PCWorld的December 2017目录

There’s still one way consumers can upgrade to Windows 10 for free—and Microsoft will shut it down on December 31, even though a majority of the world’s PC users still use older versions of Windows. Microsoft gave Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users an entire year after the launch of Windows 10 (until July 31, 2016) to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. But there was one exception: those who used assistive technology, such as screen readers, got an indefinite extension. According to a Microsoft support page, the deadline for those users to upgrade to Windows 10 for free expires by the end of the year, as noted by Slashgear. After that, consumers will have to pay the full price for a Windows license, which costs about $75 from Amazon…

Intel dropped a bombshell recently, confirming that the company has hired AMD’s former graphics guru, Raja Koduri, heading up a new group to design high-end discrete graphics for “a broad range of computing segments.” Koduri, who will start in December, will head up the newly-formed Core and Visual Computing Group, Intel said. Koduri’s leaving AMD led to speculation that he would head to Nvidia or Intel, the other two leaders in the PC graphics space. What wasn’t known, though, was whether he would be involved in PC graphics, or something tangential, such as AI. Intel, though, apparently hasn’t given up on the PC. Intel representatives declined to confirm whether Koduri’s new role as head of the Core and Visual Computing Group will specifically include PC graphics, but his new title…

Windows phones are really, truly dead. This weekend, Microsoft’s VP of operating systems confirmed the writing on the wall. “Of course we’ll continue to support the platform [with] bug fixes, security updates, etc.,” Joe Belfiore wrote on Twitter, in response to a conversation sparked by a user asking whether it’s time to move on from the Windows Mobile platform.“ But building new [features and hardware] aren’t the focus.” It’s the first time a senior Microsoft employee has said that flat-out, but it’s not the first time one has been so blunt about Microsoft’s mobile hardware prospects. “If you wanted to reach a lot of phone customers, Windows Phone isn’t the way to do it,” Windows chief Terry Myerson told the Verge in 2016, while essentially putting Windows Phones on hold for the…

Antivirus software ranks nearly as crucial as a PC’s operating system. No matter how careful you are, some threats can’t be prevented without the additional help of an antivirus program—or a full antivirus suite. You could visit your favorite website when it’s unintentionally displaying malicious ads. You may accidentally click on a phishing email (it happens!). You could also get caught by a zero-day threat, where an undisclosed bug in Windows, your browser, or an installed program allows hackers to install other malware on your machine. Sure, PC security software isn’t fool-proof. Antivirus software often can’t do much to stop zero-day exploits, for example. But it can detect when the undisclosed vulnerability is used to install other nasty bits on your machine like ransomware. In general, the average user actively…

Call of Duty: WWII isn’t a remaster, but it feels like one. As the gate crashed open on my landing craft and I sprinted desperately onto Omaha Beach, I half-expected to hear people yelling for Lieutenant Powell, star of 2002’s Medal of Honor: Allied Assault—the first game I remember doing the iconic D-Day opener. This one stars a “Davis” instead, but that’s no big deal. 15 years on, Call of Duty: WWII is less “World War II as it actually existed” and more “World War II as it existed in video games between 1999 and 2008-ish,” a Greatest Hits Collection spanning from the original Medal of Honor through to Allied Assault, and eventually Call of Duty 1, 2, and 3. It was the decade where everyone got sick of World…

Deleting your Facebook account may be a fantasy you entertain briefly every time you see one too many intrusive ads or political posts on your feed. We understand. The good news is, you have two options for fulfilling this fantasy: deactivation, which can be undone, or full-on deletion—and even then, you have a chance to change your mind. Here’s how they both work. DEACTIVATE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT Deactivating your Facebook account puts it on hiatus. Your profile will be removed from the site, as will most of what you posted to Facebook, though messages and other things will stick around). Deactivation can be undone. Facebook will retain your data in case you decide to come back. You can always reactivate your account later by logging in to Facebook. If you’re not…

Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 Insider build for the “Redstone 4” update cycle tries to do away with the “sneakernet” with a feature called Near Share, as well as a phone-like autosuggest feature for text typing. Microsoft recently launched Windows 10 Insider build 17035 for the Fast Ring, one of the first code releases for what’s been referred to as “Redstone 4,” or the update cycle following the Fall Creators Update. If Microsoft holds to its current schedule, Redstone 4 should be due in the spring. Until then, however, Windows Insiders are part of the testing team trying out new features: Near Share, better tab muting in Edge, a new Audio settings menu, the ability to configure update bandwidth, and a few more. Why this matters: Microsoft’s free updates to Windows…

Google is taking aim at one of the biggest scourges of the modern web. Starting in January 2018, the Chrome browser will automatically block noisy autoplay video on webpages. “One of the most frequent user concerns is unexpected media playback, which can use data, consume power, and make unwanted noise while browsing,” Google wrote in a blog post. “To address this, Chrome will be making autoplay more consistent with user expectations and will give users more control over audio.” In Chrome 64, autoplaying videos will be blocked by default unless they’re muted, or if “the user has indicated an interest in the media.” That means autoplay will be allowed for a site if you’ve frequently played a video on it or added the site to your mobile homepage. You won’t…

Intel’s ntel’s 8th-generation Core CPUs solve a problem for the superlight (sub‑three-pound) laptops that are becoming increasingly popular. Up to now, these laptops could handle only dual-core CPUs, because quad-core CPUs created more heat than their slimmer profiles could manage. That’s all changing with Intel’s ground breaking 8th-gen mobile CPU. Quad-cores once confined only to much larger and heavier laptops can now be stuffed into a tiny laptop, or so the company claims. But can the 8th-gen CPUs actually give you the performance you expect and you’re paying for? Or this is this just a cynical attempt to sell you on some quasi-”quad‑core” for you next laptop? To find out, read on. LAPTOP CPU REVIEWS AREN’T EASY: HOW WE DID IT Unlike desktop CPUs, laptop CPU performance has always been…

This GeForce GTX 1070 Ti review probably exists only because AMD’s Radeon Vega 56 exists. Nvidia’s GTX-10 series debuted nearly a year and a half ago with the launch of the GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 in May, 2016. The more powerful card received price cuts since then—to $500, theoretically—but we never heard a whisper about a GeForce GTX 1070 Ti designed to slot between the two. Until AMD’s Radeon RX Vega graphics cards launched. The disappointing Vega 64 ran hot and loud while failing to best the GTX 1080. But the (theoretically) $400 Radeon Vega 56 proved much more appealing—and its performance outpunches the GTX 1070 in many games. Surprise! Two months later the $450 GeForce GTX 1070 Ti appears, at a price just below what the $470 Vega 56 is…

The 4K gaming-capable Xbox One X just might be the thing that lifts Microsoft out of its gaming console rut. Before the Xbox One even released there was that disastrous E3 2013, with news of an always-online console, Sony’s price coup, and Don Mattrick out there talking about people using Xbox 360s on nuclear submarines. Microsoft never really recovered, branded by fanboys as being underpowered compared to the PlayStation 4, and with each controversy over the Kinect or resolution upscaling or what have you, the Xbox’s hole only got deeper. The Xbox One X could fill in that hole a little. For the first time since 2005, Microsoft has the most powerful gaming console on the market—powerful enough that it surprised even me, a devout PC gamer. This little box…

Now that Google’s Instant Apps have made it to the Play Store, you can expect to see a lot more of them. While the initial rollout is limited to just a handful of apps, dozens of apps and games will soon be available in instant form. But what exactly are Instant Apps? And how do you get them on your phone? We’re here to help you get started: WHAT ARE INSTANT APPS? Instant Apps are the next step in app evolution, a universal Android solution that brings the speed and power of a native app with the ease and immediacy of a web app. They look and operate just like one of the apps that are installed on your phone, but you don’t need to download anything. SO INSTANT APPS DON’T…

It sounds crazy, but it’s true: Arch-rivals AMD and Intel have teamed up to co-design an Intel Core microprocessor with a custom AMD Radeon graphics core inside the processor package, aimed at bringing top-tier gaming to thin-and-light notebook PCs. Executives from both AMD and Intel told PCWorld that the combined AMD-Intel chip will be an “evolution” of Intel’s 8th-generation, H-series Core chips, with the ability to power-manage the entire module to preserve battery life. It’s scheduled to ship as early as the first quarter of 2018. Though both companies helped engineer the new chip, this is Intel’s project—Intel first approached AMD, both companies confirmed. AMD, for its part, is treating the Radeon core as a single, semi-custom design, in the same vein as the chips it supplies to consoles like…

A devastating flaw in Wi-Fi’s WPA security protocol makes it possible for attackers to eavesdrop on your data when you connect to Wi-Fi. Dubbed KRACK, the issue affects the Wi-Fi protocol itself—not specific products or implementations—and “works against all modern protected Wi-Fi networks,” according to Mathy Vanhoef, the researcher that discovered it. That means that if your device uses Wi-Fi, KRACK likely impacts it. Fortunately, major tech companies are moving quickly to patch the issue. Read on for what you need to know about the KRACK Wi-Fi vulnerability, from how it works to how to best protect yourself against it. That starts with updating to iOS 11.1 and macOS 10.13.1 for Apple users, and installing the Android November security patch for Pixel and Nexus devices. HOW DOES KRACK BREAK WI‑FI SECURITY? KRACK (short…

Microsoft Office is the king of office productivity suites, but it doesn’t inspire warm, fuzzy feelings in all users. Parsing the ever-expanding list of features can feel like stepping into a cockpit without a pilot’s license. The ribbon interface, introduced a decade ago, has many fans, but others pine for the static menus of the early aughts. And then there’s Office’s hefty price tag. Fortunately, alternatives abound, ranging from web apps to freemium and open source desktop installations, many of which are compatible with Microsoft Office docs. We compared six of the most popular free office suites to see how well they replicate the most commonly used features of Microsoft Office. WHAT TO LOOK FOR When evaluating Office alternatives, don’t look to replicate every feature, just the ones you need…

Adobe Premiere Elements 2018 offers most of the same basic video-editing features you’d find in other consumer packages, but it separates itself from the pack with tutorials and automatic curation and content-creation features that very nearly (but not quite) do all the work for you, as long as you don’t mind if your videos look generic. It’s this easy access that makes Adobe Premiere Elements our top-rated consumer paid video editor. Read all of our video-editing software reviews to find out how we tested, what to look for, and more. The main video-editing interface is broken into three views: Quick, Guided, and Expert. Quick and Expert are basic versions of the same video-editing experience you get in most other software. The latter exposes more options to you than the former. Guided…

Putting up a TV antenna is one of the best steps you can take to breaking your reliance on pay TV. Most areas of the U.S. have access to several dozen TV channels broadcast over the air for free. A TV antenna will bring them to your TV, so you won’t be stuck with the “local broadcast TV fee” charged by your cable or satellite company. And if you decide to subscribe to an online TV provider, you won’t need to worry about which ones carry your local channels (not all of them do). As a bonus, they’ll make your big-screen TV shine with a better picture than cable or satellite can deliver. This is possible because those transmissions are typically compressed in order to preserve bandwidth, so the service…

How can I type emoji on my PC keyboard? It’s a question that you’ve probably asked, given up on, shrugged, and then pulled out your smartphone. Now, with Windows 10 and the Fall Creators Update, a new emoji keyboard will make adding emoji to Twitter, Facebook, and other apps a snap. While there’s nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned smiley-face :) or GIF, an emoji is a simple way to add a bit of fun to your communications. That’s the whole point of emoji, after all! And while they’ve been part of smartphone culture for years, Microsoft has now added its easy emoji keyboard to Windows 10. For now, we’ll show you how to bring up emoji under the current version of Windows 10 (the Creators Update, which many of…