1.

99
Welcome
EDITORIAL
Group Editor Daniel Booth
Features Editor Mike Plant
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From the Editor
Production Editor Graham Brown I have a hate-hate relationship with product
Art Editor Katie Peat
Sorry, no technical or buying advice. manuals, having never found one that was
ADVERTISING actually written by a human being. Its as though
Group Ad Manager Charlotte Milligan
Deputy Advertising Manager Alexa Dracos
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For subscription enquiries ring 0330 333 9493
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away from manuals. Companies like Apple Jane Hoskyn to create the denitive manual,
PRODUCTION
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Stephen Catherall
Production Controller
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Managing Director John Garewal
MD of Advertising Julian Lloyd-Evans from an accompanying handbook. ick through 17 dierent languages to nd it
Commercial and Retail Director David Barker The same applies to the internet, particularly just turn to page 50.
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Chief Executive James Tye Googles numerous sites and services. But its Daniel Booth
Company Founder Felix Dennis
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5 - 18 July 2017 3
 Contents 5 18 July 2017 Issue 505

In this issue

50 Google: the missing manual

Get to grips with Googles
great tools and make the most of
hidden features you never knew
The CCOONNCC

MISSING
existed CLE IISSE
&& C
ADDVVIICAR
A R

58 7 settings that make pp

CEE
5050
your PC slow

MANUAL
Make your PC fast and yourself less
furious with our essential tweaks for
better performance

60 Take advantage of
Microsofts Rewards scheme
Earn prizes, gift cards and streaming
Secret instructions for the Google tools youll never stop using

subscriptions simply by browsing

Rewards:
Take your PC out of a browsing
the slow lane p58 success p60

In every issue Keep your inbox on message p74

6 News 33 Competition
Win a FRITZ!Box 3490
11 Question of wireless router
the Fortnight
Should you chuck your 49 Whats All the Fuss
Virgin Media router? About? Shimon

12 Letters 64 Problems Solved

14 Consumeractive 70 Reader Support

16 Protect Your Tech
18 Best Free Software
Calibre 3.0
30 Buy It!
Your tech problems xed
73 Jargon Buster
74 The Final Straw
Ken Rigsby clears out his
confusing email inboxes

4 5 18 July 2017
 Subscribe
be
NOW!
See page 62
for our speciall
subs offer

Microsoft Surface Reviews

Laptop p20
20 Microsoft Surface Laptop
Windows 10 S laptop comes loaded
Wind
Wi
and locked
an

21 Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017)

Fire
Fi tablet now does what its told

22 HP Spectre x360
HPs 2-in-1 works on both levels
HP

24 HTC U11
decent phone with a heavy price tag
A de
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom
Ulti
Ul
Bluetooth speakers are a sound choice
Blue
Bl

25 Ikea Trdfri
Home lighting just got smarter

Amazon Fire HD 8 p21 PC Specialist Enigma K3 GT Brother MFC-J5330DW

26 Brothe
p28 MFP thats quick to impress

27 How to choose a printer

Our guide to inkjets and laser options

Specialist Enigma K3 GT
28 PC Spe
Budget PC with some new Intel

iStorage diskAshur
29 iStora
Pro2 HDD 500GB
A hard drive you can encrypt

THE ADVANCED GUIDE

Workshops & Tips TO WINDOWS 10
14 pages of brilliant workshops and expert tips
ON SALE NOW!
35 Open your PCs folders in 42 Add text to videos then
convenient tabs share them on Skype

38 Stop hackers spying 43 Readers Tips

on your family Index your User Folder contents

40 Turn your phone into 44 Phone and Tablet Tips

a scanner Hide images in Google Photos

46 Make Windows Better

Access OneDrive more easily

47 Make Office Better

Create multiple email signatures

48 Secret Tips For BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON

Copy and paste at www.snipca.com/21617

5 18 July 2017 5
 News
Microsoft fixes XP to avoid
the next WannaCry
M icrosoft has taken the
surprising decision to
release a security update for
Windows XP, which it stopped
supporting in April 2014. It
was part of Microsofts Patch
Tuesday for June, which
contains updates for all versions
of Windows, from XP to 10.
In the blog post announcing
the updates (www.snipca.
com/24767), Microsoft said
that it took this action to
provide further protection
against highly destructive
ransomware attacks like
WannaCry. Its only the third
time the company has
released a x for a product it
no longer supports.
Microsoft added that it was
particularly worried about
attacks from hackers backed
by nation states, saying its
decision was based on an
assessment of the current
threat landscape by our
security engineers.
The company didnt go into
further details, but its
WANNACRY HACKERS FROM NORTH KOREA
The hackers behind the
WannaCry attack were
from North Korea, UK
and US spies have claimed.
Following investigations
security ocials from GCHQ
and the NSA blamed Lazarus
Group, the cyber-criminal gang
linked to North Koreas spy
agency, the Reconnaissance
Youll like this
The TEO robot can iron your clothes
watch it do so at www.snipca.com/24772
6 5 18 July 2017
Round up of the top stories or something like this here
1
2 protect XP from WannaCry
update to protect Windows 7,
probably responding to the
theft in April of hacking tools
developed by the US
governments National
Security Agency (NSA). One of
these, called EternalBlue, was
used by the WannaCry hackers.
Three others, called
EsteemAudit, ExplodingCan
and EnglishmanDentist, have
yet to be used by hackers,
though security experts fear
General Bureau (RGB).
North Korea was rst
accused within days of
175 wordsfrom the NSA shows that
the attack, in mid May. But
later analysis from US security
company Flashpoint suggested
the attackers might be Chinese,
because the grammar and
punctuation used in the
WannaCry message indicated
that they could be
unleashed soon.
Microsofts latest
update xes the
aws that these tools
can exploit.
The company was
heavily criticised for
releasing a x to
two months after it issued an
8.1 and 10. During this gap
WannaCry infected thousands
of computers worldwide,
although XP machines were
largely unaected because
many of them crashed before
being able to spread the
malware.
In another message online
(www.snipca.com/24768)
Microsoft said that releasing a
x for XP should not be
viewed as a departure from
our standard servicing
policies. In other words, the
XP update is a one-o.
they were native or at least
uent in the language.
However, new evidence
WannaCry contained IP
addresses in China previously
used by the RGB. It said it
could attribute the attack to
North Korea with moderate
condence.
but not this
New fake BT bill contains deadly Dridex
malware (www.snipca.com/24773)
COMMENT
Some security experts
have criticised Microsoft
for releasing xes for XP,
saying it sends the wrong
message to businesses
and organisations that still
use the unsafe operating
system. But thats unrealistic.
Microsoft cant simply say I
told you so when the next
WannaCry-style attack
destroys computer systems
around the world. It has
acted responsibly to a wave
of threats more serious
than anything seen before,
protecting us from North
Koreas goal of triggering a
global computer meltdown.
How to install
the update
Computers running
Windows 7, 8.1 and 10
will receive the updates
automatically. Users still
running Windows XP,
Vista and 8 will need to
install them manually. To
do so visit www.snipca.
com/24770, scroll down to
your operating system, and
click the numbers on the right
(comprising six and seven
digits - see screenshot 1).
This will take you to the
download page for each
update, most of which look
like screenshot 2. Keep the
language English, then click
the Download button.
Google to automatically find and
remove terror videos
Google has said it will start to
automatically search YouTube
to nd and remove extremist
videos, following criticism
from governments that its
not doing enough to ght
terrorism online.
Writing on Googles blog,
Kent Walker (www.snipca.
com/24756), the companys
top lawyer, said machine
learning will identify content
that should be removed.
He added that its not an
easy task because a video of a
terrorist attack may be
informative news reporting if
broadcast by the BBC, or
glorication of violence if
uploaded in a dierent context
by a dierent user.
The measure is one of four
Google has announced to
toughen its stance. It also
plans to increase the number
of people looking for
extremist videos on YouTube
because, Walker says, human
experts still play a role in
nuanced decisions about the
Rise of social seniors on Facebook
Almost half of people aged 65
to 74 use social media, while
more than a quarter of
over-75s have a tablet, a new
Ofcom report has found.
The statistics come from its
annual Adults Media Use and
Attitudes survey (www.
snipca.com/24757), looking at
how people use, understand
and feel about technology.
Compiled in the autumn
of 2016, it shows a rise in
social seniors. Facebook
is by far the most popular
service, with nearly 90 per
cent of those using social
media having an account
on the site. Around six per
cent use the messaging
tool WhatsApp.
line between violent
propaganda and religious or
newsworthy speech.
Another new measure sees
Google changing its policy on
videos that dont violate its
rules, but do contain, for
example, inammatory
religious or supremacist
content. These videos wont
make money through adverts,
and users wont be able to
recommend or comment on
them, making them harder for
other viewers to nd.
Walker says this is a balance
between free expression and
access to information without
Social media is attracting
more over-75s, too, with 41
per cent now using it, up from
19 per cent in 2015.
Tablets are also growing in
popularity in this age group
27 per cent now use one, up
from 15 per cent two years
ago. The use of smartphones
has nearly doubled, from eight
per cent to 15 per cent.
promoting extremely oensive
viewpoints.
Lastly, YouTube will
expand its role in counter-
radicalisation eorts, in
particular targeting potential
Islamic State recruits with
online adverts that direct
them to anti-terrorist videos.
Googles announcement
came three days before the
Queens Speech, in which the
Government said it wouldnt
shy away from tackling
extremist content online.
Its planning a Digital Charter
to make the UK the safest
place in the world to be online.
However, over-65s spend far
less time online than 16-24
years olds 15 hours a week,
compared with 32 hours.
Internet use drops sharply
after the age of 75, with 56 per
cent of people never going
online. Of those, 86 per cent
say they have no plans to.
Individuals condence in
their computing skills drops
with age. A fth of
over-65s said they were
not condent online, maybe Lenovo thinks that in
against an overall average
of seven per cent.
Visit our Facebook page
for breaking news, scam
warnings and more:
www.facebook.com/
computeractive
IN BRIEF
UKS MOBILE INTERNET
FASTEST IN WORLD
The UK has the fastest
mobile internet in the
world, according to US
tech company Akamai
Technologies. It found that
the average speed in the
UK is 26Mbps, followed by
Germany on 24.1Mbps and
Finland on 21.6Mbps. The
top eight countries are all
European, with Australia
and Japan placed ninth
and tenth respectively,
much higher than the US in
28th. The global average is
7.2Mbps 15 per cent faster
than last year.
KODI ADD ONS
SITE CLOSES
One of the most popular
websites listing unocial
add-ons for TV-streaming
software Kodi has been
unexpectedly shut down.
TVAddOns, at www.
tvaddons.ag, had links to
1,500 add-ons, many of
which allowed people to
access paid-for content
illegally. It comes amid a
wider crackdown on Kodi led
by broadcasters and
TV-streaming services, such
as Sky and Netix.
Tomorrows
world
This laptop may look like
it melted in the recent
heatwave, but its actually a
new design concept from
Lenovo. It has a screen and
a keyboard, but no hinge.
It also lacks a trackpad, so
the future well be controlling
computers with our voices,
not ngers.
5 18 July 2017 7
 Millions hit as hackers take down
Skype for 48 hours
A group of hackers have said
they were behind a massive
Skype crash that frustrated
millions of users around the
world, leaving them unable to
log in, receive messages or
make voice calls.
The CyberTeam gang
made the claim on Twitter
(www.snipca.com/24766),
saying it would next target
Microsofts game-streaming
service Steam.
It took Microsoft two days to
x the problems, which began
at 7.01pm on Monday 19 June.
The following afternoon
Microsoft said it was seeing
improvements in the service,
but it took until 6pm on
Wednesday 21 June for Skype
to work fully again.
The crash mostly aected
users in Europe, as shown by
the map above from Down
Detector (http://downdetector.
co.uk), which measures in real
time when websites are
oine, and when broadband
companies are having
problems providing internet
Log in with keyboards finger scanner
Microsoft has unveiled a new
keyboard for Windows 10 that
lets you sign into websites and
your computer using your
ngerprint rather than a
password.
Called the Modern
Keyboard, it contains a
ngerprint scanner between
the Alt and right-click buttons
to the right of the space bar
(see image).
Placing your nger on the
key unlocks the computer,
which can connect to the
keyboard via either Bluetooth
or a USB cable. Its position
means it shouldnt get
accidentally tapped while the
user is typing.
The scanner works with
8 5 18 July 2017
access to customers.
Microsoft hasnt said what
kind of hack it was, but
security experts have
suggested it was a Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS)
attack. This is an attempt to
knock a website oine by
overwhelming it with internet
trac sent by botnets.
DDoS attacks can be
devastating. The Dyn attack in
October 2016 brought down
much of Americas internet,
including the sites of Twitter,
Netix and CNN, plus many
others in Europe. Both Donald
Trump and Hillary Clintons
Windows Hello, Microsofts
biometric system of
identifying users. As well
reading ngerprints, Hello can
use a webcam to scan a users
iris and recognise their face.
Check which computers
support Hello at www.snipca.
com/24780.
The keyboard, which looks
almost identical to the Surface
Keyboard launched last year,
presidential campaigns were
also targeted by DDoS hacks.
However, hackers cant steal
personal data during DDoS
attacks, so Skype users dont
need to worry about their
details falling into the wrong
hands.
Until this crash the longest
time Skype had spent oine
was 15 hours in September
2015. Microsoft quickly
apologised to users (www.
snipca.com/24781), blaming a
larger-than-usual
conguration change.
Add text to your Skype
videos Workshop page 42
will be on sale in the
US soon priced
$129.99 (around
100).
Microsoft said it
wanted to blend the
Fingerprint reader
into a keyboard, so it
would appear to be
any other key. It
added that the aluminium
frame makes the keyboard
virtually indestructible. In
wireless mode it has a battery
life of four months.
Accompanying the
keyboard is a Modern Mouse,
priced $49.99 (around 40).
Find out more on
Microsofts site:
www.snipca.com/24774
IN BRIEF
THREE FINED FOR
999 FAILURE
Ofcom has ned mobile
network Three 1.9m for
not being able to guarantee
that customers could make
emergency 999 calls at
any time. It discovered
the aw following an
investigation last year into
a temporary loss of Threes
service in Kent, Hampshire
and parts of London. It found
that calls had to pass through
one data centre, leaving the
network vulnerable to a
single point of failure. Three
now uses multiple data
centres to direct calls to
BTs network.
RANSOMWARE ATTACKS
LONDON UNIVERSITY
University College London
has become the latest
organisation to fall victim
to ransomware. The attack
in mid June forced the
university to disconnect
large parts of its IT system.
It is believed that the
ransomware inltrated the
network after someone
clicked a link in a phishing
email. It came four weeks
after the global WannaCry
hack.
Tomorrows
world
In the past relationships
crumbled due to indelity or
endless rows. Today couples
are guilty of phubbing
a blend of phone and
snubbing, which is ignoring
a loved-one in favour of your
handset. A survey from Baylor
University in Texas found 70
per cent of people felt their
partners phone interfered
with their relationship.
Do we need a new marriage
vow: to have and to phub?
Microsoft admits turning off rival
antivirus software
Microsoft has admitted that it
does disable some antivirus
software made by other
companies, but claims its
because they wont work
properly on Windows 10,
and that they want to limit
competition from rivals.
The company was
responding to an
anti-competition lawsuit led
by Kaspersky in the EU that
alleges Microsoft ercely
promotes its own Windows
Defender security software
above rival alternatives.
Writing in a blog post
(www.snipca.com/24754),
Microsofts Partner Director
Rob Leerts said that a small
number of security programs
around ve per cent are
incompatible with Windows
10. It therefore added a feature
to the recent Creators Update
that prompts the user to
install a new version.
However, he acknowledged
that in doing so Microsoft also
Watch iPlayer? Youve got to sign in
The BBC is forcing people
using iPlayer to sign in, a
move that will help the
corporation to identify viewers
who access the service but
havent paid for a TV Licence.
It comes after a change in the
law last year, making the
Licence mandatory for
watching or downloading
BBC programmes on iPlayer.
The corporation denied it
was cracking down on people
not paying the fee, but
admitted that the
information you provide us
with can help TV Licensing
ensure that people are abiding
by the law and minimise
licence fee evasion.
However, it claimed it
wouldnt use mass
surveillance techniques or ask
V
disables some parts of the
antivirus.
Leerts added that
Microsoft works with all
antivirus companies to
specify which versions of their
software are compatible and
where to direct customers
after updating. Although
Leerts doesnt mention
Kaspersky, his comments can
be read as a rebuttal to the
Russian companys claim that
Microsoft doesnt give it
enough time to test whether
its software works with
Windows.
internet providers for IP
addresses to pinpoint those
who evade the fee. Instead it
will match users emails to
see if anyone who has signed
in has previously said they
dont need a TV Licence.
Since the BBC announced
the change in May, users have
been able to click Ill do it
later to postpone signing in.
This was accompanied with
the message: You now need
Eugene Kaspersky, founder
of the company, explained the
reasons behind the lawsuit in
a blog post in June (www.
snipca.com/24596, see News,
Issue 504, page 8). He accused
Microsoft of deliberately
confusing users by casting
doubt on the eectiveness of
antivirus software made by
other companies.
As well as these underhand
tactics, he even claimed that
Microsofts support sta tell
users having problems to
uninstall antivirus software.
Microsoft says that before
Kaspersky led the lawsuit it
tried to arrange a meeting
with the company to better
understand their concerns.
It will be keen to avoid
another expensive
anti-competition trial, having
been ned 561m in 2013
for promoting its Internet
Explorer browser over others,
such as Googles Chrome and
Mozillas Firefox.
to sign in to watch. Its
quick & easy. And
well keep you signed
in (see screenshot).
The BBC says that
the main reason for
the change is to make
iPlayer more personal
and relevant to
individual users. It
wants to suggest programmes
you might like based on what
youve watched before.
By signing in youll receive
alerts about world events,
topics and trends that youve
told the BBC youre interested
in. Youll also be able to watch
a show on a device, pause it,
then resume watching on
another.
Read more on the BBCs
blog: www.snipca.com/24740.
IN BRIEF
MORRISONS FINED FOR
SENDING SPAM
Supermarket Morrisons has
been ned 10,500 by the
Information Commissioners
Oce (ICO) for sending
marketing emails to
customers who had said they
didnt want to receive any. A
total of 130,671 emails were
sent in late 2016 to people
with a Morrisons store card.
Customers were asked to
change their marketing
preferences in order to
receive discounts and earn
points from using their card.
AMAZON TO START
SELLING CARS
Amazon looks set to start
selling cars online in the UK,
following a trial in Italy with
Fiat. Details were leaked by
the German car magazine
Automobilwoche, which
claimed that the company
was hiring car salespeople
in the UK. Amazon hasnt
conrmed the report, but
retail experts say it makes
commercial sense for the
company to move into the
motor industry, and warned
existing car dealers that it
could undercut their prices.
UK HACKER JAILED FOR
ROBBING BANK
A UK hacker has been jailed
for 16 months for stealing
almost 100,000 from
Clydesdale and Yorkshire
Banking Group. In December
last year James Ejankowski,
24, from Bridlington,
exploited a bug in the banks
online system that let him
transfer notional funds
between his current account
and his savings account
between midnight and 1am
without the bank nding
out. He spent the money
on a BMW, a Range Rover
and tattoos, before handing
himself in on Boxing Day
saying he had only 40 left.
5 18 July 2017 9
 News
Jane Hoskyn puts
t th
the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and
software stued with junk
WARNING: JUNK AHEAD
Junk oender:
IObit Smart Defrag
IObits free defragging tool Smart
Defrag (www.snipca.com/24777) is not a
bad program. It can help to make your PC
run faster and more smoothly, and its
broadly well-behaved. But like a kid
whos easily led astray, Smart Defrag has a
habit of bringing unwanted friends home
and these friends change depending on
the day of the week.
Last Thursday afternoon, I ran Smart
Defrags installer to see what lurked
within. It was positively polite compared
with the trail of Yahoo-spewing, browser-
hijacking horrors Ive featured lately. OK,
so it contained a triple whammy of PUPs
IObit Advanced SystemCare (an entirely
separate program from Smart Defrag),
password manager Dashlane, and an
ebook but none was pre-ticked, so they
were easy to skip.
What are they
talking about?
What they say
Google (www.snipca.com/24778):
The light representing
the image includes a
plurality of rst rays and
a plurality of second rays.
For example, the refractor
is constructed of a material having a
coecient of refraction dierent than
the surrounding atmosphere. The
refractor includes a surface having a
plurality of peaks and a plurality of
valleys each connected by a facet.
What they mean
A lampshade that can take 360-degree
photos. Do Googles patent lawyers
charge per unit of jargon?
10 5 18 July 2017
Then Friday dawned and I downloaded
the installer again, intending to take a
few screenshots. And wait, what have we
here? Pre-ticked boxes for the Chromium
browser and a Yahoo search toolbar (see
screenshot)? Oh, IObit.
Gloomy with disappointment (and
disgruntlement, since it meant I had to
rewrite this page), I unticked the
oending boxes. The rst box (Install
Search Manager extension) sounds
dodgy, but the second (I agree to install
the above) sounds important enough to
fool many users into waving a browser
hijacker into their hard drives.
I managed to install Smart Defrag
without the Yahoo-powered Chromium
and Search Manager PUPs, but Id not got
away junk-free. Malwarebytes AdwCleaner
found an Advanced SystemCare folder in
my AppData directory. IObit hadnt
forcibly installed Advanced SystemCare,
Janes villain of the fortnight
Facebook baby-dangler
1,000 likes or I will drop
him. That was the
caption beneath this
photo, posted on
Facebook by a man whos
now serving two years in
an Algerian prison for holding this
child o a 15th-oor balcony with one
hand. The other hand, of course, was
employed taking the photo.
Its a shocking case, and very much
of its time. Likes are the new social
currency. People are deranged by greed
for them, just as the lure of cash has
driven unspeakable acts through history.
It gets worse. The unnamed man,
who was a relative of the child, accused
Facebook users of Photoshopping
IObit Smart Defrag bundles Yahoo search
junk, but it wasnt there yesterday
but it was laying the ground for it, and
thats not acceptable.
In the original version of this column I
tried to stick up for IObit, which is
currently at odds with Malwarebytes over
the fact that AdwCleaner ags up its
additional folders. But after Friday
mornings toolbar encounter, IObit has
lost my sympathy. IObit would argue that
this stu isnt malware, but people who
nd their browsers hijacked dont care
about the distinction between adware
and malware. Adware is scary and can be
hard to remove there is no excuse for it.
protective railings out of
the photo. If youve ever
used Photoshop youll
know thats almost
impossible. Worse still,
the childs father
defended the dangler and urged the
court in Algiers not to lock him up. The
judge took a dierent view.
Parental love is the strongest
motivator humans can feel. Grim lab
tests have seen animals voluntarily
burn to death rather than let their
babies suer. Have Facebook likes
trumped biology?
Want to nominate a villain of the fortnight?
Email us at editor@computeractive.co.uk
 ?
Question
of the
Fortnight Should you chuck your
Virgin Media router?
Its slower than rivals and can be hacked in days (not millennia)
A lot can happen in
262 million years.
Continents can drift,
mountains can rise,
species can evolve then
become extinct. Its
also how long it would
take hackers to break
into Virgin Medias latest
router, the Hub 3.0, which
makes it safe enough for us
and we suspect for most
people. But worryingly
864,000 Virgin customers still
use the older Super Hub 2
router, and that can be hacked
in just four days.
This alarming discovery
was made by a team of
hackers working with
consumer group Which?, as
part of an investigation into
the security of home devices
that connect to the internet.
The weak point of the router
was its default password. It
was only eight characters
long, using just lower-case
letters from the alphabet, with
two letters removed. It was
easily hacked using tools that
are widely available online.
Virgin responded quickly,
urging customers to change
the password. You can do this
by connecting your computer
to the Super Hub 2 with an
ethernet cable, then typing
the web address thats printed
on the sticker on your router
(you can also see this at www.
snipca.com/24782). This will
open the routers settings
page. From here click Wireless
Network Settings, enter your
new password in the
passphrase box, restart all
devices that use the router,
then type your new password.
Make sure this is at least 12
Virgins router was easily
hacked using tools that are
widely available online
characters long, and includes
numbers as well as upper-
and lower-case letters. Doing
so makes the Super Hub 2 s
default password so much
harder to crack.
But while the Hub 3.0
is more secure than its
predecessor, it came bottom
in a recent router group test
run by our sister title PC Pro.
Only Skys routers were
slower at close range than
Virgins 47.5Mbps, but they
had more features than the
Hub 3.0 and so scored higher
overall. BT, the other internet
service provider (ISP) tested,
fared much better, hitting
85.5Mbps on its Smart Hub.
All three companies were
beaten by specialist router
manufacturers. Topping the
table with 109Mbps was
TP-Links Archer VR2800
(190 from Amazon www.
snipca.com/24783). Netgears
Nighthawk X10 was a close
THE FACTS
Virgin Media has told over
800,000 customers using
the Super Hub 2.0 router to
change its default password
It follows an investigation
that showed the password
takes just four days to hack
Virgins latest router, the
Hub 3.0, came bottom in a
recent group test
second, hitting 102Mbps, but
it costs an eye-watering 400.
This isnt pocket money.
Routers from ISPs may be
slower, but at least theyre
free - although the
companies make up the
shortfall in their contract fees
(nothing is truly free, after all).
In any case, buying a new
router doesnt mean you can
bin Virgins Hub, because the
new one needs to connect to
the old one to work. Youll
have to switch your Hub to
modem mode (following
Virgins instructions at www.
snipca.com/24784), then
attach it to your new routers
Ethernet WAN port.
So no, you shouldnt chuck
out your Virgin router.
Instead, ask Virgin to upgrade
you to its Hub 3.0 which,
despite its poor test results,
will be fast enough for most
people. One Computeractive
writer recently requested the
latest Hub via customer
services (0345 454 1111) while
haggling for a cheaper deal.
It arrived the next day - and
yes, he changed the default
password straight away. Make
sure you do too.
5 18 July 2017 11
 Letters
Treat dating
scams more
seriously
I was pleased
to see the
problem of online
dating scams being
addressed in Issue
504s Question of
the Fortnight (How
can we detect online
dating scammers?). I feel that this type
of scam hasnt been taken seriously
because people tend to blame the victim
for being so naive. Also, I think the actual
number of cases could be much higher
because many victims probably feel
embarrassed that theyve been tricked
by someone promising them love and
riches.
There has been a lot of talk this year
about reducing the stigma surrounding
mental illness. Lets also have a debate on
internet scams that aims to minimise the
shame and humiliation victims often feel.
Sheila Heap
Windows 10 wouldnt be
free without adverts
I understand why you showed
people how to remove adverts
from Windows 10 in Issue 504 (pages
58-59). Im sure lots of people nd them
annoying, although I do question how
many actually notice them. But Im
emailing to remind you that upgrading to
Windows 10 was free. Why was it free?
Because Microsoft thought it could make
money through adverts. Every time you
criticise adverts in Windows 10, you
should make this point.
Its like people who moan about
adverts on ITV. Without them, youd have
to pay for ITV (on top of what you pay
for the licence fee). Like it or not, the
internet revolves around advertising.
Without it, youd have to pay a small
fortune for online services.
Jack Leonard
Windows Home and Pro
are all that matter
Ken Rigsby shouldnt get too upset
about the various versions of
Windows 10 available (The Final Straw,
Issue 504). Basically, he just needs to
remember that only two versions matter
12 5 18 July 2017
to most people Home or Pro. All the
others are just specialist versions for
bu
businesses, or for developers of specic
pr
products. Microsoft could simplify
th
things, but I have a theory that it
de
deliberately releases more and more
ve
versions in order to make its Home
ed
edition feel like a safe, reliable choice.
James Pollard
Co
Confiscate phones
from drivers
Regarding your news story in Issue
504 about 6,000 drivers caught
using mobile phones in one month (see
page 7), its clear that nes and penalty
points are just not sucient. Forget the
penalty points make it a one-year ban
for the rst oence and longer for any
subsequent oences, but in all cases
conscate the phone on the spot and
have it destroyed.
Also, keep the hefty ne in place. Just
think how you would feel if tomorrow
your phone and all its important data
was lost forever.
Terry Sutton
Only one thing will
stop idiot drivers
using phones behind the
wheel social stigma. It
needs to be seen as
Our future belongs to Amazon
Heres a prediction of life in
2030. Every morning well wake ke
up to hear the news on Amazon Radio, o,
complete with adverts personally
targeted to our tastes. Well then trudge
dge
downstairs to eat AmazonBix for
breakfast, reading more adverts on the
the cereal box, before being picked up
by an Amazon drone and own to work.
By 2030, 99.9 per cent of the
population will be working for
Amazon, packaging and posting items
to each other. At 2pm everyone stops to
sing the Amazon Anthem, which praises
the benets of same-day delivery.
When we get home well turn on the
TV to watch an evening of programmes
from ABC (Amazon Broadcasting
Corporation). Every advert break is
Tell us whats on your mind
Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive
Twitter: @ComputerActive
www.twitter.com/computeractive
irresponsible and selsh, much like drink
driving. One reason drink driving
became anti-social was hard-hitting TV
adverts, so why havent we seen any
relating to phone use? We need to use
shock tactics otherwise well never
change the behaviour of drivers.
Harold McDonnell
Will gadgets in cars go out
of date?
One question that never gets
covered in motoring or computer
magazines is the life expectancy of
computer-based systems in cars. Im sure
we all have drawers full of equipment
thats no longer supported or, as Ken
Rigsby recently pointed out, have
connectors that do not t newer
computers. When I was a youngster most
cars started to fail mechanically after
about eight years, if the rust didnt get
them rst. Manufacturers seem to have
tackled those problems, and my wife is
happily driving a basic Nissan Micra she
bought 17 years ago. The latest model,
however, is packed full of electronic
gi
gizmos for infotainment and to control
th
the car. I wonder if one bought today is
go
going to last anything like as long before
its a write-o, as it cant be economical
to repair or replace these systems.
Nigel Long
personalised: Hello Mr Smith - we
know that your hedge trimmer broke
at the weekend. Why not buy a new
one for 30 on Amazon?. Mr Smith
only needs to think OK for the money
to disappear from his account into the
International Amazon Bank. Amazons
Alexa will then sing us lullabies to help
us get to sleep.
I hope this is an exaggeration, but the
more I read about Amazons desire to
buy companies and sell everything, the
more worried I get.
Gerald Cowen
Ban all fast-talking adverts
Rarely has such a small news story
given me such a wide grin. I refer
to the piece in Issue 504 (page 9) about
Plusnets radio adverts being banned
because the terms and conditions were
read too quickly. This
has been a bugbear of
mine for years, and
its always astonished
me that companies
arent routinely penalised for it. Its the
equivalent of having written terms and
conditions in a contract that are so small
youd need superhuman vision to read
them.
Over the past few years weve seen
Ofcom and the Advertising Standards
Authority tackle misleading phrases and
promises in print adverts. I hope theyll
now turn their attention to the garbled
gibberish at the end of radio adverts. Ban
them all!
David Greene
Missing out on
Windows updates
In Issue 503s Cover
Feature on ransomware
you correctly point out that one should
periodically check whether Windows
has installed any updates. Some time last
year I noticed that my Windows 10 PC
hadnt been updated for a considerable
period of time. When I checked, I found a
series of updates ready to be installed.
Delving deeper, I found that Windows
had decided to install the updates in the
period the computer was not in use,
between midnight and 6am.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, I always
switch o my PC in the evening, only to
restart it again next morning. Because
Windows doesnt warn us about updates
that havent been processed, it took
some time for me to notice that anything
was wrong.
These days I check Windows Update
just after patch Tuesday and have it
install updates immediately. Remarkably
enough, Windows itself has since
changed the operating hours for my PC
from 9am to 5pm.
Michel A van der Maas
PC security: humans are
the weakest link
I dont want to make fun of Bob
Hindmarch (your Star Letter writer
in Issue 503), but he is a little naive
(Keep IT as secure as NHS visitors). For
STAR LETTER
Facebook makes people spiteful
James Mayhew attempts to
defend Facebook as a source of
breaking news (Letters, Issue 504), and
Im sure hes right that people can nd
out whats happening via the site. But
overall I think the impact of Facebook
on society is negative.
I havent always thought this way. In
the rst few years I used it friends and
family treated it like a novelty, sharing
photos, quizzes, quotes and so on. But
then something changed and it seemed
to coincide with the EU referendum
last year. Im not particularly political,
and didnt vote in the referendum, so I
was upset that overnight Facebook had
been taken over by people who just
wanted to spit venom at those who
dared to have a dierent opinion.
This was very dierent to the
atmosphere in the oce I work. Weve
hardly ever discussed politics, even at
times of elections, and nobody has ever
rebuked someone for their views. A
sense of decorum and respect prevails.
So why is it so very dierent online? I
know people who are reserved and
timid in real life who become spiteful
and rude the minute they go online.
The Star Letter writer wins a Computeractive mug!
no matter what operating system is
installed throughout the NHS, they all
have a weak spot so long as humans are
involved. We smile and chuckle at the
seemingly obvious scams as they are
revealed to us.
Only yesterday my wife received an
important announcement telling her that
her winnings were in her account, and it
was for 1,600. All she had to do was
click here to see the details, it said. She
deleted it. But Im willing to bet that
somewhere, someone went oh-lookey-
lookey, and clicked here to download
some ransomware or other. And as their
screen slowly disappeared they tried ried
switching it o then walking
away, saying how they hadnt been een
anywhere near it.
The human element is crucial
and no matter what security is
employed, people will override it
and download something nasty.
The best thing to do is educate and
Perhaps they have to bottle up their
emotions all day at work, then let it all
out on the internet because its easy to
shout at people through a computer
screen. It seems similar to road rage,
only its a keyboard that triggers their
anger, not a steering wheel.
I stopped going on Facebook for a
few months after the referendum,
hoping it would all calm down. Things
were more tolerant when I returned
last autumn, but got worse again
during the recent general election,
with friendships of many years ending
amid a torrent of abuse. And my
friends on Twitter say its even worse! I
wish there was a dial on the internet,
like a volume button, that controlled
the level of vitriol. I would
turn it down to zero.
Margaret Anderson
train people who use email at work, so
they get some sort of certicate of
competency, no matter which hospital or
organisation it may be. Only then will we
be safe from these crooks.
Hugh Rogers
Sad about iPad Minis demise
I was dismayed to read that Apple
will stop updating and very soon
stop production of the iPad Mini. I recall
the hype only in 2012 about the baby iPad
and how it will change the way you
interact with the world on the go.
Indeed this has been the case for me
having ppurchased three of them for the
fa
family to use, and we have been
ex
extremely happy with them,
es
especially on holidays and business
tr
trips. It makes me wonder how
lo
long before pins are stuck in the
iP
iPad Pro voodoo doll, meaning an
ea
early demise of their latest model.
Gurpreet Bhatia
5 18 July 2017 13
 Consumeractive
Can Dell refuse to
mend laptopss
hinges?
I bought my
Q daughter a Dell
Inspiron 11 3000
laptop in January. The left hinge has
broken but Dell says the warranty
doesnt cover this problem and is trying
to charge me for a repair. Can it do this?
Bill Grieve
No it cant. At least, it cant
A unless it proves that Bill or his
daughter damaged the laptop.
The onus is on Dell to do this because
the fault appeared within six months of
purchase. Whether its covered in the
warranty is irrelevant.
Bill isnt the rst Dell customer whose
laptop hinges have broken. A quick
search online brings up a number of
similar complaints, and several claims
that Dell doesnt try very hard to x the
problems. Well contact Dell to point out
its hinges are causing lots of trouble, and
ask why it gave Bill the wrong advice.
If Dell doesnt budge, Bill could take it
to the small claims court, where the onus
falls on him to prove he or his daughter
didnt damage it. A judge may take into
account online complaints
about Dell, even though
legally they are considered
merely hearsay.
Will PayPal really refund 1,000?
You recently wrote about
Q PayPal Buyer Protection
allowing a reader to reclaim an
amount that was over 1,000. Last time I
used this service (over 10 years ago) the
transaction limit was 500. Is this no
longer the case?
Stephen Murchieson
PayPal has been increasing its
A protection over a number of
years. In 2004, the most you
could receive for a disputed transaction
was 250. Now there is no lower or upper
14 5 18 July 2017
Can Argos raise the price of items
listed online?
I recently went on to Argoss
Q website to buy a shed, which
had a price of 229.99. On
entering the catalogue number to
check if it was in stock, the price came
up 70 more expensive at 299.99.
When I went into the store and asked
the manger, he said the catalogue price
was only an invitation to trade, and
that exchange rates with Ireland meant
the price had gone up. Id love to hear
your views on this.
Graham Arnold
Argos hasnt done anything
A illegal selling the shed at the
higher price, but we think the
stores manager could have done a
better job of explaining why, rather
than using the technical term
invitation to trade. Its actually the
wrong term anyway any price
displayed in a shop, advert or catalogue
is an invitation to trade. This means
the retailer is merely inviting you to
enter negotiations to buy the goods,
but its not legally bound to sell them.
This is a common misconception.
Of course, what normally happens is
that the customer buys the goods at the
displayed price. In simple terms, this
limit to what you can
claim. In April 2014, it
extended the time a
buyer could open a
dispute from 45 days to 180.
If it nds in your favour,
you receive a full refund,
including original post and
packaging costs.
However, users need to
remember that PayPal doesnt always rule
in the buyers favour. So if youre thinking
of using PayPal to buy very expensive
items, other payment-protection options,
stage of the process is known as the
oer by the customer and the
acceptance by the retailer. Once
consideration happens usually
money changing hands a legally
binding contract is formed. In
Grahams case, because Argos refused
his oer, no contract was formed.
However, weve asked Argos to
clarify why there was such a signicant
rise (around 30 per cent) in the price of
the shed. The store manager may be
right to blame changing exchange
rates, but it seems unlikely. In most
cases like this the fault lies with
human error, normally in the
wrong price being
displayed. Well let you
know what Argos says.
su as a bank transfer,
such
wo
would be a safer bet.
Also, if you link your
credit card to PayPal to pay for
transactions, you automatically
lose the protection of Section
75 of the Consumer Credit Act,
which covers items priced
between 100 and 30,000.
This is because the bank deems you
to have introduced a third
party in this case PayPal
into the transaction,
freeing it from liability.
 Contact us so we can investigate your case
Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk
Please include both your phone number and address.

We stand
s up for your legal rights

Who should
Wh h ld fi
fix my faulty Nokia phone?
ne?
A Nokia Lumia 630 phone I
Q bought from Talkmobile in
January 2016 became faulty
nine months later. However, Talkmobile
said it wasnt responsible because its
warranty only lasted 30 days. It then said
the phone had a two-year warranty from
Nokia, but the manufacturer disputed
this when I contacted it last September.
Can you help?
Frank Bennett
Yes we can, but with dierent
A advice to what we normally give.
Instead of contacting the retailer
rst, Frank should get in touch with
Nokia, the manufacturer. This is because
more than six months have passed since
he bought the phone, so if he returned
the phone to Talkmobile under the
Consumer Rights Act, he
would need to prove the fault
is inherent. To do this he
needs to get the phone
professionally examined, but
he cant nd a company that will do this.
So at this stage of the claim, pursuing
suing
Nokias alleged warranty may bring
quicker results. While there may not ot be a
two-year warranty, wed be surprised ed if
there wasnt the usual one-year
manufacturers warranty. If this is the
case, well tell Nokia that it should have Should Nokia rejectt this,
th well ask it
told Frank last September that he could
have used the one-year warranty and is
where Frank can get his phone inspected.
Were hoping Nokia may oer to do this
therefore now entitled to a free repair or a itself. If an inherent fault is found,
replacement. Because a warranty is Talkmobile will have to repair or
legally binding if oered, we believe replace the phone, and
Nokia didnt full its obligation to reimburse Frank the cost
examine Franks phone. of the inspection.

CASE UPDATE CREDIT WHERE ITS DUE

YOU TELL US WHEN COMPANIES GET IT RIGHT
EE coughs up 30 compensation for
broadband problems
You recommended the
How much compensation Ultranote
ote 1V laptop from
should ISPs give customers if PC Specialist
cialist in Issue
their broadband goes down? 405, so I visited its
EE appears to think that 1 a day is enough.
ugh. website (www.
After initially blaming BT Wholesale pcspecialist.co.uk)
ialist.co.uk)
for the problem, it has now paid and found
und that
Computeractive reader Steven there were
Asquith 30 for the 30 days he was without broadband (read many options
ptions
his case in Issue 504). It also reimbursed him the 85 he had to available,
e, including a
pay to access the web through mobile broadband. choice of screens,
If EE hadnt done this, Steven could have taken his case for processors, memory, SSDs
compensation to the Communications Ombudsman. To win and hard-drive sizes. As
he would have needed to provide evidence that being without each specication is chosen
broadband left him out of pocket, and outline the inconvenience or changed, the total price
he experienced. He would also have been able to cancel the is adjusted. This helped me
entire package without incurring any charges. make the right decision.
In future, though, frustrated customers may not need to
provide such evidence. Telecoms regulator Ofcom has just
HOW TO CONTACT
finished a consultation with the broadband industry to discuss
PC SPECIALIST:
customers receiving automatic compensation rather than
having to go through a potentially lengthy and difficult claims Tel: 0333 011 7000
process. It is proposing that internet service providers pay Email: enquiries@
customers 6 for every day their broadband is down, which pcspecialist.co.uk
would have netted Steve around 180. Website: www.
The report is expected by the end of the year. Well cover it in pcspecialist.co.uk/forums
detail to explain your new rights.
A phone
number was
provided,
enabling me to
have a useful
discussion with a
friendly, helpful
and knowledgeable
member of sta. They
gave us help to set up a
new email account. A week
or so later we had problems
with this, but we solved
them with the advice they
oered. So we have a small,
light, fast laptop with no
unwanted or unnecessary
software. Thanks to
Computeractive and PC
Specialist.
Michael Main
Has a company impressed
you with its customer
service? Please let us know:
editor@computeractive.co.uk

5 18 July 2017 15
 Protect Your Tech
Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools
WATCH OUT FOR
Fake charity appeals for tragedies
Whats the threat?
Scammers are exploiting the recent
tragic events in London and Manchester
by tricking people with fake charity
appeals. In particular, fraudsters are
claiming to be raising money for
victims of the Grenfell Tower re.
Posing as ocial charities and support
organisations, they are emailing,
texting and phoning people, and
posting messages on social-media sites,
requesting donations. Some scammers
are even pretending to be victims of the
re, and are making direct appeals for
money.
Another tactic is to tempt you into
clicking a link that promises to show
you footage or images of the re.
Scammers often try to seduce people
after tragedies and terrorist attacks
with unseen or sensational videos
New tools
PC security is always a balancing act
between safety and convenience. For
example, we all know that we
shouldnt use the same or similar
phrases in our passwords, but its often
hard to think beyond our pets name or
favourite book.
Password managers such as KeePass
help, of course. Its new version (2.36)
adds the option to search for passwords
that are identical or similar. To do this,
click Edit along the top, hover your
mouse over Show Entries, then click
Find Duplicate Passwords or Find
Similar Passwords (see screenshot).
Another useful option here is
Password Quality Report, which tells
you how strong your password is in
bits by analysing how hard it is to
guess. As KeePass explains at www.
snipca.com/24732, only passwords
16 5 18 July 2017
and images that TV channels wont show.
Clicking a link in these messages
takes you to sites that try to steal your
personal data, including your bank
details. Downloading an attachment
from one of the scam emails installs
malware on to your computer.
What can you do?
Always be suspicious of an appeal for
money by phone, text or email, or on
social media. There are several legitimate
ways to donate money to those aected
by the Grenfell re, including via the
Kensington & Chelsea Foundations page
on the charity website JustGiving (www.
snipca.com/24728), which had raised
over 250,000 within a week of the
tragedy. The London Evening Standard is
also raising money through JustGiving
(www.snipca.com/24731, see screenshot),
KeePass 2.36
http://keepass.info/download.html
with bits of more than 112 are
considered strong.
If you dont already use KeePass,
download the new version from the
link above. Click either the green
installer or portable button under the
Professional heading. Despite the
name, its completely free.
while the British Red Cross has
launched its own fund at www.snipca.
com/24730.
More generally, you can check
whether a charity is genuine by
searching for it on the Governments
Charity Commission website (http://
beta.charitycommission.gov.uk), which
is currently in beta.
ScamWatch
READERS WARN READERS
Fake iPhone testing oer
Ive been seeing lots of fake pages
online oering people the chance to
test the latest iPhone 8. I know Apple
wouldnt open up iPhone 8 testing to
the public. The web address always
seems to be http://sylvanwins.cricket
and the page in question says (using
poor grammar), Your has been
selected because we need more
beta-testers for the new iPhone 8.
This message appears as a pop up,
then tells you that youll get a free
iPhone 7 for doing the test. The web
page tries to convince you it isnt a
joke or a scam. I would recommend
you ignore this kind of message.
Joe Mackley
Warn your fellow readers about scams at
letters@computeractive.co.uk
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 Best Free Software
Jane Hoskyn recommends new programs that wont cost you anything

EBOOKS MANAGER

Calibre 3.0
https://calibre-ebook.com
What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10

Share your ebook library on your home Wi-Fi, using the
superb new version of this open-source program. Calibre now
lets you use the browser on your tablet, phone and laptop to
securely access and read your ebooks without having to
download e-reader apps, let alone pay for an e-reader device.
This new Content server is the most exciting new feature
in version 3.0, Calibres biggest update since August 2014. The
new version also adds support for reading ebooks on high-
resolution screens such as iPad Retina displays, and lets you
convert EPUB, MOBI and other ebook formats to Microsoft
Word (DOCX).
As ever, Calibre lets you download, read and convert
ebooks, and even create and edit your own. Its not an ebook
shop in itself, but rather a portal to ebook sources including
WH Smith and Amazon, as well as free sources such as
Google Books and the wonderful Project Gutenberg.
Calibre is packed with so many features that it takes a while
to know your way around. But its easy to use, and even
setting up your private Calibre server is fairly straightforward.
You will need to allow rewall access, then type a special web
address (http://127.0.0.1:8080) in your PCs browser. Calibres
searchable user manual has step-by-step instructions (www.
snipca.com/24755).
Installation is quick and theres no junk to avoid. Click
Download Calibre, then Windows or Windows 64bit (or
32bit), and then click Download calibre 64bit (or 32bit).
Stick with the default Generic if youre not sure which
e-reader to tick.

2
1

1 Click Add books to import 2 To convert an ebook to 3 To share an ebook on your 4 Calibre adjusts ebooks to
ebooks and documents DOCX, select it then double- home network using the t high-resolution screens.
already stored on your click Convert books. In the new Content server, right- To disable this, click the
PC. To download ebooks, window that opens, click the click it then click Connect/ tiny arrows, Preferences,
click Get books and then Output format dropdown share, then Start Content then Look & feel. Click
search or browse the list menu, then select DOCX. server. Allow rewall access Automatic, then select O.
of stores. if prompted.

18 5 18 July 2017

SEARCH TOOL
Everything 1.4
www.voidtools.com
What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7. 8/8.1 or 10
This lightning-fast search tool leaves Windows/File Explorer
trailing in its wake when you need to nd les, folders and
settings buried deep in your PC. For a rough comparison, we
created a text le called dinosaur then used Explorer and
Everything to search our Windows 10 PC for it. Explorer took
58 seconds. Everything found it before wed even typed dino.
Version 1.4 adds a Filters dropdown menu so you can search
by le, and also lets you add your own lters. You can also now
rename multiple les by right-clicking. Find many more
features by clicking Search, then Advanced Search.
The program now comes in four versions: installable and
portable (both as 32bit and 64bit). The installers contain no
junk, and the default setup options are ne - but tick Install
folder context menus to add Everything to your right-click menu.
OCR TOOL
Capture2Text 4.3.0
http://capture2text.sourceforge.net
What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10
Take a photo of something with words on it such as a poster or
letter then use this small, portable tool to automatically
convert the words into digital text that you can copy and edit.
Similar OCR (optical character recognition) software is
increasingly being built into oce programs like LibreOce,
but Capture2Text does it in a much more nimble package. Its
ddly to master, though. Position your mouse at one corner of
the text you want to capture, press Win+Q and then drag your
mouse over the text without pressing or clicking. Finally,
left-click to generate plain text in a separate window (see
screenshot). Version 4.3.0 adds a useful Bubble Capture option
press Win+S to
automatically capture text
in an area of your screen.
To congure this and more,
right-click the Capture2Text
system tray icon, then
choose Settings.
To get the program,
click Download then
Capture2Text download
page, and then click the
ZIP download link.
WHAT SHOULD I DOWNLOAD?
We tell you what software to use
What should I use to trim
videos to size?
I have been looking for a free download for a basic
Q video trimmer, but I keep nding that everything I
try is not actually free but just a sales pitch for a
much more complex version. Can you suggest a free tool?
Keith Pover
Youre right, Keith programs like Movavi Video
A Editor (www.movavi.com) can be installed for free,
but then youre redirected to a sales pitch and
realise youve actually installed a seven-day trial.
Its a similar story on Android and iOS. A couple of years
ago I paid 1.76 for the Pro version of the excellent Android
app VidTrim (www.snipca.com/24759), after getting fed up
with the ugly watermark slapped across my trimmed videos
by the free version.
There are properly free tools out there, though - for PC
and for your tablet and phone. Open-source program
Avidemux (http://avidemux.sourceforge.net) is one, with no
adverts and no upgrade option, even if its less easy to use
than Movavi. Choose a video le on your PC (MP4, MKV
and AVI are among the formats supported), use the sliders
to choose your new start and end points, and then click the
oppy-disk icon to save a new copy. You can also merge
videos, add eects and convert formats. The quality of the
copy cant quite match that of the original, but I found the
program likeable and no-nonsense - and at 76MB its much
smaller than many paid-for rivals, including Movavi.
If youve got an Android device, try the free new app
Timbre (http://timbre-app.com). Again, there are no adverts
and no paid-for versions. It lets you cut videos and audio
les down to size quickly and easily. However, be careful -
it overwrites the original unless you change the lename
when saving. Timbre also lets you convert formats, join
les, and add/remove audio from your videos.
Do you need our advice on what software to use?
Just email us at letters@computeractive.co.uk
ON SALE NOW!
The Complete
Guide to KODI
This is a must-have
manual for anyone who
uses the most exciting
software of 2017
Buy it now at
www.snipca.com/24110
5 18 July 2017 19
 Reviews
LAPTOP 979 from Microsoft www.snipca.com/24657
Microsoft Surface Laptop
The first Windows 10 S laptop
Now, pay attention, class. The Surface Pro
(see our review, Issue 465) is Microsofts
tablet. Theres the Surface Book (see Issue
471) thats half tablet, half laptop. And
now Microsoft is about to launch a new
Surface Pro marketed as the most
versatile laptop, but its really a tablet.
Meanwhile, heres something completely
dierent: the Surface Laptop.
Fast and attractive,
but screen and software
options are limited
This one really is just a laptop. It has a
full aluminium case, which feels sturdy
despite being very thin and is spookily
free of seams, screws or grilles. Its also
almost free of ports, which is not quite so
welcome. The backlit grey tile-style keys
are well spaced and move far enough
when pressed, with a satisfying click, to
ensure typing doesnt feel mushy.
A big trackpad supports Windows 10s
gestures, but the Surface Laptop also
comes as standard with a touchscreen.
This has 2256x1504 pixels, about 70 per
cent more than Full HD, which is very
sharp at 13.5in. Unfortunately, our tests
CUT FROM A DIFFERENT CLOTH
The Surface Laptops most striking
feature is the fabric covering around
the keyboard. Its made of Alcantara,
a suede-like synthetic microbre
used in upmarket cars. We like the
idea. Its reassuring to have a soft
nish against the screen, and
comfortable to rest your
hands on. But can it
avoid getting grubby?
Car seat covers are often
made to go in a washing
machine. This isnt.
20 5 18 July 2017
New products tested by our experts
found it covered just 77 per cent of the
sRGB range, and colours looked muddy,
washed-out and inaccurate. Despite high
contrast and decent brightness, its not a
good choice for photo or video editing.
Inside, even the base model has a
capable Intel Kaby Lake i5 processor,
although the meagre 4GB of memory
will slow down more demanding apps
and multitasking. We also tried a 1,249
conguration with a more sensible 8GB
and twice the storage, at 256GB, and it
handled a variety of jobs with aplomb.
We couldnt run our usual tests, though,
because this is the rst laptop to come
with Windows 10 S, a new version of the
operating system (OS) thats locked
down, meaning it allows only programs
from the ocial Microsoft Store to be
installed.
Thats a big step for PCs. For users who
only need mainstream software, it helps
avoid security concerns, which is not a
When asked about this, a Microsoft
spokesperson said a special coating
makes the fabric more stain-resistant,
and recommended a microbre cleaning
cloth dampened with soap and water.
Because the keyboard isnt spill-proof,
youd want to be careful with a wet
cloth. In passing, he
quoted the expected life of
the machine at four or
ve years. For a grand,
that would be the
minimum wed expect.
bad thing. Others might need a more
exible edition of Windows, and youre
not prevented from installing whatever
OS you want, but youd have to buy it
separately. To test the water, Microsoft is
oering a free upgrade to Windows 10
Pro until the end of the year. If you get a
Surface Laptop, you should denitely
take up that oer.
Microsoft is aiming the Surface Laptop
at students, who can also claim a 10 per
cent discount. It will interest plenty of
others, and the build quality does justify
the price, while long battery life (ten
hours 42 minutes in our video-playback
test) makes it wonderfully practical.
But it seems a shame to compromise
such a beautifully made machine with
a dull screen.
SPECIFICATIONS
2.5GHz Intel i5-7200U dual-core processor 4GB
memory 128GB flash storage 13.5in 2256x1504-
pixel touchscreen Webcam USB 3.0 port Mini
DisplayPort 802.11ac Wi-Fi Windows 10 S
14.5x308x223mm (HxWxD) 1.25kg
One-year warranty www.snipca.com/24657
VERDICT: With similar devices
achieving 100 per cent sRGB and
beyond, the screen is a let-down, but
overall this is a very nice laptop indeed
ALTERNATIVE: Apple e MacBook
Ma
12in 1,249 At the same
me price
for an 8GB/256GB option,
pt
ption, this
is slimmer and prettier
ier but has
no touchscreen and a slower
s
processor
TABLET 90 from Amzon www.snipca.com/22145
Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017)
Most of an Android tablet for less
Amazons Fire HD 8 was launched as a
step-up from its cheap-as-chips 7in Fire
tablet, and when its price was slashed to
90 last year (see our review, Issue 488,
page 21) it began to look quite the
bargain. This new model is not much
dierent and no cheaper, but that in
itself is signicant, given that a lot of
tech products have gone up by around
20 per cent in the meantime.
The addition of the
Alexa voice assistant is
its big innovation
As before, the Fire is a chunky,
relatively heavy little tablet, but it is
sturdy. It runs Amazons own version of
Android, which limits your choice of
apps to around 175,000. Thats about
one-sixteenth of the number on the
Google Play Store, but thats still plenty,
and Fire OS 5.4 is less clunky to use. The
processor is just about fast enough to
keep things running smoothly, although
the most demanding games wont work
and web pages can be quite juddery. The
battery lasted a creditable 13 hours in our
video-playback test.
The 8in screen covers just 66 per cent
of the sRGB colour range, with a coarse
1280x800-pixel resolution, but in use its
really not too bad, helped by good
brightness and contrast. The very grainy
cameras will be more of a drawback for
Instagram or video-chat users.
The big innovation for 2017 is Alexa,
Amazons voice assistant. Like Apples
Siri, Microsofts Cortana and Googles
Assistant, it can play music or videos on
command, look things up online for you,
or operate your smart home gadgets (see
page 25). Activating this from the Home
button isnt as convenient as shouting at
an Amazon Echo (see Issue 487) or Dot,
but we still found it useful.
You can get a tenner o by buying the
Fire HD 8 with special oers, which
means instead of just plugging Amazon
music, ebooks and video at every
opportunity, it positively bombards you
with adverts, including wallpapers and
screen savers (you can also pay the 10
afterwards to turn this o). Doubling the
storage to 32GB is worth considering at
20. You cant do this later, but you can
add a microSD card.
Theres also a Kids Edition of the Fire
HD 8 (130 from www.snipca.com/
24655). It comes with a rubbery case and
a two-year accident protection guarantee,
but only one years subscription to
Amazons Fire for Kids Unlimited service,
which will cost you 2 a month to
continue. At least theres no advertising.
SPECIFICATIONS
1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor 16GB
flash storage 8in 1280x800-pixel touchscreen
2-megapixel rear camera 0.3-megapixel webcam
802.11n Wi-Fi MicroSD card slot 214x128x9.2mm
(HxWxD) 341g One-year warranty
www.snipca.com/22145
HOW WE TEST
Computeractive is owned by Dennis
Publishing, which owns a hi-tech facility
for testing the latest technology. Youll
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 and Web User 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.
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: This isnt an all-purpose
Android tablet, but it does what most
people will want at an exceptionally
reasonable price
ALTERNATIVE: Alba 10in
tablet 90 Argos 16GB
Android 5.1 tablet has no
Alexa but a bigger screen andd
the battery lasted us longer
than the quoted ve hours
5 18 July 2017 21
 Reviews
LAPTOP 1,500 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24663
HP Spectre x360
The smaller bigger convertible
An oxymoron is when you put two words
together that contradict each other. Old
news. Open secret. Deafening silence.
Microsoft Works. One of our favourites is
15-inch convertible. If you dont think
that sounds odd, try using
one. Scale up a tablet to
the dimensions of a
full-size laptop, with keyboard,
trackpad, a processor that can run
Windows 10, a fan to cool the processor,
a battery to power the processor and
so on Well, youre not going to be lying
in bed holding it up to watch TV on,
thats for sure.
Sharp screen, lots of
ports, great keyboard
but its still heavy
Weve pointed this problem out before
when testing HPs 15in Envy x360 and
Dells Inspiron 15 5000 hybrid. It seems
HP has the solution: a 15in convertible
based on its exceptionally slim and light
Spectre laptop (see our review, Issue 470).
If anything the Dark Ash aluminium
case is even more attractive. However, a
fundamental problem of the 360-degree
fold-back format isnt resolved: the
wedge-shaped keyboard curves up
towards the touchscreen when its
closed, but when you fold the screen
back to use it as a tablet, the front edges
dont quite meet.
The 4K screen (Full HD costs 100 less)
looks very sharp and bright, although it
doesnt oer the best colour reproduction,
covering 85 per cent of the sRGB colour
range with only fair accuracy. As a
touchscreen, it works awlessly, and a
SPECIFICATIONS
3.5GHz Intel Core i7-7500U processor 8GB
memory Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics 512GB
SSD 15.6in 3840x2160-pixel touchscreen
Webcam 802.11ac Wi-Fi USB 3.1 port 2x USB
Type-C ports Thunderbolt 3 port HDMI port
SD card reader Windows 10 17.9x256x251mm
(HxWxD) 2.01kg One-year warranty
www.snipca.com/24664
22 5 18 July 2017
pressure-sensitive stylus is included,
giving you all the benets of Windows
10s Tablet mode. When used as a laptop,
the backlit keyboard and trackpad are
excellent. The Bang & Olufsen speakers
sound decent, and the wide-angle
webcam has dual microphones for clear
video chat.
Up-to-date Wi-Fi is built in, and theres
room for a full-size USB 3.1 port (see box
right), an SD card reader, a headphone/
mic jack, and two USB Type-C ports.
These only support USB 3.0 speeds, but
theres also a Thunderbolt 3 port for
pricier peripherals. One of the Type-C
ports can be used for a monitor, but
theres also an HDMI socket.
With an Intel Kaby Lake i7 processor
and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 940MX
graphics card, the Spectre x360 is ready
for all tasks and most games, although by
desktop PC standards performance wont
match a typical i5. An extremely fast SSD
helps to avoid any delays, and its 512GB
capacity is more generous than average.
At eight hours 13 minutes in our video
playback test, battery life was very good.
VERDICT: Its expensive and it still
weighs two kilos, but this is an attempt
at a full-size laptop-tablet that we
might actually buy
most users.
ALTERNATIVE: Dell Inspiron 15 5000
2-in-1 949 Bulkierer and lacks
the graphics card,
but more aordable.
ble.
e.
An i5 version costss
699
Do I really need...
USB 3.1?
What does it do?
It connects peripherals such as storage
drives to PCs, carrying data and
electrical power. USB 3.1 ocially
known as USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) or
SS 10 is the latest incarnation of the
USB interface standard, allowing data-
transfer speeds of up to 10 gigabits
per second.
Why would I want it?
USB 3.1s maximum speed is twice as
fast as USB 3.0. Thats important for
tasks like video editing that require
huge amounts of data to be transferred
in real time. In the past, hard drives
couldnt go any faster than USB 3.0, but
todays SSDs can. Plugging in a drive is
also an easy way to upgrade a PC, and
if you install Windows 10 on an external
SSD (such as Samsungs model
pictured here) itll speed up just about
ev
everything if the
inte
interface can do
it jus
justice. Theres
no advantage
for other USB
pe
peripherals, such
as printers.
Whats the catch?
None its not even expensive yet
a lot of PCs still lack USB 3.1. Note
that USB 3.1 is a standard for how the
interface works, not which plugs it
uses: some PCs have full-size USB
Type-A sockets that oer USB 3.1 (a
blue strip tells you its either 3.0 or 3.1,
but doesnt distinguish between the
two), while others have the smaller
Type-C socket. Some Type-C sockets
also support even faster Thunderbolt
standards, but you cant tell without
checking the specications. Thunderbolt
peripherals are more expensive,
making USB 3.1 a better option for
So can I do without it?
Yes, if youre not planning any ambitious
speed-critical work. But it may cause
frustration when you want to add faster
external storage later, and your PC cant
connect to it at full speed.
 Reviews
PHONE 634 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24711
HTC U11
Shinier isnt necessarily better
Yes, it really costs 634! And thats with a
15 discount on the manufacturers price.
Its still more than 50 quid cheaper than
the Samsung Galaxy S8, to be fair, or 85
less than the similarly sized Google Pixel
XL. However, call us cheapskates, but we
think top-of-the-range phones are getting
too expensive.
Taking that much money o you requires
a gimmick, and the U11s is squeezing.
No, not your wallet until the pips squeak,
but the phone itself. Sensors on the sides
detect when you grip it harder, triggering
the camera. This actually makes it slower
and more wobbly than using the on-screen
button. You can perform other tasks by
SPECIFICATIONS
5.5in 2560x1440-pixel screen 12-megapixel rear
camera 16-megapixel front camera 64GB flash
storage MicroSD slot 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4.2
3G/4G Android 7.1 154x76x7.9mm (HxWxD)
169g One-year warranty www.snipca.com/24715
SPEAKER 90 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24719
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom
Little wonder
There are more Bluetooth speakers priced
around 100 than there are unnecessary
email lters (see Final Straw, page 74),
which makes it that much harder to nd
a really good one. But Ultimate Ears (UE)
has a great track record, having made
some of our favourite audio products in
recent years.
At just 10cm high or four inches in
real money the Wonderboom looks like
a fattened drinks can. It can connect to
one or two devices at a time, and
remember up to eight. You can also
pair two Wonderbooms. It doesnt
support the higher-quality audio
technology aptX, but nor do any of
SPECIFICATIONS
2x 40mm drivers 2x passive radiators Bluetooth
(requires phone or tablet supporting Bluetooth A2DP)
USB charging port 102x94x94mm (HxWxD)
425g Two-year warranty www.snipca.com/24723
24 5 18 July 2017
squeezing, such as opening an app.
This aside, the U11 is a pretty 5.5in
phone the kind of size that used to be
called a phablet, but is now just normal
with a very shiny nish thats very hard
to keep clean. It has a ngerprint scanner,
and its water resistant. Theres no
headphone jack. Instead, a supplied USB
Type-C adapter has a built-in amp to
improve sound quality (decent earphones
are also included), but you cant charge
the phone while using it. Although the VERDICT: Its a good phone with a
sharp screen has excellent brightness and sharp screen, but for this money wed
contrast, colours look oversaturated, a want more features
trick once used eectively to make poor
screens less dull, but inappropriate to
todays high-quality LCDs. ALTERNATIVE: Samsung Galaxy xy
A fast processor makes Android 7.1 and ut
S8 689 Yes, it costs more, but
games zing along, and maybe the best the curved screen is stunning
feature of all is the stabilised rear camera, and the camera on the back is
which captures lots of detail with good in the same league
colour and works well in low light.
Apples products, for example, so thats
hardly a must-have. Rated IP67, its
waterproof enough to drop in a swimming
pool, where itll oat quite happily
minding its own business.
At 425g its not super-light, but very
sturdy, and delivers surprisingly chunky
sound from all angles. Bass has a nice
thump, too. Battery life is quoted at up
to 10 hours, though from experience VERDICT: There are cheaper speakers,
wed expect a little less. but this is compact, durable and easy
The UE Boom 2 (99 from www.snipca. to use. More to the point its loud and
com/24720) is a more powerful speaker, clear
has a longer battery life and is waterproof,
though noticably heavier. The UE Roll 2
(60 from www.snipca.com/24721) is ALTERNATIVE: UE Roll 2 60
cheaper, easy to carry around, and has viewed
Discounted since we reviewed ed
the benet of a wired 3.5mm jack input, it at 80, this is now
so thats the obvious one to go for. But the ovides
excellent value and provides
Wonderboom lives up to its name in an wired and wireless inputut
endearingly chubby format.
SMART LIGHTING From 9 from Ikea www.snipca.com/24575
Ikea Trdfri
White light, quite cheap
Ikea has made a global business out of
mass-producing home furnishings to
make them cheaper, and now its applying
the same principle to home automation.
This is one of the fastest growing
sectors in tech. It lets you control light
and heating using apps and software. The
Trdfri lighting range the name is Danish
for wireless costs less than established
rivals such as Philips Hue. And we were
pleased to nd its not hard to assemble.
Trdfri items start at just 9 for
an LED dimmable bulb, which ts a
standard screw socket (bayonet adapters
cost 1 for two from www.snipca.com/
24574). It should last years and it costs
only 1 more than Ikeas comparable
standard LED bulb.
Youll also need something to operate
the bulb. A dimming kit (with one bulb
and a remote control) costs 15, while a
25 motion-sensor kit pairs a bulb with a
separate wall-mountable detector that
turns it on when anyone approaches.
This is rated for indoor use only.
THE INTERNET OF EVERYTHING
The idea of digitally connecting and
controlling everyday objects and
appliances is often referred to as
the internet of things. Crucially,
though, theres only one internet,
but there are lots of competing
systems for home automation,
and dierent devices support
dierent systems. Aside from its
own app, Trdfri only supports
ZigBee Light Link, which in turn
works with Philips Hue, among
A wide range of great lighting options,
though the choice of colours is limited
A 29 kit pairs a smarter bulb with a
more sophisticated remote that can also
change the bulbs colour. Disappointingly,
this is limited to the spectrum between
cool white and warm white, but its
surprising how much this can change the
mood of a room. The bulb alone is 15;
the dimmer can control up to 10 of these.
Where it really gets interesting is with
the 69 Gateway Kit, which comes with
two white-spectrum bulbs, the remote,
and a little white puck that you plug into
your home Wi-Fi router. You can then
control all your Trdfri lights (as long as
theyre not too far from the gateway)
from Ikeas app (pictured left). Bulbs can
then be grouped, so you can dim all the
lights in a room (or several rooms) at
once. You can do this instantly or
schedule it to happen at regular times.
One important limitation, in common
with other smart systems, is that the
bulbs may not work with existing
other systems. But Ikea promises that
in the summer and autumn itll add
compatibility with Apple HomeKit,
Amazons Echo (pictured) and
Google Assistant. That means youll
be able to control your Trdfri
lights by speaking into your phone
or giving instructions to an
Amazon Echo or Google Home
speaker. Ikea says its also working
towards opening up the system to
developers.
dimmers, even if set to maximum.
Theyre only designed for sockets
controlled by on/o switches (then
switched on permanently).
Unlike Philips, Ikea oers rectangular
LED panels (55-100), which can be
wall- or ceiling-mounted for a futuristic
look, and even light doors (70-90) for
some of its cabinets.
If you just want bulbs, Philips Hue
costs 59 from Argos (www.snipca.
com/24577) for a starter kit with a
gateway and two plain-white bulbs.
However, opt for the white-spectrum
Ambiance bulbs and a dimmer, and it
costs 90 (John Lewis www.snipca.
com/24579). The Ambiance bulbs on
their own are 30. Multi-coloured
options are pricier still. We hope to see
Ikea compete with them too.
SPECIFICATIONS
Wireless LED bulbs and light panels Remote
dimmers Internet gateway App requires a device
running Apple iOS 8.0 or higher or Android 4.1 or
higher www.snipca.com/18370
VERDICT: Wed like multi-colour
options, and well reserve our fth star
until its more widely compatible, but
this is great value for simple smart
lighting
ALTERNATIVE: Philips Hue From
15 This well-established smart
lighting system is more
ore
comprehensive but
more expensive
5 18 July 2017 25
 Reviews
PRINTER 150 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24674
om/24674
Brother MFC-J5330DW
Multifunction printer that handles A3
3
This is a great multi-function inkjet
printer for 120 quid, which is what you
could have bought it for the day we tested
it. At the time of going to press, we cant
nd it for less than 150. This happens a
lot with printers, and it makes it very
dicult to pass judgement on them. At
120, the MFC-J5330DW is only a tenner
more than the HP Ocejet Pro 6960 (see
our review, Issue 483) and adds the ability
Fast, cheap to run
and decent quality
prints but what would
you pay for it?
to print A3 pages, which can come in
very handy. At 150, youd have to
consider whether its worth it. But by the
time you read this, it might be on oer at
99 or in short supply at 175.
The relatively bulky sideways-on print
engine makes this feel and look more like
a laser printer, and its print speeds up
to 16.7 pages per minute (ppm) in our
tests are beyond most inkjets. The
practical 250-sheet A4 paper tray pulls
out to take A3 (youre not limited to one
WHAT SHOULD I BUY?
Do I need a phone or a tablet?
I need a mobile device to show
Q o my photo collection, make
calls, listen to music when Im
out and about, and access the internet
when I need to. But phones are too
small, and tablets dont let you make
calls! I really dont want to pay twice.
What should I buy?
Judith Murray
Only mobile phones have the
A ability to handle conventional
calls to and from UK phone
26 5 18 July 2017
sheet at a time), an
andd th
thee sc
scan
anne
nerr ha
scanner hass a
50-sheet automatic document feeder
ou can print both sides of the
(ADF). You
uplex) although photocopying is
paper (duplex),
one-sided only. A full set of inputs
includes Wi-Fi and Ethernet as well as
USB and SD card. The quality of prints
isnt amazing, but very acceptable all
round, with bright colours and decent
photo reproduction.
One explanation for the volatility of
printer pricing is that manufacturers
make most of their money from ink, so
they can aord to manipulate the printer
price to maximise sales. Using Brothers
XL cartridges, running costs work out at
SPECIFICATIONS
4800x1200dpi maximum print resolution
1200x2400dpi maximum scan resolution USB
Ethernet 802.11n Wi-Fi Fax SD card slot USB
memory drive slot 304x530x398mm (HxWxD)
16.9kg One-year warranty www.snipca.com/24679
We solve your buying dilemmas
numbers, but a few mobile
networks are starting to support
Wi-Fi calling, which routes
phone calls over an internet
data connection. In theory that could
work with tablets, but the only network
that actually supports tablets so far is
O2, via its TU Go app (www.snipca.com/
24718, see screenshot). Youll need an
O2 data tari.
Alternatively, all tablets support audio/
video chat services such as Skype, while
iPads also have FaceTime. If your friends
aboutt 4.2p
about
abou 4.2p ffor
or a ccolour
olour page a
ol and
nd only a
penny for black only. Thats incredibl
incredibly
cheap, and, bearing in mind pages fu full of
photos or graphics will use a lot more
ink, the savings will soon add up to
more than 30 or 40 quid. On that basis,
wed recommend the MFC-J5330DW
but do shop around and pay as little
for it as you can.
VERDICT: Despite the wildly varying
price, this is an excellent all-round
home-oce printer with more speed
and versatility than cheaper models
ALTERNATIVE: HP Ocejet et Pro 6960
110 Not quite as fast or cheap to run,
and doesnt print A3, but
this all-in-one is also a
good value buy
and family use these free
services, you could use them
instead of the phone network. Be
aware that most tablets only
connect where theres Wi-Fi. If you pay
extra for one with 3G/4G cellular
capability, youll be able to connect in
all the same places as a mobile phone.
TU Go also works over cellular
networks, but other Wi-Fi calling
services may not.
Do you need advice on what you should buy?
Email us at letters@computeractive.co.uk
How to choose a printer
There are more printers available, at a wider
range of prices than ever before. Heres
what you should consider when trying to
choose the right one for you
Inkjet or laser?
Laser printers want to convince us that
theyre as home-friendly as their inkjet
counterparts, while some inkjets are as
fast as laser printer. So which of these
very dierent animals is right for you?
Laser printer toner cartridges last several
thousand pages but cost a fortune. Colour
models tend to slowly use up the colour
toners even if you only print black, then
refuse to print at all when any of them is
empty. This makes colour lasers awkward
if you only print occasionally, and even
for higher volumes they dont necessarily
work out cheaper to run than inkjet to
run. They do oer crisper text and solid-
colour graphics, but arent great for photos.
For most of us an inkjet is the best choice,
or a budget mono laser for black only.
Multi-function
Its more common than ever to nd
printers with a scanner stuck on top.
There are dierences in quality and speed
between scanners, so always read our
reviews. For everyday occasional
photocopying and digitising paper
documents, any multi-function printer
(MFP) should be ne. A few models still
support faxing.
Paper handling
Most printers can accommodate 250 A4
sheets in their main tray, but others only
The Xerox Phaser 6022V colour laser printer
costs around 180, but a full set of refills is
well over 200
An ADF, as on the 110 HP
OfficeJet Pro 6960, makes
impler
multi-page copying simpler
t 100 (sometimes in na
vertical hopper on top,
op,
which isnt as neat). Many
ny
MFPs now have an automatic
utomatatic
document feeder (ADF,DF, seee image
canner, typi
above right) for the scanner, typically
ll
ich is great for
taking 25 sheets, which for comparison
comparison, but the industry-
multi-page copies. Its rarer to nd a standard denition of a page assumes
straight-through rear paper feed, which theres not much on it, so in fact a full-
avoids the need for thick card to wrap page photo could use dozens of pages
around rollers, so most printers are worth of ink or toner. Printers also waste
limited to about 300gsm (grams per ink/toner in maintenance tasks.
square metre) paper. A few A4 printers, Larger XL cartridges save money.
notably made by Brother, can print single Tank systems such as Epsons EcoTank
sheets of A3, but full A3 and larger (www.snipca.com/24643, see image
printers are much pricier. below) can work out even cheaper, as
well as creating less waste. With HPs
Instant Ink option (www.snipca.com/
Laser and inkjet 24642) you pay a monthly fee and ink
arrives in the post whenever youre
printers have things in running low, but to be sure of saving
common, but are very money youll need a clear idea of how
many pages youre likely to print.
different animals Unocial compatible cartridges
often work ne, and can save money.
But printer manufacturers hate you
Getting connected using them, so expect your printer to
A printer can connect to a PC via a USB harangue you about using an unapproved
cable; to a PC or router via an Ethernet cartridge. Heavy users of colour laser
cable (meaning you can share it with printers, for example, can easily save
other devices on your network); or to PCs hundreds of pounds by nding a reliable
and mobile devices via built-in Wi-Fi. brand of compatible toner.
Most Wi-Fi models support AirPrint
(Apples technology that allows printing
from iOS apps) and Mopria (for compatible
Android apps). A few rely on the printer
manufacturers own app, which will also
let you scan pages from an MFP to your
phone or tablet.
Ink and toner costs
Our reviews always work out the cost per
page for you based on current prices for
ocial ink or toner cartridges. Roughly,
expect around 2.5-4p for black text or Until all printers fill up from bottles like
7-10p for colour. These gures are useful Epsons EcoTank, cartridges will remain pricey
5 18 July 2017 27
 Reviews
PC 500 from PC Specialist www.snipca.com/24779
PC Specialist Enigma K3 GT
Budget desktop PC with Intel Optane
Like many of todays budget desktop PCs,
the Enigma K3 GT is based on an i3
processor from the bottom end of
Intels Kaby Lake range. However, it
does have a speed-boosting trick up its
sleeve: Intels new Optane technology
(see box below), which promises to make
its bog standard 1TB hard drive perform
more like an SSD.
In our tests, read speeds under the
most favourable conditions zoomed up to
over 750 megabytes per second, not quite
the advertised 846 but extremely quick
nonetheless. Write speeds, peaking at just
under 120MB/s, were still in standard
hard-drive territory, but unless you often
save or copy huge les, or transcode
video, that wont aect you much. So
wed chalk this up as a win.
WHAT IS THE OPTANE SYSTEM?
Over the last few years, SSDs have
been replacing hard drives in laptops.
Theyre faster and can take up a lot less
space. In desktop PCs, the problem is
that they are still much more expensive
per gigabyte. This makes the sort of
capacity most of us need in our main
PC a terabyte or two unaordable.
rovided
vided
The M.2 socket provided
on the latest
motherboards
supports even
er
smaller and faster
SSDs, but doesnt
28 5 18 July 2017
A decent PC with
Intels new system
pushing up speeds
Compared with systems that pair a 1TB
hard drive with a separate 240GB SSD,
youre not getting as much storage space,
and you may want to think about
whether a really fast drive plus a bigger
(albeit slower) one might suit you better
than a single relatively fast drive.
For future expansion, though, the
Enigma K3 GT does have a second M.2
slot as well as two empty 3.5in bays and a
2.5in bay for more storage. This comes
courtesy of the relatively fancy Asus ROG
Strix B250H motherboard, which is multitasking score beat several PCs that
aimed at gamers but well specied for should have ranked above it, probably
anyone wanting performance and thanks to that dual-channel memory.
exibility. The four memory slots give you And although youd want a separate
room to add to the supplied 8GB, even graphics card for serious gaming, the i3
though its installed as two matched 4GB has the same built-in Intel HD Graphics
modules for speed. With a full set of USB 630 as current i5s, so we were able to get
and audio ports (though no Wi-Fi), the quite a few games running smoothly.
setups only obvious limitation is that As bets the name, were not sure what
there are only two monitor outputs, to make of the Enigma. Optane denitely
which might limit multi-screen fans. The helps, but the weakest link in this PC is
case is functional, with adequate cooling. the processor, which is the trickiest and
Back to that i3 processor, though. Fast priciest part to upgrade.
it aint. In our photo- and video-editing
tests it was signicantly slower than i5 SPECIFICATIONS
desktop PCs. On the other hand, its 3.9GHz Intel Core i3-7100 dual-core processor
8GB memory 1TB hard drive 16GB Optane
cache 3x USB 3.0 5x USB 2 PS/2 port Gigabit
Ethernet DVI port HDMI port Windows 10 Home
415x192x418mm (HxWxD) Three-year warranty
make them any cheaper. www.snipca.com/24779
Intels Optane system tries to square
this circle: a very small (and thus VERDICT: For 500 this is a very
cheap) amount of SSD-type storage is decent desktop PC, but bear in mind
plugged in via M.2 and linked to a that upgrade potential will be held back
conventional hard drive, serving as a by the relatively slow processor
cache that speeds up the transfer of
regularly used data, including parts of
Wi
Windows 10. Its not quite ALTERNATIVE: Palicomp i5
an SSD on the cheap, but Titanium 500 This i5-7400
it seems to make more PC is fast and comes with a
of a dierence than 1TB hard drive and 250GB
previous hybrid or SSD, a DVD writer and two
f
fusion hard drives. M.2 sockets
HARD DRIVE 222 (500GB) from Amazon www.snipca.com/24762
iStorage diskAshur Pro2 HDD 500GB
Keep your hard drive private
Governments disagree about whether
encryption is a blessing or a curse, but
for the moment anyone can encrypt
any data they dont want their friends,
neighbours or rulers peeking at.
Windows 10 includes BitLocker, which
encrypts drives, but only in the Pro
edition. The rest of us can use free or
paid-for encryption software, but
heres an alternative.
Instead of plugging in an external drive
and typing a password into software to
decrypt it, you get a drive with a built-in
keypad. Once youve used this to change
the default PIN to your own, the drive is
automatically encrypted. Wake it up, or
connect it to a dierent PC, and
nothing happens. Only when
you tap your PIN into the keypad
does it show up like a normal
external hard drive.
Its that simple, and an extra
benet is that you never type the
password on your keyboard, it cant be
intercepted by keylogging malware. The
diskAshur Pro2 feels solidly built and is
described as shockproof, although bear
in mind that its mechanical hard drive
mechanism wont be as tough as
solid-state storage (SSD). The keypad has
durable buttons, and a zipped semi-hard
carry case is included.
Its a good way to
store data you need to
keep confidential
The main advantage of this hard drive
version over the cheaper datAshur USB
stick (see Issue 494, page 24) is its much
higher 500GB capacity, but its also
faster, signicantly so when reading
(recovering) data from the disk rather
than writing (saving) to it. A terabyte
costs 284, which is better value than
SPECIFICATIONS
Hard drive with built-in keypad AES 256-bit XTS
hardware encryption Captive USB 3.1 cable and plug
Carry case 20x84x124mm (HxWxD) 225g
Two-year warranty www.snipca.com/24761
500GB for 222, or you can get 2TB for
359. If you need a really fast drive, the
diskAshur is also available as an SSD,
ranging from 199 for 128GB to 1TB for
740, which would only make sense if
you were transferring, say, a working
digital master of the next James Bond lm.
A numeric keypad isnt ideal qwerty
would let you create a much more secure
password in the same number of
characters but as long as youre happy
to remember a suciently strong number
(seven to 15 digits), the diskAshur Pro2 is
a good way to store and transport data
that you need to keep condential,
whether for personal reasons or for
compliance with data protection.
VERDICT
Youd only pay this much per gigabyte for
a hard drive if encryption was essential.
Keeping the passcode within the drive
makes sense and ensures simplicity
ALTERNATIVE: iStorage
datAshur USB Flash Drive 4GB
4
36 These keyring drives are
ar
6GB,
B,
available in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB,
32GB
That was then
This is now!
How technology has changed
British Telecom Relate 2000
WHAT WAS IT?
The Relate 2000 (pictured) was as
a videophone introduced in
1993 by British Telecom. It
cost 749 (around 1,400
now) for two handsets. The
quality of the image is surprisingly
good, reported the Independent, but
still perhaps not yet clear enough to
convince the public that videophones
are more than a gimmick. Sure
enough, it didnt catch on.
HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED?
The Relate 2000 was sold in pairs
because there was no standard for
videophones, so anyone you wanted to
call had to have the same model. Over a
copper phone line, it could transmit ve
to eight frames per second (fps), shown
on its three-inch black-and-white LCD
screen. The sound was often out of sync.
BTs last videophone, the Videophone
2000, was launched in 2006 priced
50. Today, video-chat services like
Skype let users communicate using
advanced data compression and high-
bandwidth connections such as 3G/4G
phone networks. They transmit sharp
30fps video, in full colour, wirelessly
between phones and tablets costing
as little as 40.
NEXT ISSUE
ON SALE
Weds
19 July
RCA Mercury 7L
Compact Android
tablet for just 50
Gladiator Enterprise GT
500 PC with the speed
you need for work
These and much more
Subscribe to Computeractive at
www.getcomputeractive.co.uk
5 - 18 July 2017 29
 Buy It
LAPTOP
Dell Inspiron 15 5000
699 from www.snipca.com/23375
Tested: Issue 459
Now updated with Intels seventh-
generation processors, this laptop ((not the
2-in-1 version) now edges the ZenBook
below and starts at just 449, but
mid-range congurations with SSD and
AMD R7 graphics are the best choice.
ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook UX305CA
If you want something sleeker, this oers
basic performance in a superbly slim
and light metal case. 600 from
www.snipca.com/23376
ANDROID TABLET
Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7
600 from www.snipca.com/24140
Tested: Issue 501
Samsungsgss new
w mid-sized tablet
et has a
wonderful HDR screen and comes with
a pen included, unlike Apples iPad Pro.
But its processor isnt the fastest and its
disappointingly expensive, especially
compared to the 339 iPad 9.7in.
ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenPad 3S 10
This 9.7in tablet is like an Android
version of the iPad Air. It has an eight-
hour battery life and 4GB RAM. 370
from www.snipca.com/22359
30 5 18 July 2017
Find out what other products we liked.
Buy our new 2016 Back Issue CD:
15 from www.snipca.com/23209
Our pick of products that have won the Buy It award
DESKTOP PC
Wired2FireDiabloUltimaV2
800 from www.snipca.com/23767
ed: Issue 497
Tested:
Teaming Intels latest i5 processor with
a Radeon RX 460 graphics card, this
delivers great all-round performance
and adequate gaming, helped by a fast
M.2 SSD plus a generous 2TB hard
drive and 16GB of memory.
ALTERNATIVE: Chillblast Fusion
Hubble For advanced performance, this
overclocked Kaby Lake i5 PC comes
with a GTX 1060 graphics card. 1,030
from www.snipca.com/23380
APPLE iPHONE P ANDROID PHONE
DRRIC
OP E
Apple iPhone SE
/21683
311 from www.snipca.com/21683
Tested: Issue 474
It may be
b Apple
Apples budget
bud
ud t phone,
ho but
the smaller SE beats most others in the
market with top-end processing power,
a great screen and camera, ngerprint
recognition and Apple Pay. You should
consider paying 439 for the 64GB
model, though.
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
APPLE iPAD
Apple iPad 9.7in
339 from www.snipca.com/24079
Tested: Issue 500
The replacement for the iPad Air 2 is
slightly bulkier and has a downgraded
screen but remains the best mid-sized
tablet, with a sensible 32GB of storage.
Youll need the 549 iPad Pro if you
want to use the Pencil stylus (99).
ALTERNATIVE: iPad Mini 4 The smaller
7.9in iPad is excellent, but Apples
decision to sell it only with a huge 128GB
makes it unreasonably expensive. 419
from www.snipca.com/24080
Motorola Moto G4
178 from www.snipca.com/21685
Tested: Issue 479
With an attractive 5.5in screen, an
excellent 13-megapixel camera, a 13-
hour battery and decent performance,
the G4 is the best budget option.
ALTERNATIVE: Samsung Galaxy S7
Restoring the microSD slot to allow
extra storage makes this an even
better top-end phone than the S6,
with a fantastic screen and camera and
incredible 18-hour battery life. 445
from www.snipca.com/21684
 BUY IT!
Buy It
EBOOK READER SECURITY SOFTWARE PHOTO EDITING P
DRRIC
OP E
Amazon Kindle (2016) Kaspersky Internet Serif Affinity Photo
60from
57 fromwww.snipca.com/21901
www.snipca.com/21901 Security 2017 /23739
39 from www.snipca.com/23739
ed: Issue 483
Tested: 17.99 from www.snipca.com/21532 Tested: Issue 498
Tested: Issue 493

Here: All copy copied

and pasted from issue
489

Kaspersky Internet Security 2017 has won Designed for both full-time professional
Amazons
azons basic ebook reader is now our past eight antivirus tests. Compatible image retouchers and the rest of us
good enough to be our rst choice. Its with Windows 10, the 2017 edition is keen amateurs, this is a beautifully
plasticky, but slim and lightweight, with available at an exclusive reader discount designed and comprehensive program
a decent 4GB storage and good battery on our Software Store. Go to the link for both Windows and Mac users,
life. Consider the 110 Paperwhite if you above for a one-year, one-device licence although so far it performs better on
want backlighting or (for 60 extra) 3G. or buy a two-year, three-device licence for Macs.
just 34.99.
ALTERNATIVE Kobo Aura Glo HDOne ALTERNATIVE: Xara Photo & Graphic
Competing with Amazons
the Kindle Kindle
Paperwhite,
Oasis, ALTERNATIVE: Avast Free Antivirus Designer 365 For all-round design
this
Kobos
premium
compactmodel
modelfrom
hasKobo
a clear
hasscreen
a Almost as good as Kaspersky, but and drawing plus photo lters, this
with
largecontrollable
7.8in screenlighting.
and is comfortable
130 from to sometimes blocks legitimate software. aordable app has a lot to oer.
www.snipca.com/21905
read. 190 from www.snipca.com/22031 Free from www.snipca.com/16493 50 from www.snipca.com/19280

PC MONITOR ROUTER MULTIFUNCTION PRINTER

AOC Q2778VQE Synology RT1900ac Canon Pixma MG5750

207 from www.snipca.com/21902
228 144 from www.snipca.com/21903
134 60 from www.snipca.com/21693
Tested: Issue 468 Tested: Issue 474 Tested: Issue 470

Here: All copy copied

and pasted from issue
489
You dont get many frills, but this
compact all-in-one printer/scanner
includes all the essentials, like Wi-Fi
It comes with no extras, such as If youre looking to upgrade an outdated and printing both sides of the paper
built-in speakers or a USB hub, but
Here: All copy copied
router, there are lots of dual-band (duplex), at a reasonable price. Its
this 2560x1440 panel gives you a full and pasted
802.11ac models to from issue
choose from. This fairly quick, running costs are better
27in screen with excellent contrast and 489
This
one suits
one suits
mostalmost
broadband
all broadband
connections than average, and the ve-ink system
colour accuracy at a very reasonable connections
that dont require
and has
an ADSL
plentymodem
of options,
and ensures photos and black text both
price. Its a little laggy for gamers, but such
has plenty
as sharing
of options,
a connected
such asprinter
sharingora come out looking great.
theres no ghosting on motion. storage.
connected printer or storage.
ALTERNATIVE: Brother MFC-J5320DW
ALTERNATIVE: Dell UltraSharp U2414H ALTERNATIVE TP-Link Archer C9 For more business-type tasks, this
This 1920x1080, 24in screen has a Not quite as fast, but this or the D9 (with all-in-one has automatic paper feed
stand that can switch to portrait mode. ADSL modem built in) is a simple and for the scanner and the ability to print
Colour accuracy is excellent. 195
199 from capable router with a stylish design. occasional A3 pages. 221 from
www.snipca.com/21908 109from
110 fromwww.snipca.com/21909
www.snipca.com/21909 www.snipca.com/21694

32 5 18 July 2017
 BUY IT!

COMPETITION
Win 1 of 2
FRITZ!Box 3490 wireless routers

INTERESTED IN The superfast FRITZ!Box 3490 Wi-Fi router, made

by German company AVM, has been approved by BT
MAGAZINE Openreach, meaning that internet service providers can
oer it as part of their broadband package (nd out more

STANDARDS? at www.snipca.com/24737). The award-winning Zen

If so, IPSO, the regulator of magazines and newspapers, is
looking for people to join their Readers Advisory Panel. The
panel which will meet three times a year will support
IPSOs work and give readers the opportunity to share their
views on media issues. No experience is required, just an
interest in editorial standards. IPSO will cover travel
expenses and pay you 200 for every meeting you attend.
If you are interested, please go to: www.ipso.co.uk/about-
ipso/vacancies/
Internet has become the rst provider to oer the router.
With six dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) antennas, the
FRITZ!Box 3490 is the perfect router for streaming music
and video across a home network. It also has a private
hotspot for guests, parental controls and two speedy USB
3.0 ports. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.
co.uk with fritzbox in the subject line by midnight 18 July!
You can buy the FRITZ!Box 3490 for 156 from Amazon
at www.snipca.com/24738. For more information
on AVMs routers visit https://en.avm.de and follow
@AVM_INTL on Twitter.

HOMEPLUGS P SOLID STATE DRIVE P WEB DESIGN

DRRIC DRRIC
OP E OP E
TP-Link AV1200 Powerline
werline Samsung 960 Pro 512GB
12GB Xara Web Designer
Wi-Fi Kit WPA8730 om/23389
280 from www.snipca.com/23389 Premium 365
115 from www.snipca.com/23766 Tested: Issue 491 70 from www.snipca.com/16955
Tested: Issue 495 Tested: Issue 453

HomePlug adapters use your mains
wiring to extend your network where
Wi-Fi wont reach. This kit provides
Wi-Fi at the far end too, so phones and
tablets can connect as well as PCs and
other Ethernet-equipped devices.
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.
22 from www.snipca.com/21691
Made for the fast M.2 interface thats
increasingly common inside PCs, this is
not a cheap option, but if you want an
SSD you want speed, and this has it in
spades. Samsungs 850 Evo (150 for
500GB) is a good budget choice.
ALTERNATIVE: Kingston SSDNow
UV400 480GB Much slower, but still
faster than a hard drive, this gives you
more GB per pound. 138 from
www.snipca.com/22127
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.
ALTERNATIVE: Incomedia WebSite X5
v12 Evolution It may feel a little basic,
but this straightforward program outputs
ecient HTML code and responsive pages.
50 from www.snipca.com/19440

5 18 July 2017 33
 2016
Back Issue CD
NOW !
SA LE
ON CON
T
ALLAINS
ISSU 26
M 20ES
FRO
16

Buy it now from Amazon at

www.snipca.com/23209
or search for computeractive cd on Amazon
You can still buy our 2015 CD at www.snipca.com/21619
 PU
& LL

Workshops & Tips

Is K OU
su E
e E
50 P T
5

Edited by Sherwin Coelho

14 pages of easy-to-follow workshopss and expert tips

35 Open your PCs folders 40 Turn your phone into PLUS
in convenient tabs a scanner 43 Readers Tips 47 Make Office Better
38 Stop hackers spying 42 Add text to videos then 44 Phone & Tablet Tips 48 Secret Tips For...
on your family share them on Skype 46 Make Windows Better Copy and paste

Open your PCs folders

in convenient tabs
What you need: Tablacus Explorer; Any Windows version (XP to 10)
Time required: 30 minutes

F ile Explorer (Windows

Explorer in Windows 7 and
earlier) is one of Microsofts
best tools, but theres still room
for improvement. Thats where
Tablacus Explorer comes in. Its
a free program that lets you
open folders on your PC as
separate tabs similar to how
your browser works. Even
better, you can split the
program window into two
panes and open multiple tabs
in each. Well show you how to
use it to access, move and copy
multiple les quickly.

1
1

2 2

STEP To download the latest version of Tablacus Explorer, go
1 to www.snipca.com/24769 and click the Download
link 1 . The program is a compressed le, so youll need
a le-compression program such as PeaZip (www.peazip.org)
to open it. You now need to extract the downloaded le. If
youre using PeaZip, open the downloaded setup le, click
Extract 2 , then click OK at the bottom right.
STEP There are two versions of Tablacus Explorer for 32bit or
2 64bit PCs. To check which version you need, right-click
Computer 1 (on your desktop, in the Start Menu or
within File Explorer), click Properties 2 , then check the System
type in the System section. Now open your PCs Downloads
folder. Youll see two extracted programs TE32 and TE64.
Open the relevant one for your system.

5 18 July 2017 35
 Workshops
1
3
4 2 3
1

STEP When you rst open the program, youll see all your STEP Double-click any le to open it in its default program
3 desktop items 1 . At the top, youll see options to
sort these items by name, size, item type and when 4 and right-click any le to see the Windows/File
Explorer context menu (with options to print, delete,
you created/updated it (Date modied 2 ). You can add/ scan, cut, copy and so on). By default, all items in Tablacus
remove sorting criteria by right-clicking the bar at the top (to Explorer are displayed as tiles, but you can change this. Click
the right of Date modied) 3 , then ticking/clearing the boxes the View button 1 , then choose from the eight options 2 . These
4 as you like. include various icon sizes, List and Details. Use the Filter bar 3
to search for specic items in the folder youve navigated to.

STEP Windows/File Explorer uses a tree

5 navigation pane. To add this to
Tablacus Explorer, click the Tree
icon 1 . Youll now see a small line on the left.
1 4 Click and drag this to the right to display the
navigation pane 2 . Similar to Windows/File
Explorer, there are three ways to navigate
your folders you can use the navigation
pane, the folder-hierarchy menu at the top 3
or click the arrows in the folder-hierarchy
menu to see relevant sub folders 4 .
3

STEP Tablacus Explorers best

6 feature lets you open folders as
separate tabs. Right-click to
the right of Desktop (at the top), then
click New tab 1 (or press Ctrl+T).
Youll now see a new blank tab. Open 2 3
any folder on your PC, and use the
arrow buttons 2 to go one folder
forward or back. Click and drag to
reposition your tabs. Right-click any
tab to see options to close it or to close
other tabs 3 . You can also right-click
any sub-folder, then click Open in new 1
tab.

36 5 18 July 2017

2
STEP To move les between folders, rst select the les you
7 want to move, then drag these to a folder of your
choice in the navigation pane. When you see the Move
to [folder name] pop-up 1 , release the mouse button. Similarly,
you can drag the le to another tab 2 or to a folder within
another tab. You can also copy les and paste them to another
PC location (for example, your desktop) if you prefer.
1
1 2
4 click Tools, Load layout 4 select the name of your
Open your PCs folders in convenient tabs
1
2
STEP If you access a particular folder or PC location often,
8 you can add it to Tablacus Explorers Favorites bar.
Open the folder you want to bookmark, click the
Favorites option on the toolbar 1 , then click Add to favorites 2 .
Name this folder, then click OK. From now on, you can navigate
to this folder by clicking Favorites on the toolbar, then selecting
your folder 3 .
STEP Well now show you how to split the Tablacus
9 Explorer window into two panes (vertically
or horizontally), each with its own set of
tabs. To do this, click Tools 1 , then Load layout. Youll
see several layout options 2 that you can try to see
which one suits you. To split the window horizontally,
select tree2tabs 3 or to see two vertical panes, select
v2tabs 4 . Once youve selected a layout option, click
Open.
2 3
4
STEP If you hit upon a specic layout (with all the
10 pane, tabs and folders you want) that works
well for you, you can save it for quick access.
First, create your layout, then open the folders you want
as tabs 1 . Now click Tools 2 , click Save layout 3 , name
the layout, then click Save. To load this layout in future,
layout, then click Open.
5 18 July 2017 37
 Workshops
Stop hackers spying
on your family
What you need: Bitdefender Home Scanner; Windows 7, 8 or 10 Time required: 20 minutes

B itdefender Home Scanner is a

new free program that scans all
the devices connected to your home
network for vulnerabilities that
hackers can exploit. It also suggests
how best to secure these devices,
thereby protecting your family from
threats youre probably unaware of.
Well show you how to make the
most of its features and explain how
to keep all your connected devices
safe from attack.

STEP To download the program,

1 go to www.snipca.
com/24648 and click the
green Free Download button 1 .
Open the downloaded setup le 2 ,
click Yes, tick the box if you want to
send anonymous usage reports to
Bitdefender (optional) 3 , then click
Start Installation 4 . After its 3 4
installed click Start Using Home
Scanner. You need to create a free
Bitdefender account, so enter your
login details (name, email address 1 2
and a password) in the elds
provided, then click Create Account.

1 2
1
3

2
3

STEP When you open the program, itll ask you if youre STEP Some devices if they are in sleep mode, for example
2 connected to your home network. Click Yes, this is my
home network, then Conrm. The program will now 3 may not be detected during the initial scan. If some of
your devices are missed, click Scan Network 1 . Repeat
run a scan to detect all the devices that are connected to your the process until all your home network devices have been
network. After a few minutes, youll see a list of these devices detected. Youll see one of two messages next to each listed
(including routers, PCs, phones, tablets, Smart TVs and so on) 1 . device - Potentially At Risk 2 or No Risk Found 3 . Click any
Click Close 2 when you see the Scan complete notication 3 . Potentially At Risk messages you see.

38 5 18 July 2017
 1 3

1 2

4 3

STEP Youll now see two tabs Device details 1 and

STEP Here, youll see how to x your devices vulnerability 1

4 Vulnerabilities 2 . Device details displays your devices

IP address 3 , manufacturer 4 and device type. Click
the Vulnerabilities tab to see a list of detected vulnerabilities
along with their risk rating (Low, Medium or High). Click the
rst item in the list.
5 and what can happen if you leave it unxed 2 (in our
case, we were advised to update our router because it
was susceptible to hackers). Solutions can include updating
your device, securing it with a password, creating a more secure
password, uninstalling an unsafe program or updating your
antivirus program. When youve carried out the x, go back 3
and x the other detected vulnerabilities in the same way.

STEP Most vulnerabilities are due to a device not

6 being updated. To update your Windows 10
PC to the latest version, open Settings, click
Update & security, then click Check for updates 1 .
You may need to restart your PC after the update. To
update your Android device, go to Settings, About
phone/tablet, System update and restart your device
if necessary. Similarly, on iOS devices, go to Settings, 1
General, then Software Update and follow the
prompts. To update other devices on your network
(routers, Smart TVs, etc.) refer to its manual.

STEP The program also keeps a log of all devices

1
7 that connect to your network. Click the
notications icon 1 to see these 2 and when
they connected (at the top right). Click the dropdown
menu, then click Device Details 3 to see more
3 information. Next, click Scan Device to check that
2 device for any vulnerabilities. The Account info icon 4
lets you change your home network and the question-
mark icon 5 opens the programs website from where
you can download a free user guide and read FAQs.
4

5 18 July 2017 39
 Workshops

Turn your phone into

a scanner
What you need: Android or iOS (phone or tablet) Time required: 15 minutes

F or many years, if you wanted to

scan a magazine page, receipt or
photo you needed a desk-cluttering
scanner. These days you can take a
good-quality scanned copy of
anything by simply taking a photo of
it. Adobe Scan is a new free app that
scans anything you point your device
at. You can then use its editing tools to
rene your scan, save it as a PDF, save
it to your PC, or send it to whoever
you want.

STEP Install the Adobe Scan app

1 on your phone or tablet
(Android www.snipca.
com/24653; iOS www.snipca.
com/24654). When it launches,
swipe through the introductory
screens 1 . You need to create an
Adobe ID to use the app, so tap
Sign Up 2 and enter your name,
email address and a password.
Alternatively, tap Sign In 3 to log in 3
if you already have an Adobe ID.

1
2 1

STEP Now point your camera

2 directly at any page,
document or photo you 3
want to scan. The app should
4
automatically detect then scan your
subject 1 . If it fails to detect it, youll
see an onscreen message prompting
you to manually scan it. If that 1
happens, tap the Shutter icon 2 . 2 3 4 5
If you prefer to manually scan all
your les you can switch o the
automatic feature by tapping the
Auto-Capture button 3 . Tap the STEP Youll now see all your scans in a carousel
the ash icon 4 to switch the ash
on or o as you need it. Scan as 3 display 1 that you can swipe through. The
app oers several editing options. The rst
many documents as you want, icon 2 lets you re-do your selected scan. The second
then tap the saved thumbnails 5 to one 3 displays all your scans on the same screen as
start editing them. thumbnails you can drag to reorder (useful if youre
scanning the pages of a book). The next icon 4
displays borders around your selected scan that
2 you can drag to crop your scan (tap the tick icon to
5 conrm your choice). Click the bin icon 5 , then
Yes if you want to delete the selected scan.

40 5 18 July 2017
STEP Tap the arrow icon 1 to

4 rotate your scan by 90

degrees (clockwise). The
5
wand icon 2 oers four further
options Original Photo 3 displays
the unedited scan; Auto Color
(selected by default) displays a
colour-enhanced version; 3
Grayscale 4 converts it to black and
white; and Whiteboard is the best
option if scanning text written on a
whiteboard. Use these tools to edit
your scan, then tap Save PDF 5 . 4
1

2
2
1

3
1 2

STEP Youll now see two tabs
4
5 Recent 1 and File List 2 .
Tap the three dots at the
bottom right 3 if you want to
rename your PDF. Next, tap Share
4 to see three options - Email to,
lets you send your scanned PDF
using your default email app; Share
File 5 lets you share it using other
apps, including text messaging or
social media; and Share Link 6
displays a link to the scan that you
can then share with others.
4
STEP Tap the menu icon 1 , then tap Preferences.
6 Here, youll see sliders that let you upload
scans over a cellular network 2 (meaning it
will use your phones 3G and 4G data if its not
connected to Wi-Fi), run text recognition on your
saved PDFs 3 and save scans as images on your
5 device 4 . To access original scans, open your default
Gallery app, the Others/Other albums folder, then
6 the Adobe Scan sub-folder.

2 STEP To access your scanned PDFs on your PC, go

7 to www.documents.adobe.com, then log in
using your Adobe account details (see Step
3 1). Next, click Manage Files at the top, then open the
Adobe Scan folder. Click Document Cloud 1 , then
click Recent 2 to see a list of all your scanned les.
Tick to select the les you want 3 , then click
Download 4 to download them all (as a zipped le)
to your PC.

1 4

5 18 July 2017 41
 Workshops
Add text to videos then
share them on Skype
What you need: Android phone or tablet Time required: 15 minutes

M icrosoft have revamped the

Skype Android app, adding
several new features (for more info on
these go to www.snipca.com/24724).
Our favourite is Highlights, which lets
you record a video or take a photo,
personalise it by adding text or
scribbling something across it, then
share it with your Skype contacts
and groups. Your video/photo will
automatically disappear from the
recipients device after seven days.
Skypes iOS app will be updated with
these new features soon.

STEP Install the Skype app on your Android phone or tablet
1 (www.snipca.com/24725) or update your existing app
in the Play Store. Open it, tap Sign In, then log in using
your Microsoft account. When you rst log in, youll see options
to choose a theme and sync
your email address contacts
3 with Skype. After doing
this, swipe up your screen
to see options to add a
1 prole photo 1 (or change
an existing one), create a
group 2 and watch videos
1 describing the new Skype
features. Tap Close cards or
hide cards 3 to skip this
(you can access these at any
time by tapping your prole
2 picture at the top).
STEP Skypes main screen is 1 2
2 now divided into three
tabs at the top. Tap the 4
contacts icon 1 to invite people
in your email address book to
join Skype. Tap the call icon 2
to make video or audio calls to
your Skype contacts/groups.
Tap the Highlights tab 3 , then
tap the Skype tile to watch a 5
video explaining this feature.
The Chats tab 4 lists all your
conversations (most recent 3
rst). To record your rst
Highlight, tap the Capture
tab 5 , hold down the shutter
icon and record whatever you
want. Remove your nger to
stop recording. Alternatively,
tap the shutter icon to take a
photo.

STEP Youll now see your video or photo. seal 4 ). You can download this le to your

1 3 2 3 Tap the A icon 1 to add text or the

paintbrush icon 2 to scribble or
draw something (both display a bar on the
right that lets you change the text/paintbrush
colour). Tap the smiley-face icon 3 to add
emoticons or stickers (such as this purple
device 5 (optional). When youre happy with
it, tap the Send icon 6 , select My Highlights,
tap to select your Skype contacts or groups,
then tap the send icon at the top right. You
can access your saved Highlights in the
Highlights tab.

ON SALE
4 Weds
NEXT ISSUE 19 July

Automatically back up les to Google Drive

e
Write and send emails using your voice
ce
Resize photos by right-clicking
5 6 Get phone messages on your PC
Subscribe to Computeractive at getcomputeractive.co.uk

42 5 18 July 2017
Readers Tips
TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT
T
Show contents of your Users folder in a Notepad file
I read your See all the folders and
subfolders on your C Drive tip in
Issue 504s Make Windows Better,
which explains how to display all the
folders and sub-folders in your Users
folder as dropdown menus. You can
then save this info as a le to your
PC. I believe theres an even quicker
way to do this, which Ill come to.
To remind readers: you open
your Command Prompt (press
the Windows button, type cmd,
then press Enter). Next, type tree,
then press Enter. You now see your
User folders contents as a tree
Fraser wins a copy of our 2016 Back Issue CD
CHROME EXTENSION
Receive reminders to
correct your posture
Ive been getting
severe back pains of
late. A friend of mine who
had experienced something
similar suggested it was
probably caused by the
long hours I spend in front
of my PC while at work. He
recommended a brilliant
Chrome browser extension
called PostureMinder. It
reminds me to correct my
posture, and to get up and
walk around at regular
intervals.
Install the extension from
www.snipca.com/24675.
Now click the light blue
PostureMinder extension at
the top right of Chrome. Youll see options
to set reminders to correct your posture
and stretch your legs (see screenshot
above right). By default, these are set to
remind you every 15 and 60 minutes
respectively, but you can change them.
Click Update when youve nished.
Robert Branston
DESKTOP THEMES
Create your own Windows 10
desktop theme
Thanks for your Workshop in Issue
502 (page 35) on how to access,
download and use Microsofts new
Handy hints and tips from your fellow readers
Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk
dropdown menu depending on how
much content is in your Users folder.
Mine is about 500GB, so it took a while.
At the end of the tip, you say its
a good idea to copy and paste the
command results to a Notepad or Word
le. I have an easier solution. Simply
type tree>tree.txt at the end of the
command (see screenshot), then press
Enter. This saves the results of your
command as a Notepad le (called
tree) to the same Users folder. Its a
dropdown menu. much faster way of saving your
One thing you didnt mention is that information.
it can take a few minutes to see this Fraser Drummond
Buy it on Amazon www.snipca.com/23209
themes. I like to GMAIL
change my desktop Create automated email replies
themes regularly, and I I always knew that Outlook let you
recently came across a create automated email replies,
new way to create my which very useful when replying to
very own. people in a hurry. However, I didnt
First, save any realise that Gmail has the same feature.
images or photos you To use it, click the cog icon at the top
want to include in your right of Gmail, then click Settings. On the
theme to a folder on page that opens, click Labs at the top
your desktop. Now, right, scroll down to Canned Responses,
open Settings, click select Enable, scroll to the bottom of the
Personalisation, then page, then click Save Changes.
Background on the To create your rst email response,
left. Next, set the click Compose, then type your email
Background dropdown response. Next, click the dropdown
menu to Slideshow, menu at the bottom right, move your
then click the Browse cursor to Canned responses, click New
button below Choose canned response (see screenshot below),
albums for your then name this whatever you want.
slideshow. Navigate to Repeat this to create other quick
and select the folder responses.
containing your images and photos, then From now on, you can simply reply to
click Choose this folder. an email by clicking the same dropdown
Next, click Colours on the left and select menu, moving your cursor to Canned
a dominant colour for your theme. As response, then selecting the response
mentioned in the Workshop, this colour you created.
will be used for your taskbar, Start Peter Brake
menu and window title
bars. Alternatively, tick
Automatically pick an
accent colour from my
background if you prefer.
Finally, click the Themes
tab on the left, click Save
theme, then name it.
Chris Reilly
5 18 July 2017 43
 Phone and Tablet Tips Brilliant things to do on your device

ANDROID & iOS
Hide your photos from
prying
ng eyes
ye
Whenever you open
Google Photos, youll see
all the photos and videos
saved to your account (with the most
recent shown at the top). If you want
some photos to stay private, so other
people cant see them when you pass
your phone around, use the new Archive
feature. Bear in mind that archived
photos will still appear within any
albums youve added them to and in
your search results.
To use the feature, open Google
Photos (Android www.snipca.com/24741;
iOS www.snipca.com/24742), then tap
and hold the rst photo or video you
want to archive until a tick appears on it
(and tick boxes appear on all the other
les). Tick to select all the les you want
to archive, tap the three dots at the top
right, tap Archive (see screenshot below
left), then tap Done. To view your
archived les, tap the menu icon (three
lines) at the top left, then Archive.
ANDROID & iOS
Reorganise
ga your MailOnline app
The Daily Mails
MailOnline app features
19 topic sections (or
channels), which include UK Home,
World News, UK Election, UK Showbiz,
Sport, and Sci-Tech. They appear as tabs
at the bottom of the app that you tap to
access. Theres an easy way to rearrange
these channels so you can prioritise
topics that interest you most. ANDROID & iOS
The method varies slightly between Customise your YouTube
Android and iOS. On Android (www. video pr
preferences
snipca.com/24743), tap the three dots The YouTube app (default
at the top right, Settings, then Arrange on Android; iOS www.
channels. On iOS (www.snipca. snipca.com/24745) has
com/24744), tap the More button at the recently been revamped. The Android
bottom right, the cog icon at the top app has four tabs Home, Trending,
right, then tap Reorder Channels. Subscriptions and Library which have
On both systems, youll now see been moved from the top to the bottom
all your channels listed. Tap the of your screen (iOS also has an Activity
three lines beside any channel (see tab showing the latest videos from
screenshot above right), then swipe it channels youve subscribed to).
up or down to move it. Channels The Home tab shows a list of videos
toward the top of the list will appear that Google thinks you might be interested
toward the left of the row of tabs. On in based on what youve already watched.
Android, tap the back arrow and on The Library tab has four sections
iOS tap Done at the top to see your History, My Videos, Purchases and Watch
reordered channels. Later. At the top of the screen, youll see

Best New Apps What you should install this fortnight

ClippyCam* Ace File Manager Autoset

Free Free 1.69
iOS: www.snipca.com/24746 Android: www.snipca.com/24747 Android: www.snipca.com/24748
By default, your device lets you take a Its not always easy to know which les This handy app lets you automate your
photo or video using either its front or are consuming valuable storage space on device settings depending on which app
back camera, but not both at the same your device. This youre using. For
time. This app lets you do exactly that. Its app gives you a example, you can
a great way detailed graphic set it to always
to record breakdown of turn on the Wi-Fi
a stunning all your les setting whenever
location or apps, downloads, you use Netix
memorable videos, photos or Spotify. Or
event and and documents automatically
capture and lets you sort turn on your
your own them by type or devices location
reaction while size. You can then setting when
you were delete items you you use Google
witnessing it. dont need. Maps.
*Contains in
in-app purchases
has

44 5 18 July 2017
icons that let you record a video and
search YouTube, as well as a Chromecast
icon that lets you cast YouTube content to
your TV (if you have a Chromecast dongle
plugged into your TV).
There are two ways to make the video
recommendations that appear in your
Home tab more in line with your tastes.
You can tap the three dots beside any
video, then tap Not interested.
Alternatively, tap the Library tab, then
tap History to see a list of all the videos
youve ever watched. Here, tap three
dots beside any video you didnt like,
then tap Remove from Watch history.
YouTube now supports AirPlay so you
can cast videos from your iOS device to
your Apple TV. To do this, play the
YouTube video you want, swipe up from
the bottom of your device to access the
Control Centre, then tap Apple TV.
iOS
Turn your iPhone or iPad
into a magnifying glass
All iOS devices have a great
Magnier tool that lets you use
the camera on your device to
zoom in to hard-to-read print in
newspapers, magazines or books. You
rst need to enable the feature. Open
Settings, tap General, Accessibility,
Magnier, then switch on both sliders
in this section.
To magnify something, press the
Home button three times to activate
your devices Magnier tool. Tap the
zoom slider at the bottom to zoom in and
out of whatever youre reading. If you
nd it dicult to keep your hand steady
when reading your magnied text, tap
the lock icon at the bottom left. This
focuses your camera on the text your
pointing at.
Tap the icon with three circles at the
bottom right (see screenshot above) to
adjust the brightness and contrast using
sliders. The tabs at the top (White/Blue,
Yellow/Blue and so on) let you add
dierent lters which may help you view
the item better.
WINDOWS PHONE
Disable key vibrations
By default, your Windows Phone
vibrates whenever you tap the
navigation keys (Windows, back,
and so on). To disable this scroll down
from the top of your screen, tap All
settings, scroll to the bottom, tap Extras,
then Touch. Switch o the Vibrate when
I tap the navigation keys slider (see
screenshot right).
WINDOWS PHONE
Make your music sound better
Another great Windows Phone from several presets depending on what
feature is its equaliser, which music youre listening to (Acoustic,
helps you enhance your music. In Classical, Pop, R&B, etc). At the bottom,
Extras (see above tip), tap Equaliser, then youll see a slider for Virtual surround,
the dropdown menu at the top to select which only works with headphones.
Games With Kids
What to play together on your phone and tablet
AGES 0 5
Baby Games for Toddlers*
Free www.snipca.com/24749 (Android)
Ideal for kids at nursery school, this
app contains a collection of educational
games and activities. These involve simple
puzzles, counting numbers, identifying
shapes and colours, identifying objects,
matching similar items and tapping to nd
the correct object.
AGES 6 10
A Comets Journey*
Free www.snipca.com/24750 (Android)
Free www.snipca.com/24751 (iOS)
In this game, your child controls the
comets path by tapping and swiping.
The aim is to avoid collisions with other
celestial bodies, while collecting fuel and
travelling to certain points in space within
a set time.
AGES 11 16
Yellow*
Free www.snipca.com/24752 (Android)
Free www.snipca.com/24753 (iOS)
Yellow is a new puzzle game with 50
levels. The objective in each one is to
turn the entire screen yellow, but you
need to gure out how to do this without
instructions. In some puzzles this involves
moving shapes to the correct outline,
while in others it means tapping circles
in a specic sequence.
*Contains in-app purchases
5 18 July 2017 45
 Make Windows Better
WINDOWS VISTA, 7
Access your Videos folder faster
The Windows 7
Start menu includes
shortcuts to your
Pictures and Music folders, but not to
your Videos folder. If you use this folder
often, theres an easy way to add it to
your Start menu.
First, right-click the Windows button at
the bottom left and select Properties. In
the window that appears, select the Start
Menu tab, then click the Customize
button. Scroll to the bottom of the menu
that appears until you reach the Videos
section. Here, you can choose from two
options (see screenshot below) that add
two dierent types of Videos folder
shortcuts to your Start menu.
Select Display as a link and you will
be taken to the Videos folder when you
click the shortcut in the Start menu.
Alternatively, select Display as a menu to
see a list of sub-folders when you move
your cursor to Videos in the Start menu.
Click OK twice to conrm your changes.
WINDOWS 10
Skip Microsoft Edges
Tips start page
By default, Microsoft Edge
displays a Tips page at launch
every time you update Windows
10. The page provides information about
any new features that have been added
to Edge. If you nd this page irritating,
theres an easy way to skip it.
Press the Windows key+R to open the
Run box, type gpedit.msc, then press
Enter to open your PCs Group Policy
Editor. Navigate to the following location
using the dropdown menus on the left:
Computer Conguration>Administrative
Templates>Windows Components>
Microsoft Edge.
46 5 - 18 July 2017
Expert tips for every program
WINDOWS 10
Add OneDrive to your list of drives
If you use Microsofts online
(cloud) storage service OneDrive
to store your les, theres an
easy way to create a partition for it on
your PC. Doing this lets you access
OneDrive in the way you access the
other drives on your PC (C, D, E, etc.).
First, go to www.onedrive.live.com
and log in using your Microsoft account
details. Now take a look at your
browser bar and copy all the letters
and numbers that appear immediately
after root&cid= in the URL eld and
paste this into a Notepad or Word le.
Next, right-click the This PC icon on
your desktop (or in File Explorer) and
click Map Network Drive.
Scroll down the list then double-click
the Prevent the First Run webpage from
opening on Microsoft Edge option (see
screenshot below). In the window that
opens, select Enabled on the left, click
OK, then close the Group Policy Editor.
WINDOWS 7, 8, 10
Bring up your taskbar
thumbnails quicker
Move your cursor to the taskbar
icon of any program thats open
on your PC and youll see a
thumbnail preview of it. By default, this
thumbnail takes 400 milliseconds (0.4
seconds) to open, but you can speed it up
(or slow it down) if you prefer.
In the window that appears,
choose the drive letter you want to
assign to your OneDrive partition in
the dropdown menu. In the Folder
eld type https://d.docs.live.net/, then
paste the text you copied from the URL
(see screenshot). Tick both the boxes
below this, then click Finish.
Now wait for a few seconds until
you see the username and password
elds. Type your OneDrive login details
into this, then click OK. Finally, open
This PC and youll see the drive letter
you chose for your new partition. Open
this to see all your OneDrive les. Any
changes you make to les here will be
synced to your OneDrive account.
Press the Windows key, type regedit,
press Enter, then click Yes to open your
PCs Registry Editor. Go to the following
key by clicking the dropdown menus on
the left: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Mouse.
Now double-click the MouseHoverTime
option on the right. Youll see the default
value is set to 400, which means it takes
400 milliseconds for the taskbar preview
to appear. To speed things up, reduce this
value, though avoid going too low we
recommend 150 (see screenshot above).
Now click OK and exit the Registry.
Make Office Better
OUTLOOK
Create multiple email signatures for different contacts
Its easy to create several
Outlook email signatures, then
simply choose which one you
want to use for each email you send.
For example, you can create a more
formal one for business emails and a
more fun one for friends.
To do this, click the File tab at the top
left, Options at the bottom, Mail on the
left, then click the Signatures button on
the right. Now click the New button,
enter a name for this signature, click
OK, then type the signature you want
in the eld at the bottom. You can
format your signature using the options
at the top. To add an image, click the
OFFICE
Find word denitions and
synonyms quickly
You can look up the meaning of a
word or replace it with a similar
one without leaving Oce. The
feature called Smart Lookup is only
available in Oce 2016.
First, highlight the word, right-click it,
then click Smart Lookup to bring up the
panel on the right. If youre using this
feature for the rst time, click Turn on.
Youll now see two tabs at the top.
The Explore tab displays the word, its
Expert tips for every program
small image icon at the top right.
Similarly, to embed an internet link into
your signature, highlight the signature
text you want to link, click the globe icon
at the top right (see screenshot), then
meaning and suggested synonyms
(see screenshot below left). You can
also click the speaker icon to hear the
correct pronunciation of that word. At
the bottom, youll see options to run a
Wikipedia or web search for it in your
default browser.
The Dene tab also gives you the
meaning of the word, but also provides
details of its origins and a more
comprehensive list of synonyms.
Now move your cursor to the bottom
EXCEL
Capitalise text quickly
Theres a handy formula you
can use to change text to upper
or lower case format in a separate
column. In our example, well show
you how to change names in column
A to upper-case text in column D and
lower-case text in column E (see
screenshot above right).
First select cell D1. Now click inside
the Function eld at the top, type
type (or copy and paste)
the website URL you
want to link to in the
Address eld at the
bottom. Click the
Save button.
Now click the New
button again, name the
second signature and
create it using the same
method. You can create
as many as you want. In
future, whenever you compose or reply
to an email, simply click the Signature
dropdown menu at the top, then select
the signature you want to use.
=UPPER(A1), then press Enter. This tells
Excel to upper case all the text in cell A1.
right of cell D1 until your cursor becomes
a cross symbol, then click and drag this to
cell D5. Youll notice that all names in the
D column appear in upper case.
Similarly, to transform text to lower
case, click inside cell E1, type =LOWER(A1),
then press Enter to see john in lower
case. Now click and drag the bottom end
of this cell to E5 to see all the names in
lower case.
ONENOTE
Hyperlink text to other
notebooks, sections or notes
Theres an easy way to hyperlink
text within any of your notes
so that when clicked it opens
another notebook, section or note.
Highlight the text you want to link,
then press Ctrl+K (or right-click the
highlighted text, then click Link). In the
window that opens, youll see options to
select any of your notebooks, plus their
sections or notes, using dropdown menus
(see screenshot left). Select the item you
want to link to, then click OK.
5 18 July 2017 47
 Secret Tips For
Copy and paste
Control formatting of pasted text
Copied text from websites and
documents has a nasty habit of carrying
over its formatting and can therefore
mess up the documents youre pasting to.
You can congure your oce software to
remove existing formatting by tweaking
its settings, but this means you wont be
able to preserve formatting on those
occasions you want to. Instead you
should use PlainPaste (www.snipca.
com/24649). Download the program,
then double-click the PlainPaste.exe le
to run it (its a portable program so you
dont need to install it).
To use it, copy the text you want to
paste using the Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut
in the usual way, then paste (Ctrl+V)
twice in quick succession. Doing so
pastes the copied text without its original
formatting. If you want to preserve the
formatting, press Ctrl+V once.
To make things easier you can give
yourself more time to double-press the
paste shortcut. Right-click PlainPastes
icon in the notication area, click Settings,
then increase the Delay between double
key presses value (measured in
milliseconds, so 1,000 equals a one-
second delay, see screenshot above right).
Dont increase this value too much, or the
pasted text will take a long time to appear.
Add copy and paste options to your device
You can copy text on phones and
tablets (iOS and Android) by
long-pressing a word, then tapping
copy. But by using the right apps you
can add additional options.
Clipper (www.snipca.com/24652),
for example, is an Android app that
stores the previous 20
pieces of text copied
to its Clipboard tab.
Once youve installed
it, open it and swipe
through the
introductory screens.
You can organise your
lists by adding items
on your Clipboard to a
48 5 18 July 2017
See a history of everything
youve copied
Windows only lets you copy one item to
your clipboard, which will be wiped
whenever you restart your PC. Ditto is a
free clipboard manager that overcomes
this limitation. It saves every word,
phrase and image you copy so you can
paste it again at a later date.
To download it, go to www.snipca.
com/24650, then click Download
64bit. Windows 10 users can also opt
for the Windows 10 app,which works
in exactly the same way. Once installed,
press Ctrl+ to open a window showing
your copy-and-paste history. Simply
double-click an entry to paste it from
your history to the document youre
working on.
folder. Tap Lists, then the + symbol
(bottom right), type a name for your
folder, then tap Create. Tap Clipboard,
then long-press any of the entries until
tickboxes appear. Tick the boxes next
to items you want to add to your new
folder, tap the folder icon (top right
see screenshot),
then tap the name of
your new folder. iOS
users can use the very
similar Copied app
(www.snipca.
com/24651). Go to
www.copiedapp.com/
help for information
on how to use it.
Control pasted
text formatting
PlainPaste
removes the
formatting from
copied text and
lets you set the
interval between
pressing Ctrl+V
twice
To organise your history into groups for
easier access, press Ctrl+, right-click an
entry, click Groups, then New Group.
Type a name for the group, then click OK.
To add an entry to this group, right-click
it, click Groups, Move to Group, then
double-click the name of the group. To
see all of your groups, press Ctrl+, then
Ctrl+G.
Share copied text with
your friends
Pastebin (www.pastebin.com) is a handy
online tool that we at Computeractive
often use when we want to share a
precise, complex line of text, command
or URL that might easily be mistyped. Its
particularly helpful when sharing lengthy
Command Prompt lines, for example.
You dont need to create an account to
use it, but if you do all the pastes you
create will be saved under your prole
for future use. If you want to create one,
click the three horizontal lines at the top
right, then click Sign up and follow the
onscreen instructions.
To create a new entry for pasting,
click the green +new paste button,
then type or paste whatever you want to
share into the New Paste box. Next,
scroll down to the Paste Name/Title eld
and type a name for it, then click the
Create New Paste button (beneath the
Optional Paste Settings). The window
will then refresh and youll see your text
shown in the RAW Paste Data box. Click
the raw button (next to download,
clone, and so on), then copy the URL of
the web page that opens, paste that into
an email to share your Pastebin entry
with your friends.
Next issue Secret Tips For The Sky Live
Whats All the Fuss About...
Shimon
What is it?
A robot that has taught itself how to write
musical scores. After looking for common
patterns in over 5,000 pieces of music,
across all genres, it can now compose
and play its own music on a marimba
a percussion instrument similar to a
xylophone. Previously, it could perform
with humans in real time, jamming and
improvising, but not generate its own
compositions.
Is this another example of
machine learning?
Yes. Shimons creator Mason Bretan, from
the Georgia Institute of Technology,
created the algorithms that let it analyse
music, then gave it the rst four bars of a
new composition and waited to see what
would happen. Shimon didnt disappoint,
producing two pieces of music each
around 30 seconds long.
Where can I hear them?
On YouTube. These videos (www.snipca.
com/24733 and www.snipca.com/24734)
show the robot, with four arms and eight
sticks, plinking and plonking on the
marimba (as seen from above in our main
image).
age) It can see what bars to hit
The times they are a changin: will future Bob
Dylans be replaced by computers?
The 21st centurys answer to
Mozart could be mechanical
through a camera on its head. The tunes,
a cross between jazz and classical, are
best described as interesting - a bit more
avant-garde than what Patrick Moore
might have played on his xylophone.
Your postman would struggle to whistle
them. But then the aim is not to top
the charts. Its to show that a robot can
think like a human being when writing
music by considering how chords and
harmonies not just individual notes
t into the overall structure of the
composition.
Could it play more
conventional music?
Yes, it could be programmed to use
traditional verse-chorus structures.
But that would require more human
involvement, which defeats the object of
machine learning. It will always produce
a dierent tune as long as it is given
dierent opening bars.
Is it the rst robot to
write music?
No. Last year an articially intelligent
program called Flow Machines wrote the
song Daddys Car based on Beatles tracks
(hear it at www.ow-machines.com).
Google has also been busy with its Project
Magenta, which is aiming to make
compelling art and music using
machine learning. Its rst attempt was
this basic (and not particularly
compelling) 90-second piano melody:
www.snipca.com/24736. But nothing has
been more prolic than Bot Dylan.
Whats that?
Named after the music legend give or
take a letter its a program that has
written 100,000 tunes after scanning
23,000 pieces of Irish folk music. It
was built by researchers at Kingston
University, who chose folk music because
it has a well-dened structure and plenty
of material. Dr Oded Ben-Tal, a senior
lecturer in music technology at the
university, said he was really surprised
by the quality of Bot Dylans music. Judge
for yourself at www.snipca.com/24739.
Will these robots replace
musicians?
Not according to Dr Ben-Tal. He said that
Bot Dylan is meant to aid musicians, not
take their jobs. Beginners could work
with it to compose their rst tunes, he
added, while more experienced
musicians could use it to come up with
new ideas. However, all scientists
involved in these projects agree that its
wrong to think of creativity, musical or
otherwise, as being exclusive to humans.
Might we soon see a West End musical
written by a computer? Andrew Lloyd
Webber, you have been warned.
5 18 July 2017 49
 The
MISSING
MANUAL
Think you know Google? Think again! Jane Hoskyn offers a masterclass in using the
new features and hidden settings that make Googles tools more useful than ever
O
nce upon a time Google was
happy to be nothing more than
a search tool, but how times
have changed. These days,
Googles got a tool for just about
everything from generating passwords
to accessing your PC from the other side
of the world. And theres no sign that
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Discover new ways to use Google
Search, Drive, Chrome and lots more
Get more from Googles best tablet
and phone apps
Give your Google account a security
checkup
Unearth brilliant Google tools you
never knew existed
50 5 18 July 2017
Google will stop churning out new tools
any time soon.
One of this years best new tools is
Google Assistant. You might have thought
it was only available on Googles
expensive Pixel phone, but youd be
wrong. Well show you how anyone can
take advantage of it.
Then there are innovations that
have slipped in under the radar, but
have nonetheless improved some of
Googles most popular tools. Weve
been very impressed by the new
Personal tab in Google Search, for
example. Youd be forgiven for not
noticing it though, as Google hasnt
exactly gone out of its way to promote it,
so well be telling you all you need to
know right here.
And what about Googles mobile
apps? Weve got those covered too. Not
just app versions of its web tools such as
Google Maps, but apps designed
especially for your mobile devices like
the video- calling app Duo and scanning
tool PhotoScan. Well also be shedding
light on some of Googles hidden gems,
from free fonts to its anti-theft phone-
tracking software.
If an app has paid-for elements, such as
extra storage in Google Drive, well make
sure you know all about them. If an app
has a brilliant, little-known feature that
we think you might be missing out on
(like Google Earths Im Feeling Lucky
button), well bring it to your attention.
And if Google has tools that are even
better than what came before (such as
Inbox, its advanced alternative to Gmail),
well let you know.

SECRET INSTRUCTIONS FOR GOOGLE WEB TOOLS
Google Search
www.google.co.uk
The search engine that started it
all is 20 years old this September,
but Google is determined to keep
it faster and smarter than fresher-faced
rivals. It regularly launches new under-
the-bonnet technology such as Google
Caeine and Hummingbird (www.snipca.
com/24716), plus clever features such as
the Personal tab.
Must do: Use the Personal tab the latest
tab to sit alongside Images, News, Shopping
and the rest. Unlike other tabs, Personal
displays results that only you can see
because they are drawn from your Google
account. So, for example, when we
searched for Cakes, it brought up photos
of our cat who has that name that
weve stored online (see screenshot
right). Enter your search term, click More
then select Personal from the dropdown
menu. The tab is being rolled out
gradually, and currently only links to
your Gmail messages and Google Photos.
Another thing you may be unaware of
is that Google UKs search excludes many
overseas websites (often for legal reasons).
To beat the restrictions without having to
use a VPN, add /ncr (no country
redirect) to the end of an overseas Google
web address. For example to search US
Google, go to www.google.com/ncr. This
prevents Google from redirecting you
back to your home site based on your IP
address, so your results will now include
sites previously only visible in the US.
The ncr command works with all
overseas Google sites, for example Spain
(www.google.es/ncr) and Australia
(www.google.com.au/ncr). Heres a list of
Google domains: www.snipca.com/24690.
ESSENTIAL GOOGLE SEARCH SHORTCUTS
Google has lots of hidden secret tools that
you can access directly from the search
box (if you know what to type):
Flights to [name of destination] instantly
launches an interactive ight-nder
covering a range of dates and carriers.
Weather plus location gives you a detailed
seven-day forecast from Weather.com.
Click C to switch to Celsius. counter.
$20 in (or similar) for an instant
conversion, plus exchange rate graphs and
dropdown menus for other currencies.
70kg in stone (or similar) for a conversion
Common mistake: Clicking multiple
Google results that youll come back to,
then being overwhelmed at the sight of
30 open tabs. Free Chrome extension
SearchPreview (www.snipca.com/24671)
helps you ditch this scattergun approach
by adding website thumbnails and
popularity rankings so you can see whats
worth clicking and what isnt.
Gmail
www.google.com/gmail
The tool that kicked Hotmail o
its perch now oers 15GB of free
storage, sorts your emails into customisable
tabs, and even lets you transfer money
for free (albeit within the UK only) by
incorporating the new tool Google Wallet
(www.google.com/wallet).
Must do: Add experimental features from
plus a dropdown menu with many more
measurement types, including Data
Transfer Rate and Fuel Economy.
Hello in Italian (or similar) for an instant
translation.
Timer for an interactive countdown and
stopwatch.
Calc for a web-based scientic calculator.
Metronome for an adjustable music beats
inbox see page 56 for more).
(Any Royal Mail tracking number) to track
a package.
Pac man for an interactive slice of gaming
nostalgia.
Google: the Missing Manual
The new
Personal tab
includes your
private photos
and emails in
search results
Gmails Labs tab offers an ever-changing
batch of ingenious new features
Gmail Labs. Click the cog icon, Settings,
then the Labs tab. Click Enable next to
any you want (see screenshot above),
then click Save Changes. Our favourites
are Custom keyboard shortcuts, which
lets you customise hotkeys for common
Gmail tasks, and Canned Responses for
creating templates (Email for the truly
lazy, as its creator calls it).
If you mainly use Gmail on your phone
or tablet, consider switching to the new
Inbox app, which adds features such as a
Snooze button and scheduled sending
(Android and iOS, www.google.com/
Common mistake: Spotting errors after
clicking Send. Go to Settings, then tick
Enable Undo Send and set a cancellation
period of up to 30 seconds. This option
started life in Gmail Labs.
5 18 July 2017 51
 Chrome
www.google.com/chrome
Googles browser may hog
memory, but its peerlessly fast
and easy to customise using free
extensions. From next year, itll even have
a built-in ad-blocker (www.snipca.
com/24660).
Must do: Use Chrome as a media player.
Drag and drop a video or audio le from
your PC on to a tab to play it. You can
right-click for options including Cast (see
screenshot right), which will stream the
video to your TV via your Chromecast.
Less fun but more useful are Chromes
umpteen keyboard shortcuts. If youve
got lots of tabs open, press Ctrl plus the
corresponding number to jump to that
tab (for example, Ctrl+5 for the fth tab
from the left). To search the current web
page, press Ctrl+F. To open Chromes own
Task Manager, press Shift+Esc. Find many
more shortcuts at www.snipca.com/24699.
Like Gmail, Chrome has a hidden list of
free experimental features, but they are a
little more obscure than Gmails. Go to
chrome://ags (no http or www) then
click Enable to add a ag. Annoyingly
(and uncharacteristically) you cant
search the list, and its not even in
alphabetical order, but you can go straight
to a ag if you know its name, using this
pattern: chrome://ags/#name-name
(sometimes chrome://ags/#enable-
name-name). Try Automatic tab
discarding, which sets unused tabs to
sleep without closing them (chrome://
ags/#automatic-tab-discarding) and
Password Generation (chrome://
ags/#enable-password-generation),
which automatically generates a strong
password when it detects a sign-up page.
Chrome for Android (www.snipca.
com/24685) has just added a powerful
Download option that lets you save
videos, audio les and entire web pages
for accessing oine.
Common mistake: Installing extensions
then forgetting about them. Free
extension Extensions Update Notier
Drive can find anything you cant type a
question then use the dropdown menus
52 5 18 July 2017
(www.snipca.com/24672) alerts you if
any of your installed extensions have
been updated to include adware or
hidden charges.
Google Drive
www.google.com/drive
Drive is more than just a virtual
cupboard. Use it to share les and
folders privately or publicly; keep
your PC automatically backed up; and
hunt down documents scattered around
your messy archive.
Must do: You can now keep your entire
PC backed up using Google Drives new
Backup and Sync tool (www.snipca.
com/24693), which replaces the current
(basic) desktop version of Google Drive. It
works like Google Photos, automatically
uploading les from selected folders so
you can access them from anywhere.
Drive makes your backups easy to
search. It now supports Googles natural
language processing conversational
searches, such as nd Bobs darts
spreadsheet. Rene your hunt by
clicking the search box then using the
dropdown menus (see screenshot below
left), or use traditional Google search
modiers such as type: and before:. more specic if you select text. You can
Common mistake: Running out of space.
Gmails free 15GB is shared with Drive,
and it lls up fast. 15.99 per year buys
you 100GB of storage but be aware
Store unlimited text and photos to your web
clipboard then access them from anywhere
Drag media
files on to a tab
to play them in
Chrome and
even stream
them to your TV
via Chromecast
that Google also charges a 1.54
transaction fee.
Google Docs
https://docs.google.com
Unlike Microsoft Oce, Google
Docs is free and unlike LibreOce,
it doesnt eat up hard-drive space.
Googles online oce suite includes
Sheets (spreadsheets), Slides (presentations
and slideshows), Forms (surveys) and
Drawings (graphs). All these tools work
seamlessly with Google Drive,
automatically saving your work as you go.
Must do: Googles web clipboard is an
amazing hidden tool. Select text or photos
in a Docs document, then click Edit, Web
clipboard, then Copy selection to web
clipboard (see screenshot below left). All
your current and past selections appear
in the Web clipboard menu. An item is
never overwritten, but is removed if you
dont access it for 30 days.
Google recently added an Explore
feature that uses articial intelligence (AI)
to oer you related web links and images
in a hidden sidebar. To use it, click the
star at the bottom-right corner in Docs,
Sheets or Slides. The related links become
also now embed web links in text. Select
the text, right-click, click Link and then
paste or type a URL.
Theres also a brilliant range of free
extensions (called Add-ons) and
templates. Click Add-ons in Docs and
Sheets to add them. To browse a gallery
of templates, including a new budget-
tracking spreadsheet template designed
by Intuit QuickBooks, click File, New,
then From template.
Common mistake: Not being able to
access your work when you dont have an
internet connection. To make sure you
can, enable Google Docs Oine. Click
the menu icon on the Docs home page,
Settings, then switch Oine to on.

Drop the little yellow man on to the blue area to launch Googles new
Street View of Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Google Maps & Street View
www.google.co.uk/maps
The worlds most
powerful navigation tool
is also a great place to
lose yourself. Click the menu icon then
Satellite, Trac, Cycling, Terrain and
more to see your world through dierent
lters. Click the little blue arrow to get
directions, and drop the little yellow man
on to any blue highlighted area to launch
Street View.
Must do: Have a virtual 3D wander
around Australias spectacular Uluru
(Ayers Rock, see screenshot above), the
latest place to get the Street View
treatment. Other newcomers include the
US Space & Rocket Center and the
Pembrokeshire Coast Path. To get to any
location directly, use Instant Street View
(www.instantstreetview.com).
Google Maps also incorporates My
Maps, a tool that lets you create personal
maps. Click the menu, Your places,
Maps and then Create Map. You can now
import data from spreadsheets for
example, a list of places your ancestors
lived in to plot them on a world map.
You can also now add multiple layers of
information. Get some ideas from
Googles gallery of publicly shared
maps (http://maps.google.com/gallery),
Explore the world in 80 clicks with Google Earths Im Feeling Lucky
button
which includes a map of high-prole
shipwrecks (www.snipca.com/24678)
and a map of top wineries and
breweries across Europe (www.snipca.
com/24680).
Common mistake: Putting up with
slow-loading Google Maps on an old PC.
To get a speed boost, click the lightning
icon next to the yellow man then click
Switch to Lite mode.
Google Earth
www.google.com/earth
Googles incredible virtual globe
is now not only free (it used to
cost more than 300) but doesnt
even need installing, because it now
works in your browser as long as that
browser is Chrome. Theres also a free
Google Earth app (Android and iOS,
www.snipca.com/24684).
Must do: Finally, an Im Feeling Lucky
button youll actually want to use. Click
the dice icon to be transported to a
random location then click again for
a new spot. Set aside a whole evening
because its very addictive. You can
bookmark destinations and get info in
the pop-up Knowledge Card (see
screenshot above right). Quick navigation
tip: press Shift while dragging your
mouse to tilt the surface.
Filter your YouTube
searches by feature
to find 4K, HD and
360-degree videos
Google: the Missing Manual
Common mistake: Google Earth is
extremely resource-hungry and may
crash if youve got lots of other tabs open.
YouTube
www.youtube.com
Youd be forgiven for forgetting
YouTube is part of Google, but
the video service is cemented
within the companys ecosystem (not a
word we enjoy using).
Must do: When you think of YouTube you
tend to think of traditional 2D videos.
However, theres a growing number of
360-degree videos and, though these are
most engrossing when watched through
a virtual-reality headset (like Google
Cardboard: www.snipca.com/24726),
theyre still eye-opening when watched
on a standard monitor.
For example, go to www.snipca.
com/24727 to watch a Samsung video
showcasing its Gear VR 360 camera. To
rotate the video around 360 degrees,
either hold the left mouse button while
the cursor is on the video, then drag your
mouse; or use the arrows at the top left.
If you have a 4K TV, but have nothing to
watch on it, then YouTube can come in
handy here too. Search for anything you
might want to watch in 4K (reworks, for
example), click the Filters button at the
top left, then click 4K (see screenshot
left) so that the results show only 4K
videos. Youll notice theres also a lter
for HD and 360-degree videos.
Common mistake: YouTube likes to
bombard you with videos it wants you
to watch, but you dont have to put up
with its suggestions. If any of the
recommendations on your YouTube
homepage (displayed as individually
titled rows) are things youre simply not
interested in, click the X at the top right
of that row to remove it.
5 18 July 2017 53
 Computeractive
Bookstore
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
GOOGLES HIDDEN TOOLS
NEW! In the new and updated Denitive Guide
to Google Hidden Tools, the experts at
Computeractive lift the lid on Googles most
popular services to reveal more than 390 ways
to make them even more ecient, useful and
ta
tailored to your needs. These include clever new
add-ons for Chrome, smart hacks for YouTube,
and the best things you can do in Google Maps,
Drive, Gmail and more. Its an essential guide
to unlocking the hundreds of secret settings,
options and tools that Google oers. Youll learn
ti
tips and tricks that you can use every day online.

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SECRET INSTRUCTIONS FOR GOOGLE APPS
Google Play Store
Android: pre-installed
We nd it easier to browse and
install apps using the Play Stores
web version (https://play.google.
com), but the app oers more ways to
control and secure your account.
Must do: To see all the Android apps
youve ever installed, tap the menu, My
apps & games, then Library. Tap Install
next to any app you want to re-install.
Common mistake: Accidental or
unauthorised in-app purchases. To
prevent these, tap the menu icon,
Settings, Require authentication for
purchases, then tap For all purchases
(see screenshot above right). If your
device has a ngerprint sensor, go to
Settings in the Play Store app and tick
Fingerprint authentication.
Google Allo & Google Assistant
Android & iOS: https://allo.google.com
Theres bad news and
good news about Allo,
Googles free messaging
app. If you cant stand autocorrect,
youll loathe its attempts to nish your
sentences. But heres a silver lining: Allo
incorporates Google Assistant (https://
assistant.google.com) Googles answer
to Apples Siri and Microsofts Cortana.
Google Assistant is being rolled out to
high-end phones (including the Google
Pixel), and is pre-installed in the 129
Google Home smart speaker. However,
Allo lets you use the Assistant on other
Android or Apple phones.
Must do: Launch Allo, enter your phone
number then tap Assistant to start
chatting, either by text or voice (hold
3 SECURITY SETTINGS YOU MUST CHANGE
DOUBLE UP ON YOUR
SECURITY PASSCODES
Your Google password may not be
enough to lock out intruders. To double-
lock your account with an extra passcode,
set up Googles two-step verication. Go
to www.google.com/landing/2step then
click the blue Get Started button.
COVER YOUR GOOGLE TRACKS
Googles new tool My Activity (https://
myactivity.google.com) is a timeline of
what youve done while signed into your
Google account. The timeline is visible
only to you, but can be used by Google
Set a password to prevent accidental in-app
purchases on your phone
down the mic icon). Ask it for the time,
check the football scores, and even
subscribe to a daily poem (see screenshot
above right).
Common mistake: Allowing yourself to
be snooped on. Use Allos incognito mode
tap Start chatting, then Start incognito
chat to block hackers and eavesdroppers
with end-to-end encryption on your chats.
Google Duo
Android & iOS: https://duo.google.com
Make encrypted video calls for
free. Like Allo, Duo isnt tied to
your Google account, so you
dont have to log in to use it. All you
need is a friend or relative who also has
Duo installed on their phone or tablet.
Must do: You can now switch from Video
(default) to Audio with one tap. This is
ideal for those of us who dislike looking
at our own face (or anyones face,
actually) while we talk.
Common mistake: Switching o Limit
mobile data usage. Many people disable
and advertisers to target you with content.
To remove any item, click the three dots
then click Delete. To delete your entire
account history in one go, click Delete
activity by on the left, click Today and
select All time, and then click Delete.
BLOCK FLASH AND
POP UPS IN CHROME
Flash is a security liability, but its still used
by many websites and adverts. To prevent
it running automatically, go to chrome://
settings/content, then click Ask rst
under Flash. Also click Do not allow
under Pop-ups.
Google: the Missing Manual
Ask Google
Assistant
whatever
you want
via the Allo
messaging
app
Keep can now transcribe your audio notes -
ideally more imaginative than this one
this setting to get a smoother connection,
but it risks big mobile-data bills.
Google Keep
Android & iOS: https://keep.google.com
Like the Play Store, Googles
slimmed-down note-taking app
has a web version, but it really
comes into its own on phones and tablets,
including iPhones and iPads.
Must do: Stop using Google Docs to
scribble ideas on your phone and tablet
Keep is much quicker, and lets you add
photos, lists, handwritten doodles and
audio les to your colour-coded notes.
Google recently integrated Keep with
Docs and Drive.
Common mistake: Struggling to type
notes on a tiny phone keyboard. Record
an audio note instead, and Keep will
automatically transcribe it into a text note
(see screenshot above), with the audio
le saved. Keep can now extract text from
photos, too, using built-in OCR.
5 18 July 2017 55
 Google Photos
Android & iOS:
https://photos.google.com/apps
Google Photos recognises that
devices can get clogged with
photos and videos, but its
solution automatic unlimited backup
works a treat. Theres no upload limit if
you stick with the default High quality
setting. You can opt to save photos in their
original size if you prefer (go to Settings
then Back up & sync), but this will eat
into your Google Drive storage allowance.
Must do: Turn a batch of family photos
into an animated slideshow in seconds.
Tap the three dots at the top right, Movie,
then select up to 50 photos or videos for
Google Photos to turn into a slideshow, with
transition eects and music. You can edit
the eects, then share the slideshow by
email or post it on social media. Movie is
the latest addition to a list including Album,
Shared album, Collages and Animation.
Common mistake: Accidentally deleting
photos. You can restore your photo by
accessing Google Photos bin. To do so,
click the three horizontal lines at the top
left of the Google Photos window, click Bin,
nd the photo, click its tick icon (top left
of the photo), then click the Restore icon
(top right). Binned photos are deleted
entirely after 60 days, so act quickly.
Google PhotoScan
Android & iOS:
www.google.com/photos/scan
Digitise your old photos using
this new app that automatically
saves your scans to Google Photos.
Join the four dots to take a glare-free scan or
tap the wand to snap without fuss
56 5 18 July 2017
Create a slideshow in under a minute using
the new Movies option in Google Photos
Must do: Practice! PhotoScan produces
brilliant results, but its not easy. Place
your photo on a at, contrasting surface
(on a wall if you want), then move your
device slowly and steadily to join the four
dots (see screenshot below left). For best
results do it in daylight with the ash
switched o.
Common mistake: Going through all this
palaver when you just need to do a quick
document scan. Mercifully, PhotoScan
has just added a Quick Scan mode tap
the wand icon to use it.
Inbox
Android & iOS: https://inbox.google.com
Googles more sophisticated
alternative to Gmail works on
a PC too, but its touch-friendly
interface feels most at home on a phone
or tablet.
Must do: Inbox receives the exact same
feed of emails as your Gmail account, so
youll see all the same messages. It also
groups your emails according to the
bundles you may have already created
in your Gmail inbox.
So far, so what? However, Inbox does
have some unique tricks up its sleeve. For
example, rather than reply to a friends
email and leave that answered email in
your inbox, you can click the Done
button (the tick icon at the top right of
the message, see screenshot below) to
add it to Inboxs Done bundle. This
doesnt delete the message, but instead
les it away into a virtual done tray so
you can concentrate on the messages
youve still to deal with.
To see the emails in your done tray, tap
Inboxs Done feature lets you tidy your emails
very effectively
DONT LEAVE HOME
WITHOUT THESE
GOOGLE TRAVEL APPS
GOOGLE TRIPS
Android & iOS:
https://get.google.com/trips
Get a travel itinerary, boarding details,
accommodation recommendations
and more all automatically gleaned
from your Gmail messages and made
available oine.
GOOGLE TRANSLATE
Android & iOS:
https://translate.google.com
Speak to this app and itll give you
instant translations read out loud - in
no fewer than 103 languages (or 52 if
youre oine). It can even translate
text in photos.
GOOGLE MAPS
Android: www.snipca.com/24702
iOS: www.snipca.com/24703
Google Maps online is more of an
atlas, whereas the apps are designed
to get you from A to B. Oine
navigation is particularly impressive in
the Android app.
GOOGLE MY MAPS
Android: www.snipca.com/24704
Create a customised map of places
you plan to visit, then save it to use
oine while youre travelling. Not yet
available for iOS.
the Menu icon (the three horizontal lines
at the top left of your inbox), then tap
Done. The clever thing here is if you
receive a reply to the email youve put in
your done tray, the whole conversation
moves back into your inbox.
Common mistake: Inbox sorts your
emails into bundles automatically, so you
might struggle to nd all your emails if
you dont know where to look. To nd all
automatically created bundles, tap the
Menu icon, then scroll down to the
Bundled in the inbox section. Inboxs
bundles will include the likes of Trips
(holiday documents), Purchases (orders
from online stores), Social (emails
relating to social media) and so on. Tap
each bundle in turn to see which emails
it contains and to see more information
on the types of email that will be directed
to it. If youd rather the emails were in
your main inbox instead of a specic
bundle, tap the bundle to open it, then
tap Disable bundling.

GOOGLE TOOLS & TRICKS YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED
Beat internet blocks
Weve already seen that you can override
Googles geographical limitations by
adding /ncr to overseas Google addresses
(see page 51). To bypass wider internet
blocks, use Googles free Public DNS
service (www.snipca.com/24705) to
switch from your internet service
providers DNS (domain name system) to
a global public server. This lets you view
sites blocked by your ISP, prevents many
sites from forcibly redirecting you, and
may also speed up your browser.
Download fonts for free
Google Fonts (https://fonts.google.com,
see screenshot above right) hosts more
than 800 fonts from dozens of designers.
Download any for free to use on posters
or even your own website.
Make Chrome faster
Give Chrome a boost by compressing data
sent and received by web pages. Chrome
does this automatically on Android and
iOS, but to compress trac on your PC
you need Googles free Data Saver
extension (www.snipca.com/24683). For
security reasons it doesnt compress data
when youre in incognito mode or using
an HTTPS site.
Access your PC remotely
Programs like TeamViewer are brilliant
for accessing les on another computer.
Google has made it even easier with its
free mobile app, Chrome Remote Desktop
(Android www.snipca.com/24706; iOS
www.snipca.com/ 24707), which gives
you remote access via your existing
Google account.
See how often your favourite
word appears in books
You may know about Google Books
the worlds most comprehensive index
of books but what about its Ngram
Viewer tool (https://books.google.com/
ngrams)? This wonderful statistical tool
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Your complete guide to
PASSWORD SAFETY
The simplest way to make them unhackable
Subscribe to Computeractive at www.getcomputeractive.co.uk
Preview, adjust and download typography for
free using Google Fonts
reveals how often specic words, phrases
and names appear in dierent books
within a chosen date range, then plots
the data on a graph that you can share
online for free.
See what everyone else
is searching for
The multi-coloured Hot Searches wall
from Google Trends (www.snipca.
com/24691) reveals what other UK
Google users are searching for, in real
time. The Queens birthday honours list statistics and even create your own
and Ronaldo proved particularly popular
on the day we visited. For even more
insights, visit https://trends.google.co.uk.
Find your lost phone or tablet
The Android app formerly known
as Android Device Manager was
relaunched in June with a sensible new
name, Find My Device (www.snipca.
com/24709). It uses GPS to track
your device so you can locate it, lock
Discover where your Android device is and
lock it and erase it using Find My Device
Google: the Missing Manual
Googles Public Data Explorer tools maps
global statistics on all sorts of subjects
it and erase its contents remotely
via your browser (www.google.com/
android/nd).
Explore global government data
How does the UKs national debt compare
with that of Greece? Where do we rank in
the global league for infectious diseases?
Googles Public Data Explorer site (www.
google.com/publicdata/directory, see
screenshot above) reveals all, and maps
the data on graphs and charts. Search for
graphs.
Download all todays news
Googles free read-it-later app, Newsstand
(Android www.snipca.com/24713; iOS
www.snipca.com/24714), oers a
customisable feed of news articles,
in-depth reads and videos from hundreds
of dierent sources. You can opt to have
all content made available oine if your
storage space can handle it.
Download old Google Doodles
Googles celebratory Doodles, which
have been around for nearly as long as
Google Search, are all archived online
(go to www.google.com/doodles then
click Doodles Archive). Download any of
them for free by right-clicking a Doodle,
then selecting Save image as.
Animations will download as GIFs,
illustrations as PNGs.
ON SALE
Weds
19 July
Plus Should you scam
your scammer?
How your software
lies to you
5 18 July 2017 57
 7 settings
that make
your PC slow
Is your PC slower than a stalled car? Jonathan Parkyn
reveals the 7 settings that could be putting the brakes on
1
Fast start-up
What is it? Windows 10 has a power
option called Turn on fast start-up,
which is meant to speed up the launch of
Windows.
How is it slowing your PC down? On
some PCs, this setting can actually cause
your PC to take much longer to shut
down. Its often enabled by default and
weve recommended disabling it in the
past. But installing the Creators Update
(CU) seems to re-enable the setting, so if
your PC has recently started hanging at
Turn off the Creators Updates fast start-up
mode to speed up shut-down
DOES CCLEANER HINDER OR HELP?
Using CCleaner to remove junk should
speed your PC up, right? Well, in some
cases, it may actually slow things down.
For example, when an older laptop we
use started to get sluggish, we put it down
58 5 - 18 July 2017
shut-down, you may need to disable it
again.
How do I change it? Right-click Start,
click Power Options, then Additional
power settings. Click Choose what the
power buttons do, then click Change
settings that are currently unavailable.
The previously greyed-out settings at
the bottom can now be customised. If
Turn on fast start-up (recommended) is
ticked, untick it, then click Save changes
(see screenshot left).
2
Active Hours
What is it? The Active Hours
feature lets Windows 10 users
prevent interruptions caused by updates
that take an age to install and prompt you
to restart your PC. It works by allowing
you to set a time period for each day,
during which updates are blocked.
to its age, before realising that it wasnt
slow all the time only after we ran
CCleaner. PCs use caches to help speed
up tasks, so clearing out these, using
CCleaner caused our laptop to reload web
pages, rebuild thumbnail caches and so on.
We dont suggest you stop using
CCleaner its still a useful tool. But if you
notice any sluggishness after running it,
check through the items that are selected
by default. Untick Thumbnail Cache and
if web browsing feels slow Temporary
Internet Files for the browser you use (see
screenshot), then click Run Cleaner.
Make your PCs active period as long as
possible to avoid unwanted interruptions
How is it slowing your PC down? Prior
to the CU, Windows 10 only allowed a
maximum window of 12 hours per day.
The CU expanded this to 18 hours, but it
isnt enabled by default.
How do I change it? Click Start, Settings,
Update & security, then Change active
hours. Choose a new Start and End time,
maximising the period to ensure restarts
never happen during the day (we picked
a time period of 6am-12pm, for example
see screenshot above).
3
Shared Experiences
What is it? This new CU feature
is designed to let you share
experiences (messages, web links, app
data and more) between PCs, tablets and
phones, even if youre using a mixture of
Windows and Android devices.
How is it slowing your PC down? It uses
background processing power, your
broadband and your PCs when data is
synced.
How do I change it? To disable the
setting, click Start, Settings, System, then
switch o Shared experiences.

Turn this off to stop Edge taking an age to load
after every Windows update
4
Windows welcome
experience
What is it? The Creators Update
adds another annoying Windows
notication Windows welcome
experience which opens in Edge when
youve installed an update, to explain new
features and give helpful suggestions.
How is it slowing your PC down? Its
enabled by default in the Creators Update
and, like all notications, it takes time to
read, or close. It also opens Edge without
your permission, which feels rather
impolite to us.
How do I change it? Click Start, Settings,
System, Notications & actions, then
scroll down to and switch Show me the
Windows welcome experience o (see
screenshot above). While youre here,
turn o Get tips, tricks and suggestions
as you use Windows.
5
Visual Eects
What is it? Graphical
enhancements that make Windows
more convenient and attractive to use.
These include animations, shadows and
thumbnail previews.
Choose which visual effects to disable by
clicking Custom and unticking these boxes
7 settings that make your PC slow
AND ONE SETTING YOU MUST TURN ON
What is it? Storage Sense is a new
feature in the Windows 10 Creators Update
(CU) that automatically scans for and
deletes junk les that are clogging up
your hard drive. This frees up space on
your PC and helps to keep your computer
running smoothly.
How is it slowing your PC down?
Storage Sense is a great idea but, for
some reason, its left switched o by
default, so you wont see any benet from
How is it slowing your PC down?
Visual Eects may look nice, but theyre
not essential and drain valuable system
resources. Most are enabled by default.
How do I change it? Click Start, type
system, then click System. In the window
that opens, click Advanced system
settings. Next, click the Advanced tab, Performance), the Advanced tab in the
Settings (under Performance), then the
Visual Eects tab in the new window.
Here, you could opt for Adjust for best
performance but this will disable
all eects. If you cant live without
thumbnails for photo les, for example,
click Custom, then untick all the options
bar Show thumbnails instead of icons
(see screenshot below left). Click OK.
6
Processor scheduling
What is it? A feature that lets
you prioritise your processors
resources on programs and background
processes.
How is it slowing your PC down? The
setting defaults to prioritising programs,
but if its been changed to background
Make sure your processor prioritises open
programs to keep your PC running smoothly
it unless you enable it yourself.
How do I change it? Click Start, Settings,
System, Storage and youll see the
Storage sense setting. Click the slider to
enable it (see screenshot).
Untick this before you run
Windows Disk Clean-up to
spare image thumbnails
services inadvertantly, you may nd your
programs are running more sluggishly.
How do I change it? Click Start, type
system, then click the System link that
appears. In the window that opens,
click Advanced system settings. Now
click the Advanced tab, Settings (under
new window, Programs (see screenshot
below left), then Apply.
7
Thumbnails in Windows
Disk Clean-up
What is it? When you run
Windows Disk Clean-up to remove junk
les from your PC, the option to empty the
thumbnail cache is selected by default.
How is it slowing your PC down? Most
PCs are congured to show thumbnail
images instead of icons for certain types
of les, such as images. To achieve
this, Windows automatically creates
thumbnails and stores them in a cache.
If you delete all your thumbnails using
Disk Clean-up, then Windows will have
to rebuild the cache at some point. This
is a resource-sapping task that will
inevitably slow down your PC.
How do I change it? Whenever you
run Windows Disk Clean-up (click
Start, type disk clean, press Enter,
then click OK), remember to untick
Thumbnails (see screenshot above),
then click OK.
5 - 18 July 2017 59
 Take advantage of
Microsofts
Reward
Scheme
Want to earn gift cards, music-streaming
subscriptions and the chance to win
prizes as you browse? Mike Plant
explains how
T
he Microsoft Rewards scheme
(previously called Bing Rewards)
has been a xture in the US since
2010 and now its been launched
in the UK. Similar to the points cards
oered by the big supermarket chains,
the idea is that by using Bing (Microsofts
search engine), Edge (its browser) and a
few other tricks you can accrue points
that can be exchanged for discounts on
Microsoft products, entry to competitions
and charity donations (Microsoft will
translate your points into cash and then
double it). Here well show you how you
can rack up reward points to get the most
from Microsofts scheme.
How do you get started?
We know what youre thinking: What
makes this scheme worth my time?.
You may have to create an Outlook.com
account to access Microsoft Rewards
60 5 18 July 2017
Well, it gives you free Skype credit,
Windows Store gift cards and Groove
Music passes. It also lets you enter
competitions with genuinely decent
prizes (such as Surface Pro laptop-tablet
hybrids worth over 1500). Yes, its a
carrot oered by Microsofts marketing
department to make us all use Edge and
Bing, but we think its rewards justify
your time especially if you follow
our tips.
To see the Microsoft Rewards scheme,
open Edge and go to www.snipca.
com/24659 (you can access it in any
browser, but youll generate points if you
use Edge). Youll see two options: Start Click any of the points boxes to find ways to
Earning Rewards and Already a member, quickly earn points
sign in here. If you have a Microsoft
account (and you will if you use Skype, then click Finish to close it. On the right
Outlook.com or Hotmail.com), click the youll see a grey Available points box.
second option, then sign in. If you dont This keeps tabs on the number of points
have a Microsoft account, click the rst youve accrued, and how many you
option, then click Create one. On the currently have available to spend. It also
next screen, enter your email account shows what points level youre currently
details (a Gmail or Yahoo account will on (Level 1 for newcomers).
work ne), then click Next. Scroll down the page to see all the ways
If you see a You cant sign up here you can earn points. Youll see several
with a work or school email address boxes, including Take the tour, Rewards
message, youll have to try another email challenge and Edge bonus quiz (see
account. Alternatively, create an Outlook. screenshot above). These show a points
com account by clicking Get a new email total that you can earn. Other boxes, such
address (see screenshot left), then as Xbox deals and Dont miss out,
following the instructions. direct you to various rewards you can
work towards. For now though, well
What do points make? focus on earning points.
The rst time you visit the Rewards site
youll see a Welcome to Microsoft Get to the next level faster
Rewards pop-up message. Click Next to Your account will reach Level 2 status
cycle through the introductory pages, when you earn 500 points in any given
calendar month. Level 2 users can
generate 305 points per day (instead of
135 for Level 1) and are eligible for more
discounts on rewards, meaning their
points go further. You can reach Level 2 in
just four days if you know how.
To get started, click any of the Rewards
challenge or daily quiz boxes. A web page
will open and youll see a Start playing!
message click the arrow to its right to
begin. New quizzes appear every day and
are designed to get you using Bing, to nd
the answers. You can go through the
motions and do this if you want, but to
save time, you can simply click each
answer until you nd the correct one.
Another quick way to accrue points is
to use Bing, within Edge. Go to www.
bing.com, click Sign in then log in
using your Microsoft account details.
You can make up to 30 points per day just
by searching in Bing (youll make three
points per search). Better still, once you
reach Level 2, you can make up to 180
points per day, at a rate of 6 points per
search. It doesnt matter what you search
for. Simply tap away at your keyboard,
then pick any of the search options that
appear. We were able to secure all 180
points in less than 10 minutes.
Once youve reached Level 2 you can
grab yourself an extra 60 points per day
using Bing on your phone. Go to www.
bing.com on your phone, tap Sign in,
WHAT TO SAVE YOUR
POINTS FOR
10 Skype credit 4,250 points
5 donation to AbilityNet 6,270 points
25 Windows Store gift card
30,600 points
50 Windows Store gift card
61,400 points
12-month Groove Music pass
(worth 108) 99,900 points
You dont have to spend all your points as soon as you earn them let them accrue and youll be
able to submit more competition entries
EARN BONUS REWARD POINTS
If you have a tablet or a Chromebook, you
can make another 90 points per day. To
do so, go to www.bing.com on your tablet
or Chromebooks browser, sign in and
make 30 searches in Bing. To check your
points total, tap the medal icon in Bing on
your tablet. The bonus tablet points are
listed under PC Search.
One other way to earn points is to buy
Microsoft products, apps and games
from the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.
com/24667), such as Oce 365 Home
tap Microsoft account, then enter your
username and password. Youll get three
points for every search.
If you prefer you can also use the Bing
Search app (Android www.snipca.com/
24665; iOS: www.snipca.com/24666).
To sign in, tap the Menu icon (three
horizontal lines at the top left on Android,
or top right on iOS), then Sign in.
Keep track of your daily points
If you dont want to carry out more
Bing searches than is necessary, we
suggest you keep a close eye on your
points total. You can see this on your
Rewards home page, but we prefer
the extra information provided on
www.bing.com. Sign in, then click the
medal icon at the top right (to the right
of your name). Youll see your Microsoft
Rewards summary (see screenshot
above right).
This lists your Daily Points (the
amount youve earned that day, as well
as what you can potentially earn). It
breaks down your points total into Daily
Oers (those you earn by clicking the
boxes on the Microsoft Rewards
homepage), PC Search and Mobile
Search. Check the number next to the
(see screenshot). If you do plan to make
a purchase, make sure youre signed
into your Microsoft account or you wont
collect the points.
Keep track of your points using the tally on
www.bing.com
medal icon to see how many points you
have available to spend.
Spend your points smartly
We worked out you can make just over
8,500 points per month using the tips
above, which works out at over 102,000
points per year (more if you have a
tablet see box above). Thats enough
to get an annual Groove Music pass,
which lets you listen to and download
thousands of albums (it costs 8.99 per
month otherwise), or enter the Surface
Pro giveaway competition over 200 times.
Dont be too eager to spend your
points though because you can make
them stretch even further by letting
them accrue. For example, a single entry
to the Surface Pro competition costs 200
points, but 150 entries cost 5,000 points
(33.3 points per entry).
To change the number of entries you
make, go to the Microsoft Rewards
homepage, click Redeem, pick the prize
you want (the Surface Pro monthly
giveaway in our case), click the Select an
option dropdown, then click 150 (the
number will vary depending on the
reward). This will tell you how many
points you need. If you want you can
click Set as goal (see screenshot left) to
add a progress bar for this reward to the
Microsoft Rewards homepage.
5 18 July 2017 61
 Problems Solved
PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT
Can I stop Windows 10 updates to
keep my mouse working?
My LG LSM-100 Scanner
Q Mouse is invaluable, but
online chatter suggests its
incompatible with Windows 10
Anniversary Update (AU) and LG
wont be providing a x. Im still using
Windows 10 build 1511, and Creators
Update (CU) has no features I want
either. With Microsoft recently ceasing
support for some earlier Windows 10
editions, is it possible to select which
upgrades are installed, so that I might
continue using the full facilities of the
LG Scanner Mouse? It seems stupid
that a 55 gadget is rendered useless
due to its incompatibility with new
operating software.
Brian Kennedy
We assume that youve set
A your PC as being on a metered
connection, thus preventing
Windows 10 AU from installing
otherwise it certainly shouldve done so
by now, followed by CU. That strategy
will work indenitely but, as you say,
older versions of Windows 10 are
already reaching retired status for
Microsoft support. Your version
1511 hasnt yet been assigned a date
to be given the elbow, but itll certainly
be on the way. The recent global
WannaCry ransomware outbreak has
demonstrated how deeply unwise it is
to continue using an unsupported
version of Windows, so keep an eye
on 1511s status at www.snipca.
com/24400.
Theres no way for us to know if your
mouse would work with CU or future
Windows 10 updates, but certainly
fellow users cannot get it to work with
AU. LG washed its hands of LSM-100
support with Windows 7. The rm
didnt ever advertise the product as
being compatible with later Windows
versions, so it has not done anything
wrong but obviously we understand
your frustration.
64 5 18 July 2017
Microsofts troubleshooter may reveal that
a driver update is affecting the LSM-100
One possibility would be to turn
detective to see if theres a particular
post-AU driver update thats causing
the problem. If so, theres a little-
known Microsoft troubleshooter thatll
prevent particular updates from being
installed. Youll also have a 10-day
window to uninstall AU, so you might
decide its worth a go.
First, disable the metered connection
option to allow AU to download and
install. Click Start followed by Settings,
then Network & Internet and Change
connection properties then ip the
switch to O. Next, download the
Show or hide updates troubleshooter
from www.snipca.com/24401. Click
Hide updates (see screenshot), select
everything then click Next. Now repeat
but this time choose Show hidden
updates. Clear any ticks, and click
Next. Let the update install, then see if
its stopped your mouse from working.
If not, carry on using trial and error
until you nd the oending update.
Note it down.
Now return to Settings, click Update
& security followed by Update history,
then Uninstall updates. Select the
oending update and click Uninstall.
Now return to the troubleshooter and
hide the problematic update, thus
preventing it from being reinstalled.
If after all this your mouse still wont
work then youll either have to accept
the situation or roll back AU to 1511.
How do I remove
words from
Outlook.coms
dictionary?
Q
In Issue 502s Problems Solved
you answered Sydney Clarkes
question about Outlook.coms
vanishing spell-checker, where you
explained that the service now used the
browsers built-in dictionary. I hope you
can help with my related problem I
accidentally added a misspelling of my
own surname to the dictionary. I wanted
to add it precisely because I regularly
mistype it. This is because my name has
letters that are close together on the
keyboard, and Im fat-ngered. But now
my mistypes arent marked as mistakes!
How do I remove the misspelled word?
I use Edge in Windows 10.
Mick McNamara
You can do this but the method
A is far from obvious. First, press
Windows key+E to re up File
Explorer and then use this to navigate to
C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\
Roaming\Microsoft\Spelling. Note that if
you cant see the AppData folder then, in
File Explorer, select the View tab, then
click Options followed by Change folder
and search options. In the Folder Options
dialogue, select the View tab then, under
Advanced settings choose Show hidden
les, folders, and drives and click OK.
From the Spelling folder, navigate to
the language folder almost certainly
en-GB. Next, right-click the le called
default.dic (see screenshot) and choose
Open With followed by Notepad and then
OK. Make your edits then click File
followed by Save, and then close Notepad.
You can edit spellings in Windows 10s
dictionary via the AppData folder in File
Explorer
Our experts solve all your tech problems
Email us your problem and well try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk

Why is Outlook slowing my PC?

Over recent weeks my PC seems
Q to have got slower and slower.
A bit of testing on my part
suggests that Outlook is the cause, as
when this isnt running everything
seems to run normally. Over the years
Ive collected a lot of emails, because I
dont like deleting anything Im talking
tens of thousands of messages here. In an
eort to speed things up I spent a whole
day deleting loads of older and
To shrink your Outlook database and boost
performance, you need to compact it
unnecessary messages, but I noticed that
it didnt seem to make the database any
smaller (it started at about 8GB and its
still at around 8GB, even having deleted
thousands of emails). My PC is still slow
when Outlook is running. Why doesnt
deleting emails shrink the size of my
Outlook PST le? Is there anything else And, as that Microsoft page admits, it
to try to speed up my PC, or should I
consider ditching Outlook? I use the 2013
edition, incidentally.
Alex Gordonson
Outlooks database doesnt
A automatically reduce in size
when you delete emails.
Moreover, while Outlook 2013 can in
theory deal with PST les of up 50GB
in size, the reality is that the programs
performance really starts to suer
when the database grows beyond a few
gigabytes. Microsoft knows this, and has
even published a chart explaining how
much slowdown to expect for various
database sizes and hardware
conguration take a look at www.
snipca.com/24420.
Outlooks creeping slowdown will
absolutely aect your PCs performance
because the program is always working,
even if its open only in the background.
will only get worse as the database grows.
Anyone sticking with Outlook but not
wanting to delete emails will either
need better hardware, to periodically
archive old emails and create a new
database or, as in your case, delete loads
of unwanted messages.
However, theres a crucial step for
anyone adopting that last strategy:
compacting the database. This will
properly clear out the deleted messages
and rebuild the PST le, making it
smaller in the process. To do this, click
File, followed by Account Settings, then
Account Settings again. Now choose
the Data Files tab, click to select your
PST le then click Settings. Finally, click
Compact Now (see screenshot). The
process might take an hour or two
to complete.

Why cant I send this attachment?

My broadband provider is Sky
Q and for email I use Outlook
2016. Ive been trying to send
a PDF as an attachment but every time
the email is returned with a message
stating that the maximum le size
allowed is 2MB, and that my PDF is
3MB. Is this a problem with Outlook,
Sky or something else?
Sudhir Khanolkar
Almost all internet service
A providers (ISPs) place limits
on the size of messages that
may be sent or received. In Skys case,
that limit is 25MB. Outlook 2016 also
has a default attachment-size limit
20MB. As both these gures are greater
than the 2MB PDF youre trying to
send, the problem must be at the
recipients end and the bounce
messages youre receiving are
automated responses from
the receiving server.
Theres nothing much
you can do about that
situation, other than let
your intended recipient
know whats happening.
However, you could try
compressing the PDF
before sending. Right-click
the le, choose Send to
followed by Compressed
(zipped) le (see
screenshot).
Alternatively, move the
le onto a cloud-storage Use these right-click options to compress your PDF and
service and then email a avoid problems when emailing it
download link to your
contact. Windows 10 has OneDrive right-click it and choose Share a
enabled by default, and that will do the OneDrive link. Now just use the
job. To generate a download link, move keyboard shortcut Control (Ctrl)+V to
the le to your OneDrive folder, then paste the generated link into an email.

5 18 July 2017 65
 Problems Solved
Whats wrong
with my System
Restore?
When I use System Restore
Q I get a message that says it
has failed while restoring
the directory from the restore point.
It also says something about the
source being AppxStaging and
destination being %ProgramFiles%\
WindowsApps. None of this means
anything to me, but I would like to
have this function back. Im running
Windows 10 but havent yet applied
the Creators Update.
Richard Murray
This is a bug, and Microsoft
A is aware of it. It is working
on a x but until then the
workaround is to rename the
WindowsApps folder thats causing
the problem.
To do this youll need to enter
whats known as the Windows
Recovery Environment. First, click
Start, followed by the settings cog,
then Update & security, followed by
Recovery. Next, under Advanced
startup click Restart now (see
screenshot). Wait for your PC to
reboot and then click Troubleshoot
followed by Advanced Options and
then Command Prompt. If prompted,
type in your administrator password.
At the command prompt, type
cd C:\Program Files and press Enter.
Then type attrib WindowsApps -h
and press Enter. Finally type rename
WindowsApps WindowsAppsTemp
and press Enter. Restart Windows 10
and System Restore will now work. If
the problem recurs before Microsoft
issues a x, repeat these steps.
Restart your PC in the Windows Recovery
Environment to fix System Restore
66 5 18 July 2017
Will I get Creators Update without
Anniversary Update?
Q
My problem is that,
while my Windows 10
PC works, Ive never
been able to get it to accept the
Anniversary Update (AU). Im
wondering if the lack of it will
aect my ability to download
and install the Creators Update
(CU)? Does the latter depend
on the former?
Je Stamford
The latter doesnt depend on the
A former as such but your PC
wont attempt to install CU
automatically until all previous updates
have been applied, and that includes AU.
Its more or less a year now since
Microsoft rolled out AU so its pretty clear
that your PC isnt going to download and
The Windows 10 Update Assistant can
download and install the Anniversary Update
install it of its own accord.
You didnt tell us if youve tried com/24561, but this time click the
installing AU manually but its academic Download tool now button: this
because Microsoft now has CU available downloads Microsofts media-creation
for direct download. Visit www.snipca. tool for creating an installation disc or
com/24561 and click the Update now USB stick that you can use to install
button (see screenshot) to download the Windows 10 manually. Launch it, follow
Update Assistant tool, then double-click the prompts to create the media type you
to run it. This should automatically want, then restart your PC with the disc
download and install CU. or stick inserted. Now follow the prompts
If this fails then return to www.snipca. to upgrade Windows 10 straight to CU.
Will my motherboard work with
Windows 10?
I want to do a clean install of my Asus M4A79XTD EVO motherboard. I
Q Windows 10 Home on my Vista
PC. I think my computer is fast
have done some research online where
other people with the same board have
enough, with 3GHz, triple-core had issues only with RAID 5 setups.
processor, 12GB memory and ATI Radeon Some people have solved this by using
HD4600 graphics. However, Im Windows 7 drivers. I dont use RAID 5
concerned about compatible drivers for anyway, so will I be OK to upgrade?
Michael Allison
Your motherboard is now quite
A long in the tooth, by technology
standards, so its unlikely that
the manufacturer will never update the
drivers for Windows 10. However,
existing drivers will often suce, as
seems to be the case here.
Your computers other key
Make sure your specications are way beyond whats
motherboard is
compatible with required for Windows 10, so we doubt
Windows 10 youll have any problem at all.
How do I set streaming resolution?
I signed up for the Now TV
Q (www.nowtv.com) streaming
service. So far I have used this
on my Windows PC and iPhone 5, but
mostly on my new 4K TV via a built-in
app. The service works but the picture
quality is variable. On the iPhone, for
example, everything looks sharp, but on
my TV especially the result is a bit
disappointing. I assume this is because
Im not downloading full 4K quality
but I cant nd any option in the TV app
to set the resolution. Am I missing
something?
Dave Harper

Youre not missing anything,

A other than perhaps the
knowledge that Now TVs
current top resolution is just 720p. The
company describes this as HD and this
isnt inaccurate, as this is considered high
denition. However, it isnt what many
people now consider to be HD, which is Now TV acknowledges that 720p HD is its maximum streaming quality
actually 1080p or full HD. Moreover,
its a very long way o the 4K quality that eectively watching at a resolution of streaming via a web browser.
your TV is able to display. 640p, so Now TVs 720p stream looks There are no in-app options to change
On your iPhone 5, the screen ne. On a Windows PC, the top the resolution and, until such time as
resolution is 640x1136 pixels. When you resolution is 720p if youre using the Now TV oers higher-quality streams,
watch in landscape on this, youre Now TV app, or 480p if youre the best quality youll get is 720p.

Can I hide iPhone apps?

In Issue 502s Problems
Q Solved, you explained to Dave
Brownstone how to hide
unwanted apps on his Samsung phone.
I have an Apple iPhone 4s. Can I do
the same?
Kevin Greene
Yes and no. Newer iPhones,
A running iOS 10, allow users to
remove most Apple apps. This
is done by tapping and holding an app
icon until it begins to jiggle, and then
tapping the cross at the relevant app
icons top left. To restore apps hidden
in this way, launch the App Store app,
search for the apps name and then tap
the download icon (a cloud with a
down-pointing arrow).
Unfortunately, this wont work with
earlier versions of iOS and the latest
edition available for your iPhone 4s is
iOS 9.3. However, there are a couple
of other tricks you can use to get
unwanted Apple apps out of sight.
The most eective is to create a
dump folder for everything you want
to hide, and then drag that folder o
your home screen. First, tap and hold
an unwanted apps icon until it jiggles
and then drag and drop it on top of a
second unwanted app icon. Type a name
for the folder (Unwanted Apps, for
example, as in our screenshot), then
press the Home button. Now use the
same method to drag and drop all other
unwanted icons into this folder. Finally,
move the folder itself o the home
screen by dragging it to the far right-hand
side of the screen until a second page
appears, then release.
The alternative is to enable the iPhones
Restrictions mode to disable (and thus
hide) certain key apps. Tap Settings, then
tap General, followed by Restrictions. To
disable an app, ick its switch to the O
position. However, only a handful of apps One way to rid yourself of unwanted iOS
can be restricted in this way. apps is to create a dump folder for them

5 18 July 2017 67
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?
? Whats the difference between...
Doc and Docx files?
I deal with lots of dierent
Q documents from lots of
dierent people. I use Word
2016 but some clients use earlier
versions, so I might receive les with
either a .docx or a .doc extension.
Word 2016 handles either without
bother, and I can also save in DOC
format for the handful of clients that
cant open DOCX les. But the DOC
les dont seem any obviously better or
worse than DOCX ones, so I often
wonder whats the dierence?
Felicity Heart
The short and sweet answer
A is that the dierences are
largely technical and, to a very
large extent, irrelevant to users in the
real world.
Digging deeper, the fundamental
distinction is that DOCX document
les are based on an open standard
known as Extensible Markup Language,
or XML. This is more reliable, ecient
and accessible than DOC, which was
Did malware install this random program?
I did a digital spring clean,
Q during which I uninstalled some
programs I no longer needed.
While doing this I spotted a program
called PrintProjects that I have no
memory of installing and have never
used. Investigating further I then found
an entry for PrintProjects in my Start
menu! Stupidly, I clicked this and was
met with a screen inviting me to
download and install my free
copy of PrintProjects. I quickly
clicked the cross to close this
window and then returned to
the Control Panel to uninstall
the program.
It seems to have gone but Im
concerned about how it got
there, and that it might come
back. Nor do I understand why
I was invited to install
something that was apparently
already installed. Is it possible
that my PC has a virus? Its likely that a trailer app for PrintProjects has been
Simon Brooks added to your PC by your printers software
Problems Solved
substantially so.
DOCX is more reliable and accessible, but can
be saved in the old DOC format
Microsofts proprietary document format
that it ditched with the introduction of
Word 2007. There are XML versions of all
other Oce document types, including
XLSX (Excel) and PPTX (PowerPoint).
So, thats a bit of background. However,
there are some advantages that everyone
PrintProjects did not appear
A on your PC as the result of any
virus infection. Instead, its
likely that you unwittingly agreed to it
being installed when adding a printer to
your PC, as this tool has over the years
been bundled with a variety of printer
models. If youve recently purchased a
new printer this would explain the
appearance of the tool.
can appreciate, mostly relating to
saving space. While its something
of an oversimplication, DOCX les
are similar to ZIP les. What we mean
is that a DOCX le acts as a container
for everything inside a document, from
the text and images to the formatting
and layout. It also compresses that
content so it takes up much less space.
So, a DOCX le with content thats
identical to a DOC le will almost
always be smaller and sometimes
You can also extract the contents
of a DOCX le, just as you would a ZIP
le. Select a DOCX in File Explorer,
press F2 to rename it, type .zip as the
extension and press Enter. Now
right-click and choose Extract All,
and the Word documents text, images
and other content will be expanded
into folders that you can navigate with
File Explorer.
Want to know the dierence between
technical terms? Email us at noproblem@
computeractive.co.uk.
In this case, it sounds like whats
actually been installed here is an app
that acts as an advert for the full
program. That isnt unusual either,
because the software developers deal
with the printer manufacturer might
be that users have to supply their
personal details in order to download
the full program.
So thats what happened here and, as
youve since uninstalled the trailer app,
theres nothing more for us to say and
nothing more for you to worry about.
ON SALE
NEXT ISSUE Weds
19 July
Why is my iPad showing
emails from 1970?
Can I run my old dBase program?
How do I turn two attachments
into one?
...And many more
Subscribe to Computeractive
at getcomputeractive.co.uk
5 18 July 2017 69
 Problems Solved
Reader Support
Having a problem with our recommended software or expert tips?
Email editor@computeractive.co.uk and well do our best to help
Why is Cybereason RansomFree
creating random les?
Q In Issue 503s Cover Feature
(page 57) you recommend
Cybereason RansomFree to guard
against ransomware. I installed it, but
have since noticed some peculiarly
named les and folders in my
Documents folder and on my desktop
(see screenshot below). My antivirus
software reports a clean bill of health
(as does Malwarebytes), but the
overnight appearance of so many les
still worries me. Whats going on?
Should I delete them?
Jack Luxon
A The les you mention are actually
known as honeypot les, which
are designed to trick any ransomware
infections that contaminate your PC.
Ransomware will try to encrypt these
les rst and when that happens
Cybereason RansomFree will pounce
think of it like a spider trapping ies
in its web.
These les are crucial to the
functioning of the program, so dont
delete them. Theyre very small and
take up a fraction of your hard
drives space.
Cybereason uses these honeypot files to trap
ransomware if it infests your PC
70 5 18 July 2017
Search for iPhone apps on your iPad by
filtering your search results
Is CastBox available for iPad?
Q I wanted to give CastBox a try having
read your Workshop on it (Issue
504, page 40), but I cant nd the app
in the App Store for my iPad nor can
I download it from the Snipca address
you provided (www.snipca.com/24580).
Help, please.
Audrey Chase
A The problem here is that youre
trying to download it on to your iPad.
Strictly speaking, CastBox is designed to
be used on a phone, not a tablet. To get
round this, open the App Store on your
iPad, search for castbox, then tap iPad
Only (at the top left). Select iPhone
Only from the dropdown menu to
sort your search results (see screenshot
above). You will see CastBox listed in the
search results.
CastBox will work on your iPad,
though it might display at a lower
resolution than standard iPad apps.
This is because its been developed for
a smaller iPhone screen. In the app you
can switch between a larger (but lower-
resolution) mode, or a smaller (but
higher-resolution) mode by tapping 1X
or 2X at the bottom right.
Why isnt PDF Anti-Copy 1.0
locking my PDFs?
Q Im not sure that PDF Anti-Copy
1.0 (Issue 504, page 19) works as
you describe. I used it to generate a
locked PDF and then opened the PDF
in LibreOce, which let me delete
characters, change the font size and
more. Why isnt the PDF locked?
Frank Prendergast
A Youve stumbled on to PDF Anti-
Copys Achilles heel. PDFs locked
using the program can still be vulnerable
to OCR, and LibreOce applies OCR to
PDFs automatically using LibreOce
Draw. You wont be able to type new text
into the locked PDF, but you can as you
have found change font sizes and delete
characters one at a time.
If someone is that determined to edit
your PDF they may take the time to
painstakingly delete every character one
by one, but we think thats unlikely. On
the whole, we think Anti-Copy remains a
good solution for protecting your PDFs.
Do I really have to click so much?
Q After following your Workshop on
shredding folders, rather than just
binning them (Issue 502, page 40), Im
left with only one problem: having to
click so many folders just to reach my
new junk folder. Can I cut down the
clicks?
Eamonn Colley
A Yes, there is a way. You should use
File Explorer to make a shortcut to
any folder you create on your PC.
Open File Explorer, navigate to the
folder in question (in this case, your Junk
folder), then right-click it. Select Create
shortcut in the menu. A shortcut will be
created in the folder itself. Right-click
this shortcut, click Cut, then right-click
on your desktop and click Paste. This will
move the shortcut to your desktop.
Double-click it to access your folder.
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PGi520/CLi521 Set of 5 49.99 Colours 5.5ml each 10.99 No.302 Colour 4ml 12.99 33X (5MB/s) LP-E8 for Canon 12.99
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PGi525/CLi526 Set of 5 49.99 Black 7.4ml 3.99 No.363 Black 6ml 17.99 32GB 9.99
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CLi526 Colours 9ml 10.29 No.26 Set of 4 35.99
No.363 SET OF 6 49.99
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T0791-T0796 No.364 Black 6ml 8.99
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CLi551 Colours 7ml 8.99 No.26XL Set of 4 63.99
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PGi550/CLi551XL Set of 5 59.99 No.26XL Colours 9.7ml each 15.99 Originals: 32GB 11.99
No.364XL Black 14ml 15.99 64GB 21.99 EN-EL3e for Nikon 14.99
PGi550XL Black 22ml 12.99 Set of 6 88.99 No.364XL PB/C/M/Y 6ml each 15.99 EN-EL14 for Nikon 19.99
CLi551XL Colours 11ml 11.99 Compatibles: Colours 11.1ml each 14.99 No.364XL SET OF 4 59.99 Sandisk Extreme
PG540 Black 8ml 12.99 No.26 Set of 4 14.99 EN-EL15 for Nikon 24.99
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PG540XL Black 21ml 19.99 No.26 Black 10ml 3.99
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CL541 Colour 8ml 16.99 Colours 11.1ml each 3.99 No.950XL SET OF 4 79.99 32GB 14.99
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CL546XL Colour 13ml 16.99 Seahorse Inks No.15 Black 46ml 3.99 AA 1300mAh (4) 3.99
Hummingbird Inks No.21 Black 10ml 6.99 Compact Flash
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PGi5 Black 27ml 4.99 Set of 6 89.99 Set of 6 67.99 No.45 Black 45ml 6.99 333X (50MB/s)
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PGi525/CLi526 Set of 5 19.99 Frog Inks
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CLi551XL Colours 12ml 3.99 Set of 8 112.99 Set of 8 76.99 No.301XL Colour 18ml 13.99
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72 5 - 18 August 2015
www.snipca.com/23280
Jargon Buster
1080p Of the common types of
high-denition video, this is the
best quality: 1920x1080 pixels.
32bit A measure of how much
information a computer can
process at once. Most older
computers are 32bit, more modern
ones are 64bit.
3G/4G A set of technologies that
delivers faster mobile broadband,
so called because it is the fourth
generation of mobile-data
networking standards.
4K Video with a resolution of
3840x2160 pixels.
64bit A technology that processes
information in larger chunks. Most
modern computers are 64bit.
720p A common resolution of
high-denition video: 1280x720
pixels.
aptX A codec used to compress
audio so it can be transmitted over
Bluetooth with minimal loss in
quality.
Bandwidth A measure of
how much information can be
transferred through a connection
at one time.
Beta A version of software thats
being tested. Beta versions are
often released so problems can be
ironed out.
Biometric Using measurable
personal characteristics, such as
ngerprints, for identication.
Botnet A group of infected
computers that are connected
together via the internet, and
used to infect other PCs, send junk
email and perform other criminal
tasks.
Browser hijackers Programs that
change your default browser, its
homepage and search engine,
without prior warning, when you
install them.
Cache A temporary space for
storing information. Can be
memory used on a computer
processor, or space on a hard drive
used by a web browser.
Cast To send content from your
PC to TV.
Bust more jargon in our A-Z book: www.snipca.com/21616
Defragging To reorganise the
data stored on a hard drive so les
are stored in one piece and can
be accessed quickly. Sometimes
shortened to defrag.
DNS Domain Name System.
A technology that associates
computers with their addresses on
the internet.
End-to-end encryption A way of
encrypting messages so that the
only people who can read them
are the sender and recipient. They
cant be intercepted and read by a
third party.
Extension A program that adds
extra features to your browser.
EPUB A le format used by many
popular ebook readers.
Firewall A piece of software
or hardware that prevents
unauthorised access to a computer
over a network, such as the
internet.
GHz Gigahertz. A measure of
how many instructions a chip can
process per second. 1GHz is equal
to 1,000MHz.
GIF Graphics Interchange Format.
A type of image le often used
on the web, but now largely
superseded by PNG.
Graphics card A component in a
computer that produces the image
shown on the monitor.
HDMI High-denition media
interface. A type of connection that
transmits high-denition video and
audio signals. It is found on many
new TVs, media PCs and high-
denition products such as Blu-ray
disc players and the PlayStation 4
and Xbox One games consoles.
Hotkey A key set up to perform a
complex action.
HTTPS Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol Secure. The secure
version of HTTP, the technology
that sends data between your
browser and the web.
IP address Internet Protocol
Address. A unique set of numbers,
separated by full stops, used to
identify computers and websites
on the internet.
IP67 International Protection
marking. The 6 denotes that a
device is resistant to dust, general
dirt and sand. The 7 indicates that
it can be placed underwater for
30 minutes at depths of up to 1m
without eect.
Keylogging Recording everything
someone types. Normally used to
steal passwords.
LED Light-Emitting Diode. An
electronic device that emits light.
Used on almost all electronic
devices, and to provide the
backlight for some LCDs.
M.2 A standard specication for
internal PC expansion cards and
connectors.
Machine learning The science of
teaching computers how to learn
by themselves.
MicroSD card A small type of
memory card. Can be converted to
SD size using an adapter.
MOBI Short for Mobipocket. Ebook
format that lets readers add their
own content, such as drawings,
annotations and bookmarks.
Motherboard The main circuit
board inside every PC into which
all other parts connect.
OCR Optical character recognition.
The process by which printed text
is scanned and converted into
documents that can be edited.
Open source Software that can
be modied by anyone, rather
than just by the employees of the
company that created it.
Partition A large hard drive can
be split into two or more partitions
or virtual drives. Once partitioned,
each section is treated as a
separate, smaller hard drive.
Phishing A form of internet
fraud that tries to trick you into
revealing personal details.
Plain text Text in a document that
doesnt contain any formatting,
such as bold characters and italics.
PNG Portable Network Graphics.
A format for images that shrinks
le sizes using compression but
without discarding any data.
PST Personal Storage Table. A
le format used to store copies of
messages and calendar events.
PUP Potentially unwanted
program. A program that may
not be desired, despite the user
consenting to it being downloaded.
RAID A system for storing data
eciently and automatically
backing up computer hard drives.
Read speed How long it takes
a hard drive to read data, and
respond to it.
SD card Secure Digital card. A
popular type of memory card.
Search modier Characters
you can add to a search query to
narrow the results.
sRGB A standard RGB colour
space for use on monitors,
printers and the internet. RGB
stands for red, green and blue.
SSD Solid-state drive. Storage
that, unlike a hard drive, uses no
moving parts and is aster than
conventional hard drives.
Thunderbolt A very fast port for
connecting external storage to a
computer. Can be used to connect
monitors, a network and more.
Transcoding To convert les
between formats.
Two-step verication A system
that uses two dierent means to
identify the user. For example, a
PIN in addition to a password.
USB 2.0/3.0/3.1 An even faster
version of the USB standard used
to connect devices to a computer.
USB Type-C A new connector
thats reversible, letting you plug it
in upside down.
VPN Virtual private network. A
technology for keeping all internet
communication safe and private
even on insecure networks.
Write speed How long it takes a
hard drive to save data.
XML Extensible Markup
Language. A versatile type of
document that can store various
types of information.
5 18 July 2017 73
 The Final Straw
This issue Ken Rigsby is turned to jelly by
Confusing email inboxes
A
s I get older it seems that everyone
is getting younger. Policemen (and
women), obviously. There are
doctors, who in an alternative life could
be my children. And postmen (and
women) who are so fresh-faced they look
like theyre on their way to school in the
morning. On that last point I should be
clear that I have nothing whatsoever
against very young postmen (or women).
However, the Royal Mails sta turnover
seems so high nowadays that few posties
stick around long enough to progress
past their teens.
Thats a shame, because there are
quite a few benets to having an
experienced postman who knows his job.
Ours is called Tony and no doubt with
one eye on the Christmas tip that Mrs
Rigsby still dishes out to both him and
the binmen (and, er, binwomen... not
that we have one of those) he goes out
of his way to be helpful.
For example, if a package is too big for
the letterbox Tony will leave it in the
gas-meter cupboard halfway up our side
return extension. He also applies some
basic mail sorting, demoting obvious
junk mail to the bottom of the daily pile
74 5 18 July 2017
KEN RIGSBY is
Computeractives Mr Angry
chronological inbox that I love was a
distraction of headings, like Primary,
Social and Promotions.
Presumably, Googles intention was to
These email services make stu easier for me to to nd. In
reality, I was lost without a paddle. Was
are like that wobbly that notication email about an online
chat led under Social or Updates? Hmm.
creature from The Blob Perhaps it was in Forums? Ah, no, it was
soulless, ruthless and in Primary after all, because Gmails
lters had made a Tony-style sorting
unstoppable error.
As I said, Tonys mistakes are easily
spotted. But I receive hundreds of emails
each week so I was clueless when Gmails
electronic postie got things wrong.
Messages I needed disappeared into the
that, incidentally, he loops together with wrong folders, while others of no interest
a little red elastic band. were agged as Primary. I xed the
I really appreciate this. Its a human problem by disabling the feature (click
touch that makes my life just a little bit the Settings cog, then Congure inbox,
easier. Admittedly, Tony sometimes remove all the ticks, then click Save).
makes mistakes, perhaps by putting a Many email services have similar
pizza mailshot among all the fan mail features but theyve been blissfully absent
but, as were talking about a mere from my Windows Desktop. That is, until
handful of letters each week, its no big a recent Windows 10 update added
deal. Elastic band o, a quick shue Focused and Other tabs to the Mail app.
through the pile and I know whats what. Suddenly, my cherished single inbox had
I wish I could say the ssame about the lost its singular focus. Ive deected
behaviour of some of my
behaviou Gmails email-gobbling monster, and a
email inboxes. If you couple of other webmail variants besides,
havent encountered
haven but now Microsoft seems intent on
modern trend for
the mo devouring my desktop inbox. I choked o
inbox automation you this feeding frenzy by clicking Mails
will do soon enough, settings cog, followed by Reading, and
because these smart
becaus then switched Focused Inbox to O.
ltering tools now To me, these email services are acting
abound. like that wobbly creature from the 1950s
Gmail was my rst B-movie The Blob - they are soulless,
experience of the ruthless and unstoppable. Right now,
phenomenon, a couple of
phenomen my Windows 10 Mail inbox is back under
years ago. I logged in to my control but I fear that dining out on
nd that the contents of my desktop inbox was just the beginning
my neat, tidy and solitary for The Blob. Ive no doubt that the
inbox had without insatiable jelly will be back to feast on
warning been sliced into more of my messages soon enough.
a bunch of dierent
catego
categories. Suddenly, Do you agree with Ken?
the simple, Let us know at letters@computeractive.co.uk
Next issue Ken is being nished o by erratic Start menus