50 Ways to Browse faster

Here at PCAnswers we know all too well how frustrating internet slowdowns can be, especially if you've upgraded to the latest broadband package, that's why we've looked at free tweaks that you can do at hoe to speed up your web experience. Our main feature shows you how to bolster your browser with great hidden speed tweaks and essential time savers for better browsing.

Outlook Explained!

Outlook is a popular tool for email on the desktop and we've got 16 pages of helpful advice on getting more from this powerful mail program. Not only that, our exclusive video guides you through some of the tricker aspects of setting up Outlook exactly as you want.

Packed with helpful advice
... read more »

It’s your chance to win an ultralight, super-thin Lenovo IdeaPad laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium.

If you’re looking for ultra-portability then Lenovo’s new IdeaPad U350 (www.lenovo.com/ideapad/uk) is just the ticket. Future magazine readers have the chance to win one of ten U350 laptops worth £499. As well as being light and thin, these great mini-laptops come with 3GB of RAM and a spacious 250GB hard drive, as well as three USB ports, a card reader and Wi-Fi. With the Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience certification you’ll enjoy fast boot and shutdown, a rich multimedia experience and easy system maintenance. The 13.3-inch high-def display is perfect for watching movies, while the Dolby stereo speakers make the most of your media.

The Intel Core 2 CPU (1.4GHz) provides enough power for all your computing tasks, and is great for conserving battery life. Battery power is also saved through Lenovo’s Ambient Light Sensor, which adjusts screen brightness depending on surroundings. To keep your data safe, Lenovo’s laptops also feature a disk analysis system that prevents disaster before it strikes.

For your chance to win one of ten great Lenovo laptops enter online here.

*Please note: the prize pool of ten laptops will be split between What Laptop, Windows The Official Magazine, PC Plus, PCAnswers and PC Format. Readers from each magazine will have a chance to win one of two Lenovo laptops.

If you're a fan of the speedy Google Chrome browser you'll be interested to know that Google's added a clever bookmark syncing tool to the browser which operates just like Xmarks (Foxmarks). If you download the beta of Google Chrome 4, either as a version upgrade from Chrome or a new install, you'll get an option in your "wrench" menu to synchronize bookmarks, enabled through your Google account.

There's no denying that Windows 7 has the look and functionality down. It puts Windows Vista to shame and is a serious temptation to most XP purists, but most of us didn't know what to expect with Windows 7, whether it was worth upgrading or if it was going to be another Windows Me disaster. As a result many people missed out on the pre-order price. Now granted the chances of getting Windows 7 for £50 are slim to none, but you might be able to get a decent bargain around the second (upped) pre-order price of £70.

"Nonsense!" I hear you holler, "Windows 7 is over £100 now!", and you're right it is over £100 to buy Windows 7 Home Premium, but there are cheaper options also. Now the obvious one is if you need a new PC or laptop to just buy a cheap pre-built one with Windows 7 included, but for most of us that's not ideal.

What a Windows 7 bargain hunter needs to search for is not "Windows 7 Home Premium", but "Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 32 bit". Now OEM versions are cheap versions of the OS sold to manufacturers and package resellers, so in other words it's the version that they sell to system manufacturing companies so they can pre-load your system with it and save some money doing so. Normally this would mean you'd have to buy something, anything, like a hard drive or piece of hardware in order to get this special cheaper version, yet certain online retailers sell these OEM versions at a reduced rate by themselves. ... read more »

Presumably as part of some kind of "user-friendliness" wheeze, the default setting in Windows Explorer is to hide file extensions. Microsoft seems to imagine that .jpgs and .docs etc appearing everywhere looks too computery and will put people off, so it tucks them away. I don't find it friendly at all for important file information to be concealed, and no doubt many of you don't like it either. To add insult to injury, it's not immediately obvious how to get your extensions back. Today I've rummaged through the settings and found this check box that you can use to put an end to this annoyance. Go to Control Panel > Folder Options > View tab. Uncheck the box that says "Hide extensions for known file types", click Apply and OK. Super!

Windows 7 is finally here and you can read all about it in the latest PCAnswers, on sale now. We show you around the best new features, including Jump Lists and the all-new Taskbar, but there are some great hidden features and tweaks too that will improve your Windows experience. If you've got yourself a copy of Windows 7 this week or a brand new PC with the new OS, then take a look at these great tips to maximise your Windows 7 experience:

1. Eliminate annoying folder crashes ... read more »

Get ready for the very best PC experience with Microsoft's latest Operating System, Windows 7. The new Windows significantly improves on Vista with a faster, leaner and more intuitive user experience. There are also some brand new features, including touchscreen technology and increased battery life for notebooks.

Windows 7 aims to make home networking much easier with the addition of Home Group. This enables you to stream and share content on any of your PCs. There's also an improved Media Center that puts Windows at the heart of your digital entertainment life.

Windows 7 is also makes your PC easier to use, minimising the number of clicks it takes to access your files and enabling you to keep a much tidier desktop. The enhanced user interface includes features such as Aero Peek (previews of windows) and Jump Lists, which give you one-click shortcuts to your favourite actions with the programs that you use most often.

For a chance to win one of four copies of Windows 7 click here.

Windows 7 extravaganza!

To celebrate the impending release of Windows 7, the PCAnswers team have put their heads together to bring you the most complete compendium of anything and everything Windows 7 related. If you're one of the many lucky punters who purchased it at the special pre-order price, are holding a party for a free version or just generally interested in the latest operating system from Microsoft then you'll love this issue.

Windows 7 for free

Microsoft may have been selling pre-orders at £49.99, but PC Answers can give you it for free and you don't even need to hold an awkward party. That's right, in our 7-page guide we show you how to get the look feel and almost all the features of Windows 7 in your current version of windows. Get the aero look, the iconised taskbar and even the automatic windows snapping, but without spending a penny.

Windows 7 Explained!

You might be thinking, "What's so good about Windows 7?", We'd have to say that it's because it just works, but that doesn't do it justice. There's so much more to the new operating system, so much so that we've put together 16-pages dedicated to the latest Windows incarnation. Learn how to secure and personalise Windows 7 and find out if it's worth the money to upgrade with our Windows benchmarks.

Win Windows 7

If the latest issue has sold Windows 7 in your eyes, why not take a shot at getting it for free in our Windows 7 competition? Even if you already have it on pre-order, you could always use this copy on a laptop or another PC should you win.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has released details about a new Wi-Fi specification which is to take Bluetooth head-on in the battle for short-range wireless communication.

Called Wi-Fi Direct, the standard allows for peer-to-peer connection between devices even if there's no Wi-Fi router present. The new specification which is said to ship sometime in 2010.

Wi-Fi Direct will allow connection between numerous things, like PCs, printers, phone handsets and cameras. Wi-Fi Direct improves speeds with mooted transfer times of up to 250Mbps. Bluetooth currently tops out at just 11Mbps.

Editing the Windows Registry is considered a dark art by many PC users but sometimes it's the only way of tailoring system settings to exact specifications. We've chosen ten of the very best edits you can make to give your PC a boost in terms of speed, security and reliability. We also show you where to look for them in that huge branch structure that is the Windows Registry. And remember if you use these tips or a Registry cleaner always back up your Registry file first.

1: Quiet UAC
Vista UAC never seems to stop nagging, but you don’t need to disable it, just gag it. Change HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > CurrentVersion > Policies > System > ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin to 0.

2: Stop update restarts ... read more »