Readers’ comments
Your views and feedback from email and the web
Colour me Windows
Why can’t Windows 10’s File Explorer use colour codes of folder and file names to aid access to recent work? In my case, the “Recent folders” facility often presents over 50 subfolders – with no indication of recently accessed files.
It would be great to see folders and files opened this week coloured blue, the week before coloured red and so on. How about grey for files or folders that haven’t been accessed for more than six weeks? Peter Jones
Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies: We like the sound of that. Perhaps one of our enterprising readers could knock up a utility that would implement it (our preference would be for bold colours for the most recently accessed, slowly desaturating as they got older until they were totally grey). The best solution we can come up with using Windows’ built-in tools would be to switch your Explorer view to Detail (on the View tab, or press Ctrl+Shift+6) and then click the down-pointing arrow on the Date Modified column header. This lets you pick dates, ranges or common options such as “A long time ago” or “Last week”. It doesn’t colour them, though.
Psion of the times
I’ve recently begun buying complete, boxed editions of all the Psion and Sinclair computers that I used and enjoyed so much in my youth. Does this make me a collector, connoisseur or just an IT guy having a mid-life crisis? Mike Halsey
Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies: That probably depends on who you ask, but I’d plump for collector. In common with many PC Pro readers, I suspect, I’m more of a hoarder. I still have my Psion 5mx sitting in its original box, just a few feet away from my desk, and a Jiffy bag full of old Palms.
What’s of growing interest is how companies are building on our nostalgia to sell new versions of old products. Not just the much-cited Nokia 3310 ( see p60), but also things such as this Indiegogo campaign for a Psion Series 5-style device running Android (
As I type, it’s raised $465,000 against a target of $200,000.
Swipe away
I’m one of those people who was increasingly getting left behind on technology issues, so I’ve started buying PC Pro in the hope that some knowledge will rub off. I’m picking up loads, but have a dilemma: I’m still running Vista, which will no longer be supported from April.
I thought I would use this as an opportunity to replace my seven-
year-old laptop, along with the operating system. I only use it for emails, shopping and as a glorified typewriter, and all the touchscreen malarkey of later operating systems terrifies me. I’ve had disastrous results on one friend’s Apple iPad and another’s Windows laptop.
Could you advise me on the best operating system to go for – one where I can still just use my keyboard and mouse to navigate, type, create
files and more? Liz Goulds
Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies: This is a surprisingly easy answer to give: Windows 10. Don’t worry about the touchscreen features; so long as you buy a non-touchscreen laptop, you won’t have to worry about tapping or swiping, and it will behave just like Vista. And fortunately we have a roundup of laptops in this very issue. Head to p76.
PerPlexing NAS
I enjoyed reading your review of the MyCloud device ( see issue 271, p86), but take issue with your remark that it “isn’t the most fully featured NAS device in the world [as] it doesn’t