PC Answers

…well read on, as this magazine may save your sanity!

From time to time, we all run into problems with our computers, be it hardware or software related, and quite a few times we just can’t find the answers to the problem. During these times you would literally kill to have that bit of advice from the experts, a few tips to point you in the right direction and someone to get your computer back on the road, but all too often you are sat there fiddling about, getting nowhere and failing to solve your problem, pulling your hair out and cursing away wanting to smash you useless machine to bits.

Well, as you know, there are countless magazines floating around that specialize on giving you a helping hand, solving your problems and saving your sanity. Of these, I would have to say PC Answers is about the best around. I used to buy this magazine quite regularly, but recently I have tended to concentrate on the many Internet related magazines, seeing as though I seem to spend my whole life on the Internet.

That was until last week, whilst out shopping I noticed PC Answers sitting there on the shelf, I gave it a quick look over and decided to buy it, I gave the shop assistant my £4.99 and went home to read it.

The magazine has not changed too much since them early days and I was happy about that, you see with this magazine you don’t get the usual reviews on endless games that you’ll never play, you don’t get too many adverts and you don’t get a disk full of useless demos of games.

So, what exactly do you get with PC Answers?

Well, as the title would suggest, firstly you get answers to your problems, you also get all the latest computing and technology news and you get a disk full of excellently useful utilities that make you computing life just that bit easier, you also get interesting and unbiased reviews on the latest hardware, software and peripherals, so overall you get a thoroughly enjoyable magazine.

The magazine is split into sections, all of which are just as useful as the previous one, so here is a complete rundown of the different sections of the magazine:

News: In this section you get all the usual latest computing and technology news, you get to know what’s the latest software that is currently being developed and what Bill Gates and his Microsoft company are getting up to now, the articles are well written and you are also given a url to find a bit more information about the topic you are reading, should you want it.

Support: This is the main section of the magazine and is the section where readers have submitted their problems and put the magazine and their staff to task, to help them out and give them the answers, this section covers everything from hardware to software problems, and more times than not, you can relate to the problems the user is experiencing. The support team then go about their job of answering the problem; they give it how it is and don’t give you any bull or complicating answers, just a plain and simple explanation to help the reader solve their problem.

Solutions: This is a thoroughly entertaining and useful section, that gives you a helping hand on various topics, gives you tips on things like web browsers, operating systems, graphic utilities, etc and generally helps you to improve you computer skills. The articles are very well described; with nice, clear and easy to follow guides and they are ideal for anyone, not too complicating for the beginners and not too simplistic for the more experienced computer buff.

Windows: Virtually everyone of us uses Windows as our operating systems and I would guess everyone of us could do with tips or be informed of the vast array of useful utilities that are either available or already hiding in our systems, even the more experienced users need that bit of help to squeeze a bit more out of their system, well that’s exactly what this section consists of, it will help you tweak your system and generally improve its performance.

Feature: Every month the magazine will cover a topic as its feature, this months section tell you how to actually get some of the features of Windows XP out of Windows 98, etc on the cheap. It will also once again give us them vital tips on improving our computers performance.

Hardware: As you can guess, this section concentrates on hardware, and once again is a very thorough guide on how to improve the performance of our various hardware’s and peripherals. It will give you tips on things like improving you CD-writers performance, over clocking, etc, once again, a thoroughly useful and interesting section.

Upgrades: We all need that bit of advice when we decide to upgrade part of our system, that’s exactly what this section covers, be it hardware or software, they give you a completely unbiased review of the latest versions or models. This section will give you a decent guide and also point you in the right direction on where to get your hands on the given item, as well as giving you a guide on what prices you might expect to pay out.

PC Answers inbox: Just the usual letter page, that allows you to send in your comments, tips and suggestions.

Cover Disk: The cover-disk is featured and explained here, giving you the chance to take full advantage of some of the superb programs on the latest disk. The cover-disk itself is excellent, with a nice and easy to follow menu system and is literally packed with very useful program. As said beforehand, you don’t get a disk full of useless game demos, just a pure and simple collection of software that gives you the edge on defeating you computer problems.

Oh well, that’s the magazine itself covered, but don’t think it stops there, you see PC Answers also has a superb website (can be found at www.pcanswers.co.uk). The site includes all the features of the magazine, and a lot more, there is a superb discussion forum, where you can go to get any answers that you yourself may need, there is also a massive archive of software that has been featured on past power-disks, as well as lot of useful links and guides.

At £4.99 I find this magazine a superb buy, thoroughly entertaining and very useful in solving the problems we all come across, as well as providing their readers with a lot of superb utilities on the disk, and should you be impressed by the magazine, you can take advantage of a superb 46% saving on a subscription of PC Answers, which should you take advantage of, will see you paying a measly £2.69 per issue.

So what are you waiting for? Get the answers, get PC Answers, you won’t regret it.