Computers & Technology

LET'S TALK ABOUT... UEFI -> 10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW 1: UEFI IS THE REPLACEMENT FOR BIOS The BIOS (basic input/output system) has been at the heart of the PC design for well over 30 years now. It is the piece of firmware that provides the operating system with a standard interface to the functionality of the computer. Unfortunately, its design is quite outdated, carrying a number of limitations that are not acceptable in the current age of computing. UEFI is the replacement for BIOS, and it brings with it a host of modern functionality to carry PCs through the next few decades. 2: IT ENABLES BETTER DISK SUPPORT UEFI finally breaks free of the old DOS-style master boot record (MBR) disks, taking us into the GUID partition table (GPT) future. While not all operating systems support booting from GPT disks (notably, 32-bit versions of Windows), GPT support at the firmware layer will allow disks of enormous size to be used, even for booting the operating system. 3: APPL...

HOW TO RID A NEW PC OF CRAPWARE A brand-new Windows computer should be pristine out of the box. They'll gum it up for you with "free" software you don't want. It goes by names like crapware, bloatware, or shovelware because computer makers shovel bloated digital crap by the barrelful onto new PCs. Retail PCs it's a whole other world of crap.  With many of the uninstall routines, the dialog boxes had giant buttons that would say "Uninstall and Get PC XXXXXX" or something similar. If we just wildly clicked where the button was, the uninstall might work-but something else got installed in its place. We had to carefully look for the fine print on the dialog boxes that read "Delete Only" or similar. Tricks and traps abounded. The problem is, even though these utilities may point out some bloatware, they may not automate removal. You may still have to go through the regular uninstall process, which-as we noted above-may be filled ...