Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 11

All the design tools you need in one place

The gold standard in graphics software, Adobe’s Creative Cloud, includes three separate programs for producing flat artwork: Photoshop for editing images; Ilustrator for drawing with vector shapes; and InDesign for creating page layouts. Adobe’s rivals, notably Serif and Corel, produce their programs along similar lines.

Wacom Bamboo Spark

Write on paper, read on screen

In the classic science-flction film Blade Runner, former police officer Rick Deckard played by Harrison Ford, pursues Rutger Hauer's rebel 'replicant' Roy Batty through a city of skyscrapers and spaceships.

We mention this because as we're writing the page you're reading now, the date on the clock in the corner of our screen is Roy Batty’s date of birth (8 January 2016). It’s disappointing that real-life cars still show no signs of flying and robots are barely smart enough to vacuum your living room, but maybe it’s just as well if the rest of Ridley Scott’s vision isn’t coming to pass.

Internet Explorer survival guide

Microsoft is killing off even more of its software – this time old versions of Internet Explorer. We explain what you must do to stay safe

What’s happening?

Support for older versions of Microsoft’s 20-year-old web browser, Internet Explorer (IE), ended on 12 January 2016, meaning that only the most recent version of the browser for your OS will be supported from this date. For Windows 7, 8 and 10 users, only IE11 will be supported from now on. For Vista, IE9 is the only supported version.

Ricoh Theta S

A camera that sees all around

Since the dawn of photography, taking a picture has meant pointing a camera at something interesting and capturing a rectangular view in that direction. Panorama shooting, which once meant complicated mechanical contraptions but can now be done by waving your mobile phone and letting the software sort out the details, just gives you a wider rectangle.

Palicomp Intel i5 Raven

A thin but powerful PC

Why are desktop PCs so big? One reason is that the smaller the case, the harder it is to keep the parts within it cool. So it always seems like a lot of space is wasted, but room for air means the built-in fans don’t have to work so noisily to keep the temperature down.

When you find a machine like this one, slotted into a slim ‘media PC’ case that can be stood up or laid flat in small spaces, you would expect compromises. Yet somehow, despite being thin enough to hold between your thumb and finger, the Palicomp Intel i5 Raven manages to stay quieter than comparable PCs while providing enough processing power for most purposes.

Remove Malware Completely

Malware never leaves your PC without a fight - and it leaves plenty of litter behind. Jane Hoskyn reveals how to obliterate every last malicious trace

Removing stubborn malware from your PC is one of life’s more satisfying achievements, up there with fixing your own washing machine - you’ve done it by yourself, and everything seems to work properly again.

It can seem very simple, too. All you need to do is run a malware-removing tool like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free (www.snipca.com/19192) or even a ransomware remover like Trend Micro’s Anti-Ransomware Tool (www.snipca.com/19191), restart your computer and bask in that malware-free glow. Your PC runs faster, your browser has stopped crashing and you’ve got rid of that big notice that says “Pay £400 to get your data back”.

Asus ZenBook UX303UA

You get what you pay for

In 2011, an Australian TV presenter got into trouble for asking the Dalai Lama what toppings a Buddhist would want on their pizza. The answer to this ‘joke’? ‘Make me one with everything’. We were reminded of this by the ZenBook’s brand name, but the UX303UA, which runs Windows 10, also fits the description. It’s a slim and light laptop, or ‘ultrabook’, that takes everything you need in an all-round PC and makes it highly portable.

Toshiba Satellite L50D-C-13G

A laptop with a screen that’s distinctly off-colour

At an original price of £430 and currently discounted by £100, this mid-range laptop looks excellent value on paper – not least because rather than a compact 11 or 13in screen it has a full 15.6in display, the largest size you’ll generally see on today’s laptops. Add a quad-core processor and 8GB of memory, and you’ve got the makings of a PC that might be able to handle all your everyday jobs and show you a film or two in the evening – not just a second PC to carry around.