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I’ve got an idea for a reality TV show. Called ‘Keep or Ditch?’, it would follow the ‘personal journey’ of Windows 10 users as they decide which apps to uninstall. At the end they would gush about how removing the Groove Music app has made them a better person. OK, it’s the worst ever idea for a TV show. Not even Channel 5 would broadcast it. But it makes a great Cover Feature. We’ve given our ‘keep or ditch’ verdict on 30 Windows 10 apps, plus pointless tools in Windows 7. Stuart Andrews would approve. He was always criticising Microsoft for stuffing Windows with junk. As he grumbles into the sunset, let me introduce our new Mr Angry – Ken Rigsby. Turn to page 74 for his first Final Straw…

FRIENDS REUNITED TO CLOSE AFTER 15 YEARS Friends Reunited, one of the first social-networking websites, is to close. British couple Julie and Steve Pankhurst launched it in 2000 as a way for people to get in touch with old school friends and work colleagues. They sold it to ITV for £120m in 2005, by which time it had around 15 million members. But its popularity rapidly declined in the face of competition from sites such as MySpace and Facebook. AMOUNT OF EMAIL SCAMS ROCKET IN 2015 The number of people who reported being targeted by phishing scams rose by 21 per cent in 2015 to 96,000. The figure comes from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, run by the City of London Police. It also found that at 80 per cent…

Can eBay close a case with money still owed? Q I bought a £10.49 TV remote control from a company on eBay. It didn’t work, so I sent it back and received a refund. But the company ignored my requests to refund the £2.80 postage it cost me to return the item. Also, my negative feedback has been removed, and eBay has closed my dispute. Is all this fair? Brian Map A No, it’s not. Because the remote control was faulty Brian is entitled to a refund of the delivery postage, and what it cost him to return it. But eBay won’t help him now because it closed his dispute after he was refunded for the cost of the item. We’ll ask eBay what buyers can do in these situations,…

What can I use instead of iTunes? Q I’ve had enough of iTunes! It’s horribly slow and loses album artwork all the time. Would the Groove Music app that comes with Windows 10 be a good replacement? One thing concerns me though – I use iTunes to sync my contacts and calendar on my iPhone. Is there another program I can use for this? Richard Haynes A We agree that iTunes isn’t great on Windows PCs, but we don’t rate Groove Music much either (see our Cover Feature, page 50). Instead, try Windows Media Player (WMP), which is great for playing music files, and is available in all recent versions of Windows, including Windows 10 (look under W in ‘All apps’). To import your iTunes library into WMP, click Organise,…

ZTE? No, it didn’t ring many bells with us, either. It turns out to be quite a big Chinese electronics manufacturer, and the Axon Elite is its challenge to the more familiar names in smartphones. At first glance, the Axon Elite looks like something you’d find in a Middle-Eastern bazaar. It’s the right sort of shape for a phablet, with the same screen size and resolution as the iPhone 6s Plus. But what ZTE calls its ‘signature pattern grill’ – a weird criss-cross at the top and bottom – is just a tacky way to trap fluff, and the faux-leather back is all too clearly aiming to mimic the LG G4. ZTE’s indefatigable marketing department reckons the Axon Elite has a ‘visual depth’ of 5.1mm, which would be impressive except…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2015 Back Issue CD : £15 fromwww.snipca.com/19124 LAPTOP NEW ENTRY Asus UX305 £570 from www.snipca.com/19439 Tested: Issue 447 13.3in is a practical size for a laptop, and this light but sturdy ‘ultrabook’ has a smart and slim design that does justice to its capable performance. Upgradeable to Windows 10, it’s limited mainly by its 128GB SSD, which makes it work fast but might leave you needing more space. ALTERNATIVE Toshiba Satellite C40-C This 14in Windows 10 laptop looks like it cost a lot more. It’s not the most amazing PC, but it’s fantastic for the price. £200 from www.snipca.com/19436 DESKTOP PC Palicomp AMD Shockwave £500 from www.snipca.com/18748 Tested: Issue 464 Proving that you don’t need an Intel processor, Palicomp has…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT ✓ Fix out-of-sync subtitles in VLC media player I am quite hard of hearing, a condition that has become more severe of late. I use a hearing aid but tend to rely on subtitles when watching videos on my computer. Thankfully, it’s easy to download free subtitle files (which come in the standard .SRT format) for any movie or TV show using a simple Google search. To load these subtitles into VLC (www.snipca.com/19204), which is my favourite media player, first play your video file, click Subtitle at the top of the VLC window, then click Add Subtitle File. Next, navigate to and select the downloaded subtitle file on your PC, then click Open. Once the file has loaded, your video will…

AGES 0-5 Sarah & Duck – Day at the Park £2.99 www.snipca.com/19383 (Android) £2.99 www.snipca.com/19384 (iOS) The six games in this CBBC app will keep your toddler entertained for hours. Our favourites are Kite Maker and Feeding the Ducks. In the former, your child can design their own kite using different shapes and colours. In the latter, they must match a duck with the correct type of bread. AGES 6-10 Alto’s Adventure £2.29 www.snipca.com/19385 (iOS) In this enjoyable game, your child plays as the snowboarder Alto navigating along a series of serene villages, woodlands and ruins. You need to rescue stray llamas by skiing into them. Tap the screen to jump over obstacles, and tap and hold it to perform somersaults for additional points. AGES 11-16 Cryptica Free www.snipca.com/19386 (Android)…

Speed up launch time Activity Indicator (www.snipca.com/19084) doesn’t launch with Windows, but that’s easily fixed, and while you’re at it you can disable the program’s splash screen to make it just a tad quicker to load. Every little helps, as they say. First, right-click the Activity Indicator icon in the notification area of the Taskbar and choose Show Window. In the ‘Program behavior’ section, tick ‘Start with Windows’ and clear the tick from ‘Show splash screen’. Click the red X to close the window (don’t click the Exit button because that closes the program entirely). Put an icon on your Desktop By default, Activity Indicator puts its little flashing icon in the Taskbar’s notification area. But there’s a hidden trick that’ll put it on your Desktop instead. Open the Activity…

There are three ways to uninstall Windows 10’s built-in apps. Bear in mind that it can be hard to get them back once they’ve been removed. See page xx for more details. 1 Right-click In some cases, you can remove built-in apps by right-clicking them and selecting Uninstall. This doesn’t work for all, but this method will get rid of 3D Builder, Get Office, Get Skype, Get Started, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Microsoft WiFi, Money, News, Phone Companion, Skype Video, Sport and Sway. 2 Use an uninstaller Stubborn apps, including Alarms & Clock, Calculator, Films & TV and Groove Music, can be removed using the free program 10AppsManager (www.snipca.com/19259). Unzip the tool and run it, then click the icon for the app you want to remove and click Yes. The program…

Microsoft’s Extended support for Windows 7 is due to end on 14 January 2020, after which the operating system (OS) will stop receiving security updates. However, Microsoft has hinted that it may become unsafe earlier than that. As we reported in Issue 467 (see News, page 6), in December the company’s chief marketing officer Chris Capossela said that people using Windows 7 do so “at their own risk”. He warned users that the OS may be incompatible with new hardware, such as printers, and alluded to dangers posed by “viruses and security problems”. This feels like scare tactics to us (and to some of you, too – see Star Letter, page 11). It’s true that Windows 7 will become increasingly incompatible with new hardware, but Microsoft has promised to release…

32bit A measure of how much information a computer can process at once. More modern ones are 64bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks. Faster than 802.11n. 802.11n A standard for wireless networks. Add-on See Extensions. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. A technology for creating flat-panel displays. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. PC software that connects the vital components. Clean install An operating system installation that overwrites all other content on the hard drive. Clock speed The speed at which a PC processor can perform. Measured in Gigahertz (GHz). CPU Central Processing Unit. Another term for a processor. Defragment To reorganise the data stored on a hard…

Claim partial refunds for slightly damaged goods Several readers have contacted us to ask whether the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) has strengthened their rights for items bought in a sale. The new law doesn’t make any specific changes to the rules on sale items, but there is a new regulation that increases your options when you return goods - whether they were bought at full price or at a discount. Under the CRA you can now ask for a partial refund if you discover that an item is faulty, but not so badly damaged that you want to return it. For example, if a jumper has small stain that you can live with, or if a book has a slightly ripped page that doesn’t affect your reading, you can go…

‘Security upgrades’ banking scam In January, I received a scam that appears to be a new twist on the bank-phishing emails. Rather than saying: “Your account has been compromised”, it said that my account had had security upgrades applied. It came from ‘NatWest’, though the address was ‘weekly@sendgrid.net’. It said that the updates meant I now had “even better control and greater peace of mind”. It urged me to “try these new features” and there was a link at the bottom stating ‘Get started’, but hovering my mouse over it showed that it didn’t go to a NatWest site. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Desktop computers used to be plain black boxes. Now they come with UFO landing lights, rocket exhaust vents and Formula 1 spoilers. But what if you just want something that gets on with the job, neither seen nor heard? PC builder Chillblast – which isn’t usually averse to an LED-backlit grille or dual-radiator water-cooler – has pushed all the stops back in for this exercise in understatement. The Fusion Orion i3 takes a selection of the latest affordable components and hides them inside a box so black, it’ll attract nobody’s attention but Stephen Hawking. The case is actually Ace’s Ecco 250. Not only is it devoid of shape or colour, it has an internal layer of noise-absorbing material that, just like a real black hole, allows nothing to escape. Switch…

Buying a very cheap computer, as we periodically point out, is often a false economy. Its limited performance will make some tasks impossible and others so frustrating that you avoid doing them – the opposite of how technology should improve your life. But there’s a case to be made for a really, really cheap computer – one that’s not so much an alternative to a proper computer, as an alternative to not having a computer. Last year we tested a couple of ‘PC sticks’, tiny computers that plug straight into the HDMI port of a digital TV or PC monitor. The Chromebit is like that, but instead of Linux or Windows, it runs Google’s Chrome OS, like the Chromebox and Chromebook PCs that we’ve tested before. Cleverly, the plug part…

Canon CanoScan LiDE 220 £55 from Amazon www.snipca.com/18200 Scanners built into multi-function printers are fine for photocopying and digitising documents, but they don’t always give great results with photos. A dedicated flatbed scanner like the LiDE 200 is a step up. At just over a minute to scan a 6x4in photo at 1200dpi, it’s quick and has decent colour accuracy. Canon CanoScan 9000F MkII £156 from PC World Business www.snipca.com/19398 One thing the LiDE 200 can’t do is scan transparent slides and negatives. This model can – working at up to 9600dpi and with 48bit colour to capture more tonal range. It’s faster than the LiDE 200, but not ideal for high volumes of scanning. Sadly it no longer comes with the excellent SilverFast software. Epson Perfection V600 Photo £230…

What’s the best mouse for unsteady hands? Q A tremor in my hands is making it increasingly difficult to control my mouse. Can you recommend any software for Windows 10, or a special mouse, which might help me? Sheelagh Wurr A Slowing down the mouse may help. Press the Windows key, type pointer speed and press Return to select the option that appears. Under Motion, set the slider to Slow. You can also avoid the mouse and use the keyboard to skip between options. You can do this on any keyboard, and tips for both Windows and Mac users can be found at www.snipca.com/19389. Taking this a step further, you can use your keyboard’s number pad to move the cursor. Press the Windows key, type ease mouse and select ‘Ease…

Winner of a 4-star ‘Great Pick’ award in Issue 467, the new Wacom Bamboo Spark converts your handwriting into editable text on your PC or tablet. You simply press a button in the middle of the case to send each finished page to your device. Once that’s done, you can access what you’ve written using online services such as Dropbox or Evernote, or Wacom’s own service. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis. co.uk with ‘spark’ in the subject line by midnight 16 February. The Wacom Bamboo Spark is on sale now for £119 from www.wacom.com. For more information on Wacom’s products visit www.wacom.co.uk, and follow @wacomeurope on Twitter.…

ANDROID & iOS See all the apps you’ve ever installed on your device If you’ve recently bought a new device (or reformatted an old one), then you probably went through the rigmarole of re-installing all your favourite apps. In the process, you may have forgotten some of the apps you had on your previous device. Thankfully, Android and iOS let you see every single app you’ve ever installed. If you’ve ever bought paid-for apps, you’ll be able to install them on your new device for free. If you use an Android device, open any browser on your PC, go to play.google.com/apps and log in using your Google account. You’ll see all the apps you’ve ever installed. Scroll to the bottom and click Show More to see the full list. Any…

WINDOWS 7, 8 Stop Windows themes changing your Desktop icons Windows 7 and 8 have lots of themes you can use to enhance the look and feel of your PC. Simply right-click your Desktop, click Personalize, then select the one you want. Bear in mind that some themes will automatically change the appearance of your Desktop icons, but thankfully there’s an easy way to stop this happening. Right-click anywhere on your Desktop, click Personalize, then click ‘Change desktop icons’ at the top left. You’ll see a small ‘Allow themes to change desktop icons’ box at the bottom, which is ticked by default. Untick the box, click Apply, then OK (see screenshot below). In future, whenever you apply a new theme it won’t affect your Desktop icons. WINDOWS 10 Restore Windows…

You can set Activity Indicator to show activity for just one drive, but what if you want to see what’s going on with multiple drives simultaneously? Well, you can do that – and apply and save different settings (such as icon style) for each indicator. First, press Windows key+E to launch Windows/File Explorer, navigate to the ActivityIndicator.exe program file, right-click it and choose Create Shortcut. Now right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. In the Target field, place double quotes around the current string (so C:\Location\ ActivityIndicator.exe becomes “C:\Location\ ActivityIndicator.exe”). Directly after the closing quotes type a space and then settings2 (so the whole now looks like this – “C:\Location\ Activity Indicator.exe” settings2 – see screenshot). Click OK, then doubleclick the new shortcut to launch it. Make the adjustments you want…

1 3D Builder What is it? It lets you create, view and print 3D models. Keep or ditch? Ditch. Those who have an interest in 3D modelling may want to give this app a spin, but it’s frustratingly low on features and, unless you have a compatible 3D printer (http://microsoft.com/3d), it’s pretty useless. 2 Cortana What is it? Using spoken commands you can search your PC and the web and set reminders. Keep or ditch? Disable. Some may find Cortana useful, but it gathers lots of information about you and your activity, and stores this online, which not everyone will be comfortable with. Annoyingly, although Cortana is technically an app, it’s hardwired into Windows 10, so you can’t uninstall it – not even with the tips we’ve outlined on page…

NEW! THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO ANDROID If you use an Android tablet or phone, our new book will tell you how to get the most out of your device. It explains everything you need to know about the latest versions of Android (Lollipop and Marshmallow), so you’ll feel confident you won’t get left behind. We’ll also reveal the best apps for everything you’ll ever want to do, and expose the dodgy apps that slow your device. And as hackers increasingly switch their sights from PCs to phones and tablets, we’ll show you how to stay safe. BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON at www.snipca.com/18829 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO WINDOWS 10 This 148-page book is the only guide you need on Microsoft’s fantastic new operating system. You’ll learn how to master all…

Windows 7 may not come with apps, but it’s bursting with tools and programs you don’t really need. To remove them click Start, Control Panel, then ‘Uninstall a program’. This opens the ‘Programs and Features’ tool. Its main function is to remove third-party software from your PC, but on the left you’ll see an option to ‘Turn Windows features on or off’. Click this to open a window listing the features you can enable or disable. Click the plus symbols to reveal individual components. To remove an item, untick it, then click OK. If you see a warning, click Yes. What can you safely uninstall? You need to be careful when removing features from Windows. Some – like Windows Search – make your PC work better, so it’s best to…

KEN RIGSBY is Computeractive’s Mr Angry Are you ready for something new? Are you? Come on, I know you are! You’re not? Oh. Well, here it is anyway. If you don’t want it - tough. I’ll simply keep badgering until you agree. You’ll then feel like a harried husband who wants to go fishing on a Saturday morning, but is being pestered into trudging around John Lewis to buy some overpriced cushion covers, before rushing home to fix the dripping tap and wonky shelf. “The option I’m waiting for is, ‘Thanks Microsoft, but I’m happy with Windows 7, so take your new OS and shove it where your forced updates don’t shine’” That’s pretty much how I feel every time my beloved Windows 7 laptop pops up with that “Get…

‘123456’ WORLD’S FAVOURITE PASSWORD The most commonly used password in 2015 was ‘123456’, topping the chart for the third year running. ‘Password’ was second, and ‘12345678’ third. Every year passwordmanagement company SplashData ranks the popularity of passwords leaked online, and every year it shows that millions of people use passwords that are notoriously easy to guess. See the 2015 list at www.snipca.com/19421. MICROSOFT RECALLS FAULTY POWER CORDS Microsoft is recalling many power cords for its Surface Pro tablet after it said they were in danger of overheating. The company said that “a very small proportion of Surface Pro customers” have reported problems with power cords that have been twisted or wound too tightly. The recall applies to Surface Pro, Pro 2 and Pro 3 models sold before July last year.…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Windows 10 update? We don’t need it My heart sank when I read the ‘Question of the Fortnight’ in Issue 467 (‘What will be in the next big Windows 10 update?’ – see image right). I’d like to answer it with a question of my own: why does there need to be another update at all? I know Microsoft loves tinkering with Windows, but there really is no need with Windows 10. I’ve been using it for a few months, and it’s great. From reading your piece, it seems that Microsoft won’t be fixing anything in the update. Instead it will be forcing Cortana on to people who don’t want to use it, which I’m guessing is…

What happened? Antivirus company Trend Micro was criticised by Google for including an unsafe password-management tool in its software. It was spotted by Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy, who is earning a reputation for identifying flaws buried deep in software. In December, he called AVG’s WebTuneUp browser extension “trash” for “force installing” an unsafe plug-in into Chrome (see Protect Your Tech, Issue 467). He followed this in early January by accusing Trend Micro of sneaking on to PCs a tool called Password Manager that, far from keeping your details safe, actually contained a flaw hackers could have exploited to steal your passwords. The tool is automatically added to your system when you download Trend Micro Antivirus. See Trend Micro’s instructions at www.snipca.com/19326. Ormandy was not impressed, telling Trend Micro that…

PASSWORD MANAGER LastPass 4.0 www.snipca.com/19295 What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Ever since LastPass was bought last October by US cloud-software firm LogMeIn, users having been fearing that its new owners would mess around with how it worked. But the latest version of the password manager suggests that LogMeIn understands exactly why millions of people love LastPass. This version has a revamped interface and several outstanding new features, but you can still download and use it for free. There’s a Premium edition available for £8 per year, but all the program’s core features are present in the free edition. The main limitation with the free version is that you can only sync passwords between the same type of device. For example, if you’re using LastPass on…

SPRING 2016 Others are calling Samsung’s Galaxy TabPro S the “tablet nobody expected”, which is funny because we told you about it months ago (see Issue 463). The 12in-screen Windows 10 device will compete with Apple’s iPad Pro. SPRING 2016 Due in March, HP’s EliteBook Folio G1 could be the first ultra-slim laptop to go one better than Apple’s 12in MacBook. Comes with an even sharper screen and a 180-degree hinge for more flexibility, but will be too expensive for many people. SPRING 2016 Lenovo’s Link is a USB stick that connects an Android device to a PC, letting you operate mobile apps from your keyboard or display the device’s screen in a window. Expected to cost £40, it contrasts with Microsoft’s Display Dock, which lets you use a Windows…

PULL OUT & KEEP Issue 468 What you need: AOEMI Partition Assistant Standard Edition; Any version of Windows (XP to 10) Time required: 1 hour Looking for a great way to back up your data? Then you should try AOMEI Partition Assistant – a fantastic free program that lets you clone all the partitions on your PC’s hard drive. You can then copy this to another partition on your PC or to an external drive. The program also makes it easy to move data to a new PC and lets you create a bootable drive. It offers another great feature that’s only otherwise available to users of the Enterprise version of Windows 10 (see Step 8). STEP 1 To install AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition (APASE), go to www.snipca.com/19442 and…

SKRWT Android: www.snipca.com/19377 (67p) iOS: www.snipca.com/19378 (79p) Almost all photo-editing apps let you crop, rotate, edit and add filters to your photos, but SKRWT has tools that make it stand out from the competition. It can easily fix blurry or distorted photos and its perspectivecorrection tool lets you alter photos that you’ve taken from the wrong angle. Jukebox Free iOS: www.snipca.com/19379 This app will appeal to people who prefer listening to their own music collection rather than to streaming services such as Spotify. Store your music in your Dropbox account, then grant Jukebox access to it and choose which tracks to download to your device. You can sort your music by album or artist and create playlists. OLIO Free Android: www.snipca.com/19381 iOS: www.snipca.com/19382 OLIO’s aim is to decrease food wastage…

WORD Copy text from a password-protected document While you can download many types of documents (ebooks, journals, etc) from the internet, many of these files will have been protected by whoever created the file, so you can access it but can’t make any changes. On rare occasions, the page hosting the document will contain the password to unlock it, but don’t count on it. While you can’t copy images or charts from a passwordprotected document, there’s an easy way to copy all the text within it. You can then modify this in whatever way you choose, such as increasing the font size. To do this, open a new Word document, click the Insert tab, click the small white icon at the bottom-right of the Text section, then click ‘Text from…

Microsoft hasn’t exactly been coy about its desire to shift PC users on to Windows 10, tempting them with free upgrades, pre-loading installation files on to people’s PCs and endlessly nagging them. With all this hype, we wouldn’t blame you for abandoning Windows 7. But Computeractive readers aren’t won over so easily. Annoyed by Microsoft’s constant pestering, many of you have told us that you’ll continue to use Windows 7. The most common question you’ve asked us is whether you can still buy a new Windows 7 PC. You want to stick with a familiar operating system (OS), but would still like a faster computer on which to run it. We’re happy to say that yes, this is still possible. Here are your options. Buy a new PC direct from…

No sound when playing media from your laptop through TV Connected your laptop to your TV via an HDMI cable and getting pictures but no sound? It’s a common problem that’s easily fixed. Press Windows key+R to open the Run box, type mmsys.cpl and press Enter. Select the Playback tab to view a list of available devices, which should include an entry for your TV (if you don’t see this entry, see one of our Readers’ Tips on page 43 for a solution). Right-click this entry and choose ‘Set as Default Device’. Click OK to close the box and then, if necessary, close and restart whatever media application you’re using to output audio/video to your TV. Volume levels are inconsistent If you find that some sounds are louder than others,…