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Letters

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive What a shame broadband wasn’t nationalised It was interesting to read different views in Issue 489 on whether people on benefits should get subsidised broadband. In my opinion, part of the reason some people still can’t get fast broadband is because the internet has never been through a period of nationalisation. Most of our infrastructure has been at some time owned and run by the Government. Just think of the trains, electricity, gas, water and airports. I’m not saying they were perfect, but they were driven by a virtuous desire to include every inch of the country (until, in the case of trains, Dr Beeching swung his axe). By contrast, broadband has been a fragmented, stop-start mess.…

7 min

Best Free Software

VIDEO OBS Studio 0.16.4 https://obsproject.com What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Record video clips of whatever is playing on your computer screen, using this free new program from the open-source Open Broadcaster Software project. Real-time screen recording has umpteen potential uses. Most obviously, it lets you capture live or on-demand video from any internet source, then save the recording. It’s an easy way to capture short clips from your camcorder videos. You could create a video to illustrate a computer problem you’re having, or your own how-to video about Windows 10 for less computer-savvy friends and family. Or even a video of the route to your house, using your mouse cursor and Google Maps. OBS Studio makes it easy to do all these things, but its many settings…

5 min

Asus VC239H

There’s no shortage of Full HD (1920x1080-pixel) monitors to choose from these days, but if you want to keep costs down you’ll need to choose carefully. This 23in screen is at the smaller end of the desktop PC range, but that’s probably no bad thing. 27in models look somewhat coarse by today’s standards unless they have a higher resolution than this, and while 24in might be considered ideal, you’ll pay a bit more for it. For a relatively cheap display, the VC239H’s black plastic case looks pretty good, with narrow bezels – less than a centimetre at the top and sides – and none of the ugly details that often betrays a low-end model. On the back, a pair of 1.5W stereo speakers are directed downwards so that they still…

HP Scanjet Pro 2500 f1

SCANNER ❘ £262 from Ballicom www.snipca.com/22546 Now that all-in-one printer/scanner/copiers are the norm, you don’t see many standalone scanners. Those with document feeders (ADF) are generally very expensive and limited to scanning multiple single sheets. The Scanjet Pro 2500 f1 is quite pricey, but it lets you swing up the ADF and place materials directly on the scanning glass, so you can digitise thicker content like book pages or small artworks. With no Wi-Fi or Ethernet features, you’ll need to connect the scanner directly to a PC or Mac via USB, which is fine, because it’s rarely convenient to scan remotely anyway. It looks much like the top section of an all-in-one printer, and works like one too. But at a claimed 20 pages per minute, and with the ability…

BuyIt

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2015 Back Issue CD: £15 fromwww.snipca.com/21619 LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX305CA £634 from www.snipca.com/22321 Tested: Issue 475 This metal-cased ‘ultrabook’ looks much more expensive than it is. There’s no touchscreen or 36-degree hinge, just great quality all round and an ultra-sharp display. The M3 processor is adequate for most tasks, though not gaming. ALTERNATIVE Dell Inspiron 15 5000 If you need a full-size Windows 10 laptop with a DVD drive and a desktop PC-level i5 processor, this is a solid choice. £525 from www.snipca.com/21650 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy S2 9.7 £420 from www.snipca.com/21678 Tested: Issue 462 The Sony Xperia Z4 is too expensive and Google’s cheaper Nexus 9 has been discontinued, leaving the 32GB S2 9.7 as the best mid-sized choice.…

Record your journey through the Solar System

PULL OUT & KEEP Issue 490 35 Record your journey though the Solar System 38 Save anything online to read later 40 Track what others do on your PC 42 Stop Windows 10 changing your defaults PLUS 43 Readers’ Tips 44 Phone & Tablet Tips 46 Make Windows Bette 47 Make Office Better 48 Secret Tips For... Windows Movie Maker What you need: Gaia Sky; Windows 7, 8 or 10 Time required: 45 minute Gaia Sky is a new, free astronomy program that lets you navigate the Solar System in glorious three dimensions from the comfort of your PC. It’s named after the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, from which it gets its data. One of its standout features is the option to record whatever you do within the program,…

Stop Windows 10 changing your defaults

One of the main gripes about Windows 10 is how it constantly tries to force you to use its built-in apps rather than the programs and tools you actually prefer. Try manually changing the operating system’s settings so that it defaults to programs of your choice, and Windows will tend to change them back again (usually after one of Microsoft’s enforced updates). Thankfully, Stop Resetting My Apps is a great free tool you can use to stop this from happening. STEP 1 First, we’ll show you how to set your default programs. Click Start, Settings, System, then ‘Default apps’ 1 . On the right you’ll see entries for Email, Maps, ‘Music player’, ‘Photo viewer’, ‘Video player’ and ‘Web browser’. Click the icon below the setting you want to change, then…

Make Windows Better

WINDOWS 7 Stipulate which program you want to use to open files Whenever you right-click a file, say a photo or video, you’ll see a list of options in the Context menu. Move your cursor to ‘Open with’ to see a list of built-in programs that can open that file. For example, you’ll see Paint and Photo Viewer to open photos, and Windows Media Player to play music files. If you want to use a non-Microsoft program that you’ve installed (such as GIMP, PicPick or VLC media player) to open a particular file, then move your cursor to ‘Open with’ and select ‘Choose default program’. Next, click Browse at the bottom right, click Desktop at the top left, then select the program you want to use. Finally, ensure the box…

Microsoft Flow

What is it? A new web service (and app) from Microsoft that lets you set up automated tasks between programs and tools, thereby taking the effort out of repetitive actions. For example, you can tell Outlook.com to always save email attachments in OneDrive, Microsoft’s online storage service. Or you can tell your Outlook calendar to share events with your Google Calendar. So it works with non-Microsoft programs? Yes. Indeed, you can tell Outlook.com to save attachments to Google Drive and Dropbox, as well as to OneDrive. The idea is to let all your different tools work seamlessly. Set up a task – which Microsoft calls ‘templates’ – then sit back and let them operate in the background. Is it free? Yes, although with restrictions. Microsoft is aiming Flow at business…

Download Without Being HACKED

The internet is bursting with all kinds of downloadable content. PC programs, videos, music, photos, games and more are all just a click away. But with hackers using legitimate-looking downloads to smuggle viruses and malware on to your PC, will you get more than you bargained for when you hit the download button? Thankfully, there are ways you can make sure the file or program you’re about to download won’t damage your PC. In this feature we’ll introduce you to the tools you need and the habits you should adopt to thwart the hackers. Check downloads with VirusTotal Unless you’re sure that the file you’re about to download can be trusted – and even if you are – we recommend checking it with VirusTotal (www.virustotal.com). This will scan the file…

Webcams

Webcam not working after W10 Anniversary Update You may see the error message ‘Launcher_Main.exe has stopped working’ when you try to use your webcam. This is most likely caused by the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (AU), which caused millions of webcams across the world to stop working because it removed support for video codecs that many webcams depend upon. At the time of writing, Microsoft has yet to release a fix for this, but there is a workaround if your webcam has been affected. Click the Start button, type regedit then press Enter to launch the registry editor. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\ Platform. Right-click Platform, click New, then ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’ (see screenshot below). Rename it EnableFrameServerMode, then double-click and set the value to 0. At this point,…

News

Windows 7 ransomware warnings disputed Security experts have cast doubt on the relevance of Microsoft’s claim that Windows 7 users are at greater risk of ransomware than people running Windows 10. In a report published in November (www.snipca.com/22669), Microsoft said that people running Windows 10 are 58 per cent less likely to be targeted by ransomware than those on Windows 7. It urges Windows 7 users to upgrade to 10 to avoid the “increasing” threat. It says that Windows Defender, Microsoft’s antivirus tool, identified a 400 per cent rise in ransomware between December 2015 and July 2016. In July alone, Defender detected 58 million attempts to infect PCs with ransomware via email, while the SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer and Edge blocked 200,000 attacks a day over the past six…

16 min

Consumeractive

Q I bought Norton Security 2017 on disc from an eBay seller and paid for twoday delivery. But soon after the seller emailed me a link to download the software and the licence key. Now the seller says that because I’ve downloaded the software, I can’t have the CD. EBay has refused me a refund. What are my rights? Stuart Womack A Stuart is certainly entitled to a refund on any postage he paid the seller to send him a disc, so we’ll contact eBay about this. But it’s harder to say whether he’s actually entitled to the disc as well. He could argue that he’s been mis-sold the product, believing that he was getting a physical item. He has to prove that the seller didn’t warn him that he…

Eclipse Apollo

New products tested by our experts PC ❘ £609 from Eclipse Computers www.snipca.com/22504 What do we mean by an all-round PC? Generally, it’s about balancing the money spent on the various components so you get a system that’s ready for everything – within reason – rather than weighted towards a particular task. For example, if you have a mid-range budget and shell out on a high-performance graphics card, you may be able to run every 3D game at fast-frame rates but you’ll only have enough cash left for a CPU that struggles when you open more than a couple of web-browser windows. “A desktop PC that has the perfect balance of components for everyday tasks” This desktop PC goes the opposite way. Unlike others we’ve tested around this price, it…

Best new Christmas gadgets

CHERRY MC 4000 Mouse www.amazon.co.uk £25.00 With a fast 1000/2000-dpi switchable sensor, indicated by blue and red LEDs respectively, this semantical mouse is a perfect addition to any desktop for left- or right-handed users. High-speed motion detection at 60ips and a 360-degree sliding pad on the base keeps this USB optical mouse moving across the desktop. Six additional, programmable buttons allow quick access to your commonly used functions. CHERRY MX Board 3.0 www.amazon.co.uk £64.00 The CHERRY MX Board 3.0 offers a perfect introduction to mechanical keyboards, utilising Red, Linear MX switches under each key. The keyboard design is low profile and simplistic, yet robust and hard wearing, with laser-etched, wear-resistant key caps and individual keys tested to 50 million operations. 14-key rollover, Win-Key Lock and anti-ghosting technology, coupled with a…

Jam Rhythm

SPEAKER ❘ £70 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22542 Among decent wireless speakers under £200, most are based on Bluetooth and increasing numbers offer multi-room operation (whereby sound from a single source plays to several speakers) – all controlled from your phone or tablet. The Rhythm is at the lower end of the price range, but it also does multi-room, albeit with a smaller range of input options than many rivals. You can use Spotify Connect to stream music from the internet, for example, but you can’t use Google Cast to play from your Android device or PC. Surprisingly, though, it’s based on Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth, which means it supports Apple AirPlay. If you have an iPhone, iPad or Mac, that gives you theoretically better sound quality. For PCs and other devices…

1 min

Slow Wi-Fi?

Boost it by becoming a Computeractive tester! Sluggish browsing, lost connections, video buffering – do any of these problems sound familiar? Most of us have experienced the frustration of poor internet connections in our home, usually caused by thick stone walls and interference. One solution is to use Wi-Fi extenders, but they are limited in range. A much more comprehensive option is to use Powerline technology, which turns your home’s electrical circuit into a wired network. How does Powerline technology work? Powerline technology uses the home’s electrical circuit to transmit the strength of your original internet signal throughout your house to all floors and rooms. From the office to the basement, you can create new Wi-Fi hotspots and internet connections anywhere there’s a plug socket. You simply plug a Powerline…

Save anything online to read later

What you need: Instapaper; PC, Android, iOS or Kindle Time required: 30 minutes Instapaper is one of the best free services for saving online content to read later (offline or online). It recently made all its Premium features free – previously these cost $30 (£24) a year. These include ad-free browsing and text searches both of which its nearest rival Pocket (www.getpocket.com) still charges for. We’ll show you how to use all these features, so you can save anything of interest you find online to read later on any device (PC, phone, tablet and Kindle). STEP 1 Go to www.instapaper.com on your PC. If you have an Instapaper account, click Sign In 1 and log into your account. If you don’t, click the ‘Create an Account’ button 2 . The…

Readers’ Tips

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Use Ultimate Settings Panel for Chrome and Firefox I agree with your inclusion of Ultimate Settings Panel (USP) in Issue 489’s Cover Feature on new Windows 10 software. You’re right to say that it’s a great way to access Windows settings from one place, but it also works as a gateway to browser options. I find this very useful, because I’ve always struggled to remember what to click in Chrome and Firefox. Once you’ve installed the program (from www.snipca.com/22351), click the top-right arrows to scroll across (I overlooked this option for the first few weeks of using the program). You’ll see headings for Chrome, Firefox – which I use – and Internet Explorer. Click Chrome and you’ll see six buttons, including…

Make Office Better

WORD, OUTLOOK Find out how readable your emails and documents are Word and Outlook can assess how easy to read your documents and emails will be to others. It does this through three criteria that calculate the average number of syllables per word, words per sentence and sentences per paragraph in your documents and emails. To use this, you first need to change a number of default settings. In Word, click File at the top left, Options at the bottom, then Proofing on the left. Next, find the ‘When correcting spelling and grammar in Word’ section. Here, tick ‘Check grammar with spelling’ and ‘Show readability statistics’, then click OK. In Outlook, start writing a new email, click File, Options, then click ‘Spelling and Autocorrect’ button on the right. Tick the…

Hack & Improve Chrome Firefox & Edge

On the surface, web browsers might seem like fairly simple programs. Unlike, say, a photoediting program, which may provide dozens of advanced tools for the clever manipulation of images, browsers only really do one thing: display web pages. In actual fact, most web browsers are doing some pretty complicated things under the bonnet in order to load and display pages quickly and safely, without putting too much strain on your PC’s resources. Some browsers are better at this than others. But we’re not here to stoke the fires of yet another browser war – Microsoft, Google et al seem more than capable of that without our help, if recent boasts from Google (www.snipca.com/22465) and counter-boasts from Microsoft (www.snipca.com/22464) about their respective browsers are anything to go by. Instead, we’re going…

17 min

Advanced Tips for basic tasks

Copy and paste Just as the first words children learn are usually ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’, so the first keyboard shortcuts PC users learn are typically Ctrl+X/C/V, letting you cut, copy and paste. It’s such a simple command that you may think there’s not much else it can do, but there are hidden settings that unlock useful tools. For example, you can set the Office Clipboard (the one you use in Word and Excel) to open automatically when you copy more than one item. The Clipboard appears on the left-hand side, listing the items you’ve copied. To enable this setting, in the Home tab click the tiny arrow to the bottom-right of Clipboard, then click Options at the bottom. Next, tick the Show Office Clipboard Automatically box (see screenshot below). Printing…

Is £400m enough to fix UK broadband?

When it comes to getting fast broadband, one letter can make a huge difference. What counts is whether your service is FTTP (fibre to the premises) or FTTC (fibre to the cabinet). The former is faster because instead of stopping at a cabinet on the street (from where copper cables take over) fibre-broadband is delivered to your doorstep, giving you speeds of up to 1Gbps (that’s 1,000Mbps). But only two per cent of homes can get FTTP, a figure the Government hopes to increase by spending £400m on broadband infrastructure. Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the outlay in the Autumn Statement, setting up a Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund. He wants broadband companies to match the amount, boosting the total to £800m within four years. The aim is to provide FTTP to…

Protect Your Tech

WATCH OUT FOR… Chrome-crashing tech-support con What’s the threat? A tech-support scam that makes the Chrome browser freeze – or ‘hang’ – then displays a phone number to call to fix the problem. Victims will see a blue screen with Microsoft’s logo at the top (see screenshot right). The message underneath states that the PC has been infected by a Trojan, and that bank details, credit-card numbers and passwords may be stolen. Calling the number puts you through to scammers who try to sell you fake security products. The criminals behind the scam are exploiting a flaw in Chrome that lets them push thousands – maybe even millions – of URLs into the browser’s history. To cope, Chrome has to devour much of Windows’ memory and processor power, causing the…

Lenovo Yoga Book

With laptops getting touchscreens and tablets getting keyboards, computers and mobile devices are becoming almost indistinguishable. And now here’s one that truly is both: you can buy the Yoga Book for £450 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, or for £550 running Windows 10. It’s basically the same machine, but with a choice of desktop or mobile operating system.And whichever you pick, it would be unlike any portable computer you’ve seen before. Instead of a keyboard, the Yoga Book’s sleek, stiffly hinged metal case pairs a touchscreen with an electromagnetic resonance (EMR) panel, which you can use to type or draw on. In keyboard mode, the keys appear, as if by magic, as illuminated outlines. When you type, you can feel the keys click – or sort of buzz, anyway. It’s enough…

Huawei Nova

When we tested this phone after Huawei announced it in September, we found a very nicely designed device at what looked like a very reasonable cost. So far, though, we haven’t seen hide nor hair of the larger Nova Plus model in the UK, while the Nova is only available from Carphone Warehouse (for about £60 more than we expected). Unless this price comes down, the Nova will look more like an attractive mid-range phone with something approaching a high-end price tag that’s not worth the extra money. That’s a shame, because it has a lot going for it. With its simple design, rounded-off glass and shiny chamfered edges, the case looks a bit like an iPhone SE crossed with an iPhone 6. The fingerprint sensor button is round the…

Products of the year

BEST PC Palicomp AMD Avenger £500 from Palicomp www.snipca.com/20927 We’ve tested some great PCs priced around £500 this year, mostly based on Intel’s i3 processor or squeezing an i5 into the price by compromising elsewhere. Palicomp used AMD’s Athlon X4 880K processor instead, overclocking it and adding both an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 graphics card (for an extra £40 in the current version of the system) and an SSD to eke out every last bit of speed. BEST LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX305CA (pictured) £634 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22567 It’s not an all-singing replacement for your desktop PC, but this metal-cased laptop, powered by Intel’s M3 processor, showed it is possible to get an ultra-thin, ultra-modern machine with a supersharp display for around £600. BEST LAPTOP-TABLET HYBRID ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP200SA…

Win 1 of 2 D-Link mydlink HD Wi-Fi Cameras

D-Link’s most affordable HD camera yet, the mydlink HD Wi-Fi Camera (DCS-936L), provides customers with round-the-clock views of their home or office on their smartphone, tablet or computer from anywhere in the world. Its innovative design with rotatable head means it can be placed conveniently on a shelf, or mounted on a wall or ceiling while still providing images in the correct orientation. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk by midnight 20 December with ‘mydlink’ in the subject line. You can buy the mydlink DCS-936L camera for £88 from D-Link Direct: www.snipca.com/22591. For more info visit www.dlink.com/uk/en, and follow @DLink_UK on Twitter.…

1 min

Track what others do on your PC

SoftPerfect File Access Monitor is a brilliant free program that until recently cost $149 (£122). It lets you monitor all recent activity on your PC, including which files have been created, deleted, moved and edited; which PC user made those changes; when the changes were made; and what programs were used. We’ll show you how to use it to find out exactly what other people are doing on your PC. STEP 1 To install File Access Monitor (FAM), go to www.snipca.com/22572, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the green Download File Access Monitor button. Run the downloaded setup file to install the program. The program doesn’t create a desktop shortcut, so open the Start menu, search for management console, then drag and drop this to…

Phone and Tablet Tips

ANDROID & iOS Listen to YouTube videos with your screen switched off YouTube has a vast treasure trove of content. While the visuals are very important for most videos, there are many where you may only want to listen while doing something else. These may include interviews, music videos or educational lectures (like those on Ted Talks – www.snipca.com/22550. Unlike YouTube’s default app, the latest version of Firefox for phones and tablets lets you listen to video content with your screen turned off (this also saves battery life). To do this, install the Firefox app (Android www.snipca.com/22551; iOS www.snipca.com/22552) or update it to the latest version. Next, open Firefox, go to www.youtube.com, tap the search icon (see screenshot below left), then search for the video you want. As it plays…

Windows Movie Maker

Create a title sequence Movie Maker is Microsoft’s free video editor and was last released as part of the company’s Windows Essentials 2012 package (which also included Windows Live Mail and Live Writer). Microsoft has announced it will end support for the Essentials programs on 10 January 2017, meaning it won’t receive any new features. But Movie Maker will continue to be safe to use and will remain available via Microsoft’s site. Windows 7, 8 and 10 users should go to www.snipca.com/22487 and click ‘Get it now’ to download it. One of Movie Maker’s most impressive features makes it easy to add a title sequence to the start of your video. Open your video inn Movie Maker, click Home, then Title. Click ‘Edit text’ and enter the text that you…

Is it worth the money?

WinZip Format: Windows Website: www.winzip.com Price: £31.14 Free trial period: 2 years Writing about WinZip took me back to my first exposure to PCs and the heady days of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Back then, WinZip was the only serious option if you wanted to create folders of compressed files so that you could cram that little bit more into the meagre storage space offered by your floppy discs. Fast-forward 20-odd years and the landscape of compressed files is much changed. Windows now has its own, built-in ZIP software, while free Zip programs like PeaZip and 7-Zip offer all the tools you’ll ever need. So what does WinZip offer today? Well, let’s open it up and find out. Confusing pricing policy The price you see at the top of…

Problems Solved

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT What’s causing my weird audio problems? Q I have a strange problem. I use external desktop speakers with my PC. I also have a pair of old headphones that plug into a pass-through jack on the speakers. This setup has worked well. But recently one headphone speaker stopped working, and so too did one desktop speaker — both at the same time! I thought it must be a fault with my PC, but if I plug the speakers into a different computer the problem is the same, and ditto with the headphones. But when I plugged a different set of speakers into my PC, they worked fine. I also plugged my smartphone’s earphones into the PC audio jack and again, they work fine, but not when…

15 min

Jargon Buster

2.4GHz Wireless networks working at this frequency have longer range. 32bit A measure of how much information a computer can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit. 4G A set of technologies that delivers faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 5G The next (fifth) generation of mobile networks, to supersede 4G. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. 802.11n A standard for wireless networks that allows for high transfer speeds. Add-on See extension. ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A technology that converts a standard phone line into a broadband internet connection. AMOLED An alternative technology to LCD for creating flatpanel…

The Final Straw

This issue Ken Rigsby doesn’t want to be bored by… KEN RIGSBY is Computeractive’s Mr Angry Home automation I’m partial to a bit of home automation. For instance, I’m happy that I’m able to flip TV channels with a remote control, because getting up off the sofa is so 1970s. And there’s not much that gives me greater pleasure than hearing the central heating kicking in on cold winter mornings. Actually, I suppose Mrs Rigsby delivering afternoon tea and biscuits to my desk gives me greater pleasure than that. But if I suggested that my wife is little more than a homeautomation device then I’d be labelled a hideous old dinosaur. And I wouldn’t want that, oh no! “These devices are like the pub bore, just waiting for a moment…