error messages that do not specifically refer to a driver. An example of this is “IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL,” which indicates an incompatible or outdated driver.
However, you often do not find out which driver it is. “UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP” can occur when PC components overheat. You should therefore check the fan performance and clean the fans if necessary. The blue screen may display “DATA_BUS_ ERROR” or “PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_ AREA” if the RAM is defective.
Eliminate a serious boot problem: The message “INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE” (stop error 7B) occurs when Windows cannot access the system partition. Faulty updates or drivers as well as defects in the file system or a damaged drive may be the cause.
In the rescue system (see points 5 and 10), use Notepad to test whether access to the hard drive is still possible. If not, check in the BIOS/firmware setup whether the hard drive or SSD has been recognized. If this is not the case, check the data cable and power supply to the drive.
If the drive cannot be put into operation, it is probably defective and you will need to replace it.
To confirm the diagnosis, you should use an independent operating system to check whether the drive can be accessed. A Linux live system such as Ubuntu, which you can run with Rufus onto a USB stick and then boot. You can also access Windows drives via the Linux file manager.
If access to the hard drive is possible, try the “start help” via Windows in the rescue system (see point 5). If this does not help, check and repair important system files. In the rescue system, run the following at the command prompt
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows
The drive letter may differ in the rescue system. Determine it via the “Open” dialogue of Notepad. If this does not work either, start the following two command lines in the rescue system one after the other
Dism /Image=C:\ /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism /Image=C:\ /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
If one of the commands reports an error, use the following command line
Dism /Image=C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Adjust the drive letters for your system.
“Blue screen of death”: If Windows shows the error “INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE”, the boot manager is incorrectly configured or the system drive is defective.
IDG
12. Repair Windows startup files
The “Startup help” attempts to repair the boot environment, but this is not always successful. A manual repair is more likely to be successful. To do this, start the command prompt in the rescue system. Type in diskpart and confirm with the Enter key.
Use list disk to display the drives and select the system drive with sel disk 0, for example. Use list vol to display the volumes. The EFI partition is formatted with the “FAT32” file system and is approximately 100MB in size.
If the EFI partition is called “Volume 2,” for example, mount it as drive “B:” with the following two commands:
sel vol 2
assign letter=b:
Press Esc to leave Diskpart. Execute the following four command lines on the command line
cd /d b:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot
bootrec /fixboot
ren BCD BCD.bak
bcdboot C:\Windows /l de-de /s b: /f UEFI
Replace the drive letter “C:” with the letter previously determined for Sfc. Restart the computer. The UEFI boot environment should then work again.
Boot repair: To repair the UEFI boot environment, you must first assign a drive letter to the EFI partition (FAT32) in the command prompt using Diskpart.IDG
Restore Windows to factory settings
Microsoft offers several seemingly simple solutions for serious Windows problems. In “Settings” (Win-I), go to “System” and click on “Recovery” (Windows 10: “Update & Security > Restore”).
After clicking on “Reset PC” (Windows 10: “Let’s go”), select “Keep my files.” Installed programs, drivers and Windows settings will be deleted, but personal files will be retained. Windows will show you which programmes are affected after clicking on “Show apps that will be removed”.
The second option – “Remove everything” – corresponds to a new Windows installation. The personal files are lost and must be restored later from a previously created backup.
Windows 11 also offers the option “Reinstall now” under “System -‘ Recovery”, below “Fix problems with Windows Update”. Unlike “Reset PC”, Windows does not use the files saved on the hard drive, but downloads the current Windows version.
The advantage: You no longer have to install many updates and the system is up to date. However, the download takes some time if you have a slow internet connection.
If Windows no longer starts and the “Settings” can therefore not be called up, reinstalling via a Windows installation medium (see point 5) is the final solution. You must back up your own files beforehand.
Before resorting to these radical and time-consuming methods, you should consider the other measures described in this article.
Restore factory settings: The reset function replaces system files with the original version. This can rectify many errors, but you will have to reinstall all programs.Foundry
13. Error analysis tools
The cause of a blue screen, be it a faulty driver or a problem with a Windows update, cannot usually be rectified directly. Instead, the problem can often only be circumvented. However, there are various tools that can analyze the crash and the generated memory image in more detail.
Although these tools are primarily intended for developers who want to check their own drivers, they can also be helpful for normal Windows users. The information provided can be used to search the internet for possible causes and solutions to the error.
The tool Who Crashed. After clicking on “Analyze,” it searches for .dmp files (point 2) and displays descriptions.
The Microsoft tool Windbg (via Microsoft Store app) can open .dmp files via “File > Open Dump File.” In the “Command” area, click on “!analyze -v”. Windbg then displays extensive information, including the name of the driver concerned.
Bluescreen View automatically opens all .dmp files from the folder “C:\Windows\MiniDump.” The name of the driver that caused the crash appears first in the “File name” column. You can perform a Google search for error messages and drivers via the “File” menu. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
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