Product Reviews

Kitting out your PC with all the software required to make it useful can be expensive. The cheapest version of Microsoft Office costs around £300. A good photo editor will set you back around £70, while anti-virus and other vital security software can cost £30-50. Before you know it, you've spent more on software than it cost you to buy the PC. It's barmy - or so Woolworths seems to think. The venerable vendor of unnecessary plastic objects has brought out a range of own-brand software, including such essentials as an office suite and an anti-virus program. No title costs more than £25, and most are much cheaper. We filled our basket and tried them all.

We

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don't go in for crystal ball gazing, but here's one prediction we're prepared to stand by: if you don't back up your PC, you'll regret it. One day, Windows will crash or your hard drive will fail and you'll lose a file, or a whole bunch of files, that you just can't bear to part with. The only answer is to regularly back up your data, preferably to a secure external location. Human nature being what it is, even when you've come to appreciate this, you just won't get round to it. That's where good backup software is invaluable.

Unfortunately, this isn't good backup software. OK, it'll do the job. It allows you to specify files and folders that you want to back up and then schedule when backups should take place. But Windows XP and Vista already do this, at no extra cost. Save yourself the money and use the backup tool built in to Windows. Better yet, for just £22 from www.amazon.co.uk you can buy the excellent Acronis True Image. Not only will True Image backup and restore individual files, it can also take a snapshot of your entire operating system. You can use this to write over a corrupted installation of Windows, restoring your PC to working order in a few minutes. Back It Up can't do this.