Table of contents for 621 in Computeractive

As well as being jolly, Christmas ’tis the season of tight print deadlines. They’re especially brutal this year, so this is a three-week issue, giving you a bit more time to digest our tips and advice, along with the usual piles of mince pies and tins of Quality Street. Our Cover Feature will keep you busy for much of that time. Robert Irvine has found the 20 best programs for digging deep into Windows (both 10 and 11) and changing the settings so the operating system works better for your specific needs. Robert came up with enough tips that I was briefly tempted to rewrite an old festive favourite: “On the first day of Christmas Computeractive showed me… how to add tabs to File Explorer”. Probably best for all concerned…

The redesigned Paint app in Windows 11 is getting some new-look options to match the style of the operating system. These included the Edit Color (pictured) and ‘Resize and Skew’ controls. Microsoft has also fixed a bug so that when you click a colour while pressing down the Shift key it will be selected as your secondary colour. However, many users said they were disappointed that the update didn’t add a dark mode and a centred canvas. It’s been strongly rumoured that Microsoft is working to add both tools to the app. Read more on Microsoft’s blog: www.snipca.com/40351.…

A film has been released to mark the 70th anniversary of LEO (Lyons Electronic Office, pictured), the world’s first business computer. It was made available on YouTube (www.snipca.com/40287) on 30 November, 70 years to the day that LEO ran its first program. The computer, which had 5,000 valves, was built for the J Lyons teashop company, and was first used to calculate how much ingredients in bread and cakes would cost, before carrying out more administrative functions like processing payslips. It took up 2,500 square feet of floor space at Lyons’ headquarters at Cadby Hall in Hammersmith, London. Versions of LEO were used right up until 1981, when the last Lyons teashop closed. The 26-minute film was made by the LEO Computers Society (www.leo-computers.org.uk) and the Centre for Computing History…

What’s the threat? The deadly Joker malware has been spotted in a group of Android phone and tablet apps, allowing them to steal login codes from your private messages, or sign you up to expensive services without your permission. Tatyana Shishkova, an expert on Android malware at Kaspersky, found 13 apps containing Joker, and listed them on Twitter. To see them, visit her Twitter feed at www.snipca.com/40212 (you don’t need a Twitter account) and scroll down, looking for tweets that have the hashtag #Joker. All the apps appear to offer handy and legitimate tools, with professional-looking screenshots and reasonably well-written descriptions. A good example is Easy PDF Scanner (see screenshot), which has screenshots showing how it can be used to scan receipts and your driving licence. Functions provided by the…

Windows 11 killed my internet Given Windows 11’s positive reviews, I thought I might as well install it on my six-month-old, relatively high-spec desktop PC. All seemed to go well for an hour or so, after which my PC declared that it had installed Windows 11. However, I noticed that the new Start menu doesn’t allow grouping, but just throws items into a muddle – although you can at least sort them in lines. Then I found that Windows 11 won’t allow you to display seconds on the clock. Then Excel reported that it couldn’t find a valid installation code. Things were getting worse. The killer was that I had no internet access! All my network adapters had disappeared – although Device Manager still reported them as working properly. Uninstalling…

LEAD CASE Can HP refuse to fix vanishing key letters? Q I bought an HP Envy 17 laptop in July 2020, which is good except for one problem: the letters on the keyboard began wearing off within the first year. Despite having a three-year warranty, HP said this problem is considered ‘fair wear and tear’ and isn’t covered. Is it allowed to ignore this problem? Diane Cashell A This is a tricky case. While we think letters shouldn’t wear off within a year (it’s hardly fair wear and tear), it’s not easy to prove the fault is inherent. Also although some cost for the warranty will have been factored into the price of the laptop, legally it’s considered to have cost Diane nothing. So, unless she can prove otherwise, it’s…

Link your research to the world’s biggest tree When it comes to free online resources for family historians, FamilySearch leads the way. This Utah-based site hosts millions of records and photos, and offers access to the world’s largest shared tree – over one billion individuals and counting – to help you track down your ancestors. Better still, it has a plug-in that lets you link its resources to the software you use to build your tree. Here, we’ll explain how to add this plug-in to Family Tree Maker (FTM), as well as to the free editions of RootsMagic and Legacy. Link FTM to FamilySearch You’ll need a free FamilySearch account, so visit www.familysearch.org and click Create Account (or log in if you already have one). Next, open your family-history program…

How can I copy my emails to an external drive? Q I’m thinking of buying a new laptop and want to make sure I don’t lose all the emails I’ve sent and received. I was wondering if there is any software I can use to save all my emails to an external drive? I managed to perform this very task some time ago but can’t remember how I did it. Iain Scott A The best software for backing up your emails is undoubtedly MailStore Home (www.snipca.com/40233). It’s free for personal use and offers the option you need, which is to save your message archive to an external drive or USB stick. Install the program and click the Archive E-mail option on the start screen to import messages from your account.…

WHAT THEY SAY Jeff McVeigh, Intel www.snipca.com/40109 “High-performance computing (HPC) workloads are evolving rapidly. They are becoming more diverse and specialized, requiring a mix of heterogeneous architectures. While the x86 architecture continues to be the workhorse for scalar workloads, if we are to deliver orders-of magnitude performance gains and move beyond the exascale era, we must critically look at how HPC workloads are run within vector, matrix and spatial architectures.” WHAT THEY MEAN HPC requires HPJ (high-performance jargon) to make it sound exciting.…

What does it do? Pixel density is a measurement of how many pixels there are in a fixed amount of screen area. It’s typically measured in pixels per inch (ppi). How does it work? To calculate the pixel density of a screen, you need to know how many pixels there are in an inch of screen, horizontally and vertically. Complications arise because, while the resolution of a screen is usually stated as the number of horizontal pixels times the number of vertical pixels, the overall size of a screen is usually measured across its diagonal. You can still work out the pixel density from these stats, if you can remember your Pythagoras from school. Alternatively, use the handy calculator at www.sven.de/dpi. What are the specs? Smartphone screens are now so…

What is it? New privacy settings in a preview version of Chrome OS suggest Google may soon add “snooping protection” to Chromebooks, which will stop people peering over your shoulder to see what’s on your screen. It uses the laptop’s webcam and a Human Presence Sensor (HPS) - a special chip built into the computer that continuously monitors the view from your webcam. If it spots another face at your laptop, it will alert you, hide your notifications and possibly even switch off the screen. What’s the catch? Google suggests only Chromebooks will support the feature for now, but we’re sure it won’t be long before Windows offers a similar technology. So can I do without it? Yes, but it could prove valuable if you regularly open sensitive documents or…

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TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Remove ‘orphaned’ files from Google Drive I was nearing the limit of my free Google Drive storage (15GB), and didn’t want to pay for any more. I deleted some files, but still had more than 14GB left, so I tried an old trick of deleting ‘orphaned’ files. These are files that are still stored somewhere but not in the original parent folder. They don’t serve any purpose, so it’s safe to delete them. I got rid of 3.4GB! Files can become orphaned when you create a file in a folder that belongs to someone else. That person then deletes the folder, but your file still exists. To find these files, type is:unorganized owner:me into the Google Drive search bar 1 then press Enter. Next, select a…

Speedtest by Ookla Chrome www.snipca.com/40114 When the web starts slowing down, it’s useful to know if the problem is with your connection or the sites you’re visiting. You can find out using Speedtest by Ookla, which you’re probably familiar with through its popular website (www.speedtest.net) and mobile app. Click the extension’s toolbar button, then click Go and it will test your download and upload speeds, and ping speed, and provide the results in megabits per second (Mbps) and milliseconds (ms). This will tell you if you’re getting the connection speed you’re paying your ISP for. Usefully, Speedtest by Ookla also measures how long the site you’re currently viewing takes to load, so you can see if it’s particularly slow - look in the Web Speed section at the bottom of…

Zello PTT Walkie Talkie Free Android www.snipca.com/40220 iOS www.snipca.com/40221 When you can’t get a good mobile signal, Zello provides a quick and reliable way to talk to friends and family, as long as they also have the app. Press the big button to chat to your contacts over Wi-Fi or any available network. You can also record your conversations for posterity. Best For Instant free chats with friends and family Walkie Talkie Free* Android www.snipca.com/40222 iOS www.snipca.com/40223 With its colourful retro design, this app offers a fun way to communicate and meet new people. As well as talking to friends, you can browse, listen to and join its global chat channels using the arrow and power icons on the home screen. Walkie Talkie also lets you create secret channels for…

LIBREOFFICE IMPRESS & MICROSOFT POWERPOINT Change the aspect ratio of slides from 16:9 to 4:3 LibreOffice Impress and Microsoft PowerPoint use a default 16:9 aspect ratio for slides in presentations, to match the format of most modern screens. You can change this by creating themes with a 4:3 ratio, which is useful if you’re using slides in this older format. In Impress, click Slide at the top followed by Slide Properties, then select ‘Screen 4:3’ in the Paper Format dropdown menu and click OK. Next, click File at the top left, followed by Templates, then ‘Save as Template’. Type a name in the box that appears, then select a category. Decide whether to tick the ‘Set as default template’ box, then click Save. This template will be ready to use…

What are they? Mechanical gloves that can reproduce sensations such as grasping an object or running your hand along a surface. For years they’ve been touted as a companion to virtual-reality (VR) headsets, making the experience feel more lifelike. No device has yet matched the hype, but that could be about to change. Why? Facebook – or Meta, as it’s now known – has unveiled its own prototype glove (pictured right). It has 15 ridged, inflatable motorised pads, known as actuators, that fit along the wearer’s palm, the underside of their fingers and their fingertips. These inflate and stiffen to recreate the sensation of touching real objects. What kind of sensations are we talking about? Running your finger down a plate is one example. Er – anything more exciting than…

The Windows registry is a massive database of configuration settings for your hardware, software, operating system, preferences, profiles and more, and serves as your PC’s nerve centre. We often recommend tweaking the registry to troubleshoot problems and unlock secret features, but what about the Registry Editor itself? This is Windows’ own tool for making changes to the registry, which you access by typing regedit into the Windows search box. Apart from adding new registry keys and values and removing old ones, it barely changes in appearance from one Windows version to another and has an interface that’s so fiddly to use it might as well be labelled ‘do not touch’. For a simpler and faster way to browse and edit the registry, install O&O RegEditor from www.snipca.com/40158. This free program…

Most of the programs we’ve recommended in this feature let you hack specific Windows tools, but it’s also useful to install a system-wide tweaking program for 2022. This will let you customise how different elements of Windows look and work. Many of our favourite free system-tweaking tools have been updated to support Windows 11, and there are also quite a few new ones you can try. Winaero Tweaker (www.snipca.com/40190), which was the subject of our Cover Feature in Issue 603 (page 50), has augmented its hundreds of tweaks for Windows 7, 8 and 10 with options for customising Windows 11. These include displaying the full context menu when you right-click a file or folder (see screenshot below); restoring the ribbon to File Explorer (see page 52 for more on this);…

Q I’m not very good with computers. A couple of years ago I employed a local technician to set me up with an iPad. I use this for email and web browsing, and the odd puzzle game. I recently broke the screen and, while it still works, I want to replace it. The local technician is no longer in business, so I’m wondering if you can explain how to transfer my email system to a new iPad? I recall him saying that the Gmail address he made for me was webmail, but that the iPad syncs to it using the Mail app. That obviously works, and has done for years, but I don’t really understand how it all links up. What’s the difference between Mail, Gmail, email and webmail? He…

As the end of the year approaches, I find myself reflecting on all the things I did and didn’t achieve in 2021. I started a new job (this one, in fact), had three Covid jabs without getting infected in the intervals between them, and bought a new washing machine when my old one couldn’t be bothered to spin any more. On the downside, my long-awaited trip to America was postponed again, my exercise regime quickly lapsed into idleness and I never got to use Android apps in Windows 11, even though Microsoft promised in June that the feature was coming “later this year” (go to www.snipca.com/40102 and scroll down about two-thirds of the page). “Microsoft’s pesky system requirements were a running a theme of 2021” Determined to address at least…

Microsoft is giving you more options to alter the Start menu and taskbar in Windows 11 following criticism from users frustrated by how the tools have been changed from their Windows 10 versions. Currently in Windows 11 the Start menu lets you show only three rows of pinned apps, or three rows of recently opened documents. Microsoft extends these options in the preview version 22509 so that you can show more or fewer apps and documents by increasing the size of each area. Microsoft illustrated the difference this makes in a blog post (www.snipca.com/40344) announcing version 22509. Our screenshot shows the default Start menu in the middle 1, with three rows each of pinned apps and recently opened (‘Recommended’) documents. In the Start menu on the left 2 this has…

Google has named a ‘personal meditation coach’ as the best Android app of 2021. Called Balance (pictured), it uses a library of thousands of audio files to create a “daily meditation that’s perfect for you”. Similar ‘wellbeing’ tools dominate the awards, such as Moonly - one of the ‘Best Hidden Gems’ - which teaches you to “live by the moon rhythm, heal your soul, and harmonize your life”. Laughscape, another Hidden Gem, is an app for relieving stress in which comedians take listeners on “humorous journeys” in the hope that they can “laugh their way to relaxation”. The Everyday Essentials category celebrates more practical apps, including the plant-identification tool Blossom and the photo editor PhotoRoom. The poster-design app Canva is named in the ‘Best for Tablets’ category, along with sketching…

WINAMP TO RETURN FOR RADIO & PODCASTS The owners of music-playing tool Winamp plan to relaunch it as a place for listening to radio stations and podcasts, and as a way for fans and artists to communicate. Radionomy, which bought Winamp in 2014, has redesigned the website (www.winamp.com), and is inviting people to test the beta version (www.snipca.com/40321). Winamp was one of the most popular music players in the early days of the internet, attracting 60 million users by 2001. SEE MORE SATELLITE DATA FROM NASA Nasa has updated its ‘Eyes on the Earth’ tool (pictured) to let you see data from natural events, such as wind speeds of tropical storms and the impact of wild fires. To use it, visit www.snipca.com/40324 and click one of the satellites for details.…

2,000 PHONES ON SHOW IN WEB MUSEUM More than 2,000 iconic mobile phones from 1984 to the present day are being celebrated in a new online museum (www.mobilephonemuseum.com). It’s been created by Ben Wood and Matt Chatterley, who have spent over 20 years collecting the devices. They’re split into collections, including Firsts – where the Orbitel 901 appears (pictured). In 1992, it become the first phone to receive a text message (‘Merry Christmas’). 3BN PEOPLE HAVE NEVER USED THE WEB Around 2.9 billion people – 37 per cent of the world’s population – have never used the internet, according to new research from the International Telecommunication Union, part of the United Nations. It says that 96 per cent of those live in developing countries. However, it also estimates that the…

It may sound like it was built by an excitable toddler – or perhaps a sarcastic teenager – but Edge’s Super Duper Secure Mode provides a serious boost to your browsing safety. Added in November to version 96.0.1054.29 of Edge, it disables the web tool Just-In-Time (JIT), which is used in JavaScript applications and is responsible for many security flaws online. The mode has two options: Balanced and Strict. The former turns off JIT in sites you don’t visit often (as judged by Edge); the latter disables it on all sites, but may stop some working properly. Microsoft recommends Balanced because it offers the best compromise between safety and convenience. Open Edge, click the top-right menu button (three horizontal dots), then Settings. In the left-hand menu click ‘Privacy, search and…

I seem to recall a reader recommending a free Adobe tool for removing backgrounds from photos. Can you jog my memory? Ian Aldridge CA SAYS Yes, it was Adobe Spark (www.snipca.com/39436), recommended by Bill Ratcliffe in Issue 616 (page 41). To my disappointment, I can’t upgrade my PC to Windows 11, so I’m stuck with Windows 10. When was your Cover Feature on making Windows 10 last longer? Ron Heath CA SAYS That appeared in Issue 612, pages 50 to 57. I’m getting lots of error messages in VLC, just like a reader whose problem you solved recently. Which issue please? Paul Stonehouse CA SAYS We fixed John Cranny’s VLC problems in Issue 613, page 64.…

Winsome Durrant has finally received a full refund of £420.47 from Chinese phone manufacturer OnePlus, but the company’s reluctance to deal with the problem greatly concerns us. As we explained in Issue 619, OnePlus sent Winsome three replacements for a faulty Nord 2 phone, none of which worked. It should have refunded her after the first replacement failed, as bound by UK law, but it persuaded her to accept another phone. OnePlus then promised Winsome a refund, but promptly withdrew it. That’s when we got involved, though we’re sorry to say that our emails to the company’s office, European CEO and UK regional manager went unanswered. We then told Winsome what to write to OnePlus to explain her rights, clearly stating that she was entitled to a full refund because…

How can I find out which parishes my ancestors lived in? David Muloney If your ancestor lived in England or Wales, use FamilySearch’s parish boundary map from 1851 (www.familysearch.org/mapp), which you can search and browse like any other map. For Scottish parishes, use a similar tool from the National Library of Scotland (www.snipca.com/40110), while the Irish Ancestors website (www.snipca.com/40123) covers both civil and Roman Catholic parishes in Ireland. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

I’m not a lazy person, but I don’t like doing things manually that could be done automatically. For that reason, I’m a huge fan of the free IFTTT service (www.ifttt.com). Standing for If This Then That, IFTTT is an automation tool that connects thousands of different programs and devices (the complete list is available at https://ifttt.com/services). The idea is that one service has a trigger (the ‘If This’ part) that causes an action (the ‘then that’ part) in a different service. For example, if you post a new picture on Facebook, then that image is saved to your Google Drive. With thousands of services, and even more triggers and actions, IFTTT has millions of possible uses. Whenever I want to automate something, I check IFTTT to see if the service…

I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that being caught importing class A drugs makes you a bona fide villain. But the MDMA that Patrick McLoughlin was shipping in from the Netherlands makes him a proper wrong ’un. A package destined for the 31-year-old McLoughlin included 70 green pills shaped to look like the WhatsApp logo (pictured). These so-called ‘WhatsApp tablets’ aren’t only dangerous in themselves, but raise all kinds of terrifying possibilities of kids stumbling across them and popping them in their mouths, believing them to be sweets. Inspector Paul Ferguson of Nottinghamshire Police said it wasn’t the first time he had seen drugs created to look like “culturally popular items”. McLoughlin was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. He’s a lucky man to…

Installing an outdoor security camera is as much about deterring intruders as it is about catching them in the act, and this imposing security camera should go a long way to warding off any passing criminals looking for easy opportunities. It’s a large spherical case with a camera inside, which can pan 352 degrees and tilt up and down 90 degrees to get a near-complete view of your property. Setting up the camera is relatively straightforward but, unlike the Google Nest Cam (Battery) reviewed in Issue 616, it needs to be powered from the mains. This means either connecting it to an outdoor plug socket or cabling it through your wall to plug into an indoor socket. It also needs to be attached to a flat surface, so if you…

Radio addicts probably don’t always want to open up their smartphone and stream to a nearby speaker every time they want to tune into their favourite station. However, having a radio that can connect to Bluetooth and stream internet stations and music services like Spotify is very handy. The small, stylish Roberts Revival Petite covers all those bases. It’s battery rather than mains powered, so easy to move around the house. It recharges via a microUSB port and runs for about 12 hours. It’s about the width and height of a smartphone but much deeper and feels heavy for its size. The retro styling is lovely, looking like a miniature radio from yesteryear. Its mottled vinyl casing comes in a range of colours, while the small OLED screen brings it…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2020 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/38164 LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (256GB) £692 from www.snipca.com/39635 Tested Issue 601 Weighing just 1.16kg, this is an excellent lightweight laptop with a great screen and an AMD processor faster than many Intel rivals. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card reader. Battery lasts nearly 16 hours. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £999 from www.snipca.com/40042 ANDROID TABLET Lenovo Tab P11 Pro £600 from www.snipca.com/38585 Tested Issue 609 A fast tablet that comes with a magnetic stand and keyboard that means you can also use it as a laptop. It has…

CHROME Capture screenshots without an extension Until recently, if you wanted to take a screenshot of a web page in Chrome, you had to use an extension such as Nimbus Capture (www.snipca.com/40113). This made the browser feel rather old-fashioned compared with Edge and Vivaldi, which offer built-in screen-capture tools. Chrome 96, which was released last month, introduced the option to take screenshots without an extension, but - like many of the browser’s most useful new features - it’s currently tucked away on its Experiments page. To activate the new Screenshot function, type chrome:flags into Chrome’s address bar and press Enter. Search for the entry Desktop Screenshots and select Enabled in the dropdown menu next to it. Do the same for Desktop Sharing Hub in Omnibox, then relaunch the browser. You’ll…

ANDROID Control your smart TV with your phone The latest update to Google’s Home app for Android (www.snipca.com/40234) lets you use your phone or tablet to control your Android or Google smart TV – including Chromecast with Google TV. This is handy if you lose or break your physical remote, or if you already use the Google Home app to control other smart devices. To activate the feature, select your smart TV on Google Home’s home screen - it’s usually called Living Room TV or similar - and tap ‘Open remote’ in the bottom-left corner. Type the pairing code that appears on your TV screen, then tap Pair to connect the devices. Unlike virtual remotes for other brands of smart TV and streaming stick, the Google Home remote doesn’t have…

WINDOWS 11 Add symbols using revamped clipboard manager Windows 11’s clipboard has added the ability to add symbols to your documents, giving you a wider range than using just your keyboard – including currency, mathematical and geometric characters. To do this, open a document and write text in it. Now press Windows key+V to open the clipboard manager and select the Symbols tab. Click the left and right arrows at the top to choose a symbol category, then select a symbol (see screenshot below) to insert it. WINDOWS 10 Add Recycle Bin to This PC You can add the Recycle Bin to the ‘This PC’ section in File Explorer with a simple registry tweak. Open the Registry Editor by pressing Windows key+R then typing regedit. Next, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\…

One of Excel’s best tools is Cell Styles, which lets you apply a set of formatting rules across a workbook of spreadsheets. You could, for example, apply a yellow ‘fill’, underlined headings or linked cells. Once saved, you can apply these across your entire workbook. It’s also easy to share your chosen style with spreadsheets in another workbook. First, open the workbook that’s using the style you want to share. Click the Home tab, select Cell Styles, then New Cell Style at the bottom. Give this style a name, then click OK (‘Expenses’ in our example). Keep this first workbook open. Next, open the workbook you want to add this style to. Click the Home tab at the top, then the Cell Styles dropdown menu (1 in our screenshot) and…

In this special offer exclusively for Computeractive readers, you can buy Windows 10 Pro for only £69.99. That’s a whopping £150 cheaper than Microsoft’s full price of £219.99. To buy Windows 10 Pro, visit www.snipca.com/38398 and click the red Buy Now button on the right. If you buy this you’ll be able to upgrade to Windows 11 for free – if your computer is compatible JUST SO YOU KNOW… This offer can be used by one person only, and expires at midnight on 4 January, 2022. It’s a lifetime licence for one computer.…

One of the most common complaints about Windows 11 is that revamped tools such as the Start menu and File Explorer are now slower and more resource-intensive than their ‘classic’ versions. In this feature, we’ve explained how you can tweak these and other elements to make them work more efficiently, but you’ll be relieved to hear that Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and promised to fix it in 2022. Responding to comments in a recent Reddit AMA (ask me anything) discussion (www.snipca.com/40213), which complained that the Windows 11 user interface is “not just slow, it’s also GPU heavy”, the Windows Developer team said that: “Performance will be an area of focus for us in 2022… there’s multiple things we’re collectively doing here to try and make sure we have a…

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Microsoft appears to have been stung by criticism of Windows 11’s Start menu and taskbar – two of the most vital parts of any operating system – and should be praised for acting swiftly. We’d have been less generous had Microsoft waited until well into 2022 before adding options that should have been included at launch. We’ll send a copy of our Cover Feature to its developers so it knows what to change next. It should start by reinstating File Explorer’s ribbon, and introducing tabs to switch between folders.…

Professional video-editing app LumaFusion (www.snipca.com/40335, pictured) has won Apple’s ‘iPad App of the Year’ award for 2021. Apple said the app, which costs £25.99 with in-app purchases, makes “video editing faster, less intimidating, and more portable for creators at every level”. The kids game Toca Life World (www.snipca.com/40336) was named best iPhone app. Visit Apple’s site for the winners in other categories, including for Macs and Apple Watch: www.snipca.com/40326.…

VODAFONE TO BUILD WIND-POWERED MASTS Vodafone is building a range of phone masts powered entirely by wind power. Called ‘Eco-Towers’ (pictured), they’ll work on 4G and 5G, and will be located in rural areas where there’s a “major challenge and cost of connecting to the electricity grid” – including Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Read more on Vodafone’s site: www.snipca.com/40260. 1,000 TV SHOWS ON iPLAYER OVER XMAS More than 1,000 ‘boxsets’ will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer over Christmas. Each boxset is every series of a show – so all five series of Peaky Blinders, for example. Visit www.snipca.com/40265 for more details of the shows being added. The BBC has also announced that iPlayer is now available on the Sony PlayStation 5 - read more at www.snipca.com/40266.…

Manufacturers have been banned from selling devices that have easy-toguess default passwords. It means they’ll no longer be able to set up devices with generic passwords such as ‘admin’. Instead, all passwords that come with new devices will need to be “unique and not resettable to any universal factory setting”. The ban comes as part of the Government’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill (PSTI, www.snipca.com/40284), which aims to improve the security of devices other than computers that connect to the internet. Products covered include phones, tablets, smart TVs, fitness trackers, smart speakers, thermostats and “other internet-connectable devices”. The law also requires manufacturers to tell customers when they buy a device how long it will receive security fixes, and to warn customers about any changes to this. Nearly 80 per…

‘Advance fee’ for lottery win I read online recently a warning from Action Fraud that lottery scams are on the rise (www.snipca.com/40159). It reminded me of a text message I received a few months ago claiming to be from the People’s Postcode Lottery (PPL). I do play this lottery, so it caught my eye. But I was suspicious when it asked me to pay an advance fee to access my winnings. I checked on PPL’s site (www.snipca.com/40160), and it confirmed that it doesn’t ask for money upfront to release your winnings. I also rang them to check (0808 109 8765). I hope other readers take heed. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

I’d never dare accuse estate agents of exaggerating the benefits of fast broadband, but I don’t understand why you need speeds as fast as 300Mbps to add value to a house (‘Question of the Fortnight’, Issue 620, page 10). I appreciate that the lockdowns have forced many people to take their home broadband speeds more seriously, but many of us started working from home before the pandemic, when there was less emphasis on ultra-fast speeds. I set up my home office in 2018 when my boss said I could work from home three days a week. I was worried my 24Mbps wouldn’t be fast enough, but it has never let me down – even during video calls with up to 200 people, or when streaming high-resolution training courses through a…

I was a bit confused by my new smart-heating system, called WundaSmart (www.wundasmart.co.uk). I had to put a smart valve on my radiator so I could control it through my phone app, but I couldn’t work out how to do this. I phoned Wunda and spoke to someone who understood my predicament, and talked me through the process step by step. He was patient, spoke in plain English, and also gave me a tip - that the Wunda app has several troubleshooting videos that might help me in future. But even if they don’t assist me, I feel confident that getting through to Wunda will be easy. I didn’t have to wait for ages on the phone before speaking to someone. Nor did I have to press this button then…

BACKUP TOOL EaseUS Todo Backup Free 2022 www.snipca.com/40247 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 EaseUS Todo Backup Free is one of our favourite free tools for backing up your computer and this new version redesigns the interface to make it even easier to use. You can now create a backup simply by clicking the Create Backup button on the home screen and selecting the content you want to copy, be it files and folders, specific drives or your entire system. Choose where to save the backup – for example to a local hard drive, external drive or NAS – then click the Back Up Now button. When you need to restore a saved backup, just click ‘Browse to Recover’. It really is as straightforward as that, though…

SOFTWARE WARNING! GIMP – Image Editor PRO Before you all start emailing to ask why I’m laying into your favourite open-source image editor, look carefully. This isn’t the official and brilliant GIMP, but a thinly veiled clone that’s being sold in the Microsoft Store. There’s no reason to pay anyone for the pleasure of downloading GIMP. As we’ve mentioned many times before, it’s free to download from www.gimp.org. However, if you search Microsoft’s app store for the software, you’re likely to stumble across GIMP – Image Editor Pro, yours for the ‘bargain’ price of £2.49 (a saving of £5.90 apparently!). As far as I can tell, it’s identical to the free version of GIMP. The only differences I’ve spotted in the paid-for GIMP are an annoying logo floating on my…

We recently reviewed two new desktop PCs that come with Windows 11 installed – the Stormforce Onyx GTX 1650 (£699, see Issue 619, page 22) and the Chillblast Fusion Prime 11 (£1,000, see Issue 620, page 23). Both run Windows brilliantly, but they fell a little short in all-round performance, largely due to the relatively low-end graphics cards they used to keep the respective prices down. “It blitzes through Windows tasks and handles games without reducing settings” The Covid pandemic is still taking its toll on stocks of electronic components, and high-end graphics cards, in particular, are in short supply, with supply-chain problems hiking up prices and reducing availability. Thankfully, PC Specialist seems to have secured enough of the impressive RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards for its Fusion Supreme line.…

Most of us are happy to do our bit for the environment by sorting our waste into recycling bins and taking re-usable shopping bags to the supermarket, but would we choose our next smartphone on the basis of how eco-friendly it is? Fairphone is hoping we will and its latest model, the Fairphone 4, is its most persuasive argument yet. The phone’s eco-credentials are bolstered by using recyclable materials where possible, using fairly sourced and sustainable materials, and building its phones with a modular design that makes them easy to repair and should prolong its lifespan. “Uses recyclable materials and is easy to repair, but is no better than rivals £200 cheaper” Because it has replaceable components, – including battery and screen – it’s a little chunkier than a standard…

Can you recommend a printer/scanner for a small space? Q I’m looking for a printer/scanner, which can connect to Wi-Fi, but doesn’t need to produce photo quality. The paper must be fed in at the bottom as it is in a small space. It must be cheap and have low running costs, as I am retired and will only use it on the odd occasion. Can you recommend anything? Peter Turner A Printers are still in short supply, but we think we’ve managed to find you a suitable device: the HP Envy 6432e All-in-One (£100 from HP at www.snipca.com/40170, pictured). Paper is fed in at the bottom and it covers a fairly small area – its dimensions are 174x361x433mm (HxDxW). We wouldn’t recommend this printer to someone who does want…

Eufy’s RoboVac X8 uses artificial intelligence to generate floor maps of your home, so it knows exactly where it’s cleaning, whichever floor it’s on or room it’s in. Use the app to create your own cleaning areas, as well as no-go zones. It uses Path Laser Navigation to work out the most efficient cleaning route, without needing you to manually map it. You don’t need to worry about obstacles – it can detect these and move around them. Each of the two turbines in the RoboVac X8 offers 2000Pa (pascal) of suction power, increasing overall airflow by 80 per cent. It does a great job cleaning up pet hair – sucking up 57.6 per cent more hair than a single-turbine robotic vacuum. Dust is sucked in with such force that…

George at Asda Free Android www.snipca.com/40217 iOS www.snipca.com/40216 This redesigned app for Asda’s clothing and homeware brand makes it easier to shop using your phone or tablet. Clear categories and smart filters help you find the perfect item with minimal fuss, plus you can search using your voice, share your basket with others and scan barcodes to check stock levels. Habitses Free iOS www.snipca.com/40219 Despite its twee, Gollum-inspired name, Habitses is a fun way to improve your lifestyle in 2022. Set yourself goals such as ‘take a walk’, ‘learn to cook a new dish’ and ‘learn five foreign words’, and the app will help you stick to them using daily reminders, progress charts and cute cartoon creatures that encourage you. Document Reader Free* Android www.snipca.com/40218 Although it’s blighted by ads…

You’ve been able to use WhatsApp on Windows computers for quite a while – download it from www.whatsapp.com/download – but it’s nowhere near as good as its phone equivalent. It uses up a lot of your computer’s resources, meaning it runs slowly if your machine is performing other intensive tasks. Also, when you close the chat window, it stops running, instead of just minimising to the system tray. This means you don’t get notifications when messages arrive. There’s now a better alternative in the shape of a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app, which are tools designed for multiple versions of Windows, as well as Xbox consoles. It’s available from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.com/40197), so will use fewer computer resources than a traditional program. Also, because it’s a UWP app it…

Organise events using Trello boards When you have big events to organise, it can be difficult to sort out who’s doing what and when. That’s where Trello (www.trello.com) can help. Although it’s technically a collaboration tool to help developers build software, it has a free version that’s ideal for clubs. It’s based on a workflow process called Kanban that became popular in Japan before spreading to offices around the world. The core idea is that you have ‘cards’ for individual tasks that you move between lists to show progress. Here we’ll show you how Trello can help organise a Christmas Fair by assigning different jobs to volunteers. Create a Trello board First you need to sign up for a free Trello account. When you do this, you’ll be prompted to…

The Start menu is arguably the most important feature in Windows, but it’s also the one that Microsoft likes to tamper with most. This infamously led to the company scrapping the traditional menu in Windows 8 in favour of a tile-based ‘Start screen’ – a decision it backtracked on in Windows 8.1. For many of us, the Start menu achieved perfection in Windows 7, and Windows 10’s attempt to combine that version’s list-based design with the ‘Metro’ tiles of Windows 8 has never quite satisfied. Windows 11 presents an even bigger shock, by moving the Start button from its usual home in the bottom-left corner of your screen to near the centre of the taskbar, and replacing the menu with a grid of ‘pinned’ apps. Clicking the ‘All apps’ option…

The Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge is a very good browser (especially compared with its predecessor Internet Explorer), but with so many other options to choose from – including Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi and Opera – not everyone wants to use it. In Windows 10, it’s relatively easy to change your default browser to something other than Edge. Simply go to Settings, choose Apps, click ‘Default apps’ and select your preferred browser in the ‘Web browser’ list. Alternatively, you can access that setting by clicking the ‘Make default browser’ button in the new browser. Windows 11 makes switching to another browser much more difficult because it removes the ‘Web browser’ option from ‘Default apps’. This means you need to manually set your desired browser as the default for all the…

Task Manager hasn’t changed much in appearance between Windows 10 and 11, but Microsoft no longer lets you launch it by right-clicking the taskbar. Instead, you need to right-click the Start button and choose Task Manager, or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Windows 11 does introduce an interesting new Task Manager feature called ‘Eco mode’, which stops background processes hogging your PC’s CPU, memory and power, but this hasn’t yet been added to stable builds of the operating system. In the meantime, you can get a similar feature from Process Explorer, Microsoft’s alternative Task Manager for power users, which you can either download from www.snipca.com/40173 or as part of the Sysinternals Suite (www.snipca.com/40201 – see our feature in Issue 614, page 62). What the program lacks in looks (its interface is rather cramped…

When Microsoft announced the new Widgets feature in Windows 11 (www.snipca.com/40182), we imagined it was bringing back Windows 7’s ‘gadgets’, which for security reasons were dropped from the operating system from Windows 8 onwards. These were little floating apps that you could move around your desktop to see the time, the weather, your CPU usage and other useful information. Instead, Windows 11’s widgets are all contained in a pop-up panel that you open from the taskbar or by pressing Windows+W, which is similar to opening a web page. Although the Widgets panel can be customised to show the content of your choice, and appears above other windows so you don’t need to minimise them to view it, the feature lacks the personality and flexibility of classic gadgets. The good news…

Each issue of Computeractive will be delivered directly to your device each fortnight. SEE NEXT PAGE FOR SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO SUBSCRIBE… … on an iPad or iPhone STEP 1 Return to the Computeractive library STEP 2 Choose your subscription term and tap twice on the 'price' box STEP 3 Choose whether to create an optional PixelMags account STEP 4 Enter your Apple ID password to confirm … on a Kindle Fire Kindle Fire subscriptions come with a FREE one month trial. STEP 1 Tap 'Free Trial Subscription' in the Computeractive library STEP 2 Chose your subscription term from the drop down menu on the popup that appears STEP 3 Tap 'Subscribe' … on an Android device STEP 1 Open the Google Play Store homepage and navigate to the Newsstand…

To add closed captions to a video you’ve uploaded to YouTube, open a new blank Notepad document and type the words spoken by each person. Every time there’s a change of speaker, add their name, preceded by >>. And, when you want to describe sounds, put them in square brackets, as follows: >> Bob: Welcome to our video, in which we’ll be showing you how to bake a fruit cake. [sounds of kitchen implements] >> Alice: It’s surprisingly easy. Why don’t you run through the ingredients, Bob? >> Bob: Thanks, Alice. I will. Save the file as plain text, then open your browser at https://studio.youtube.com, and sign in with your Google account. Click ‘Subtitles’ in the left-hand menu, then select the video you’d like to add a closed-captions file to.…

How can I pin browser tabs? Q I’m a bit behind with reading your magazine, therefore I’ve only recently caught up with your reply to Steven Henderson in Issue 611’s Problems Solved (page 65) – where he asked how to pin tabs in his web browser. I followed your instructions but I do not see the option to pin tabs. What am I doing wrong? Heather Jackson A We’ve changed your name at your request. Thanks to the screenshot that you helpfully included in your email we can see instantly what you’re doing wrong. You’re right-clicking the URL bar that contains the website address. In fact, it’s the website tab that you need to rightclick (1 in our screenshot below), not its address in the URL bar. We did say…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 1440p High-definition video of 2560x1440 pixels. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. Airplane mode Phones and tablets in this mode disable all radio communication (GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc) so they are safe to use on aircraft. Architecture A set of rules and language that govern how hardware and software work. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a display. Traditional computer screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Augmented reality Lets you view the real world on a…