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If you find this issue slightly less moody and a bit more mature than the last, it’s because we’ve moved beyond our teenage years. We celebrated our 20th birthday on 26th February. So much has changed in that time, as we explored in last April’s special 500th issue (available on our 2017 Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/26848). What’s stayed the same is our promise to write about computing so anyone can understand it. Too many tech ‘experts’ speak a secret language designed to alienate ordinary users. But not us. Every day in the office we discuss which are the simplest words to use. We want to speak your language. So it feels apt that the issue coinciding with our 20th birthday explains a part of your computer shrouded in baffling jargon:…

Church spires throughout the UK could be used as 4G masts in a bid to improve phone and broadband signals in rural areas. The Government has signed an “accord” with the Church of England to work with mobile and broadband providers to “help deliver improved connectivity”. Around 120 churches are already being used to increase coverage, after the dioceses of Norwich and Chelmsford signed up to five-year schemes. These churches use a variety of methods, including satellite dishes and wireless transmitters within spires. Two-thirds of the UK’s Anglican churches are located in rural areas. The Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell, said: “Encouraging churches to improve connectivity will help tackle two of the biggest issues rural areas face – isolation and sustainability”. • Will EE’s ‘shoebox’ fix rural…

LENOVO LAPTOPS HAVE A SCREW LOOSE Lenovo has recalled some of its ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptops because of a faulty screw that could damage the battery and start a fire. The flaw affects four ThinkPad models (20HQ, 20HR, 20K3 and 20K4), made between December 2016 and October 2017. Lenovo said affected users should stop using the laptop and contact it to arrange for a repair. Visit the company’s recall page for more details: www.snipca.com/27035. BIG PHONE NETWORKS PLAN PRICE HIKES All four leading mobile networks plan mid-contract price rises of at least four per cent. This is in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation, so you won’t be able to cancel without paying a fee. EE is increasing prices by 4.1 per cent in March, followed…

People in the UK are much safer online thanks to a “takedown service” that has removed thousands of phishing sites, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has claimed. To mark its first anniversary in early February, the NCSC revealed that by working with web-hosting services it took down 121,479 scam sites. The figures, published in a report titled ‘Active Cyber Defence – one year on’ (www.snipca.com/26955), also show that the NCSC worked with 1,719 sites in the UK that had been infiltrated by scammers. As part of its cyber-defence strategy, the NCSC targeted popular tactics used by scammers, such as emails purporting to be from HMRC (see screenshot) and the NHS. Three-quarters of sites that tried to imitate UK Government sites were taken down in 24 hours, while in one…

In the past, if your PC was hijacked, it might end up being used for sending spam. Nowadays, intruders are more likely to use it to ‘mine’ cryptocurrencies via complex mathematical calculations that slow your processor and hammer your electricity bill. On 11 February, security researchers revealed that Government websites, including the Pensions Advisory Service and the Scottish NHS helpline, were hacked to serve up currencymining malware to unsuspecting visitors. Hackers weren’t seeking Bitcoin, but an alternative cryptocurrency called Monero. Perhaps they were attracted by this image from Monero’s website, suggesting it’s pure digital gold (instead of a gigantic bubble waiting to go pop). We don’t know who the hackers are, but we know how shameless they are. To get the malware on to websites – over 4,000 in total…

Having read the letters about third-party inks I thought I should raise a topic that thus far has not been mentioned. I have a reputation for parsimony, and try to avoid printing anything, but when forced to do so invariably use paper that has already been used on one side only. I am aware that many people print frequently and it’s probably these users who can get away with using third- party inks as the stuff is flowing frequently and keeping the nozzles clean. Instead, I opt for the manufacturer’s ink, in my case Epson, because I feel I am less likely to suffer from dried-up nozzles. I do a print test every day in all four CMYK colours just to keep the printer exercised. Of course, I use the…

Reader goes it alone to get a clean install Sometimes our readers don’t want us to intervene in a complaint they’re having with a retailer, but would simply like us to clarify their consumer rights. Backed by our advice, they feel empowered to try to get a positive outcome. Proof that this can work comes from Computeractive reader Georgina Seaton, who was having problems with a six-monthold Windows 10 Dell laptop bought from a local retailer (see Issue 513). She was losing photos and wasn’t able to upgrade the operating system. Microsoft told her she was using the first version of Windows 10, released in July 2015, and therefore needed to carry out a clean install. We understood her worry about losing programs she’d installed herself and also not feeling…

Ashampoo Spectre Meltdown CPU Checker www.snipca.com/26984 In Issue 520 (page 42) our Workshop explained how to run a PowerShell script in Windows 10 to check whether your computer is vulnerable to the Meltdown and Spectre processor flaws. To get it to work, you had to type Microsoft’s commands with laser-like precision - a misplaced dash or extra space would have tripped you up. Since then, German software company Ashampoo has launched a tool that converts those fiddly commands into one simple click. Download it from the link above, then click the blue ‘Start security check’ button to scan your computer (this took about three minutes on our PC, and revealed it was at risk of a Spectre attack - see screenshot). The results screen tempts you with a ‘What should…

PC | £1029 from PC Specialist www.snipca.com/26306 New products tested by our experts Previously on The Battle of the Processors: Intel dominated the personal computer market with its catchy jingle and solidly performing Core chips. Rival AMD made sporadic attempts to compete by squeezing in even more cores. This resulted in slightly cheaper silicon that ran programs slightly faster, while heating up the inside of your PC to the surface temperature of Venus (4620C, in case you’re wondering). Intel chuckled quietly to itself and moved some transistors closer together, announcing the result as a groundbreaking new generation of processors bringing everyday speed increases that you could almost detect with a stopwatch. “Copes admirably with demanding tasks, staying cool and quiet under pressure” Then, in 2017, AMD launched a whole bunch…

What does it do? Most Android phones and tablets, some Windows laptops and various other mobile devices have microSD card slots. The tiny cards contain flash memory that acts as permanent storage, like a hard drive or SSD. The maximum capacity under the current SDXC standard is two terabytes (2TB), but until recently 400GB was the most you could actually buy. Now British manufacturer Integral has a 512GB card (pictured). Why would I want it? When you run out of room on your device’s storage, popping in a microSD card is a simple solution. Around a tenner will buy you 32GB, although you may need to pay more for a faster class of card for a device that writes data in real time, such as a video camera. What’s the…

PHONE | £450 from Honor www.snipca.com/26963 Now and again a mid-priced phone comes along with a specification that approaches upmarket models that cost hundreds more. Often it’s from OnePlus, the Chinese company that launched four years ago with a crowd-funded invitation system and progressed to direct online sales. The current OnePlus 5T is a great example (see our review, Issue 518), and now rival Huawei has decided to compete: the View 10 is a strikingly advanced phone for the same price. Like the 5T, the View 10 has a fashionably tall 18:9 screen, giving Full HD resolution plus a bit extra. Image quality is similarly good, though it lacks the brightness and colour accuracy of the best Apple and Samsung screens. The rest of the phone looks quite different from…

SECURITY CAMERA ? £140 from Amazon www.snipca.com/26969 This home-security camera doesn’t need an online-storage subscription. Instead, it records video to 16GB of built-in storage, while connecting to your Wi-Fi to communicate with its companion app. You can then view what it’s seeing from anywhere, listen in via the unit’s microphone, and even talk back through its speaker, whether to let the dog know he’s a good boy or to scare off an intruder. More practically, you can set motion detection to alert you and begin recording whenever something moves. The Aurora needs mains power, via the supplied USB Type-C adapter, and comes with a tilt/swivel desktop stand that you can also wall-mount or attach to anything magnetic. An LED strip around its face can optionally be lit up in blue,…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2017 Back Issue CD: �15 from www.snipca.com/26848 LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX410UA £590 from www.snipca.com/26789 Tested: Issue 518 With a dual-core Intel i3 processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB SSD, this slim aluminium 14in has just enough power to make Windows 10 feel smooth – and unlike Asus’s cheaper models it has a very good Full HD screen. ALTERNATIVE: Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,149, but the best deal is with the brand new quadcore i7-8550 and QHD touchscreen. £1,300 from www.snipca.com/26796 DESKTOP PC Palicomp AMD Gravity RYZ1 £800 from www.snipca.com/26521 Tested: Issue 518 AMD’s Ryzen 5 1600 processor is overclocked to 3.7GHz to add extra power and speed, and it also has an excellent GTX 1060 graphics card. While…

Handy hints and tips from your fellow readers Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk FILE SYNCING Sync PC folders across multiple locations I read about Microsoft’s great free file-syncing program SyncToy in Computeractive some time ago (see Issue 511, page 64) and I’ve used it ever since to sync folders on my desktop (E drive) to an external hard drive connected to my PC. Install and open the program (www.snipca.com/26991), click Create New Folder Pair at the bottom (see screenshot below), choose which folders you want to sync, then follow the prompts to set it up. Recently, I tried moving a 40GB folder on my desktop to another location and it ‘disappeared’ during the process, but there was nothing in the Recycle Bin that I could restore. To rectify this, I…

Lens Distortions* Free Android: www.snipca.com/27023 iOS: www.snipca.com/27024 This popular iPhone app is now available on Android for the first time (currently in beta). It lets you add filters to your images. You can also apply its light, shadow and flare effects, then compare your edits with the original photo before saving it as a highresolution image. Nwsty* Free Android: www.snipca.com/27021 iOS: www.snipca.com/27022 If you want the top 6-10 news stories every weekday morning (Mon-Fri) in a concise, easy-to-digest format, Nwsty is the app for you. It covers current affairs, entertainment, politics, sport and science, and each article is about 50 words. Tap the top-right calendar icon to read stories from previous days. Remindee* Free Android: www.snipca.com/27025 When you install it, Remindee adds itself to your device’s share menu, making it…

EXCEL Link Excel data to websites, files and other sheets There are several ways to link data within your spreadsheet to other resources. We’ll explain how to create links that open a website, open another file on your PC, and open another sheet within your spreadsheet. First, click inside the cell containing the data you want to link, then press Ctrl+K to open the Insert Hyperlink window. To link to a website, select ‘Existing File or Web page’ on the left, type (or copy and paste) the website’s address in the Address field at the bottom, then click OK. To open another file on your PC, select ‘Existing File or Web Page’ on the left, click the ‘Look in’ dropdown menu, navigate to the location of the file, click to…

You’ve probably heard about the Windows registry. You may even have looked at it. But unless you really know what you’re doing (or feeling brave), you probably haven’t actually done anything with it. The registry, which has been lurking in the background of Microsoft’s operating system since Windows 3.1, remains one of the most elusive and confusing elements. In theory, you could use your computer every day for your entire life without even knowing it’s there. Opening the registry for a look doesn’t provide a great deal of enlightenment because much of it is presented as a baffling list of entries that – to the untrained eye – are all but impossible to decipher. There’s a reason for the registry’s perverse opaque qualities. Basically, Microsoft doesn’t want you to go…

Until relatively recently, I would have happily recommended using System Restore as a fail-safe method of backing up your registry. Microsoft’s built-in tool effectively takes a snapshot of your key system settings and files – including the entire registry – so I’ve been merrily creating system restore points before making any major changes. But a few weeks ago, after making some botched tweaks, I tried to use a restore point to return the registry to its previous (un-botched) state, only to find myself hit with with an error message informing me that – for unstated reasons – the restore process had failed. After a brief panic, I solved the problem by running System Restore from Windows 10’s Recovery Options (see opposite page). But the hair-raising experience proved my backup system…

Why does my dongle upset my mouse? Q The Missing Manual: Home Wi-Fi Cover Feature in Issue 518 suggested an 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter, which I bought from Amazon (www.snipca.com/26488). It increased my Wi-Fi speed but also wreaked havoc with my wireless mouse, with the cursor darting about uncontrollably. Removing the Wi-Fi dongle stops this interference. Do you have a solution? John Walker Q Your mouse uses Bluetooth, which works on the 2.4GHz frequency range. The 802.11ac Wi-Fi dongle is dual band, operating on both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz. That may cause interference, but it’s very unlikely, because of the way the two technologies work. Bluetooth uses a technology called adaptive frequency, hopping to avoid being on the same bit of radio spectrum as anything else. Moreover, the high-speed feature of…

32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a computer can process at once. Most older PCs are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 1080p Higher-quality HD video: 1920x1080 pixels. 10bit HDR 10bit High Dynamic Range. HDR means better contrast, greater brightness and more colours. 10bit can store more images than 8bit. 720p A resolution of highdefinition video: 1280x720 pixels. 802.11ac A standard for wireless networks that allows for much higher transfer speeds than 802.11n. 8K 7680x4320 pixels. Currently the highest ultra-high definition for TVs. Add-on A program that adds extra features to your browser. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. BIOS Basic Input-Output System.…

£60 Price of Seagate’s new five-star 2TB hard drive - p28 746,000 Number of NHS scam emails blocked in one month - p9 100Mbps Speed of EE’s new ‘shoebox’ antenna - p11 HOW TO USE SNIPCA URLs We use snipcas to turn long URLs that are hard to type into ones that are short and simple. They aren’t websites themselves, which means they won’t be recognised if you type them into Google. Instead, you need to type them into your browser address bar, then press Enter. Doing this will take you to the correct website.…

Bill Gates (pictured) has criticised tech companies for refusing to hand over to governments encrypted messages sent by terrorists. The Microsoft founder, talking to US news website Axios, attacked companies for thinking “their view is more important than the government’s view”. He condemned their policy that “even a clear mass-murdering criminal’s communication should never be available to the government”. He may have been referring to Apple refusing the FBI’s request to unlock the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook who, with his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California. Gates added that companies are able to access encrypted messages, but simply lack the “willingness” to do so. His comments echo the UK Government’s argument that social-media companies must give intelligence agencies access to…

Auction giant eBay has told sellers they’ll have to give the site extra payment info to continue listing items once it ends its business relationship with PayPal. The company announced earlier this month that it will replace PayPal with Adyen, a Dutch company that supplies the payment technology behind big sites such as Spotify, Uber and Netflix. It will be introduced in the second half of 2018 in the US and Canada. EBay said on its News site (www.snipca.com/26956) that it hopes to have the majority of people using the new service by mid-2021. PayPal will remain a payment option until 2023. Sellers on eBay will need to provide “additional paymentsrelated data” no later than one year after July 2021, when its Operating Agreement with PayPal ends. The new system…

I’m writing to ask if Darien Graham- Smith missed the further, rather significant, problem with the Comodo Free Antivirus installer (Named & Shamed, Issue 521)? Hiding in plain sight in the screenshot is an apparently pre-checked box ‘Change my DNS provider to Comodo Secure DNS’, implying benefits to the user. I note in fairness that there is a ‘What is this?’ link for more information, though I have not been there myself. A DNS server is a computer which translates the plain-text web addresses (URLs) into the arcane numeric addresses used by other internet servers to route our connections to the intended places. But in providing us that service, the DNS server will know which addresses we are visiting. Whom do we trust with that information? Worse, if malware altered…

Like your reader Trevor Stanswood (Reader Support, Issue 519), I have a home-built PC that was ‘vulnerable’ to the processor flaw reported in December, according to Intel’s detection tool (www.snipca.com/26309). I knew that my motherboard was made by Taiwanese company ASRock, so I followed the link from Intel’s detection tool to ASRock’s site, where I entered the details of my motherboard. Very soon I received a reply with a link to a program that would update my BIOS. I wasn’t sure what to do with the download so I asked for help from ASRock Support, and was soon sent step-bystep details. However, I could not get it to work and asked for further advice. I was then sent an alternative way of updating my BIOS by means of an MS-DOS…

Scammer was all TalkTalk I recently received a call from someone purporting to be from my ISP, TalkTalk. He told me my internet was going to be shut down for 15 days because my account was being used for criminal activity. He asked several tech-related questions, including how many lights were flashing on my router and how many devices were currently connected. Then he gave some spiel about how they could fix the problem. I then said that if he really was from my ISP he should know my house address. Silence. So I told him where to go! Be warned. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

www.snipca.com/26998 What you need: Windows Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 The best free media player just got even better, thanks to its latest update. VLC version 3.0 is the first major revision of the program in three years. Most of what’s new is below the surface, such as support for even more file formats and codecs. The new version of VLC can play 360-degree video and 3D audio. Support for 8K video and 10bit HDR has been added, too, while new hardware-decoding capabilities make it possible to run high-resolution video smoothly without pushing your device’s processor to the limit. Perhaps the most significant new feature, however, is support for Chromecast. This means you can now cast media to your TV, even in formats that Google’s streaming device doesn’t support.…

PHONE | £130 from EE www.snipca.com/26965 Vodafone has produced several own-brand phones in the last few years, but this is the first we’ve seen from EE since 2015’s Harrier (see our review, Issue 456). Things don’t seem to have progressed much. The Hawk is a bland plastic 5in device with a basic 13-megapixel camera on the back and a meagre 16GB of storage inside. Still, it’s only £130 with a set of earphones thrown in, and with Motorola’s Moto G series now costing over £150, more competition at this level is very welcome. “Cheap, but its dull screen, 16GB storage and poor camera disappoint” Sadly, the Hawk isn’t easy to love. Its shiny glass back ought to be classy, but in practice just picks up sticky fingerprints. There’s a headphone…

Q I want to buy a laptop to use as my main PC, so I can take it with me occasionally. I’ve read in your magazine, however, that Intel’s i5 and i7 processors used in laptops aren’t as powerful as those in desktop computers. Most laptops now have 13in screens, which I find much too small. Are there any large, fast laptops? Kirstie Harbin A Intel’s U-series processors are designed for use on a laptop’s battery power (when it’s important to draw less electricity). Until recently, i5 ‘U’ chips had only two cores, compared to four in most desktop PCs, making them much slower in heavy use. Even i7 ‘U’ chips had only two cores. But new eighth-generation processors, such as the i5-8250U and i7-8550U, have four cores and much…

Over the last few weeks Google Chrome has been displaying a yellow notification bar below my URL bar, warning me that it no longer supports my operating system (Windows XP). I was perplexed, because I’ve only ever run Windows 7 on my PC! Afraid to click the doom-laden message fearing it might be malicious, I decided to change Chrome’s compatibility settings. To do this, right-click Chrome’s desktop icon, click Properties, then click the Compatibility tab. Here, tick the ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for:’ box, click the dropdown menu below, select Windows 7 (see screenshot), then click Apply and OK. I restarted my browser, assuming that would be the end of my troubles, but my excitement was short-lived. The next time I used Chrome, I got a slightly different…

AGES 0-5 Creature Garden by Tinybop £2.99 www.snipca.com/27026 (iOS) This game will keep your child entertained for hours. They need to custom-build a creature using wings, beaks, horns, hooves, and so on. They then test whether it can walk, run, swim or fly and let it compete against other creatures in races. AGES 6-10 Slidey: Block Puzzle Free www.snipca.com/27027 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/27028 (iOS) In this relaxing puzzle game with no time limits, blocks appear from the top one at a time. The aim is to swipe them horizontally then drop them to make full lines. You can use ‘special’ blocks that help you when you’re struggling to fill gaps. AGES 11-16 Jumanji: The Mobile Game* Free www.snipca.com/27029 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/27030 (iOS) Based on the recent Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle…

Print over Bluetooth Most wireless printers use Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth, and for one very good reason – distance. With Bluetooth, you need to be within 30 feet of your printer. Any further away and the connection will be lost. You don’t have that restriction with Wi-Fi. But if you have a Bluetooth-enabled printer, you can use this feature to print from your phone, tablet, or other device. First, make sure your printer is ‘discoverable’ (check its manual if you’re not sure how to do this) and then connect to it as you would any Bluetooth device. With your document or image open, select the Print option and your paired Bluetooth printer will be listed under Select Printer, ready to use. If your printer isn’t Bluetooth-compatible, you may be able…

In a word – no. It’s true that, over time, the Windows registry fills up with a lot of useless keys and values, particularly for hardware you no longer use (like an old printer) or programs you uninstalled years ago. However, for the most part, redundant registry entries won’t actually do your PC any harm if left where they are. And while there is an abundance of free registry ‘cleaning’ tools available (CCleaner has one, for example – see screenshot), it’s something of a myth that deleting unwanted entries from your registry will make any difference to its performance. In fact, it’s more likely that purging the registry will result in important entries being deleted by mistake. Therefore, we’d recommend steering clear of registrycleaning tools altogether.…

Since December 2003 it has been illegal to hold and use your phone while driving. The law is designed to stop drivers getting distracted by text messages, incoming calls, Facebook updates and the like. However, you are allowed to use your phone as a sat-nav as long as you place it in a holder, so you’re not handling it when on the move – which means setting your destination before heading off. If you have to make any changes or additions to your route, you’ll need to pull over and stop somewhere safe first. Where you place your mobile phone is also crucial. Gov.uk’s web page on the law (www.snipca.com/26993) says your phone “must not block your view of the road and traffic ahead”, which means you’re not allowed to…

Since I embarked on this adventure just five issues ago, my adventures in using brain-training tools to make myself cleverer have been bumpy. Largely because I’m testing a subset of the software industry that enjoys using the stick as much as the carrot. You follow a test, it tells you your brain has some fault, and thus you feel obliged to follow some kind of course correction. I’m thus grateful to Computeractive reader Susan Jenkins, who suggested that I needed to travel across the Atlantic for my next adventure. Because my, er, ‘frugal’ editor wouldn’t pay my airfare, I opted to try Toronto-based Cambridge Brain Sciences online instead. Mrs Jenkins is clearly on my wavelength – she alerted me to the fact that, for all the detailed info on the…

Microsoft has been awarded a patent for a computer-screen stylus that may eventually replace the mouse as the main way of controlling your PC. The device, described in the patent as a ‘Stylus with touch-sensitive retention clip’, aims to emulate the scroll wheel of a mouse, letting you scroll up and down pages, and zoom in and out of content. An illustration of the stylus (pictured above) shows in yellow a clip that responds to touch. Rolling your finger along it zooms and scrolls the screen (pictured left). The two buttons (216A and 216B) replace the left- and rightclick buttons on a mouse. Inside the stylus is a conductive material that connects to a sensor. This measures the electrical charges produced when you touch it. If manufactured, the device would…

Availability of full-fibre broadband in the UK is so poor that it doesn’t even appear in a new ranking of European countries. The report is from FTTH Council Europe, which campaigns for widespread adoption of fibre broadband delivered to the doorstep, rather than to a streetside cabinet, from where a slower copper cable takes over. It measures how much of a country’s population can get fibre-to-the-home (also called fibre-to-the-premises). Latvia is top with 50 per cent, followed by Sweden (43), Lithuania (42) and Russia (37). More than 25 other countries appear, including Belarus, Macedonia and Bulgaria, with Ireland bottom on 1.1 per cent. It’s estimated that around three per cent of the UK can get full-fibre broadband, but it’s not used by enough people to make the Council’s report. However,…

Web giants Google and Facebook could be forced to help support local newspapers after Theresa May announced a review into the future of the press. It follows the closure of 200 local papers over the past decade, described by the Prime Minister as “dangerous for democracy”. The independent review will propose ways to ensure the survival of Britain’s press amid the growth of socialmedia sites that offer stories written by newspapers for free. Google and Facebook make billions from online adverts that once appeared in local papers, helping to fund regional journalism. Mrs May said she would consider Government intervention to guarantee newspapers received a “fair share of advertisement revenue” from online companies. The review will also look at ways to tackle fake news and so-called ‘clickbait’ news stories, which…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive TomTom’s maps are ‘out of date’ The news that TomTom are discontinuing map updates on their sat-navs is no big deal (News, Issue 521, Page 7). For years, they have been stressing the importance of regular updates, yet their latest maps are hopelessly out of date in many respects. Even major road features can take years to get included, and speed limits are mostly wrong, having not been updated since the general lowering of limits several years ago. As for residential areas, my present road built in 1994 and my previous address built in the early Eighties are still not on their maps. David Bozon Charge higher insurance for Hotmail users? Absurd! As someone who still uses…

Can Virgin charge me if it’s not providing a service? Q I switched to Virgin Mobile, but when I got the SIM card on 15 January the service worked for one day only. Virgin blamed EE because of work it was doing on a local mast, saying it would be fixed within five days. At the end of January I still had no service. Virgin cancelled my contract but said I had to pay the subscription until the end of February. Is this legal? Lawrence Damron A No, it’s not. Virgin is in breach of contract because it’s not providing a service it promised to. Lawrence doesn’t need to pay the subscription, though will have to pay for any calls he made on the first day. If you suffer from…

What’s the threat? Scammers are using a flaw in the latest version of Chrome (64) to rapidly download thousands of files to your computer, attempting to freeze the browser and scare you into phoning a fake tech-support number that appears on screen (see screenshot). The attack, discovered by Malwarebytes, leaves Chrome unresponsive, making it impossible for you to close tabs – or the browser window itself – by clicking the usual X buttons. The scam message uses all the standard scare tactics, telling you that hackers are stealing your credit-card details, Facebook password and stored photos. To give it an air of legitimacy, it claims to come from Microsoft, and ends with the advice to ring within the next five minutes “to prevent your PC being disabled”. Malwarebytes researcher Jerome…

www.snipca.com/26996 What you need: Windows 10 In our Cover Feature (page 50), we explain how you can use the Windows registry to add, remove and change features. However, the registry’s tools and options are not easy to understand or use. Ultimate Windows Tweaker (UWT) lets you carry out more than 200 advanced tweaks and hacks, but via a simple, tabbed interface. The latest version of UWT adds a number of useful features, including the ability to assign Favorites, which lets you access the tweaks you want quickly via the program’s home screen. It’s also now possible to remove Windows 10’s annoying 3D Objects folder with a couple of clicks, and you can enable or disable more context (right-click) menu options, such as ‘Include in Library’ and ‘Restore previous versions’. Usefully,…

Chromebooks embody the concept of a ‘thin client’: a computer that can be simple because much of the storage and processing is happening at the other end of a connection. When you use Google Docs in a web browser, you’re using your PC as a thin client. But when you want to play 3D games or manage your collection of DSLR photos, you’ll be glad it’s fatter. That’s why Chrome OS can’t beat Windows – although there’s a chance it could replace Android on tablets. For now, it probably makes most sense as a way to make very cheap laptops. Acer and HP both have decent models called the Chromebook 14 at around £225, while Dell’s classroomoriented Chromebook 11 laptop-tablet (£214 from www.snipca.com/27004) is smaller but tougher. All of these…

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE | £60 from Amazon www.snipca.com/26981 Seagate, one of the biggest names in PC storage, has always offered a range of basic desktop hard drives offering high capacity at value-for-money prices, and this model is as cost-effective as ever. The Expansion Desktop drive is a plain black slab with none of the ridges, stripes or panels of its predecessors, nor the prominent grilles or LEDs of rival brands. However, the sides are rather attractively textured with a large diamond knurl pattern. This risks straying into quilted handbag territory, but it’s a nice way to add some interest without creating a distraction on your desk. Speed isn’t the priority here – if it is, get an SSD – but at just over 150 megabytes per second in our tests,…

IBM Simon Personal Communicator WHAT WAS IT? Released in 1994, the Simon Personal Communicator was arguably the first smartphone: a touchscreen Personal Digital Assistant with mobile voice-call capability. Made by IBM, it was sold by BellSouth Cellular, one of the first firms to operate a mobile network in the US. Users could also receive emails and faxes and use a built-in address book, calendar and notepad. It cost $1,099 (about $1,830 today, or £1,300). HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED? The Simon weighed half a kilo, three times as much as an Apple or Android phone. Its monochrome LCD screen had 160x293 pixels, one-fiftieth of Full HD. Although it could be operated with a finger – the absence of physical buttons was ahead of its time – it was better to use…

PULL OUT &KEEP Issue522 14 pages of easy-to-follow workshops and expert tips What you need: ActivePresenter; Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Time required: 45 minutes We’ve tested several free screen-recording programs, but none offer the number of features found in ActivePresenter. The latest version lets you simultaneously record from your webcam and whatever is happening on your screen, so you can better explain a PC problem to someone who’s helping you. You can record a specific area of the screen and annotate or highlight items. Once you’ve finished recording, you can edit the video. STEP 1 First, make sure your webcam and microphone are connected to your PC if necessary. To install ActivePresenter, go to www.snipca.com/26988 and click the blue Download button below the Windows icon. Open and run the…

ANDROID See everything clearly on your device’s screen Like Windows PCs, Android devices have useful accessibility settings. You can choose to have onscreen text read aloud to you, make the default fonts and icons on your device bigger, and enable the option to triple-tap your screen to zoom into it. This is handy if you struggle to read text or want to see a map more clearly, for example. Open Settings, then tap Accessibility. Here, tap ‘Select to Speak’, then tap the slider to switch it on. You’ll now see a floating speech bubble on your screen. Open any app, tap the icon, then tap the play button to hear a narration of any onscreen text. Return to the Accessibility section, then scroll down to the Display section. You’ll see…

WINDOWS 10 Extend your laptop battery life when watching videos Watching high-resolution videos can drain your laptop’s battery. Windows 10 has a little-known setting that lets you extend your laptop’s battery life when watching your favourite film or TV programme. Open the Start menu, click System, Battery, scroll to the bottom and click ‘Change battery settings for playing video’. Scroll to the bottom of the screen that opens. Change the Battery Options dropdown menu to ‘Optimize for battery life’ and tick ‘Allow video to play at a lower resolution when on battery’. This will compromise the video quality slightly, but will guarantee you see the whole film or show. WINDOWS 7, 8.1, 10 Categorise files within a folder Wouldn’t it be handy to see files in a folder grouped according…

What is it? A new tool from Microsoft that shows you what information Windows 10 is collecting about the way you use your PC. Why has Microsoft launched it? Because it wants to “increase your trust and confidence in our products and services”. These words, from Microsoft Privacy Officer Marisa Rogers (www.snipca.com/26980), reveal how anxious the company is to ease concerns about the data it collects from users. What does it collect? Much more than you’d think. Last year, it took Microsoft 30,000 words to explain what it gathers in just the ‘Basic’ mode (there’s also a ‘Full’ setting). Through a process called ‘telemetry’ it knows what tasks you perform on your PC, what software and hardware you use and what you search for online. But that just skims the…

Microsoft isn’t keen on you changing registry entries, so you won’t find a link to the Registry Editor in the Control Panel or Settings app. But if you enjoying tinkering with the registry, you could create a handy shortcut to the Registry Editor to save you typing regedit into the Start menu every time you want to launch it. Head to C:\ Windows and scroll down until you find ‘regedit.exe’. Right-click it and select ‘Send to’, then ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’ – see screenshot below.…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Why have my Google Maps gone blank? Q I’ve been using Chrome for years without bother, but recently Google Maps has stopped working. Or, rather, when I visit the Google Maps site the map pane itself remains blank, no matter what I try. I noticed, too, that if I use Google itself to search for an address or postcode, then the little preview map that’s normally displayed in the results page is also blank. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but then I tried Google Maps in Firefox and then Edge (shudder), and it works perfectly. So, this is definitely just a Chrome problem. Do you have any idea what the cause might be? I’d like my Chrome maps back! Doug Fry A…