Experts solve your computing problems
APC and its readers can be one giant helpdesk. If you have a technical problem, chances are one of us can solve it.
CLOUD ONEDRIVE APP CONFUSION
The Microsoft Store OneDrive app is one of the many things that particularly confuses me about Windows 10. If OneDrive support is baked into Windows, meaning all your files are accessible through File Manager, then what’s the point of the app? Steve Cox The Store version of the OneDrive app appears to be targeted to those with Windows PCs, tablets or phones who don’t want to keep their OneDrive contents synced with that device. If you have a tablet or PC with limited storage, you may not wish to sync all of your OneDrive content on that device, yet still want to be able to access non-synced files and folders on occasion. The OneDrive app — like so many apps — provides a convenient front-end to achieving this without having to open up your web browser. It’s worth noting, however, that browsing your storage can be quite slow based on the speed and type of your internet connection. Cat Ellis
WINDOWS FIX PAGING FILE ERROR
I wanted to move my Windows 10 paging file to another hard drive for performance reasons. When I attempted to do so, Windows warned me that I should keep an 800MB paging file on the boot drive in order to record errors. However, since following its advice I keep getting the following error on boot: “Windows created a temporary paging file on your computer because of a problem that occurred with your paging file configuration”. Can you assist? Rod Turner It may seem counterintuitive, but what you need to do is ignore Windows’ warning and move the whole paging file over to your new drive. In other words, repeat the process you followed previously, but be sure to select ‘No paging file’ for drive C before clicking ‘Set’ and ignoring the warning. Then set your other drive as normal.
What seems to be happening here is it appears Windows 10 now moves the location for recording crash information to the same drive as your paging file — this renders the original warning redundant, but, more practically, ensures there’s no error on startup either. Nick Peers
WINDOWS TO DEFRAG OR NOT DEFRAG?
My new Windows 10 PC has a 512GB solid-state drive. I was advised not to defragment SSD drives, but when I open the ‘Defragment and Optimise Drives’ desktop app it seems defragmentation is being carried out by Windows. This reveals a hidden partition and my C drive, complete with an ‘Optimise’ button, but can you clarify exactly what’s going on and what settings I should apply? Albert McCracken Windows 10’s defrag tool is designed to work with both traditional (Defragment) and solid-state (Optimise) drives. The process of optimising the drive basically ensures that its TRIM function is run which, in turn, basically ensures the SSD’s performance (particularly when writing files) is kept at its peak. Albert helpfully included a screenshot of his setup, which allowed us to confirm the drive had been correctly identified as a solid-state drive, which means Windows optimises rather than defrags it. It also confirmed that the default settings meant that Albert’s SSD drive is being automatically optimised on a weekly basis, meaning there’s no need for him to run the tool manually. Nick Odantzis
BACKUP KLS MAIL BACKUP AND WINDOWS 10
I recently read about KLS Mail Backup ( www.kls-soft.com/klsmailbackup) and wanted to use it to back up my email, but it doesn’t seem to work with the Windows 10 Mail app. How do I back up email from this app in Windows 10? Microsoft admits there is no facility built into Windows 10. Geoff Laughton There is no backup tool we know of that will back up the Mail app, but all is not lost. Geoff used the Mail app with two separate mail accounts — Gmail and Greenbee.net — that can be configured to leave copies of the mail on the server. With this in mind, you
can bypass Mail completely and use a free email archiving tool called MailStore Home ( www.mailstore.com) to back up mail directly from the server. Use the ‘Archive Email’ section to set up each account, then either double-click the profile to back up everything from the server or rightclick it first and choose ‘Properties’ to decide exactly what to back up. Once backed up, you can then browse and search your mail offline, plus export it to different applications. If all of this seems like too much effort, then your other option is to install a mail client — we’d suggest Thunderbird ( www.mozilla.org) — that is supported by KLS Mail Backup. You could even run this in parallel with Mail — so long as both apps are set to leave copies of mail on the server, you’d then have copies of your email in two separate locations (Mail and Thunderbird) as well as enjoying the security of having it backed up too (KLS Mail Backup). Nick Peers
SECURITY IS TEAMVIEWER SAFE?
With reports from last year that TeamViewer had been compromised, does this mean we should no longer use it for remote control purposes? If not, what alternatives are there? Saul Cook There’s probable truth in TeamViewer’s claim that those who reuse weak passwords from other sites made it easier for hijackers to get a foothold on some systems. It’s entirely possible that if you allow others to remotely control your PC, their lack of security could have put you at risk. Switching to another remote control app like Ammyy Admin ( www.ammyy.com) doesn’t reduce this vulnerability, so the only practical alternative is to stop using remote control apps altogether.
TeamViewer has tightened security, but the most effective way to block these kinds of attacks is to switch on two-factor authentication. Doing so means your mobile must be physically present whenever you log on to TeamViewer, helping keep hackers at bay. Nick Peers
WINDOWS CAN’T INSTALL PROGRAMS
I have a Microsoft Surface Book and have had nothing but trouble with it. I recently reinstalled Windows 10 and since then any program that requires msi.exe to install — well, doesn’t install. The error message tells me it can’t find the software installer folder. Seeing as I’ve already had to reinstall once to resolve problems with this tablet. is there any way I can avoid another full reinstall? Richard Jones
By the time we contacted Richard he’d bit the bullet and reinstalled Windows 10 again — thankfully this time the problem had finally resolved itself. However, before going down such a drastic route in future, it’s worth checking out Microsoft’s ‘Fix problems that block programs from being installed or removed’ troubleshooter app, which can be downloaded from https://support.microsoft.com/help/17588. It fixes a wide range of installer problems, so could have potentially saved Richard another long-winded re-install by resolving whatever issue he had with MSI installer files. Graham Barlow