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nation of greater offline capability and access to
Play Store Android apps should make new Chrome-
books more versatile than ever.

So how do we sort through all these alternatives
when trying to equip our own digital world, or to pur-
chase the perfect gift for someone else? It all boils
down to what the need is. Once you have put down
on paper what you want any or all of these devices
for, you will then have a useful “yardstick” to use as
you ponder future purchases. This is where user
reviews become very helpful, especially from Ama-
zon. It is not unusual for Amazon reviewers to pro-
vide very detailed description of how they use the
item, and how well-suited it is for their intended pur-
pose. Look for reviewers who seem to want the
same usability in a product that you do, and then
see how they feel the product stacks up. You may (Continued from page 8)

find that you can save hundreds of dollars by getting installed programs as it replaces the registry with
a less-expensive computer, tablet or phone – that an earlier version.
will still do everything on your ”yardstick” well. System Image Recovery: If you’ve used the im-
age backup tool in Windows 10, this would be
While in today’s world we probably all need a cell where it would come in handy. You can restore
phone of some sort, we may find that purchasing a the image of your PC at the time you created the
less-expensive smartphone (with a minimal data image, which includes all your data and installed
programs at that time.
plan) and using our savings to buy a nice tablet will
give us the best of two worlds. We can use the Startup Repair: This is sort of a “black box” in
phone for truly “mobile” activities when we rely on that it tries to fix whatever issue is preventing the
cellular signals and use the tablet for apps, email, system from booting, but it doesn’t tell you what
it’s doing or, if successful, what the problem was.
games, etc. when we have access to Wi-Fi. Carry- This is the first thing you should try, as it’s the
ing that a step further, buying a convertible or 2 in 1 quickest and least invasive.
laptop in lieu of a tablet may give us all the compu-
ting and tablet capability that we need. When at Command Prompt: This can be useful for a
wide array of tricks and tactics, most especially
home we can connect the laptop to a separate key- running the SFC /Scannow command to scan and
board and mouse if desired, plus a large monitor, fix corrupted system files. We all know the com-
and have the equivalent of a desktop computer. Yet mand prompt is a wizard’s toolbox, and if you
the same device can serve as a tablet and also be- know what you’re doing the possibilities are al-
most endless.
comes a small, light, self-contained laptop to take
on the road. Go Back to the Previous Build: Though word-
ed a bit cryptically, this lets you revert your PC to
Whether you purchase some new gear for yourself the previous build of Windows, meaning the one
before whatever update turned everything pear-
for the holidays, or something for a family member, shaped. As you can see, it’s quite useful to have
or simply enjoy the gear you already have – have a one of these recovery drives handy. Do yourself a
wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New favor and make one now.
Year!

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