pc world Windows 8.1 usa 2014-04

The operating system Boot to desktop by default Windows 8.1’s spring update Due in early April, the OS’s third refresh might be the charm.. The taskbar is everywhere Inside Windows 8.1’s

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122 Hassle-Free PC

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spring update

Metro on all is great

for power users

pop-up to push users

off XP

mobile chips in all your devices

the Mobile World Congress

» By far the most welcome change in the Windows 8.1 update

is one that many users may not even notice If Windows 8.1

does not detect a touchscreen input on your device, it’ll boot

directly to the desktop to keep its finger-friendly live tiles

away from keyboard-and-mouse users The operating system

Boot to desktop by default

Windows 8.1’s spring update

Due in early April, the OS’s third refresh might be the charm

BY BRAD CHACOS

» Microsoft’s modern Windows 8 apps now appear in the

taskbar, mimicking the functionality of traditional desktop

software The Windows Store app is pinned in the taskbar by default in the Windows 8.1 update, to serve as a guidepost and

to drive users to Microsoft’s marketplace Modern apps still appear full screen when maximized; windowed modern apps are reportedly in store for the 8.2 update (“Threshold”) in 2015

Modern apps on the desktop taskbar

» In modern apps, you now can find the taskbar by moving your cursor to the bottom of the screen The taskbar spans the screen’s length even when multiple modern apps are snapped side by side As

a result, bouncing between standard desktop programs and modern apps is much less of a burden (though still not seamless)

Unfortunately, the taskbar sometimes covers interface elements in modern apps since they weren’t designed with it in mind

The taskbar is everywhere

Inside Windows 8.1’s

spring update

» Previously, closing modern apps or snapping them side by side

required moving your cursor to the top of the screen, clicking and

holding, and dragging the app to one of the edges—a gesture

designed for touch displays In the new update, a title bar appears at

the top of modern apps Clicking the upper left corner reveals a

mouse-ready context menu with sizing options, while minimize and

close buttons appear at the upper right

Mouse-friendly title-bar menus

» On the Windows 8.1 Start screen, if you’re using a mouse, clicking an app now pops up an options menu for that live tile In contrast, if you’re using a touch input, the familiar modern-style options bar pops up at the bottom of the screen And the Start screen now includes discrete power and search buttons at the upper

right-Start screen changes

Inside Windows 8.1’s

spring update

» Windows 8 dumped tiles on the Start screen for every modern app

you installed Windows 8.1 required you to add tiles manually, which

reduced clutter but made it easy to forget you’d installed an app

unless you added it to the Start screen immediately The update

finds a happy medium: Next to the arrow that moves you from the

Start screen to All Apps, a notification appears if any newly installed

apps are available

New apps installed notification

» The All Apps screen that displays installed programs has received a slight rejiggering The Tiles menu under the Settings charm now has

a ‘Show more apps in Apps view’ option, which does what you’d expect by reducing the size of each app’s icon The condensed view should come in handy for traditional-PC users who configured their

Show more apps in Apps view

Inside Windows 8.1’s

spring update

» The Windows 8 and 8.1 versions of the modern Internet Explorer

hide the open tabs and address bar behind an interface that you

must manually summon The incoming update leaves that interface

visible by default A helpful Options button in the Tools menu now

negates the need to go messing around in the Settings charm, and

the button to launch IE’s awesome Reading Mode is now more

clearly labeled

Internet Explorer tweaks

» Windows 8.1 added a slew of granular options to the modern version of PC Settings in a bid to keep lovers of Microsoft’s touch-centric interface ensconced in it The update continues the shift by including a new ‘Disk space’ menu under the ‘PC and devices’ options, which provides tools for you to view and manage the gigabyte gobblers on your hard drive A button to purge the Recycle Bin is a

Disk Space menu in PC Setings

Inside Windows 8.1’s

spring update

» Finally, an under-the-hood change: Microsoft has said that the

coming Windows 8.1 update will be usable on devices outfitted

with just 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space, a change that

essentially halves the previous system requirements Why move

backward? Sick of losing customers to Android tablets and

Chromebooks, Microsoft seems to be gearing up for a price war

with Google

Reduced system requirements

UI designer: Forcing Metro on all is great for power users

BY BRAD CHACOS

WINDOWS 8’S MODERN interface didn’t go over well out of the gate

Although the live tiles and touch-friendliness offered a lot to like,

usability experts panned many of the design choices, and power users

felt abandoned

But beyond bridging the gap between PC and tablet, Windows’

immersion in the interface formerly known as Metro may have had

another purpose: separating novice and power users This move could

preserve the best of Windows while making it more palatable to the

casual computing public

on Reddit in February (go.pcworld.com/

millerreddit) (A Microsoft spokesperson

confirmed his employment.) Any new feature

had to be simple enough for newcomers but

practical enough for power users Miller

claims that many features, such as virtual

desktops, fell by the wayside

All work, no play, and vice versa

Enter Windows 8 Yes, the modern interface is simple and better

suited for content consumption than content creation, but Miller—

who clarified that he was speaking as an employee sharing his

viewpoint rather than in an official capacity—claimed that was

the point

Our hands were bound, and our users were annoyed

So what did we do? We separated the users into two

groups Casual and power We made two separate

playgrounds for them

So if Windows 8 was designed to herd casual and power users into

separate corners, why does the OS default to the modern interface?

Casual users don’t go exploring If we made desktop

the default as it has always been, and included a nice

little start menu that felt like home, the casual users

would never have migrated to their land of milk and

honey… So we forced it upon them

Now that Microsoft has fenced casual users inside the land of live

tiles, Miller says it can work on making the modern interface better for

casual users while filling the desktop with power features

Once [the modern interface is] purring along

smoothly, we’ll start making the desktop more

advanced We’ll add things that we couldn’t before

Things will be faster, more advanced, and craftier

Displaced Windows desktop aficionados can start to feel optimistic again.

Peering into the future

If Miller’s claims prove to be true, the results could be enticing

Windows 8.1 started the migration, adding an optional

boot-to-desktop feature and numerous tweaks that improve the modern

interface: more control settings, more flexible snap functionality, and

Bing Smart Search Microsoft’s modern apps are constantly adapting,

too, as the company shifts toward rapid-fire updates

Leaked versions of the impending Windows 8.1 update 1 (see

“Windows 8.1’s spring update,” page 6) show that even more

improvements are inbound But its new features—such as the ability

to boot to either the desktop or the Start screen, depending on

whether your setup has a touchscreen—seem like a Ballmer-esque

“refinement of the blend” (go.pcworld.com/ballmerblend) to make

the desktop and modern interfaces play more nicely together, rather

than a doubling down on the strengths of both

It’s unclear whether Microsoft always intended to smooth the edges

or if it became more of a priority after Windows 8’s hard landing But

considering the new update’s changes, Satya Nadella’s appointment

as Microsoft’s CEO, and Miller’s comments, displaced Windows

desktop aficionados can start to feel optimistic again

Windows 8.1

update 1 offers mouse- friendly Metro options.

Microsoft to use a pop-up

to push users off XP

BY MARK HACHMAN

NORMALLY, AN UNEXPECTED pop-up is a reason to worry: Is your PC

infected with a virus? Is this pop-up an ad? With one particular pop-up

from Microsoft, you’re supposed to worry—but the message is legit

In its ongoing bid to encourage Windows XP users to move to

Windows 7 or Windows 8, Microsoft began pushing a pop-up window

to users’ machines in March The company is also partnering with

LapLink to offer a free migration tool to assist with the transition

By now, PCWorld readers and other people who keep up with tech

news should know that the expiration date for Windows XP is April 8,

2014 Support for XP is ending, meaning that any vulnerabilities

Microsoft hasn’t patched by now will remain open for malware

writers to exploit A few contingency plans (see “Keep Windows XP

secure after Microsoft ends support,” page 37) can mitigate that

threat somewhat; Google will support Chrome for Windows XP

through 2015, for example And although Microsoft has ditched

support for Internet Explorer 8 (the last browser for XP), Microsoft

Security Essentials will support Windows XP until July 14, 2015 Still,

that’s like wrapping duct tape around the Titanic.

So the challenge for Microsoft is to find a way to move users off XP

The company’s answer? The tried-and-true pop-up notification

According to Brandon Leblanc, the chief blogger for Microsoft,

the pop-up displays only for users who have elected to receive

updates via Windows Update It includes a link to the Windows XP

End of Support website (go.pcworld.com/xpend), where XP users

can learn how to stay protected against security risks and viruses

after April 8 The notification is set to recur on the 8th of every

month unless the user disables it, Leblanc says

Son, am I supposed to click this?

Pop-ups

generally raise suspicion, but this one’s legitimate.

us not to click Every tech-savvy son or

daughter has told their parents to avoid

such pop-ups, too The alternative now, of

course, is for those kids to step in and to

encourage their parents to buy a new PC

Or a Mac Or a Chromebook

For those people who want to provide

such family tech support, Microsoft is offering a free copy of

PCmover Express for Windows XP, which will copy files, music,

videos, email, and user profiles and settings from the old PC to the

new system, including across a network The utility also allows

Windows XP users to customize exactly what to bring over to their

new machine The free software is available from WindowsXP.com If

users want to transfer applications from Windows XP, they can do

so, but they’ll need PCmover Professional (go.pcworld.com/

pcmover) Normally the price for that version is $60, but after a

Microsoft-sponsored discount it’s just $24

Microsof’s solution for moving users of XP: the tried-and- true pop-up.

Intel wants its new mobile chips in all your devices

BY MELISSA RIOFRIO

DESKTOP WHO? WINDOWS what? The classic Windows-based PC

remains Intel’s bread and butter, but it has needed to diversify its diet for a long time At an event at the Mobile World Congress in February, the company announced two new Atom chips, code-named Merrifield and Moorefield, that could be its first truly competitive mobile

solutions—and they arrive not a product cycle too soon

In case you didn’t know how high the stakes were, Intel President

Renée James laid it out in her remarks at the event “About 50 billion

connected-computing somethings”—yes, that’s what she called

them—“will be online by the year 2020.” Getting even a small slice of

The new chips have two big selling points: Their 64-bit architecture

enables faster performance At the same time, Intel wrings more

battery life out of the chips by designing them to power down

quickly after executing a task

They’re also designed to work with operating systems beyond

good ol’ Windows Hermann Eul, Intel vice president and general

manager of its Mobile and Communications Group, called the chips

“complete platforms…that can support multiple operating

systems and multiple segments in the market.” The company is

particularly eager to associate itself with Android, if the green

robots strutting around Intel’s booth on the show floor were any

indication—hardly surprising, as Android could provide the entry to

a much bigger market

In a small, sterile room tucked discreetly into its booth, Intel

demonstrated a bank of reference Android mobile phones in action

Using the Battery Xprt app for Android, the phones can last as long

as 19 or 20 hours on a full charge, according to Intel The tests

simulate real-world cell-phone use, which is sporadic, as opposed to

Intel showed its Merrifield and

Moorefield chips running in

reference designs at the Mobile

World Congress.

the rundown tests traditionally

conducted for PCs

The demo also included two

identical Windows tablets, one

running Windows at 32 bits and the

other at 64 bits, “just to show we

could do it,” said a spokesperson

But the real test of these chips lies ahead: Which device makers

will include them in their phone and tablet designs? Eul named

several at the event—Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung—and

promised there would be more partners to come We’ll see The lack

of on-board LTE in Intel’s chips has long been a sticking point, for

instance, and the new chips are also LTE free (go.pcworld.com/

nolte), though Intel does sell a separate LTE solution

Eul aimed some trash talk at Qualcomm, whose 64-bit ARM chip isn’t due until the end of the year (go

pcworld.com/

qualchip) Intel got there first, Eul emphasized: “We ship That is the difference.”

The new chips

The real test lies ahead: Which device makers will design with Intel’s chips?

Three big trends ruled the

Mobile World Congress

BY FLORENCE ION, SUSIE OCHS, AND MELISSA RIOFRIO

WE SPENT A WEEK IN BARCELONA at the Mobile World Congress, wading

through wearables (go.pcworld.com/wearables), sampling many

smartphones (go.pcworld.com/tensp), and trying out a tablet or two

While the Galaxy S5 (go.pcworld.com/galaxys5) was the biggest product

to debut—with wearables from Sony (go.pcworld.com/sonywear) and

Huawei (go.pcworld.com/talkband) also garnering attention—it’s not a

revolutionary release for Samsung, despite some impressive software

additions (go.pcworld.com/s5features) We noticed three trends

Low-end phones: Flagship models like the S5 aside, most phone

makers were touting low-cost handsets Mozilla showed off phones

running the Firefox OS that could sell for the low, low price of $25 Even

when phone makers had a big handset to announce—say, Sony’s Xperia

com/mwc2014

Z2 (go.pcworld.com/xperiaz2)—usually a lower-priced model (like the

Xperia M2) came along for the ride

Phone makers are looking beyond users who want the latest and

greatest smartphone technology to people with more basic needs and

budgets—in particular consumers in

emerging markets Nokia is getting into the

Android arena with a trio of phones built on

theAndroid Open Source Project (go

pcworld.com/nokiatrio) That’s allowed

Nokia to give the X, X+, and XL a Windows

Phone–style tiled interface, which it can sell

to users in growth markets And if those

users get accustomed to that Windows Phone feel by the time they’re

ready to upgrade, Nokia reasons, so much the better

Top tablets: A pair of tablets caught our eye Lenovo’s Yoga Tablet 10

HD+ (go.pcworld.com/lenovoyoga10) is a sleek-looking tablet with a

crisp display—a definite improvement over previous Yoga models The

promised 18-hour battery life is welcome, too And HP’s Pavilion x360 (go

pcworld.com/hppavilion)—priced to entice at $399—takes a page out of

the Yoga’s book, with a hinge that lets you use this laptop as either a conventional notebook or a tablet

Better audio: Manufacturers see

audio improvements as a way to make their mobile devices stand out Sony built noise-canceling technology into its Xperia Z2 HTC’s midrangeDesire

816 (go.pcworld.com/htcdesire) offers dual front-facing speakers

Find more show coverage on our

Mobile World Congress page (go

Flagship models aside, most phone makers were touting low-cost handsets.

Intel has its

a new website for Android enthusiasts.

We’ve got the ’droid info you’re looking for Helpful tips, critical reviews, and expert

analysis for passionate Android users

of every experience level

www.greenbot.com

TWITTER IS REPORTEDLY working on an e-commerce project

powered by Stripe (go.pcworld.com/twitterstripe), a

company that processes payments for sharing-economy

Pay by hashtag

Twiter and other social networks aspire to become the go-to

spot for shopping BY CAITLIN McGARRY

CONSUMER WATCH

Make smart purchases,

stay safe online.

retailers’ apps, their info fills in the payment fields automatically.

In February 2013, Twitter teamed up with American Express to launch

an experiment in which AmEx cardholders can sync their credit cards

(go.pcworld.com/amexsync) with their Twitter accounts and then

take advantage of discounts or buy physical goods by using an

AmEx-approved hashtag Major brands such as Amazon, Best Buy, J Crew,

McDonald’s, and Whole Foods have since signed on with American

Express to offer deals on Twitter, and American Express claims that its

social-network offers attract users who are ten years younger than

the average AmEx customer and spend about 30 percent more

Twitter also partnered with Starbucks last fall Instead of hashtags,

however, Starbucks required users to include a specific phrase—

”@tweetacoffee to @insertnamehere”—to trigger the sending of a

$5 gift card to the recipient of their choice Keyhole, a company that

tracks social conversations, estimated that the promotion generated

$180,000 in sales for Starbucks (go.pcworld.com/twitterstarbucks)

The coffee chain has long offered gift cards on Facebook Gifts, too

Gifts took a hit last summer, though, when Facebook determined that

physical goods weren’t selling well and decided to focus on digital gift

cards, which amounted to 80 percent of all gifts on the platform

Sync your AmEx card with

your Twitter account to get access to special deals.

Pinterest drives purchases

Although Pinterest gets little attention for its ability to turn inspiring

images into sales, it’s cleaning up as far as social shopping goes

On largely text-driven social networks such as Facebook and Twitter,

it’s difficult for companies to organically turn brand messages into

sales because those messages stick out like a sore thumb Pinterest, in

contrast, drives purchases more naturally: Users can conceivably click

through any image from any board on the site to reach a product link

Some numbers confirm the online bulletin board’s influence:

Pinterest captures the bulk of product sharing on social networks with

44 percent of shares (go.pcworld.com/pincommerce), while Facebook

and Twitter lag behind at 37 percent and 12 percent, respectively One

Pinterest is

currently the only social network that inspires people

to buy.

immediacy and serve to promote limited-time

offers or flash sales A pin continues to push as

much traffic to a site three and a half months

after it’s posted as it does when initially

pinned, according to Piquora

The retail challenge

Making a purchase directly from a product page feels safer than using

a hashtag as shorthand for “buy now.” If Twitter wants people to buy

stuff from a tweet, it has to convince users that shopping on a social

network is truly secure—and it has to present sales messages in a way

that doesn’t annoy users

Social-conversion platform Chirpify is helping companies meet the

latter challenge A recent campaign involving Lady Gaga let Twitter

users hashtag their tweets to get a package with the pop star’s latest

album In Chirpify’s promotions, users aren’t storing their financial

information with Twitter—Chirpify’s team sees the promotional hashtag

and directs the user to a payment page

“You don’t want to carpet bomb,” says Chirpify CEO Kevin Tate “You

Twiter has to convince users that shopping on a social network is secure.

Chirpify helps

big brands turn hashtags into purchases.

want to let the conversation be about other things It lets customers who are interested raise their hand and continue the conversation from there.” And that conversation could begin outside of Twitter If a brand includes a hashtag in a print ad or TV commercial, for example, Twitter users could enter that hashtag to take advantage of deals.

In the end, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and the retailers who want

to translate eyeballs into sales are just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks—and to see what helps them get into your wallet

ROUTERS AND OTHER connected devices are leaving home networks

open to attack The worst-case scenario? Strangers can access your

files, slip malware into your network, or use your own security cameras

to spy on you—all without laying a finger on your hardware

For example, some older Linksys E-Series routers and Wireless-N

routers and access points are vulnerable to a malware infection that

deposits a self-replicating worm (go.pcworld.com/linksysworm) And

recent reports indicate that the default settings of Asus routers leave

USB storage devices wide open (go.pcworld.com/routerflaw)

If you’re running an Asus router with a USB storage drive attached,

download and install the latest firmware from Asus’s website (www

service.asus.com) Don’t depend on the router’s Web interface to get

the update, as it might not download the most recent version

As for Linksys routers, “customers who have enabled the Remote

Management Access feature can prevent further vulnerability to their

Routers: More

vulnerable than ever

BY JON L JACOBI AND MICHAEL BROWN

network by disabling the Remote Management Access feature and

rebooting their router to remove the installed malware,” company

spokesperson Karen Sohl wrote in an email “Linksys will be working on

the affected products with a firmware fix that is planned to be posted

on our website in the coming weeks.”

Asus and Linksys are hardly alone, however: Recent reports noted

similar flaws in Netgear’s ReadyNAS line (go.pcworld.com/netgearflaw)

How atackers get in

Your public IP address is as well defined as your street address In most

cases this public address leads straight to your router If someone

gains control of your router, that person can open connections and

redirect traffic anywhere The havoc the intruder wreaks can also ruin

the day for a lot of other people, depending on what the attacker

relays through your equipment

A router directs traffic in and out of thousands of numbered ports

Port 80, for starters, handles HTTP traffic (Web access) Port 21 sends

and receives files over FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Port 443 takes care

of HTTPS (encrypted Web traffic, such as banking or shopping

transactions), and port 3369 is for Remote Desktop

If a port is open—normally all of them are—the router simply

shufles data to and from whatever IP device each port is directed to

So you must password-protect not only your router but also every

Using the Shodan search

engine, we easily found an FTP server filled with pirated TV shows, wide open.

device that communicates with the Web, even if it’s a refrigerator, to

prevent outsiders from gaining access via the ports

Most routers and many NAS (network-attached storage) devices have

well-documented default login IDs and passwords, such as “admin” and

“password,” and their installation wizards encourage users to change

these defaults If you neglect to do so, you leave your network vulnerable

Note, though, that even if you create a secure, complex password, any

hard reset you might later perform on your router for troubleshooting

purposes can restore the old, weak password without your knowledge

You must also keep your router’s configuration firmware updated

and secure all the services running on it For example, enabling UPnP

on older firmware—an action that most router manufacturers

recommend, because doing so simplifies configuration—can expose

any FTP and SMB servers you have running on the router, enabling

Internet snoops to access every file on your attached storage devices

A complete action plan

Want to assess your network’s vulnerability? First browse to What’s

My IP Address (www.whatsmyip.org) At the top is your public IP

address To the left, select the Port Scanners option, and then run the

tests to see which ports are open Some Internet gateways won’t let

you run such tests locally; you’ll have to note your public IP address

and then try these tests from a coffee shop or a friend’s house

You can learn

more about network ports

on Wikipedia.

At Wikipedia you can find a list of all available

ports (go.pcworld.com/ports), but the critical

ones are those that allow remote access to

your files or remote control of your network

devices, such as FTP, HTTP, and RDP

Checking to see if your network is

password-protected is easy enough Open a browser and

type in your public IP address preceded by the

proper header (ftp://, http://, and so on) If you

connect, you should see a screen asking for a

password If instead you go immediately to the

homepage for your router, NAS, or IP camera,

your network isn’t protected—and anyone

else with an Internet connection can access

those resources just as easily

In addition, confirm whether the FTP service on your router or

NAS box is enabled, and whether it allows anonymous access—unless

you’re sharing files with the world, you should disable anonymous

access You can find FTP in your router’s HTML configuration pages,

which you can access from your browser locally at 192.168.1.1,

192.168.1.254, or a similar address (Check your user manual for the

default address of your router.)

For maximum security, you can put your router or router/modem into

pin-hole mode, in which every port is blocked by default and you open

only the services you need It takes a bit of work, but it’s very secure

Unless you’re sharing files with the world, you should disable anonymous access

to your FTP service.

THE WINDOWS XPOCALYPSE is upon us: Microsoft is no longer

providing security patches for Windows XP as of April 8, 2014 Nearly

30 percent of Internet-connected PCs still run XP They’ll continue

operating normally, but they’ll be rotting inside, suffering from

increasingly numerous security holes

If you’re using Windows XP, and you can’t upgrade your machine

immediately, you can protect yourself Make no mistake, however: The

following tricks are like sticking your finger into a leaking dam They’ll

help a bit, but the dam is crumbling

Choose your sofware wisely

If you use Internet Explorer, let it go—IE 8, the most recent version

available for XP, is no longer receiving patches In contrast, Google

Chrome will continue supporting Windows XP until at least April 2015,

while Mozilla Firefox has no announced plans to stop supporting XP

Keep Windows XP secure

after Microsoft ends support

Most antivirus utilities will continue supporting XP; even Microsoft

Security Essentials will do so until July 14, 2015 Antivirus-testing

company AV-Test asked 30 antivirus companies (go.pcworld.com/

avsupport) about their intentions, and all of them committed to

supporting XP until at least April 8, 2015 Most committed to an even

longer period, into at least 2016 Be sure you’re using an antivirus

program that’s receiving updates, though And as Microsoft warns

(go.pcworld.com/xpav), remember that “the effectiveness of

anti-malware solutions on out-of-support operating systems is limited.”

If you’re still using the defunct Outlook Express, switch to the full

version of Outlook in Microsoft Office If you want an alternative,

Mozilla is still supporting Thunderbird with patches, though it’s unclear

how long Thunderbird support on older operating systems will continue

Or you can use a Web-based email service in Chrome or Firefox

Office 2003 is losing its support just as XP is If you’re using that

suite—or, even worse, Office XP—update to a newer, supported

version (Yes, this means a Ribbon-bedecked version Sorry.)

Remove insecure sofware

The Java browser plug-in is exploit-prone on any OS Unless you need

Java for a specific purpose, uninstall it If you need it, disable the

Mozilla’s Plugin Check

ensures that your browser extras are fully patched.

browser plug-in (go.pcworld.com/ditchplugins) and keep it up-to-date.

Attackers frequently target other browser plug-ins, too; Adobe Flash

and Adobe Reader are crucial Modern versions of Flash and Reader

update themselves automatically, but older versions didn’t even check

for updates If you don’t need these applications, uninstall them

Scan for unpatched software on your computer with Secunia PSI

(go.pcworld.com/secunia_psi) You can also visit Mozilla’s Plugin Check

page (go.pcworld.com/plugincheck) to see if outdated browser

plug-ins are plug-installed Don’t let the page’s name fool you: The check works

in other browsers, too, not just Firefox

Risky behavior will be magnified in a post-patch world For tips,

check out our complete guides to staying safe in the Web’s worst

neighborhoods (go.pcworld.com/websworst) and guarding against

devious security traps (go.pcworld.com/devious)

Take drastic measures

Now let’s dig into the more radical but totally appropriate tactics

Go ofline: Say you need Windows XP only to run a crucial business

Windows 7’s XP

Mode lets you run XP in a virtual machine.

application, or to interact with hardware that

doesn’t function with newer versions of Windows

In this case, disconnect that Windows XP system

from the network if possible This action is the

easiest, most foolproof way to keep a Windows

XP computer secure

Use a limited account: If your machine is

blasted by malware, the invader can do only as much damage as

the account it infects Administrator accounts (go.pcworld.com/

adminrisk) give baddies the keys to your computing kingdom Stick to

using a limited account for your day-to-day activities Use an admin

account to create the locked-down login and fill it with the software

you need, and afterward don’t stray from limited land unless you need

to install or update software (And even then, use the admin account

only for as long as is necessary to finish the installation.)

Confine XP to a virtual machine: Virtual machines let you run

Windows XP in an isolated container (go.pcworld.com/vminternet),

placing it in a window on your desktop Windows 7 Professional includes

Windows XP Mode for just this reason, offering businesses and other

professional users the ability to set up such a virtual machine without

buying an additional Windows XP license

If you’re upgrading to Windows 8 or Windows 7 Home, however,

Windows XP Mode is not included In this situation you’ll have to get a

boxed copy of Windows XP—an old one will work—and then install it

inside a virtual machine Fortunately, you don’t have to buy virtual

machine software: The free VirtualBox (go.pcworld.com/virtualbox43)

or VMware Player (go.pcworld.com/vmwarepl) will work fine

Inside a virtual machine, you can run most Windows XP applications

Note, however, that if a program needs direct access to a piece of

hardware, it may not work

Remember, too, that the cessation of Microsoft support extends to

Stick to using a limited account for your day-to-day activities in XP.