Table of contents for 623 in Computeractive

Back when we were all fretting about the Millennium Bug (see page 9 for a modern equivalent), I remember being impressed that home Wi-Fi speeds could reach 11Mbps. That was the maximum of the Wi-Fi 1 standard (aka 802.11b) – not that my primitive equipment got anywhere near. Over 20 years later and the top speed of Wi-Fi 6 is around 900 times faster – at 9.6Gbps (9,600Mbps). That’s spectacular, but I’m more excited by how it can guarantee fast streaming when you have several devices connected to your network. In our Cover Feature Nik Rawlinson explains how this works using analogies that involve wide pipes, coloured envelopes and busy car production lines. He also reveals how he added Wi-Fi 6 to an old laptop, and recommends the best routers…

A new tool within Microsoft’s PowerToys tool lets you pin a window so it’s always on top, even if you open another one. To use it, you’ll need to download the latest version of PowerToys (0.53.1 or later). You can do this by searching for it on the Microsoft Store, or by downloading from www.snipca.com/40585 – scroll down and click ‘PowerToysSetup-0.53.1-x64.exe’ under the Assets heading. Once it’s installed, you can pin and unpin windows by pressing Windows key+Ctrl+T. You can also add a coloured border to the window that’s on top to make it easier to see. To do this, open PowerToys, then click ‘Always On Top’ in the left-hand menu. Next, make sure the ‘Show a border…’ button is switched on (1 in our screenshot), then select a colour…

VODAFONE & EE DELAY ROAMING CHARGES Vodafone and EE are to delay the reintroduction of mobile roaming charges within the European Union, having both previously said they’d reinstate them in early January. Vodafone now says it will start charging from the end of January to allow for testing. EE will follow suit in March, blaming technical problems for the delay. 20-YEAR-OLD BRINGS CEEFAX BACK TO LIFE A 20-year-old has recreated BBC’s Ceefax service online, showing news headlines, weather maps (pictured) stock prices and more. Nathan Dane from Northern Ireland has spent the past six years building a site that presents live data from the BBC’s website in Ceefax’s distinctively blocky font. Visit www.snipca.com/40572.…

ANTI?5G ITEMS GIVE OFF RADIATION Necklaces and bracelets that claim to protect people from 5G actually emit radiation, researchers have found. The Dutch nuclear safety authority examined the items, all available online, and found they contain radioactive material. One of the bracelets (pictured) was being marketed at children. It listed the items at www.snipca.com/40555, and said people should stop wearing them. There’s no evidence that 5G is harmful. DUCKDUCKGO TO LAUNCH PC BROWSER DuckDuckGo says it will launch a desktop version of its mobile browser, letting you use it on computers and laptops. It will have “robust privacy protection” built in, so you won’t have to turn on hidden settings to avoid being tracked online. Like the mobile version, it will have a ‘Fire’ button that deletes your browsing history…

Over 225 million leaked passwords have been added to the database at Have I Been Pwned (HIBP), increasing the number you can search to check whether yours is in criminal hands. They were a gift from the UK’s National Crime Agency, which had collected 585 million passwords from cyber-criminals. Troy Hunt, who runs HIBP, then removed the passwords that were already part of the site’s database, leaving 225 million (225,665,425 to be exact). It brings the total number of passwords on the site to 847 million, as Hunt explains at www.snipca.com/40550. To check whether any of your passwords have been leaked – whether part of this new collection or not – visit https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords, type your password, then click the ‘Pwned’ button on the right. You’ll see either a green ‘Good…

I remember you recommending some cheap braided HDMI cables, but which ones? Bruce Palmer CA SAYS You’re thinking of the Amazon Basics cables, priced £7.45 from www.snipca.com/39457 (see Issue 616, page 61). I need to rename several thousand photos, and know you recently suggested a program that sounded ideal. What was it? Karen Locke CA SAYS That would be Bulk Rename Utility (www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk). We explained how to use it in Issue 615 (page 19). Didn’t you explain recently how to make PDFs open automatically? I can’t find the instructions anywhere – it’s driving me mad! Stuart Ball CA SAYS Yes, when solving Eric Webb’s problem (Issue 614, page 65).…

Problems with inherently faulty goods are always the retailer’s responsibility, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also contact the manufacturer. Sometimes they’ll step in when a retailer fails to help That’s what’s happened in Colin Fisher’s case (see Issue 620), when Amazon told him to contact LG directly about a faulty monitor. Amazon was wrong to do this - it should have offered a refund, repair or replacement rather than pass Colin on to LG. However, LG confirmed that the monitor was inherently faulty, and offered to refund Colin the money he’d paid Amazon for it, even though it was under no legal obligation to do so. We didn’t want to let Amazon off the hook, however. We advised Colin to tell the company that the one repair it was…

Do any genealogy programs have tools that can colourise old photos? Alex Stewart The only genealogy program that contains a colourising tool is MacFamilyTree (www.snipca.com/40405), for macOS only. There are free online options for Windows users, including Colorize www.snipca.com/38167), and MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com/incolor), which also has a tool for restoring damaged photos. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Sunday 19 May 1940 was a warm day in Congy, France. Eliane Desbrosse, aged 17, was standing outside her friend’s house around midday when a sudden noise made her jump and a British plane came down low and fast, landing in a field on the outskirts of the village. The pilot was my grandfather, George Henry Ebert. Eighty-one years later, I stood in the same field next to Eliane - now 98 - as she relived the event. My grandfather survived that crash, but was killed on 6 January 1944 when his Lancaster bomber was shot down during a mission to Stettin in Poland. I’ve always wanted to learn more about the crash in France. I found some details from the National Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk), but I had greater success using…

Virgin Media’s corporate bank account is lighter to the tune of £50,000, after it was caught sending 451,217 marketing emails to people who’d expressly opted out of such junk. The complaint dates back to August 2020, which shows The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is dispensing justice as rapidly as ever (www.snipca.com/40403). The message advised customers it wouldn’t be raising the price of their package, before inviting them to revisit their decision to stop receiving marketing messages, in a less-than-subtle ‘carrot and stick’ operation. The ICO quite rightly dismissed Virgin’s defence that it had contacted only customers “who we reasonably considered might have changed their marketing preferences”. Virgin says it isn’t appealing the fine, which it could probably pay with loose change from down the back of the boardroom sofa.…

People who don’t already use a tablet often consider them surplus to requirements, sitting somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop, while lacking the convenience of the former and the power of the latter. However, while a tablet may not completely replace your phone or laptop, it can fill a gap in your tech life that you never knew you had. Tablets have the ‘always on’ and ‘always ready’ convenience of a smartphone. Pick it up, press a button, and you’re straight into your favourite apps with no waiting for it to boot or load. Add in a larger screen and everything from watching videos to replying to emails becomes an absolute pleasure. If you need to do a bit of work, they’re usually more than up to the task,…

What are they? ratings are applied to SD cards by the SD Association (www.sdcard.org). Devices requiring high rates of data transfer (such as digital cameras dealing with high-resolution video) require faster SD cards than devices that simply use the cards for data storage. How do they work? A card’s speed is rated according to the minimum write speed it can manage. You may find a card you’re using is actually faster than its speed rating, but it should never be slower. If you’re not sure what speed rating you need, check the requirements of the device you intend to use the card with. What are the specs? The ratings are called Speed Class, which refers to how quickly data can be written to the card in megabytes per second (MB/s).…

PHONE | £299 from Amazon www.snipca.com/40552 This smartphone from Chinese manufacturer Vivo is an affordable model that’s surprisingly slim, light and stylish. It has a high-quality 6.44in AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2400x1080 pixels and a maximum refresh rate of 90Hz, which was bright and displayed colours accurately in our tests. Where it lags behind similarly priced rivals is in its overall performance and speed. The phone has a MediaTek MT6853 Dimensity 800U processor, which is a reasonable option at this price, but it doesn’t keep pace with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chip you’ll find in the Xiaomi Poco F3 (still our favourite Android phone – see page 30). In the Geekbench 5 test, the V21 produced a score of 1,823, much lower than the Poco F3’s 3,369. “It’s…

The new Teza 4K Ultra HD Recording Webcam from Trust International is ideal for anyone who wants the best video and audio quality when making video calls. It has a 74° field of view, two integrated microphones, high-definition video at 30 frames per second and better depth perception for crystal-clear video. It comes with its own tripod attachment, so you don’t have to perch it on your laptop’s screen, and its privacy shutter provides security, giving you complete control over what’s visible. With full autofocus, the webcam’s lens does all the hard work, ensuring a picture that’s so crisp and clear it’s as if the caller is in the room with you. Its plug-and-play design makes it easy to set up, while the USB-A to USB-C adapter means it’s compatible…

I have two all-weather cameras set up outside my house, both of which have internal batteries, topped up using solar panels, which has saved me having to work out how to run a USB cable through the wall from an internal plug. I’ve also used internal cameras, like the Blink Mini, to keep an eye on my cat’s bowl, and warn me when the neighbourhood Tom has sneaked in to steal his food. How do you use cameras around your home? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

CHROMIUM & FIREFOX Identify Amazon’s own products in search results We often recommend items from the Amazon Basics range in Computeractive because they’re reliable and cheap, but Amazon either owns or is affiliated with more than 100 other brands that it’s less upfront about, which don’t bear its name. A new extension called Amazon Brand Detector (www.snipca.com/40407) helps you identify Amazon products when you browse its website to make “their affiliation to Amazon clear”. The extension works by highlighting items from Amazon brands in your search results in an orange box. Not only does this provide more transparency about products Amazon is promoting for its own benefit, but it also means you can spot and buy items from a company Amazon trusts. For example, our search for a USB-C cable…

ANDROID & iOS Preview WhatsApp voice messages before sending Sending someone a voice message in WhatsApp saves you having to type anything, but can cause you embarrassment if you garble your words. Although WhatsApp lets you delete messages you’ve sent, you might not do so quickly enough to stop the other person listening to your mumbled message. So we’re pleased that WhatsApp now lets you preview voice messages before you send them, to ensure you get your words right first time. To use this new feature, press the microphone icon in the bottom-right corner of a chat and slide it up to lock-hands-free recording. Speak your message, then tap the Play button (see screenshot below) to hear it back – be careful not to tap the Send button, which looks…

WINDOWS 11 Make the taskbar look more like a dock RoundedTB is one of the many new third-party tools you can use to change the appearance of the Windows 11 taskbar. It makes the taskbar look more like a dock, with rounded corners to match Windows 11’s style. The app is free from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.com/40529). To install it, click Get, then run it from the Start menu. Open its Advanced settings, then tick ‘Dynamic mode’ (1 in our screenshot below) followed by Apply to get the dock effect 2, and ‘Show system tray’ to make the system tray float in its own section. We found the default Margin 3 and ‘Corner radius’ 4 settings to be just right. WINDOWS 10 & 11 Search images by date taken Anyone…

You have two options when bringing spreadsheet data from Excel into a PowerPoint presentation: you can either link to it or embed it. If you link the data, any changes you make to it in Excel are automatically reflected in your presentation, though you can’t edit the data in PowerPoint. You must also keep the spreadsheet in the same location on your computer. Embedding the data copies it into your presentation, so there’s no link with the original spreadsheet. This means any changes you make in Excel won’t appear automatically in PowerPoint, but you can edit the data in your presentation. The process is similar whether you link or embed your data. First, open Excel and PowerPoint. In Excel, select the cells you want to add, then right-click them and…

1 Check the colours of the plastic tongues inside your USB ports. If you have a choice of black (USB 2.0) and blue (USB 3.0), plug the USB dongle into the faster blue port. If your ports are all black but one is labelled SS 1 (for SuperSpeed), use that because it will be the fastest option. If you don’t have either, don’t worry: the dongle also works with standard USB ports. 2 A Wi-Fi 6 dongle has a small amount of built-in storage, which mounts like a regular drive. Open a File Explorer window and click ‘USB DISK’ in the sidebar. Open the Windows folder, then double-click the ‘Setup.exe’ file. Follow the instructions to install the dongle’s driver. Once that’s done, reboot your PC, then open Settings (press Windows…

Defragmenting your hard drive reorders its contents so that data is arranged into neat ‘contiguous’ sections, but you don’t need to do this with a solid-state drive. Because an SSD uses flash memory rather than mechanical parts, it can read scattered blocks of data just as quickly as it can read adjacent blocks, so there’s no speed benefit to moving data around. Defragging an SSD can actually shorten its lifespan, because it causes unnecessary wear and tear. Thankfully, the best defragmenting tools, including the one built into Windows, will identify an SSD and won’t defrag it. Instead, they let you ‘optimise’ the drive, which uses the Trim command (see first tip) to free up space from blocks that contain deleted data. The Windows tool works automatically, but you can run…

Even if your laptop has at least one USB-C port, you may have many older devices that still use cables with USB Type-A connectors, such as your keyboard, mouse and web cam. For this reason, it’s handy to have an adapter that lets you plug USB-A peripherals into USB-C ports. New devices often include these in their boxes but, if not, you can buy a single USB-C adapter from Amazon (£3 from www.snipca.com/40491, pictured) or a pack of three (£7 from www.snipca.com/40492). Look for an adapter that’s described as a‘USB-C Male to Type A Female converter’, or similar. We find these are particularly useful for plugging in USB sticks, which don’t typically use USB-C. Similarly, you might need an adapter that lets you connect a USB-C cable to a USB…

NOW CHEAPER THAN EVER! We’re delighted to announce an outstanding new Reader Offer for the antivirus software Norton 360 Premium. For just £24.99, you’ll protect 10 devices for two years 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 Norton Life Lock 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 £24.99* Normally £179.99 Buy it from our Software Store at www.snipca.com/33247 * while stocks last…

Do I need to convert DOC files too? Q I followed Cliff Grover’s suggestion in Issue 619’s Readers’ Tips (page 41), and converted all my Excel XLS files to XLXS. Is there a danger that DOC files might cause problems in future? If so, would it be wise to convert all my. doc files to DOCX? How can I do this in bulk? Francis Wood A There’s certainly no immediate need to do this, as the DOC format is still widely supported – including by all recent editions of Microsoft Word and rival word programs. However, there have been many obsolete file formats that were well-supported… until they weren’t. So, yes, it makes sense to consider updating DOC files to DOCX. This is not least because the DOC format is…

4K Video with are solution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 5G The latest generation of mobile networks. 720p A common resolution of high-definition video: 1280x720 pixels. AI Artificial Intelligence. A computer program designed to mimic the behaviour of humans or animals. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smart watches. Aperture An opening that controls the amount of light entering a camera lens. ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Represents each character on a PC keyboard as a number. 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…

Microsoft looks set to replace the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 11 with a new Outlook app as part of the operating system’s first major feature update. For years Microsoft has wanted to replace the different email options in Windows with a single service that works across all devices – computers, phones, tablets - as well as online. Sources at Microsoft said early last year that the new service would be called One Outlook, and that it was being tested by staff. Leaked images (pictured above) appeared to confirm the name. By August 2021 the name had been simplified to Outlook, and reports suggested it would be ready for Windows 11’s launch in October – but it was delayed and is now rumoured to be part of the 22H2…

LASTPASS PASSWORD ALERTS SENT IN ERROR LastPass has claimed that no passwords have been leaked despite having warned thousands of users about suspicious login attempts. It claimed the alerts, sent a few days after Christmas, were “triggered in error” and that it has now fixed the problem. Read the company’s blog at www.snipca.com/40546. SUPPORT FOR BLACKBERRY ENDS Support for all surviving BlackBerry phones ended on 4 January, with the company saying the devices will “no longer reliably function”. Sales collapsed from 50 million phones in 2011, to just 207,900 five years later, as users turned to touchscreen Android and iOS phones. However, US firm OnwardMobility (www.onwardmobility.com) has announced plans to release a new BlackBerry phone later this year.…

Inflation is back – in a big way. If the current trend continues, 2022 will have the highest price rises for 30 years. We’ll see the effect not just while shopping, but also in our bills. The impact will be particularly severe in broadband because several providers increase their bills by the rate of inflation plus a set amount. It means 2022 will see the biggest rise in broadband bills since any of us started using the internet. Let’s get the bad news out of the way (there is a sliver of good news, but we’ll leave that for later). BT, along with its subsidiaries EE and Plusnet, now increases bills by the rate of CPI (Consumer Price Index) inflation plus 3.9 per cent. Last April, that equation led to…

Dyson offer a ‘load of hot air’ How about this for the ultimate too-good-to-be-true offer - a Dyson Supersonic hairdryer reduced from £299.99 to £1.78. The scam deal was advertised on Facebook, along with a photo apparently showing the ‘amazing’ price in front of the hairdryers in an Argos store (see it at www.snipca.com/40541). Several people I know received the offer from friends. One of them said it sounded credible because the ad claimed Argos “has broken its contract with Dyson”, and could therefore slash prices. That sounded absurd, so I checked online and read that it was a hoax. Quite literally, a load of hot air. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Upgrade to Windows 11 because software runs better In Issue 622’s Letters Tim Baker asked why he should upgrade to Windows 11 when all his software works on Windows 10. My answer to this perfectly valid question is that his software will run more effectively and securely on Windows 11. One of the most significant things that happens when Microsoft releases a new version of Windows is that it prompts developers to launch revamped editions of their programs, with enhanced features designed to take advantage of the new operating system. Without improvements to Windows, there wouldn’t be improvements to software. I’ll give three examples of programs I use that have been enhanced for Windows 11 – they’ve all appeared in Computeractive recently. First is the audio player AIMP (Issue 620,…

At one time or another we’ve all had a PC-related problem that has taken up lots of our precious time. One frustrating problem I had was when my laptop wouldn’t connect to the internet through its Ethernet port. I tried resetting my router and disconnecting then reconnecting its power, but nothing worked. Thankfully my current broadband provider, Zen Internet, patiently and methodically solved the problem, identifying its source as a loose Ethernet connection to the laptop. Zen succeeded where Microsoft’s chat support and numerous YouTube videos had failed. In my experience, Zen is the only provider that has such a positive, friendly approach to is customers. I’ve tried all the others and they don’t come anywhere near Zen. I recommend the company as the best for providing technical advice. Has…

APP UNINSTALLER O&O AppBuster 1.1.1340 www.snipca.com/40544 What you need: Windows 10 or 11 As we revealed in our ‘Your favourite programs of 2021’ round-up in Issue 622 (page 63), O&O AppBuster was Computeractive readers’ most downloaded program last year. So we’re delighted that this excellent free tool has been updated for 2022, in its first major release for nearly three years, to make removing Windows junk easier than ever. Unsurprisingly, the biggest change in O&O AppBuster 1.1.1340 is that it now supports Windows 11 as well as Windows 10. When you run the program (it doesn’t require installation), it will automatically detect which version of the operating system you’re using and list all the apps installed by Microsoft and your PC’s manufacturer. It found 108 apps on our old Windows…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Jesus Password’s “unholy mess” Using any password manager is always a leap of faith – will it be secure enough to protect your highly sensitive credentials? However, entrusting them to Jesus Password, which is miraculously available from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.com/40401), is brave. Jesus Password is developed by a chap called Verloka Vadim. No, I’d not heard of him either, which is why I clicked on Jesus Password’s privacy policy to find out how he intends to protect my passwords. Here we find an unholy mess (and I quote): “All that you enter and save in rpm being used ‘and there is’ because we do not pass it to third parties. The program may collect, store and transmit usage statistics to improve, namely, the frequency of failures, launch,…

What’s the best small, cheap laser printer? Q I need to buy an inexpensive small laser printer for a holiday flat but I am overwhelmed by the choice. Can you help? Carolyn Smith A Laser printers tend to produce good-quality prints regardless of their price, so there’s little point in buying an expensive model. Mono printers are cheaper than colour ones, so you could simply opt for the cheapest you can find. Alternatively, if you plan to use it extensively, you should seriously consider the running costs (the number of pages you can print from a replacement toner cartridge divided by its price). Because you want it for a holiday flat, we’re guessing use will be sporadic, so the running costs are probably less important than its price. Therefore, we’d…

SMART PLUG | £25 from Amazon www.snipca.com/40465 There are several ways to make your home smarter, but one of the simplest is to use a plug like this one from Belkin. It lets you connect a standard lamp (or any other device that you leave plugged into a mains socket) and control it using your smartphone or smart speaker. There’s a caveat with this particular device: it’s specifically designed to work with Apple products. This means you need to use an Apple device to set it up and control it. If you’d prefer to (or already do) use Android, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa as your smart-home controller, you’ll need to look elsewhere (see Alternative). However, if you already use iPhones, iPads and the like, setting up the device is…

What is it? They may look like something from an alien spaceship, but the motorised antennas on the TP-Link Archer AXE200 Omni router (pictured) won’t blast you with lasers. Instead they simply adjust their position automatically to provide the best Wi-Fi signal. How does it work? Tap the ‘Enhance’ button in the router’s software and the antennas unfold and rotate to seek connected devices (as shown at www.snipca.com/40561). They can point in any direction, including upwards to help boost Wi-Fi signals between floors. What’s the catch? Pointing the antennas towards one device might mean the signal to others around your home is weakened. So can I do without it? Yes, if you prefer to share your Wi-Fi evenly around your house. It’s great for those living alone, however, or anyone…

What you need: Blink Mini camera Time required: One hour Internet-connected cameras are shrinking. The smallest aren’t much bigger than a sugar cube, and you can even find pens, calculators and power adapters with tiny lenses and sensors built in. It’s never been easier to hide one in a discreet place so you can secretly monitor what’s going on in your home. That’s what we’ll do here with a Blink Mini camera (£27 from Amazon www.snipca.com/40445, pictured right), which measures just 50x49x36mm (HxWxD). It’s easy to find space for it on a shelf or desk, and it comes with a moveable stand, complete with screw holes, so you can fix it to the wall in your lounge or by the front door. We managed to squeeze it in between books…

Creative Cloud Express Free* Android www.snipca.com/40497 iOS www.snipca.com/40498 Formerly called Spark Post, this Adobe app lets you create professional-looking posters, flyers, logos, social-media posts and other design projects. Simply choose a template and ‘remix’ it to customise the layout and colours, add text and photos, and download or share the result. Some features require an Adobe subscription. Uniter: Smart Unit Converter Free* iOS www.snipca.com/40507 Need to quickly convert kilograms to stone, Celsius to Fahrenheit, or inches to centimetres? Then install Uniter, which provides instant conversions as soon as you type, copy and paste or import the relevant figures. The app can be integrated with Safari to convert as you browse, and is optimised to provide UK units of measurement. Dream by Wombo Free Android www.snipca.com/40504 iOS www.snipca.com/40506 Dream uses AI…

It’s easy to end up with several folders that have the same name, especially if your PC has more than one drive. Folders with obvious names such as ‘Pictures’, for example, can soon multiply as you make backups. And when you have several File Explorer windows open, it’s easy to mix them up. File Explorer’s address bar adds to the confusion by hiding the letter of the drive on which the folder is stored. One solution is to show the folder’s full path in the title bar at the top of its window when you open it. This option is disabled by default, so you’ll need to switch it on in File Explorer Options. The quickest way is to type folder into the Start menu, then click File Explorer Options.…

There are plenty of tools that can help you keep on top of local information, but few have been designed for the purpose. Facebook has community groups, for example, but also lots of personal pages that may not interest you. WhatsApp is another popular option, but again you have to deal with lots of personal messages. A better alternative is Nextdoor, which is specifically designed to keep neighbours in touch. Since it launched in the US in 2011, Nextdoor has expanded to a further 10 countries - including the UK. Nextdoor claims one in seven people in the UK are members, across 270,000 neighbourhoods, many of whom signed up during the lockdowns to offer help and support to people in need. Nextdoor’s ability to serve a large local community makes…

1 How many Ethernet ports do you need? Fewer than you might imagine. Some devices, like powerline networking kits and internet-connected telephones, will still require a physical connection to your router. But if you’ve been using a wired connection in preference to wireless simply because it’s faster, it might be time to cut the cable. While Wi-Fi 6 still can’t match the speed of the fastest Gigabit Ethernet connections, its maximum theoretical data-transfer rates exceed anything that you’ll need, and we found that what we experienced in practice was better than anything Ethernet could deliver in our home. Transferring a single 500MB file via Ethernet from our laptop to the drive attached to our router took 45.7 seconds, which equates to a data rate of 87.5Mbps. The 500GB folder of…

Q I’m looking to buy a Windows 11 PC, but I’m bamboozled by all the modern jargon. I mainly need it for web browsing and word processing, so I probably don’t need anything too powerful. However, as I’m retired, I’d be interested to explore gaming a little more – perhaps the new Microsoft Flight Simulator I’ve heard about. Trouble is, I don’t really know what type of graphics my computer would need. I’ve seen mention of ‘integrated’ and ‘discrete’ graphics cards but I don’t understand the difference, nor which would be best for me. Can you explain in a way I’ll understand? David Burke A Can we condense the complex world of graphics cards into a couple of hundred words? Well, we like a challenge! Actually, unless you want extreme…

Though I’ve been writing for tech magazines for 24 years, I don’t know much about coding. Kids today apparently start programming from the age of seven, whereas I never learned to do more than type 10 PRINT “Hello”. 20 GO TO 10. When I watch news stories about wunderkinds who have designed their own mobile apps, I’m invariably both envious and impressed, as I mutter “shut up, you little show-off” under my bitter breath. So I was intrigued to read about Google’s new Tab Maker tool (www.snipca.com/40400), which lets you create your own extensions for its Chrome browser “with no coding required”. Considering my fondness for extensions, my lack of development experience and my desire to beat precocious children at their own game, this sounded great and, because it’s also…

Microsoft is finally learning how to keep things simple. This welcome news about a neater Outlook follows its decision last year to combine music and video in a single media player (see Issue 620, page 6). Microsoft is also responding faster than ever to users’ feedback, having already improved Windows 11 during the few months since release. We’re increasingly confident that upgrading (when or if you can) is the right move, and so our next issue – out Weds 2 February – will explain how you can master this excellent new operating system.…

Microsoft has fixed a bug that blocked emails being sent after midnight on New Year’s Eve, and brought back memories of the Millennium bug that worried businesses and governments at the end of the last century. The flaw has been called the Y2K22 bug – a reference to the year 2022, and a nod to how the Millennium bug was also known (Y2K). It appeared in Microsoft’s Exchange servers, which is used by businesses, and so mostly affected work emails. The problem stemmed from Microsoft’s policy of naming its malware-scanning updates with the year, month and date, before another four-digit number. This means its 10-digit update number for 1 January 2022 was 220101 followed by 0001. However, Microsoft’s system is limited to two to the power of 31 (or 2,147,483,648)…

What’s the threat? Security researchers have found dodgy apps on Samsung’s Galaxy Store that can be used to infect the company’s phones and tablets with malware. The Galaxy Store is available only on Samsung devices and is home to the company’s built-in apps. It also contains apps from other companies that have been made available exclusively to Samsung, meaning they’re not listed on Google’s Play Store. Like Google, Samsung uses security filters to prevent malicious apps from sneaking on to its store – but, also like Google, it doesn’t always succeed. In December, researchers at the website Android Police spotted several apps that claim to let you watch paid-for TV and films for free. They mimic the illegal video-streaming service Showbox, which closed in 2018 following legal action from film…

LEAD CASE Is the retailer allowed to wait before refunding? Q In October 2019, I bought a £900 Pioneer LX-500 4K Blu-ray player from HiFix (www.hifix.co.uk). This developed a fault in March 2021, so HiFix returned it to a Pioneer-approved repair centre under the manufacturer’s two-year warranty. However, because the repair centre couldn’t find the parts to fix it, HiFix agreed to give me my money back, but says it has to be reimbursed by Pioneer before issuing the refund. Is this right? Ronnie Hare A Since contacting us, Ronnie has received a refund from HiFix, but the retailer was within its rights to wait for Pioneer to provide the funds. This is because Ronnie sought help using Pioneer’s warranty, not the Consumer Rights Act (CRA). However, despite having to…

There are several online archives containing information on Britons who worked and lived in India while it was under British imperial rule. The place to start is with Findmypast’s (FMP) exclusive ‘British in India’ collection, which spans 1698 to 1947. It’s been produced in partnership with the British Library and is a fully indexed archive of around 2.7 million records. Narrow your search to six sets FMP’s collection comprises 18 record sets in total. After logging into your account, go to (www.snipca.com/40409) to view the full list. The vast bulk of the records – around 2.4 million – are contained in six sets, covering births/baptisms, marriages, deaths/burials, wills/probate, army and navy pensions, and East India Company and Civil Service pensions. To search all six sets, visit www.snipca.com/40410 then enter your…

How can I access Control Panel settings more easily? Q I often make changes to Windows through the Control Panel – for example, uninstalling programs and adjusting my mouse. But Windows 11 makes it more difficult to open the Control Panel when I want to change something. Is there a program that makes it easier to access Control Panel settings? Stephen Maclaine A The quickest way to open the Control Panel in Windows 11 is to click the search button on the taskbar, type control panel and select Open. You can then right-click the Control Panel’s taskbar icon and choose ‘Pin to taskbar’ so you can access it easily in future. However, a better option, which saves you having to click through the various sections of the Control Panel to…

WHAT THEY SAY LG www.snipca.com/40402 “London artist Ruofan Chen presents a set of visually-striking pieces that speak to the emotional connection humans have formed with the natural world… Central to one of her exhibited pieces, the rollable OLED TV (pictured) stands stoically between precisely arranged tree branches, juxtaposing technology with life, inviting viewers to interpret the connection between the inorganic and the organic.” WHAT THEY MEAN We’ve interpreted the connection between art, TVs and pretentiousness.…

PC MONITOR | £429 from Amazon www.snipca.com/40543 This monitor makes a superb first impression, with slim bezels on all four sides and a sleek black-and-grey colour scheme. The stand is plain and inconspicuous, so should match any desk setup. 24in screens are far more common than 25in options, which provides this monitor with a slight size advantage over rivals. However, what really lifts this panel above the crowd is its higher resolution. A generous 2560x1440 pixels rather than the more standard 1980x1080 fully justifies the UltraSharp branding, and goes some way to explaining its higher-than-average price tag. “A vivid screen offering high levels of colour accuracy and brightness” It continues to impress when you switch it on, with a superb set of results in our benchmark tests. Outcomes from our…

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 £699 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 £849 from www.snipca.com/40042 ANDROID TABLET NEW ENTRY Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 £619 from www.snipca.com/40483 Tested Issue 623 This performed so well in our most recent tests that it has ousted the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro as our favourite.…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Tweak chip power to fix crackly audio For ages, I couldn’t work out why the audio from my Dell laptop was crackling and popping. I fiddled with audio settings, and wondered whether Bluetooth was to blame. It didn’t occur to me that my processor might be at fault, but that’s what my son (a computer programmer) suggested. He said I should try forcing my processor to use more power. You can access this setting in Windows 10 by opening Control Panel, then clicking Power Options. Click the small blue ‘Change plan settings’ link on the right, then ‘Change advanced power settings’. In the box that appears, you should see ‘Processor power management’. Open this, then expand the ‘Minimum processor state’ menu…

Maps. me Free Android www.snipca.com/40509 iOS www.snipca.com/40510 This fantastic mapping app works just as well offline as on a mobile network or Wi-Fi. You can plan driving, walking, cycling and public transport routes, see estimated times and distances, and save a map for any location simply by searching for it and tapping the Download button. Best For Getting directions when offline Here WeGo Free Android www.snipca.com/40511 iOS www.snipca.com/40512 Although a recent redesign has annoyed a few users, Here WeGo is still a brilliant app for offline navigation. We particularly like that you can download maps of whole countries – provided you have enough space on your phone. Just switch on the ‘Use app offline’ option on the home screen’ to browse without a connection. Best For Downloading maps of countries…

What is it? It’s a way of turning radio-frequency (RF) signals from Wi-Fi routers and phones into energy that can power devices wirelessly. RF energy can travel up to 40 metres if it isn’t obstructed, although it loses so much power on the way that it can charge only low-powered devices. However, that makes it perfect for one particular device that most of us use every day: the TV remote control. Such as the device pictured right? Yes, it’s Samsung’s Eco Remote, which is made in part from recycled materials. The company launched it last year as a solar-powered device charged by lights in your home - you can see the solar panel on the back of the remote in the right of the photo. Now Samsung has unveiled a…

We’ve already shown you how to add Wi-Fi 6 to an old computer, but you won’t need to do this if your machine has the technology built-in–follow our Workshop below to check. Almost all new laptops have Wi-Fi 6, along with many of the latest desktop PCs. We always include a device’s Wi-Fi standard in its Specifications at the bottom of reviews, so check those carefully before buying. Wi-Fi 6 is so powerful that we’ll place more weight on it in our reviews in future. Phones, tablets and printers Many new phones come with Wi-Fi 6 too, including the Honor 50(£400 from www.snipca.com/40350), which we gave a Recommended award in Issue 622 (page 26). Google’s new Pixel 6 phone (see review Issue 620, page 28, pictured below left) even has…