What you must tick in CCleaner

Your PC is full of junk files that CCleaner can easily remove – but don’t overdo it. Jane Hoskyn explains how to get the best out of this brilliant tool

One of our favourite free programs ever, CCleaner is a quick but thorough solution to the perennial problem of junk files that clog up and slow down your PC. And yet it can be too thorough, if you’re not careful. Merrily tick every box, click Run Cleaner and slope off for a cup of tea, and you may come back to find that your browser has forgotten all your passwords and some of your programs won’t work.

Like a Formula One car, CCleaner is packed with power but needs careful handling. Here, we’ll show you how to get the best out of it – without driving your PC into the crash barriers.

Chillblast Fusion Drone

Is it an unmanned aerial vehicle? Is it a fish tank? No...

Everyone knows the ‘Intel Inside’ jingle. It sounds like a particularly annoying doorbell. You’d probably imagine someone got paid millions of dollars to spend weeks honing the five-note chime for maximum chip-selling effect. You’d be roughly correct. It was an Austrian musician called Walter Werzowa, who also had a number five UK hit in 1988 with the techno-pop band Edelweiss.

Acer Aspire V3-574G (Core i5)

All the PC you need, in an affordable laptop

Let’s assume for a moment that you’re not made of money. Put down your lead crystal flute of Krug, tell the jazz pianist to hold the tinkling, and hand those models some bathrobes. Now picture yourself sitting on an ordinary chair in an ordinary room, reading a well-known computer magazine and planning to buy a new PC. You have an ordinary person’s cash to spend – say, £650.

Bring back tools Windows 10 dumped

Love Windows 10 but hate that it killed your favourite bits of Windows 7 and 8? Jane Hoskyn reveals how to replace and restore Microsoft’s retired tools

It’s out with the old and in with the new in Windows 10 – and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Tools that you know and perhaps love from Windows XP, 7 and 8/8.1 have been consigned to history’s big Recycle Bin to make way for new stuff.

Amazon Fire TV (4K)

A sharper way to watch online video

Do we really need 4K? Short answer: no. Now, here’s the science. Digital displays are made up of pixels, or colour dots. If the grid of pixels is fine enough, you don’t see the dots, just the picture. What’s enough? That doesn’t just depend on the pixels, it also depends on you. Specifically, how sharp your eyesight is and how far from the screen you are.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ330

All the camera you’ll ever need

The best camera, they say, is the one you have with you. Smartphones have cracked that, but they can’t match the flexibility of a full-size camera.

‘Bridge’ cameras like this one sit between basic compacts (including phones) and professional cameras for people who don’t mind hauling a bag of stuff around that cost more than their car. With a 24x zoom lens built in, the FZ330 can capture almost anything you point it at. And its optical image stabilisation (OIS) can compensate for small accidental movements in any direction, so if you wobble while taking a picture it’ll still come out sharp.

Make Your PC Live Much Longer

What’s really going on inside your PC? Jonathan Parkyn reveals how to scan your computer’s components to diagnose and fix your PC’s health

When we talk about fixing PC problems or extending its lifespan, the focus is often on software – removing junk files, uninstalling programs or using tools to clean up and speed up your computer. But that’s only half the story. The health of your computer’s hardware is just as fundamental to its smooth running and longevity. Physical hardware failures can make your PC behave erratically, slow it down or even stop it working altogether. If you check now that your PC’s components are fit and well, you can help your PC work well and run fast for years to come.

Sony Xperia Z5 Compact

Small can still be beautiful

Remember when mobile phones were hilariously enormous? As technology improved, they scaled down to the size of a landline phone. Then they kept going, becoming small enough to slip in a shirt pocket. When the iPhone arrived, it made a virtue of being just as small and slim. But unlike other phones, the iPhone consisted almost entirely of a screen. And if we’d learned anything from the history of TVs, it was that a bigger screen is better.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7

South Korea’s answer to the iPad Air 2

Poor old Samsung. When it isn’t in court losing lawsuits to Apple over ‘copying’ iPhones and iPads, it’s winning them for the wrong reasons. Back in 2012, a British judge ruled that its Galaxy Tab wouldn’t be mistaken for Apple’s tablet – not because it wasn’t virtually identical, but because it was ‘not as cool’.