Consumer guides

One laptop is behaving badly and everyone else is working. The order you do things in decides whether it stays one machine or becomes all of them.

The note is on the screen and the files will not open. Before you consider paying, there are three things worth checking — and one thing to stop doing immediately.

The real question behind “can you clean my PC” is “will I lose my photos”. Here is what a careful clean-up does to your files, and how to protect them first.

Most “your phone is hacked” warnings are advertisements. Here is how to check the few that are real, and what to do either way.

A slow machine is usually old hardware or a full disk, not malware. Here is how to tell the two apart in ten minutes, without installing anything.

Disconnect first, don’t pay the pop-up, copy your files before anyone touches the disk. What a real clean-up involves, and when to stop and call someone.