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| PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
ProsFile, image, continuous, and cloud backupStraightforward interfaceSupports network locations and optical discSoftware is reasonably pricedConsNumerous visual glitchesSuper pricey online storageSlow enumeration of file listsImaging function disabled when accessing the host PC from a Microsoft Remote Desktop connectionOur VerdictNTI Backup Pro 7 offers a lot of backup functionality, including file/folder, image, continuous, and cloud backup; network; and even optical disc support. But I found numerous annoying glitches and the cloud storage is pricey.
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NTI Backup Pro 7 is what one might refer to as the whole enchilada. It offers file backup, imaging/drive backup, continuous backup as well online backup to NTI Cloud (powered by Microsoft Azure). It backs up to and from networks, and is one of the rare backup programs that supports optical discs.
I was psyched at the feature list and assumed that in the 10 years since I last visited NTI’s flagship backup program, it would be finely honed and bullet-proof. In the end, everything worked as advertised, but there were glitches of various types.
Further reading: See our roundup of the best backup software to learn about competing products.
What are NTI Backup Pro 7’s features?
As I mentioned, NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers file and folder backup, drive and partition image backup, continuous backup, and cloud backup. Continuous backup is file and folder backup where changes are backed up as they occur. Cloud backup is also file and folder backup, but to NTI’s online storage.
The plain file/folder, image, and online backups are stored in proprietary container files (single large files with all the data contained inside), while the continuous backup is a browsable plain file backup. i.e., files are copied as you would using Windows Explorer. Older revisions of files are kept in a separate folder.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7’s wizard-like interface handily steps you through the process of creating a backup job.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7’s wizard-like interface handily steps you through the process of creating a backup job.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7’s wizard-like interface handily steps you through the process of creating a backup job.
The Backup Now Pro 7 interface is very straightforward, though unlike the EZ version, there’s no hand-holding when it comes to selecting data to back up. No biggie, but it could be just a tad friendlier.
The just-mentioned NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 (which is $10 less per license) has a slightly more intuitive workflow, though the interface is not one of the prettiest. It lacks the Pro version’s continuous backup, but is otherwise roughly feature equivalent.
NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 is a bit friendlier than the Pro version, and didn’t have the imaging issues we had with Pro.
NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 is a bit friendlier than the Pro version, and didn’t have the imaging issues we had with Pro.
NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 is a bit friendlier than the Pro version, and didn’t have the imaging issues we had with Pro.
Back to Pro… There’s granular scheduling (in addition to the continuous, of course) available, as well incremental backups to save space, and automatic maintenance of destination storage by purging older files when necessary. Encryption and password protection are also provided.
An NTI Backup Now Pro 7 feature that I absolutely love is the ability to choose multiple local destinations (a secondary internal drive plus external drive, etc.) for a backup job. It would be nice if you could combine local with network locations and the NTI Cloud, but hey, it’s a start
And yes, the program will back up both to and from network locations. As well as to FTP. And, as mentioned up top, Backup Now Pro 7 even supports optical discs.
How much does NTI Backup Pro 7 cost?
At the time of this writing NTI Backup Now Pro 7 was on sale for $40, down from the normal $60 retail price. The EZ version without the continuous backup was $30, $20 off of full list. The continuous backup-only NTI Shadow program is also $30 on sale.
An NTI Backup Now Pro 7 feature that I absolutely love is the ability to choose multiple local destinations (a secondary internal drive plus external drive, etc.) for a backup job.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers a variety of scheduling features as well as incremental backup.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers a variety of scheduling features as well as incremental backup.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers a variety of scheduling features as well as incremental backup.
NTI Cloud (required for cloud backup) is free for one-month of 16GB, $5 a month for 32GB, $10 monthly for 64GB, $20 a month for 128GB, $40 per month for 256GB, $100 a month for 640GB, and $200 a month for 2TB. My OneDrive subscription is $70 per year for 1TB and includes Office 365.
The math is rather obvious, but OneDrive is less than anything but NTI’s 16GB plan. Google Drive offers 15GB for free. Spelling it out, the NTI Cloud is very pricey and as it’s the only online storage supported, that feature is considerably less attractive than it might be.
Note that you can use just about any backup program with nearly any online storage service by employing a cloud storage manager.
How well does NTI Backup Pro 7 perform?
I ran into issues with NTI Backup Pro 7 right off the bat, with the interface scaling incorrectly on my 4K display. It took a trip to the program file’s Properties/Compatibility/Change DPI settings to select “Program DPI” before the text and icons were large enough that I could use the program. There was more visual sloppiness in spots, which always gives me pause when it comes to software.
I had to set Backup Now 7 to use its own DPI to get rid of tiny text and icons.
I had to set Backup Now 7 to use its own DPI to get rid of tiny text and icons.
I had to set Backup Now 7 to use its own DPI to get rid of tiny text and icons.
The program was also slothful at presenting files and folders. Seemingly, it doesn’t query the file system pre-emptively as is common practice. While all these idiosyncrasies may seem picayune, they add up, and do nothing to reassure me that the actual backup functionality will be bullet proof. As it turned out…
While file/folder and continuous backups to local media went off without unusual glitches, imaging proved an issue — as it turns out, because we remote control the test beds using Microsoft Remote Desktop. Backup Now Pro 7 didn’t like this, cancelling every image job before it was five seconds old.
After over a week of back and forth, and hours of troubleshooting, NTI explained this as a security “feature.” However, the logic behind it escapes me, and it’s hard to consider it a feature when no other program exhibits the same behavior. R-Drive Image, Acronis Cyber Security Home Office, Aomei Backupper, Macrium Reflect Home all backed up without a fuss.
NTI Backup Pro 7 will not work if you’re controlling the PC its installed on via Microsoft Remote Desktop.
NTI Backup Pro 7 will not work if you’re controlling the PC its installed on via Microsoft Remote Desktop.
NTI Backup Pro 7 will not work if you’re controlling the PC its installed on via Microsoft Remote Desktop.
I checked NTI’s EZ Backup Now 7.5 (see above) to see if it suffered the same ‘feature,” and while it failed initially, on the the second try it imaged a partition correctly. Apparently, a partial implementation of said “feature.”
Another annoyance was that choosing to stop a 7GB cloud backup job at 30 percent didn’t stop the backup. I waited a full 10 minutes, then killed the process to cancel the job. Perhaps I was impatient, or perhaps the stop request wouldn’t have been processed until the current 7GB container file was completed — i.e., at 100 percent.
A smaller online backup of the documents, desktop, and downloads folders proceeded without incident, as I’m sure the larger one would have too, if I hadn’t needed to cancel.
On another positive note, creating a recovery disc went without a hitch and booted on both test beds. Restoring the image I was finally able to create was successful as well.
Should you buy NTI Backup Pro 7?
In the end, NTI Backup Pro 7 worked as advertised, but the annoyances I encountered and the super-high cost of the cloud storage left me not completely enthusiastic about the program. Give it a spin and see if it’s right for you, but do the same for the competition.
How I test software
All software is installed on an AMD Ryzen 3700X system utilizing an MSI MEG X570 motherboard with 64GB of Kingston DDR4 memory, and several PCIe 4 NVMe SSDs. The operating system is Windows 11 21H2, to which only security updates are applied to maintain a level playing field over time. The test bed is largely kept off the Internet unless testing the software demands it. All pertinent features are tested and the program rated for stability, suitability to task, ease of use, and feature set.
Should issues arise, all possibly conflicting applications are uninstalled, and if that doesn’t fix the problem, Windows is reinstalled. And as off this writing, controlling the test bed remotely will be checked.
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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 26 Jun (PC World)Avoiding data breaches is all but impossible these days. You can’t control a company’s data security policies—you can only filter what information you share with them and mitigate the potential fallout. But don’t assume that once your personal info is on the dark web, it’s over and done. Unfortunately, we all still need to stay informed about the latest data breaches and leaks.
Why? They keep you from falling for opportunistic scams.
Further reading: Best password managers 2024: Protect your online accounts
Let’s say you were affected by one of the latest breaches—perhaps as one of the potentially 500,000 Ticketmaster users or unknown number of Tile owners. But you don’t pay attention to the news, so when you get an email saying your credit card transaction failed for your ticket purchase (or a recall is in effect for your Tile device with serial number ending in XXXX), you click the link.
What happens next could be one of a few bad outcomes. Perhaps you get subjected to drive-by malware. Or maybe you end up sharing or indirectly revealing more personal details an attacker needed to commit identity theft.
If you paid attention to the latest security reports, however, you might be more suspicious of messages related to Ticketmaster, Tile, or any other recent data leak. You’d be more likely to avoid clicking directly on links and you’d lean on your good security practices like accessing an official website directly. Scams rely on people reacting first and then thinking about the situation later on (if at all). If you’re already aware that someone could try to exploit your trust, you’ll be more careful about giving it.
OUr TOP Antivirus Pick
Norton 360 Deluxe
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Of course, a lot of us are busy and don’t have time to keep up with security news. You can lean on services to keep you appraised—in addition to regularly browsing technology websites (hello), you can subscribe to Have I Been Pwned as well as lean on any subscriptions you have (like a good paid antivirus suite, Microsoft 365, or Google One) that offer dark web monitoring. If you end up relying on a service, I’ve found it helpful to use more than one since the notifications don’t always cover the same breaches.
And yes, having to be so vigilant is a little depressing. Almost hard to remember that once upon a time, during the early days of the Internet, people would openly share their personal details with full trust in others’ goodness.
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| ![](/n.gif) | | ITBrief - 26 Jun (ITBrief)![NZ Located](/pimages/nzsmall.gif) Akamai`s latest report reveals that 42% of web traffic is bot-driven, with 65% of these bots malicious, heavily impacting the eCommerce sector. Read...Newslink ©2024 to ITBrief | ![](/n.gif) |
| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 26 Jun (PC World)Microsoft has made a questionable change in Windows 11 that takes away your freedom of choice for OneDrive backups.
Without prior notice or explanation, Microsoft now force activates the automatic folder backup with OneDrive feature when you set up a new computer, all without asking you for permission.
When you set up a new Windows computer while connected to the internet and using a Microsoft account, you usually see OneDrive on your desktop. The app synchronizes data from folders—such as images, documents, music, and videos—which can be useful in certain cases.
Related story: Microsoft blocks popular method to install Windows 11 without an account
In the worst-case scenario, however, you may set up Windows and immediately be confronted with a desktop that’s cluttered with files and folders. This is likely to cause all kinds of frustration.
Previously, you had to explicitly activate automatic folder backups, and Microsoft would ping you with recurring notifications to remind you of the feature if it wasn’t enabled.
Now, however, Microsoft seems to have assumed that everyone wants OneDrive backups activated by default, thus forcing it on without exception. You may not even realize it until you set up a new computer and suddenly see all your old files again.
How to deactivate OneDrive backups
If you don’t want your Windows computer to back up everything on your desktop—or in other folders—to OneDrive, you can deactivate it:
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Windows 11 Pro
Right-click on the OneDrive icon at the bottom right of your taskbar notification area. (If you can’t find the icon directly, you may need to expand the field by clicking the little arrow.) Then, go to the settings gear icon and select Settings.
Click the Sync and backup section in the left sidebar, then select Manage backup. Now deactivate all the folders that you don’t want backed up to OneDrive, then confirm the changes.
If you have an older version of OneDrive with the classic tabbed interface, go to the Backup tab and click Manage backup and then Stop backup. You will need to confirm the setting again.
Alternatively, you can uninstall OneDrive altogether if you don’t want to use automatic backups at all. This would be the simplest solution, but Microsoft might not like it at all.
More on this: The best Microsoft OneDrive tricks you should know
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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 26 Jun (PC World)Microsoft, Qualcomm, and their PC-manufacturing partners are seriously hyping Copilot+ PCs. They’d have you believe that these “next-generation AI laptops” are packed with AI smarts and useful features.
But, while the hardware for AI tasks is ready in these laptops, the actual features built into Windows aren’t making full use of it.
We’re in a weird position. We’re excited about these laptops because they’re the first seriously impressive Windows on Arm laptops. We’re excited about long battery life with snappy performance. And we’re excited that next-generation Intel Lunar Lake hardware is looking like a huge leap for traditional x86 laptops.
But we’re not excited about all these at-launch AI features being pushed by marketing campaigns. Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs might be intriguing, but if you’re excited about an immediate AI upgrade to your Windows experience, you’re going to be disappointed. Here’s why.
Further reading: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review: A new long-lasting, Qualcomm-powered era for Windows laptops
Copilot+ PC? More like Copilot- PC
The name “Copilot+ PC” conjures to mind a kind of PC with extra features relating to Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot. After all, “Copilot Pro” is a paid subscription that upgrades the Copilot chatbot experience.
That’s not the case at all. A Copilot+ PC offers no extra Copilot upgrades. You get a Copilot key on the keyboard, which first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware have been offering for many months now. That’s it. Copilot doesn’t run offline or use the new integrated neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to do anything at all.
In fact, the situation is much more dire than that. These machines ship with a new Copilot app experience—it’s no longer a sidebar, but rather a normal floating desktop window. That’s fine. But, as Tom Warren noted for The Verge, the new Copilot app experience is a step back. You can’t tell it to “turn on Dark Mode” or “empty the Recycle Bin” anymore.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Microsoft may eventually improve the Windows integration in this new Copilot app. And, even if not, this new Copilot experience will eventually come to all Windows 11 PCs. But, at launch, Copilot is surprisingly less powerful on a Copilot+ PC than it is on a standard Windows 11 PC.
It also doesn’t have those fancy GPT-4o features that Microsoft showed off, where it can see your screen and talk you through Minecraft gameplay, for example. Those features will arrive at some point in the future—but when they do, they won’t need Copilot+ PC hardware. That impressive demo will work on all Windows 11 PCs.
AI image generation needs a Microsoft account and internet connection
A Copilot+ PC has some extra AI image generation tools integrated into various apps throughout Windows:
Paint has a Cocreator tool that can generate an image as you draw, modifying it to fit your drawing.
Photos has a Restyle tool that will let you use generative AI as a “filter” for your image. For example, taking a photo and making it look like it was a watercolor painting.
Photos also has an Image Generator feature that generates images to match your text prompts.
Here’s the thing: While these tools all use the NPU inside a Copilot+ PC, none of them work offline. They require a Microsoft account and an active internet connection to work. Why? To check your images for “AI safety” before showing them to you.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Without getting into whether that’s necessary or not, one thing is clear: There’s no point to running these tools on your computer’s hardware if they also require a cloud service to function. You might as well use a cloud-based AI image generation tool running in a powerful data center somewhere. You’ll get better, more realistic results.
The introduction of these new tools has muddied the AI experience on Windows 11. All of the above tools sit alongside other AI image generation tools that do use Microsoft’s cloud servers. For example, the Image Creator in Microsoft Paint uses the cloud, while the Image Creator in Photos uses your PC’s local hardware.
On a Copilot+ PC, Windows contains a confusing mishmash of AI features that may or may not use the PC’s hardware and may or may not use Microsoft’s cloud services.
Live Captions gains some tricks, but already runs on all Windows 11 PCs
On any Windows 11 PC, you can open the Live Captions app from your Start menu to get AI-powered captions for speech. It uses Microsoft’s cloud servers to generate live captions in real time from any audio—audio in a video file, audio in an online meeting, or even audio being picked up by your PC’s microphone.
On a Copilot+ PC, Live Captions gets a little more powerful: it can now work entirely offline (unlike Microsoft’s AI image generation tools) and it can now translate speech from 44 different languages to English.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
That’s a nice upgrade that some people will find very valuable. But if you don’t already use Live Captions, or if you do and you wish you had real-time translation or offline support, would that be enough reason to warrant buying a new Copilot+ PC? Likely not.
Windows Studio Effects are fine, but not much is new
Microsoft has been talking up Windows Studio Effects as one of the big AI features for Copilot+ PCs. These are real-time webcam effects that use the computer’s NPU to change how your webcam looks in any app.
I like them, really. You can enable fake eye contact or blur your background in any app, for example. And, because it uses the NPU, it’s a power-efficient way to do webcam effects. You won’t be wasting CPU or GPU power in an online meeting.
However, this isn’t exactly new. Windows Studio Effects is the one AI feature that functioned out of the box on first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware. You don’t need a Copilot+ PC for them.
There are some extra effects: you can use effects like “Animated,” “Illustrated,” and “Watercolor” to change how you look on your webcam in real time. It’s a nice idea, but I find the effects to be very subtle.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Do I really look “illustrated” in the screenshot above? A little bit! Is that worth buying a Copilot+ PC for? Well, I don’t know about that…
Recall would have been the big feature
Recall will take screenshots of your PC’s display every five seconds, create a big database of your PC activity, and then let you search through it with plain language queries—just like when you talk to an AI chatbot.
Unlike the Copilot AI chatbot or AI image generation features, it will work entirely offline. That’s what Microsoft said when it announced Recall.
Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft
It’s clear why Microsoft made such a big deal about Windows Recall when it announced Copilot+ PCs. Without Recall, there’s a distinct lack of a centerpiece AI feature that really sells these PCs. Instead, it’s just a collection of little tech demos that shows off what the NPU can do.
But when Microsoft faced serious blowback regarding privacy and security concerns over Recall, it decided to pull Recall before launch and spend a few more months working on it before release.
Ultimately, this means none of the included “AI” software featured in Copilot+ PCs at launch is particularly exciting.
With Copilot+, you’re buying into a promise
I’m calling these features “tech demos” for a reason. They feel like they exist to demonstrate the power of the neural processing unit and the Windows Copilot Runtime that Microsoft is offering to developers.
The vision of a Copilot+ PC isn’t that Windows will totally transform itself. The vision is that third-party application developers will leverage this hardware to add AI features into their own applications.
It’s early days, for sure. If you’re excited about a Copilot+ PC because of the AI features, I recommend you slow down before buying one because you may be disappointed, especially without Recall.
I always recommend buying hardware for what it can do today, not based on what it might do in the future. (Already this year, buyers of first-generation AI PCs got burned for buying into a vision too early.)
But if you’re mainly excited about the battery life and performance promises of Copilot+ PCs? That may be a good reason to buy one! I’ve been very impressed with the battery life and snappy performance so far. I wish Microsoft and Qualcomm were talking more about that than AI with this debut Snapdragon X Elite laptops.
Let’s stay in touch! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter—I’ll send you three things to try every Friday.
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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 26 Jun (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
ProsEasy-to-use interfaceDecent speedsIndependently verified no-logs auditConsSome features not available for all platformsCan’t unblock most streaming servicesExpensive monthly subscriptionOur VerdictHMA VPN comes with an easy-to-use interface, extensive global server network, and decent enough speeds. However, it’s lacking some common features that experienced VPN users want, and the features that are included aren’t available on every OS platform.
HMA VPN — aka Hide My Ass! — has seemingly been around forever. Founded in 2005, by a high-school tech wiz who just wanted to game at school, it has since grown into a successful premium VPN service.
HMA now offers a sprawling network of over 1,100 servers across 297 country locations. That’s a far cry from the single URL-based VPN it used to be. But can this old ass learn new tricks? I pin the tail on this VPN to see if it really does live up to its humorous name.
HMA VPN in brief:
P2P allowed: Yes
Simultaneous device connections: 5
Business location: London, United Kingdom
Number of servers: 1,100+
Number of country locations: 297
Cost: $11.99 per month or $59.88 for one year
Further reading: See our roundup of the best VPN services to learn about competing products.
What are HMA VPN’s features and services?
HMA VPN has one of the cleanest user interfaces of any VPN on the market.
HMA VPN has one of the cleanest user interfaces of any VPN on the market.
Sam Singleton
HMA VPN has one of the cleanest user interfaces of any VPN on the market.
Sam Singleton
Sam Singleton
When you first open up HMA VPN you notice right off the bat how simple it all looks. That’s simple in a good way, I mean. There is a large on/off switch in the middle with another large button to choose your location. There is also an animated hipster-looking donkey at the top — it’s an ass for “Hide My Ass!”, get it? Clever. Anyways, that’s basically it. The whole app is extremely easy to use and straightforward. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the overly complicated interfaces of other VPNs that seem to want to bombard you with as much data as possible.
There is a More button that brings up a side menu with, as you guessed it, more info about your connection. This includes up and down data traffic and connection preferences for kill switches and the auto-connect feature.
HMA VPN doesn’t have a lot of user settings to choose from, but the kill switch and IP shuffler are highlights.
HMA VPN doesn’t have a lot of user settings to choose from, but the kill switch and IP shuffler are highlights.
Sam Singleton
HMA VPN doesn’t have a lot of user settings to choose from, but the kill switch and IP shuffler are highlights.
Sam Singleton
Sam Singleton
Click on the gear icon at the top left of the home screen and it brings up the settings menu. Here is where simplicity turns into inadequacy. There aren’t many features to speak of, especially for a premium VPN that charges what HMA does.
You do get comprehensive kill switch functionality. There is both an overall kill switch to restrict all traffic to your device should your VPN connection cut-out, as well as an app kill switch to choose only specific apps to restrict after an unexpected disconnection.
HMA VPN only comes with the split tunneling feature on its Android app.
HMA VPN only comes with the split tunneling feature on its Android app.
Sam Singleton
HMA VPN only comes with the split tunneling feature on its Android app.
Sam Singleton
Sam Singleton
Other advanced features are available on different OS platforms, as well. For example, Android users will have access to a split tunneling feature, which is unavailable for PC users. Split tunneling is a useful feature that allows you to designate which apps will use the VPN connection and which will stay separate. I’m surprised and a little frustrated that HMA only supports the feature for Android users, as most premium VPNs nowadays offer it for multiple platforms.
One unique feature that HMA does include is an IP shuffler. This periodically randomizes and changes your IP address so that it’s harder for anyone to track your location. I actually really like the idea of this extra security measure and used it without issue during my entire testing process. You can customize the randomization time periods from daily all the way down to 1 minute.
Despite these nifty extras, it does feel as if HMA VPN is lacking some key VPN features. The absence of multi-hop, ad- and tracker-blocking, and split tunneling for all platforms is a letdown. Also, power users will be disappointed that there aren’t more tweakable configuration options or things such as Smart DNS and dedicated IP.
In regards to servers, HMA VPN comes with a decent, if unexceptional 1,100 plus total servers. What’s quite nice, however, is the server country spread. It provides a mixture of physical and virtual servers across 297 country locations, spanning most of the world. So even if you’re a Gibraltarian wanting to connect to your home country, there’s a server for you. And if you happen to be the Pope, there’s a Vatican server for you, as well.
One unique feature that HMA includes is an IP shuffler that periodically randomizes and changes your IP address so that it’s harder for anyone to track your location
How much does HMA VPN cost?
HMA VPN comes in monthly, one-year, and three-year subscription plans.
HMA VPN comes in monthly, one-year, and three-year subscription plans.
HMA
HMA VPN comes in monthly, one-year, and three-year subscription plans.
HMA
HMA
HMA offers its VPN subscription in monthly, one-year, and three-year plans. The monthly plan starts at $11.99 per month, which is admittedly expensive for what you’re getting. Similarly priced top VPNs such as NordVPN ($12.99 per month) and ExpressVPN ($12.95 per month) give you much more in regards to extra features and OS availability.
However, switch to the annual plan for $59.88 per year, or $4.99 per month, and things become a lot more affordable — roughly in line with most other premium VPN services. If you decide to opt for the three-year plan it gets even cheaper at $107.64, or $2.99 per month. Three years is a long commitment though, especially in the fast-moving VPN market. If you just want to get your toes wet to see how you like HMA VPN, it does offer a 7-day free trial, as well.
It’s worth noting that all of these subscription prices come with five simultaneous device connections. If you wish for more, every subscription tier also offers the option for 10 connections for a little bit less than double the price.
Payments can be made with a credit card and PayPal.
How is HMA VPN’s performance?
When testing a VPN’s speeds I measure connection speeds across its servers in six different countries around the world and then compare them to my baseline internet speed.
HMA VPN’s speeds were passable. During the tests, HMA VPN was able to maintain 55 percent of the base download speed and 54 percent of the base upload speed. That puts it right in the middle of the pack, but well shy of the fastest VPNs.
I noticed that HMA’s speeds were markedly better for servers located physically closer to me than those further away. That may seem like an obvious outcome, but the differences were quite drastic. Servers in my same country maintained speeds well in excess of 80 percent of my base speeds while far-away servers in countries such as South Africa and Australia were dramatically slower — both countries’ servers clocked in below 20 percent of the base.
Of course, physical distance is just one of many factors that can lead to different speed outcomes. Others include: time of day, server load, server architecture, fluctuations in your own home connection, etc. It’s best to take not just these results, but all VPN speed results with a grain of salt. I simply include them here to help give some guideposts as to what you might expect. Overall, I believe that HMA’s speeds are just fine for most users.
When it comes to streaming, I can’t recommend HMA VPN as a good way to unblock geo-restricted content. I couldn’t get U.S. Netflix to work no matter how many different U.S. servers I tried. I was able to very occasionally access Disney Plus and Amazon Prime, but I had to dig around to find a server that worked. Other streaming services such as Hulu and HBO Max were all unsuccessful as well.
How is HMA VPN’s security and privacy?
HMA VPN uses industry-standard AES-256 encryption and the Windows app has access to the WireGuard, OpenVPN, and its own proprietary Mimic protocols. The Android app only comes with OpenVPN.
WireGuard, OpenVPN, and HMA’s own Mimic are all available protocol options.
WireGuard, OpenVPN, and HMA’s own Mimic are all available protocol options.
Sam Singleton
WireGuard, OpenVPN, and HMA’s own Mimic are all available protocol options.
Sam Singleton
Sam Singleton
HMA’s Mimic protocol was developed by parent company Avast RSO (makers of the Avast antivirus software) as a way to bypass VPN restrictions. As the software is closed-source and I am not currently located in a country that has restricted internet usage, I couldn’t truly put it to the test. However, I always recommend WireGuard as my go-to protocol due to its open-source nature and excellent mix of speed and security.
When it comes to user privacy, HMA VPN has made huge strides in recent years. Prior to major updates to its privacy practices in 2019, HMA was criticized for dubiously storing user data such as IP address, connection timestamps, and some online activity. After the changes, the company switched to a no-logs policy, which it then backed up with an independent audit conducted by VerSprite a year later.
That audit confirmed that HMA does not collect any data logs on users. According to the new privacy policy, it only keeps data regarding account information for billing and customer service purposes, approximate individual bandwidth usage to assist with network capacity improvements, and anonymous error reports.
While the switch over to a no-logs policy was a necessity, the independent audit was a welcomed addition. However, it has now been four years since that audit took place and I’d like to see the service undergo more regular audits in the future. Similarly, I’d like to see HMA VPN make the switch to RAM-only diskless servers, which are much safer and quickly becoming an industry standard among top VPNs.
HMA is owned by parent company Avast Group, and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The country unfortunately has mandatory data retention laws and is a member nation of multiple signals intelligence sharing agreements such as Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes alliances. Thankfully, the company’s no-logs policy mitigates the chance for user data to be collected by these governments.
Is HMA VPN worth it?
The rebranding to a more corporate sounding name doesn’t take away from the charm of the HMA VPN service. It has a well thought-out and friendly interface, making it quick and easy to get connected. There are also plenty of country locations to choose from and the speeds across most servers is above average.
The bones for a great VPN are here, but without meatier features such as split tunneling and multi-hop across all apps, it simply can’t compete against the best services such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN. Hopefully parent company Avast continues to improve upon this time-honored VPN service in the future.
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.
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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 25 Jun (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
ProsAttractive, slim, and lightClass-leading battery lifeExcellent wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi 7Good performance in real-world situationsConsVague keyboard falls short of competitorsIPS touchscreen’s image quality can’t compare to OLEDGaming performance doesn’t hold upOur VerdictThe Microsoft Surface Laptop’s strong processor performance and top-tier battery life prove that Windows’ transition to Arm has staying power, but even the most casual gamers should think twice.
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It’s a new era for Windows PCs.
The latest Microsoft Surface Laptop (alongside the revised Surface Pro) ditches Intel and AMD hardware for Qualcomm chips. This isn’t a first, as previous Surface devices like the Surface Pro 9 5G also used Qualcomm. But those devices were introductory sideshows to the main event.
The new Surface Laptop is available only with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip. No Intel or AMD variants are available or planned. This bold move helps the Surface Laptop achieve strong performance and outright spectacular battery life in a thin laptop, in addition to standing as Microsoft’s debut AI-infused Copilot+ PC.
Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Specs and features
The Microsoft Surface Laptop’s most intriguing hardware is, of course, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. It’s a system-on-a-chip that pairs up to 12 CPU cores with Qualcomm Adreno integrated graphics. Entry-level Surface Laptop variants have a 10-core processor, but the one I tested had the 12-core upgrade.
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (12-core)
Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x
Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno integrated graphics
Neural Processing Unit (NPU): Qualcomm Hexagon
Display: 13.8-inch, 2304×1536 resolution, 3:2 aspect ratio, 120Hz IPS-LED touchscreen
Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 solid state drive
Webcam: 1080p with dual-mic array
Connectivity: 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A, 1x Surface Connector, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition via webcam
Battery capacity: 54 watt-hours
Dimensions: 11.85 x 8.67 x 0.69 inches
Weight: 2.96 pounds
MSRP: $999.99 to start, $1999.99 as-tested
Processor aside, the Surface Laptop was well-equipped with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. These upgrades run up the price, though, which doubles from the entry fee of $999.99 to an as-tested price of $1999.99. That’s rather expensive, though comparable to other premium portable laptops like the Dell XPS 14 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Design and build quality
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
It’s easy to mistake the new Surface Laptop for an older model at a glance—and I mean that as a compliment. The new Surface Laptop, like its predecessors, has a sleek aluminum body that looks luxurious and feels rigid. It favors a minimalist look with no badging aside from the glossy Windows logo on the display lid.
Look closer, though, and a few details stand out. The display bezels are much smaller than prior Surface Laptop models, and they’re now rounded at the corners for a more organic, approachable look. The edges taper more aggressively than before, too, which makes the new laptop feel thinner in-hand. The new Surface Laptop is technically thicker than its predecessor, but feels more nimble.
The Surface Laptop weighs 2.96 pounds. That’s a bit heavier than competitors like the Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 and Dell XPS 13, both of which weigh 2.7 pounds. Though the difference seems trivial on paper, I did notice it. In fact, the first thing I said while unboxing the Surface Laptop was, “Wow, this feels a bit chunky.” Once placed in a backpack or bag, however, the Laptop’s extra ounces fade away.
Microsoft continues to stick with an unusual display aspect ratio of 3:2, which is far closer to square than the more common 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratios. As such, the Surface Laptop feels a bit boxier than competitors and it might not fit in some sleeves meant for a 13.3-inch widescreen laptop, as its dimensions are different from the norm.
But the 3:2 aspect ratio is an advantage if you frequently work with text documents or web pages, as you can see more vertical space at once. (In fact, the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop’s vertical display height is identical to a 15.6-inch laptop with a 16:9 aspect ratio.)
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Keyboard and trackpad
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
The new Surface Laptop’s keyboard doesn’t live up to expectations. It has a roomy layout with large palm rests, which makes it comfortable to use, but key feel is an issue. Keys activate with a mushy, quiet, ill-defined action that lacks feedback.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s usable. But I don’t like it as much as the prior Surface Laptop (I own a Surface Laptop 4) or the keyboards found on competing laptops, like the Dell XPS 14 and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED.
A keyboard backlight comes standard—as is typical for a laptop in this price bracket—and offers three levels of brightness. It’s a bit dim even at maximum brightness, so the backlight isn’t easily visible when used in a bright room. However, the backlight’s minimum brightness is very low, which is preferable if you use the laptop in a nearly pitch-black space.
While the keyboard is a miss, the touchpad is solid. It measures roughly five inches wide and a bit more than three inches deep, which is comparable (or smaller) than other Windows laptops. But the touchpad felt extremely smooth and responsive.
It also handled multi-touch gestures with ease. Fans of Windows’ pinch-to-minimize (and other more complicated multi-touch gestures) will be pleased. It also supports haptic feedback, which convincingly emulates the feel of a mechanical button when the touchpad is tapped.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Display and audio
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
As mentioned earlier, the Surface Laptop has an unusual 13.8-inch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. It also has a unique resolution of 2304×1536, which works out to a pixel density of 200 pixels per inch.
That’s a bit less than 14-inch competitors with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2880×1600, which hits about 242 pixels per inch. It’s also less than a MacBook Air M3 13.6-inch, which delivers 224 pixels per inch. These numbers aren’t as meaningful as they seem, though, because all three pixel densities look sharp in the real world. Still, the Surface Laptop is at a slight technical disadvantage as far as sharpness.
The Surface Laptop also continues to lag in display technology, as it sticks to an IPS-LED display without a dynamic backlight. That’s bad news for the laptop’s contrast ratio, which is far less impressive than competitors with an OLED display panel or Mini-LED display backlight.
It’s not a problem when working in Word or Adobe Acrobat, but it’s easy to notice when playing games or watching movies, especially in a dark room. The Surface Laptop looks less immersive and engaging than competitors like the Dell XPS 14 and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED.
That said, Microsoft strikes back with a 120Hz touchscreen that feels snappy. Many Windows laptops have abandoned the touchscreen, and others that offer touch—like the Dell XPS 14—stick to a lower refresh rate that feels less responsive. Plus, the Surface Laptop’s traditional clamshell design isn’t well-suited to touch input (the hinge doesn’t even fold back 180 degrees), but if you like to smudge up the screen, the Surface Laptop has you covered.
The 120Hz refresh rate can also, in theory, deliver a more fluid experience while playing PC games. However, the Surface Laptop’s gaming performance and support isn’t great, so finding titles that can run at up to 120 frames per second will be a struggle.
Audio performance is good, if not amazing. The Surface Laptop’s speakers are extremely loud at maximum volume and sound good with less-complex content, like podcasts. Throw a bass-heavy track at the Surface, though, and the speakers become muddy and harsh.
The speakers are above-average for most 13- to 14-inch laptops, but still behind audio leaders like the Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo Yoga 9i.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Webcam, microphone, and biometrics
A 1080p webcam is packed into the Surface Laptop’s thin top bezel. It provides acceptable video quality straight away, which is improved by AI-powered Studio Effects filters (a feature the Surface Laptop shares with other Copilot+ PCs). The filters add background blur, automatic framing, and real-time effects that, in practice, add up to decent video quality.
Microphone quality is great. It picked up my voice with excellent volume and easily filtered out background noise, including persistent noises (like a fan) just a few feet away from the laptop.
Biometric login is supported through Windows Hello facial recognition. It worked well in my testing and, because it uses an IR camera instead of the primary sensor, it’s reliable in both very dark and bright rooms. Many competitive laptops support the feature, but it’s good to see it included.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Connectivity
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
The bulk of the Surface Laptop’s wired connectivity comes from a pair of USB-C ports on the laptop’s left flank. Both ports support USB4, Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort, and can accept up to 65 watts of Power Delivery. There’s also a single USB-A 3.1 port for older devices and a 3.5mm combo audio jack for headphones, headset, or microphone.
Microsoft’s Surface Connect is back. It’s a proprietary data and power connector that magnetically attaches to the right flank. The bundled 65-watt power adapter uses Surface Connect instead of USB-C but, as mentioned, the USB-C ports support Power Delivery and can be used to charge and power the laptop as well.
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Dedicated video-out (in the form of HDMI or DisplayPort) is missing, which might be annoying if you want to connect an older monitor or a modern TV. There’s no wired Ethernet, either. You’ll need a USB-C adapter, hub, or dock if you want to use the Surface Laptop with devices that require these ports. Though a tad disappointing, it’s typical for a portable Windows laptop.
Wireless connectivity is excellent, with support for both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Wi-Fi 7 is the latest wireless internet standard. It’s so new, in fact, that very few people even have a Wi-Fi 7 router. Still, I think it’s the right move to make Wi-Fi 7 standard. (Anyone willing to pay almost $2,000 for a well-equipped Surface Laptop is likely to be an early adopter of Wi-Fi 7, after all.)
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Performance
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop is one of more than a dozen new Copilot+ PCs with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. The Snapdragon uses the Arm instruction set instead of the x86 instruction set that’s common to Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors.
Laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors, like the new Microsoft Surface Laptop, promise better battery life and efficiency. However, Arm and x86 aren’t natively compatible, which means Windows apps coded only for x86 won’t run on Arm.
To solve that, Microsoft has aggressively urged software partners to develop new Arm-compatible software, meanwhile providing an emulation layer (called Prism) that can run x86 software on Arm hardware.
What does that mean for performance? Let’s dig in.
Note: The Surface Laptop I tested had the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite, an upgrade over the 10-core chip in entry-level configurations.
Cinebench R20
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
First up is Cinebench R20, a heavily multithreaded CPU benchmark. This version of the benchmark doesn’t support Arm, so the new Surface Laptop uses emulation to run the benchmark. The emulation’s stability was perfect in this test, with no crashes or bugs.
The Surface Laptop is certainly slower than the x86 competition in this test, but it’s not a bad result for software that runs under emulation. The performance of both the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro creeps close to the Dell XPS 13, which has an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor.
Handbrake
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Next up is Handbrake. Though it does have an Arm version available, that version is much newer and not comparable to the version of the software we typically use. Because of that, this benchmark runs under emulation.
And here, unlike Cinebench, the Snapdragon X Elite has problems. The benchmark was stable but required a dreadfully long time to finish. Clearly, emulation has met its match with this test.
Geekbench 6
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Next up is Geekbench 6. This synthetic benchmark isn’t part of our normal test suite, so we have less data on laptops using it. It has an Arm native version, however, so no emulation is required.
And what a difference it makes! The Surface Laptop hits an impressive multi-core score of 12,988. That edges out the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (which itself is among the more capable laptops with an Intel Core Ultra processor) and easily defeats the OneXPlayer X1 (a Windows tablet forced to fit Intel’s Core Ultra in a tight wattage envelope).
And the new Surface Laptop is roughly twice as fast as Microsoft’s Surface Pro 9 5G. Launched in 2022, the Surface Pro 9 5G has a custom chip—the Microsoft SQ3—which was designed in collaboration with Qualcomm and based on the Snapdragon 8cx. Clearly, Qualcomm’s performance has improved since then.
3DMark
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
The Snapdragon X Elite’s processor performance looks good, but what about the integrated GPU?
Qualcomm and Microsoft have spent less time marketing the performance of Qualcomm’s Adreno graphics, aside from a demonstration at Microsoft Build 2024 that showed games like Borderlands 3 and Baldur’s Gate 3 running through Prism emulation.
3DMark’s Time Spy and Night Raid tests provide a lot to dig into. Time Spy does not run native on Arm, but Night Raid does, and that has obvious implications for performance.
The Surface Laptop lags far behind Intel Iris Arc and AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics in Time Spy. In Night Raid, however, Qualcomm’s Adreno powers the Surface Laptop to a respectable score of 23,348, which trades blows with Intel and AMD’s best integrated graphics.
Does Snapdragon X Elite work in the real world?
The Microsoft Surface Laptop’s benchmark results look solid on paper. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is on par with, or slightly quicker than, Intel and AMD alternatives when apps have native Arm versions available. Performance under Prism emulation varies but, at its best, it doesn’t inflict a terrible penalty.
But a benchmark suite can only represent a small slice of apps, and my day-to-day experience was simultaneously worse than and better than these benchmarks suggest.
First, the bad news: I don’t think gaming is viable at launch. Microsoft knows this because, during the Reviewer’s Workshop held to answer questions from reviewers about the laptop, the company downplayed the laptop’s gaming performance. (Microsoft Devices VP Pete Kyriacou also told PCWorld that the Snapdragon X Elite-powered Surfaces will excel in productivity, not games.) Microsoft said Qualcomm chips don’t support discrete GPUs or external GPUs, so there’s no way to upgrade performance or side-step Qualcomm’s Adreno graphics.
These problems aren’t just in demanding games, like Cyberpunk 2077 or Total War: Warhammer III. I was surprised and disappointed to find that recent indie favorite, Halls of Torment, failed to play smoothly… despite the fact it relies entirely on 2D graphics. PCWorld will have more to report on the Surface Laptop’s gaming performance in an upcoming article, but for now I caution gamers to sit on the sidelines.
If you want a laptop for productivity and content creation, though, the Surface Laptop holds promise. The apps I use for professional work include the Microsoft Office suite (for writing, editing, and time tracking), GIMP (for photo editing), and Wondershare Filmora (for video editing).
While I expected Office to work without flaws, I was surprised to find that both GIMP and Filmora support Windows on Arm. Both apps worked flawlessly, and the Surface Laptop performed well enough when I opened the Filmora project file for my 43-minute-long video about the development of Baldur’s Gate 2. The timeline took a moment to fully load when flipping back and forth, but the video played in the editor without dropping frames. Cutting, moving, and copying clips were all smooth.
The list of productivity apps with Arm support is decent and growing. Notepad++, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, and DaVinci Resolve 19 all support Arm (though, in some cases, the Arm version is still in beta). Adobe Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign, and After Effects will receive Arm updates this year.
Just want to browse the web and watch Netflix? You’re unlikely to run into issues. Most web browsers, streaming platforms, and video conferencing software support Windows on Arm. Apps that don’t support it yet should still run well under emulation. And while I can’t guarantee every app will work perfectly, I didn’t see problems in my testing. Aside from games, every app I used launched, and none crashed in my time using them.
A note about Copilot+ PCs
The Surface Laptop, like other Copilot+ PCs, has an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) that can handle up to 45 trillion operations per second, and it was meant to highlight Windows 11’s AI features. Instead, the Copilot+ PC launch is a public relations disaster.
The flagship feature, Microsoft Recall, is indefinitely delayed over security and privacy concerns. Microsoft has reeled in the features of Windows’ Copilot app, too. Earlier preview versions could adjust settings and search files, but the version currently available lacks those features.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Battery life
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is quick, to be sure, but power efficiency is the chip’s real claim to fame. Microsoft says the Surface Laptop can provide up to 20 hours of video playback, a promise it easily fulfilled.
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Matthew Smith / IDG
Real-world battery life lived up to expectations set by the benchmark. I often used the laptop for several hours at a stretch, yet saw the battery reduce by no more than 10 percent. My use is light (mostly web browsing and writing in Word or Google Docs), but the Surface Laptop’s endurance is much better than usual for a Windows laptop.
These results are even more remarkable given the Surface Laptop’s modest 54 watt-hour battery. Many competitors with AMD or Intel hardware, like the Lenovo ThinkBook 13x and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, have a battery capacity above 70 watt-hours.
Still, the Surface Laptop’s battery life is spectacular. In fact, I’d say it’s the most significant threat to alternatives with AMD and Intel hardware. Battery life like this fundamentally changes how the device is used, providing peace of mind when leaving the house without a charger.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Conclusion
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop is a success, though not without its issues.
After years of misfires, Arm on Windows is finally a viable option. With it comes access to new hardware, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite, which proves an alluring alternative to Intel and AMD devices. Qualcomm’s chip isn’t a good choice for gaming, but it’s great for battery life and it scores well in CPU benchmarks with native Arm support.
These traits make the Surface Laptop a solid choice for people who travel frequently or just don’t like to worry about battery life.
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| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 25 Jun (PC World)Microsoft, Qualcomm, and their PC-manufacturing partners are seriously hyping Copilot+ PCs. They’d have you believe that these “next-generation AI laptops” are packed with AI smarts and useful features.
But, while the hardware for AI tasks is ready in these laptops, the actual features built into Windows aren’t making full use of it.
We’re in a weird position. We’re excited about these laptops because they’re the first seriously impressive Windows on Arm laptops. We’re excited about long battery life with snappy performance. And we’re excited that next-generation Intel Lunar Lake hardware is looking like a huge leap for traditional x86 laptops.
But we’re not excited about all these at-launch AI features being pushed by marketing campaigns. Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs might be intriguing, but if you’re excited about an immediate AI upgrade to your Windows experience, you’re going to be disappointed. Here’s why.
Further reading: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review: A new long-lasting, Qualcomm-powered era for Windows laptops
Copilot+ PC? More like Copilot- PC
The name “Copilot+ PC” conjures to mind a kind of PC with extra features relating to Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot. After all, “Copilot Pro” is a paid subscription that upgrades the Copilot chatbot experience.
That’s not the case at all. A Copilot+ PC offers no extra Copilot upgrades. You get a Copilot key on the keyboard, which first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware have been offering for many months now. That’s it. Copilot doesn’t run offline or use the new integrated neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to do anything at all.
In fact, the situation is much more dire than that. These machines ship with a new Copilot app experience—it’s no longer a sidebar, but rather a normal floating desktop window. That’s fine. But, as Tom Warren noted for The Verge, the new Copilot app experience is a step back. You can’t tell it to “turn on Dark Mode” or “empty the Recycle Bin” anymore.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Microsoft may eventually improve the Windows integration in this new Copilot app. And, even if not, this new Copilot experience will eventually come to all Windows 11 PCs. But, at launch, Copilot is surprisingly less powerful on a Copilot+ PC than it is on a standard Windows 11 PC.
It also doesn’t have those fancy GPT-4o features that Microsoft showed off, where it can see your screen and talk you through Minecraft gameplay, for example. Those features will arrive at some point in the future—but when they do, they won’t need Copilot+ PC hardware. That impressive demo will work on all Windows 11 PCs.
AI image generation needs a Microsoft account and internet connection
A Copilot+ PC has some extra AI image generation tools integrated into various apps throughout Windows:
Paint has a Cocreator tool that can generate an image as you draw, modifying it to fit your drawing.
Photos has a Restyle tool that will let you use generative AI as a “filter” for your image. For example, taking a photo and making it look like it was a watercolor painting.
Photos also has an Image Generator feature that generates images to match your text prompts.
Here’s the thing: While these tools all use the NPU inside a Copilot+ PC, none of them work offline. They require a Microsoft account and an active internet connection to work. Why? To check your images for “AI safety” before showing them to you.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Without getting into whether that’s necessary or not, one thing is clear: There’s no point to running these tools on your computer’s hardware if they also require a cloud service to function. You might as well use a cloud-based AI image generation tool running in a powerful data center somewhere. You’ll get better, more realistic results.
The introduction of these new tools has muddied the AI experience on Windows 11. All of the above tools sit alongside other AI image generation tools that do use Microsoft’s cloud servers. For example, the Image Creator in Microsoft Paint uses the cloud, while the Image Creator in Photos uses your PC’s local hardware.
On a Copilot+ PC, Windows contains a confusing mishmash of AI features that may or may not use the PC’s hardware and may or may not use Microsoft’s cloud services.
Live Captions gains some tricks, but already runs on all Windows 11 PCs
On any Windows 11 PC, you can open the Live Captions app from your Start menu to get AI-powered captions for speech. It uses Microsoft’s cloud servers to generate live captions in real time from any audio—audio in a video file, audio in an online meeting, or even audio being picked up by your PC’s microphone.
On a Copilot+ PC, Live Captions gets a little more powerful: it can now work entirely offline (unlike Microsoft’s AI image generation tools) and it can now translate speech from 44 different languages to English.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
That’s a nice upgrade that some people will find very valuable. But if you don’t already use Live Captions, or if you do and you wish you had real-time translation or offline support, would that be enough reason to warrant buying a new Copilot+ PC? Likely not.
Windows Studio Effects are fine, but not much is new
Microsoft has been talking up Windows Studio Effects as one of the big AI features for Copilot+ PCs. These are real-time webcam effects that use the computer’s NPU to change how your webcam looks in any app.
I like them, really. You can enable fake eye contact or blur your background in any app, for example. And, because it uses the NPU, it’s a power-efficient way to do webcam effects. You won’t be wasting CPU or GPU power in an online meeting.
However, this isn’t exactly new. Windows Studio Effects is the one AI feature that functioned out of the box on first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware. You don’t need a Copilot+ PC for them.
There are some extra effects: you can use effects like “Animated,” “Illustrated,” and “Watercolor” to change how you look on your webcam in real time. It’s a nice idea, but I find the effects to be very subtle.
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Chris Hoffman / IDG
Do I really look “illustrated” in the screenshot above? A little bit! Is that worth buying a Copilot+ PC for? Well, I don’t know about that…
Recall would have been the big feature
Recall will take screenshots of your PC’s display every five seconds, create a big database of your PC activity, and then let you search through it with plain language queries—just like when you talk to an AI chatbot.
Unlike the Copilot AI chatbot or AI image generation features, it will work entirely offline. That’s what Microsoft said when it announced Recall.
Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft
It’s clear why Microsoft made such a big deal about Windows Recall when it announced Copilot+ PCs. Without Recall, there’s a distinct lack of a centerpiece AI feature that really sells these PCs. Instead, it’s just a collection of little tech demos that shows off what the NPU can do.
But when Microsoft faced serious blowback regarding privacy and security concerns over Recall, it decided to pull Recall before launch and spend a few more months working on it before release.
Ultimately, this means none of the included “AI” software featured in Copilot+ PCs at launch is particularly exciting.
With Copilot+, you’re buying into a promise
I’m calling these features “tech demos” for a reason. They feel like they exist to demonstrate the power of the neural processing unit and the Windows Copilot Runtime that Microsoft is offering to developers.
The vision of a Copilot+ PC isn’t that Windows will totally transform itself. The vision is that third-party application developers will leverage this hardware to add AI features into their own applications.
It’s early days, for sure. If you’re excited about a Copilot+ PC because of the AI features, I recommend you slow down before buying one because you may be disappointed, especially without Recall.
I always recommend buying hardware for what it can do today, not based on what it might do in the future. (Already this year, buyers of first-generation AI PCs got burned for buying into a vision too early.)
But if you’re mainly excited about the battery life and performance promises of Copilot+ PCs? That may be a good reason to buy one! I’ve been very impressed with the battery life and snappy performance so far. I wish Microsoft and Qualcomm were talking more about that than AI with this debut Snapdragon X Elite laptops.
Let’s stay in touch! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter—I’ll send you three things to try every Friday.
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| ![](/n.gif) | | Stuff.co.nz - 25 Jun (Stuff.co.nz)![NZ Located](/pimages/nzsmall.gif) A more than $1 million investment to help some Taranaki families access the internet for free is progressing, despite delays associated with the design needed to achieve it. Read...Newslink ©2024 to Stuff.co.nz | ![](/n.gif) |
| ![](/n.gif) | | PC World - 25 Jun (PC World)Did you know that it’s entirely possible to use Windows 11 with a local-only account, the way it worked way back when computers still used floppy drives?
You’d be forgiven for not knowing, because it seems like Microsoft is going out of its way to hide this option from you, hoping to push you onto a connected Microsoft Account instead. In fact, they’re straight-up erasing information that might tell you otherwise.
Microsoft keeps a pretty sizable collection of short, to-the-point guides for some of the most frequently searched functions on Windows. For example, this page tells you how to move from a local-only, non-connected user account to a full-on Microsoft Account.
But that page used to say a lot more. Tom’s Hardware discovered that the most recent version of the page has deleted information on how to go in reverse, to transition from a Microsoft Account to a local account. The change was made last week, just as the newest Surface devices hit the market. The original version of the page is still visible via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
It’s disheartening, but not surprising. Microsoft has been incorporating more online, always-connected features into Windows for decades (including several unwelcome pushes to buy Microsoft Office or switch to the Edge browser). And this push only seems to be accelerating as Microsoft bets big on generative AI with Copilot, even going as far as offering a paid upgrade for more functionality.
It’s still possible to operate Windows 11 as a local user, only logging into Microsoft services via web browser like in ye olden days. But you have to set up an account first, then manually move yourself off of it.
Microsoft appears to be increasing that difficulty with intention. The recent changes to the Windows 11 setup process—and now yeeting instructions off its own support page—show that Microsoft wants every user to send over data constantly.
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RUGBY
Oh from one for New Zealand's medal hopes at the Paris Olympics... after the All Blacks Sevens crashed out in the quarter-finals More...
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BUSINESS
New Zealanders are finding it harder to keep up with housing costs, compared to other countries More...
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