The year ahead has a lot in store for Linux users. Many of the trends, hardware products, and software developments below comprise a colorful mix that focuses on the use of Linux in particular. We also include other current and future events in hardware and software that will influence or characterize everyday IT life — Linux or otherwise. The upshot is that Linux users will see a lot of change on the horizon. Raspberry Pi: Quo vadis? Raspberry Pi Foundation Since the Raspberry Pi Foundation went public in mid-2024, the future of the successful board computer has been quite uncertain. The share price has been volatile since then, but has held up reasonably well overall. The fresh millions on the stock market open up opportunities for technical innovations for the mini-computer, but on the other hand the project is moving away from its non-profit origins. Nothing concrete is currently known about future models, but prices will be higher than before. The continued production and stocking of older models, as was previously the case, could also fall victim to profit maximization. See also: 10 surprisingly practical Raspberry Pi projects anybody can do Wayland is coming – slowly The Gnome 47 and KDE Plasma 6 desktops are forcing the switch to the Wayland display protocol by setting Wayland as the standard despite some remaining detail problems. Most Linux distributions with these desktops (Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, KDE Neon, Endeavour, et cetera) will follow this specification in 2025. The fact remains, however, that apart from Gnome and KDE, only the niche desktop Enlightenment (current version E20) is aggressively pushing for Wayland. The Gnome-like Budgie desktop, as well as Cinnamon (Linux Mint) and Mate, still offer Wayland as an “experimental” option. XFCE (announced for the upcoming version 4.20) and LXQT are just starting their Wayland conversion. Cinnamon running in Wayland. Linux Mint The replacement of the old X11 window system will obviously continue well beyond 2025. This is a stumbling block, not least because every Wayland operation currently still has to drag along the Xwayland mediation layer in order to be able to display older X11 windows. The current Gnome 47 is the first Linux desktop that is at least technically prepared to completely dispense with Xwayland in the future. Debian 13 (‘Trixie’) Debian A new Debian version is released approximately every two years. After version 12 “Bookworm,” which was released in 2023, Debian 13 (“Trixie”) is due in 2025. With Debian “Forky,” the name for version 14 has already been decided. Debian 13 will continue to offer a variant for 32-bit processors, but no longer for very old i386 CPUs, but at least from i686 onwards. i686 CPUs are also ancient processors such as Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, and some early Pentium 4 models. The oldest of these CPUs are over 25 years old and date back to the 20th century. Regardless of Debian’s 32-bit continuity, the recycling of such oldies is usually unsatisfactory. New Debian is always immensely important because many derivatives are based on Debian and must also be updated as a result — such as Antix, Bunsenlabs, Kanotix, MX Linux, Linux Mint Debian, Ope Media Vault, Pi-OS, Rescuezilla, Sparky, Q4-OS, Tails, and many more (Ubuntus!). EOL: Ubuntu 20.04 expires Ubuntu After April 2025, there will be no more update support for Ubuntu 20.04, unless you have taken out the 10-year ESM (Expanded Security Maintenance) support with Ubuntu Pro. On devices with version 20.04, you will then either have to reinstall or make up for several upgrade stages. A new installation with the current LTS version Ubuntu 24.04 is particularly recommended for systems that work as servers. EOL: The end of Windows 10 After 14 October 2025, Microsoft will no longer offer free updates for Windows 10 and technical support will be discontinued (EOL, End of Life). As a simple upgrade to Windows 11 will fail for many laptops and PCs due to the high hardware requirements, a significant wave of users switching to Linux desktops can be expected over the course of the next year. Last year’s Linux growth to a market share of around 4.5 percent is probably already linked to this Windows date. Unicon is launching the eLux operating system for companies. The system is designed to combine security, hardware flexibility, and performance. The download requires registration with an email address. Windows 10 will be discontinued on 1 October 2025. If Windows 11 does not run on the hardware, any (even more demanding) Linux will run.Anton Watman/Shutterstock.com Experience has shown that Linux distributions are generally too fragmented to make concerted and aggressive use of the opportunities offered by the Windows runtime. Only some of the typical Windows detractors such as Linux Mint or Zorin-OS will refer to their Windows-like concepts and optimize them. In addition, most tried-and-tested Linux desktops (mostly Debian/Ubuntu-based, in some cases also Arch-based) are also suitable as Windows 10 alternatives. See also: 3 free Linux distros that look and feel like Windows ‘Immutable’ trend: Open Suse Leap 16 Open Suse Leap 16.0, the successor to Leap 15.6, is not expected until mid-2025 at the earliest. Version 16 aims to end the technical continuity with the previous Leap, but at least promises the possibility of a direct upgrade to Leap 16. If necessary, an interim version 15.7 will be added. openSUSE Open Suse Leap 16 will be an “immutable” Linux. Suse is developing its own Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP) architecture with a write-protected base system that increases security and stability. The required software is to be provided by isolated containers — presumably flatpaks. With its focus on cloud systems and automated system management, Open Suse Leap 16 is likely to follow the trend of recent years. The Suse system is becoming increasingly uninteresting for the needs of a flexible end-user desktop. The same applies to Fedora Workstation, which in the Silverblue “Immutable” version is signalling the path that Fedora generally wants to take. The security and maintenance advantages of the immutable concept are aimed at cloud and server instances and mainly have disadvantages on the desktop. Linux concepts > la Nix-OS Nix It is perhaps not necessarily the Linux distribution Nix-OS itself, but its concept of “declarative configuration,” which probably has a great future ahead of it. Nix-OS uses a central configuration file as a meta-level. This allows the entire system to be reproduced identically (e.g. for cloud and server instances), but can also be reset to previous system states (relevant for servers and desktops). Package dependencies are avoided because — similar to container formats — software is always stored separately with all dependencies. The concept requires a lot of storage space and the adoption of completely customized methods for package installations and updates. Cloud providers are already in the thick of it, but Nix-OS should still provide some additional convenience features for desktop users. Linux without ‘sudo’? While Microsoft has included the sudo tool as an option for developers in Windows 10/11 in 2024, leading Linux developers want to abolish sudo or offer a better alternative. The new run0 tool is already available in the latest versions of the Systemd init system. IDG In future Linux distributions, run0 will certainly not immediately replace the familiar sudo, but will at best run as an alternative for the time being. The run0 tool has several advantages over sudo: In principle, it requires no configuration, whereas sudo requires the not entirely uncomplicated “/etc/ sudoer.” run0 is based on Polkit, whose individual configuration is not simpler, but is usually unnecessary. As run0 loads an isolated systemd target, it is more secure than sudo, which relies on rights masks in the file system (SUID bit). In addition, run0 gives visual signals in the terminal and window title to indicate the current elevated permissions. IoB: Internet of Behavior We have barely gotten used to the new term IoT (Internet of Things) when the next “internet” is added. IoB — Internet of Behavior — is more or less a consequence of IoT: the Internet of Things with smartwatches, webcams, health trackers, sensors, measuring stations, and smart home devices expands the data material that websites and apps collect through direct communication. IoT provides masses of additional data that can be analyzed statistically (trends, anomalies, causalities). These IoB statistics and behavioral analysis are not only driven by the retail and advertising industries: IoB can provide insurance companies, health insurance companies, traffic planners, the police, and entrepreneurs with interesting information and correlations that do not necessarily have to be personalized. It is not yet clear which IoB analysis will become part of everyday life in the future. Data protectionists are already warning that there is a lack of transparent user consent for data collection. Huawei operating system In the context of the growing customs dispute between the USA, EU, and China, Huawei is preparing to say goodbye to Windows operating systems on its laptops. In the future, the Chinese manufacturer intends to offer its self-developed Harmony OS operating system. Harmony OS is based on its own Linux-independent (Hongmeng) kernel. The operating system was previously only planned for Huawei smartphones, but will also be available for laptops in the future. Huawei laptops will run Harmony OS from mid-2025. Microsoft is thus losing a major Windows customer. Huawei Harmony OS is said to perform better than Linux desktops. It is entirely plausible that the Chinese IT giant can achieve this for the hardware it produces itself. However, compatibility with software is problematic. It is not yet clear to what extent Harmony OS will also offer customized standard software or integrate it via a translation layer. Potential buyers of the attractively priced Huawei laptops should consider this question carefully. Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) TP-Link Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is five years old, many older routers and devices still work with 802.11ac or even older 802.11n. From 2024, there will be more and more devices with radio chips of the new Wi-Fi generation 7 (802.11be). The Linux kernel is prepared for this — from version 6.5 to be precise. Wi-Fi 7 will not only significantly increase data throughput, but will also use MLO (Multi-Link Operation) to communicate across multiple radio bands between the transmitter and receiver devices. This improves both throughput and stability. DDR6 RAM New DDR5 RAM modules with higher speeds and lower latency will come onto the market in 2025. However, DDR6 is already on the runway: The next generation of DDR RAM is not due to be released until the end of 2025 at the earliest. DDR6 will again be significantly faster than current DDR5 RAM. The specification speaks of at least 8800 MT/s (megatransfers per second) for the first DDR6 generation, which is roughly double that of DDR5. Later DDR6 components should then achieve up to 21,000 MT/s. G.Skill HEIF/HEIC, JPEG XL image formats Innovative graphics formats have been flourishing in photography and imaging for years, but they have been very slow to catch on. While all browsers and many image editing applications now support the Google Webp format, the Apple HEIF/HEIC format and the JPEG successor JPEG XL still need help from add-ons for software or additional packages for the system on many systems and image viewers. REDPIXEL.PL The High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is favored by iPhones for photos. HEIC is the associated container format that also stores image sequences, comments, and audio in addition to (HEIF) images. JPEG XL (jxl) is the designated successor to the long-standing JPG standard. In 2025, it is expected that all Linux distributions will increasingly prepare their viewers and file managers for these formats. Experience has shown that the question of which image format will prevail is obsolete: There will simply be a few more in the future, while JPG, PNG, and others will continue to exist. CPU/GPU/NPU and the ‘AI PC’ There is no question that there will be no standstill in CPU development in 2025. AMD will introduce new Ryzen CPUs such as “Kraken” and Intel is planning Panther Lake processors based on its latest production technology (18A). The goals are the same — more performance, more efficiency. Alexander56891 / Shutterstock.com Regardless of new CPU records, the new (marketing) term “AI PC” or Copilot PC (Microsoft) will come into focus. In this product class, which performs AI functions on the local device, a fast CPU is not enough — at least a dedicated GPU graphics chip (preferably Nvidia), plenty of DDR5 RAM, and a fast SSD are also required. The more obvious feature that distinguishes an AI PC from a gaming PC or a powerful workstation is the additional NPU chip (Neural Processing Unit). NPUs cannot process AI models any better or faster than the GPU, but they are much more energy-efficient. In other words: computer bolides are AI-capable, but only energy-efficient with an additional NPU. Processors with an NPU extension already exist — from Intel (Lunar Lake), AMD (Ryzen AI), and Qualcomm (Snapdragon). However, it is not yet clear how future-proof these first NPUs are. See also: The AI PC revolution: 18 essential terms you need to know Mass storage and capacities Mass storage devices are experiencing continuous capacity growth every year. New records are on the horizon for 2025: SSD: The maximum capacity of SSDs is expected to increase from the current maximum of around 60TB to 128TB by mid-2025, more than doubling. This has been announced by several manufacturers such as Western Digital, Huawei, and Samsung. Mechanical drives: The classic hard drive is reaching its technical limits and has already seen its greatest leaps in capacity. However, the current maximum of 24- to 32TB should be able to be increased again in future thanks to new HAMR technology (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording). Seagate is announcing drives with 40TB for 2025, and up to 60- or 80TB by the end of the decade. Jon L. Jacobi NVMe SSD: Capacities of up to 16TB are expected for M.2 NVMe storage on the PCI Express bus by 2025. This means a doubling of the currently largest NVMe SSDs. For end users, the record capacities are hardly relevant and generally hardly affordable. More important is the market law that with new, faster, and larger media, the prices for smaller and medium capacities will fall. Faster USB 4v2 USB 4 is the joint successor to USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt 3 with a theoretical maximum throughput of 40Gbps (approx. 5GB/s). USB 4v2 (also “USB 4.0 Gen 4” and more recently “USB4 2.0”) theoretically achieves 80- or 120Gbps. The first controllers and drives of this generation are already on the market. Drivers for USB 4v2 are included in the current Linux kernel. Read...

So you’ve got a new computer. Awesome! That humble metal box is the key to a wide world of potential. It can help you with everything from juggling your finances to keeping in touch with your family to blowing off some steam on, uh, Steam. But a new PC isn’t like a new car; you can’t just turn a key and put the pedal to the metal. Okay, maybe you can—but you shouldn’t. Performing just a few simple activities when you first fire it up can help it be safer, faster, and better poised for the future. Here’s how to set up a new laptop or desktop computer the right way, step by step, regardless of whether you’re running Windows 10 or Windows 11. The vast majority of new PCs and laptops will come with Windows 11 installed, but you can still find some laptops being sold with Windows 10, so we’re leaving those instructions in here for now. PROMOTIONTransfer and switch to new PCs easily | EaseUS Todo PCTrans EaseUS Todo PCTrans is an easy transfer utility to move files, apps, and programs from your old computer over to the new one and help your new computer load with everything you need seamlessly. Also, it has all your old PC files backed up, migrates or upgrades the Windows system, and restores from an unbootable or dead PC to a new device. Now 25% OFF Exclusive Code: PCWORLD25 Free downloadGET IT NOW 25% OFF Run Windows Update on your new PC The first step is by far the most tedious. You shouldn’t muck around on the web unless your copy of Windows is fully patched and up to date, period. Now for the bad news: Depending on how long your PC sat on the retail shelf, this could take minutes—or hours. Either way, it has to get done. Microsoft releases new Windows patches at least once per month. Major “feature” upgrades for Windows 10 and 11 occurred twice per year in the past, but now come in a big yearly update, with fresh features also being sprinkled in here and there throughout the year. If your computer isn’t fully patched, you could be missing key security fixes and notable new features. Keep updating Windows until it says you’re all caught up. First, make sure your PC’s connected to the internet. In Windows 10, open the Start menu and head to Settings > Update and security > Check for Updates. Your system will search for updates, and find some. Download and install them, then reboot your computer and do it again… and again… and again… until the update check fails to return new entries. Hopefully it won’t take too long, but in worst-case scenarios updating a new computer can take an hour or more. On the bright side, Windows will download and install new updates as they roll out in the future. You just have to get over this initial hump! If your new laptop came with Windows 10 installed, you may see the option to upgrade to Windows 11 for free. If you want all possible new Windows 11 features, the PCWorld Software Store offers the Windows 11 Home-to-Pro upgrade for $60, much less than its usual $100. Install your favorite browser Surfing the web in an unfamiliar browser is like trying to tango while you’re wearing someone else’s shoes. It can be done, but it ain’t pretty. Here are direct links for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera if Edge isn’t your thing. Chrome has been our go-to pick for years, but Edge is the best browser you can use right now if you don’t mind breaking away from Chrome, and better yet, it’s Windows’ default. We’ve recently run pieces extolling the virtues of Firefox, Vivaldi, Edge, and Opera if you want to play around with your options. Set up your new PC’s security Now that you’ve slipped into something more comfortable, it’s time to get your security ducks in a row. Windows Security in Windows 10. The best overall antivirus suite Norton 360 Deluxe Read our review Windows ships with Windows Security enabled by default unless your laptop or desktop includes a third-party antivirus trial. Windows Security is a solid, if not overly detailed solution that’s dead-simple to use, great at sniffing out malware, and probably good enough for most people. It isn’t the most full-featured anti-malware solution out there, though. You can’t even schedule scans, and the default Windows Security app doesn’t guard against online tricks like phishing. PCWorld’s guide to the best antivirus for Windows PCs can help you find all the right tools to keep your PC protected.  Clean your computer’s bloatware With your defenses up, it’s time to start shoveling the crap out of your PC. You can skip this step if you built your own Windows PC. Straight Windows installations don’t come with excess junk cluttering up your hard drive, nor do boutique custom rigs like the Falcon Northwest Fragbox. But boxed PCs from big-name PC makers are inevitably brimming with bloatware. The easiest way to jettison the junk is by typing “Add and remove programs” into the Windows search box, then selecting the option that appears at the top of the results. Go through the list and uninstall any unwanted programs. Don’t delete apps from your hardware’s makers—leave software from the likes of Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, and HP or Lenovo alone, for example—but feel free to wipe out any bundleware you see. Some of the most commonly preinstalled apps are antivirus trials, Dropbox, Candy Crush, Netflix, Spotify, “App Collections,” and others. If you decide to perform a fresh installation of Windows to clear the decks and want to keep some of the software being blasted away (like Office, say), be sure to jot down the product key before initiating the process, using something like Belarc Advisor to find it. Going through the apps list and eradicating key offenders should work well enough for most people though. Fill your new computer with software Why would you scrap all that junk and clutter? To make room for your own stuff, silly. New hardware just begs for software to match! Outfitting your rig is an intensely personal affair, but if you’re looking for suggestions, PCWorld has a guide to the best free programs that are so helpful, so handy, so downright useful that they should be welcome on pretty much any PC. These review roundups and software guides can also direct you towards some of the best programs around: The best free Microsoft Office alternatives 5 free Windows power tools we can’t live without The best password managers The best PDF editors 7 free programs every PC gamer needs The best VPNs 5 free Photoshop alternatives for Windows How to play DVDs in Windows 10 for free Head towards Ninite when it comes time to actually install all that software. Ninite lets you install numerous free applications of your choice all at once, even going so far as to automatically disable the bundled crapware that many free programs try to sneak in as part of the installation process. It’s a wonderfully handy tool that takes the pain out of loading up a new PC. If your new laptop came with Windows 11 preinstalled, you might be uncomfortable with its radical new Start menu and taskbar design. Consider checking out StartAllBack or Stardock’s Start11 if so. Both of these $5 programs help you reconfigure the look and feel of Windows 11 in ways the operating system itself doesn’t. You can have it back to feeling normal in no time. I’ve been a staunch personal user of Start11 (and its Windows 10 sibling, Start10) for years. It’s great. Back up your new computer After all that, your PC is finally ready to rock: It’s safe, up to date, scrubbed free of junk, and full of software fine-tuned to meet your specific needs. The end is in sight! But we’re not done juuuuuust yet. Now that your PC’s in fighting shape it’s an ideal time to create a clone or image of your primary hard drive—the one Windows boots from—and save it to another hard drive. A clone or image creates a snapshot replica of your drive, which you can use to boot up Windows if your primary drive gives up the ghost. Having an image of your system in its current updated, bloatware free, customized state prevents you from having to do all that previous legwork over again if you ever have to reinstall Windows for any reason. The best Windows backup software R-Drive Image Read our review Best Prices Today: $44.95 at R-tools Technology So what’s the difference between a clone and an image? Essentially, a clone creates an exact copy of your hard drive on another drive—files, master boot record, and all. The clone consumes the entire hard drive, but it’s plug-and-play if you ever need to use it. Images, on the other hand, create a single, mammoth file containing all the stuff on your PC. It takes a bit more work to get an image backup ready to roll after a disaster, but you have more flexibility in how you store it, since it’s essentially just a great big file. Lincoln Spector has a more detailed comparison if you’re interested. There are excellent backup tools available that let you create clones and images, which we cover in detail in PCWorld’s roundups of the best Windows backup software and best online backup services. Don’t want to pay for data protection? We’ve also rounded up the best free backup options, and if you don’t mind performing more technical gruntwork to save some cash, we explain how to use Windows’ native imaging tool step-by-step in PCWorld’s guide to creating a free, foolproof backup system. Use something though. Regular backups are your data’s only savior if disaster strikes. Optional: Update your new PC’s drivers This step isn’t for everyone. Few things can introduce troublesome ghosts in your machine faster than a driver that refuses to play nice for whatever reason. If your from-the-box desktop PC is working fine and you only ever plan to perform basic tasks like surfing the web, working with Office, and stuff like that, feel free to forget your computer even has drivers and keep on keeping on. Windows Update should’ve snagged reasonably new drivers for your hardware anyway. You’ll spend some time staring at the Device Manager if you built your own PC and need to update your drivers manually. But if you cobbled together a DIY rig or are rocking a gaming machine, it’s a good idea to see if newer drivers are available for your hardware. Windows Update isn’t always on the bleeding edge of driver updates, and new drivers for, say, your motherboard or Wi-Fi card can provide beneficial feature and performance updates. Gamers will need to update their graphics card drivers fairly often to ensure optimal performance in the newest games. (Fortunately, you can do that easily using Nvidia and AMD’s must-have graphics suites, and they’ll let you know when new ones are available.) PCWorld’s guide to updating your Windows drivers has all the info you need to proceed. It was written for Windows 8, but if you search for Device Manager in Windows 10 or 11, all of the same steps outlined in the article still apply. If a driver does somehow manage to bork your PC, fear not, as Windows automatically creates a System Restore Point when you install new device drivers. And if true disaster strikes in some bizarre, extreme case, you’ve got the backup image you’ve created—right? Optional: Learn about your new computer Now that all the hard work is done, take time to learn all the nooks and crannies of Windows—there’s an awful lot of surprisingly powerful, downright helpful tools and tricks hidden in its depths. Check out PCWorld’s guide to the best Windows 10 tips, tools, and tricks. You’ll pick up a lot of helpful knowledge. We’ve also got a roundup of Windows 11’s best hidden features, how to make Windows 11 look like Windows 10, and how to fix Windows 11’s worst annoyances. And regardless of which version of the OS you use, this guide to 10 little-known Windows features that will blow your mind is worth a read. Wrap-up At this point you’re pretty much ready to roll. Sure, there are some other tasks you should perform, such as moving over files from your old PC and saving the product keys for Windows and your other installed software (again, Belarc Advisor rocks for that), but you can do all that at your leisure. For now, just bask in the glory of owning a new PC, secure in the knowledge that it’s fully optimized, protected against attack, and recoverable if disaster strikes. Enjoy! Read...

I have been working in the IT industry for over 30 years, for most of this time as an editor at PC-WELT (PCWorld’s German sister publication), specializing in security. I test antivirus software, give tips on how to make Windows more secure, am constantly on the lookout for the best security tools, and monitor the activities of cyber criminals. Over the years, I have acquired a whole range of behaviors and principles that seem completely normal and sensible to me. However, when I observe other PC users, I often discover risky or at least less security-oriented behavior. That’s why I’ve put together the 10 most important things I would never do as an IT security expert, with tips on what to do instead. Further reading: Installing Windows 11 on old PCs is incredibly risky. Here’s why 1. Move instead of copy You can hardly tell the difference in Windows Explorer: Here, photos and videos are moved instead of copied. This can worsen data security rather than improve it. IDG Moving your own files instead of copying them immediately makes me feel uneasy. This includes, for example, photos or videos from the camera or audio recordings from a smartphone or audio recorder. If you move such files, which are usually unique, you run the risk of losing them as soon as you move them. Although this is very rare, it cannot be completely ruled out. But even if the moving process goes smoothly: The data is then still only available once. If the hard drive in the PC breaks, the data is gone. If I make a mistake and accidentally delete the files, they are gone. These are risks that only arise if you start a move operation instead of a copy operation. If you think “I need the space on the SD card for new photos,” then you should consider buying a second SD card. Your own data is always worth it. And when do I release the space on the SD card? I do this as soon as my backup plan on the PC has backed up the copied data. In my case, this is done on a hard drive in the network that runs on a Raspberry Pi. Important files are also automatically encrypted and uploaded to cloud storage. Further reading: Best online backup services 2. Save my own data without a backup I have set up an automatic backup for all important data. Because saving files I have created myself without a prompt backup is far too risky for me. This also includes all data that I enter into apps, for example, whether for Android, iOS, or Windows. Just because most apps don’t offer an easily recognizable backup function doesn’t absolve the user of responsibility for their data. great windows backup software Acronis True Image Read our review Best Prices Today: $49.99 at Acronis For example, at two grammar schools in Koblenz, Germany, several hundred school iPads were logged off the school network due to an error. The handwritten notes in the Goodnotes app used by the pupils were deleted. Many students had worked exclusively with the school’s own iPads and this app — in other words, there was no secondary copy of their notes. Around 500 of the total of 7,500 iPads were affected by the data loss by being connected to the school network at the time of the breakdown. A cloud backup, as is usual for iPads, was deactivated for data protection reasons. No other form of data backup appears to have been used. The pupils concerned cannot be blamed here, but the system administrator responsible can. 3. Format storage without a thorough check The drive management shows each connected drive with all partitions. You can usually clearly identify a partition based on its name and size. IDG I would never make this mistake — because I have made it before. Therefore, I can only advise from experience: Only format a storage drive when you are sure that you have selected the correct drive. For years, I used external USB hard drives to store my files. The folder structure on these hard drives was usually identical. There were the folders “My Documents,” “Videos,” “Temp,” “Virtual PCs,” and a few more. What’s more, all the hard drives were the same model, which I had once bought generously on a good deal. Some of these disks even had the same data carrier designation — namely “Data.” That wasn’t very clever, because it made it too easy to mix them up. So I ended up confusing one of these hard drives with another one at a late hour and formatted the wrong one. Since then, I have named and labelled my external hard drives and USB sticks very clearly and take another close look before formatting them. First check, then format: Choosing the right drive before formatting is crucial to avoid unintentional data loss. In Windows Explorer, check which drive letter the hard drive or partition to be formatted has. This is often not immediately apparent on systems with multiple drives. Take the time to check, unplug other hard disks and drives to increase the overview. The name of the disk and its size will help you to identify it. In addition, start Disk Management by entering Disk Management in the Windows search. All connected disks and their partitions will be displayed. Only start formatting when you are sure that you have found the correct hard drive, USB stick, or partition. Related: How to prevent (or survive) a ransomware attack 4. Open links in emails I don’t like to open a link in an email. And I never open a link if the email is supposedly from my bank or payment service provider. I don’t even open the link in the monthly email from PayPal, even though I know that this email actually comes from PayPal. Why not? Nowadays it is very easy for an attacker to create a deceptively real copy of a bank email. I wouldn’t reliably recognize the difference between a phishing email and a real bank email — at least not in the short time I have to check my inbox. Instead, I open online banking pages and other important pages via links I’ve saved in my browser, or retype the address into the browser each time. I log in to the site and check whether a new message has arrived in my customer account. If not, then the message in the email is either a fake or not important enough for the bank to enter this information in my customer account. That’s the end of the matter for me. Tip: Change these 5 Windows settings to improve your data privacy 5. Opening suspicious files The online sandbox Hybrid Analysis documents the behavior of a suspicious program with a screenshot. The service is free, but it is often overloaded and responds very slowly. IDG If a file is suspicious, regardless of whether it’s a program or a document, I don’t open it. The risk is simply too great. As an IT editor, I am of course constantly downloading tools from the internet and quite a few of them are scanned by the virus scanner. That is one indication that makes a file suspicious. Another is the source. Files from dubious websites are just as suspicious as files that are attached to an email or come from links in emails. If I can’t avoid opening or starting such files, I always check them first with the tool www.virustotal.com. The online service checks a file with more than 60 virus scanners. If you want even more information about a suspicious file than www.virustotal.com provides, you can also upload suspicious files to an online sandbox. However, this is somewhat more complicated than a test at Virustotal. The services often require registration and are sometimes subject to a fee. A free and uncomplicated online sandbox without registration is available at www.hybrid-analysis.com. 6. Give vouchers for payment of services If you are asked to buy vouchers, you should listen carefully (at least if the request does not come from your children). This is how scammers who are after your money operate. Foundry Who would want to do this? An astonishing number of users! They are all victims of a social engineering attack. Social engineering uses psychological tricks to manipulate people into doing things that are not in their interests. Human characteristics such as trust, fear, or ignorance are exploited. A popular trick goes like this: You are surfing the internet and suddenly a warning message appears that appears to come from Windows. Your PC has been hacked and you should call a support telephone number so that a Microsoft employee can fix your PC. When you call, you are told that your PC has actually been hacked. However, this costs money and is supposed to be paid for with voucher cards. The criminals demand these because voucher codes are much harder for the police to trace than a bank transfer. The fact is: Nobody is immune to the tricks of social engineering. A well-prepared and skillful attacker can lure anyone into a trap. There are many examples of this — search “CEO fraud.” But the moment something as unusual as a voucher code for a service is requested, you can become suspicious and escape the trap. The same applies if you are told that someone is coming round to collect money from you. See also: How do I remove malware from my PC? 7. Connect unknown external devices A USB stick whose owner I don’t know. I’m not plugging it in. Fortunately, gone are the days when Windows’ autostart function immediately launched an EXE file from a connected USB stick. By default, Windows 10 and 11 only offer to start Windows Explorer to display the contents of the USB stick. So that’s not the problem. But like everyone, I’m curious. Attackers take advantage of this and save malicious files with file names that you can’t resist opening. For a long time, security experts said that if you wanted to break into a company network, all you had to do was leave a few infected USB sticks in the company parking lot. Some employee will grab a stick and connect it to their work PC. The professional malware Stuxnet is also said to have reached the computers at the Iranian nuclear facility via a USB stick. It is only unclear whether this USB stick got into the plant via the parking lot trick or whether an insider smuggled it in. Stuxnet destroyed the centrifuges in the nuclear facility and thus delayed the production of fissile material for a nuclear bomb. When you have to insert a foreign USB stick: The same rules apply as under point 5. Check the files on www.virustotal.com or start them in a sandbox. 8. Use default passwords the best password manager overall Dashlane Read our review Best Prices Today: $4.99 at Dashlane When I connect a new device that has default password protection, I immediately change the existing password. The same applies to online accounts that have given me a password. Admittedly: It has become rare for a router to come with a default password. However, it is all the more important to act quickly in the remaining cases. This is because attackers know the default passwords and try to use them to log into the devices. A great password manager can help you create strong, unique passwords for every site and service you use. 9. Enable unnecessary network services If you do not need remote access to the Fritzbox via www.myfritz.net, for example, you should not activate it. Every access point to your IT increases the attack surface for hackers. IDG Hardly a month goes by without a new security vulnerability in a NAS or webcam becoming known. These network devices are usually vulnerable via the internet and allow hackers to access the data on the NAS, the images on the webcam, or even the entire home network. That’s why I don’t activate any network services that I don’t need. Remote access to my router — deactivated. Remote access to my smart lighting — deactivated. Access to my NAS and the robot vacuum cleaner is also deactivated. 10. Buy an expensive Plus version of antivirus Most antivirus manufacturers offer three or more program versions. I wouldn’t buy the most expensive one. I don’t need their expensive additional functions.PCWorld Antivirus software is usually available in three versions. Simple, good, and very good — or antivirus, internet security, and total security. I would never buy the third and most expensive version. That’s purely a financial consideration: If I were rich, I would decide differently. But as long as money is tight, I only buy the middle variant, which is usually called Internet Security. It usually offers more than the free Microsoft Defender, but is not as expensive as the full version. With the latter, I would be paying for services that I don’t necessarily need (metadata cleansing, social media monitoring) or that I can get cheaper elsewhere (VPN services, cloud storage). As I said, the total versions offer more, but I don’t need that extra. the best budget antivirus we`ve tested AVG Internet Security Read our review This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de. Read...

Thunderbolt 5. The cutting edge of I/O. All of it — monitors, a Thunderbolt 5 dock, and even a Thunderbolt 5 SSD — was perched on my desk. I was pleased, in the way only tech nerds can be when they have a piece of gear few others do. A few days later, I was more than happy to take it apart and return to a slower and more functional Thunderbolt environment. Because I am simply not sure that the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem is ready for prime time. This isn’t an indictment of Thunderbolt 5, per se. Rather, it’s all about the headaches that can accompany not one, but a multitude of devices, all of which can interact with each other in unexpected ways. Layer on software, drivers, firmware updates, and the like, and it’s tough to point an accusing finger at any one component. This is what testing cutting-edge hardware can mean: struggling with technology that should just work, but doesn’t. Further reading: Best Thunderbolt docks 2024: Extend your laptop’s capabilities Thunderbolt 5: The next generation of I/O Thunderbolt 5 was announced about a year ago, as the next step in the evolution of the Thunderbolt I/O standard. Thunderbolt wasn’t necessarily designed for power users, but the best Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 docks allows users to place a pair of 4K displays on their desk running at 60 Hz. I find this extremely useful for productivity, as I can arrange several windows’ worth of email, chat, calendar, Web browsers, and more on two or more displays. Both Thunderbolt 3 and 4 provide 40Gbps of throughput. Thunderbolt 5 increases that to 80Gbps, and in certain situations up to 120Gbps, too. This extra bandwidth plays right into the gaming and productivity space, as the extra bandwidth supports up to three 4K displays at 144Hz, two 8K displays at 60Hz, or a single 1080p display at 540Hz. (Intel hasn’t nailed down the specifics of these last two resolutions). Intel is also touting the fact that Thunderbolt 5 should be able to power external GPUs, a capability that was passed over in Thunderbolt 4. The problem is that Thunderbolt 5 hardware is in short supply, period. Although some of the earliest Thunderbolt 5 docks were shown off this past January, it’s now October, and about the only dock I’ve seen announced is Kensington’s SD5000T5 EQ, which I went hands-on with a short time ago. There aren’t too many Thunderbolt 5 cables, either. But a hands-on is not a test and I was eager to obtain hardware that I could use to put the Kensington SD5000T5 through its paces: to connect it to three 4K144 displays via a laptop with Thunderbolt 5 connections and, as a bonus, to see if I could find an SSD that could run at Thunderbolt 5 speeds. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. For whatever reason, devices with Intel’s Thunderbolt 5 host and accessory component (“Barlow Ridge,” or the Intel JHL9580 and JHL9480) have been few and far between. Docks are still scarce, as I said, and only two notebooks to my knowledge ship with a (non-integrated) Thunderbolt 5 controller, a version of the Razer Blade and the Maingear ML-17. Mark Hachman / IDG Luck favored me. The Kensington SD5000T5 remained on my desk, and Maingear agreed to send over an ML-17 for review. A colleague also was in the process of reviewing a pre-release version of OWC’s Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD and agreed to let me test it for a short time in trade for some benchmarking results. Everything seemed to be coming together. Thunderbolt 5 started off poorly, then got worse A few days later, I had cleared the decks of all of my current projects, and sat down to play with the next generation of I/O power. I updated the ML-17 with the necessary Windows updates, Microsoft Store updates, available firmware updates, and so on. Maingear shipped the notebook to me with the Intel Driver & Support Assistant utility updated as well, so I was pretty sure that I had the latest hardware and drivers. The first steps were fairly positive. As most gamers know, gaming notebooks include a hefty power brick terminating in either a barrel charger or the squarish power connector. One of the benefits of Thunderbolt 5, however, is its ability to supply a hypothetical power draw of 240W. Just being able to plug in the gaming notebook into the Thunderbolt 5 dock and power it up without the need for the laptop’s ungainly external power connector left me quite pleased. Well, kind of. I later discovered that the dock would power the laptop on just one of the two Thunderbolt 5 ports, however, and checking it with a USB power meter found that it delivered no more than 87W, even while gaming. Maingear’s Thunderbolt 5 ports aren’t specifically labeled as Thunderbolt 5 ports, just a generic Thunderbolt connection.Mark Hachman / IDG Power delivery of 240W requires explicit support from the laptop, dock, and cable and I wasn’t too surprised that it didn’t meet my expectations. Unfortunately, however, the trend continued. Acer graciously supplied three of its Nitro XV5 (XV275K) 4K displays for a test bed. All three displays run up to 144Hz on the HDMI port and to 160Hz on the USB-C/DisplayPort, which should have been good enough to meet the Thunderbolt 5’s promised to render an image at 144Hz on three 4K displays. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Maingear’s laptop produced an image on just two of the displays plus the laptop itself. (Thunderbolt 4 docks output to two 4K displays, plus the laptop, so I have no reason to believe my interpretation of “three displays” was incorrect.). While one laptop rendered at 4K 144Hz just fine, it was a real struggle to get the other to do the same at 1440p — it took some unplugging and re-plugging to achieve it just once, slowly. I could not consistently repeat this. (Kensington’s dock supplies three upstream Thunderbolt 5 ports. I used Kensington’s own USB-C to HDMI adapter to connect to one display, plus two uni 4K60 USB-C to DisplayPort cables — which are only rated for 1440p165, not 4K — for the others. I was hoping that three displays would light up. They didn’t). Further reading: Is Thunderbolt 5 storage ready? A first look at the cutting-edge tech In fact, the whole setup felt pretty laggy just navigating around the laptop and via a Web browser — not something you’d expect with a top-of-the-line Intel CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU inside. I’m pretty sure the Thunderbolt connection negatively contributed. Streaming a 4K, 60Hz video stuttered badly when run on the external display that was connected to the Thunderbolt dock — well over 30 percent of the frames were lost. Playing back the same video on just the laptop itself wasn’t perfect, but it was much, much better. Maingear blamed this on the Thunderbolt 5 cable. “I haven’t tested a plethora of cables yet, but the Apple TB5 Pro cable has worked consistently for us,” a Maingear representative wrote in an email. “Where Thunderbolt 4 you were able to get away with a decent USB-C cable, Thunderbolt 5 seems to work best with certified Thunderbolt 5 cables.” That may be true, but Kensington’s Thunderbolt 5 cable was labeled appropriately and this should be certified. And why should I need to buy an Apple cable to get my PC docking station to work? OWC’s Envoy Pro FX SSD. This isn’t the Thunderbolt-equipped Envoy Ultra I was loaned. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a photograph before I sent it back, but the design is basically the same.Mark Hachman / IDG Storage performance suffered as well When I connected the SSD, the performance of my Thunderbolt 5 test setup was just as bad. I typically run PCMark’s external storage benchmark to test a dock. My colleague Jon Jacobi prefers running storage-specific benchmarks to test the performance of the SSD directly. I prefer PCMark, whose external storage test reports the “bandwidth” of the SSD. That’s what I’m aiming for: How much data does the drive have to work with? I also test a second way, by recording the time it takes to copy a folder full of multimedia and other files from the SSD, through the dock, onto the laptop. I do all that by itself and also while streaming a 4K 60Hz video via the Internet over the Thunderbolt cable, just to see whether a background file transfer will affect performance. The experience, quite frankly, stunk. While running the PCMark test with the SSD directly connected, I recorded a score of 1,743 or 252.3 MB/s. But while connected to the dock, the SSD’s PCMark score plunged to just 1,108 or 159.3MB/s. Was that the dock’s fault or the Thunderbolt 5 connection? One of the two, most likely. When I directly connected the SSD to the laptop and copied my folder to the desktop, it took an average of one minute and five seconds. While streaming video, the same task took 58 seconds longer or two minutes and three seconds. That seemed quite extreme. Weirdly, when I connected the SSD to the dock and then performed the folder copy, it finished in 41 seconds — far faster! But performing the folder copy while streaming the video required two minutes and six seconds, again with the SSD attached to the dock. (The Internet connection was supplied by Ethernet, which remained connected. But letting the system use Wi-Fi didn’t seem to make any difference). It’s worth a reminder that when I tested the Kensington dock on a “normal” Thunderbolt 4-equipped laptop and a slower SSD, the dock performed “normally,” as well. In the past few years, we’ve seen the occasional weird result when benchmarking, such as benchmarks of mobile CPUs run on battery power that exceed the performance of the same laptop while plugged in. Still, the wildly varying results, including the heavy stuttering while playing video, told me something’s not quite right. What is it? I don’t know, which is souring me on the whole Thunderbolt 5 experience. Should you buy Thunderbolt 5? Not right now When testing a single device, a good review works to isolate the variable. Desktop CPUs are tested against the fastest GPUs possible, with common motherboards, memory, and storage (if possible), so that any differences in performance can be directly attributed to the new CPU. Maingear’s Windows 11 Settings menu reports the controller as USB4 v2, which should be essentially identical to Thunderbolt. I can’t find any specific mention of “Thunderbolt” in the Settings or in the Device Manager, just USB4.Mark Hachman / IDG In this case, I’m testing a new dock, laptop, and SSD, with new cables running between them. That’s at least three unknowns I can’t really nail down. So Maingear can accuse the cable of being faulty, while I suspect that Maingear’s hardware may be at fault. I can’t know for certain. What I am a bit suspicious about is the relative lack of Thunderbolt 5 hardware, even late in 2024. Intel has cycled through its Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake launches, and neither includes an integrated Thunderbolt 5 controller. Intel gave some good reasons for excluding it — desktop vendors prefer to “upsell” by using discrete components, for example — but the instability that I’m seeing makes me wonder if there’s something more going on. I’m not writing Thunderbolt 5 off at all. An updated driver could potentially solve this problem or it might require a more sophisticated hardware revision to Intel’s Barlow Ridge controller itself. I don’t know. For now, however I would not recommend buying into the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem. When you buy (or test) bleeding-edge hardware, sometimes you’re the one that ends up with the cuts. Read...

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PCWorld executive editor Gordon Mah Ung, a tireless journalist we once described as a founding father of hardcore tech journalism, passed away over the weekend after a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer. Gordon was 58, and leaves behind a loving wife, two children, older sister, and mother. Please consider contributing to a GoFundMe campaign in support of Gordon’s family, which was left with considerable medical bills and financial strain. With more than 25 years’ experience covering computer tech broadly and computer chips specifically, Gordon’s dogged reporting, one-of-a-kind personality, and commitment to journalistic standards touched many, many lives. He will be profoundly missed by co-workers, industry sources, and the PC enthusiasts who read his words and followed him as a video creator. Gordon studied journalism at San Francisco State University and then worked as a police reporter for the Contra Costa Times in the late 1990s. In 1997, he joined Computerworld (a PCWorld sister publication) before I recruited him to join boot magazine (later re-launched as Maximum PC), where he would ultimately lead hardware coverage for 16 years. At Maximum PC, Gordon developed his trademark voice that blended a hardcore passion for PC tech with non-sequiturs, deadpan humor, and occasional bursts of outrage. As a very early podcaster in the tech space, Gordon’s “Rant of the Week” segment on the Maximum PC pod became so legendary, someone made a soundboard of his best sound bytes. (Caution: It can get a bit NSFW in the finest Gordon tradition.) As I listened to his rants from my office, he always had me guessing, “Is he really that angry, or is he playing us?” And that was part of Gordon’s genius. His number one commitment was to investigating the story, informing the public, and helping people make the best technology decisions. But layered on top of all of this was a master showman who effortlessly connected with like-minded enthusiasts. During much of his time at Maximum PC, Gordon was the lead designer, builder and dreamer behind the magazine’s annual Dream Machine project, which entailed creating the most outrageous, high-performing PC possible. Throughout these building endeavors, he cemented his relationships with Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and other hardware manufacturers too numerous to mention. Gordon’s goal was to get the newest, best, most high-performing parts before anyone else. And it didn’t end with CPUs and GPUs. If a piece of technology went into a PC build, Gordon had an encyclopedic knowledge about all of it—memory, storage, PSUs, cases, cooling, and beyond. Gordon was also the unnamed author of Maximum PC’s consumer-advocate “Watchdog” column. As the mysterious Watchdog, Gordon responded to reader complaints about fly-by-night companies and failing products, and applied all his investigative skills to help readers reach a resolution. It was a perfect merger of consumer service, deep reporting and tech smarts that only Gordon could own. Sort of like Star Trek’s Scotty who preferred sticking to his technical manuals, Gordon resisted taking the helm of Maximum PC, but eventually agreed to become Editor-in-Chief in 2014. Flash forward to later that year, when I once again asked for his help—this time to join PCWorld as executive editor in charge of hardware. At PCWorld, Gordon immediately began imprinting his knowledge and personality on our articles and video. His deep-dive CPU reviews were epic, and continued a legacy of no-BS chip coverage that nonetheless earned the trust and respect of the companies he covered. Some of his first segues into video took the form of our Hardcore Hardware series where he married his deep wealth of knowledge with trademark Gordon theatrics. Some of Gordon’s first forays into PCWorld video were for his “Hardcore Hardware” series, which was shot in the bowels of our San Francisco office space. A master showman, Gordon always knew how to connect directly with his YouTube audience. Gordon’s infectious personality always kept The Full Nerd crew in stitches. Here he’s leading the viewer Q&A segment, in which live stream participants lined up to tap Gordon’s deep wealth of PC knowledge. But it wasn’t until we launched The Full Nerd video podcast in 2016, and set Gordon loose on many more video formats, did he come full circle as a creator. As the host of The Full Nerd, Gordon was able to deliver all his knowledge and analysis at a much faster pace—and if you’ve seen The Full Nerd, you know just how much he loved everything the PC scene has to offer. Through his expanded presence on The Full Nerd, Gordon developed deep relationships with not only other YouTube creators, but also with dedicated followers. You could almost hear his fan base cheering him on via the comments feed during live shows. I have often thought that the way Gordon shared his reporting in print and on podcasts served as model for what PC hardware YouTube would become—unapologetically nerdy, opinionated, and full of attitude. But Gordon always delivered a crucial additional element: a legit journalism background and all the rigor it entails. Gordon continued to shoot video and appear on The Full Nerd until weeks before his death. Talk about a commitment to beat coverage. He was following the story to the very end. I met Gordon in journalism school and spent a lot of time with him in the trenches—sharing cubicle spaces, and hearing him riff. I’ll remember his endless debates with co-workers (his bob-and-weave rhetorical style was as maddening as it was entertaining). I’ll remember his two-hour long phone interviews with sources (he interrogated them like a pro, but played the long game in cultivating trust). I’ll remember his reliability in always asking about the TPS reports when some bureaucratic email landed in our inboxes. I’ll remember him slyly trolling me by calling the series “Star Track” even though I’m 99 percent sure he knew that’s not how it’s pronounced. He might have been the staff curmudgeon, but he was also our most fun co-worker, bar none. I’ve long held this romantic notion, maybe foolishly, that journalists are immortalized by their canon. And of all the tech journalists I’ve personally known, no one has a deeper canon, and has touched more followers, and has earned more respect from industry heavyweights than Gordon. From his earliest days on Maximum PC to his last days on PCWorld and the Full Nerd, Gordon touched people in a way I just haven’t seen anywhere else. He’s leaving a gaping hole in the hearts of those who loved him, but what he’s given us lives forever. – Jon Phillips, editorial director, PCWorld Gordon Mah Ung, remembered Here are more reflections from those who knew Gordon well. If you’d like to share some thoughts on what Gordon meant to you, please email Brad Chacos, PCWorld executive editor, at bchacos@pcworld.com. Unfortunately, we will not be able to add all submissions to this article. ‘The journalist and person I wanted to be when I grow up.’ Here’s something Gordon never knew. He was the beacon for my career before I even had my career. I was born in the early 80s. I was a wide-eyed teen when Gordon was blazing trails in boot and Maximum PC in the late 90s. This was my introduction to enthusiast PC culture, long before the Internet exploded. After spending years unloading trucks and working in factories, I eventually took the plunge into tech journalism. I had $2,000 in the bank and a 6-month-old daughter, but I wanted to do what Gordon did. I ground out endless $15 articles on a content farm called Demand Media. I was eventually added to the tech vertical, which Salon syndicated. And those Salon clips got me a freelance gig with Maximum PC’s nascent Web Blog. YES! The first time I got an email from Gordon with insights on something I was working on, I swooned—and listened, and hustled. Eventually I was fortunate enough to work alongside Gordon at PCWorld, then become his co-host on The Full Nerd, and loooong after that, his boss. (WUT!) I learned so much from him. Gordon always remained my inspiration; the journalist and person I wanted to be when I grow up. He still is. He never knew that. I wish he did, because Gordon literally changed my life. Follow in the footsteps of greatness, kids. And Gordon was the GOAT. — Brad Chacos, PCWorld executive editor and Gordon Mah Ung stan ‘He remembered who came before him, and created space for those who would follow’ I may write for a living, but I can’t do justice to Gordon in words. But I know he would nudge me, as he always has, to go for it. See where it takes me. PC building is what led me to cross paths with Gordon—I first met him while sneaking peeks at the wild and wonderful PC builds on the other side of my cubical wall. At the time, I was a video games journalist, covering a platform I’d later get mercilessly razzed about on The Full Nerd. But I liked tech, and I liked learning about PC hardware. It was a trait that Gordon encouraged, nurtured, and transformed into an entire new branch of my career. Gordon was the kind of guy who did that casually, too. His deep love for PC hardware made him open and generous, always actively keeping seats open at the table for others. He remembered who came before him, and created space for those who would follow him. In every capacity I’ve known him—boss, mentor, colleague—he taught me to stay humble, lead with curiosity, and remain fair in coverage. Combined with his laser-sharp precision and analysis, his example forever motivates me to think deeply and thoughtfully. The industry will not be the same without him. —Alaina Yee, PCWorld senior editor and Maximum PC alumni ‘He welcomed me in and let me know I belonged’ Newsrooms attract characters. Misfits, hopeless optimists, unrepentent goofballs, anti-establishment types, lovable weirdos, and willful contrarians. Gordon was all of those things, but most of all, he was kind. He was always first in line to help a friend in need. When there was an emergency, he ran toward it. I don’t think he was a Boy Scout, but he was always prepared. When I was the new guy at Maximum PC, I knew all about computers and nothing about magazines. Gordon didn’t care. He welcomed me in and let me know I belonged there. He answered all of my stupidest questions, helped me when I needed help, and let me make mistakes when I needed to mess up. And he made sure that we all got into good trouble on the reg. He taught me that our job, as editors, is always to serve the reader. It didn’t matter that advertisers paid the bills; the people who trusted us to give them advice and guidance were always our number one priority. It was his guiding principle and he lived it every day. He was never afraid of speaking truth to power in service of the reader. And he taught so many young journalists to do the same. I already miss my friend terribly, but I’m profoundly grateful that I got to share a small part of his journey with him. The world is a worse place without him. —Will Smith, Full Nerd regular and former Maximum PC editor-in-chief ‘Gordon was always at the center of it’ I hardly need to list Gordon’s many great attributes—he was a beloved legend in the PC community for a reason. But I’m among a smaller number of people who had the privilege of working with him day to day on a team, first at Maximum PC and then PCWorld. Despite being a larger-than-life figure for both of those brands, Gordon was the consummate team member—always willing to patiently explain something, always down to riff and collaborate, always kind and respectful of others. He seemed to genuinely thrive on the group effort. My favorite work memories are of the Maximum PC bullpen where the staff would banter and laugh seemingly all day—it’s amazing we ever got anything done. Gordon was always at the center of it. He was a truly outstanding individual who I’m proud to have worked with and know as a friend. —Katherine Stevenson, PCWorld managing editor and Maximum PC alumni ‘Gordon was the newsiest nerd I’ve ever known’ It’s fair to say Gordon helped define what PCWorld is today, from our mission to especially our voice. I grew up in a newsroom, and Gordon was the newsiest nerd I’ve ever known: utterly dedicated to depth, accuracy, and context, but with a cynical, collegial sense of humor. He also cared deeply about understanding how tech worked and unearthing its deep, dark secrets that manufacturers glossed over. The man simply loved his job. We all loved him. – Mark Hachman, senior editor, PCWorld ‘We are fortunate to have had someone so genuine fighting for us’ Gordon Mah Ung is an irreplaceable force of good for this industry and for consumers. His background in police reporting and journalism afforded a strong foundation to his work and a unique perspective not found anywhere else in the computer reporting business. Like many others, Gordon’s work in Maximum PC inspired me long before I was ever in the industry. Back when I was in high school, I would buy magazines Gordon wrote for every month. In particular, his “Watchdog” consumer advocacy columns inspired our own similar content. He knew when and how to push back to protect consumers, and Gordon served as a mentor for me.Gordon was kind enough to regularly listen to my rambling as I sought his advice and experience, navigating complicated issues of ethics and conflict. He always brought grounded, sobering advice. I still can’t believe that I have been fortunate enough to have worked alongside a hero of mine, and still cannot believe his passing. Gordon and I got along from day one, and I will forever keep his perspective in mind. His presence at events will be greatly missed. Gordon Mah Ung has long been my favorite co-host in videos for his “real” demeanor and his candor; he is exactly who he presents himself as on camera, and we are fortunate to have had someone so genuine fighting for us in this industry. Gordon, thank you for everything you have taught me, and thank you for unwaveringly looking out for consumers. —Steve Burke, editor-in-chief, GamersNexus ‘If Gordon praised my system, it felt like I’d won an Oscar’ Gordon reviewed our PCs for 25 years, and he has written more kind words about my company than anyone. It’s a bittersweet honor to offer a few words about Gordon in return. For the first decade I knew Gordon, I learned little about him personally. He was like a test we had to pass. At Maximum PC, he was the ultimate authority on whether the systems we were building were worth anyone buying. If Gordon praised my system, it felt like I’d won an Oscar. But he never let a missed detail get by him, and trying to impress Gordon has become a constant of my career. I would not be where I am today without Gordon’s approval. But over the years I was fortunate enough to get to know Gordon a bit personally. I always felt privileged when he’d call me for long off-the-record talks about the latest PC industry intrigue, and we’d inevitably tangent off to talking about Aliens or Star Trek, or “the kids building PCs these days who don’t know how easy they have it.” Gordon was a kindred spirit: an O.G. sci-fi and computer nerd who loved tech, and always remembered the point of the hobby was having fun with cool toys. But the biggest impression he made on me was when he and his family stopped by my shop a few years ago. Such wonderful people, and I was so impressed by his children: kind, smart and funny—exactly whom you’d expect Gordon to have made the world better with. Meeting them, I learned his legacy was not just in what he wrote, but in who he taught, and who he loved. Thank you, Gordon.—Kelt Reeves, Falcon Northwest ‘A truly inquisitive journalist, he sought the stories behind the stories’ Most of us know Gordon as a long-time tech journalist, as one of the best and the most passionate in the industry. Gordon was a truly inquisitive journalist, he sought the stories behind the stories by taking a real interest in the products, companies, and the people behind them.  I was lucky enough to know Gordon as a friend. We checked-in often with one another. I would ask about his health, and he would ask about my flying. Occasionally, we’d talk industry updates but most of our conversations were about family, friends, life, and the things that matter most. He was so proud of his family, not too long ago sending me Halloween Ghostbusters pics and the amazing photos his son took at an air show last year. I will miss our conversations and my friend. He was one of the best and forever will be. —Frank Azor, Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions, AMD, and Alienware co-founder ‘Any good work I do reflects at least in part on Gordon’ If you’ve ever done research on anything technical, chances are you’ve read something Gordon wrote. His keen intellect and razor-sharp wit helped him connect the dots on both the technology and the people that make up our modern world. His talent for investigation was honed over a long and storied career; he was a force in our industry. I will miss his advice and insight, as I am sure will many others. Often one can infer a lot about a person from their writing, and while I’m sure a kind reasonableness comes through clearly in Gordon’s writing, his was a type of kindness and patience that is exceedingly rare. Gordon always loved to chat, find out what you were up to, and was always kind and thoughtful. While his writing and insights have become a part of computing history, any good work I do reflects at least in part on Gordon because of his positive influences. So, in that way, he will live on in the work of others. I will forever have fond memories of our many chats, and while I’d love to have just one more chat, I am thankful that he is able to rest for a while. —Wendell Wilson, Level1Techs ‘Gordon was uncannily skilled at demystifying complex technology’ Gordon Mah Ung wasn’t just the most talented tech journalist of his generation; he was one of the best tech journalists of all time. Brutally honest, yet eminently humble, Gordon was uncannily skilled at demystifying complex technology for readers of every stripe. Both in writing and during live podcasts, Gordon schooled and entertained us with his wicked sense of humor. – Michael Brown, executive editor, TechHive and boot magazine alumni Read...

2024 has been a big year for on-device AI in consumer electronics. Both Microsoft and Apple took swings with their respective operating systems, with Microsoft debuting its “Copilot+ PC” branding for AI-capable laptops and Apple releasing Apple Intelligence. These early examples offered mixed results. Some features, like real-time translations and on-device speech-to-text, can be useful. Others, like Microsoft’s Windows Recall, have yet to prove themselves. All of this hype for AI has important implications for the new year. 2025 looks set to become the year when mainstream developers make their attempts to add on-device AI to their Windows apps, and that means you’re going to want to pay even closer attention to the AI performance of modern Windows laptops before you buy a new one. I spoke with two experts in AI research and testing to probe their brains for insights on how Windows on-device AI will grow in 2025. Big gains are coming for NPUs If you’re curious about Windows laptops’ AI performance, you’ll likely end up comparing the “TOPS” promised by each laptop model. TOPS (“Trillions of Operations Per Second”) is a measurement of an NPU’s ability to perform matrix multiplications for on-device AI tasks. (Learn more about what an NPU is and why it matters for AI.) 2024 saw big gains in the TOPS performance available from Windows laptops. To qualify for Microsoft’s “Copilot PC+” branding, a Windows laptop must have at least 40 TOPS of NPU performance. For reference, Qualcomm’s first Copilot+ PCs quoted about 45 TOPS — that’s a four-fold uplift over Intel’s “Meteor Lake” Core Ultra 7 165H, which had only quoted 11 TOPS of NPU performance. Windows Recall on a Copilot+ laptop by Samsung.Microsoft / Samsung “I think Qualcomm really woke everyone up,” said Karl Freund, founder and principal analyst at Cambrian AI Research. Freund has noted that AMD and Intel have been quick to respond with their own chips, which delivered a similar uplift. By the end of 2024, shoppers looking for a premium Windows laptop — like a Microsoft Surface, Asus ProArt, or Dell XPS — can expect a roughly three- or four-fold increase in NPU performance compared to similarly premium laptops that were available at the end of 2023. That’s a huge bump up. But will that trend continue into 2025? Ryan Shrout, president of performance testing lab Signal65, thinks it could. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we see double again, and triple again wouldn’t surprise me.” However, he expects those eventual gains to be weighted more towards the end of next year. “My guess is it will be late 2025, and probably into 2026, when we see the most significant NPU improvements.” TOPS may not stay on top for long A potential two- to three-fold improvement for on-device AI performance is significant. However, Freund and Shrout warned it’s best not to give too much credence to the TOPS performances that chip makers quote. “TOPS really stands for ‘Terribly Overused Performance Stat,`” said Freund. “It doesn’t have a lot of value.” Shrout agreed, comparing TOPS to the TFLOPS figures that AMD and Nvidia often quote when marketing GPUs. These numbers, which point to a GPU’s maximum possible computation speed, offer surprisingly little insight into actual real-world performance. Real-world AI performance is currently a bit of a wild card, in part because Windows has yet to coalesce around a single API for tapping an NPU’s AI capabilities. That’s a problem for owners of Copilot+ laptops that lack a Qualcomm chip inside. Da Vinci Resolve running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop.Mark Hachman / IDG Though AMD and Intel have chips that qualify for Copilot+ branding, Qualcomm has enjoyed a favored status so far. Qualcomm machines were the first to receive support for Windows Recall and several popular apps, like Blender and Affinity Photo, which were recently announced to only work on Qualcomm Snapdragon X hardware. That should change through 2025, however, as Microsoft rallies support for its low-level machine learning API (DirectML) and the Windows Copilot Runtime, which includes several task-specific AI APIs (some of which have yet to be released). For now, it’s clear that Copilot+ PCs leave a lot to be desired and have lots of room for growth coming up. “I think Microsoft will have this solved in 2025,” said Shrout. “Once application developers attach to DirectML, like they did with DirectX, it will be a solved problem. And I don’t think it will be a problem for long.” Shrout compared it to the early days of 3D on the PC, which initially saw competing APIs but eventually consolidated around the leaders, with Microsoft DirectX becoming the most popular option. Proving the case for Windows AI Better NPUs and a unified API that makes it easier for Windows application developers to actually use an NPU’s full performance are both important steps forward, but they don’t necessarily guarantee that on-device AI will become commonplace. That’s because developers still have the option to turn towards companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, who make their AI models and services available to any device with internet access. And their AI models are still more capable than on-device AI models, able to do more and generate those results far more quickly. However, those AI models hosted in the cloud have a major downside that will become more relevant in 2025 — price. “The fact we can have small language models run on an NPU continuously in the background to monitor what’s happening, that’s something the cloud can’t do, or at least would be much more expensive from an infrastructure standpoint,” said Shrout. CKA / Shutterstock OpenAI’s recent release of ChatGPT Pro, a new premium tier for power users, seems to drive this point home. ChatGPT Pro provides unlimited access to the company’s new o1 model and priority access to the Sora video generator, but it’s priced at $200 per month. The per-token price paid by app developers to make o1 available to users is similarly steep. Users and developers who turn to a Windows laptop’s on-device NPU, on the other hand, can essentially use it whenever they want for free. That’s arguably going to be the final brick laid in the road towards on-device AI. Developers and users will have both the tools and incentives to rely on a Windows laptop’s NPU whenever possible to cut costs. It remains to be seen how quickly the shift towards on-device AI will happen, and to what extent it will proliferate through Windows’ software ecosystem, but it’s likely that 2025 will be a huge turning point. “I think Qualcomm had it right five years ago when they said AI would move on-device. At first, I was skeptical. But now I’ve become a believer,” said Freund. Further reading: Free AI tools that run locally on your PC Read...

Live TV streaming services are a natural starting point when you’re cutting the cord. These services offer many of the same channels you had with cable or satellite TV, but deliver them over the internet to your smart TV or streaming device. They include cloud-based DVRs so you can record your favorite shows—and skip through the commercials—in many cases, they’re the only way to watch specific pay TV channels. Still, the cost of live TV streaming services can get quite high, and in some ways they won’t be exactly like what you had with cable. Our top picks will help you avoid overpaying and get the TV features you most care about. Why you should trust us As TechHive’s resident cord-cutting expert, I’ve been reviewing live TV streaming services ever since the launch of Sling TV back in 2015, and I’ve been a cord-cutter myself since 2008. Beyond just product reviews, I write a weekly column about streaming and over-the-air TV for TechHive, and my Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter has more than 30,000 readers. Updated December 20, 2024: We’ve updated this story with the most recent price changes (or should we say price increases) and performed a general refresh of this story. The TV streaming services we recommend YouTube TV — Best TV streaming service overall Pros Simple interface makes live TV easy to navigate Unlimited DVR allows for a huge on-demand library (with skippable ads) Broad selection of local, news, sports, and entertainment channels Cons Can’t delete recordings or mark them as watched on TV devices One-off recordings only work for live sporting events Menu doesn’t clearly separate DVR and on-demand video (with unskippable ads) Best Prices Today: Retailer Price YouTube TV $82.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $82.99 at YouTube TV Why we like YouTube TV YouTube TV is the best drop-in replacement for cable or satellite TV. It’s not exactly cheap at $83 per month, but it offers a broad mix of the local stations, live news, national sports, and entertainment channels you’d get with a typical pay TV package, almost certainly at a lower price. Its interface is easy to comprehend, its cloud DVR lets you record an unlimited number of programs for up to nine months, and you even can bundle NFL Sunday Ticket at a discount. Who should get YouTube TV If you want to cut the cable cord without overthinking it, this is the easiest starting point to recommend. Still, other services may offer a better value—either by bundling other services or omitting popular channels—or by delivering more regional sports coverage. Read our full YouTube TV review Hulu + Live TV — Best TV streaming service, runner-up Pros Excellent value for Disney bundle subscribers Expansive on-demand catalog Recommendations and staff picks make the app fun to explore Cons Live TV can be inefficient to navigate Hard to figure out which programs allow ad skipping Can’t watch on TV devices while traveling Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Hulu.com $82.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $82.99 at Hulu.com Why we like Hulu + Live TV The main thing that distinguishes Hulu + Live TV from YouTube TV is its inclusion of the full Disney bundle, so you get Hulu’s on-demand catalog, Disney+ (with ads, unless you were grandfathered in), and ESPN+ in the $83-per-month base package. Hulu’s cloud DVR service lets you save an unlimited number of shows for up to nine months, and while the interface can be busy, it ties everything together in a way that encourages discovery. Who should get Hulu + Live TV Hulu’s live TV package makes a lot of sense if you’re paying for any of Disney’s other streaming services. Disney+ and Hulu each cost $10 per month on their own (or $11 per month together), while ESPN+ is even pricier at $12 per month (also available with Disney+ and Hulu for $17 per month). With Hulu + Live TV, you get all those services at no extra cost. Read our full Hulu + Live TV review DirecTV Stream — Best TV streaming service for sports fans Pros Excellent grid guide with useful sorting options More sports (at least in its $100-per-month tier) than other streaming services DVR is easy to navigate and has its own dedicated menu section Cons No visual preview when fast forwarding on Fire TV and Android TV Sluggish performance on some lower-end streaming devices Some national sports channels are pushed out to more-expensive packages Best Prices Today: Retailer Price DirecTV Stream $101.98 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $101.98 at DirecTV Stream Why we like DirecTV Stream DirecTV Stream’s starting price is $101.98 per month, but the main attraction is its $115-per-month “Choice” package, which includes more sports coverage than other live TV streaming services. In some markets, it’s the only way to stream certain regional sports channels that remain tied to pay TV bundles. The cloud DVR and grid guide are highlights as well, with an interface that will make cable or satellite converts feel at home. Who should get DirecTV Stream YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV only offer patchy regional sports coverage, and standalone streaming options are still limited. Sports fans who can’t stream their local baseball, basketball, or hockey teams any other way would be wise to consider DirecTV Stream despite its steep price. Read our full DirecTV Stream review Sling TV — Best budget-priced TV streaming service Pros Lower entry price than any other streaming bundle Simple menu system with easy access to favorites DVR supports ad-skipping, partial recordings, and time-shifting Cons Price can quickly escalate to get certain channels Most channels top out at 30 frames per second Only supports one user profile Best Prices Today: Retailer Price Sling TV $40 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket $40 at Sling TV Why we like Sling TV Sling TV’s starting price of $40 per month is a lot lower than most other bundles, which it accomplishes by splitting its channels into two base packages and omitting local broadcasts in many markets. The DVR feels a bit stingy—you get 50 recording hours, or 200 hours for an extra $5 per month—but it’s still the cheapest way to access certain cable channels without a big cable bundle. Who should get Sling TV Sling TV is an invaluable option for those who can skate by without a full range of local channels. It pairs especially well with an over-the-air antenna for local channels, and you can even use an AirTV device to feed those channels into Sling’s app. Read our full Sling TV review Philo — Best budget-priced TV streaming service, runner-up Pros DVR has helpful ad-skipping features Easy to find your favorites and recently-watched shows Integrates well with Fire TV, Google TV, and Apple TV devices Cons No sports, major cable news, or local broadcast channels Channel guide layout is disorienting No surround sound or adjustable streaming quality Why we like Philo For $28 per month, Philo offers lots of entertainment channels in an easy-to-navigate interface, and its cloud DVR even marks up commercial breaks to help you skip through them. Equally notable, however, is what’s missing: Philo doesn’t include any local channels, sports channels, or major cable news networks, which is a big part of why it’s much cheaper than other live TV streaming services. Who should get Philo Cord-cutters who favor reality shows, documentaries, and other forms of comfort food TV will find plenty to watch on Philo. Cheaper standalone services such as Max or Netflix might scratch a similar itch at lower prices, but they don’t have the same live TV and DVR features. Read our full Philo review How we test live TV streaming services Beyond just watching a lot of TV, we evaluate each service’s channel lineup to point out any important omissions, while also comparing basic features such as simulataneous streams and out-of-home viewing restrictions. We scrutinize each service’s DVR capabilities, including the ease with which you can access recordings, manage your storage, and skip through commercials. To evaluate video quality, we look for features such as 60-frames-per-second video support across a broad range of channels. We also examine every corner of each service’s interface, comparing features such as the grid guide, on-demand menu, and home screen. Our in-depth reviews include plenty of screenshots, so you can see for yourself what each service looks like. Other notable live TV streaming services we’ve reviewed Fubo prides itself on live sports and is only rivaled by DirecTV Stream on regional sports, but its lack of Warner-owned channels (including postseason sports staples TNT and TBS) leaves some serious gaps in its coverage. It costs $80 per month, including regional sports fees. Philo offers a terrific live TV streaming service for just $28 per month if you’re not interested in watching live sports. Frndly TV is the cheapest live TV streaming service by far, starting at $7 per month, with a channel lineup that leans heavily into classic TV reruns. It probably won’t fulfil many cord cutters’ needs on its own, but may be worth considering as a supplement to other services. Frequently asked questions about streaming live TV 1. How are live TV streaming services different from services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video? On-demand video services such as Netflix (also known as SVOD (streaming video on demand) or direct-to-consumer services) offer original programming you can’t find on cable, along with catalogs of movies and shows licensed from Hollywood studios. Some of these streamers are dabbling in live sports—most notably, Max’s B/R Sports add-on offers every event that airs on its cable channels—but for the most part this coverage is different from what’s on cable. By comparison, live TV services carry the exact same channels you’d find in a cable or satellite package, including major networks such as ABC and CBS, news channels such MSNBC and Fox News, and sports channels such as ESPN. They have similar grid-style channels guides and DVR features as well. 2. How do I watch live TV streaming services? Each of these services offer their own apps, which you can install on your smart TV, streaming device, smartphone, or tablet. You can subscribe to these services through their own websites, or in some cases directly through the app. 3. What about DVR? All live TV streaming services include some form of cloud DVR, allowing you to record live programming and skip through the commercials. The recordings are stored online, rather than on a box in your home, so you can access them from any of your devices—even while traveling. 4. Can I watch live TV streaming services while traveling? Yes, though some services have restrictions on what you can watch and how you can watch it. This article has more details. 5. Are there equipment or activation fees? No, live TV streaming services do not charge activation fees, and you can log in to watch on as many devices as you want at no extra charge. You may hit a limit on how many devices can be actively streaming at the same time—usually it’s two or three, depending on the service—and some services allow you to pay for more simultaneous streams if you need them. Read...

Having a good gaming PC is only half the battle–you also need a screen that makes the action visible. Many people find it difficult to decide on the right dimensions. Gaming monitors are now available in such huge sizes that you might think that bigger is always better. However, other factors are just as important and large monitors can have disadvantages. We take a closer look at what is important when choosing a size and how you can find the right monitor for your purposes. Further reading: 2025 will be the best year to buy a monitor, ever. Here’s why Consider the available space When buying a monitor, you should of course also consider how much space you have available. A huge monitor doesn’t look good on a relatively small desk and you should always leave enough space for a keyboard, mouse, and speakers. You should also make sure there’s enough space between you and the monitor. A depth of around 60 centimeters should be sufficient. For which genre? You should consider what types of games you’re going to play on this monitor, as it plays a significant role in how large the display surface should be. If you’re into cinematic, story-driven games that showcase characters with all their facets and emotions, then it would simply be inappropriate to display the action on a tiny monitor. It destroys the immersion. It’s also not a bad idea to use models with as few edges as possible, preferably with a slight curvature. This draws them more into the action. 27- to 32-inch monitors are recommended in this case, preferably in ultra-wide format. our favorite gaming monitor under $200 Dell G2724D Read our review Best Prices Today: $149.99 at Dell Home | $194 at Amazon | $299.99 at Dell For shooters, especially multiplayer titles, the motto “bigger is better” applies. This is because the changed dimensions also give you a larger field of view. A lot can happen at the sides of the screen, so an ultra-wide format is more suitable here. The situation is completely different for e-sports titles, especially with games like Starcraft or MOBAs. You’ll often see monitors that are almost square in shape or boast a 4:3 format. These screens aren’t very large, either. A 24-inch monitor is sufficient here. Pay attention to resolution and refresh rate In addition to the target size, the resolution also plays an important role. For maximum detail and sharpness, you should opt for 4K resolution. However, as already mentioned, UHD and WQHD monitors are also suitable for many games. The refresh rate is important as well. If your monitor can only handle 60Hz, but you need fast reactions, then a larger screen won’t help. For shooters and demanding games, 144Hz is a must. Really only for gaming? You should also consider if you’re going to use the monitor for other tasks like streaming, watching movies, or web browsing. Even if you use the screen more often for work, you may still want to go a little bigger, especially when multitasking with several windows. However, it may also be a good idea to use a second screen. Conclusion When it comes to monitors, there’s no one size fits all. However, the most affordable ones fall in the 27-inch range. A larger model with a higher resolution can make a noticeable difference, but so can upgrading to an expensive CPU or GPU. Further reading: The best gaming monitors we’ve tested Read...

With a newly installed Windows PC, only a few system services and programs start. The resource requirements are correspondingly low and the operating system responds quickly. This changes over time, which is mainly due to the additional software installed. Programs and services that start automatically after Windows logon lead to delays. The startup time of the system increases and it takes longer and longer for the desktop to respond to mouse clicks or for a program to start. How noticeable the system slowdowns are depends on the overall performance of the computer and the performance of the hard drive or SSD. As a general rule, a program that is only installed but does not start automatically cannot slow down Windows. However, this only applies if there is enough space available for temporary files or downloading updates, for example. To avoid mistakes, you should therefore never fill drives close to their capacity limit. With both hard drives and SSDs, too little free space also affects speed for other reasons (see box “Making the most of hard drives and SSDs”). Further reading: Make Windows 11 better: How to customize and expand the Start menu As in real life, tidying up is also a regular task in Windows. Removing superfluous files ensures that there is always enough free space on the drive. You should also remove unused programs, move particularly large files from the SSD to an existing hard drive and deactivate autostart if it is not required. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro The Windows on-board tools can provide valuable services here, while additional tools offer more and advanced functions. However, there is no simple one-click solution. Ultimately, the tools can only collect what you can possibly delete. After that, the responsibility lies with you. In this article, we provide decision-making aids and show you where you should be careful and what you should not delete. Note: The tips in this article apply to Windows 11, but some of the functions are also available in Windows 10. 1. Check memory utilization Call up Settings — for example, with the key combination Win+I or a search in the Start menu. Go to System > Memory. You will see an informative overview with the total utilization of the system drive as well as the storage space used by temporary files and installed apps. Under Other, Windows displays the space occupied by files that cannot be specified in more detail. Clicking on Show more categories takes you to a list of other areas, such as Documents, Pictures and Videos. You can see how much storage space is occupied in each case. Clicking on one of the categories shows detailed information: Other shows some of the largest folders on the drive. You can open the folders by clicking on them in Windows Explorer and then decide whether something can be deleted. Installed apps leads to Apps > Installed apps. The view can be sorted by size or installation date. You can use the three-dot menu to uninstall programs that you no longer need. Temporary files shows a list of areas in which files that may no longer be required are stored. After a Windows upgrade, Previous Windows installation(s) appears in the list. This is the folder C:\Windows.old. You can remove this if everything is running smoothly and you no longer want to return to the previous Windows installation. Windows automatically deletes the folder after about a month. Under System > Storage > Temporary files there is a tick in front of all entries that you can delete without hesitation. To do this, click on Remove files. You can also tick the boxes in front of Downloads and Recycle bin. But be careful: Downloads relates to your personal download folder. If you do not want to lose the downloaded files, do not tick this box. For Recycle Bin, you should make sure that there are no unintentionally deleted files in the recycle bin. Open the recycle bin by double-clicking on the desktop icon and check the contents. Only delete if necessary: You can delete everything under Temporary files, but this is not useful in every case. The “thumbnails,” for example, are preview images that Windows saves in db files in the folder C:\Users[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. This allows Windows Explorer to load the preview images more quickly. After some time, the db files also contain preview images whose originals have long since been deleted. Regular cleaning therefore seems advisable. On the other hand, the files do not usually take up much memory space and if you delete everything, Windows Explorer has to rebuild the cache of the preview images. Although this does not take long, it is unnecessary. Further reading: 9 tweaks that turn off your Windows PC’s most annoying ads The situation is similar with temporary internet files. Microsoft’s Edge web browser saves the elements of web pages in a cache, allowing it to display them more quickly. If the temporary internet files are deleted, it will take longer to load pages on regularly visited websites. As a rule, the Edge cache does not occupy more than 1GB, which means that not much storage space can be freed up. Other web browsers use their own cache, which can be emptied in the respective programs (see point 7). Storage overview: In the Settings under System > Storage you can find out how the hard drive is used. Click on the categories for further details.Foundry 2. Windows 11 cleanup functions In Windows 11, go to System > Storage in Settings and click on Cleanup recommendations. You will see the storage space occupied by downloads and the recycle bin as well as Previous Windows installation(s), if still available. Tick the areas in which you want to delete files and click on the [X] GB cleanup button. However, this will not only delete the selected files, but also other temporary files. Click on Advanced options to find out about the effects. The settings correspond to those under System > Storage > Temporary files, but the current selection is added, for example Recycle bin. If you consider it necessary, you can remove the tick from some areas before cleaning. The list you get after clicking on Large or unused files is more interesting. You will see particularly large files and files used a long time ago that you may be able to delete. The list under Unused apps can also be helpful. However, only programs that you have installed via the Microsoft Store are displayed. An alternative for Windows 10 and 11 is Iobit Uninstaller. Under Programs, go to Rarely used to display the applications that are rarely used. The list can serve as a guide, but is usually not complete and sometimes shows inaccurate dates. However, it is not possible to do better than this because Windows does not reliably log the start time of a program. What can be deleted? The “cleanup recommendations” point to obvious areas such as the recycle bin. However, you can also have large files and unused apps listed. Foundry 3. Free up storage space If you don’t want to do all the tidying up yourself, you can leave the task to Windows. In the Settings, go to System > Storage and set the switch behind Storage Sense to On. The service can be configured by clicking on Storage Sense. A tick is already placed in front of Keep Windows running smoothly by automatically cleaning up temporary system and app files. Automatic user content cleanup is also switched on, but is only activated when required due to the default setting During low free disk space (default). However, you can also set a schedule for the clean-up with Daily, Every week, or Every month. An interval can be specified under Delete files from recycle bin if they have been there for over:. The default setting is 30 days. If you are worried that there may still be files in the recycle bin after 30 days that you would like to restore, it is better to set Never and empty the recycle bin manually. The same applies to the setting for the download folder, where the default setting is Never. Only if you are sure that this folder will never contain files that you still need should you set it to 30 days or 60 days, for example. Users of the Microsoft cloud storage Onedrive will find a useful setting under Locally available cloud content. With the default setting of 30 days, Onedrive automatically changes the status of the files in the synchronized folder to Available online if they have not been opened within this period. This means that the files no longer take up any space on the drive. If you open one of these files afterwards, it will be available on the device again. Files that you have marked as Always keep on this device are not affected by this setting. If you do not want Onedrive to change the status of the files, set Never. “Storage optimization” automatically creates more space on the system drive. You can specify what is deleted and when.IDG 4. Relocate standard storage locations If your PC has an additional SSD or hard drive, you can use this as alternative storage. An external USB drive is also suitable, but must be permanently connected depending on how it is used. Further reading: The best SSDs You can simply move personal files to the other drive using Windows Explorer. However, Windows also offers options to change the storage location of default folders. In the Settings, go to System > Storage, click on Advanced storage settings and then on Where new content is saved. As the name suggests, the settings only apply to new files. To save space on the system drive, you can specify the second drive under New apps will save to:, for example E:\. Click on Apply for the setting to take effect. You can also select the second drive under New documents will save to:, whereby Windows creates the folder E:[user name]\Documents. If you now save a document in a word processor or the Windows Notepad editor, the new storage location is preset. However, this procedure has a disadvantage: In Windows Explorer, Documents still leads to the previous folder on drive C:\. An overview of files from both locations is provided by the libraries, which Windows Explorer does not display by default. To change this, go to Options in the three-dot menu and switch to the View tab. Under Navigation pane, tick the box next to Show libraries. If you then go to Libraries > Documents, you will see the files from both folders. Moving personal folders completely: Because of the disadvantage mentioned above, it makes more sense to move folders such as Documents, Pictures, and Downloads completely to another drive. First create the destination folder, for example E:[username]\Downloads. Right-click on the desired folder in Windows Explorer, go to Properties and then to the Path tab. Click on Move and select the previously created folder. After clicking on OK, confirm with Yes that Windows should move the existing files to the new location. In Windows Explorer, under Start or in the navigation area, open the folders with the previous content but with the new storage location. 5. Change storage location for apps A conventionally installed desktop program is located by default in the folder C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86), which Windows Explorer displays as C:\Program. If space becomes tight, programs cannot simply be moved to another drive, as the paths to components and settings in the Windows registry are then no longer correct. However, you can usually specify a user-defined destination on a different drive when reinstalling programs in the setup program. This is particularly recommended for an SSD with little storage space and if a program requires a lot of storage space, for example a PC game. However, the loss of speed when starting from a slower hard drive must be accepted. Apps from the Microsoft Store can also be moved to another drive without reinstalling them. In Settings, go to Apps > Installed apps and click on Move in the three-dot menu for the desired app. Select the target drive and click on Move. If the menu item is not available, it is a desktop application. The pre-installed system apps cannot be moved, which is why the menu item is grayed out. Apps from the Microsoft Store can be moved to another drive. This option is not available for pre-installed system apps.IDG Making optimum use of hard drives and SSDs Due to its physical structure, a conventional magnetic hard drive delivers data at different speeds. The average transfer rate of a current hard disk can be 200MB per second, for example. In the outer area of the magnetic disk, the read/write heads can capture more sectors in the same amount of time than in the inner area due to rotation and circumference. With a freshly installed Windows, the system files are located in the fast outer area; what is added later is located in the increasingly slower inner areas. The hard disk can reduce this effect by using a cache. The data first ends up in the fast cache and only then on the hard drive. The transfer rate is gradually reduced by the limited size of the cache as you copy many small or a few large files to the hard drive. In the course of using a hard drive, files are deleted and new ones are created. The drive’s controller uses the next free blocks to store the data. If a file does not fit into the area of a contiguous block, the next one is used, which may be a long way away. The read/write heads then require longer paths, which reduces the transfer rate and increases access times. The performance of the hard drive can be improved by defragmentation. The files are reorganized in blocks that are as contiguous as possible, which speeds up access. The “Optimize drives” defragmenter from the Windows accessories (Win R, dfrgui) does this automatically once a week by default. The Windows defragmenter seems to do its job perfectly, as it regularly certifies that the drives have a fragmentation level of “0%.” This may even be more or less true for PCs in average use. However, large files are often heavily fragmented, which increases as the hard drive fills up because the contiguous, free blocks become fewer and fewer. This particularly affects games and the usually very large virtual hard disks of virtualization software. If this applies to you, first make sure there is enough free space on the hard drive. Only then can a defragmenter work optimally. A suitable program for this is Defraggler. After starting, select the hard drive and click on “Check.” If the program shows severe fragmentation, click on “Defrag.” As the process takes a long time for large hard drives, you can also selectively process individual files. Switch to the “File list” tab. Click on the “Fragments” column header to sort the list by heavily fragmented files. The selected file can be optimized via the context menu item “Selected defragmentation.” Special features for SSDs: SSDs do not need to be defragmented because the memory accesses are direct and the position of the memory cells is irrelevant. This results in short access times, which means that Windows and programs start faster. The transfer rate is approximately 2 to 4 times higher than with hard disks, which also has a positive effect on overall performance. However, you should also regularly free up storage space on SSDs. If the drive is filled to the brim, the controller on the device does not have enough free cells to organize the memory. The service life of an SSD increases if memory cells are not rewritten too often and there are enough spare lines. With an average-use PC, however, there is no need to worry about the internal functions of the SSD. The manufacturers reserve an area for over-provisioning as standard, to which the user has no access. Depending on the model and total capacity, this reduces the actual usable memory by 7 to 10 percent. This ensures that even with a well-filled SSD there are still free cells available. On SSDs for server use with many write accesses, a larger area is usually reserved for over-provisioning. Some manufacturers also offer tools with which the reserve memory can be increased, for example Samsung Magican. However, this is only useful for servers. Defraggler attempts to move files into areas that are as contiguous as possible. The function can also be used specifically for individual, particularly large files. IDG 6. Clean up discs The disk clean-up function has been included with Windows 98, but the tool’s days are numbered. It is still included in Windows 11 24H2, but Microsoft already recommends using the functions in the Settings (see points 1 to 3). However, if you wish, you can still use Disk Cleanup. However, this does not offer any particular advantage because the functions are now fully available in the settings under System > Storage. If you still want to use Disk Cleanup, start the tool by searching in the Start menu or by pressing Win+R, entering cleanmgr and clicking on OK. If there are several hard drives, select the drive that you want to clean up, usually the system drive, C:. Click on OK to confirm. After the analysis, tick the areas in which you want to delete something. For more information, click on a line and read the description. There is nothing you cannot delete without hesitation. However, the instructions for the recycle bin and temporary internet files from point 1 also apply here. By default, Disk Cleanup only handles user files. If you click on the Clean up system files button and select the system drive, additional options are available to you. For example, Previous Windows installation(s) (if available), Log files for Windows upgrades, and Device driver packages. On the More options tab, you can also click on Clean up under System restore and shadow copies. This deletes all restore points except for the last one, which can save several gigabytes. Configure profile: If you want to use disk cleanup regularly for certain tasks, you can save the settings in a profile. If system files are also to be deleted, the configuration must be carried out with administrative rights, otherwise the rights of the standard user are sufficient. With the saved settings, you can start Disk Cleanup without further configuration and delete everything at once. Step 1: Use the Start menu to search for cmd. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Step 2: Type cleanmgr /sageset:1 and confirm with the Enter key. The number “1” is the serial number of the profile. You can enter any number up to four digits to save multiple profiles. Step 3: Tick all the desired options. Click on OK to save the settings. Step 4: Right-click on a free area on the desktop. Select New > Shortcut from the menu. In the input field, type cleanmgr /sagerun:1 and click on Next. Enter a meaningful name and confirm with Finish. Step 5: Right-click on the shortcut, go to Properties and switch to the Shortcut tab. Click on Advanced and tick the box next to Run as administrator. Click OK and then click OK again. If you now start Disk Cleanup by double-clicking on the shortcut, all configured tasks will be processed automatically. Disk Cleanup is considered outdated in Windows 11. However, it is still available in Windows 11 24H2 and can be used as usual. Foundry 7. Delete browser data One program that constantly generates data on the hard drive is the web browser. Browsers do not display websites, images, or videos directly, but first save the content, including images and JavaScript files, in the cache memory. Depending on how a website is configured, data is preferably loaded quickly from the cache or updated via the internet connection. As the cache improves the performance of the browser, it is not recommended to delete it. Browsers usually use memory space moderately and do not use more than necessary. However, you should delete the cache if there are errors in the page display, for example. In Microsoft Edge, click on the three-dot menu at the top right and select Settings. Continue in the navigation area on the left-hand side and Privacy, search, and services. Under Delete browser data, click on Choose what to clear. Under Time range, you can select a time period for which you want to delete elements. Under Cached images and data you can see how much memory the browser is using. Remove the tick in front of the areas in which you do not want to delete anything. It is better to exclude Cookies and other site data. Cookies are required, for example, for navigation on websites and also for automatic login. You should also be careful with Passwords and Autofill form data. If you have saved data via the browser, this will be lost if you tick the box here. After checking the settings, click on Clear now. Other browsers offer similar options. Firefox users, for example, go to Privacy & Security in the Settings menu. Under Cookies and website data, click on Remove data. Remove the tick in front of Cookies and website data (recommended) and click on Clear to delete only the cache memory. Browsers store numerous files on the hard drive, which makes websites load faster. However, in the event of errors or for data protection reasons, the files should be deleted. Foundry 8. Optimize autostart Many programs install services or nest themselves in the notification area next to the clock. This is practical for some applications — for example, if they regularly display important information or report available updates. However, programs that you rarely use should be removed from the autostart. You can do this using Windows’ on-board tools via the Task Manager, which you can start most quickly by pressing the key combination Ctrl+Shift+Esc. On the Autostart tab, programs can be removed from Autostart via the Deactivate context menu item. Nothing is deleted in the process. You can reactivate the programs at any time. If you want to analyze all autostart ramps, use the Autoruns tool. You can deactivate services and autostart entries and reactivate them later. The tool also offers an analysis via virustotal.com to determine whether malware is present. If possible, you should uninstall programs that you do not use. This frees up space on your hard drive and improves security. However, the uninstall routines are often not thorough. If you want to remove software with less residue, use tools such as Geek Uninstaller or Iobit Uninstaller. 9. Extra tools help The cleanup functions in Windows 11 already do a good job. However, additional tools allow a different view of the situation and work more thoroughly. Sometimes too thoroughly, however. Therefore, familiarize yourself sufficiently with the functions before you delete something irretrievably. Bleachbit is one of the tools that can be used to delete a great deal. Close all applications, especially the web browser, before starting the tool. For each category, such as Firefox, Microsoft Office or System, there is a brief description of the options. Only tick the options if you are aware of the effects. If in doubt, click on Preview first. Bleachbit will then show you which files are affected. Only after this check do you click on Final cleanup. Another tool for the same purpose is Ccleaner. It is somewhat clearer than Bleachbit, but offers more settings and explanatory texts. You can also use the Ccenhancer extension, whose rule sets you can set up via Download latest. This will significantly extend the scope of the main program’s program recording. Ccleaner is by far the most popular software for cleaning up the operating system and installed applications. Among other things, it offers tools for clearing out the autostart, analyzing hard drive contents, searching for duplicates, managing browser plugins, and securely overwriting free hard drive space in order to delete any file fragments. Treesize Free and Windirstat help to analyze the drives. These tools detect large files that you may no longer need and want to delete. Everything is actually a particularly fast search tool, but can also be used to sort the file list by size and thus identify space wasters. Tidying up the registry usually does nothing. Nevertheless, you can use a tool such as Wise Registry Cleaner to analyze the registry. If you change anything here, you should first create a backup copy, for example with the Registry Backup tool. Files or folders cannot be deleted if the access rights are missing. Use PC-WELT MyRights to add a new context menu item to Windows Explorer, which appears after a right mouse click while holding down the Shift key. Click on Take ownership to obtain full access rights. Winsxs: The supposedly huge folder When examining your hard drive, you may come across the “Winsxs” folder in the Windows directory. In the properties, Windows Explorer often shows a size of several gigabytes. It contains important program libraries that are used by many applications, as well as system and exe files in different versions. Some of the supposedly numerous files are hard links, i.e. special file links that refer to the corresponding files under “Windows System32,” for example. The actual size is therefore sometimes several GB smaller. Never delete files from the “Winsxs” folder yourself. Doing so can permanently damage the function of the system or applications. Windows regularly cleans up the folder automatically via the task scheduler and removes files that are no longer required. An overview of other helpful clean-up tools Foldersizes Foldersizes Analyze partitions and search for large folders When tidying up your hard drive, you often don’t know where to start. Foldersizes helps you by organizing folders by size and displaying this list as a pie chart, bar chart, or map. You can search for space-wasters down to file level with a click of the mouse. In contrast to Windirstat, for example, Foldersizes offers a wider range of functions. The disadvantages: The tool is only available in English and must be licensed for 30 US dollars after a trial period of 15 days. Largest File Finder Largest File Finder Compile a list of the largest files If you are wondering where all the free space on your new SSD has gone, the freeware Largest File Finder will help you. You don’t need to install the tool, instead you can start searching for the 100 largest files on the entire disc or in the specified folder immediately after double-clicking on its EXE file. At the end, it compiles a list organized by size, which you can use as a guide if you want to create space as easily and efficiently as possible. Duplicate Media Finder Duplicate Media Finder Find and delete all duplicate files Despite its name, Duplicate Media Finder Free not only searches for media files such as videos, audio files, and images, but also for duplicate files in general. It also finds duplicates that have a different name than the original, which is referred to here as the “master file.” The free program is only available in the Microsoft Store. It is a slimmed-down version of a much more comprehensive, paid-for software, which is available for a good $40. Clonespy Clonespy Find duplicate files and delete them individually An alternative to Duplicate Media Finder is Clonespy. The English-language tool immediately indicates when it encounters a duplicate file and, if desired, marks the older versions or the versions with the longer file or folder name. Clonespy is also able to find files with the same name but different contents or to compare files in two folders — for example on a local and a shared network drive. Revo Uninstaller Revo Uninstaller Remove programs cleanly and without leaving any residue Revo Uninstaller is the reference in the category of free uninstall programs: The program works very reliably, first starts the uninstall routine of the respective software, and then scans the registry and file systems for any remnants. The uninstaller also includes tools for cleaning up browsers, Microsoft Office, Windows, the registry, and Autostart. A special feature is the hunting mode, which allows you to remove programs without a functioning uninstaller. Iobit Uninstaller Iobit Uninstaller Convenient uninstaller with many extras Iobit’s uninstaller works in exactly the same way as Revo’s uninstaller, but offers a deletion mode for selected programs in one go without prompting. It lists apps from the hardware manufacturer, recently installed programs as well as oversized and rarely used applications, and can also delete browser extensions and Windows apps. You can use an install monitor to log the installation of new software and remove the programs cleanly later. Privazer Remove superfluous ballast The free Privazer program carries out a deep scan for user traces on your drives, USB sticks, network drives, and much more. The first step is to select which storage medium is to be analyzed. Then specify which files you want to search for. After starting Privazer, a wizard will help you with the configuration with recommendations. Then start the search by clicking on OK. In the search results, you can click on categories such as Internet activities or Cookies to obtain information on the files concerned. To be on the safe side, you should tick the box next to Create a restore point. If problems occur, the deleted files can then be restored. Finally, click on Clean. The deletion of cookies, residual traces of old files, or temporary files is intended to counteract the slowing down of your computer due to data ballast. The Spybot – Search & Destroy freeware scans the system for various types of spyware, malware, dialers, keyloggers, Trojans and other threats. IDG Spybot Remove unwanted software Spybot – Search & Destroy is a long-established product for searching for browser tracking cookies and unwanted software. This does not necessarily have to be malware in the true sense of the word. Sometimes, however, programs install additional software that you do not want to use. After clicking on Scan system, the tool scans the drives and displays the findings. Check the results, uncheck the boxes next to entries that you do not want to delete, and click on Fix selected. 7-Zip 7-Zip Archive files and compress them to save space Spring cleaning is a good opportunity to go through your own file archive and move older or rarely used files to an archive. To save space, you should compress the files. If you want to protect confidential documents, the archive can also be encrypted and secured with a password. All this is done for you by the 7-Zip compression program, which is free open source software. You can also use it to copy or move the archives to new folders. Faststone Image Viewer Faststone Image Viewer Manage and edit photos Many users accumulate thousands or even more photos over time, which makes searching for a specific motif much more difficult. Faststone’s Image Viewer shows you all the images in a folder in a preview and offers to convert them into a range of other commonly used formats. The software also has simple editing tools on board, can create a slideshow, and copy and move the image files collectively to other folders. Digikam Digikam Manage and search for photos professionally Software for managing large photo collections is usually expensive and therefore only of interest to professional photographers. Digikam is an exception to this rule. The program is open source and free of charge. Digikam is based on a database engine that offers extensive search options according to the date and place the photo was taken as well as other Exif data. This additional information can also be edited. But beware: Digikam is a professional program, which is why it takes time to get to grips with its operation. Powerlame Powerlame Search and convert MP3 files As with photos, the problem with MP3 music is that hundreds or even thousands of files gradually accumulate. The desired song is then difficult to find, especially if you don’t have the title or artist on hand. In these cases, Powerlame can help. The tool also reads large MP3 collections and offers a search mask for ID3 tags. It can also rip CDs, adjust the volume of all MP3s, and convert them into WAV files or search for the corresponding CD covers. Media Monkey Media Monkey Add missing data to song files For the search in the ID3 tags to be successful, the fields must also be filled in. This is usually not the case with self-ripped MP3s in particular. Media Monkey helps you to enter information about a song such as artist, title, album or composer. Among other things, the program automatically searches for the album, downloads the cover, and enters the data in the tag fields. The tool is also an excellent player that creates playlists and offers an equalizer. Sumo Sumo Check installed software for updates You should not only regularly clear your Windows PC of junk data, but also make sure that the installed programs are always up to date. Updates not only eliminate software errors and close security gaps, they often also bring new functions. The freeware Sumo scans the existing applications, lists the outdated programs, and takes you to a download site for the update. The paid Pro version can also take care of the installation for you. Driver Easy Driver Easy Update drivers to the latest version As a rule, Windows provides the appropriate drivers for all hardware components of the PC and also updates them. However, these are often slimmed-down versions without the extended functionality offered by the drivers from the manufacturer’s website. Driver Easy makes it possible to check the existing driver equipment, point out newer versions, and install them. The free software version only allows manual installation and has a limited download speed. Iobit Driver Booster Free Iobit Driver Booster Free Detailed driver information There is also a free version of Iobit’s Driver Booster. This is limited in the display of outdated drivers and refers to other products from this manufacturer in several places. However, the installation of new driver versions works automatically and quickly enough after a mouse click. In comparison with Driver Easy, Driver Booster found more and more up-to-date driver versions for our test PC. The Pro version offers an automatic update and the automatic creation of restore points. Core Temp Core Temp Measure and display CPU temperature It’s not just in spring that you should take a look at your computer’s hardware. This also includes checking the processor temperature: If it’s too high, this is often a sign that the cooler is dusty, the fan has become loose, or the heatsink is no longer firmly attached to the processor. Although a protective circuit prevents the CPU from burning out, this lowers the processor clock and slows down the computer. The freeware Core Temp shows you the current temperature of each individual CPU core. GPU-Z GPU-Z All information about the graphics card at a glance A PC’s graphics chip can also overheat and should therefore be checked regularly. The freeware GPU-Z is suitable for this purpose: It determines the model of the graphics card or chip during installation and retrieves the corresponding data from a database on the Internet. A click on Lookup takes you to the corresponding website. In the Sensors tab, you will find the current GPU measurement values, including the clock frequency, temperature, fan speed, memory utilization, and power consumption. HD Tune HD Tune Check the temperature and status of the hard drive If your computer’s hard drive or SSD fails, important data is often lost. You should therefore keep an eye on its condition and check it regularly. With the HD Tune tool, you can perform a benchmark test, check the sectors for errors, and read out the current temperature. If the values deteriorate, you can intervene at an early stage, back up your data or transfer it to a new SSD straight away. The paid version HD Tune Pro provides further benchmarks and information. Read...