Table of contents for 511 in Computeractive

I’d like to thank all the readers who have answered our survey on what you’d like to see more of in Computeractive. If you’ve not taken part yet, please do so – simply visit www.snipca.com/25504. It’ll only take a few minutes, and you might win a £50 Amazon voucher. Email is one topic you often tell me deserves more coverage. It’s the most popular activity online according to the Office of National Statistics’ 2017 analysis of internet habits, with 82 per cent of UK adults using it. But I bet many of those are missing out on the expert tips in this issue’s Cover Feature. If you’ve used Gmail for some time, I urge you to visit Google’s Dashboard to see how many emails you’ve sent. Anyone have a higher…

People who cause trials to collapse by writing sensitive or vitriolic comments on Facebook and Twitter could end up behind bars. Attorney General Jeremy Wright, the government’s top legal officer, is worried that the fairness of trials is being undermined by ‘virtual lynching mobs’ online. Many people are unaware that laws restricting the media unfairly reporting court cases also apply to comments made by the public online (see box). Writing anything that might influence a jury could be regarded as contempt of court. Mr Wright called for evidence on whether current laws prevent ‘trial by social media’. It follows a case in which two schoolgirls accused of killing Angela Wrightson, a vulnerable woman from Hartlepool, were widely abused online, leading to the judge ruling that they would not have had…

What they say Dario Gil, IBM’s vice president of AI ( www.snipca.com/25563): “To add to our enthusiasm around each one of these pillars individually is our belief that bringing them all together will offer profound opportunities. We intend to develop the next generation of AI algorithms using accelerated computation, achieved through our mastery of physics, which we apply ethically and in pursuit of shared prosperity.” What they mean IBM thinks artificial intelligence will make the world a better place.…

I’d like to reassure Ken Rigsby that you don’t have to be “a grouch of a certain age” to find Skype’s infantile redesign (pictured) an assault on the senses (The Final Straw, Issue 510). Much to my surprise, my 11-yearold granddaughter sneered at it, saying that it looked like it was designed for “hyperactive toddlers”! I thought that was a piercing insight. Perhaps she could take over from Ken when he retires to a Grumpy Old Gits home? As well as the childish design, I would like to mention the informal way that tech companies talk as evidence of ‘dumbing down’. For whatever reason – probably to appear trendy and friendly – they talk to you like they’re sharing a pint with you down the pub, not trying to win…

Q I bought a Lexar JumpDrive C20m 32GB microUSB Flash Drive from an eBay seller, not realising it only works with Android devices. Although it only cost £15 the seller refuses to give a refund. I know that the Distance Selling Regulations (DSRs) have been superseded by Consumer Contracts Regulations (CCRs), so does this mean he no longer needs to refund me? Mike Minshell A The change in the law doesn’t affect Mike’s rights. What matters is whether the seller is registered with eBay as a private individual or a sole trader. Private individuals aren’t bound by consumer laws such as the CCRs, and can therefore put ‘no returns’ on their eBay listings. The only case against a private seller Mike can take to eBay is if goods are faulty,…

Norton rescues reader from subscription trap Norman Chappell wasn’t the first Computeractive reader to fall into a so-called subscription trap, but hopefully he’ll be one of the last. As we reported in Issue 502, he wanted to know whether Symantec had committed theft by taking money for a subscription to Norton AntiVirus he thought he had cancelled. But like many readers before him, Norman had failed to cancel his subscription correctly. Symantec therefore automatically took £49.99 from his account. Since the Consumer Contract Regulations of 2014, customers have been able to cancel renewed subscriptions within 14 days, as long they haven’t downloaded new software or updates. But more than a fortnight had passed since Norman renewed, so he was relying on Symantec’s goodwill – which was forthcoming. They refunded him…

Privacy Badger is both brilliant and terrifying. Made by digital-rights campaign group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), it’s a browser extension – for Chrome, Firefox and Opera – that reveals and blocks which advertisers and marketing companies track what you do online, and blocks them. That’s the brilliant part. What’s terrifying is how many there are. When we recently visited www.dailymail.co.uk for example, Privacy Badger found 68 trackers. It has recently been updated to work better on the Android version of Firefox, now letting you see which trackers it has blocked (previously available only on the PC version). If you use Firefox on Android (available from the Google Play store: www.snipca.com/25603), search for ‘Privacy Badger’ at https://addons.mozilla.org – or click the link above. To install it, tap the slider (which will…

How can I edit the metadata of my photo files? Q I know that digital photo files have data stored ‘inside’ them – details about when the photo was taken, what camera was used and so on. Is there any way to change this type of data or add information of my own? If so, what sort of program would I need? Keith Abbot A Most files contain extra information – known as metadata – alongside the file data itself. In the case of photos, metadata is stored using the Exif standard, which includes the date, time and camera settings. You’ll also get other information, such as GPS co-ordinates if your camera supports this. You can view and edit some of this information simply by right-clicking an image file and…

A sprocket is the cog wheel that pulls film through a camera or punched computer paper through a printer. Cameras don’t use film any more and printers don’t use punched computer paper, so naturally this portable printer for outputting snaps from your digital camera is called Sprocket. It’s retro, you see! And its shiny black or white case has copper-coloured highlights to prove it. On the inside, the Sprocket is based on Zink, an instant-printing technology that’s been around for a few years and keeps popping up in different guises. The best known was Polaroid’s PoGo, which, before being discontinued, was billed as ‘the world’s smallest digital photo printer’. The Sprocket is even smaller. Rather than standard 6x4in photo paper, it takes tiny 2x3in sheets (about 50x75mm) that come out…

Security software on your PC can protect it from online attacks. But these days we have all sorts of things connected to the internet, from smart TVs to baby monitors. How do you secure all of them? Step forward the Sense, from Finnish security company F-Secure. Add it to your broadband connection and everything benefits from its built-in security features, assisted by Sense antivirus apps for PCs and Android devices (iOS devices face fewer risks, and just get a setup app). There’s no app yet for Macs, but they’ll still gain some protection when connecting via the Sense The futuristic diamond-shaped white plastic box is featureless except for a glowing LED clock. Once set up, it blocks F-Secure’s constantly updated list of malicious websites to protect against phishing attacks –…

ST-506 hard drive WHAT WAS IT? In the early days of electronics, data was stored on magnetic tape. All that to-ing and froing was necessary because a tape has a beginning and an end. Ideally, you’d have ‘random access’ (the term we now use for memory chips) – the ability to read or write any point at any time. In 1956, IBM’s RAMAC achieved this with 50 magnetic platters two feet across. By 1973, the company’s ‘Winchester’ drives were a lot smaller. But it was the ST-506 drive (pictured) from Shugart (later renamed Seagate) that introduced the hard drive as we know it, adopting the 5.25in format from removable ‘floppy’ drives. It arrived in 1980, and for the next decade, hard drives followed its lead. Today’s drives, although 3.5 or…

What you need: WizTree; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 35 minutes The less storage space your PC has free, the slower it becomes. To optimise your PC’s performance it’s therefore a good idea to identify and delete space-hogging items you no longer need, but Windows doesn’t offer an easy way to do this. WizTree is a free program that scans your PC and displays all your files and folders as graphs that show how much space they take up. You can then permanently delete any you no longer need in one go. STEP 1 To install WizTree, go to www.snipca.com/25524, then click the ‘Click here to Download’ button 1 . To download a portable version of the program, click the Portable Zip link 2 . If you…

Kaspersky Secure Connection* Free Android: www.snipca.com/25615 Kaspersky’s new app lets you browse online, send messages and check your emails securely using a VPN. You can also set rules to always open specific apps using a VPN, thereby encrypting your sensitive information. The free version restricts you to using 200MB a day and doesn’t let you choose a VPN country. BT TV Free Android: www.snipca.com/25616 iOS: www.snipca.com/25617 Free to all BT TV customers, its updated app now lets you watch live channels and on-demand programmes on your phone or tablet at no extra cost. You can also remotely record shows on your set-top box. Folioscope* Free iOS: www.snipca.com/25618 Folioscope is a brilliant app that lets you draw and colour items, then turn them into animated GIFs. There are brushes of different…

It can be frustrating trying to work on an old, sluggish PC. Thankfully, there are a few quick ways to make it boot up and perform faste To make it boot faster, press the Windows key, type msconfig, press Enter, then click the Startup tab in the window that opens. If you use Windows 10, click the Open Task Manager link. In Windows 7 and 8, you’ll see a list of the items (ticked) that start up with your PC. Untick those you don’t want at startup, click Apply, then OK. In Windows 10, these items appear as a list without tickboxes. Right-click the items you don’t want at start up, then click Disable. You can safely disable browsers, media players, games and your Office suite. Don’t disable your antivirus…

Microsoft’s mobile version of Cortana can show the notifications from your Windows 10 PC on your Android phone or iPhone. Download the free Cortana app (Android: www.snipca.com/25558, iOS: www.snipca.com/25557) and then sign in with your Microsoft account details. You’ll need to tap Allow when Cortana requests access to your contacts, calendar and location, or some aspects of the synchronisation process won’t work. Now, whenever an alert is triggered by Cortana on your PC — perhaps a reminder to bring something home when you’re out and about — that notification will appear on your phone or tablet. This is a twoway street, so you should also see a notification on your PC when you receive a text message on your phone. To manage how and where notifications appear in the Android…

Q I bought a second monitor to use alongside my laptop. It worked fine and I appreciated the extra space on the Windows desktop, but I soon realised that I actually found it a bit distracting. It also took up a bit too much room on my physical desk. I sent it back for a refund and went back to using my laptop’s own screen, but now when I launch certain apps parts of their windows are off the top, left or right of the screen. With the Calculator app, for example, all I can see are the left-most six number buttons. Everything else is invisible ‘above’ the top of my screen, or off to the right. I’ve tried clicking and dragging the bottom and left sides of the window…

Q I’ve effectively been forced to upgrade to Windows 10, because my old Windows 7 PC died – so I bought a new laptop. I’m getting on OK with it but I don’t want to use the new Edge browser. The trouble is, while I can launch and use Internet Explorer (IE), the Edge button always appears to the right of the last tab. When I want to open a new tab I often accidentally click this button, which then launches Edge on top of IE! This is infuriating. Why is Microsoft intent on forcing me to use Edge? And is there any way to stop Edge from trying to muscle its way in front of IE? Mollie Greenwood A Microsoft has stopped development of IE and sees Edge as…

Microsoft is offering you greater control over your privacy options in the next Windows 10 update, in an attempt to prevent more complaints from users and campaigners who claim it collects far too much personal data. After you install the Fall Creators Update, due to be released on 17 October, apps you download from the Windows Store will have to ask your permission to access sensitive parts of your PC, such as your webcam, microphone, calendar and contacts. They will often require this access to work properly, though some apps may ask for more than they need. Currently, Microsoft automatically grants these permissions on your behalf, except when apps request your location. In a blog post explaining the new options (www.snipca.com/25626), Microsoft privacy officer Marisa Rogers said: “It’s important to…

BT has admitted that some customers moving to its ‘ultra-fast’ fibrebroadband service can’t keep their landline telephone number. A BT spokesman said it decided to prevent customers from moving their number because it expected “very low” demand, although the option will be introduced “over the next few years”. He added that the problem occurs when customers move into flats, usually new builds, where fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) is the only option. In FTTP broadband, fibre cables run from the streetside cabinet to the door, providing much faster speeds than fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services which rely on slower copper cables. BT’s fibre broadband can reach speeds of 300Mbps. BT’s decision is likely to disproportionately affect the elderly, who have typically kept their number for decades. Small businesses also need to change their number, putting…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Adobe Flash Player Flash, arghhh! Adobe’s notorious plug-in has been criticised for years for being insecure, bug-prone and resource-hungry, but many web tools still refuse to work unless you install it. And if you do install, it tries to sneak a McAfee PUP into your PC. Adobe Flash Player has few friends in the tech world. In 2010, Apple founder Steve Jobs published an open letter condemning the pestilent plug-in (the letter’s title, ‘Thoughts on Flash’, is a masterpiece of passive-aggression: www.snipca.com/25564). Even Adobe itself has said it favours the safer, lighter alternative HTML5. Adobe has ditched the mobile version of Flash and is planning a similar demise for the desktop plug-in. McAfee, however, remains great friends with Flash. That’s McAfee the security company, whose…

By the end of the next decade, we may be diagnosing our aches and pains on computers, rather than visiting GPs. This was the future painted by the Health Secretary in September when talking at the NHS Health & Care Innovation Expo in Manchester. Jeremy Hunt told the conference that by 2028 computers and robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to analyse a patient’s blood, and compare it with results from thousands of others. Would this leave the typical GP twiddling their stethoscope, waiting for patients who never come? It’s what some health professionals fear. They say patients value the face-to-face interaction with a doctor and the chance to ask follow-up questions. Trisha Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Care at Oxford University, said on Twitter: “What our focus…

There is a gigantic hole in Ofcom’s plans for compulsory broadband refunds (‘Question of the Fortnight’, Issue 510). For many people, it’s hard to measure their broadband failures in neat 24-hour periods. Ofcom says that refunds would be paid at £10 for every day of no service, but broadband disruption can often be an hour here, an hour there, adding up to many days over the course of a year. If Virgin, my ISP, asked me how many calendar days I’d lost in the past three years, I wouldn’t be able to answer. I just know that normally once a day my speed plummets and my connection falters. But how could I measure that in a way that backed up any claims for compensation? Also, I would urge Ofcom to…

Q My girlfriend recently moved in with me, so she wanted to cancel her Virgin Media broadband contract. However, she still had six months remaining and has to pay Virgin a £240 early-termination fee. It has also threatened to charge us an additional £80 if we don’t send its Tivo box back. Shouldn’t this practice be stopped? Jake Rourke A Early-termination fees irritate thousands of customers every year, but they are legal. Internet service providers (ISPs) charge them to recoup the money you would’ve paid if you’d stayed for the length of the contract. Ofcom is investigating Virgin’s earlytermination fees to see whether they breach its code of conduct, which states that charges mustn’t be so high that they put customers off switching to a new provider. A lot hinges…

I’ve had a Texecom Veritas 8 (www.texe.com) alarm system in my home for over 15 years. I fitted it myself, and have maintained it. It has given excellent service with minimal problems. The unit recently developed a fault that I couldn’t locate, so I phoned Texecom’s support department. They gave me excellent guidance on how to identify the fault, even though my unit was well out of its guarantee period. I identified that the transformer had failed because there was no output. This caused the unit to rely on battery power, which failed over time. I contacted Texecom, who are based in Haslingden, Lancashire, wanting to buy a replacement transformer. On asking about the cost I was told they would give me one free of charge. I offer this testimonial…

Fake ‘we missed you’ cards I’m a regular online shopper, so often get those ‘Sorry we missed you’ cards from delivery firms. My neighbour, an ace scam-spotter, asked me how I knew all the cards were genuine. It was a good question. I hadn’t thought that scammers could use them. He then emailed me this link to Action Fraud (www.snipca.com/25493), showing cards that fraudsters posted through letterboxes. They tell you to ring an 0208 number that asks for your personal details. The cards lack the Royal Mail logo, but are red and white, and at first glance look genuine. I’ll double-check cards from now on. Pauline Walton Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

PC £775 from Wired2Fire www.snipca.com/25607 Wired2Fire Pyro VX We weren’t surprised when Wired2Fire offered to send us a Ryzen desktop PC they were planning to sell for under £800. After all, AMD’s new processor range starts with the very affordable Ryzen 3 1200. Even if your budget stretches to a more powerful Ryzen 5 1400, you can bung in a bog-standard graphics card and a basic 1TB hard drive and build a good PC reasonably cheaply. “Booting up Windows 10 and loading programs is super-fast” Hang on, though. The Pyro VX comes with a 2GB drive and a 240GB SSD, so booting up Windows 10, loading programs and switching between them, is super-fast. And it has 16GB of memory, twice what you’d expect. The graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce…

What does it do? Much the same as any other smartphone. Why would I want it? That’s a good question. Apple, which has launched the iPhone X (pronounced ‘ten’) at £999 (pronounced ‘How much?!’), points out it has an ‘all-glass design’. So do several other phones. It also features a ‘Super Retina display’ that has so many pixels, the human eye can’t see how much sharper it is. Inside is an ‘A11 Bionic’ chip, which isn’t bionic by 1970s TV series standards, but does make the battery last two hours longer, or eight hours less than the Moto Z2 Play (£379). The front is ‘all screen’, except for a funny-shaped chunk that isn’t. What’s the catch? As you’d expect for £1,000, there aren’t many catches. Instead of a standard headphone…

Some steps can make your existing router less vulnerable. Its default passwords – the WPA2 passphrase, which you type to connect a new device, and the admin password, to let you change settings – are often printed on the unit. That’s fine if they’re unique, not defaults like ‘11111111’ or ‘admin’, and if nobody is ever in your house who you may not trust. Otherwise, log into the admin page (following the instructions in the manual) and change them. Set the network name (SSID) to something vague, not your name or house number. WPS, which connects a new device without having to type the passphrase, is not secure even if you change its 8-digit PIN, so if possible turn it off. If there’s an option to activate it with a…

LAPTOP Dell Inspiron 15 5000 £749 from www.snipca.com/24851 Tested: Issue 459 Now featuring Intel’s seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors, the Inspiron 15 is great value for a full-size laptop with i7 CPU, anti-glare Full HD screen, 4GB AMD R7 graphics and a 1TB hard drive. More basic models start at £429. ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook UX310UA This sleek (if slightly plasticky) 13in adds a super-sharp 3200x1800-pixel screen to i5 performance with a 256GB SSD. £839 from www.snipca.com/24852 NEW ENTRY DESKTOP PC Wired2FirePyroVX £775 from www.snipca.com/25607 Tested: Issue 511 Has a six-core Ryzen 5 1600 processor, a GTX 1050 graphics card, a 240GB SSD, a generous 2TB hard drive and 16GB of memory for exceptional performance, despite a microATX motherboard. Unlike some rivals, it runs quietly too. ALTERNATIVE: Palicomp i5 Titanium Good all-round performance from…

What you need: Captura; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 25 minutes In previous issues, we’ve covered several programs that let you record what you do on your PC as a video. Free program Captura stands out because it also lets you narrate your PC problem using your webcam, letting you describe things in greater detail. Unlike other programs we’ve featured, Captura won’t leave watermarks on your video, bother you with adverts or limit the length of video you can create. It also lets you take screenshots quickly and easily. STEP 1 To install the program, go to www.snipca.com/25532, click the Download button at the top, then open and run the downloaded setup file (it doesn’t contain any junk). Click OK 1 if you see a pop-up message…

AGES 0-5 Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Games* Free www.snipca.com/25619 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/25620 (iOS) This app has 15 games, involving counting, memory, the alphabet and identifying shapes and colours. Each game has an age-rating but children progress as they complete games within their age group. AGES 6-10 Bonza Word Puzzle* Free www.snipca.com/25621 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/25622 (iOS) If your child likes word-search and puzzle games, they’ll love this. The aim is to drag and drop the letter tiles to complete the themed crossword using the clue at the top. AGES 11-16 Churchill Solitaire* Free www.snipca.com/25623 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/25624 (iOS) Played by Britain’s wartime Prime Minister to keep his wits sharp, this a more challenging version of Solitaire with two decks of cards. You begin as a cadet alongside a young Churchill at…

WORD Format document text quickly It’s easy to format text (for example, change font style and size, bold up, italicise, underline and change colours) in Word documents. There are two easy ways to format multiple passages of text quickly. The first way is to select text whose formatting you want to apply elsewhere in your document. Next, click the Format Painter (brush) icon at the top left of the Home tab. Simply select the other passages of text you want to apply this formatting style to. If you use specific text formatting often, then it’s a good idea to create a new Word style based on it. Once you’ve done this, you can simply highlight any text you want, then select this style to apply it. To do this, first…

What is it? Picture in Picture (PiP for short) is a way of continuing to view video content in a small window while you carry out other tasks on your device. Can’t I do that already? Possibly, depending on which device you’re using. Picture in Picture has been around in one shape or another for some time now. Your TV or set-top box, for example, may well display the current channel in a small PiP window while you browse the electronic programme guide (EPG). And, of course, any Windows PC will let you resize your desktop media player window so you can carry on working while a video plays in a corner of your screen. So, what’s new then? Recently, we’ve started to see PiP popping up on other devices,…

Phone tethering This lets you use your phone’s data connection to get your laptop or tablet online. On an Android phone, tap Settings, Network & Internet then ‘Hotspot & tethering’. On an iPhone, tap Settings then Personal Hotspot. Not all mobile networks let you do this, so check with your provider first. Also, as tethering uses your phone’s 3G/4G, don’t use it if you’re getting close to the limit of your monthly data allowance. MiFi Think of this as a mobile Wi-Fi router that lets you take your own secure Wi-Fi bubble wherever you go (at least as long as you’re in range of a mobile-data network). Many providers, including Three, O2, Vodafone and Virgin, offer MiFi deals, with prices starting at about £10 per month. As with a phone…

Q One use for my Windows 7 PC is to organise my family photos and videos. During the winter months I set about collating the current year’s collection, which I back up to three external hard drives (beltand- braces!). I then disconnect those drives to minimise the chance of damage or infections. Currently, I format each external drive before copying over the year’s photos, and sometimes update some of the older ones. This takes ages, as the collection is nearly 500GB. I wondered if you could suggest a method whereby when my photo or video folders are updated the collections on the external hard drives are automatically updated? I am not a PC whiz and, approaching 80, I need something simple. Sandy Cheshire A There are countless backup and imaging…

Q I found Issue 508’s ‘Make Your PC Future-Proof’ feature very interesting, and it’s prompted me to consider upgrading my HP ProBook 450. I would like to sync the 500GB hard drive with an SSD, but I have no idea what would be compatible. Would any SSD fit into the space currently occupied by the hard drive? Ideally I’d want a 500GB model but I could make do with a smaller capacity. Tom Pawson A Your laptop has a 2.5in SATA hard drive, which is the industry standard for laptops. Swapping this for any 2.5in SATA SSD would be straightforward, because your machine’s service manual (at www.snipca.com/25425) tells us that access is via a large panel on the underside — secured with just a single screw. Before you do that,…

Q I downloaded a PDF document on my Kindle Fire. When it finished downloading I got a notification to that effect and by tapping that notification I was able to view the document. A few weeks on I wanted to view the document again, but I have no idea how. I assume it must still be on my Fire somewhere but I’ll be darned if I can figure out where. Could you offer a clue? Helen Douglas A Sure. From your Fire’s home page, first tap the Web tab or the Silk Browser icon. When Silk has launched, tap the ‘hamburger’ menu – that’s the three horizontal lines, at the top left. Now tap Downloads (see screenshot). Your PDF document will be somewhere in the displayed list, but you might…

Where is Outlook’s File tab? QIssue 510’s Make Office Better (page 47) contains an Outlook tip that reads: ‘First click Outlook’s File tab, Options, Mail at the top left, then the Editor Options button at the top right’. My problem is that my version of Outlook has no File Tab that I can find. I have a settings cog at the top right with Options in its dropdown menu, but then there’s no Editor Options button. Can you please advise? Graham Lovelock AWe think you’re confusing Outlook and Outlook.com – a common and understandable mistake. Outlook is the installable Windows program that comes as part of Microsoft Office. Outlook.com is the webmail version accessed online via your browser. From your description, it sounds like you’re using the latter version. You…

2.5D glass Screen design that has a slight curvature at the edge. 32bit A measure of how much information a computer can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit. 3G/4G A set of technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. 720p A common resolution of HD video: 1280x720 pixels. Adware Unwanted adverts that come with software. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Botnet A group of infected computers connected together via the internet, and used to infect other PCs. Client A website or PC program used to access and manage a user’s email. Clone A…

KEN RIGSBY is Computeractive’s Mr Angry I’ve probably been using online services for more years than most people. While I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when I first connected a computer to the outside world, it would have been some time during the 1980s, via a dial-up modem. Remember those? They always felt to me like an electronic version of marriage, ready to emit a series of ear-piercing screeches in my direction every time I fancied a bit of fun. “An attempt to download one of the world’s most popular programs ended up with something unpleasant” I similarly struggle to recall what I actually did once connected but certainly, by the mid 1990s, a lot of my time online was spent downloading. Sometimes I’d go looking for downloadable MP3 files or, if…

UK businesses are going bankrupt because Amazon and eBay are letting taxdodging foreign companies sell on their sites, campaigners have claimed. Experts told MPs in the Commons Public Accounts Committee that non-EU companies, many based in the US and China, admit to not paying 20 per cent VAT, letting them hugely undercut British competitors. Richard Allen from Retailers Against VAT Fraud said it was “easy” to find companies avoiding tax on Amazon’s Marketplace. He added: “I’ve lost count of the number of businesses who have called me saying that they are being affected”. Amazon and eBay told MPs they were clamping down on VAT dodgers. Committee chair Meg Hillier acknowledged this, but added “you are still getting your commission off people who have defrauded the British tax payer”. Amazon said…

BLOCK FACEBOOK FRIENDS FOR 24 HOURS Facebook is testing a ‘snooze’ feature that lets you temporarily block friends, pages and groups for 24 hours, seven days or 30 days. None of their messages will appear in your News Feed during this time. The option seems to be available only in the US at the moment, but is likely to be added worldwide if it proves popular. EU CRACKS DOWN ON ILLEGAL CONTENT It may soon become much harder to find illegal TV and film content online after the EU called for companies like Google and Twitter to do more to remove it. Proposals to be published soon include forcing search engines to use systems that automatically detect prohibited content. The EU also wants sites to pay expert organisations to find…

Companies must tell employees if they are reading their personal emails and messages, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. Its judgement came in a case brought by Romanian software engineer Bogdan Mihai Barbulescu, who claimed he was unlawfully sacked by his company in 2007 for sending private messages using Yahoo Messenger. His employer had used software to secretly monitor his computer activity. He was shown printouts of messages he’d sent, some of which discussed his sex life with his fiancée. A Romanian court ruled in 2016 that the firm was within its rights, a decision now overturned by the ECHR. It said that his company had failed to “strike a fair balance” between protecting his privacy and ensuring the business runs smoothly. The ECHR added that it…

Russian hackers President Trump may have been nothing more than Hillary Clinton’s vanquished opponent if it hadn’t been for those meddling Russians. Do you care? Whatever your political leanings, you should – because it suggests global economic and military decisions are being influenced by hackers, funded by Vladimir Putin, and operating out of ‘troll factories’. According to cyber-security investigators, Russian hackers are “likely” to have used 470 fake Facebook accounts to buy $100,000 (£75,000) worth of propaganda during last year’s US election. The anti-Clinton fake news reached an estimated 70 million voters. One post, since taken down, was seen by four million people, shared 80,000 times and bagged an astonishing 300,000 likes (www.snipca.com/25604). Facebook could have done more to police the accuracy of the news it hosted – but it…

Kids lose ‘sense of adventure’ staring at screens In his thoughtprovoking Star Letter in Issue 510, Keith Bradshaw wondered whether he really learnt much as a child while playing outside “in woods and streams”. I suspect he probably learnt more than he realised, particularly in building character and developing social skills. These are the kind of intangible skills that I fear the younger generation are losing by staring at their screens all day. Like Keith, the long, hot summers of my childhood were spent outdoors. I didn’t learn any specific practical skills relevant to my future career as a successful businessman, but I did cultivate a curious mind that was always looking for adventure. I’m convinced this golden upbringing, where I was mostly left to my own devices, readied me…

Q I took out a broadband and phone package with Zen Internet in April 2016, paying it £90 for an upgraded Fritz!Box 3490 router. Zen agrees the router is now faulty, but it’s no longer covered by its warranty. But surely it is still responsible for fixing it? Peter Capps A Yes it is, even if there’s no warranty. As well as being bound by Ofcom’s rules on broadband speeds, internet service providers (ISPs) must honour customers’ rights as outlined in the Consumer Rights Act. As such, all routers given by ISPs to customers must be fit for purpose. Because Zen admits the router is faulty, it must replace it – no strings attached. However, after his first email Peter told us that Zen had offered him a new Fritz!Box…

Q I bought a £400 Sony CyberShot DSC-HX400v camera in April 2014 from a local camera shop in Derby, called the London Camera Exchange. In 2015 the error code ‘E:62:10’ appeared. The camera shop returned it to Sony for repair, for which I had to pay £105. The same problem has reappeared, and Sony says I’ve got to pay again for a repair. Is this right? Frank Dean A Frank shouldn’t have been charged for the first repair, let alone a potential second. This is because the E:62:10 error seems to be an inherent fault, as explained on this repair site – www.snipca.com/25522 – and admitted by Sony. London Camera Exchange should have repaired it for free, or sent Frank a replacement. If neither was possible, it should have refunded…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake pension sites with ‘real’ advice What’s the threat? Fake pension-investment sites are carrying anti-scam advice and warnings in a shameless bid to appear legitimate. Some are using material taken from Project Bloom, a campaign the Government launched in 2015 to warn people about pension scams. Others try to reassure visitors by referring to real pension issues, such as the tax implications of accessing your money before you turn 55. The Pensions Regulator (TPR), one of the agencies behind Project Bloom, called them the “next generation of scam sites”. TPR chief executive Lesley Titcomb said: “These sites are wolves in sheep’s clothing, lying in wait for unsuspecting victims by portraying themselves as being beyond reproach”. TPR hasn’t revealed which scam sites it is investigating because it doesn’t…

PHOTO ENHANCEMENT TOOL ON1 Effects 10.5 Free www.snipca.com/25540 What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 There are plenty of good free image-editing tools about – Paint.net and Gimp, for example. However, few let you add great-looking filters and effects to your photos as easily and effectively as ON1 Effects Free. This photo-enhancement tool can be used as a standalone program or be integrated into an existing image-editing tool as a plug-in. It supports Photoshop Elements, Adobe Lightroom and others. If you want a really way to liven up your photos, ON1 Effects has dozens of ready-made presets to choose from, including vignettes, vintage styles and even filters that emulate the look of classic camera film types from Kodak, Ilford, Fuji and more. Click the Filters tab for even more…

This new Android tablet is the cheapest to include a SIM slot, so you can use the internet anywhere with a mobile-phone signal rather than only where there’s Wi-Fi. It supports 4G networks as well as older protocols. Of course, Vodafone’s reason for throwing in this feature – up to £100 extra with other tablets – is that it wants to sell you a mobile-data contract. This starts at £12 a month for 24 months, which adds up to at least £288 and throws the whole ‘budget tablet’ concept out of the window. Opt to pay as you go instead, though, and you can top up five or 10 pounds at a time just to cover those situations away from home when you really need to get online and can’t…

Which processor do I need for overclocking my PC? Q I’ve read your reviews of PCs based on AMD’s Ryzen processors, and they seem like better value for money than Intel, but there are so many processors and specifications. Which is the best option for a decent mid-range Windows 10 desktop PC? I’m interested in overclocking if possible. Peter Jenkins A Intel’s i5 range has offered a great performance at a good price for years. For overclocking you’d want the i5-7600K (£215), which we first saw in the Chillblast Fusion Hubble (£1,050 from www.snipca.com/25550) but is also found in cheaper PCs. A few pounds more would get you AMD’s Ryzen 5 1600X (pictured), which has six cores versus the 7600K’s four, making multitasking easy, but it starts at a slower…

Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate is packed with powerful new tools and updates to dramatically improve your video editing. These include a redesigned interface to speed and simplify your workflow and new Paint Effects to transform your movie into a storybooklike animation. There are also new Morph transitions to make seamless cuts between scenes and merge video so that there is no discernable beginning or end. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘pinnacle’ in the subject line by midnight 10 October. Pinnacle Studio 21 Ultimate is available to buy now from www.pinnaclesys.com/en priced £114.95. There are also standard and ‘Plus’ editions priced £59.95 and £89.95 respectively. For more information ‘like’ Pinnacle’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/PinnacleSys) and follow @corelsoftware on Twitter.…

ANDROID Use Google Play’s new security features Google has added a new service called Play Protect to the Play Store. This runs periodic scans on all your apps. If any of them don’t meet Google’s security standards, you’ll see a notification to uninstall it. Play Protect is only available on the latest version of the Play Store. To check and update your version, open the Play Store, tap the three lines at the top left, scroll to the bottom, tap Settings, then scroll to the bottom again and tap the Play Store version’ section. If there’s an update available, it’ll begin downloading. Otherwise, you’ll see a message saying your Play Store is up to date. Now reopen the Play Store, tap the three lines at the top left, then tap…

WINDOWS 7, 8, 10 Get earlier warnings about low battery If you use a Windows laptop, you’ve probably seen a pop-up message telling you to save your work before your PC goes into Hibernation mode. This appears when your PC has about 5 per cent battery charge remaining, giving you just enough time to connect your charger or to save your work. There’s an easy way to see this warning earlier, so it appears when you have, say, 10 per cent remaining. The fastest way to do this is to press the Windows key, type power options, then press Enter. In Windows 10, click ‘Additional power settings’ at the top right, then (in all versions) click the ‘Change plan settings’ link beside the current plan you have selected for your…

Make room for more notifications Click the speech-bubble icon at the far right of the taskbar to open the Action Center and you’ll see a grid of ‘Quick actions’ tiles that takes up around a third of the notifications column. If you don’t use all these then removing a few will free up space for more notifications. Click Start, the settings cog, System, then ‘Notifications & actions’. Under ‘Quick actions’ click the ‘Add or remove quick actions’ link, then switch off those you don’t need (see screenshot below). Block personal messages when your PC is locked It’s handy having notifications appear on the Windows 10 lock screen, but you might want to keep more personal notifications away from prying eyes. There’s a way you can get some level of control…

Email has become a large part of many people’s lives, so it’s no surprise that it provokes a huge amount of questions and gripes from our readers. One thing that your queries and comments highlight is how many ways people access their email, whether it’s via your internet service provider (ISP) or a webmail or PC-based email client – a web tool or program you use to read and write your emails. And there’s plenty of choice out there. Google (Gmail), Microsoft (Outlook), Yahoo, BT, Virgin Media, Sky and many other providers offer email services and PC programs. With so much to choose from it’s easy to get confused. Should you use a web-based client, such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail? Should you opt for a Windows-based program that you…

Q I bought myself a Kindle Paperwhite. I learned I can send documents via email, but the email address is one issued by Amazon: it’s my initial, surname, then an underscore, random numbers and @kindle.com. I find this hard to remember. Is there a way to choose my own email address? Ralph Fortune A Yes, you can do this, though finding an available unique email address might be tricky, which is why Amazon issues random ones. Also, you have no option but to use the @kindle.com domain, so you can choose only the bit to the left of the @ symbol. First visit your Amazon ‘Manage Your Content and Devices’ page, at www.amazon.co.uk/mycd. Now click to select the Your Devices tab and, to the left of the entry that relates…