Table of contents for 663 in Computeractive

Sometimes Microsoft needs a bit of tough love. We’ll always offer praise when it improves Windows, but it also needs to be told the mistakes it has made. And there have been plenty of them over the years, as Robert Irvine recalls in his Cover Feature. But for every error, there’s a clever fix that reverses it. Sometimes it means downloading software from developers happy to clear up Microsoft’s mess. Other solutions involve running batch scripts, editing the registry, or diving deep into your hard drive to click forgotten files. Robert explains all these, then reveals ways to enhance Windows tools that Microsoft has neglected. He ends by urging you to tweak settings that boost your privacy and security – and disable adverts too. Along the way he even shows…

As fans of Proton’s privacy-focused tools, such as its online storage service (Issue 653, page 38) and VPN (Issue 650, page 19), we were pleased to hear that it has launched a new password manager, Proton Pass. It’s available as a browser extension for Brave, Chrome, Edge and Firefox, as well as an app for Android and iOS. Like all Proton tools, it uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for maximum security, and covers not just your passwords but also email addresses, website URLs and any notes you make. To install the extension, visit https://proton.me/pass click Get Proton Pass, create an account, then choose the Proton Free package. This gives you unlimited passwords and lets you use Proton Pass across unlimited devices. To install the app, visit www.snipca.com/46795 (Android) or www.snipca.com/46796 (iOS).…

I recall an article explaining which old cables to keep and which to ditch. When was that? Michael Clarke CA SAYS In Issue 629, page 60. I’ve got a knackered old PC that I want to revive using Chrome OS Flex. When did you explain how to do this? Peter Wilson CA SAYS In Issue 638, page 35. Read it and the above feature on our 2022 Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/44660. When did you explain how to get free phone data? Paul Rodgers CA SAYS That was Issue 657, page 60 – buy it from www.snipca.com/46742.…

Reader Clive Bonner has accepted a partial refund from Kensington Domestic Appliances (www.kensingtonappliances.co.uk) for an air fryer he bought online for £169 (see Issue 659), even though we have doubts about the company’s reason for not returning all his money. He returned the item because its LED icons had stopped being readable after only a couple of uses. Kensington’s manager then inspected the fryer and claimed it wasn’t faulty, though he did agree to a refund of £126.74, saying he knocked £42.26 off as a 25-per-cent “restocking fee”. This raises several questions. First, if Kensington thought the fryer wasn’t faulty, why did it agree to a refund? Second, did the manager have the technical expertise to inspect the air fryer, and therefore decide whether it’s faulty? Only an inspection by…

My great-grandfather George Holmes was born in 1870 and appears in the 1891 census living in Norfolk with his wife and children. The wife and children then appear in the 1901 census living with a different man whose surname they subsequently used. But there’s no sign of George. What happened to him? Tony Macklon It looks as though your great-grandparents split up and found other partners, though they didn’t divorce or remarry. In the 1901 census, George Holmes is living at 21 Cobholm Road, Great Yarmouth, with Elizabeth Holmes (wrongly recorded as his wife) and daughters Ada (2) and Edith (1). The family were still living in Great Yarmouth in 1921, and George was buried on 17 February, 1932, at Yarmouth Cemetery. Have a genealogy question for Chris? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Can I recover my product keys? Q I’ve just replaced my hard drive and now need to reinstall and reactivate Windows and Office, but I’ve realised I forgot to make a note of the product keys. Are there any tools for recovering them? Kevin Lanister A If you’ve replaced the drive on which Windows was installed, it’s too late to recover your product keys from that. Don’t panic, though, because your Windows licence may be linked to your Microsoft account, in which case you should be able to find those details by logging into your Orders screen at www.snipca.com/46734. You’ll also find your Office keys there if you bought it directly from Microsoft. If instead you activated your copy of Windows by typing a unique code, check any documentation you…

Prolific fraudster David Aves has certainly moved with the times. He has committed around 200 crimes since the Seventies, the latest of which saw him flogging fake tractors, diggers and machinery on Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree. The 64-year-old from Nottingham was jailed in 2021 after swindling 10 people out of nearly £35,000. He was released in August 2022, but started scamming more victims just months later, stealing over £15,000. He was promptly arrested again, confessed to his crimes, and is now serving three years behind bars. When he’s eventually released, he’ll be subject to a Serious Crime Prevention Order that restricts him to one phone and one email address, and bans him from selling any goods online. We doubt he’s had any good feedback anyway.…

Find out which other products we liked. Buy our new 2022 Back Issue CD: £17 from www.snipca.com/44660 NEW! LAPTOP Acer Swift 3 14in £1,050 from www.snipca.com/44367 Tested Issue 648 Comes with a powerful 12th-generation Intel processor and 1TB SSD to make Windows tasks feel incredibly fast. Also has a decent 2560x1440-pixel IPS screen and comes with plenty of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4-compatible USB-C. ALTERNATIVE Lenovo Yoga 6 Gen 7 Has a slower processor, and half the storage and RAM, but remains a good laptop for the price. £599 from www.snipca.com/44950 ANDROID TABLET PRICE DROP Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 £599 from www.snipca.com/42211 Tested Issue 634 Samsung has replaced its own Tab S7+ to become our favourite Android tablet. It’s fast with a stunning 11in screen, and has a longer battery life than…

If I’m travelling solo, I usually share my phone’s network connection with Wi-Fi-only devices like my laptop and iPad. However, a 4G router like the one we’re using here is more convenient if you need to connect several devices at once or want to share the connection between multiple users. It also saves you having to find a coffee shop with Wi-Fi (if you’d rather not share your phone connection) or relying on public Wi-Fi that you don’t entirely trust. Nik Rawlinson How do you stay connected while travelling? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Google Books is a great place for finding out-of-copyright classics, as your ‘Free Ebooks’ feature pointed out (Issue 659, page 60 – buy it from www.snipca.com/46665). But it’s not just great for books – there are thousands of old magazines to browse also. I always start at www.snipca.com/46666 where you can scroll through A-Z listings. It’s often easier to search for a specific title or subject. I often look for old issues of Computerworld, Life and Popular Science (1 in our screenshot). Unlike with books, where you’d probably want to read page by page, it’s easy to flick through magazines as you would in real life. You just need to click the correct icon at the top 2 and you’ll see the whole magazine laid out below 3. It’s then easy to…

CHROME Control the type of ads you see on websites Despite a couple of delays, Google is still planning to phase out cookies in Chrome by the end of 2024 in favour of its own Topics system. Chrome 115, which was released 12 July, implements the first stage of Google’s plan by adding new privacy settings that let you control (to some extent) the types of ads you see on web pages. You may have seen a pop-up message about ‘Enhanced ad privacy in Chrome’ when you updated the browser. If not, you can access the new options by going to Settings then ‘Privacy and security’, and selecting ‘Ads privacy’. If that option isn’t listed, click Privacy Sandbox, switch on Trials and restart the browser. The ‘Ads privacy’ page comprises…

ANDROID & iOS Chat to people who aren’t contacts in WhatsApp To start a new chat with someone in WhatsApp, you’ve previously needed to save their name and phone number as a contact. Although this makes it easy to identify their future messages, it also means your contacts list can become clogged up with the details of people you only chatted to once or twice, and aren’t likely to speak to again. To overcome this problem, WhatsApp has added the welcome option to send a message to a mobile number without saving the person to your contacts. You can then delete or archive the conversation to keep your Chats list tidy. Tap the ‘Start new chat’ speech-bubble icon to launch a chat, but instead of selecting a contact or creating…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Open apps through the Run box Rather than looking for apps in the Start menu, you can open them by typing Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) commands in the Run box. Press Windows key+R then type a command such as windowsdefender: (see screenshot below). Click OK and this will launch the app within Windows. Other commands include calculator:, onenote: and outlookmail: – see the full list at www.snipca.com/46906. Note that these commands work only with Microsoft apps that are built into Windows, and those made by Microsoft that it makes available through its Store. WINDOWS 10 & 11 Make the calculator always stay on top You can make the Windows calculator app appear on top of every other page you have open, so it always stays in…

By default Word doesn’t let you overlap images in a document, but you can allow this by changing the layout option. First, click your image then the Layout Options icon that appears to the right of it (1 in our screenshot). Now click the image again, then click the Picture Format tab that appears at the top followed by the Wrap Text dropdown arrow. Now right-click the image, then select Wrap Text and choose any option other than ‘In Line with Text’. You’ll need to do this for every image you want to overlap. Next, click the image once more, followed by the Layout Options icon again. This time, click ‘See more’ at the bottom, and in the next box make sure the Position tab is selected top left 2. Now…

Microsoft has never been guided by the principle of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Over the years, it’s made many pointless and controversial changes to Windows for the purposes of innovation. Notable blunders include the botched introduction of User Account Control in Windows Vista, which constantly asked for your approval to perform the simplest of tasks; the ill-advised scrapping of the Start menu in Windows 8 in favour of a touch-optimised Start screen; and its strict system requirements for Windows 11 – plus more messing with the Start menu. In fairness to Microsoft, it often backtracks on its poor decisions when enough users complain and now actively seeks the feedback of members of its Windows Insider programme (www.snipca.com/46872) before it makes ‘improvements’. However, there are still plenty of…

Can I remove Icecream’s video watermark? Q I tried using Icecream Video Converter as recommended in Issue 660’s Workshop (page 38), but the Snipca URL you gave (www.snipca.com/46042) led to version 1.30, not 1.28 as you suggested. Also, the software puts a watermark on the final video unless you upgrade to the Pro version. Is there any way to remove this? Roy Miller A Frustratingly, the developers of Icecream Video Converter started adding watermarks to converted videos soon after Issue 660 went to press. It’s still a great program, but we probably wouldn’t have devoted an entire Workshop to it if it had always added watermarks. It’s not unusual for video software to add watermarks to free conversions and remove them only if you upgrade to a paid-for version, as…

Microsoft is working on a “modernised” search bar in Windows 11’s File Explorer that shows which files and folders are saved on your computer, and which are saved online in OneDrive. The new search arrived on 21 July in Build 22631.2050, a preview version of the operating system available only to Windows Insiders. On its blog (www.snipca.com/46964) Microsoft published a screenshot (right) showing ticks to represent files stored on your computer (or ‘locally’) that have been synced online, and cloud icons for files stored on One Drive 1. There’s a new address bar too, with a menu showing whether your OneDrive files are being synced 2, and how much of your storage you’ve used 3. Microsoft has also added a new details pane, which is the panel that appears on…

NEW LOCATIONS FOR COPPER SWITCH-OFF Openreach has named the next 15 areas that will be moved away from copper-based phone lines to digital. They include exchanges in Accrington, Batley, Leeds, Wolverhampton and Wellingborough. For the full list, visit www.snipca.com/46912 and click the green ‘here’ link below the table. This will download a spreadsheet of all exchanges announced since 2019. Scroll down to the latest additions – from row 850 to 864. GET ‘LOW-COST’ PHONE DATA FROM EASYSIM The ‘easy’ group of companies has launched easySim, selling eSIMs that offer “low-cost mobile data” for when you’re travelling abroad. Packages start at £3.50 for 1GB for seven days, though prices vary between countries. To check if easySim works with your phone, visit www.easysim.global and look under the ‘Is my smart device eSIM…

Mortgage for just 2.39% I’m fortunate enough to have paid off my mortgage so I didn’t pay too much attention to an email offering me a 30-year fixed deal at 2.39 per cent. With current interest rates more than double that, it was obviously too good to be true, so I sent the scam email straight to my junk folder and blocked the sender. Apparently I had to “lock in” this low rate today, although it didn’t explain what would happen if I failed to take up the offer. Would the promised rate suddenly shoot up to six per cent? Thankfully, the scam looked very amateurish, so I think it’s unlikely to trick anyone. Simon Miller Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

If YouTube stops me using an ad blocker, I’ll simply stop watching it (Issue 662, page 8). I fully understand YouTube’s argument that adverts help to keep it free for “billions of users worldwide”. But what YouTube fails to understand is that viewers see adverts as a necessary annoyance, not part of the entertainment. This is markedly different to, say, TV adverts in the 70s and 80s, which were often funnier and more interesting than the programmes themselves. The crucial thing about adverts is that it’s all about balance. Don’t show enough and a site can’t make money. Show too many and viewers will stop watching. YouTube is guilty of the latter at the moment. I recently watched a 28-minute video about the making of the film Blade Runner (www.snipca.com/46807).…

I had been on the same O2 tariff for longer than I could remember, but had always put off changing it because I wasn’t sure what I actually needed. I don’t really understand all this talk of megabytes and gigabytes. But when I did finally phone O2, I spoke to a very patient assistant who explained just how much data I needed for different tasks on my phone. She asked whether I use my phone for streaming live TV. I said I’d never done that, and only used it for staying in touch with friends and family through messaging. She realised that I didn’t require the 250GB package I was on, and talked me through how to downgrade to a 15GB deal. It means I’m now paying about £10 less…

EMAIL CLIENT Thunderbird 115 www.snipca.com/46835 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, macOS or Linux Thunderbird 115 – or Supernova, as Mozilla has dubbed it – is a major refresh of the popular free email client, complete with a new logo (see above right). It redesigns the program’s interface and adds several useful features to make Thunderbird faster, smarter and even easier to use. One of the biggest changes is the introduction of a Unified Toolbar, which sits along the top of the main window above the tabs bar. This customisable toolbar lets you add shortcuts to your most frequently used options in different sections of Thunderbird, which it calls Spaces. These include Mail, Address Book, Calendar and Settings, and the displayed options will change according to which…

LastPass’s endless panic-inducing blunders Recently I’ve been asking myself why I subscribed to LastPass Premium for so long. If I’m honest, I find the process of switching any account exhausting – whether it’s a bank, energy firm or internet service. But I knew that coping with LastPass’s endless blunders would prove even more tiring. The final straw came in May, when LastPass asked me to reset my multifactor authentication (MFA) method. I entered my username and password as usual and typed my new MFA code (see screenshot above right), but LastPass had other ideas and locked me out after several ‘failed’ login attempts. LastPass later admitted this was a bug, but I didn’t know that at the time, when I was scrambling to remember passwords for sites I needed there…

SMARTPHONE ❘ £750 from www.snipca.com/46838 Smartphone screens seem to get bigger with each new generation. It’s nice to have a large screen to look at – especially if your eyes aren’t what they were – but not everyone wants a phone that’s too big to fit comfortably in a trouser pocket. We’ve recommended previous versions of the Asus Zenfone for people who want a smaller Android device that doesn’t compromise on performance. This latest model follows the same path, combining a diminutive 5.9in screen with the latest and best Android-friendly processor, and either 8GB or 16GB of RAM. “A neat little phone that outperforms its oversized rivals” It’s smaller than any other phone in its class, measuring 147x68x9.4mm (HxWxD) and weighing just 172g. Phones with 6.1in screens, such as the…

VIDEO CAMERA | £419 from Amazon www.snipca.com/46865 Not too long ago there was a huge selection of personal video camcorders available to buy, but the video-capturing smartphone has all but nudged this product into an early grave. Canon clearly believes there’s still life in the concept, however, with this new PowerShot V10. The company is aiming it at ‘vloggers’ – people who make videos to upload to social-media channels such as YouTube. However, there’s no reason why regular folk who just want to capture precious moments from holidays or family gatherings shouldn’t make the most of it. “Offers superior video footage and impressive photos” Unless you have an expensive flagship smartphone, the sheer quality of images captured by the PowerShot V10 will be superior to what you’re used to. Inside…

The C3TN Colour is an affordable yet high-performing security camera for anyone looking to protect their home and keep their family safe. It has a super-sharp 1080p resolution, motion detection and vivid colour night vision. Two spotlights ensure that the camera captures everything in crystal-clear detail, even when it’s pitch black outside. It renders colour night vision at a range of up to 15 metres and infrared black-and-white vision up to 30 metres, while a noise-cancelling microphone picks up audio clearly. With an IP67-rated camera body, the C3TN is both dust and water-resistant and can withstand even the toughest weather conditions, whether it’s raining, snowing or stormy. Operating the camera from your phone is easy – simply install the Android or iOS app and you’ll able to see on your…

Serif PagePlus I used Serif products for years. Great desktop publishing (DTP) software from a great company. But I no longer need a DTP program. And what I use instead… In Issue 660 (page 20) you recommended Scribus (www.scribus.net) as an alternative to PagePlus. But with a little effort I learned to use the advanced features in LibreOffice Writer (www.libreoffice.org) as a DTP alternative. LibreOffice lets you create complex documents, complete with embedded images, indices, footnotes, tables of contents, hyperlinks and fields that users can fill in. All documents can be exported as a PDF (see screenshot). When I do this, I normally protect it with a password in order to send sensitive material by email. For me, using LibreOffice is a better choice than having to download yet another…

Vibes Free* iOS www.snipca.com/46889 This app lets you create personalised music to help you concentrate and relax, based on your daily activities and rhythms. Build a ‘vibe’ to reflect what you’re doing, then listen to immersive soundscapes accompanied by colourful 3D animations you can interact with. It’s beautifully designed and very therapeutic. Threads Free Android www.snipca.com/46884 iOS www.snipca.com/46885 Meta’s new Twitter rival has already attracted more than 100 million users, though you currently need an Instagram account to use it. Threads lets you post messages of up to 500 characters (compared with Twitter’s 280), five-minute videos, photos, GIFs and more, and with friends and ‘creators’. ESTA Mobile Free* Android www.snipca.com/46891 iOS www.snipca.com/46892 Before visiting the US, it’s essential to submit an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) application – and…

Windows 11’s ‘Moment 3’ update, which Microsoft is making available on all computers, added new voice commands to use with the ‘Voice access’ app. This lets you perform tasks on your computer, such as opening programs and writing emails, using just your voice (see Microsoft’s information at www.snipca.com/46903). It was added to Windows 11 as part of the 22H2 Feature update, released last September. Search for ‘Voice access’ on your computer, then open it. If you’re using it for the first time, it will prompt you to download speech-recognition software. When this has downloaded, the ‘Voice access’ bar will appear at the top of your screen, and prompt you to say “voice access wake up”. This triggers a simple setup procedure for your microphone. You can practise by speaking to…

Many of the headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) have focused on its potential for destroying humanity or putting writers, artists and musicians out of business. Marvel recently used AI to produce the animated opening credits for its Secret Invasion TV series. Critics slammed it for being sloppily drawn (judge for yourself at www.snipca.com/46826) and depriving animators of work. But AI can be very useful, especially for creating bespoke images. The problem is that AI needs to be ‘trained’ using real images first, and many of those are copyrighted, which means you’re not allowed to download and use them. Adobe’s Firefly is different. For a start, it’s much easier to use than most other AI image generators. But more importantly, it uses Adobe’s own collection of images, which gets around the…

Storage capacities are fairly abstract, so it helps to consider instead what you could store in any given quantity. A three-and-a-half minute MP3 track at CD quality takes up around 37MB, according to Omnicalculator’s Audio File Size calculator (www.snipca.com/46894). Round this up to 40MB to cater for slightly longer tracks and you could store 250 of them – around 21 albums’ worth – on a 10GB account. A 12-megapixel photo, as might be produced by your smartphone, weighs in at around 36MB, so unless you apply compression before uploading them, expect to fit around 277 into 10GB (use this image-file calculator at www.snipca.com/46895). You’ll use up your space more quickly if you start to upload movies, with 16 minutes of high-definition video (H.264 1080p format) tipping the scales at just…

Q I’ve only recently switched from a Windows 7 desktop PC to a Windows 11 laptop. Although Windows 7 did everything I wanted I realised it’s no longer supported. I’m now finding my feet in this new version of Windows, and I’m confused about when and why I might download apps from the Microsoft Store. Previously, I just downloaded apps directly from the developer (or installed via my old PC’s disc drive). Is there any benefit to getting them from the Microsoft Store? Not everything I want seems to be in there anyway. Sam Parker A Both methods have a number of pros and cons, so it’s tricky to boil this down to a concise answer – but we’ll try. The most important factors are control and trust. Microsoft tightly…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. API Application Programming Interface. A system built into a program so that other programs can work with it. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a display. Traditional computer screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Bangs Shortcuts you can type in DuckDuckGo’s search engine that take you directly to a specific website, eg !auk for Amazon.co.uk.…

As more people store files online (despite rising prices – see page 62), we’re pleased that File Explorer will start to distinguish these from what’s saved on your PC, and show more info about your OneDrive account. These are useful additions, not the kind of gimmicks or clutter we criticise in our Cover Feature. And with every new tool, the gap between Windows 10 and 11 widens. The former still works well and is safe to use, but the latter has now evolved into a superior operating system.…

LEAD CASE Can HP refuse refund for PC it can’t repair? Q I bought a new TE02-1000na desktop PC (pictured) from HP and paid for a three-year care package. It arrived on 24 May, but quickly developed a fault. HP couldn’t repair it initially because it didn’t have the right replacement part, though its customer support told me the PC might still be repaired. HP refuses to refund me, so what are my options? Paul May A Paul probably has the right to demand a refund, regardless of HP’s failure to find the right part. He could have asked for this when he originally reported the fault a few days after recieving the PC and HP would have had to refund him. The Consumer Rights Act (CRA) gives you 30…

Proton Drive Plus www.snipca.com/46923 Price: €4.99 (£4.33) a month or €47.88 (£41.63) a year Free trial: None What you need: Windows 10 or 11, Android or iOS Proton Drive, which lets you store and share files securely using end-to-end encryption, has just launched a Windows app, so we decided to see how the service’s plans compare with rivals. Proton Drive Free promises you 1GB of encrypted online storage, but this is an ‘up to’ figure and the actual amount is only 500MB. You can double it by performing certain tasks, such as protecting your account with a recovery method, but Proton only gives you 30 days after you sign up to complete these actions. Otherwise you’re left with a measly 500MB of free space, which makes even Dropbox’s 2GB limit…

WHAT THEY SAY Lenovo www.snipca.com/46745 “Fueled by increased digitalization and demand for IT infrastructure upgrades, Lenovo is simplifying the often-complex implementation of new AI capabilities by delivering AI to the source of data and harnessing its vast network of best-in-class partners to build next-generation turnkey solutions that enable computing intelligence directly at the edge.” WHAT THEY MEAN If only we could use AI to simplify our often-complex and endless sentences.…

What does it do? It tells you how far a key moves when pressed, measured in milimetres. It’s sometimes broken down into ‘initial travel’, which is how far you need to press the key before it registers, and ‘total travel’, which is the maximum distance the key moves. How does it work? There are two types of keyboard: membrane and mechanical. Membrane keyboards are cheaper, because they use air-filled bubble pads under each key. When you press a key, it compresses the membrane and completes a circuit, which registers the key press. Mechanical keyboards use individual switches and springs, which provide more tactile feedback while typing. These mechanical parts are more finely tuned for a better typing experience. What are the specs? In general, the more travel a keyboard has,…

FILES Convert Word documents to read on Kindle I was recently sent dozens of Word documents that I had to forward on to a Kindle. I dreaded having to work out how to convert them so they’d be readable on the Kindle, so I was relieved to discover an incredibly simple method. All you have to do is email the document to your Kindle’s unique email address and type convert in the subject line (see screenshot below left). Amazon recognises this as a command to automatically convert the file, then adds it to your Kindle library. How clever! Sam Hutton SOFTWARE Digitise notes using OneNote’s OCR Digitising handwritten text using Google Keep’s OCR sounds easy (Issue 662, page 48), so I’ll certainly give it a go. I’m curious to know…

£80 from www.snipca.com/46641 When we got full-fibre broadband, it was much faster than the old copper cables. But my internet connection still kept dropping out across our two buildings: an office and a house linked by a 50-metre Ethernet cable. So I decided to boost it with a mesh Wi-Fi system. I had aimed to buy a Wi-Fi 6 set, but none of my equipment was compatible, so I chose a fast Wi-Fi 5 system instead. After a lot of research, I bought the Mercusys AC1900 (three pack) from Amazon. When the box arrived, I scanned the QR code and downloaded the Android software. I followed the prompts and set up the first transmitter to replace the old access point. I then added the second and third transmitters and it…

Fing Free* Android www.snipca.com/46901 iOS www.snipca.com/46902 Although Fing limits some of its best features to its subscription service, it’s still an effective way to scan your Wi-Fi network for suspicious activity. It rates the overall security of your network, lists all the devices currently connected to it and lets you test your download and upload speeds to identify bandwidth hogs. Best For Checking your Wi-Fi security WiFiman Free Android www.snipca.com/46904 iOS www.snipca.com/46905 WiFiman provides a thorough scan of your Wi-Fi network to tell you the precise signal strength your mobile device is receiving, in dBm (decibel milliwatts). Walk around to check the signal quality in different areas of your home and even create a colour-coded heatmap to identify dead spots (Android only). Best For Testing your Wi-Fi signal Router Admin…

LIBREOFFICE WRITER Set orientations in your page styles It’s easy to change the default page orientation in LibreOffice Writer – click Format at the top, then Page Style. Click the Page tab in the box that appears, then select Portrait or Landscape in the Paper Format section and click OK. You can also set an orientation as part of a Page Style, which includes format and styling for elements such as headers, footers and margins. This is useful if you have styles that require different orientation. To do this, click View at the top, then Styles (or press F11). This will bring up the Styles box on the right. Next, click the Page Styles icon (1 in our screenshot below), then right-click an empty area of the panel and click…

Cortana Microsoft’s virtual assistant never really took off, with most Windows users finding it more annoying than helpful. Cortana has already vanished from the Windows 10 and 11 taskbar, and will be discontinued later this year, as Microsoft focuses on its new AI-powered Copilot tool. Internet Explorer The death of IE has been a protracted one, with traces of the much-maligned browser still remaining in Windows 11. Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer in June 2022, before finally retiring the browser in February, in favour of Edge. Groove Music As we mentioned on page 53, Microsoft has now replaced Groove Music with a revamped Windows Media Player. Groove Music had its fans, but its clunky interface couldn’t compete with Spotify and Apple Music. Timeline Introduced in 2018 as a way…

LOWEST-EVER PRICE! WHAT YOU GET ✓ Real-time malware protection✓ Secure VPN✓ 75GB PC Cloud Backup✓ Webcam hack alerts PLUS Monitors the dark web for your personal information Norton is made by NortonLifeLock Inc – a standalone company dedicated to consumer cyber safety. It has always performed strongly in Computeractive antivirus tests, so we highly recommend it. 10 devices for two years NOW ONLY £19.99* Normally £179.99 Buy it from our Software Store at www.snipca.com/33247 * while stocks last…