Table of contents for Volume 2 2016 in Maximum PC Specials

Windows 10 does not have a great reputation for respecting or protecting your privacy. While it’s not quite the colander some would have you believe, the operating system definitely needs tightening up. So what can you do about it? If you’re about to install or upgrade to Windows 10, make sure you don’t choose “Express settings” during setup—you can then review exactly how Windows wants to track your behavior, and decide whether or not to allow it. It’s never too late to tighten privacy, even if you missed this step. Start by going to “Start –> Settings –> Privacy,” and work through the available options. You can configure options such as which apps have access to your camera on an app-by-app basis, or choose a universal setting. If you don’t…

When it comes to choosing where to back up your files to, you’re spoiled for choice. But it’s not a case of either this backup device or that one— ideally, you should invest in at least two separate devices. Here’s what to look for. Secondary hard drive: this can be internal or external (USB). Use it for your primary file and drive image backups, using Windows’ own tools and Macrium Reflect Free. Network hard drive: a good secondary solution that can be kept elsewhere in your home for added security. Perfect for any of the backup methods we discuss here-you can even use it as the basis for your own personal cloud storage system using OwnCloud. Other computer: if you own another PC (or Mac), keep your key files in…

YOU’LL NEED THIS A CASE AND FANS All respectable cases have support for fan mounts internally. INTERNAL AIRFLOW; let’s cut the crap—it’s one of the biggest dividers of opinion there is, second only to cake or pie. So, why is it so complex? What’s a positive or negative pressure system? Static pressure? CFM? What’s that? Well, that’s what we’re here to answer. Whether your woes lie with choosing which fans to use to cool your mighty AIO, or with the age-old argument between static pressure and high airflow fans, don’t you worry—we’ve got your back! Is internal airflow really that important? In a lot of ways, it’s more vital than people realize; the more air you circulate, the better temperatures you’ll have internally, and the more comfortable your overclocks will…

YOU’LL NEED THIS WINDOWS 10 All these steps can be followed within the OS itself. FOR ALL THE BENEFITS that come with upgrading to Windows 10, there have been reports that some people have experienced problems with sound output, leaving them unable to enjoy movies or hear anything at all from their PC’s speakers. For example, users whose PCs have VIA HD Audio have found they can only hear sound from certain apps. Fortunately, there’s a workaround if you’re affected by this issue. Right-click “Playback Devices,” right-click the audio output device, and set it as the default device. Then select the device with your left mouse button, choose “Properties,” select the “Enhancements” tab, and check “Disable all enhancements.” That should fix the problem. For everyone else with audio issues, try…

PC games let you do awesome stuff. You know, stuff like riding a dragon, building a city, commanding a Roman legion, wailing on a zombie with a big stick, or braining an innocent bystander for the dumb thrill of it. In other words, stuff that’s either very hard or actually impossible to achieve in real life. Well, that and stuff that’s thoroughly inadvisable, such as braining people. But driving cars? You can drive cars in real life. Personally, I drive a lot of cars in real life, thanks to being a car hack, as well as a technology journalist. So here’s the thing: I’ve loved PC games for as long as I can remember. I’ve loved driving cars for as long as I can remember. But driving games? Not so…

This guide is all about removing unwanted programs and services, helping free up resources, and potentially providing a noticeable speed boost. But what can you do to stop the flow of bloatware and other potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) from appearing on your PC in the first place? One solution is to purchase a Premium license for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (www.malwarebytes.org). While the free version can detect and remove PUPs, as well as malware, the Premium version provides real-time protection that blocks them in the first place, often without affecting the rest of the program installation. If that’s too rich for your blood, then Unchecky (www.unchecky.com) is a small program that sits in the background and can detect a wide (if not fully comprehensive) array of adwareinfested program installers. It then alerts…

You’ve decided to put it off no longer, and are ready to upgrade to Windows 10 before the free offer runs out. But how can you both upgrade and keep your existing Windows 7 or 8.1 setup? This tip is for more seasoned users only. First, follow our advice to clean up your PC, and make sure Windows is fully up to date. Then follow our recommendations to hive off your data from your Windows partition, and shrink it further to leave space for another partition that will contain Windows 10—this needs to be the same size as your original Windows partition. Remember, if Windows’ own partitioning tools complain about the placement of certain files on your disk, use Minitool Partition Wizard instead, which isn’t as fussy. Next, download and…

Nothing lasts forever—and the same is true of backups. Optical discs don’t last a lifetime, as we once thought, while hard drives physically wear out, and cloud storage can disappear without warning. That’s why backing up to multiple locations is essential, but it doesn’t stop there. You should take additional steps to protect your data from physical degradation. Check with the maker of your drive for a monitoring tool, such as Seagate’s SeaTools (www.seagate.com/seatools), to keep an eye on your drives’ health, giving you time to replace failing drives before they disappear with your data. If you want a network drive, choose a twobay model, such as Synology’s DiskStation 216+, and fill it with two identical drives in a RAID 1 setup. Data is mirrored on both drives, so if…

YOU’LL NEED THIS A TWITCH ACCOUNT Register at www.twitch.tv. XSPLIT GAMECASTER Download from www.xsplit.com. HEADSET, WEBCAM, PC, AND ONLINE CONNECTION This takes a lot of CPU power. GAME STREAMING IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS. For some people, it’s actually possible (though improbable) to make a living sitting in front of your PC, thanks to the generosity of viewers, and Twitch’s numerous partnership schemes. We’re not here today to teach you those particular secrets, though. We’re working on the most important step: getting yourself out there in a presentable, watchable manner. It’s worth mentioning here that this tutorial doesn’t only work for Twitch, though that’s the service most people use—you can also use XSplit Gamecaster to send your various embarrassing misplays and goofups to Hitbox, YouTube Live, and a number of other…

YOU’LL NEED THIS RASPBERRY Pi 2 The brilliant mini-computer costs under $45. See www.raspberrypi.org. Pi MUSICBOX Go to http://bit.ly/MopidyPiMusicBoxAnswers for a whole heap of help. AIRPLAY REMAINS a great way of wirelessly piping music through your home, but even basic AirPlay speakers come with a hefty price tag attached. In many cases, you’ll already have a perfectly serviceable stereo system in place, so why spend a fortune on another speaker (or pair of speakers), when you can put together your own wireless AirPlay receiver for around $65? Better still, why limit yourself to AirPlay, when your receiver can do so much more? We were inspired to try this project by a desire to make full use of a 25-year-old Pioneer stereo system that sounds as good as the day we…

1. PREPARE YOUR MICROSD CARD Connect a microSD card to your PC via a USB adapter. If you get an error about exFAT, you need to format it as FAT32. Open Disks from the Dash, and select your card. You’ll see an exFAT partition—select it and click “-” to delete it. Click “+” and set the partition size to 2048MB, choose “FAT,” and click “Create.” 2. DOWNLOAD PI MUSICBOX You need a specially built Pi Zero-friendly build of Pi MusicBox— download the 350MB image from http://bit.ly/pimusiczero. Once saved to your Downloads folder, open Nautilus, browse to the folder, right-click “20150116-RPi0.zip,” and choose “Extract Here.” Now open a Terminal window, and enter df -h . 3. WRITE PI MUSICBOX IMAGE Identify your card’s 2GB partition (“/dev/sde1” in our example), and type…

1 PREP FOR YOUR BUILD IT’LL PROBABLY come as no surprise, but the best way to build a rig is to plan it well. The first and most crucial aspect of creating your new PC is setting up your build area. Make sure that wherever you decide to construct your machine, the area is free from distraction. Ensure you have all the tools you’ll need to put your wee beastie together (usually a Phillips screwdriver, some scissors, and a set of needle-nose pliers for the fiddly bits). And, last but not least, try to find a static-free area—avoiding woolly socks and carpets is usually best. If you’re paranoid, you can buy an anti-static strap, but if you can’t find one, or are feeling stingy, ensure you regularly touch the casing…

There’s a lot of debate over how suitable the new VR headset duo is for various types of gaming. But most agree the big problem involves moving around in the virtual game world. It’s a major problem to simulate walking around a game world, even with a big space. You soon run into the limitations of the real world. But driving games don’t have that problem. You sit in the seat and that’s it, just like the real world. Bodily, there’s no need for you to move another inch. Perfect. What’s more, a VR headset helps a lot with one of the trickiest bits in adjusting to a driving sim: depth perception and judging distances. Combined with minimal physical feedback, it can make things such as picking braking and turn-in…

Let me start by nailing my allegiances to the flagpole. I use standing desks on a daily basis. My first standing desk was homemade. Five years ago, my doctor said that my long-term back problems were a result of the amount of time I spent sitting down, and I had to reduce it. I said I simply couldn’t stop sitting down, because I’m a writer. He said that I had to stop, if I wanted my back to ever get better. So I rebuilt my cheap desk using spare planks and boxes, until I had something fairly stable that was standing-only. Two years later, I moved house and dismantled it. Now, standing desks are a standard part of many offices. It’s not unusual for larger offices to offer them as…

LENGTH OF TIME: 3–4 HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM THE CONCEPT THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS in the world that must remain as absolute truths. Nothing can exceed the speed of light; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have to be raspberry flavor; and PC gaming has to be done at 60fps. If these pillars fall, what are we but mere animals? And that brings us nicely to this build —or, more precisely, to one aspect of it. Let’s face it, 4K monitors have been around for quite some time now. The increased screen real estate, coupled with a large panel size, tends to lead to a more enjoyable desktop experience. However, finding any graphics setup capable of pushing all of those 8,294,000 pixels more than 60 times a second has been…

Fed up with certain aspects of Windows 10? Take the Photos app, for instance—if you’re wedded to Windows Photo Viewer, you can restore it as the default viewer for your images. If you’ve just upgraded to Windows 10, head to “Start –> Settings –> System –> Default apps” to select it. Reinstalled from scratch? It’s missing, but you can get it back, and the simplest way is through the portable—and completely free—Ultimate Windows Tweaker tool from http://bit.ly/uwt-win10. Once extracted, launch the tool, and head to the “Additional” section, where clicking “Enable Windows Photo Viewer” brings it back, and enables you to set it as default. Now go to “Customization –> Windows 10.” You’ll find three tweaks that enable you to bring back the old-style battery, date and time, and volume…

Backups may not be the sexiest of subjects, but you’ll want to take yours for a candlelit dinner the day it turns a data recovery disaster into a minor annoyance. Think for a moment: how much is your data worth? Some files are more valuable than others: for some, it’s the time taken to recreate a document, while others—such as photos and videos—can never be brought back. Most people know the importance of backing up, but can you be sure your backup plan is up to scratch? Many people keep one backup copy of their files, but what happens if it is destroyed along with the original? Seeing as most people keep their backup drive in the same location as their PC, that’s not a fanciful notion. We’re going to…

One of the fringe benefits of following our backup plan is that many of the tools on offer record multiple versions of your files, enabling you to undo changes to files as well as restore lost, deleted, or corrupt data. Both Windows backup tools support this, although File History’s default settings of updating your files every hour (rather than weekly, as with the Backup and Restore tool) means you have greater flexibility. If you back up files to OneDrive, Dropbox, or your own OwnCloud server, access your account through your web browser, then locate the file in question. OwnCloud users should click the “Versions” option next to the filename; otherwise, right-click the file and choose the option to restore a previous version, to see what’s available based on time and…