Is there a free alternative to Adobe's InDesign to make brochures, posters and newsletters?

Riya Ghosh

InDesign has become the industry standard for all design work that needs to be printed. However, it is also very costly. You should try Scribus instead. It is free and you can generate a portable document format (PDF) that you can hand over to the printer. It has features such as colour separations and support for CMYK and spot colour. It is easy to use and meets almost all publishing requirements. You will find Scribus at https://wiki.scribus.net .

NOT GOOD ENOUGH

I have an original version of Windows 10 in my desktop computer and Windows Defender protects it. Is this sufficient or do I need to buy another antivirus program?

Nitin Agarwal

Windows Defender is not yet good enough. It is erratic and sometimes fails to detect some known and unknown malware. Another major drawback is that it does not stop users from visiting malicious websites if they use browsers other than Internet Explorer and Edge. All other paid and free antivirus products work well with all browsers, including Chrome and Firefox. Windows Defender uses a lot of your computer's resources when it is scanning the system and this hinders other work. I would suggest that you download Avira Free Antivirus for Windows from www.avira.com/ en/free-antivirus-windows . If you want even better protection, get Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2017 for around Rs 2,200 a year from www.bitdefender.com.

CHECK SPECS FIRST

I am running genuine Windows Vista on my laptop. Can I still upgrade to Windows 10 through routine system updates?

Ravi Bavle

Microsoft's free upgrade offer to Windows 10 expired on July 29 last year. Vista needs to be upgraded first to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and then to Windows 10. If you go through system updates you will have to pay for both Windows 7 and Windows 10. That is why before you upgrade, take a close look at your laptop. The processor should be 1GHz or faster. It should have at least 2GB RAM and enough storage. The graphics card should be support DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver. Make sure you get a display resolution of 800 x 600. If your computer has these minimum specs, take a backup of the files and folders you need. Buy a genuine version of Windows 10 and do a clean install. If your computer is already running slow on Windows Vista, it is not worth upgrading it to Windows 10. You will probably be better off if you just upgrade to Windows 7, provided you can buy a licensed copy.

ANTIVIRUS BONUS

We have installed Dell SonicWall firewall in our office. Do we still need to install antivirus software?

Rishabh Agarwal

Firewall software and an antivirus program are two different methods of protecting the computer from infectious malicious software. Antivirus software scans the computer to detect and remove already infected files and also prevents viruses from affecting any files. Firewall hardware or software, on the other hand, protects your company's internal network from the public Internet, which is not always safe. Yes, you should get good antivirus software installed too.

HERDPROTECT IT

My Mozilla Firefox browser has been infected by the launchpage.org malware. Neither Windows Defender nor Malwarebytes can remove it.

Resham Das

This particular malware is known as a browser hijacker. If Malwarebytes does not detect it then herdProtect will. This anti-malware scanner is a second line of defence that is powered by 68 different anti-malware engines that reside in the cloud. You will find it here: www.herdprotect.com/installers/herdProtectScan_Setup.exe . Just ensure you are connected to the Internet when you scan the computer.

STOP RESTART

My PC keeps restarting over and over again right after it tells me to launch Startup Repair. The repair tool does not find any problem. I use Windows 7 Ultimate.

Nitai Mandal

You most probably have a defective RAM. Switch off your computer and restart it once again. Press the F8 key and you should get a screen with Advanced Boot Options. Select Safe Mode. This only starts the most important Windows 7 processes. Go to the Search on your desktop after your PC boots up and type sysdm.cpl. Click on the Advanced tab. Under Startup and Recovery, click on Settings. Remove the checkmark under 'Automatically restart'. Your system will stop restarting when it cannot keep going. Now restart your computer normally. Go to www.memtest86.com and download the tool to check the system's memory.

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