Table of contents for 598 in Computeractive

Have you picked up any online habits during the latest lockdown? Mine is to visit https://windowswap.com and spend a relaxed few minutes hopping between the views from windows around the world. It takes me from my own view in suburban Surrey to Canada, Spain, the US, Russia and beyond. It’s addictive, but it can’t compete with the rise of TV streaming. Nearly a year of various lockdowns has led to a spike in demand for services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and the sticks that provide access to them – Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and so on. But streaming sticks have their limitations. You can’t watch much live TV on them, and nor can you record. They also lack ports for your USB sticks. For these reasons, a TV box…

Smaller broadband providers are also offering free services. Hyperoptic is giving free 50Mbps broadband to “families who currently do not have a reliable broadband connection” (more info at www.snipca.com/37135). The company supplies broadband in parts of 43 towns and cities, reaching more than 400,000 premises. Check availability on this map: www.hyperoptic.com/map. Another small provider, Community Fibre, is offering 50Mbps to “vulnerable households” in London (www.snipca.com/37136).…

LISTEN TO BBC SOUNDS ON SKY Q BOX The BBC Sounds app has been added to Sky Q boxes, letting you listen to over 80,000 hours of audio content from podcasts, music playlists and live radio broadcasts. To find and open the app, speak “Launch BBC Sounds” into your Sky Q voice remote. You can subscribe to shows and bookmark them to play later, and also pick up where you stopped listening on other devices. For more on Sky Q turn to page 55. NEW USB ADDS WI-FI 6 TO YOUR LAPTOP Router manufacturer D-Link has unveiled what it claims isthe world’s fairst USB adapter that adds Wi-Fi 6 to your laptop. The DWA-X1850(pictured) has WPA3 encryption, and is expected to go on sale between April and June this year.…

An eye-health charity is encouraging people to take regular breaks from staring at their devices during lockdown. The warning comes as research shows that a third of people believe their eyesight has worsened since the coronavirus pandemic began because they’re spending more time looking at computers, phones and tablets. Charity ‘Fight for Sight’ is recommending people adopt the ‘20-20-20’ rule to protect their sight. To do this, focus your eyes on something 20 feet away for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes you’re looking at a screen. A recent survey carried out by the charity found that out of 2,000 people, half have used screens more since last March. Respondents said they were having difficulty reading, and suffering from headaches and migraines as well as poorer night vision. The survey suggested…

HUGE RISE IN COST OF THREE PAYG CALLS The cost of sending calls, texts and data on Three’s pay-as-you-go (PAYG) packages will rise steeply on 16 February. Calls will increase to 10p a minute (from 3p), texts to 10p (from 2p), and data to 5p per MB (from 1p). The biggest rise is in sending texts internationally outside the EU, from 2p to 35p - a jump of 1,650 per cent. Three said this rise is in line with its new standard rates for using your phone at home, and isn’t linked to Brexit. NEW-LOOK POWERTOYS EASIER TO USE Microsoft is planning to revamp the PowerToys interface to make it easier to use its tools. At the moment, each tool opens in the background, causing some users to wonder whether…

There are only three certainties in life: death, taxes, and browser pop-ups. These irritating messages appear when you visit a website, usually asking you to sign up for alerts or newsletters. Sometimes they’re downright malicious, tricking you into installing malware. Google is already blocking some of these (see ‘Protect Your Tech’, Issue 593), but you should also try the browser extension PopUpOff. Version 2 of the tool has an automode which lets you choose how strictly you want to block notifications on individual sites. To install it, visit the link above and click the relevant browser icon at the bottom left (Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Edge). Once installed, visit any website then click the extension’s icon (a white P and a yellow O) in your browser bar and select Aggressive,…

Do I have to accept vouchers as a refund? LEAD CASE Q In December 2019, I bought some digital bathroom scales for £13 from Wilko (www.wilko.com). They stopped working in November last year. Wilko said that because I didn’t have any of the original packaging I was entitled only to a voucher for £8 to spend with them. I thought I was entitled to the full £13. Was I wrong? Michael Clear A More than six months had passed since purchase, so Michael was wrong to think he was entitled automatically to a full refund. To get a full refund after this length of time, he would need to prove that an item was inherently faulty. But his case does raise questions, such as whether retailers can force customers to…

Remove multiple people in one go Reader Keith Moody’s MyHeritage tree has grown too many branches. He wants to cut dozens of distant relations from it in one go. Can it be done? Sadly, no. As with many online trees, on MyHeritage you can only remove people individually, which can take a long time. Export your tree, then remove unwanted people However, we found a workaround with MyHeritage Family Tree Builder (www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder), a free Windows program that ties into your MyHeritage online account. The software lets you export a copy of your family tree in GEDCOM format containing only individuals you select from your existing tree. You can then upload this new tree without all the unwanted people. To do this, choose File then ‘Export GEDCOM’. Work your way through…

What can I use to rip CDs as a single file Q Can you recommend a tool for ripping CDs containing a series of talks? At present, I am using Ashampoo Burning Studio, but it assumes I’m ripping music, so it splits the talks into tracks which I then have to merge into one using a separate tool. Leon Davison A Although primarily intended for playing audio files, MusicBee also has a hidden ripping tool that does just what you’re after. First, download and install MusicBee from www.snipca.com/37130 (click Get MusicBee Installer). When you run the program for the first time, it will prompt you to scan for music on your PC, but you can skip this if you only want to use it to rip CDs. Make sure the…

Blake Paterson is a modern version of the dodgy second-hand car salesman. Except his vehicles weren’t for sale on some squalid forecourt – they were all listed on professional-looking car dealership websites, complete with fake reviews from satisfied ‘customers’. Between 2013 and 2017, the 36-year-old fraudster from Westerham in Kent managed to con around 200 victims into paying for non-existent motors, pocketing more than £1million. Police discovered that Paterson had continued to run the scam through his phone while in prison for a separate offence in 2016. In December, he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and one of money laundering, and was sentenced to seven and a half years behind bars. Let’s just hope someone keeps an eye on his phone privileges this time.…

LAPTOP | £500 from Box www.snipca.com/37046 Off colour A £500 laptop is inevitably going to suffer from some compromises, but you won’t spot the Liber V’s until you switch it on. From the outside it looks great, with its jet-black finish (also available in red and grey) breaking ranks with the current trend of simply copying the look of the latest Apple MacBook. The unit weighs 1.3kg, with a case that’s mostly made from metal, except for the base, which is plastic. However, there’s still some flex in the screen lid, which makes it feel a little fragile. One minor oddity is that the webcam isn’t flush with the screen, but extends out slightly from the top (as you can see pictured right). Unfortunately, it’s quality is disappointing also, with…

HEADPHONES | £100 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37065 Silence is golden Lindy’s original BNX-100 was a brilliant pair of budget over-ear, noise-cancelling wireless headphones, but sadly they’ve been discontinued. The BNX-100XT is the direct replacement and is another great place to start if you’re looking for budget headphones that reduce unwanted sounds from the outside world. “Produces crisp audio and effectively blocks outside noise” For this very reasonable price of £100 you get a pair of wireless headphones (which operate over Bluetooth 5), a durable hard-shell carrying case, a 3.5mm audio jack cable, a USB-C charging cable, an aeroplane plug adapter and a 6.3mm stereo-plug adapter. The headphone unit itself is brimming with clever technology, including auto-pause/resume when you take the headphones off and put them back on, an audio passthrough mode…

TRACKBALL MOUSE | £45 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37094 On the ball This wireless trackball is the most affordable of Logitech’s ergonomic pointing devices. It sits on your desk and you wrap your right hand around it. Then, instead of moving the whole device around as you would with a traditional mouse, you roll the ball under your thumb in the direction you want the cursor to travel. With this new design it doesn’t matter how large your hand is: your fingers will always rest naturally over the left and right mouse buttons, with your thumb over the trackball. We found it comfortable to use, even for long periods of time. If you’re switching from a regular mouse, the biggest change is to using just your thumb to move the cursor around…

LAPTOP Honor MagicBook 14 £600 from www.snipca.com/34688 Tested Issue 580 Using an AMD Ryzen 3500U processor, this lightweight metal laptop beat Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 with Intel’s i7-1065G7 in our tests. The 14in Full HD screen lacks colour accuracy but looks decent. For the money, it’s a great buy. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim notebook, although prices now start at a steep £1,629 from www.snipca.com/36642 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite £349 from www.snipca.com/35795 Tested Issue 582 Competing with Apple’s cheapest 10.2in iPad, this slim aluminium tablet comes with an S Pen stylus and a generous 64GB of storage at a reasonable price. It’s less powerful, but a great buy if you prefer Android. ALTERNATIVE Amazon…

What you need: Scanner or all-in-one printer Time required: One hour There’s a wide range of apps for scanning documents with your phone, many of which detect the edges of documents you point them at, then extract the text. If you need to capture text for research purposes in the library, they’re a cheaper alternative than paying for photocopies. They’re not for everyone, though, and if you have a scanner, or all-in-one printer with a built-in scanner on top, using that may be a better option. A lidded scanner can more effectively control the light reaching the sensor, which has the potential to deliver a better result – and, because the scanning head is wider than the sensor in your phone, you can usually capture higher-resolution images, too. Moreover, many…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Install Windows 10 on an old Sony Vaio laptop I have a Sony Vaio 17in i5 laptop (8GB RAM and a 500GB SSD, pictured) that refused to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 due to driver and hardware problems. I had just reinstalled Windows 10 on an old Dell OptiPlex PC that I’d bought refurbished from Amazon at a bargain price. I had fitted an SSD to clone the original hard drive that was running Windows 10. I then had the idea to make a further clone of the drive (also on an SSD) and installed it into my Sony Vaio laptop. I had nothing to lose, after all. The laptop booted up instantly in Windows 10, running the 2020 October Update (version 20H2) -…

Colorize Images Free* Android www.snipca.com/37090 Upload a black-and-white image from your photo library and this app will apply colour. We found the default results to be a little over-saturated for our tastes, but you can tweak these using a series of sliders until you get something you’re happy with. You can perform 10 colourisations before you need to pay. This starts at 89p for eight hours, or £1.59 for a month. Best For Quickly tweaking photos Colorise Free* iOS www.snipca.com/37089 Take a picture of a mono photo and this app will analyse its contents and colour them. The results are very realistic, with good skin tones and balanced colours. The free app lets you save the results in ‘good’ quality, resulting in a picture that could be printed roughly 50…

MICROSOFT WORD Access documents quickly When you click File then Open in Word, you’ll see a list of your most recently opened documents. However, there is an even faster way to open them, but you have to tweak a setting first to use the option Click File, Options, then select the Advanced section. Scroll down on the right of the window to the Display section, then tick the ‘Quickly access this number of Recent Documents’ box (see screenshot below). By default, Word will display your four most recent documents, but you can increase this to 25 if you want. Click OK to save your changes. When you next click File, you’ll notice that your recent documents are listed immediately below the usual File options (Open, Save and so on). To…

What is it? An attempt by Microsoft to create just a single version of Outlook that works online and on your desktop, replacing all the other confusing email options that currently exist in Windows. Such as? Well, for starters there’s the Mail app that comes with Windows 10, having debuted in Windows 8. It’s free to use, but doesn’t have as many features as either the online or desktop versions of Outlook. What does it lack? It can’t send emails as plain text, for example, nor place them in categories. It also lacks Outlook’s Ignore option, which automatically sends future emails in a chosen conversation to your Deleted Items folder (as Microsoft explains: www.snipca.com/37059). Microsoft once thought that the Mail app – and its sister Calendar app – represented the…

TOOLS MICROSOFT IS DEFINITELY KILLING OFF Snipping Tool Since 2018, Microsoft has been threatening to replace Snipping Tool – Windows’ handy built-in feature for taking and editing screenshots that’s been part of the operating system since Windows Vista – with a more ‘modern’ alternative. It’s still there, but only just. Launch the tool (search for it in the Start menu), and you’ll see a warning that ‘Snipping Tool is moving…’. The warning doesn’t include a deadline date, but preview versions of the next Windows Feature update (due in Spring) reveal Snipping Tool is due to be downgraded to an optional feature. This means you’ll have to enable it yourself (click start, type manage optional features, click ‘Add a feature’, then tick the relevant box) and suggests it’s likely to be…

Q I want to buy a new monitor to replace my old 19in one, which I must have had for 10 years. I’m thinking about a 24in screen, for the extra space. There are loads under £100 but also loads that are much more expensive. One key difference seems to be that the costlier displays are 144Hz, while the cheaper ones are usually 60Hz. I kind of understand that this is to do with how quickly the screen updates, but what does that mean to me as a Windows 10 user? I don’t have any real complaints about my existing display, other than its size. How can I find out what Hz my current monitor is? Alan Thomas A Hz is short for hertz, which is a unit of frequency…

3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 720p/1080p/1440p Common types of high-definition video of 1280x720, 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 pixels respectively. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A technology that converts a standard phone line into a broadband internet connection. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. aptX A codec used to compress audio so it can be transmitted over Bluetooth with minimal loss in quality. Augmented reality Lets you view the real world on a digital display and add elements from…

NETFLIX HIKES PRICES BY £24 A YEAR Netflix is increasing its prices from between £12 and £24 a year. Its Standard package, which lets you watch in high definition on two devices at the same time and download shows to them, will increase from £8.99 a month to £9.99. Its Premium plan, letting you stream in ultra high definition on four devices and download to them, will rise from £11.99 to £13.99. The increases will apply from February. GROWTH IN PC SALES FASTEST FOR A DECADE Sales of computers increased last year by the fastest rate since 2010, as people bought new machines during lockdown. Industry analysts Canalys reported that 297 million computers were sold in 2020, up from 267.5 million in 2019, a rise of 11 per cent. Lenovo…

BT Openreach is delaying home installations of full-fibre broadband until at least 1 March in order to avoid engineers entering customers’ homes during lockdown. It means that neither BT nor those providers that use Openreach’s cables – including Plusnet, Sky and TalkTalk - will be able to install fibre connections for at least another month. The company made a similar decision last March when the first lockdown was announced, lifting the restrictions three months later. It acknowledged that installing broadband is “key to keeping the UK connected”, which is why its staff are classified as ‘key workers’. This means they can still enter customers’ homes and businesses to carry out “essential work” such as urgent repairs where there’s a complete loss of service. However, Openreach said its engineers will “always…

I hung up on aggressive Amazon scammer I received an automated call supposedly from Amazon telling me that my account needed renewing, at a cost of £79. To continue, I had to press 1, which I did. I was put through to a person who explained that he could process the renewal via my mobile phone. I said I’d go into my account and do it that way. He then became aggressive, telling me it had to be done by phone, so I hung up. I took note of the caller’s number and checked on Google to see if it was registered as a scammer. There were similar numbers, but not the same one. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Once again, we’re left scratching our heads at PayPal’s refusal to provide a refund – and it’s all the more frustrating because the reader sent the information PayPal needed. In Issue 593 we explained how PayPal refused to refund Carolyne Sheehan the £17.43 she spent buying a hydro power washer from a Chinese firm. In an echo of Clive Bonner’s case opposite, she actually received a garden hose adapter (similar to the one pictured). She then returned the item to China and asked PayPal for her money back, but it closed the case without refunding her because it said she hadn’t provided tracking details. We’re surprised that PayPal abruptly closed her case without asking Carolyne for this information. It told us that the claim “was closed in the seller’s favour…

Is there an option in Chronoplex Software’s free My Family Tree tool to help me find ‘orphaned’ individuals in my family tree? David Price In genealogical terms, ‘orphans’ aren’t people without parents, but individuals with no links to anyone else in your tree. In My Family Tree, select Tools, Manage Trees and you’ll see these orphans listed beneath your main tree. Highlight an orphaned person from the list, click Go To, select the ‘Create relationship’ dropdown menu and then choose ‘Connect family member’ to select a parent, sibling, spouse or child from your main tree to link them back in. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Regular readers will recall how last year I used Sweet Home 3D (www.snipca.com/37124 – click the turquoise Download button) to plan a play area in the lounge for my kids (see Issue 556, page 20). Having spent more time in my home over the past year than ever before, I’ve once again turned to Sweet Home 3D to plan some improvements, but this time concentrating on my garden. If it were level, I could have done this quite easily by creating a room without walls and giving it a grass texture. Sadly, my garden is anything but flat. As well as adding an unusual edge to games of football with the kids, the slope also makes it harder to recreate in Sweet Home. However, after many attempts, I managed to…

LAPTOP | £1,242 from HP www.snipca.com/37041 AMD 5, Intel 0 Although the model number of this EliteBook 840 G7 looks as if it’s five steps behind the EliteBook 845 we reviewed in Issue 597, it’s an illusion created by HP’s product-numbering system. In fact, the laptops have one key difference, with this model (and other models with a zero at the end of their number) coming fitted with an Intel processor, while the 845 (and other models ending in a five) come with AMD processors. The model we’ve tested here comes with an Intel Core i7-10510U chip. “Stylish design and a brilliant screen, let down by performance and battery life” Aside from the processor, the laptop has a similar configuration to the EliteBook 845, with 16GB of memory but a…

PRINTER | £205 from ILGS www.snipca.com/37058 Join the inkjet set Churning out a lot of prints on an inkjet printer can be an expensive business, with miniscule cartridges regularly running dry and costing a small fortune to replace. This printer has been designed to combat this problem, with healthy XL cartridges capable of printing 5,000 pages. This works out to 1.3p per mono page and 5.7p for colour, which is good value for an inkjet printer. Even the supplied cartridges have an impressive capacity. Rather than fobbing you off with half-empty starter supplies, Epson throws in a set of standard 3,000-page cartridges, which should last you a fair while. “Reasonable running costs and perfectly sharp prints” There’s a good set of paper options, with a built-in 250-sheet paper cassette and…

Q With the third lockdown underway, I need to buy a new laptop that’s capable of smooth video chats. My budget is just £500. Mary Fallon A To provide a good video picture to others, you need to make sure your new laptop ha at least an HD camera. This certainly isn’t a given on many £500 laptops, with some models only offering a VGA (640x480-pixel) webcam. You also want the laptop to be able to multitask and stream video, so plenty of memory is more useful to you than a top-end processor. Of what’s currently available on the Curry’s PC World website, for example, we like the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 15.6inlaptop(www.snipca.com/37070, pictured), which has a decent AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD, along…

SMART SPEAKER | £349 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37100 Blast from the past Although it’s been quiet of late, Braun will be a familiar brand name to anyone over the age of 40. Most readers will probably remember the time when bathrooms and kitchens were crammed with devices made by the German company. The firm also produced some innovative audio products in the late 1950s and 60s, and it’s this era that the new Braun LE03 smart speaker harks back to. However, this time the hardware has been designed and produced under licence by British digital radio manufacturer Pure. “Punchy, room-filling audio from within a classy retro design” The LE03 is the smallest of three models in the new LE range, but at £349 it’s far from cheap. It has most of…

Hello, I’d like to thank you for continuing to read Computeractive during the past year. It’s been a tough time for everyone, but I’m glad we could provide a semblance of normality. As I write this, we’re in the third week of another lockdown. Many of the shops that stock Computeractive have closed. Since these restrictions were announced, we’ve seen a sharp rise in readers subscribing to the magazine in order to guarantee that it drops on their doormat every fortnight. To handle this rise in subscriptions, we’re putting additional effort into our deliveries to make sure you get your copy on time (several days before it goes on sale in the shops). If you’re thinking of subscribing, please see details below. And if you have any questions about subscribing,…

What you need: Draw.io; Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 Time required: 30 minutes Flowcharts aren’t just used by business executives to outline company strategies – they can also come in handy outside the office environment. If you run a local club, for example, you could create one to guide new members through the process of signing up. At home you could one to show a friend how to use a particular device. However you use them, Draw.io is a free, straightforward tool that lets you create and share flowcharts with a minimum of fuss. STEP 1 Draw.io is available as both an online service that you access through your browser at www.draw.io and a downloadable tool for Windows. Both operate in a similar way. In this Workshop we’ll use the…

ANDROID Start your day with a personalised morning briefing You could wake up to a siren or a series of beeps, but wouldn’t a personalised news report be much more useful? Whether it’s a weather forecast, traffic on your commute, the latest news bulletin – or a mix of all three and more – you can tailor your morning briefing to your exact requirements. Open the Android Clock app, tap Alarm on the bottom bar, then tap the ‘+’ button to add a new alarm. Set the time you want the alarm to sound, then tap OK. Make sure you tap the box beside Repeat if you want the alarm to sound every day, then tap the days of the week you want to apply it to. Next, tap the…

WINDOWS 7, 8.1 & 10 Quickly view all system information What’s the make and model of your motherboard? How much memory do you have installed? What processor is inside your PC? You can find the answer to these questions and more in the System Info app built into Windows. To open it, click Start, type msinfo32.exe, then press Enter. The default ‘System Summary’ section provides a detailed overview of your PC and its resources, but you can dig even deeper using the categories on the left. For example, open the Components category and select Network, then Adapter (see screenshot below) and you’ll find everything you ever wanted to know (and lots more besides) about the wired and wireless network adapters inside your PC. WINDOWS 10 Change the date of photos…

When writing a document in LibreOffice Writer, you may end up using a several different font sizes and styles (such as for headings, sub-headings and picture captions). Having to repeat applying a style from scratch each time can soon become a pain. Save yourself the hassle by adding the styling to the Writer’s Style list, letting you quickly access it in future. If the Styles sidebar in Writer isn’t already visible on the right-hand side of the window, press F11 to reveal it. Next, highlight the text that uses the font style you want to save, then drag it directly into the Styles sidebar (don’t worry if you’re not yet sure which heading to put it under – you can drag it to a different heading later if needed). When…

Companies reacted quickly during the first lockdown to offer free data, so we weren’t surprised they repeated this gesture. What’s more interesting now, as we tentatively imagine a time beyond the pandemic, is whether they’ll be as generous when struggling families and vulnerable people face difficulties in other times. They might come under pressure to provide free data during school holidays, for example, to make sure disadvantaged children don’t fall behind. Or perhaps they’ll be asked to provide discounted deals for pensioners, just as some over-75s receive free TV licences. Let’s wait and see.…

An IT worker who accidentally threw away a hard drive containing a Bitcoin fortune has offered to give some of the money to his local council if they let him look for it in landfill. James Howells (pictured), 35, bought the Bitcoins for almost nothing in 2009, but forgot about them when he put the drive in a drawer after he spilt drink on it. When he threw the drive away in 2013 he mistakenly thought everything had been wiped from it. He realised soon after that the Bitcoins left on the drive had risen in value to about £4.6m. They are now worth around 50 times the amount, meaning the drive contains an incredible £210m. He told the BBC that if Newport City Council allows him to look for…

Sir David Attenborough (pictured) will appear as a hologram in a Government-funded app to promote innovative uses of 5G networks. The presenter and naturalist will front the augmented reality app Green Planet that will let users see exotic plants and animals in their own home. It will tie in with a five-part documentary series of the same name expected to be broadcast in 2022. Minister for Digital Infrastructure Matt Warman said the app will show “how new technology can reconnect us with the natural world whilst demonstrating the power of 5G to a huge new audience”. Overall the Government is investing £28m in nine projects to showcase 5G’s potential. As well as being much faster than the 4G signal, 5G devices can handle far greater amounts of data. The Government…

WATCH OUT FOR… Money-stealing NHS vaccine texts What’s the threat? Fraudsters are sending fake text messages about the coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to access your bank account and steal your money. The scams, spotted by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), claim to be from the NHS, and state that “we have identified that you are eligible to apply for your vaccine” (1 in the screenshot). It tells you to click a link, which directs you to what looks like a genuine NHS site asking for your name and address. It also asks you to fill in your bank details to “verify billing address with the bank” 2. How can you stay safe? In Issue 597’s Protect Your Tech we told you that Interpol had warned the public about…

A couple of months ago, the hard drive on my old PC failed. This gave me the excuse to buy a new machine from Wired2Fire (https://wired2fire.co.uk), following a review in Computeractive. After setting it up, I found that one of my two monitors wouldn’t work. I rang the company, who immediately checked their records to find that a second DVI socket needed to be added. I live 20 miles from their factory in Dorking, Surrey, and two hours later one of their engineers arrived at my house in the pouring rain and added the appropriate card to the PC. He did this while standing in my porch, because my wife and I are in the vulnerable Covid category. He then rang me from his car and talked me through the…

MEDIA STREAMING Universal Media Server 10 www.snipca.com/37140 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Universal Media Server (UMS) is a streaming tool that takes the photos, videos and music stored on your PC, and lets you access them on devices connected to your home network. In our Cover Feature in Issue 590 (page 50) we explained how Plex (www.plex.tv) also does a similar job. So what does UMS offer that Plex doesn’t? For starters, UMS is open-source and free, so – unlike with Plex – you won’t be nagged to upgrade to a paid-for version. UMS also has some unique features, including displaying subtitles in videos even if the device you’re watching on doesn’t support them (UMS will add these before streaming begins). Version 10 adds two new folders…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Macrium Reflect Free I’m disappointed to report that another of my favourite free tools – backup software Macrium Reflect Free – seems to have jumped on the junkwagon. Head to www.macrium.com/reflectfree and click the Home Use button. You’ll then see a confusingly worded screen that presents you with three steps (‘1 Enter Email, 2 Add Details, 3 Check Email’), with a box underneath for you to enter your email address. But it’s very easy to miss the fact that it’s optional to provide your email at this point – you can click Continue without entering anything in the box. The next bullet is harder to dodge. Run the file you downloaded and you’ll discover that it isn’t, in fact, Macrium Reflect at all, but a…

PC | £1,000 from Chillblast www.snipca.com/37042 1660 Super Chilled to perfection PCs designed to run games often look good, but the Chillblast Fusion Marine oozes more class than most. Its tempered glass case looks amazing and is tastefully illuminated when you switch the PC on. It’s also remarkably quiet, with a low whirr from the fan that’s stable enough to fade into the background. “Fast with generous storage, memory and upgrade options” The supplied Intel Core i5-10600K processor probably doesn’t need the water-cooling system that Chillblast has fitted alongside it, unless you’re feeling adventurous and are thinking of overclocking it. If you are, the cooling is ready and waiting for you. Fortunately, such extravagances haven’t resulted in corner cutting elsewhere. The opposite is true when it comes to memory, with…

What is it? A monitor’s refresh rate is how many times it can produce a completely new image every second. In a PC’s graphics hardware, it’s often referred to as the frame rate. How does it work? Like TVs, PC screens create an illusion of movement by flashing a stream of still images at us. Our brains put the images together, creating the illusion of movement. Your PC’s graphics card detects the refresh rate of your screen and supplies it with as many images per second that the slowest of the two can handle. What are the specs? The base standard of even the cheapest monitors nowadays is 60Hz - that’s the ability to refresh the screen with a new image 60 times every second. Interestingly, as you go up…

USB DOCK | £132 from Ballicom www.snipca.com/37097 In every port Most modern laptops come with a limited number of ports on their super-slim cases, but with the right hub a single USB-C port can provide all the monitor, network and extra USB ports you’ll ever need. This USB-C dock is designed to sit on your desk and provide even the most lightweight of laptops with a decent choice of extra connection options. It’s a powered port, so comes with its own plug for attaching to a wall socket. Although you might roll your eyes at the thought of having to find another power socket behind your desk, laptops that require less than 75W can use this instead of their own USB-C power supply. This is because it’s more than powerful…

What is it? In early January LG announced a bendable 48in OLED screen that can be flat or curved. What does it do? Curved screens (like the one pictured here) were all the rage a few years ago. They’re great for gaming, where you can sit in the middle of the screen and immerse yourself in the action. They’re not so great for watching films with others, though, because anyone not sitting in the sweet spot gets their view skewed. Bendable screens should offer the best of both worlds, letting you switch from flat to curved at the press of a button. What’s the catch? It’ll probably be very expensive. Given that LG’s standard OLED 48in screen is £1,500 at Currys, we’d guess this will set you back least £2,000.…

Winner of a four-star Recommended award in Issue 597 (page 25), D-Link’s DIR-X1860 is an outstanding router that comes with Wi-Fi 6, enabling it to deliver maximum speeds of around 1.8Gbps throughout your home. The combined dual-band technology guarantees an optimal Wi-Fi experience to all devices, with minimal delay, whether you’re streaming videos, playing online games or simply browsing the web. Also, it’s ‘backwards compatible’ with older Wi-Fi networks, meaning you won’t lose access to devices that don’t have Wi-Fi 6 built in. You control the router from its online portal. This offers a simple firewall, which you can use to impose blocks and filters for all connected devices, and tools for routing traffic through a compatible VPN. You can assign priorities to different devices by dragging and dropping, and…

What you need: wkhtmltopdf; Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Time required: 30 minutes Saving a web page as a simple PDF isn’t difficult – in your browser, press Ctrl+P, then select ‘Save as PDF’ (or similar) in the Destination box. However, what if you want to save more than one web page in the same PDF, remove images or apply other tweaks? To do that, you’ll need wkhtmltopdf – a command-line tool that you run in Command Prompt. That may sound daunting, but as we reveal here, once you’ve learnt the basics it’s a powerful tool that’s great for converting multiple web pages into one searchable PDF. STEP 1 To download the tool, go to www.snipca.com/37038 and select either the 32bit or 64bit version of the Windows installation file 1.…

Open Weather Free iOS www.snipca.com/37087 Android www.snipca.com/37088 This weather app takes a scientific approach to presenting upcoming conditions, with hourly forecasts for the next two days and minute-by-minute temperature and rainfall updates for the next hour. It’s packed with information, presented using smart, flat graphics, and includes official warnings, like snow and ice alerts. Footpath Route Planner Free* (for five saved routes. From £1.42 per month for unlimited) iOS www.snipca.com/37087 Android www.snipca.com/37084 Tap the pen and draw a rough route on the on-screen map, and Footpath Route Planner will snap your line to real footpaths and roads on the underlying map. It’s extremely quick, and much easier than manually plotting your route on paper or an onscreen street plan. You can save five routes in the free edition. Altimetry Free…

Microsoft releases Feature Updates for Windows twice a year (the next is due in the spring), with each bringing a selection of new features. However, as we explain on page 60, Microsoft also has a habit of removing tools with each Feature Update. Worse still, you may find an update causes problems with your PC – particularly on older computers. If you find your PC isn’t behaving properly and you suspect a Feature Update might be the culprit, you can find out the date the update was installed. Then, if your PC started playing up on the same day, you can be reasonably sure the update is to blame. Click the Start button, type about your PC, then press Enter. In the window that appears, scroll to the ‘Windows specifications’…

Use breakout rooms in Zoom calls There are plenty of free video-chat tools that let you speak to your club’s members as a group (Skype recently increased the maximum limit in a group call to 100 – see Issue 595, page 48). However, actually managing a call with more than 10 or so people can be tricky, and good ideas can get lost when everyone attempts to talk over one another while also shouting “You’re on mute!” to those mouthing words silently. Thanks to the breakout-room feature in Zoom, you can split call participants into smaller, more manageable groups, with each one effectively operating as a separate call. It works really well when you want smaller groups to discuss ideas then present these back to everyone else. Alternatively, you may…

Which USB stick should we select when erasing files? Q Are you trying to confuse us or am I missing something in Issue 594’s ‘Remove all your personal files from your USB sticks’ Workshop? In Step 5, you tell us to make absolutely sure that we’ve selected the correct drive, further explaining how to use File Explorer to check. However, despite declaring that the stick you were using was drive letter E, you immediately afterwards say: “so we’re selecting ‘USB Drive (D:)’”! More experienced readers will recognise the mistake, but those less familiar with things might well misunderstand and wipe the wrong device or drive. Despite this, you can also add my compliments on a brilliant magazine to those you already have. I M Williams A We don’t have much…