SupportPCs is run by Joe Cassels and Nick Peers, experienced PC journalists who write regularly for both UK and international magazines. For more information on published work - past and present - please check here and here.
The SupportPCs forum is run with the invaluable help of our colleague and good friend, Caroline Lyons. To see what services Caroline's business (CLICtech) offers, please check here.

Editorial Policy

Most of the articles on this site were previously published in magazines, including PC Answers, Windows XP: The Official Magazine and Windows Vista: The Official Magazine, among other titles. Many are reissued here under the “six month rule”, in that the original contract under which they were written had a six month exclusivity limit beyond which the author is free to republish. However, in many cases the articles are updated when they are uploaded to ensure that the content is relevant. We aim to update articles including time sensitive information regularly. However, technology develops rapidly, as does the internet. If you find out of date information, broken links or any inaccuracy that has got past our eagle eyes, please contact us and let us know. We want the information you find on Support PCs to be useful to you.

Windows XP: The Official Magazine included copy guidelines restricting the mention of Microsoft competitors. It can be argued that articles coming from this publication are therefore not entirely editorially independent. However the function of the articles in most cases is to explain how particular pieces of Microsoft software work and therefore the issue of editorial independence is arguably less important in these cases. Other magazines generally have a policy of strict editorial independence; one this site aims to replicate through transparency.

It is impossible for any publication to be totally free of bias. Authors are affected by their personal opinions and life experience. Most publications are funded at least in part by advertising or sponsorship. However good the editorial intentions are, the source of funding will inevitably affect the publication's output. We therefore aim to reveal funding sources and other influences that may affect site copy. If any of these are unclear, please contact us.

How this site is funded

Support PCs is run by journalists who write copy for a living. It is free to use, but one of its functions is to generate income for its authors. We display advertising provided by Google AdSense. You will notice these adverts in the far left column, at the top of the page below our banner and in boxes within articles. Google clearly labels its adverts as such. They are delivered to our pages by Google and are targeted to our content by Google's technology. We exercise no control over which adverts appear. They may be text or image based adverts. In some cases this means that adverts from some of our affiliates will appear. We get a trickle income from clicks attracted by these adverts, but part of Google's terms of service mean that we cannot entice visitors to click ads nor can we ask them to do so. This is an example of a Google ad group:

We also use affiliate links to generate income. Where we have found services or companies that we have recommended in our copy, we've searched for affiliate networks that include these companies. An affiliate link is like any other link on the internet, but it includes a code that enables the company or its agent to identify where the link originated. When visitors to Support PCs click on an affiliate link and subsequently buy a related product or service, we are paid a small commission. The affiliate link identifies our site but does not include any information about you or your browser. However, if you subsequently use an affiliate service, the provider will probably store registration information about you. This is the case with any on-line business and would be done whether you arrived there by an affiliate link or not.

You can tell an affiliate link by the destination shown in the status bar of your browser when you hover the mouse over it. There's more information included in the link and it may show the URL of the third party affiliate network provider. Some sites scramble this information to try and hide the fact that they use affiliate links. We do not. We also aim to mark affiliate links with an asterisk and where possible provide a non-affiliate option for transparency, usually at the end of the article concerned. Obviously we would rather that you used the affiliate version as it might mean income for the site, but we believe that visitors should have the right to choose whether or not they wish to support us. We have modelled this system on that used by the Money Saving Expert Site www.moneysavingexpert.com as we admire the commitment to transparency that that site displays.

We will recommend services that we can't get affiliate links with where we believe that they represent the best value for visitors. Most internet based companies however do provide affiliated links.

Geographical note

Support PCs is based in the UK, but many computer issues are common regardless of location. We receive thousands of visitors from the US, Europe and Australia each month and have hits from a wide range of other countries. At present most service deals referred to are UK based, but we're actively looking for ways to include recommendations that are suitable for our international visitors.  If you're a technology company based outside the UK that would like to partner with us, please contact us with details.

If you would like to know any more about this site or are interested in licensing any of our content, please contact us.