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I remember getting my first 2GB USB stick and wondering what I could possibly fill it with. This was in the days before smartphones that recorded everything you did, creating large files in the process. Yes, I had some photos and hundreds of documents, but they were measured in mere kilobytes. That left a lot of empty space. As usual, I had underestimated the speed with which technology advances and prices fall. Within a month of getting my first smartphone I had recorded enough video to fill several 2GB sticks, and was already looking to buy 8GB replacements. These days, anything less than 64GB is widely seen as insufficient. In our Cover Feature Nik Rawlinson explains how you can make the most of these mighty sticks (64GB and up). I…

Manufacturers are beginning to prioritise Windows 11 laptops above Chromebooks, industry analysts have said. Market research firm IDC said production of Chromebooks will fall because manufacturers make higher profits on Windows machines, which tend to be much more expensive. IDC claims the global shortage of processors will make the move away from Chromebooks faster than it otherwise would’ve been. With fewer chips available, manufacturers will have to be far choosier about the machines they make. Some industry bosses now expect the shortage to continue until 2023, as supplies remain hit by fresh waves of Covid-19 in Taiwan and Malaysia, home to some of the world’s biggest processor plants. Lenovo, the world’s biggest computer manufacturer, said last autumn that it could have increased production by 30 to 40 per cent had…

MORE ENGLISH COUNTIES GET GIGABIT Kent, Lancashire and Wiltshire are among 26 English counties to be named by the Government in the next phase of its Project Gigabit plan to deliver 1Gbps to “hard-to-reach areas”. Ministers say this latest stage will span 1.85m premises in locations that wouldn’t otherwise be covered by broadband providers. More areas across all four nations will be announced later this year. Read more on GOV.UK: www.snipca.com/39101. MoD PAYS ‘ETHICAL HACKERS’ TO FIND FLAWS The Ministry of Defence has for the first time paid “ethical hackers” to find and fix security flaws in the UK’s cyber-defence systems. It worked with the US company HackerOne in a 30-day ‘Bug Bounty’ programme, claiming such work will help to ensure “that lives and livelihoods are protected from those who…

Microsoft is working on a new feature for Edge that aims to make the browser more secure. Among other things, the Super Duper Security Mode disables the Just-In-Time Compilation (JIT) feature that currently exists in Edge. JIT has been used by browsers since 2008 and speeds up websites that use JavaScript. However, Microsoft says the complexity and age of JIT means it contains a lot of bugs, which are often manipulated by hackers to snoop on what you’re up to online. Microsoft says that although disabling JIT can slow down websites, most users won’t see any noticeable drop in performance. In a blog post (www.snipca.com/39178), Microsoft attempts to justify the feature’s bizarre name, saying “…we think it is funny, and it is a bit too early for something official. Super…

COPPER TURNED OFF IN 86 MORE AREAS Openreach has named the next 86 areas to have their copper phone lines replaced by internet-based services such as VoIP. To see the new locations, plus all the previous 294 announced, click the green ‘here’ link at www.snipca.com/39071. In the spreadsheet that downloads, the new areas are numbered from 298 (Aberdare) on. Copper will only be turned off when 75 per cent of premises in an area can get full-fibre broadband. RECYCLE YOUR OLD RASPBERRY PI You can send your old Raspberry Pi computers to be refurbished and get a voucher in return. The scheme is being run by OKdo, a tech site that sells new mini computers such as the Pi. For each Pi 3B (pictured), Pi 3B+ or Pi 4 you…

When we poor humans need a quick health check, we have to drag our aching bones to the GP’s surgery (Covid permitting). Happily, it’s much easier to check the health of the passwords you use in Edge, thanks to a new tool Microsoft added in late July. Click the top-right menu button (three dots), then Settings, followed by Profiles on the left. Next, in the middle, click Passwords and scroll down a little to see your ‘Saved passwords’ alphabetically listed by the site they sign you into. The passwords themselves appear as black dots until you reveal them by clicking the eye icon and typing your Windows password. If the blue ‘Show health’ slider is switched on (1 in our screenshot), you’ll see black dashes 2 next to every password…

I almost shed a tear reading your ‘Question of the Fortnight’ in Issue 612 (‘Did video chats make people feel lonelier during lockdown?’). It rang true to my experience. I live alone, so was fearful when the first lockdown began. But my children reassured me that staying in touch on video chats would ease my loneliness. The sad truth is that video chats just made me feel worse. I’m a ‘hands-on’ grandmother who used to look after the grandchildren three times a week. That life-affirming contact plummeted to zero, and no amount of video calls could compensate. Perhaps the most upsetting aspect is that I couldn’t be honest with my family. I told them that video chats were keeping my spirits up, but those were white lies (I’ve used a…

My wife and I each had a Doro 6520 phone on the EE network, with a signal booster so we could get a signal without having to go outside. When the booster died, I rang EE and was informed that I had two options: get a better phone or look on eBay for a booster. Instead we went to Carphone Warehouse for advice and maybe buy some new phones. A woman there called Georgia explained our options, and we ended up with Oppo A53 phones on the iD network. She also showed how we could keep our existing numbers, explaining the techy bits in language we could understand. She has infinite patience! We get a good signal in our house and are wondering why we didn’t update years ago. To…

EMAIL CLIENT Thunderbird 91 www.thunderbird.net What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Unlike webmail services such as Gmail, Thunderbird is an email client that you install on your computer and has a reassuringly old-fashioned design. It’s still getting regular updates, however, with version 91 adding a number of new features. You can use Thunderbird with any email account – just click the menu button (three lines, top right), New, then ‘Existing Mail Account…’ and enter your login details. Version 91 now searches for calendars linked to any email accounts you import (for example, Google Calendar accounts associated with a Gmail account), letting you import them into Thunderbird’s built-in calendar. This version also lets you choose what happens when you drag an image into an email you’re writing. Unlike Gmail,…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: DumpMedia Video Converter I’ve got a bunch of older video files: .3GP files recorded on an old phone that won’t play on my current smartphone, plus some. swf files that Windows refuses point blank to open. So, I thought I’d give the curiously named DumpMedia Video Converter a try. The program claims to be able to convert hundreds of different formats – including .3GP and. swf – and lets you rotate videos, which is useful for clips recorded on an old phone that come out sideways when you transfer them. The first clue that this is not exactly top-drawer software is the horrendous English used on the website www.dumpmedia.com/video-converter: Video Converter is apparently “equipped with the full of feature, it is able to meet all…

PC | £1,000 from Chillblast www.snipca.com/39075 A cool customer This PC from Chillblast is fairly unique among models available for around the £1,000 mark, because it uses water instead of air to keep itself cool. Watercooled systems are better than fans at keeping a PC’s internal components cool and this also means it runs more quietly. The cooling system is intended to deal with the heat generated by the 11th-generation six-core Intel Core i5-11600K processor and does a good job. The PC barely makes a noise when idle, and while it does go up through the gears when the processor is pushed, it never becomes irritatingly loud. “A PC that stays cool and quiet when the heat is on” It proved to be a great general-purpose PC, with excellent results…

PHONE | £399 from OnePlus www.snipca.com/39146 Speeding fine The numbering that OnePlus has applied to its Nord range is all over the place – this is actually the fifth phone to be launched in the range, not the second. However, we won’t vent too much spleen on naming conventions because the phone itself is very impressive. There are two variants available in the UK. The cheaper model (£399) comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and is available in grey. Spend £469 and you get 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and a choice of grey or blue. Otherwise, the two phones are identical. “For the price, it offers a vibrant screen, excellent camera and fast performance” There are some nice design touches. The Gorilla Glass exterior is…

WEBCAM | £70 from Amazon www.snipca.com/39137 Pixels, camera, action If you want to look sharper on your video calls, one option is to upgrade your webcam. The Trust Taxon QHD can record video at 30fps with a 2560x1440-pixel resolution. Most standard webcams are 720p (1280x720 pixels) or 1080p (1920x1080 pixels), so this is a significant increase. It has an 80-degree field of view, which is just wide enough to allow one or two others to join your video call. On the other hand, it isn’t so wide that you’ll look tiny in the frame when you’re on your own. It also has stereo microphones, which ensures it picks up your voice superbly well. There’s a privacy shield built into the camera, which slides across to cover the lens, but it…

LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (256GB) £649 from www.snipca.com/38429 Tested Issue 601 Weighing just 1.16kg, this is an excellent lightweight laptop with a great screen and an AMD processor faster than many Intel rivals. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card reader. Battery lasts nearly 16 hours. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £1,299 from www.snipca.com/36642 ANDROID TABLET PRICE DROP Lenovo Tab P11 Pro £499 from www.snipca.com/38585 Tested Issue 609 A fast tablet that comes with a magnetic stand and keyboard that means you can also use it as a laptop. It has an outstanding screen, 128GB storage and a 17-hour battery life, while its excellent dual mics…

ANDROID Follow a website’s RSS feed in Google Chrome Subscribing to RSS feeds used to be a great way to keep up to date with the latest updates to your favourite websites, though it’s a bit of a dying platform now. But if you have an Android device running Chrome, there’s a new way to subscribe to websites that let’s you see the latest articles and posted updates. The ‘Web Feed’ option is an experimental feature that requires you to enable a Chrome flag, so it may not be compatible with all websites yet, but it worked well when we tested it. Make sure you have the latest version of Chrome installed (check for updates via the Play app), then launch the browser, type chrome://flags into the address bar and…

WINDOWS 10 Troubleshoot Windows problems When something goes wrong with your computer, Windows will usually run a troubleshooting wizard that attempts to identify and fix the problem. If you don’t recall seeing one, it’s worth checking your settings. Click start, type troubleshoot, then select the ‘Troubleshoot settings’ option from the results. In the window that opens, click the dropdown menu at the top and select ‘Ask me before running troubleshooters’ – you’ll then get a message every time Windows needs to run a troubleshooter. You can also run any of the troubleshooters yourself. Click the ‘Additional options’ link to see the complete list, which covers everything from Bluetooth to video-playback problems. Select the troubleshooter that relates to the problem you’re experiencing, then click ‘Run the troubleshooter’ (see screenshot above). WINDOWS…

When you have a large number of cells containing people’s names, you may find some are all lower case, others all upper case, and some are a mix of both. Using the PROPER formula in Excel and Calc you can quickly convert them all to title case (in other words, capitalising the first letter of each forename, surname and any middle names). To use this formula, create a new column next to the one containing your case-mixed names. In this new column, click the cell next to your first name (B1 in our screenshot) then type =PROPER(A1) (change ‘A1’ to match the cell that contains the name in your spreadsheet) then press Enter. The cell should now display the same name, but in title case. You can now copy this…

When did you last replace your USB sticks? If they’re a few years old, we have some bad news for you: the chance of you losing your data is increasing by the day. This is because the chips inside your sticks have a finite lifespan and, after a few thousand read, write and wipe operations, they’ll start to lose their ability to hold on to your data. You won’t notice this happening at first but, as the data becomes increasingly degraded, your files will start to corrupt, images will be lost, and documents and spreadsheets won’t open. On page 57, we show you how you can check the health of the sticks you already own. However, we’re confident you’ll see the benefits of replacing these after reading about the five…

If you’ve decided to replace your old USB sticks, you may want to recycle them or give them to friends. Before doing either, make sure you’ve securely deleted all files from the sticks. Running a quick format on them isn’t sufficient as this just marks the files as deleted (hiding them from view), meaning they’re easily recoverable using tools such as Recuva (www.snipca.com/39148). Instead, you need to combine formatting with the powerful ‘cipher’ command in Command Prompt. Plug in your stick and format it (right-click it in the File Explorer sidebar and select ‘Format…’). Now check which letter Windows has assigned it by opening File Explorer and locating the stick in the sidebar. Next, press the Windows key, type cmd, then press Enter. Next, type cipher/w:X:\, replacing the ‘X’ with…

Q A friend gave me his old Microsoft keyboard, to replace my even-older keyboard, which had stopped working. I attached this to my desktop PC and it works well. However, it has one annoyance and also a curiosity, which is that it has not one but two keys emblazoned with the Windows logo. I never used this button on my old keyboard, so I certainly don’t need two of them. However, both seem to do the same thing – namely opening the Start menu. Is this meant to be the case? Or should they do different things? That aside, I find the right-hand one particularly annoying as it’s near the right Control (Ctrl) key that I do use, and I regularly hit the wrong button – summoning the Start menu…

SONOS TO DEVELOP ITS OWN ASSISTANT US audio firm Sonos seems to be developing its own voice assistant for the company’s range of multi-room smart speakers. Sonos speakers already support voice commands via Alexa and Google Assistant, but according to an email sent to select customers (and posted by a Reddit contributor at www.snipca.com/39159), Sonos’s version will be quicker, easier and more private. GOVT SPENDS BILLIONS ON OLD IT SYSTEMS A Cabinet Office report has found that the UK Government spends £2.3bn a year maintaining old computer systems, some of which date back 30 years. The amount accounts for just under half the Government’s total IT spend. The report also revealed that the spending could spiral to £22bn over the next five years. Read the full report at www.snipca.com/39165.…

A High Court judge has blocked a legal attempt to stop 5G masts being built across the UK. The case, led by human-rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC, was brought by Action Against 5G (https://actionagainst5g.org), which claims it’s “supported by many people nationwide from all walks of life including doctors and scientists”. The site lists several “health risks” it claims are exacerbated by radiation from 5G, including damage to nervous systems, DNA mutation leading to cancer, and “increased levels of spontaneous abortion”. Its case accused the Government of pushing through 5G plans without an “adequate and proper consideration undertaken by the relevant safeguarding authorities of the creation of those man-made public health risks”. However, most scientists believe 5G poses no greater risk to health than other wireless technologies. In its defence…

Tempted by China Bitcoin offer I received an email about the Chinese government issuing its own version of Bitcoin, with a special opening offer (available only on that day) to subscribe at the opening rate which – it promised – would almost certainly show clear profit within a year. Like a fool I thought this too good to miss and felt I could afford to risk a small investment. However, I went to use my credit card and the transaction was declined by my bank, saving me some embarrassment. I can’t believe I was taken in by this scam. I now learn that China wants to ban Bitcoin. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Does PayPal’s Buyer Protection still apply? LEAD CASE Q You often mention that eBay buyers can get refunds through PayPal’s Buyer Protection, but has this been affected by eBay no longer giving sellers money through PayPal? Stephen Baker A The short answer is, no, it hasn’t been affected – at least for now. Buyers will be able to use PayPal to pay for goods, and receive protection, until July 2023 (as Keith Seed does – see case opposite). What’s changed is that eBay has stopped placing payments in sellers’ PayPal accounts. Instead, they’ll go straight into their bank accounts. Selling fees are now automatically deducted from earnings at the time of sale, regardless of how the buyer pays. There are no PayPal fees now, only eBay’s flat rate of 12.8…

Did any of your ancestors change their name? It might explain why you can trace a person back only so far, or that they seem to disappear after a certain period. That’s what Mike Stranks discovered when tracing his wife’s father who married under the name Robert McMurray, but who doesn’t appear in any records before 1935. When Robert was alive, he spoke of his childhood at a house in Banff, Aberdeenshire, which Mike was able to find on the 1911 census. Here he found that Robert Maxtone was living at the property, and was the same age that Robert McMurray would have been. Further research revealed they shared the same birthday (15 September, 1895), as well as other common points of reference, including their father’s first name. Mike wanted…

What can I use to copy my favourite photos? Q Is there a program that not only lets me view all my photos in a slideshow, but also quickly copy any favourites to a specific folder as I go? Keith Worsley A Our favourite image viewer – FastStone Image Viewer (www.snipca.com/39175 – click the green Download button under ‘exe’) – is perfect for this. Once you’ve installed FastStone, run it then open the Settings menu and select the Settings option (or press F12). Next, select the Favorites tab, click Add, then select the folder you want to copy your favourite photos to. If you want to create a new folder for hosting your favourite shots, click the ‘Create folder…’ button. Click OK to close the Settings window. In the left-hand…

It’s not unusual to find eBay used in villainous scams, though typically sellers or buyers are to blame. This time, though, I present to you former eBay security manager (and former police captain) Philip Cooke, one of several US employees who horrifically harassed a journalist couple who wrote newsletters criticising eBay. Cooke and co terrorised the reporters by sending a number of threatening packages, including a funeral wreath, live cockroaches and – unbelievably – a pig foetus. They even went as far as carrying out surveillance on the couple’s home. Having pleaded guilty to his horrible crimes, Cooke was sentenced in a Massachusetts court to 18 months behind bars. He’ll also face a further year of home detention, a $15,000 (£10,800) fine and 100 hours of community service.…

As manufacturers have moved to building laptops and desktop PCs with SSDs inside, loading and running Windows has become much faster. However, SSDs cost more per gigabyte, meaning storage capacity has generally been reduced, particularly on cheaper computers. As a result, we often hear from readers that they’re running out of storage space and yearning for more. One way to overcome the problem is to get yourself an external SSD. These convenient devices aren’t as fast as their internal counterparts, because they connect to the PC via USB. This creates a bottleneck that doesn’t exist with internal SSDs connected to a motherboard. They’re still much faster than mechanical drives however, and now come in capacities of 500GB and more. It’s worth noting that all the drives we’ve reviewed here connect…

What does it do? Near-Field Communication (NFC) is a technology that allows two devices to exchange data. It’s similar to Bluetooth, except that the communicating devices have to be much closer to one another – typically less than four inches. There’s also no need to pair the devices beforehand. In smartphones, it’s most often used in conjunction with payment apps, including Google Pay and Apple Pay. These let you touch your phone against contactless card readers to make payments from your debit or credit card. How does it work? NFC transmits information between devices using radio waves, just like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. However, these signals aren’t activated until an electromagnetic field is detected, which securely links the two devices that are trying to communicate (such as your phone and a…

ROUTER | £66 from Amazon www.snipca.com/39149 Six appeal The TP-Link AX10 has a flat, elongated case that measures 260mm across but only 135mm from front to back. That makes it easy to accomodate anywhere in your home, and the four antennas project only 155mm upwards. As routers go, it’s pretty inconspicuous and relatively cheap. It offers full Wi-Fi 6 support with dual-band functionality from two independent (2.4GHz and 5GHz) radios – the devices that send the wireless signal. These performed reasonably well in our benchmark tests, but we found the Honour Router 3 (see Alternative, below) could reach slightly further, and more expensive routers significantly increased speeds by using more radios. “A cheap Wi-Fi 6 router with modest reach and speeds” It offers decent wired connectivity, via five Gigabit Ethernet…

Netgear’s Orbi LBR20 is a 4G LTE & Tri-Band Mesh WiFi router that works with any compatible network, including EE, O2, Three and Vodafone. Insert a nano-SIM card to get speeds up to 1.2Gbps. It connects with Orbi satellites to create a mesh Wi-Fi system throughout your home, covering up to 1,500 square feet. It has two Gigabit Ethernet ports to keep your wired devices connected. You can control and set up guest networks using Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, while parental controls let you pause or schedule device access, set online limits, view which sites have been visited online, and block sites from being visited. It comes with advanced antivirus protection in the form of Netgear Armor, powered by Bitdefender. This blocks attacks across your network on an unlimited…

Uncomplicated Launcher Free* Android www.snipca.com/39082 Smartphones are incredibly useful but they have become increasingly convoluted over the years. Uncomplicated Launcher takes your device right back to basics, with big, simple buttons for key functions, such as calls and alarms, and simple navigation. It’s customisable too, though some options will require you to pay £2.09 for the full version. Falou Free* Android www.snipca.com/39083 iOS www.snipca.com/39084 A new app in the Duolingo mould, Falou lets you learn 17 different languages through AI-powered conversations set in real-world scenarios. You get a few lessons for free, and there’s a free three-day trial of Falou Premium (normally £30 per year) you can try to see if you want to subscribe. Moonbeam Free Android www.snipca.com/39085 iOS www.snipca.com/39086 Podcasts are great but there are so many these…

Every time Microsoft releases a Windows Feature update (the latest being the 21H1 update, released in May this year), it makes it harder for you to create a local account rather than a Microsoft account when performing a fresh install. We actually prefer using a Microsoft account (you can sign into different computers and have your settings and personal files follow you), but we’re not so keen on the way Microsoft makes it seem like it’s your only option. If you prefer to use a local account (which isn’t linked to Microsoft and keeps all your settings and other personal details stored solely on your computer’s hard drive), here’s how to do it. Follow the Windows 10 installation process through until you reach the point where it asks you to…

Set up mail merge in Excel and Word If you want to post letters to members, you could spend ages addressing each letter and label or envelope by hand, but that would be a huge waste of time. The process of mail merging does all the hard work for you, creating a batch of letters personalised for each member, letting you choose who to include each time. Add recipients in Excel The first thing you need is a data source containing the details of everyone the mailing will be posted to. We’ll use Excel for this, though you can perform a mail merge in both LibreOffice and Google Drive (using Sheets). Open a spreadsheet, and in a header row at the top add columns for Last Name, First Name, Address,…

Search Amazon for USB sticks and you’ll find plenty to choose from. It’s tempting to simply go for the largest stick you can afford, but that won’t necessarily get you the stick you need. Many of the jobs we’ve covered so far involve backing up and securing your data, so you’ll need a USB stick that’s – above all else – reliable. We therefore recommend you avoid cheaper, unbranded sticks and instead opt for brands you know – we’ll look at some of these later. Capacity USB stick capacities don’t mean much on their own. A far more meaningful measurement is how many files you can store on them. To help you decide, we’ve compiled a table (see below) using the following file parameters: Films: Video files encoded at Full…

Anyone who’s spent much time shopping online in the past year will have been plagued by two words: ‘Currently unavailable’. When lockdown began, manufacturers around the world slashed production, prompting retailers to cut orders in return. The result has been an unprecedented shortage of items on the real and virtual shelves. Technology has been particularly badly hit by a global processor shortage, restricting supplies not just of computers, phones and tablets, but also cars, microwave ovens and washing machines. It affects magazines as well as shoppers: several times this year we’ve refrained from recommending products because they’re no longer available. There’s nothing you can do to end this crisis, which analysts expect to last until 2023. But you can set up alerts to tell you when your sought-after items are…

You don’t have to take as many screenshots as us (there were 118 in Issue 612) to appreciate that Windows badly needed a fresh tool for the job. The new-look Snipping Tool seems to be just that. Taking the keyboard shortcut from ‘Snip & Sketch’ is a great idea, while the four ‘Snip’ options keep things simple. It’s also welcome that there’ll be just one screenshot tool. Too often Microsoft has confused users by offering several tools that do similar things. We’ll let you know what else is announced before launch.…

WhatsApp now lets you send photos and videos that disappear from the chat after they’ve been opened by the recipient, making it safer to send sensitive information such as passwords. The new ‘View Once’ feature means sent items won’t be saved to the recipient’s Photos or Gallery folder, so can never be seen again, nor forwarded to anyone else. If not opened within 14 days, the sent items will be removed from the chat. However, recipients are able to take a screenshot or screen recording of the content before it disappears, and you won’t be notified if this happens. They’re also able to take a photo or video of the information with a camera. As a result, WhatsApp warns users to send sensitive information only to “trusted individuals”. After the…

When choosing a new password, it’s best to avoid those comprising random characters and instead create one that’s made up of three random words. That’s according to the latest advice from experts at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The NCSC says such three-word passwords not only contain a sufficiently unusual combination of letters, but are also much easier to remember compared to a random series of characters. The government agency said that techniques people use to add special characters to passwords in an effort to increase their complexity (such as replacing the letter ‘O’ with zeros and adding exclamation marks) are often flawed. Attackers are aware of such techniques and use algorithms to spot them. The NCSC also criticised websites that enforce…

Apple has removed a social and dating app for people who haven’t had the Covid-19 vaccine for violating its policies on covering the pandemic. Unjected, founded by two women from Hawaii, calls itself a community for “like-minded people that support medical autonomy and free speech”. One of its features was a social feed where people gave reasons why they weren’t getting the vaccine. Apple told the app’s owners that it “inappropriately refers to the Covid-19 pandemic in its concept or theme”. The company says it will allow information on the disease to come only from “recognised sources, which includes governments, ‘deeply credentialed’ companies as well as non-government organisations focused on health”. Unjected’s founders had asked members not to use words like ‘jabbed’ and ‘vaccine’ in order to avoid the app…

What is it? Scammers are sending emails to Office 365 and Microsoft 365 users in an attempt to trick them into phoning a help centre, which is staffed by hackers who try to install ransomware on their computers. Microsoft says the scam begins with an email that claims your free trial to a service is about to end, and your credit card will soon be charged for the full amount. Each “wave” of the scam mentions a different subscription in the email. Previous examples include a photo-editing service, or membership of a cooking and recipes website. A more recent version has a message confirming your receipt for a software purchase. What makes this scam different to typical phishing attacks is that it tries to scare you into phoning a number,…

I ‘wait and see’ with Windows upgrades The advice in Issue 612’s Cover Feature (‘Make Windows 10 Last Longer’, pictured) will help me keep the operating system running smoothly. However, I’ll still adopt the strategy I’ve used when previous versions have been released. This is to wait 12 to 18 months after a system has launched, read all the reviews, shake my head at the early problems, then choose whether upgrading is the right decision. If it is, I’ll know by then how to avoid most of the problems that always come with a new system. This ‘wait and see’ approach has served me well in the past. It’s meant I avoided the disasters of Windows Vista and Windows 8. I skipped both of these, stayed on XP and 7…

Virgin Media has agreed to waive reader Donald MacLeod’s early-termination fee after he explained to the company that health problems had forced him to move house and cancel his contract. As we reported in Issue 611, Donald thought that because Virgin wasn’t available at his new address he could cancel without a fee, but this isn’t the case. There’s no legal requirement for a company to offer your existing service at your new home. Donald sadly didn’t have a valid reason to cancel without a fee, such as Virgin raising his monthly contract above the RPI rate of inflation. When he emailed us, the amount he owed Virgin had risen to £289.50, and he was being chased by a debt-collection agency. Virgin told us that it had added a month’s…

Eleven years ago I bought Family Tree Maker (FTM) 2010, but I’ve only recently started using it. Long story short, I can’t get it to run on my new Windows 10 PC, only on my old Windows 7 machine. Must I pay £80 to buy the 2019 version of FTM, or can I transfer the 85 people in my tree elsewhere? John Leeson If you export your FTM file in the GEDCOM format, you should be able to transfer it to any other family history program. FTM 2019 and RootsMagic (£19.95 from www.rootsmagic.co.uk) both work with Ancestry. Alternatively, try the downloadable program MyFamilyTree (free from www.snipca.com/38932) if you don’t need an online tool. Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Although modern computer screens are larger and sharper than ever, higher resolutions – typically 3840x2160 (4K) on PC monitors – makes things like text much harder to see, especially if your eyesight isn’t what it once was (and mine isn’t). Increasing the scale and layout settings on my PC to 150 per cent helped, but the cursor remained tiny, and would often get lost on screen. I solved that problem with CursorFX (www.snipca.com/390899), which lets you change your pointer’s style, colour and size. You can also add effects, trails and sounds. CursorFX isn’t free, but don’t let that put you off. There’s a free 30-day trial available, so you can see if it suits your needs before committing yourself, and the full version only costs a one-off payment of £4.99.…

LAPTOP | £393 from Amazon www.snipca.com/39063 ARM yourself Priced below £400, a reasonable initial reaction by anyone considering the Samsung Galaxy Book Go would be to wonder what sort of corners had been cut to achieve this. The big difference between this and more expensive models is that it replaces the standard laptop Intel or AMD processor with an eight-core Qualcomm 7C Gen 2, which is more like the kind of mobile chip you’d find in a smartphone or tablet. “A budget laptop that prioritises cost and battery life over speed and screen quality” Samsung’s aim is to create an affordable lightweight laptop that combines long battery life with always-connected mobile data (it comes with a built-in 4G modem – you just need to add a SIM card). The Qualcomm…

Q I hear my Kindle DX ebook reader will no longer work once 3G becomes obsolete. I use this 10in device because of my eyesight limitations. Amazon now only offers small-screen e-readers. What would be the best replacement for me? Stephen Lewis A The first thing to note is that your Kindle DX will still work without 3G, it just won’t be able to download books wirelessly. You should still be able to transfer books to the device by connecting it to a PC using a cable, so if you want to stick with it, you won’t lose anything more than a little convenience. However, if you’re ready for a change, the other big name in ebook readers is Kobo, and it still has a 10.3in model in their line-up,…

What is it? Vodafone’s latest Pro Broadband package comes with a Super Wi-Fi Plus booster unit, which also works as an Alexa-powered smart speaker. You also get a Wi-Fi 6 router that comes with a 4G backup connection. What does it do? The booster can be set up in a different part of your house from your router to strengthen the Wi-Fi signal there. It can also do anything a regular Alexa smart speaker can, from playing music to controlling smart technology. Vodafone has added a “Dinnertime” skill, so you can say “Alexa, turn on dinnertime” and your internet connection will pause for 30 minutes while you and your family sit down to eat. What’s the catch? You have to switch your broadband to the Vodafone Pro Broadand service, which…

What you need: Email account; Microsoft Outlook Time required: 60 minutes Only one person should be able to read the emails you send: the intended recipient. And only one person should be able to read the emails you receive: you. If you’re anything like us, your messages will rarely be sensitive or overly personal, but that’s not to say they should be open to all and sundry. Whether you’re applying for a job, confirming a holiday booking or sending your bank details to someone, there will always be times when you want to make sure your words don’t go astray and leak what you’d rather keep private. Here, we’ll show you three different options for protecting your messages, starting with the most benign – simply marking them as sensitive –…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Get better cursor control in Windows As I get older my mouse control is getting shakier, so I find it harder to place the cursor exactly where I want it. Someone in my local computing club (meeting again in person – hooray!) suggested turning off a feature in Windows called ‘mouse acceleration’. This option is meant to sharpen the precision of the cursor, but apparently for many people it has the opposite effect. I thought it was worth trying, so I pressed Windows key+I to open Settings, then clicked Mouse on the left, and ‘Additional mouse options’ in the middle. I then unticked ‘Enhance pointer precision’ and clicked Apply at the bottom. The effect was instant, as though the cursor went from wearing roller skates to…

Seek by iNaturalist Free Android www.snipca.com/39087 iOS www.snipca.com/39088 This app lets you identify insects – and other animal and plant life – just by pointing your device’s camera at it and scanning it. Take a shot to add to your collection, read up about the species you’ve discovered, and upload any insect images from your photo library that you need to identify. Best For Budding naturalists Bugs Matter Free Android www.snipca.com/39092 iOS www.snipca.com/39093 Do your bit for biodiversity by using this app to record the number of bugs that hit your car’s number plate over the course of a journey. You’ll need to download and print your ‘splat-o-meter’ from www.snipca.com/39094. If you’re quick you can submit your results to the current survey, which ends on 31 August. Best For Helping…

MICROSOFT WORD & EXCEL Add Wikipedia to Office Regular Wikipedia users should consider installing an Office add-in that adds content to your your documents and spreadsheets. First, open Word or Excel, then click the Insert menu, followed by ‘Get Add-ins’. In the screen that opens, click the search box, type wikipedia, then select the Wikipedia add-in from the results and click Add. A Wikipedia sidebar will now open within your document or spreadsheet. When you highlight a term/cell, this sidebar will immediately show whatever information Wikipedia has on that term (if it can’t find any relevant pages, you’ll see a list of suggestions). You can copy any text it finds from the Wikipedia sidebar into your document. Simply highlight the relevant copy, then click the ‘+’ button that appears (see…

What is it? A new ‘Cloud PC’ service from Microsoft that lets businesses use Windows virtually, through the internet (by typing https://windows365.microsoft.com – see main image) or the company’s Remote Desktop app. Users can access a Windows desktop from a device that itself doesn’t run Windows, such as an Apple Mac, iPad, Chromebook, Android tablet or Linux machine. It’s akin to streaming an operating system, rather than downloading it to your computer. So it’s a bit like streaming Netflix? If you like, yes, and it’s a loose comparison some people have made. Just as you stream Netflix to your TV, or other content like music and games, you can stream Windows to your machine. You never own that version of Windows because it’s hosted on Microsoft’s servers, but you can…

If your USB stick is formatted using the FAT32 file system, it will be compatible with the widest range of computers and devices. However, due to a limitation built into this file system, you won’t be able to store files larger than 4GB (such as long 4K videos) on your stick. To overcome this, you’ll need to reformat it using either exFAT or NTFS. The latter is compatible only with Windows computers, but also supports advanced features such as ReadyBoost (see page 55). Reformatting will wipe everything that’s on the stick, so first move any important files from it. Plug in your USB stick and right-click it in the File Explorer sidebar. Choose ‘Format…’ in the menu, then select NTFS in the ‘File system’ menu (see screenshot). Leave ‘Quick Format’…

If you’re worried that your USB stick is coming to the end of its usable life, Windows’ built-in CHKDSK (Check Disk) command can run tests and report back on any problems it finds. Open a new Command Prompt window and type chkdsk X:, replacing the ‘X’ with the drive letter of your stick. Press Enter and the CHKDSK tool will examine each of the files and sectors on the stick and reveal how many bad sectors (damaged portions of the stick) it’s found. Ideally, it shouldn’t find any, and it should report “Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems…”. If it finds any bad sectors, repeat the process but this time adding a space, followed by/f to the end of the command - so, chkdsk X: /f,…

For Stock Informer it’s a spinning arrow, while HotStock uses a spinning circle, but they both indicate the same thing: checking for products in ‘real time’. This means they’re continuously monitoring retailers’ sites, rather than checking just once a day or week, say. It’s hard to verify these claims, but they both sent us alerts and emails within minutes of signing up, and have done so frequently since. But it’s no surprise that some shoppers try to cheat the system by constantly refreshing the webpage – both manually and using automated software. The sites say there’s no need to do this because they update frequently enough already. They remind users of this in the warning messages they send when they detect rapid refreshing, with HotStock dubiously claiming that it updates…

Do I have the Defender bug you warned about? Q I read Issue 606’s News section with interest, and in particular the ‘Update Windows Defender to fix file-dumping bug’ story on page 6. I’m an elderly computer user and I try to follow your instructions exactly, but I don’t always understand how to interpret my results. When I checked to see if I had been affected, I could not find a Store folder within the History folder. Does this mean that I do not have the bug and no files have been stored? Then, upon checking which version of Windows Defender I have, my Engine Version appeared as 0.0.0.0. I have a Windows 10 desktop PC. I run AVG Internet Security, TuneUp and AntiTrack. Please could you explain my results…