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Welcome
EDITORIAL
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From the Editor
I remember the first time my PC was destroyed
by hidden malware. It happened about 15 years
ago, back when I was far too carefree about
what I downloaded from the web. I was in the
middle of writing a feature, probably about the
launch of Windows XP, when my PC went
blank. Nothing I did could bring it back to life.
In the end, I had to scrap it, and splash out on a
brand new machine.
I thought I was safe because I had antivirus
installed. But as I’ve since learnt, no antivirus
is perfect. Hackers will always find ways to drill
through its defence to plant silent killers on
your PC. Read our Cover Feature (p50) to
discover what these invisible threats are, and
how you can remove them.
You’ll need some light relief after reading
that, so because this issue is dated 1 April
we’ve got a little ‘guess the hoax’ quiz on
page 57. Can you spot the three fake news
stories we’ve mischievously created alongside
the seven that are bonkers but true?
Daniel Booth
editor@computeractive.co.uk
^HIDDEN
stay safe fram hillert you*- anti-wnJS
THIS ISSUE IN NUMBERS
j ■ i
500 years
Age Google thinks
it's possible humans
can live to - p8
£399
\ 45 hours
Price someone is
Incredible battery
selling our Back
life of the Moto E 4G
Issue CD for! - plO
phone - p18
I HOW TO USE
I SNIPCA URLs
i z
I We use snipcas to turn long URLs that ;
I are hard to type into ones that are
short and simple. They aren't websites
; themselves, which means they won't
l 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
l the correct website.
1-14 April 2015 3
Contents
1-14 April 2015* Issue 446
In this issue...
C Remove hidden malware .*
I Some of the worst PC pests *
are getting harder to see. We show
you howto search and destroy
c 7 ^ an y° u s P ot t *^ e tec ^
3# hoaxes?
Decide whether our outlandish tech
tales are true or false
C O Shut down your PC faster
3 O and safer
Make slow shutdowns a thing of the
past with our handy tweaks and tips
Things to do with an old
DUXP PC -Parti
We talk you through installing Linux
Remove 1
HIDDEN
MALWARE
Dating apps: partners
on tap p74
6 News
9 Question of
the Fortnight
Will Islamic State hack
you next?
10 Letters
12 Consumeractive
14 Protect Your Tech
16 Best Free Software
VLC 2.2.0
30 Buy It!
70 Fast Fixes
Partitions
73 Jargon Buster
74 The Final Straw
Stuart Andrews falls out
of love with dating apps
32 Competition
Win a Crucial MX200
500GB SSD
49 What's All the Fuss
About? Apple ResearchKit
64 Problems Solved
In every issue...
4 1-14 April 2015
Workshops & Tips
14 pages of brilliant workshops and expert tips
35 T ry Word and Excel in 4Z Create your own Word
Windows 10 for free fonts for free
38 Recover your files when 43 Readers' Tips
Windows crashes Explore old London town
40 Browse the web faster
than
44 Phone and Tablet Tips
Speed up your Android device
46 Make Windows Better
Find files based on date created
47 Make Office Better
Add slideshows to your sway
48 Secret Tips For...
VirtualBox
Reviews
18 Motorola Moto E 4G
A 4G phone for less than a ton
19 Asus X555LA-XX290H
Asus' budget laptop is worth
every penny
20 Canon i-SENSYS LBP6230dw
A mono laser printer for home use
Samsung 850 Evo 1TB/
Crucial MX200 500GB
Two SSDs with real drive
22 Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
A curved-edge phablet that's
notsophabulous
23 Samsung UE40H5500
The devil is in the detail with
Samsung's superb smart TV
26 Wired2Fire Diablo Ultima
A great PC - but cover your ears
27 Philips BDM4065UC
A huge 4K PC monitor for widescreen
web activity and gaming
28 Asus RT-AC52U
Low-cost, slow-running router
29 Cellhire 10GB Data SIM
Avoid roaming charges in Spain
Computeractive
offer of the fortnight
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2015 page 54
INTERNET
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1-14 April 2015 5
News
The top stories in the world of technology
Windows 10 to launch this
summer - try new tools now
Windows 10
M icrosoft has surprised
everyone by announcing
that Windows 10 will launch
this summer. It had previously
been thought that the
operating system (OS) would
arrive in the autumn.
Writing on a Microsoft blog
on 17 March (www.snipca.
com/15881) Terry Myerson,
the company’s head of
operating systems, said:
“We continue to make great
development progress and
shared today that Windows 10
will be available this summer
in 190 countries and 111
languages”.
In the same blog post
Myerson revealed that you’ll
be able to sign into devices
running the OS with your
eyes, face and fingerprint. This
is because Windows 10 will
support Windows Hello,
Microsoft’s new system of
authenticating a person’s
identity through unique
physical characteristics,
known as biometrics, which
is far safer than relying on
passwords. For more
information on Windows
Hello visit www.snipca.
com/15882.
Microsoft also confirmed
that it’s shelving the Internet
Explorer brand that it’s used
for its web browsers since
1995. Instead, Windows 10
will contain Microsoft’s new
browser, codenamed Spartan,
which has been designed to
run on every possible device,
from phones to PCs.
However, Spartan was
surprisingly omitted from the
latest Technical Preview of
Windows (Build 10041), which
was announced on 18 March.
Microsoft developers
confirmed on Twitter that
Spartan will appear in the
next Windows 10 Preview:
www.snipca.com/15886.
Finally, Microsoft said it will
release Preview versions of
Windows 10 more regularly.
You can control how often you
receive updates by selecting
the Fast or Slow ‘ring’ within
Windows 10 ’s settings.
If you pick fast, you’ll
receive every update, but
these will contain more bugs,
so it best suits confident users.
If you choose the slow ring,
you’ll receive less frequent
updates, but they will more
stable, with fewer flaws.
You can choose which ring
you want by clicking the Start
menu, Settings, ‘Update &
COMMENT
We're excited by the prospect
of getting our hands on the
final version of Windows 10
before autumn, but we hope
Microsoft isn't rushing things
to hit an unrealistic deadline.
Happily, there's no sign of
that. We're wary of tempting
fate, but no operating system
since XP has looked this
good this early. The latest
Preview version isn't a huge
improvement, and Spartan's
absence is disappointing,
but three magic words
make it worth downloading:
'drag and drop'. Few things
make computers easier
to use.
recovery’, ‘Advanced options’,
then selecting Fast or Slow.
Download the new Preview
at www.snipca.com/15888.
For more information on
what’s new see the box below
and read Microsoft’ s’blog:
www.snipca.com/15883.
WHAT'S NEW IN THE LATEST WINDOWS 10 PREVIEW
START SCREEN
TRANSPARENCY EFFECTS
The Start screen is now
transparent, making it look like
the menu icons
and tiles are
floating on top
of your Desktop.
You can also drag
and drop apps
from the All Apps or most used
apps list to pin them to the Start
menu.
USE CORTANA
IN THE UK
Cortana, Microsoft's
voice-activated personal
assistant, is now available
to users in the UK.
Before, you could only use it by
changing your location to US.
UPDATED PHOTOS APP
Microsoft has updated the tile
for the Photos app to show
pictures from your OneDrive
account, not just those saved on
your PC. It also now supports
keyboard shortcuts (tab, arrow.
and page up/down keys).
DRAG AND DROP IN
VIRTUAL DESKTOPS
The virtual desktop feature
(new in Windows 10) now lets
you drag apps and windows to
different Desktops. Previously
you had to right-click and
choose an option.
© You'll like this... Terry Pratchett has been
immortalised in hidden code that can be
added to websites (www.snipca.com/15879)
© ...but not this High-street shops are still 4
selling Lenovo computers containing the
Superfish adware (www.snipca.com/15880) J
6 1-14 April 2015
IN BRIEF
Beware 'plague' of pension
scams once new rules kick in
Financial regulators and
Government ministers have
warned the over-55s that they
are likely to be targeted by
pension scams as conmen
try to exploit confusion over
the new rules.
Pensions minister Steve
Webb has predicted a “plague”
of scams once the new
regulations take effect on
6 April. From that date anyone
aged 55 and over will be able to
freely withdraw money from
their pension pots.
1 Claim to know loopholes that
let you access all your pension
before you turn 55.
2 Offer a free pensions review
as a way of earning your trust.
3 Say you'll miss out on a
“once in a lifetime” deal if you
don't sign up straight away.
It’s now much safer to
download apps from Google’s
Play Store after the company
improved how it checks
for malware.
In a blog post (www.snipca.
com/15862), Eunice Kim,
product manager for Google
Play, said that for the past
several months a “team of
experts” has been testing
apps for malware and other
“policy violations”, such as
sexual content and copyright
infringement.
Until now Google has been
far more relaxed than Apple
about allowing apps to appear
on their store. Since the Play
Store launched in 2008 (as
Android Market’), Google has
taken a reactive approach to
security, removing malicious
apps once they’ve been spotted
Talking to the Daily
Telegraph, Webb said that
fraudsters are already
sending text messages en
masse and cold-calling
4 Try to dazzle you with
incredible returns on your
money - up to 10 per cent. You
can't get better than the four
per cent offered by the NS&I
pensioner bonds.
5 Advise you to put all your
money into one investment.
rather than testing
them first to stop them
appearing.
The new system, in
which Google analyses
apps using software
before the review team
test them, is similar
to how Apple checks
apps before approving
them.
Google has also
introduced age-based
ratings for apps and games.
From May, app developers
will have to complete a
questionnaire about their
app before submitting it to
Google for approval.
They will be asked whether
their app contains sexual and
violent content, drugs and
alcohol, gambling, and other
content that should be
people, copying the
tactic used by
companies offering
PPI compensation.
“If you are promised
a really eye-catching
interest rate above what
you’d expect, it’s almost
always too good to be
true,” he said.
Martin Wheatley,
chief executive of the
Financial Conduct
Authority, said he expected
scammers to strike while
people were still deciding
what to do with their new
pension freedoms.
“Scams and fraud, we know,
tend to proliferate at the
moment of maximum
uncertainty,” he said
For more info on pension
scams visit the Government
website Pension Wise: www.
pensionwise.gov.uk.
age-restricted.
This should help reduce
the number of inappropriate
apps downloaded by children.
Previously, app developers
assigned their own age rating.
Google says it will check that
developers aren’t lying in the
questionnaire in order to make
their app appear suitable to a
wider range of people
BT BOTTOM OF
BROADBAND SURVEY
BT has come bottom of a
customer-satisfaction survey
of 11 ISPs conducted by
consumer watchdog Which?.
BT achieved an overall score
of 45 per cent, just below
Sky and TalkTalk. Smaller
ISPs performed better, with
John Lewis, Zen and Utility
Warehouse taking the top
three places. Which? surveyed
customers across a range of
different criteria, including
connection speed, technical
support, customer service and
reliability. See the results at
www.snipca.com/15850.
BBC NEWS LAUNCHES
RESPONSIVE SITE
The BBC has launched a
responsive version of its
News website. This means
that its layout will adapt to
better suit the screen of
the device - phone, tablet
or computer - its being
displayed on, making it much
easier to navigate. The site
launched as a beta in March
2014, and has been tested
by 750,000 visitors since
December. Read the BBC's
Internet Blog for more details:
www.snipca.com/15867.
P^UH,y||y.y. U .u.u M .u MM y. U . U .^
1 Tomorrow's I
plpworidi
i * l|r I
i 3
i French woman Jeanne
: :
Calment, aged 122 when she
; died in 1997, was the oldest
person to have ever lived. But :
; Google's Bill Maris wants to
invest in medical companies
; aiming to extend that record
by several centuries. Recently,
in a fascinating interview
; with US business magazine
Bloomberg Markets, he said
it was “possible to live to be \
500”. Read it at www.snipca. \
\ com/15756.
FIVE THINGS SCAMMERS WILL DO
Finally! Google to check Android apps
for malware before they go live
1-14 April 2015 7
News
IN BRIEF
BT FINED FOR TEXT-
SPEECH DELAYS
Ofcom has fined BT
£800,000 for missing the
deadline to release a text-to-
speech service designed to
help people with hearing or
speech impairments. Along
with all phone operators,
BT had until 18 April 2014
to launch a tool that turned
typed words into a phone
conversation. BT's Next
Generation Text Service
(http://ngts.org.uk) finally
launched in September, 2014
following technical problems.
NATIONAL GALLERY
BANS SELFIE STICK
The National Gallery has
become the latest cultural
institution to ban the selfie
stick, prompting delight
among the many people
who regard the device as
a modern-day nuisance.
The telescopic sticks, which
extend to around 1.5 metres,
help users take better photos
of themselves than can be
achieved by holding the
phone at arm's length. The
British Museum is rumoured
to be following suit.
5Mbps broadband should be a
legal right, says Government
Demanding access to
broadband would
become a legal right,
under Government
proposals announced
by George Osborne
in the Budget.
The Government
wants to introduce
rules that let customers
force companies to
install broadband that
can hit speeds of at least
5Mbps, a quarter of
the UK average.
They would do this by
raising the Universal Service
Obligation, which is the
legal entitlement a company
must provide, from dial-up
speeds to 5Mbps. This would
be the highest guaranteed
speed in Europe, the
Government claims.
The plans were outlined
in the Government’s
digital communications
infrastructure strategy, a
policy paper published
alongside the Budget.
You can read it at www.
snipca.com/15843.
Osborne also stated in
the Budget a “national
ambition” for the UK’s
minimum broadband
speed to be an “ultrafast”
100Mbps. The Chancellor
said that he was committed
to making sure “nearly
all homes” in the UK
would get this speed,
though didn’t reveal
any further details.
Using 100Mbps
broadband you’d be
able to download a film
in two minutes and an
album in eight seconds.
In order to deliver
ultrafast broadband to
remote areas, Osborne
promised to speed up
an existing scheme that
uses satellite broadband
and other advanced
technologies to link rural
homes to the internet. He
claimed that “wherever you
live in Britain you should have
ultrafast broadband - and we
are going to make it happen”.
The Government’s current
aim is to make superfast
broadband, defined as 24Mbps
and above, available to 90
per cent of the UK by 2016,
increasing to 95 per cent
in 2017.
Osborne also announced
funds to provide free Wi-Fi in
libraries and to boost research
into driverless cars.
Do you think the Government
will achieve its ambition of
100Mbps broadband? Please let us
know at letters(Pcomputeractive.co.uk
BBC hands out one million free computers to schools
Every pupil in Year 7 across the UK will
receive a mini computer as part of the
BBC’s Make It Digital initiative to inspire a
new generation of children to develop
digital skills such as coding.
Around one million computers,
currently named the BBC Micro Bit
(pictured right), will be given to schools
for 11- to 12-year-olds to use.
The BBC says the device is designed
to be a wearable personal computer
and be extremely easy to use, letting
children start coding on it as soon as
they plug it in.
The device will be compatible with
the Raspberry Pi, the hugely popular
British-made mini computer, rather than
act as a replacement for it.
As part of Make It Digital, the BBC will
screen a season of TV programmes
promoting digital skills, and encourage
kids to play interactive games online,
such as ‘The Doctor and the Dalek’
(www.snipca.com/15829) .
The BBC has also teamed up with
50 leading tech businesses and
organisations, including Microsoft and
the British Computing Society, to run
events around the country. In addition,
the BBC has formed a partnership with
the Government to launch a traineeship
to help up to 5,000 young, unemployed
people to develop their digital skills. The
long-term aim is to fill the 1.4m digital
jobs it is estimated the UK will need
over the next five years.
Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, said:
“Just as we did with the BBC Micro in the
1980s, we want to inspire the digital
visionaries of the future. Only the BBC
can bring partners together to attempt
something this ambitious”.
For more information visit www.bbc.
co. uk/makeitdigital.
8 1-14 April 2015
/
Question
of the
Fortnight
Will Islamic State
hack you next?
Islamic State wants to spread its murderous message across the internet
but not every 'Isis' hack is what it seems
dillDMU
Itackad by In L mi c Stale < IlL I Ci 5
m #r* ^3
http : //fb, cm/I OOOOS'MSl JG320
O n Sunday 8 March, anyone
visiting the website
of the Dublin Rape Crisis
Centre would have seen
the now- familiar black
flag of Islamic State plastered
across the homepage. It was
accompanied by the sinister
message ‘Hacked by Islamic
State (ISIS), We Are
Everywhere’ (see image).
It was one of many hacks
committed that weekend that
Isis sympathisers claimed to
have carried out. Hundreds of
other websites have been
hacked in a similar fashion in
2015, though they wouldn’t
appear to be obvious targets
for murderous Islamists. In
recent weeks, for example, Isis
has targeted the websites of a
Tokyo camera shop, a sports
club in Yellowknife, Canada,
a hotel in New York State, an
Italian political party and a
quilting museum in
Wisconsin. They even hacked
the website of the non-League
Essex football club Heybridge
Swifts.
Because hackers are
targeting obscure websites
such as these, can you be sure
the site you run for your local
club or society isn’t also at
risk? It would appear it might
be. The apparent randomness
of these attacks doesn’t look
like the work of serious
cyber- terrorists, but more like
the online equivalents of louts
who indiscriminately spray
ugly graffiti on buildings.
But are these hackers really
supporters of Isis? As the
targets become more trivial,
security experts are beginning
to suspect that the culprits
have no affiliation with Isis,
but are simply lone hackers
out to shock. Limited by
relatively poor hacking skills,
they choose soft targets.
Speaking to US broadcaster
NBC on 9 March, Evan
Kohlmann of global security
firm Flashpoint Intelligence
said: “There are no indications
that the individuals behind
these latest hacks have any
real connection to Isis”.
Kohlmann added that
“ordinary hackers have
cynically used far-fetched
references to Isis as a means
of attracting media attention”.
Tellingly, he called these
hacks “defacements”, which
is an important point.
The hackers don’t actually
steal personal information
or endanger national
infrastructure. Instead, their
actions are more like acts of
cyber-vandalism. Seeing
an Isis flag on your
homepage is certainly
upsetting, but it can
easily be removed.
Crucially, many of
the websites hacked in
March have one thing in
common: they are all
built on the WordPress
blogging platform. It appears
that the hackers exploited the
well publicised vulnerabilities
in WordPress plug-ins (for
more information visit www.
snipca.com/15793). Hackers
targeted these sites because
of a shared security flaw, not
because they were symbols
of ‘the West’.
But if experts question the
THE FACTS
• Hackers claiming to
represent Islamic
State have hacked the
websites of many local
clubs, organisations and
businesses
• They deface the homepage
of websites with a black
banner containing the
words 'Hacked by Islamic
State (ISIS), We Are
Everywhere'
• Security experts suspect
some hackers are shock-
seeking opportunists, rather
than genuine militants
authenticity of recent attacks
on soft targets, there seems
little doubt that the hack on
12 January of the US military’s
Central Command Twitter
account was carried out by
actual Isis sympathisers.
Calling themselves the
Cyber Caliphate, they posted
sensitive information
including personal details
of senior US officers. It also
seems certain that the attacks
on 19,000 French websites
following the murders at
the Charlie Hebdo office on
January 7 were carried out
by genuine Islamists.
So far, Islamic State’s
cyber- terrorism hasn’t been
anywhere near as serious as
its barbaric actions in Iraq and
Syria. Its aim has been to wage
a propaganda war on the sites
and accounts of its perceived
enemies. Sadly, its success can
be measured by the number
of copycat hackers now hiding
behind the black flag to instill
fear and spread hatred.
I i The apparent randomness of these
attacks doesn't look like the work of
serious cyber-terrorists, more like louts
who spray ugly graffiti on buildings J J
1-14 April 2015 9
Tell us what's on your mind
n Email: lettersCPcomputeractive.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive
Twitter: (P Computer Active
www.twitter.com/computeractive
Motorists using phones
'should face prison'
At last somebody has said what
k^J millions of us have been thinking
for years - ban drivers who use mobile
phones. I applaud Chief Constable Suzette
Davenport’s comments (News, Issue 445),
and I hope that as a top-ranking police
officer she will have considerable
influence. These dangerous miscreants
shouldn’t just be banned from the roads
- they should face the threat of prison.
I hate seeing people using phones at
the wheel. I always give them a steely
glare, but I’m too scared to bang on their
window because they always look like the
sort of boorish oaf who would wind it
down and punch me.
Gordon Evans
t\J\ I have very personal reasons for
IrN agreeing with Suzette Davenport,
so I hope you don’t mind not printing my
name. I’ll confess that I used to dismiss
the dangers of texting while driving. I
thought criminalising it was a ‘nanny
state’ law, like banning smoking in pubs.
But a couple of years ago, while driving
home late at night, I skidded off the road
and smashed into a fence. Ok, that
happens to a lot of people. But I was to
blame because I’d been texting someone.
I’ve always considered myself a safe
and confident driver, but clearly I had
become complacent. It was a real shock
to me, because if it had happened on a
motorway or high street I could have
killed someone.
So I never, ever use my phone now
while driving. But there are still too many
people who do. And they will continue
to do so until they are made to feel
uncomfortable by other people judging
them. So yes, drivers should be banned,
but we also need a program of education
that paints their behaviour as socially
unacceptable.
Name and address supplied
£399 for your Back Issue CD?
T\S\ Are you in desperate need of
money at Computeractive? I saw
your 2014 Back Issue CD being sold
for a whopping £399 on Amazon (see
screenshot above right) - and don’t forget
the £2.80 postage! I bought the CD a
couple of weeks ago for £15, which now
it through the Marketplace.
We can’t stop people
doing this, but happily
Amazon is sticking to the
original £15 - buy it at
www.snipca.com/14981,
or search Amazon for
‘computeractive cd’.
The £399 CD was still on
sale as we went to press
(www.snipca.com/15746) ,
and at that price it will
seems like a bargain. It’s great, and I’ve probably remain so forever!
been using it every day, but sorry it ain’t
worth £399. That would buy me 133 pints FOFgCt WQIHgS - my
down my local! broadband needs more welly
Doug Marquis
CA says
| That’s more than it would buy
in our local - central London prices
being what they are. We don’t
blame Doug for being shocked by
the price of the CD. At £399, it’s
almost a 2,700 per cent increase
on our RRP! It’s not us selling the
CD, but a third-party seller who
must have bought it through
Amazon for £15, then
decided to charge this
rip-off price when selling
To the absolute ignorant person in
Letters, Issue 445 (George Parks)
who believes everybody in the countryside
has wellies and Land Rovers, here’s a
reality check.
Only a quarter of the cabinets
in my village (near Northampton)
has fibre. I enjoy gaming on my
custom-made computer but have
you ever downloaded Skyrim
(11GB) on broadband? It takes four
hours, sometimes more, if the
connection is unreliable.
If anything goes wrong with
Vile phone scammers 'deserve all the
f
abuse they get
Has the Royal Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty
to Scammers just bought a
subscription to
Computeractive? I ask
because I’ve read several
letters recently urging us not to
be nasty to these delicate souls,
the latest being Alan Ingrey’s letter in
Issue 445.
Well, I think Jane Hoskyn’s Villain of
the Fortnight in the same issue (page
10) reminds us that these scammers
won’t cry themselves to sleep because
we hang up after shouting a naughty
word. She told us the horrible story of
a phone scammer threatening to kill a
Canadian man who had the temerity to
ask him why he was trying to con
people. So, do-gooders, remember
what kind of people these scammers
are. They aren’t vulnerable victims
being coerced into making malicious
phone calls; they are aggressive
criminals prepared to bully and
intimidate. I know this myself after
talking to one last year, who told me
that he’d “pester me every day at six in
the morning” until I agreed to install
his malware on my PC. These people are
vile, and deserve all the abuse they get.
Mike Amos
10 1-14 April 2015
STAR LETTER
the game or it needs to be downloaded
again I have to phone my friend, take
my desktop computer with me and
download it on his fibre connection
two minutes up the road.
My actual gripe is how my village’s
broadband serice is apportioned, because
I only have to walk two minutes within
the same postcode to get super-fast
broadband. I believe I have a better
chance of winning the Lottery then
knowing why this is.
Now I am going to put my trainers on
and drive into town in my partner’s
Ford Fiesta.
Gail Coles
New Forest ponies say
neig h to fast broadband
[\y| Following conversations
^ ^ about broadband speeds in
Computeractive, in our little corner of
rural Hampshire (Woodgreen village),
we are left amused and envious of those
around us with their talk of gigabytes
and fibre. On a good day we might get
1.5Mbps. Even our nearest neighbour,
Hale, has 95 per cent of residences on
3-4Gbps.
The problem is that in the New Forest
the allocation of the land is controlled by
the Verderers (www.verderers.org.uk).
The ideal place to install fast broadband
is a patch of land about three metres in
diameter, outside our local pub, which
has a redundant bus shelter (there are
no buses) and a red phone box on it.
It’s listed as grazing land for the ponies,
so cannot be used for other purposes.
And up to now the Verderers won’t
budge - not that the ponies appreciate
this!
Derek Minns
Only April Fools still use XP
I In News, Issue 445, you said you
I were starting a series on what to
do with XP computers, and that it
would begin in your 1 April issue.
Please tell me this is an April Fool’s joke.
XP has passed on! It has ceased to be!
It’s a stiff! It’s kicked the bucket, shuffled
off this mortal coil, run down the
curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir
invisible! It is an ex-operating system
(with apologies to John Cleese).
Please Computeractive, you shouldn’t
be encouraging people to use an
operating system that’s deader than
a dead parrot.
Harry Powell
Amazon right to ban libellous reviews
I was very
interested in the
Consumeractive case of
Malcolm Adnett in
Issue 445. He was
complaining that
Amazon won’t publish
his negative review of a
flash drive. Maybe he
thought it was an
attack on his freedom
of speech and that he should be allowed
to say what he likes, but as you rightly
pointed out there is a major risk of
libel. Amazon gets a lot of criticism for
its tax-avoiding antics, but it’s right to
stand up for small businesses whose
reputation would be damaged by
false reviews.
I have no idea if Malcolm’s flash drive
was ‘fake’, but the point is: nor does he.
Think about it - how could he know?
He may suspect it is, but how could he
prove it? I accept he’s perfectly entitled
to make a subjective criticism within
his negative review, maybe by
suggesting that the drive isn’t very easy
to use. I’m pretty sure Amazon would
have allowed a comment like that. But
customers simply can’t make wild
claims about products that could
jeopardise the future of a business.
I speak from experience. Since
retiring a few years ago, I’ve been
running a small company selling
homemade items through Amazon
Marketplace. A year ago, we were on
the receiving end of some blatantly
unfair reviews which libelled us.
Fortunately, Amazon listened to our
grievance, and removed the reviews,
but not before our status as a trusted
business had been undermined.
We live in an age where the customer
is king. You see this on eBay, where
the buyer can leave negative feedback,
but the seller can’t. The knock-on
effect is that buyers think they are
never, ever wrong, and therefore make
unreasonable demands. Like a child
who always gets what they want after
throwing a tantrum, online buyers are
spoilt rotten at the moment. Thanks
Computeractive for bringing this often
overlooked matter to the attention
of your readers.
Mary Robinson
The Star Letter writer wins a Computeractive mug!
CA says
| We agree that you shouldn’t
use an XP PC as your main computer, but
there are lots of ways you can still use it
safely. So the start of our XP series on
page 60 isn’t a hoax, but we do have
some April Fool’s fun on page 57.
How uncooked rice can
save drowned phones
~1 I must confess to being
l bemused by Tony
Davies’ letter in Issue
444 (‘Beware killer
taps’), and his
reported loss of an
expensive phone after
his wife dropped it into
a sink and drowned the
dratted thing.
I am a novelist and journalist/
photographer. I’ve travelled almost
everywhere and I have dropped phones
in the sea, in rivers, into a fish tank and
down the loo (which became the subject
of caustic comments from my associates).
Each time I have just removed the battery,
given the phone a shake to rid it of excess
water, then shoved it into a bowl of
uncooked rice. Within 24
hours the rice has
absorbed every (tear)
drop. I’ve been lucky
and recovered a couple
of batteries - but that’s
cheaper than a new iPhone!
Dominic Fahr
1-14 April 2015 11
Consumeractive
Should I report
TalkTalk to Ofcom? Can I challenge HMRC's import fees?
I moved house at the end of
October 2014. 1 remained with
TalkTalk for broadband and
phone, but signed up to a new package.
I’d paid one year’s line rental on the
original contract and am owed £61.15 for
this. But getting TalkTalk to give me this
refund is impossible. They told me over
the phone that it would be in my account
within 10 days, but months later I’m still
waiting. Should I complain to Ofcom?
Fred Frost
Yes, Fred should complain to
Ofcom because this helps the
regulator monitor on bad
customer service and unfair practices
by ISPs. However, Ofcom won’t take on
his case, so we will.
So far, Fred has only spoken to TalkTalk
over the phone. He should also email
TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk/contactus) ,
outlining his complaint in full, using
specific dates when possible. We don’t
believe TalkTalk is disputing Fred’s claim,
but has simply failed to process the refund.
Fred could have referred it to the
Ombudsman (www.snipca.com/15673),
but first he would need to have asked
TalkTalk for a deadlock letter, in which a
company confirms how they plan to
resolve a complaint (use this
template when requesting
one: www.snipca.com/15676). \
I paid £16.90 for some plastic
food containers from an
Amazon seller called
Shopforyou. I didn’t realise the seller
was based in South Korea so I ended
up paying a further £11.38 to HMRC in
VAT and for handling. I don’t think I
should have to pay this, so is there any
way I can challenge this charge?
Hillary Duffy
Yes there is. Hillary should
contact HMRC to try to get her
money back. This can be done
by printing then posting a claim form
from the HMRC website (www.snipca.
com/15667, scroll down to the bottom).
Hillary will have a greater chance of
winning if she has kept the packaging
the goods came in.
However, after looking into Hillary’s
case, we’re quite pessimistic about
her chances. This is because HMRC
is likely to reject her defence, which
rests on her failing to realise the
company is based in South Korea.
HMRC will probably say that Hillary
was responsible for checking this
before confirming the purchase.
The charges Hillary paid comprised a
handling fee of £8, and VAT of £3.38
(20 per cent), which is added to
imports from outside the European
HM Revenue
& Customs
Union that cost more than £15.
However, you can avoid VAT on
goods priced under £36 from outside
the EU if they are labelled as ‘gifts’.
Shopforyou seems to have tried to
help Hillary avoid charges by doing
this, but HMRC’s rules state that for
an item to qualify as a gift it must be
sent to and from individuals, not
companies. It seems likely that HMRC
realised the parcel wasn’t a gift from
one person to another. Read the full
regulations on HMRC’s ‘Tax and
customs for goods sent from abroad’
page (www.snipca.com/15678).
To avoid unexpected import charges,
make sure you double-check the
location of a seller on eBay and
Amazon. Hillary can help other
shoppers by leaving feedback
about her experience, warning
people that what seems
like a bargain may not
turn out to be so.
A
Does creating a recovery USB make a new PC second hand?
I found out recently that PC
World has been making
customers a recovery backup
on a USB stick. Unlike Nick Dobie’s case
in Issue 440 where Currys was trying to
sell him a USB stick for £35, PC World
only charges £10. 1 think this is great
customer service, but I’ve got a question.
PC World
*3
If PC World did this without your
permission, does this make the laptop
second hand in the eyes of the law?
Ian Bebbington
No it doesn’t, though it is an
interesting question. If you buy a
new computer and a recovery
backup is created by the retailer, this isn’t
seen as ‘use’ by the law. It’s no
different to a manufacturer
creating a portion on the hard
I drive as backup, which is very
common practice.
For a computer to be ‘used’, it must
have had a previous owner (the legal
definition of second hand). A retailer
creating a backup USB stick doesn’t mean
the PC stops being seen as brand new.
Like Ian, we think this is a very good
service, but if you don’t want it just tell
the shop not to create one for you. A sales
assistant can’t force you to buy one as
part of the deal. Nick Dobie was told
this misleading information by
a Currys sales assistant in ASt
the case we reported in \ )
Issue 440. ^
12 1-14 April 2015
£3 Contact us so we can investigate your case
Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk
Write: Consumeractive, Computeractive, 30 Cleveland Street London WIT 4JD
Please include both your phone number and address.
Unfortunately, we can't reply to all your letters.
stand up for your legal rights
Can you help my claim against Ebuyer?
of Goods Act (SOGA).
Because John has owned
the graphics card for
more than six
months, he will have
to prove that it is
inherently faulty Before
the six-month cut-off,
the retailer has to prove
accidental damage. John is
confident that the fault is
inherent, and has sent the
card to an independent
computer repair company for
examination. If this report backs up his
claim, then we’ll be able to help him
tackle Ebuyer.
If he wins his case, it’s unlikely Ebuyer
will offer to repair the card, so he’ll be
Ebuyer.com
entitled to a replacement, or a partial
refund (because he’s already used the
card for some time). Ebuyer
will also have to pay him the
cost of the examination.
Two years ago I bought an Asus
660GTX graphics card from
Ebuyer for around £300. It came
with a three-year warranty, but suddenly
stopped working. I sent it back to Ebuyer,
but they have accused me of causing the
damage by adding thermal paste. I
categorically deny this has happened.
Can you advise me?
John Shorter
Indeed we can. By claiming that
John broke the graphics card by
applying thermal paste, Ebuyer
is saying that the problem was caused by
accidental damage, and therefore isn’t an
inherent fault. If this were true, John’s
warranty would be invalid, and he
wouldn’t have a legal claim using the Sale
CASE UPDATE
At long last - Vodafone refunds
TopUp and Co customers
Vodafone has finally decided to refund
customers who lost money when the company
ceased supporting its TopUp and Go' mobile-
broadband dongles. Our struggle to resolve this
began in Issue 432, last September, when reader and former
TopUp and Go customer Brian Patterson contacted us. Since
then, several other readers have emailed us to say that they
also lost money. They all had outstanding credit in their
account when Vodafone stopped the service.
We've already run one update on this case, in
Issue 442, when we advised unhappy
customers to complain to the Ombudsman
Services (www.ombudsman-services.
org). Some readers took our advice, and the
Ombudsman ruled in their favour, forcing
Vodafone to refund them. We had also told
Ofcom of our readers' complaints.
In February, Vodafone told us it will refund
customers, which is good news. If you think
you're owed money, email us your details
with 'Vodafone TopUp' in the subject line.
Please remember to include your name,
address, a contact phone number and the
dongle number, which you can find on the SIM
card inside. If you want Ofcom to investigate
your case further, please let us know and we'll
pass on your details.
THIS WILL COME IN USEFUL
Charities contact details
British Heart
Foundation
0300 330 3322
Contact form:
www.snipca.com/15556
Email: supporterservices@
bhf.org.uk
Twitter: @TheBHF
Cancer Research
0207242 0200
Contact form:
www.snipca.com/15557
Twitter: @CR_UK
Macmillan Cancer
Support
0300 1000200
Email: webmanager@
macmillan. org. uk
Twitter: @macmillancancer
NSPCC
0808800 5000
Email: help@nspcc.org.uk
Twitter: @NSPCC
Oxfam
03002001292
Email:
enquiries @ oxfam. org. uk
Twitter: @oxfamgb
RNIB
0303 123 9999
Email: helpline@rnib.org.uk
Contact form: www.rnib.
org.uk/contact-us
Twitter: @RNIB
Royal British Legion
0808 802 8080
Contact form:
www.snipca.com/15558
Twitter: @PoppyLegion
RSPCA
03001234 999
Twitter: @RSPCA_offlcial
Save the Children
0207 012 6400
Twitter: @savechildrenuk
%
This will come in useful, too: www.snipca.com/14981 1 - 14 April 2015 13
Protect Your Tech
Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools
WATCH OUT FOR...
FREAK flaw fixed by Windows update
What happened?
Microsoft released a Windows update
that fixed the FREAK flaw, which was
revealed by security researchers in early
March (see News, Issue 445). The fix
arrived a week later in Microsoft’s
Patch Tuesday update for March.
The flaw, which has existed since
1999, means hackers can make sure
data that’s sent between browsers and
servers uses weak encryption. This
makes it easier for them to steal
personal information, such as the
banking details of people browsing
the web. Given the length of time the
flaw lay undetected, and the severity of
the damage hackers could do with it,
Microsoft’s fix could be considered one
of the most important Windows updates
ever. Other companies, including Apple
and Google, have also released fixes.
The fix was one
of 14 released by
Microsoft. They
include updates for
Internet Explorer
and Office, which
were rated ‘critical’
- the highest
threat level, above
‘important’, ‘moderate’ and ‘low’.
Left unfixed, these flaws could
potentially let a hacker take remote
control of an infected PC. Read
Microsoft’s ‘Security Bulletin for
March’ for more information
(www.snipca.com/15754) .
What should you do?
As we always say when Microsoft
releases security fixes, you need to make
sure you have ‘automatic updating’
turned on. Once it’s activated, you
can sleep easy in the knowledge that
Microsoft’s updates will be applied
to your operating system. It’s very
important advice, so it’s always
worth repeating this.
To learn how to do it, visit Microsoft’s
‘Turning automatic updating on or off’
page (www.snipca.com/15755, see
screenshot), then choose your operating
system at the top-right (XP isn’t listed
because Microsoft ended support for
this in April last year) .
A ScamWatch
a READERS WARN READERS
You'll find plenty of new security tools in our Cover Feature
(page 50), so for this issue we've made ScamWatch bigger
Want a call-blocker?
No thanks
I had a phone call from a firm
suggesting that my phone provider
wanted to offer me a call-blocker device
because of all the unwanted calls I had
received lately. They said the device
would be free, and I’d only have to pay
the £1.75 postage costs. The caller knew
my name, but never mentioned my
phone provider by name. When she
asked for my debit-card details to take
the £1.75, 1 hung up. She rang back later
but I declined her kind offer. The caller
was English and dialling 1471 gave me
the number 0113 834 6763. A search for
the number on Google didn’t produce
any indication that this was a known
scam number.
Eric Gendle
Beware Facebook 'money
mule' requests
I’d like to report a horrible scam that
one of my relatives almost fell for. She
saw a post on one of the Facebook
groups she belongs to, which was
asking for people who would ‘hold’
money in their bank account, so it
could be sent abroad at a later date.
She said it sounded like an easy way to
make a bit of cash, and asked me what I
thought. I took a look, and immediately
realised it was some kind of money-
laundering scam. If you fall for the
scam, you are in effect becoming a
money mule. I looked online for more
information, and came across this
confirmation from ActionFraud:
www.snipca.com/15759.
Clive Turner
Asked to confirm Apple account
On 5 March I received an email from
do_not_reply@apple.com signed by the
Apple Care Team. It told me that my
“Apple Email ID” had been used to buy
Enrique Iglesias’s album Desperado
from iTunes on an Apple device not
“associated” with me. They wanted me
to check whether I’d made the purchase
and to confirm my account. It sounded
dubious, so I contacted Apple and it
turned out that nothing had been
charged to my iTunes account. The
email would appear to be an attempt to
obtain my bank details. I forwarded the
email to Apple (via reportphishing @
apple.com) for them to deal with.
George Brion
Warn your fellow readers about scams at
letters(pcomputeractive.co.uk
14 1-14 April 2015
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Install to add it to VLC. You
can remove extensions
by going to the Active
Extensions tab.
16 1-14 April 2015
SYSTEM MONITOR
System Explorer 6.4.0
www.snipca.com/15856
What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8/8.1
Lift the lid on your PC with this powerful Task Manager
replacement. It scans your running processes for security
problems, memory usage, recent actions and much more. If you
don’t recognise a process or it seems to be causing trouble, click
its Details link to investigate it on the System Explorer website.
Now for a grumble. System Explorer tries to warn you off its
portable version (‘Not recommended!’) so that you use its
installable version instead. You can download them both from the
link above. Fact is, they’re almost identical, so go for the portable
version. It’s not strictly portable anyway, because it installs a few
program files and makes you accept a licence agreement. There’s
no adware, however. The program window opens once you’ve run
the initial Security Check, which takes a couple of minutes.
BROWSER
Opera 28
www.snipca.com/15853
What you need: Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8/8.1
With Internet Explorer (IE) facing its demise, Chrome constantly
crashing, Firefox constantly changing and Spartan getting
everyone talking, it’s easy to forget there are other browsers, too.
Opera has been around for 21 years and there’s plenty of life in
it yet, as this new version is eager to prove. The revamped Start
page has a Speed Dial feature for your most-visited sites; there’s
now a Discover tool for automatically gathering news, a bit
like RSS without any of the hassle; and the new Opera Turbo
technology compresses data for much faster and more reliable
browsing. Opera may not grab as many headlines as Spartan, but
it deserves consideration if you’ve decided to ditch Chrome or IE.
WHAT SHOULD I DOWNLOAD?
We tell you what software to use
What should I use to
back up Android?
I have an Android smartphone and
tablet, and I want to back up all their
data for safekeeping. I tried using ES
File Explorer, but couldn’t get the hang of it.
Is there a full backup program for Android,
like the PC program Macrium Reflect?
Mike Lovell
Most people know the importance
of backing up their PC, but don’t back up their
mobile devices - which are much easier to lose
and break than PCs, and often contain very sensitive
data (such as private text messages).
There’s no direct Android equivalent of Macrium, but
there are plenty of free, thorough alternatives. Easy Backup
& Restore (www.snipca.com/1586l) lets you securely store
apps, messages, contacts and more to locations of your
choice, including Gmail and OneDrive, and restore them
if needed. CM Backup (www.snipca.com/15868) is more
powerful, but also more complicated. Both have just been
updated to support Android Lollipop, and neither demands
root access. Never give an app root access - it leaves you
wide open to mobile malware.
What's the best
replacement for Outlook
Express stationery?
I was very happy with Outlook Express until
Microsoft pulled the plug. Windows Live Mail
(WLM) is OK, but doesn’t include stationery tools,
such as coloured email backgrounds. Is there a similar
program that does?
Trevor Adams
If lack of E ****™ prtt tm#<
stationery is
the only thing
you don’t like about
WLM, download the
free WLM stationery
extensions from
Cloudeight (www.
snipca.com/15864) .
Alternatively, switch to
a free online email service such as Gmail, which supports
browser extensions like Email Backgrounds (www.snipca.
com/15866). Browser extensions are very easy to use and
can be installed with one click.
121
Do you need our advice on what software to use?
Just email us at letters(5)computeractive.co.uk
1-14 April 2015 17
Reviews
New products tested by our experts
SMARTPHONE I £100 (without contract) from www.snipca.com/15771
Motorola Moto E 4G
A quality Android 4G phone for just £100
Motorola makes some great Android
devices, but the original Moto E
smartphone wasn’t one of them (see
our review, Issue 426). It may have been
cheap, but it was undermined by its poor
responsiveness and performance. There
was little point in choosing it over the
slightly more expensive Moto G. That’s no
longer the case with the new Moto E.
The most significant new feature (and
the clue’s in the name) is the addition of
4G, making this the cheapest 4G Android
phone we’ve tested. When we were
connected to Vodafone’s 4G network in
central London, the battery lasted a
staggering 45 hours 50 minutes when
used for web browsing, calls, taking
photos and GPS. When playing videos
continuously, battery life was equally
impressive at 13 hours 18 minutes.
Call quality was generally excellent.
The phone managed to shut out the
racket of a drill and power washer as we
walked by, albeit at the expense of audio
it Motorola has done it
again - the ideal phone
if money is tight
quality. Callers reported that we sounded
quiet and distant. The quality improved
no end once we’d moved away from the
source of this noise pollution.
At first glance, the new Moto E looks
similar to its predecessor, but look a little
closer and you’ll see it’s been redesigned
inside and out. While it still has a
microSD slot (essential for supplementing
the meagre 8GB of built-in storage), you
no longer remove the back panel to
access it. Instead, you unclip the plastic
rim running around the edge of the
phone, providing easy access to both the
micro SIM and microSD slots. Thanks in
part to the fixed back panel, the phone
feels exceptionally rigid and robust -
especially compared with other phones at
this price. This does mean, however,
that you can’t replace the battery or
add a different coloured back panel
for that personal touch.
The first Moto E had a dual-core
processor, which simply wasn’t
fast enough to run Android smoothly.
The new quad-core processor here
has no such trouble. Everything
from loading web pages to opening
apps was a breeze. Although the
touchscreen can still sometimes
suffer from poor responsiveness,
it’s still a big improvement on
its predecessor, and many other
budget Android phones for that
matter.
People with smallish hands will
find the 4.5in screen a little unwieldy
to use. It’s bright with accurate
colours, although the contrast is pretty
mediocre. More limiting is the
960x540-pixel resolution, which in a
screen this large makes text look a little
ragged. As a result, reading for long
periods can be a strain on your eyes.
The camera’s only really good enough
for quick snaps if you need a record of
something or as a last resort when it’s the
only camera to hand. With no flash to fall
back on, shots taken in low light are dark
and blurry, and therefore unusable. Noise
was a common problem, even in photos
taken in daylight, though these were well
lit with reasonable levels of detail.
The Moto E 4G is one of the first phones
to come with Android 5.0 Lollipop - all
the more impressive given that many
more expensive phones are stuck on
earlier versions. We covered Lollipop’s
major new features in our review of the
Nexus 9 tablet (see Issue 438). Motorola
has wisely left Lollipop almost entirely
SPECIFICATIONS
4.5in 960x540-pixel touchscreen • 1.2GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor*
400MHz Adreno 306 graphics chip • 1GB memory
• 8GB storage • 4G • micro SIM • microSD • Android
5.0.2 Lollipop • 145g • 130x67x12mm (HxWxD) *
One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15772
unaltered, save for the addition of a few
apps. The most useful is Alert. Once set
up, it lets you quickly send messages to
friends and family in an emergency and
even informs them of your location.
Motorola has done it again - the Moto E
is a bargain. While it’s not perfect (what
is?), this is the ideal smartphone if money
is tight. If you do have a little more cash
at your disposable, then the 4G Moto G is
still a great option, thanks to its sharper,
higher-resolution screen and smoother
responsiveness.
VERDICT: The best budget Android
phone available
★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE: Motorola
Moto G 4G (2nd
generation) £159 A little
more expensive, but
more responsive and
with a sharper
5in screen
18 1-14 April 2015
LAPTOP I £317 from www.snipca.com/15764
Asus X555LA-XX290H
Finally, a budget Windows laptop actually worth buying
We rarely recommend very cheap
Windows 8.1 laptops because
they usually represent a
false economy Many
previous bargain-
basement models we’ve
tested have been hamstrung
by poor-quality construction,
plodding performance, badly
lit screens and unwieldy
keyboards. Asus has bucked the
trend with the X555LA - a
no-frills laptop that costs just over
£300 and puts other budget laptops
from higher-profile rivals to shame.
The first thing you notice is how light
the X555LA is for a 15.6in laptop with a
built-in DVD writer (2.1kg, increasing to
2.3kg with charger). It’s still likely to
spend more time at home than out and
about, but its eight-hour battery life
keeps open the option to use when
you’re travelling. A circular pattern on
the lid brings a touch of style to what is
1 1 Its performance
and bright screen puts
other budget laptops
from higher-profile
rivals to shame J f
otherwise a plain design, and its plastic
casing does tend to creak and flex too
easily. On the plus side, though, it never
became unbearably warm underneath
during our tests.
Performance-wise, this laptop more
than holds its own. The 1.9 GHz Intel Core
i3 4030U dual-core processor, combined
with 4GB of memory, makes it fast
enough for use as your main computer.
You can easily upgrade the memory, but
SPECIFICATIONS
1.9GHz Intel Core i3 4030U dual-core processor*
4GB memory • 1TB hard drive • DVD writer • Intel HD
4400 integrated graphics *15.6in 1366x768-pixel
screen • 802.11a/b/g/n - Windows 8.1 • 2.1kg (2.3kg
with charger) •26x382x256mm (HxWxD) •
One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15765
only up to 8 GB. This will be sufficient
for the next year or two. After that, you
might start feeling its limitations as
software will inevitably require more
resources. On the whole, it’s pretty hard
to get inside this laptop, making it next to
impossible to replace the 1TB hard drive
with a larger model or an SSD.
Unsurprisingly for this price, there’s
no touchscreen, and to be honest little
need for one because the touchpad is
spacious, very responsive and accurate.
We liked the keyboard too. The keys feel a
touch wobbly and could benefit from a
tad more resistance, but they don’t lack
feedback and travel, which makes for
fast and precise touch typing.
Being a budget laptop, the screen has a
1366x768-pixel resolution, and isn’t
blessed with great colour accuracy and
contrast. It is bright though and viewing
angles are reasonably wide too. You can
of course connect a second, higher-
quality monitor via HDMI or VGA.
As with any budget laptop, Asus has
made compromises with the X555LA, but
for the most part it’s made the right ones.
Any flaws are easy to forgive, given its
comfortable keyboard, pacy performance,
respectable battery life and radiant
screen. If you use XP or Vista currently,
it’s the ideal laptop for those who wish to
move to Windows 10 when it becomes
available as a free upgrade to Windows
8/8.1 users later this year.
HOW WE TEST
Computeroctive is owned by Dennis
Publishing, which owns a hi-tech facility
for testing the latest technology. You'll
often read references to our benchmark
testing, which is a method of assessing
products using the same criteria. For
example, we test the speed of every
PC and the battery life of every tablet
in exactly the same way. This makes
our reviews authoritative, rigorous
and accurate.
Dennis Publishing also owns the
magazines PC Pro, Computer Shopper,
Web User, Micro Mart and Mac User,
and the website Expert Reviews
(www.expertreviews.co.uk). This
means we can test thousands of
products before choosing the most
relevant for Computeroctive.
FAIR AND IMPARTIAL
Our writers follow strict guidelines to
ensure the reviews are fair and
impartial. The manufacturer has no
involvement in our tests.
OUR AWARDS
We award every product
that gets five stars our
Buy It! stamp of approval.
It means we were
extremely impressed by the product,
and we think you will be too.
active
Every product that gets a
four-star review is given
the Great Pick award. We
highly recommend these
products, although they just fail to meet
the high standard of our Buy It! winners.
PRICES
Our reviews contain a link to the best
price we found online at the time of press.
VERDICT: A cheap laptop that gets all
the basics right, making it great value
★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE: Toshiba Satellite Pro
R50-B-12U £390
A 15in Windows 7 laptop
that's easier to upgrade,
has comparable battery
life and has
recently
dropped in price
1-14 April 2015 19
Reviews
PRINTER I £94 from www.snipca.com/15679
Canon i-SENSYS LBP6230dw
A mono laser printer for sharing on a home network
Canon’s LBP6230dw costs about £35
more than the most basic black-and-
white (mono) laser printers, but in this
case it’s money well spent. It claims a top
speed of 25 pages per minute (ppm),
which isn’t bad, but we’re more impressed
by the fact you can share it over a wired
or wireless network connection, and that
it prints automatically on both sides of a
sheet of paper (duplex printing).
The paper input tray, which has a
transparent lid to keep dust out, also acts
as a single-page bypass feed. This means
you don’t need to unload the input tray
first if you want to print on an envelope
or headed paper. The paper output tray is
basic though, and can leave printed pages
SPECIFICATIONS
2400x600dpi maximum print resolution »20ppm
mono quoted speeds • USB • Wi-Fi • One-year
warranty www.snipca.com/15680
in an untidy pile. Replacement
toner costs about £44 and lasts for
around 2,100 pages - a cost per
page of roughly 2.1p, which is
expensive for a laser.
The printing process was quick in
our tests, delivering a first page in
nine seconds, and a total of 20 pages
in 56 seconds - a fast average of 21.4ppm.
Printing graphics was equally quick,
while duplex printing produced 20 sides
on 10 sheets in one minute 26 seconds.
It’s a quiet operator and its barely audible
fans stopped a few seconds after printing
ceased. Both text and graphics results
were excellent, although some photos
looked artificial, with too much contrast.
High running costs mean we wouldn’t
recommend this printer for heavy-duty
use, but it’s still a good buy for occasional
printing at home due to its impressive
features, quality and speed.
VERDICT: Fast and flexible, this is a
great mono printer for light duty in a
home or small office
★★★★☆
ALTERNATIVE: Brother
DCP-1610W £127 A
mono laser MFP that
costs only a little more,
although running costs
are no cheaper
SSD I £334 from www.snipca.com/15682
SSD I £169 from www.snipca.com/15685
Samsung 850 Evo 1TB
A cheaper version of Samsung's
lightning-fast 850 Pro SSD
The Samsung 850 Pro is one of
the fastest SSDs we’ve ever
tested (see our review, Issue
440) - and one of the most
expensive. The 1TB 850 Evo
comes in at a more affordable
at 33p per gigabyte (the Pro is
46p per gigabyte). The
difference between the two is
durability. Samsung claims the
Evo will handle 150TB of
copied data over its lifetime,
while the Pro is rated for
300TB. For most people
though, 150TB should be more
than enough. The Evo also has
a shorter warranty - five
instead of ten years.
The Evo is slower than the
Pro, but isn’t too far behind. It
copied large files
at 545MB/S and small files at
75MB/s. The Crucial MX200
(see right) is faster and has
similar durability. If you
want an even cheaper SSD
and can live with lower
durability, the 1TB BX100
(see our review, Issue 445)
costs £284 (or 29p per
gigabyte) and is rated for 72TB.
VERDICT: A blisteringly
fast SSD, but better-value
alternatives are available
Crucial MX200 500GB
A super-fast SSD at a fair price
F J Y _ mfj
j 1
The MX200 isn’t Crucial’s
cheapest range of SSDs (see
our BX100 review in Issue
445), but the 500GB version
reviewed here is still very
affordable at 34p per gigabyte.
It has plenty going for it
besides this. It can officially
handle up to 160TB of data
over its lifetime - this rises to
320TB for the 1TB version.
This is more than twice the
durabilty of many cheaper
SSDs. The MX200 is also one
of the fastest SSDs we’ve ever
seen when copying large files,
reaching an overall speed of
575MB/S. It wasn’t quite as
brisk when copying small
files, but was still quick at
76MB/S.
KTuTlaJ r, — __
The MX200 is a great SSD.
It’s clearly better than cheaper
SSDs, like Crucial’s own
BX100, and stays ahead of
other similarly priced and
specified drives such as
Samsung’s 850 Evo (see left).
It’s a worthy winner of our
Buy It! award.
VERDICT: Faster
performance and better
durability - a worthy step
up from a budget SSD
★★★★★
20 1-14 April 2015
THE INTERNET OF EVERYTHING
presents
the last queue
We’re building the Internet of Everything for business. With UCS Server solutions
providing data centre performance everywhere, mobile applications and analytics keep
queues short and customers happy. Let’s confine queueing to yesterday.
See how at cisco.co.uk/thelastqueue
■ • | • 1 1 1 ■
CISCO.
TOMORROW starts here.
Cisco UCS with
Intel® Xeon®
processors
inside'
XEON*
iarax Out- uo©y : 0!
Reviews
PHABLET I £99 plus £34.50 monthly on two-year Vodafone contract;
£650 without contract from www.snipca.com/15817
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
An average phablet with a curved screen
The forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 has
received an awful lot of attention for its
curved screen. Amid all the hype, it’s easy
to forget that it’s not the first Samsung
phone with this eye-catching feature.
The Galaxy Note Edge has a screen that
curves away on its right-hand edge
(see image), although the S6 Edge will
have two curved edges.
The Note Edge’s curve is much more
pronounced however, measuring almost
a full centimetre. From time to time,
users who are right-handed will find
themselves accidentally triggering
onscreen controls with their thumb.
Left-handed users can turn the phone
upside down and flip the interface via a
software setting, but doing so means
they’ll have to use a headset to make and
take calls because the mic and earpiece
will no longer be in the right positions.
The bar containing all your favourite
apps has been moved to the curved edge.
u The curved screen
drives up the cost
and brings negligible
benefits 93
Swiping the curve from right to left lets
you access other features, such as a ruler,
a torch, notifications and a news and
stocks ticker. The screen can even be set
to act as a bedside clock when plugged
in and laid flat.
Other features can be added by
downloading ‘panels’ from Samsung’s
app store. Most of these merely replicate
the functions of traditional Android
widgets and aren’t particularly
convenient or useful. We weren’t won
over by any of the screen’s features.
SPECIFICATIONS
5.6in 2560x1440-pixel touchscreen • 2.7GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor
• 3GB memory • Adreno 330 graphics chip • 32GB
storage • 4G • Micro SIM • MicroSD slot • Android 4.4
KitKat • 174g • 152x83x8mm (HxWxD) • One-year
warranty www.snipca.com/15818
Aside from its curved screen, the
Note Edge is very similar to the Note 4
(see our review, Issue 440). Like other
Galaxy Notes, it comes with a stylus.
Pop it out of its slot and a dial appears
on screen that lets you quickly jot down
your thoughts, draw a diagram or
annotate a screenshot. Samsung’s app
store contains a small selection of apps to
use with the stylus, mostly for painting
and drawing. We used the stylus
sparingly, but we found it to be more
useful than the curved screen.
If you like using fingerprint readers as
an alternative to a passcode to unlock
your device, then you’re in luck (sort of).
Unfortunately, the Note Edge’s reader is
as frustrating to use as those on other
Galaxy phones. It requires a slow, precise
finger swipe, making it much more
fiddly than the fingerprint readers on
Apple’s recent iPhones.
We weren’t exactly bowled over by
the camera either. It coped well with
landscape shots in broad daylight, but
skin tones in portraits looked smeared
and artificial. Low-lit images were often
too dark, too blurry or too blighted
by noise.
Other hardware features are more
impressive. The quad-core processor
raced through our benchmark tests, and
the touchscreen responded quickly to our
prods and swipes. While the 5.6in screen
is unwieldy if you’re using one hand, it’s
bright with accurate colours and sharp
text, thanks to its very high resolution.
Call quality in London’s West End
on the Vodafone network was
surprisingly poor. Callers sounded quiet
and remote, while calls suffered from
frequent drop-outs. Background noise
from a busy building site made it past any
filtering technology, so it remained very
much audible. Battery life was a little
below average compared with other
phablets. It lasted 23 hours 20 minutes
when we were connected to Vodafone’s
4G network and used the phone for calls,
taking photos, web browsing and GPS.
Continuously playing videos, the battery
life lasted 14 and a half hours, which is
three hours fewer than the Note 4.
We’re not convinced by the Note
Edge’s curved screen. Its benefits are
negligible and it drives up this phablet’ s
price (it costs nearly £150 more than
the Note 4). If this is the best Samsung
can do, then curved mobile screens will
be a very short-lived fad indeed.
VERDICT: The slim benefits of the
curved screen aren't enough to justify
the price premium over the Note 4
ALTERNATIVE: Samsung
Galaxy Note 4 £515 (without
contract) An essentially
identical phablet but cheaper
because it has no curved edge
22 1-14 April 2015
Reviews
SMART TV I £376 from www.snipca.com/15699
Samsung UE40H5500
Great picture quality and all the TV apps you'll ever need
The UE40H5500 looks
far more unassuming
than the rest of
Samsung’s TVs due to its
plain, unadorned stand.
But while it isn’t as glitzy
looking as Samsung’s
more expensive TVs,
its picture quality is
impressive.
Both brightness and
contrast were excellent in
our test, so we could easily
make out details in dark scenes in
films and TV shows. The only flaws we
could see in its colour accuracy were
overly strong blues and magentas.
We managed to compensate for this,
though, by fiddling with the picture-
quality settings. The only setting we’d
recommend you avoid using is ‘motion
lighting’. This attempts to save energy by
automatically adjusting the brightness
depending on what’s on screen, but
this negatively affected contrast levels,
making it more difficult to see what
was going on in dark scenes.
There’s no 3D support, which is
unusual, but we don’t miss this gimmicky
feature. You do get plenty of ports,
including three HDMI ports as well as
SCART, component and composite
connectors. There are also two USB ports,
an Ethernet connector and an optical
audio jack. The built-in speakers were
surprisingly good. Dialogue was crystal
clear, although sound effects and music
lacked punch. Dedicated film and music
fans will want to buy a sound bar or other
external speakers. Samsung’s smart TV
interface feels smooth, thanks to the
TV’s quad-core processor.
Samsung’s smart TVs are the only ones
that come with apps for every major
terrestrial TV catch-up service (at least
until Sony’s YouView models arrive
this summer). There are also apps for
Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Blinkbox,
SPECIFICATIONS
40in LED TV • 1920x1080 pixel resolution • 4x HDMI;
2x USB2 • lx component • lx composite • lx SCART •
lx Ethernet • Wi-Fi • Freeview HD • 578x907x196mm
• 9kg • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/15700
Spotify and YouTube, so there’s no
shortage of entertainment.
If you’d rather watch your own
videos, switch to the Multimedia panel
in the smart TV interface. From here you
can play videos and music stored on a
USB stick, or from a PC, smartphone,
tablet or NAS on your home network.
We do wish the interface here was better
designed, though. The icons for USB
sticks and other connected devices are
crowded out by panels for content from
YouTube and other online video services
- an odd and annoying design decision.
In any case, we didn’t have trouble
playing any of our video and audio files.
Overall, the UE40H5500 is an excellent
TV. You’ll have to tweak the settings to
get the best picture, but its image quality
is better than other, more expensive TVs
we’ve tested. While its smart TV interface
could be better designed, it nonetheless
has an unrivalled selection of online
video content.
VERDICT: Great picture quality
and good smart-TV features make
Samsung's UE40H5500 a bargain
★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE: Sony KDL-42W705B
£429 A slightly larger 42in TV with
even better picture
quality, but it doesn't
have apps for all
the terrestrial TV
catch-up services
The best...
Accessories
Allocacoc PowerCube
ReWirable USB
£16 from www.snipca.com/15844
A portable cube- ^
shaped gangplug ^ 0
with four power
sockets and two
USB ports. It's removable
and uses a standard kettle lead
connection so you can easily
use a foreign plug or power lead
when travelling.
% K
Acqualia Soulver
£4 from www.snipca.
com/15845
A calculator app for
iOS and Mac OS X
that lets you solve
fiddly arithmetic such
as '15% of 75,000
+ 22.5% of 54,000'
simply by typing that
text into its notepad-
style interface.
Creative Sound Blaster Jam
£40 from www.snipca.com/15847
This budget pair
of wireless
headphones
sound
surprisingly good.
Although bass was merely
okay, music otherwise sounded well
balanced and clear. It connects to your
mobile device via Bluetooth and to your
computer via USB.
Tuitive CameraSim
£1.49 from www.
snipca.com/15846
An app that
replicates the
interface of a
typical CSC/DSLR
camera so you
can learn what the
various controls do, and how they affect
your photos, without running down
your camera's battery. Available for iOS,
Kindle Fire, Windows and Mac.
1-14 April 2015 23
www.scan.co.uk
1:01204 47 47 47 SCAN COMPUTERS
Crafting PCs the Scan way:
Specification. Service. Satisfaction.
- lfit^ p PwiliLim*G3£40 processor
■ 4GB Coreair DDRS 1363MHz memory
■ 500GB SATA 6Gb/sec hard frm
■ Windows 6.1
£299 Inc VAT
The VI Is a very capaNs entry-level system perfect
from basic hom^otfics IsskR. It's based around Iti*
dual-core InfeP Pentium® G324D processor, 4GB of
RAM pi ua a 500GB twd disk,
Sean VI Value System
Home / Office PC
f
Sean VIS Value System
Home / Office PC
• Ini at* Cora™ 15 4460 processor
- 6GB Corsair DDR3 ififflflMH? mamovy
■ 1TB SATA 6Gh^pq hard cWva
■ Wr4aw&8.1
£469
hwwr
The VI 5 ups the ant* by including a c*ua d-cor* Intel*
Cora™ 15 4460 prooasssoi; so if makes light work of
office and muh-rnetSia applications.
Seem C20 Value System
Gaming PC
■ Intel* Pem;urrr*G3340 processor
* 6GB Corsair DDF& 16D0MH* m&rtGry
* 2GB NVI DIA GflFOfde GIX 75D T1 SBC
- 1TB SATAEGb/saC bind drive
* Windows B.1
£469 inc VAT
Scan G30i Value System
Gaming PC
• InleF Core™ iS 4460 processor
■ BG0 CflfEflj DDR3 1600MHz memory
- 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 76D SC AGX
- 1TB SATA BGh/sec hard dnve
■ Windows 8.1
£665 Inc VAT
Thanks lo rts dual-core Inter Pentium* G3?40
processor and iMVIDiA GTX 750 T1 SSC graphics
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processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 SSC ACX
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card tha G20i is chi' mosl affordabta gaming PC. It
even Includes surround soundl
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you throw at it.
Get the best of work and play with the new Windows.
vl.
Scan Value PC®
A range of eomputsra perfectly suited for the iKune/offioe, These affordable PCs are very flexible workhorses, capable
of every task, from email/web surfing to high-end applications such as photo editing, video encoding and gaming. All
of our Value Systems are pre-bullt and soak^tested so are needy 'So ship for next-day delivery.
FI nance Available on Built by award
PC* abort £300 winning 3X$ tOPiTl
Fully soak tested Fully 5XS
Compatible
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Part *- Labour
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AWARDS
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Best
PC Manufacturer
GIISCOVnPG
AWARDS 20 1-1
Editor's Choice
Bess ChfSfctDO PC
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* Intse^Qora™ 3 4 1 6D processor
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* InSrf* Core™ 17 4790 processor
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Tha Scan 3XS Gamer is an afford^ ly^inced ganrng rig
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Th& 3XS -Gamer 20! Is a super-fast gaming PC thanks
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3XS Graphite LG1S7
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Reviews
PC I £550 from www.snipca.com/15774
Wired2Fire Diablo Ultima
A fast and affordable PC - with one critical flaw
The best PCs tend to offer a good balance
between performance, expandability and
price, but Wired2Fire has rewritten the
rules with its latest PC. The Diablo Ultima
costs just £550 (albeit without a monitor,
keyboard and mouse), but it provides the
sort of superior performance we’d usually
expect in a PC costing significantly more.
It sounds too good to be true and - in one
crucial aspect -it is.
The plain black casing houses a fast
3.2GHz Intel Core i5 4460 quad-core
processor and 8GB of memory. The
processor made short work of our
benchmark tests, so it’ll definitely handle
demanding programs for some time to
come. 3D performance was particularly
impressive. The AMD Radeon R9-270X
graphics card tore through our 3D-graphics
tests, producing smooth, detailed visuals.
It only struggled when faced with the
very latest resource-sapping games.
You can also use the graphics card to
speed up non-gaming software such as
Adobe Photoshop or Roxio Creator.
There’s the option to attach up to three
monitors, as long as one of them is via
SPECIFICATIONS
3.2GHz Intel Core i5 4460 quad-core processor*
8GB memory • 1TB hard drive • 2GB AMD Radeon
R9-270X dedicated graphics card • Windows 8.1 •
430x200x455m • Three-year warranty
www.snipca.com/15774
DisplayPort. Buy a DisplayPort hub (£83
fromwww.snipca.com/15773) and you
can connect a whopping six monitors.
The Diablo Ultima can of course be
enhanced as your needs change in future,
but it has fewer upgrade options than
many other PCs at this price. There are
only two memory slots, so if you want to
fit the maximum 16GB, you’ll have to
dispose of the 8GB already fitted.
In theory, you can add a Blu-ray drive,
a storage card reader and another two
hard drives or SSDs. In practice, you’ll
have to be far more selective about which
internal storage upgrades you add
because there are only two SATA2 ports
available (the two SATA3 ports are taken
up by the DVD writer and 1TB hard
drive). In any case, if you’re planning to
install an SSD, it makes sense to plug this
into one of the SATA3 ports and relegate
the DVD writer (which doesn’t need the
extra speed provided by SATA3) to one of
the SATA2 ports.
You could get around this SATA
shortage by plugging a SATA card into the
PCI Express slot. Although there are three
of these slots, only one is actually usable
as the other two are blocked off by the
large graphics card. Having only one free
PCI slot is annoying, but not as limiting
as it once was because there are now USB
versions of almost every PCI peripheral
you could want.
The Diablo Ultima’s critical flaw is
the noise it generated whenever it was
running demanding tasks, which was
audible even above the servers and air
conditioning of our test labs.
This is a real shame, but it’s the only
major flaw in an otherwise reasonably
priced, powerful PC. If you want
performance above all else, this is a
good-value computer.
VERDICT: If you can put up with its
racket, you'll get a very powerful PC
for not much money
★★★★☆
ALTERNATIVE: Palicomp AMD Kaveri
Evolution £500 If you don't
need the fastest
performance, this
complete PC system
is good value
WHAT SHOULD I BUY? We solve your buying dilemmas
What's the best tablet for Skyping?
I would like to buy a tablet so
that I can email and Skype my
family when I’m away on
holiday. Which tablet would you
suggest?
Ann Ewer
We’d recommend an iPad or
Android tablet rather than a
Windows 8.1 tablet. Although
any tablet can handle basic email and
video chat, there is a wider range of
alternative email apps available for iOS
and Android, which is useful if
the built-in default email app
doesn’t suit your needs.
Video-chat quality obviously
depends not only on the quality
of your tablet’s front-facing
camera, but also your internet
connection and lighting
conditions. Even so, some tablet’s cameras
are significantly better than others.
Of the tablets we’ve reviewed recently,
the iPad Air 2 (£399 from www.snipca.
com/14309) and the Sony Xperia Z3
Tablet Compact (£298 from
| www.snipca.com/15814) easily
have the best front-facing
cameras with sharp focus and
accurate colours. In contrast,
the Tesco Hudl 2 captured
footage with such an orange cast
that our faces looked jaundiced,
while the focus on the Amazon Kindle
Fire HDX 8.9’s camera was far too soft.
e Do you need advice on what you should buy?
Email us at letters(5)computeractive.co.uk
26 1-14 April 2015
PC MONITOR I £621 from www.snipca.com/15724
A gigantic 4K monitor
4K screens have a minimum resolution
of 3840x2160 pixels - four times the
number found in your average
1920xl080-pixel HD TV and PC monitor.
The benefit of using a 4K monitor like
Phillips’ BDM4065UC with your PC is
immediately clear if you like to do several
things at once. Four times more pixels
means you get four times more space for
all your windows and programs, which
makes multi-tasking a breeze. Moreover,
with all those extra pixels squeezed in,
you’ll see high-resolution photos and
videos in the minutest detail. Photos
taken on an eight-megapixel camera,
for example, will display on the
BDM4065UC in their entirety, with
no need to zoom in and out.
Bear in mind that at 40in, the Philips
BDM4065UC is massive, so you’ll need
plenty of room on your desk. What’s
more, you’ll want to push your chair
further back than normal to view this
monitor properly. Otherwise, you’ll be
constantly swivelling your head from side
to side to see anything at the corners/
edges of the screen. We’d recommend a
distance of two to three feet away when
watching films and playing games, and
slightly more when working. Image
SEE MORE ON 4K
This diagram, laid over an eight-
megapixel photo, illustrates the amount
of working space 4I< resolution gives
you. At 100 per cent magnification, you
would see the entire image on the 4I<
Philips BDM4065UC monitor. The red
box represents what you would see on
a typical 1080p monitor. The yellow box
represents what you would see on a
1366x768 monitor (the most common
resolution on laptops).
quality, as you’d expect, is excellent.
Colours are bright and vibrant, while
contrast levels are sky high, meaning
minute detail is visible in dark shaded
areas of photos and film scenes. Blacks
are satisfyingly deep and inky, while
editing photos and videos is a joy.
Games look great, as long as you have
a PC with a powerful graphics card
that can play modern 3D games in
4K at smooth frame rates.
To use this monitor at 4K resolution,
your computer will need a DisplayPort
or Mini DisplayPort connector. You
can use HDMI ports, but only if they
support the HDMI 1.4 standard, and
even then you’ll have to put up with
a jerky refresh rate of 30Hz, which
makes videos unwatchable. At 60Hz,
DisplayPorts provide a far smoother
viewing experience.
The basic design of the metal stand
doesn’t allow for much in the way of
adjustment, but given the sheer size
of this monitor, it matters little. The
four-port USB 3.0 hub round the back is
very handy, while the built-in stereo
speakers are loud. The speakers do lack
bass, however, so high-quality external
speakers or headphones are a must.
The on-screen menus are controlled
by a small joystick on the back of the
monitor. It’s a bit fiddly at first, but once
you get the hang of it you can use it to
adjust colour, tweak the brightness and
even control the picture-in-picture mode.
While the BDM4065UC is the
cheapest 4K monitor of this quality
we’ve tested, it’s still pretty expensive.
The benefits of 4K are so compelling
however, that we predict the vast
majority of monitors will have 4K
screens soon. Although you could
buy a 40in 4K TV for less than £600,
image quality and colour accuracy
won’t be as good, and finding one with
DisplayPort connectors would be a
challenge. If you can afford it and your
PC has the appropriate ports, the Philips
BDM4065UC is a great buy for those
wanting to join the 4K revolution.
SPECIFICATIONS
40in • 3840x2160-pixel resolution • 2x HDMI
1.4 ports • lx VGA port • lx DisplayPort • lx Mini
DisplayPort • 589x904x213mm (HxWxD) • 10kg
www.snipca.com/15725
VERDICT: An impressively large and
vibrant display, but only for those with
lots of desk space and deep pockets
provides more working
space than 1080p and it
has stunning image quality
ALTERNATIVE: Samsung S32D850T
£440 A cheaper, smaller non-4l<
32in monitor, but its
2560x1440 resolution
1-14 April 2015 27
Reviews
ROUTER I £53 from www.snipca.com/15710
Asus RT-AC52U
A remarkably cheap 8 02,1 lac router and
USB adapter bundle
The Asus RT-AC52U is an unusual
router in more ways than one. Despite its
low price, this router is 802.11ac-capable
and even comes with an 802.11ac
adapter for your computer. It’s attractive
too - the crosshatch patterning catches
the light in such a way that it sparkles
as you walk past. There are numerous
blue lights that shine through the
crosshatch intersections, appearing as
little glowing crosses (see image).
It comes with a removable stand so you
can position it upright. Alternatively, you
can lay it flat or mount it to a wall. Setting
it up is straightforward, but you’ll need to
enable wireless security straight away as
it’s turned off by default. Basic parental
controls are built-in - you can restrict
internet access to certain times, but you
can’t block access to web sites.
f C A good budget
router with a speedy
802.11n performance
and extra features II
The RT-AC52U can be used with cable
or fibre modems, but its Ethernet ports
only have a maximum speed of 100Mbps,
which could be a problem in the future
with super-fast broadband connections
that exceed this speed. Interestingly, you
can use two broadband connections with
this router simultaneously. You can then
increase your download speeds or have
one connection automatically take over
from the other in the event that it stops
working. Few homes will have the luxury
of two internet connections, but this
router will be very attractive if you live
in one that does.
Unusually you can plug a 3G/4G USB
dongle into the USB port, so you can
use it as a backup internet connection
should your main broadband service be
interrupted. Alternatively, you can also
share a printer or external drive plugged
into the USB port with all your
disappointing, the RT-AC52U is still a
good budget router due to its speedy
802. tin performance and extra features.
If you want the very best speeds, though,
either for copying files and/or for
super-fast broadband connections in the
future, then it’s worth buying a more
expensive, but far faster 802.11ac router
such as Trendnet’s TEW-812DRU
(see our review, Issue 427).
VERDICT: Disappointing 802.11ac
performance, but an otherwise
good-value budget router
ALTERNATIVE: Trendnet
TEW-812DRU £100
Twice as expensive,
but also twice as fast
when used with its
own 802.11ac adapter
(sold separately)
networked computers.
There are even more
extra features, most of
which we would only
expect to find on a NAS.
Although the router
should be able to act as
an iTunes server -
streaming media files
stored on USB drives
to your iOS devices or
iTunes on a PC - we
couldn’t get this to work.
One feature that did work
well was the ability to
access files remotely away
from home, wherever we
had internet access.
Asus had to cut corners
somewhere to keep the
price low, though, and it
chose to compromise on
performance. The RT-AC52U has
a theoretical top speed of 433Mbps in
802.11ac mode - noticeably less than
the 1,300Mbps of most other 802.11ac
routers. When using the included USB
adapter with our laptop, we achieved
speeds of 88.1Mbps at 10 metres and
87.5Mbps at 25. These would be very
good speeds for a 802. lln router, but
other 802.11ac routers we’ve tested
have been at least twice as quick.
Although more than good enough
for internet access, it’s not ideal for
transferring lots of files between
your own computers.
When used in 802. lln mode, this
router is dual-band capable. We got
speeds of 39.5Mbps at 10 metres when
we used our laptop’s built-in 802. lln
adaptor on the 2.4GHz band. This fell to
26.2Mbps at 25 metres. On the 5GHz
band this increased to 90.1Mbps at 10
metres and 60.5Mbps at 25 metres.
These are good results.
Although its 802.11ac speeds are
SPECIFICATIONS
Dual-band 802.11ac/a/b/g/n • 4x 10/100Mbps
Ethernet ports • lx cable/fibre modem port •
77x187x145mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
www.snipca.com/15711
28 1-14 April 2015
DATA SIM I £40 for 30 days from www.snipca.com/15792
Cellhire 10GB Data SIM (Spain)
Banish your roaming worries in Spain - and elsewhere
Using the internet abroad
can cost the earth if your
mobile network doesn’t
offer a good roaming
deal. Buying an
international SIM card
for a fixed price upfront
before you leave can be a
much more cost-effective
way of getting online than
buying daily passes from your
current network provider.
Cellhire ‘sells’ its international SIM
cards as a standalone product or bundled
with a portable router, although it’s more
akin to renting than buying. Once you
return from your trip abroad, you post
back your SIM (and router, if applicable)
using the included pre-paid envelope.
Cellhire’ s SIM cards are available
for 31 countries from Argentina to
Switzerland. We tested Cellhire’ s 4G
10GB Spanish Data SIM during a recent
trip to Barcelona. The networks used by
Cellhire varies from country to country.
In Spain, Cellhire relies exclusively on
Vodafone. Using SpeedTest.net, we found
that download speeds were reasonably
consistent across the city, ranging from
12.14Mbps in the city centre to 16.4Mbps
in a convention centre near the airport in
the south of the city. Upload speeds,
on the other hand, varied, starting at
just 0.62Mbps at the convention centre
and going right up to 4Mbps in the
heart of the city.
These speeds were more than sufficient
for checking emails, uploading photos
and finding our way around Barcelona
using Google Maps. However, we did
have connection problems in areas where
a lot of other people were using portable
routers or their smartphone’s internet-
sharing feature. Here, our laptop either
couldn’t connect to our portable router
at all or we had to make a connection
using USB. Such challenging wireless
conditions are rare though.
The main problem with Cellhire’ s
Spanish tariff is that it isn’t cheap. The
SPECIFICATIONS
Standard, micro and nano SIM cards available • Locked
to your chosen country www.snipca.com/15792
30-day 4G SIM with a 10GB data
allowance costs £40. You can add another
£10 for a 3G-only portable router, rising
to £34 extra for the 4G model.
In April, Three is due to launch its
Spanish Feel at Home service, which
lets you use the internet at no extra
cost as long as you don’t exceed your
normal data allowance. A one-month
unlimited data SIM-only plan (capped
at 25 GB when used abroad) costs just
£25, for example. And if you also want
a portable router, Three’s plans still
represent better value. A 10GB one-
month plan costs £30 upfront plus
£16.02 per month - and you get to keep
the router. The catch with Three is that
you’ll have to remember to cancel your
contract with 30 days’ notice, but this
is a small price to pay for better-value
internet roaming.
VERDICT: Fast and convenient, but not
as cheap as Three
ALTERNATIVE: Three Broadband (10GB
1-month contract) £15
per month Three's Feel
at Home roaming deal
is available in a smaller
number of countries
(including Spain), but is
much better value
LU
LlH
COMING SOON
APRIL 2015
Panasonic is
targeting serious
photographers
with its CM1
Android phone.
The phone's camera sensor
will apparently rival those found in
dedicated cameras, but will be pricey at
£799 without a contract.
SUMMER 2015
Sony has
announced that
all but one model
in its 2015 range
of smart TVs will
use Google's Android TV interface
and have YouView built in.
SUMMER 2015
Microsoft has
announced
that Windows
10 will be
available “this
summer" with a new web browser
(currently named Spartan) taking the
place of Internet Explorer (see page 6).
Windows 10
►FreeviewPici.
AUTUMN 2015
Humax has
announced it will
make Freeview Play-branded PVRs.
These set-top boxes will have catch-up
TV apps and built-in Wi-Fi in addition to
video recording.
NEXT ISSUE
Dell Venue 8
7000
An Android tablet
that measures
objects with its
camera
HP Stream 11
HP's £199
Windows 8.1
laptop
TTiese and much more...
Subscribe to Computeractive at
www. getcomputeractive. co. uk
1-14 April 2015 29
_ . ■
9 * i . ■ • iBBm
Find out what other products we liked in 2014.
Buy our Back Issue CD now:
www.snipca.com/14981
Our pick of products that have won the Buy It award
LAPTOP
Asus X555LA-XX290H
£317 from www.snipca.com/15764
Tested: Issue 446
Asus has made all the right choices
with this budget Windows 8.1 laptop. Its
comfortable keyboard, fast performance,
respectably lengthy battery life and
bright screen are all the more impressive
given its low price.
ALTERNATIVE Asus Chromebook C200
A cheap Chrome OS ultra-portable
laptop with a bright screen, lengthy
battery life and a great keyboard.
£190 from www.snipca.com/15269
DESKTOP PC
Palicomp AMD Kaveri
Evolution
£500 from www.snipca. com/11804
Tested: Issue 422
A budget PC with a fast overclocked
processor. It also has good upgrade
potential and comes with a surprisingly
good 24in monitor, as well as a quality
USB keyboard and mouse.
ALTERNATIVE: Chillblast Fusion Rhino
A very powerful and compact PC sold
without a keyboard, mouse or monitor.
£899 from www.snipca.com/15252
TABLET
Apple iPad Mini 2
£239 from www.snipca.com/14467
Tested: Issue 416
Apple's mini tablet from 2013 is now
available at an even lower price. The
only thing it lacks compared with this
year's Mini 3 is a fingerprint sensor and
the option of lots of built-in storage.
Otherwise, it's an absolute bargain.
ALTERNATIVE: Apple iPad Air 2 A
thin and lightweight lOin tablet with a
fingerprint reader, an excellent screen
and peerless selection of apps. £399
from www.snipca.com/14309
PHONE
Motorola Moto G 4G
£150 (without contract) from
www.snipca.com/14162
Tested: Issue 432
Motorola's budget Android smartphone
is an absolute steal. It's very responsive,
well made, fast and has a good screen.
Plus, it's now been updated with 4G and
a microSD card slot.
ALTERNATIVE: Apple iPhone 5s
An excellent smartphone with a great
camera and performance. £459 without
a contract from www.snipca.com/10171
This compact interchangeable-lens
camera is small and reasonably priced,
yet it has well-designed controls, a wide
range of available lenses and shoots
excellent quality photos. The GF6 really
is unbeatable value.
ALTERNATIVE: Sony A5000 A rival
CSC with better low-light performance,
although its controls and range of
available lenses aren't quite as good.
£259 from www.snipca.com/15854
DIGITAL CAMERA
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF6
£280 from www.snipca. com/12607
Tested: Issue 405
E-READER
Kobo Aura H20
£140 from www.snipca.com/15490
Tested: Issue 435
A waterproof e-reader with an easy-to-
read, high-resolution touchscreen that's
easy on the eyes and great for reading
in the bath. There's no 3G version, but,
unlike the Amazon Kindle, you can buy
ebooks from independent retailers that
use the ePub format.
ALTERNATIVE: Amazon Kindle Voyage
The best Kindle yet, with a sharp,
extremely responsive touchscreen
and easy-grip design. £169 from
www.snipca.com/14451
30 1-14 April 2015
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advance, then regular price applies. Prices exclude 20% VAT. Visit www.1and1.co.uk for full offer details, terms and conditions. Rubik's Cube® used by permission of Rubik's Brand Ltd.
1and1.co.uk
SECURITY SOFTWARE
Kaspersky Internet
Security 2015
£17.99 from www.snipca.com/14212
Tested: Issue 427
Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 has
won our past four antivirus tests - an
unprecedented set of results. The 2015
edition is available at an exclusive reader
discount on our Software Store. Click the
link above for a one-device licence, or buy
a three-device licence for just £39.99 at
www.snipca.com/14221.
ALTERNATIVE: Norton Internet Security
2014 An affordable program, but
sometimes blocked legitimate software.
£30 from www.snipca.com/15115
PHOTO EDITING
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5
£98 from www.snipca.com/14348
Tested: Issue 402
Lightroom is a consistently elegant,
powerful and fast photo-management
program packed with sophisticated
features. If you want to keep on top of
your photos and make them look great,
there's no better software to do it with.
ALTERNATIVE: Adobe Photoshop
Elements 13 A fast and polished
photo-editing program with excellent
advanced editing tools. £59 from
www.snipca.com/14731
COMPETITION
Win 1 of 2
Crucial MXZOO
500GB SSD
Crucial's
MX200
is the
company's
second SSD
to earn a
five-star Buy
It! review in Computeractive (see
page 20). It is one of the fastest SSDs
we've ever tested, copying large
files at a top speed of 575MB/S.
It's also very affordable at just 34p
per gigabyte. To enter, email your
address to cacomp(5)dennis.co.uk
by midnight 14 April.
The Crucial MX200 500GB SSD is
available now priced £169. For more
information visit uk.crucial.com. Tike'
Crucial's Facebook page (www.
facebook.com/CrucialMemory)
and follow Crucial on Twitter
(a>crucialmemory.
PC MONITOR
Dell UltraSharp U2412M
£214 from www.snipca. com/14610
Tested: Issue 378
An exquisite monitor with superb image
quality, an adjustable stand, a high
resolution and even a built-in USB hub.
It costs a little more than other monitors,
but it's money well spent. It's easily the
best value monitor we've seen and is
the one by which all others are judged.
ALTERNATIVE: AOC i2360PHU A good
quality budget 23in monitor that's easily
adjustable and has a built-in USB 2.0 hub
too. £153 from www.snipca.com/15274
SECURITY CAMERA
Y-cam HomeMonitor HD
£147 from www.snipca.com/11646
Tested: Issue 420
A home-security camera that's well
priced and easy to set up. Plus, it has
great picture quality, useful apps and
there's no need to subscribe to any extra
services. It's a worthy successor to the
original HomeMonitor, our previous
favourite security camera.
ALTERNATIVE: D-Link Wireless N Day
& Night Camera A good-value security
camera with excellent night vision. £85
from www.snipca.com/15275
ROUTER
Trendnet TEW-812DRU
£116 from www.snipca.com/15855
Tested: Issue 427
TREriQne T
An incredibly fast 802.11ac router
that's also one of the cheapest we've
seen. It's superb and it's the router to
buy if you're ready to make the jump
to 802.11ac.
ALTERNATIVE: Linksys WRT1900AC
More expensive, but even faster and
with loads of features too. £200 from
www.snipca.com/14950
32 1-14 April 2015
in any room
dLAN® 500 WiFi Starter Kit
• Unpack, plug in, get started
• Improves Wi-Fi reception and range
• Engineered in Germany
• 3-year manufacturer's warranty
500,
Better than any Wi-Fi repeater
Enjoy Wi-Fi in any room*
Best reception for smartphones
and tablets
k Required: broadband Internet connection, router and active power sockets within one property.
amazonjooLiik
mdplin MB
jpp
More information:
www.devolo.co.uk/wi-fi
TOl.: +44 (0)1865 784344
Email: sales@devolo.co.uk
The Network Innovation
as rive
Computeractive
Bookstore
NEW!
IRaspberry
Pi for Kids
Your practical guide to the revolutionary £20 PC
RASPBERRY PI FOR KIDS
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The Raspberry Pi is the incredible £20 British
computer that’s taking the world by storm.
It’s ideal for children of all ages to experiment,
play games and learn valuable skills. We’ve
updated this 148-page book for 2015 to include
instructions on mastering the new Pi models
(A+ and B+), helping children learn the coding skills
needed to excel at the new school curriculum.
We take you step by step through the basics of
setting up and configuring the Pi and introduce
many fun projects for families.
MAKE \
YOUR OWN '■
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Fun WffJH [-"• Iran !
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BUY IT NOW FROM
AMAZON
at www.snipca.com/14658
(cheaper than in the shops!)
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
GOOGLE HIDDEN TOOLS
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
ANDROID
'Google
Hidden
Tools'
Sttridindti yftjH never
Inside the 164-page
7he Definitive Guide to
Google Hidden Tools, we
lift the lid on Google's
most popular tools to
reveal more than 430
ways to make them even
more efficient, useful and
tailored to your needs. These include clever
new add-ons for Chrome, amazing free apps
for Android and stunning sights in Google Maps.
BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON
at www.snipca.com/13911
(cheaper than in the shops!)
The Definitive Guide to
Android
3
Inside this 148-page
book you'll find all the
free apps, expert tips
and easy-to-follow
Workshops you need to
get the most out of your
phone or tablet. You'll find
buying advice, including
reviews of the latest tablets and phones, and
everything you need to know about taking
your first steps with your new device.
BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON
at www.snipca.com/12476
(cheaper than in the shops!)
Workshops & Tips
14 pages of easy-to-follow workshops and expert tips
35 Try Word and Excel in
Windows 10 for free
38 Recover your files
when Windows crashes
40 Browse the web faster
than ever
42 Create your own Word
fonts for free
PLUS
; 43 Readers' Tips
; 44 Phone & Tablet Tips
! 46 Make Windows Better
47 Make Office Better
48 Secret Tips For...
VirtualBox
Try Word and Excel in
Windows 10 for free
What you need: Windows 10 Technical Preview Time required: 2 hours
M icrosoft has released new
apps for Word, Excel and
PowerPoint (not to be confused
with Office 2016) for the Windows
10 Technical Preview Even though
these apps are mainly optimised
for touchscreen devices such as
tablets, we like the fact that they
have bigger tabs than previous
versions, making them much
easier to use on a PC. Well show
you how to create and edit
documents and spreadsheets,
which you can then access on
any device by syncing them
with OneDrive.
H Refer back to our lead Workshops in Issues 443 and 444
if you still haven’t installed the Windows 10 Technical
Preview. You won’t be able to install the new apps
unless you update your PC to the latest version of the Windows
10 Technical Preview (Build 10041). Your build number is
displayed at the bottom right of your screen □. To update your
version of Windows 10, click the notification icon 0 then ‘All
settings’. Now click ‘Update & recovery’ 0 then click the
‘Advanced options’ link at the bottom.
Choose Automatic (recommended)’ Qfrom the
dropdown menu at the top, tick the box below 0
(which updates all Microsoft products with Windows),
then select Fast from the dropdown menu at the bottom 0 .
Doing this lets you test new features as soon as they’re released
(but read our News story on page 6 first). Now click the top-left
Back button, then ‘Check for updates’. Windows will now
download the latest Preview. It can take anything up to a few
hours depending on your internet connection. When that’s
finished, Windows will restart several times before
automatically booting to the latest version.
1-14 April 2015 35
Workshops
Customise your OneDrive settings
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STEP
3
Before installing the apps, you should set up OneDrive
so that you can edit and save any Office file there.
Click the search bar at the bottom left, type onedrive,
then press Enter. Now select ‘Sync all files and folders on my
OneDrive’ D, then click OK 0. Click the OneDrive icon in the
notification area to see your sync progress. When that’s done,
click the icon, then click the ‘Open your OneDrive folder’ link
0 &
Results for "word’ 1
Apps {195)
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Cmmiword
j j J To install the apps, click the Start button, the ‘Store
■HI (Beta) ’ tile, type word in the search box at the top
right Q, then press Enter. You’ll now see all three apps.
Click Word Preview 0, then Install. When that’s finished
installing, click the top-left Back button, Excel Preview 0, then
Install. Repeat to install PowerPoint. We’ll first show you how to
use Word. Click the search bar at the bottom of your PC, type
to access your files.
word and click Word Preview to open it.
-r El-
Personal v j ° w |
STEP
5
Keep clicking the right arrow (to browse through the
instructions) until you see ‘Use Word for free’, then
click it. Because you’ve synced your OneDrive account,
you’ll see a list of all your Word documents in OneDrive on
the left □, which you can click to open. Click ‘Open other
documents’ Q to open documents saved on your PC or external
drive. Documents you create are saved to OneDrive, but if you
want to save them in a folder on your Windows 10 PC instead,
click the ‘in OneDrive - Personal’ dropdown menu 0 and select
‘This PC > Documents’.
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STEP
6
Click ‘Blank document’ to start creating one. Now, click
‘Document (l)’ Dat the top and rename it. The Home
tab features the usual font and formatting options at
the top left. Click the Normal dropdown menu 0 to see different
styles (Headings, Subtitles and so on) you can apply to your text.
To search for a particular word in your document, click the top-
right Binoculars icon to see a bar with various options. Type the
word to see all instances of it highlighted in your document and
the number of times it appears 0. Click the top-left cog icon to
narrow your search or replace that word.
36 1-14 April 2015
Try Word and Excel in Windows 10 for free
will rdiKi in
can even upgrade to it if
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vou own a pirated [ncnv y
combifies the Start screen
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and Modern tile Interface
Windows versions.
ol Windows 3.1 and
The windows 10.1
reinstates the mtjch-foved
Technical Preview lets users
w
test out new features at
Microsoft has added a Reader Mode, which is useful if
you want to read your document like a book (with two
columns, while using left and right arrows to navigate).
You can change your font size and the colour of this mode with
one click. Click the Read (book) icon at the top left to enter this
mode, then click the three dots at the top right to modify your
document. You can choose from four font sizes D and three
colours 0 . To continue editing your document in normal mode,
click EditB.
If you can’t find a certain editing feature, click the
lightbulb icon D and type your query (such as create
header or insert link) . Click the relevant option in the
list that appears to see those tabs (or menus). It’s easy to share the
documents you’ve created and control whether others can then
edit or view it. Click the Person icon 0 , then click ‘Get a link’ at
the bottom. You’ll see two options: ‘Create an edit link’ and ‘Create
a view-only link’. Select the one you want to get a link to your file
that you can copy and paste using other programs, such as email.
To provide Microsoft with feedback about the Word Preview, click
the smiley face icon 0 , which opens the Feedback app.
Open Excel by typing excel in the search box at the
bottom of your PC, then pressing Enter. Navigate
through the instructions, then click ‘Use Excel for free’.
Click ‘Blank workbook’ or select one of your OneDrive
spreadsheets from the left. You only see one sheet by default,
but you can add more by clicking the ‘+’ icon at the bottom D.
Right-click a sheet to see options to rename, colour, hide or
delete it. The Home tab lets you format your text and cells. Click
the function button 0 to see different categories of formulae
(including Financial, Logical and Date & Time). The dropdown
menu 0 lets you sort or filter your data.
STEP
10
Excel automatically suggests charts that best represent
your data. Highlight the data you want represented on
a chart, click Insert 0 then Recommended. You’ll see a
list of chart types. Select one, then keep clicking Switch 0 until
you see one you like. Use the Chart tab to format its type, layout
and colours. Click the three dots beside your chart El to see
options to Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete. #
1-14 April 2015 37
Workshops
■
Recover your files when
Windows crashes
What you need: Lazesoft Recovery Suite; blank USB stick or CD/DVD;
external hard drive; Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1 Time required: 35 minutes
C omputer crashes are not only
harmful to your operating
system, but can result in loss of
data. Lazesoft Recovery Suite Home
Edition is a free program that lets
you create a bootable drive that you
can use to boot into your crashed
PC, fix the problems and recover
any lost files. The program is
packed with features, but has an
easy-to-use interface with clear
instructions for every task.
H Go to www.snipca.com/15830 and click
the green Download Now button. Click the
downloaded setup file, Run, Yes, Next, select
‘I accept the agreement’ D, click Next (three times) 0,
then Install. Once it’s installed, tick ‘Launch
application’, then Finish. You’ll see the main
Lazesoft Recovery screen with five options.
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We’ll first show you how to create a bootable disc.
Insert a blank CD or USB stick into your PC. Click Burn
CD/USB Disk in Lazesoft, then Next. Select whether
you want to create a CD/DVD, ‘USB flash’ or ISO Image (that you
can later save to an external drive). Click Refresh □ if your
CD/DVD or USB stick doesn’t appear immediately. We selected
USB Flash 0. Now click Start 0, then Yes. The creation process
took about seven minutes on our Windows 7 PC. After it’s
finished, you’ll see two links: ‘How to boot from USB flash
device’ and ‘How to boot from CD/DVD’. We explain this
process in the next step.
The next time your PC crashes, insert your bootable
CD/USB stick into it and restart your PC. As it boots,
make a note of the brief notification telling you which
key to press to access the Boot Menu in your BIOS (F2, on most
PCs). Restart your PC and keep pressing that key as it boots. In
your Boot Menu, select ‘USB drive’ as your First/Primary Boot
Device, then click Lazesoft Live CD. Your PC will now boot in
Safe Mode, displaying the Lazesoft Recovery Suite main
window. Click Windows Recovery D, then OK. You’ll now see a
screen with four solutions to common crash problems. If you’re
unsure which option to choose, select One Click Fix Crash
Solution, click the One Click Fix button, then Finish. Close that
window, then click Reboot 0.
38 1-14 April 2015
When your PC reboots, you should see the files you
may have lost during the crash in their original
locations. If you can’t find them, it’s possible they’ve
been deleted from your PC. Fortunately, Lazesoft’s powerful
Data Recovery options can help you find and restore files or
folders that have been deleted from your PC or external drives
(such as USB sticks). It even lets you find and recover files that
have been deleted using Shift + Del and those that have been
emptied from the Recycle Bin. Open Lazesoft and click Data
Recovery to see four scan options.
Each of the scan options works more or less the same
way: select the drive you want to scan for deleted
items, wait for the scan to complete, then tick the items
you want to recover from a list. We’ll show you how to use Fast
Scan but if you can’t find your files using this, then try one of
the other (more thorough) options. Click Fast Scan, then select
the relevant partition □ - the drive letters 0 will correspond to
your PC’s drive letters. Click Start Search a to begin scanning,
then OK when the scan has finished.
STEP
Next, click the dropdown menu beside
the relevant drive letter D to see a list of
folders that Lazesoft has recovered files
from. Click any folder to see its deleted files in
the main section. If you see ‘Deleted and
probably good’ 0 in the File State column, it
means those files can be recovered. Tick the files
you want to recover, then click Save Files □. Now
select the folder you want to save the recovered
files to, then click Select Folder. After restoration,
open the folder you chose and you’ll see a folder
named Recovered Data. Navigate through its
sub-folders to access your recovered files.
We’ll now show you how to clone an entire
partition to an external hard drive. This is
handy if you need to quickly transfer or
back up data. In the main Lazesoft screen, click ‘Disk
Image & Clone’, Clone Disk □, select the drive you
want to clone 0 , tick the second box 0, then click
Next. Now untick any partitions on that drive that
you don’t want to clone, click Next, select your
connected hard drive, then Next again. Finally, select
‘Fix partitions to entire disk’, click Next, Start and
OK. You’ll need to restart your PC to see your cloned
drive. Read tutorials on Lazesoft’s other features at
www.snipca.com/15839. #
1-14 April 2015 39
Workshops
Browse the web faster than ever
What you need: Any web browser Time required: 20 minutes
V ivaldi - a new browser
created by the co-founder
and former CEO of Opera - ‘aims
to be the fastest browser in the
universe’, according to its website.
And in our tests, it did load web
pages faster than all the major
browsers. It also has a setting that
opens web pages without images,
which speeds up browsing - most
noticeably if you’re on a slow
internet connection.
Unlike many browsers,
it lets you customise its
appearance and use keyboard
shortcuts. Despite being a
Technical Preview, Vivaldi is
regularly updated with new
features and gave us no
problems when we used it.
H Go to www.vivaldi.com and click the blue Download Tech
Preview 2 button. Click the setup file that downloads, Yes,
then ‘Accept and Install’. The browser will open with tabs
at the top and a few basic options in a panel on the left D. To open
web pages without images, click the Image icon 0 , then select No
Images. The slider 0 lets you zoom in and out of a web page.
By default, new tabs open in the Speed Dial section,
which contains six default website tiles. Close any you
don’t want then click the ‘ + ’ tile to add new ones. To
create a new Speed Dial section, click the ‘+’ icon D, name the
section, then start adding tiles to it. Click the Bin icon 0 to see
any tabs you’ve closed during that browsing session. From here
you can reopen them if you want. One unique Vivaldi feature is
‘tab stacks’, which lets you group multiple tabs into one. Click
and drag any tab over a second one until it greys out, then
release your mouse. Repeat this to add more tabs. Move your
cursor over the stack 0 to see all its tabs.
To bookmark a web page you’re looking at, click the
Bookmark icon 0 . Next, click the dropdown menu
in the panel that appears to see a list of categories
(Bookmarks, Speed Dial, News, Business, Technology and so on)
that you can add it to. Give your bookmark a description and
nickname (optional), then click Save. Click the Bookmarks
option 0 to see a list of categories containing popular websites.
The four buttons 0 at the top let you add a new bookmark, create
a new category, delete a bookmark and change its name and
description.
40 1-14 April 2015
Vivaldi has
other unique
features, such as
Mail, Contacts and Notes
built into the browser
(you need add-ons to use
them in other browsers).
The Mail tool isn’t live yet,
but you can still save
contact details for
reference. Click the
Contacts icon Q, then
click the ‘+’ symbol and
select New Contact or
New Contact Group 0.
Clicking New Contact lets
you add their name, email address, phone number and address.
If you click New Contact Group, type a group name at the
bottom left, then press Enter. To add a contact to a group, type
the group’s name in the box below the contact’s address details
and press Enter. Any files you download will appear in the
Downloads section Q. The three options below the downloads
search bar let you stop downloads, restart them, and clear your
download list.
STEP
The Notes
feature is
useful for
saving web articles to
read later, along with a
short description and
screenshot (you should
be able to sync these
across multiple devices
when Vivaldi releases a
mobile app). Click the
Notes icon D, then click
the ‘ + ’ symbol B to create
a new note (or the icon
beside it to create a new
folder). Type (or copy and
paste) your description in
the section below and
add the web page’s URL
in the address field below that. To add a screenshot of the web
page, click the Photo icon at the bottom. You can hide /reveal
the black panel on the left by clicking the slider 0 .
STEP
To change Vivaldi’s settings, click the Settings
(cog) icon □, then the General tab. The browser’s
homepage is set to www.vivaldi.com by default,
but you can change this in the Homepage field 0. Click the
Appearance tab 0 to change where your tabs, address bar
and panel appear by selecting from left, right, top or bottom.
The Bookmark Bar is turned off by default, so you need to
select if and where you want it (Top or Bottom).
You can view and delete your saved cookies and
passwords. Click the Privacy tab, scroll to the
Cookies section, then click the Delete button
beside an entry □ or click the Delete All Cookies 0 button.
Repeat this process in the Passwords section to remove any
you don’t want saved. You can change your search engine
(to DuckDuckGo, for example) or search a specific website
(such as Amazon or Wikipedia). To do this, click the
Navigation tab 0, click the Google dropdown menu, choose
the option you want, then click ‘Set default’. Scroll down to
see a list of keyboard- shortcut tasks (create a bookmark,
open a new tab, open your Settings and so on). Click any of
the fields, then press the key combination you want. #
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1-14 April 2015 41
Workshops
I
Create your own
Word fonts for free
What you need: Any web browser Time required: 10 minutes
I f you’ve been looking - in vain constantly previewing any
- for the perfect font, why not changes you make. Once you’re
create your own? Metaflop happy with the font you’ve
Modulator is a new website that created, you can download it to
lets you do just that. Simply by your PC and use it within any
moving a few sliders, you can Office program, including
customise your font while Word and PowerPoint.
H Go to www.metaflop.com/modulator. Here, you’ll see a list of
‘modulator’ options □ and ‘parameters’ sliders B. There are also
three preview sections containing individual letters (Glyph),
numbers and upper- and lower-case letters (Chart), and sample text
(Typewriter). The ‘parameters’ section contains customisation sliders for
‘unit width’, ‘pen width’, ‘cap height’ and so on. Click ‘on’ Bnext to
‘anatomy’ to see an illustration of what each of these options refer to.
□ I 3 ] 4 1 b 7 I *
Fonl design Is in fad foh of fun,
especially when you moke mistakes.
anatomy
Keep clicking the ‘flop it!’ setting H to browse the
various font types. For more font-type options,
click the ‘bespoke’ arrow at the top left and choose
‘adjuster’ or ‘fetamont’. Once you’ve settled on a font type,
start customising it by moving the sliders in the ‘parameters’
section. To preview another letter, click that letter at the bottom
of the Glyph section. Click the left and right arrows B to see
options for numbers and lower-case letters. You can change the
Typewriter sample text and its font size using the arrows B. To
undo your changes, click the ‘reset’ setting (beside ‘flop it!’).
STEP
Horne Insert
Pige Layout
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To download and use your font with your Office
programs, click ‘open type font’ beside ‘download’
in the ‘modulator’ section (top left). A file containing
the font will download to your PC. Click the file to open it, then
click Install D. Once it’s installed, open any Word document,
click the Font dropdown menu B and choose your new font (it
will be named Fetamont, Bespoke or Adjuster, depending on the
font type you chose). If this method doesn’t work, copy (Ctrl+C)
the downloaded font file. Now click the Start button on your
PC, type fonts, open the Fonts folder and paste (Ctrl+V) the file
there. You should now be able to use it within Word.
NEXT ISSUE
• Make amazing panoramas from your photos
• Take screenshots using Windows
• Edit videos on your iPad for free
• Create a fake virus to test your PC security
i
(•)
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42 1-14 April 2015
Readers' Tips
Handy hints and tips from your fellow readers
0 Email us your tips: letters(5)computeractive.co.uk
TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT
/
Explore London as it was over 450 years ago
As a retired History lecturer, I was
intrigued when a former colleague
emailed me a link to the Agas Map of
Early Modern London’ website. This
lets you explore details of the city as
it was over four hundred years ago by
using dropdown menus.
Civitas Londinium (as this particular
map is generally known) was printed
in 1561 and is one of the earliest known
maps of London. It’s believed to have
been created by renowned British
surveyor Ralph Agas, who made many
maps during that time, including of
Cambridge and Oxford - though
some people still debate whether this
particular map can be
attributed to him.
Go to the website (www.
snipca.com/1576l) to see a
(barely recognisable) map
of our capital city. It’s
striking to see just one
bridge (London Bridge) on
the Thames. The panel at
the top right contains a
list of locations, including
bridges, churches and taverns. Click any
of the category dropdown menus, then
tick the ones you’re interested in to see
their positions marked on the map.
You can zoom in and out of the map
either using your mouse wheel or the
slider at the top left. Clicking anywhere
on the map gives you more information
about that specific area in a small box
on the right. Click the links in the box
to read more about the streets and
landmarks in that location.
Click the flower icon at the top left
(above the slider), then click The Map
to read more about this wonderful
historical artefact I for one am
thankful it’s now available
as an interactive website.
James Burden
The winner of every Tip of the Fortnight wins this exclusive Computeractive mug!
EMAIL
Quickly attach files from
Dropbox in Gmail
Last year Google added a Google
Drive icon to the bottom of the
Gmail compose window that lets you
quickly attach files from your Google
Drive cloud storage. Sadly, this wasn’t
much use to me because I’ve always
used Dropbox. But now there’s a new,
free ‘Dropbox for Gmail (Beta)’ Chrome
extension that lets you add a similar
Dropbox icon so you can quickly
attach files from there.
Go to www.snipca.com/15760 in
Chrome, click the blue Add To Chrome
button, then Add again to confirm it.
Now open Gmail, click Compose, then
click the Dropbox icon at the bottom.
Sign into Dropbox and double-click any
files to attach them to your emails.
Jeremy Wells
ADWARE REMOVAL
Eliminate BoBrowser
adware from your PC
After downloading a number of free
programs, I suddenly discovered a
new browser had been automatically set
as my default. It was also pinned to my
Taskbar and when opened looked very
similar to Chrome. Even its logo looked
virtually identical (see image right).
I decided to do some research on this
mysterious Chrome lookalike and was
shocked to find that it’s adware called
BoBrowser, which comes bundled with
some free programs. Even though I
could eventually remove it from my PC,
the process was far from straightforward,
but it is possible.
Lirst, close the BoBrowser window,
then right-click its Taskbar icon and
click ‘Unpin this program from taskbar’.
Now open your system tray (in your
notification area), right-click the
BoBrowser icon, then click Exit.
Next, uninstall BoBrowser from your
PC via the Control Panel. When you see
the Uninstall BoBrowser pop-up, tick
both the boxes (see screenshot above
right), then click Uninstall. You’ll see a
message telling you BoBrowser has
stopped working. Click ‘Close the
program’, which should uninstall it.
You now need to delete any data it
saved on your PC. Open File /Windows
Explorer and type %localappdata% in the
location bar at the top. Now click the
BoBrowser folder, then press Shift + Del to
permanently delete it. As a final safety
measure, run AdwCleaner (www.snipca.
com/14262) or the free version of
C Malwarebytes (www.snipca.com/
» 14312) to eliminate any traces of it.
Eamonn Fowkes
Uninstall BoBrowser
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PDFs
Continue reading PDFs from
where you left off
My friend sent me a PDF of Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which
I started reading on my PC using
Adobe Reader. I quickly became quite
frustrated though, because I could
never remember the last page I’d reached
when I wanted to continue reading.
Thankfully, I found a way to open the
PDF on this page.
Open Adobe Reader, then press Ctrl+K
to bring up your Preferences window.
Click Documents on the left, then tick
the first box at the top (‘Restore last view
settings when reopening documents’)
and click OK.
Hillary Amis
1 - 14 March 2015 43
Phone and Tablet Tips
Brilliant things to do on your device
ANDROID
See what you've
recently bought
Google has updated the Play
Store app. Aside from a slight
redesign, you can now see a list of
anything you’ve bought on your device
(apps, music, films and ebooks).
Open Play Store, tap the three lines at
the top left, then tap ‘My account’ to
see two sections. ‘Payment methods’
includes your payment details and your
Google Play balance (for example,
any Google Play vouchers you have
recently redeemed). You can add to
or edit your payment methods by
tapping those options.
The second section (‘Order history’)
lists anything you’ve bought (most recent
items appear first) alongside the price you
paid for it. Tap any content
to see more information
(category, genre and so on).
Tap View to open it.
want to move until you see a blue tick on
it (and tick outlines on your other files).
Now tick any other files you want to
move. As you do this, you’ll see the
number of files you’ve selected displayed
at the bottom of the screen. Tap the three
dots to the right of this number, then tap
‘Move to’ (see screenshot below) and
select a folder. You can also tap the folder
icon at the top right to create a new one.
ANDROID
Speed up your device by
deleting unwanted items
The security software company
dh 1
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ANDROID
Move multiple Google
Drive files at the
same time
Google Drive (www.
If snipca.com/15776)
now lets you
batch-select and move
multiple items to a folder.
Open the app to see a list of
your folders and files. Tap
and hold the first file you
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Avira has released a new free app
called Avira Android Optimizer
that’s designed to speed up your device. It
has a handy button that instantly closes
your background apps. It also provides
options to delete your
apps’ caches, uninstall
multiple apps in one go
and clean up your
personal data (including
browsing history).
Install the app (www.
snipca.com/ 15777), open
it, then tap the green
One-Tap Speedup button
to close your background
apps. Next, you should
tap Clean Memory to see
a list of all your apps and
how much memory you
can free up by deleting
each one’s cache. Untick
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any apps whose cache you want
to retain (for example, your email apps),
then tap Clean Now.
The second icon at the top left lets you
uninstall a number of apps in one go.
Tap it to bring up a list of your installed
apps along with their size. Tick the apps
you want to uninstall, then tap Uninstall
(see screenshot right). You then tap OK
to confirm you want to uninstall each
app in turn.
Swipe right to see a third option, which
lets you delete junk files (including system
Best New Apps
What you should install this fortnight
Google Calendar
Free
Android: www.snipca.com/15779
iOS: www.snipca.com/15780
The Google Calendar app is finally
available for iPhones. Log in with your
Gmail account and sync the app with
your existing
calendars. Within
the app, you can
use Google Maps
to find directions
to any location you
need to visit. The
Android app now
lets you add files to
your calendar from
Google Drive.
j Dropbox
j Free
i
Android:
| www.snipca.
j com/15778
Dropbox for
Android now lets
you access any
PDF file on your
device - even
! if if s not stored
j in Dropbox. This
means you don't
need to install a separate PDF reader app
(such as Adobe Reader). You can now also
search for specific words within any Office
document and PDF stored in Dropbox using
the new search bar at the top.
Wunderlist
| Free
Android: www.snipca.com/15781
iOS: www.snipca.com/15782
Wunderlist, which lets you create to-do
lists, has received a major update,
including a redesigned interface. You
can now create
| folders from the
sidebar on the
left, then drag and
drop your lists into
these to organise
them. Items in the
sidebar are now
colour-coded to
help you distinguish
between them.
44 1-14 April 2015
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cache) and media (audio and video) files
saved on your device. Tick the items you
want to delete, then tap Clean Now. The
last option lets you delete your personal
data. Tick the options you want to delete
(browser history, calls logs and clipboard
data), then tap Clean Now.
iOS
Hide the new Apple Watch icon
from your homescreen
If you’ve updated your iPhone to
the latest version of iOS (8.2),
•' you’ll see the new Apple Watch
app on your homescreen. This isn’t useful
unless you own (or are planning to buy)
an Apple Watch. Because Apple have
decided to make this a default iOS app
(similar to Photos, Camera and iBooks),
it means you can’t delete it. However,
it’s easy to hide the Apple Watch icon.
To update your iPhone, open Settings,
tap General, Software Update, then
‘Download and Install’. Your device will
restart as the update is installed.
You’ll now see the new Apple Watch
icon on your homescreen. To hide it, tap
and hold any app until all your app icons
start shaking (and display an ‘x’ symbol
in one corner). Now tap and drag the
Apple Watch icon over any other app to
create an app folder containing both
apps. Once it’s in the folder, tap the Apple
Watch icon and drag it to the bottom of
your iPhone screen. When you see your
dock (the four apps at the
bottom of your screen),
release the Apple Watch
icon, and you won’t see
it on your homescreen
anymore.
You’ll still be able to
access it by swiping down
from the top of your
device, then typing apple
watch in Spotlight Search.
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Reply to or archive emails from
the notification centre
. £_ Gmail for iOS now lets you reply
to or archive any new emails
you receive directly from the
notification centre, without you having to
open your Gmail app.
When you receive a new email, swipe
down from the top of your device’s
screen to access your notification centre.
Now swipe left across the email’s
notification to see options to close it,
reply to the email or archive it (see
screenshot above right). Tap the relevant
option. To access your archived emails,
open your Gmail app, tap the three
dots at the top left, the More dropdown
menu at the bottom, then All Mail.
Games With Kids
What to play together on your phone and tablet
AGES 0-5
Zuzu's Bananas
£1.87 www.snipca.com/15783 (Android)
£1.49 www.snipca.com/15784 (iOS)
With over 50 games, this app will keep
your kids entertained for hours. Our
favourites include ones in which you tap
flies to feed them to a frog and match a
moustache to its outline.
AGES 6-10
Minichess by Kasparov
£2.49 www.snipca.com/15785 (Android)
£2.99 www.snipca.com/15786 (iOS)
Endorsed by Chess grandmaster Garry
Kasparov, this app features a friendly
character (Cheddar the Chess mouse)
who teaches your kids chess by describing
how each piece moves, then quizzes them
until they're ready to play.
AGES 11-16
Wordathon: Classic Word
Free www.snipca.com/15787 (Android)
Free www.snipca.com/15788 (iOS)
In this new game (which is a combina-
tion of Boggle and Word Search) you
see a grid of letters and have to connect
adjacent ones to form as many words as
you can within a five minutes. Uncommon
words win you more points. Take turns to
challenge your children and see who the
better wordsmith is.
1-14 April 2015 45
Make Windows Better Clever tips for every version
WINDOWS 7, 8, 8.1
Cancel print jobs you've
already started
There have probably
^ ? been many times when
’ you’ve sent multiple
files to print only to realise you don’t
need to print all of them. Thankfully
there’s an easy way to remove specific
files from the print queue before the
printing job begins. Click the Start
button, ‘Devices and Printers’, click your
printer (in the ‘Printer and Faxes’
section), then click ‘See what’s printing’
at the top. You’ll see a list of all the files in
the print queue, along with the number
of pages they contain. To stop a specific
file printing, right-click it, click Cancel,
then Yes to confirm.
WINDOWS 8, 8.1
Navigate your screen without
touching your PC
If you have a laptop or PC with a
webcam and like to use the Food
& Drink app (on the Modern tile
interface) to follow recipes while you
cook, then you should try the app’s
Hands Free Mode. This lets you navigate
pages by simply swiping your hand in
front of your camera (like Tom Cruise
in Minority Report). Activating this mode
will help you keep your laptop /PC free
from messy ingredients.
Open the Food & Drink app in the
Modern tile interface and scroll to the
Recipes section on the right. You can then
click a recipe from one of the featured
celebrity chefs (including Jamie Oliver,
Mary Berry, Nigella Lawson), or click See
More to sort recipes by category (such as
Cuisine, Difficulty and Total Time). See
Issue 437 ’s Make Windows Better for
more information on how to create a
collection of your favourite recipes.
Once you’ve selected a recipe, click
Hands-Free Mode at the bottom left,
then click Allow to let the app access
your camera and microphone. Your
front camera will switch on and the
recipe will be divided into individual
steps, which appear as squares at the
bottom. Sweep your hand across the front
WINDOWS 7, 8, 8.1
Quickly locate files
certain time or of a
We’ve all
forgotten the
name of a file
that all of a sudden we desperately
need to find on our PC. Despair
not because there are other
criteria (other than filename)
you can use to locate files. For
example, when they were created
or saved, or how big they are.
To find files created around a
certain time, open Computer
(or the folder you want to search)
and type datemodified: in the
search box at the top right. You’ll
see a calendar with a list of
options below it (see screenshot).
Click one of the options - such as
‘Earlier this year’ or ‘Last week’
- to see the files created in that
time frame.
Clicking ‘A long time ago’ displays
files created more than a year ago. Click
any of the dates on the calendar to
narrow your search. To see files created
between specific dates, go to the first
date using the navigation arrows on the
calendar and click it. Now, press and
created at a
certain size
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hold the Shift key on your keyboard,
navigate to the second date, and click it.
You will now see a list of files created
between those dates.
To sort files by size, click the ‘x’ icon
in the search bar to clear it then type
size:. You’ll see a range of different file
sizes from ‘Tiny (0-10KB)’ to ‘Gigantic
(>128MB)’. Click the option you want.
camera from right to
left to go to the next
step, or left to right
to see the previous
one. Click the green
Hands-Free button
at the top right (see
screenshot below)
when you want to
exit this mode.
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Open Action Center
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WINDOWS 10
Hide distracting Desktop
notifications
The Windows 10 notification icon
(see screenshot above) tells you
about system updates, new emails
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or data that’s being synced in the
background with cloud services such as
OneDrive. There’s an easy way to hide
these notifications so they don’t distract
you while you work.
Right-click the notifications icon, then
move your cursor to ‘Hide notifications
for’ (see screenshot above) and select one
of the three options - 1 hour, 3 hours or 8
hours. If you want to revert to seeing your
notifications as they arrive, right-click
the notifications icon, then click ‘Show
notifications’.
46 1-14 April 2015
Make Office Better
Expert tips for every program
SWAY
Add a slideshow to your 'sway'
Sway, Microsoft’s new
online presentation tool,
lets you create scrolling
presentations (called ‘sways’) that
can be accessed online as well as
via mobile apps. See our ‘Make
presentations using Microsoft Sway’
Workshop in Issue 442.
Since we featured Sway in Issue
444’ s Make Office Better, it’s been
updated with even more features,
including the option to add a slideshow
to your sway This lets you upload a
selection of images which you navigate
through using left and right arrows.
Go to www.sway.com, click ‘Sign in’
at the top right and log in with your
Microsoft (Outlook or Hotmail) account.
Now click My Sways at the top right,
then click the sway you want to add a
slideshow to. To add it to a new sway,
click the three dots at the top right,
then Create New.
In your sway, click the ‘ + ’ symbol at
the bottom left of the section you want
to add the slideshow to. Next, click
Cards at the top right, then Slideshow at
the bottom left. Now click ‘Add a picture’.
To add an image from your PC, click the
top-left Suggested dropdown menu,
Upload, navigate to the image, then
click Open. Click ‘Add a picture’ and
repeat the process to add the rest of
your slides in the order you want them
to appear in your slideshow. Click the
dropdown menu beside Slideshow to
add captions to your images. When
you’ve finished, click the Preview
button at the top right to see your
slideshow images complete with
navigation arrows.
OFFICE
Add files you access often
to the File tab
□ Clicking the File tab at the top
left of Office 2010 and 2013 gives
you a list of default options you
use all the time (including Save, Save As,
Open and Print). There’s an easy way
to add files you access often to this tab.
We’ll show you how to add Word
documents, but this process also applies
to Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint
presentations.
Click the File tab, then Recent. You’ll
see a list of Recent Documents in the
left-hand column and Recent Places
(folders on your PC) on the right. Select
the documents you want listed in the File
tab by clicking the small, grey pin icons
beside them. They’ll move to the top of
the Recent Documents list and display
blue pin icons (see screenshot below left).
Now tick the ‘Quickly access this number
of Recent Documents’ box at the bottom,
then type the number of files you’ve
pinned. Whenever you click the File tab,
you’ll now see these documents listed
between the Close and Info options on
the left.
POWERPOINT
Save your presentation as a video
In Issue 445, we showed you how
to add audio files to your slides
and edit them (see ‘Edit audio
for slides in your presentation’). If you’ve
created a presentation with audio, then
it’s a good idea to save this as a video
file. You can then burn this file to a DVD
and play it on your TV or even upload it
to YouTube.
Open your presentation, click File (top
left), then Save As. Name the file, click the
‘Save as type’ dropdown menu, select
Windows Media Video, then click Save.
You can now play this file using Windows
Media Player or software such as VLC.
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Link text to other sheets
If your Excel file has multiple
MfrJ sheets, there’s an easy way to
create linked text within a cell
that opens another sheet when clicked.
Right-click the cell containing the text
you want to link, then click Hyperlink
at the bottom. Next, click ‘Place in This
Document’ on the left. You’ll see a Cell
Reference menu listing all the sheets in
your file (see screenshot above). Select
the one you want to link to, then click
OK. The text will now turn blue,
indicating it’s a link.
1-14 April 2015 47
Secret Tips For. . .
VirtualBox
Install a guest OS, speed up
your virtual machines and
roll back if things go wrong
Run a guest OS in your PC
We’ve mentioned VirtualBox (www.
virtualbox.org) a lot recently, because it’s
our favourite tool for creating virtual
machines (VMs) - such as the one we’ve
been using to run the Windows 10
Technical Preview By running the
Preview in a VM rather than installing it
directly on your PC, you can isolate it
from your main operating system (OS).
In VirtualBox parlance, that makes
Windows 10 the ‘guest operating system’.
To create a VM, run VirtualBox and
click New. Use the dropdown menu to
choose the guest OS you want to install
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Choose a 'guest operating system' to run in a
virtual machine (VM) using VirtualBox
(see screenshot below left), then allocate
some of your PC’s memory and hard-
drive space to it. You don’t have to make
any decisions here - provided you’ve
got enough RAM and space to spare, you
can simply use the default settings.
You won’t be able to run a guest
version of Windows unless you have
its installation CD handy, or at least a
legitimate installation file (usually an ISO
file) and your licence key. The Windows
10 Technical Preview is free, of course,
but you still need a licence key (see our
lead Workshop, Issue 443).
Speed up your virtual machine
with extra memory
Virtual systems need memory, just like
your main OS does. When you create a
VM, VirtualBox allocates a default amount
of RAM to it, but you can allocate more
by moving the memory slider to the
right. You can change this later from the
System section of the VM’s Settings menu.
We’d recommend allocating at least
2GB (2000MB) of RAM to a VM running
Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10. But be aware that
your PC’s RAM is finite. If you allocate
more of it to a VM, your main OS and
Explore the VirtualBox wiki site
VirtualBox can be confusing at first,
so make friends with its wiki site
(www.virtualbox.org/wiki) before
you get bogged down in buttons
and menus.
The site guides you through every
step of the way, from installing it
(www.snipca.com/15749) to running
multiple VMs from a remote server
(www.snipca.com/15750). The
Community section (www.snipca.com/
15751) provides links to a forum, live
Internet Relay Chat and (if you’re really
confident with VirtualBox) ‘Test builds’.
Click the small Preferences link at
the top-right of any page to set up
keyboard shortcuts, create an account
and store and restore browsing sessions
VirtualBox
Store your sessions on the VirtualBox site
in case you need to retrace your steps
- a useful feature in a site this size.
VirtualBox is open-source software
and the site is community-run, but it’s
all overseen by technology company
Oracle (www.oracle.com/uk), which
helps to ensure the information is
up to date.
other programs may slow down
as a result.
Roll back to a Snapshot
VirtualBox lets you store ‘Snapshots’ of
VMs as you go along, so you can roll back
if things go wrong - a bit like system
restore points in Windows.
For example, if you want to use a VM
to test a program you’re not sure about,
create a Snapshot of the VM before you
install the program. To do this, select the
VM in VirtualBox, right-click Current
State and click Take Snapshot (see
screenshot below). Then click Start to
run the VM, and install the software
you want to test. When you’ve finished
using it, you can restore the Snapshot to
remove all traces of the program.
You can save multiple Snapshots in
each VM, just like saving multiple restore
points, and roll back to any of them
without overriding the others.
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Take a Snapshot of your virtual machine so
you can turn back the clock if necessary
Hack VirtualBox with extensions
In our Cover Feature in Issue 443, we
showed you how to improve installed
software using plug-ins such as browser
extensions. VirtualBox also supports
extensions, and you can download
packages of them from the VirtualBox
wiki site. Click Downloads in the left-
hand menu, then ‘All supported
platforms’ and save the file to your
Desktop. You can then install the package
from the Devices menu of a running VM
(click ‘Insert Guest Additions CD image...’).
For this to work, you’ll need to have
allocated virtual-drive space to the VM
when you created it, and you’ll need to be
running the latest version of VirtualBox
(4.3.24), which was released in March.
48 1-14 April 2015
Next issue Secret Tips For... Pixlr
What's All the Fuss About...
Apple ResearchKit
You'll soon be able to aid research into Parkinson's and other
medical conditions with a few taps on your iPhone
What is it?
New Apple software that lets iPhone
owners take part in voluntary medical
trials through apps that have been built
by a number of institutions around the
world, including Oxford University
Apple says that by interacting with the
apps users will provide valuable data
to researchers. It was announced on 9
March at the same event that saw Apple
unveil its long-awaited smartwatch. Many
tech experts believe - and we agree -
that ResearchKit will prove the more
significant development of the two.
What kind of medical research?
There are five free apps that each aid
research into a different medical
condition: MyHeart Counts for
cardiovascular disease; GlucoSuccess
for diabetes; mPower for Parkinson’s
disease; ‘Share the Journey’ for breast
cancer; and Asthma Health for asthma.
How do the apps work?
They all track your behaviour and activity.
We’ve yet to test the apps, but the most
impressive appears to be mPower. Its
developers, Seattle organisation Sage
Bionetworks and New York state’s
University of Rochester,
have created simple tests
that make it much easier
for them to monitor
how the symptoms of
Parkinson’s patients
change over time.
For example, you can
take the app’s tap test to
measure tremors in your
movement. The app also
records you saying
‘Aaaaah’, just as an actual
GP would, in order to
measure tiny variations
in your vocal chords (see
screenshot right). It can
even use an iPhone’s
accelerometer and
gyroscope to analyse your balance as
you walk.
That's impressive. What can
the other apps do?
MyHeart Counts combines records of
your daily activity with your cholesterol
results and blood pressure to calculate
your risk of suffering a heart attack or
stroke. Researchers into diabetes can
use the GlucoSuccess app to gather
data about how diet and lifestyle affect
glucose level in blood. Similarly, asthma
specialists can use Asthma Health to
analyse what types of behaviour trigger
attacks, while cancer
researchers will use
‘Share the Journey’ to
help them work out
why some breast cancer
survivors recover faster
than others.
What do medical
institutions think
of it?
They love it because
currently they struggle to
get research samples that
are large and diverse
enough to be useful. But
with Apple’s sales of
iPhones having reached
700 million recently,
scientists now have a gigantic pool of
potential data providers - and that
number will surely hit 1 billion some
time this decade. The developers of
mPower say the app will become
“the world’s largest and most
comprehensive study” of Parkinson’s.
Can I download the apps now?
No. They are currently only available in
the US. But Apple plans to make them
available worldwide soon. They work
only on the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6
and iPhone 6 Plus. For more information
visit www.apple.com/researchkit.
Will Apple know all my
medical details?
All data is collected anonymously, so you
don’t need to worry. But the price on the
black market for medical data is rocketing,
so hackers will certainly try to steal it.
So what's in it for Apple?
Prestige as well as profit. Apple won’t
make a fortune by selling your medical
data, but it will make even more billions
in the future if the iPhone is perceived
to be contributing to the wellbeing of
humankind. For many people the iPhone
is already the most desirable gadget ever.
Its appeal will only increase if, as Apple
hopes, ResearchKit “revolutionises
medical studies”.
Say ’Aaaaah " into
the microphone for
as long as you can.
Open wide and say 'Aaaaah' to
help Parkinson's researchers
fight the disease
1-14 April 2015 49
Malware has learned how to sneak past your antivirus and hide in your computer,
Jane Hoskyn shows you how to weed out these silent killers
here is probably malware in
your PC. You can’t see it, you
can’t hear it and you can’t smell
it, but chances are it’s there.
The latest annual Kaspersky Security
Bulletin (www.snipca.com/15800) says
38 per cent of Kaspersky users’ PCs were
hit by “at least one” malware attack in
KEY POINTS
• Scan your PCs processes for malicious
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• Find rootkit malware even your
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• Kill stealth malware using free new
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• Stop silent malware ever infecting your
computer again
2014. We reckon that figure is pretty
conservative. After all, those users were
running products that consistently top
the antivirus (AV) tests run by our
security team at Dennis Technology Labs
(DTL, www.dennistechnologylabs.com) .
Many people run much less powerful AV
software, and some don’t run any at all.
Moreover, the study only takes account
of malware that was spotted. Undetected
malware, by definition, won’t be included
in that headline 38 per cent figure. This
all means a huge number of us may well
have fallen prey to a silent PC killer. You,
me, your next-door neighbour... (definitely
your next door neighbour).
To check we’re not just being paranoid,
we asked DTL if they thought our
computer might be hosting hidden
malware. We expected a long-winded,
technical reply that translated as
“maybe”, but the answer was quick and
unequivocal: “Definitely!”
Shouldn't your antivirus
block malware?
As the Kaspersky study shows, even
the most powerful AV is far from fallible.
That’s no reason not to use AV (please
do!), but don’t assume it’ll catch every
strain of malware - especially new
bugs that security companies aren’t
yet familiar with. Viruses, Trojans,
worms, ransomware and other forms
of malware evolve constantly and
quickly to thwart their predators, and
have even developed ways to regenerate.
That’s how viruses survive, in technology
just as in nature.
Over the next few pages we’ll show you
how to weed out your PC’s hidden nasties
and destroy them so they never come back.
50 1-14 April 2015 Buy Kaspersky 2015 for half price at www.snipca.com/14212
Remove hidden malware
FIND THE HIDDEN MALWARE ON YOUR PC
Narrow down your
Autoruns list to
third-party tools,
then right-click
an item and click
Search Online to
check how
safe it is
Investigate mystery processes
You all know the obvious signs your PC is
malware-infected. It crashes a lot, it takes
longer to start up and shut down, your
browser homepage has changed (and
refuses to change back), or there’s a big
ransom note on your screen.
But the really clever malware dispenses
with these clumsy tell-tale signs. Its files
hide themselves in the nether reaches of
your system folders, and its processes are
cunning devils that won’t slow your PC
or show up in Task Manager.
This being the case, this malware can
run undetected for months or even years,
logging what you type, recording your
passwords and even, in the case of silent
rootkit malware like Zeus, stealing from
you when you log into your bank’s
website (see box below).
Any attempts to weed out this stuff
starts with startup. We often recommend
the free tool Autoruns (www.snipca.com/
15791) for removing pointless processes
from Windows startup, but it’s a must-
have if you want to find malware, too.
Autoruns is portable, so there’s no
installation process to worry about.
Download it by clicking the blue
‘Download Autoruns and Autorunsc’
link, then save the small (1.24MB) ZIP file
to your Desktop, extract its contents and
click ‘autoruns.exe’ to run it (or right-
click and choose ‘Run as administrator’
for more thorough results). Wait a couple
of seconds while it lists every process that
starts with Windows on your PC, including
Registry activity, browser extensions and
drivers - including the malicious ones.
These kind of processes (especially the
hidden malware) won’t show up in Task
Manager, so don’t even bother with that.
Your Autoruns list will probably look
quite intimidating, so use the Options
menu to narrow it down bit by bit.
Tick Hide Empty Locations, then
Hide Microsoft Entries, and let the list
refresh until it only contains active
third-party items.
Now read down the list and, if you see
something you don’t recognise, right-
click it and click Search Online (or
press Ctrl+M) to check it out on Google
in your browser. This is more useful than
it sounds. Google searches for the full file
name associated with the process (for
example, ‘snagitshellext.dll’ in our
screenshot) and provides links to the
relevant pages of numerous security sites,
such as File.net (www.file.net), which
reveals whether certain files are safe;
Process Library (www.processlibrary.
com), which explains what the process is
and why it’s running; and the excellent
Should I Block It? (www.shouldiblockit.
com), which tells you whether the
process should stay or go. ►
ZEUS IS BACK - AND THIS TIME IT'S INVISIBLE
One of the most successful botnets ever, Zeus,
is back with a vengeance
Among all the generic bugs in the
malware charts (Trojan. Win32.Generic',
no less) we spotted a chillingly familiar
name: Zbot, better known as Zeus.
It's currently riding high at number
three in the Top prevalent malware'
list published by security firm Sophos
(www.snipca.com/15789 - see
screenshot right).
Zeus is the ultimate hidden malware,
and its stealth is the secret of its
success. Between around 2009 and
2013, Zeus was the most widespread
botnet on the internet, reportedly
infecting 3.6 million PCs in the US alone
(www.snipca.com/15807).
Zeus's mission is to intercept online
banking transactions, stealing from both
customers and banks, and its strategy is
invisibility. It's based on rootkit technology
that makes it difficult to detect, even with
the latest powerful AV software (including
that used by banks and governments). For
more on rootkits, see page 52.
Zeus mastermind Hamza Bendelladj
was arrested in 2013, but Zeus is far
bigger than one man. The Gameover Zeus
botnet promptly picked up where Zeus
left off, raiding bank accounts and (as
an extra little party trick) distributing
CryptoLocker ransomware. In
February, the FBI offered a $3 million
(around £2m) bounty for Gameover's
alleged kingpin, Evgeniy Mikhailovich
Bogachev (www.snipca.com/15806).
But Bogachev is still at large (if you find
him, let us know) and Zeus itself has
bounced back with a vengeance.
"Tbe bad guys don't have to be
technical to use it," DTL's Simon
Edwards says. "It hides in your system
because it's usually after information
and money. If it managed to get past
your antivirus and into your system you
wouldn't normally know".
For more detail on what Zeus is and
how it works, download the free 'What
Is Zeus' PDF from Sophos (www.snipca.
com/15805).
1-14 April 2015 51
Click the red fraction next to an Autoruns process to open its Analysis page in VirusTotal
Find suspicious hidden
processes automatically
The latest version of Autoruns (13.2,
updated in March) incorporates the
file-checking database VirusTotal (www.
virustotal.com) and adds a Check
VirusTotal option to the right-click menu.
At first we assumed (not unreasonably)
that we could simply click Check
VirusTotal to run an instant check in
VirusTotal online, in the same way the
Search Online option runs an instant
check in Google. Well, it’s not quite that
simple - you have to click a few set-up
buttons, and the process is far from
straightforward.
First, right-click an item and click
Check VirusTotal. VirusTotal’ s Terms
of Service’ page opens in your browser;
you don’t need to click anything on the
page, just close it. Next, you need to
enable VirusTotal scanning in Autoruns.
Go to the Options menu, click ‘Scan
options’, tick ‘CheckVirusTotal.com’,
tick Submit Unknown Images, and then
click Rescan.
Your Autoruns list is then scanned by
VirusTotal in next to no time, and reloads
after just a few seconds. Now click
Options, then click Hide VirusTotal Clean
Entries, and the list will reload again,
showing only the items VirusTotal has
flagged as potentially malicious.
As you can see from our screenshot,
‘potentially malicious’ is a fairly broad
description. VirusTotal flagged all our
installed IObit tools, for example. We’ve
got our problems with IObit, too (see
Named & Shamed, Issue 444), but we
do know its tools aren’t malware.
The reason they’re flagged up in
VirusTotal is down to the way VirusTotal
works. It collates data from 57 (and
counting) security programs and, if
only one of those programs says the
process is dodgy, VirusTotal marks it as
such. Our IObit tools were only deemed
malicious by one of the 57, as you can
see from the VirusTotal column in
Autoruns (see screenshot above). Click
the fraction (‘1/57’ in this case) to open
an Analysis web page showing results
from all 57 security programs (this can
take a minute or two to load). Click
‘Additional information’ and ‘File detail’
to find out more about the file and
where it came from.
Root out rootkits your
AV can't see
Some malware makes its presence obvious
(ransomware, for example); other malware
needs to be tracked down using Autoruns
and VirusTotal. But there’s another type
that’s far better hidden. Rootkit and
‘backdoor’ malware hides deep inside
your system, using your PC’s root tools as
an invisibility cloak. You can’t see it, your
operating system can’t see it and your AV
can’t see it. And, as we’ve seen in the case
of Zeus, even the security software used
by banks and governments can’t see it.
Root tools aren’t inherently malicious.
They’re built into your PC and other
devices to hide system settings from
meddling hands (hence the ‘rooting’
you read about, usually in relation to
Android). Rootkits and backdoor bugs
such as Zeus, SpyEye and Citadel (www.
snipca.com/15816) hijack your root
tools and wreak havoc under cover.
There are plenty of free tools for
finding and removing rootkit and
backdoor malware. They work
separately from your installed AV and
won’t interfere with it. We recommend
Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit Beta (www.
snipca.com/15810) because, despite its
(long-standing) beta status, it’s very
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Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit flushes out malware that hide in your PC using root tools
52 1-14 April 2015
easy to use and doesn’t bamboozle you
with jargon.
Click the green Download button, save
the EXE file and click to run it. There’s no
installation involved, but you will need to
choose an ‘extraction path’ (click OK)
and, in our case, bat away a possible false
positive before the tool launches properly.
(Our false positive was ‘AppInit_Dlls’,
which Malwarebytes forum users suggest
is a safe graphics file: www.snipca.com/
15811. We took our chances and clicked
No to ignore it. It seems fairly common,
so it may be flagged on your PC, too.)
When the program window opens,
click Next, then Update to download the
latest malware definitions, which may
take a minute or two. Click Next, then
Scan. The scan is thorough and will take a
while; ours took almost an hour. It’s also
memory-intensive, so your other
programs will slow down. Best leave it to
run by itself, perhaps when you go to bed.
All being well, when you come back
you’ll see a green tick and the reassuring
message: ‘Scan Finished: No malware
found!’. If the scan does detect rootkit
malware, click the Cleanup button and
restart your PC to blitz the offender -
hopefully. Malwarebytes’ own website
admits you should run the scan again
(repeatedly, if necessary) to make sure
the malware has gone.
REMOVE HIDDEN MALWARE COMPLETELY
GMCAU.UKK1 WMHWSLI.IfH r-r J
Obliterate rootkits and other hidden malware using the powerful tool GMER
Remove stubborn hidden
malware
If Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit can’t
combat a rootkit infection, move
on to GMER (www.gmer.net),
recommended by our security team
at DTL. This free tool is raw, no-nonsense
extremely powerful. GMER is especially
well-suited to 64bit PCs, but will
work on any PC running Windows
XP or later.
You’ll see from GMER’s website that
this is not a program designed to appeal
to the masses. Click the small grey
Download EXE button under the
screenshot and run the file (the
intimidatingly named ‘r7ouccll.exe’),
wait a minute or two for the program
window to appear, then click Scan.
As with Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit,
the scan takes some time and will slow
down your PC, so leave it to run on its
own. To speed things up, use the tick
boxes at the right of the window to
narrow down the scan to certain parts
of your PC only, such as Registry, Files
or Libraries.
If GMER finds any sign of malicious
rootkit activity, the troublesome file will
be displayed in red and a ‘WARNING!!!’
pop-up will appear (see screenshot
above). Click OK to remove the file, then
restart your PC. We’d recommend
running the scan again to make extra
sure the file has been removed.
Fix damage done by
hidden malware
Hidden malware can really mess up your
PC, and this damage isn’t magically
undone when the malware is removed.
Clearing up is a vital part of the process.
If you’ve downloaded Malwarebytes
Anti-Rootkit, you’ve already got the
powerful free clear-up tool FixDamage.
You’ll find it in the ‘Plugins’ folder in the
‘mbar’ folder on your Desktop. Before
running it, save your work, close your
programs and create a system restore
point. Click ‘fixdamage.exe’, then Yes,
then press ‘Y’ when the command-line
window opens. The tool will
automatically find and repair any
changes to your system settings made
by rootkit or backdoor malware.
Adware and other PUPs (potentially
unwanted programs) also litter your PC
with hidden leftovers. Adware may not
sound as scary as rootkits, but you’re
much more likely to encounter it - and it
dumps hazardous junk in hard-to-reach ►
Rootkit scanners like GMER use a lot of memory, so they're best used when there's no
other software running on your PC
1-14 April 2015 53
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Remove hidden malware
locations in your Registry and operating
system (OS). This junk may include files
that change your system settings and
regenerate when you delete them.
To find and remove adware, run the
free portable program AdwCleaner
(www.snipca.com/15819), one of our
(and your) favourite security tools ever.
It scours your PC for hijackers, Trojans
and their hidden leftovers. It won’t
find everything, however, so run
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
(www.snipca.com/15821) as well.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free is not
an AV program, because it doesn’t
attempt to stop nasties getting into
your system (despite its claim to
“protect you from malware”), but it’s
great for finding bugs and traces that
AdwCleaner misses. If it detects
malware you can click Review Detected
Items to investigate the infection while
the scan is still running. You can then
remove selected items safely and
completely.
Unlike the tools we’ve mentioned so
far, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free does
need installing. Click the black-and-
white Download button, then save and
run the setup wizard. There’s no adware
to opt out of (we’d be horrified if there
were), but do untick ‘Enable free trial of
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium’
before you click Finish.
You can investigate malware discovered by Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free while the scan is
still running
Use the FixDamage tool to completely undo any changes made to your PC by rootkit malware
STOP MALWARE HIDING IN YOUR PC AGAIN
Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 was the only AV program to
block all threats in our latest lab tests
Choose one antivirus
Your AV suite is the most important
program on your PC. It’s your body
armour on the malware battlefield. If you
choose and use your AV wisely, you may
never have to remove hidden malware -
because it stands a much smaller chance
of getting into your PC in the first place.
In DTL’s most recent Anti-Malware
Report (www.snipca.com/15775; scroll
down for the latest results as a PDF),
only one product, Kaspersky Internet
Security 2015 (www.kaspersky.co.uk/
internet-security), blocked all 1,140
threats. But Kaspersky is a huge and
memory-hogging program, so you
might prefer the lighter ESET Smart
Security (www.eset.co.uk/Home),
which came a close third behind
Kaspersky and Norton Security (www.
snipca.com/15822). Both ESET and
Kaspersky cost £39.99 for a one-year,
one-PC licence; Norton is £49.99. To
buy Kaspersky for the special price of
£17.99 (and thousands of you already
have), see our Reader Offer
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The best free AV is Avast
Free Antivirus (www.
snipca.com/15823), which
has fared very well against
its paid-for rivals in all DTL’s
recent tests and includes an
‘intelligent anti-malware’
scanner that detects threats
no-one has even heard of
yet. Its paid-for version
(£39.99) also has a ‘virtual
window’ tool that lets you
conduct online transactions
without being detected by
hackers using rootkit
malware.
Don’t use Microsoft Security Essentials
(MSE, www.snipca.com/15824). MSE is
free and made by Microsoft (trustworthy,
you’d think), but the program has failed
dismally in all DTL’s lab tests since 2013.
If it’s on your PC, get rid of it and install
an AV that works.
Whatever AV you choose, it should
be your one and only. Two or more AV
suites will conflict with each other and
neither will work properly, leaving you
unsafe. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
is not an AV and can be run safely
alongside your AV. ►
1-14 April 2015 55
Remove hidden malware
IS THIS MALWARE HIDING IN YOUR PC?
Russian Trojan VicePass hides inside a fake Flash Player update
Zeus may be the best-known
invisible infection currently doing
the rounds, but it's not the only
one. In no particular order, here
are today's most prevalent silent
bugs, according to Kaspersky's
Securelist (http://securelist.
com) and the Sophos Malware
Dashboard (www.snipca.
com/15833)*.
CARBERP: The name of this Zeus-like
rootkit Trojan is the only thing we like
about it. Its Russian masterminds were
arrested in 2012, but its source code has
since been released on to the internet, so
hackers are now tweaking it into scary new
versions (www.snipca.com/15838).
DYRE: Also known as Dyreza, this Trojan
first emerged last June, when it broke
into some of the world's biggest banking
computers. Its latest version secretly
sends spam using people's Outlook
accounts, then deletes itself (www.snipca.
com/15832).
UPATRE: A tiny program that hides in
emails sent by the Dyre Trojan, it sneaks
past your AV software and installs Zeus on
your computer (www.snipca.com/15835).
PUSHDO/CUTWAIL: A little-
known BIG problem”, in the
words of the virus-watchers
at the Internet Storm Centre
(www.snipca.com/15848),
this secretive botnet was first
recognised in 2007, but has
re-appeared, mainly as a way
to spread Dyre.
VICEPASS: A new Russian Trojan that poses
as a Flash Player update to break into your
router's admin settings. Once there, it steals
data from devices on your Wi-Fi network
(your tablet, for example), then deletes
itself. All the while, you'll have had no idea it
was there (www.snipca.com/15834).
Cexcept the ones so well hidden that
no-one has found them yet...)
Cut down your installer habit
Nothing you do on your PC is safe unless
your AV is enabled and up to date.
However, you can help it by cutting out
ways for malware to reach your system.
One option is to stay off the internet
completely but we wouldn’t recommend
that - the internet is fantastic and mostly
safe, especially if you use a free advert-
blocker such as Adblock Plus (https://
adblockplus.org). The next best option is
to stop using software installers.
When you install software, you give its
setup wizard privileged access to your
Registry and hidden system folders, so it
can plant program files and settings
there. If adware can get into your system
this way, so can invisible malware. So
think twice before running an installer
for a free program from a developer
you’ve never heard of.
Portable programs are a safer
alternative. Most of the security tools
we’ve mentioned here are portable,
which means they don’t have to be
installed at all. On the downside, they
don’t update automatically because they
don’t insert any files into your Registry.
They’re also easy to lose track of in your
PC, because they’re not indexed as
software by Windows. Still, if we had to
choose between a PC full of hidden
portable tools and hidden malware, we’d
go for hidden portable tools any time.
Free web -based tools are another great
alternative. They don’t need to be
Check for
hidden malicious
components in any
file or URL using
VirusTotal online
downloaded, let alone installed. You can
edit photos online (Pixlr, www.snipca.
com/15825), edit and manage documents
online (Office Online, www.snipca.
com/15826), check for hidden malware in
any file (including EXE files) or URL
using the online version of VirusTotal
(https : //www. virustotal. c om) a nd much
more, all in your browser. CSH
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56 1-14 April 2015
tech hoaxes?
All these daft tech stories may sound
like 1 April fakes, but seven are true.
Can you tell which three are fake?
Answers upside down at the bottom
of the page. No peeking!
“With this
tweet,
I thee wed”
e »
»
Fool's D 0 "'
I Sony patents vibrating
SmartWig
Sony is currently working on a
SmartWig intelligent hairpiece that
links to your PC, tablet or phone via
Wi-Fi. According to Sony’s patent
application, SmartWig uses vibration
signals to communicate with its wearer,
for example by issuing directions or
reminders. Sony says SmartWig could
be made from “horse hair, human hair,
wool, feathers, yak hair, buffalo hair”
or synthetic material.
2 Get married on Twitter
Twitter has launched a wedding
service in the US that allows couples to
get legally married by sending a tweet to
each other containing the hashtag #ido.
The company hopes to market it to
long-distance couples who fall in love
online, but have yet to meet.
3 New scratch 'n' sniff
Raspberry Pi
The makers of the hugely popular
mini-PC Raspberry Pi are bringing
out a limited-edition ‘scratch ‘n’
sniff’ version. A panel built into the
motherboard emits the smell of
fresh raspberries when rubbed.
The odour has been synthesised
from raspberries growing in a
pick-your-own farm near the
Raspberry Pi offices in Cambridgeshire.
4 Robird patrols airports
A Dutch drone company has
created a £1.5m robo-falcon to scare
smaller birds away from airports and
prevent them flying into plane engines.
The bogus raptor, named Robird,
looks and sounds like a peregrine
falcon and is currently undergoing
training by clearing gulls from a Dutch
municipal dump.
5 3D-print your own Jeremy
Clarkson Hungry Hippos
Toy makers have released a special
3D-print-your-own Jeremy Clarkson
edition of classic children’s game
Hungry Hippos. The game, Hungry
Hungry Clarksons, marks the Top Gear
presenter’s controversial failure to obtain
a steak for dinner while recently filming
the BBC show. Clarkson’s bobbing head is
available to download and 3D-print at
home in various colours. (3D printer and
Hungry Hippos board not included.)
wheel. The hamster believes it is
scampering through virtual-reality
scenes such as fields and tunnels.
8 Read books on your shoes
Lithuanian fashion designers
have created shoes from flexible e-ink
display material that allows wearers to
customise the pattern or even read books
on their feet. The shoes can be charged
while you walk, thanks to a special
wireless module in the sole. Currently
available as high heels only.
You, too, can play Hungry Hungry Clarksons -
or can you?
6 Six Nations grass recycled
for smartphone
Phone company 02 has created a fully
working smartphone made from grass
cuttings collected at Twickenham
Stadium during the 2015 Six Nations
rugby tournament. The phone is made
from tens of thousands of blades
of grass, many of which had
been trodden on by famous
international rugby players.
7 Hamsters are the
new smartphone
zombies
In more smartphone news, a
new app has been built to
create a 3D environment for
hamsters to run in. Once the phone is
attached to the cage, the app is activated
when the hamster starts running on its
9 Monkey owns selfie
copyright
A British photographer has lost a
landmark copyright battle to a macaque
monkey. David Slater was trying to
photograph the primate when it snatched
his camera and took a selfie. When Slater
discovered the photo was being distributed
online without his permission, he took the
case to the Copyright Office - which ruled
that Slater didn’t own the photo anyway,
the monkey did.
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1-14 April 2015 57
Shut down your PC
faster
safer
Slow shutdowns can be just as frustrating
as slow boot times. Jonathan Parkyn
explains how to make your PC shut down
quickly and safely every time — -
W hen we talk about speeding
up a slow computer, the
focus is often on making it
start up faster. But what
about shutting down? A PC that hangs
for ages when you’re trying to turn it
off, or that throws up alarming error
messages whenever you click the ‘Shut
down’ button, can be just as frustrating
as one that takes an eternity to boot.
There are many possible explanations
for a computer that finds it difficult
to switch off - troublesome drivers,
background processes, hidden spyware
and other pests. Like a lot of PC
troubleshooting, the key to success is
to employ a process of elimination that
will reveal the cause of the problem
and a means to fix it.
Here, we’ll outline the main underlying
problems that cause this type of behaviour,
then show you how to fix them and
banish slow shutdowns forever.
Cure hardware hangs
Dodgy hardware drivers can often cause
shutdown problems. If your PC has only
recently started shutting down slowly,
have a little think - did you install a
device recently or add a new PC
accessory, such as a new mouse?
If so, uninstalling it may solve your
problem. Open your Windows Device
Manager by clicking Start, then right-
clicking Computer and selecting Manage
in Windows 7 (in Windows 8/8.1 you can
just right-click Start and select Device
Manager). Locate the device that you
suspect might be the spanner in the
works, right-click it and select Uninstall.
Then shut down your PC and physically
unplug the device. Next, start your PC
and try shutting down again to see if it’s
made a difference.
Making sure all your drivers are up to
date can be another way to resolve a
hardware problem. Use a program like
IObit’s Driver Booster 2 (www.snipca.
com/15758) to find and update any old
drivers on your system.
Be aware that, while Driver Booster 2
is free, it has a dreadful installer that’s
packed with unwanted extras. Be careful
to opt out of any bundled software,
and don’t rush to click the Finish button
(see Named & Shamed, Issue 444). Once
it’s installed, Driver Booster 2 does at
least do its job without asking for money,
unlike supposedly “free” driver-updating
programs such as SlimDrivers.
You should consider giving your system
a thorough going over with a free tool
such as CCleaner (www.piriform.com/
ccleaner), which can purge your PC of
other junk files that could be hindering
the shutdown process.
Solve software slowdowns
When you try to switch off your PC,
do you see an error message telling
you that a program is still running
or preventing Windows from shutting
down? This usually means an
application hasn’t been closed properly.
More often than not you’ll see a list of
programs in the error message. Click
Cancel and check for any unsaved
work or running programs, then save
and close them before clicking ‘Shut
down’ again.
Not all software problems are as easily
diagnosed. If you’re seeing this kind of
error message in situations where there’s
no obvious sign of any applications
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58 1-14 April 2015
Shut down your PC faster
WHY YOU SHOULDN'T UNPLUG YOUR PC TO SHUT IT DOWN
If your PC is taking the best part of a
day to shut down, you may be sorely
tempted to pull the plug on it and force
it to switch off against its will. However,
we'd advise against it unless you're
absolutely sure your computer has
stopped responding.
Windows often uses the shutdown
process to install updates or apply
changes, and interrupting these could
damage your PC. To allow for this
possibility, leave your computer alone
for anything up to 10 minutes after
shutdown.
If it still hasn't switched off at this point
and there are no on-screen messages
relating to updates, you might consider
holding down the power button to force
it to switch off. Note that doing this will
probably produce an error message,
next time you start up, telling you that
Windows didn't shut down successfully.
If you're experiencing this type of
problem on a regular basis and none
of our other tips have helped, then
you could consider performing a clean
re-installation of Windows (see our
Cover Feature in Issue 444).
If you force your PC to shut down, you'll see an
error message like this when you restart
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You can force a program to close via the Task
Manager, but it should be a last resort
actually running, then one of your
programs may be struggling to close
properly. If this is the case, click Cancel,
right-click the Taskbar and click Start
Task Manager, then click Applications
(Windows 7) or Task Manager (Windows
8/8.1). If there’s a program listed, it’s
likely to be your culprit.
If you can’t close the program in the
normal way, try highlighting it and
clicking ‘End task’. Bear in mind this
method can cause you to lose work.
Running startup items using the System
Configuration tool can help shut down your
PC faster
In the longer term, if these programs
continue to cause you problems,
you should try updating them or
uninstalling and reinstalling them.
Fix startup to fix shutdown
It may sound counter-intuitive to
suggest speeding up startup, but slow
shutdowns are often caused by
background processes that are set to
run whenever you boot your PC. By
limiting the programs that run on
startup, you’ll also be limiting the
processes that need to be stopped
when Windows closes down.
In Windows 7, click Start, type
msconfig, press Enter, then click the
Startup tab. In Windows 8/8.1, open
the Task Manager (see previous tip), then
click ‘More details’ (if shown) and the
‘Start-up’ tab. Now, look through the
programs listed. There are likely to be
several here you definitely don’t need
(iTunesHelper and Adobe Reader, for
example) - just don’t disable anything
important, such as your security
software. Run a quick Google check
to establish what each one actually
is before unticking any you
don’t need (Windows 7) or
right-clicking and selecting
Disable (Windows 8/8.1).
Restart your PC for the
changes to take effect.
Hack the Windows
Registry to speed up
shutdown
If Windows is set to clear its
page file when you switch off
your PC, this can seriously
slow things down. Some
security programs enable this
automatically, but you don’t
need it unless you’re using a shared
or public computer, and you can safely
disable it via the Registry.
Open Registry Editor (Regedit)
by typing regedit into Start and
pressing Enter. Navigate through
the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\ Session Manager \Memory
Management then double-click the
ClearPageFileAtShutdown entry. If the
value shown is 1, this means your PC
is set to clear the page file. Change it
to 0, click OK and close Regedit,
then restart your PC.
You can also edit the Registry to
shorten the time Windows waits for
processes to stop before it closes the
system. Open Regedit again and
navigate through the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control. Double-click
WaitToKillServiceTimeout. Here you’ll
see a value somewhere between 5000
(5 seconds) and 12000 (12 seconds).
Change it to 2000 (2 seconds), click
OK, then close Regedit and restart
your PC. FEI
If your page file is set to clear on shutdown, disable this
using Registry Editor to switch off faster
1-14 April 2015 59
Things to do with
an old XP PC
PARTI
Install Linux
/
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In the first of a new series on
how you can breathe new life
into your old XP PC, Jonathan
Parky n shows you how to install j ■, ■ , ■ , y v ! * ! ■ X [ . \ ; \ \ \ V, \ * ;
a Linux operating system / , ' ■ , v ' ■ ’ ■ ' * ’ ■ ' v V ' i A l \ \ V' \ \ ,
Replace Windows XP with Ubuntu and you can carry on using your PC
safely for years
W hen Microsoft
withdrew support
for Windows XP
last year, millions
of us faced a pretty stark
choice. Carry on using XP and
risk malware, try installing
Windows 7 or 8/8.1, or fork
out for a new computer.
Now, one year after we
examined these choices in
some detail (see Issues 415 to
420), the dilemma has become
even more pressing. Even if you
managed to upgrade Windows,
you’ll know that your trusty
old machine may be nearing
the end of the line - especially
if you plan to move on to Windows 10
when it gets its full release later this year.
Over the next few issues, we’ll explain
how to save your old XP PC or laptop
from a landfill site by using it in new
ways. We think you’ll be surprised to
learn just how useful that old computer
of yours can still be. We’ll start by
showing you how to turn it into a fast
secondary computer running Linux.
Why Linux is a great fit
for your spare PC
In Issue 418 (page 56), we suggested
Linux as a viable alternative to Windows
7 or 8/8.1. It also complements Windows
well, so if you have bought a new PC,
don’t throw the old one out - repurpose
it instead with Linux.
If Linux sounds like a foreign language,
it’s one you may already be familiar with.
You might already be running a Linux-
based system alongside your Windows 7
or 8/8.1 PC - it’s called Android (Google’s
hugely popular mobile operating system).
There are a number of Linux-based
systems for PCs and the most popular is
Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com), which we’ll
come to in a moment. Linux systems bear
more resemblance to Windows than
Android, for the simple reason they are
designed to run on PCs rather than
phones or tablets.
Crucially, Linux won’t struggle running
on older PCs that may lack the system
requirements to support newer versions
of Windows. In fact, some versions of
Linux have been specially designed to run
on older PCs. A Linux OS
(known as a distribution, or
‘distro’ for short) can allow
you to carry on using your
old computer safely for the
foreseeable future. What’s
more, unlike Windows,
Linux is free.
Choose the right Linux
distro for your old PC
Some Linux systems are
specifically designed for
certain types of specialised
tasks. With the Linux distro
KodiBuntu (http://kodi.tv/
download) running on your
old PC, for example, you
could convert the computer into an
all-in-one entertainment system to play
music, films, TV shows and more.
Install the distro OpenMedia Vault
(www.openmediavault.org) or Amahi
(www.amahi.org), on the other hand,
and you could turn your PC into a free
network storage device (NAS) or home
server, to back up your files and access
them from anywhere.
But if you’d prefer to revamp your old
PC and use it as a spare computer, install
Ubuntu. It’s similar to Windows and
provides access to extensive libraries of
free programs and applications.
Where to get your Linux distro
If you opt for Ubuntu (see our installation
guide in the box opposite), be sure to get
60 1-14 April 2015
Install Linux
HOW TO INSTALL UBUNTU
STEP1
If your old PC
is running XP,
we recommend
downloading
your Linux
distro using a Windows 7 or 8/8.1 PC, for
safety reasons. Download the ISO file,
insert a blank DVD, right-click the ISO file
and select 'Burn disc image' or 'Burn disk
image'. When the process is complete,
run the DVD in your XP computer. You'll
eventually see a welcome screen.
the most recent Long Term Support (LTS)
version (14.04.2), which offers five years
of security updates and fixes. Download
the 32bit disk image (ISO file) from www.
snipca.com/15763. The only other thing
you’ll need is a blank DVD to burn the
ISO file to. It’s possible to install Linux
from a USB stick, but some older PCs
can’t boot from USB devices.
Depending on your PC’s specifications
and current setup, you may also need to
change the boot order in your computer’s
BIOS, which you can access by repeatedly
tapping a specific key (usually Del or F2)
STEP 2
You'll now
be offered
the option
to either
try Ubuntu
or install it.
Trying it runs Ubuntu directly from the
DVD without affecting your Windows
installation in any way. If you decide to
keep it, boot your PC with the DVD in
the drive again and this time select the
install option.
during startup. Look for a ‘Boot priority’
setting (or similar) and make sure that
CD/DVD is at the top of the list.
If there are any files on your XP PC that
you want to keep, back them up before
installing Linux.
Make sure your old PC can
support Linux
Linux tends to be less demanding of a
computer than Windows. But if your
machine is more than five or six years
old, make sure it meets the minimum
system requirements.
STEP 3
Follow the remaining on-screen steps,
then choose 'Erase disk and install Ubuntu'
when prompted. Select your location
and keyboard layout, then choose your
username and password. When the
installation
is complete,
eject the
DVD from
the disc drive
and restart
your PC.
To run Ubuntu, for example, you’ll
need at least a 700MHz Celeron
processor, 512MB RAM, 5GB hard-drive
space, a 1024x768 -pixel display and
either a CD/DVD drive or a USB slot to
install the ISO.
If your PC’s specifications fall short,
you could opt for a lightweight
alternative, such as Lubuntu (www.
snipca.com/15762). Based on Ubuntu,
it will work on PCs with Pentium 4,
Pentium M or AMD K8 processors.
Lubuntu is designed for efficiency and,
as a result, it’s really fast. FI
Still want to use Windows XP?
Read our 6-part XP Survival Guide
Buy our Back Issue CD - every issue in 2014
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Problems Solved
PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT
Why has Outlook stopped working?
I use Windows with
Outlook as part of
Microsoft Office.
It’s all worked fine for years,
but recently when I launch
Outlook I see a message telling
me that errors have been
detected and that I need to
quit all email applications.
So I do this then launch
Outlook again and the same
thing happens. It seems to be
stuck in this loop. Nothing else
is wrong with my PC, and all my
other Office programs seem fine. I
cannot think why this has suddenly
happened after all this time. I really
need to rescue my email. Help!
Kingston Davis
You didn’t say specifically
which version of Office you
have but older versions of
Outlook suffer from a problem with
something called the Personal Storage
Table (or PST), which is the file that
contains all your emails. If you let this
file get too large (specifically, over 2GB)
then Outlook is unable to handle it,
and at that point refuses to open.
This can happen without warning -
as in your case.
There’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that this is a known
problem for which Microsoft long ago
issued a remedy. The bad news is it’s
only a partial fix that involves
electronically chopping off the tail
end of your PST file, resulting in the
loss of some emails. There’s no way
around this but, by trial and error,
you’ll be able to restore the vast
majority of your emails. We’d suggest
backing up before proceeding.
Visit www.snipca.com/15386 and
download the free ‘Oversized PST and
OST crop tool’. Next, use Windows
Explorer to create a temporary folder
on the Windows Desktop then double-
click the downloaded file, click
Browse, choose the folder you just
Use Microsoft's Oversized PST Recovery Tool to
recover space in Outlook and make it work again
created and click Unzip.
Open the temporary folder and
double-click the file called PST2GB.exe.
Click Continue. Click Browse and
navigate to your PST file (if you don’t
know where this is use Windows
Explorer’s search bar to look for ‘*.pst*’
- and also make a note of its size), click
to select it and then click Open. Now
click Create, choose a location for the
cropped PST file, type a name for it
and click Save.
Next comes the trial-and-error bit.
You need to get the PST file below 2GB.
Chop too little and Outlook will still
refuse to open the truncated file; chop
too much and you’ll lose more emails
than necessary. So, if your PST file is
2.1GB, say, then type 110 into the box
labelled ‘Number of megabytes to trim
off the end’. Click Start and then wait:
it can take some time.
Now run Outlook’s Inbox Repair
Tool, by typing scanpst.exe in the
Start menu search bar and clicking
the search result. Click Browse, select
the truncated PST file you created and
then click Start.
Finally, delete the old PST file (but
remember to keep a backup), launch
Outlook and import the new PST
(depending on which version you
have, open the File menu then ‘Import
and Export’). If this doesn’t work,
repeat the whole process, choosing an
incrementally larger amount to crop
from your PST file.
Can I rescue
videos from an
unfinalised disc?
I took video of a friend’s
wedding and transferred the
footage to a DVD. However, I
forgot to finalise the disc and now I can’t
access the film. The original tape got
chewed up, so I really need to get this
footage. Is there any way?
Alan Merser
Do you still have access to the
computer and burning software
used to create the disc? If so, we
recommend using that to try to finalise
the disc. Look in your software’s Tools or
Burn menu for a Finalize option.
Failing that, there are a couple of
specialist tools that can access
and recover data stored on unfinalised
discs. Unfortunately, both are paid-for
programs but they will let you use
them free to discover if your data is
recoverable. At that point, you can
obviously decide whether you’re
prepared to pay to get it back. The tools
work slightly differently, so one might
succeed where the other fails.
Start with IsoBuster (www. isobuster,
com). Pop your disc in, right-click the
AUDICUTS or VIDEO_TS folder and
choose Extract. If the program is able
to do the job, it will ask you to pay to
register. If not, try CDRoller (www.
cdroller.com). The process is much the
same: tick the folders you want to
recover, then click the Recover All
button and follow the prompts.
Use IsoBuster to recover audio or video
content from an unfinalised disc
64 1-14 April 2015
300 problems solved on our 2014 Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/14981
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How do I deal with suspicious Skype contacts?
Our daughter lives in the US, so
we Skype her for about an hour
each weekend, sometimes using
our Windows 8.1 laptop and other times
on the Windows 7 desktop computer
upstairs. Both have security software
installed. Over the past month several
unwanted requests for new contacts
with dubious names have appeared,
requesting to add me as a contact.
Neither of us have any idea who these
suspicious-sounding people are, and we
have no intention of finding out. But how
did they get our name and how do we get
rid of them without clicking on them?
What would happen if we did click?
Gwynne & Maureen James
Put simply, these are the Skype
equivalent of email spam:
unsolicited contact requests sent
en masse in the hope that someone will
take the bait and accept. They find their
targets in any number of ways, either
buying a list of known Skype user names
or simply by using the search facility and
Tweak your Skype privacy settings to protect yourself
from spam contact requests
then working through the list of results
(you could do this yourself, if you were
so inclined).
Were you to click you’d probably be
offered a piece of enticing or miraculous
news, like winning a lottery you didn’t
know you’d entered or a share of millions
of dollars in an offshore account - all in
exchange for your bank account details
and an upfront ‘administration payment’,
of course. In short, Skype is just another
conduit for the same old scams.
The answer is to tweak your
privacy settings so that only
people you know can contact
you. In the Windows 8/8.1
(full-screen) version of Skype,
move your cursor over the
top-right corner of the screen
and then click Settings
followed by Options. Now
select Privacy and, under both
the ‘Who can call you?’ and ‘Who can
send you instant messages?’ headings,
choose ‘Only my contacts’.
For the benefit of Windows 7 users
suffering the same problem, select
Options from the Tools menu, then click
Privacy on the left followed by Privacy
Settings. Now, under the ‘Allow calls
from’, ‘Automatically receive video and
share screens with’ and Allow IMs from’
headings, choose the ‘people in my Contact
list only’ button. Click Save to finish.
Can I add another
USB hub to
my USB hub?
I have a Windows 7 laptop
with two USB ports. In one of
these I’ve attached a four-port
USB hub, giving me a total of five USB
ports. However, I frequently find myself
wishing I had another port or two, to
keep all my peripherals attached while
retaining spare sockets to charge my
various mobile devices. Would it be
okay to add another hub? And, out of
curiosity, could this be attached to a
port on my existing hub, or should I
plug it into the computer’s second port?
Sylvester Poole
Yes, this is possible. Indeed,
you can daisy chain up to 127
USB devices from a single USB
controller (which is what your laptop
probably has). They can also be spurred
off from any port, meaning directly
from your laptop or from the
existing hub.
That said, there are a couple of things
you should bear in mind. First,
the more devices you have
sharing the available USB
bandwidth, the slower
connected devices will
transfer data. This is
unlikely to be much
of a problem unless
you’re planning to
attach 127 external
hard drives that are
permanently busy reading
and writing data.
Power is another potential
stumbling block. A single USB
2.0 socket supplies up to 500mA
current at 5V. If you’re using
unpowered USB hubs, this could
quickly get eaten up by your attached
devices - especially if you’re charging
smartphones and tablets. So, shop
around for a powered hub.
Use a powered USB hub if you plan to attach
a lot of devices to your computer
1-14 April 2015 65
Problems Solved
Where is the
Run option in
Windows 7?
Because Microsoft has
ended support for Windows
XP, I have reluctantly
upgraded to a PC with Windows 7
Home Edition, which a local
computer shop built for me because
I could not find anything other than
Windows 8 PCs elsewhere. I have to
say that I’m pleasantly surprised by
Windows 7, but there is one thing
that bothers me. Where has the Start
menu’s Run command gone?
Admittedly I don’t use this often,
but I read a tip somewhere recently
that mentioned clicking Start and
then Run, but... no Run command on
my Start menu! I checked back on
my old Windows XP computer and
there it is. Why has Microsoft
removed this, and is it possible to put
it back?
Michael Cooper
We don’t know why
Microsoft removed the Run
command, but it is just
hidden by default, and not actually
absent from Windows 7.
Restoring it is easy. First, right-
click the Start button and choose
Properties. Next, on the Start Menu
tab, click the Customize button.
Now scroll down through the list to
find and tick the ‘Run command’
box. Click OK twice and your Start
menu will once more display the
Run command.
Tick the 'Run command' box to restore
the option to the Start menu
Why can't I run LibreOffice updates?
I have a Windows 8.1 laptop on
which I’ve installed LibreOffice.
On launching it recently, I was
told an update was available that had to
be downloaded manually - which I did.
The file (called ‘LibreOffice_4.2.8_Win_
86. man’) downloaded correctly, but will
not run because my PC asks me which
program I wish to use to run it. I opened
it in Notepad, but this only showed lots of
code. What am I doing wrong? I use
Internet Explorer, in case that’s important.
Henry Wood
This is caused by a configuration
on one of TibreOffice’s download
servers, or more likely one of its
mirror servers, and the way that Internet
Explorer (IE) downloads from them.
Basically, unless it received information in
a specific way from the server, IE will
misidentify the .msi file type (‘Microsoft
installer’) as .man (‘Unix manual’).
Windows cannot run Unix files, which is
why you get this error message.
There’s not a lot you can do about the
setup of the remote download servers so,
rather than getting into the technical
details as to why this happens, we’ll just
tell you how to fix this - and that’s simply
to rename the downloaded file to restore
the .msi extension. In Windows 8.1, press
Windows key+E to open File Explorer,
then navigate to your downloads folder,
click to select the LibreOffice_4.2.8_
Win_86.man file, tap F2 to rename it and
then replace ‘.man’ with ‘.msi’. You can
now double-click it to launch your update.
Rename the LibreOffice_4.2.8_Win_86.man file so that you can run updates
Why should I buy a large SSD?
drop it’s beginning to make more sense
to buy a larger SSD, which can then be
partitioned to serve as two logical drives
- one for Windows and the other for your
data. You could still keep using your
conventional hard drive, if you wanted.
Your recommendation that one
of the best upgrades is to install
a solid-state drive (SSD)
has been repeated several times. I
believe the idea is that Windows is
installed on the SSD, leaving the
conventional hard drive free for
programs and data. You also recommend
the Crucial MX100 512GB SSD. While I
understand the speed benefits with 32bit
Windows 7 requiring just 16GB of space,
why would I buy a 512GB SSD when a
much smaller (and cheaper) SSD would
do the same job?
Stephen Ford
You could indeed buy a smaller
SSD if you’re happy to keep
using a conventional hard drive
to store your data. However, as prices
66 1-14 April 2015
300 problems solved on our 2014 Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/14981
Why can't I open Word or Excel files?
When I try to open Microsoft
Word or Excel files that I have
created on my own computer,
I continually get the following message:
“There was a problem sending the
command to the program”. To get
around this problem I have to open the
documents using OpenOffice. Is there a
solution to this problem? Any help would
be appreciated.
Noel Gallagher
There are a couple of possible
causes for this problem, the
main suspect being an obscure
feature in Excel.
You didn’t tell us which version of
Office you’re using but, if you’re using
either of the latest two editions (2010 and
2013), begin by clicking the File tab
followed by Options. Now, click Advanced
in the left-hand pane and scroll through
the list to find the General section.
Here, find the box labelled ‘Ignore
other applications that use Dynamic
Untick the
box labelled
Ignore other
applications that
use Dynamic
Data Exchange
(DDE)' to open
Word or Excel
files by double-
clicking
Data Exchange (DDE)’. This option is
actually disabled by default, but it’s
possible that in the past you’ve
accidentally ticked it while tweaking
some other setting. So, remove the tick
and then click OK.
This should enable you to once more
double-click Excel files and have them
open in Excel, and it might also fix the
same problem you’re experiencing
with Word. But, if not, you can quickly
re-establish Word’s file associations
with the following trick. First, click Start,
type run into the Search box and press
Enter. Then, in the Run box, type
winword.exe /r and press Enter.
Does my router
have an insecure
backdoor?
I have TalkTalk broadband with
a TalkTalk-supplied D-Link
router, updated with the latest
firmware. I’ve already changed my
router’s default username and password,
but Avast 2015 Home Network Security
flags up a network-security issue, saying
it was possible to log into my router
using a backdoor method. I telephoned
TalkTalk and was told the solution was to
reset the router to factory settings. I
wasn’t convinced but went ahead. I
called TalkTalk again and was this time
told the backdoor was somehow
necessary for some kind of router
maintenance and could not be removed.
Should I be concerned by this? Can I do
anything to close this backdoor?
Rowland W Williams
We think several issues have
been conflated here,
apparently not helped by your
discussions with TalkTalk. Some D-Link
routers did (or do) contain an insecure
Untick the TR069 box to stop TalkTalk remotely accessing your router
backdoor, which can be fixed by
applying the latest firmware. You say
you’ve already done this, so you
shouldn’t need to worry about this.
Other readers can check for the latest
firmware atwww.snipca.com/15413.
Unrelated to this - but we believe
related to your concerns - is an aspect
of TalkTalk’ s service that it calls
Enhanced Remote Management. When
this is enabled, as it is by default with
routers supplied by the company, it
allows TalkTalk engineers access to
various aspects of your router. It also
lets them update the firmware remotely,
so it’s always up to date. Read more
about it at www.snipca.com/15415.
If you’re unhappy handing TalkTalk
this ability, you can disable the feature.
Log into your router, click Advanced
followed by OK, then click Advanced
again. Now, click Network Tools followed
by TR-069, clear the tick from the TR069
box, then click the Add/Apply button.
1-14 April 2015 67
Problems Solved
Why doesn't
Outlook 2013
create tasks
for all flagged
messages?
I use Outlook as part of
Office 2013, which came
free with my PC. When I
click the little flag icon alongside a
message (so that I know to follow it
up), sometimes a task is automatically
created and displayed on Outlook’s
Tasks page, but sometimes not. I
would expect (and would like) to
have Outlook create a task every
time I click a flag. I sort my emails
into numerous different folders
and I’ve figured out that it works
always on some folders, but never
on others. What am I doing wrong?
Or is this a bug?
Scott Chambers
This isn’t a bug and you’re
not doing anything wrong.
By default, Outlook 2013
(and 2010 and 2007 for that matter)
creates tasks from flagged messages
only if they’re stored in the first
Personal Storage Table (PST) file.
By the sounds of your setup, we’re
guessing you’ve got more than one
PST file on the go - perhaps for
different email accounts. The fix is
simple, but not obvious. First
right-click the PST file’s name in the
folder tree on the left and choose
Properties. Now select the General
tab and tick the box labelled ‘Display
reminders and tasks from this folder
in the To-Do Bar’. Click OK to finish.
Create tasks for flagged emails in
Outlook via your PST file's Properties
How private are Facebook groups?
I don’t really use
Facebook much myself
because I’m worried
about privacy, but I do have an
account just to stay in touch with
the lives of a few close friends
and family members. Recently,
I was invited to join a local
society that’s apparently quite
active on Facebook. One of its
members invited me to join its
Facebook group, but I’ve not
joined. I’m tempted, but I’m
really concerned about who
would be able to see what I post or
discuss. This person has assured me it’s a
private group, so is it safe for me to sign
up? And will people who know me on
Facebook know that I’ve joined it?
Ivy Cross
There are three types of
Facebook group - Public, Closed
and Secret. You can probably
guess that Public is certainly not private,
while both Closed and Secret are, but to
differing degrees.
Anyone on Facebook can see that a
Closed group exists and anyone can ask
Find out more about privacy levels for various Facebook
groups via the website's Help Center
to join one, but they have to be
permitted access by an existing member.
Importantly, anyone on Facebook can
also see who is a member of a Closed
group - so if you join this type of group,
someone might discover that fact.
Secret groups (and their members) are
invisible to anyone who’s not already a
member of the group, and the only way
to gain access is to be invited by an
existing member.
Within both Closed and Secret groups,
discussions are visible only to current
members. For full details read Facebook’s
own explanation at www.snipca.com/
15747 (see screenshot above).
Can I stop Word's clipboard appearing?
A while ago you
tackled a reader’s
question about
Word 2013’s clipboard,
explaining that pressing
Control (Ctrl)+C twice
would make the clipboard
appear in a pane down the
side of the program’s
window. That was a useful
tip, but for me it’s also the
source of some annoyance.
I have reason to copy and
paste stuff all day long in
Word, but I’d rather the
clipboard pane stayed out
of my face. Currently, it
appears when I start copying, making
the screen jump and reducing the editing
space. Is there a way to stop this?
Jason Shales
Yes, this is very easy to do.
First, bring up your clipboard
as usual. Next, click the Options
Stop your clipboard from appearing while working in Word by
ticking 'Collect Without Showing Office Clipboard' in its options
button at the bottom of the clipboard
pane, then untick the Show Office
Clipboard Automatically option.
Repeat this process, but this time tick
Collect Without Showing Office
Clipboard (see screenshot above).
To finish, click the cross at the top
right of the clipboard pane.
68 1-14 April 2015
Why won't my new monitor display at maximum resolution?
I have a Dell Inspiron 560MT PC,
with an Nvidia GeForce G310
graphics card and running 64bit
Windows 7. 1 have recently acquired a
BenQ GW2765HT 27-inch monitor,
with a maximum native resolution of
2560x1440 pixels. I use the computer to
process digital photos, which is why I
want a high-resolution monitor.
However, no matter what I do I can only
achieve a top resolution of just 1920x1080
pixels. I’ve installed the very latest Nvidia
drivers, but no luck. The monitor has a
DisplayPort connector, but my PC
doesn’t, so I use the older DVI cable. How
do I get my new monitor to display its
maximum resolution? Do I need a new
graphics card? And would this be worth
doing on a four-year-old PC?
Roger Harvey
You don’t need a new graphics
card because your existing one
supports your new monitor’s
top resolution.
The problem is almost certainly
with the cable that you’re using.
You gave us a clue when you said
‘the older DVI cable’, which we guess
means the one used with your previous
display. Adding weight to this theory is
the fact that, according to BenQ’s
documentation, the GW2765HT comes
with VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort
cables - but no DVI cable.
There are various different types of
DVI cable, but the pertinent variants
are single link and dual link. A
dual-link DVI cable has extra pins
that are necessary for carrying the
additional data required to drive higher
resolutions; single-link DVI cables are
able to transport enough data for a
maximum resolution of only 1920x1080
- which is precisely the top resolution
you’re achieving currently.
So, by deduction we’re convinced that
you’re using a single-link DVI cable, thus
limiting what your graphics card is able
to send to your new display. The solution
Use a dual-link
DVI cable to enable
your monitor to display at
maximum resolution
is simple: buy a dual-link DVI cable,
which you can pick up for just a few
pounds (such as this £7 example from
Amazon - www.snipca.com/15395).
Can I keep my virgin.net email address?
I have just read in the papers
that my virgin.net email will
soon cease to exist, because
Virgin Media is transferring customers to
TalkTalk. I have had a virgin.net email
address since the year dot. I don’t use it as
my main email address nor do I want to
lose it. Surely Virgin could arrange emails
sent to the old address to be forwarded to
a new one? I gather one solution is to sign
up for Virgin’s fibre-optic broadband, but
I live in the countryside, so there’s no
chance. Can you tell me what’s
happening and why, because Virgin has
told me nothing? Is there any way to keep
my virgin.net email address?
Eric Martin
This is happening because Virgin
Media is offloading its ‘legacy’
ADSL service (and customers)
to TalkTalk to concentrate on its cable-
based, fibre-optic services. Some 100,000
customers are affected. It expects to
complete this process by the end of this
month (April).
Yes, it would be technically possible
for Virgin to offer some form of email
forwarding that would keep old virgin,
net email addresses alive long-term,
but the company has apparently decided
that it doesn’t want the cost or hassle of
doing so.
We’re afraid there’s no solution, other
than signing up for Virgin’s cable services
- which sound like they’re not available
in your rural area. You are under no
obligation to switch your services to
TalkTalk, but that’s what will happen if
you do nothing. If you do switch to
TalkTalk, your virgin.net email address
will continue working for 12 months; if
you don’t, it will be terminated 90 days
after your contract ends. You’ll find full
details atwww.snipca.com/15583.
Users of the virgin.net email service face the
prospect of being transferred to TalkTalk
NEXT ISSUE
• Why can’t I pay online using
Microsoft Money?
• How do I move my stuff from XP
to Windows 8.1?
• Can I use Google Maps offline
with my iPhone?
...And many more
Subscribe to Computers di ve
at getcomputeractive.co.uk
300 problems solved on our 2014 Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/14981
1-14 April 2015 69
/% Fast Fixes
I ^j— i ■ - I | I | /“l Find missing hard-drive space,
[ I II 1 1 1 1 I delete recovery partitions and
X L- XX LX L1U1 LkJ change drive letters
Your PC's capacity is smaller
than expected
If your new PC’s hard drive doesn’t
appear to have all the storage stated
in its specifications, your computer’s
manufacturer may have included a
recovery partition, which lets you restore
your PC to its factory condition. To check,
click Start, right-click Computer and
choose Manage. Next, click Storage, then
Disk Management. In the bottom of the
right-hand pane you’ll see a graphic
of your drive partitions, along with
their drive numbers. Here, you should
see a partition named Recovery.
It’s worth bearing in mind that
Windows calculates capacity in terms
of 1,024 kilobytes per megabyte, 1,024
megabytes per gigabyte and so on. Drive
manufacturers, however, typically use
1,000KB instead. So, if a drive advertised
as 4TB is reported by Windows as 3.7TB,
the “missing” 300GB is down to the
way capacity is calculated.
You can't delete your
recovery partition
Manufacturers usually mark recovery
partitions as protected, which effectively
prevents the Disk Management tool from
doing anything with them - including
letting you delete them. This is often a
problem when you want to re-purpose
an old drive. The solution is to use the
built-in Windows tool DiskPart, which
integrates with the Command Prompt,
to wipe everything.
Click Start, type cmd and press Enter.
In the Command Prompt window, type
diskpart and press Enter, then type
list disk and press Enter. DiskPart then
displays a list of all your drives, labelled
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The DiskPart tool will delete everything on a
drive, including recovery partitions
‘Disk O’, ‘Disk V and so
on. Yyou can use Disk
Management to check
which drive is which
(see previous tip).
Now type select disk
NUMBER, substituting
NUMBER for the relevant
drive number (for
example select disk 1),
then press Enter.
DiskPart will confirm
the selected drive. If
you’re certain you want
to continue, type clean
and press Enter. Now use
Disk Management to
prepare the drive.
Deleting a partition
doesn't free up space
You would expect that deleting a
partition from your PC would
automatically make the freed-up space
usable. In fact, it’ll remain invisible to
Windows until you create a new partition,
or instruct an existing partition to extend
itself into the available space. You can
carry out both of these tasks using Disk
Management. Right-click an existing
partition and click Extend Volume or,
to create a new partition with its own
drive letter, right-click the unallocated
partition and choose New Simple
Volume, then follow the prompts.
Windows won't let you
create large partitions
If you find you’re unable to create
partitions bigger than 32GB, it’s probably
because your hard drive has been formatted
using the FAT32 file system. This will
often be the case if you have an old PC
or you’ve fitted a drive from an old PC.
The solution is to format your hard
drive to use the newer NTFS file system
(and lose all your data), or convert it
(and preserve your data).
To format it, launch Windows Explorer
or File Explorer (press Win+E), then
right-click the drive and choose Format.
Choose NTFS from the ‘File system’
menu, then click Start. If you plan to go
down this route, make sure
you back up all your data
and create a system restore
point first.
Alternatively, preserve
your data by choosing to
convert the drive instead.
Open the Command
Prompt (type cmd, then
press Enter), type convert
DRIVELETTER: /fsmtfs,
replacing DRIVELETTER:
with the relevant drive
letter (for example, convert
d: /fsmtfs). Press Enter, type
a name for the drive and
press Enter again. Close the
Command Prompt window
when complete.
Drive letters are in a
strange order
Adding or removing partitions can
lead to non-sequential drive letters
(for example, C: followed by E: then G:).
This isn’t a problem for Windows but it
might be for your head (where is D:?).
Or you might want to apply different
drive letters for other reasons, such as
assigning P: to the partition containing
your photos.
It’s easy to change drive /partition
letters, but be warned: this can play
havoc with programs that have been
set up to use a particular drive letter,
so proceed with caution. In Disk
Management, right-click the relevant
partition, choose ‘Change Drive Letter
or Path’ and then click the Change
button. Choose the desired letter from
the dropdown menu, then click OK
followed by Yes. Never change drive C:
(your local hard drive).
Use Disk Management to change drive letters,
but leave your C: drive well alone
Re-format old FAT32 drives to
NTFS to create partitions that
are larger than 32GB
70 1-14 April 2015
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72 1-14 April 2015
Jargon Buster
32bit A measure of how much
information a computer can
process at once. Most older
computers are 32bit.
4K Video with a resolution of at j
least 3840x2160 pixels
— . — _ s
64bit A technology that processes j
information in larger chunks. Most
modern computers are 64bit.
802.11ac A standard for wireless
networks that allows for much
higher transfer speeds than802.11n. j
802.11n A standard for wireless
networks that allows for high
transfer speeds.
Backdoor A way of bypassing the
normal security procedures in a
piece of software.
Bandwidth A measure of
how much information can be
transferred through a connection
at one time.
Beta A version of software that's
being tested. Beta versions are
often released so problems can be
ironed out.
BIOS Basic Input-Output System.
Essential software built into
every PC that connects the vital
components.
Botnet A group of infected
computers connected together
via the internet, and used to infect
other PCs, send junk email and
perform other criminal tasks.
Cache A temporary space for
storing information.
Component A cable, usually with
three to five connectors, which is
used to display video.
Composite A cable with three
connectors which is used to
display standard-definition video.
Cookie A small text file stored on
your computer by a website.
Daisy chained A wiring system
in which multiple devices are
connected together in sequence.
j
Definition A file downloaded by an
antivirus program, giving it details
of how to spot the latest threats.
DisplayPort A new socket for
connecting monitors.
Driver A file that tells Windows
how to work with a device.
Dual band Wi-Fi routers that can
work on both the 2.4 and 5GHz
frequencies.
Dual core When two processors
are combined into a single chip.
DVI Digital Visual Interface.
Ethernet A standard used for
almost all wired PC networks.
Extension A program that adds
extra features to your browser.
FAT32 A system for formatting
hard disks used by Windows 98
and ME.
Feedback The tactile response
that the keys on a keyboard give
when they've been pressed.
Firmware Basic software stored
on a device to control its operation.
False positive When an antivirus
program wrongly detects a
malware infection.
Frame rate The number of still
images , or frames, shown per
second to create a moving image.
GPS Global Positioning System.
HDMI High Definition Media
Interface.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) A
chat system that enables users
to connect to a server using a
software program or web service to
communicate with each other live.
ISO file A type of image file that
contains the data from a CD or DVD.
MB/s Megabytes per second.
Megapixel A measure of the
amount of detail that can be
recorded by a digital image.
I
MFP Multifunction printer. A
combined printer and scanner.
!
MicroSD card A small type of
memory card. Can be converted to
SD size using an adapter.
Micro SIM A smaller version of
SIM cards used in mobile phones.
Mirror server A website that
contains the same downloadable
software as others, so it's available
from more than on place.
i
NAS Network-attached storage. A
hard drive attached to a network
that can be shared by other PCs.
NTFS New Technology File
System. A file system used by all
recent versions of Windows.
I
Noise Visible dust-like speckles
that appear in some camera and
TV images.
Open source Software that can
be modified by anyone.
Optical audio A socket that
provides a high-quality sound signal
between computers, amplifiers, CD
and DVD players and more.
Page file A temporary storage
area that Windows uses as virtual
memory.
Partition A large hard drive can
be split into two or more partitions
or 'virtual' drives. Once partitioned,
each section is treated by Windows
as though it were a separate drive.
Plug-in A small program that
adds extra features to your web
browser or to other applications.
Processor The processor - or
central processing unit - is the
brain of a computer.
PST Personal Storage Table. A
file format used to store copies of
messages and calendar events.
PUP Potentially Unwanted
Program. A program that may
not be desired, despite the user
consenting to it being downloaded.
Quad core A PC that has four
processors on a single chip.
RAM Random-access memory.
The PC's working area, used for
data storage while the PC is on.
Recovery partition A hidden
portion of your hard drive where
a copy of the original system
configuration is stored.
i Bust more jargon on our 2014 Back Issue CD: www.snipca.com/14981
Refresh rate The number of times
per second (in Hz) that the image
on your monitor is redrawn.
Resolution The amount of detail
shown in an image.
Roaming charge Fee incurred
for using your phone to receive
data through overseas mobile
networks.
Root access Circumventing the
restrictions that are put in place by
a device's operating system.
Rootkit Software that gives a
malicious user administration
rights and access to a computer.
SATA Serial ATA. An interface for
connecting modern hard drives
and optical discs to a computer.
Scart A standard connector for
video and audio signals.
Server A computer on a network.
Source code Program instructions
written by a programmer in a high-
level language that is readable by
people but not computers.
SSD Solid-state drive.
System Restore Point The
collection of system files stored
by System Restore on a given date
and time to which Windows can
revert if a problem occurs.
Travel The distance the keys of
a keyboard have to be pressed
before the keystroke is recognised.
USB 2.0 Faster successor to USB.
USB 3.0 An even faster version of
the USB standard.
VGA Video Graphics Array.
Virtual machine A software-
based computer running inside
another computer.
Widget A small program that runs
on the Windows Desktop.
Wiki site A collaborative website
that users can easily edit.
ZIP file A file that can contain
a number of compressed
documents or files.
1-14 April 2015 73
The Final Straw
This issue Stuart Andrews has no love for. . .
STUART ANDREWS is
Computeractive ' s Mr Angry
Dating apps
I ’m usually glad that I’m no longer
young, free and single. I never enjoyed
the whole dating thing. I know some
people find it thrilling and romantic, as
you try to puzzle out what makes each
other tick. But I always saw it more like a
cross between a sales pitch and some
unnecessarily complex parlour game
- and one where I didn’t understand the
rules. I wouldn’t want to go through
dating again even were it still like that,
but now? Forget it. In a world of dating
apps I wouldn’t stand a chance.
You can flick through
a hundred possible
partners while you're
waiting for the
kettle to boil
I know why people have gone mad for
such things. We’re all so busy these days.
We work unearthly hours, then have to
find time to watch all the must- watch
TV, listen to the must-listen music and
do all the must-do stuff. Checking and
posting to our social networks is
practically a full-time job, yet no matter
how connected we are, and no matter
where we live, meeting someone special
never gets any easier, so why not let
someone else handle the job?
This was where the old-fashioned
online dating services came in. You filled
out a profile and the service went all out
to match you with someone vaguely
compatible. Yes, the whole concept was
flawed because our profiles never told the
truth. But there was always a small
chance that the potential mate who
claimed they were a keen cinephile with
a love of jazz and world cuisine wasn’t
some sad sack who spent their weekends
eating cold pizza in front of the telly - or
that at the very least you had the same
lies in common.
But even this kind of dating now
sounds quaint. With dating app Tinder
and its ilk there’s no need to waste time
with profiles or messages or any of that
nonsense. You just flick through a stream
of photos of nearby matches, then swipe
them left to send them packing or right
to give them the eye. If both parties swipe
yes, then bingo! Tinder sets you up for a
quick text chat, and anything that
follows on from there.
Tinder has some good points. It hooks
into Facebook, so there’s some proof that
the girl or guy you like is roughly what
they claim to be. It doesn’t tell anyone
else you like them unless they feel the
same way about you, avoiding any
potential humiliation. And it’s quick and
easy, letting you flick through a hundred
possible partners while you’re waiting for
the kettle to boil. Sure it’s a brutally
superficial way of finding someone, but
it’s brutally efficient and honest too.
In fact, Tinder is so brutally honest that
it’s making people aged over 28 pay £11 a
month more to use the premium service
than those who are 28 and under: a clear
sign of which age group Tinder values
most. There are other things I’m not keen
on. If something this efficient at pairing
people up is entirely based on looks, then
it’s no surprise that many of the men who
use it are only after one thing.
Most of all, though, I think that Tinder
and its rivals might be a bit too efficient.
You have one photo to sell yourself, and it
had better be good. No instant attraction?
No date. That’s probably great if you have
the bone structure of a catwalk model,
but it leaves little opportunity to win
hearts and minds with a warm personality.
That’s a lot of pressure, and I wouldn’t
have liked it on me. Sure, first impressions
counted in the old days too, but they
lasted longer than the millisecond it takes
for a Tinder user to swipe you on to the
scrapheap. Someone you initially found
sort-of- attractive might with time (or
booze) become quite the catch. There was
a humanity to dating that Tinder and the
like seem to have lost. Once we lose it, it
might be hard to get it back.
Do you agree with Stuart?
Let us know at letters(pcomputeractive.co.uk
74 1-14 April 2015
Next issue Stuort has only himself to blame
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