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I remember once as a student paying £100 for an expert to ‘fix’ what was wrong with my Windows 3.0 computer. That was £100 I didn’t have, but I was knee-deep writing my final dissertation and the deadline was days away. As I watched him open menus and tick boxes, I inwardly cursed at not having learned those fixes myself. I recognise now that the problems were less severe than I had feared, and certainly didn’t warrant spending a month’s worth of beer money. It was a turning point for me. From that moment I vowed to learn everything I could about computing so I’d never be caught out again. It has saved me plenty of money, and eventually led to the job I have now. That do-it-yourself spirit runs…

Google has made it easier to check whether your Gmail address has been leaked on the dark web for scammers to buy. Sign into the Google app on your Android phone, then tap your profile photo and you’ll see the ‘Dark web report’ option (pictured). Tap this and Google will give you the option of monitoring your Gmail address across web pages on the dark web. To do this previously you had to dive deeper into Google’s settings. The dark web is a hard-to-reach part of the internet that you can access only by using specialised browsers. No web pages from the dark web appear in Google’s search results. Google said it will add the option to iPhones soon.…

Password manager Bitwarden has added extra two-factor authentication (2FA) login methods for users on its free package. It now works with two of the best biometric security systems: Windows Hello, which lets you log in using a code sent to your phone, or by reading your face or fingerprint; and Apple’s Touch ID, which reads your fingerprint. You can also sign in using a security key such as a YubiKey USB device. Previously these options were available only in Bitwarden’s Premium and Families plans, which cost $10 (£8.27) and $40 (£33.10) respectively a year (see https://bitwarden.com/pricing). The free version already gave you the choice to use 2FA by email (1 in our screenshot) or an authentication app such as Authy or Google Authenticator 2. See www.snipca.com/47807 for details. All these new…

When did you answer a question from a reader about whether they should install Windows 11 on an incompatible PC? Dave Matthews CA SAYS That was in Issue 664, page 66 - buy it from www.snipca.com/47812. I’m looking to buy a device to boost my TV’s sound. Didn’t you recommend some recently? Richard Fairbrother CA SAYS Yes, you’ll find it in one of our features in Issue 656, page 60. Buy it from www.snipca.com/47813. I want to switch to a virtual phone network. When did you suggest the best option? Vicky Sumption CA SAYS In Issue 632, page 60. Read it on our 2022 Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/47814.…

We’re delighted that reader Peter Roberts has renegotiated his broadband contract with Virgin Media so that he now pays £28 a month – half of what the company was charging him. As we explained in Issue 668, Peter signed a contract with Virgin that included a 13.8-per-cent increase in April, taking his bill to £33.60 a month. Virgin then unexpectedly increased his bill by a further 40 per cent to £56. Peter said this increase wasn’t in his contract, so asked us whether he could cancel without paying an early-termination fee. We told him he could because the rise was above the rate of inflation. To qualify, he had to cancel within 30 days of being informed about the rise. We advised Peter that if this deadline had passed and…

Can you help me trace Leslie Wilson, one of my second cousins once removed? He was born in February 1912 in Monmouthshire and moved to Canada aged 16. He married, but returned to Wales in 1933. He might have returned to Canada in 1939 to serve in the military, possibly the British Army. Helen Hare Leslie may have stayed in Monmouthshire, as the Gwent Electoral Registers (www.snipca.com/47780) show him living there in 1945. There’s also the death of a Leslie Wilson, aged 50, registered in the September Quarter of 1963 in Conway. You could order a copy of the death certificate from the General Register Office (GRO): www.snipca.com/47781. Helpfully, from 1966 the date of birth of the deceased is given in the GRO death indexes. Leslie’s birth certificate will record…

How can I convert and send large PDFs? Q I need to find a way to convert four PDF files containing 3,500 pages into Word documents. Can you help? Also, I have to send them to a charity, but they’re too large to email. What should I do? CC Callaghan A PDF Conversa (www.snipca.com/47680, pictured) was designed to fulfil the first half of your job, converting PDFs to Word documents or RTF files. We tested it with a complex PDF containing tables, graphics, text and photos, and the conversion was close to flawless. It preserved colours, images stayed in the correct position, and we were able to select, copy and edit text. It costs $20 (£16.33), but you can download it for a free 14-day trial. There are also free…

Romance scammers love their delusional get-rich-quick schemes. Khalid Mahmood, last issue’s villain, conned women into joining a gold trading club. This time we have Kye Hughes, who told a woman he met online that he made fortunes buying luxury watches at trade prices, then selling them at higher retail prices, pocketing the profit. Over three years she gave him £175,000 to invest. Hughes, 34, from Rochester, Kent, vowed to double her money. She saw none of it again, and reported Hughes to the police when he threatened to send heavies to her house for more cash. In October, he pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and money laundering, and was jailed for three years and four months. Hopefully, his knowledge of luxury watches will help him do the time.…

Choosing the right VPN can be a tricky business. There are free and paid-for options, but the quality of the service won’t always equate to how much you spend on it. To help you make an informed choice we’ve put a bunch of VPN services through their paces to find out which one will best serve your needs, and whether free versions are as reliable as their paid-for counterparts. We whittled a long list of popular services (free and paid-for) down to five. These were all tested for average speeds recorded when used via locations around the world, including in the UK and US. We also checked how well the services worked with a number of streaming services, including BBC iPlayer in the UK (to simulate how easily you might…

What does it do? RAM is the temporary storage that all PCs use to hold the information they require to function at any given time. When discussing RAM speed we’re typically referring to the number of instructions it can process per second. As with processor speed, this is measured in MHz. How does it work? Buying RAM isn’t just a case of picking the fastest you can find and installing it in your PC. You also need to make sure you buy the right type of RAM for your motherboard (usually expressed as a DDR number, such as DDR4 or DDR5) and check the fastest speed your motherboard can cope with. Speed can also be increased by using two or more memory modules of the same type and speed, as…

PHONE | £619 from Laptops Direct www.snipca.com/47847 Fairphone doesn’t release new phones as often as its rivals – we reviewed its predeccesor the Fairphone 4 back in Issue 621. This is a deliberate policy, because the Dutch company that specialises in sustainable tech wants its phones to last for years. Buy the Fairphone 5 and you’re guaranteed five Android updates and at least eight years of security updates. “A phone that saves the planet but costs the Earth” To ensure product longevity the Fairphone 4 had eight distinct components that could easily be replaced or updated if needed. This model ups that to 10 exchangeable parts, including the screen, battery, camera and USB-C port. It’s powered by the modest Qualcomm QCM6490 chip, and has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of…

You can quickly transfer files with SuperSpeed USB 3.2 and store up to 4TB of data on Canvio Basics external hard drives. These devices are ready to use with Windows and require no software installation, so it couldn’t be easier to start storing all of your favourite files. You just need to drag and drop your files from your computer. It has a USB 3.2 Gen 1 cable (Type A to Micro-B) – so there’s no need to buy an adapter. What’s more, it’s compatible with USB 2.0, so you can use it with older devices. Whether at your desk, or on the go, its timeless design with the matt finish means it’ll always look good. Its slim and compact, making it easy to carry and store in any pocket…

WeTransfer Like reader John Greenaway, I now find WeTransfer (www.wetransfer.com) too complicated (Issue 666, page 20). I’ll certainly try your recommended alternative, Send Anywhere (www.snipca.com/47392), but I have another service to suggest. And what I use instead… I now use Smash (https://fromsmash.com) to send large files. It’s free to use for files up to 2GB, and you don’t need to register. Recipients can access the files you share for up to seven days. Paid-for versions let you store files for longer (see www.snipca.com/47739), but the free one is fine for my needs. Uploading a file is as easy as dragging it on to the website. Provide your email address and that of your recipient (see screenshot), then click the red Send button. Once Smash has sent the email, it gives…

Routora Free* Android www.snipca.com/47795 iOS www.snipca.com/47796 Routora uses AI to plan multi-stop routes that save you as much time and money as possible. Simply specify all the places you want to drive, cycle or walk through and Routora will calculate the best route, which you can import into Google Maps or Waze. The free version limits you to 10 stops per route (Pro costs from £17.99). Google Earth Free Android www.snipca.com/47798 The Google Earth app has been updated to give it a more modern design and introduce a feature called Projects. Previously only available on the website, this lets you create custom maps that include text, photos and videos, and save them to Google Drive. You can also now share maps via a link or QR code. Vivaldi Free Android…

Windows 11’s ‘Moment 4’ update – released in September – improved Snipping Tool so that it automatically detects and redacts contact information in screenshots. Open Snipping Tool then click ‘New screenshot’ icon (1 in our screenshot). In our example, we want to blank out the email addresses and phone numbers of party guests. Draw a box around the information you’d like to capture, then click the ‘Text actions’ icon 2. Snipping Tool will then highlight all the text it detects. Next, select the ‘Quick redact’ dropdown menu and tick what you want to redact – ‘Email addresses’ or ‘Phone numbers’, or both 3. Finally, click ‘Quick redact’ and Snipping Tool will place blank bars over the contact information you chose 4.…

Writing up meeting notes can be a real pain. You have to keep track of attendees, action points and absences, all while trying to pay attention to what people are saying. Thankfully, Google Docs has simplified this process by introducing an automated template that does much of the work for you. It integrates the notes with Google Calendar and makes it easy to share them with attendees. Also, attendees will be able to see your notes as you type. Add your meeting and create action points The template is available for free, so you don’t need to pay for a Google Workspace account. But you will need a standard Google account, which you can create by visiting http://drive.google.com and clicking the ‘Sign up’ button at the top right. You’ll also…

Reset Internet Explorer FixWin includes several IE fixes that have presumably carried over from a previous version of the program. Microsoft’s old browser is officially dead, so there’s no point repairing it now. WslRegisterDistribution failed with error This baffling tweak is aimed at software developers who use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The rest of us needn’t worry about it. Homegroup Troubleshooter Microsoft has removed the HomeGroup networking feature from Windows 10, and never included it in Windows 11, so clicking this troubleshooter just tells you the service is disabled. Mail or Calender app(s) are crashing Not only does this setting misspell ‘calendar’, but it also directs you to a web page to download a troubleshooter that doesn’t exist. It’s one of FixWin’s few flaws. Telnet is not recognised…

Find your lost Android phone If you’re an Android user and logged into your Google account, you can track your device online using Google’s Find My Device service (www.snipca.com/47845). It also works for some accessories, including Pixel Buds, while support for headphones from Sony and JBL is coming soon (see www.snipca.com/47869). It’s compatible with Tile and Chipolo tags too – we’ll come to those later. Google is currently working on a huge update to the Find My Device app that will use phones and tablets connected to its network to help locate missing devices. But it has already added a feature that tells you whether someone has slipped a location tracker into your belongings to secretly track you (see Issue 664, page 44). If your Android device isn’t showing on…

Q I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a PC for gaming, as I have a lot more time on my hands these days. I’m not all that clued up about specifications, or that bothered by them really, but I am curious about why some gaming PCs offer liquid cooling and others air cooling. I should be clear that I don’t intend to build this thing myself – life’s too short! But I’m just wondering if it’s worth spending extra on ready-made systems with liquid cooling, as these options seem to be more expensive. Ron Green A Both methods are designed to keep the PC’s internal components – and specifically the graphics card, or GPU – as cool as possible. This is important because the most demanding games can…

Google has made passkeys the default option for signing into accounts, replacing passwords. Passkeys are methods of logging in that require you to prove your identity in ways other than by typing a password. These include biometric scanners that read your fingerprint or face, typing a code and clicking a message sent to you on another device you own. Tech companies are increasingly offering passkeys as options for signing in, claiming they’re much safer than typing passwords because hackers would need to physically use your devices to access your accounts. Microsoft added passkeys to Windows 11 with the release of the Moment 4 update in September, while Apple introduced them in iOS 16, released last year, and WhatsApp is planning to add them soon. Password managers including 1Password and Bitwarden…

CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO REGENERATES ON iPLAYER Episodes from the original 1963-1989 run of Doctor Who will be available on the iPlayer for the first time from 1 November. They’re part of the BBC’s 60th anniversary celebrations of the show, which also include a new online archive of interviews, photos and previously unheard audio at www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho. Read more at www.snipca.com/47877. WATCH SONY FILMS ON PLAYSTATION Sony has launched its movie-streaming service on PlayStation 4 and 5 devices. The service, previously called Bravia Core when available only on Bravia TVs and Xperia phones, is now called Sony Pictures Core. It contains over 2,000 films to rent or buy, and will offer “early access” to selected movies released by Sony Pictures. Read more at www.snipca.com/47874.…

Brits using smart thermostats at home have saved almost £325m on their bills over the past 10 years, according to Hive. The UK company, which like British Gas is owned by Centrica, made the claim to mark 10 years since it released its first smart thermostat. Hive said this “industry first” product helps customers to “easily control their heating from their phone, smart watch or tablet”. More than two million people in the UK use Hive thermostats. It said that “extreme weather, working from home and a desire to be more sustainable has seen customers look for ways to better manage their energy use and save money” (see www.snipca.com/47848). It added that by controlling their energy use customers have prevented one million tons of carbon from being released into the…

Fake Halifax website I have a mortgage with Halifax, so I paid close attention to an email supposedly from them asking me to refresh my contact details. It looked genuine, so I clicked the link and was taken to a website that featured the Halifax logo and seemed authentic. There are boxes to type your username and password into, but then I checked the URL and noticed it contained ‘hlfx-online’ - which I read online had been registered in September - not the real address of www.halifax.co.uk or www.halifax-online.co.uk. This was enough to make me think twice and phone Halifax, who confirmed it was a scam. A lucky escape. Russell Grayson Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

I thought I would hate the idea of passkeys. I’ve had a reliable password strategy ever since my first computer, and it’s allowed me to keep updating my logins over the past 30 years. But I knew that I was just delaying the inevitable and eventually I’d need to switch to passkeys. And I’m glad I did. I made the leap about six months ago. I use a combination of Apple’s Touch ID (pictured) and several authentication apps. I’ve not had to remember a single password in that time, nor delve into my password manager. Signing in by tapping a message on my phone is not the hassle I imagined it would be. I’m looking forward to your forthcoming feature on passkeys, but I urge you not to be too…

I’ve long been a fan of HP printers. What I really like about them is that installing the software and drivers has been easy. However, I had serious problems with the HP Officejet Pro 9010e (pictured) when I bought it in the summer. I spent a maddening three hours trying to get the printer to connect with my PC. I didn’t know what was to blame, so more in hope than expectation I phoned HP. To my surprise I was put through to a technician straight away. He was friendly and sympathetic, especially after he also failed to connect the printer to my PC (I gave him remote access). He then had a brainwave and asked me whether I used a VPN. I said yes. He asked me to temporarily…

IMAGE VIEWER FastStone Image Viewer 7.8 www.snipca.com/47880 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 FastStone Image Viewer is one of our favourite free tools for browsing photos on your PC, with lots of useful features and support for a wide range of image formats. This latest version expands that list to include the AVIF format (which offers higher compression rates than JPEG) and adds new options that make the program even easier to use. One of the most notable changes is the addition of a ‘Search by Name’ box to the toolbar that appears above FastStone Image Viewer’s thumbnail browser (which shows all the images stored in the selected folder). This helps you quickly find a picture or video by typing a few letters of the file name,…

Recoverit’s bait-and-switch trickery We warned about Wondershare Recoverit (https://recoverit.wondershare.net) back in Issue 596’s Cover Feature on software you should never install. It may find lost or corrupted photos and videos, we said, but it also prompts you to pay for an upgrade before you can actually recover anything. This is the kind of bait-and-switch trick that drives users mad. I knew about its reputation, but was prepared to give it another chance because I had lost some family photos and needed a program to recover them. I still expected it to ask for payment at some point, but would I be able to recover at least some pics before that happened? Things started badly when Chrome blocked the Recoverit installer for being potentially dangerous. I thought this was Chrome being…

SOFTWARE Add extra fields to Data Crow’s modules Thanks for your ‘How To’ on using Data Crow (https://datacrow.org) to catalogue your collections (Issue 668, page 35). I’d been looking for a cataloguing tool to help me organise my sprawling CD, DVD and book collection, and Data Crow does the job nicely. After playing around with the program, I found a clever way to add new category fields to your modules, giving greater control over your cataloguing. First, select the module you want to amend – do this by clicking the relevant icon at the top. Then click Modules, followed by After Module Wizard. Now select a category, such as Actors or Composer. Change the module’s icon if you wish, then click Next followed by Add Field (1 in our screenshot below…

£152 from www.snipca.com/47736 I like Samsung’s phones and tablets, so when my old devices stopped working, I considered buying the Galaxy Tab S9 tablet as a replacement. The cost was prohibitive, however, so instead I searched on Amazon for a cheaper alternative and came across the T20 tablet, made by the Chinese firm Doogee. It has a 10.4in, 2000x1200-pixel screen, 15GB RAM (including 7GB virtual memory) and 256GB storage that I can expand to 1TB by adding an SD card. It runs Android 12 and is powered by an octa-core processor. Doogee’s T30 tablet seems to be even better value (£200 from www.snipca.com/47738). It runs Android 13 and has an 11in, 2560x1600-pixel screen. If companies such as Doogee can sell tablets at a quarter to a third of the price…

SponsorBlock Chromium www.snipca.com/47768 Firefox www.snipca.com/47769 Ads aren’t the only annoyance on YouTube – many videos are now preceded by sponsored messages that advertise products and services, or encourage you to subscribe to a channel. You can avoid most of these promotions by installing SponsorBlock, which automatically skips sponsored intros and outros, subscription reminders and “other annoying parts of YouTube videos”, including the non-music parts of music videos. Just make sure ‘Skipping is enabled’ is switched on (see screenshot). Users are encouraged to submit details of when sponsored messages start and end, which are then added to the extension’s massive database of nearly 15 million ‘skip segments’. The developer claims SponsorBlock has saved its users more than 1,760 years of their time. If you don’t like that, try… SkipSponsor Chromium www.snipca.com/47770…

Podbean Free* Android www.snipca.com/47831 iOS www.snipca.com/47832 Google is closing its Podcasts app in favour of YouTube Music – which doesn’t yet include podcasts in the UK. Podbean is an excellent alternative that lets you subscribe to millions of podcasts across a wide range of categories, and adjusts playback speed based on what you’re listening to. Best For Discovering new podcasts Overcast Free* iOS www.snipca.com/47833 Although Apple has its own Podcasts app, Overcast is a better choice for iOS users. It’s easy to use, all its podcasts are free to subscribe to, and its Voice Boost feature ensures you can always hear spoken-word content in noisy surroundings. It also lets you create custom playlists for different activities. Best For Improved audio quality Pocket Casts Free* Android www.snipca.com/47828 iOS www.snipca.com/47829 Pocket Casts…

MICROSOFT WORD & LIBREOFFICE WRITER Align numbers in lists by the full stop When you make numbered lists, Word aligns them to the left. This means that the full stop gets pushed out when you move from 9. to 10. in the list (1 in our screenshot below). If you don’t like this style, change the number so they’re aligned by the position of the full stops instead. Create your list then select it by clicking any of the numbers. Next, click the Home tab at the top, and in the Paragraph section click the dropdown arrow next to the Numbering icon 2. Click ‘Define New Number Format…’ to open the settings menu. Change the ‘Alignment:’ dropdown menu from Left to Right 3. Click OK. Your numbered list will now be…

The built-in Windows Firewall protects your PC against hackers and malware by blocking unauthorised internet traffic – both incoming and outgoing. But sometimes it can prevent legitimate software from connecting to the internet, either because you’ve changed a setting yourself or a malicious program has done so without your knowledge. To solve this, click the Fix button next to FixWin’s Problem with Windows Firewall settings option. This runs a command that resets the Firewall to its default settings and undoes any changes that are impeding your connection. It’s much safer than disabling the firewall, because all unidentified programs will still be blocked, and saves you having to delve into Windows Security to restore the firewall’s default settings.…

I have two bunches of keys with Tile tags attached. One is for home, and the other is for a flat I owned in France (now sold). I’ve lost track of the number of times I used the app to check that one or other bunch of keys was with me while half way to Paris – particularly as I always used the train, where luggage was stored out of sight at the end of the carriage. Tags are like an insurance policy: not something you think about day to day, but you’d be very glad you bought some should disaster strike.…

How do I export videos from DaVinci Resolve? Q Following Issue 666’s Workshop (page 38), I’ve successfully used DaVinci Resolve (www.snipca.com/47458) to stabilise shaky videos taken with a handheld, telephoto video camera. However, I can’t work out how to export the result in a format that I can use in Serif MoviePlus X6. DaVinci’s manual, which opens when you the click the Help option, runs to over 4,500 pages and is difficult to understand. Peter Connelly A We agree that DaVinci Resolve’s manual isn’t the easiest to follow. We’ll try to explain the process as clearly as possible. Open the software then click the Deliver button at the bottom. You’ll now see different export presets at the top for YouTube, H.264 and H.265, as well as options to export in…

Google is right when it calls passkeys “a big step forward”, but is also correct to note that “new technologies take time to catch on”. We’ve all relied on passwords for decades, so we don’t blame people for being unsure about passkeys. But there’s no doubt they are considerably safer than passwords. Once you start using them you’ll not want to go back. We’ll explain this momentous change in more depth in our next Cover Feature – out on Wednesday 8 November. You’ll learn how to use them on all your accounts and across all your devices.…

Microsoft has ended support for the first version of Windows 11, called 21H2 and released in October 2021. It confirmed this on its ‘Release health’ page for Windows 11 (www.snipca.com/47924), saying that the October 2023 security update (KB5031358, www.snipca.com/47925) is the final one for that version. It means that 21H2 will no longer receive security fixes or new features. On machines running 21H2 Microsoft will trigger an update to version 22H2, which was released in September 2022 and will receive updates until October 2024 (www.snipca.com/47926). You can set this to install when you’re not using your PC by setting ‘active hours’ in Windows. Press Windows key+I to open Settings, then click Windows Update followed by ‘Advanced options’. Make sure the dropdown menu is set to Manually (1 in our screenshot), then…

Meta is planning to introduce a fee to let you use Facebook and Instagram without adverts, according to sources from the company who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. They said an advert-free subscription to block ads on your computer would cost $17 (£13.90) a month within the European Union. It would be slightly cheaper at $14 (£11.46) to block ads when using Instagram on your phone. The move comes after Meta held talks with EU regulators who are keen to limit how big tech companies make money from the data they collect from users. In July, the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that Facebook must gain the consent of users to access their personal data. Judges said it would have to prove users willingly gave permission, such as by…

LEAD CASE Can I get a refund for faulty ‘missold’ laptop? Q In April, I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad gaming laptop (pictured) for my son from Argos for £600 (now £700, see www.snipca.com/47815), but we’ve had problems with it from the start. The battery is faulty and there’s insufficient memory to download multiple games, so it shouldn’t have been advertised as a gaming computer. I returned it in September, but Argos has refused to refund me because the laptop’s specifications were clearly stated on its website. Can I insist on a refund? Julie Orton A No, Julie can’t demand a refund because more than 30 days have passed since purchase. Argos is allowed to attempt a repair or replace the laptop, though it can only do this once. If either…

Snagit 2024 www.snipca.com/47887 Price: £60.92 Free trial period: 15 days What you need: Windows 10 or 11, or macOS Snagit was one of the first tools for taking screenshots, dating all the way back to 1990. Over the years, it’s added plenty of features, but has also significantly increased in price and no longer offers a free version. With a download size of over 510MB and a slow installation process, Snagit 2024 feels bloated from the off, and you need to register with developer TechSmith just for the 15-day free trial. The screen-capture element of the program is quite simple, with one-click options for capturing images and videos, but we found the Snagit Editor annoying. This keeps displaying pop-up messages asking how you intend to use Snagit, which are supposed…

PC MONITOR | £253 from AV Parts Master www.snipca.com/47837 This 27in monitor is aimed at general Windows users looking for a large, good-quality monitor with plenty of features for a reasonable price. In our tests, we measured 95-per-cent coverage of the sRGB colour standard, which is perfectly sufficient for everyday Windows tasks. This may not be good enough for those wanting absolute colour accuracy in video and photos, but for the price it should please all but the most demanding. “It has plenty of connection options and is good for everyday Windows tasks” The screen is an MVA (multidomain vertical alignment) panel, which is unusual because we’d normally expect to see IPS technology at this price. We used to see a faint yellow bias in screens that use MVA technology,…

HEADPHONES ❘ £90 from Amazon www.snipca.com/47806 Anker has established a reputation for good-quality electronic products that are cheaper than many of its big-name rivals. The Soundcore Space One headphones are another case in point. They might not be up to the audio quality of more expensive headphones, but they’re better than you might expect for the relatively low price. First off, the battery life is outstanding, offering 55 hours of listening with the noise cancellation switched off or 40 hours with it on. When they’re running low, a quick five-minute charge will provide another four hours of listening time, which is handy if you’ve inadvertently let the charge run down. While not not exceptional, the sound quality is still impressive. We enjoyed the bass and mid-range when listening to music, while…

Find out which other products we liked. Buy our 2022 Back Issue CD: £17 from www.snipca.com/44660 LAPTOP NEW ENTRY Huawei MateBook 16s 2023  £1,100 from www.snipca.com/47772 Tested Issue 669 In all our years of testing no laptop has ever performed Windows tasks as quickly as this. This breathtaking speed is down to the powerful Intel Core i9 processor. It also has a sharp 16in screen, 16GB RAM and long battery life. ALTERNATIVE Honor MagicBook X 16 2023 Also has a 16in screen and is great value, though it’s not especially fast. £450 from www.snipca.com/47868. ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 £768 from www.snipca.com/47493 Tested Issue 667 With a much brighter screen than our previous favourite – the Galaxy Tab S8 – this is perfect for watching TV. It also has a…

I have a very manual workflow for managing my photos. Rather than use albums, I organise them into carefully named folders and subfolders on a local drive, which is synchronised to pCloud (www.pcloud.com). From here, they are distributed to each of my other logged-in devices, and I can also access them on my phone and tablet. I do, however, use OneDrive for saving screenshots. I take several shots in sequence while writing, then transfer them to individual folders for each project, again on pCloud, when I’ve finished writing. Nik Rawlinson How do you manage your photos? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

I was grateful for your feature highlighting the best content in the Internet Archive (https://archive.org), and pointing out what we’ll lose if the organisation has to take some of it down. Readers may not appreciate just how advanced its search tools are, but they let you find content within books, TV shows and more. You can do this easily with books you borrow from Open Library (https://openlibrary.org), which is part of the Internet Archive. This feature is particularly helpful when searching for references in a large book, such as Roy Jenkins’ biography of Winston Churchill, which is over a thousand pages long. If I type a search term into the box in the top left – Gallipoli in this case (1 in screenshot right) – and press Enter, I can…

EDGE Recover lost favourites and fill forms faster In the past year, we’ve frequently complained about Microsoft stuffing Edge with unnecessary features, so we’re pleased that version 117 (released in September) removes some of this junk. The ‘deprecated’ tools include Maths Solver, Picture Dictionary, Citations and Kids Mode, and their removal makes the browser less cluttered and quicker to navigate. The two new features in Edge 117 are genuinely useful additions. One is called Microsoft Edge Sync Favourites Recovery, and lets you recover ‘favourites’ (Microsoft’s name for bookmarks) that you’ve accidentally deleted. Provided you have Sync enabled in the browser, and are signed into your Microsoft account, you can now restore deleted favourites from the past 14 days. To do so, click the Favourites button on Edge’s toolbar (this looks…

iOS Download Apple maps to explore offline One of the most useful new features in iOS 17 is the ability to download maps from Apple Maps to explore offline – an option that Google Maps has offered for several years. This enables you to find your way around an area even when you can’t connect to the internet via 4G/5G or Wi-Fi. Downloading maps is straightforward, and can be done with just a few taps. You’ll have all the functionality of using Apple Maps online, which means you can zoom right into areas to see roads and places, but be aware that the download files can be quite large. A map covering most of England (which is about as big an area as the feature allows you to capture) works…

WINDOWS 11 Swap what your function keys do Pressing the F1 to F12 function keys on laptops each perform two tasks. Which one it carries out depends on whether you hold down the Fn key at the same time. For example, pressing F5 mutes/unmutes audio, while pressing Fn+F5 refreshes a web page. If you want to reverse this, so pressing F5 refreshes web pages and documents, you’ll need to change a setting in your BIOS. You can access your BIOS when booting your laptop, though how you do so depends on your particular device – so have a look in the manual. Often pressing F10 or F12 repeatedly works. If not, try Delete or Esc. What you need to do in the BIOS also varies, but in general click the…

TNew in Microsoft’s redesigned Outlook app is My Day, letting you see your to-do list and calendar entries in a single view. This comes installed on Windows 11 PCs, but Windows 10 users may have to install it from the Microsoft Store: www.snipca.com/47808. Click the My Day icon at the top-right (1 in our screenshot) to open a pane on the right side of your screen. By default, it opens in the Calendar view which lists all your entries for the day 2. You can also click the To Do tab 3 to view all the tasks you’ve created using Microsoft’s To Do app (www.snipca.com/47809). To open the To Do app click the blue-tick icon on the left 4.…

For such a new product, it’s a definite yes. This is no overhyped gimmick. Copilot already performs enough Windows tasks to make it a valuable desktop assistant, and is certainly more useful than the unloved Cortana – though we expect some users will give up after a few failed commands. It’s best for summarising info from the web so you don’t have to click through to a site. Indeed, typing a question will often save you having to launch a browser at all. But whether it’ll prove better than anything Apple, Amazon, Google or Meta release remains to be seen.…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT How do I see screensaver locations? Q I have Windows 11 and have set the screensaver to display the photos stored on my hard drive, which it does just fine. My problem is fairly trivial. Every so often one of the photos catches my eye and I think I’d like to print it or at least have a better look at it. But as soon as I touch the mouse or the keyboard, the screensaver disappears. So, is there any way I can stop the screensaver and show the file name and path of the photo being displayed? Or can I get it to show the path at the bottom of the photo being displayed? Hope you can help. Thanks for an interesting and useful magazine.…