Speed Up Your PC.

Speed up your PC

Remove junk files and tune up your PC

A PC or Mac is rather like a car. That showroom-fresh saloon doesn't seem so sleek and shiny once road film, suicidal insects and evil supermarket car park users start ruining it, and that speedy new computer soon begins to sag under the stress of unnecessary apps, unwanted add-ons and other irritations. Thank crikey, then, for system utilities and tools: the right ones make your PC or Mac feel brand new, or at least an awful lot faster and a lot less crashy.

There are thousands of system utilities out there, but these are our favourites - although as with any freeware, be very careful when you're installing any of them. Many free apps' installers are awfully keen on giving you extra software, toolbars or changes to your search engine that you might not want - see our guide to avoiding potentially unwanted programs.

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Piriform's excellent CCleaner analyses your PC for files you can live without and deletes them for a performance boost

1. CCleaner Remove unneeded files for a quick and easy speed boost Top download - CCleanerCCleaner has been around for a long time, and part of the reason for its ongoing popularity is that it cleans the parts of your PC that many other free apps don't. There are paid-for versions that add real time protection and cleanup scheduling, but the free edition covers the important stuff such as removing temporary files, getting rid of browser caches, removing unwanted cookies while keeping the useful ones and so on. If your PC feels slow or sluggish then this is the app to try first, and is our favorite free system tool.
Download CCleaner freeHave we missed a program you rely on to keep your PC in top shape? Let us know in the comments below.
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Download PC Decrapifier free

2. PC Decrapifier Uninstall the junk programs that come with a new PC Like CCleaner, PC Decrapifier's job is to remove unnecessary files and programs for your PC. It's particularly useful on brand new PCs, which are often either full of exciting opportunities to discover new apps or stuffed to the gills with a load of preinstalled junk, depending on your point of view. Download PC Decrapifier freePC Decrapifier analyses your system, shows you the apps it thinks you should get rid of - based not just on its developers' opinions but on other users' feedback - and then removes the ones you choose. It's so focused on cleaning PCs it doesn't even install itself.

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Download Autoruns free 3. Autoruns Stop unnecessary startup processes to speed up boot times We don't normally quote former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, but when he said "There are known knowns. These are things that we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know," he could have been describing the apps you know you're running - the known knowns - and the ones you don't.
Download Autoruns freeThose apps run when you boot Windows, or login, or launch certain system apps. You can find and get rid of the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns with the superb Autoruns.

Divider You never know when you'll need Recuva - an emergency tool for restoring deleted files

4. Recuva An essential tool for recovering lost or accidentally deleted data There are lots of data recovery tools out there, but Recuva is our favorite. Not only can it recover files that have been deleted but not overwritten, but it can recover files from removable media such as USB drives and memory cards. It can even get data off damaged discs, although naturally the success rate depends on the kind and extent of the damage. Download Recuva freeThe paid-for Pro version adds support for virtual hard disks and offers technical support too, but the free one is worth sticking on a thumb drive as part of your emergency toolkit.
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Download 3DP Chip free

5. 3DP Chip A convenient tool to keep your hardware drivers up to date The near-infinite variety of possible Windows PC configurations is a great thing, but it can also lead to a great big pain in the backside: ensuring that the device drivers, the bits of software that Windows uses to communicate with your various bits of hardware, remain up to date. It's worth doing because driver updates banish bugs, vanquish vulnerabilities and fix flaws, but it's not remotely quick or fun. Download 3DP Chip free nowEnter 3DP Chip, which can do the dirty work for you - and unlike some other driver update programs, it doesn't try to install a whole bunch of nonsense on your PC either.
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Download SpaceSniffer free

6. SpaceSniffer Find out what's taking up so much space on your hard drive or SSD You're running out of space but you've no idea why. Does that sound familiar? Then you need SpaceSniffer, which enables you to see what's taking up space via a format known as a Treemap. Download SpaceSniffer freeIt's a very immediate way to understand where the space hogs are on your system, and the filtering means you can limit the visualisation to certain kinds of files or to exclude certain kinds of files. You can also combine filters to look for space hogs of a particular kind or vintage.
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Download Auslogics Duplicate File Finder free

7. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder Delete redundant files to free up space on your hard drive or SSD One of the downsides of digital media is that it's very easy to end up with multiple copies of the same thing taking up valuable storage space. That's bad enough on a hard disk, but on the more limited space of an SSD it's even more of a problem - or at least, it is if you don't have Auslogics Duplicate File Finder. Download Auslogics Duplicate File Finder freeIt scans your PC for duplicate files and enables you to restrict the search to specific file types or sizes, and you can specify whether duplicates should be binned or placed in a holding area for you to check them out. This is a great and genuinely useful app for Windows users of all kinds.

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Download Revo Uninstaller Free

8. Revo Uninstaller Free Remove all traces of uninstalled programs to avoid junk buildup If you like trying new apps you'll be horribly familiar with the joys of the Windows Uninstaller, where all too often uninstalling a program leaves bits and pieces everywhere. It's a particular pain when an app installs other apps such as browser toolbars and unwanted helper apps. Download Revo Uninstaller FreeRevo Uninstaller Free can solve that problem by scanning for the bits the standard uninstaller often leaves behind, and its multiple uninstall option means it's a big time saver too. The free version can't uninstall apps that were on your PC before you installed it, but it does a good job of getting shot of anything added since. Divider
Download Secunia PSI free

9. Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) Keep your software up to date with the latest bug fixes and security patches Secunia PSI solves one of the biggest headaches for Windows users: keeping software up to date in order to keep your system secure. The app knows about thousands of different programs and can scan your system to identify whether you have the most up to date versions. Download Secunia PSI freeAnd here's the best bit: if you don't, it can usually download and install the necessary updates and/or patches without any further intervention from you. The combination of PSI and Windows Update should ensure that malware can't exploit any vulnerabilities in unpatched software. Divider
Download Onyx free

10. OnyX A system cleanup tool to keep Macs running quickly and smoothly The majority of system tune-up and cleaning apps are for Windows, but Macs get messy too - and on OS X, the evergreen OnyX is often the solution. It can get shot of bulging system logs and clean up files that are no longer needed, it can turn on hidden features in OS X itself and you can use it to schedule dull but useful maintenance tasks. Download OnyX freeIt has two companion apps, both also free: Deeper is purely for personalisation while Maintenance covers - yep - maintenance. For most people OnyX offers the best of both.

Share Market.

Democracy has spoken, and the UK has voted to terminate its membership of the European Union. It's time to stop talking about how many bananas are in a bunch and consider how Brexit will affect the tech industry.

Will it be harder to employ skilled IT staff from inside the EU? How about the movement of data across borders? Will the UK become a red tape nightmare for foreign companies? Can London remain a digital capital of Europe without being in an EU nation? How could the vote affect the future of tech? With facts hard to come by, the picture is unclear.
Reactions, however, are pouring in, and tech professionals are falling into two broad camps: the pragmatics and the pessimists.
A survey of the attitudes of around 300 IT security professionals at the recent Infosecurity Europe conference, carried out on behalf of Alienvault, found that over half of respondents (52 percent) believed that, post-Brexit, UK organisations would still have to comply with EU legislation in order to trade with Europe.

The vast majority (78 percent) of those surveyed did not believe their jobs would be made any easier by Britain leaving the EU. In fact, a significant proportion (22 percent) actively supported EU legislation around data protection, and believed it benefitted them and their work.
Others, like security startup Miracl, adopted an even darker tone. "Splitting away from Europe would make it even more difficult for UK tech firms to compete with the US tech giants, because their talent pool would be so much larger than ours." its CEO said.
Migration - for the IT sector, there's not enough of it, and it's far too difficult

What about skilled IT workers?
For many voters in the UK, the EU referendum was a discussion about migration, but the tech industry worries about migration from a different perspective; there's not enough of it, and it's far too difficult. There's already a shortage of UK-bound skilled workers coming out of EU countries, and Brexit will only worsen the situation.
"Despite free movement throughout the European Union at the moment, the UK is still suffering from a skills shortage, particularly when it comes to tech," says Robert Rutherford, CEO of business and IT consultancy QuoStar. "Many questions remain unanswered as to whether there will be alternatives in place to allow the UK to bring in skilled tech professionals from other regions easily." It's already difficult for IT experts from non-EU countries to come and work in the UK. It's about to get even harder, and Brexit won't change that. Worse still, there could be an out-flux of workers from EU states already in the UK.
It's already difficult to enter the UK to work from outside the EU

What about the EU's Digital Single Market Initiative?
This is central to the argument that London's tech startup scene in particular will suffer as the UK leaves the EU.
"The core issue facing the tech industry when it comes to Brexit is whether the UK alone can fund development in technology in the same way, and at the same level, as the EU's Digital Single Market Initiative," says Rutherford.

From a tech industry perspective, the Digital Single Market Initiative is about the digitisation of industry, about getting the economy ready for cloud computing, data-driven science and the Internet of Things. So what does the UK stand to gain or lose?
It will lose access to the new European cloud that will give Europe's 1.7 million researchers and 70 million science and technology professionals a virtual environment in which to store, manage, analyse and reuse research data, as well as a 500 million (around £380 million) pan-EU network of digital innovation hubs where businesses can obtain advice and test digital innovations.

In total, it's estimated that the Digital Single Market Initiative will mobilise over 50 billion (around £38 billion) of public and private investments in support of the digitisation of industry.

A third of a major graphene investment in the UK came from the EU
"While the UK is currently a leader in global IT development, what will the UK government be able to invest in this area?" asks Rutherford. "With a proposed 50 billion of investment in support of the digitisation of industry coming from the EU, we must consider whether we will lose this benefit following a Brexit."

There's also the top-up that the EU provides. For the £61 million National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester, the UK government provided £38 million, while £23 million came from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). How much of the estimated £8.5 billion saving in EU contributions would be invested in the tech industry? That's unknown, but austerity, not investment, is the current political priority.
How would an exit from the EU affect data privacy?
In short, Brexit will mean that while data privacy laws will still exist, the newly negotiated General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, will cease to apply to British companies.
"The roots of data privacy lie in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and the UK would still be bound by that even if it left the EU," says Robin Wilton, Technical Outreach Director, Identity and Privacy at the Internet Society. "The UK is also a signatory to the Council of Europe's Convention 108 on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data," he says, adding that the UK would also remain bound by this after leaving the EU.

The agreement between the US and the European Union to make personal data protection laws identical across the board is critical for any company working across national borders. "If the UK isn't included in that agreement, will it simply allow unconstrained data transfers to the US, or will it try to put equivalent measures in place?" asks Wilton. "If the latter, that means a completely separate, parallel set of negotiations with the US over transatlantic data transfers."
That seems unlikely, particularly as data privacy laws are hardly controversial, and are certainly not the reason for anyone wanting the UK to leave the EU. To prevent companies from considering the UK as an unnecessary administrative burden and avoiding it, politicians will likely just adopt the GDPR and the US-EU Privacy Shield as they are.
Might the UK become a haven for big data?
Could an independent UK become a data haven?
That will depend on the decisions taken by politicians in the aftermath of Brexit. "Depending on the approach taken by the UK regulators, certain companies who do not trade within the EU may find it attractive to base their businesses in the UK," says John Benjamin, a Partner at law firm DWF.
Some think Brexit represents an opportunity for the UK tech industry to start competing properly with its US counterparts. "Over time an independent UK has the opportunity of becoming a haven for big data analysis and personal data processing," says Ashley Winton, Partner and UK head of data protection and privacy at international law firm Paul Hastings LLP & Chairman of the UK Data Protection Forum.

Data sharing with the EU could be achieved with a version of the US Privacy Shield, which is more permissive than the full weight of the GDPR allows ... this regime would allow the UK to compete effectively with US businesses which have a similar advantage."
In short, by leaving the EU, the UK could be put on an even footing with US-based companies.
Ashley Winton, Partner at Paul Hastings LLP and Chairman of the UK Data Protection Forum

Is this just about the economy?
Though for the wider public the referendum was tied up with myriad issues, for the tech industry it was mostly about economics. "If we vote without real thought about how the EU Referendum will have a knock-on effect on our digital economy, we could create real issues for our longer term growth," Rutherford said ahead of the vote.
"This is not about fear, it is about opportunity - a market of 500 million consumers," says Julian David, CEO of industry body techUK.
What will happen next?

Probably not much: British governments are not known for their speed nor their decisiveness. "In the short term, we may find that the slow speed of disassociation from the EU is such that the UK government would implement a version of the GDPR as national legislation, but without the oversight that the current GDPR gives to the European Data Protection Board," says Winton.
There's also the slightly thorny issue of what happens to citizens' privacy rights in a non-EU UK. The decisions of the European Court of Justice would no longer apply.
What does the UK tech industry think?

A poll in March by techUK revealed that 70% supported the UK remaining in the EU, 15% supported the UK leaving the EU and 15% were undecided. The majority wanted to remain in the EU because, they said, EU membership made the UK more attractive to international investment (76%), more globally competitive (71%) and gave the UK a better deal in trading relationships with the EU (75%).
"UK tech is thriving, creating jobs almost three times faster than the rest of the economy," says David. "The vast majority of our members say that being in the EU supports that growth ... open markets and cooperation are good for business."
In a tangled web of facts, assumptions and unknowns, it's probably fair to say that the tech industry in the UK may suffer in the short term from Brexit, but it would undoubtedly adjust over the long term.

macOS Sierra release date, news and features.

macOS Sierra.

Update: Though Apple's latest and greatest won't be available as a public beta until next month, you can try out macOS Sierra for yourself right now! Find out how.

Here's what macOS will do to convince you to go all-in on Apple
With Microsoft's Windows 10 heating up the PC market, Apple is bringing a free upgrade of its own with the launch of a new version of OS X for Mac packed with new features and improvements.

OS X 10.12 was officially revealed and renamed macOS Sierra at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). As expected, Sierra does much more than just providing bug fixes and performance updates, as we saw with the move from 10.10 Yosemite to 10.11 El Capitan.

So what's in store for Mac users? Follow along and we'll tell you exactly what you can expect from the next version of OS X - we mean macOS.

Cut to the chase

What is it? The next version of Apple's desktop operating system

When is it out? Fall 2016
What will it cost? Like the previous several versions, it will be a free update

macOS Sierra release date

Apple has gotten cycle when it comes to releasing new operating system, Typically they're demoed and debuted during WWDC in June, a beta preview over the summer and having the final OS in our hands by November.

Find out if your Mac can run macOS
macOS Sierra seems to follow that same formula. Following its reveal in mid-June, Apple plans to release a developer preview in July and the final OS in the following fall.

Siri finally makes an appearance

The biggest new feature slated for macOS Sierra is the inclusion of the Siri virtual personal assistant. Siri was launched on iOS back in 2011, and Macs are surprisingly the last platform Apple decided to bring it to.

Just as with using the virtual assistant on iPhones, users will be able to simply command Siri and ask it questions with their voice. However, being on the Mac opens up a greater swath of options such as searching for files.

At WWDC, SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi demonstrated how Siri can help with sophisticated queries for files like, "Show the files I worked on last week about the off-site." And from there users can narrow down their search based on tags.

Siri also has full access to other parts of macOS' including applications such as iTunes, making her your personal DJ. Alternatively, Siri integrates with Safari to act on web searches.

By adding Siri to the Mac platform, Apple hopes to offer the same services for iPhone and iPad owners with a Mac.

What's more, Apple opened has issued an SDK for developers to make their own applications work with Siri.

Continuity gets even better

Continuity between Mac and iOS is a big deal for those engulfed in Apple's hardy ecosystem. Ever since its introduction, users have been able to pick up calls and text conversations from their phones and conveniently pull them up on their Mac computers.

With macOS Sierra, not only will you be able to access your computer from other machines including your iPhone, but if you need to copy something from one device to another, you can achieve that using the Universal Clipboard function. By copying something from one device, you can seamlessly paste it over to another. If you thought AirDrop made your life easier, this enhances the Apple ecosystem even further with yet another method of shuffling around files.

And, while TouchID isn't coming to Mac anytime soon, auto-unlock is. As the name implies, this new feature will let you unlock your Mac by merely being in close proximity to an Apple Watch or iOS device.

What's more, Apple Pay has expanded beyond the restraints of a 4.7-inch screen and onto PCs by way of macOS. Making an effort to compete with ecommerce services like PayPal, a "Pay with Apple Pay" button will soon be integrated in your browser with TouchID on a nearby iPhone or iPad serving as a means of quick authentication.

Better photo and video functionality

Finally we have the Photos app getting an overhaul in iOS.