Table of contents for 603 in Computeractive

I knew I was going to enjoy editing this issue’s Cover Feature when I saw that the first tip explained how to turn off Aero Shake in Windows. I’m a fidgety mouse user, all fiddly fingers and twitchy thumbs, so I know how easy it is to trigger this spectacularly pointless tool, and its sibling Aero Snap. The only Aeros I like are the chocolate kind (peppermint, preferably). The feature reveals the best tools in Winaero Tweaker, which despite its name covers more than Aero and makes changes that feel deeper than tweaks. An alternative name could be Registry Avoider, because it lets you improve Windows without having to leave its interface. My next favourite tip is making scrollbars thicker, so I can aim my arrow cursor with more precision,…

CHEAP VODAFONE DEALS FOR ‘DISADVANTAGED’ Vodafone has launched discounted mobile-broadband packages to tackle “digital poverty” and help “disadvantaged people” access the internet. The ‘communities.connected’ deals are available to schools, colleges, universities, local authorities and charities, which will be able to offer them to people in need. Prices start from £15 a month for a SIM-only, unlimited data contract. Read more at www.snipca.com/37659. FREEVIEW PLAY ON ALL NEW LG TVs Freeview Play will be available on all LG smart TV sets released in 2021, after being absent from last year’s models. The service, used by nine million people in the UK, offers 85 channels and nine on-demand players, including BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds, ITV Hub and UKTV Play. There is no information yet about whether it will be added to TVs…

An advert promoting Bitcoin to pensioners has been banned because it “irresponsibly” recommended investing in the cryptocurrency as an alternative to a conventional pension. The advert (pictured), from Bitcoin investment firm Coinfloor, quoted a 63-year-old woman saying that there’s no point keeping a pension in the bank because “the interest rates are insulting”. It continues: “That is why when I received my pension, I put a third of it into gold, a third of it into silver and the remainder into Bitcoin”. Coinfloor isn’t regulated in the UK, so consumers can’t complain about it through services such as the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service. In its verdict (www.snipca.com/37667), the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the campaign had targeted pensioners who were “unlikely to know” much about…

TAKE NCSC’s TEST TO BOOST YOUR SECURITY The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ, has launched a new test that recommends a personalised ‘to-do’ list to boost your online security. Visit www.snipca.com/37714, select whether you’re a business/sole trader or an individual/family, then answer the questions, which cover passwords and the devices you use. You’ll then be given a ‘Cyber Action Plan’ suggesting changes, such as updating your email password. LOCKDOWN SEARCH TRENDS REVEALED Google has revealed that searches for positive terms like ‘hug’, ‘prayer’ and ‘hope’ have surged over the past 12 months. However, searches for ‘panic attack’ and ‘hypochondriasis’ also hit record highs, while ‘party’ and ‘festival’ plummeted. It released the data to mark one year passing since the start of lockdown in the UK.…

www.snipca.com/37677 Unless you have access to the world’s fastest supercomputer and expect to live for longer than the universe has already existed, you’ll never crack a file encrypted using AES-256. It’s as close to unhackable as you can get, which is why Bitwarden uses it for its new Send tool. This lets you send sensitive messages that the recipient can open only if they know your password. Once you’ve created an account, click Send at the top, then ‘Create new send’. Enter your name (1 in our screenshot) and choose Text 2 (to send a message) or File (a file saved on your computer – this is available only on Bitwarden’s paid-for premium services: https://bitwarden.com/pricing). If you tick the ‘When accessing the Send…’ box 3, the recipient won’t be able…

Should Hermes refund me for losing my printer? LEAD CASE  Q In August last year I bought a Canon printer for £249.97 from Technology Geeks (www.snipca.com/37623). It became faulty so I returned it via Hermes, but Technology Geeks says it never arrived. I suspect that Hermes lost the printer, and so it should refund me for the cost of it, but I can’t get through to anyone. Can you help? Mick Flynn  A We were happy to give it a go, though Mick was entitled only to a refund of the delivery cost he paid Hermes plus £20 compensation, not the full price of the printer. This is because he didn’t pay for insurance to cover the cost of the printer. This may sound unfair, but it’s how couriers work.…

Create a list of overseas ancestors There may come a point in your research where you need to find a piece of information from your tree, but the search tools aren’t up to the task. That’s what reader Malcolm Smith discovered when he attempted to produce a list of all relatives and ancestors based outside the UK. Neither tool he uses for his tree – Ancestry and Family Tree Maker (FTM) – lets you do this. Set the right ‘conditions’ in Legacy There are more sophisticated tools to help you, such as the two we’ll recommend here. The first, completely free, is the Standard version of Legacy from www.legacyfamilytree.com. Malcolm can transfer his tree from FTM to Legacy using the universal GEDCOM format (see Issue 561 for instructions – you’ll…

What can I use to find duplicate files? Q Could you please recommend a free program that will identify and remove duplicate files, including photos, music and videos? Alan Wilson A It’s interface could do with a makeover (the huge array of buttons can be confusing for newcomers), but our favourite duplicate file finder is AllDup (www.snipca.com/37732 – click the ‘Server #1’ link in the Download section). Before using any duplicate file finder, we recommend creating a complete backup of all your files, preferably on an external hard drive. Once you’ve done this, load AllDup, then click the Source Folders button (top left) and tick the folders you want it to search for duplicates. The ‘Comparison Method’ section lets you choose how to search for duplicates (for example, only comparing…

I might moan about how much my teenage son plays computer games, or how he’s seemingly glued to TikTok every time I look at him, but there are worse ways he could spend his daily screen time. Take Tampa teen Graham Ivan Clark (pictured). At just 17, he hacked into high-profile Twitter accounts (including Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, Elon Musk, Apple and Uber) in order to scam their unsuspecting followers into donating Bitcoin to various non-existent coronavirus-relief projects. With the help of several other youthful hackers, including 19-year-old Mason Sheppard of Bognor Regis, Clark managed to steal as much as £84,200 before he was caught and sentenced to three years in prison, after pleading guilty. PC games and TikTok suddenly seem a lot more wholesome.…

What are they? IPS stands for In-Plane Switching and is a type of LCD (liquid-crystal display) screen. Most affordable monitors, laptops and smartphones now use IPS panels, because they offer a huge improvement in colour quality and viewing angles over previous flat screen technologies, such as TN (Twisted Nemonic) and VA (Vertical Alignment). However, IPS screens aren’t as good at displaying contrast as OLED screens, which tend to be more expensive. How do they work? The key difference with IPS screens is how they are lit. IPS technology uses a bright light situated behind the pixels. The colour of each pixel is changed to let through just the right amount of light, so your eyes see the whole picture on screen made up of thousands of pixels. To become black,…

Leading cyber protection company Acronis has given us a brand new Dell Inspiron 15 laptop containing its Cyber Protect software to offer as a prize to one lucky winner. Acronis Cyber Protect offers a revolutionary approach to cyber protection by integrating data protection with cybersecurity. This method eliminates gaps in defences, delivers better protection against threats, and saves you time and money. You’ll benefit from the global network of Acronis Cyber Protection Operation Centers (CPOC) by receiving real-time alerts on malware, vulnerabilities, natural disasters, and other global events that may affect data protection. It protects you against troublesome security updates by performing an image backup, letting you easily roll back to a working state if there are any problems. It also monitors changes made by software you have installed, continuously…

ANDROID & iOS Customise Android Auto and Apple CarPlay More and more new cars now come with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto built in. These big-screen interfaces for your phone let you control it more safely when driving as they give you big, chunky controls to jab at instead of the smartphone’s fiddly buttons. They also let you manage these controls via buttons on your steering wheel, and can read out incoming text messages, which you can respond to using your voice. At first glance, though, you may find your newly installed apps don’t show up on the car’s built-in screen. To resolve this, iOS and Android give you extensive control over the apps that appear on the screen. If you’re using Android Auto, open Settings on your Android device…

WINDOWS 10 Crop images without downloading software There are plenty of programs you can downlaod that let you crop photos and other images, such as Paint.NET (www.getpaint.net), but you can also use Windowsbuilt-in Photos app for this task. Press Windows+E to open File Explorer, navigate to the photo you want to crop, then double-click it to open it in the Photos app (if you’ve set your default photo viewer to a different program, right-click the photo, select ‘Open with’, then Photos). In the top-right corner of the Photos app, click ‘Edit & Create’, followed by Edit. Next, drag the small white circles in each corner of your photo so that only the section you want to keep is selected (as you do this the app will zoom in on the…

What is it? You don’t know what your wrist is? It’s just there, at the end of your arm – that bendy bit before your hand. Or, to quote Wikipedia, it’s “the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand”. Ring a bell? Yes, alright. But why is it in the news? Because Facebook has unveiled an as-yet-unnamed wristband that lets you control lights, play games, boil kettles and move virtual objects from a distance with tiny movements of your fingers. It’s some years away yet, but Facebook is confident it’ll be the long-term replacement for the computer mouse. Crikey. How does it work? Using electromyography (EMG), a medical technology that tests for nerve or muscle damage by stimulating them with electricity. Facebook is using it…

Disable Windows Defender Microsoft’s built-in security tool is reliable and unobtrusive, so turning it off isrisky and pointless. Should you install other antivirus software, Defender will be disabled automatically anyway. Disable UAC User Account Control (UAC) is no longer the annoying tool it was in Windows Vista and is now an essential security measure. Turning it off could allow malware to make changes to your PC–soleave it switched on. Run As Trusted Installer This advanced setting lets you grant administrative privileges to any program. Even Winaero’s developer admits this is “very risky”. Should you inadvertently run malware as a trusted installer, the consequences would be grave. Don’t Display Last Login User Name This option boosts your security by forcing you to enter both your username and password whenever you sign…

WIth six fans, my 14-year-old PC can get very noisy. Before trying fanless components, I wanted to see whether I could slow these fans by adjusting fan speeds in the BIOS. This isn’t without risk-set them too low and your components may overheat and get damaged. Therefore, when setting fan controls, it’s a good idea to go with settings suggested by your PC’s BIOS. 1 In a quiet room, I ran the Sound Meter app (www.snipca.com/37701) on my Android phone to gauge background noise - the app recorded around 25 decibels (dB) 1. I then turned on my PC and the level increased to around 46dB 2, which seemed much louder than the ‘quiet library’ rating suggested by the app. 2 I then loaded my PC’s BIOS (pressing Delete shortly…

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT How can I see if my emails are viewed? Q A while ago I read about software that revealed if sent emails had been opened, but I never made anote ofit. Is it still available? Michael Clear A Plenty of email tools and services offer the option to request ‘read receipts’, as they’re known. However, their reliability is heavily dependent on what happens at the receiving end. In the desktop version of Outlook, for example, it’s easy to add read-receipt requests. Compose your message but, before clicking Send, click the ‘More commands’ button (three dots, top right) and then choose ‘Request a Read Receipt’ (see screenshot 1). However, whether you actually get a read receipt depends both on the recipient’s email service supporting this facility and…

ROYAL MAIL TRIALS SUNDAY DELIVERIES Royal Mail is to trial Sunday deliveries in order to cope with a huge rise in online shopping caused by the pandemic lockdowns. It will work with “a number of retail brands”, but hasn’t named them yet. Rivals such as DPD and Hermes already deliver on Sundays for major retailers such as Amazon. DROPBOX MAKES PASSWORD TOOL FREE Dropbox will soon make its password-management tool available for people signed up to its free Basic account, having launched it last year to users on paid-for accounts. It will let you store your 50 most important passwords, and sync them across three devices. It comes soon after LastPass started charging for password syncing (see Issue 601, pages 62-63). Visit Dropbox’s site for more details: www.snipca.com/37668.…

‘Debt write off’ message I now seem to be getting just as many scams on WhatsApp as I do on email, which I guess is a sign of WhatApp’s popularity. One recent message claimed to be from the Money Advice Service (MAS) saying that an application to have my debt written off will be approved. I don’t have any debt, so it was obviously a scam, but others may find it more believable. I read up about it online (www.snipca.com/37654), and apparently the scammers ask for bank statements, payslips, forms of identification and letters from creditors. I reported the scam to scams@maps.org.uk. Helen Presley Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

TalkTalk has managed to keep reader Ronald Fearn as a customer after resolving his two complaints. Ronald was surprised when a TalkTalk engineer called at his home unexpectedly, and then shocked to get a £65 bill for the visit. As explained in Issue 602, he was unhappy to be charged for an appointment he hadn’t booked. He was also angry that TalkTalk increased his monthly bill by £10 without telling him. We got TalkTalk to admit that Ronald shouldn’t have been charged £65 for the engineer’s visit and it has refunded him. The price rise was a more complicated issue. By law, providers have to tell you when your bills are increasing during your contract. If the increase is higher than the RPI rate of inflation, you’ve got 30 days…

I’m having trouble finding details of Swiss relatives. I’ve tried country searches on Ancestry and FamilySearch, but drew a blank. Do you have any suggestions, please? Stuart Baker Unfortunately, most Swiss records haven’t been digitised, so you’re left with two options. First, search Google using the free tool AncestorSearch (www.randymajors.org/ancestorsearch) to see if your ancestors have been added to someone else’s online tree. If that fails, you’ll have to trek through FamilySearch’s Switzerland pages, region by region (www.snipca.com/37534). Have a genealogy question for Nick? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

At the start of the year I wasn’t alone in saying good riddance to Adobe Flash. Full of bugs and blighted by a series of security flaws, it should have been killed off years ago. In stark contrast, Adobe’s PDF format (which it created in 1993) should be around for decades to come and is popular among both home and business users (every page of every Computeractive issue is sent to the printers as a PDF). Adobe has made a complete hash of its free Reader tool, though. Despite having few features beyond reading PDFs, it’s slow and takes up over 350MB of hard-drive space. While there are plenty of free alternatives, only one does everything I want: PDF24 (www.snipca.com/37711). In fact, it does so much that the main menu,…

Q My sons have an Xbox Series X (www.snipca.com/37687). Between them they have saved up £400 to buy a monitor that shows off the console in its full glory. What specifications are best? They would prefer a curved model as they play sitting at a desk. David Lisle A Although it may seem like a lot of money, you still need to compromise on some features when you’re looking to spend £400 on a gaming monitor. We think the sensible option would be to prioritise refresh rate over resolution, as this makes the whole gaming experience smoother, even if you lose some detail. Also, 4K monitors aren’t generally as responsive as lower-resolution models. Our choice would be the BenQ EX3203R (www.snipca.com/37676, pictured). It’s slightly over your budget at £426, but…

ACTION CAMERA | £295 from Insta360 www.snipca.com/37670 You don’t have to be skiing down a mountain or jumping out of an aeroplane to make use of an action camera. They’re useful for capturing memories on any expedition, even if it’s only walking the dog or enjoying a day at the beach. Insta360’s Go 2 is tiny, as small as your thumb, and light enough (27g) to clip magnetically to your shirt. It comes with a pocket-size charging case, which can boost the camera’s 30-minute runtime up to a maximum of 2 hours 30 minutes. The case charges via USB-C and also functions as a remote control to start and stop recording on the camera. It also lets you change some of the settings. Alternatively, control the camera using the smartphone…

What is it? This USB-C Dual DAC Cable from Astell &Kern (£109, www.snipca.com/37710)lets you connect high-quality wired headphones to a phone or PC that doesn’t have its own headphone jack. What does it do? ADAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) can be found in any phone or PC that doesn’t have headphone sockets. These devices don’t normally need a high-quality DAC because any sound they send to a Bluetooth headset isn’t converted until it arrives at the headset’s speakers. Built-in DACs only need to be good enough to play through the built-in speaker. The USB-C Dual DAC Cable will offer significantly improved sound over your device’s built-in DAC. What’s the catch? Because the device needs power, it won’t work with iPhones, which aren’t able to power even small devices from their…

Tetris Free* Android www.snipca.com/37598 iOS www.snipca.com/37598 The classic block-dropping game is back. This app was chosen by Apple as one of its highlights of the day and we can see why: it’s colourful, tactile and quite addictive. It also preserves that bombastic tune you’ll remember from the original playing in the background. Canva Free* Android www.snipca.com/37602 iOS www.snipca.com/37601 Canva is a refreshingly simple tool for creating great-looking content, whether it’s a social-media post, a flyer or a poster for printing. This latest release includes a couple of important new features, including a nudge tool that lets you move objects up, down, left and right using on-screen buttons. There’s also a range of new templates to get you started. Zen Symmetry Free Android www.snipca.com/37600 If Tetris (left) is a bit too…

LIBREOFFICE WRITER & CALC Check document properties before saving LibreOffice automatically applies properties to each document you save, such as your name and how long you’ve spent editing it. To review, edit or add to these properties before saving, open LibreOffice Writer or Calc, select the Tools menu, then Options (or just use the Alt+F12 keyboard shortcut). Expand the Load/Save option in the left sidebar, then select General. Under the Save heading on the right, tick the box labelled ‘Edit document properties before saving’, then click OK. When you next save a document, the Properties window will appear. You can then move through the tabs, editing or removing the various properties as you see fit. To remove your name, select the General tab, untick ‘Apply user data’ at the bottom…

We love Windows, but it’s by no means perfect. Whether it’s minor irritations, fiddly controls or the tools that Microsoft has either removed or needlessly updated, everyone has their pet gripes. One way to get Windows working the way you want is to dive into the Windows registry. However, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, the registry can be a confusing place and you may end up making changes that make things worse. Thankfully, help is at hand in the shape of a brilliant free program called Winaero Tweaker (www.snipca.com/37666). This tool provides easy access to hundreds of Windows tweaks, letting you customise and enhance Windows quickly and safely – and without having to get your hands dirty in the registry. Thanks to a major update in March, it’s…

Subscribe to today and save on the single issue price. Each issue of Computeractive will be delivered directly to your device each fortnight. SEE NEXT PAGE FOR SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO SUBSCRIBE… … on an iPad or iPhone STEP 1 Return to the Computeractive library STEP 2 Choose your subscription term and tap twice on the 'price ' box STEP 3 Choose whether to create an optional PixelMags account STEP 4 Enter your Apple ID password to confirm … on a l<indle Fire Kindle Fire subscriptions come with a FREE one month trial. STEP 1 Tap 'Free Trial Subscription' in the Computeractive library STEP 2 Chose your subscription term from the drop down menu on the popup that appears STEP 3 Tap 'Subscribe' … on an Android device STEP 1…

Q You often talk about the benefits of using a VPN. However, most of them seem to cost money. While I don’t object to paying for extra privacy and safety, a friend recently told me about the Tor web browser (www.torproject.org), saying that for most people it’d probably do just as well as a VPN – but that it was free. However, he couldn’t really explain the specific ways in which Tor was better or different to a VPN. Can you help me out here? Kevin Barrett A There’s plenty of crossover but if you’re looking for a condensed answer then it is this:a VPN (such a Nord VPN – see screenshot above right) hides all your computer’s internet ‘traffic’ behind an IP address other than the one assigned by…

Regular readers of this column, or those of you who accidentally skim the first line while flicking to Jargon Buster, will recall that in Issue 597 I was complaining about noisy pipes in my block of flats. That problem has been fixed thanks to Dave the plumber, but now I have a new audio dilemma: my home is too quiet at night. This domestic silence means that every tiny sound – a rumble from the boiler, a gurgle in the fridge – is significantly amplified, and I lie awake at 3am convinced that burglars are fiddling with my water pressure and eating my cheese. More seriously, they could be stealing my wallet, laptop, kettle and other valuables, while I’m in my bedroom unsure if the imagined invaders are human, rodent…

It sometimes feels like Microsoft’s motto should be, ‘If ain’t broke, let’s fiddle with it until it is’. We’ve been using Edge regularly since it relaunched in early 2020 and can’t recall it ever being slow to load. It’s not as if the benefits of ‘Startup boost’ are spectacular – just29to41per cent faster – and a browser’s stability is more important than its speed anyway. We’re sure Microsoft will come up with a fix, but who’s going to risk using the tool now?…

Microsoft has started warning people running the November 2019 Update (version 1909) of Windows 10 that support will end on 11 May, after which it will no longer receive security updates. A message (pictured) appearing in the system tray reads: “Your version of Windows 10 will reach end of service soon. Click to download a newer version of Windows 10 to stay supported.” If you click the link Windows will check whether your computer has the specifications required to install either Windows 10 May 2020 Update (2004) or October 2020 Update (20H2). If so, you can then choose to install it from the Windows Update section. Some 1909 users have reported not being able to update their machine to a newer version, and instead see the following message on the…

Be careful of ‘quack cures’ on Google I’d like to add a note of caution to Peter Setter’s enthusiasm for searching Google for help researching medical conditions (Letters, Issue 602). The problem is quite simple: there are a lot of quack cures out there ranging from those who are sincere but wrong to those who just want to con other people. I’ve been impressed by how defiantly Google and other tech firms have clamped down on Covid misinformation since the pandemic struck. They’ve stuck to it despite what I’d call bullying from conspiracy theorists. I’m hoping this new zero-tolerance policy will be applied to other forms of pseudo-medicine, like homeopathy. For example, asking Google ‘Does homeopathy work?’ should result in a big, bold ‘No’ as the first result. Alan Denver…

I recently purchased a refurbished Vax UCPMSHV1 vacuum cleaner from Direct Vacuums’ eBay store (www.ebay.co.uk/usr/direct-vacuums). I did this while waiting for Vax to respond about repairing an old model that was still under guarantee. I ordered it on Sunday, it was dispatched on Monday, and I received it on Tuesday. It cost only £70.99, £60 less than the full price. It was in great condition too, with no signs of being used. There was only issue: the plastic collar on the extension tube was back to front and upside down. I contacted the company via eBay, and received a replacement part on Saturday. Compare that service with Vax. A month after contacting them, I’ve had no reply apart from auto-generated ‘holding’ emails. I’ll never buy a brand-new vacuum again. Ian…

AUDIO EDITOR Audacity 3.00 www.snipca.com/37713 What you need: Windows 8.1 or 10 Audacity is a powerful, open-source tool that lets you record and edit audio. Version 3.00 (select the Audacity Windows Installer option at the top of the Download section at the URL above) is a major release that introduces a range of new features, but the design remains remarkably similar to its first release back in 2000 (if it ain’t broke…). Note that although Audacity runs on Windows 7, it’s not officially supported–you can see a list of known compatibility problems at www.snipca.com/37715). One of the biggest new features is the Label Sounds tool, which makes it much easier to split long audio recordings (such as an entire album that you’ve digitised) into individual tracks. This tool is a…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: DriverPack Solution If you’re looking for a free tool to update your PC’s drivers, make sure you avoid DriverPack Solution. Its website – which ranks high in a Google search for ‘driver installer free’ – displays company logos of several reassuringly well-known tech “partners”, boasts about an impressive (but wholly unsubstantiated) worldwide user base of almost 50 million, and promises to “install drivers for free and solve driver problems on any device”. Oh, and there’s a YouTube video showing Russia’s former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev singing the tool’s praises. Yep, you read that right. Frankly, DriverPack Solution is one of the weirdest junk offenders I’ve had the misfortune to come across. Run it, and the program will take over your entire PC desktop, displaying a…

LAPTOP | £1,500 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37653 On the opposite page we’ve reviewed a small laptop for people who want to travel with a minimum of bulk. This laptop is different. It’s still light and portable, but with a 16in screen it’s much easier to work at. The screen has a resolution of 2560x 1600 pixels. This is the same size and resolution as an Apple MacBook Pro 16in, but thanks to its lightweight magnesium alloy chassis, at 1.19kg it’s significantly lighter than Apple’s 2kg laptop. In fact it’s lighter than some 13in laptops, including the 13.3in Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 5G (1.26kg) and the 13.3in M1 MacBook Air (1.29kg). “Its stunning screen provides vast space and accurate colours” The Gram 16 has large keys and a spacious touchpad. There’s a…

PHONE | £845 from Amazon www.snipca.com/37692 In Issue 599 we reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S21 (www.snipca.com/37212), awarding it five stars thanks to its great screen, powerful performance and reasonable price. Here we’re testing the S21+, which is a step up in terms of price, but comes with a larger screen and longer battery life. Inside is Samsung’s latest Exynos 2100 processor and a generous 8GB of memory. The screen has a resolution of 1080x2400 and a refresh rate of 120Hz, making it silky smooth to use. There are three cameras on the back of the phone: a 12-megapixel main sensor; a 64-megapixel telephoto camera; and a 12-megapixel ultrawide unit. It also offers 5G connectivity and runs Android 11. “A powerful phone that’s smooth to use, lovely to look at and…

PRICE DROP LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 £799 from www.snipca.com/37348 Tested Issue 601 Weighing just 1.16kg, this is an excellent lightweight laptop with a great screen and an AMD processor faster than many Intel rivals. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card reader. Battery lasts nearly 16 hours. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £1,199 from www.snipca.com/36642 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite £299 from www.snipca.com/35795 Tested Issue 582 Competing with Apple’s cheapest 10.2in iPad, this slim aluminium tablet comes with an S Pen stylus and a generous 64GB of storage at a reasonable price. It’s less powerful, but a great buy if you prefer Android. ALTERNATIVE…

Although the M1 Mini Plus can connect to HD and 4K video sources, it downscales the video. To get the best image quality, you’ll need to spend more and buy an HD or 4K projector. Here are our top picks. BenQ W2700 £1,398 from www.snipca.com/37684 This 4K projector has a brightness rating of 2,000 lumens and is able to create sharp projections that are up to 200 inches, which look better than those produced by models more than twice its price. ViewSonic X10-4K £1,270 from www.snipca.com/37685 It can’t quite match the image quality of the BenQ W2700, but this model projects impressive 4K images using an LED light source, and lasts 30,000 hours compared with the 4,000-hour lifespan of the W2700’s lamp. LG PF50KS £499 from www.snipca.com/37686 This HD projector…

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Increase System Reserved partition to get update I read your News story in Issue 600 (page 6) about the May 2020 Update being ready for everyone, and so thought I’d better check to see if my three computers have been updated or still need updating. My desktop PC and mini PC had been, but my wife’s laptop hadn’t. I started the update process only to be greeted with the error message ‘We couldn’t update system reserved partition’. I checked the partitions and it showed I had 300MB reserved, which wasn’t enough to accommodate this update. I thought it would be simple to enlarge the C partition using Disk Management in Windows, but you can do it only if there’s existing free drive space immediately to the…

NASA Free Android www.snipca.com/37604 iOS www.snipca.com/37603 The space agency’s main app is packed with more than 16,000 images, live NASA TV and more. Read up on past and current missions, find out where satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope are right now, and check what’s visible from your current location. Best For Current developments in NASA NASA Glenn Research Center: The Early Years Free iPadOS www.snipca.com/37609 If you’re more interested in how the US got to grips with spaceflight, this beautiful digital-book app is a treat. Flick through the incredible archive photos with every page accompanied by a detailed explanation. It will provide hours of reading if you want the full experience. Best For Learning the history of space travel ISS Explorer Free Android www.snipca.com/37608 iOS www.snipca.com/37607 This interactive tool…

Share your screen during club meetings Screen sharing on club video calls is a great way to do everything from demonstrating a new process through to reviewing ideas for a club logo redesign. Although all video-chat tools offer basic video-sharing features (see box below), none can match those offered by Zoom (www.zoom.us). Share your desktop or a window To start sharing your screen in Zoom, click the green Share Screen button at the bottom (hover your cursor over the main Zoom window to reveal this). The sharing options are split across three tabs: Basic, Advanced and Files. In the Basic tab, you can share the desktop of a specific monitor (these will be labelled Screen 1, Screen 2 and so on) or a single window. A green border will appear…

1To view all the tweaks you’ve made using Winaero Tweaker, click Recent Changes 1 in the Home section. This tells you when each change was applied and lets you2 double-click a tweak to open its settings page. To undo a tweak, press 1 Ctrl+R; or to undo them all, click the Actions menu 2 and choose ‘Reset all tweaks’. 2 clicking the a section name displays all its tweaks in the right hand pane. Use the buttons on the toolbar 1 to switch from Icons view to Details or Tile, which show more information about each tweak. You can save specific tweaks to apply later by clicking the ‘Bookmark this tweak’ button 2. 3 If you find the number of settings overwhelming, click the View menu 1 and choose ‘Select…

Why won’t Ueli find anything? Q I have been a subscriber to Computeractive for many years, but this is the first I have asked for your advice. I downloaded the Ueli launcher utility (www.snipca.com/36726) after reading Ryan Sutton’s tip (‘Turn on Control Panel to include in searches’ Issue 597, page 42). The search bar duly appears when I press Alt+Space bar. However, when I type a search, such as ‘Notes’, and press Enter nothing happens. Any idea what the problem might be? Peter Fawcett A We’re not sure. Pressing Enter in Ueli will have an effect only if the tool finds a match. The list of search results is actually dynamic, meaning it’s refined automatically as you type. If you type quickly without ever looking up then you might not…