The holiday season is upon us and many will be flocking to the nearest Best Buy or online to purchase a new system as a preset or for themselves.
As you wander over the variety of desktops and laptops, several questions may come into mind when buying a new computer.
How much memory (RAM) do you need?
What kind of processor comes with it?
Do you want a laptop, desktop or hybrid?
An all-in-one system or a desktop that that you can upgrade the internal components for?
To answer these questions it all comes down to one thing. -
"What do you plan to use the system mostly for?"
* Light use: Surfing the Web, paying bills online, e-mail and social networking, organizing and sharing digital photos
* Average use: Storing and streaming music and movies, tasks like spreadsheet and document creation
* Demanding use: Serious gaming, sophisticated graphics and photo editing, video production, high-resolution multitrack audio recording
If your new computer will live in an isolated location like a dedicated home office, a traditional desktop may be ideal. If, however, your computer will be in a more centralized location for family use, a compact desktop or stylish all-in-one PC may be more suitable. Consider a portable all-in-one or smart display if you want the option to take it places.
Planning on heavy duty gaming?
Most computers come standard with "integrated" graphics, meaning that the graphics processor is built into the chipset that houses the main processor. This is more than sufficient for general computing, but some applications require more imaging power. If your plans involve multiplayer 3D gaming, video editing or multimedia production, you'll probably want a standalone graphics card to make the most of your experience.
In older versions of Windows, uninstalling a program wasn't all that straightforward -- you had to go through the Programs and Features menu in the Control Panel. But in Windows 10, uninstalling a program (either a desktop program or a Windows 10 app) is much simpler.
Here are three different ways to uninstall an app or a program from your Windows 10 PC:
From the Start menu
You can uninstall both Windows 10 apps and traditional desktop programs directly (er -- sort of directly) from the Start menu.
To do this, go to Start > All apps and find the app or program you want to uninstall. Right-click on the app or program and click Uninstall from the drop-down menu that appears. If you don't see Uninstall in the dropdown menu, the app may be a default app, in which case you'll need to follow this guide to uninstall it.
If you're uninstalling a Windows 10 app, you'll see a pop-up window telling you the app and its related info will be uninstalled. Hit Uninstall to complete the uninstallation.
There's another way to uninstall apps that might not be too obvious. Swipe in from the right side of the screen and tap 'All settings.' Select System and then tap Apps & features. You can sort the list of apps by size, name, or install date. If you would like to uninstall an app, select it from the list and then tap or click the uninstall button.
If you can't find the app or program you want to uninstall in the Start menu, you can also uninstall apps and programs via the Settings menu.
Open the Settings menu (Start > Settings) and go to System and then click Apps & features. Here, you'll see a list of the apps and programs on your PC, sorted by size. You can use the search box at the top of the screen to search for apps, and you can resort the list by name or by install date.
Find the app or program you want to uninstall, click it, and then click Uninstall. It doesn't matter if it's an app or a desktop program this time -- you will see a pop-up window informing you that the app and its related info will be uninstalled. Hit Uninstall to complete the process (you may also see a pop-up asking if you want to let this program make changes to your computer, hit Yes to proceed).
From the Control Panel
You can still uninstall programs -- but not Windows 10 apps -- directly from the Control Panel. To do this, right-click the Start button and click Control Panel. Go to Programs and Features (if your Control Panel is in Category view, go to Uninstall a Program). Find the program you want to uninstall, click it to select it, and then click Uninstall. You'll see a pop-up window asking if you're sure you want to uninstall this program, click Yes and click through the uninstall wizard, if applicable.
