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I recently tried to declutter my daughter’s bedroom. I thought it would be easy. How many fluffy notepads does a 10-year-old girl need? But toys she hadn’t touched in years suddenly became prized possessions. All I managed to get rid of was a one-legged teddy called Gummy. Removing junk from Windows can be just as tricky. Microsoft won’t tearfully beg you to keep the GameBarPresenceWriter folder, but how do you know what’s safe to ditch and what you must keep? Well, reading Robert Irvine’s Cover Feature will help. He works his way through all the hidden files and folders on your PC – from Temp to Roaming – and divides them into keep and dump piles. Along the way he frees up more space than he ever thought possible, including…

Ofcom has said it won’t launch an emergency review into the installation of broadband telegraph poles in East Yorkshire. The regulator was responding to a letter from East Riding of Yorkshire Council asking it to prevent any further installation, following public protests against poles being erected in communities. Councillors wanted Ofcom to force local broadband provider KCOM to share more of its cables with other companies so they wouldn’t have to erect their own poles. Ofcom said it was “actively engaging” with all companies involved and expected companies to share infrastructure, but can’t force them to. If no agreement is reached, Ofcom can try to impose a solution, but only if a company raises a formal dispute. It added that it can only stop companies installing their own infrastructure “in…

‘Recent iPad purchase’ I received a text message supposedly from eBay telling me that my “recent purchase” of a 12.9in iPad Pro had been “verified”. The amount was a staggering £2,329! Who outside of Apple’s boardroom has that much money to spend on a tablet? I realised it was probably a scam because I didn’t have that much money in my account, and wouldn’t spend more than £300 anyway. I feared my bank account had been hacked, but they told me no money had been taken out. The message gives you a number to ring if you didn’t place the order. I ignored this and deleted the message. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Can I get refund after buying the wrong software? Q After trying a trial version of DumboFab’s DVD Ripper (www.snipca.com/49703, pictured), I decided to buy it. But instead I mistakenly bought a lifetime licence for Video Converter Ultimate for $43.14 (£33.74). I’ve emailed the company to explain my error and asked for a refund, but have received no reply. Can you help me get my money back? Jim Jamieson A We’ll try, but it might be tricky because DumboFab appears to be owned by a Hong Kong company called Wonbo Technology. If it sells to UK customers then it must obey our consumer laws, but taking it to court isn’t feasible. DumboFab’s refund policy says that it won’t return money if you’ve “ordered so-called wrong product, but not exchanged or…

Search Home Guard records During World War 2, over 1.7 million men supported the war effort by joining the Home Guard – memorably portrayed in Dad’s Army. It was formed in May 1940 as the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), but was renamed the Home Guard two months later. Its purpose was to slow down the advance of enemy troops if the country was invaded. By the end of 1940, it had been organised into 1,200 battalions, 5,000 companies and 25,000 platoons. It was disbanded in May 1945, after being stood down at the end of 1944 when the threat of invasion had receded. Browse county records Whether you’ll find details of your ancestor’s service depends largely on where they were based. Ancestry’s Card Catalogue has records for Lancashire and Surrey,…

How can I edit a printed form? Q I have several pages of a printed form that I’d like to copy and combine into one PDF so that I can fill it in and edit. I have a Canon TS8351 printer and a Dell computer with Windows 10 and Microsoft 365. Which programs do I need to achieve this? Alan Smith A The best way to do this is to capture the form as a PDF. Your printer is a multifunction device, so simply scan the form. According to the device’s manual (download it from www.snipca.com/49522), it can scan to PDF using the free IJ Scan Utility tool (download that from www.snipca.com/49523). This has a built-in PDF editor that can handle documents of up to 100 pages. Once you’ve downloaded…

PC MONITOR | £199 from Currys www.snipca.com/49800 Take the bend If you spend less time at your PC poring over spreadsheets than flying planes in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, then consider buying a curved monitor for a more thrilling, immersive experience. These concave screens have tended to be more expensive than flat monitors, but in recent years that gap has been narrowing. “An affordable, curved monitor with excellent image quality and versatile stand” The AOC CQ27G2S/BK is a good case in point and for the price offers a generous set of core specifications. Its 27in screen is large enough for most tasks, but won’t cramp a limited desktop, while at the same time offering a crisp Quad HD resolution of 2560x1440 pixels. While it’s aimed primarily at gamers, the design isn’t…

ANDROID & iOS Customise Vivaldi’s theme and enforce dark mode Vivaldi has long been the most customisable desktop browser, and it now lets you personalise both its mobile apps too. The Vivaldi browser for iOS (www.snipca.com/49771) has been updated with colourful themes that “make your browsing suit your aesthetic preferences”. These change the colour of the address bar and tab bar from the default of red to green (1 in our screenshot below), blue, yellow or whatever shade you prefer. To access these options, tap the Vivaldi menu button and choose Settings, then ‘Appearance & Theme’. In the Accent Color section, press the circle representing your preferred colour to apply it to the browser, or tap the circle next to Custom Color Code to select a more precise shade. Alternatively,…

Take voice notes in meetings The best ideas can come to you at odd times – for example, when you’re in the shower and have no way of writing them down. But there are other times when you’re busy doing something – like hosting a meeting of your club – and an idea pops into your head and you need to make a note of it. That’s when you can take advantage of the smartphone in your pocket and record a quick voice note. Record your memo and add comments Most phones come with a tool for recording voice notes, but there are better third-party options. Otter is a name you might have heard before. In Issue 655, we explained how to use Otter to transcribe your club meetings, and…

Most of us have spilled a drink over our desks at some point, which can usually be cleaned up with a quick wipe. But accidentally soaking your laptop in water, tea, coffee or another liquid, or – especially – dropping it in the bath, is a lot more serious, because of the intricacies of its components. Look online for help and you’ll find lots of conflicting and confusing advice, which isn’t much use when you’re in a rush to rescue your device. Here we explain what you shouldn’t and should do to prevent permanent damage. ✗ DON’T Leave a wet laptop switched on When you spill liquid on your laptop, it’s natural to focus on cleaning up the mess before you worry about saving what you were doing. But leaving the…

We’re pleased to say that Norton has agreed to reduce reader Ramalitse Sakoane’s annual subscription from £99 to £36, after he complained he hadn’t been notified about the increase (see Issue 680). Ramalitse was originally paying £24 a year after buying Norton from the Computeractive Software Store (www.snipca.com/49532), so he was understandably shocked when he checked his bank account to see this had risen to £99. Although we work with companies such as Norton to bring discounted deals to our readers through our Software Store, we’ve no control over what they do after the initial subscription or offer ends. Companies have to give subscribers 30 days’ notice that their prices are increasing, and allow them a further 14 days to cancel without paying a fee – as long as they…

DRIVE-SPACE ANALYSER WizTree 4.19 www.snipca.com/49866 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 WizTree has long been our favourite program for discovering which files and folders are taking up the most room on your hard drive, so you can delete them to free up storage. It’s impressively fast, free for personal use and makes it easy to identify space hogs using its colour-coded ‘tree map’. Previously, we’ve recommended using WizTree alongside a duplicate cleaner such as AllDup (www.snipca.com/49056) to remove copies of large items from your PC, but this new version introduces WizTree’s own duplicate finder. To access the new feature, perform a scan of your hard drive and click the File View tab to switch from the default Tree View. Here you’ll see a new Duplicate Files option…

SOFTWARE WARNING! iTop VPN’s alarmist advert on IObit Navigating IObit’s programs is like shopping at a supermarket while someone follows you sneakily chucking items into your trolley. Previously, I’ve been duped into downloading Advanced SystemCare thanks to a misdirection on IObit’s website, when I assumed I was getting IObit Uninstaller (see Issue 666). But what caught my eye recently was a new pop-up advert attempting to scare users into downloading iTop VPN. I have no idea whether iTop VPN is any good. It’s not owned by IObit, so the company must feel comfortable being associated with its advertising. But the advert is one of the most misleading and alarmist I’ve ever seen. Deviously, it presents itself as a ‘reminder from IObit’ (1 in our screenshot) and claims ‘Your IP is…

MINI PC | £1,100 from Amazon www.snipca.com/49792 Ahead of the game Some mini PCs take advantage of their size to squeeze in cheaper components and therefore offer better value for money than their desktop counterparts. That isn’t the approach taken by Minisforum with their Neptune HX100G model. Its case is slightly larger than average, offering plenty of space to keep its components cool. That’s just as well, because it has a fast processor and a standalone graphics card, making this one of the few mini PCs that you could consider for running games such as Microsoft Flight Simulator. However, at £1,000, it comes with a price to match its prowess. “Great for gaming and other graphically intensive tasks, but it’ll cost you” Its processor is the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS,…

What is it? When calculating the cost of a new printer it’s worth factoring in the price of replacement ink. If ink is expensive, even a low-cost printer may end up being poor value for money in the longer term. Also consider how many pages those ink cartridges or bottles will print. This is what’s known as the yield. How does it work? Printer manufacturers quote the yield on their websites. However, no two printed pages are ever truly the same, so yields typically use a presumption of five-per-cent coverage of the surface, which is typical for an average typed letter. What are the specs? Even these can vary between manufacturers, though. Thankfully, the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) has created a series of standard documents that anyone can use…

What is it? The Android Developers Blog (www.snipca.com/49845) has announced that the latest developer preview of Android 15 can link directly to satellites (pictured). What does it do? This would let you stay connected to basic services, such as text messaging, even when you can’t get a standard mobile signal. The system was developed to ensure that first responders can be contacted from anywhere in an emergency, but it might become widely available to the public. What’s the catch? It won’t work in older phones that can’t update to Android 15. Google is rumoured to be adding satellite connection hardware to its next generation of Pixel phones, but it’s not known whether other manufacturers can or will follow suit. So can I do without it? Probably. Most messages can wait…

What you need: iOS or Android phone/tablet, or Windows computer Time required: 30 minutes While no doubt app stores would prefer everyone bought their own copy of an app, Apple’s iOS App Store, Google’s Play Store, and the Microsoft Store built into Windows each let you share your purchases with other family members without paying additional fees. This is great news if you all want to use the same software to communicate, or play and work together. Here, we’ll show you how to share apps with family members on each platform. WORKSHOP: Use ‘Family Sharing’ on iOS and iPadOS If you use Apple products, including iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, up to six family members can share apps, books, shows, photo albums and iCloud-storage plans using a feature called…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Show a countdown timer when recording screen I know you didn’t have much room to explain how Any Video Converter’s Screen Record tool works (Issue 678, page 19), so allow me to give details. There are a couple of things that might catch out novice users. Finding the tool is easy – just click the Screen Record box on the home page. If you plan to use it a lot, click the pin icon so it starts automatically every time you launch Any Video Converter. On the next page, make sure you tick ‘Hide the Main Window While Recording’ box (1 in our screenshot). If not, then all you’ll record is the Screen Record page in Any Video Converter. Also choose a…

WINDOWS 11 Add ‘End task’ to your taskbar settings By default, Windows 11 has an option when you right-click a program’s icon in the taskbar to ‘Close window’. This will shut the window that you have open in the program, but it won’t necessarily stop the program running in the background. You may sometimes have to do this to close a program that’s causing problems. The option you need to add is ‘End task’, and you’ll find it by opening Settings (press Windows key+I), then clicking System on the left. Next, click ‘For developers’ in the middle and click the End Task button so it turns on (1 in our screenshot below). Now right-click an icon in your taskbar and you’ll see an option to ‘End task’ 2. WINDOWS 10…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Can I back up two PCs to a single OneDrive account? Q I have activated OneDrive to back up the folders and files on my Windows 10 desktop PC (using my E: drive as the OneDrive location). I’d now like to back up the folders and files on my Windows 10 laptop to that same OneDrive account, but keep them separate from the desktop PC backup. The laptop has separate user accounts for my wife and I. Is it possible to do that? Paul Millington A Microsoft does talk up the backup aspects of OneDrive, so plenty of people consider the system in those terms. However, OneDrive is really more of a synchronisation tool that has…

BRAVE NO LONGER AUTO-INSTALLS VPN Brave will no longer automatically install its VPN on your PC when you first download the browser, following complaints from users. It has made this change with version 1.64, available to download from https://brave.com. The VPN will also be removed if you update Brave to 1.64 from a previous version. FREE ANDROID VPNs HACK PHONES Security researchers have found 17 free VPN apps on Google Play Store that turn phones and tablets into proxy devices. This lets hackers route internet traffic through them, typically for illegal activities like sending spam or attempting to crack passwords. Eleven other proxy apps were also detected – see the list at www.snipca.com/49864. See Issue 669, page 24, for our recommended VPNs. TOMORROW’S WORLD This is the first person who…

Microsoft has confirmed that Office 2024 will be released as a one-off purchase to download, ending speculation that it was set to offer it only as a subscription. It’s the first one-off edition since Office 2021, and will be available for Windows 10 and 11, as well as macOS, in 32bit and 64bit versions. Microsoft said it will support Office 2024 for five years, adding that it’s “committed” to releasing another version as a one-off (or “one-time”) purchase in the next few years. The company insisted that it does not “plan to change the price for these products at the time of the release”, suggesting Office 2024 will cost £119.99 (like Office 2021) – though it’s available for only £109.99 on the Computeractive Software Store: www.snipca.com/49816. Market analysts have long…

WATCH OUT FOR… ‘Watch funeral’ scams on Facebook What’s the threat? Facebook scammers are conning people into paying to watch funerals live online. They hijack real memorial images and messages posted by funeral firms with fake links to live streams of the ceremony. Clicking the ‘Watch live now’ button leads to a page asking for payment-card information. Some of these fake streams contain the message: ‘You will get the link once the registration is complete. I introduced this rule only for scams. Thank you.’ It’s proven a successful scam so far partly because victims can’t imagine that fraudsters would stoop so low as to exploit a funeral. Also, it looks genuine because the scammers use photos and personal details of the deceased. These are easy to steal from real obituaries,…

I think the police are fighting a losing battle against the spread of ‘cracked’ Amazon Fire Sticks (‘Question of the Fortnight’, Issue 680, pictured). Their problem is that not enough people take the crime seriously for it to become publicly unacceptable. I know of several people who have bought these hacked devices. I wouldn’t call them friends because their lifestyles don’t appeal to me. I’ve turned down invitations to watch sporting events on these sticks at their homes. But I do know that they consider bypassing TV subscriptions as – in their words – “fair game” because companies like Sky make so much money. In any legal sense it’s irrelevant how much money Sky makes. But that’s not how these people justify their actions. They’re not the sort who’d steal…

You recently asked for reader’s experiences with web-hosting companies, and I’d like to tell you about the good service I received with Ionos, who I pay to register my domains and host web pages. I’ve been with them since at least 2002, when they were known as 1&1. Generally, I’ve been happy with the service provided. I manage all my web pages directly using FileZilla (https://filezilla-project.org) to send them by FTP to the Ionos servers. My email also goes through them (www.snipca.com/49621), and I have some online storage there too (https://cloud.ionos.co.uk). I don’t use their web page-creation tools, but I would guess they are also good. The company’s ‘Help’ pages are excellent, and they have accessible telephone support for when I can’t find answers online. Has a company impressed you…

Macrorit Partition Expert Pro www.snipca.com/49862 Price: £41.74 Free trial period: N/A  What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11 Partitioning your hard drive lets you make optimum use of its space by storing different types of data in separate sections, but the partition manager in Windows (called Disk Management) is basic and confusing. Macrorit Partition Expert is a more sophisticated alternative, which packs lots of useful features into an easy-to-understand interface. The free version offers everything you need to manage partitions on your PC, from creating and deleting them to moving and resizing them without losing any data. You can reformat an NTFS partition to FAT32; merge and split partitions (which Macrorit calls ‘volumes’); scan partitions for bad sectors and corrupt files; and fix errors to improve performance. Most interesting…

You can’t accuse Barry Byrne (pictured) of not trying to diversify his revenue streams. In early 2022, this inventive scammer from Mold, north Wales, stole usernames and passwords from the dark web in order to buy gift cards online. Not content with that, he then sold copyrighted Sky TV subscriptions, making at least £8,500. Getting cocky, he even scammed those who paid to buy his hacking techniques. And when that didn’t win him Criminal Entrepreneur of the Year, he started selling cannabis and left it in his garden barbecue for buyers to collect. He might’ve gotten away with it had the FBI not spotted his activities and alerted North Wales Police. The 44-year-old father of three is now serving four years and eight months behind bars.…

LAPTOP-TABLET | £1,669 from HP www.snipca.com/49751 Looking sharp While there is a cheaper £1,499 model that comes with Intel’s new Core Ultra 5 125H processor, the HP Spectre x360 14 we’ve reviewed here costs £170 more because it comes with the faster Core Ultra 7 155H chip. This processor has been turning up in a lot of laptops recently, including our current favourite, the Acer Swift Go 14 (£1,099 from www.snipca.com/49733, reviewed in Issue 677 – see page 30), as well as the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro (£1,699 from www.snipca.com/49549, reviewed in Issue 680). The Spectre has 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD – a very similar configuration to the Swift Go 14. However, HP has squeezed a higher level of performance out of its model, though the difference…

SMARTPHONE | £200 from Argos www.snipca.com/49811 Store of value We made the point in our review of the Moto G54 (£159 from www.snipca.com/48949, reviewed in Issue 676) that Motorola seemed to be rediscovering past glories. And that its range of low-cost alternatives to high-end Android phones don’t make too many compromises on the essentials. The Moto G84 cements this trend, with a slightly more expensive model, but one that continues to hit a fine balance between price and features – as long as you don’t expect great photos. The phone is built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor. That’s not a new chip, but Motorola has managed to squeeze some impressive performance levels out of it. Benchmark tests showed that it runs at around two-thirds of the speed of our…

DOORBELL | £130 from Yale www.snipca.com/49762 Wait issues If you want to see who’s at your front door before you answer it, and you haven’t already bought into a system of smart devices from Amazon or Google, Yale’s new Smart Doorbell represents a standalone alternative. It can work wirelessly, powered by its built-in battery, or can be connected via the wiring of an existing doorbell. If you’d prefer not to install it yourself, you can pay to have it fitted by a Yale engineer for an additional £160 (wireless installation) or £175 (using existing wiring). Setup via the Yale Home smartphone app is straightforward. Tap ‘Set Up New Device’, scan the QR code on the back of the doorbell and the app will guide you through the rest of the…

LAPTOP Acer Swift Go 14 £1,099 from www.snipca.com/49733 Tested Issue 677 With the 32GB Swift Go (£1,300) out of stock, we’re recommending the 16GB model instead. It’s great value and has one of Intel’s Ultra processors, making it the fastest laptop we’ve ever tested. Has an OLED 14in screen and 1TB SSD. ALTERNATIVE Honor MagicBook X 16 2023 Has a 16in screen and is good value, though nowhere near as fast. £700 from www.snipca.com/47868 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 £699 from www.snipca.com/49029 Tested Issue 667 PRICE DROP With a much brighter screen than our previous favourite – the Galaxy Tab S8 – this is perfect for watching TV. It also has a faster processor, so tasks feel smoother, even with several windows open. £799 will get you the 128GB version.…

Our family uses an Amazon Household account (www.snipca.com/49682), letting two adult members and four children share ebooks. This is a great way of cutting the cost of reading and recaptures the fun of sharing a well-loved novel. However, one person signed into Household will need to be a Prime subscriber. You don’t need to live at the same address as the other adult, but you must use the same payment method for any purchases above the cost of a Prime subscription How do you share apps? Please let us know: letters@computeractive.co.uk…

CHROME Preview web pages without opening links Google is testing a new feature in Chrome that shows you previews of web pages without you needing to open them. This saves you the time and trouble of loading an irrelevant page in a new tab, and helps keep the browser’s memory usage down. To activate the option, type chrome://flags into Chrome’s address bar and press Enter to load the Experiments page. Find the entry Link Preview, select Enabled in its dropdown menu and click Relaunch. When the browser reopens, you can test the new feature using two different methods. Either hold down the Alt key while clicking a link on a web page, or right-click the link and choose ‘Preview link’ (1 in our screenshot below). A preview window 2 will then…

LIBREOFFICE Find options quickly in new search bar LibreOffice 24.2, released at the end of January, added a search bar to the Options menu, making it easier to find the option you want. Click Tools at the top of any LibreOffice program followed by Options – or press the keyboard shortcut Alt+F12. Now type your request into the bar at the top and LibreOffice will try to recognise what you’re looking for and find it for you. Usefully, the new tool can find options that are inside the menus you open by clicking the plus (+) sign. In our example (pictured below), we typed ‘print’ 1, and it found the correct option 2. MICROSOFT EXCEL Identify duplicate cells in two different columns You can ask Excel to compare two columns…

Regularly deleting junk files from your PC frees up valuable storage space and makes your system run more smoothly. You probably have a favourite clean-up tool for the task – such as BleachBit, Wise Disk Cleaner or even the once-great CCleaner – which purges junk at the click of a button. However, it’s also useful to know how to delete unwanted files and folders manually, so you don’t have to rely on third-party software. The obvious problem with the DIY approach to PC maintenance is that you risk removing important items, which may ultimately slow or damage your system rather than speed it up. In this feature, we reveal all the junk files and folders it’s completely safe to delete from your PC. We tell you where to find these…

Why won’t my smart plugs connect? Q I bought three Meross MSS315 smart plugs (£27 from www.snipca.com/49356), after you recommended them in Issue 676’s Cover Feature. I followed the instructions – disabling the 5GHz Wi-Fi channel, ensuring I’m using WPA2 and granting location permissions. Yet it failed at the same point in the process – when I tried connecting with my Samsung Galaxy 23+ phone and my wife’s iPhone 13. It discovers the device and creates the login credentials, but fails within 60 seconds. I’m using a BT Smart Hub 2 router. Can you help? Frank Lake A We’re not aware of any specific compatibility problems between Meross smart plugs and BT’s Smart Hub routers, but BT’s Smart Setup feature can (ironically) get in the way of setting up networking…

1080p High-definition video: 1920x1080 pixels. 2G/3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 2K A screen with 2048x1080 pixels. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. ActiveX Technology for adding extra features to a web browser. Administrator Someone who can make changes to a computer that will affect others who also use it. AI Artificial intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. Alternative technology to LCD for creating flatscreens. Applet A small program, often one that runs within a larger program to perform a specific task. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Benchmarking Comparing software and…