Table of contents for Vol. 465 in Computeractive

One of the lamest cliches in technology journalism is to drool over a new product and yell: ‘This changes everything!’. It’s actually not easy to drooling and yelling at the same time, so I try not to use the cliche, but 2015 was a year in which, well, everything did change. The reason? Microsoft made Windows 10 a free download. Now that thousands of you have upgraded, we’ll continue to show you how to get the best out of the operating system throughout 2016. And when problems arise with updates, we’ll explain how to fix them. One thing that, sadly, didn’t change in 2015 – and won’t in 2016 – is the threat posed by malware and online scams. In our Cover Feature, we expose the sinister new tactics criminals…

WATCH OUT FOR… Banking trojan targeting Windows 10 What happened? Windows 10 users were warned to be extra vigilant after a new version of a deadly banking trojan emerged with the aim of specifically attacking Microsoft’s latest operating system. First spotted in June 2014, the Dyre malware (also called Dyreza) has been compared to the notorious Zeus trojan, which hackers have been using since 2007 to steal money from bank accounts. Dyre works by allowing hackers to intercept unencrypted web traffic. Victims think they are securely connected to their banking website, but any log-in information they type will instead be seen by the criminals behind the attack. Analysis has found that it has targeted UK-based customers of Citibank, Natwest, RBS, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Bank of America. It has remained…

There’s plenty of choice when it comes to phones. Some people like iPhones; others prefer Samsungs. Google’s Nexus series and Sony’s Xperias are popular. One bloke in Norwich has a Windows Phone. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Or in this case, you mostly skip the first part. At £50, the Smart Speed 6 is cheaper than phones used to be before they put computers in them. That’s on pay-as-you-go (PAYG), with no contract or obligations. The only catch is it’s exclusive to Vodafone, which isn’t the cheapest network and may or may not have good reception where you live. It seems incredible that you can spend as little as this and get a phone that’s ready to play videos, browse the web and run Android apps.…

Find out what other products we liked in 2014. Buy our Back Issue CD (now only £12.57*): www.snipca.com/14981 *At time of press LAPTOP Asus X555LA-XX290H £330 from www.snipca.com/18151 Tested: Issue 446 Asus has made all the right choices with this budget Windows 8.1 laptop. Its comfortable keyboard, fast performance, respectably lengthy battery life and bright screen are all the more impressive given its low price. ALTERNATIVE Asus Chromebook C200 A cheap Chrome OS ultra-portable laptop with a bright screen, lengthy battery life and a great keyboard. £250 from www.snipca.com/17296 DESKTOP PC Palicomp AMD Shockwave £500 from www.snipca.com/18748 Tested: Issue 464 Proving that you don’t need an Intel processor, Palicomp has built an excellent PC around AMD’s Athlon X4 860K and Radeon R7 370 graphics card, narrowly beating Chillblast’s Fusion Drone. ALTERNATIVE: CCL…

Home-security products can make us all feel a little safer, but they tend to be fairly expensive. By contrast, Perch is a new, free app and web service that lets you convert any spare Android device or PC into a handy security camera. This is a brilliant way to remotely keep an eye on what’s going on in your home when you’re out or in another room when you’re indoors. You can set the app to send you alerts when motion is detected in your home. STEP 1 In this Workshop, we’ll show you how to set up an Android device and PC as security cameras, which you can monitor on your main Android phone or tablet and a second PC. First, ensure both devices to be used as cameras…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Monitor your daily activity on your PC To keep my diabetes and cholesterol levels under control, my doctor recommended I walk at least an hour every day. I followed your Workshop in Issue 453 (‘Record how many steps you walk’), so I’m familiar with the brilliant Google Fit phone app for Android (www.snipca.com/19001) that tracks your daily activity. I recently noticed that the Google Fit website (fit.google.com) has changed to make it easier to monitor your activity on your PC. Go to the site on your PC, log in with your Gmail account, then scroll to the calendar at the bottom. You’ll see orange lines (of varying lengths) beneath each day. Simply click any line to see a detailed breakdown of…

WINDOWS VISTA, 7, 8, 10 Batch-update your files more quickly If you tend to keep previous versions of documents and spreadsheets in a different folder from the current versions of the same files, there’s a quick way you can update them. This method is especially useful if you want to update backup files on a USB stick or in a cloud-storage folder on your PC - for example, Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. First, open both folders (containing current and previous versions). Next, select all the current file versions (press Ctrl+A), and drag and drop them into the other folder. In the Copy File window that opens, tick ‘Do this for the next X conflicts’ at the bottom, then click ‘Copy and Replace’ at the top (see screenshot below). WINDOWS…

Are they the villains in the Doctor Who Christmas special? Well, they would make a nice change from Daleks. And they wouldn’t have any trouble with stairs. Why’s that? Because they are drones (the clue is in the name), and can fly at heights of 60,000 feet – almost twice as high as aeroplanes. But they do have one thing in common with Daleks. Which is? They are controlled by a sinister organisation intent on enslaving the human race: Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s answer to Davros, if you will) wants the solar-powered drones to beam the internet into millions of homes as part of his mission to “connect the whole world”. Are they in the sky already? No, but there have been test flights in secret locations in the UK,…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Unsurprising that older people are more cautious I don’t think we should be surprised that older people take online security more seriously than young whippersnappers. Even if it were true that older people know less about technology (and I would dispute this), they are more cautious and less trusting than people under 30. There’s no real mystery behind this. As you get older, you just take fewer risks – on the internet as well as in the ‘real’ world. I remember well that feeling of youthful invincibility. When you’re a teenager, you think nothing can hurt you. You kid yourself into thinking that you’re going to live forever. That feeling evaporates over time. I’m now 75, and…

START MENU TOOL Spencer www.snipca.com/18930 What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 This portable tool restores all the missing shortcuts and hidden tools you used to see in your Start menu before Windows 8/8.1 or 10 sidelined them. It puts them back exactly where you want them, in a single, easy-to-access Windows XP-style menu. It doesn’t replace your Start button or give you loads of customising features – for that, you’ll need the powerful free tool Classic Shell (www.classicshell.net). Instead, Spencer (which is much easier to use than Classic Shell) adds a secondary Windows icon to your taskbar. Click this icon and you’ll see the familiar menu of installed programs and tools, including the old Accessories menu, where you’ll find traditional Windows tools such as Paint, WordPad and Sound…

BEST TABLET THAT’S NOT AN IPAD Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro Check the nation’s Christmas wish lists and you’ll find one tablet more than any other – Apple’s iPad. This year it gained some serious rivals, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and Asus ZenPad S, but our award goes to Lenovo’s £399 Tab 3 Pro. Besides a kick stand that doubles as a wall hanger, it comes with a built-in cinema projector. To be honest, we’d only use this projector if our TV exploded, but let Lenovo have its moment. After all, if there was an iPad that also made tea, who’d be churlish enough to complain that it wasn’t very good tea? WORST DEVICE Amazon Fire Phone Amazon is better known for selling things than making them. After…

Using the Linksys RE6400 Wi-Fi Range Extender you can boost your home Wi-Fi in areas where the signal is weak. It helps to eliminate dead spots in distant bedrooms, cellars and even in the back garden, helping you enjoy uninterrupted streaming, smooth online gaming, and more. It’s easy to set up and works with any router. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis. co.uk with ‘linksys’ in the subject line by midnight 5 January. The Linksys RE6400 Wi-Fi Range Extender is available to buy now for £59.99. For more information visit www.linksys.com/gb and follow on Twitter @Linksys.…

ANDROID Save Skype video messages to your phone The Skype Android app (www.snipca.com/18976) has been updated with lots of new features. You can now save video messages to your phone; search for specific content within an exchange to find a conversation; and forward media files (photos, documents and so on) from one contact/group to another. Open any conversation containing a video message, tap the message, then tap the new ‘Save to gallery’ option (see screenshot below) to save it to your device. To search for a particular conversation based on its content, simply tap the search icon at the top right, then type any words that may have been exchanged within it to see a list of relevant conversations. To forward media files that you’ve received to another person or…

SWAY Add a group of images to your presentation Adding images in Microsoft’s online presentation tool Sway was never rocket science, but it has now become even easier. Go to www.sway.com and log in with your Microsoft account. Next, click Create New, give your presentation a title, then click Picture on the left to add photos. Now click the ‘Add a picture’ thumbnail, then either select Upload and grab the photos you want from your PC, or select Bing (or Flickr) to see a list of copyright-free images you can use. By default, each image appears in a separate section. Click inside each section to caption that image. To group your images, tick the box at the bottom right of each section, then click Group. You’ll now see the Group…

WARNING – gobbledegook ahead Jargon offender: Microsoft I know it’s not easy to predict the future, but is that any excuse to use horrific jargon when doing so? That’s Microsoft’s crime in its ‘16 predictions for 2016’ web article (www.snipca.com/19065). The actual start of the article refers to the company’s “anthology” of short stories, released in November. Annoyingly titled ‘Future Visions’ (annoys the heck out of me anyway), it features work by “some of today’s top science-fiction writers” and is still available for free from Amazon as an ebook (http://news.microsoft.com/futurevisions). But after that gentle introduction, the article begins to drown in jargon and excruciating management-speak. Microsoft presents it as a collection of predictions from 16 “leading thinkers within our Technology and Research organisation”. That sounds simple enough, even though 16…

Can I get a refund for a dodgy download? Q I mistakenly bought from Currys a download of Microsoft’s Office 365 University, instead of the ordinary version. It wouldn’t download to my PC, but Currys refuses to give me a refund, insisting it has been downloaded. Can I get a refund? Richard Newsam A Let’s get the legal stuff out of the way first. Based on what Richard has told us, he’s not entitled to an automatic refund because he has attempted to download the software. The law says that after buying software, you have 14 days to ask for a refund, but only if you haven’t downloaded the program. However, he can still claim for an unsuccessful download. Currys must repair or replace the download. Only if this isn’t…

What program should I use to organise my messy files? Q I have two PCs, a tablet, a phone and two external hard drives, full of documents, photos, music, videos and other files. I seem to have multiple duplicate backups of everything, everywhere. I need a program that can do a sweep of everything, grabbing one copy of every file and putting them in one place, then ideally sorting the files by type. Can you help? Ethel Trueman A This is a maddening problem that afflicts many of us – but amazingly, there’s no single program that will magically sort them. First, use a free tool like Duplicate & Same Files Searcher (www.snipca.com/18945 – see our Workshop on page 40 of Issue 453. Unlike most “free” duplicate-finders it won’t charge…

PCs What we’d like to see... A $1 computer OK, I moan elsewhere in this piece about computers being too cheap to work properly. But there’s more than one kind of computer. The Raspberry Pi is a series of stripped-down PCs designed to run Linux software and sold as a bare circuit board. Previous models have been priced at $25 or $35 (about £16-£23), and the latest, the Raspberry Pi Zero, costs just $5 (it’s always been priced in dollars). You can’t run demanding software on it, but it’s good for lots of fun projects. What we’ll probably get... It’s not (raspberry) pie-in-the-sky to imagine that the price of a basic but usable board will fall even further next year, and that opens up a lot of possibiities. Think about…

Upgrading from a Windows 7/8 PC to Windows 10 is a pretty straightforward process. However, if you’ve recently bought a new Windows 8 or 10 PC, transferring your files and folders to it can be quite cumbersome. To make the process easier, Microsoft has teamed up with software company Laplink to make its PCmover Express program (normal price £19.95) a free download until 31 August 2016. We show you how this easy-to-use program lets you wirelessly transfer folders and files to your new computer. STEP 1 To use Laplink PCmover Express (LPE) to transfer your files and folders wirelessly, both your old and new PC need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. To install the program on your old Windows PC (XP, Vista, 7 or 8), go to…

AGES 0-5 The Good Dinosaur: Dino Crossing Free www.snipca.com/18986 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/18987 (iOS) In this game (inspired by the Disney Pixar film), your toddler needs to help Arlo (the dinosaur) and Spot (the little boy) cross treacherous terrain by swiping up, down, left and right. You have to collect berries to unlock other characters from the film. AGES 6-10 Blendoku* Free www.snipca.com/18988 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/18989 (iOS) In this game (with over 475 levels) you need to rearrange tiles according to colour gradation. So, for example, drag the yellow tile to the far left, the red tile to the far right, then order the tiles in between. AGES 11-16 CSR Classics* Free www.snipca.com/18990 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/18991 (iOS) You may never be able to afford a vintage car, but at least you…

Auto-hide your cursor That little pointy arrow is handy for navigation but gets in the way when you’re trying to observe the night sky, so use the option to hide it after a set amount of time. Press F2 to open the Configuration window then select the Navigation tab. In the Control section, tick ‘Mouse cursor timeout’, then type a duration in seconds into the box on the right. Enable location-specific light pollution It may sound odd to suggest switching on the lights, because stargazing works best when man-made illumination is extinguished. However, by having Stellarium apply accurate light-pollution levels for your locality, what you see on screen will better reflect what you can (or indeed can’t) see in the skies above you. Press F4 to open the View window,…

WLM disappeared after installing Windows 10 Did you upgrade to Windows 10 on a Windows 7 or 8.1 PC? If so, Windows Live Mail (WLM) is still installed on your PC. To put it back on the Start menu, click Start followed by ‘All apps’, scroll through to find the Windows Live Mail entry and right-click this, then choose ‘Pin to Start’. However, if you performed a ‘clean’ upgrade, WLM will be missing entirely. This is because a clean install wipes your PC, and WLM isn’t part of Windows 10. Thankfully, it’s still available and compatible, and better than the Mail program that comes with Windows 10 – so download it from www.snipca.com/18606. Links in emails don’t work WLM detects and will automatically block suspicious links – phishing attacks, for…

2015 So, 2015 is on its way out, and I can’t say I’m going to miss it. Sure, my nearest and dearest seem healthy and hearty and I’ve had some good times. I’ve also eaten some good meals, read some good books and seen some good films. But throughout the year I’ve felt this low hum of mild annoyance, mostly caused by the constant drip-feed of mindless hype about technology. Needless to say, when Computeractive’s illustrious editor asked me to list the five things that had most irritated me this year, I wasn’t short of ideas. “Social media still provides too many people with an outlet for their own tiresome narcissism or selfrighteous indignation” Being wound up by Windows 10 Don’t get me wrong: Windows 10 is a vast improvement…