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Not all free trials of software are created equal. Some bury their best tools until your introductory period has finished, while others plaster watermarks over your photos and videos. But in our Cover Feature we recommend only software that gives you full control over their features during the free trial. Follow our advice, and you’ll learn how to get the most out of these paid-for, professional-level programs before your time runs out. You’ll also discover how and when to cancel the trial, so you don’t end up paying for something you no longer need. Microsoft’s offer of a free upgrade to Windows 10 has officially ended, though some users can still get it without paying (see the loophole revealed in Issue 564, page 60). If you’ve been unable to take…

The SNP has claimed Scotland will have improved broadband “years ahead” of the rest of the UK, despite admitting that it’ll miss its target of delivering super-fast broadband (30Mbps and above) to every home and business in Scotland by 2021. Scotland’s Energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said the SNP will now offer money-off vouchers to homes and businesses so they can afford to connect to faster broadband from mobile or satellite providers. He told the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood that the SNP would now aim to deliver full-fibre broadband by 2023, which he claims goes beyond the party’s original commitment by providing speeds up to 1Gbps (1,000Mbps). This will ensure that Scotland has a better service than England, Wales and Northern Ireland, he said, and be “ahead of the curve, not…

Facebook and eBay have pledged to tackle fake and misleading product reviews after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) urged them to take stronger action. The sites have signed agreements with the CMA to find, investigate and respond to fake reviews more quickly. False reviews, which are illegal under consumer law, are often submitted in exchange for money or free products in order to make items seem more popular with consumers than they really are. It’s thought that more than three-quarters of customers read reviews before buying an item. Regulators wrote to the companies last June, ordering them to conduct a report into the problem. It stated that it didn’t think the sites were intentionally allowing the reviews to appear. Since then Facebook has removed 188 groups selling fake reviews…

Don’t forget about Windows 8.1 Computeractive continually gives its readers the idea that Windows 10 is the only alternative upgrade available to Windows 7 users. Why do you persist in doing this when Microsoft will continue to support Windows 8.1 until January 2023? Anyone who does not wish to install Windows 10 for whatever reason should buy a legitimate copy of Windows 8.1. This would allow, for example, older computers to safely carry on using Windows without having to put up with Windows 10’s requirements and its bloated updating. Come on, give your readers the whole story! Cliff Evans CA SAYS While it’s true that support for Windows 8.1 lasts for another three years, ever-dwindling numbers of people are using it. Recent figures show that less than five per cent…

LEAD CASE Can I appeal against PayPal’s decision to close my case? Q I bought what was meant to be an outdoor Blackhawk radio-controlled helicopter (pictured), advertised on Facebook for $55.55. What arrived bore no resemblance to the advert. I return edit to the address in China, but I’m getting nowhere with a refund. I complained to PayPal but after investigating, it closed the case saying I’d received the goods. Is there anything I can do? Bob Pountey A Yes, you can appeal a PayPal decision through its Resolution Centre, so Bob should escalate this claim with the company. We think Bob has been treated unfairly, so we’ve encouraged him to go back to PayPal and argue his case. However, PayPal will consider his appeal only if he provides new…

Link your ancestors in parish maps Parishes play a crucial role in family history, helping you to track down where people were born (through baptism records), lived (census returns) and died (burial records). In this column, I’ll reveal a collection of handy online mapping tools that don’t just pinpoint parishes on a map, but let you identify geographical links between different ancestors in your tree. View neighbouring parishes on a map The simplest way to view parishes (and their neighbouring ones) is on a map, and by far the most useful resource is FamilySearch. Visit www.familysearch.org/mapp and you’ll find a map of England and Wales overlaid with the county boundaries from 1851. Use your mouse’s scroll wheel (or click the + and – buttons in the bottom right-hand corner of…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: KMPlayer When it comes to downloading software, I often recommend going directly to the source – in other words, grabbing it from the website of the people who developed it. The reason for this is that some third-party download sites slip unwanted junk of their own into software installers – junk that inevitably ends up on your hard drive. This is certainly the case when downloading KMPlayer (a VLC-like media player) from Softonic (https://kmplayer.en.softonic.com). After installing the program, Malwarebytes’ AdwCleaner tool picked up six PUPs on my PC – all of which came from Softonic. But in this instance, I wouldn’t recommend installing KMPlayer from its official download page (www.kmplayer.com/pc) either. For starters, the KMPlayer website is in Korean, no matter where your IP address…

LAPTOP ❘ £969 from Dell www.snipca.com/33721 Inspiron is Dell’s more affordable range, and this 14in model comes in a size halfway between the 13 and 15in options under its pricier XPS brand. It’s a good balance of portability and screen space, and at just 1.15kg according to our scales, this is a travelling companion that won’t weigh you down. With a battery life of nearly 14 hours in our video-playback test, it won’t run out on you either. "A high-performing, well connected, good looking laptop" Inside is a choice of the latest Intel processors plus, if you stump up for the £1,199 configuration or better, a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics card. Even the cheapest model has a quad-core i5-10210U chip, running up to eight program threads at once and…

Desktop PCs consist of standard parts, but organising them all into a case and connecting everything requires some technical knowledge, nimble fingers, and four small screws that you seem to have misplaced. Over the years, there have been many attempts to place components in modules that would plug together simply, no matter where you bought them. None has caught on, but the latest effort is Intel’s NUC Compute Element. What does it do? NUC Compute Element contains a miniature motherboard with a proper PC processor and input/output ports. Intel will sell tiny computers with these installed, and other tech brands are launching more flexible systems based on their own chassis, adding top-end graphics cards and other accessories to an NUC Compute Element that you’ll be able to swap later to…

PC MONITOR ❘ £429 from Wex Photo Video www.snipca.com/33733 Eizo’s ColorEdge monitors are coveted by graphics professionals for their accurate rendition of colour for photo, video and print work. The CS2410 is more affordable than other models, but also more limited. “Superb colour accuracy, even tones and adjustable in just about every way” First, the omissions. Maintaining accuracy means calibrating your screen regularly, but to do that you’ll need to add Eizo’s EX4 colorimeter (£118 from Photospecialist www.snipca.com/33738). It’s very easy to use, at least. If you want a hood to keep stray light off, Eizo’s CH2400 is an extra £150. Fortunately, the CS2410’s anti-glare finish means you can probably do without it. There’s no compromise on the quality of the stand, which has tilt, swivel and height adjustment plus…

LAPTOP HP Envy 13 (2019) £1,149 from www.snipca.com/33308 Tested Issue 568 Thanks to eighth-gen Intel processors and dedicated Nvidia MX250 graphics, this sleek aluminium laptop offers a practical combination of all-round processing power and portability, topped off by 8 hours 30 minutes battery life – and the touchscreen is now excellent too. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 Gets the most out of Intel CPUs, now tenth-gen, but there’s no GPU option and the cheapest sensible configuration is £1,199 from www.snipca.com/33309 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £349 from www.snipca.com/30707 Tested Issue 501 Now discounted and with a stylus included, this full-size HDR tablet is a better deal than the new Tab S4 (see Issue 540). Apple’s faster £319 iPad with optional £89 Pencil is superior, but lacks microSD expansion. ALTERNATIVE…

I’ve made it my resolution for 2020 to finally get to grips with Command Prompt. It’s a part of Windows I’ve always seen as too complex for me. A more technically adept friend told me to customise Command Prompt to make it feel less intimidating. This involves changing the colours and making things bigger. Once you load Command Prompt (by typing cmd into the Start menu), right-click the heading - where it says Command Prompt on a white background - then click Properties. Here, I clicked the Options tab then made the cursor bigger by selecting Large under Cursor Size. Click the Font tab and to make the font size bigger (I chose 28), and change the style (I chose Lucinda Console because I think it’s easier to read than…

ANDROID & iOS Convert voice recordings to text iOS has a built-in voice recorder, and so does the version of Android installed on Google’s Pixel4 phones (whether your Android device also includes a built-in recorder depends on how the manufacturer has configured the operating system). If you want to extract the content as text, you’ll need to type it out manually – preferably after transferring it to your PC so you can use a regular keyboard. Alternatively, you could use a third-party recorder that’s been developed with transcription in mind. Otter is free for both iOS (www.snipca.com/33740) and Android (www.snipca.com/33741) and lets you transcribe 600 minutes (10 hours) of spoken audio every month without charge. If you use it to record lectures, council meetings, club AGMs and so on, it…

WINDOWS 10 Avoid accidentally scrolling the wrong window By default, Windows lets you scroll any open window simply by hovering your mouse over it, then using the scroll wheel – there’s no need to click the window first to select it. While this can be useful, it also means you can accidentally scroll the wrong window. For example, while scrolling through a long document, you may inadvertently move the mouse over another window, meaning you’ll start scrolling that window instead. To stop this happening, open Settings (Windows+I), then click Devices, followed by Mouse. On the right, turn off the ‘Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them’ setting (see screenshot below). The scroll wheel on your mouse will now only work on the window you’ve currently got selected. WINDOWS 7…

When you’re working with a document that contains lots of different formatting styles, you may find you need to adjust the style of certain sections so that they match those of others. This can involve changing the font, as well as its size, style and more. Changing these style settings individually takes time. A quicker way of doing it is to use Format Painter (in Microsoft Word) or Clone Formatting (LibreOffice Writer). These tools let you copy the formatting from the text in one part of your document, then apply it to one or more other sections. In Word, highlight the text that contains the formatting you want to copy, then click the Format Painter button at the left of the toolbar (if you can’t see this button, make sure…

It’s hard to justify splashing out on a program you’ll only use once. Perhaps you want to edit a relative’s wedding video, design an invitation, or put together a witty deck of slides for a birthday party speech, and you’ve found the perfect tool for the job. However, because it’s perfect, it’s also pricey. Don’t let that put you off. Almost every paid-for program, from Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop to more basic offerings, are available for free on a limited trial basis. In most cases, those trial periods are long enough for you to accomplish whatever task you have in mind. Here, we’ll show you where you can find nine of the best, and how you can use them once installed. There are things you need to be aware…

Once you’ve got your photos in one place, make sure you include that location in your backup routine. If you’re storing them on an external drive, attach it to your PC when you run your backups. We also recommend backing up photos online so that they’re safe if your PC is stolen. Google Photos is a good option. It gives you unlimited free storage for photos and videos, and lets you view your entire library on all your devices. Install Google’s Backup and Sync software on your PC (download it from www.snipca.com/33821) and follow the installation process. Click Choose Folder 1 and select your photo library. To get unlimited storage, select the ‘high quality’ storage option 2 (photos will be compressed, but you’re unlikely to notice a drop in quality),…

Why can’t I download BleachBit? Q I have subscribed to Computeractive for years, and consider it the best there is. Your article on BleachBit, as part of Issue 568’s Cover Feature, came at the right time. I donated US$5.00, which was duly taken. However, I was then unable to download it. As such I am several dollars lighter and with no BleachBit! Could you help out? Joe Pratt A While a donation is doubtless appreciated by the program’s developers, there isn’t actually any need to pay for BleachBit. So, while you won’t get your money back, there is no need to pay anything (or anything more) to download the software. Nothing about the download process has changed since we wrote our feature, so we’re not sure what’s causing your problem. The program’s…

Councils have accused mobile networks of misleading the public about their signal strength because it’s not based on how people actually use their phones. Millions of customers use networks’ own coverage checking tools when deciding which contract to buy. But the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents over 300 councils in England and Wales, says these results aren’t accurate because they are based on the networks’ own computer based analysis, which amounts to them “marking their own homework”. Councils claimed tests they conducted in their districts showed the four big networks – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – routinely over-estimate the signal strength people can actually get in the “real world” Shropshire Council, for example, identified 28 areas where coverage was worse than networks claimed. The LGA wants Ofcom to…

Sales of computers rose last year for the first time since 2011 as millions of businesses and organisations worldwide bought new machines to upgrade from Windows 7 to 10. Estimates of PC and laptop sales from industry analysts range from 261 million to 266 million, a rise of between 0.6 and 2.7 per cent. However, this is still a 25-per-cent fall from 2011, when 352 million computers were sold. Of the estimated 1.2 billion Windows PCs in use worldwide, around 1 billion run Windows 10, while 200 million run Windows 7. Sales of computers made by the three biggest manufacturers – Dell, HP and Lenovo – rose faster than the market average, accounting for 63 per cent of all devices sold. Industry experts agree that sales should continue to rise…

I never thought I would discover that I have something in common with Vladimir Putin, but your news story in Issue 571 (page 9) reveals that we both continue to use Windows XP. As a latecomer to computers, I missed out on all the operating systems of the 1980s and 1990s, so XP was the first system I ever used. It was my first love, you might say, and remains my true love. I’m sending this email via Outlook on a Windows 10 PC, but at least once a week I boot my old XP computer to run the old tools I used to love, and gaze at the design that I found so easy to use. I suppose it’s like looking at a faded photo of an old girlfriend…

Now it’s clear that the UK will be leaving the European Union at the end of January, several readers have asked us how the decision will affect their consumer rights. It shouldn’t make much difference in the short term because UK consumer law is far stronger than EU law, and any amendments made by the EU since the UK joined in 1973 have already become law. One EU law we won’t get is the revamped European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), which forces countries to make sure customers have a wide choice of broadband providers. It also ensures that broadband contracts are fully transparent, and that people with disabilities can take full advantage of offers. However, telecoms regulator Ofcom is pushing for providers to implement most of these benefits in voluntary…

IMAGE EDITOR Darktable 3 www.snipca.com/33840 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Darktable is a powerful image organiser and enhancer that rival’s Adobe’s expensive Lightroom alternative (see p51 for more on Lightroom, including how to get a free trial). Although primarily designed to enhance RAW images (a lossless format more commonly used by high-end digital cameras), there’s nothing to stop you using Darktable to catalogue and improve other image formats, including JPEG and TIFF. The program is split into two views: Lighttable and Darkroom (you can switch between them using the buttons, top-right). The Lighttable view is where you can browse your entire photo collection. To import a folder of photos, click the ‘folder…’ button, or to import just a single image, click ‘images…’. As you add photos, they’ll…

This issue, I could have named and shamed the criminals who last October carried out a ransomware attack on Arkansas telemarketing firm The Heritage Company, costing the firm hundreds of thousands of dollars and forcing it to suspend its business. But instead, I’m going to make the company itself my villain, because of its incompetence and mishandling of the situation. Frankly, if the company had bothered to implement adequate security and backup measures, it wouldn’t have had to pay out any ransom money and send around 300 members of staff home over Christmas to worry about an uncertain future. Boss Sandra Franecke told staff to ring the company on 2 January for an update, but instead it released a statement saying it’s still trying to recover from the incident, and…

PC ❘ £1,260 from Overlockers UK www.snipca.com/33762 If computer types had a party, we know which would be the one standing in the hallway looking awkward. Everybody loves a desktop PC tower, the larger-than-life character with all the skills. The 13in laptop, an independent social butterfly, passes effortlessly through the throng, while the 15in gaming laptop is nearly as popular, even if it’ll run out of steam before the end of the evening. In the living room, the precocious little mini PC holds court. The all-in-one takes up residence in the kitchen, pitching in with domestic duties without getting in the way. But who’s chatting to the compact desktop PC? That’s right – nobody. It’s hard to get any attention when you’re just an average square. "Compact and unassuming, but…

PC SPEAKERS ❘ £92 from Amazon www.snipca.com/33810 These powered stereo speakers are marketed by JBL (part of the Harman audio empire) as ‘reference monitors’. Calling a speaker a monitor is confusing in the world of computer accessories, but to audio engineers a monitor is what you listen to while mixing tracks to check how everything sounds. It’s an ambitious term to apply to a product that costs half as much as a pair of credible budget reference monitors, like JBL’s own 305P MkII. It also suggests these might not be ideal as general-purpose PC speakers: for mixing, you want a scrupulously neutral sound, which is not what’s most enjoyable for listening. “Good for general PC output and audio production tasks” Despite our scepticism, testing the One Series 104 just about…

Kioxia’s innovative Toshiba FlashAir SD cards come with Wi-Fi built in, making it easier than ever to transfer data between up to seven devices. It’ll save you time when you take photos or shoot videos, and let you share them instantly with friends. The latest version of the FlashAir cards prevents your camera automatically powering off when wirelessly connecting to a network. To see what’s saved on the cards, install the free FlashAir app for iOS or Android app. Open the app before taking photos with your digital camera, and they will be automatically downloaded to your phone. The Internet Pass-Thru Mode lets you access the web while you’re still connected to the card. In this competition, we’re giving away five FlashAir 64GB memory cards. To enter, email your address…

SRWare Iron ✓ I love all the advice on USB sticks in Computeractive. I have loads of programs stored on my stick, including a browser, so I can go online on any PC. My preferred choice was SRWare Iron (www.srware.net/iron), but updating it became too tricky. And what I use instead… I switched to the portable version of Opera (www.opera.com/computer/portable) because it’s so well designed. All the icons you need are neatly housed in a column on the left. Clicking one reveals more options that you can hide again. Whoever designed it is a genius! I also love the Instant Search option, which lets you search Google without leaving the website you’re looking at. A search box appears at the top, with the website faded underneath grey shading (see screenshot).…

Spark Free iOS www.snipca.com/33745 Android www.snipca.com/33746 iOS users of this email app now benefit from dark mode, avatars and multiple window support on iPad. However, the most exciting new features are on Android, including a Spark widget for the home screen, showing how many unread emails you, a swipe action that archives every message in a folder, and email templates that save time when sending oft-repeated messages. Microsoft To Do Free iOS & Android www.snipca.com/33744 This major update to Microsoft’s free task-management tool has a tidier interface and better handling of natural language input (type collect groceries tomorrow, for example, and it knows that ‘tomorrow’ is the date that groceries need to be collected rather than just an element of the task name). You can turn off notifications for busy…

The search tool built into Windows creates a database of your files (known as an index). It uses this to quickly return relevant results when you carry out searches using the Start menu or within File Explorer. That’s the theory, at least. In practice, it often returns inaccurate results or stops working completely. Apparently aware of these problems, Microsoft has released a new tool called Indexer Diagnostics (get it from the Microsoft Store at www.snipca.com/33831). Select the Service Status tab to see which files are indexed on your PC, along with options to see how regularly you’re using it (by clicking the Last Hour, Last Day and Last week buttons). If you’re experiencing problems with the search tool, click the ‘Search is not working’ button for options to restart the…

If you’re presenting on a screen or projector at a club event, it’s tempting to simply mirror your PC’s desktop. But do this and your audience will see your every cursor movement, which looks unprofessional and will distract them from what you’re saying. For a more polished presentation, download OBS Studio from https://obsproject.com, which lets you queue up various elements (images, video and even your webcam), then seamlessly push them to the display you’re presenting on (whether that’s a projector, monitor or TV) at precisely the right moment. It’s even better if you have an assistant to control OBS Studio for you, but with a bit of practice you can control it yourself while presenting. First, make sure your presentation screen is connected to your computer and that Studio mode…

The big names in streaming services all offer fully featured free trials. BBC and ITV recently launched the BritBox streaming service (www.britbox.co.uk), which is luring new customers with 30-day trials. There’s no contract and if you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of your trial you won’t be charged the standard £5.99 monthly fee (do this by clicking Account, ‘Subscription & billing’, Manage, then Cancel). Netflix (www.netflix.com/signup) Prices range from £5.99 to £11.99 a month depending on whether you want HD content and how many screens you’d like to view simultaneously (useful for large households). Sign up and you won’t be charged for your first month but, as with BritBox, you’ll need to provide payment-card details up front. To cancel your membership before the end of your free…

One alternative to uploading a suspect file to VirusTotal is to carry out a search on what is known as its ‘hash’. As every program is different, its code can be converted into a long unique number, known as a hash. Theoretically, all copies of a specified program you’ve downloaded will generate the same hash, which is why developers sometimes display the hash that applies to their software alongside the download link. If the hash you generate is different from that one, you know that it’s been tampered with since it was originally created, and any alert generated by Windows needs to be taken seriously. You can also use a hash to search VirusTotal. Right-click Start and select Windows PowerShell from the menu. At the prompt, type Get-Filehash -path ‘XXXX’…

32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 1080p Videoof1920x1080 pixels. 802.11ac A quick standard for wireless networks. 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard with speeds up to 10 times faster than 802.11ac. Also called Wi-Fi 6. Add-in Microsoft’s name for tools that can be added to Office software. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. Adobe RGB A wider colour space than sRGB. AVI A type of video file. Bandwidth A measure of transferred data at one time. Benchmarking Comparing products with an accepted standard. BMP Bitmap. A type of image file. Cache A temporary space for storing information. Calibration Process of checking colour accuracy on a…

Google and Microsoft have confirmed that their browsers – Chrome and Edge respectively – will continue to receive updates for Windows 7. Chrome will be updated until at least July 2021, by which time 18 months will have passed from Microsoft ending support for the operating system. Google says its decision is to give companies and the public time to upgrade to Windows 10. It mirrors its decision to release Chrome updates for Windows XP until April 2016, two years after Microsoft ended support. Microsoft didn’t say for how long it would support Edge in Windows 7, but it seems likely to follow Google’s lead because the new version of Edge – released on 15 January – has been built on Chrome’s source code. This means that Edge should be…

CLASSIC GAMES TURNED INTO STAMPS Tomb Raider, Lemmings and Elite (pictured) are among eight classic computer games to appear in a new set of stamps from Royal Mail. There are 12 stamps in total, featuring games from the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, Commodore Amiga, Sega Mega Drive and Sony PlayStation. Order the stamps from www.snipca.com/33769. UPDATE FIREFOX TO PREVENT HACK Mozilla has released an emergency update for Firefox after hackers were spotted exploiting a flaw in version 72 of the browser. Click the top-right cog icon, Help, then About Firefox. If you’re not running the latest version (which is 72.0.1 or later, see screenshot), you’ll see a button to click that updates the browser. TOMORROW’S WORLD Called Robo-C, this robot Arnold Schwarzenegger (pictured) has 600 facial expressions, which might be…

The UK’s privacy watchdog has fined Dixons Retail £500,000 for a hack that exposed the details of 5.6 million customer payment cards. An investigation from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that a hacker had installed malware on 5,390 tills at Currys PC World and Dixons Travel Stores between July 2017 and April 2018. It said the hackers had collected personal data for nine months before Dixons detected the attack. Most of the card details stolen included the primary account number and expiry date. As well as card information, the ICO found that hackers stole the non-financial personal info of around 14 million customers. This included names, email and postal addresses, date of birth and phone numbers. The ICO concluded that Dixons broke the Data Protection Act 1998 by running…

I was astonished to read in Issue 571 (‘The World’s Gone Mad’, page 8) that psychology lecturer Dr Sonja Falck thinks the words ‘boffins’, ‘geeks’ and ‘nerds’ should be classified as hate speech. I would say this is a case of someone being too clever for their own good, but I don’t want her to accuse me of being ‘offensive’. Back in the 1980s, I belonged to a computer club at work which called itself ‘Glasgow Geeks’. My boss used to call me a ‘boffin’, but always with a smile, and meant it as a compliment. He was good at management and sales, while I was good at maths and programming. I called him ‘Delboy’, and we had a mutual respect. Even now that I’m retired, I often call myself…

I’ve just had occasion to reinstall Windows 10 from scratch after having problems which I think may have started with a software conflict a week ago. I tried to rectify this by uninstalling the suspect software. Things then started to go really wrong and in the end I couldn’t even access Windows settings. This is when I contacted Chillblast support (I bought my computer from them four years ago). They advised to run a memory check using Windows Memory Diagnostics, then test my hard drive using HDSetinal (www.hdsentinel.com). Both my memory and hard drive were working fine. Next, I downloaded Microsoft’s tool for creating Windows 10 installation media. Chillblast talked me through this, showing great patience and knowledge. After a short time I was up and running with version 1909…

What can I download to view TV listings? Q My TV has a built-in programme guide, but it’s slow and I find the text hard to read. Can you suggest an alternative? Liam Jackson A One option is to download a TV guide to your phone or tablet, which you may find easier. The official Freeview app (www.snipca.com/33828) and YouView app (www.snipca.com/33829) both include a handy seven-day guide. If you have a YouView set-top box, the YouView app can link up with this, letting you schedule recordings directly from the app. To set this up, first make sure your YouView box and phone or tablet are connected to the same network. Next, tap the menu button in the app (three horizontal lines top left), Settings, then ‘Connect to your YouView…

PRINTER ❘ £162 from Printerbase www.snipca.com/33727 Xerox’s main laser printer brand is called Phaser, which sounds a lot more exciting than it is. Its new budget mono laser series, however, is called B200, which sounds about as exciting as a tax return. Yet the B215 is relatively interesting. Although its sit-up-and-beg design looks business like, there’s a colour touchscreen at the top right that wouldn’t be out of place on a friendly modern inkjet, and the feature list includes Wi-Fi, a colour scanner with automatic document feeder (ADF), double-sided (duplex) printing (though not scanning), a USB slot for scanning to removable storage, and a built-in fax modem in case you need to send documents back to the 1990s. "A mono laser for fast, decent prints that also scans and copies"…

Q I’ve had my desktop PC for six years, and I’m looking to replace it with something that will handle the usual office needs plus gaming for the kids. I’ve also recently revived my passion for music, so I want to install recording software Ableton Live 10. Should I stick with a desktop PC, or could a laptop work? What do you recommend? Nicholas Temple A A mid-range desktop PC from any of the UK-based PC builders we feature – like the Chillblast model on page 22 (pictured) – will see you right for the next few years, providing plenty of processing power and memory for your tasks, a capable graphics card for 3D games, and a fair bit of storage, with room for future upgrades. You could go for a laptop,…

Ouya What was it? Crowdfunded in 2012, Ouya hit a million dollars in record time and went on to raise $8.5m. Backers were promised an Android based game console with a handheld controller and ready to connect to a TV, for $99 (£66 at the time). Based on an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, it was roughly as powerful as a mobile phone. Why did it die? Made by a new company in Santa Monica, California, the Ouya materialised as promised, with improvements on the pre-release prototype. But reviews were lukewarm, finding the controller awkward and saying it was worse than full-price consoles. In the end, Ouya lacked a significant benefit to counter the huge choice of Google Play, and never took off–an example of how hard it is for smaller…

What you need: Windows 10 Time required: 30 minutes The way you take screenshots has changed. Once, your only option was to press PrtScn on your keyboard – and this still sends a copy of your screen to the clipboard, from where you can paste it into other programs. If you don’t need to grab the full screen, hold alt while pressing PrtScn and only the active window is copied. Either of these shortcuts is useful when you run into problems and need to illustrate what’s happening. Over the years, Microsoft has beefed up Windows’ screen-grabbing tools, adding features and flexibility. The Snipping Tool, introduced with Vista, survived in Windows 10 until build 1809, released in autumn 2018, when it was replaced by Snip & Sketch. Initially, the two lived…

LAPTOPS Use large USB stick when creating Dell rescue disk ✓ I am used to setting up new laptops and PCs, which I have done many times for over 35 years. After checking the hard drive and updating Windows and drivers, I always create a rescue disk before going further. I use 16GB memory sticks, as recommended by the manufacturers. I have just set up a new Dell laptop for my daughter. Dell recommend at least a 16GB disk, so I did not contemplate any problem using a standard 16GB memory stick. But I was unsuccessful six times – repeatedly getting the response (after almost an hour) that there was an error. Trying any of the fixes suggested online did not work. Then I had a brainwave – try an…

Kobo Clara HD £110 from Kobo www.snipca.com/32586 ✓ I fear I’m about to offend millions of Amazon Kindle owners by urging them to throw away their devices and switch to a Kobo Clara instead. I’ve used both Kindles and Kobo e-readers, and the latter are far superior. The latest model (see review on page 24, Issue 563) is the best yet, with a high-definition screen that makes books a pleasure to read. It’s often compared to Amazon’s Paperwhite, but it has the crucial advantage of having more fonts, which is so important when it comes to enjoying reading. It also has very soft lighting to make it comforting to read at night. My wife disagrees with me (now there’s a surprise!) because the Paperwhite can play audiobooks. But if you…

Fuel Bee Petrol £2.99 Android www.snipca.com/33751 Fuel Bee lets you compare prices at nearby petrol stations, so type in a location, choose between unleaded and diesel and set a search radius. The results are presented on a map by default. Tap the icon beside each result to switch to Google Maps, where you can get directions. Best For Bookmarking multiple favourites PetrolPrices Free iOS www.snipca.com/33749 Android www.snipca.com/33750 Compare prices for fuel close to your current location or anywhere you search for. Results can be filtered by fuel type or station brand, and you can prioritise prices or distance, depending how urgent your refill is. Tap any result to see how up to date its prices are, see customer reviews and a list of facilities, and get directions. Best For Filling…

MICROSOFT EXCEL AND LIBREOFFICE CALC Make printed spreadsheets easier to navigate When viewing spreadsheets in Excel and Calc, you’ll see gridlines that help you navigate around the cells. But when you print your spreadsheets, these gridlines disappear. If you want to make your printed spreadsheets look more like they do on screen, you can quickly put the gridlines back. In Excel, select the Page Layout tab at the top. In the middle of the toolbar you’ll see a Sheet Options section. From here, tick the Print option under Gridlines. If you also want the row and column headings to be printed, tick the Print box under Headings as well. You can do the same in Calc, but it involves more clicks. Open the Format menu, then select Page. In the…

What is it? A computer glitch that’s been affecting systems around the world since the start of 2020. It seems they can’t cope with the date change from 19 to 20. So it’s a revived version of the Millennium Bug? Sort of. It actually stems from one of the solutions to the Millennium Bug (also known as Y2K). Cast your mind back to the final years of the last century. Governments and businesses were spending millions trying to prevent their computers suffering catastrophic failure. Yes, I remember it well. But wasn’t Y2K a myth? No. In fact, the idea that Y2K was a myth has itself become a persistent myth. Some of the threats may have been exaggerated, but it was a very real problem, stemming from the fact that…

Some trials are in effect introductory offers that are only available if you supply payment details up front. The onus then is on you to cancel before the end of the trial or be liable to pay for continued use-even if you don’t use the software again. In some cases, you may be committing to a full year. You’ll usually receive an email when your trial approaches its end, but there’s always the risk it’ll go straight to your spam folder. We therefore recommend adding reminders to your PC’s calendar to cancel the payment. To set a reminder in Microsoft Calendar, click Start, type calendar then press Enter. Click the date you want the reminder (two days before the trial ends, for example), then give the event a name such…

The font you’re reading on this page is called Acta Book, but I actually wrote this column using Times New Roman in Word. That’s been my favourite font since I started writing for a living, back in the 1990s (see whether you share my enthusiasm at www.snipca.com/33730). “I once showed my little boy a copy of The Times and he tried to swipe the pages and tap the headlines” Created by The Times in 1931 and still widely used, it feels reassuringly old-fashioned and mature, preserving the gravitas of newspapers in this youth-obsessed internet age. Call me deluded, but when I write it makes me feel like I could be addressing a readership of 10 million back in Fleet Street’s heyday. But while it’s appropriate for the serious business of…