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A friend told me recently that he loved Windows 11 because it looked so similar to Windows 10. Another said he couldn’t see the point of Windows 11 precisely because it looked so similar. Both have a point, but I agreed more with the former, and not only because it was his round next. After decades of trying I think Microsoft has finally hit the winning formula with Windows 11. It’s remarkably simple: add as many features as you like, but make sure a new version looks roughly the same as the system it’s replacing. That sense of familiarity removes the biggest reason people don’t upgrade, and gives them the confidence to try those new tools. It also helps when you’ve got an expert like Robert Irvine explaining what to…

Apple has removed several fake versions of the word game Wordle from its App Store, as imitators attempt to cash in on its sudden popularity. The game, which challenges players to find a five-letter word in six guesses, launched in October and now has two million users. Its creator, software developer Josh Wardle, designed the game as an alternative to phone apps that collect your data, are littered with adverts and constantly demand your attention with pop-up alerts. But that hasn’t stopped opportunistic developers mimicking the name to build their own games. Zach Shakked, for example, boasted that his game, called ‘Wordle – the App’, had been downloaded 12,000 times within hours of launching. Apple removed the app even though the genuine Wordle is available only as an online game…

KCOM CANCELS INFLATION PRICE RISE FOR 2022 KCOM, which provides broadband to Hull and East Yorkshire, has scrapped its annual price rise, saying it wants to help customers facing a “cost of living crisis”. Like other companies, it planned to raise prices by the rate of inflation plus 3.9 per cent (see page 10, Issue 623), but will now freeze them until 2023. See the statement at www.snipca.com/40644. DHL SCAMS NOW MOST COMMON WORLDWIDE Courier giant DHL has overtaken Microsoft as the company most likely to be imitated in scams. Security analysts Check Point said the firm appeared in 23 per cent of scams worldwide in the last three months of 2021, ahead of Microsoft (20 per cent) and WhatsApp (11 per cent). Other firms in the top 10 include…

Thanks to Computeractive I’ve been forewarned about many scams related to the Covid pandemic, though I managed to avoid being targeted by one until the first week of January when I was texted a message to apply for an ‘NHS COVID pass’ (pictured at www.snipca.com/40611). It said that “failure to apply may result in fines”, which isn’t true. The link I was supposed to tap also looked highly suspicious: ‘vaccine-status-info.com’. Weirdly, I received the scam on the same day that I tested positive for Covid. Surely that was just a coincidence? I hope so, anyway. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

We thought we had closed Gerald Sables’ case in Issue 622 after Epson had sent him a refurbished printer to replace his faulty WorkForce Pro WF-C5210 (pictured). It was the second refurbished printer he’d received, after the first didn’t work. Exasperated, he was going to return it and pursue a full refund, but two gestures – one from Epson, the other from the retailer Leo Office Supplies (LOS, http://leoofficesupplies.co.uk) – have made him change his mind. First, Epson has given him £160 worth of ink to use in the printer as a goodwill gesture. Second, LOS offered a partial refund of £100 off the £299 he spent on the printer. The second refurbished printer seems to be working properly, so despite the inconvenience Gerald has got a reasonably good result.…

I’ve upgraded to the new RootsMagic 8 (www.rootsmagic.com) and am struggling to find where I can add street addresses to places. Previously it was in the ‘Places Details’ section. Gavin Phillips First, access the Places Details section by navigating to Places, then click the > button under the Details column. From here, click + to enter your street address in the ‘Enter New Place Detail’ box that pops up. Once that’s done, you can use the Edit Place Detail column on the right to assign precise location coordinates, then add notes, attach pictures and carry out other tasks. Have a genealogy question? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

Gmail is the most powerful email system available, but I wish it was easier to use. Take labels, which Gmail seems to deliberately make hard to understand. Once you do grasp how they work, though, they’ll revolutionise how you organise your email. I’ll never go back to email that relies on folders. First, it’s worth explaining the difference between an email folder and a Gmail label. The former works much like a folder on your hard drive: emails can be stored in only one at a time. Gmail labels are more like searchable tags, and each message can have more than one label – letting you store them in multiple locations. For example, I have labels for tickets, and also for each foreign holiday we book (when we were allowed).…

Before we tell you why Facebook and Google are on our naughty step, will you let us put cookies on your computer? Click here to let us track you until the year 2541. Alternatively, click here, here, here, here, here and here to reject our cookies. The bank accounts of both internet giants are a fraction lighter after France’s data-privacy watchdog CNIL fined them €60m and €150 respectively for making it much harder to reject cookies than accept them (“several clicks are required to refuse all cookies, against a single one to accept them”). The fines are small change for companies of this size, but making it easier for users to opt out of their tracking cookies could really hit the pair where it hurts. Kick here, here, here, here,…

PHONE | £170 from Amazon www.snipca.com/40622 If you’re looking for a 5G Android phone on a budget, you might be tempted by this one from Chinese manufacturer Realme. At the time of writing, the 64GB version with 4GB of RAM is available for £170, while the 128GB version with 6GB RAM costs £220. This is significantly cheaper than our current favourite Android phone, the Xiaomi Poco F3, which costs £325, but comes with more storage (256GB) and RAM (8GB). Mostly made from plastic, the Realme 8 5G feels sturdy and well made. It weighs 185g but, at 8.5mm, it is a little thicker than some rivals – the Poco F3, for example, is only 7.8mm thick. The rear camera module is rectangular and sticks out slightly (as pictured left), but…

NAS DRIVE | £170 from Amazon www.snipca.com/40616 A home NAS drive can work as both a private external hard drive that’s accessible from any device on your network and as a media centre for sharing and streaming music, videos and photos. This model comes without hard drives installed, so you’ll need to factor in the price of those. A 2TB Western Digital Red drive costs around £71 from Amazon (www.snipca.com/40617), and you’ll need two to fill the two spare drive bays. However, even without drives this is reasonably priced and offers high-end features, including a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port and a sophisticated operating system. Installing the drives can be a fiddly process, but you only need to do it once. Next, you need to hook it up to your router…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2020 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/38164 LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (256GB) £677 from www.snipca.com/39635 Tested Issue 601 Weighing just 1.16kg, this is an excellent lightweight laptop with a great screen and an AMD processor faster than many Intel rivals. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card reader. Battery lasts nearly 16 hours. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £849 from www.snipca.com/40042 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 £619 from www.snipca.com/40483 Tested Issue 623 This performed so well in our most recent tests that it has ousted the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro as our favourite. It has…

I’m a fan of the ‘Backup 3-2-1’ theory, which states you should always keep three copies of your valuable data on at least two different types of media, one of which is stored off-site (ie, not in your home). Using a mix of writable DVDs and USB sticks, I can easily satisfy those requirements, giving me a better chance of recovering my important files should my local drive corrupt. With this strategy, I have to remember to give the discs and sticks to a family member so they’re not kept at home, and refresh the archives every few years to avoid the dreaded data rot. How do you use writable DVDs? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Create notes while browsing in Vivaldi I’ve been following your advice to try the Brave and Vivaldi browsers instead of Chrome and Edge. Both of these smaller browsers seem quicker, and have handy features I’ve not seen elsewhere. One that I’m using a lot is Vivaldi’s note taking, so I can jot down my thoughts as I browse. It’s easy to do – just click the note icon in Vivaldi’s vertical bar on the left. This will bring up a box that you can type in – or copy and paste to (1 in our screenshot). You can create folders for your subjects. My example is ‘Early UK computing’ 2, which I’m researching for a self-published book. You can see that I’ve added notes from the…

Extensity Chromium www.snipca.com/40578 Although it’s easy to install extensions in Chrome and other Chromium browsers, temporarily disabling them – for example, when you need to turn off your ad blocker to access a website – isn’t quite as straightforward. Extensity solves this problem by letting you disable and re-enable add-ons with a single click. Simply click its toolbar button to view a list of all your installed extensions, and select the one you want to turn off or on. You can also switch off all your add-ons in one go, which is useful if your browser is running slowly or crashing and you’re not sure what’s causing the trouble. Extensions with configurable settings - such as the option to whitelist sites - have cog icons next to their names (see…

GPS Speedometer Free Android www.snipca.com/40639 Whether you want to see how fast you’re cycling, running or travelling by train, this simple ad-free app will tell you. It tracks your speed in real time, records your top and average speeds, calculates the distance you’ve covered and provides a map of your journey. It also offers a dark theme for using the app at night. Best For Tracking your speed without ads GPS Speedometer & Odometer Free* Android www.snipca.com/40643 iOS www.snipca.com/40642 With its huge display, this app leaves no doubt about the speed you’re currently travelling, and also tells you the distance covered and the maximum speed you’ve achieved. You can customise the speedometer with themes and overlay it on Google Maps’ navigation mode. Best For At-a-glance speed information Map My Walk…

Make raffle tickets using Word templates Araffle is a brilliant way to raise money for your club or a good cause. You can buy generic books of tickets from any stationers, but for a more personal touch, why not create your own tickets using a Word template? We’ll explain how here. Pick and create a template Launch Word and, from the homepage (which appears before you open a document), search for raffle in the ‘Search for online templates’ box at the top. Select ‘Raffle tickets’ to download a page of tickets. You can then customise them, adding your own details. Editing the key information is easy, because anything you type into the ticket at the top of the page automatically appears in the others. For example, double-click ‘[NAME OF RAFFLE…

Software developers seem increasingly reluctant to give away their products for free – for example, Bitdefender recently scrapped its Antivirus Free Edition. But a few companies are bucking the trend, including Adobe, which now offers a free version of its Adobe Creative Cloud Express suite. Available to use on your computer (www.snipca.com/40678) and in its app for Android (www.snipca.com/40497) and iOS (www.snipca.com/40498), this lets you create posters, flyers and other design projects using templates, fonts and effects. However, some features are limited to its Premium version, which costs $9.99 (£7.33) a month. FxSound (www.fxsound.com), a program that improves audio quality on your PC, is now completely free to use, with no catches. Previously priced at £19.99 per year, it boosts the volume and bass on your computer, so you can…

Sync bookmarks across browsers As a technology writer with an increasingly poor memory, I’d be lost without the ability to bookmark interesting websites - or ‘add them to my Favourites’, as nobody except Microsoft has ever described it. True, you can also revisit sites by typing the first few letters of a name or URL into your browser’s address bar and seeing what auto-complete suggests, but I find this method distracting and often end up reading Wikipedia articles rather than researching Windows tips. “Rons WebLynx immediately put me off with its apostrophe-lacking name” No, you can’t beat a good bookmark. But if - like me - you frequently switch between browsers, it’s frustrating when a site you’ve bookmarked in Chrome isn’t also readily available in Firefox, Edge or Brave. Most…

A new campaign backed by the Government is calling on tech companies to scrap end-to-end-encryption (E2EE) in their messaging tools because it makes it harder for the police to detect child abuse. When a service uses E2EE, only the sender and the recipient are able to read the message. In contrast, messages that aren’t protected by E2EE can be intercepted and read by the company that provides the service, as well as other interested parties such as the police. WhatsApp and Signal already use E2EE, while Meta plans to add it to Facebook Messenger and Instagram in 2023. Campaigners at No Place to Hide (https://noplacetohide.org.uk, pictured) claims this could mean around 14 million messages containing images of child abuse going undetected, having a “catastrophic impact on child safety”. They said:…

Google has released a Chrome update for website owners to avoid a Millennium Bug-style error when the browser launches its 100th version in March. It wants to avoid a repeat of errors caused in 2011 when Chrome jumped from a single-figure version to double figures – from 9 to 10. Many websites couldn’t cope with this change and wouldn’t load in the browser. The problem is that some sites check only the first two digits of a browser’s version, and will read ‘Chrome 100’ as ‘Chrome 10’. It means they won’t work in the browser until they’ve been modified to check three digits. Google’s solution is for site owners to turn on the Chrome flag ‘Force major version to 100 in User-Agent’. It gives more information, including instructions for activating…

I was recently trying to set up my ERA Protect Floodlight HD outdoor security camera (£99 from www.snipca.com/40681, pictured), but couldn’t manage to pair it with the required phone app. Even my electrician friend couldn’t solve the problem. The trouble seemed to be working out the range it was operating in. I rang ERA, and a customer-service assistant told me that the problem stemmed from the company buying Y-Cam in 2019. I had an old Y-Cam account that wouldn’t work with ERA cameras. He talked me through how to delete my old Y-Cam account and update to a new ERA one. I had a good chat with him about how security cameras work, easing concerns I’ve always had. It was such impressive service that I feel confident ERA would help…

OFFICE SUITE OnlyOffice 7.0 www.snipca.com/40689 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, macOS or Linux Whether you pay £120 for Office 2021 or £60 per year for a Microsoft 365 subscription, using Word, Excel and PowerPoint is going to cost you – and is an unnecessary expense when so much office software is available for nothing. Our favourite free Office alternative, LibreOffice, released its last major update (7.2) last September (see Issue 614, page 18), but the new version of the lesser-known OnlyOffice is an equally strong contender. This open-source office suite consists of three Desktop Editors for working with documents, spreadsheets and presentations, which are combined in a single, simple interface. Rather than open these tools in separate windows, OnlyOffice displays them in tabs across the top…

Barry Collins puts the boot into tech villains, jargon-spouting companies and software trying to trick you There was a time when Norton antivirus had a reputation as a bloated security package that slowed your computer so much, it was almost immaterial if it had a virus or not. Twenty or so years later, Norton is once again bloating its security software with needless features. Norton 360 now comes with something called Norton Crypto. No, it’s not a crossword to do while the software performs an antivirus scan, but software that ‘mines’ cryptocurrency that potentially allows you – and Norton – to make some extra money. If your computer has a powerful graphics card (such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 – see screenshot), Norton Crypto will use any computer downtime…

PRINTER | £99 from Amazon www.snipca.com/40633 If you’re looking to keep the amount you spend on a new all-in-one printer, copier and scanner to a minimum, this inkjet deserves serious consideration. It doesn’t offer too many of the features you’d expect to find on more expensive inkjet printers, but trimming down on these extras keeps the price below £100. It can print, scan and copy, but – not being stuck in the 1980s – won’t fax. It has to be connected to a PC via USB or Wi-Fi network, because it has no Ethernet port. There’s also no touchscreen, it can’t print on both sides of a sheet automatically (though you can do this manually), and you have to scan one page at a time. However, it does offer high-quality…

Q I’m looking to buy a new PC. The most intensive demands I will make of it are editing family videos with DaVinci Resolve (pictured). Otherwise, I’ll be doing everyday web browsing, video streaming and word processing. The big question is, should I go for an 11th-generation Intel processor and rely on its built-in graphics, or opt for a 10th-generation chip and use the saving to add a separate graphics card? Phil James A Video-editing tools harness the power in graphics cards to lift the load off the main processor and keep everything running smoothly. Video-editing features, such as live previews of edits and effects, rely heavily on graphics, as does the final rendering process that pulls the video file together from all the cuts and edits you’ve made. A…

EBOOK READER | £160 from Kobo www.snipca.com/40645 Kobo is selling the new Libra 2 for a mere £10 more than the original Libra, but don’t be fooled – this is a huge upgrade. It brings a better E Ink Carta screen, 32GB of storage and Bluetooth connectivity so you can listen to audiobooks via wireless headphones. That puts the Libra 2 in direct competition with the Kindle Oasis, which costs £70 more. To use the device with audiobooks you can buy them individually or subscribe to Kobo’s Audible-like service, where £7 per month gets you one credit to spend on any audiobook. Be aware, you can only listen to audiobooks you’ve bought from the Kobo Store. Most other service’s audiobooks come in MP3 format, so they won’t play on the…

The Magic 2 is the world’s first Wi-Fi 6 Powerline adapter, and will dramatically boost Wi-Fi speed in your home. It has 50 per cent more Wi-Fi power than any Wi-Fi 5 adapter, and uses Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) to make sure the top speeds are available to every user. It distributes internet signals over Powerline technology at speeds of up to 2400Mbps, directly over the electrical wiring and to any room. An adapter turns any power socket into an access point for high-performance multi-room Wi-Fi. Multiple devolo Magic adapters automatically connect to each other to form a comprehensive mesh network. It works with all adapters in devolo’s Magic series. All devolo products are in line with the most recent encryption standards (WPA2/WPA3), ensuring that your data is secure…

You might also have seen reference to M-Disc, which manufacturers claim will keep your files safe for a thousand years (the M stands for ‘millennium’). It swaps the dye-based layers of a standard DVD or Blu-ray disc for a ‘rocklike’ layer, the exact composition of which is a secret. This substance is the key to its longevity, because it doesn’t fade the way the dye in a regular DVD can, and thus shouldn’t suffer an unfortunate side effect known as data rot - in which the dye on a standard optical disc can start to discolour, corrupting the data that was burned into it. The team behind M-Disc technology says that the problem is so serious that “the National Archives warns that the reliable shelf life of a standard recordable…

EDGE Bypass Edge completely in Windows 11 As we reported in Issue 622 (page 6), Microsoft will soon make it easier to change your default browser in Windows 11, to stop web links automatically opening in Edge. In the meantime, your best option is to use a free tool called MSEdge Redirect, which has just been updated to make it even more effective at bypassing Microsoft’s browser and other services. Download and run the new version (0.6.1.0) of MSEdge Redirect from www.snipca.com/40563 - you can ignore any security warnings because it’s completely safe to use. On the program’s new Setup screen, select ‘Service Mode - Per User’ and choose the option ‘Start MSEdge Redirect Service with Windows’ – this will ensure it runs silently in the background, so you don’t…

ANDROID Stop cookies tracking you around the web Cookies pose as big a quandary when browsing the web on your phone as they do on your computer. Allow them in your browser and you risk them following you around the web, collecting data about your activities, but block them and many websites won’t work properly. Last year, Mozilla added a feature called Total Cookie Protection to Firefox, which addresses this problem by isolating cookies so they can’t track you to other sites and share your data with third parties such as advertisers. Total Cookie Protection has now been added to Mozilla’s mobile browser Firefox Focus for Android (www.snipca.com/40626). This differs from the standard Firefox app by focusing on privacy and security, automatically blocking ads, scripts and social-media trackers, but lacking…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Hear a sound when pinning windows in PowerToys Microsoft’s new version of PowerToys adds a tool called ‘Always On Top’ that lets you pin a window so it always sits on top, even if you open another one. To pin and unpin a window, press Windows key+Ctrl+T. Usefully, you can add a border to the pinned window to make it easier to identify, as we explained in Issue 623 (page 6). You can also set PowerToys to beep when you’ve successfully pinned a window. Do this by opening the program, clicking Always On Top in the left-hand menu, then ticking the box next to ‘Play a sound when pinning a window’ (see screenshot above). To use Always On Top, you’ll need to download the latest version…

What is it? A potentially revolutionary form of storage technology that combines the best of RAM in computers and flash memory found in SSDs. How do those two types of memory differ? It’s all to do with volatility. Flash memory is non-volatile, which means it retains information after a device has been switched off. So, save something to an SSD and it’ll be there waiting for you the next time you switch it on. Volatile memory is the opposite, retaining information only while a device is switched on. RAM is volatile because it stores short-term data that you need as you work on your computer – helping you to switch between different tasks and programs – but loses it the moment you press the power-off button. Which is better? It’s…

Subscribe to Computer active today and save on the single issue price. Each issue of Computeractive will be delivered directly to your device each fortnight. SEE NEXT PAGE FOR SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO SUBSCRIBE… …on an ipad or iphone STEP 1 Return to the Computeractive library STEP 2 Choose your subscription term and tap twice on the 'price' box STEP 3 Choose whether to create an optional PixelMags account STEP 4 Enter your Apple ID password to confirm … on a Kindle Fire STEP 1 Kindle Fire subscriptions come with a FREE one month trial. STEP 2 Tap 'Free Trial Subscription' in the Computeractive library STEP 3 Chose your subscription term from the drop down menu on the popup that appears STEP 4 Tap 'Subscribe' … on an Android device…

Microsoft has started to force the 21H2 update for Windows 10 – released in November 2021 – on computers running version 20H2, which was released 12 months earlier. It plans to stop supporting 20H2 on 10 May, so needs to upgrade computers still running it to a more recent version. The company said it’s using machine learning to decide which computers are ready to upgrade to 21H2, helping to ensure a “smooth update experience” (see www.snipca.com/40703). Installing 21H2 should be fairly straightforward because it’s one of the lightest and least significant updates since Windows 10 launched in 2016. Microsoft will support version 21H2 until June 2023, as confirmed on its Windows 10 Home and Pro Lifecycle page: www.snipca.com/40702. To check which version of Windows you’re running, press Windows key+R, type…

GOVT OFFERS FIRMS £5K OFF SOFTWARE Small businesses can claim discounts of up to £5,000 on approved software under a new Government scheme. The ‘Help to Grow’ measures cover programs such as digital accounting and tools to manage customer relationships. To be eligible businesses must employ between five and 249 staff, and be buying the software for the first time. Apply at https://helptogrow.campaign.gov.uk. MICROSOFT SCRAPS AUDIBLE APP Microsoft has removed the Audible app from its store and told existing users that it will stop working after 31 July. It said the decision is based on “feedback we receive from our listeners”, suggesting not enough people were using it. Users should play audiobooks through their iOS and Android apps instead, Microsoft said, or in Audible’s Cloud Player (www.snipca.com/40692).…

KLINGON LANGUAGE COMING TO LIBREOFFICE The next edition of LibreOffice will have Klingon as an official language. Version 7.3, due for release in February, will offer the Star Trek language as well as Interslavic, which was created in 2006 as a way for citizens of Slavic countries to communicate with each other. Read what else is new at www.snipca.com/40647. 98 AREAS TO SWITCH OFF COPPER PHONE Openreach has named the next 98 exchange areas where it will switch off its copper phone network in favour of VoIP and full-fibre. You can see the new locations – plus those already named – by downloading Openreach’s spreadsheet from www.snipca.com/40613, then scrolling down to number 458 (Aberdeen Balgownie). TESCO MOBILE DOUBLES ‘EXCESS CALLS’ FEES Tesco Mobile is more than doubling the amount it…

Like DuckDuckGo, Startpage is a privacy-focused search engine that vows not to track what you do online, preventing advertisers from targeting you. One way to use it is simply to type into the box at www.startpage.com, though it’s easier to use its new Privacy Protection extension - available for Chrome and Firefox - to make Startpage your default search engine. Once you’ve installed it from the link above, pin its icon (a blue shield) to your browser toolbar. Type something in your browser bar and Startpage will present the results. Click through to one of the sites and you’ll see a privacy rating in the shield, based on the number of cookies and trackers it has blocked. A score of five is best - or most private - while one…

Is John Lewis allowed to repair laptop under warranty? LEAD CASE Q When I returned a faulty Microsoft Surface Pro 7 laptop (pictured) bought from John Lewis under the retailer’s two-year warranty, I thought I’d get a replacement or perhaps a partial refund. However, John Lewis returned it to Microsoft for a repair, saying that was its policy. Was it right to do so? Lesley Reilly A We think it was right because a retailer can set whatever terms it likes in its warranty. John Lewis would have broken the law only if it hadn’t followed these terms. Once a warranty is offered, its terms are legally binding. The outcome wouldn’t have been different had Lesley returned the computer using her rights under the Consumer Rights Act (CRA). This is…

This is my last column, so I’m leaving you with a personal story designed to fuel future research into your own tree. It’s tempting to focus on your direct ancestors – grandparents, great-grandparents and so on – but like me you may find fascinating characters in more distant branches of your tree. My example is James Peers (1862-1933), uncle to my paternal grandfather (which makes him my great-granduncle). In my Grandfather’s autobiography he said James (or ‘Uncle Jim’ as he called him) went to live in Philadelphia, married a Dutch woman, had two children, and ran a restaurant or cafe. I decided to see if I could trace the story of Uncle Jim through online records. Confirming Uncle Jim’s birth year My grandfather’s father, John Peers, first appeared in the…

How can I remove the background from photos? Q I’ve seen several websites that remove the backgrounds from photos, but they all seem to have catches such as charging you to download the adjusted image. Is there a program that will let me remove photo backgrounds for free? Michael Horgan A You could try Background Eraser (www.snipca.com/40691), which is the desktop version of the website of the same name (https://bgeraser.com). Whereas the free online service only lets you remove the background from images that are less than 2MB in size, the Windows program (it’s also available for macOS) doesn’t impose a size restriction. Its main catch is that you can only add one photo at a time, unless you sign up for an account – but this isn’t essential. To…

WHAT THEY SAY MSI on its new laptops “MSI infuses different domains, including aesthetics, science, and music, to create a strong immersive atmosphere, which expresses and even stimulates our understanding of the universe, leading us into a new era of the metaverse. By making best-in-class products for gamers and content creators, MSI is ready to help users go beyond their limits”. WHAT THEY MEAN We don’t know what the metaverse is, but we have to mention it to sound modern.…

LAPTOP | £399 from Samsung www.snipca.com/40603 While Windows remains the best operating system for everyday laptop use, it doesn’t always run smoothly on low-specification models that cost less than £500. If your budget is tight, a laptop running Google’s Chrome OS could be worth considering. With its reliance on Chrome’s web browser and online tools, a Chromebook may not seem like the best option for a laptop you take out and about with you. However, Galaxy Chromebook Go certainly has connectivity covered, with a built-in 4G modem. Add an affordable pay-as-you-go SIM, such as Giffgaff’s £6-a-month 1GB data option (www.snipca.com/40595), and you’re good to go. Good connectivity for using on the go, but screen is poor The nano SIM slot is on the right edge of the case, next to…

What do they do? Laptops and some monitors come with built-in speakers. These are typically sufficient for hearing general Windows sounds, such as the ping when a new email arrives, but they will probably not be good enough if you want to listen to music or watch videos. For this, you’re better off with a set of standalone PC speakers. How do they work? PC speakers have traditionally connected to a laptop or PC through a 3.5mm stereo jack. However, many PCs and almost all laptops now have Bluetooth built in, so you could opt for wireless models instead. What are the specs? Most units are stereo, consisting of two speakers that are placed either side of your screen. These can recreate a broad range of frequencies, from very low…

ERGONOMIC MOUSE | £30 from Lenovo www.snipca.com/40619 Most ergonomic devices look a little odd, and this is no exception. It resembles a regular mouse that’s been rotated on to its side and mounted on to a wedge of cork. It looks as strange as that sounds, but we got used to the strange design within minutes and found it immensely comfortable to use. The mouse naturally matches your grip (as long as you’re right-handed) without putting tension on your wrist. We’ve been using one for a few weeks and have found it excellent, particularly if you spend long hours working at your desk. Performance is very good with three sensitivity presets, depending on how responsive you like your mouse to be. It works with Windows straight out of the box,…

What is it? A laptop with a second screen next to its keyboard. The best known is probably the Apple MacBook Pro, which replaced the function keys with a touchscreen strip, but has removed it from its most recent models. Now the new Lenovo ThinkBook Plus (pictured) comes with an 8in second screen to the right of its keyboard. What does it do? It’s a bit like having a second monitor, only it’s shaped and controlled like a smartphone screen. You can open any app on it and navigate it using gestures. What’s the catch? You’re giving up some keyboard space, but on this 17in laptop it barely matters. Even the price isn’t exorbitant, with models expecting to sell for $1,399 (around £1,030). So can I do without it? You…

Small is beautiful. There’s a lot of truth in that saying, but small can also be inconvenient and, where laptops are concerned, ‘small’ can mean an absence of ports and no disc drive. You might argue that drives are no longer necessary when many of us stream films and download software, but not everybody’s broadband is fast or reliable enough to do this, and some who do enjoy decent broadband speeds may be on a capped contract that limits the amount of data they can download. Disc drives aren’t just used for playing content either. With a DVD writer, you can reliably back up 650MB to a CD and 4.7GB to a DVD. That might not sound like much when you could pick up a 128GB USB stick, like the…

1 Ensure you’re running Firefox 97 by clicking the three-line menu and clicking Help, then About Firefox 1. The browser will check for and install the latest version. Next, type about: config into Firefox’s address bar 2 and press Enter. 2 Click the ‘Accept the Risk and Continue’ button 1, then type the following into the ‘Search preference name’ box and press Enter: widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar. style 2. You can copy and paste this from our Pastebin account at www.snipca.com/40582. 3 Click the Edit (pencil) button, change the default value from ‘0’ to ‘5’ 1 and click the Save (tick) button 2 to apply the new Windows 11-style scrollbar to Firefox. Changing the value to ‘3’ or ‘4’ will give you an Android or Windows 10-style bar respectively.…

Locket Widget Free iOS www.snipca.com/40634 This app lets you share photos from your iPhone directly to your friends’ home screens, and lets them share images to your screen. The pictures are displayed in a widget that you can tap to send a photo as a reply. Locket Widget has quickly become the most popular social app in Apple’s App Store. An Android version is coming soon. Angry Birds Journey Free* Android www.snipca.com/40637 iOS www.snipca.com/40638 The latest instalment in the long-running Angry Birds series takes the game back to basics. It reintroduces the original concept of using a slingshot to destroy towers constructed by evil pigs, with hundreds of levels of increasing difficulty to complete. The birds themselves have been redesigned, but we think it’s the best version in years. Never…

MICROSOFT WORD Change default orientation for individual pages It’s easy to change Microsoft Word’s default orientation from portrait to landscape – click the Layout (or Page Layout) tab, Orientation on the left, then Landscape. But you can also choose to insert individual pages, without changing the orientation of the entire document. To do this, select the text in the page you want to convert to landscape, then go to the Layout (or Page Layout) tab and click the small arrow at the bottom right of the Page Setup box (1 in our screenshot) on the ribbon. Next, in the Page Setup box that opens, make sure you’re in the Margins tab then select Landscape 2. Now click the ‘Apply to’ dropdown box, choose ‘Selected text’ 3, then click OK. LIBREOFFICE…

It’s now four months since Windows 11 launched, which means you’re probably familiar with the main changes in the new operating system. The ‘modern’ design with its round corners and flat icons; the controversial new Start menu; the stringent system requirements – they’re all now common knowledge. But whether you’ve already upgraded from Windows 10 or you’re wondering whether you should, it’s useful to know what makes the new operating system different and better than its predecessor. Apart from the cosmetic refinements, you’d be forgiven for thinking ‘not a lot’ – a notion borne out by many tech websites lazily updating their old Windows 10 content so that it refers to Windows 11 instead. Even Microsoft has focused more on promoting how Windows 11 looks rather than what it can…

ArtRage Vitae £4.49 for iOS (www.snipca.com/40669); £4.79 for Android (www.snipca.com/40668). This puts a complete artist’s studio in the palm of your hand, with oil paints, watercolours, pastels, pens, pencils and more – see our picture above of our cat sleeping in a washing basket. Colours run or smear into one another as they would in real life. It supports Apple Pencil, Samsung S Pen (www.snipca.com/40666) for Galaxy Tab devices, and other styluses, including the Sensu Solo. Affinity Designer for iPad £9 from www.snipca.com/40671 Affinity’s iPad-only app lets you mix traditional pixel-based drawings with curve-based vectors, helping you to produce highly accurate drawings that can be enlarged without losing quality. It’s also available for Windows. Tayasui Sketches Free for iOS (www.snipca.com/40684) and Android (www.snipca.com/40686) This is a lovely tool for Apple…

Why does my laptop’s external monitor use wrong aspect ratio? Q In Issue 623’s Problems Solved section (page 64) you answered Simon Hannigan’s question about using a laptop with the lid closed. I was interested in this, as I already have my laptop set up as you recommended. However, there is one problem for which I seek your advice. Whenever I wake up my laptop the image shown on my external monitor is the same aspect ratio as my laptop – but that’s not quite correct for the external screen. To use the full space on the external display I need to open the lid of my laptop briefly and immediately close it. This changes the image on my monitor to full size. Is there a way of setting up…