Computeractive 26.October.2016

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p40 Step-by-step Workshop NOV 2016 ISSUE 487 ❘ 26 OCT – 8

gy og hnolo

A new lick of Paint p9

Your friendly guide to tec

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Welcome EDITORIAL Group Editor Daniel Booth Features Editor Mike Plant Technical Editor Sherwin Coelho Production Editor Graham Brown Art Editor Katie Peat Sorry, no technical or buying advice. ADVERTISING Advertisement sales & media pack 020 7907 6799 Advertising Director Andrea Mason Account Manager Kathryn McCabe Deputy Advertising Manager Alexa Dracos MARKETING AND CIRCULATION Subscriptions Rachel Evans Marketing Production Manager Gemma Hills For subscription enquiries ring 01795 592 926 PRODUCTION Group Production Manager Stephen Catherall Production Controller Maisie Harvey MANAGEMENT Managing Director John Garewal MD of Advertising Julian Lloyd-Evans Commercial and Retail Director David Barker CFO/COO Brett Reynolds Chief Executive James Tye Company Founder Felix Dennis BRAND USAGE AND REPRINTS Companies can obtain a licence to use approved quotations from articles, the Computeractive logo and Buy It! logo. Reprints of articles are also available. Please contact Anj Dosaj-Halai for more information and rates: 020 7907 6132 Email: [email protected] Requests to use quotations from articles will need to be approved by the editor. Please send requests to: [email protected]

From the Editor It took me a long time to accept that my previous computer – an XP machine – was ready to be shut down for the final time. I carried on using it for much longer than I should have, and was rightly mocked by my brother, who did his best John Cleese impersonation: “This PC is no more! It has ceased to be! If you hadn’t nailed it to the desk it’d be pushing up the daisies”. The thing is, I knew I could have added years to its life had I performed essential health checks. You can avoid feeling a similar sense of regret by taking the 11-step test in our Cover Feature. It’ll make sure your PC

doesn’t join the bleedin’ choir invisible. By the way, thanks to everyone who has taken our 2016 Reader Survey. You’ve got until 8 November to complete it, and enter a draw to win a £50 Amazon voucher. Just visit: www.snipca.com/21984. Daniel Booth [email protected]

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OVERSEAS LICENSING Computeractive is available for international licensing. Contact Nicole Adams at nicole_ [email protected] or +44 (0)20 7907 6134 ONWARD RESALE This publication may not be resold or otherwise distributed, whether at, below or above face value. Nor can this publication be advertised for sale, transfer or distribution.

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PERMISSIONS Material may not be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher. Please address such requests to John Garewal, Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD LIABILITY While every care was taken preparing this magazine, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information or any consequence arising from it. All judgments are based on equipment available to Computeractive at the time of review. Computeractive takes no responsibility for the content of external websites whose addresses are published in the magazine. A DENNIS PUBLICATION Computeractive is published fortnightly by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD. Company registered in England. Material may not be reproduced in whole or part without the consent of the publishers. ISSN 1461-6211 Average sales, Jan-Dec 2015, 87,565 copies per issue.

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THIS ISSUE IN NUMBERS 31 years

Age of Microsoft Paint, which is being revamped – p9

© Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited

£400,000 Computeractive Printed in the UK

How much TalkTalk has been fined for last year’s hack – p11

419Mbps

Top speed we got testing TP-Link’s new five-star router – p23

HOW TO USE SNIPCA URLs We use snipcas to turn long URLs that are hard to type into ones that are short and simple. They aren’t websites themselves, which means they won’t be recognised if you type them into Google. Instead, you need to type them into your browser address bar, then press Enter. Doing this will take you to the correct website.

26 October – 8 November 2016 3

Contents In this issue… When will your PC die? 50 Put your PC through our rigorous health check to find out how

long it has – and how you can give it a new lease of life

26 Oct – 8 Nov 2016 • Issue 487 CO FEA VER TU P50 RE

When Will Your

it worth the money? 57 IsMalwarebytes Premium Are the new Windows 10 58 apps any good? More programs are becoming apps, but is it a change for the better?

What you can do with 60 the new Outlook.com Microsoft’s online email service has been revamped ped – here’s what you pe yo need to know

Take our 11-step Essential Health Check to find out

10 Windows 10’s new apps p58

Outlook.com: the new features p60

In every issue… 6 News 11 Question of the Fortnight Why was TalkTalk fined a measly £400,000?

33 Competition Win a Packed Pixels portable laptop screen 49 What’s All the Fuss About? Kodi

12 Letters

64 Problems Solved

14 Consumeractive

70 Fast Fixes Microsoft Edge

16 Protect Your Tech 18 Best Free Software Firefox 49 30 Buy It! 4 26 October – 8 November 2016

73 Jargon Buster 74 The Final Straw Ken Rigsby hammers illogical keyboards

Daft keyboards: no laughing matter p74

Subscribe be

NOW!

See page 62 for our speciall subs offer

Reviews 20 Acer Aspire S13 Acer’s new laptop is light and fantastic

BUY IT!

★★★★★

21 Kobo Aura One Kobo’s larger ebook reader – start of a new chapter? 22 Lenovo Yoga 500 (14in) A convertible that fails to convert us 23 TP-Link Archer VR2600 A router for those with a need for speed 24 Amazon Echo Amazon’s new smart speaker will have everyone talking

CCL Ho Hori rizon p25 5 Horizon TP-Link Archer VR2600 p23

Am Amazon Ec Echo p2 p24

BUY IT!

25 CCL Horizon An impressive PC that even makes room for improvement 26 LG Spirit 4G A budget phone with little substance

★★★★★

28 Sony Xperia XZ An impressive, if hardly unique, phone 29 Kingston SSDNow A decent SSD to give you drive

Workshops & Tips

14 pages of brilliant workshops and expert tips 35 Clean Windows 10 deeper than ever

42 Master Google’s new messaging app

38 Force-remove files that won’t delete

43 Readers’ Tips Fix new Windows Update fault

40 Stop your hard drives crashing ng

44 Phone and Tablet Tips Boost your Android phone’s performance

2015 BACK ISSUE CD

W! O N E L ON SA

46 Make Windows Better Use Edge’s new extensions 47 Make Office Better Create email templates in Outlook 48 Secret Tips For… iOS 10

BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON at www.snipca.com/21619


News

The top stories in the world of technology

Not so fast, BT! ‘Misleading’ broadband ads banned T

hree BT broadband adverts have been banned after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that they made false speed claims. The adverts, which appeared on TV, online and in newspapers and magazines, boasted that BT’s Infinity up-to-52Mbps service provides “the fastest fibre speeds as standard”. They featured Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds, whose fast-paced lifestyle was used to promote BT’s speeds. Virgin Media complained to the ASA, saying that the adverts were misleading because they implied BT’s cheapest deal offers a faster speed than any of the cheapest deals offered by rival internet service providers (ISPs). The ASA agreed, although not because Virgin itself offers

COMMENT

faster speeds. In fact, the ASA said that the ISPs BT compares its speeds to in the adverts – Sky, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Virgin – all offer slower broadband in their cheapest packages. But the ASA also said that there were other, smaller ISPs whose cheapest packages advertised speeds faster than 52Mbps – in some cases “significantly so”.

Fewer confusing broadband ads

The ruling comes just weeks before new regulations are enforced to make broadband adverts easier to understand. From 31 October ISPs will have to show all monthly costs – such as line rental – in adverts that include prices. Adverts will also have to show prominently the

Did Virgin really think through this complaint? In raising it, did the company not realise that the ASA would point out that its cheapest broadband is slower than BT’s (albeit not by much)? We can only assume that Virgin thought this was an acceptable tradeoff for BT’s integrity taking a hit. But it’s certainly one of the pettier complaints about broadband adverts that the ASA has investigated. We may see cases on similarly trivial grounds as ISPs look for loopholes in the new regulations. contract length, installation costs, and what the long-term price will be once the discount period ends.

Yahoo’s U-turn over email forwarding Yahoo Mail once again lets you forward your emails to another account, after the option had been disabled in early October. Many suspected Yahoo had done this to make it harder for users who were angry about the recent hack to switch to another account. Email forwarding still worked for users who had set it up before Yahoo turned it off. But for about a week users

who wanted to turn on this option were unable to. In a blog post (www.snipca. com/22152) the company apologised for the inconvenience, and said that disabling the option was part of “upgrading” Yahoo Mail to improve its search, and to make it work across multiple accounts. Auto-forwarding is available on most popular email

You’ll like this… Google has released a free font for anyone to use (www.google.com/get/noto) 6 26 October – 8 November 2016

services. It lets users try a new service while still receiving emails to their old address. For example, a Yahoo Mail user could set up forwarding to a new Gmail address, so that emails sent to the former are redirected to the latter. Many users had set up email forwarding since the hack

because they were worried about the security risks of signing into their Yahoo account. In September, Yahoo admitted that the details of 500 million users had been stolen in 2014. We’ll explain how to switch and close your Yahoo accounts in our next issue – out Weds 9 November.

•

… but not this British banks ‘hide hacks to avoid bad publicity’ (www.snipca.com/22150)

Use an HP printer? Install this update to use cheaper cartridges HP has released its promised firmware update that lets Officejet, Officejet Pro and Officejet Pro X printers use cartridges made by other companies. These are often cheaper than the company’s ‘official’ cartridges. The update reverses HP’s block on third-party cartridges, which came into effect on 13 September and was resulting in error messages. Thousands of printer owners were angered by HP’s decision, forcing the company to backtrack and apologise (read its statement at www.snipca.com/21987). Initially, the HP helpdesk (http://support.hp.com) told frustrated users that the problem was caused by a fault with the printers. An HP spokesperson later said that this information was wrong, and that the company had intentionally blocked “untested” cartridges to protect printers from possible

damage and hacks. The company’s chief operating officer, Jon Flaxman, said HP should have made customers more aware of this. To update your printer visit HP’s customer support web page (www.snipca.com/ 22137), then enter its model number under ‘Enter my HP model number’. On the next page click the Firmware heading, look for an update dated October 12, 2016 and click the blue Download button beside it (see screenshot). HP will show a box with the pre-selected option to download the update using its installation tool. You don’t

need this, so select ‘Download only’ instead. For more info on the update, which is 23.2MB, click the blue Details button. It says: “This firmware update removes previous security firmware that may prevent the printer from working with certain ink supplies that contain non-HP security chips”. The message also warns that HP “cannot guarantee the quality or reliability” of cartridges made by other companies. The update appears to work. Computeractive used it on an Officejet printer that had stopped working with unofficial cartridges, and found that it accepted them again.

Shoplifter caught on Street View A shoplifter has been convicted after being identified on Google Street View, despite it blurring her face to comply with the company’s privacy policy. On 19 June Tammy McIvor was photographed by the Street View cars leaving the discount shop Savers in Middlesbrough. She was carrying a bag that contained £60 worth of washing-up products she had stolen from the store. Images show her being chased by a member of staff (see image). Cleveland Police

identified her from her distinctive white outfit, which she was wearing both in the Street View images, and when she was arrested. McIvor appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court where she was handed a year-long community order, which requires her to undergo drug rehabilitation.

But she would have got away with it had it not been for IT worker Peter Darby, who stumbled upon McIvor’s crime while looking on Street View at places where he used to live. He said that it was obvious there was something “a bit strange” about the images. “You could definitely tell she was up to no good,” he added. Google’s Street View cars are equipped with cameras that take 360-degree images of cities, towns and villages across the world. It first added images of the UK in 2009, and has updated them regularly.

IN BRIEF NEW CHROME TO MAKE PCs FASTER

Google has said that a new version of its Chrome browser will use less of your PC’s RAM, making it run faster. The company said that in some cases Chrome 55, due for release on 6 December, uses up to 50 per cent less memory. You’ll notice the difference, particularly when browsing the web with multiple tabs open, and with programs running in the background.

ANTI SCAM WEBSITE NEEDS VOLUNTEERS

A new website hopes to highlight the dangers of scams, including those perpetrated online and by email. Run by the National Trading Standards, Friends Against Scams (www. friendsagainstscams. org.uk) lists sessions around the UK that raise awareness of fraud. It is asking for volunteers, which it calls ‘ScamChampions’, to host these meetings. The campaign is also encouraging MPs and senior public figures to become ‘ScamAmbassadors’.

Tomorrow’s

world

Google has programmed a computer to read the London Underground map. It taught DeepMind, the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology, to understand questions like “How do you get from Moorgate to Piccadilly Circus?”. This shows that DeepMind can remember details forever, then apply them later when reading other maps, say. Read more on the DeepMind blog: www.snipca.com/22141.


News IN BRIEF GOOGLE TO ‘FACT CHECK’ NEWS STORIES

Google is fighting against inaccurate articles in Google News by adding links to factchecking websites. These will be marked with a ‘Fact Check’ label. Clicking the link takes you to analysis from sites including Full Fact (https:// fullfact.org), a UK-based fact-checking charity. See more details: www.snipca. com/22144.

AMAZON BANS REVIEW ‘BRIBES’

Amazon has made it harder for companies to offer free and discounted products to customers in exchange for a review. From now on, such reviews can only come via Amazon’s Vine programme. A recent study showed that shoppers were more likely to leave positive reviews for items they didn’t have to pay for. Amazon said that these “so-called ‘incentivised reviews’ make up only a tiny fraction of the tens of millions of reviews on Amazon”: www.snipca.com/22146.

Don’t like W10 apps? Now it’s easier to remove them Microsoft looks set to make it easier to uninstall Windows 10 apps that are built into the operating system (OS), an option that many users have been calling for. A recent preview version of Windows 10 – Build 14936 – lets users click an ‘Uninstall’ button to remove Microsoft’s apps (see screenshot), including Mail and Calendar, Calculator, Groove Music, Weather and Maps. To see it, click Settings, open the System section then click ‘Apps & features’ on the left. In previous versions of Windows 10 this ‘Uninstall’ button was greyed out, meaning you couldn’t click it.

You were still able to remove apps, but only by using non-Microsoft programs such as 10AppsManager (www. snipca.com/22142), or by using a PowerShell command. To receive Build 14936 you’ll need to sign up to the Windows Insider Program (https://

insider.windows.com), which is a scheme for users to try new versions of the OS. The ‘Uninstall’ option is expected to appear in the full version of Windows as part of the next major update, codenamed Redstone 2, due next March.

…BUT HERE’S THE BAD NEWS Windows 7 and 8.1 users may soon be revisited by an old annoyance – messages from Microsoft urging them to upgrade to Windows 10. These messages, called ‘nagware’ by many critics,

were delivered by Microsoft’s ‘Get Windows 10’ app, which sat in the taskbar of 7 and 8.1 desktops. Microsoft disabled this app in September, but now two new updates (KB 2952664 for Windows 7 and

KB 2976978 for 8.1) suggest that the company may resume promotion for Windows 10. It says that these “compatibility updates” will check whether computers are ready to receive further updates of Windows.

NHS ransomware puts patients’ data at risk Cyber-criminals have targeted at least 28 NHS England trusts with ransomware in the last 12 months, leaving millions of patients’ data at risk. The figures come from a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by cyber-security firm NCC Group. However, no ransom was ever paid and no data ever lost, according to NHS Digital, the body which oversees cyber-security for the health service. Ollie Whitehouse, technical director of NCC Group, said it had seen a 400 per cent increase in ransomware 8 26 October – 8 November 2016

attacks on organisations and businesses. He added: “NHS trusts are being increasingly targeted and any loss of patient data would be a nightmare. Like everyone else, they need to apply robust controls”. NCC didn’t name the 28 trusts attacked, which amounts to 14 per cent of the total trusts in England. NHS Digital said that such incidents are “rare”. It told the

i newspaper: “In all reported cases, effective and swift action was taken”. Security experts say that the health sector is seen by criminal gangs as a lucrative target. They can sell medical records to other hackers for a lot more money than, say, banking data. Last month US security firm McAfee revealed that in the first three months of 2016 hospitals around the world had paid $100,000 to ransomware hackers. It identified attacks in the UK, Germany, the US, Canada and Australia.

It’s often said that you can buy anything online. Well, here’s the conclusive proof: for $24 you can order a candle that gives off the odour of a new Apple Mac, which apparently is a combination of mint, peach, basil, lavender, mandarin and sage (www.snipca. com/22111). Will we see a Windows candle next? After espeare almost all, as Shakespeare mputer said, a computer er by any other ld name would weet. smell as sweet.

Draw on your screen using new Microsoft Paint Microsoft is working on a new version of its long-standing Paint program that will let you draw on screen, add ‘stickers’ and create 3D objects. These would be the most advanced tools ever in Paint, but Microsoft insists that anyone can use them, regardless of “age, ability or ambition”. Leaked details suggest that the company is planning to completely redesign the tool, and add new features. It wants Paint to be seen as a more serious rival to image-editing software like Paint.NET (www. getpaint.net) and Gimp (www. gimp.org). A demonstration video on YouTube (www.snipca.com/ 22102, see screenshot) shows an artist using the new Paint

with a touchscreen pen on a Surface Pro, Microsoft’s laptop-tablet hybrid. The 3D creations she draws highlight the limitations of the existing version of Paint, in which you can draw only simple images with virtual paintbrushes and predefined shapes. In another video (www. snipca.com/22103) Microsoft’s ‘artist in residence’, Paul Kercal, transforms a vase of flowers from 2D to 3D. It’s thought Paint will be

available as an installable app from the Windows Store, not a downloadable program. There’s no release date yet, but more details are expected at an event in New York on 26 October, when the company is due to unveil a new Surface model. Some experts think the revamped Paint will come in the next major Windows 10 update, codenamed Redstone 2, due in the first half of 2017. The changes could prove to be the most substantial improvements since Paint first arrived on PCs, as part of Windows 1.0, back in 1985. At the time you could draw in only black and white. What’s your favourite imageediting software? Let us know: [email protected]

Hackers can read infosent to police websites Many of the UK’s police websites fail to even encrypt personal information sent by members of the public, leaving them at risk of being intercepted by hackers. A report from the Centre for Public Safety, an organisation that “seeks to promote police and public safety efficiency”, says that 73 per cent of police websites provide such poor security that they “should be considered a cause for concern”. It also said that 24 per cent of sites lack all support for secure connections, which means that data submitted online by the public is at greater risk. Much of this data – often details of suspects and criminal activity – is of a highly sensitive nature. Around 1 in 10 sites had a

“significant vulnerability” in how people submitted data, including https://ceop. police.uk, the website of the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP, see screenshot), which tackles child sex abuse on the internet. The report graded police websites based on their implementation of Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which are common techniques for encrypting data. A website’s security doesn’t necessarily depend on its budget, the report claims. For example, the Metropolitan Police invested over £110

IN BRIEF DRUGS AND GUNS SELLING ON FACEBOOK

A host of illegal items are being sold on Facebook Marketplace, the site’s new service that lets users buy and sell to each other. Within hours of Marketplace going live in the US in early October, people were selling drugs, guns and prostitution. The company apologised, saying it “encountered a technical issue” that stopped it detecting items which violated its standards. Marketplace is now available in the UK – read more at www.snipca.com/22094.

GOVT SETS UP NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY HQ

The Government has announced its latest initiative to fight cyber crime – the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). One of its aims is to make it easier for businesses to get advice from security services. It’s hoped this will help companies bolster their defences against hackers. The Government will also work with some of the biggest companies in the UK to set up a giant firewall to filter malware.

SAMSUNG: STOP USING OUR EXPLODING PHONES

million in IT infrastructure in 2014/15, but was found to have insecure connections on its websites. Constabularies in Dover, Durham and Warwickshire, meanwhile, achieved top ratings despite relatively meagre resources. The report graded websites from A (best) to U (worst). Find out how well your local police force performed by downloading the report: www.snipca.com/22104.

Samsung has stopped selling its Galaxy Note 7 phones, and told owners not to use them, as it continues to investigate reports that the batteries are catching fire. In September, the South Korean company recalled 2.5 million phones, replacing them with devices it insisted were safe. But there are fresh reports that these new phones are also catching fire, with potentially catastrophic results. In the US a domestic flight was evacuated before take-off after a new Note 7 started emitting smoke.


News

Jane Hoskyn puts t th the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and software stuffed with junk

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: McAfee WebAdvisor

What’s McAfee been up to lately? Hard at work improving its antivirus (AV) suite, McAfee Internet Security? Trouncing criminal masterminds? No, it’s been electing US comedian Amy Schumer the internet’s most dangerous celebrity (www.snipca. com/22073) in a survey to promote its browser extension, WebAdvisor (www. snipca.com/22069). The extension, formerly called SiteAdvisor, is supposed to block malicious downloads of the kind that use poor Amy as bait. But I’ve found it far more trouble than it’s worth. In its 10 years as SiteAdvisor, McAfee’s tool got a reputation for blocking safe sites and dramatically slowing your browser. I couldn’t tell you if WebAdvisor is still guilty of this, because it infuriated me so much I uninstalled it within minutes.

extension’, but WebAdvisor got the party started anyway and invited an old friend.

IE, you’re back

McAfee WebAdvisor prompts Internet Explorer to open and then hijacks its search engine

WebAdvisor attaches itself to your default browser (Chrome, in my case), forcing a restart and then opening a pop-up window containing a list of permissions that sound like hostage demands from a browser kidnapper: ‘Read and change all your data on the websites that you visit’, ‘Manage your downloads’ and ‘Communicate with cooperating native applications’. I found these intrusive, so I didn’t click ‘Enable

I’ve never opened Internet Explorer (IE) on my Windows 10 PC and wasn’t planning to, but WebAdvisor had other ideas. It opened IE, covered its homepage in McAfee regalia and added a box that wanted ‘to change my default search provider to TheSearch (thesearch.net)’. TheSearch.net is a known browser hijacker (www.snipca.com/22074), and infecting PCs with it is not the kind of behaviour I’d expected from McAfee. If you’re using an up-to-date browser, firewall and AV (such as McAfee’s proper product, Internet Security) you don’t need an extension like this, and indeed you’re better off without it. Don’t let companies like McAfee, AVG and Avast con you into downloading this junk.

What are they talking about?

Jane’s villain of the fortnight

What they say

Con men are emptying the bank accounts of internet daters at an epidemic rate – and readers of the Daily Mail’s website reckon they know why. “They (the victims) are sad old bats,” says ‘Erinjaeger’. “Women over 40 are desperate for attention,” reasons ‘whinewhine’ (www.snipca.com/22075). I’m not sure what upsets me more, the scam or the victim-blaming – and not just because I’m a web-loving divorcee on the “wrong” side of 40. These con artists target widows and other vulnerable people, and then extort thousands of pounds by exploiting their kindness, trust and love. Several victims have lost their homes; at least one has committed suicide.

International Data Corporation (IDC, www.snipca.com/22062): “The wave of available devices on the market continues to increase and is accompanied by interest among enterprises for the adoption of detachables, as the mobile form factor perfectly fits their mobility strategies.”

What they mean

We’re using more mobile devices and fewer big computers. Never underestimate th the abilit ability of research analysts to express simple trends in gobbledygook.

10 26 October – 8 November 2016

Romance fraudsters

According to Action Fraud (www. actionfraud.police.uk), this so-called ‘romance fraud’ is the UK’s fastestgrowing crime - and yet it goes largely unreported, because victims are ashamed. The trolls who attack them are complicit in fuelling the crimewave. Want to nominate a villain of the fortnight? Email us at [email protected]

?

Question of the

Fortnight

Why was TalkTalk fined a measly £400,000?

Lax security blamed for huge data theft – but the fine is laughable

P

unishment is relative. If you were fined £400,000 for failing to do your job properly, it would ruin your life. If a company the size of TalkTalk were fined that amount, it would be a drop in the ocean. TalkTalk’s global revenue last year was £1.83 billion. And yet £400,000 - which barely buys a house in Slough these days - is precisely how much the broadband giant has been fined for security failings that let hackers plunder customers’ data “with ease”. The punishment, such as it is, has been handed down by data-protection watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO, https://ico.org. uk), a year after hackers stole the names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses and, in many cases, bank details of 157,000 TalkTalk customers.

cheap, and so is £400,000 to TalkTalk. Headlines, including the one on the ICO’s website, called it a “record fine”. Loyal customers received no financial recompense in the wake of the attack, which left many fearing their bank accounts might be raided by hackers. Instead, they got an

TalkTalk’s global revenue last year was 1.83bn, so this fine is a drop in the ocean “TalkTalk’s failure to implement the most basic cyber-security measures allowed hackers to penetrate TalkTalk’s systems with ease,” the UK’s Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said. “Yes hacking is wrong, but that is not an excuse for companies to abdicate their security obligations” (www.snipca. com/22097). Tough talk. But talk is

apology. Talking up this derisory fine as a “record” is insulting. So, why is the fine so small? The simple answer is it’s close to the legal limit. Under the UK Data Protection Act, the maximum penalty for companies is £500,000. It begs the question: why is the maximum so low? Penalties imposed elsewhere in the EU are significantly higher. Under the EU’s General Data

Protection Regulations (GDPR), companies must pay four per cent of revenue or 20 million euros (£18 million), whichever is higher. To put that into perspective, the £400,000 fine cost TalkTalk around £2.50 for every customer whose data was stolen. If we followed GDPR rules, the fine would have been £72 million – or £460 for every customer affected. The ICO wants to see these much larger fines in the UK. Indeed, the GDPR was due to come into force here in May 2018 – but Brexit may change that. Days after the referendum in June, the ICO released a statement saying “reform of the UK law remains necessary”. On 29 September, Elizabeth Denham told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think Brexit should mean Brexit when it comes to standards of data protection”. While we wait and see what Brexit means for data laws, TalkTalk is facing punishment in a more direct way - through

THE FACTS • At least 156,959 customers had their personal details stolen when hackers attacked TalkTalk’s website last October • Hackers exploited a bug on out-of-date web pages that, the ICO says, should have been fixed • The £400,000 fine goes to HM Treasury, not to victims – although TalkTalk offered customers a free upgrade as a “small gesture” falling profits. Its profits more than halved from £32 million in 2015 to £14 million in the year ending April 2016, and 101,000 subscribers shut their accounts following the attack. Even so, revenues have continued to grow, and chief executive Dido Harding dismissed lost subscribers as “churn”. Until bigger penalties are imposed, companies like TalkTalk know it’s not worth digging into their profits to improve our security. 26 October – 8 November 2016 11

Letters Virgin’s £25 ‘loyalty bonus’ after haggle

After reading the News article on haggling to avoid Virgin Media’s price rise (Issue 486, page 9), I rang the 0800 customer service number. After a discussion to confirm that my current package was best suited to my requirements, I was offered a reduction from the proposed £69.47 per month to £53 for the first six months of a 12-month contract, followed by six months at £63. I was then offered a better deal - £51 for the first six months of an 18-month contract, followed by the same £63 for the remaining 12 months. Since I have been a satisfied Virgin Media customer for about 15 years, I told the helpful assistant that I had no intention of changing my supplier in the foreseeable future. I was then promised a thank-you credit of £25 on my account as a loyalty bonus. Jim Bradshaw

Nonplussed by Plusnet

I totally agree with Lynn Dobson’s letter in Issue 486. Plusnet doesn’t care about looking after their loyal customers. I’ve been a customer of theirs since 2003, before their takeover by BT. Earlier this year, I phoned them to see if they could do me a good deal as a loyal customer if I upgraded to fibre broadband. To my amazement they were not bothered and didn’t care, and would only do good deals for new customers. Before the takeover Plusnet would bend over backwards to look after and keep their loyal customers. But since BT bought them, their attitude has changed. Over the past 10 months I’ve been having problems with my internet speed dropping by half every four to eight weeks. I have to keep phoning them to turn up my speed. When I find an ISP that will do me a good deal I will be leaving Plusnet. Loyalty works both ways. Peter Pounder

Lotus is so Smart it even works in Windows 10

With reference to your piece about Lotus SmartSuite (‘Whatever happened to…?’, Issue 485), I can confirm that having used


Tell us what’s on your mind

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this superb desktop publishing software for more than 20 years, I’ve successfully downloaded it on to every version of Windows that Microsoft has chucked at me, from 3.0 right through to Windows 10. And Lotus has performed without any problems on every version. It saddens me that the bullying attitude of Microsoft has resulted in this easy-to-use software (in my opinion far superior to Word) being consigned to the scrapyard. I long for the day when the brilliant Lotus SmartSuite will take its rightful place at the top of user-friendly software, but alas, tech giants have very different ideas. Brian Leith CA says Brian was just one of many readers who told us they managed to install Lotus SmartSuite on Windows 10. Inspired by their efforts, we’re going to try to install several more ancient (and much-loved) programs on the new operating system. See our results in the next issue – out Wednesday 9 November.

Google diagnosed my shingles

In Issue 486, Dr Smith reminded us that GPs often have difficulty “interpreting what patients say”. This works both ways, meaning patients have difficulty interpreting what doctors say. As for self-diagnosis, sometimes I feel this can help. In June 2013, I developed a strange sensation over my right eyebrow on a Friday. I contacted the medical centre on Monday to be told that I had to see the triage nurse. I suggested that the sensation might be a warning of shingles. “Can’t be shingles, there’s no rash” I was told. I went home and ‘Googled’ the question ‘Can one develop shingles without accompanying rash?’. Answer? Yes. I phoned the medical centre and the triage nurse grudgingly gave me a prescription for anti-shingles tablets. By Thursday, with my forehead and scalp smothered in scabs, I managed to actually see a doctor. She prescribed some pills, but four times the strength, and told me it was probably too late anyway. Every day

HP U-turn is proof of ‘people power’ We often hear these days that the large tech companies exploit the loyalty of their customers. So it’s extremely pleasing to read that HP has decided to lift its ban on people using cartridges made by other companies (News, Issue 486, page 8). I think it shows that there’s still a place for ‘people power’ even in this age of multi-billion-dollar companies that seem to make huge profits just so they can derive pleasure in dodging tax. As the owner of an HP printer I emailed the company several times, urging them to change their mind. Several people I know did likewise. And we weren’t the only ones – there was a huge backlash against HP in forums across the web.

If there hadn’t been such a negative reaction, do you think HP would have backtracked? Of course not. So, my fellow tech travellers, don’t give up when a company does something immoral. Stand up and fight back! David Ellison

I still have intermittent irritation over my right eyebrow. Moral 1: where possible you should ‘Google’ your symptoms prior to contacting medics, taking time and care to describe the symptoms accurately. Moral 2: get the anti-shingles jab when possible because shingles is not pleasant. If you publish this, I would be grateful if you withhold my name. Medical centres seem to get upset if mere patients make comments which might be seen as a complaint, and one can find oneself ‘struck off’. Name and address supplied

Yahoo hack affects Sky email users too

This latest Yahoo scandal (News, Issue 486, page 6) makes my blood boil. Not for one moment do I believe that Yahoo have only recently become aware of the theft of their data in 2014. My first encounter with a scam email was receiving one in that same year from a friend with a Yahoo account - except that it didn’t actually come from that friend. Since then, I’ve received loads of scam emails (supposedly from friends and family who had Yahoo email accounts). What has not yet been mentioned in all this is that Sky uses Yahoo as a platform for their email service. On 4 October, I received a scam email from a friend with a Sky account. It so happens that this friend had actually changed his account details when this Yahoo affair first came to light, and yet scam emails are supposedly still being sent from his account. It should be brought to the attention of all Sky users that this Yahoo problem can and does affect them also. George C Griffiths CA says We agree with George that Yahoo has left many questions unanswered about the hack. In our next issue we’ll explain how you can safely close your Yahoo accounts and move to another service.

STAR LETTER

Haggling with Virgin? Make sure you keep it ‘personal’ In Issue 486 (News, page 9), you told us how you managed to get £10 off your broadband bill by haggling with Virgin. That’s an impressive result – the Computeractive office is obviously staffed by expert hagglers. Please allow me to pass on some tips based on my experience of negotiating with Virgin. It happened back in 2013. I knew I had to cut my living costs because I was heading for retirement, so I phoned Virgin more in hope than expectation. I wasn’t very confident the first time, and I think the salesperson detected this. He offered me a puny £2 reduction every month, so I said ‘no thanks’. I waited a week and took some advice from a friend, who said that when haggling you should make your case as personal as possible. He told me to make a list of the prices Virgin’s rivals were charging in my area, and quote these to the salesperson. So I did just that when I next phoned, and it seemed to have an immediate effect. I was offered a reduction of £5 a month. I was fairly happy with that, but I

sensed I could get an even better deal. I then remembered what my friend said about making it personal, so I told the salesperson that I had to cut costs because I was retiring. That seemed to clinch it. He put me on hold to talk to his manager (a sales tactic perhaps?), then came back and said he could reduce my bill by £9.50 a month. I thanked him, said that was acceptable, and signed up. Since then I’ve twice haggled cheaper deals with Virgin. I would urge anyone to try. You don’t have to play ‘hard ball’, or be aggressive. Just be yourself, and don’t accept the first offer Kenneth Foot

The Star Letter writer wins a Computeractive mug! Getting ‘q’ mixed up with ‘g’

I was interested to read about “James McMadeup’s” problem with his email address (Problems Solved, page 67, Issue 486). I have a similar problem with my Gmail address richard gsmith@ gmail.com (I’ve changed it slightly for security reasons). The problem is that there is another valid email address for [email protected] (note the ‘q’ in the middle, rather than a ‘g’). The problem arises because most times an email address is typed, it’s turned into a hyperlink and underlined. In the font I’m using for this email to you, Century Gothic, you can just about make out the difference between the two addresses, but with ‘q’ being quite an unusual initial people often copy the address with a ‘g’ instead. Recently, I was surprised to see Google telling me about a new entry in my calendar for a stay at a hotel in Leicester

in November. I’ve nothing against Leicester, but I wasn’t planning a visit there this year. This was almost immediately followed by an email from said hotel confirming my booking. As I have previously received several emails intended for the other Richard I quickly realised what had happened and let the hotel know. In your response to James, you pointed out that Google does not recognise full stops to the left of the @ sign in email addresses. This would not appear to be a consistent policy across providers because my Virgin Media email address has my first name and surname run together, but someone else with the same name uses firstname.surname. This has also caused confusion in the past when my son forgot that I didn’t have a dot in my name. Richard ‘Smith’ 26 October – 8 November 2016 13

Consumeractive Must I put up with a laptop repair after 30 days? My daughter bought an HP Pavilion laptop from Currys 21 days ago. Within two days the fan was making loud noises. Currys replaced it, but after two days this second laptop suffered the black screen of death. Currys ran tests but insists there’s no fault and refuses to exchange it or give a refund. I still think it’s inherently faulty, but proving it will take me beyond 30 days since purchase. Will this affect my chances of getting a full refund? Sian Hoskins

Q

Sian told us that her laptop died on the 29th day after purchase, and Currys has now offered a full refund. It had no choice but to do this. Since the Consumer Rights Act was introduced last October, companies have only one chance to repair or replace an inherently faulty product. However, if Currys hadn’t exchanged the first faulty laptop, and it had died shortly after the 30-day limit, we think Sian would still have been entitled to a full refund because she’d been flagging up the faults since purchase. The fact Currys failed to act during this time doesn’t mean she should have been penalised and have to put up with a repair or replacement.

A

I think Virgin’s throttling my broadband – can I cancel? I’ve had a broadband account with Virgin for a year and recently renewed my 30Mbps contract because it says it no longer uses traffic management. I’m an amateur photographer and have recently started storing my images in the cloud, but sometimes it takes ages to upload big files. If Virgin is sneakily throttling speeds, is there any way I can cancel this contract without penalty? Perhaps by using Ofcom’s slow broadband rule? Ernie Slater

Q

There are ways you can cancel your broadband service early without penalty, but sadly none of these apply to Ernie. The simplest way is to cancel within 14 days of signing, as set out in Ofcom’s Broadband Code of Practice 2015, but Ernie has missed this deadline. Ernie mentions Ofcom’s rules on slow broadband, but these aren’t related to ISPs’ traffic-management policies (TMP). These complicated regulations are based on Ofcom’s minimum guaranteed access line speed (MGALS), which deals with very slow broadband speeds. The usual culprit is the old ADSL2+ standard, rather than the (theoretically) faster fibre

A

UPLOAD broadband Ernie has. MGALS states that if an ISP can’t provide you with the minimum speed it quoted when you signed the contract, you can cancel without penalty (BT’s explanation is worth reading: www.snipca. com/22057). Ernie also suspects that Virgin had sneakily reintroduced traffic management (sometimes called ‘broadband throttling’), which ISPs use to restrict upload and download speeds at busy times so everyone gets a stable connection. Even if he proved this, he wouldn’t be able to cancel without a penalty because Virgin clearly states that it still restricts upload speed at peak times (read its conditions at www.snipca.com/22058). Because Virgin is upfront about this, it complies with Ofcom’s Code of Practice. Ernie may be thinking of Virgin’s decision in 2014 to ditch traffic management on download speeds.

Where’s my refund from Next? I recently bought several items of clothing from the online Next Directory (www.next.co.uk) which didn’t fit. I returned them, but after three weeks there’s still no sign of my refund in my bank account. How long should I wait to get my money back? Jordan Nugent

Q

Jordan shouldn’t have to wait three weeks for a refund, so we contacted Next to investigate. It told us that when shopping on Next’s

A


website you create an account, and through this pay in full or in instalments. Jordan paid in full, and under the Consumer Contract Regulations she’s entitled to a full refund, including any post and packaging, within 14 days of returning the items. However, rather than refunding money back to the customer’s card or bank account, Next credits the customer with money to their Next account. This is why Jordan hasn’t seen the refund in her bank account. But Next can’t hold on to this

money without Jordan’s permission. She can choose to leave the account in credit, or tell Next to refund the money to her bank account.

Contact us so we can investigate your case

Email: [email protected] Write: Consumeractive, Computeractive, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD Please include both your phone number and address. Unfortunately, we can’t reply to all your letters.

We sstand up for your legal rights

I’I’ve b been wrongly subscribed to a service – what can I do? In June, I needed advice on a technical matter so I emailed a website called JustAnswer (www.justanswer.co.uk). I paid for the advice, but now I find that the website has signed me up to the service and it’s costing me £35 a month. I’ve asked the company to cancel this and return my money, but it says it has no record of my original email. Can you help? Doug McBain

Q

We’ll certainly do our best. JustAnswer works by connecting you to “professional” experts, such as lawyers, doctors and vets, who answers your question for a fee. Subjects include health, cars, tax and computers. Once an expert has answered your

A

question, you can rate them, much like you can an eBay seller. We think Doug must have accidentally signed up to a monthly subscription after the free trial. The site explains how this works at www.snipca.com/22059.

CASE UPDATE Reader’s Fitbit is fighting fit again We are happy to report that Fitbit has replaced the faulty activity tracker that Simon Reilly bought from Currys for £150 (see Issue 486). Simon was concerned that by using Fitbit’s warranty he would lose his legal right to a refund from Currys should the device break again. But this is never the case. Currys had initially said it would send the item to Fitbit for a repair, but said it would charge him for the fix. Currys justified this by saying that the fault wasn’t covered by Fitbit’s warranty, and therefore it would need to pay Fitbit to fix it. But we disagree with Currys’ interpretation of Fitbit’s warranty. In any case, Simon is now happy with his replacement. Before issuing a refund most retailers advise customers to contact the manufacturer and use its warranty. There’s nothing wrong with this, but they can’t force you to do it. Bear in mind, you risk losing your right to a refund if you get a repair carried out by a person or company not authorised by the retailer. If the item subsequently stops working, the retailer may argue that the repair is to blame. It could be very hard for you to prove otherwise. However, if you thought the repair did cause further damage, you could sue the person or company that carried it out.

Doug told us he hadn’t told his bank to cancel these payments in case he breached some kind of contract with JustAnswer. But we told him to go ahead and cancel because there doesn’t appear to be any contract. Nor did he receive confirmation from JustAnswer about the subscription. We wonder if he was somehow transferred to the company’s US site (www.justanswer.com), and inadvertently signed up to a contract there. We’ve contacted JustAnswer’s customer service on both sides of the Atlantic to find out what’s happened. We hope that the site lives up to its stated values of “compassion, humility, generosity, candour and fairness” and gives Doug a refund.

THIS WILL COME IN USEFUL

How to track online orders Amazon

EE

Apple

Ikea

www.snipca.com/22016


Argos

www.argos.co.uk/ ordertracking

B&Q


www.ikeaordertracking. co.uk

Jessops


John Lewis



Boots

Parcelforce


BT

http://bt.com/ordertracking

Currys


eBay


www.parcelforce.com/ track-trace

Royal Mail

www.royalmail.com/ track-your-item

Tesco


Vodafone



Protect Your Tech Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools WATCH OUT FOR…

Photo malware in email attachments What’s the threat?

Security researchers have discovered a serious security flaw in OpenJPEG, an open-source photo format commonly used to embed photos in PDFs. OpenJPEG (www.openjpeg.org, see screenshot) is a codec of the JPEG 2000 standard, and its open-source nature means anyone can use or modify it. It’s a popular choice for embedding photos in PDFs using programs such as Poppler (https:// poppler.freedesktop.org) and MuPDF (http://mupdf.com). The bug was classed as a zero-day flaw when it was discovered in July by Aleksandar Nikolic, a researcher at security firm Cisco Talos. This means it may have been exploited by hackers before it was discovered. Any hacker aiming to exploit it would

developers immediately, so browsers, antivirus tools and PDF viewers – not to mention OpenJPEG itself – could be updated to patch the flaw. Cisco has now gone public about the flaw in a blog post (www.snipca.com/22030).

What should you do?

have infected an OpenJPEG photo with malicious code, and then circulated it in a PDF attached to a spam email. Researchers said victims may also have been tricked into downloading infected PDFs from public Dropbox or Google Drive folders. Clicking an infected photo would ultimately let the hacker take control of your computer, in a type of attack known as remote code execution. Cisco revealed its discovery to software

New tools Windows 10’s spying habits and forced upgrades have made headlines recently, but this is nothing new – Windows 7 and 8/8.1 track you too. Free new tool Ancile blocks tracking in all these versions of Windows. Ancile is a portable script with no program window. To get it, go to the URL above and click the link under Latest Version, save and extract the ZIP file, right-click ‘ancile.cmd’ and then click ‘Run as administrator’. The Control Prompt will open and ask you to create a system restore point. Press ‘y’, then Enter. Ancile instantly gets to work disabling tracking and tasks that ‘phone home’ to Microsoft. Be aware that Ancile also changes your Windows Update settings to block all automatic updates (see screenshot). You’ll be notified of updates instead,


Ancile


Update your software, including extensions and Windows apps. Developers have now had three months to fix the OpenJPEG flaw, but you’ll only get this protection if your software is up to date. Protect yourself further by being careful when clicking photos whose origins you’re not sure about. Photos and GIFs embedded in emails and PDFs are put there by a person, and you don’t always know who that person is or what their intentions are.

ScamWatch

READERS WARN READERS

Pretty sure that’s not HMRC’s email address!

then you’ll need to install them yourself. Given what we’ve just said about updates in our ‘Watch Out For…’ story above, we recommend you only use Ancile if you trust yourself to keep Windows safe.

I wanted to pass on a little joy that turned up in my inbox, claiming to be from HM Revenue & Customs and offering me a tax refund of £198.54 if I clicked a button. I know Britain is looking to save money wherever it can, but I don’t think HMRC is so skint that it has to use the email address ‘service@chan-yu-shun. com’. Where these low-lifes got my contact details remains a mystery. I looked for information online, and found this page: www.snipca.com/ 22035. There’s a link for reporting HMRC scams at the bottom. Brian Richardson Warn your fellow readers about scams at [email protected]

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Best Free Software Jane Hoskyn recommends new programs that won’t cost you anything BROWSER

Firefox 49

www.snipca.com/21911 What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 The new version of Mozilla’s open-source browser impressed us with its security features (see Protect Your Tech, Issue 486). But that’s not the only reason Firefox 49 is worth a look, especially if you find web articles hard to read in some browsers. Reader View, an optional setting that strips away clutter and makes web pages much easier to read, has been part of Firefox since last year. However, it used to be tucked away behind an assault course of configuration settings with catchy names like ‘reader.parse-on-load.enabled’. Now, it’s an icon on the address bar above any text-heavy page. Click it to automatically reload the article on a clean white background, like the BBC News page in our screenshot below. You can then adjust text size, layout and font to suit you, and even have the article read out loud using the new Narrate tool.

Pocket, the popular ‘read it later’ add-on (Firefox’s name for extensions), is now built into Reader View as well, but you’ll need a free Pocket account to use it (www.snipca.com/21914). While Reader View says hello, Firefox Hello waves goodbye. Hello, the instant messaging and video chat tool, wasn’t a big hit (clearly). Firefox has a list of free third-party alternatives for anyone who’ll miss it: www.snipca.com/21916. To get Firefox 49, click the Download Firefox button, then save and run the installer. The Options button lets you opt out of background updates. Firefox then asks if you want it to be your default browser; click ‘Not now’ if you’re only trying it out. You’re invited to set up a free Firefox account. You don’t need one, but it’s handy if you use the browser on your laptop and other devices, and want to keep your settings in sync.

1

4

2 3

1 To switch to Reader View,

click the book icon that appears in the address bar on text-heavy web pages. Click the icon again to return to normal view.


2 Click the text icon on the

Reader View sidebar to make the page even easier to read. Click to change font, size and spacing, and to make the background darker.

3 Click this icon to launch

Narrate. In the box that opens, click the play icon to read the page out loud. Use the slider to speed up or slow down the narration.

4 Click the Menu icon to

open a window containing your Firefox shortcuts. Click Customise to see more. Drag any shortcut to the window and/or toolbar for quicker access.

VPN

TunnelBear 3.0 www.tunnelbear.com What you need: Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 VPN (virtual private network) tools like TunnelBear let you browse the internet without being tracked. They do this by disguising your IP address, which also lets you unlock web content that’s normally only available in the country you’ve chosen as your ‘location’. For example, as mentioned in Issue 485 (page 39), you can potentially use TunnelBear to watch BBC iPlayer abroad. We tried this using a Windows 8.1 laptop in Spain. We installed the new TunnelBear 3.0, then created a free account and switched to a UK IP address. Hey presto, iPlayer worked! Now for the bad news: TunnelBear made the laptop’s connection too slow to watch any programmes. By contrast, TunnelBear actually seemed to improve our internet connection on a fast Windows 10 PC. So be aware that this tool is no magic bullet. Also note it’s free only for the first 500MB of data – roughly one two-hour film, or 35 hours of web browsing. Unlimited usage costs from $4.16 (£3.21) per month. FILE MANAGEMENT

Large Files & Folders Finder+ 2.0 www.ftsoftcompany.com What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Find and delete your PC’s space-hogging files and folders using this powerful program. Its new version adds a Disks Watchdog that warns you if selected folders or drives go over a certain size. Installation is quick and there’s no junk to opt out of. Run the program, tick the folders you want to search, and then click Start to list all files and folders larger than 500MB (default) or your specified size. You can then delete or move the space-hogs from the list or open them in Explorer, and export the whole list as a spreadsheet if you want.

WHAT SHOULD I DOWNLOAD? We tell you what software to use

What program should I use to back up my PC? Windows and Norton Security keep reminding me to create backups of my PC and files. What’s the best way to do it? I’d like to find a program for cloning and backing up my entire system. I’m running Windows 10 Pro and have a 222GB SSD and 500GB hard drive. K Attwood

Q

The reminders are right. If your PC stops working, ransomware infects your PC or your house is flooded, you could lose everything from photos to financial data. Backup software makes a copy (‘image’) of some or all of that data in case disaster strikes. Good back-up software comes at a price. The gold standard is StorageCraft ShadowProtect (www.snipca.com/ 21932, pictured), which costs $99.99 (£77) for one licence. It lets you create a complete snapshot of your system or partition, then lets you restore it all with one click. If you’d like more options – such as backing up certain files and folders – try Acronis True Image 2016. It normally costs £39.95, but is available at an exclusive reader discount on our Software Store for £19.95 (www.snipca.com/21990). Free back-up software is a mixed bag. There’s a free version of EaseUS Todo Backup (www.snipca.com/21934), but watch out for junk in the EaseUS installers (see Named & Shamed, Issue 481). A top free program is Clonezilla (http://clonezilla. org), an open-source tool for cloning and restoring systems. Installation is not easy, but there’s plenty of help on the site. Click Downloads, then ‘stable’ or ‘alternative stable’, and change the values in the dropdown menus to suit your PC. Click Download and follow the instructions.

A

Do you need our advice on what software to use? Just email us at [email protected]

ON SALE NOW! The A-Z Jargon Buster Book This A-Z guide contains over 950 definitions of computing and tech jargon, helping you take back control of your PC.

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Reviews

New products tested by our experts

LAPTOP ❘ £550 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22034 ipca.com/22034

Acer Aspire S13 (S5-371) A lightweight contender

The secret of the thinnest, lightest laptops is aluminium. All right, it’s not really a secret. Manufacturers are quite keen to draw attention to it, in fact. The point is, it’s the molecular fortitude of this lightweight metal that makes it strong enough to hold a 13in screen and full-size keyboard without bending, even when it’s cast thin enough so that the whole machine is barely more than a centimetre thick. Try to cut costs by doing the same with plastic, and you get something that flexes and creaks alarmingly when you open it.

Ultra-thin all-round laptop with nice keys and great battery It’s a problem that Acer hasn’t quite solved with the S13. Like other recent laptops from the Taiwanese manufacturer, the world’s fourth largest PC maker, it looks reassuringly classy. The black version has a subtly grooved lid, while the smooth white option switches the hinge from metallic silver to gold. Either way, though, you’d want to carry it in a sturdy briefcase and avoid trailing the power cable where it might trip someone – rugged it ain’t. Typing on it is fine, though, thanks to Acer’s very usable tile-style keyboard. The keys don’t move very far, but they do move, with a quiet but distinct click to let


your finger know it’s made contact. Below the keyboard is a good-sized touchpad that, unlike some, worked very smoothly for us, responding reliably to swipes, scrolls, taps and Windows 10 gestures. That’s important, because this is a conventional laptop, not a touchscreen system. The Full HD display, as it turns out, is where some more corners have been cut. Brightness and contrast were quite acceptable, but colours don’t quite stretch to full saturation across the entire spectrum. We’re generally partial to a matt screen finish, which cuts reflections from bright room lights or sunshine that can make the screen difficult to see, but in this case the benefit was undermined by a tendency to cause haziness in conditions where it should have helped. Following Apple’s lead, some manufacturers have been banishing connectors from their laptops, citing lack of space and the replacement of physical storage by the cloud. With a modest 128GB available on the S13’s built-in SSD, however, you might well need a USB stick, memory card or external hard drive for some of your stuff. Sensibly, Acer has squeezed in three USB 3.0 ports, one of them a fast USB 3.1 Type-C, and a full-size SD slot. You’d need an adapter for Ethernet, but 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 take care of wireless connections. Inside the S13 is a low-power i3 processor, at the bottom of Intel’s Core range but a step up from Atoms, Celerons, Pentiums and the like. In our tests, it was fine for everyday Windows 10 tasks and basic photo and video editing, but noticeably struggled when we tried to

multitask. The int mu integrated 3D graphics manage managed more demanding games on low settings de at 1280x720-pixel resolution. If you need more oomph, an i5 version of the laptop can be found for about £100 more, but bear in mind this has the same graphics card. What we couldn’t fault, however, was the S13’s battery life. Nine hours 12 minutes of video playback was a great result for a laptop at this price. The otherwise comparable HP Envy 13 (£699 with i5 from HP www.snipca.com/ 22036) only managed six hours 23 minutes. It even nearly matched the more expensive Asus ZenBook UX303UA (£777 with i7 from Amazon www.snipca.com/ 22038). Getting all the way through a working day is such an advantage that we can overlook its flaws and recommend the S13 as a practical laptop. SPECIFICATIONS

2.3GHz dual-core Intel i3-6100U processor • 8GB memory • 128GB SSD • Intel HD Graphics 520 • 13.3in 1920x1080-pixel screen • Webcam • SD card slot • 2x USB 3.0 ports • 1x USB 3.1 Type-C port • 802.11ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 4.1 • Windows 10 • 14.6x326x288mm (HxWxD) • 1.3kg • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/22033

VERDICT: Not the strongest, fastest or brightest, but this is a good Windows 10 all-rounder at a reasonable price

★★★★☆ ALTERNATIVE: HP Envy 13 £699 With a faster i5 processor, this is also slim and light; but, tillll although aluminium, it still feels a bit flimsy

EBOOK READER ❘ £190 from Kobo www.snipca.com/22031

Kobo Aura One A good read

By now, everyone knows an ebook reader is a paperback-sized electronic gadget that shows books one page at a time. Hold on, though: paperback-sized? The average ebook reader screen is quite a lot smaller than the average paperback. That means either smaller print or turning pages more often. Kobo says users asked them for a bigger reader – and here it is. The 7.8in screen almost matches an iPad Mini, making Amazon’s 6in Kindle Paperwhite feel tiny. Like the smaller Kobo Glo (see our review, Issue 452), it’s also very sharp (with 300 pixels per inch) and has Kobo’s rendering options, which let you adjust how bold and crisp the text looks, as well as the font size and type.

A big ebook reader with ample battery life and sharp text that’s designed for use in any light In our tests, the text didn’t look quite as dark as on the Kindle Oasis (£270 from www.snipca.com/22032), but it was very comfortable to read. Like other ebook readers, the Aura One is designed for use in bright light, just like a real book, but it also has a backlight when needed. The backlight could be more even, but it has an ambient light sensor to adjust it according to conditions and a ComfortLight Pro option that subtracts blue light for when you’re reading before bedtime. You might find the orangey tint odd, but it’s a thoughtful way to avoid eye

HOW WE TEST

Computeractive is owned by Dennis Publishing, which owns a hi-tech facility for testing the latest technology. You’ll often read references to our benchmark testing, which is a method of assessing products using the same criteria. For example, we test the speed of every PC and the battery life of every tablet in exactly the same way. This makes our reviews authoritative, rigorous and accurate. Dennis Publishing also owns the magazines PC Pro, Computer Shopper, Web User and Micro Mart and the websites Expert Reviews (www. expertreviews.co.uk) and Alphr (www. alphr.com). This means we can test thousands of products before choosing the most relevant for Computeractive.

strain and preserve your sleep. Although its width means the Aura One isn’t so easy to hold in one hand, it’s very slim, and lighter than a tablet. It feels a bit more plasticky than Amazon’s premium models, but the textured back panel makes it hard to drop, and unusually for an ebook reader it’s fully waterproof. Because this isn’t a Kindle, it can’t access Amazon’s ebook store, but it supports more file formats to let you shop around (see specifications below). Kobo’s store has the same bestsellers, albeit sometimes at higher prices. Bear in mind, you may struggle to find more obscure titles. As with Kindles, though, you can sign up for the OverDrive lending scheme to borrow ebooks with your local public library ticket. There’s no slot for extra storage, but the built-in 8GB should be plenty: Kobo estimates it’ll fit 6,000 books. Amazon’s battery-life stats assume you only read for half an hour a day. Kobo’s estimate of one month is ‘dependent on individual usage’. We had more than 50 per cent left after three days, reading at least three hours per day, so charging once a week seems realistic. Our ideal ebook reader would still be slimmer, lighter and cheaper, but this is one of the best yet. SPECIFICATIONS

7.8in E Ink touchscreen • 8GB memory • 802.11n Wi-Fi • Reads EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, CBZ, CBR, TXT, RTF, HTML, XHTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF • 196x138x6.9mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/22031

FAIR AND IMPARTIAL

Our writers follow strict guidelines to ensure the reviews are fair and impartial. The manufacturer has no involvement in our tests.

OUR AWARDS

We award every product that gets five stars our BUY IT! Buy It! stamp of approval. ★★★★★ It means we were extremely impressed by the product, and we think you will be too. Every product that gets a four-star review is given the Great Pick award. We highly recommend these products, although they just fail to meet the high standard of our Buy It! winners.

PRICES

Our reviews contain a link to the best price we found online at the time of press.

VERDICT: Amazon’s book choice is hard to match, but Kobo’s versatile reader is a strong rival to the Kindle

★★★★☆ ALTERNATIVE: Amazon azon Kindle Paperwhite £99 If you want to buy rmat, books in Kindle format, this is an adequate reader without the Oasis’ high price


Reviews LAPTOP TABLET ❘ £375 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22039

Lenovo Yoga 500 (14in) ks Not the bargain it looks

The best…

Webcams Logitech C920 HD Pro

There are lots of laptops now that an fold all the way round, so you can ignore the keyboard and use thee touchscreen as a tablet. Some of at the them are neatly designed so that er screen and keyboard fit together odel, equally well both ways. This model, w which isn’t the latest but is now ce, available at a very tempting price, is not one of those. ga Instead,when you fold the Yoga 500’s screen against the rear of the keyboard, it just looks like you’ve broken your laptop. The curved backs of the two pieces would rather be anywhere else than ough, if you pressed together. It feels as though, orce them kept squeezing in an effort to force ould pop to come together, the hinges would off and shoot across the room.

It kept going for just two hours 49 minutes. We’ve seen people make a pint last longer Apart from that, what’s the Yoga 500 like? Not great. The 14in size is an odd choice – neither as expansive as a full 15in nor as portable as a 13in. In fact, at 1.8kg and over 2cm thick, it’s not actually very portable at all. The case is plastic, with a brushed finish reminiscent of, well, plastic. The fairly coarse screen covers only 57 per cent of the sRGB colour range, making it one of the least vibrant we’ve seen. We’re not saying it isn’t bright, but it wouldn’t get into a grammar school. At least the touchscreen worked well, which was a relief, because the trackpad was useless. SPECIFICATIONS

Intel dual-core i3-4030U processor • 4GB memory • 1TB hard drive • 14in 1366x768-pixel screen • 2x USB 3.0 • 1x USB 2.0 • HDMI • SD card reader • 802.11ac Wi-Fi • Windows 10 • 21.5x340x235mm (HxWxD) • 1.8kg • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/22041


The Yoga 500’s i3 processor should be adequate for general Windows tasks – assuming you can find a way to travel back in time to 2014. Yes, the processor is two years old. Once it managed to start up, we tried to run our usual tests. And waited. Then tried some easier tests. Games? Minecraft defeated it. We were beginning to feel a bit guilty about testing this hybrid at all when (mercifully) its battery ran out. In our official videoplayback test, it kept going for just two hours 49 minutes. We’ve seen people make a pint last longer. Is there anything nice to say about the Yoga 500? Well, the casing could be worse. Asus’ 11.6in Transformer Book Flip TP200SA (see our review, Issue 476) is arguably even plastickier (if that’s a word), but then it’s lighter, has a touchpad that works, feels less wrong in tablet mode, runs for nine hours and costs half as much. One scant redeeming feature of the Yoga 500 is its 1TB hard drive. Let’s end on that positive note, shall we? VERDICT: The specification looks more like a desktop PC than a laptop-tablet hybrid, but the results don’t bear that out

★★☆☆☆ ALTERNATIVE: Asus Transformer ransformer Book Flip TP200SA £170 If you want a cheap hybrid, try this really cheap (and more portable) one instead

£60 from Amazon www. snipca.com/21697 Logitech’s C920 is about the best webcam you can get. ge It doesn’t rotate (pan), but can an be tilted up or down. Its built-in t-in stereo microphone sounds far better than its rivals. Autofocus and exposure are reliable, and unlike some ‘Full HD’ webcams it can actually manage 1080p at a full 30 frames per second. Note that Microsoft’s Anniversary Update completely broke the way Windows 10 worked with many webcams, including this one. The problems have been fixed in later updates.

Logitech C525 HD

£42 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22042 It’s only 720p, but this is a versatile camera that’s highly adjustable, with full 36-degree rotation, and it folds flat to carry. As well as auto-focusing accurately, it adjusts the image automatically to compensate for changing light.

Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000

£20 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22043 This 720p camera lacks autofocus, relying instead on fixed focus, and Microsoft’s video quality isn’t the clearest, but it’s very cheap and works fine, although its TrueColor auto-adjust feature is a bit erratic.

HP HD 4310 Full HD Webcam

£35 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22044 As you can see (below right) this 1080p camera has a sit-up-andbeg stand that can be tilted and panned. Video quality isn’t quite as vibrant as the Logitech C920, but with effective auto-exposure it’s a very good deal.

ROUTER ❘ £197 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22052

TP-Link Archer VR2600 A fast router for any broadband line We’ve recommended TP-Link’s Archer C9 and D9 Wi-Fi routers (see our review, Issue 454) as good mid-priced options for cable and ADSL broadband respectively. This is their new big sister, with the fastest Wi-Fi technology currently available, known as MU MIMO. The web-page interface through which you manage the router is pretty average, with a Basic mode for essential settings and Advanced for more tweaking. Helpfully, though, there are setup instructions to get you started first time, with presets for all the major ISPs. You can set up two guest networks, one on the old 2.4GHz band and one on the SPECIFICATIONS

Dual-band 802.11ac/a/b/g/n with MU MIMO • ADSL2/VDSL2 modem • 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports • Ethernet WAN port • 2x USB 3.0 ports • 37x264x198mm (HxWxD) • Three-year warranty www.snipca.com/22053

BUY IT!

★★★★★

typically faster 5GHz for newer 802.11ac devices, so that visitors can get fast access without exposing your network. There are two USB 3.0 ports to let you share a USB stick or printer – clunkier than using a NAS or a printer with built-in Wi-Fi, but a useful bonus. You can also plug in a 3G or 4G modem dongle with a SIM card in it to keep you online if your broadband develops a fault. The usual port forwarding, dynamic DNS and firewall facilities are provided if you need them, and parental controls let you block websites based on keywords. In practice, MU MIMO won’t reach its full potential of up to 1,733 Mbps unless you only connect devices designed to support it, which basically don’t exist yet. But it’s nice to feel future-proofed, and even with our regular 802.11ac laptop it reached 419Mbps at close range, which is extremely fast, falling to a

still speedy 256Mbps 10 metres away. On the 2.4GHz band (the only one older devices can use), we got 66Mbps at 10m, which isn’t the fastest we’ve seen but very acceptable. VERDICT: There are routers with fancier features, but for very high speed at a fair price, this should suit most people

★★★★★ ALTERNATIVE: Netgear R8500 Nighthawk X8 GT £370 Also has MU MIMO and is very fast, with twin 5GHz networks

BREXIT MAY MEAN BREXIT… …BUT WHAT ON EARTH DOES ‘HYPERTHREADING’ MEAN?

Find out in our new A-Z Jargon Buster Book Buy it from Amazon at:

www.snipca.com/21989 26 October – 8 November 2016


Reviews SMART HOME SPEAKER ❘ £150 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22047

Amazon Echo Alexa, what’s the point of you? In science fiction, the best artificial intelligences (AI) are disembodied voices that you can hold a conversation with. Deep Thought in The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Samantha (played by Scarlett Johansson) in Her. HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Alright, (spoiler alert!) maybe HAL isn’t the ideal example. But there’s something appealing about getting a computer to do things for you simply by asking. We already have Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s… well, whatever the voice thing in Google Now is called. Google’s newly announced Pixel phones have an even smarter AI, known as Google Assistant. Eventually, it’ll become clever enough to give itself a name. But Amazon’s AI is called Alexa, and she lives inside the Echo, a Pringles-tube-sized Wi-Fi speaker that sits in your house, listens out for you talking to it, then answers your questions and follows your commands. It’s just become available in the UK, so is it useful, or creepy, or both?

Could be useful for anyone who doesn’t mind paying £150 for a talking can It’s certainly high-tech. The metal cylinder contains seven microphones, to make sure it hears you, and a decent-sounding 360-degree speaker that can play audio from internet services or (via Bluetooth) from your PC, phone or tablet, as well as serving as Alexa’s voice output (she sounds just like you’d expect – robotic and bland). You can simply tell Alexa what you want to listen to: ‘Alexa, play my Party playlist,’ or ‘Alexa, play some rock SPECIFICATIONS

802.11n Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 4.0 • 7x microphones • 2.5in woofer • 2in tweeter • Mains adapter • 235x84x84mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/22047


music’. The Echo can access your accounts with online music services such as Spotify Premium and Amazon’s own Prime Music. Alexa can also access information such as news stories, sports results, weather forecasts and traffic updates, and within this she’ll respond to quite complex questions, like ‘How’s my commute looking?’ You can also ask things like ‘How many centimetres is two foot six?’ or ‘How many calories in a slice of pizza?’ Extra ‘skills’ are available from organisations like Nationall Rail, Skyscanner (for plane e times) and Just Eat (for takeaways), but you’ll need to install these and ask Alexa specifically to use them. We often had to rephrase our requests. The Echo can also operate ‘smart home’ gadgets from brands like Philips Hue, Wemo and Honeywell. So you could ask it to put the lights out, turn the heating up or lock the doors. This is where we might start to worry about security. For example, what’s to stop a burglar walking up to your house and shouting ‘Alexa, open the front door’ through the window? Essentially, nothing (see News) because the Echo doesn’t distinguish between voices. It’s also slighly unsettling that the Echo listens all the time, indicated by the blue LED ring on top, which lights up at the side your voice originates from. But Amazon says it only uploads what it hears after you say ‘Alexa’ (or ‘Amazon’, or ‘Echo’, if you prefer), and security experts agree its very secure. Keep in mind that the Echo app, which you use to set up and manage the device, keeps a list of all your requests. It doesn’t really do anything you couldn’t do with your smartphone, but

once you start using it, the fact that Echo is always ready to respond makes it quite habit-forming. Of course, it’s no good unless you’re in the right room. The Echo Dot (£50 from www.snipca. com/22049), a smaller version with a less impressive speaker, makes it cheaper to buy more than one. Google’s equivalent, Google Home (see www. snipca.com/22050), has been announced, and, judging by the Pixel phone software, should be a worthy rival, but there’s no news yet on when it’ll come to the UK. VERDICT: It’s a long way from real intelligence, but Alexa could be a useful companion for anyone who doesn’t mind paying £150 for a talking can

★★★★☆ ALTERNATIVE: Google Home £130 The price is a guess, since it’s not yet available in the UK, but it might make sense to wait and compare this

ca.com/21867 PC ❘ £997 from CCL www.snipca.com/21867

CCL Horizon A PC for everything

BUY IT!

★★★★★

The £1,000 PC is the stuff of legend. Throughout the history of personal computers, this is the price you’ve had lly to pay for a desktop system that really y. shows the current state of technology. You can pay a lot more, of course, if tly you want to; or you can get a perfectly ehow adequate machine for less. But somehow ets or other, spending a grand usually gets you something special. And in this instance, three quid change to boot.

It made photo- and nd video-editing tasks very fast CCL builds the Horizon in a Phanteks Eclipse P400S case: a sizeable beast, as tall as it is deep, but classily styled, with a distinctive wedge-shaped front, illuminated at the bottom edge by colour-changing LEDs. At the side is a large window through which you can see exactly what you’re getting for your money, most obviously the very latest Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card with 6GB of its own memory. This is the least expensive option in Nvidia’s new range, which also includes the 1070 and the ridiculously powerful 1080, but even the 1060 is far from basic. In our tests, it had no trouble with the most demanding 3D games on the highest-quality settings at Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels), and it could run lesser titles smoothly even at

4K (3840x2160). Many gamers are currently excited about 1440p (2560x1440), a mid-range resolution that’s supported by many 27in monitors, and the GTX 1060 copes well with this. It’s also ready for use with VR (virtual reality) headsets, which according to a lot of ‘experts’ we’re all going to be using by Christmas. You might not think that’s necessarily true, but it’s nice to feel prepared. Behind every great graphics card is a great processor, or ought to be. CCL hasn’t gone all the way up to an i7 processor in this configuration, but the quad-core i5-6600K had no trouble with our Windows 10 benchmark tests, blitzing photo- and video-editing tasks. The ‘K’ in the title means there’s room to overclock it, as Palicomp did with its latest PC (see page 20). While CCL hasn’t done this for you, it has clamped a big heatsink on top of the processor to make sure you can exercise this option without burning out your PC. Underneath all this silicon is Asus’ Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard, which has a second full-size, full-speed PCI Express 16x slot beside the one hosting the Nvidia card, plus one x4 and three x1 slots – one of which comes with an 802.11n Wi-Fi card. Assuming this will be your main PC, you’ll probably prefer to cable it to your router via the Gigabit Ethernet socket. This shares the back panel with two USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 and two USB 3.1, one of which comes in the new Type-C format, ready for the next generation of ultra-fast external storage. Storage isn’t the Horizon’s strongest

point: the 1TB hard drive is accompanied by a 250GB Samsung Evo 750 SSD to load Windows and programs faster, but it’s on the SATA interface rather than a speedier M.2 connection, so it’s not as nippy as it might have been. It doesn’t play DVDs or Blu-rays, either, but there is plenty of room for more internal drives. Out of the box, the Horizon isn’t the absolute fastest PC you could get for this price, but it’s been put together well and offers good scope for upgrades. If games aren’t your first priority, and you’re not into DIY overclocking, an i7 PC would be a better choice (consider the Wired2Fire Diablo – £1,000 from www.snipca. com/21896). Otherwise, this is a solid PC that won’t disappoint. SPECIFICATIONS

3.5GHz Intel Core i5-6600K processor • 8GB memory • Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics • 250GB SSD • 1TB hard drive • 2x USB 3.1 • 6x USB 3.0 • 2x USB 2.0 • Gigabit Ethernet • 802.11n Wi-Fi • Windows 10 Home • 465x470x210mm (HxWxD) • Three-year warranty www.snipca.com/21867

VERDICT: A good graphics card and processor in a quality case make it a great all-round PC with room for tweaking

★★★★★ ALTERNATIVE: Palicomp i5 5 Focus £1,000 This PC has been overclocked to make it faster and has a 2TB hard rd drive, but the case is less impressive


Reviews PHONE ❘ £110 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22080

LG Spirit 4G A good, but hardly spectacular, budget phone This low-cost phone looks quite similar to LG’s flagship G4, with its oddly shaped face, reminiscent of those ‘personal digital assistant’ (PDA) gadgets we had before smartphones, and the distinctive segmented camera cutout on the back. It also supposedly has a curved screen, but the curve is so subtle you might not notice. The rear panel is definitely bent, rising from a normal phone thickness at the edge to ‘9.95mm’ in the middle (come on LG – just call it a centimetre and have done with it). Despite all this room, the designers still couldn’t quite make the headphone jack fit, so it cuts awkwardly into the chamfer on the top edge.

The battery lasted an excellent 11 hours, longer than its closest rivals Overall, the Spirit looks all right, in a businessy kind of way. In use, the screen covered only 65 per cent of the sRGB colour range, with good contrast but average brightness. It could be worse,

though, and the 1280x720-pixel resolution is sharp for its size. Unlike many cheap models, it’s protected by Gorilla Glass. Photos and Full HD video from the 8-megapixel camera showed good colour accuracy, although detail was quite grainy, especially indoors. The front selfie camera is very low-res. The quad-core Snapdragon processor is OK by budget standards, but in our tests the similarly priced eight-core Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 was faster. The Spirit kept up well in web browsing, but still felt jerky with image-heavy pages. 3D games need more processing power than this, but we found 2D games all right. At 11 hours and 20 minutes of video playback, the removable battery outlasted the Smart Ultra 6 and even, by a few minutes, the Motorola Moto G (3rd Gen), which is an excellent result. Although the Spirit comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop, you can upgrade it straightaway to 6.0 Marshmallow, which in turn means you can make full use of storage you add via the microSD card slot. That’s just as well, because less than 4GB of the built-in 8GB is available to use.

WHAT SHOULD I BUY?

SPECIFICATIONS

4.7in 1280x720-pixel screen • 8-megapixel rear camera • 1-megapixel front camera • Quad-core Snapdragon processor • 8GB flash storage • microSD card slot • 802.11n Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 4.0 • 3G/4G • 133x66x9.95mm (HxWxD) • 118g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/22081

VERDICT: It’s nicely made with no disastrous flaws, but the Spirit doesn’t quite break the budget mould

★★★☆☆ ALTERNATIVE: Moto G (3rd Gen) £126 Now with Android 6.0 (Marshmallow), this waterproof phone is slightly faster and has a better screen and camera

We solve your buying dilemmas

Which laptop would be good for watching my DVDs? Can you suggest which laptop to buy? I need a 13 or 14in Windows 10 model with an excellent screen and drive to play DVDs. There are so many to choose from! Gerald Clothier

Q

DVD drives are very rare now in 13-14in laptops, and most have resolutions lower than Full HD, so you wouldn’t get the most from downloaded movies either. There are 15in models with DVD

A


drives, though, and screen quality may be a deciding factor. HP’s Envy 15-ah100na (see image, £365 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22055) has a decent AMD processor and Radeon R6 graphics card, but its Full HD screen looks dull and the claim of 9.5 hour battery life is very optimistic. Dell’s Inspiron laptops also have lacklustre screens; its pricey XPS models have superb screens but no DVD drive. Asus’ X556UA (£500 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22095) has a powerful

i7 processor and a better Full HD display. Another choice oice would be MSI’s SI’s GL62 6QD (£550 from Ebuyer www.snipca.com/22077), w.snipca.com/22077), aimed at gamers but with good all-round specifications and a superior Full HD screen. Like most 15-inchers, though, it’s big and heavy. Do you need advice on what you should buy? Email us at [email protected]

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Reviews PHONE ❘ £540 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22085

Sony Xperia XZ A good, but pricey Android phone Bear with us here, because this gets confusing. The last high-end smartphone we saw from Sony, the Xperia X (see Issue 478, page 22), was a quality product but lacked exciting innovations. We weren’t the only ones to feel that way, and Sony seems to have got the message: while the pound has fallen since the summer, making many phones more expensive, the suggested retail price of the Xperia X has been reduced from £459 to £399. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have told phone networks or shops, which are currently charging anything from £439 to £500 for it. As if that wasn’t odd enough, Sony also launched a very similar phone with a faster processor, the Xperia X Performance, at the same time. This is quite hard to find, but you can get it from Amazon for £550 (www.snipca. com/22088), if you really want to pay that much for a faster, boring phone. Or, instead, you could look at the new Xperia XZ, which has just gone on sale for £10 less.

The Xperia XZ feels good but not strikingly special. We expect the price will drift down You’re now probably wondering if this is a third version of the same phone, and the answer is no. It’s much more like last year’s Xperia Z5, with its slightly larger 5.2in display. The back is now metal rather than glass, which seems a lot more durable but looks plain and picks up fingerprints too easily. An awkward line just up from the bottom edge betrays the difficulty of getting wireless signals through metal, but at least it’s subtle. The SPECIFICATIONS

5.2in 1920x1080-pixel screen • 23-megapixel rear camera • 13-megapixel front camera • 32GB flash storage • Snapdragon 820 processor • microSD card slot • 802.11ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 4.2 • 3G/4G • Android 6.0.1 • 146x72x8.1mm (HxWxD) • 161g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/22093


phone is still waterresistant, but Sony no longer promises it’ll survive being fully submerged for any length of time. None of this seems much like progress, but then you turn it on. The sharp Full HD (1920x1080-pixel) screen reproduces almost 100 per cent of the sRGB colour range with almost perfect accuracy, and very high contrast and brightness make it one of the best around. Maybe it’s not quite as vibrant as Samsung’s Galaxy S7, but it’s well beyond having anything to complain about. With a Snapdragon 820 processor fed by a generous 3GB of memory, the Xperia XZ is smooth and responsive, too, making web browsing under Android 6.0.1 almost free of stutters. With games, it outperformed the S7, and like other Xperia models it also works as a second screen for Sony’s PlayStation 4, if you have one. A big battery kept our videos playing for just over 14 and a half hours. This wasn’t as long as the S7 but is better than many other rival phones. Charging is through a new USB Type-C port. As with the Xperia X, Sony has messed up its potentially excellent 23-megapixel rear camera with excessive image processing. Our photos looked great at first glance, if a bit under-exposed, with accurate, subtle colour, even indoors. But on closer inspection there were a lot of grainy artefacts and smudged detail. Still, the 13-megapixel front camera will take much better-thanaverage selfies (if that floats your boat). The XZ’s features are completed by a fingerprint sensor built, in Sony’s unique style, into a side button, with an NFC chip to use Android Pay at tills.

If the Xperia XZ feels good but not strikingly special, you might say the same of the comparably priced Galaxy S7, which is an excellent phone but lacks the pizzazz of the pricier S7 Edge. But the S7 does have full waterproofing and takes better photos. Both are now under pressure from cheaper rivals like the OnePlus 3 (£329 from www.snipca. com/22092, or available on contract through O2). We’d expect to see the XZ drift down below £500, and if so, we might buy it. VERDICT: A great phone that just doesn’t quite stand out from the other great phones you can get for this kind of money

★★★★☆ ALTERNATIVE: Samsung Galaxy S7 £550 With every feature equalling or beating rivals, the S7 lacks nothing except a more interesting design

SOLID STATE DRIVE ❘ £108 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22127

Kingston SSDNow UV400 480GB Time to ditch your hard drive?

Solid-state drives (SSDs), which store data on flash memory chips, will never be as cheap (per GB) as hard drives, but they’re now cheap enough to be worth considering. If you’re thinking of adding one to an existing system, they come in a format that fits both desktop PCs and laptops (note: many laptops have no room for an SSD). Standard SSDs come with two kinds of interface: SATA, used for hard drives; and the faster M.2 connector, which gives you the benefit of the fastest SSDs.

A budget SSD with room to spare – but slower than rivals Kingston’s UV400 uses SATA 3.0 and configures a small part of its capacity (around 8GB) in a way that boosts write speeds. And you get 447GB of usable space. That’s not bad for just over £100. The normal way to use it would be to install Windows 10 and all your apps on this drive, along with any files you use regularly and/or need to access at top speed, and keep the rest of your stuff on a larger hard drive. Not that it matters much, but the UV400’s case looks reassuringly tidy, SPECIFICATIONS

480GB 2.5in SSD • SATA 3.0 • 7x100x70mm (HxWxD) • Three-year warranty www.snipca.com/22130

The Computeractive

Wishlist

Products we would like to see

with a sandblasted metal finish. It’s also available in a bundle (£127 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22128) with a SATA cable and 3.5in adapter plate for mounting in a PC, plus a basic USB enclosure that you can use to connect the drive to a laptop to transfer data from your existing drive before installing the UV400 (in this case, you’ll be replacing a drive rather than installing a second one). In our testing, the drive was quick to write small files but with larger files it dropped to around 90Mbit/s, less than a third of the speed you’d expect from a mid-range SSD. That’s not as bad as it sounds because the UV400 will still feel very fast compared to a conventional hard drive. Samsung’s 850 Evo 500GB (£150 from Amazon www.snipca.com/ 22129) outperformed this and other mid-range drives in our tests, writing at 500Mbit/s, and remains our top choice under £200. However, the UV400 undercuts it by quite a significant margin.

No.5: AN UPGRADEABLE ALL IN ONE PC For as long as there have been PCs, there have been PCs built into monitors. Today’s slim LCD panels make it an elegant option. There’s just one problem: buy one of these and you’re usually limited in the upgrades you can make later. Compared to a desktop PC, there just isn’t the same scope for swapping standard components. You might think that’s inevitable when the system is squeezed into such a small space, but that’s not really true: a typical 27in display covers a large area, and considering these machines aren’t designed for portability, we don’t need them to be ultra-thin. It really should be possible to build a fully capable and upgradable computer in a decent-looking all-in-one case. Overheating may be the biggest obstacle. PCs are still too big and bulky, to leave enough space for fans and airflow. Maybe it’s the processor makers who need to fix it for us to have -p integrated cool, quiet, future-proof PCs. THE CLOSEST THING TO IT Dell Inspiron 24 5000 £800 from Amazon (www.snipca.com/22135)

NEXT ISSUE

ON SALE

Weds 9 Nov

Amazon Fire HD 8 (2016) Finally, a great tablett for under £100?

VERDICT: A good big-brand SSD for a bit less than rivals, but look elsewhere if you want top performance

★★★★☆ ALTERNATIVE: ATIVE: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB £150 It may be a couple of years old, d, but ut at this price it’s still excellent llent value

Aria Gladiator Core i5 All the PC you need for £400?

These and much more… Subscribe to Computeractive at www.getcomputeractive.co.uk


Buy It

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2015 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/21619

Our pick of products that have won the Buy It award P DRRIC OP E

LAPTOP

DESKTOP PC

APPLE IPAD

Asus ZenBook UX305CA

Palicomp AMD Avenger

Apple iPad Air 2

This metal-cased ‘ultrabook’ looks much more expensive than it is. There’s no touchscreen or 36-degree hinge, just great quality all round and an ultra-sharp display. The M3 processor is adequate for most tasks, though not gaming.

AMD’s Athlon X4 880K processor gives this PC solid performance with money left for GTX 960 graphics and a very fast 128GB SSD as well as a 1GB hard drive. It’s not the quietest or most expandable PC, but excellent value.

Getting old, but still wonderfully slim and powerful. Buy with 64GB (£429) and you’ll never run out of space. The Pro models are great with Apple’s keyboard and Pencil, but work out much more expensive.

ALTERNATIVE Dell Inspiron 15 5000 If you need a full-size Windows 10 laptop with a DVD drive and a desktop PC-level i5 processor, this is a solid choice. £529 from www.snipca.com/21650

ALTERNATIVE: Dell Inspiron 24 5000 If you prefer your desktop PC in one neat box, this Intel i5 system has all the essentials at a reasonable price. £799 from www.snipca.com/21651

ALTERNATIVE: iPad Mini 2 Slower than the iPad Mini 4, with no fingerprint recognition and a less vivid screen, but an iPad at this price is great value. £239 from www.snipca.com/20436

£560 from www.snipca.com/21900 Tested: Issue 475


ANDROID TABLET

APPLE IPHONE

Samsung Galaxy S2 9.7

Apple iPhone SE

P DRRIC OP E


om/21683 £360 from www.snipca.com/21683 Tested: Issue 474

The Sony Xperia Z4 is too expensive and Google’s cheaper Nexus 9 has been discontinued, leaving the 32GB S2 9.7 as the best mid-sized choice. It’s a serious rival to the iPad Air 2, albeit slower.

It may be Appl Apple’s ple’ e’s ‘budget’ ‘bud udget’ phone, phone bu but the smaller SE beats most others in the market with top-end processing power, a great screen and camera, fingerprint recognition and Apple Pay. You should consider paying £439 for the 64GB model, though.

ALTERNATIVE: Huawei MediaPad M3 8.0 Rivalling Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2, this compact tablet has a slightly larger screen and a fingerprint reader. It’s highly capable except when playing advanced 3D games. £320 from www. snipca.com/21926


ALTERNATIVE: iPhone 6s A bigger screen, better camera and 3D Touch justify the price, but as with the SE the 64GB model (£619) is the best choice. £499 from www.snipca.com/20441

om/21664 £345 from www.snipca.com/21664 Tested: Issue 437

ANDROID PHONE

Samsung Galaxy S7


Restoring the microSD slot to allow extra storage (something all Apple devices still lack) makes this an even better top-end phone than the S6, with a fantastic screen and camera and incredible 18-hour battery life. ALTERNATIVE: Motorola Moto G4 With an attractive 5.5in screen, an excellent 13-megapixel camera and decent performance, the G4 pips Samsung’s Galaxy J5 as a budget option. £142 from www.snipca.com/21685

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SECURITY SOFTWARE

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Kaspersky Internet Security 2017

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6

Kaspersky Internet Security 2017 has won our past seven antivirus tests. Compatible with Windows 10, the 2017 edition is available at an exclusive reader discount on our Software Store. Go to the link above for a one-year, one-device licence or buy a two-year, three-device licence for just £34.99.

Lightroom is the professional’s choice for managing and tweaking photos, including raw files from DSLR cameras. If you need Photoshop for more advanced editing, get both on the Adobe CC Photography Plan for £8.57 a month (www.snipca.com/19283).


Amazon’s on’s basic ebook reader is now good enough to be our first choice. It’s plasticky, but slim and lightweight, with a decent 4GB storage and good battery life. Consider the £110 Paperwhite if you want backlighting or (for £60 extra) 3G. ALTERNATIVE Kobo Glo HD Competing with the Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo’s compact model has a clear screen with controllable lighting. £130 from www.snipca.com/21905

£19.95 from www.snipca.com/21532 Tested: Issue 437

ALTERNATIVE: Avast Free Antivirus Almost as good as Kaspersky, but sometimes blocks legitimate software. Free from www.snipca.com/16493


ALTERNATIVE: Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 365 For all-round design and drawing plus photo filters, this affordable app has a lot to offer. £50 from www.snipca.com/19280

PC MONITOR

ROUTER

NAS

AOC Q2778VQE

Synology RT1900ac

Synology DiskStation DS215j



It comes with no extras, such as built-in speakers or a USB hub, but this 2560x1440 panel gives you a full 27in screen with excellent contrast and colour accuracy at a very reasonable price. It’s a little laggy for gamers, but there’s no ghosting on motion.

If you’re looking to upgrade an outdated router, there are lots of dual-band 802.11ac models to choose from. This one suits almost all broadband connections and has plenty of options, such as sharing a connected printer or storage.

ALTERNATIVE: Dell UltraSharp U2414H This 1920x1080, 24in screen has a stand that can switch to portrait mode. Colour accuracy is excellent. £193 from www.snipca.com/21908

ALTERNATIVE TP-Link Archer C9 Not quite as fast, but this or the D9 (with ADSL modem built in) is a simple and capable router with a stylish design. £104 from www.snipca.com/21909



This two-drive NAS enclosure has it all – fast performance, easy configuration and plenty of extra features. Its only flaw is that installation is a little fiddly – but if you want quality network storage, then this is the obvious choice. ALTERNATIVE: Synology DS414j A four-drive NAS that’s generally fast and easy to set up and use. £270 from www.snipca.com/21907

HOMEPLUGS

WEB DESIGN

COMPETITION

Devolo dLAN 1200 Triple+ Starter Kit

Xara Web Designer Premium 365

Win 1 of 2 Packed Pixels portable laptop screens


Devolo’s latest HomePlug adapters are the fastest we’ve ever seen. They’re well designed too, with a passthrough socket so you can still power another device and the design should avoid skirting boards and other obstacles. ALTERNATIVE: D-Link PowerLine AV2 1000HD Gigabit Starter Kit Fast (speeds of up to 1000Mbps), much cheaper and very easy to set up, but the lack of a passthrough socket is frustrating. £39 from www.snipca.com/21691

MULTIFUNCTION PRINTER

Canon Pixma MG5750


You don’t get many frills, but this compact all-in-one printer/scanner includes all the essentials, like Wi-Fi and printing both sides of the paper (duplex), at a reasonable price. It’s fairly quick, running costs are better than average, and the five-ink system ensures photos and black text both come out looking great. ALTERNATIVE: Brother MFC-J5320DW For more business-type tasks, this all-in-one has automatic paper feed for the scanner and the ability to print occasional A3 pages. £80 from www.snipca.com/21694


This visual web-design program makes creating sites more like laying out a document than writing HTML code, and sites can be responsive, meaning they look right on both big and small screens without extra work. A basic version is also available for half the price.

Packed Pixels solves the problem of small laptop screens by providing an extra high-definition monitor, which simply clips into place on the side. Lightweight and powered by USB, it will appeal to laptop users who want more screen space to edit photos, watch videos, play games and work away from the office. When you buy a Packed Pixels screen you also get a pair of mounting brackets, a desk stand and connecting cables. To enter, email your address to cacomp@ dennis.co.uk by midnight 8 November with ‘pixels’ in the subject line.

ALTERNATIVE: Incomedia WebSite X5 v12 Evolution It may feel a little basic, but this straightforward program outputs efficient HTML code and responsive pages. £50 from www.snipca.com/19440

Packed Pixels screens are available for £149 for one screen, £289 for two, and £569 for four from www. packedpixels.com. For product news follow @PackedPixels on Twitter.

SOLID STATE DRIVE

SECURITY CAMERA

Crucial BX100 1TB

Y-cam Evo


A blindingly fast, high-capacity SSD at a low lower ower er p price rice than ever before. If you’ve been put off buying an SSD because of the cost, then now is finally the time to take the plunge. ALTERNATIVE: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB An even faster SSD, but it’s much more expensive per gigabyte. £110 from www.snipca.com/21696


Smaller and simpler than rivals, this all-in-one 720p HD Wi-Fi camera is triggered by motion. Play back or watch live remotely from your iOS or Android phone or tablet. A week’s cloud storage is free, upgradable to 30 days for £3.99 per month. ALTERNATIVE: Netgear Arlo Batteries, which last months, make these cameras (the price is for two) very practical. Cloud storage beyond a week costs extra. £280 from www. snipca.com/21653


LAST CHANCE TO BUY! Computeractive 2015 Back Issue CD There are fewer than 100 copies left on Amazon at www.snipca.com/21619 (or search for ‘computeractive cd’)

! T U O D L SO What your fellow Computeractive readers say about our Back Issue CD:

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Workshops & Tips

PU & LL OU Is K su E e E 48 P T 7

Edited by Sherwin Coelho

14 pages of easy-to-follow workshopss and expert tips 35 Clean Windows 10 deeper than ever 38 Force-remove files that won’t delete

40 Stop your hard drives crashing 42 Master Google’s new messaging app

PLUS 43 Readers’ Tips 44 Phone & Tablet Tips 46 Make Windows Better

47 Make Office Better 48 Secret Tips For... iOS 10

Clean Windows 10 deeper than ever What you need: CCleaner; Any version of Windows (XP to 10) Time required: 40 minutes

C

Cleaner is our favourite PCoptimisation program – and yours too, it seems. Downloaded over a billion times since it launched in 2013, it’s updated every month and works with all Windows versions. Its last update (in September) made it compatible with

Windows 10’s Anniversary Update, so you can now use it to clean your Windows 10 PC more thoroughly than ever. We’ll show you how to remove junk, delete duplicate files and uninstall redundant programs and apps to recover valuable storage.

STEP You can install the latest version of CCleaner (5.22 – at

1

the time of writing) from www.snipca.com/22045. If you already have the program and have upgraded to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you may notice that CCleaner doesn’t work as it should. To fix this, you need to update it to the latest version. You can check your CCleaner version number here 1 . The program doesn’t have an automatic update option, so you need to download and install the setup file (of its latest version). To do that, click the ‘New version! Click here’ link 2 .

STEP Now scroll to the bottom of the page, click the grey ‘No,

2

Thanks’ button (to avoid upgrading to the paid-for version). Scroll to the bottom of the next page, then click the green Download button below the Free version. Click the downloaded setup file to open it, click Yes, Install, Run CCleaner and close the web page that opens. Confirm that you now have the latest version of CCleaner 1 . You’ll also see your PC’s basic specifications (including processor and RAM) 2 .

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Workshops 2 3

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1 STEP The Cleaner section

1 has two tabs that let you remove junk from your PC. The Windows tab 2 and Applications tab 3 contain boxes (some of which are pre-ticked by default) to clean the items you want. These include your browsers, download history, cookies and junk from programs you’ve downloaded (including the Windows Store 4 ). Leave the pre-ticked boxes as they are, tick any other items you want to clean, then click OK 5 .

4

STEP Next, click Analyze 1 . You’ll then see a list of files to

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be cleaned along with the amount of space you can recover by deleting them 2 . Right-click a file, then click ‘View detailed results’ 3 to see more information on it. If you find a file you want to keep, right-click it, then click ‘ Add to Exclude list’. Next, click Run Cleaner 4 , then OK to delete those files.

1 click ‘Scan for Issues’ 2 to find any faults in your PC’s registry. In the scan results, right-click a registry item, then click ‘Open in RegEdit’ to see that file in your PC’s Registry Editor. To fix any errors, click ‘Fix selected issues’ 3 , click No to confirm you don’t want to back up any registry changes, then click Fix All Selected Issues 4 .

STEP In the Registry section

5

1 4

2

3

STEP In the Tools section

1 click any program or app in the list that you no longer want 2 , click Uninstall 3 then follow the prompts to uninstall it. The Startup section 4 has three tabs that deal with startup programs, scheduled tasks and context (right-click) menu options. Too many startups, tasks and options will slow your PC, so click any item you don’t want, then click Disable.

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Clean Windows 10 deeper than ever 1

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STEP Like startup programs with your PC, extensions that

STEP CCleaner lets you find and delete files that hog a lot of

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launch with your browser will slow it down. Click the Browser Plugins tab 1 , then select your browser to see a list of startup extensions. Click any you don’t want to open with your browser 2 , then click Disable 3 . This version of CCleaner is the first to let you remove Firefox extensions 4 . If you want to remove that extension from your browser, select it, then click Delete 5 . For some extensions, you’ll need to click OK to confirm their deletion.

space. Click Disk Analyzer 1 , select all your hard drives in the list, then click Analyze. After the analysis (which can take up to a minute), you’ll see a graph with a breakdown of your used hard-drive space based on file type 2 , with the largest files listed below 3 . Right-click any file in the list, then click ‘Open containing folder’ to see it in Windows Explorer. Tick the files you no longer want 4 , right-click any of them, then click Delete Selected Files 5 .

STEP The program also lets you find and delete

1

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duplicated files. Click Duplicate Finder 1 , set your search criteria (name, for example) using the checkboxes, tick the drives you want to search, then click Search. After the scan, you’ll see a list of multiple files with the same name. Tick to select the files you want to delete 2 , then click Delete Selected 3 . You can also delete old system restore points to recover storage space. To do that, click System Restore 4 , press Ctrl on your keyboard, click to select the restore points you don’t want, then click Remove.

2 4

3

2 3

1

5

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STEP Now click Options 1 . In the Settings

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section, you can choose to run CCleaner when your PC starts 2 and add it to your recycle bin’s right-click menu 3 . Ensure ‘Automatically check for updates to CCleaner’ 4 is ticked so you know when there’s a new version (repeat Steps 1 and 2 to update the program). The Advanced section 5 has options to close the program after cleaning, to shut down your PC after cleaning, and a button to restore CCleaner to its default settings. ●


Workshops Force-remove files that won’t delete What you need: Wise Force Deleter; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 25 minutes

A

t times you’ll come across files you just can’t delete and programs that refuse to be uninstalled. This might be because a file is password-protected or a program is still running in the

background. Whatever the reason, the new free program Wise Force Deleter could be the solution. It quickly removes stubborn files and programs that traditional methods struggle to shift.

1 1

2

STEP The traditional method of removing a file is to first

1

make sure it’s closed on your PC, then navigate to its location and click to select the file (or files) you want to delete 1 . Now, you can right-click the file(s) and click Delete 2 or simply press the Delete button on your keyboard. Both options send the file(s) to the Recycle Bin. The deleted file(s) will still take up space on your hard drive until you empty your Recycle Bin. A quicker way to permanently delete a file is to press Shift+Delete after selecting it. This deletes the file(s) beyond recovery (bypassing the Recycle Bin).

STEP Similarly, to uninstall a program, first ensure it’s closed

2

on your PC, go to your Control Panel, click the program in the list, then click Uninstall 1 . If you can’t uninstall, the program is probably still running in the background. You need to stop this background process before you can remove the program.

1

STEP To stop a program’s background process,

3

open Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete, then clicking Windows Task Manager. Next, click the Processes tab 1 , click the Name/Image Name column header 2 (depending on your version of Windows) to sort all your running processes, select the program’s process that is using the highest amount of memory 3 , then click End Task/End Process 4 . Now try uninstalling the program via the Control Panel and it should uninstall. If Steps 1 to 3 fail to remove a file or program, then resort to Wise Force Deleter.

3 2

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3

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STEP To download the free program, go to www.snipca.

1

STEP To force-delete a stubborn file, drag and drop it into

4

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com/22051 and click the Free Download button 1 . Open the downloaded setup file 2 , click Run, Yes, tick to accept the T&Cs, click Next (twice), Install, Finish, then Yes to launch the program.

Wise Force Deleter. Select the file, click ‘Unlock & Delete’ 1 , then Yes 2 . The file’s status 3 will change from Ready to Deleted and it will be removed from your PC. Alternatively, add multiple files you want to delete by clicking ‘Add file’ 4 , navigating to a file you want to delete, then clicking Open. Repeat this to add more files, click ‘Unlock & Delete’, and then Yes to permanently delete them in one go. If you can still access the file, try restarting your PC, then deleting it using Wise Force Deleter.

2 STEP To uninstall a stubborn program, you first

6

need to navigate to its installation file on your PC. The easiest way to locate this is to right-click the programs’s shortcut on your desktop, click Properties, then look in the Target field 1 . This shows you where the installation file is stored on your PC (usually in the Program Files or ‘Program Files (x86)’ folders in your C Drive). Open that folder 2 , then look for its installation file (it usually looks similar to the desktop shortcut and its file type will be Application 3 ).

1

3

STEP The process to forcefully uninstall a

7

2 1 3

program is the same as deleting files - drag and drop the installation file into Wise Force Deleter, click ‘Unlock & Delete’, then click Yes. Its status will change to ‘Unlocked & Deleted’ or Deleted 1 . Now try launching that program via its desktop shortcut 2 . You’ll see a pop-up message saying the program is not available. Click Yes 3 to delete its desktop shortcut. Finally, you should delete that program’s folder to remove unwanted files. Select its folder (within the Program Files folder on your C Drive), press Shift+Delete, then follow any onscreen prompts. ●


Workshops Stop your hard drives crashing What you need: DiskCheckup; All Windows versions (XP to 10) Time required: 45 minutes

H

ard drives are the engine rooms of our PCs, but we often neglect them. DiskCheckup is a free program that gives you detailed information about your hard drives. We’ll show you how it can help identify faults, run quick health

checks for your drives, and find and fix errors before they crash your PC. We’ll also explain how to set notifications warning you of imminent hard-drive crashes, so you can take action to prevent them.

1

4 2

2 3

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STEP To download the program, go to www.snipca.com/21843 and

1

click the green ‘Download now’ button on the right. Open the downloaded setup file, click Run, Yes, then OK, Next, accept the agreement, then keep clicking Next until you need to click Install. Finally, click Finish to launch the program. When the program opens, you’ll see all your hard drives at the top and six tabs 1 . Select your hard drive 2 to see information about it in each of the tabs.

1 gives you detailed information about your hard drive, including how well it’s working 2 , its various partitions 3 , its capacity and its model number. All hard drives feature a system called SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology), which lets the drive monitor itself and provide early warnings of imminent hard-drive failures. Click the SMART Info tab 4 to see this information.

STEP The Device Info tab

2

STEP Move your cursor to the ‘i’ symbol

1 to see more info about what each category means. The RAW Value 2 is a measure provided by DiskCheckup for each category. The arrow icons 3 tell you whether a higher or lower score is better (all but ‘Temperature Difference from 100’ are lower). Any orange category requires your attention (see Raw Read Error Rate in our screenshot 4 ). The program predicts when it thinks your hard drive may crash 5 if the problem is not addressed (TEC stands for Threshold Exceed Condition). We’ll show you how to fix your hard drive problems in Step 6.

3


2 4 5 1

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STEP The SMART History tab

lets you monitor the categories in the SMART Info tab at more regular intervals. These appear as dropdown menus 2 . To activate SMART History, click Configuration 3 , tick ‘Auto-refresh and “n” mins’ 4 , type 60 (or however long in minutes you want your interval to be) in the adjacent field 5 , tick ‘Record SMART attributes for TEC computation’ 6 , click Yes to confirm, then click OK. The program will now log the performance of your hard drive at the interval you chose. Unless you suspect your hard drive is faulty, you should set this to provide updates no more than once a day.

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2 5 4 6 3

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STEP DiskCheckup also lets you carry out a

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general hard-drive health check. Click the Disk Self Test tab 1 , select one of two tests from the dropdown menu – Short Test (about 20 minutes) or Extended Test (about 40 minutes) 2 , then click Start Test 3 . After the test has finished, this message 4 means your hard drive is fine and you can skip to Step 7. If you encountered any problems in Steps 3 – 5, then you should fix them using Windows’ built-in Disk Check Tool. If you don’t see any errors, then skip to Step 7.

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STEP Before fixing any problems with your hard drive, you

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should first back up your PC (refer to the ‘Back up your whole PC before upgrading to Windows 10’ Workshop in Issue 480, page 38). After that, open My Computer, rightclick your C Drive, then click Properties. Next, click the Tools tab 1 , click the ‘Check now’ button 2 , tick both boxes 3 , then click Start 4 . The scan can’t run while you’re using your PC, so if you prefer click ‘Schedule disk check’ to schedule it for the next time you start your PC. The process can take up to an hour. If the scan shows serious errors, you should consider replacing your hard drive.

STEP DiskCheckup can also warn you (via a pop-up

7

notification or email) when your hard drive is about to crash. Click the Configuration button 1 . To receive a desktop notification, select ‘Display a message window’ 2 . To get an email, select ‘Send e-mail notification’ 3 , then click Settings 4 . You’ll now need to enter your email address, then add it to the mailing list. Click OK 5 at the bottom to apply these changes. If you see either of these notifications, repeat Step 6 to fix the problem with your hard drive. ● 26 October – 8 November 2016 41

Workshops Master Google’s new messaging app What you need: Google Allo; Android phone Android 4.1 or later) or iPhone (iOS 9.1 or later) Time required: 15 mins

A

llo is Google’s free new messaging app (an alternative to expensive texting) and has some great features. For example, you can ask Google Assistant questions (about news, weather etc) and receive answers within the app. Allo offers standard replies that you can

tap to send when chatting to someone and provides info that’s relevant to the conversation n you’re having (which films are on locally, say). ). We’re using the Android app (www.snipca. com/22066) for this Workshop, but the iOS app pp (www.snipca.com/22067) works the same.

STEP Open the app, tap

1

Next, then Allow. Now enter your phone number 1 , then tap Next 2 . The app will verify your number by texting you a code and you’ll need to 1 add a photo of yourself as a profile picture for your account. To upload the photo from your device, tap the Gallery icon at the bottom left, select the photo you want, then tap the tick icon. Now, enter your name in the ‘What’s your name?’ field, then tap Next. On the 2 app’s main screen, you’ll see three options – Google Assistant, start a conversation with one person, or start a group conversation (with other Allo users).

STEP Tap Google

2

3

Assistant. This displays cards telling you what sort of information the app can provide 1 . Type your request in the field below or tap the mic icon 2 and say your request (for example, “What’s the weather like today?”, “Give me sports 1 news”, “Restaurants near me”, or “How do you say Hello in Spanish?”). You’ll see the results as Google Now cards in the app, or as links to relevant online 2 sources you can tap to read. To text someone, go back 3 , tap ‘Send a message’, select an Allo contact from the list (or search for them using the search bar), then start your conversation.

STEP As you converse, you’ll see a

3

1

2

list of appropriate standard replies that you can tap to send. For example, if your friend asks “What are you doing for dinner?”, you may see the options like “No plans yet” and “Not sure. You?”. Similarly, if the conversation turns to going to watch something at the local cinema, Allo will tell you what films are playing near you 1 . You can then choose a genre you want 2 . The ‘+’ icon 3 provides options to take a photo, share photos/videos from your device, and send your location as a pin on a map. We’ll have more on Allo’s other features in upcoming issues.

NEXT ISSUE

ON SALE

Weds 9 Nov

• Create your own Word tabs • Add your PC’s health data to your desktop • Convert PC videoss for your tablet • Make your bank details ls hack-proof Subscribe to Computeractive at getcomputeractive.co.uk


Readers’ Tips

Handy hints and tips from your fellow readers Email us your tips: [email protected]

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT T

Fix the latest Windows 10 Update problem I recently noticed a buggy Windows 10 update called KB3194496. While the update downloads without problems, it wouldn’t install properly. It would start installing as I shut down my PC, but after a while I’d see a message saying: ‘Rolling back updates’. When my PC booted up again, I’d see the message: ‘Windows Updates failed to install’. It turns out this problem has affected many Windows 10 PCs, but there is an easy fix. You need to find and delete a folder called ‘XblGameSave’ on your C Drive, as well as its corresponding registry

key. Navigate to the following PC location: C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft. Select the XblGameSave folder, press Shift+Delete, then click Yes to confirm you want to delete it permanently

(see screenshot). Next, press the Windows key+R to open the Run box. Type regedit, then press Enter to open your PC’s Registry Editor. Now navigate to the following key by clicking the dropdown arrows on the left: HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\WindowsNT\ CurrentVersion\Schedule\ TaskCache\Tree\Microsoft\ XblGameSave. Select the XblGameSave key, press Delete, then click Yes to confirm. After doing this, restart your PC to install the update without errors. Derek Redville

Derek wins a copy of our A-Z Jargon Buster book Buy it on Amazon www.snipca.com/21616 BROWSERS

Set your browsers to open the last web pages you closed

I usually work with several browser tabs open at the same time. Sometimes, however, I close my browser only to realise there was an open web page I wanted to visit or that I forgot to fill out something in one of the tabs. To make things easier in future, I’ve now set Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge to launch with the pages I last closed. To set this in Chrome, click the three dots at the top right, click Settings, then select ‘Continue where you left off’ (see screenshot below). In Firefox, click the three lines at the top right, Options, then the ‘When Firefox starts’ dropdown menu and select ‘Show my windows and tabs from last time’. In Windows 10’s default browser Microsoft Edge, click the three dots at the top right, click Settings, then the ‘Open Microsoft Edge

with’ dropdown menu, then select ‘Previous pages’. Moira Hall GOOGLE SHEETS

Add a dropdown menu to a cell

I recently moved from Excel to Google Sheets, but it took me some time to work out how to create a cell with dropdown menus of options you can click to select quickly. First, go to sheets. google.com, log in with your Gmail account, then open the sheet you want to add the dropdown menu to, or click Blank to create a new sheet.

Now enter the options for your dropdown menu in a column (see column B in our screenshot above). Next, right-click the cell you want to add the dropdown menu to (A1 in our screenshot), then click ‘Data validation’ at the bottom. Finally, click the small table in the

Criteria field (see screenshot), select the cells in the B column, click OK, then Save. You’ll now see a small dropdown menu in cell A1. Click it to see the values/ options in your B column as a dropdown menu that you can click to select. Don Warwick EMAIL

Schedule emails in Thunderbird

When support for Windows Live Mail ended, I switched to Mozilla Thunderbird (www.snipca.com/22082). I like the fact you can use extra tools (Mozilla calls these ‘add-ons’) to make it do useful things. One of the best is Send Later, which lets you schedule emails to be sent at a later date and time. I use this to send birthday wishes in advance. To install the add-on, click the three lines at the top right of Thunderbird, then click Add-ons. Type send later in the search bar at the top right, then click the Install button beside that option. Next, click ‘Restart now’ to install the extension and restart Thunderbird. To schedule an email to be sent later, write it, click File at the top left, then Send Later. You’ll see a menu with different date and time options. Use the arrows to set the values you want, then click the Send button. Chris Turner 26 October – 8 November 2016 43

Phone and Tablet Tips ANDROID

Retrieve storage and extend your phone’s battery life

Over time you’ll notice that your Android phone slows down, you run out of storage space and your battery tends to run down quicker. This is usually because of multiple apps running in the background consuming resources. Super Booster (www.snipca. com/22113) is a free app that lets you close background apps, uninstall unwanted ones and prolong your phone’s battery life.

After installing, open the app. The main screen tells you how fast your device is running (see screenshot below left). Tap Memory Boost to see a list of apps running in the background, then tap the Boost icon at the bottom to close them. Now return to the main screen, tap Junk Clean to see the app cache and downloaded files (that you can delete to recover valuable storage space), then tap Remove. On the main screen, tap App Manager to see how much space your installed apps are consuming. To uninstall any apps you no longer need, tap Super Uninstaller. Here, you’ll see your apps sorted into categories (size, last used, and so on). Select a category, tick the apps you want to remove, then tap Uninstall. You need to tap OK to confirm the deletion of each app in turn. Return to the main screen again, tap Battery Saver, then tap Enable Now. Here, you’ll see all the apps that usually start with your phone (and then keep running in the background) and an estimate of how much time you can extend your device’s battery if you close them. Tap the Optimize button to turn on the Battery Saver. The app also adds a panel to your notification menu giving you quick access to your battery’s level, Wi-Fi, and flashlight. To remove this, tap the three dots at the top right of

Best New Apps Opera VPN

Free Android: www.snipca.com/22124 iOS: www.snipca.com/22125 Following the release of its iOS app earlier this year, Opera VPN is now available for Android. You can ‘virtually’ browse from five countries (including the US, Canada and Germany). All your activity is encrypted to protect you from hackers, and it even has a built-in ad-blocker.


Brilliant things to do on your device the app, then tap the Notification Toggle slider to turn it off. ANDROID, iOS & WINDOWS PHONE

Copy and p paste text

It’s easy to copy and paste text on your PC, but the process is slightly more challenging on a phone or tablet because they lack a mouse and keyboard. We’ll show you how to copy text from a website in your browser app and paste this into any email app. We used Chrome and Gmail in our example, but these methods apply to any apps with text. In iOS and Android, open your browser app and navigate to the website you want to copy text from. Next, tap and hold any word within the section of text you want to copy until it is highlighted. You’ll see two sliders before and after the word. Drag the sliders to select the entire passage of text you want

What you should install this fortnight Speedify*

Free Android: www.snipca.com/22114 iOS: www.snipca.com/22115 Your internet speed will slow down when you move to the limits of your Wi-Fi’s range. This app detects poor Wi-Fi signals, then automatically switches you to your mobile data for a seamless connection. You get 1GB of usage for free, but can earn more data by referring others or shifting to a paid-for plan.

Singuler: Duplicate Removal Tool

Free Windows Phone: www.snipca. com/22116 By default, this app detects duplicate files in the Music, Pictures and Videos folder, but you can add other locations on your phone to find and remove all duplicates in one go. A useful feature is the ability to preview duplicates, then select the ones you want to remove.

to copy, then tap the Copy option (see screenshot below left). Now open the email app you want to paste this text to, long-press the exact place where you want to paste it, then tap Paste in the menu that appears. On Windows phones, the process is slightly different. Tap a word to select it in your browser app, move the sliders to select the rest of the text, then tap the small icon at the top to copy it. To paste your text, open your email app, longpress where you want to paste it, then tap the clipboard icon that appears. ANDROID, iOS & WINDOWS PHONES

Take straight gh photos

It can sometimes be difficult when taking a photo to make sure you’ve got your angles right. One feature built into all phones and tablets is the ability to add a grid (two vertical and horizontal lines) to the viewfinder to help you shoot straight. Depending on the phone or tablet you’re using, this feature may not be turned on by default. On a Nexus device, open the Camera app, tap the three lines at the top left, tap Settings at the bottom, then tap the ‘Show grid in viewfinder’ slider to turn it on (see screenshot below). On an iOS device, open your Settings app, tap ‘Photos & Camera’, then tap the slider beside Grid to turn it on. On Windows Phone, open the Camera app, tap the three dots at the bottom, Settings, then the ‘Framing grid’ dropdown menu and change it to ‘Rule of thirds’. Note that these methods only work with the default camera apps for Android, iOS and Windows phones. If you’re using a third-party camera app

or a non-Nexus Android device (made by Samsung, Sony or HTC, for example), the methods will vary slightly. In most cases, you need to go into the camera app’s settings, then turn on the slider that says Grid or ‘Rule of Thirds’.

scroll down to and tap the app whose notifications you you want to bar from the lock screen, then tap Notifications. Now untick the ‘Show on Lock Screen’ slider to turn it off (see screenshot below).

iOS

Select the notifications yo you see on your lock screen

By default, notifications (for example, emails or text messages) appear on your lock screen and stay there until you swipe them away or open the email or text. This means that anyone who can get their hands on your locked device can read your notifications by tapping the Home button (which turns the screen on). To protect yourself, open Settings,

Games With Kids

What to play together on your phone and tablet AGES 0 5

The Very Hungry Caterpillar*

Free www.snipca.com/22117 (Android); £2.49 www.snipca.com/22118 (iOS) This app has simple mini-games that will help your toddlers learn about shapes and colours. Games include matching colours, arranging shapes by size, and dragging and dropping shapes to complete a picture. AGES 6 10

Dan the Man*

Free www.snipca.com/22119 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/22120 (iOS) This brilliant retro arcade-style action game is similar to Super Mario. After choosing a character your child needs to complete various levels by jumping over objects, collecting coins and beating the baddies. The aim is to complete all the levels and save a village. AGES 11 16

FIFA Mobile Football*

Free www.snipca.com/22121 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/22122 (iOS) This football game contains realistic graphics and tournaments from over 30 worldwide leagues. Review each player’s stats, choose your team and formation, and make tactical substitutions. You can also take part in online tournaments.

*Contains in-app purchases


Make Windows Better

Clever tips for every version

WINDOWS 7, 8, 10

Stop your PC from falling asleep

Whenever you stop using your PC, your screen will automatically go dark after 15 minutes. Leave it another 10 minutes and your PC will switch to Sleep mode. This can be annoying if you’re downloading something or need to see your PC’s screen. Here, we’ll show you how to extend these default periods.

First, press the Windows key, type choose when to turn off, then click the first option that appears: ‘Choose when to turn off the screen’ (Windows 8 and 10) or ‘Choose when to turn off display’ (Windows 7). Using the dropdown menus, you can now select the durations of inactivity before your PC’s screen goes dark and before your PC goes to sleep (see screenshot above). Click ‘Save changes’ when you’ve finished. To override these settings and keep your screen on indefinitely, download the free program Insomnia. Go to www. techcenter.dk, click the Insomnia.exe setup file and run it. Now, whenever you want to keep your PC on (perhaps to download a large file), right-click the Insomnia icon in your toolbar, then click Keep Monitor On. WINDOWS 7, 8, 10

Launch taskbar items with a keyboard shortcut

Any open program or location on your PC appears as an icon on your taskbar. Clicking these icons opens the relevant item, whereas rightclicking the icon displays a list of options (known as a jump list). For example, right-clicking Chrome lets you open the web pages you visit most frequently, web pages you’ve recently closed, or an Incognito window. 46 26 October – 8 November 2016

WINDOWS 10

Add extensions to Microsoft Edge One of the best things about the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is the ability to add browser extensions to the Microsoft Edge. At the time of writing, there are 13 extensions, but new ones are expected to be added. To see and install these extensions, open Microsoft Edge, click the three dots at the top right, click Extensions at the bottom, then click the ‘Get extensions from the Store’ link. This opens the ‘Extensions for Microsoft Edge’ page in the Windows Store, where you’ll see all the available options. Click to select the one you want, then click the Get button to install it. Any extensions you install are turned off by default. To turn them on, open Edge, click the three dots at the top right (see screenshot), click Extensions, select your downloaded extension, then tap the

Similarly, jump lists for PC locations reveal what you’ve recently visited on your PC (files, folders and so on). A lesser-known taskbar feature is the ability to open any of these taskbar icons using a keyboard shortcut. Press the Windows key+1 to open the program on the far left of your taskbar (beside the Start button). To open icons to the right of this, press the Windows key+2 or 3 or 4 and so on. WINDOWS 8, 10

See multiple currency conversions in one place

XE Currency is one of the best free currency-converter apps. Open the Windows Store, search for XE Currency, install the app, then click Launch. The default currency is US dollars, so

slider below it to turn it on. For some extensions, you’ll need to click ‘Turn it on’ to confirm this. If you’re using an extension like Pocket or Evernote, then you’ll be prompted to log into your account after turning the extension on. To access your extensions, click the three dots at the top left of Edge.

change it to GBP using the dropdown menu on the left. On the right, you’ll see currency conversions for several different currencies. To add another country’s currency, simply scroll to the right and select one of the countries (which are listed alphabetically). You can also remove a particular currency-conversion tile or pin it to your start menu. To do that, right-click the relevant currency, then select from the two options at the bottom left (see screenshot above).

Make Office Better

Expert tips for every program

OUTLOOK

Create templates for different email types Outlook has a useful tool that lets you create templates for specific types of email, thereby saving you from having to type similar text time and time again. For example, you can create templates for emails congratulating people on special occasions – say, birthdays and anniversaries. Simply create your template then include a standard message that you can then personalise for each recipient. To create a template, click New Email at the top left in Outlook,

then enter your subject and your message text (for example, a birthday greeting). Next, click File at the top left of the message window, click Save As, name the file, then click the ‘Save as type’ dropdown menu and select Outlook Template (see screenshot). Finally, select where you want to save this template on your PC, then click Save. In future, whenever you want to use a template, simply open it, type any additional text you want, then send it.

WORD

Wrap text around pictures

By default, whenever you insert a picture into a document with text, that text will only appear above and below it. However, there’s an easy way to flow your text around the side of your picture if you prefer. To insert a picture, click in your document to select where you want to add it. Next, click the Insert tab, then Pictures (in the Illustrations section), navigate to and select your picture on your PC, then click Insert. To wrap text around your picture, click it, then click the small icon that appears at its top right (see screenshot below). By default, you’ll see the ‘In Line with Text’ option selected, but you can select any of the options in the With Text Wrapping section. Try each to see which works best for you. Once you’ve decided, you can click and move your picture to reposition it within your document – now all your text will flow around it.

EXCEL

Automatically calculate column totals

Excel has a useful formula that lets you automatically calculate the sum total of cells within a column. Whenever you change any of the values in the column, the total will automatically change to reflect that. To create the formula, first click the cell where you want to display the total for all cells in a column (E7, in our screenshot above). Next, click the Function field at the top, then type =SUM. Select all the cells in the column whose values you want to include. The first and last cell value will automatically appear in Function field, separated by a colon (E1 and E6 in our example above). Now type ) (closed bracket) to complete the formula, then press Enter to see the total values of cells in that column in cell E7. To make sure the formula works, change any values within one of the cells (E1 to E6) in the column. The number in cell E7 should automatically change to show this new total.

ONENOTE

Use keyboard shortcuts to tag your items

Tags are a useful way to add context to items in your OneNote lists. For example, you can add tick boxes to to-do lists, stars to important items, and question marks to anything you’re not sure about. If you’re using the OneNote PC program, highlight the list of items you want to add tags to and select the tag you want in the Tags section of the Home tab. If you’re using the online version of OneNote, you’ll need to click the Home tab to see the Tags section. An easier way to add these tags is to use keyboard shortcuts. To add tick boxes, select your items, then press Ctrl+1. Press it again to add ticks to your boxes. Similarly, press Ctrl+2 to add star tags to selected items, and Ctrl+3 to add question marks. Using these shortcuts, you can quickly add multiple tags to each item in your list (see screenshot below).


Secret Tips For…

iOS 10 Delete Apple’s built-in apps

Apple’s latest mobile operating system iOS 10 is the first version to let users remove most of the built-in apps. In all, 23 apps can be deleted from your device (see www.snipca.com/21986 for the full list). Of these, you should certainly remove the Home and Watch apps unless you have ‘smart’ and household devices (such as thermostats) or wear an Apple Watch. To remove an app, press its icon for a few seconds (until the icon begins to shake) and a grey cross will appear at its top left. Tap the cross, then tap Remove. If you want to restore a deleted app, open the App Store and find it using the search bar.

Delete Apple’s apps, unlock your device with a tap, add multiple languages and configure the lockscreen

Customise your lockscreen

Perhaps the biggest improvement is that the lockscreen now shows widgets. Tap the home button when your display is off and slide your finger across the screen (from left to right). Widgets are similar to Live tiles in Windows 8 and 10 Start screens. So, for example, the news widget shows the latest headlines from the News app, and the Calendar widget displays your upcoming appointments. To add more widgets, tap the circular Edit icon (you might be prompted to enter your passcode). Tap the green ‘+’ symbol next to any widget to add it and you’ll see the app move into the ‘Right column’ section (which means it will appear on the right of your lockscreen). To rearrange a widget and shift it left or right, long-press the three horizontal lines to the right of it and drag it to where you want. To delete a widget, tap the red ‘-’ symbol, then Remove (see screenshot above right).

Unlock with a single tap using Touch ID

For the first time, iOS 10 lets users remove Apple’s built-in apps on iPhones and iPads

To accommodate the new customisable lockscreen (see previous tip) iOS 10 has removed the traditional swipe method of unlocking your iPhone or iPad. Instead, you now have to press the homescreen

‘Write’ a text message iOS 10 lets you add a personal touch to text messages by scribbling across your phone or tablet’s screen with your finger tip or a pen. To do this, open the Message app and tap the key with a squiggle on it (see screenshot, on an iPhone you will have to hold it in landscape orientation). This opens a blank box where you can write your message. Tap Done when you’ve finished. You can remove mistakes by tapping Undo, or scroll to the right by tapping the grey arrow. By default, a message written in this way will be a black and white, but you can produce a more


Add widgets to your lockscreen using the green ‘+’ symbol and remove them using the red ‘-‘

button once to turn the screen on, then press it again to unlock the device. This may sound simple enough, but the extra button press takes some getting used to. If you have an iPhone 5s (and later) or iPad Air 2 (or later) and find this irritating, you can revert to one-touch unlocking using Touch ID (Apple’s fingerprint-sensing technology). Tap Settings, General, then Accessibility and move the ‘Rest finger to open’ slider to the right. You can now unlock your device by touching the home button and keeping your finger on it until it unlocks.

Set up multilingual typing

If you speak a foreign language or like to throw the odd foreign word into your emails and text messages, you probably get irritated when your iPhone identifies them as incorrect and uses the nearest English-language equivalent. With iOS 10 you can now tell your device you intend to use words from multiple languages. Tap Settings, General, then Dictionary and select the languages you want to use (a tick will appear next to them). To remove a language, simply tap it.

Find the hidden volume controls

colourful message by tapping the heart icon (above the keyboard). Tap the dot of colour on the left to change the colour of your scribbles and tap the blue up arrow to send the message.

Another change in iOS 10 is to the Control Centre (this opens when you drag your finger up from the bottom of the screen). Unlike in previous iOS versions, you won’t see the volume control and the move-to-next-track option (if you’re playing music). To access them swipe your finger across the Control Centre from right to left.

Next issue Secret Tips For… FreeCommander

What’s All the Fuss About...

Kodi

Stream any film, football match and TV programme free on any device – but is it legal?

What is it?

An open-source media player program that lets you stream the latest Hollywood films, football matches, computer games and other paid-for content to your PC, TV, phone and tablet without paying a penny.

Isn’t that illegal?

It’s certainly borderline, we’ll say that. In September, Brian Thompson from Middlesbrough became the UK’s first Kodi defendant when he was prosecuted for selling set-top boxes pre-installed with Kodi. Thompson, who runs a shop called Cut Price Tomo’s TV, is charged with three offences against the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

That’s unlikely. Kodi itself is just a media player. It started life in 2003 as Xbox Media Center (XBMC), an Xbox program that was similar to Windows Media Center (WMC). Like WMC, Kodi – which now has versions for Windows, Linux, Android and even Raspberry Pi – doesn’t contain any video or music files. It just provides the controls for playing media, either from your hard drive or via an internet stream. So it’s what you do with it that counts, legally speaking.

browsers and other large programs, supports extensions (‘add-ons’) that add extra features to it. A quick web search reveals hundreds of Kodi extensions, from subtitling tools to retro game collections – and several, such as Exodus, that give you free access to the latest blockbuster films, live sport and presidential debates (if that’s your bag). Brian Thompson had bundled a similar extension with Kodi in his set-top boxes. Our sister website Alphr has a guide to installing Exodus if you really want to go down that route (www. snipca.com/ 22007).

How would I use it to watch paid-for content for free?

Does Kodi approve of these murky extensions?

Will Kodi be banned?

You’d have to add an extension specially designed for that purpose. Kodi, like

Kodi’s volunteer developers seem mortified by the controversy, and have

gone to great lengths to distance themselves from add-ons that let users break copyright rules. If access to certain content “seems too good to be true… you should start asking yourself if this can still be considered legal”, wrote the team on Kodi’s Facebook page (www. facebook.com/XBMC). The Facebook post added that Kodi would not provide support “of any kind” for dubious extensions.

Is it like BitTorrent?

Only in the sense that you can use it as a platform for accessing content you’d normally have to pay for. These services are technically quite different. BitTorrent involves downloading huge media files, while Kodi is a player. You can use it to play media files stored on your hard drive, or to stream video and other content from the internet. It’s also handy for viewing your photos as slideshows.

How do I get it?

Brian Thompson is being prosecuted for selling set-top boxes with Kodi pre-installed

Go to https://kodi.tv/download and then click Installer under the Windows logo. It’s quick and safe to install. Kodi is a fairly large program (158MB), but there are no PUPs to opt out of. There’s also now a Kodi Windows 10 app, currently in beta. Most extensions are also legal and safe, but we recommend sticking to downloading extensions from Kodi’s own site (http://addons.kodi.tv) or from the program window. 26 October – 8 November 2016 49

When Will Your No matter how healthy it seems now, your PC will eventually grind to a halt. Mike Plant explains how to calculate its life expectancy and put a few extra miles on its clock

T

ime and tide wait for no man, they say, and sadly the same is true of your PC. After years of use even the most robust of PCs will start to feel its age and succumb to errors, freezes and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. Each new setback brings it inexorably closer to the scrapheap.

WHAT YOU CAN DO • Find out how healthy your PC is • Add years to your computer’s life with our quick fixes • Test your processor and memory speed • Check which components are most likely to fail


Computeractive is always here to show you how to breathe new life into your PC. But there comes a time when even our advice can no longer keep your trusty PC up and running. Sadly, there will always come a day when you’ll have to pull the plug one last time and think about a replacement. But when is the right time to let go? Perhaps your PC takes an age to load Windows, or pauses for a long thought before grudgingly playing that DVD you would like to watch? But does that mean it’s really on its last legs? We’ll guide you through the 11 tests that, when their results are combined, will tell you whether your PC is still going strong, or ready to meet its maker (Dell, HP, Lenovo, or whoever). For example,

+

Add MORE YEARS to its life

we will show you how to take your PC’s temperature, test its processor and assess whether its memory is as good as it once was. We’ll also explain what those random freezes, crashes and error messages really mean and how you can use them to identify where your computer is having problems. And, for each test, we will suggest the easiest ways you can improve your PC’s performance levels. Note your scores as you go and at the end you’ll get a good idea of how long your PC has got left. If it looks like your machine is on borrowed time, you should consider buying our recommended computers (see page 56) as a replacement.

When Will Your PC Die?

11-STEP INSIDE YOUR HEALTH PC CHECK age of your 1 The computer

Why it’s important The components in your computer are like its vital organs, and as they age they become more prone to breaking down. Exactly when a component will cease to work is impossible to say, but age will increase the likelihood of a fault. How do you find out? You probably know when you bought your PC, but does that represent its actual age? For example, you may have installed a new hard drive, some new memory (RAM) or a new processor. Does this mean your PC is suddenly a lot younger? In fact, to get philosophical, is it the same PC at all (see box below)? Replacing or upgrading at least two of the following vital components – processor, hard drive, video card, RAM or motherboard – means you can justifiably revise the age of your PC down. As a rule, consider your PC’s birthday to be half-way between when you bought your PC and the date of the earliest upgrade.

Open System Information to find out what processor you have

So if you bought your PC four years ago, then replaced its hard drive after two years and added more RAM a year later, you should count your PC as being three years old. Prolong its life This is simple but not cheap: replace or upgrade a few of your PC’s most easy-to-access components, such as its hard drive or RAM.

Your PC score:

0-2 years old (3 points) 2-3 years old (2 points) 3-4 years old (1 point) 4+ years old (0 points)

operating system 2 Which do you use? Installing new components, such as RAM, could lower your PC’s average ‘age’

Why it’s important What operating system (OS) you use plays a big part in your computer’s ‘best before’ date. An ever-increasing number of popular

IS YOUR PC LIKE TRIGGER’S BROOM? Only Fools and Horses’ nice-but-dim Trigger once famously boasted that he’d had his trusty roadsweeper’s broom for 20 years. Though, of course, he’d replaced the broom head 17 times and its handle 14. Not to be undone when asked ‘How can it be the same broom, then?’, he quickly whipped out an old photo of him with the broom from 20 years ago: ‘What more proof

do you need?’ (Watch the clas classic scene at www.snipca. co com/22098) The same logic can be applied to your PC. If you’ve replaced its pr processor and hard drive, ad added more RAM and upgr upgraded its video card, then is iit really al the same computer – whether or not you have an old picture of your PC? Send your thoughts to [email protected].

programs, including Microsoft Office 2016, are no longer compatible with older operating systems like Windows Vista and XP. When your software options start to become restricted like this it might be time to consider a new PC (or at least upgrading the operating system). How do you find out? Finding out what version of Windows you have is a doddle. Click the Start button and type system information. You’ll see the result at the top, and which edition (Professional or Home – see screenshot above). Prolong its life Upgrading to Windows 10 (or at least Windows 7) means your PC is much more likely to run the latest software. This won’t always be possible though. Windows 10, for example, requires a 1GHz (or faster) processor, 1GB RAM (for 32bit processors) or 2GB RAM (for 64bit), and 16GB of free hard-drive space (20GB for 64bit systems). To check the speed of your processor and how much RAM it has, open System Information again and look for Processor and Installed Physical Memory in the Item column. To check how much free hard-drive space you have, use File Explorer (Windows Explorer in XP, Vista and 7). Just right-click the C: drive and click Properties. Free space will be highlighted in pink.

Your PC score:

Windows 10 (3 points) Windows 7, 8.1 (2 points) Vista (1 point) XP (0 points)


How fast is 3 your CPU?

Why it’s important If your computer’s components are its vital organs, then its central processing unit (CPU) is its brain. Every task you set your computer will go through the CPU, so it’s important the processor is able to keep pace with the demands of the latest software, browsers and operating systems. How do you find out? Working out how fast your processor is from its name alone is impossible. Processor names normally comprise a string of words and numbers that make little sense to anyone who doesn’t actually work at Intel or AMD. For example, an old PC in the Computeractive office goes by the name: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 640 Processor, 3000 Mhz 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s). While all those Mhz (megahertz) and cores sound impressive, this particular processor has seen better days. The best way to test your processor is to use benchmarking software. This scores the CPU and lets you see how it measures up to the thousands of others that have also been tested. We recommend PassMark’s PerformanceTest. Go to www. snipca.com/22054 and download the latest version (PerformanceTest 9 at the time of writing). Install and open it and click Continue when prompted to get the program (PerformanceTest is free to use for 30 days, which is more than enough time for what you need to do). Click Run on the orange CPU Mark section on the left (see screenshot below) to start the test (clicking Yes when

The Percentile mark tells you how your PC compares to the thousands that have been tested (not very well in this case)

prompted). Try not to use your PC while the process is running. When it finishes your processor will be given a CPU Mark (a number in the thousands). We’re more interested in the Percentile score though, so take a note of that (see screenshot above). This shows you how your processor compares with the thousands of PCs that have been tested using PerformanceTest worldwide. Prolong its life Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to give an old processor a new lease of life. It is possible to overclock a CPU in some cases to make it perform above its recommended speed, but we’d

Run a processor benchmark test by clicking the CPU Mark Run button. You can also test how your PC handles graphics by running the 2D Mark and 3D Mark tests


advise against doing this on older machines. Overclocking can not only break the processor due to increased stress, but can cause it to overheat as well (see test 6). By far the easiest way to get more processing power is to buy a new PC (see page 56 for our recommendations).

Your PC score:

60 per cent and above (3 points) 50-60 per cent (2 points) 40-50 per cent (1 point) 30 per cent and below (0 points)

fast is your 4 How PC’s RAM?

Why it’s important Memory – that is to say RAM, rather than the storage on your hard drive – is another crucial component in determining the overall wellbeing of a PC. It’s not simply a matter of adding up the amount of RAM you have installed though, because how quickly data can access your computer’s memory is just as important. How do you find out? Once more we turn to PerformanceTest 9 (see previous tip). This time click the Memory Mark Run button. The test will be carried out in the background (but try not to use your PC while it runs) and give you a Percentile (see screenshot above right) that you should take a note of. Prolong its life Extra RAM can be easily added to your PC. The key to this is making sure you buy the right type because the fastest RAM will only work on the latest motherboards. Use Crucial’s

When Will Your PC Die? If your PC’s RAM is showing a low percentage, it’s probably time to upgrade it

Advisor tool (www.snipca.com/21491) and click the ‘download the scanner’ button. After it has downloaded, doubleclick the file and click Run. When the scan finishes, all available compatible RAM will be shown on Crucial’s website. Memory is easy to install (see Issue 483, page 51) – just be sure to buy the memory sticks in pairs (so if you want to add 4GB of RAM, buy two 2GB sticks). Just remember to check your motherboard to see if it has free memory slots before you buy (if it has no spare slots you’ll need to completely replace the RAM you have with higher GB options).

Your PC score:

60 per cent and above (3 points) 50-60 per cent (2 points) 40-50 per cent (1 point) 30 per cent and below (0 points)

long is your PC’s 5 How boot time?

Why it’s important They say good things come to those who wait, but try telling that to someone waiting an age for Windows to boot up. If this sounds like you, it might be time to take action. A long boot time can indicate problems with your hard drive or CPU, or may mean that Windows’ startup process is clogged with programs all looking to load as your PC boots. How do you find out? Calculating your PC’s boot time isn’t quite as simple as turning it off and on again, because it’s difficult to know when the process ends. Is it when the Windows logo appears? Or when you log in? Or when the desktop appears? BootTimer is a tool that takes the guesswork out of the equation. Download it from www.thewindowsclub.com/ windows-boot-timer (or use

www.snipca.com/22065 to start the download directly). Double-click the download and click Run to open BootTimer, then click Yes to reboot your PC (make sure you’ve saved any open documents). Your PC will now restart (you will have to sign in as usual). Once the boot process is complete a BootTimer window will appear showing the exact time in seconds (see screenshot below).

139 seconds to boot up! We need to reduce our startup programs

Prolong its life You can speed up your boot time in a couple of ways. The easiest is to reduce the startup programs that load when your PC boots. To do this in Windows 7 and 8.1, click the Start button, type msconfig, press Enter and click the Startup tab. In Windows 10, click Start, type task manager and click the Start-up tab. Untick (right-click and choose Disable in Windows 10) any programs you don’t need when you first boot your PC – CCleaner, iTunes, Spotify, PicPick, Google Photos and Evernote are all programs that we stopped from loading during startup on our test PC. To significantly reduce boot times you can move from a traditional hard drive to a solid state drive (SSD). Follow the instructions on our sister website Alphr: www.snipca.com/22099.

Your PC score:

0-50 seconds (3 points) 51-100 seconds (2 points) 101-150 seconds (1 point) 151+ seconds (0 points)

Use SpeedFan to check the running temperature of your PC’s components

hot is 6 How your PC?

Why it’s important If your PC is running a temperature it will be much more prone to intermittent crashes and freezes. A high temperature could also damage its internal components – CPU, RAM, graphics card, hard drive – and make them more likely to fail. How do you find out? Taking your PC’s temperature isn’t quite as simple as sticking a thermometer into its USB port. Instead you should use SpeedFan. To download it, go to www.snipca. com/22068 and click the SpeedFan 4.52 link in the Download section. SpeedFan tells you how hot your PC is overall, and how hot your CPU is in particular (which is the most important result for the purposes of this test). In general, 60°C is the maximum you ever want your CPU to reach (unless you play graphically demanding games and have a PC with a sophisticated cooling system). 40-50 degrees is a much safer level. Prolong its life The best way to cool your PC is to clean it. Dust and grime can slow any fans, block air ducts and cause the temperature to build (see Issue 483, page 53 for our guide on how to clean your PC’s interior). You can also add more fans to your computer by attaching them inside the case and plugging the fan’s power wire into your motherboard (if you’re unsure how to do this, consult a technician).

Your PC score:

Up to 40°C (3 points) 41-50°C (2 points) 51-60°C (1 point) 60°C+ (0 points)


often does your PC 7 How unexpectedly restart?

Why it’s important We’ve all suffered that annoying experience – typing happily away or enjoying a good film, when suddenly our PC decides to restart for no good reason. If this is a regular occurrence (and it isn’t caused by Windows Update), it’s a sign there’s something rotten in the state of your computer. How do you find out? It will be fairly obvious. We suggest you spend a week making a tally of how often your PC restarts. Prolong its life Constant restarts can be caused by loose power cables and problems with device drivers. Refer to our ‘Don’t pay for PC repairs cover feature (see Issue 483, page 55) for advice on how to check your PC for loose power cables.

How often do you see the 8Blue Screen of Death?

Why it’s important BSoD error messages are caused by software problems and corrupt files. If you’re regularly seeing these, it’s a good indicator that your PC has a serious fault. How do you find out? Once again, try keeping a tally of BSoD occurrences over the course of a week. The error message is at least easy to spot, as it takes over your entire screen. Prolong its life The best way to prevent the BSoD is to find out what the error message means. Have a Cleaning the innards of your PC with compressed look at our screenshot screenshot air can stop it overheating and, as a result, from below: the important bits are those crashing highlighted by a red ring. Type these into Google for information on the How do you find out? Keep a tally of how cause and how to fix it. If this doesn’t often your PC freezes through the course resolve the problem, you could try of a week. Only count instances where formatting your PC and reinstalling the PC freezes for 10 seconds or more, Windows from scratch. Just make sure because shorter, harmless freezes are you back up your important files first possible when you open a program or and make a list of the programs you your PC completes a background task. own and use. Prolong its life Cleaning the dust from inside your PC (see image above) is a good way to bring down its temperature. You Your PC score: could also consider buying a new 0-1 times in a week (3 points) graphics card, although it’s not easy to 2-3 times in a week (2 points) know which one will fit with your 3-4 times in a week (1 point) motherboard. Our advice is to ask Nvidia 5+ times in a week (0 points) or AMD – the two biggest manufacturers of graphics cards. Nvidia’s support page is How often does at www.snipca.com/22109, while AMD’s your PC freeze? is at www.snipca.com/22110. Why it’s important If your PC regularly locks up – meaning the cursor refuses to Your PC score: move and you can’t do anything (such as 0-1 times in a week (3 points) type or open a new window) – it could 2-3 times in a week (2 points) mean your PC is overheating (graphics 3-4 times in a week (1 point) cards are particularly prone to crashing 5+ times in a week (0 points) when they get too hot).

9 Stop Windows from restarting and force it to generate an error message so you can find out what’s causing random restarts

To check your PC for any driver problems, click the Start button and type sysdm.cpl, then click the Advanced tab and click the Settings button under ‘Startup and Recovery’. Untick the ‘Automatically restart’ box and click OK (see screenshot above). This will prevent your PC from restarting and cause it to show a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) instead. Refer to the following test for how to use the Blue Screen of Death error screen to diagnose your PC’s problem.

Your PC score:

0-1 times in a week (3 points) 2-3 times in a week (2 points) 3-4 times in a week (1 point) 5+ times in a week (0 points)


The Blue Screen of Death may look scary, but the ‘Technical Information’ section can help you diagnose a problem with your PC, including unexpected restarts


10

In Windows 10, find out if your PC has a HDD (hard disk drive) or SSD (solidstate drive) by using the Optimise Drives tool

Is your hard drive an HDD or SSD?

Why it’s important Hard disk drives (HDDs) have more moving parts than any other component in your PC and are therefore more likely to break down than others. In contrast, solid-state drives (SSDs) store data in a similar way to USB sticks and therefore don’t have any moving parts at all. This makes them much less likely to develop a fault than traditional hard drives, and they also transfer data more efficiently, making them faster. How do you find out? By far the easiest way in Windows 8 and 10 is to use the Optimise Drives tool. Click Start, type optimise drives and press Enter. Find the system drive (which will have a Windows logo next to it – see screenshot above right) and look in the ‘Media type’ column to find out what type of drive you have. It will either say ‘Hard disk drive’ or ‘Solid state drive’. For Windows 7 (and earlier) use the Device Manager. Click start, type device manager and press Enter. Next, click the arrow next to ‘Disk drives’. This will show you the name of the hard drive. Type this name into Google to find out what type of drive you have. Prolong its life Though it’s nigh-on impossible to completely prevent unexpected mechanical failures in your hard drive, you can at least take some of the strain off it and thereby reduce the risk. Defragging a hard drive will rearrange the data on it more logically, thereby reducing the amount of time it spends looking for files. This will also speed up the drive itself (note: you don’t need to defrag an SSD). Windows has a built-in defrag tool. Click Start, type defrag and press Enter to open it. Select the system drive (the one with the Windows logo next to it, usually the C drive) and click Optimise (in Windows 8 and 10) or ‘Defragment disk’ (in Windows 7). If this doesn’t work as well as you’d hoped, try the free program UltraDefrag (www.snipca.com/19324) . You can also test your hard drive for imminent failure. DiskCheckup will display a message if it finds anything wrong with your drive (see our Workshop, page 40). You should back up any important files with EaseUS Todo Backup Free (www.snipca.com/21134 – see our Workshop, Issue 480, page38).

Your PC score:

Solid-state drive (SSD) (2 points) Hard disk drive (HDD) (0 points)

USB version does 11 What your PC have?

Why it’s important Having the latest version of USB on your PC will increase the speed at which data transfers between your PC and anything connected to it over a USB connection (such as external hard drives and USB sticks). Older versions, such as USB 1.0 or 2.0, not only slower but also a clear indication that your PC is getting on a bit. USB Type -C is the latest version, which is not only faster but easier to plug in because the connector can insert into the port either way (upside down). How do you find out? The best way is to use the Device Manger (click Start, type device manager and press Enter). Find the ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ section and click the arrow next to it to expand it. Look for any entries that end in ‘Host Controller’. If the name of the Host Controller contains the word ‘universal’ you have USB 1.0 and if the name says ‘enhanced’ you have USB 2.0 (see screenshot below left). If you have USB 3.0 the name will

feature ‘USB 3.0’ (see screenshot below), and it will contain USB-C if you have USB Type-C. In some cases, you can also physically check which ports you have. USB 3.0 ports are usually blue and are labelled SS (meaning Super Speed), while USB Type-C ports have a distinctly flat-oval shape (see image at www.snipca. com/22105). Prolong its life Adding newer USB ports to your PC is one of the more straightforward upgrades you can carry out. Buy an expansion card (such as this one for £15 from Amazon – www.snipca. com/22106) and fit it into one of your PC’s spare PCI Express slots. If you’re unsure how to do this follow this workshop on our sister website Alphr: www.snipca.com/22107.

Your PC score:

USB-C (3 points) USB 3.0 (2 points) USB 2.0 (1 point) USB 1.0 (0 points)

In Device Manager, USB 2.0 ports are called ‘enhanced’ while the faster USB 3.0 version is labelled ‘USB 3.0’



WHAT YOUR INSIDE YOUR PCTEST SCORE MEANS

Now you’ve completed our PC-life expectancy test it’s time to add up your scores and reach a diagnosis. If your PC scored less than 20 points you might want to try some of our ‘Prolong its life’ tips in areas where it’s struggling or buy a new PC (see our recommendations right). Congratulations! Your PC is in rude health. Not only is it probably pretty new, but it’s also fast, future-proofed and well-balanced. With just a little housekeeping – such as defragging your hard drive regularly and keeping to a minimum the number of programs that load during boot up – your PC should serve you well for years to come.

30+

A NEW PC: OUR RECOMMENDATIONS Palicomp AMD Avenger

PC type: Desktop Price: £500 from www.snipca.com/20927 This desktop PC is our current Buy It recommendation for good reason. Its speedy processor delivers solid performance and it has an SSD, meaning boot times are e superquick (certainly enough to sail through our boot-time test). Palicomp has also managed to keep it relatively cheap for a computer that has excellent components.

POINTS

20-29 You may not quite have made the top tier, but POINTS don’t worry – your PC is still in good nick. By completing our test you should now know exactly which areas of your PC need attention and what you can do to get it into even better shape. Adding more RAM, and moving from a conventional hard drive to an SSD are two of the most effective ways to improve your PC’s performance and life span. 10-19 The bad news is your PC is starting to show POINTS its age and its components are beginning to creak. The good news is that it’s not ready for landfill just yet. You might be considering upgrading the PC’s processor, but we’d advise against it. Not only is this an expensive and complicated upgrade (you’ll probably have to replace your motherboard as well), it’s likely to make little difference if there are other culprits slowing its performance. Instead we suggest you swap your hard drive for an SSD, clean your PC if it’s overheating and limit the programs that load at startup. You’ve probably suspected for some time that your PC should be put out of it misery – and our test has only confirmed those suspicions. Upgrading your PC is pretty pointless because you’ll spend as much money doing that as you would if you bought an entirely new PC. Instead, you should think about managing your PC’s decline. So back up your files in case your PC’s ageing components do give out. Otherwise, manage its resources by reducing the programs that start up with your PC, limit how many programs you open at the same time, and start thinking about buying a replacement.

0-9

POINTS

Acer Asp Aspire sp S13 (S5-3714)

PC type: e: Laptop Price: £55 £550 55 from www.snipca.com/22034 Revi Reviewed on page 20, Acer’s Aspire S13 features all the latest components, including a USB Type-C port for lightning-fast connecti connectivity. tivi At £550, it’s a little pricey (see below for a cheaper alternative), but we think it’s justified for a fast-performing, state-of-the-art laptop and a battery that lasts nine hours of continuous video playback.

Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 14

PC type: Laptop Price: £159 from www.snipca.com/22123 We reviewed the Cloudbook 14 back in April (see Issue 474) and nothing has altered our initial opinion that it’s a fantastic budget laptop for less than £200. Bear in mind that a PC at this price comes with compromises. While it’s quick enough to handle most tasks, it only has 10GB of storage, meaning you’ll probably need an external hard drive (or a decent cloud-storage service) to store all your files.

HOW TO MOVE INSIDE YOURTO PCA NEW PC FOR FREE If you’re tempted by any of our recommendations above (or any other new PC), it will almost certainly arrive with Windows 10 installed. No problem there, but moving your files from your old PC to the new one can take time. Until August, you could have done this for free using Laplink’s PCmover Express (Microsoft’s recommended tool for the job). It now costs $14.95 (about £12.20). But PCmover Express only ever transferred files not programs. The Professional version does transfer

your programs, but it costs $45 (£32, www.snipca.com/22112). Instead of paying, make a note of the programs you use most often on your existing PC and install them on the new one. To see all programs on your PC (including when you installed them) click Start, type remove a program and click ‘Add or remove programs’ in the results. To move files in bulk, copy them to a large USB stick, such as this 128GB model from Amazon (£21, www.snipca. com/22126). ON SALE

NEXT ISSUE On sale Wednesday 9 November

Who’s hacking your Wi-Fi?

Criminals, scammers, even your neighbours: stop them abusing your home network

Weds 9 Nov

Plus • Switch your Yahoo account so you can’t be hacked

• Install old programs on a Windows 10 PC

Subscribe to Computeractive at www.getcomputeractive.co.uk 56 26 October – 8 November 2016

Is it worth the money? Malwarebytes Premium removes malware like its free sibling, but offers more tools for scanning your PC. Mike Plant tests them on his PC

Disable Malware Protection and Malicious Website Protection

Malwarebytes Premium

Format: Windows Website: www.malwarebytes.com Price: £19.95 Free trial period: 14 days

W

riting for the UK’s best-selling computing magazine I have to shoulder a certain weight of expectation among my family and friends. They will often, for example, ask me why their PC just isn’t as fast as it once was. My typical response is: “Have you run a scan with Malwarebytes?” Thankfully, this usually sorts out their problem. That’s because Malwarebytes is a fantastic tool for weeding out any malware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that are among the most common causes of a sluggish PC. I usually recommend the free version because it does its job perfectly well, but there is also a Premium version that surely provides better protection still, right?

Bells and whistles

Actually, the answer to that question is an emphatic ‘no’. It’s hardly in Malwarebytes’ interests to make its free malware scanner less effective than the paid-for version. If hackers got wind of any such vulnerability, they’d go all out to take advantage, and Malwarebytes’ reputation (and popularity) would doubtless suffer. So what are we paying for if

Malwarebytes Premium offers the same level of threat detection? Well, it improves the scanner’s preventative measures and adds customisation, so you can speed up scans and arrange them to better fit your schedule. The trouble is few of these additions feel necessary. Take the preventative tools, for example, which provide real-time protection against malware and malicious websites to stop them slowing your PC. They sound great in advertising slogans, but my antivirus software (Kaspersky Internet Security 2017 – see page 68) already actively monitors my PC for new threats, and I’d always use that alongside Malwarebytes (as Malwarebytes itself recommends). My PC doesn’t need any more background processes, thank you very much, so in the end I switched off both Malware Protection and Malicious Website Protection within ‘Detection and Prevention’ settings anyway (see screenshot above). I’m happy to run Malwarebytes once a week and let my antivirus handle the rest.

Faster yes, but safer?

Hyper Scan cuts malware-scanning time from hours to minutes, but doesn’t scan every file

Of more interest is the program’s Hyper Scan mode. This speeds up Malwarebytes’ lengthy scans (a full one can take over two hours) by only targeting active parts of your PC, such as memory and running programs. This misses out the vast majority of photos, documents and program files you’re not currently using. On our test PC it shortened the scan time from just over three hours, to just five and

...Pros Malwarebytes’ usual watertight security, scheduled scans, speedy Hyper Scan option

Next issue... Is PhotoSync worth the money?

ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW? If you buy Malwarebytes Premium, you should switch on its self-protection mode, which guards against malware that disables Malwarebytes’ scanner. Click Settings, Advanced Settings and tick ‘Enable self-protection module’. a half minutes (see screenshot below left). It’s an impressive time-saver, but I wouldn’t want to run this shortened scan every time for fear of it overlooking a malicious file that had been cunningly smuggled in and concealed. The added scan scheduler might therefore have come in handy by letting me run a full scan at a time when I know I’ll be away from my PC (when I’m at work or sleeping at night). Personally, I don’t like leaving my PC on when I’m not around though, so even the scheduler was of scant use. Besides, running a scan while I’m using my computer doesn’t seem to slow it too much.

SO, IS IT WORTH IT? No. I can’t help thinking Malwarebytes has felt the need to bulk out the Premium version by saddling it with settings and tools that just aren’t necessary. The free version of Malwarebytes will remain one of the most useful tools on my computer, but I won’t be upgrading any time soon.

...Cons Active protection modes already provided by antivirus, no essential extras


Are the new Windows 10 apps any good? Microsoft is encouraging developers lopers to turn their programs into Windows 10 apps. ps. David Ludlow tests the first batch and compares them to downloadable software

T

he biggest problem with Microsoft’s Windows Store has always been its meagre amount of content, with big-name programs conspicuously missing. As we reported in Computeractive (see News, Issue 485, page 6), Microsoft is hoping to change all that with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Microsoft’s new Desktop Bridge app (see box below) makes it easier for developers to convert their programs into Windows Store apps. Microsoft is hoping this will mean a better-stocked Store and is promising a better experience for all (see box on page 59). That’s the promise, but are Desktop Bridge apps worth adopting if you already use traditional downloadable software? To find out, we’ve pitted six of the first batch of these new apps against their desktop counterparts.

Kodi (Free)

Software: www.kodi.tv App: www.snipca.com/22003 As explained on page 49, Kodi is a media player that can play music and video files on your PC, and stream content from your computer to your TV over your home Kodi’s desktop program and app look identical and work the same network (though you might need a streaming device such as same beta. Both looked identical and an Amazon Fire TV stick to do this). The were remarkably stable for a beta. current downloadable program release However, opting for the Windows Store is 16.1 (available from www.kodi.tv), but version makes it easier to install the Windows Store app is a beta version upgrades because Windows will take (codenamed Krypton, v17). care of them automatically (this is true In order to compare like for like, we of all apps – see box on opposite page). downloaded the app and program of the One word of advice though – if you only want to play video on your PC and aren’t interested in streaming, use VLC (www.videolan.org) instead (or its Windows 10 app: www.snipca.com/ Developers can choose how far they 22005). want to go. They can opt to keep the features exactly the same or go further Evernote (Free) by making them work better with Software: www.evernote.com Windows 10’s unique tools, such as App: www.snipca.com/21998 Live Tiles. Evernote is a note-taking, Microsoft’s hope is that increasing list-making and all-round organisation numbers of developers will bring their program that is meant to replace the programs to the Windows Store. It seems little notepad you take with you for to be working already. Since the first jotting things down. The Store and batch of new apps arrived in September regular download versions of Evernote TV-streaming program Kodi has also been are exactly alike and work in the same converted into an app (see above). way. Evernote says that the Store version supports Windows 10’s Live

WHAT ARE DESKTOP BRIDGE APPS? Windows Store apps and downloadable programs might share the same name and often similar interfaces, but underneath the bonnet they’re very different. It’s therefore never been easy to turn a program into a Windows 10 app, which explains why so few have undergone the conversion. Microsoft hopes to change that with the introduction of the Desktop Bridge tool. With it, software developers can quickly convert a program into an app and add it to the Windows Store.


REASONS TO USE WINDOWS 10 APPS… Safety when buying online

Evernote is meant to support Windows 10 Live Tiles, though this isn’t working yet

Tiles and Notifications – the app’s icon should display any recent notes you’ve added, but this isn’t working yet. No matter what tweaks we attempted, the Start Menu Evernote icon remained steadfastly non-Live (see screenshot above). Nevertheless, in the long run the Store version still makes more sense for Evernote users, because it will eventually support more Windows 10 features, including, we hope, Live Tiles and better integration with other apps (such as Mail). It’s also worth mentioning that the free version of Evernote only syncs across two devices, so if you’re using it on your PC, then you can only sync that with one phone or tablet, for example.

Voya Media (Free)

Software: www.voyamedia.com App: www.snipca.com/21999 Voya Media is a free media player that can handle most types of video file. When downloading it from the Windows Store we had to be careful, because there are two versions: one free, one paid-for (79p). The paid-for version adds DVD playback and the ability to make playlists, but for our tests we opted for the free version. The Windows Store app and desktop

The PhotoScape app (above) is much easier to use than the software version (right)

program are virtually identical and handled video in a variety of formats. However, VLC is once again our recommendation if you’re looking for a video player.

PhotoScape (Free/£23 optional

full version) Software: www.photoscape.org App: www.snipca.com/22002 PhotoScape is a photo-editing app that’s similar to Paint.net. The downloadable version (www.photoscape. org) has an awful, complicated interface that makes it one to avoid, but the Windows Store version (PhotoScape X Pro) has had a massive overhaul making it much easier to use (see screenshot above). Technically, PhotoScape X Pro costs £23, but there’s an ‘unlimited’ trial period currently available that lets you download a cutdown version of the Pro app and use it indefinitely (though you’ll get prompts to upgrade to the full Pro version). Simply click the Trial button on the app’s Windows Store entry. But are either of these Photoscape versions any good? There’s no harm in trying the X Pro app, but we think Paint.net (www.getpaint. net) is a better than both (and also completely free).

Be aware: there is a paid-for version of Voya Media in the Windows Store as well as a free option

Ear Trumpet (Free)

Software: www.snipca.com/22004 App: www.snipca.com/22000 Ear Trumpet is an excellent little tool that displays a volume control for each open program or app so you can adjust the volume levels independently. The Windows Store app is by far the best choice here for its simple installation, which means you can avoid having to download the software from the website alternative – GitHub, which can be overly complicated.

Finding apps is easy in the Windows Store, and installation even easier. For paid-for apps, you only give your credit-card details to Microsoft only – not the app’s developer – so you know exactly who you’re paying.

Licence key management

All purchases you make in the Windows Store are linked to your Windows ID, so you don’t have to worry about losing a licence key. To restore an app, just open the Windows Store, click your profile image (top right) and choose Library. Here, you’ll see a list of every app you’ve installed. Simply select the apps to reinstall.

Apps update automatically

Managing updates for Windows 10 apps can be a hassle, but the Windows Store handles everything for you, keeping you patched and up to date with the latest versions. That’s better for security and saves you time.

…AND ONE REASON NOT TO

Price

An app isn’t always cheaper than a boxed copy of the software. Another Desktop Bridge app, Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus, for example, costs £69 in the Windows Store or £60 if you buy on Amazon (www.snipca.com/22006) – so shop around first before installing a Windows 10 app.

DoubleTwist Sync (Free)

Software: www.doubletwist.com App: www.snipca.com/22001 DoubleTwist Sync is a small tool that lets you synchronise music, video and photos between your Windows Media Player, your iTunes library, and your Android phone or tablet. Of course, you can do this by simply dragging and dropping files between your devices, but DoubleTwist makes the process automatic, so your playlists start synchronising as soon as you connect a device. There’s little to choose between the two versions, but at least the Windows Store app will keep itself updated, so it will always work with the latest smartphones. 26 October – 8 November 2016 59

What you can do with the new

Outlook.com Your Outlook.com account is changing. Jonathan Parkyn explains what Microsoft is up to this time and what you need to do now

M

icrosoft is changing the way Outlook.com accounts work. These changes will affect anyone who uses a Microsoft email address. These not only include @outlook.com addresses, but also older ones ending in @hotmail.com, @msn. com, @passport.com and @live.com. Microsoft’s aim is to bring all accounts into line with the new, revamped Outlook.com.

I have Outlook, but do I have Outlook.com?

Outlook.com is a completely separate entity to the Outlook program that comes with some versions of Microsoft Office. Because of this, if you use an Outlook.com account with the Outlook program, you may need to make some changes, which we’ll come on to. One change is that Outlook.com is moving to Microsoft’s Office 365 servers, but this doesn’t mean you’ll need to pay for an Office 365 subscription to continue with it. Outlook. com will continue to be free for current users and anyone who signs up in future.

1

When is this happening?

Microsoft first announced its intention to upgrade all Outlook.com accounts to Office 365 back in May 2015. After a test period that users could sign up for, the company started upgrading the majority of its customers’ mailboxes in February this year and Microsoft now claims to have converted 90 per cent of accounts. Microsoft has not set any deadlines for the completion of the upgrade process. A recent Windows message suggested the upgrade process would be completed in the first six months of 2017 (www.snipca. com/22013). However, the company later claimed that this was sent in error and that migration would be completed earlier than that, though no specific date was given.

How can I tell whether my account has been migrated?

You should have received an email from Microsoft before the upgrade was carried out informing you of the changes being made, but it’s quite easy to miss this.

2

Unmigrated accounts have an ‘Outlook.com’ header (1), while updated ones are headed ‘Outlook Mail’ or ‘Outlook Email’ (2)


Thankfully, there’s an easy way to check. Open a web browser, go to www.outlook. com and sign in with your account. Look in the top-left corner. If the heading banner says Outlook.com, your account is still on the old mailbox system (see screenshot 1 below). If the banner reads Outlook Mail or Outlook Email (see screenshot 2 below), your account has already been migrated to the new system.

Why is Microsoft doing this?

Microsoft wants to bring Outlook.com in line with the email system it offers in its Office 365 for Business service. Running two entirely separate systems is more complicated and expensive. Combining the two saves Microsoft time and money in the long run. More importantly for users, the Microsoft Exchange servers that power the new Outlook.com offer a number of key benefits not previously available to the service.

What are these benefits?

At first glance, the new Outlook.com doesn’t look radically different, but there’s actually quite a lot going on under the surface. A new Clutter tool, for example, helps you manage your inbox by automatically filing messages you’re likely to ignore in a separate folder. Switch it on by clicking Settings (cog icon), Options then Mail. Select Clutter under ‘Automatic processing’, tick the ‘Separate items identified as clutter’ box, then click Save. The more you use Outlook.com, the better Clutter gets at filtering low-priority emails. The search tool has also been improved

WINDOWS LIVE MAIL USERS – WHAT NOW?

Get add-ins via Outlook.com’s Settings (cog icon) to add more features to your inbox

and now suggests terms and email addresses as you type, and highlights keywords in search results. It’s also now possible to share as links files stored in your OneDrive, so that recipients can open them and collaborate with you. New customisation tools let you change Outlook’s theme (click Settings, ‘Change theme’) and it’s now possible to install non-Microsoft add-ins, such as Boomerang (which can send timed emails and track responses). Click Settings, then ‘Manage add-ins’ to get started (see screenshot above). For a full list of changes and improvements, visit www.snipca. com/22012.

Is there anything I need to do?

If you only use Outlook.com in your web browser, you don’t need to worry – just log in as normal. If you use an email client – a program that lets you send and receive emails – you may need to take some action to take advantage of the upgrade. Users of Outlook (the Office program), for example, should remove and re-add their Outlook.com accounts once migration has occurred.

You may already be aware that Microsoft decided to stop supporting its own webmail service, Windows Live Mail (WLM), rather than updating the program to make it compatible with the new Outlook.com. We’ve been recommending eM Client (www.emclient.com) as a free replacement for WLM. The good news is that eM Client also supports Microsoft Exchange, so once your Outlook.com account has been upgraded, you can add it to eM Client as an Exchange account. This will provide you with full, automatic syncing for email, calendar and contacts, in the same way Windows Live Mail used to. Click Tools, then Accounts. If you’ve

To do this in Outlook 2013 and 2016, click File, Account Settings, then Account Settings again. Highlight your Outlook. com account in the list that appears and click Remove (you won’t lose your emails, contacts, and so on). To reinstate the account, click New, enter your name, Outlook.com address and password, then click Next. Restart Outlook for the changes to take effect. Open the Account Settings window again and you’ll see your Outlook.com account has been listed under Type as Microsoft Exchange. If you use Windows 10’s Mail app, click the menu button (three horizontal lines) then Accounts. Click your Outlook. com account and select ‘Delete account’, then Delete. Next, click the menu button, Accounts, then ‘Add account’. Choose Outlook.com from the list (see screenshot below left) and enter your Outlook.com details. This also prompts your Outlook. com calendar and contacts to sync with Windows 10’s Calendar and People apps, meaning any changes made will apply to both.

What about my tablet or phone?

After the upgrade, delete your account from Windows 10’s Mail app, then add it again

On phones and tablets, Microsoft suggests using the Outlook app (Android www. snipca.com/22023; iOS www.snipca. com/ 22024), which will sync with the new Outlook.com’s calendar and contacts as well as email – but only within the app itself. However, one of the biggest benefits of the new Outlook.com is that you can now manually add your account to your phone and tablet as an Exchange account, meaning that everything – email, calendar and contacts – will seamlessly

already added your Outlook.com account, click the bin icon, then Yes to delete it (you won’t lose any information). Next, click the plus (+) icon to set up your account again, but don’t enter your email address in the Automatic Setup box. Instead, click Mail, then Exchange, then Next. Enter your Outlook.com address under both ‘Email address’ and ‘User name’, type your password and click Next. You’ll see a message saying ‘Obtaining server configuration records’ – don’t be surprised if eM Client appears to get stuck at this point. For some reason this part of the process seems to take a while. When it’s finished, click Next again, then Finish and wait for your account to synchronise.

Choose Exchange and type outlook. office365.com in the Server field to sync your upgraded Outlook.com account on an iPhone, iPad or Android device

sync with your device’s default Mail, Calendar and Contacts apps. On an iOS device, tap Settings, Mail, Accounts. If your Outlook account is already listed, delete it, then tap Add Account. Tap Exchange, then enter your email address, password and a name for the account and tap Next. If you’re prompted for server details, enter outlook.office365.com. Choose which information you want to sync (from Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders and Notes) and tap Save. On an Android device, tap Settings, Accounts, ‘Add account’, then Exchange. Enter your Outlook.com email address, then tap Manual Setup. Tap Exchange if you’re asked what type of account you’re setting up. Enter your password, tap Next. Under Server, enter outlook.office365. com and tap Next, select which items you want to sync (from email, contacts, calendar, and attachments) and tap Next, then Next again. 26 October – 8 November 2016 61

Problems Solved PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT

How can I speed up my old tablet? My 2012-vintage Nexus tablet is getting slower. The screen is less responsive, and often freezes. Battery life is shorter and it seems to drain quicker. It is in good physical condition, and has 24GB of spare storage. Android is up to date. I’ve tried factory resets with little improvement. I am wondering if the culprit is Android, or if the tablet is coming to the end of its life. Is there anything I can do? Barrie Hanson

Q

In Android tablet terms, 2012 years is more or less the beginning of time. Since then Android has got more and more complex, while your device’s hardware remains forever stuck in the past. Future Android updates might result in performance improvements, but the benefits are likely to be limited on ageing hardware. Reverting to an earlier version of Android such as 4.4 (KitKat) would speed things up considerably but the process is difficult and, if you get it wrong, your Nexus will be useless. Moreover, reverting to an older Android version means recent apps may no longer work, and you’ll be exposed to older security flaws. But if you’re an adventurous sort, here’s a summary of what to do — but back up first, and proceed at your own risk! First, visit the Google Developer page at www.snipca.com/21837 to download the relevant Android version factory image. Next, download and install Android Debug Bridge (ADB) from www.snipca.com/21838, then unzip your Android factory image into the adb-tools folder created by ADB. On your Nexus 7, tap Settings, then repeatedly tap Build Number until Developer Options are enabled. Now tap Developer Options and tick USB Debugging. Switch off the tablet and return to your PC. Press Windows key+E to

A


How do I search within a Facebook group? I’m a member of a number of Facebook groups relating to various club memberships. I’d like to be able to search for posts within a particular group, but I can’t seem to do this. When I’m in a group I’ve noticed that its name appears in the search bar at the top of the Facebook page. When I click here to search, the group’s name is briefly highlighted but, when I start to type, the name instantly disappears. If I continue to type my search and hit Enter, I search the whole of Facebook — and that’s not what I want. Surely there has to be a way to restrict my search to a particular group? Rufus Lachance

Q

Use this option in Windows to restore your connected Android tablet to an earlier version

launch File Explorer (or Windows Explorer), then navigate to the adb-tools folder. Hold down Shift, right-click abd-tools and choose ‘Open command window here’ (see screenshot). Then, on your Nexus, hold down both the power and volumedown buttons for a few seconds. When the Start screen appears, connect the tablet to your PC via its USB cable. In the Command window on your PC, type fastboot oem unlock and press Enter. On the Nexus, use the volume keys to select Yes then press power to confirm — this unlocks the bootloader. Back in the Command window, type fastboot reboot and press Enter. When your Nexus reboots, select Recovery Mode and press power to confirm. Select ‘wipe cache partition’ then hit power, then select ‘wipe date/ factory reset’ and hit power again. Finally, return to the adb-tools folder in File Explorer and double-click flashall.bat: your chosen Android factory image will now be installed on your Nexus. When it reboots, your Nexus will have returned to the earlier Android version — and it should feel as fast as it did on day one. As for the battery, it’s just wearing out. We’d suggest living with this but if you want to add to the fun, it can be replaced. The website iFixit has a good illustrated guide, at www.snipca. com/21839. You’ll be able to buy a new battery from Amazon.

There’s a dedicated search box on every Facebook group and page, but it can be easy to miss in all the clutter, and it scrolls out of view when you move down the page. So, just scroll back to the top of the group’s page, click in the ‘Search this group’ (or ‘Search for posts on this Page’) box, type your search and press Enter (see screenshot). Alternatively, you can use the search box at the top. When you click the first time the group’s name will be highlighted, meaning it’s selected. If you type now it will disappear, as you’ve experienced. But if you click again to the right you can type a space, then type your search query. Now just press Enter.

A

You can find a special search box for Facebook groups near the top of group pages

Our experts solve all your tech problems Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: [email protected]

Is my router password too weak? I have recently subscribed to Sky TV and broadband. Now, my security software sometimes pops up a message telling me that my router’s password is weak. This isn’t a password that I have set up but the one supplied by Sky. It was printed on a card that came with the router, and it’s just a mix of eight seemingly random letters. This card doesn’t tell me anything about the strength of the password, or how to change it. So, is my password too weak? And if so, how do I change it? Russell Snelling

Q

Your security software isn’t referring to the password on the card, which is actually the password for the wireless (Wi-Fi) network that your Sky router creates. For most domestic purposes, a random eightcharacter password is strong enough. It’s not easy to crack quickly and really the bigger risk would be leaving that card on view where any unscrupulous visitor might see and note it down.

A

To strengthen your Sky admin password, go to the Maintenance section of Sky’s Broadband Router

Your router has a separate password for logging into its administration pages, and it is this that is too weak. That’s because the default factory username is ‘admin’ and the password is ‘sky’. For obvious reasons, it is sensible to change these. To do this, launch a web browser, type 192.168.0.1 into the address bar and press Enter. Now type the username and password (admin and sky), then press Enter. Now click the Maintenance tab, followed by Set Password, then type the existing password (‘sky’), followed by the

What is this ghost drive? I have a Windows 10 desktop PC. Sometimes when I boot up I see an error message saying there’s no disk in drive E, with a prompt to insert one. I can cancel the message and carry on. When I open File Explorer there’s no drive E in the left-hand column but a drive E icon appears in the devices across the top bar. I have two third-party file managers and both list drive E, though when I select it I’m asked to insert a disk. There are several memory card-reader slots on the front of the PC, all empty. I think the system is remembering an earlier insertion, but I don’t seem to be able to clear it. Do you have any ideas what is causing this drive E discrepancy? Don Brown

new password, and then repeat to confirm (see screenshot). Remember that the password printed on the card is the one authorised devices use to connect to your Wi-Fi network. If you’d like to change this as well then keep reading. Look for the appropriate tab, which will be labelled ‘Wireless settings’, Setup or Wireless. Within the relevant tab, click Change Wireless Password. Type the new username and password and press Enter, or click Apply. The next time you use a device that’s previously connected to your wireless network, it will prompt you to enter the new password.

Caption xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx

A phantom drive error message (left) could be caused by a memory card slot on a printer, such as the one below on an Epson

Q

You’re right, this is probably due to an earlier insertion. A program has an unfinished operation it wants to enact on drive E. First, figure out which slot is drive E. Insert a compatible memory card into each slot in turn, and then see if you can access the card as drive E in File Explorer. When you’ve identified it, keep a blank card at the ready to insert the next time this message appears. What happens next will give you big clue as to what program is responsible. Finally, check your printer for memory-card slots (see image right), as many have them. It’s possible that one of these is the mystery drive E.

A

26 October – 8 November 65

Problems Solved Can I hide W10’s language icon? I followed some advice in an earlier issue of Computeractive to add the ‘English (United States)’ language pack to my Windows 10 PC, because I very occasionally need to edit American documents. This worked as expected but it also put a new icon on my taskbar. When I click this icon, I can switch between the two languages. While that’s useful, I don’t need to switch languages very often so the icon is really just a waste of space. Because my laptop has quite a small screen I’d like to switch off this icon, if possible, and find some other way to switch between the languages. Is this possible? Charles Burgess

Q

Yes, though the option to disable this particular taskbar icon is pretty deeply buried. First, click Start, followed by the Settings cog, and then click Personalisation, followed by Taskbar on the left. Then, on the right, scroll down to find and click the ‘Turn system icons on or off’ link. Finally, slide the Input Indicator switch to its Off position (see screenshot 1). Then, when you next need to switch languages, click Start, followed by Settings, then ‘Time & language’, followed by ‘Region & language’. Click the language pack you want and then click ‘Set as default’ (see screenshot 2).

A

1

In Settings you can switch off the taskbar language icon (left) and select a default language pack (below)

2

66 26 October – 8 November

Why won’t my PC hibernate properly? My Windows 7 PC has stopped hibernating correctly, so when I restart I sometimes receive the message that ‘Windows did not shut down successfully’. I have not made any changes to my setup and run regular malware checks. The hard drive should have enough free space to save the hibernation file. Any suggestions ? John Hall

Q

If your computer is a laptop then the battery might be running out of juice before hibernation finishes. If you’re executing Hibernate manually, this should happen only occasionally. However, hibernation can also happen automatically, at a set battery level. If your PC is old, the battery might not have enough power left in it for the hibernation process to complete properly, even though it once did. From Control Panel click ‘Hardware and Sound’, followed by Power Options, then ‘Change plan settings’, followed by ‘Change advanced power settings’. In the Power Options box, double-click to expand the Battery category, then either

A

Increase the ‘Low In ‘Lo battery batt level’ le l’ to t give gi Hibernate more time to complete

change the ‘Critical battery action’ to ‘Shut down’ (because this takes less time to complete than Hibernate), or increase the ‘Low battery level’ percentage to give Hibernate more time to complete properly (see screenshot). If your computer is a desktop PC, wait longer before you switch off at the mains: during hibernation the screen can go blank a few seconds before the process finishes.

How do I stop this error message? I sometimes receive a ‘Tablet Version Mismatch’ error message. I had a Wacom tablet that I was no longer using, so I used IObit Uninstaller to remove its software, and then recycled the hardware and original installation disc. I have switched Windows 10’s Tablet mode on and off, but to no avail. Is this notification a leftover from Wacom, or is it to do with

Q

the Windows 10’s Tablet mode? Either way, how do I stop it? Raymond Thompson

Windows 10’s Tablet mode optimises the operating system for use with tablets like Microsoft’s Surface, rather than traditional laptops or desktop PCs. It has nothing to do with your problem. It seems IOBit’s removal of the Wacom driver software wasn’t successful, leaving remnants. An easy way to fix it is to reinstall the relevant Wacom driver (get it from www.snipca. com/21949), and then remove it using Wacom’s own uninstaller. Do this via Control Panel, by clicking ‘Uninstall a program’ under Programs, then selecting the relevant Wacom software, clicking Uninstall and following the To remove all traces of Wacom’s driver software, use Wacom’s own uninstaller prompts (see screenshot).

A

How do I make Play Music display album art? I use Google’s Play Music app on my Android smartphone. I don’t have any problems with dragging and dropping MP3s across, or playing them, but sometimes the album art won’t display. The lack of visuals makes it harder to navigate around my music collection. How do I fix this? Bob Caroll

Q

Have you checked to see that the MP3 album folders that you’re dragging across actually contain an image of the album art? Typically, you will be looking for a file named cover.jpg, but it could be named after the album or artist. It also needs to be in one of the formats that Play Music recognises, which are JPEG (.jpg), GIF (.gif) and PNG (.png). If you can’t find such a file, a quick Google search will do the job. Type the album name, click Search, then click Images. Click the right image, right-click the enlarged version, then choose ‘Save image as’ (or similar, depending on your

A

You can force Play Music to immediately index and display newly saved album cover artwork by clearing data in the app’s settings

browser) to save it as ‘cover.jpg’. Next, copy this to the relevant folder on your phone. Play Music might not index the file right away, so the cover art might not

display immediately. To force it, from the Android home screen tap Settings, followed by Apps, then Google Play Music. Now tap Storage followed by Clear Data and OK (see screenshots).

In Issue 482’s Problem Solved section you told Alicia Gardner to use the RAW file format to make sure no quality was lost when saving digital photos to her camera’s memory card. This intrigued me. I don’t have a digital camera but I do a lot of photography on my Nexus 6 phone. So, I’m wondering, is there a way to make my phone store photos in RAW? Dennis Cook

your own risk, but it’s not difficult. Tap Settings, followed by Security. Scroll to the ‘Device administration’ section and slide the ‘Unknown sources’ switch to the On position (see screenshot below left), then tap OK to confirm. Next, visit the L Camera download page at www.snipca.com/21842, and tap the ‘lcamera-debug.apk link’ under the Downloads heading in the ‘Latest release’ section (see screenshot below right). When it’s finished, tap the Open button at the bottom of the screen, and tap Install (see screenshot right). Return to Settings to switch ‘Unknown sources’ to Off. And that’s it — L Camera is installed. It automatically saves photos as an Adobe

Digital Negative (DNG) file, which is a RAW format. If your image-editing software won’t open these, convert them using the free UFRaw tool that we recommended to Alicia Gardner — it’s free from www.snipca.com/21044.

There are apps in the Google Play store that allow you to take and store images in RAW, though all are paid-for. Camera FV-5, for example, is a popular option: it costs £2.49 from www.snipca.com/21640. You could try the free ‘Lite’ version of the app first (www.snipca.com/21641), but it lacks the option to save RAW files. There’s also a good free app called L Camera, but it must be sideloaded on to your device. This means bypassing the Google Play store so you do so at

Switch off ‘Unknown sources’ on your Android device and download the latest L Camera app

ill ha Once it is downloaded, you will have the option to install L Camera

Can I use RAW on my Android phone?

Q

A

26 October – 8 November 67

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Problems Solved

?

Whatever happened to… search dog?

I know I’m an old git and probably in a minority of one but I miss Windows XP’s search dog! Do you remember him? I’ve only recently given up XP because of security concerns and while my new Windows 10 laptop looks slick, I don’t find Cortana search anywhere near as friendly or useful as that canine. On my command he would search for pictures or documents, and even let me specify the size. He’d do a trick if I told him to. So what happened to him? And why does Windows 10’s search tool seem less flexible? Can I get the pup back? Kevin Slater

Q

We remember Rover, as he was known, although perhaps not quite with the same affection as you. We can’t say with any authority why Microsoft sent the hound to the pound but the company killed off all its animated characters — including Clippy, the cartoon paperclip assistant in Office — with Windows 7

A

In File Explorer you can refine your searches by the size of file that you’re looking for

(and Office 2007). We guess their cutesy style just fell out of fashion. We don’t see Microsoft bringing back Rover but we can tell you how to get more out of Cortana, and searching in Windows more generally. In Cortana, you can click the little down arrow at the top right of the results list to filter your search by one of several categories, including Music, Photos and Documents. For finer filtering, we suggest searching via File Explorer. Press Windows key+E to launch it, then click the search location in

the left-hand pane (click This PC if you want to search everywhere). Then, in the Refine section of the Search tab, use the dropdown menus to apply your filters. To look for files based on their size, for example, click Size and choose the relevant filter (see screenshot). You can also combine filters, so once you’ve selected a size you can then open the Type menu to choose the file type. Want to know what happened to your favourite program, website or technology? Email [email protected]

Why is my fibre internet connection so slow? I have a problem with the loading of web pages. Although I’ve got 72Mbps BT Infinity, web pages are taking anything from a few seconds to half a minute to load. My browser is Firefox but I get similar results with Opera or Internet Explorer 11. I have even tried a clean install. Please help! David Rolph

Q

Have you tested your download speed? BT, in common with many providers, has issued optimistic claims in its advertising. Admittedly, it’s unlikely to be so slow as to cause websites to take 30 seconds to load, but visit Broadband Speedchecker’s website at www.broadbandspeedchecker. co.uk and click ‘Start speed tests’. Do this at different times during the day. If the download speed is far less than you expect, contact BT to get the line tested. However, we suspect a different cause, possibly hardware. As this problem affects not only websites but all your browsers then it’s possible your hard drive is failing. When you surf the web

A

Launch ‘Error checking’ to search for hard-drive problems that are affecting your PC’s performance

data is pulled from respective cache files that are stored on the hard drive – these could be sitting on bad or failing hard-drive sectors. Press Windows key+E to launch File Explorer (or Windows Explorer). Right-click the drive and choose Properties followed by Tools. Now click the Check button in the ‘Error checking’ section (see screenshot right). If errors are found, Windows will offer to fix them. Let it do so. If that doesn’t fix it, download the free PassMark DiskCheckup tool from www. snipca.com/21843. Launch DiskCheckup, select your drive followed by the Desk Self Test tab, then click Start Test. If there’s a looming hardware failure, DiskCheckup will let you know.

NEXT ISSUE • Why won’t my PC see more than 4GB of memory? • How do I burn BBC shows to a disc? • Why does Windows Explorer keep crashing? ...And many more

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Subscribe to Computeractive at getcomputeractive.co.uk 26 October – 8 November 69

Fast Fixes

Microsoft Edge Fix random crashes, change the default search engine, find your saved favourites, and restore YouTube audio Change default search engine from Bing

Microsoft’s ‘Windows Apps troubleshooter’. Go to www. It came as no surprise when snipca.com/22025 and click Microsoft made Bing the ‘Run troubleshooter’ to default search engine in download it, then doubleEdge. More irritating still, is click the downloaded file how it made sure Bing is the (called Appsdiagnostic10. only search engine listed diagcab). In the pop-up should you try to change window, click Advanced, Edge’s default. To get untick ‘Apply repairs around this problem, automatically’ and click simply visit the website (in Next. The troubleshooter Edge) of the search engine will scan your PC and list you want as your default – suggested repairs – if Edge is Visit the website of any go to www.google.co.uk for search engine you want to listed, click Next to fix it. If use in Edge to add it to your any other apps are listed, it’s Google, for example. This default options adds that search engine to worth fixing those too. Edge’s default options. If Edge wasn’t identified as requiring To change the search engine, click a repair you can use Windows 10’s More (the three dots at the top right of System File Checker to fix corrupted files. the browser window), Settings, then To run it, press the Windows key+X, click scroll down and click ‘View advanced Command Prompt (Admin) and click Yes settings’. In the Advanced Settings menu, when prompted. Type sfc /scannow into click ‘Change search engine’, then the the Command Prompt window (see search engine you want to use. Finally, screenshot below) then press Enter. click ‘Set as default’ (see screenshot This starts the system scan and carries out above right). any fixes, which took about 40 minutes on our test PC.

Edge randomly crashing

Because Edge is still relatively new it’s still being regularly tweaked by Microsoft. While these updates are largely beneficial, there’s always a risk that some will introduce corrupted files that can cause Edge to crash. If you experience this, first try to update Windows. Click the Start button, type check for updates, press Enter and click ‘Check for updates’. If there are no new updates, or Edge continues to crash, you should try running

Browsing history not saving

If Edge isn’t keeping track of your browsing history, you need to reset its History options. Click the Hub icon (three uneven horizontal lines in the top right of the browser window), followed by History (clock icon) then ‘Clear all history’. Make sure that only the boxes next to ‘Cookies and saved website data’ and ‘Cached data and files’ are ticked then click Clear.

Type sfc /scannow into the Command Prompt to find to fix corrupted Windows 10 files


Open Task Manager (press Windows key+X and click Task Manager) and look for a running process called Microsoft Edge Content Process. Click the process then click End Task (see screenshot below). Close Task Manager, then close and re-open Edge. Your browsing history will now be recorded as usual.

If your browsing history isn’t being recorded, end Microsoft Edge Content Process in Task Manager

YouTube videos have no audio

This problem is probably caused by a conflict with Flash. To fix it, click the More button (three dots in the top right of the browser’s window) and click Settings, then ‘View advanced settings’. Slide the Use Adobe Flash Player option to off. If you subsequently visit a website that requires Flash, you can always switch it back on temporarily using this slider.

Can’t see saved favourites

Edge displays your favourites differently to Internet Explorer. To see them, click the Hub button at the top right of the browser window (three uneven, horizontal lines), then click the star icon (Favorites). From here, you can choose to always show your favourites below the address bar by clicking Settings, then moving the ‘Show the favorites bar’ slider to the right.

Next issue Fast Fixes for… USB ports

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No.24 Elephant Inks

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Originals: £107.99 No.24 Set of 6 £52.99 £10.99 No.24 Colours 4.6ml each £8.99 No.24XL Set of 6 £87.99 £44.99 No.24XL Colours 8.7ml each £14.99 £4.99 Compatibles: No.24 Set of 6 £22.99 More Canon Inks... No.24 Black 7ml £3.99 Originals: No.24 Colours 7ml each £3.99 PGi520/CLi521 Set of 5 £49.99 PGi520 Black 19ml £11.99 No.26 CLi521 Colours 9ml £10.29 Polar Bear Inks PGi525/CLi526 Set of 5 £49.99 PGi525 Black 19ml £11.99 Originals: £35.99 CLi526 Colours 9ml £10.29 No.26 Set of 4 £9.99 PGi550/CLi551 Set of 5 £43.99 No.26 Black 6.2ml No.26 Colours 4.5ml each £8.99 PGi550 Black 15ml £10.99 £63.99 CLi551 Colours 7ml £8.99 No.26XL Set of 4 No.26XL Black 12.1ml £16.99 PGi550/CLi551XL Set of 5 £59.99 No.26XL Colours 9.7ml each £15.99 PGi550XL Black 22ml £12.99 CLi551XL Colours 11ml £11.99 Compatibles: £14.99 PG540 Black 8ml £12.99 No.26 Set of 4 £3.99 PG540XL Black 21ml £19.99 No.26 Black 10ml No.26 Colours 7ml each £3.99 CL541 Colour 8ml £16.99 CL541XL Colour 15ml £19.99 PG545XL Black 15ml £15.49 T0481-T0486 CL546XL Colour 13ml £16.99 Seahorse Inks Compatibles: Originals: PGi5 Black 27ml £4.99 Set of 6 £89.99 CLi8 Colours 13ml £3.99 Colours 13ml each £18.99 PGi5/CLi8 Set of 5 £19.99 Compatibles: PGi520 Black 19ml £4.99 Set of 6 £19.99 CLi521 Colours 9ml £3.99 Colours 13ml each £3.99 PGi520/CLi521 Set of 5 £19.99 PGi525 Black 19ml £4.99 T0541-T0549 CLi526 Colours 9ml £3.99 PGi525/CLi526 Set of 5 £19.99 Frog Inks PGi550XL Black 25ml £4.99 Originals: £112.99 CLi551XL Colours 12ml £3.99 Set of 8 £14.99 PGi550/CLi551XL Set of 5 £19.99 Colours 13ml each BCi6 Colours 15ml £2.99 Compatibles: PG40 Black 28ml £12.99 Set of 8 £27.99 £3.99 CL41 Colour 24ml £16.99 Colours 13ml each PG50 Black 28ml £12.99 CL51 Colour 24ml £14.99 T0591-T0599 PG510 Black 11ml £13.99 Lily Inks CL511 Colour 11ml £15.99 PG512 Black 18ml £13.99 Originals: £102.99 CL513 Colour 15ml £15.99 Set of 8 £12.99 PG540XL Black 21ml £13.99 Colours 13ml each CL541XL Colour 15ml £14.99 Compatibles: £27.99 PG545XL Black 15ml £11.99 Set of 8 £3.99 PG546XL Black 21ml £12.99 Colours 13ml each Many more in stock!

Photo Papers

More Epson inks >>>

E&EO. Prices may be subject to change, but hopefully not!

PP-201 Plus Glossy II 275gsm: 6x4 50 sheets £9.99 7x5 20 sheets £11.99 A4 20 sheets £11.99 A3 20 sheets £27.99 A3+ 20 sheets £36.99 SG-201 Semi-Gloss 260gsm: 6x4 50 sheets £10.99 A4 20 sheets £11.99 A3 20 sheets £27.99 A3+ 20 sheets £44.99

Smooth Pearl 280gsm: 6x4 100 sheets £12.99 7x5 100 sheets £18.99 A4 50 sheets £18.99 A4 50 sheets £18.99 A3 50 sheets £35.99 A3+ 25 sheets £28.99 Oyster 271gsm: 6x4 100 sheets £12.99 7x5 100 sheets £18.99 A4 50 sheets £18.99 A3 25 sheets £22.99 A3+ 25 sheets £28.99 Gloss 271gsm: 6x4 100 sheets £12.99 7x5 100 sheets £18.99 A4 50 sheets £18.99 A3 25 sheets £22.99 A3+ 25 sheets £28.99 Double Sided Matt 250gsm: A4 100 sheets £24.99 A3 50 sheets £27.99

Premium Gloss 255gsm: 6x4 40 sheets +40 FREE £10.99 7x5 30 sheets £10.99 A4 15 sheets +15 FREE £10.99 A3 20 sheets £38.99 A3+ 20 sheets OFFER £25.99 Ultra Gloss 300gsm: 6x4 50 sheets £13.99 7x5 50 sheets £14.99 A4 15 sheets £15.99 Premium Semi-Gloss 251gsm: 6x4 50 sheets £8.99 A4 20 sheets £15.99 A3 20 sheets £39.99 A3+ 20 sheets OFFER £25.99 Archival Matte 192gsm: A4 50 sheets £16.99 A3 50 sheets £36.99 A3+ 50 sheets £52.99 Heavyweight Matte 167gsm: A4 50 sheets £12.99 A3 50 sheets £32.99 A3+ 50 sheets £46.99

More Ink Cartridges... T0711-T0714 Cheetah Inks

Originals: Set of 4 Black 7.4ml Colours 5.5ml each Compatibles: Set of 4 Black 7.4ml Colours 5.5ml each

£42.99 £10.99 £10.99 £14.99 £3.99 £3.99

T0791-T0796 Owl Inks

Originals: Set of 6 Colours 11.1ml each Compatibles: Set of 6 Colours 11.1ml each

£88.99 £14.99 £19.99 £3.99

T0801-T0806 Hummingbird Inks


£67.99 £11.49 £19.99 £3.99

T0871-T0879 Flamingo Inks


£76.99 £9.99 £27.99 £3.99

T0961-T0969 Husky Inks


Many more in stock!

£78.99 £9.99 £27.99 £3.99

Originals: No.300 Black 4ml £12.99 No.300 Colour 4ml £14.99 No.301 Black 3ml £10.99 No.301 Colour 3ml £13.49 No.302 Black 3.5ml £10.99 No.302 Colour 4ml £12.99 No.350 Black 4.5ml £14.99 No.351 Colour 3.5ml £17.99 No.363 Black 6ml £17.99 No.363 C/M/Y/PC/PM each £11.49 No.363 SET OF 6 £49.99 No.364 Black 6ml £8.99 No.364 PB/C/M/Y 3ml each £7.99 No.364 SET OF 4 £26.99 No.364XL Black 14ml £15.99 No.364XL PB/C/M/Y 6ml each £15.99 No.364XL SET OF 4 £59.99 No.920XL SET OF 4 £51.99 No.932XL SET OF 4 £50.99 No.950XL SET OF 4 £79.99 Compatibles: No.15 Black 46ml £3.99 No.21 Black 10ml £6.99 No.22 Colour 21ml £11.99 No.45 Black 45ml £6.99 No.56 Black 24ml £6.99 No.57 Colour 24ml £11.99 No.62XL Black 12ml £14.99 No.62XL Colour 12ml £15.99 No.78 Colour 36ml £8.99 No.110 Colour 12ml £9.99 No.300XL Black 18ml £12.99 No.300XL Colour 18ml £13.99 No.301XL Black 15ml £12.99 No.301XL Colour 18ml £13.99 No.337 Black 21ml £9.99 No.338 Black 21ml £10.99 No.339 Black 34ml £11.99 No.343 Colour 21ml £11.99 No.344 Colour 21ml £12.99 No.350XL Black 30ml £13.99 No.351XL Colour 20ml £15.99 No.363 SET OF 6 £19.99 No.364 Black 10ml £3.79 No.364 Colours 5ml each £3.29 No.364 SET OF 4 £12.99 No.364XL Black 18ml £4.99 No.364XL Colours 11ml each £4.29 No.364XL SET OF 4 £16.99

Albums & Frames

We now stock a comprehensive range of frames, mounts, albums and accessories. The full range can be viewed on our website, with detailed close-up images of each product to help you choose the perfect way to display your printed photographs. Below is just a tiny sample of what we offer: Grace Albums

Available in Burgundy or Blue.

Travel Albums

Emilia Frames Distressed wood shabby chic effect. Blue or White.

Rio Frames

Handcrafted solid wood with 30mm wide profile, in four colours.

Over a dozen designs in stock.

Grafton Albums

Available in Burgundy or Blue. Frisco Frames Simple, basic design available in a huge range of sizes & colours.

Baby Albums Multiple different designs available.

Memo Style Albums: Grace 6x4 100 photos £5.99 Grace 6x4 200 photos £9.99 Grace 6x4 300 photos £14.99 Grace 7x5 100 photos £7.99 Grace 7x5 200 photos £13.99 Grace A4 100 photos £15.99 Grafton 6x4 200 photos £9.99 Grafton 7x5 200 photos £13.99 Baby 6x4 200 photos £9.99 Travel 6x4 200 photos £8.99 Traditional Style Albums: Grace 29x32cm 100 pages £14.99 Grafton 29x32cm 100 pgs £14.99 Baby 29x32cm 100 pages £12.99 Accessories: Photo Corners Pack of 250 £2.99 Photo Stickers Pack of 500 £1.99

Plastic Bevel, Glass Front: Frisco 6x4 seven colours £1.99 Frisco 7x5 seven colours £2.29 Frisco 8x6 seven colours £2.79 Frisco 9x6 seven colours £3.49 Frisco 10x8 seven colours £3.79 Frisco 12x8 seven colours £4.59 Frisco A4 seven colours £3.99 Frisco A3 seven colours £8.99 Wood Bevel, Glass Front: Emilia 6x4 two colours £4.99 Emilia 7x5 two colours £5.99 Emilia 8x6 two colours £6.99 Emilia 10x8 two colours £7.99 Emilia 12x8 two colours £8.99 Rio 6x4 four colours £5.99 Rio 7x5 four colours £6.99 Rio 8x6 four colours £7.99 Rio 10x8 four colours £8.99 Rio 12x8 four colours £9.99

USB Pen Drives

8GB: £3.29 16GB: £4.49 32GB: £7.99

Memory SDHC & SDXC

Sandisk Blue 33X (5MB/s) 8GB £3.49 16GB £4.99 32GB £9.99 Sandisk Ultra 266X (40MB/s) 8GB £5.99 16GB £6.99 32GB £11.99 64GB £21.99 Sandisk Extreme 600X (90MB/s) 16GB £9.99 32GB £14.99 64GB £27.99

Compact Flash Sandisk Ultra 333X (50MB/s) 8GB £11.99 16GB £15.99 32GB £24.99

Sandisk Extreme 800X (120MB/s) 16GB £26.99 32GB £32.99 64GB £47.99 128GB £94.99

MicroSDHC & SDXC Sandisk Ultra 320X (48MB/s) 16GB £6.99 32GB £12.99 64GB £24.99

Readers & Cases

Delkin USB2 Card Reader £9.99 Delkin USB3 Card Reader £19.99 Delkin SD Card (x8) Case £6.99 Delkin CF Card (x4) Case £6.99 Many more in stock!

Batteries BP-511 for Canon LP-E6 for Canon LP-E8 for Canon LP-E12 for Canon EN-EL3E for Nikon NB-2L/LH for Canon NB-6L for Canon NB-10L for Canon NP95 for Fuji NPW126 for Fuji EN-EL3e for Nikon EN-EL14 for Nikon EN-EL15 for Nikon BLN-1 for Olympus BLC12 for Panasonic FW50 for Sony BX-1 for Sony AA 1300mAh (4) AAA 1100mAh (4)

£12.99 £16.99 £12.99 £12.99 £14.99 £9.99 £9.99 £12.99 £9.99 £12.99 £14.99 £19.99 £24.99 £24.99 £23.99 £24.99 £14.99 £3.99 £3.99

Filters Screw-type Filters 46mm UV / Haze 49mm UV / Haze 52mm UV / Haze 55mm UV / Haze 58mm UV / Haze 62mm UV / Haze 67mm UV / Haze 72mm UV / Haze 77mm UV / Haze

£4.99 £4.99 £4.99 £5.99 £6.99 £7.99 £8.99 £8.99 £11.99 Skylight Filters from: £6.99 Circular Polarising Filters from: £14.99 ND4 and ND8 Filters from: £11.99

P-Type Square Filters 49-82mm Adapter Rings Filter Holder ND2 Filter ND2 Grad Filter ND4 Filter ND4 Grad Filter

£4.99 £5.99 £12.99 £13.99 £12.99 £13.99

www.premier-ink.co.uk Telephone: 01926 339977 or 0800 1077 211 Premier Ink & Photographic 12 Longfield Road, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV31 1XB

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Jargon Buster 1080p Of the common types of HD video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 32bit A measure of how much data a computer can process at once. Most older PCs are 32bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 5GHz Wireless networks working at 5GHz have shorter range, but are less prone to interference. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. 720p A common resolution of HD video: 1280x720 pixels. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. 802.11n A standard for wireless networks that allows for high transfer speeds. Add-in Tools that can be added to Microsoft Office software. ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A technology that converts a standard phone line into a broadband internet connection. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Bootloader A program that runs when a computer starts up and loads the operating system. Cache A temporary space for storing information. Cloning A backup feature that makes an exact copy of a drive on to another drive. Codec A file that tells a computer how to record or play a media file. Cookie A small text file stored on your computer by a website. Used to store browsing preferences, website log-in details and so on. CPU Central Processing Unit. Another term for a computer processor. Defragment To reorganise the data stored on a hard drive so files can be accessed quickly.

DNS Domain Name System. A technology that associates computers with their addresses on the internet. Extension A program that adds extra features to your browser. Factory image The part of your hard drive containing your operating system. Firmware Basic software stored on a device, such as a music player, to control its operation. Flash memory A type of memory that can retain information without a power source. Format To prepare a drive for use. Gesture Finger movements on a screen that perform an action.

JPEG A common type of image file. LCD Liquid-Crystal Display. The technology used to create almost all flatscreen TVs and monitors. LED Light-Emitting Diode. An electronic device that emits light. Used on most electronic devices. M.2 A standard specification for internal PC expansion cards. Megapixel A measure of the amount of detail that can be recorded by a digital image.

PNG Portable Network Graphics. A format for images that shrinks file sizes without discarding any data. Port forwarding Choosing which computer in your network a router should connect to. PowerShell A Windows tool for automating commands. PUP Potentially Unwanted Program. A downloaded program that may not be desired. Quad core A computer that has four processors on a single chip.

MicroSD A small type of memory card. Can be converted to SD size using an adapter.

RAM Random-access memory. The computer’s working area.

MU MIMO Wi-Fi technology that increases the number of antennas that can be used.

RAW A format for digital photos that stores the image exactly as the camera captured it.

ON SALE NOW! The A-Z Jargon Buster Book

Remote code execution When a hacker is able to start a program running on a remote computer. SATA Serial ATA. An interface for connecting modern hard drives and optical discs to a computer.

This A-Z guide contains over 900 definitions of computing and tech jargon, n, helping you take back control of your PC.

Sideload To install apps without using the official Android or iOS stores. SSD Solid-state drive. Storage that, unlike a hard drive, uses no moving parts.

BUY IT AT


GHz Gigahertz. A measure of how many instructions a chip can process per second.

NAS Network-attached storage. A hard drive attached to a network that can be shared with other PCs.

Gigabit Ethernet A very fast networking standard that can transfer data at up to 1,000Mbps.

NFC A technology that allows two devices to communicate by being touched together or placed near to each other.

GIF Graphics Interchange Format. A type of image file often used on the web.

Open source Software that can be modified by anyone.

Graphics card A component in a computer that produces the image shown on the monitor.

Overclocking Making a processor work faster to improve the PC’s performance.

Heatsink A block used to reduce the heat from a computer chip.

Partition A large hard drive can be split into two or more partitions.

IP address A set of numbers used to identify computers and websites on the internet.

PCI Express x16 A graphics interface that offers increased bandwidth.

System restore point The collection of system files stored by System Restore on a given date and time to which Windows can revert if a problem occurs. USB 2.0/3.0/3.1 Faster versions of USB used by devices such as external hard drives. USB Type-C A new connector that’s reversible. Windows ID Login details for Microsoft accounts made up of your email address and password. Write speed How long it takes a hard drive to save data. Zero-day flaw A previously unknown software flaw that can be exploited by malware or hackers. ZIP file A file that contains compressed documents or files.


The Final Straw This issue Ken Rigsby wants to press delete on…

KEN RIGSBY is Computeractive’s Mr Angry

Illogical keyboards I

’ll cut to the chase: whoever designed my new laptop’s keyboard is a bozo. This irksome individual decided it’d be a brilliant wheeze to put Insert right next to Backspace. That’s a common layout on desktop keyboards, so I’m sure it seemed logical at the time. However, the cramped confines of my laptop afford no physical space between these two keys, meaning I sometimes hit Insert instead of Backspace, then end up typing over stuff I’ve already written. Genius!

Using this keyboard was like trying to ride a clown’s bike, pedalling backwards to go forwards

But this isn’t my new keyboard’s only annoyance: the F11 key’s secondary function puts the machine into Airplane Mode. What does that mean? It means that when I hold down the Function (Fn) key and tap F10 to increase volume (which is the secondary function of F10) I sometimes miss, accidentally turning off my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the process. This shuts off my internet connection and disconnects my wireless headphones, causing music to suddenly blare out of my PC’s speakers. And if I don’t take care when correcting my mistake I put my computer to sleep, because some idiot decided this should be the secondary function of nearby F12. But my new laptop’s keyboard is hardly unique. Every keyboard I’ve ever used has 74 26 October – 8 November 2016

exhibited a similar design stupidity. On one laptop the Page Up and Page Down buttons were positioned left and right rather than, you know, top and bottom. Moreover, the left and right arrow keys sandwiched the up and down ones, which were themselves positioned adjacently left and right. Using this layout to navigate a document was like trying to ride a clown’s bike, pedalling backwards to go forwards and steering left to turn right. Now consider the design of PC keyboards generally: they’re literally stuck in the past. Look at your keyboard. Does it have an Alt Gr key? Thought so. What’s that for then? You don’t know? Thought so again. I could bore you with the history of Alt Gr but it’s pretty much a legacy key. Today, it has no real reason to exist. It’s appropriately named, though, because every time I look at Alt Gr it makes me think: “Grr… what a waste of a key”. For curiosity’s sake, hold down Alt Gr and press the key that usually sits just to the left of ‘1’. You’ll type the ‘pipe’ symbol (|). That’ll be the pipe symbol that sits on that other key that has barely any purpose on modern PCs. Hold down Function/Fn at the same time and the same key might type a backwards-facing apostrophe – perfect for all those moments when you need to be grammatically possessive in reverse. For even more puzzlement hold down Shift while pressing the pipe key and you’ll type what looks like a Tetris piece (or a square). Good luck finding a use for that! I’d wager no one really knows why this key still exists, and no one has had the common sense to replace it with a Google or Facebook button. Keyboards designs needn’t be so terrible. I’ve ranted plenty about Apple, and its Mac keyboards also have plenty of silly legacy keys. But Apple’s iOS mobile

operating system sets the standard for smartphone and tablet keyboards. They’re full of simple yet clever ideas that you use every day. Type a web address, for example, and notice that Enter becomes Go. Or open the Mail app and notice how the comma key is initially replaced by the @ symbol, because that’s what you need when typing email addresses. Android’s touchscreen keyboard employs many of the same ideas. But here’s the thing: even touchscreen keyboards aren’t as smart as they could be. That’s because they rely on the familiar QWERTY layout, which was invented in 1878 - for typewriters. The arrangement wasn’t designed for efficient typing but to prevent mechanical jams. We’re all so used to QWERTY that it seems normal. But really, it’s the ultimate stupid keyboard design. What do you hate about keyboards? Let us know at [email protected]

Next issue Ken runs out of battery power

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Computeractive 26.October.2016

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