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Computeractive moved offices recently, so we needed a big clearout. It’s astonishing how much clutter had grown around my desk. It seemed to have spread like Japanese Knotweed through a Cotswolds garden. And yet I was still nervous about what to throw away. Would I need that old coffee-stained notepad? Whose phone number is on that Post-it note? Should I pack the kitchen sink? I know that many of you have similar doubts when clearing junk from your PC. You realise how important it is to do, but worry that you’ll accidentally uninstall files that are essential to how your PC runs. So in this issue’s Cover Feature (page 50) we explain precisely what’s safe to remove, and what you must keep. I hope you’ll find it useful, but I’ll…

One of the most useful PC functions – drag and drop – is coming to the iPad. Apple announced this in early June when launching iOS 11, the new version of its operating system for iPads and iPhones, which is expected to arrive in September. It means you’ll be able to move files, photos, videos and music using your fingers. It should prove extremely useful when, for example, dragging and dropping a photo into the body of an email. Another PC-style tool coming to iPads is the Files app, which keeps all your files in one place, helping you manage them more easily. It will show files stored in your online services, such as Dropbox and iCloud Drive, as well as on your iPad. Apple claims these tools will make…

A new computer the size of a credit card will transform monitors into full-blown PCs. Intel’s Compute Card, small enough to fit in your wallet, comes with the basic ingredients of a PC – a processor, memory, storage and Wi-Fi – but has been designed to slot into other devices to let them work like a computer. South Korean company LG has said it will make monitors that work with the Compute Card, meaning you need to buy only a keyboard and mouse to use it as a computer. HP and Lenovo are also said to be working on compatible products. Intel says that the Card can also be slotted into a smart TV, and into the company’s new docking system so it could be used as a desktop computer.…

‘Mike Collins’ Poor Mike. His 17-year-old cousin Poppy died in the Manchester bombing, and he wanted to raise money for her funeral. So he set up a page on the charity website GoFundMe (see screenshot) and waited for the cash to flood in from soft-hearted strangers. You know what’s coming, don’t you? Poppy didn’t die. Poppy never existed. Mike Collins – presumably a pseudonym – had stolen a photo of a real girl and used it to set up the bogus page. The scam was only exposed when the girl, Nisa Ayral, spotted her photo. She urged GoFundMe to remove the page, and according to reports they didn’t act immediately. It’s gone now, but GoFundMe wouldn’t reveal how much money ‘Mike Collins’ had made in the meantime, or whether he’d…

I read with interest your news story ‘Phone blocker in cars updates Faraday’s 19th-century cage’ (Issue 502, page 9). My amusement turned to absolute amazement when I checked the date and found that it wasn’t 1 April. How stupid can Nissan be to think this will really work? If a driver has that little self-control and cannot resist his phone, what makes Nissan think he will put the phone into the cage in the first place? After all, turkeys don’t vote for Christmas! Perhaps a better solution would be to put the driver into a Faraday cage! While this may seem a bit crazy at first, modern technology is moving so fast that it may be possible to surround the driver with some ‘field’ – electromagnetic or otherwise – which…

Q Two years ago I bought a Zanussi freezer from John Lewis. It has been sent away for repair three times. At the beginning of May it was sent for the fourth repair. John Lewis insisted that I put up with these, but I’ve not heard anything from Zanussi about when my freezer will be returned. What can I do? Arry Tee A If Arry had bought the freezer after October 2015, when the Consumer Rights Act came into force, John Lewis would have had to refund or replace after the first failed repair. But that doesn’t mean Arry has to put up with four repairs. He’s covered by the Sale of Goods Act (SOGA), which states that repairs have to be carried out within a “reasonable time” and not…

Check your junk folder for price-rise emails Companies are required by law to tell customers if their subscription is increasing in price. Many do this by email, which is why you should regularly check your junk mail folder for messages about price rises. It could explain why you’ve been hit by an unexpected increase. It’s possible that this is why Computeractive reader Sherrell Sachse thought genealogy site MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) hadn’t contacted her about the automatic renewal of her subscription. As we reported in Issue 503, she was shocked that the price had risen by £60. She assumed she’d have to pay it because she was outside the 14-day cooling-off period, during which you can cancel a subscription and claim a refund. It would have been difficult for her to prove…

PC | £500 from Palicomp www.snipca.com/24543 There are two ways to build an aboveaverage PC for a given price. One previously favoured by Crewe-based manufacturer Palicomp is to buy a relatively affordable processor from AMD, Intel’s distant rival, and overclock it – much like those enthusiasts who install jet engines on the back of Morris Minors. A while back (see our review, Issue 479) this approach produced the excellent AMD Avenger, a £500 desktop PC with more than £500 worth of performance levels. Lightning fast with tasks and plenty of expansion options This time they’ve gone the other way. The i5 Titanium, as the name implies, is made of titanium. No, wait, that’s just daft marketing speak. It comes in a standard black plastic case on a steel chassis. But…

SECURITY CAMERA | £146 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24636 The Vigilance DCS-4602EV does a similar job to the Neatgear Arlo (£196, see our review, Issue 454) or Google’s Nest Cam Outdoor (£179, Issue 498). You mount it inside or outside your house, and it records whatever’s going on. While the other two are slickly packaged consumer products, the DCS-4602EV is more the kind of thing bought from a catalogue by someone who owns a high-viz jacket, requiring a bit more technical nous to get it set up. While consumer security cameras come integrated with cloud services that make the live stream or motion-triggered clips accessible from anywhere, D-Link provides a browser interface and a D-ViewCam program, for Windows 10, that manages your camera(s) and recordings. It’s a bit clunky, and if you…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2016 Back Issue CD: £15 from www.snipca.com/23209 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 DESKTOP PC Wired2FireDiabloUltimaV2 £804 from www.snipca.com/23767 Tested: Issue 497 Teaming Intel’s latest i5 processor with a Radeon RX 460 graphics card, this delivers great all-round performance and adequate gaming, helped by a fast M.2 SSD plus a generous 2TB hard drive and 16GB of…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIPOFTHEFORTNIGHT WINDOWS 10 Access the Control Panel with one click In Issue 503, you mention that updating your Windows 10 PC to the Creators Update makes access to your Control Panel more difficult. However, that’s not the case with my PC, which has two versions of the Control Panel only a click away. To set this up, you need to add your desktop as a shortcut option on your taskbar. Right-click an empty section of your taskbar, move your cursor to Toolbars, then click Desktop. This adds a desktop shortcut to the right of your taskbar. Click the two arrows next to Desktop to see a pop-up menu with lots of useful options, including all the programs on your desktop. You can click and drag…

AGES 0-5 Little Fire Station Free www.snipca.com/24621 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/24622 (iOS) The games in this app will keep your toddler entertained and teach them how a fire station works. Our favourites involve rescuing a cat from a tree, putting out a house fire and identifying objects found in a fire station. AGES 6-10 Jump Cube* Free www.snipca.com/24625 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/24626 (iOS) This simple game can be both very addictive and very frustrating. You need to guide your character along a path of tiles of two different colours, tapping the left of your screen to reach one colour and the right to reach the other. AGES 11-16 Monument Valley 2 £4.99 www.snipca.com/24627 (iOS) Monument Valley is a beautifully designed puzzle game where you help the character Ro reach a specific point…

OUTLOOK.COM Never miss your favourite team’s matches Outlook.com has a useful feature called ‘Bing calendars’ that lets you keep track of your favourite sports teams. To use it, go to www.outlook.com and log in using your Microsoft account. Next, click the small calendar icon at the bottom left to access your Outlook calendar. To add sporting events to it, click ‘Interesting calendars’ at the top. You’ll see a ‘Bing calendars’ panel on the right with several options, including Sports and TV. Select Sports for a list of 11 to choose from. Now, simply select the sports and teams you follow to add their fixtures to your calendar. For example, to get reminders when your favourite Premier League team is playing, select Soccer, England, English Premier League, then the club you…

What is it? A clever new technology that integrates your phone’s camera with Google’s search engine. Your camera will recognise what’s being shown on the screen, then automatically search for information about it online. The results will appear in a box on screen. If it works as well as Google claims, it’ll be the best use of augmented reality yet. What’s augmented reality? It places a computer-generated image on top of what’s being shown on a phone’s screen, merging the real-world environment with a digital one. It was the technology behind the Pokémon Go game, which became hugely popular last summer. In it, players collect digital characters hiding in real locations. These type of games are all a bit gimmicky, unlike the benefits of Google Lens. Can you give me…

Q We’re retiring to a green and pleasant part of this country. Broadband is coming to our remote region but not until the end of the year. Obviously, I need a way to connect in the meantime. I thought a mobile broadband dongle might do but scouting trips suggest that the signal is patchy — so there’s no guarantee we’ll get a connection that way. It occurred to me that I still have my old 56Kbps modem somewhere, last used over a decade ago. Would it be possible to use this for a basic online connection? Would it work with my Windows 10 PC? If so, how would I go about it? Whatever happened to the dial-up panel in Windows? I really don’t know where to begin, or even if…

The WannaCry ransomware that paralysed tens of thousands of computers in May worldwide can be used to attack Windows 10, security researchers have said. Experts at US company RiskSense have created a Windows 10 version of the security flaw – called EternalBlue – that WannaCry exploited in order to better understand how future attacks can be prevented. No Windows 10 computers were affected by WannaCry during the attack last month. Despite initial reports that XP machines were most at risk, analysis suggests that 98 per cent of hacked computers were running Windows 7. RiskSense’s research is known as ‘white hat hacking’, in which the security of software and systems are tested by experts looking to find flaws before criminals do. It has published a report explaining how WannaCry can infect…

MOBILE-PHONE CALLS GOING UNDERGROUND Commuters on the London Underground may soon be able to use their phones to browse the web and make calls. Under plans from the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, telecoms companies will be invited to bid for the contract to provide a 4G service. Many stations currently offer Wi-Fi on platforms, but this isn’t available on trains. AMAZON ‘TO SELL MEDICINE ONLINE’ Amazon is planning to sell prescription medicine online, according to reports. The company is advertising in the US for a “pharmacies market general manager” to tap into a market that is worth an estimated $300bn a year. It raises the possibility of a similar venture in the UK, although the company would need to register with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Tomorrow’s…

GOOGLE’S CHROME TO BLOCK ADVERTS Google has confirmed that its Chrome browser will start blocking “intrusive” adverts from next year. In a blog post (www.snipca.com/24565) the company said it will tackle adverts that “blare music unexpectedly, or force you to wait ten seconds before you can see the content on the page”. Google has launched a service to help websites identify adverts that fail to meet its new standards. BUDGET ISP TENTEL GOES BUST UK broadband provider TenTel (www.tentel.co.uk) has gone into administration and will close at the end of June, affecting around 10,000 customers who will be automatically moved to TalkTalk. The ISP launched in 2013 and sold cheap deals that were shorter than the 12-month minimum typically offered by larger companies. At the time of writing TenTel was…

JIHADIST LONDON’ WI-FI GROUNDS PLANE A pilot refused to fly a plane after a passenger spotted that someone on board had named their Wi-Fi network ‘Jihadist Cell London 1’. The Thomson flight was due to fly back from Cancun in Mexico to Gatwick Airport on Tuesday 23 May, just hours after the suicide bombing at Manchester Arena. Police were called after nobody admitted to the name. All passengers were taken off the flight and flown home the following day. WANT A UK VISA? PAY £5.48 PER EMAIL People applying for a visa to visit the UK now have to pay £5.48 for responses to emails they have sent to the UK Visas and Immigration service (UKVI). The Government, which has outsourced the service to a private company, says the charge…

Teach perils of ransomware at school I would like to thank Computeractive for the excellent analysis of the WannaCry ransomware attack in Issue 503. It was reassuring to read an explanation of what had happened that wasn’t stuffed with jargon and so-called ‘facts’. During the weekend of the attack I looked in vain for an intelligent response. News programmes on TV tried their best, but they all had the same problem. The presenters were mostly eloquent, but lacking in knowledge, and seemingly proud of their technical ignorance. They were interviewing security experts who suffered from the usual problem of experts. They obviously knew what they were talking about, but were incapable of articulating it in the kind of language ordinary people use. It was almost like they had too much…

I had an Acer Iconia tablet, which I was happy with. It was my first Android tablet, having switched from an iPad. But after about four months the battery started failing. Then the charger stopped working. I had to dig out my old iPad while I asked Acer to fix it. I was very impressed with their service. They CONTACT ACER: • Support website www.snipca.com/24534 • Email www.snipca.com/24535 • Live chat www.snipca.com/24536 • Phone 0371 760 1000 replaced both very quickly, and at no point tried to fob me off, which has happened with other tech companies. That was a few months ago, and the tablet has worked fine since. If you need to get hold of Acer I would advise trying their live chat service first. If you have no…

www.z-cron.com What you need: Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Jane Hoskyn recommends new programs that won’t cost you anything Z-Cron’ would make a great name for a sci-fi villain – but actually this free program is more of a virtual servant. It’s a versatile alternative to Windows Task Scheduler, able to carry around 50 boring and repetitive PC tasks according to your chosen schedule. For example, you could set it to create a system restore point once a week, empty the Recycle Bin every evening and take your PC’s temperature every morning. You can also set a specific task to run automatically when you launch Z-Cron. Z-Cron has been around for a few years, but version 5.0 is the first new release for Windows 10. It comes with several new…

What should I use to record my voice in Windows 10? Q I’d like to make voice recordings on my Windows 10 computer, using a plug-in microphone. What’s the best program for doing this? Allan Smith A Windows 10 actually comes with a recorder preinstalled. Find Voice Recorder in your Start menu, or type voice then press Enter. You’ll be prompted to plug in your microphone if you haven’t already, or if your PC or monitor doesn’t have one built in. Click the blue mic button to start recording, then again to stop. Your recording is saved automatically. The buttons at the bottom of the window let you share it, trim it and rename it (it’s called ‘Recording’ by default), and there’s a flag icon for quickly marking important points.…

PC MONITOR | £205 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24558 Our first thought on unpacking the Asus VX279Q was “drat”. Not because we didn’t like the look of it. Quite the opposite: we liked it so much that we thought Asus must have sent us the wrong model. For just over £200, we didn’t expect a screen that almost goes edge to edge (the bezels are only 8mm wide) in a slim case with a sleekly uncluttered back panel. But that’s what you get. The ring-shaped stand offers no adjustment except a bit of tilt, but still, this is a piece of hardware you’d be very happy to have on your desk and come back to every day. A sleek and attractive design, but it crucially fails the screen test In fact, it’s…

What does my PC need for 4K video editing? Q My five-year-old HP PC has an Intel i3 processor and is getting a bit slow for my needs. I want a desktop PC that I can use for basic editing and viewing of Panasonic Lumix G 4K video shot at 24 frames per second (fps). I read the reviews in every issue, but you don’t always say if the gaming PCs are suitable for 4K video. Michael Green A Any PC with a recent i5 desktop processor, such as the Palicomp i5 Titanium (£500, see page 21) will play 4K video smoothly and should be fine for basic editing. But what’s basic? You may want to apply colour correction, transition effects, and perhaps more demanding options such as motion tracking…

ROUTER | £80 from Currys www.snipca.com/24582 These days, signing up for super-fast broadband with one of the major internet service providers gets you a decent Wi-Fi router as part of the deal. If you have an older model, though, it may be holding back your connection speeds around the house. A budget 802.11ac router could be the cost-effective fix you need. Some routers have no built-in modem, and must connect to an existing cable modem or switchable modem/router, while others support ADSL2+ (for copper phone lines) or VDSL2 (for fibre). The Asus DSL-AC55U caters for all these, which simplifies your choice. As you’d expect for the very reasonable price, it’s not the world’s most advanced router, but it has a broad set of features. You’ll appreciate its versatility, but it…

MAGIX Vegas Movie Studio Platinum MAGIX has released the most powerful versions ever of its video-editing software Vegas Movie Studio. There’s a new clutter-free interface that makes it significantly easier to use, and multicam editing that lets you combine up to four cameras into one timeline. As well as the Platinum version there’s a basic version (£39.99) and a Suite (£119.99). To enter this competition, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘vegas’ in the subject line by midnight 4 July. Good luck! You can buy this software from www.magix.com/gb. Each version gives you a 30-day free trial. For more information on MAGIX software follow @MAGIX_ INT on Twitter.…

What you need: Android phone or iPhone Time required: 30 minutes There are lots of free podcast apps, but CastBox is our favourite – and it’s now available on Android for the first time. It lets you subscribe to your favourite podcast channels and download episodes to listen to offline. Besides that, you can record your own podcast episodes and upload them to your own channel. We’ll show you how to turn your life story into a podcast, then share your channel with others. If you’d like to share it with fellow readers, email us a link and we’ll publish it. STEP 1 Install and open the app (Android www.snipca.com/24569; iOS www.snipca.com/24580). You’ll see several podcast category tiles. Select at least three based on your interests 1 , then tap…

ANDROID & iOS Play your photos as a slideshow on your TV If you use Google’s Chromecast dongle (www.snipca.com/24630), there’s an easy way to play photos from your Google Photos albums (in random order) as a slideshow on your TV. To do this, switch on your TV to the input you use for your Chromecast using your remote control (you’ll see a default Google image on your TV screen). Next, open the Google Home app – formerly called Chromecast – on your phone or tablet (Android www.snipca.com/24612; iOS www.snipca.com/24613), tap the three lines at the top left, then tap Devices. You’ll see your Chromecast name and PIN code. Tap the three dots at the top right, then tap ‘Backdrop settings’ (see screenshot below left). Now tap Google Photos, then switch…

WINDOWS 10 Find out how long your journey will take Cortana can now tell you how long it’ll take you to get home or to work. It does this by determining the fastest route based on the traffic at the current time. You first need to add your home and/or office address to your PC. To do this, open the default Maps app, then click the star icon at the top right to see the Home and Work tabs (see screenshot below). Select the one you want, enter your postcode, then select the correct autosuggest option. From now on, simply click your search bar at any time and Cortana should display the journey time to get home or to work, with a rating for traffic congestion (Heavy, Moderate or Low).…

If there’s a block of text that you tend to type often in documents (for example, your home or email address, or a specific quote), there’s an easy way to save it in Word, so that you can quickly insert it when you need to. The feature is called AutoText. First, type the text you want to save, format it however you like, then select it. Next, click the Insert tab, then the Quick Parts dropdown menu in the Text section at the top right (see screenshot), move your cursor to AutoText, then click ‘Save Selection to AutoText Gallery’. In the pop-up window that appears (see screenshot), name your text, ensure the Gallery dropdown menu is set to AutoText and the Category dropdown menu is set to General. Type a…

There are few certainties in life beyond death and taxes? But another thing we’re pretty sure of is that every single one of our readers’ PCs is unique. No two will have the same make, model, processor, amount of RAM, graphics card, hard drive or operating system. And, of course, no two will have exactly the same programs, apps and browser extensions installed. Consider your own PC. Some of its software will have been pre-installed by your PC’s manufacturer – all these programs are often referred to as bloatware. Microsoft will have embedded its own products into Windows as part of its relentless quest to force us to use its own apps and services. Then there’s the software you installed yourself – either intentionally or not (yes, we’re talking about…

Q I have been a subscriber to Computeractive for many years and always found it very useful. I now need your help with a specific problem. I am not happy with the Windows 10 Photos app, and want instead to be able to access each photo for editing or repair using another image-editing program that I have always used. Can you please tell me how to do this? At one time it was easy, but since Windows 10 everything seems more difficult to find. Paul Bentley A You didn’t tell us which program you want to use, but can you first check it’s definitely installed. If not, do so and, if prompted, allow it to manage all the file types it’s able to handle — or at least JPEG, which…

Q I have a hands-free device clipped to my car’s sun visor for receiving calls. However, I cannot make a call without going to Contacts on my Nexus 5 phone, so cannot make calls on the move. Could you advise me whether there is an app that would dial entries in the Contacts app by using voice commands? It would have to work offline as I don’t have data as part of my contract. John Miller A Your phone can already do this. If you have Android 6.0.1 installed, which is the latest and last edition available for the Nexus 5, then it should be enabled by default. The Nexus 5’s voice commands are truly hands-free, so you can dial without taking even a finger off the wheel. This makes…

Can an old Chromecast cast my desktop? QIn Issue 503 (page 27), you describe how to use a Chromecast to use a TV as a monitor, but I have a first-generation Chromecast and the method doesn’t work. Am I correct in assuming that only the new Chromecast (www.snipca.com/24595) can stream my PC’s desktop to the TV? Ron Duncan AThe original Chromecast should be able to cast your PC’s desktop in the same way as the second-generation version. First, plug your Chromecast into your TV as normal, then use your TV remote to select it from your TV’s input options. Next, open Chrome, click the menu icon (the three vertical dots at the top right), then click Cast. When the ‘Cast to’ box opens, look for the small arrow just to…

Did you hear that there’s a new version of Windows 10 on the way? It’s called Windows 10 S. Microsoft hasn’t revealed if the ‘S’ stands for anything in particular but the company boasts that it’s “streamlined for security and superior performance”. Much of the marketing is aimed at students, and it will also come pre-installed on the new Microsoft Surface laptop. KEN RIGSBY is Computeractive’s Mr Angry So, streamlined, secure, superior, students, Surface. With all that alliteration I imagine Microsoft’s marketing folks looked at each other, shrugged, and quickly agreed just to stick an ‘S’ on the end A key selling point is that if you use Windows 10 S then your only source for new apps will be the Windows Store. You won’t be able to buy or…

Chinese hackers were behind the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled tens of thousands of computers around the world in May, new evidence suggests. After examining the ransom message displayed by WannaCry, researchers at US security company Flashpoint found that the grammar and punctuation in the Chinese versions indicated the writer was “native or at least fluent” in the language. They claim with “high confidence” that the language “is consistent with that of Southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore”. The ransom note was displayed in 28 different languages, including French, German and Russian. But Flashpoint says only the versions in Chinese and English were written by humans, with the others showing grammatical and punctuation errors indicating they had been translated using Google Translate. Flashpoint says the reason the hackers are…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Panda Free Antivirus There’s good and bad things to say about Panda Free Antivirus. The good is that it scores well in independent antivirus (AV) tests and is named after pandas. The bad is that its installer is riddled with so many PUPs - including a browser hijacker “powered by Yahoo” - that it lost my trust long before it had a chance to prove itself. Why do the makers of free AV software force us to choose between safety and a junk-free PC? Regular readers will know I’ve exposed the PUP tactics of Avast, McAfee and Ad-Aware in the past – all of whom make free tools that claim to protect you but are bundled with unwanted extras. It doesn’t even make commercial sense,…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Don’t abuse Amazon refund loophole In Issue 503 (News, page 7) you asked readers whether we’ve used Amazon’s loophole for £10 refunds. I can confirm that the company offers refunds for a wide variety of items (books, DVDs, cables etc). I’m slightly ashamed to admit this because it may expose me as an Amazon addict, but I tend to buy something every day from the site. With so many items turning up on my doormat, it’s inevitable that some won’t work - and it’s these that I claim refunds for. I would consider it a real hassle to have to package and post them back to Amazon, so I’m glad that the company takes it on trust…

Q On 4 April I decided to change my phone and broadband service from Plusnet to EE. I was told the services would be live on 19 April. Although my EE phone service is working, it’s now into the second week of May and I’ve still got no broadband. EE is blaming BT Wholesale. Can I get compensation? Steven Asquith A It’s not clear whether Steven could claim compensation. EE didn’t charge him for cable broadband, instead giving him £15 to pay for mobile broadband. But he could argue this wasn’t a satisfactory alternative and therefore, with the disruption, he should be entitled to compensation. Proving financial loss would help his case. What is clear is that despite blaming BT Wholesale, EE breached its contract with Steven. He was within…

Q On 15 December 2016 I ordered an Elephone P9000 phone (pictured) for £188 on Amazon Prime. I’m having a problem with this phone connecting to 4G and Bluetooth, so I contacted Amazon. They put me in touch with the seller, who’s based in China. I asked for a replacement but was refused. Do I have to send it back to China for repair and face import duties if it comes back? Roger Knight We stand up for your legal rights Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Please include both your phone number and address. A No, Roger won’t have to pay import duties because repaired and replaced products are exempt from these. He also won’t have to pay VAT imposed by HMRC. The seller should…

What’s the threat? Scammers are exploiting last month’s WannaCry ransomware attack by using fake warnings, websites and apps in order to con people. The scams started to appear within a few days of the catastrophic hack that paralysed tens of thousands of computers worldwide, including many used by the NHS. People have reported seeing pop-up messages as they browse the web warning them that they have been infected by WannaCry. If you ring the tech-support number provided in the message, the scammers ask you to grant them remote access to your computer, then ‘check’ whether you have enough protection on your PC. After stating confidently that you’re at risk, they charge you a hefty amount to install the free tool Windows Malicious Software Removal. According to Action Fraud, the UK’s…

www.snipca.com/24567 What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 Your PC’s graphics card is obviously useful for streaming video and viewing photos, but it’s not all about looks. It also influences the speed and reliability of your entire system. GPU-Z reveals how well it’s working, and can even monitor multiple cards in one PC. Version 2.1 adds a new Advanced tab with a dropdown menu that lets you investigate the specifications and health of multimedia software, such as DirectX and OpenCL, that may be installed as components for your graphics card. GPU-Z comes as a portable program file with an installation option. To get it, click Standard Version in the box on the left, click Download, click the UK flag icon and then run the file. Under ‘Install…

PC £500 from Box www.snipca.com/24540 More features, less noise “How are you finding that new PC?” “Oh, it’s great! Much better perfor – RRRGGHHMMM – mance, hang on, let me just turn this off a minute. Yes, I’m very happy with it except for the noise” It’s very easy to find yourself in this position when you buy a desktop PC. Until you get it set up and run some demanding programs, there’s no way to predict how loud the fans will be in their quest to prevent the processors from frying themselves. A budget desktop PC with relatively modest specifications isn’t likely to be very loud, but Sutton Coldfield manufacturer Box is taking no chances with this model. Its Cooler Master Silencio 352 chassis has its front and side…

What does it do? Megatasking was one of the buzzwords at Taiwan’s Computex tech trade show in May. It means multitasking, but more so, made possible by processors with more than the two, four or eight cores we’re used to. AMD showed off 16-core versions of its Ryzen chips, while Intel went one better with its 18-core X-Series i9 (pictured). Why would I want it? For now, it’s all aimed at creative jobs like video editing, 3D animation and computer-aided design (CAD). In these fields, software is constantly working on multiple streams of calculations behind the scenes to update everything in response to the user. What’s interesting is that everyday computing tasks are getting more like that. When you ask Microsoft’s Cortana or Amazon’s Alexa a question, for example, it…

Palm Pilot WHAT WAS IT? Launched in 1996, the Palm Pilot was a PDA (personal digital assistant). Cheaper and more compact than the earlier Apple Newton MessagePad, it was popular enough to inspire a decade of imitators before the whole category was overtaken by touchscreen smartphones. HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED? The Pilot 1000 was about the size and weight of a modern phone, but squarer and thicker. Its greenish monochrome LCD screen had 160x160 pixels. Tapping the screen with your finger woudn’t do anything; it needed a prod from the small stylus stowed in the top, which was also used to enter text, handwritten one character at a time, in the absence of any kind of a keyboard. Today, Apple or Android users can pick from around 2.5 million apps.…

What you need: Win+X Menu Editor; Windows 8.1 or 10 Time required: 25 minutes Whenever you press Windows key+X or right-click the Start button at the bottom left of your PC screen, you open what’s known as the Power User Menu which provides quick access to several useful options. Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to customise this menu so we recommend using the brilliant free program Win+X Menu Editor. It lets you add programs and other items you use often, and rearrange and remove existing menu items. STEP 1 Win+X Menu Editor downloads as a zipped setup file, so you’ll need a file-compression program to open it. We recommend PeaZip (www.peazip.org). In the installation wizard choose Standard Installation 1 (there are no unwanted extras). After you’ve finished, download Win+X Menu…

What you need: iPhone or iPad Time required: 10 minutes In Issue 503 (page 40) we showed you how to keep track of your mobile-data usage on your Android phone. If you use an iPhone or iPad and have a monthly limit on your mobile data, then the free app My Data Manager will help you keep on top of it. It lets you set your monthly data limit, then activate useful notifications to ensure you never exceed it. STEP 1 Install and open the app (www.snipca.com/24573), tap the box at the bottom to agree to the T&Cs, then tap ‘Let’s get started’. Next, tap Later on the first two screens, tap ‘Yes, alert me!’ on the ‘Data usage’ screen, then tap Allow to confirm that. Finally, tap ‘No thanks’…

Skype Free Android: www.snipca.com/24616 Microsoft has given its Android Skype app a complete makeover and added improved messaging tools. The best of these is Highlights, which lets you capture photos and videos then personalise them with text and drawings. We’ll show you how to use this in our next issue. Path Guide Free Android: www.snipca.com/24617 This app (also from Microsoft) lets you create indoor navigation paths. It traces where you walk and automatically creates step-bystep directions that you can share with others. Shop owners, for example, can use it to create a path for customers to find their store from the entrance of a shopping mall. Filmr* Free iOS: www.snipca.com/24618 Filmr makes video editing easy. Select as many photos or videos as you want. These appear on a vertical editing…

If you have a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse, it’s easy to connect them to your Windows PC. You first need to turn on the Bluetooth on both your PC and the device you’re connecting to. On the keyboard or mouse, you should find a button you can switch on. Refer to the device’s manual if you don’t see this. To switch on Bluetooth in Windows 7 and 8.1, open the Start menu, right-click Computer, click Properties, then Device Manager at the top left. At the top, you’ll see a Bluetooth dropdown menu. Click this, right-click the option below it, then click Enable. To connect your PC to your Bluetooth keyboard or mouse, open your Start menu, click ‘Devices and Printers’, ‘Add a device’, then wait for it to detect your…

Add effects to your musical compositions Magix’s free music-production program Music Maker (www.magix.com/gb/music-maker) is a great virtual studio that lets you record and mix your own music on your PC. One of its best features is the ability to add effects like reverb, echo and distortion so you can give your compositions a more professional feel. To try these effects, first select the bars within your composition that you want to add effects to (click the first bar, then hold the Ctrl key down and click the last bar). Next, click the Inspector tab (see screenshot below) above the piano keys to see a list of effects, such as Compressor and ‘10-band equalizer’. Click an effect, then adjust the knobs or drag the white circle to change its intensity (see…

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO GOOGLE’S HIDDEN TOOLS In the new and updated Definitive Guide to Google Hidden Tools, the experts at Computeractive lift the lid on Google’s most popular services to reveal more than 390 ways to make them even more efficient, useful and tailored to your needs. These include clever new add-ons for Chrome, smart hacks for YouTube, and the best things you can do in Google Maps, Drive, Gmail and more. It’s an essential guide to unlocking the hundreds of secret settings, options and tools that Google offers. You’ll learn tips and tricks that you can use every day online. BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON at www.snipca.com/22784 THE ADVANCED GUIDE TO WINDOWS 10 This 196-page guide is packed with expert advice in plain English, to help you unlock…

Q I bought an 802.11ac wireless router, and wanted to update my HP laptop to make full use of 802.11ac’s faster speeds. I bought a replacement Wi-Fi card, which I fitted without problems. However, when I powered up I got an error message. This is apparently down to the BIOS having a ‘white list’ that won’t allow such upgrades. Is this correct? If so, am I stuck with the old card, or is there a way to get around the white list? The new network card is an Intel Wireless-AC 7260 (pictured). Mark Brittain Our experts solve all your tech problems Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk A You’re not going to like our answer but you’ve almost certainly wasted your money. For better or worse…

Q I’ve been dabbling with document design using Word 2013. For layout purposes, I sometimes need to create placeholder text columns that I fill with dummy (random) ‘Lorem Ipsum’ text (see screenshot below) from the website www.lipsum.com. This website is very useful because it generates an exact number of paragraphs, and I then cut and paste the results into Word. However, I wonder if there’s a way to automate this process. Is a macro the answer? Carl Holland A You don’t need a macro. Word 2013 actually has its own Lorem Ipsum text generator, which is accessed at any time simply by typing =lorem() within the document and then pressing Enter. That will create five paragraphs of random text. If you want to specify a specific number, type a number…

Q I am using Windows 10 and I’ve recently noticed some small files appearing in various places usually called thumbs.bd or desktop. ini. It seems the files can be deleted without causing problems, but why have they suddenly appeared? What are they for? Can they be stopped? John Castree A These files are completely normal and you’ll find them all over your hard drive, but only if you’ve enabled an option to show system files. Our guess is that you did that recently, perhaps in response to some unrelated advice we’ve offered. They’re created automatically by Windows, both to save time and to remember settings. Thumbs.db will be created in any folder that contains images and in which you’ve viewed those images as thumbnails. It’s a cache file used by…

3G/4G A set of technologies that delivers faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 720p A resolution of highdefinition video: 1280x720 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. ADSL2 A newer, faster type of ADSL broadband. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Essential software that connects a PC’s vital components. Blue light Light given off by PC and phone screens. Browser hijackers Programs that change your default browser, its homepage and search engine. Cache A temporary space for storing information. Cast To send content from your PC, tablet or…