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I’m not sure I would fit Microsoft’s description of a ‘Creator’. Ever since my first badly drawn Mother’s Day card at primary school, I’ve been pretty useless at making things. So I fear that the new Paint 3D app in the Creators Update will be lost on me. But not so the other new tools, all of which make Windows 10 much easier to use. We explain what they do in our Cover Feature (page 50). Taken together, I think they amount to the best ever update to any version of Windows. Think that’s overstating it? Please let me know. I’d like to thank everyone who emailed me to say how much they enjoyed our special 500th issue. I’m delighted you had as much fun reading it as we had…

Virgin is turning customers’ home routers into public Wi-Fi hotspots, promising that it won’t slow broadband speeds and will be entirely safe. But you can opt out if you want (see box below). HOW TO OPT OUT 1 Sign into your My Virgin Media account at www.virginmedia.com/ myvirginmedia 2 Select My Profile at the top of the page 3 Scroll down and select ‘Opt out of Virgin Media WiFi’ 4 Click Confirm For now Virgin is turning only the SuperHub v3 routers (pictured) into hotspots, but is planning to add older models by the end of the year. The company has written to affected customers reassuring them that “the broadband you pay for stays exclusively yours, and remains just as secure”. In an FAQ (www.snipca.com/24186) Virgin says that its public…

Webroot has provided a temporary fix for a problem that was causing its antivirus software to classify Windows as malware, causing chaos for millions of PC users and businesses worldwide. For two hours on 24 April it wrongly identified essential Windows files as Trojans, making it impossible for many people to use their computer. It also flagged up some genuine websites, including Facebook, as containing scams. Overall, the error led to one of the biggest ever cases of antivirus software reporting false positives. The problem was caused by a faulty update to Webroot’s database of malware signatures, which are algorithms that identify viruses. Angry Webroot users bombarded the company with complaints. A thread about the flaw on the company’s forums (www.snipca.com/ 24235) had reached 28 pages within three days. The…

Parents are using mobile phones so much that it’s disrupting family life, according to a survey of 2,000 11 to 18-year-olds. More than a third of children said they had asked their parents to stop checking their phones, and a fifth blamed phones for preventing family members from enjoying each other’s company. Nearly half of children said their parents ignored their request to put down their phones. The research, carried out by Digital Awareness UK (DAUK, www.digitalawarenessuk.com) and the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), will surprise those who think that children are more addicted to phones than adults. Meal times are a particular source of conflict. Over 80 per cent of children said phones shouldn’t be used while the family is eating. But parents don’t seem to realise the harm…

What they say Elon Musk (www.snipca.com/24190): “There are a bunch of concepts in your head that your brain has to try to compress into this incredibly low data rate called speech. If we can effectively merge with AI by improving the neural link between your cortex and the digital extension of yourself… then effectively you become an AI human symbiote.” What they mean Elon wants to merge your brain with a computer. He may speak nonsense but the PayPal founder is a self-made billionaire, so he can say what he wants.…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Tech since 1998: good news and bad news Following your request for readers’ memories of computing, I’d like to reflect on its impact in the past 20 years. In 1998, as an early adopter for my work’s new email rollout, I was glad to say goodbye to the office memorandum. Almost 20 years later, flexible, direct and instant email has squarely taken over most people’s working lives. This is to the point where you could easily spend all day simply answering emails without actually doing much else. In 1998, the town in which I then worked was in the midst of a shoppingled, post-recession building spree, both in the centre and its fringes. Meanwhile, at home in…

Is copper wiring slowing my broadband? Q I have BT Infinity broadband, which is meant to give me up to 38Mbps. However, despite BT saying I can get the full speed, the most I can get is around 4Mbps. Is it the old copper wire to my property that’s the problem? What do you suggest I do? Godfrey Swan A It’s hard for us to know what’s causing Godfrey’s broadband problems, but it could be the copper wiring. Ofcom told us that he should contact BT so that Openreach, which is responsible for the UK’s broadband network, can test his lines. It may be able to replace the copper wires if they turn out to be faulty, but there’s a risk he’ll be charged for the work so he needs…

Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Write: Consumeractive, Computeractive, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD Please include both your phone number and address. Unfortunately, we can’t reply to all your letters. Q An Asus laptop I bought from an online computer retailer for £1,000 in November 2016 was faulty from the start and was sent back to Asus for a repair. But when it came back the fault hadn’t been fixed. The shop said it had tested it and couldn’t find a fault, but again sent it back to Asus. Two months later I’ve still not got it back. Can you help? Jenny Prentiss A This retailer has been promising Jenny her laptop for weeks now, so it’s time to focus our attention on alternative solutions…

Canarytokens http://canarytokens.org As recently as the late 1980s coal miners were taking canaries down pits to warn them about carbon-monoxide poisoning. The modern computing equivalent are Canary ‘tokens’, which are PC files that detect when someone has opened a Word document or folder on your PC, and tell you by email. It might be vital sign that a hacker has infiltrated your PC. To set this up visit the URL above, then click the ‘Select your token’ dropdown menu. To be alerted when a Word document is opened, you first need to create it. Click ‘Microsoft Word Document’ in the menu, add your email address and a reminder note, then click ‘Create my Canarytoken’. Download the document, write in it, then save when finished. It’s a similar process for folders,…

PC MONITOR ? £344 from Scan www.snipca.com/24193 While the smallest screens (on smartphones) have got much sharper in recent years, the biggest (on 27in-plus desktop PC monitors) have lagged behind. You can now buy 4K or Ultra HD (UHD) screens, with twice the resolution of Fullh HD both across and down, for about the same price as this monitor, but you’d have to spend more for the best picture quality in that format. The most comfortable way to use UHD’s 3840x2160 pixels is to adjust Windows’ scaling so that everything appears the same size, but significantly sharper. “It’s a tidy, modern monitor, but colours lack accuracy” The ProLite XUB2792 takes a different approach, offering a halfway-house resolution of 2560x1440 pixels. That means you can fit in more work (or more…

PHONE ? £549 from Huawei Vmall www.snipca.com/24166 Huawei’s P9 (see our review, Issue 476) was notable for introducing the concept of a dual camera that offers two lenses that work together to provide a range of focal lengths. This means no more fuzzy digital zoom or faking the kind of background blur that can be produced by a full-size camera with a wide-angle lens. Apple then followed suit with the dual camera in the iPhone 7 Plus. The P9’s successor still has the dual camera, and as before it works very well, though it’s relatively weak in low light. Everything else has changed. The new case has a matt rear panel, which is less prone to scuffing, and the fingerprint sensor has moved to the front, not a change we…

Win 1 of 3 Exciting features in the latest version of Corel’s Pinnacle Studio Ultimate include 360-degree video editing, Easy Track Transparency, Motion Tracking and Mosaic Blur. You can also enjoy Multi-Camera Editing and Stop Motion Animation, plus more than 2,000 effects and templates. Winners can get the free update to version 20.5, which contains extra features including Split Screen video, template creation, and more. To enter this competition, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘pinnacle’ in the subject line by midnight 23 May. Pinnacle Studio 20.5 is available in three versions - standard (£39.95), Plus (£59.95) and Ultimate (£74.95) - all available to buy from www.pinnaclesys.com. For more information follow @corelsoftware on Twitter.…

ANDROID & iOS Avoid parking tickets Google has updated its Maps app with a feature that lets you save where you parked your car and how long you can park there. This can help you avoid parking tickets. Announcing the feature in its blog (www.snipca.com/24215), Google said that “if you connect to your car using USB audio or Bluetooth, your parking spot will be automatically added to the map when you disconnect and exit the vehicle”. If your car doesn’t have USB audio or Bluetooth, open Google Maps (default on Android; iOS www.snipca.com/24216) after parking your car. You should now see your current location as a blue dot on the map. Tap the dot to see a menu at the bottom, then tap ‘Save your parking’. You’ll see an option…

WINDOWS 10 Hide files and folders There’s an easy way to hide files and folders in Windows 10. This is a good method to protect sensitive content from prying eyes. To do this, navigate to the location of the file/ folder within File Explorer, right-click the item you want to hide, then click Properties. Now tick Hidden at the bottom, then click Apply. If you’re hiding a folder, you’ll see a pop-up window. Select ‘Apply changes to this folder, subfolder and files’ (see screenshot below), then click OK twice. This file/folder now won’t be visible within File Explorer. To see it, click the View tab at the top, then tick ‘Hidden items’ in the ‘Show/hide’ section. If you want to make the file/folder visible again, right-click it, click Properties, untick…

Convert a PDF back to a Word document without flaws The best way to convert a PDF back to Word is by using Nitro’s PDF converter (www.pdftoword.com) because it will keep all the formatting. Go to the website and you’ll see Nitro’s ‘PDF to Word Converter’ tool on the left. By default, it’s set to convert PDFs to Word documents. Click Word and choose either Excel or PowerPoint in the dropdown menu if you prefer Next click ‘Select your file’, navigate to the PDF you want to convert and select it, enter your email address in the ‘Email converted file to’ box, then click Convert Now (see screenshot right). After a few seconds you should see a pop-up with a green tick to indicate the process has completed. Ignore the…

Q I have an Epson Stylus Photo printer that was turning out excellent prints until its own software ‘locked’ it. Epson quoted a small fortune to fix it, which I see as an insult. Why has this happened? And is there any way I can unlock it without paying? Mike Wooldridge A This happened because many Epson printers have a built-in ‘protection counter’ that tracks the number of pages printed before stopping any more from being produced. This, ostensibly, is because the devices contain ink pads that can’t be replaced. Further use, says Epson, might damage the printer, so its solution is a costly service — or the purchase of a new printer. You can read Epson’s explanation at www.snipca.com/24060. For a while the firm did offer a free unlock…

Q I have the same problem as David Miller in Issue 496’s ‘Problem of the Fortnight’, in that I want to change my Gmail address. However, I use the current address to log into Facebook. Will I be able to log into Facebook with the new Gmail address? James Thompson A You’ll still be able to log into Facebook with the current Gmail address because that’s the one registered as your primary Facebook address and, at login, Facebook treats it only as a username. However, assuming you shut down this Gmail account then you really should update Facebook with the new address, or else you’ll miss any Facebook emails and – critically – also the ability to recover your Facebook account should something go wrong. To do this you must…

Q I sometimes see advice in Computeractive that to log into a router one needs to type 192.168.1.1 into the browser’s address bar. When I do this I get a message saying that the site can’t be reached. I’ve tried it in different browsers, and even tried adding the ‘http://’ part beforehand, as I see this on other websites — but every time it fails. What am I doing wrong, and how do I log into my router? Jack Jenkins A It depends on your specific router. Many routers use 192.168.1.1 as the address for the login screen, but others use 192.168.0.1 (and a few more use different addresses). To find the address of yours, first press Windows key+R, then type ncpa.cpl and press Enter. Next, double-click the icon representing…

Q I bought two PC games from a charity shop — FIFA 13 and Football Manager 2014. Installing FIFA required me to open an account with something called Origin. This asked for the key code for FIFA 13, but then told me that my code had already been used. Well, yes, it’s a second-hand game! I couldn’t get any further. I had the same problem with Football Manager, though this was through a service called Steam. What’s this all about? These companies have their money from the original buyer, who passed them on to charity so that others (me!) might benefit. Does this mean that all second-hand PC games are useless? Or is there a way around this? Terry Chudley A It doesn’t mean that all secondhand games are useless…

Mobile not-spots KEN RIGSBY is Computeractive’s Mr Angry Confession time - I have a touring caravan! Yep, I’m one of those infuriating wide loads that delights in hogging the motorway’s middle lane for miles, before turning off to crawl at 20mph on a B road that lasts forever and has no passing places. Be assured, I take care to do this only during the warmer months, ensuring that I ruin everyone else’s holidays as well as my own. Come summer, barely a weekend passes without Mrs Rigsby instructing me to attach our fibreglass box to the back of our Mini. More often than not, she’ll instruct me to drive to some out-of-theway beauty spot. It isn’t always Bangor, but recently it was. Well, quite nearby – and for a whole…

Windows 10 users can look forward to two major updates a year after Microsoft announced a ‘release schedule’ for the operating system (OS). In a blog post www.snipca.com/24207 the company said updates will be released every March and September. It will support each update with security fixes and new tools for 18 months, which means that the November Update, released in late 2015, will be ‘retired’ in October this year. However, it’s not known when this new schedule will begin. Microsoft said the next update, codenamed Redstone 3, is “targeted” for September, but that might not mean it’s released in that month. The new policy marks a big change to Microsoft’s previous system of releasing major updates as and when they were ready. The company’s aim is to give users…

LET RIVAL ISPs USE BT’S CABLES Ofcom has unveiled plans to make it more straightforward for rival companies to access BT’s broadband infrastructure, which is run by Openreach. It says that internet service providers such as Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk must be allowed to lay fibre-optic cables using Openreach’s tunnels and poles “as easily as BT” does. It’s part of a long-term aim to increase broadband competition in the UK. FACEBOOK’S ‘QUEEN IS DEAD’ AD HYPOCRISY Facebook has been accused of hypocrisy for cracking down on ‘fake’ news while continuing to show adverts with misleading headlines, including one that claimed the Queen had died. A Press Association investigation found several hoax ads that promised sensationalised gossip about celebrities. One said that Hugh Laurie had committed suicide, while another claimed Alan…

HALF OF UK FIRMS HACKED IN 2016 Nearly half of British companies were attacked by hackers in the past year, a Government report has found. The ‘Cyber security breaches survey’, which was completed by 1,500 businesses, indicated that 46 per cent had detected an attack. Most of the security breaches were the result of staff being tricked into opening an email that contained malware, or clicking a link to a dangerous website. The Government said that a “sizeable proportion” of businesses still lack “basic protections”. GOOGLE AD?BLOCKER FOR CHROME? Google is planning to build an advert blocker into Chrome, according to reports. It would mean users of the browser could block online adverts without installing an add-on, such as the popular Adblock Plus. Google makes most of its money from…

AVG What’s AVG up to now? Recently, it tried to trick reader Walter Blanchard out of £64.99 to upgrade its free program, AVG Internet Security (see Named & Shamed, Issue 492). Now, these upgrade traps are turning users into bait for hackers. Reader John Wilson – a loyal AVG user of many years – wrote to us to say he turned down a ‘Free Update’ pop-up from AVG, suspecting it was just a free trial. Then the pop-ups took a frightening turn. “I was informed I was no longer covered. I am very worried that I could be attacked and my computer wrecked. This is blackmail!” Fortunately, it’s not and John doesn’t have to pay anything to stay safe. But AVG has cried ‘Upgrade!’ so many times that users are…

Gordon Hart’s letter in Issue 499 – ‘What’s needed (and not) in a phone’ – certainly struck a chord with me, being a very technically capable pensioner with a husband, parents and in-laws who, shall we say, are very much less so. But I think I know what the problem is. Mobile phones are designed by young people who have no experience of dealing with the elderly, or what the physical consequences of ageing are. What young people think it’s like to age and what they assume will be of use to older people is far removed from the actuality. Even Doro, who market phones for older people, don’t get it right, including stuff older people won’t need but omitting high-contrast screens, large fonts and loud ringtones. So manufacturers –…

Q If I get a replacement laptop, how long should it last? Amazon has refused to help with a faulty laptop it replaced ‘as new’ 11 months ago, saying that it’s out of warranty. I believe that because it was a new replacement I should still have a 12-month warranty and six years protection under the Consumer Rights Act (CRA). Am I correct? John Watch A John’s fully entitled to seek redress under the CRA, but he’s not entirely correct about what his rights are. Warranties don’t start anew with a repair or replacement, unless the manufacturer or retailer agreed this. If they did, customers could continuously use their warranties before they ran out to replace their devices, never again having to buy a new one. However, he’s right to…

By law retailers and manufacturers have to publicise any product recalls, but unless you check their websites regularly or it makes national headlines these are easy to miss. It’s clearly a serious problem because customers return only 10 to 20 per cent of recalled products. To increase awareness, the Retail Ombudsman has set up UK Recall (http://ukrecall.org. uk), a free service that emails you info on recalls and safety notices for electrical devices. To use it, simply register your device by clicking a category. To see what’s been recalled recently click the top-right Menu button (three horizontal lines), then ‘Search Recall List’. You can filter the results by product type and brand name. At the bottom of the home page, under the ‘Quick Links’ heading, is a very useful link:…

EMAIL CLIENT Thunderbird 52 www.snipca.com/24148 What you need:Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 We know from your feedback that you like email programs (clients) that you can install on your PC for managing multiple email accounts – without always needing to be online. And Thunderbird 52 (its first big release in a year) is the best client around. Version 52 makes your security top priority. It now blocks photos, adverts and other ‘remote content’ in emails by default. It’s also much easier to use, thanks to a new Folder Pane Toolbar and an Events sidebar that you previously had to install an extension to get. Thunderbird now integrates with Twitter so you can send and receive Direct Messages, as well as offering smoother integration with Office and LibreOffice. It’s…

What does it do? ‘The cloud’ is just a way to describe keeping your digital files on a remote server (see image) that’s owned and maintained by someone else, typically a big company like Microsoft or Google. Now that the internet is just about everywhere, it’s increasingly feasible to access everything online rather than from a PC hard drive. Why would I want it? Many of us use more than one computer these days, and if you’re out and about with one and you realise you need a file that’s on another, you’re stuck. Using the cloud means you can access your files from anywhere, even using someone else’s computer. It also means they won’t disappear if you have a burst pipe in your study or the cat knocks your…

PHONE ? £250 from Carphone Warehouse www.snipca.com/24160 The story so far: Motorola made a brilliant budget smartphone called the Moto G. Lenovo bought the company and kept updating the Moto G, and it continued to beat every rival low-cost model. Then, a couple of months ago, the Moto G5 came out, and you can read our review in Issue 500. But in short, we were unimpressed. So can the G5 Plus – which runs Android 7.0 Nougat – win us back? It has a slightly bigger screen than the G5, but smaller than last year’s G4. Its splash-resistant metal-and-plastic case (in grey or gold) is slimmer, but the rear camera sticks out. That’s because it’s a superior component, similar to the one in Samsung’s Galaxy S7. Unlike dual camera phones,…

Would an Asus VivoBook suit my needs? Q I’m planning to buy a new laptop, and it’s been suggested that the 15in Asus VivoBook Pro N552VX would fit my criteria. I’ve checked my Computeractive back issues but you don’t seem to have covered these models. Any advice? Paul Dixon A We don’t review every laptop because some differ only in small ways. For example, while we haven’t tested the Asus VivoBook Pro N552VX, we did review its close cousin the N552VW (Issue 480, pictured). These models look identical, so what we said about build quality should apply, along with our caveat that it’s quite heavy. The model we tested had an i7 processor, while the N552VX comes with an i5 (£725 from Ebuyer www.snipca.com/24213), which is slower but generally fine.…

No.19 AI FOR ERROR MESSAGES In the old days, when something didn’t work as expected, your computer would show a little box saying so. It still happens in Windows occasionally, but surely a little artificial intelligence would be helpful these days. However, it’s more common for things to just not happen. You select Wi-Fi, but five minutes later your phone’s still using mobile data. Did you fail to log in? Too many people trying to connect? You click a video in your web browser, but get a rotating circle. Has the internet gone down? Is it just that site? Software is pretty clever these days, and it has access to a huge amount of information. Instead of you trying to figure out what went wrong, why can’t Alexa, Cortana or…

What you need: Blizz; Windows 7, 8 or 10; Android or iOS (phone or tablet) Time required: 35 minutes TeamViewer, our favourite program for remotely accessing other PCs, has launched Blizz. This free PC program lets you share whatever you do on your PC with up to 10 people, making it perfect for free video chats with the whole family, wherever they live. It’s also a great way for people to help each other when trying to fix tech problems, and for sharing files quickly. STEP 1 To install Blizz, go to www.snipca.com/24203, click the green Download Now button, then run the setup file. You’ll see the program’s main interface, with options to ‘Share screen’ 1 , and start a video 2 or audio call 3 . You’ll also see…

Yahoo Mail Free Android: www.snipca.com/24222 The latest update to the Yahoo Mail app has added support for Gmail, Outlook and AOL accounts. You’ll see the option to add these accounts when you install the app. It gives you 1TB of free onlinestorage space and you can customise what swiping across emails does (delete, archive, move, etc.). iMovie & GarageBand Free iMovie: www.snipca.com/24223 GarageBand: www.snipca.com/24224 Apple has made its video- and music-editing apps completely free. Previously, they were only free if you bought an iPhone or iPad after 1 September 2013. If you had an older device, GarageBand was £3.99 and iMovie £12.99. We’ll show you how to use iMovie in the next issue. Microsoft Flow Free Windows Phone: www.snipca.com/24225 In Issue 491, we showed you how to use Flow, Microsoft’s…

What is it? A new website that tries to guess what you’re drawing, then turns it into a professional version, transforming your rough scribbles into art. How does it do that? By using what’s behind so many great websites at the moment: machine learning. The more pictures that AutoDraw sees, the more accurate its guesses become – using artificial intelligence only, rather than human. It’s the latest addition to Google’s brilliant collection of AI Experiments aiexperiments.withgoogle.com). What if I can’t draw? That doesn’t matter. Just go to www.autodraw.com (on your PC, phone or tablet) and start doodling on screen with your mouse or (if you have a touchscreen) your finger. We drew a cat, as you can see in Screenshot 1. AutoDraw will try to identify what’s in your picture,…

Audible www.audible.co.uk Price: £7.99 per month (free 30-day trial) Audible – Amazon’s audiobook service – offers more than 200,000 titles, from classics to the latest bestsellers. Members are eligible for discounts of up to 70 per cent and get one free audiobook per month. Users can stream or download books to any device using the app. Audible’s main selling points are the huge choice and the many titles narrated by celebrities, including Stephen Fry and Eddie Redmayne. Downpour www.downpour.com Price: $12.99 per month (£10.13) Downpour is Audible’s chief rival and offers a similar service, including its very own celebrity readers. It’s worth checking the prices on both services before pitching your tent in either camp. Disappointingly, some books on Downpour are unavailable for download in the UK, highlighting the company’s…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk Q I have for a while been running a corporate version of Malwarebytes alongside IObit’s Advanced SystemCare (ASC). All has been well until recently when Malwarebytes quarantined all the IObit files, classifying them as potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). Well over 1,000 files ended up in quarantine. I have a desktop and two laptops and unfortunately all three did the same. When I move files out of quarantine, they soon end up back there again. I went to the Malwarebytes site where it makes various allegations over copyright of their virus database being breached by IObit. This seems to be something to do with it, and I’m piggy in the middle. Do I now have to decide which of the two…

Q I bought an iPhone 7, to which I’ve added both my Gmail and Hotmail (Outlook.com) accounts. I initially thought everything was working well but I recently noticed that, when sending from my Hotmail account, the iPhone’s Mail app was actually using outlook.com as the domain. This means messages look as if they’re coming from myemailaddress@ outlook.com rather than myemailaddress@hotmail.com. I did register the outlook.com variant just to secure it but don’t wish to use it. Sadly, it seems my iPhone has other ideas! If I tap the address in the composition screen’s From field, the only other option offered is my Gmail address. I want to be able to send specifically from my Hotmail address. Is this possible, or doesn’t Apple want me to for some reason? Martin Harris…

Why won’t my laptop and phone connect via Bluetooth? QI tried to follow your instructions regarding the transfer of files from my PC to my phone via Bluetooth (Issue 500, page 46), but I couldn’t see the ‘Bluetooth and other device settings’ option when I typed Bluetooth into the Start menu. I definitely switched on Bluetooth on my phone, so it seems that my laptop is to blame. Is this because my laptop needs a driver or some kind of adjustment? Brian Watson AWe contacted Brian for more details regarding his computer and found that his particular laptop (a Toshiba model) didn’t have Bluetooth built in. To check if your PC supports Bluetooth, click Start, type device manager, then press Enter. When the Device Manager window opens you’ll see a…

EU CRIMINALISES SALE OF KODI BOXES The European Court of Justice has ruled that it’s illegal to sell set-top boxes specifically built to make it easy to watch paid-for films and TV for free. It effectively bans the sale of so-called Kodi boxes, which are devices containing the controversial TV-streaming software. The Court made its decision in a case between a seller of TV boxes and an anti-piracy group both from the Netherlands. LAPTOPS ‘FACE BAN ON UK FLIGHTS President Trump may ban passengers flying from the UK taking laptops, ebook readers and tablets as hand luggage. He is reportedly considering extending the ban (currently affecting Middle East countries) to Europe, forcing passengers to stow large electronic devices in the hold. The ban came amid fears that terrorists had created…

Wildlife tours featuring videos presented by Sir David Attenborough are among the spectacular features in the new version of Google Earth. They appear in the new Voyager section of Google Earth, which contains dozens of tours (see box below) that zoom around the planet and include videos (from the BBC among others) and location details. For example, the ‘World’s Most Dramatic Mountains’ tour starts at the Matterhorn in the Alps, finishes at Mount Everest (pictured right), and in between visits peaks in Peru, South Africa and Norway. Attenborough’s tours include footage of birds of paradise and Africa’s ‘big five beasts’. To access the Voyager section visit www.google.com/ earth, click the Launch Google Earth button, then click the steering-wheel icon in the left-hand menu (see screenshot above). Also new is the…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: FileZilla Remember FTP? File Transfer Protocol used to be one of the few ways to send someone a huge file such as a video or ZIP. Free programs like FileZilla (https://filezillaproject.org) made FTP technology available to everyday users. Still does, in fact. The likes of Dropbox and Google Drive have made it easier and arguably safer to share massive files, but FTP still has its fans – and FileZilla continues to be updated. Version 3.25 – out in March – ditches support for Windows Vista and features “major refactoring of the FileZilla internals” (a phrase I really should have saved for the box below). If you’re tantalised by this jargon or tempted to install FileZilla for old times’ sake, be warned. There’s junk in them…

Ken Rigsby’s Final Straw columns have me laughing and ranting in equal measure. He is certainly thought-provoking. But I think he was protesting too much in Issue 500’s column, where he named five things that are worse in 2017 than in 1998, when Computeractive launched. In fact, I think all five things he nominated are areas where technology has actually improved. Let’s start with knobs, as Ken did. He lamented the passing of twiddly knobs for changing settings on monitors. But to my eyes they always looked ugly. Much better to have onscreen icons that do the same job. Next up, printers. Now Ken may have a point that replacing cartridges is expensive, but in general printers are immeasurably better than they were. I had one in my home in…

Q I bought a second-hand Samsung Galaxy S6 phone from an eBay seller, which he claimed was only three months old. If something goes wrong is the phone’s warranty still valid? Jim Burchall A This depends on whether the warranty is transferable. Normally, a warranty is a contract between the original buyer and the manufacturer, but Jim could get round this by pretending to be the original purchaser, and supplying copies of the original receipt or invoice. He should of course get permission from the seller to do this. However, before doing this we’d advise Jim to contact Samsung with the phone’s IMEI number, so it can tell him where and when the phone was first sold. He’ll then know whether the seller told him the true age of the…

WATCH OUT FOR… ‘System Update’ apps with spyware What’s the threat? Android apps that claim to provide access to updates for the operating system, but actually send your location to hackers. Researchers at US security company Zscaler discovered that an app called System Update installed the SMSVova spyware on to phones and tablets. Worryingly, the app had lurked unnoticed in Google’s Play store since 2014, being downloaded between 1 and 5 million times. Google has now removed it, but hasn’t commented on why it wasn’t detected earlier. After being downloaded the app showed the message “Unfortunately, Update Service has stopped”, and hid its icon from the screen. But this disguised its real intention, which was to find the last known location of the user, and read text messages sent by…

What can I use instead of Picasa? Q I always used the desktop version of Picasa for organising my digital photos. I liked that it displayed photos in a simple way, by date and place, and also let me create slideshows. But since reinstalling Windows 10 I find I can no longer download it and can’t find a suitable replacement. Can you help? Michael Elliott A You can still get the installable version of Picasa from mirror sites such as FileHippo (www.snipca.com/24158) - but these often bundle junk in their installers, and Google no longer supports Picasa. We’ve seen a few unofficial “Picasa” apps for Windows 10, but they tend to disappear quite quickly. Google wants you to move on to Google Photos (https:// photos.google.com). In fact, your Picasa photos…

Computeractive is owned by Dennis Publishing, which owns a hi-tech facility for testing the latest technology. You’ll often read references to our benchmark testing, which is a method of assessing products using the same criteria. For example, we test the speed of every PC and the battery life of every tablet in exactly the same way. This makes our reviews authoritative, rigorous and accurate. Dennis Publishing also owns the magazines PC Pro, Computer Shopper and Web User and the websites Expert Reviews (www.expertreviews.co.uk) and Alphr (www.alphr.com). This means we can test thousands of products before choosing the most relevant for Computeractive. FAIR AND IMPARTIAL Our writers follow strict guidelines to ensure the reviews are fair and impartial. The manufacturer has no involvement in our tests. OUR AWARDS We award every…

TABLET ? £600 from John Lewis www.snipca.com/24140 Let’s be honest: Android has never worked as well as Apple’s iOS on tablets. On phones, they’re pretty much neck-and-neck. Bump up the screen size, and iOS apps – the ones Apple gives you free, like GarageBand and iMovie; the important ones like Microsoft Word and Excel; and the 700,000-odd App Store apps specifically made for iPad – feel comfortable. Android apps often feel awkward, and may not work smoothly. So an Android tablet needs to work hard to compete for your money. Now, it’s 18 months since we tested Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 (see our review, Issue 462). Back then, it cost £400, while Apple’s rival was the iPad Air 2 at £399. Today, the iPad 9.7in costs just £339. And here’s…

£15 fromwww.snipca.com/23209 Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2016 Back Issue CD: LAPTOP Dell Inspiron 15 5000 £699 from www.snipca.com/23375 Tested: Issue 459 Now updated with Intel’s seventhgeneration processors, this laptop ( not the 2-in-1 version) now edges the ZenBook below and starts at just £449, but mid-range configurations with SSD and AMD R7 graphics are the best choice. ALTERNATIVE: Asus ZenBook UX305CA If you want something sleeker, this offers basic performance in a superbly slim and light metal case. £600 from www.snipca.com/23376 ANDROID TABLET NEW ENTRY Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7 £600 from www.snipca.com/24140 Tested: Issue 501 Samsung’s new mid-sized tablet has a wonderful HDR screen and comes with a pen included, unlike Apple’s iPad Pro. But its processor isn’t the fastest and it’s disappointingly expensive, especially…

What you need: Windows 7 to 10; Android phone or tablet; iPhone or iPad Time required: 20 minutes In our cover feature in Issue 498, we explained why the latest version of Kodi (Krypton) is the best free media player for watching films and listening to music. There’s an easy way to navigate Kodi and control playback on your PC using free remote-control apps on your phone or tablet. We’ll show you which Kodi settings you need to tweak on your PC to make this work, and how to get the most out of the Android and iOS apps. STEP 1 By default, the Kodi PC program (www.snipca.com/24178) doesn’t let you remotely control it. To enable this, open Kodi, click the cog (settings) icon at the top left, then the…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Make your most-used programs easily accessible A few days ago, I decided to update my PC and saw a message asking me to install the Windows 10 Creators Update. I was initially sceptical, but I followed the Workshop in Issue 500 (on page 40) about the safety measures to take before installing the Creators Update, so I decided to give it a go. My PC was updated after a few hours and everything went pretty smoothly. However, I noticed that whenever I right-clicked an image, then moved my cursor to ‘Open with’, the right-click menu list didn’t display IrfanView and PicPick – the programs I use to edit my photos and screenshots. Instead, it only showed me Microsoft’s default programs – Photos, Paint and Paint 3D.…

Peppa Pig Goes around the World £2.99 www.snipca.com/24226 (Android) £2.99 www.snipca.com/24227 (iOS) Your child won’t need to be a Peppa Pig fan to be entertained by these games and activities. Our favourites include playing hide-and-seek with monkeys and parrots, counting penguins in the South Pole and tapping to find rare lizards in the desert. Cut the Rope: Magic* Free www.snipca.com/24228 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/24229 (iOS) In this popular puzzle game, containing 160 levels, your child helps Om Nom the frog get the candybar by cutting ropes at the right time. It’s a great way for young children to learn basic concepts of physics. Top Gear: Donut Dash* Free www.snipca.com/24230 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/24231 (iOS) Here’s a fun way for youngsters to pretend to get behind the wheels of the vehicles featured on…

WORD Add a table of contents to your documents quickly If your document contains several chapters or topic headings across many pages, then it’s a good idea to insert a table of contents at the start. Creating this manually is time consuming. Instead you should use Word’s built-in ‘Table of Contents’ feature To do this, highlight the first chapter title/heading in your document, click the Home tab, then select one of the Heading styles at the top right. Repeat this for the rest of the headings. Next, click the References tab, click the ‘Table of Contents’ dropdown menu at the top left, then select one of the table styles from the list. To customise your contents, click the ‘Table of Contents’ dropdown menu again, then click ‘Insert Table of Contents’…

When Microsoft launched Windows 10, its goal for the operating system was to continue to develop and improve, with big updates to come regularly. Gone are the days of minor updates while we had to wait for the next version number. Instead, as Microsoft has now confirmed (see News, page 6), we’re going to get two major updates a year, with the company supporting each one for 18 months. The third of these for Windows 10, following 2015’s November Update and last summer’s Anniversary Update, is the Creators Update. And, yes, there’s officially no apostrophe in Creators – it bugs us too, so we’re just going to refer to it as CU from here on (and send Microsoft a copy of Fowler’s Modern English Usage). As with its predecessors, the…

Windows used to have a built-in command-line tool that let you share messages directly with other wired or wireless PCs on your network. But from Windows Vista onwards, Net Send was removed and only Professional and Enterprise editions of Windows now support its replacement, msg.exe. You can use Skype, WhatsApp or other instant-messaging tools instead, but these all use a server, meaning that your messages aren’t sent directly between your PCs, but uploaded to an online service. You can use a direct messaging tool instead, such as LAN Messenger (free from www.snipca.com/23967). Install it on your PCs, then right-click the notification-area icon (right of the taskbar) and select Show LAN Messenger. Other PCs on your network will be automatically listed as contacts. Double-click a contact and start typing your message.…

Q Back in the mists of time I had an Amstrad PC with a dial-up modem. I used this contraption to call other computers, which allowed me to exchange thoughts with other users. I vaguely remember a cartoon dog being somehow involved. Do you have any idea what I’m talking about? They weren’t websites, that’s for sure. Whatever happened to them? Gary Williams A You’re talking about bulletinboard systems (or BBSs). These were the electronic equivalent of the corkboard you might have in your kitchen, where people pin all manner of notes. There was no single template for what a BBS should be or look like, and the bulk of them ran on enthusiasts’ own computers. These system operators (or sysops) made their BBS accessible to other users, so people…

4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. 802.11n A standard for wireless networks that allows for high transfer speeds. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Blue light Light given off by PC and phone screens. Can disrupt sleep patterns. Blue screen of death Technically called a ‘Stop error’, this is shown when your PC crashes. Browser hijackers Programs that change your default browser and search engine when you install them. Cast To send content from your PC to TV.…