pctoolbox.co.uk

Poll Review – Windows 7 – Love or Hate?

Alex — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:00:17 +0000

With our recently finished poll (Windows 7 – Love or Hate) we wanted to get our readers views on the Windows 7. As you can see from the pie chart above (click to enlarge), 60% of our voters love windows 7, 8% hate it and 32% are yet to be swayed in either direction. Here at PCToolbox we’re a big fan of Windows 7 and are recommending it to all our clients. Whilst Vista was not a big hit with many users we believe that Microsoft have produced a class operating system in Windows 7 and have well and truly silenced the critics.

Check out more Windows 7 posts on Brandstar and PCToolbox

We Transfer

Alex — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:00:36 +0000

WeTransfer.com is a free, quick, easy, registration-free way to transfer big files to up to 20 other people. Here is how to use the service:

Visit wetransfer.com
Upload your files by clicking the (+) and selecting them.
Enter the recipient(s) email address(es)
Enter your email address.
Type a quick message
Then click ‘Transfer’

Some more reasons why we recommended wetransfer.com:

You can send up to 2GB’s worth of files.
The data transferred can be downloaded for up to 2 weeks after the email is sent.
A confirmation email is sent to the sender.
Both the files and email data are kept private

We like it, let us know what you think!

How secure is your password? – Online Checker

Alex — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:00:48 +0000

We have recently come across and brilliant secure website called How Secure Is My Password.net.

The website provides users with rough estimates of how long it could take a hacker to identify their passwords and hack into their account. It will also tell you if your password is one of the 500 most commonly used (e.g. 12345, house, smith and chicken).

Simply visit ‘How Secure Is My Password?‘ and then start typing your passwords for instant feedback. Ideally, for accounts which don’t have your important information (e.g. bank details or address), you want your passwords to be secure for at least a few hundred days. Otherwise, for very secure passwords, you ideally want at least a few hundred years.

The longer it takes to crack the safer you’re likely to be!

The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Networking

Alex — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:00:22 +0000

Some key tips to help keep you safe on social networking sites…

Poll Review – Free or Subscription based Anti-Virus?

Alex — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:00:18 +0000

Our recently expired poll, Free or Subscription based Anti-Virus?, unsurprisingly resulted in subscription based anti-virus coming top.

However, we were worried to see that 41% of voters have either free anti-virus or no anti-virus whatsoever! Whilst free virus protection is better than none it doesn’t provide your computer with the full protection that it requires to run successfully and safely.

Here at PCToolbox we recommend AVG Internet security. Around June-July last year we ran an investigation, testing all the big name anti-virus protection programs against each other and concluded that in our opinion AVG Internet Security is by far the best. Click to read the summary – ‘Antivirus Comparison – The Final Ratings and Rankings‘.

To find out more about AVG Internet Security watch the video in our recent post ‘Learn about AVG Internet Security 9.0 – Video‘.

Don’t forget to vote on our current poll…Do you get emails on your phone?

Learn about AVG Internet Security 9.0 – Video

Alex — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 08:50:38 +0000

A fantastic video to explain how AVG Internet Security works and why you should purchase it!

Poll Review – Which Two Microsoft Office Applications do you use the most?

Alex — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:00:46 +0000

Last month’s poll asked our readers…’Which TWO Microsoft Office Applications do you use the most?’ The diagram to the right (click to enlarge) shows how our readers voted. As you can see Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook were the three applications to receive the most votes, which to us isn’t surprising as the applications are commonly used worldwide due to the overall quality, simplicity and flexibilty of the software.

PowerPoint and Publisher again are commonly used pieces of software but it is rare that the ‘typical’ home user requires them for their general computer usage. Whereas Access is a far more specialist application for those who need to create/manage a database system.

Office 2010 is set to be released in June (2010). Many companies are doing a deal whereby you purchase Office 2007 and can download 2010 for free when it comes out so have a look around on the internet for such deals! For example…Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student from Amazon (PC)

Office 2010 – Sparklines

Alex — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:31:48 +0000

A couple of months ago we received our copy of Office 2010, so it must be about time we start blogging about it! Sparklines is a new Excel feature which we’ve been impressed with. Basically they’re miniature charts that fit into a single Excel cell to allow the user to view individual trends at a glance. A feature such as this is ideal when managing money, e.g. to assess how expenditure for different items has varied over a year.

Here’s how to create Sparklines:

Click on the ‘Insert’ tab and locate the ‘Sparklines’ box
Next you must select the type of Sparkline you wish to use by clicking on either Line, Column or Win/Loss
Finally in the ‘Create Sparklines Box’ you need to select your data range and location range

A neat feature I’m sure you’ll all agree

Online Photo Editing – Picnik

Alex — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:28:06 +0000

Picnik is a brilliant free online photo editing tool and ideal for all users (from novices to pros). The website has a wide variety of features which can help you make ‘average’ photos look ‘amazing’.

Free features include rotate, crop, flip, re-size, exposure options (including exposure, contrast, highlight, shadow and brightness adjustments), colour options (including saturation and temperature adjustments), sharpening options (including sharpness, radius and strength options) and red-eye adjustments for humans and animals. All you need to do is register with the site and then you’re ready to start editing!

If you want to use more features you can sign up to their premium package from just $2.08 (£1.30 at time of writing).

A feature explained…

Rotate

Select rotate from the features panel (click image to enlarge)
You can then press left or right to rotate the image anti-clockwise or clockwise respectively (click image to enlarge)
The image can also be angled by moving the ‘Straighten’ slider adjustment (click image to enlarge)
Finally, the image can be ‘flipped’ by clicking either of the two buttons to the right of ‘flip’ (click image to enlarge)

Want to find out more? Check out picnik.com

Windows Live Writer

Alex — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:00:32 +0000

Windows Live Writer is a free desktop application for publishing to blogs and will work with almost any blog provider in the world including Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, WordPress, TypePad and more!

It’s a very simple piece of software which enables you to link your blogs to one central point for posting, rather than logging on to each website.

Live Writer has a variety of different tools available for use…from hyperlink, to pictures (single photos/albums), tables, videos, tags and more! Some of which may not normally be available from your software.

Interested in the software? Well download it from the Windows Live Writer site