Table of contents for 527 in Computeractive

Experts get a lot of criticism for talking in jargon, but it’s not really their fault. Most of what they say professionally is meant to be understood only by other experts. This creates a language that will always alienate laymen. Translating it so it can be understood by anyone is what we’ve been doing in every issue since launching 20 years ago. Our latest challenge is this issue’s Cover Feature, in which Jane Hoskyn seeks free programs that are aimed at companies and institutions, but deserve to be used more widely. To master these powerful tools you don’t need to be an expert in anything, least of all computing. FreeMind is my favourite. It’s turned me into a flowchart fanatic, which is not something I thought I’d ever say. It’s…

Money-saving expert Martin Lewis is suing Facebook for running more than 50 fake get-rich-quick adverts that showed his face without his permission. The adverts (such as the two pictured) are for risky financial schemes that falsely claimed had the backing of Lewis, founder of the popular website www.moneysavingexpert.com. Some of the adverts promoted binary-trading funds, which the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned consumers about. One victim lost £100,000 in one of these scams. Lewis, who also campaigns on TV for consumer rights, is suing the site for defamation, claiming the adverts caused him “reputational damage”. He said it was “a disgrace” that Facebook continues to take money from scammers for the adverts, adding: “They can’t sit on their moral high horse when scammers rob the old, weak and vulnerable”.…

Scottish MPs have called for more broadband funding from the UK Government, claiming Scotland is being left out of current schemes, and Scottish customers will end up subsidising new services elsewhere in the UK. They have criticised the Government’s universal service obligation (USO), which gives citizens in “eligible” premises the legal right to demand speeds of at least 10Mbps. To fund this programme, which requires delivering broadband to many remote areas, ISPs are likely to pass on the cost to customers through higher bills. This has angered the SNP, which says Scots will end up paying more for their broadband even though no premises in Scotland are eligible for the USO. Fergus Ewing, the SNP’s Rural Economy Secretary, called this “grossly unfair”. He wrote to Culture Secretary Matt Hancock saying:…

I’m old enough to remember how the launch of ITV in the fifties was meant to spell the end of the BBC, so I read Issue 526’s ‘Question of the Fortnight’ (‘Will Netflix kill the BBC?’) with a sense of history repeating itself. On the surface, the threat posed by Netflix now, with millions of subscribers worldwide, may seem much graver. But the type of threat is the same – commercial TV challenging public service broadcasting. As it happens, I do think the threat of Netflix is more serious, but not because of how big and rich it is. What worries me more is how young people are abandoning the BBC, and changing their viewing behaviour. When ITV and, later, Sky launched, viewers still knew the BBC was just one…

Forthcoming changes to the law will give you greater protection when booking holidays online. Such measures are urgently needed because according to the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) around 50 per cent of holidays aren’t currently protected against the company going bust. The internet has seen a rise in so-called ‘flight-plus’ holidays, in which a single website sells elements like flight, hotel and car hire, creating the impression it counts as a ‘package’ holiday. However, they sell each element under a separate contract, allowing them to avoid legal responsibility for refunds should anything go wrong. These loopholes will no longer exist from 1 July, when UK law is brought into line with the EU’s 2015 Package Travel Directive. The principle behind the law change is: “If it looks like…

How can I open unsupported file formats? Q I have two computers – one running Windows 7 that I use for photo and video editing and a newer Windows 10 PC – plus a lot of photo and video files that I store on external hard drives. All the files open fine on the W7 PC, but the W10 computer refuses to open many of the video files on the external drives, the main culprits being M2T and AVI formats. All I get is a message saying: ‘This format is not supported’. Is there any software that enables these file formats to be opened and viewed? Pete Poole A Video files can be tricky. A lot of video formats – including AVI – are just ‘containers’ for video files that…

Like Intel, AMD arranges its processors into series numbered 3, 5 and 7 (for basic, mid-range and expensive). This desktop PC is based on AMD’s Ryzen 3 2200G, which, like the latest rival Intel i3s, has four cores, redefining ‘basic’ as ‘really quite good’. It also has built-in Radeon Vega 8 graphics, making 3D gaming possible without a separate graphics card. But Cyberpower has installed a separate graphics card anyway, and the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is another example of how bottom of the range needn’t be a bad thing. “Wise choices make for a good all-purpose PC and smooth gaming” In our tests, the 2200G didn’t quite match the i3-8100 in the Palicomp Pulsar GT (see our review, Issue 526), but it was still slightly faster than the…

A smart security camera offers instant home surveillance, connecting to your Wi-Fi network so you can see what it’s seeing, from anywhere, in a phone app. Rather than recording constantly like CCTV, it kicks into action when it detects movement, then sends you a notification. These cameras sit in one place, and don’t pan or tilt, although the Nest Cam IQ can zoom in on a person within the frame and follow them around. Video is usually saved to online storage (this needs broadband, and may use a lot of data if recording is triggered often), which may be free of charge for a few days but requires a subscription if you want it kept longer. Some cameras also record internally. Geofencing, if supported, tracks the GPS in your phone…

There’s always been a category of high-quality A3+ inkjet photo printers, but there have never been many products within that category to choose from. Epson’s latest is the smallest and neatest we’ve seen to date – about 10cm (4in) wider than the A4 XP-760. Epson has managed that partly by arranging the ink cartridges front to back instead of left to right. Beyond cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK), Epson’s Claria system uses a grey ink (for finer shading in photos) and a red (which increases the range of colours that can be reproduced). “An effective, compact and affordable photo printer” It’s an unusual setup, but it works. On photo paper, which you’ll want to use most of the time with a printer like this, we achieved fantastic results that…

LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX410UA £590 from www.snipca.com/26789 Tested: Issue 518 With a dual-core Intel i3 processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB SSD, this slim aluminium 14in has just enough power to make Windows 10 feel smooth – and unlike Asus’s cheaper models it has a very good Full HD screen. ALTERNATIVE: Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,149, but the best deal is with the brand new quadcore i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,398 from www.snipca.com/26796 DESKTOP PC NEW ENTRY PalicompPulsari3GT £600 from www.snipca.com/27434 Tested: Issue 526 This all-rounder shows the benefit of Intel’s new quad-core i3 chips, delivering adequate processing power as well as impressive graphics performance from an overclocked GeForce GTX 1050 Ti card. ALTERNATIVE: Lenovo IdeaCentre 620s A laptop i5 CPU plus GTX 1050 Ti make…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Recover storage space for new Windows update I want to update my PC to the new Spring Creators Update, so I went in search of a program that could hunt down and delete all the junk on it in readiness. Auslogics Windows Slimmer proved to be the perfect solution – helping me remove over 15GB of fat in just 20 minutes. A word of warning, however: avoid Auslogics’ attempts to get you to install their other products during installation. You won’t need them. Go to www.snipca.com/27701 and click the Download Program button. Open the downloaded setup file, click Yes, then the ‘Click to install’ button. Untick the boxes on the next three screens to avoid installing Auslogics extras, then proceed with your installation, clicking Finish when…

AGES 0-5 Planets Puzzle* Free www.snipca.com/27663 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/27645 (iOS) In this animated jigsaw game, your youngster will see various animals at the top and a rotating globe with different habitats below. They need to drag the animals into their natural habitat. AGES 6-10 CBBC Buzz Free www.snipca.com/27647 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/27648 (iOS) Designed for pre-teens, the BBC’s new app offers educational videos and activities - for example, designing their own football kit. It also has mini-games like Spot The Difference and new quizzes and challenges every day. AGES 11-16 Word Cross* Free www.snipca.com/27649 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/27650 (iOS) In this crossword-type game, you will see several letter tiles at the bottom. You need to join the letters to form words that then appear in the crossword. Tap the buttons at the…

EXCEL Use Excel’s IF function to generate values Excel has a useful feature that lets you generate certain values in one column based on the data in another. For our example, we will use a spreadsheet with monthly expenses in one column (B), and Yes or No in an another (C) to represent paid or unpaid expenses. Using the IF formula, you can add a column that automatically inserts Paid beside cells containing Yes and ‘Not paid’ beside cells containing No. First click inside cell D1. Next, click inside the Function field at the top, then type =IF(C1=“Yes”,“Paid”,“Not paid”) (see screenshot below), then press Enter. You’ll now see that cell D1 contains the word ‘Paid’. Move your cursor to the bottom right of the cell until it turns into a…

In Word, open the Styles menu in the Home tab. Click Options, then choose ‘All styles’ under ‘Select styles to show’. You’ll see options for ‘Hyperlink’ and ‘FollowedHyperlink’ in the Styles menu. Click the arrow to the right of an option, then choose a colour under Modify (see screenshot below). In Excel, you’ll find these options in the Page Layout tab by clicking the arrow next to Colours, then Customise Colours (Create New Theme Colours in Excel 2010). In LibreOffice Writer, press F11 to open the Styles box. Click Character Styles (an ‘a’ in a circle). You’ll see Internet Link and Visited Internet Link. Right-click either, select Modify, then go to Font Effects to change colour. To change hyperlinks in Calc, press F11, and look for the hyperlink options under…

A couple of settings tweaks will help Windows 10 do a much better job of searching your files. First, launch Folder Options. Press Win+E to launch File Explorer, then Alt+F to open its File menu, and then press O. Select ‘Quick access’ in the ‘Open File Explorer to:’ box to make your pinned folders instantly accessible when you’re saving files - and when you’re trying to find them later. Now set Windows to search the contents of files. Click the Search tab in Folder Options, tick ‘Always search file names and contents’ (see screenshot), then click OK. Next, type indexing into Start, click Indexing Options, Advanced, then File Types. Click ‘Index Properties and File Contents’, then OK. This extra search power comes at a cost of speed, so limit your…

MPs have slammed the Government and NHS for not implementing measures that would help to prevent malware attacks. In February, the Department of Health, NHS England and NHS Improvement published 22 “lessons learned” recommendations following last year’s WannaCry ransomware attack, which crippled computers in 80 of the 236 NHS trusts, causing nearly 20,000 appointments to be cancelled. By mid-April, none of these had been introduced, and it was not known how much they would cost, a report from the Public Accounts Committee has revealed. Labour MP Meg Hillier, chair of the Committee, called this “alarming”. She added that the attack “laid bare serious vulnerabilities in the cyber-security and response plans of the NHS”. The report said the NHS was “lucky” WannaCry was dealt with quickly, and warned that future attacks…

A drug dealer has been jailed for eight and a half years after police identified him partly by examining a photo of his fingers that he shared on messaging service WhatsApp. It’s thought to be the first time a conviction in the UK has been secured in this way. South Wales police used cutting-edge techniques to enhance a photo of three fingers holding ecstasy tablets (pictured). It was found on a phone during an investigation in Bridgend, and sent to the South Wales Police’s Scientific Support Unit for analysis. Fingerprint experts couldn’t find a match in the national database because the top half of the finger wasn’t shown in the photo. But combined with other evidence they identified the dealer as Elliott Morris, who had sent the photo to potential…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: PowerISO CD drives have become fairly unfashionable. If you want to burn or create an image file you might have to go searching for suitable software. One well-known option is PowerISO (www.poweriso.com), which has been around since 2004. Alas, these days it comes with some unwanted extras. Click the download link and you’re invited to try a Chrome extension called Search Manager that promises “a custom search experience”. That might not sound like a very dangerous idea, but once you agree to a trial Chrome warns you that the extension can “read and change all your data on the websites you visit”, as well as modify your other extensions and bookmarks (see screenshot). Some reassurance can perhaps be found in the extension’s user ratings on…

Social media ‘whips up gang warfare’ I think the Government is on to something by blaming social media for the rise in violent crime (News, Issue 526, page 8). My view is formed partly from my memories of being in a gang when I was teenager, albeit not one that used guns and knives. Back then I was a foolish, gullible youth. I left school early with no qualifications, and was sucked into a life of petty crime and gang rivalry. These gangs had disputes, but they were mostly inspired by juvenile mischief, rather than serious violence. Nobody was ever killed or severely harmed, and I believe one of the reasons was that we didn’t have much opportunity to provoke each other. To do so would have required us to…

Can BT charge for replacing router? Q I decided to switch my phone and broadband from BT to Sky to get a cheaper package. However, BT then charged me £55 because it had provided me with a new router in October last year, to replace a faulty one. I feel I’m being penalised for switching. Can BT do this? Martin Wythe A No, and it has now admitted its error by refunding Martin. It appears BT was working on the assumption it had provided the new router as part of a new contract, or because Martin wanted to upgrade. BT replaced the old router because its tests revealed it was faulty. Michael had endured regular loss of broadband and persistent slow speeds. BT was legally obliged to replace the router…

Our new house – we moved in a few months ago – has an attic that I intended to turn into a home office. The plan was to use a Wi-Fi extender to boost the signal on this top floor. I had been impressed by the customer reviews of Devolo’s GigaGate (www.snipca.com/27533, pictured) in Computeractive last year, so I was keen to buy one myself. I still had a few questions about it, so rang Devolo’s customer-support line. They answered all my queries in a friendly and professional manner. I wanted their honest opinion on whether the GigaGate was suitable for my particular needs. They listened carefully to my situation, and certainly appeared to be genuinely interested in what I had to say. It was a long conversation - about…

Beware new Hermes scam In early April I received an unexpected email claiming to be from the courier Hermes. They sometimes deliver items to me from Tesco and Next, so I read it with interest. But I didn’t recognise the sender’s email address (shipping.status@bizvidvlog.com). The email told me my order was on its way, but I hadn’t ordered anything all year. After a quick search online, I realised I’d been targeted by a scam spotted by security researchers (read this blog: www.snipca.com/27448). I had a lucky escape, because the email contained nasty malware. Alan James Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Last year, Apple updated the iPad Air as just plain iPad, and took £60 off its price. Now it’s cut another 20 quid and upgraded it further. The biggest gain is support for Apple’s Pencil, a superb pressure-sensitive stylus that gives you fine enough control for on-screen handwriting as well as drawing and painting, all supported by a huge choice of apps. Previously this required an iPad Pro, starting at £619. Although the Pencil itself costs £89, we’d recommend it to everyone – it opens up a whole new world of things to do with your tablet. True, its design is incredibly annoying. To charge the Pencil, you have to remove a cap (which you’ll immediately lose) to reveal a Lightning plug, which you’re meant to stick straight into the…

What does it do? According to the scientists behind Fribo (www.snipca.com/27594), a South Korean prototype for a household robot (pictured), it listens out for ‘living noise’ and learns what it means: the washing machine running, people opening or closing doors, the microwave pinging, and so on. It then communicates each event to the users of other Fribos, not saying who it’s talking about but simply, for example, ‘Someone just opened the fridge. I wonder what food they’re going to have?’ (It can only wonder; it can’t recognise foods – yet). Why would I want it? Fribo’s inventors think it will help people who live alone – an increasingly common phenomenon – feel like part of a community. You can knock near a Fribo and it’ll ping other users, then tell…

Having bumped into the friendly people behind this Raspberry Pi accessory a couple of times at Maker Faire (see www.snipca.com/27588), we’ve finally got round to trying it ourselves. It’s a plastic case that has every part of a laptop except the computer, which you add by installing a Raspberry Pi, the low-cost single-board mini-PC that’s become popular with schools, inventors and general tinkerers. “A laptop for your Pi with a surprisingly good screen” The price above (direct from the manufacturer) includes a brand new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (see our review, Issue 525), so you don’t need to add anything. Although they’re based in London, it’s priced in dollars ($320) – so you’ll need to check the current exchange rate for your payment method – plus 20 per cent…

Yes, £800 is a lot for a phone. Apple has done the whole industry a sneaky favour by bringing out the iPhone X at £999, but we’re not fooled. Just because something else is even more expensive, that doesn’t mean £800 is reasonable. Still, it’s not the only smartphone at this price. The P20 Pro owes something to the iPhone X’s design, built around a tall-format 6.1in screen with a notch in the top for the selfie camera. It’s not fully bezel-free (there’s room for a fingerprint-sensing Home button at the bottom), but it looks very modern, with a high-gloss finish in black, blue, or an iridiscent (and currently out of stock) ‘Twilight’ finish. A silicone sleeve is supplied in case you find this hard to grip or prone to…

Winner of a Great Pick award in Issue 525, Zyxel’s Multy X AC3000 mesh routers boost your Wi-Fi signal throughout your home – covering up to 232 square metres. It’s extremely easy to set up, and can be controlled using your voice through an Amazon Echo smart speaker (“Alexa, ask Zyxel Multy to turn off guest Wi-Fi”, for example). Each Multy box has two sets of aerials: a pair for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks your devices connect to, and four more to carry data between the units. There are also four Gigabit Ethernet ports on the back. In this competition we’re giving away a two-pack, worth £249. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘zyxel’ in the subject line by midnight 22 May. You can buy packs of…

What you need: Any web browser Time required: 35 minutes Over the past few months it has become increasingly clear that Facebook stores a veritable treasure trove of information about its users. When we checked our own profile we were shocked at the volume of data it has about us and our friends. We’ll show you how to download everything that Facebook knows about you. We’ll then show you how to permanently delete your Facebook account if that’s what you decide. STEP 1 First, go to www.facebook.com/settings and log into your Facebook account. Here, click the small ‘Download a copy’ link. On the ‘Download your information’ page that opens, you’ll see what type of info is included 1. Click the green Start My Archive button 2. Now enter your Facebook…

ANDROID Use Files Go app to free up space and search for files Google recently added three new features to its Files Go app. It now works with Google Photos, lets you search for individual files on your device by file name or extension, and locates duplicate files on your device. Open the app (www.snipca.com/ 27630), then tap the Storage tab. You’ll see a message prompting you to delete any photos and videos on your device that you’ve already backed up to Google Photos (www.snipca.com/27633). Tap the option, then tap ‘Free Up XX MB/GB’ to confirm. To search for specific files or file types, tap the Files tab at the bottom of the app, then type a file name or format in the search bar (see screenshot below). You’ll see…

All LibreOffice programs offer a useful set of keyboard shortcuts. To see them listed, click the Tools tab, Customize at the bottom, then the Keyboard tab in the window that opens (see screenshot). The options at the top right let you set the shortcuts for the entire LibreOffice suite or just the program you’re using (Writer, Calc, and so on). Scroll down the Shortcut Keys list to see the default shortcuts. You’ll see that some entries are empty, meaning they don’t have any actions assigned to them. Select a keyboard shortcut to assign an action to. Next, select the relevant option in the Category field at the bottom left. Relevant options for that category will now appear in the adjacent Function field. For example, if you select Image as a…

What is it? The concept that artificial intelligence (AI) should never be allowed to “hurt, destroy or deceive human beings”. This is one of five “ethical principles” proposed by the House of Lords Select Committee on AI in its wide-ranging report ‘AI in the UK: Ready, Willing and Able?’ (www.snipca.com/27539), published in April. It examined the damage AI could inflict, collecting evidence from over 200 witnesses, including experts from the NHS, Google and Citizens Advice. What are the dangers? One huge concern is that AI technology is dominated by a handful of companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. The report called on the Government to use competition laws to prevent this “monopolisation of data”. Another problem is algorithmic bias. This occurs when a computer system programmed to make social…

Niche software doesn’t have to appeal to the masses, so it often doesn’t even try. Here are just some of the secret tools that failed to meet our high standards. • Academic Timetable Software (www.snipca.com/27621) and FET (www.snipca.com/27622) are open-source timetabling tools, designed for teachers, but surely ideal for planning all kinds of activities (clubs, events, that pub quiz you always wanted to host). However, they’re a complete headache. And if FET’s written instructions are a sign of educational standards, we’re all doomed. • LimeSurvey (www.limesurvey.org) is that rare thing - a free survey tool. The catch is you need a web server to install it on. It’s just about possible to do that at home with a spare computer, but why should you have to? Creating and analysing surveys…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT How do I stop this ‘hooter’ sound? Q After the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (FCU), I have discovered that the People app now emits an annoying sound, like a ship’s hooter, when I press the Save button after updating my contacts. I have searched the Settings screen and Control Panel, but I cannot find how to disable this annoying sound. Please help. Richard Strange A This is the kind of thoughtless ‘upgrade’ that should make Microsoft blush with shame. An audio alert would be nice as an option but currently there’s no simple way to disable this ping, so it’s effectively compulsory. After lots of digging around we identified the offending sound file, (‘Saving_Contact.wav’), which lurks in the WindowsApps folder. This folder is hidden to…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much information a computer can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 720p Common resolution of high-definition video: 1280x720 pixels. 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. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. AVI Audio Video Interleave. A type of video file, in a format that can hold many types of audio and video. Beta A version of software that’s being tested, often released so problems can be…

The second Feature update of 2017, scheduled for the autumn, may include a dark mode for File Explorer. These modes, becoming increasingly common in software and on websites, reverse the typical black-on-white interface. They are meant to reduce eye strain when spending long hours staring at a screen. An early version of File Explorer’s dark mode (see screenshot) was spotted by users on the Windows Insider Programme. In this prototype, only the tab bar and navigation bar are in black.…

‘MICROSOFT’ PHONE SCAMS RISE IN 2017 Phone scams in which fraudsters claim to be from Microsoft increased sharply in 2017, the company has said. It received 153,000 complaints about these scams from users, a rise of 24 per cent on 2016. Around 15 per cent of users lost money in the scams, typically between £150 and £300. One Dutch victim lost €89,000. Read more on Microsoft’s blog: www.snipca.com/27612. FOUR MORE TOWNS TO GET 1GBPS SPEEDS Edinburgh, Huddersfield, Coventry and Stirling will be the next towns to receive 1Gbps broadband as part of Vodafone’s new service, which runs on CityFibre’s fibre-to-the-home network. Milton Keynes, Aberdeen and Peterborough had already been announced. The companies say that by 2021 they will spend £500m providing 1Gbps to 12 towns and cities, reaching a “minimum”…

For the public to trust online banking, and overlook the closure of local bank branches, it needs to be totally reliable. But in April TSB let its customers down badly. A software glitch left many account holders locked out of the online banking system for more than four days, some of them unable to make crucial payments. Most of these saw a ‘Sorry, Internet Banking is currently unavailable’ message, while others, bizarrely, were logged into the wrong accounts. One man found himself managing a business account with nearly £3 million! It would be laughable, if not for the alarming implications for customer security and privacy. Accidents happen, but when it takes days to remedy such a meltdown, that’s not simply a computer bug – it’s a fundamental failure of management.…

Issue 526’s Cover Feature on whether technology can help prevent dementia was very interesting. I’m not convinced we’ll ever find definitive proof that it helps, but one point I’d like to raise is how playing word games doesn’t just exercise the brain – it also keeps you in touch with people. I play Scrabble and Words With Friends on my tablet with around 10 regular opponents. They are all old friends who I don’t see as often as I’d like. But we have a good old natter and gossip while playing these games using the chat function. In Scrabble I get great pleasure laying down a seven-letter word (bingo!), but I get more pleasure from taunting my opponent about it! The older we get, the more competitive we get. Loneliness…

Q I upgraded my phone at the end of May 2017 to a Sony Xperia XA1 (pictured) on a two-year contract. After three weeks the phone became faulty, but EE said it was a software fault and it wasn’t responsible. However, after I sent it back three times for various tests Sony said the motherboard was faulty. EE agreed to credit me for six weeks’ airtime and release me from my contract, so I could upgrade to another phone. But should EE have replaced the phone? Mark Taylor A Yes, EE should have replaced the phone the first time Mark took it back. Within 30 days of purchase you can reject inherently faulty goods for a full refund, and cancel any airtime contract. EE was wrong to say it wasn’t…

EMAIL MailStore Home 11.0 www.snipca.com/27617 What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Most emails are just a few kilobytes in size. But if you’ve been using an email account for several years, you’ll know that your mailbox can creep up to unmanageable proportions – with photos and other large attachments swelling it further still. This can eventually cause problems. If you use an online webmail account, for example, it’s likely to have a strict storage cap – Gmail’s limit for free account holders is 15GB. And, in traditional email programs, large mailboxes can clog up your hard drive and cause performance problems. That’s where MailStore Home comes in. It can help you reduce the size of your mailbox by safely archiving your old messages. It’s possible your…

While its rival Asus labels its computers with arcane sequences of letters and numbers, Acer prefers upmarket-sounding model names with single-digit identifiers. You can see what they’re going for: everybody knows what to expect, for example, from a pair of Levi’s 501s, or a Cadbury’s 99. When it comes to ‘Swift’, however, your guess is as good as ours. A few months back we tested the Swift 5 (see our review, Issue 509) and found its design was over the top and full of contradictions. The Swift 3 couldn’t be more different: simple, understated and really rather nice. “A simple design, easy typing, decent battery – and we can live with the screen” We can’t quite endorse Acer’s description of this 14in laptop as “ultra-thin”, nor is it the lightest…

Dell’s XPS 13 is the VW Golf of Windows 10 laptops: not the flashiest, but a reliable performer with touches of class. This new version uses the same combination of silver aluminium and black carbon fibre, but is 30 per cent slimmer and lighter. Less than half an inch thick at its widest, it’s chunkier than, say, a 12in MacBook, but thinner than the more comparable 13in MacBook Pro. Like Apple, Dell has given up trying to squeeze in standard USB ports, but rather than just one USB Type-C you get three. With the InfinityEdge design having already done away with any space around the screen, the webcam is still down by the hinge, looking up your nose. But it now supports Windows Hello, so your computer will recognise you…

How do I buy a PC without a graphics card? Q It’s time to move to Windows 10, so I’m looking for a reliable and powerful PC. I always read your reviews, but all the models you’ve covered recently have graphics cards, and I don’t play games. Joseph McMillan A Most mid-range consumer PCs have a graphics card so they can cover all tasks, including 3D games and photo or video editing, which should use the card to speed up filters and effects. But the graphics card can account for a substantial part of the cost, so if you don’t need one, don’t get one. Intel’s powerful i5 and i7 CPUs (pictured) have integrated graphics, and can be used without a graphics card. AMD’s Ryzen processors need a separate GPU,…

Microsoft Surface WHAT WAS IT? Unveiled in May 2007, Surface (pictured) was a groundbreaking product running specially designed software on a multi-touch screen. It predated the iPad by three years, but had the same screen resolution (1024x768). There was just one crucial difference: the iPad, when it arrived in 2010, was a 680g (1.5lb) slate that would slip into a bag. Microsoft’s Surface, on the other hand, was more than a metre (42in) long, weighed 90kg (14 stone) and cost $10,000. Its processing power came from a built-in PC and its display was back-projected on to a glass table-top, with touches detected by infra-red cameras. HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED? In 2012 Microsoft announced the Surface as we now know it – a portable tablet using the same type of touchscreen…

What you need: Windows 10 Spring Creators Update Time required: 25 minutes The Windows 10 Spring Creators Update has been renamed the April 2018 Update and was released on 30 April (we’ll refer to it as the SCU throughout this Workshop for the sake of brevity). Its best new feature is Timeline, which keeps a history of the Microsoft programs you’ve used, letting you pick up where you left off. You can, for example, start editing a photo on one Windows 10 PC, then use Timeline to find the photo and finish editing it on another. STEP 1 The best way to update your PC to the SCU is to open Settings, click ‘Update & Security’, then the ‘Check for Updates’ button. You’ll know your PC is downloading the SCU…

What you need: Any Amazon Echo device (Dot, Plus, Spot or Show) Time required: 10 minutes Amazon has added a new feature called Routines to its Echo range of smart speakers (www.snipca.com/27535). This feature lets you set your Echo to provide information (BBC news, weather, traffic) and/or play your favourite music whenever you say a particular command (for example, “Alexa, start my day”) or at a specified time. We’ll show you how to create these Routines using the Amazon Alexa app. STEP 1 Open the Amazon Alexa app (Android www.snipca.com/27536; iOS www.snipca.com/27537), tap the three lines at the top left, Routines, Create Routine (or the topright plus sign on iOS devices), then ‘When this happens’. Choose to trigger the routine using a voice command or at a scheduled time. The…

Just A Line Free Android: www.snipca.com/27641 This new app lets you create virtual drawings on a video you’ve recorded, then share it. See the video in the link above for more information on how to use it. The app only works with newer devices that use Google’s ARCore technology (see a list of these at www.snipca.com/27642). Pages Free iOS: www.snipca.com/27640 Apple has overhauled its Pages app with several useful new features. You can now use an Apple Pen (or your finger) to draw and annotate objects. Even better, you can now create your own digital books on your device using a selection of templates, font styles, photos and videos. PK Fitness Free Android: www.snipca.com/27643 iOS: www.snipca.com/27644 New to Android, this app lets you track your daily fitness regime using just…

The interface for Windows’ Command Prompt displays small white text on a black background, which isn’t always easy to read. Thankfully, you can change this colour scheme, increase the font size, and even make your cursor more prominent within the Command Prompt window. Press the Windows key, type cmd, then press Enter to open your Command Prompt window. Now right-click the program’s header bar, then click Properties. You’ll see four tabs in the window that opens. The Options tab lets you make your flashing cursor more prominent within the Command Prompt window. The default selection is Small, so choose Medium or Large. Next, click the Font tab for options to change the font type and size (see screenshot). Your changes will appear in the preview window below. To change the…

Remove multiple hyperlinks Excel (in Microsoft Office) and Calc (in LibreOffice) automatically format URLs and email addresses as hyperlinks, which you may not always want. To unlink a URL, highlight the cell containing it, then press Ctrl+Z (in Excel) and Ctrl+M (in Calc). To unlink several URLs in one go in Excel, press Ctrl, highlight the cells, rows or columns containing them, then right-click and select Remove Hyperlinks. If the hyperlinks are scattered across the spreadsheet, press Ctrl+A twice to select the whole sheet, then click Remove Hyperlinks. In Calc you select the cells in the same way and unlink the URLs by pressing Ctrl+M (note: this will also clear other formatting such as bold text). Create links to send an email Excel also lets you link to your email…

CHROME IS DRAINING YOUR BATTERY FASTER We haven’t seen this one in a while, thankfully, but in 2016 some Chrome users found that Microsoft cheekily displayed this alert on their laptop screen in an attempt to get them to switch to Edge. Independent tests (such as the one reported at www.snipca.com/27700) subsequently proved that Microsoft’s battery life claims were greatly exaggerated. THIS WEBSITE USES COOKIES While browsing, you’ll sometimes see warnings that the website you’re on uses cookies. You needn’t worry about these. It’s just the site complying with EU laws that require websites to ask users’ consent before adding cookies to their PC.…

Do I need to delete Hibernate files? Q In Issue 524’s PC Storage and Backup Cover Feature, you said Hibernate mode should be disabled due to the large files it creates (page 54). I have been using Hibernate for years on my ageing laptop. Does this mean I have many large files stored on my hard drive? If so, can they be deleted, and how can I do that? Jean Marsh A Just to be clear, we suggested disabling Hibernate if or when storage needs to be reclaimed. Hibernate can take up a lot of space but it always uses the same file – so no, your laptop isn’t littered with lots of large files from its use – just the one. If you’re not in urgent need to free…

Ordinarily, by the time you reach this page, you’d be steeling yourself for my intrepid adventures with various brain-training apps. But we recommended a whole bunch of those in Issue 526’s Cover Feature, so for a change I want to look at tools that use a range of tactics to ease stress and boost your happiness. If nothing else, it makes a change from struggling pitifully with Mensa apps. Its name may bring to mind a messaging app supposedly popular with drug dealers (see page 8), but What’s Up (Android www.snipca.com/27581; iOS www.snipca.com/27582) is actually a useful collection of mental-health tools and resources, applying popular therapeutic techniques to combat negative thinking and depression. You do have to wade through a lot of text at the start, but it’s definitely worth…