WHAT WE NEVER

BUY ON AMAZON
SYNC BOOKMARKS
ACROSS BROWSERS BLOCK
EVERY
But don’t let Google see them! p38
There are simply too many fakes
p62
T 2024
ISSUE 692 ❘ 11 – 24 SEP

COOKIE
POP-UP
Especially the new
every issue ones that cover your
Learn something new in
BBC goes off the record
– page 6 phone’s screen p60

WHY YOU MUST USE A

VPN
Fake your location to stay private and
watch TV from anywhere
 Access UK TV when abroad
p50

 Encrypt your personal details

 Block ads & hidden trackers
 Keep your internet fast
Unlock cheaper prices online

PLUS AVOID SPEED CAMERAS

MAKE WINDOWS 11 LOOK WHILE DRIVING p35
LIKE WINDOWS 10 page 74 This app plans perfect journeys
WELCOME
EDITORIAL
Content Director Marc Chacksfield
Group Editor Daniel Booth
From the Editor
Deputy Editor Robert Irvine
Production Editor Graham Brown Robert Irvine has an extra £46 to spend Robert explains how to do all this
Art Editor Katie Peat when he visits Paris soon. That’s the saving and more in his Cover Feature. He also
Contributors Keumars Afifi-Sabet, Judith Batchelor, Dinah
Greek, Jonathan Parkyn, Nik Rawlinson, Andy Shaw he made on his hotel room by using a VPN reveals which VPNs to use – both free
ADVERTISING
to trick the site into thinking he was based and paid-for – and how to activate their
Advertising Manager Alexandra Thomas in the US. This let him beat the price best hidden settings. And when he arrives
MARKETING AND CIRCULATION discrimination that so often plagues us in Paris, he’ll have no trouble following
Subscriptions Juber Ahmed here in the UK. his own advice so he can watch British
PRODUCTION It’s a reminder that VPNs can do much TV while he’s there.
Head of Production Stephen Catherall more than simply unblock TV from His tips demonstrate why VPNs have
Senior Production Manager Lawrence Brookes
abroad. You can also use them to block now gone mainstream. Please let me know
INTERNATIONAL LICENSING AND SYNDICATION
adverts, encrypt your data, download huge if you use one for a reason we don’t cover.
Computeractive is available for licensing and syndication.
To find out more contact us at [email protected] or files using torrents, and stop your ISP Daniel Booth
view our available content at www.futurecontenthub.com. throttling your broadband speeds. [email protected]
Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw

ONWARD RESALE
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Computeractive at the time of review. Computeractive
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THIS ISSUE IN NUMBERS HOW TO USE
Distributed by Marketforce
£200 SNIPCA URLs
Average sales, Jan-Dec 2023 52,670
copies per issue. Price of our new favourite We use snipcas to turn long URLs
PC monitor – p24 that are hard to type into ones that
are short and simple. They aren’t
180,000 10Mbps websites themselves, which means
Number of UK Minimum broadband they won’t be recognised if you type
lifts still using speed recommended them into Google. Instead, you need to
the old copper by Freely to watch HD type them into your browser address
phone network TV smoothly bar, then press Enter. Doing this will
– p9 – p66 take you to the correct website.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 3

 Contents
11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

6 News Not making the

BBC forces EE to stop viewers recording TV upgrade
10 Question of the Fortnight Will Microsoft p10
stop older PCs upgrading to Windows 11?

11 Protect Your Tech

Rise in fake QR codes at car parks

12 Letters Google’s ‘AI Overview’ search

results are horrible

14 Consumeractive
Can DFS refuse to replace a cracked table?

16 Grow Your Family Tree

Search UK coastguard records

18 Best Free Software

FreeTube 0.21.3 CyberPowerPC Infinity
X145 Elite
21 Named & Shamed Unwanted NordVPN
free trials from Onestream p22

Reviews
22 CyberPowerPC Infinity X145 Elite
Gaming PC plays a blinder

23 Lenovo LOQ 15in

Lightning-fast laptop is quick to impress

24 Philips 27E1N1600AE
PC monitor is a picture of health

25 Western Digital My Passport 6TB

External hard drive goes all out Philips 27E1N1600AE

26 AGM Pad P2 Active p24

pxx
Rugged tablet is a hard case to argue

28 Logitech Brio 105

Basic webcam takes simplistic view
Imou Rex 3D
Ball cam offers fully rounded security

29 Hisense 50U6NQTUK
Smart TV that’s really switched on

30 Buy It/Competition Win a Pure Classic

C-D6 CD player and digital radio

4 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 SAVE
Subscribe now! 35%
See page 58 for our special subs offer

Workshops & Tips Waze to go

p35
35 
How to… Plan the perfect car
journey with Waze

38 
Sync bookmarks across
devices and browsers

40 R
 eaders’ Tips Translate languages
using Microsoft Start

42 Browser Tips Disable Google’s new

AI Overviews feature

44 Phone and Tablet Tips

Find pictures faster in Google Photos

46 Make Windows Better

Replace Paint 3D with third-party app
WHY YOU MUST USE A

VPN
47 Make Office Better Change your CO
header style across your document FEATVER
UR
P50 E
48 In the Club
Build a website quickly using AI

49 What’s All the Fuss About?

Control Panel

50 COVER FEATURE
Fake your location to
Why you must use a VPN
Virtual private networks don’t just fake your
stay private and watch
location and encrypt your data. We provide
20 reasons why you must install one now
TV from anywhere
60 Block new cookie pop-ups
How to banish these annoying consent nags
from your PC and phone
BLOCK NEW
62 What you should never buy on Amazon
The world’s biggest online store is packed with
fake products. We explain how to avoid them COOKIE
64 Problems Solved Why won’t Windows
control my monitor’s brightness? POP-UPS
71 Reader Support Why won’t Brave show
images on web pages?

72 Jargon Buster p60

74 Easy When You Know How See the cookies

Robert Irvine tries to turn Windows 11 into crumble
Windows 10

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 5

 News The top stories in the world of technology

BBC forces EE to stop

viewers recording TV
E
E has stopped customers This worked if
recording BBC shows on you used the Pro
their TV boxes through Boxes in Internet
the internet, angering many Mode, which streams
viewers. channels over
Until 27 August, customers broadband instead
could save BBC shows to EE’s of through an aerial.
Pro Boxes, so they could EE said it had to
watch them at any time. remove the recording
feature after being
WHAT WE THINK asked to do so by the
BBC. If you now record
This decision brings the a show on the Pro Box
death of TV recordings ever it will be saved on your
closer. Broadcasters can talk box, but when you
all they like about improving press play you’ll
quality, but the real reason is be taken to the iPlayer
advertising. Skipping adverts to watch it.
in shows you’ve recorded You’ll have to watch
is simple - just press fast- it within the time limit it aerial, though this requires a recommendations and have
forward on your remote. But remains on iPlayer, which is good reception. the best overall experience
TV companies can force you 30 days for most shows. It may when in Internet Mode.”
to watch them by insisting not be available to watch until ‘Greedy’ TV companies But customers have
you ‘save’ shows to stream 15 minutes after the show has EE claimed the move would expressed anger in online
from their servers, rather finished its live broadcast. benefit viewers, saying: “This forums. On BT’s forums
than record to a physical Any recordings made will make sure that when our (www.snipca.com/51886) one
device you own. Thankfully, before 27 August will remain customers playback the wrote: “Off air recording is
there are still ways to record on your box to watch content they watch it in the going to go the way of the
what you watch, as we’ll whenever you like. highest quality, pick up where dodo as first satellite then DTT
explain in our next issue – out You’ll also still be able to they left off if watching on (digital terrestrial television)
Wednesday 25 September. record shows to your box additional devices, get the comes to an end and TV
when watching TV over an most informed content companies get ever greedier
for all our data (and want
to flog premium ad-free
SKY GO STOPS WORKING ON OLDER iPADS AND iPHONES subscriptions).”
Another customer on
From 17 September, Sky Go iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 customers”. However, EE’s forums (www.snipca.
will stop working on iPhones in September. many Apple devices are com/51887) wrote: “Bless EE
and iPads that run iOS 12. To Statistics show that too old to update to iOS for trying to put a positive
keep using the streaming app only 1.3 per cent of 13. The most recent of spin on this one. There really
you’ll need to update to iOS 13 Apple devices still run these include the iPad mini isn’t one – especially if you’re
or later. iOS 12. 2, iPad mini 3, iPad Air (1st still going to be using space for
Apple released iOS 12 in Sky said the decision will generation), iPhone 5s, iPhone ‘recordings’ you’re actually
2018, following it with iOS 13 “ensure we provide the best 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iPod watching from iPlayer. Who
a year later. It plans to release possible experience to Sky Go touch (6th generation). thought of that one? Not
particularly eloquent.”

You’ll like this… You’ll be able to uninstall but not this… Sky customers are being
Microsoft’s controversial Recall tool targeted in a phone support scam
(www.snipca.com/51892) (www.snipca.com/51884)

6 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

Microsoft brings adverts to IN BRIEF

Windows 10’s Start menu SAMSUNG TO UPDATE

TVs FOR SEVEN YEARS
Samsung has promised

M icrosoft will soon start

showing adverts for its
services in the Windows 10
free updates for seven years
for smart TVs that run its
Tizen operating system. This
Start menu, as it adds a starts after a TV is released
feature already annoying for sale, not when it’s bought
users of Windows 11. by the customer. Updates
It launched the ‘Account will begin with 2024 TVs,
Manager’ in Windows 11 1 with some 2023 models to
earlier this year, which as follow. It means Samsung TV
well as buttons for logging owners will get some new
out and locking your features that will appear on
2
Credit: Phantomofearth/X

computer shows adverts sets released from 2025

for Microsoft 365 – the onwards. It follows LG’s
company’s subscription move last year to update
service for Office. TVs for five years.
This feature was spotted
in late August in a preview
build of Windows 10 available
to Insiders. Currently, when You can still access your decision – announced in 2022 HACKERS ATTACK OLD
you click your profile image in account settings within the – to start adding new features SECURITY CAMERAS
the Start menu, it’ll show you Start menu, but it requires to the operating system, Hackers are taking over old
options to change your opening another section. despite planning to end security cameras and using
account settings, lock your The screenshot above was support in 2025. them to spread malware.
screen or log out. posted on X (formerly Twitter) Most of these have been Researchers at US firm
But in the new build by @Phantomofearth (www. added to Windows 11 first Akamai said attackers
(19045.4842), clicking the snipca.com/51872), who and then ‘backported’ to 10, have infected AVM1203
icon ( 1 in our screenshot) regularly reveals buried features including the AI assistant cameras made by Taiwanese
shows squares for managing in Windows Insider builds. Copilot and widgets on the company Avtech. The camera
Microsoft 365 products, The appearance of Account lock screen. has been discontinued for
such as OneDrive, OneNote
and Skype 2 .
Manager in Windows 10 seems
to be a result of Microsoft’s
• Is Microsoft removing the
Control Panel? See page 49
many years and is unlikely to
receive a security fix for the
flaw, Akamai said.

BBC uses AI for subtitles in Sounds app TOMORROW’S

WORLD
T he BBC is using AI to
generate subtitles for
some audio content on its
2
This game of pong might
look basic, but it’s pretty
Sounds app. 1 impressive considering
It’s running a three-month the player is a “blob of
trial that will add subtitles to soggy molecules”. Built
the shows In Touch, Access by engineers at Reading
All, Profile, Sporting Witness University, it can ‘remember’
and Economics with Subtitles. electric currents that
To turn them on you have to represent the paddle and ball
tap the new subtitles button. Aniruddh Dimri, head of The trial has already onscreen. Watch the action at
When listening to Sounds BBC Sounds, said generating started online (www.bbc.co. www.snipca.com/51849.
through the website the subtitles through AI is uk/sounds) and in the
subtitles button is at the far cheaper and quicker than Android app (www.snipca.
right of the playbar ( 1 in our using people. com/51889), before coming
screenshot), and the words The BBC is using the soon to iOS (www.snipca.
appear in the centre of the speech-to-text AI tool com/51890). More shows
screen 2 . Whisper AI, Dimri said, will be added over the next
On the app the subtitles though the subtitles will be three months.
button is below the play “reviewed by a member of the Visit the BBC’s Media
controls – tapping it shows a editorial team, and edited Centre for more details:
full transcript of the episode. where necessary”. www.snipca.com/51888.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 7

 News
IN BRIEF New Amazon credit card gives
LIBREOFFICE RELEASES
NEW MAJOR VERSION
cashback and £20 bonus
LibreOffice has released
version 24.8, the second
major update of 2024.
A mazon has launched a
credit card with Barclays
that gives small cashback
You won’t be charged
any interest on the first six
months of spending. After
Highlights include a new amounts on purchases from that the interest rate increases
‘Find’ option in Writer to the site, and a £20 sign-up to 28.9 per cent.
locate specific text, and the bonus to spend. Amazon previously offered
ability to add more than The Amazon Barclaycard credit cards through UK
one row or column at a time pays one per cent on regular firm NewDay, but scrapped
into a Calc spreadsheet. Amazon spending, including these in 2022.
LibreOffice won’t update content bought for Kindles If you had one of these you
automatically to 24.8, so and on Audible and Prime could be offered extra perks
you’ll need to download Video. for signing up to the new
it from www.snipca. Prime members also get two card. The company told
com/51807. We’ll include per cent during “shopping MoneySavingExpert.com that
tips from it over the next few events”, including Prime Day, “most customers” who had an
months in our Make Office Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Amazon Classic or Platinum
Better section (page 47). These cashbacks are paid as card can get a £50 gift card on
gift cards to use on Amazon, signing up, and double the
O2 LAUNCHES and can only be redeemed in cashback for six months.
£10 SOCIAL TARIFF multiples of £5. Once you You won’t be able to apply To manage the card
O2 has launched a new redeem a card, you have 10 for the Amazon Barclaycard if you’ll have to use either the
social-tariff package for years to spend it. you already have a Barclaycard, Barclays or Barclaycard app,
people on benefits. The When using the card or have had one in the past six both available for free on
Essential Plan costs £10 a elsewhere, you’ll get 0.5 per months – though Barclays Android and iOS.
month for 10GB of data and cent back, though this drops says it will start allowing To apply and for more
unlimited calls and texts. It’s to 0.25 per cent after the applications from recent and details visit www.snipca.
on a rolling 30-day contract first year. existing customers soon. com/51830.
with no fees for joining or
leaving, and roaming in the
EU is free. Visit O2’s site Sixteen new phone masts erected
in British areas of beauty
for details on how to apply:
www.snipca.com/51803.

THE WORLD’S
GONE MAD! S ixteen new phone masts
have been switched on
in four areas of outstanding
The Government said the
new masts will reduce the
number of signal losses in
So many people are taking natural beauty in the UK: remote areas, and make it
selfies with dangerous Brecon Beacons, Shropshire easier for walkers in distress
animals that a US wildlife Hills, Snowdonia and the to contact emergency services.
park has made a photo Wye Valley. Telecoms Minister Chris
filter that shows if they’re It’s part of the Shared Rural Bryant said he wanted to
too close. The tool, from Network (SRN) project, which give a “connectivity boost”
Jackson Hole tourist board in is being jointly funded by the without there being “any
Wyoming, displays an icon Government (£501m) and the impact on scenery”.
of bison, bears, elk and more big four phone companies, He added that visitors to
(www.snipca.com/51808, EE, O2, Three and Vodafone the areas will have “the peace
pictured). It’s very clever. If (£532m). of mind to be able to call a
only selfie addicts were, too. The goal is to extend 4G friend should they get lost,
coverage to 95 per cent of the or find their way to enjoy a
UK by the end of 2025, with much-needed lunch break
84 per cent being covered by in a local pub”.
all four main networks. It’s Set up by the Conservatives
hoped that over 280,000 in 2020, the SRN has led to an four operators.
premises will be connected extra 14,800 square kilometres For details visit Gov.UK:
once complete. receiving coverage from all www.snipca.com/51828.

8 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

Sky to axe SD boxes and IN BRIEF
scrap customer accounts RASPBERRY Pi 5 NOW
COMES WITH 2GB

S ky customers with old

SD boxes who don’t
upgrade to the HD Sky Q
to upgrade, tune
into Channel 105
using your Sky
The Raspberry Pi 5 is now
available in a 2GB RAM
version (pictured below),
service by October will have remote. If you see priced £46.60. Previously,
their account cancelled. It Channel 5 HD, you the cheapest Pi 5 was the
affects old Digibox and Sky+ don’t need a new 4GB model, which costs
boxes that viewers will have box. But if you see £57.60. It’s also available
been using for many years. Channel 5 in SD, with 8GB for £76.80. Read
The move is the culmination you’ll need to more at www.snipca.
of Sky’s decision to turn off contact Sky for a com/51795 and buy from
SD channels and focus on HD free upgrade. www.snipca.com/51796.
TV. Sky says it has to do this You can also
because old SD boxes won’t check by pressing the number next to Version Number
work with its new method of ‘Services’ button on your (see screenshot) and see if it’s
sending digital TV signals. Sky remote, followed by ‘4’, listed in the box below left.
To check whether you need then ‘5’. Look at the box To ask Sky for an upgrade,
phone 0333 759 5121 or
send an email through the
AFFECTED SD BOXES company’s website (www. APPLE’S PODCASTS APP
Digibox Sky+ snipca.com/51801). Sky ARRIVES ONLINE
• 4F01 to 4F08 (Amstrad) • 4F2001 to 4F2006 (Amstrad) will arrange for an engineer Apple has released an online
• 4E01 to 4E05 (Grundig) • 4F2101 to 4F2118; 9F2101 to to install the Sky Q box in version of its Podcasts app,
• 9F01 to 9F08 and 9F0A 9F2137 (Amstrad or Pace) your home. letting you play episodes
(Pace) • 9F2001 to 9F2024; PVR2; Sky says the upgrade is free, via a browser. Visit https://
• 0F01 to 0F05 (Panasonic) 9F2201 to 9F2235; 9F2301 and it won’t change your podcasts.apple.com then sign
• 4E06 to 4E08 (Thomson) to 9F2339 (Pace) existing package or pricing. in to access your account. You
• 4E2101 to 4E2141 (Thomson) Visit Sky’s website for more can subscribe to podcasts
details: www.snipca.com/51802. here, as well as sync them to
other Apple devices, such as
iPads and iPhones.
Update lifts so passengers RING LAUNCHES ‘HEAD
don’t get stuck, BT says TO TOE’ DOORBELL
Ring has launched a video

B T has warned lift

manufacturers to check
their equipment will still
have an important stake in the
PSTN switch-off and to take
steps to safeguard their
doorbell that captures visitors
from “head to toe”. Priced
£99.99, the Ring Battery
work once the PSTN copper services now,” he added. “The Video Doorbell has a vertical
network is switched off in 2027. old analogue network is no HD resolution and a 150x150-
It’s concerned that many longer fit for purpose. The UK degree field of view. This lets
alarms in lifts still rely on the can’t afford to wait.” you see both the person at
old network, and won’t work It’s estimated that around your door and your doorstep
on new digital systems. BT 180,000 of the UK’s 300,000 – to check whether a parcel
also said that some medical lifts rely on the copper has been left. You’ll need to
equipment could stop working. network. If the alarms stop Earlier this year, BT pushed subscribe to Ring Protect to
In a letter to companies, Bas working, people trapped in the deadline for households save videos: www.snipca.
Burger, chief executive of BT lifts might have no way of back to January 2027 over com/51794. Buy it from
Business, wrote: “As this attracting help. fears that telecare alarms Amazon at www.snipca.
ageing network becomes BT is now asking businesses would stop working. com/51793.
increasingly outdated and and public-sector bodies to There are plenty of other
fragile, the risk to your identify the devices that are critical services still reliant
critical services grows.” still connected to the old on the copper network,
“We’re calling on our network. It wants to move including fire and burglar
critical national infrastructure them all to digital services alarms, GP phone lines and
customers to recognise they by the end of 2025. local pharmacies.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 9

 Questionof
Question ofthe
theFortnight
Fortnight
Will Microsoft stop older PCs
upgrading to Windows 11?
It’s removing a trick that lets you bypass technical requirements

T
echnology is full of
tweaks, hacks and THE FACTS
workarounds that
let you bend the rules to • Microsoft has released a
perform tasks you really preview build of Windows
shouldn’t be able to. 11 that no longer lets you
2
One of the most upgrade if your PC lacks
controversial in recent years TPM 2.0
has been tricking your 1 • It closes a loophole that
computer into installing fooled Windows into
Windows 11 even if it lacks thinking your PC is a
the TPM 2.0 security feature. server and therefore

Credit: Bob Pony/X

These loopholes have allowed doesn’t need TPM 2.0
many users to move on from • You can still perform the
Windows 10, but it now seems trick in version 24H2 of
Microsoft wants to axe a Windows 11, which is
popular option. expected to be released
It was always surprising that It’s a clever but simple the message, ‘This PC can’t this autumn
Microsoft tolerated these trick, though Microsoft has run Windows server. Here’s
workarounds in the first place. always warned that it’s risky why: The PC must support
TPM is a chip built into most to run Windows 11 on a TPM 2.0’ 2 . market share is at a high of
PCs made since about 2015, computer that doesn’t meet its The change only affects nearly 32 per cent, up from 23
storing keys used to encrypt requirements. It might crash the Canary build of Windows per cent a year ago. Its rising
data kept on your hard drive frequently, run slowly, and 11. This version is the earliest popularity is more likely to be
and keeping it safe from hackers. not receive critical security – and the most unstable – down to people buying new
available to Windows Insiders. computers than them using
This means it could be some hacks to bypass requirements.
Old PCs running Windows 11 time before Microsoft axes the Windows 10 is still
‘/product server’ workaround dominant though, running
might crash frequently, run slowly from the full version of the on 64 per cent of machines,
system. and we doubt it’ll be
and not receive updates Indeed, since Bob Pony overtaken by the time support
posted his screenshot many ends in October 2025.
TPM 2.0 is also needed to updates. And there was other users have confirmed That gives Microsoft a
use Microsoft’s security tools always the danger that future that the trick still works in headache. Will it really kill a
Windows Hello and BitLocker. Windows updates wouldn’t Windows 11 24H2 – the next system running on around
From day one it encouraged run on the upgraded PC. major system update, expected one billion computers?
users to check the tool was Many experts said it wasn’t in the next few months. And Windows 10 users
working on their machines worth the gamble, and soon There are still other ways will have to make up their
– see instructions at www. you won’t have the choice to beat Microsoft’s minds too. Upgrade? Stick?
snipca.com/51896. anyway. In August, Microsoft restrictions, including Try something else? There
And yet it turned a blind released a preview build of editing the registry during are more options than you
eye to the /product server Windows 11 that prevents the installation. This is easiest think, though it’s easy to go
command in Command ‘/product server’ trick from done using the program wrong if you don’t know
Prompt. By typing this while working. Rufus, as our sister site Tom’s what you’re doing.
installing Windows 11, you It was spotted by an X user Hardware explains at www. We’ll explain them all in
could fool the operating called Bob Pony, who posted a snipca.com/51543. our next Cover Feature – out
system into thinking the screenshot showing that when However, we wouldn’t rule Wednesday 25 September –
computer was a server, and he typed the command ( 1 in out Microsoft also blocking so you’ll learn which one is
therefore didn’t need TPM 2.0. our screenshot) it produced this soon. Windows 11’s right for you.

10 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

Protect your tech
Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools
WATCH OUT FOR...

Rise in fake QR codes at car parks

What’s the threat? payment card or official
The RAC has warned apps instead. If you do
drivers about the rise of scan a QR code, check
fake QR codes on payment whether it has been
machines at car parks. It crudely stuck on to the
said that over the summer machine. Codes that
there’s been a spike in false look too big or obscure
codes on machines in information beneath are
Barking and Dagenham, likely to be fake, as in
Northamptonshire, the photo (left) taken by
Northumberland, Fylde Council in June.
South Tyneside and Bear in mind that
Pembrokeshire. Criminals many councils don’t even
simply stick the fake codes run a QR code-payment
over the official ones, system, so you could ring
tricking drivers into realise they’ve not paid for parking, and them to check. Also be
thinking it’s the genuine method for end up being fined by the council. The aware that the scam has been spotted
paying through the PayByPhone app. scam is being called ‘quishing’, as a throughout the UK, not just in the
If you scan the code you’re asked to variation of phishing. locations mentioned by the RAC.

Credit: Fylde Council

enter your payment details, which the We’ve seen reports of fake codes in
fraudsters then use to steal money from How can you stay safe? Bournemouth, Brighton, Isle of Wight,
your bank account. The RAC pointed The RAC said motorists should pay using Peterborough, Portsmouth, and
out that the scam leads to drivers being QR codes only if there’s no other option, Staffordshire. Many of these
caught out twice because they don’t and recommended paying with cash, impersonated the RingGo parking app.

New tools Auto-fill forms with

Proton Pass
ScamWatch
Readers warn readers

Swiss firm Proton slightly depending on NatWest contact

keeps adding excellent which system you’re number ‘changed’
features to its privacy using, but typically NatWest has been my bank for most
tools. The latest, look for a ‘Create an of my adult life, so my attention was
called Identities, Identity’ button – grabbed by an email that claimed
automatically fills or a + (plus) sign (see the contact number for my account
details including your screenshot) – and then had been changed. The email
name, address and give your ‘Identity’ a said this was because I had a new
phone number into title and add your mobile number, which wasn’t true,
online forms when details in the sections. so I realised immediately it was a
you use the Proton Now look for a scam. The email said I didn’t request
Pass password ‘Create identity’ this change, so I should cancel it
manager. This saves button – usually top by clicking a link, but I wasn’t daft
you the hassle of right – to confirm enough to do that! There was also
typing the details each your Identity. For a a phone number to ring and email
time, which Proton says is “repetitive, summary of these instructions visit address to contact, but I ignored
inefficient – but avoidable”. www.snipca.com/51810. those too. I’d like to warn other
It’s available for free in every version For more information on Identities, NatWest customers.
of Proton Pass: Android, iOS, Linux, including what other personal details Eric Brew
macOS, Windows and the browser it fills in, visit Proton’s blog: www. Warn your fellow readers about scams
extension. How you use it varies snipca.com/51809. at [email protected]

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 11

 Letters
Tell us what’s on your mind

Ofcom’s critics the specifications what I’m familiar with. As an 80-year-old

are missing needed to run it took me a long time to make the
the point Windows 10, but it’s change from Windows 7.
Recent critics more likely that his I’ve heard there’s a company called
of Ofcom banning inflation-linked laptop is just beginning to show its age, 0patch that might be able to provide
price rises are missing the point of or it’s being affected by another problem. updates once Microsoft abandons us.
regulators. It’s not Ofcom’s job to ban However, he’s right to be worried that Do you know anything about this
price increases per se. The reason it has Microsoft might change the requirements company and its product? Most
intervened here is to make information for Windows 11 to take it beyond existing importantly, can it be trusted with the
about rises easier to understand, so we PCs. Indeed, it already did this a few security of my computers?
now have flat increases rather than months ago by stating that Windows 11 Ian Hogben
percentage hikes based on inflation. It computers would need a processor
has no right to tell broadband companies instruction called Population Count CA SAYS Yes, 0patch (https://0patch.
how or when to increase their prices, (POPCNT). com) can be trusted. It’s a Slovenian
and it would be terrifying if it did. Introduced in the 1960s, POPCNT company that since 2020 has been
Bill Ogden counts the number of ones in binary releasing small updates called
datasets and has typically been used in ‘micropatches’ to keep Windows 7 safe. It
Is Microsoft deliberately computer graphics and encryption. But now plans to do the same for Windows
increasing hardware it can also help to run neural networks, 10 when Microsoft ends support in
demands of Windows 10? which are computer systems inspired by October 2025 (see Issue 688, page 6).
I have a laptop with a sixth- the structure of human brains. These are It claims you’ll be able to apply these
generation Intel i7 processor with vital for the new generation of AI tools without even rebooting your PC.
1GB of RAM and a hard drive running at Microsoft wants everyone to use – hence These updates aren’t free though: they’ll
5,200rpm. This machine was purchased the company’s insistence that computers cost €29.24 (£25.40) per computer per
with Windows 10 Home pre-installed. must have it. year. But that’s clearly a lot cheaper than
Recently the laptop has started That said, most computers built in the buying a new machine for Windows 11.
freezing, and when I check Task past 10 years or so have POPCNT, so you We’ll test 0patch thoroughly as we
Manager it appears that the drive is probably don’t need to worry. You can approach the Windows 10 deadline,
running at its maximum and the RAM check using the free software CPU-Z and explain all your other options.
is nearly fully utilised. Another problem (www.snipca.com/45642), which scans
is that Windows 10 doesn’t restart your PC and generates a detailed report EE slashed my bill after
immediately if left in sleep mode, and of your components. I threatened to leave
always takes several minutes to boot On Saturday 10 August, I was on
up from cold. Can I trust 0patch to keep my way to watch Shrewsbury
Is this an example of Microsoft Windows 10 secure? Town FC lose to Stevenage. I knew I was
increasing the hardware demands of As is well known, Microsoft out of mobile data, but it hadn’t really
Windows 10 since it launched so that intends to end its support of bothered me until then. But spending 12
older machines are now struggling? Windows 10 in October 2025. Like many hours either on the coach or watching
With the end of support for Windows people, I’m reluctant to upgrade to football without being able to visit X,
10 approaching, how long will it be Windows 11 and would prefer to stick to WhatsApp or Facebook to find out what
before the demands of Windows 11
exceed the capability of new machines so
What’s the Issue…?
?
that we’ll need to update to a new
machine and scrap perfectly good ones?
Martin Wilkins I’m thinking of buying Seagate’s and the review
One Touch Hub hard drive. Have above on our Back
CA SAYS We don’t blame Martin for you ever tested it? Issue CD: www.
suspecting that Microsoft has increased Andrew Grant snipca.com/48860.

Computeractive is a member of CA SAYS Yes, in Issue 658, page 26. When did you explain how to
the Independent Press Standards
Organisation (which regulates the unlock Amazon Fire tablets so
UK’s magazine and newspaper
industry). We abide by the Editors’ I seem to recall advice on you can install apps from anywhere?
Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the checking whether your SSD is Mark Vaughan
highest standards of journalism.
about to die. When was that?
If you think that we have not met those standards
and want to make a complaint please contact editor@ Liz Mayhew CA SAYS In Issue 684’s How To section
computeractive.co.uk. If we are unable to resolve your
complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO
– page 35. Buy a back issue from www.
or the Editors’ Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or CA SAYS In Issue 655, page 51. Read it snipca.com/51778.
visit www.ipso.co.uk.

12 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive
(formerly Twitter): @ComputerActive
www.twitter.com/computeractive

other people were thinking was quite

annoying, especially since I couldn’t log STAR LETTER
on to any Wi-Fi at the service station or at
the football ground to update my data
allowance or to add extra data. Google’s ‘AI Overview’ search
Next day I read Issue 690’s Cover
Feature ‘Cancel your phone contract’
results are horrible
(pictured below), and thought, yeah, that Issue 691’s and be grateful for
sounds like a plan. ‘Question of the such cutting-edge
Then, on Monday Fortnight’ on Google’s technology. But I can’t
morning, I ordered a search dominance be the only person
new SIM with 8GB (pictured) was sick of AI hype, and
data for £8 a month, impeccably timed. No wondering when it
with unlimited UK sooner had I read it will actually improve
calls and texts. This than my Google search our daily lives rather
was much cheaper results started being than simply make even
than the £17.85 I was ruined by something more money for the
paying EE for 1GB. called ‘AI Overview’ at the top. What likes of Google, Microsoft and Apple.
Anyway, following nonsense is this? It’s a horrible box Roy Lindsay
your guidance, I that’s distracting and confusing.
texted PAC to 65075. Much to my surprise Sometimes it appears below sponsored CA SAYS We share Roy’s annoyance
within half an hour I had a call back from search results, which means loads of that Google introduced AI Overview
an EE representative asking me why I scrolling to see anything relevant. by default, without asking whether
wanted to leave. I said I’d get a better deal I know Google will say these AI you actually wanted it. That wouldn’t
for less money elsewhere. Lo and behold, results are meant to be helpful, but be so bad if there was a simple way of
he really shook a rabbit out of the hat and they just stop you finding what you disabling it, but alas no. Instead you’ll
offered a contract for £6 a month with really want. Also, it surely won’t be have to install third-party browser
12GB of data and unlimited calls and long until Google crams them with extensions – see page 42. And if you’re
texts. That saves me £11.85 a month, or adverts. keen to abandon Google for good, we
over £140 a year. Over the year it’ll save What really irritates me is Google recommend switching to DuckDuckGo
me several times the cost of my shoving this on our results without (https://duckduckgo.com). Its
subscription to Computeractive. letting us opt in first. They must think results are less cluttered,
Alec Willis that by calling it an ‘AI’ tool, we’ll think and you won’t see any
it’s the best thing since sliced laptops, personalised adverts.
CA SAYS Alec is one of several readers to
tell us they’ve either switched to a new, The Star Letter writer wins a Computeractive mug!
cheaper provider after reading Issue 690,
or been offered a better deal by their
existing network after threatening to radio phone-in programme do we hear a 10-to-15-mile length of main road near
leave. If you missed that issue, which that the phone connection is poor? Bedford where the speed limit shown on
reveals all the best packages from outside I’m tired of being told to “just go online”. Google Maps was blatantly wrong.
the UK’s big four (EE, O2, Three and My internet speeds as I write this are just At the journey’s end, Google asked for
Vodafone), buy a back issue from www. 0.25Mbps upload and 2.79Mbps download. comments on how I found the journey
snipca.com/51784. John McCloy and I mentioned the wrong speed limit,
but whether it’s been corrected yet I don’t
Why I still need a landline Don’t rely on Google Maps know. By all means check your speed
Yes, I’m still a landline user for speed limits limit in Google Maps, but rely on it? I
because there’s little else in my I was interested in your item ‘Keep don’t think so.
location (‘Less than half of UK homes within the speed limit using Keith Bristow
have landlines’, Issue 690, page 8). I’m Google Maps’ in Issue
one of those neglected by BT because I 690’s ‘Phone and What3Words is better
assume I’m not economically worth Tablet Tips’ (page 44 , to use worldwide
connecting to fibre, although just around pictured right). I With regard to Kevin Oliver’s
the corner there is full-fibre. recently travelled letter about why he prefers
I’m happy to know that the copper from north Somerset OS Locate to What3Words (Issue
network cut-off date has been extended to Huntingdon and 690), the main difference is that
yet again. Before BT even considers axing used Google Maps What3Words is global, whereas
it, they should ensure there’s an adequate both ways. On the OS Locate only works in the UK. I
phone signal throughout the country, and way home, I avoided have no idea what to use globally
not just to the larger conurbations with using motorways and except What3Words.
good internet speed. How often on a found that there was John C Kent

Views expressed don’t necessarily reflect those of Computeractive Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 13
 Consumeractive
We stand up for your legal rights

Can DFS refuse LEAD Is my warranty

to replace a CASE invalid because
I’m a business?
cracked table? I bought a Husqvarna Emerald

I ordered a coffee table

Q 118 sewing machine online from
Yandles (www.yandles.co.uk) in
Q online from DFS (www.
dfs.co.uk), which was
August 2023. It’s already been returned
for repair once, but still has problems.
due to be delivered on 2 July. This Husqvarna says the warranty isn’t valid
was convenient for me because because the machine is used for my small
I was moving into a new home business. Is this true?
on 28 June. However, DFS Delphine Bowden
delivered it to my new (empty)
house about three weeks earlier. Partly. If this sewing machine is
When we unpacked the table, we
discovered it had cracks, but DFS has
to 30 days to report damages which are
stated in the terms and conditions.”
A used for a business, then Yandles
can choose not to cover it under
refused a replacement because of the It sounds like DFS is confusing Alan’s its warranty. Delphine should check the
time that has elapsed. 14-day right to reject with his 30-day right terms. However, her contract is with
Can it do this? to reject faulty goods under the Consumer Yandles, and she’s still protected under
Alan Frederiksen Rights Act (CRA). Under the CRA, if 30 the Sales of Goods Act, which covers
days have passed since delivery you can transactions between businesses.
No it can’t. DFS broke its still get a refund, but the seller can She doesn’t have the right to demand a
A contract with Alan by delivering
the table early – unless it states
attempt one repair or replacement first.
DFS says Alan should have contacted
refund or replacement after a failed
repair, so Yandles is allowed another
in its terms and conditions that the it earlier to complain, but he didn’t attempt to fix it. However, because one
delivery date is only an estimate, or did know the table was faulty because the year has passed since purchase, she’ll
try to tell him it was arriving ahead of company delivered it to an empty house have to prove the fault is inherent.
schedule. nearly a month before he moved in. If a second repair fails and Yandles
DFS told Alan that he was too late to And in any case, he complained within refuses to refund or replace, she could
ask for a replacement or refund. It said: 30 days, so can demand a refund. We’ll take the company to the small claims
“Under Consumer Rights the item has to tell DFS it needs to refund Alan, and court. Her chance of success rests on
be checked within a reasonable period of should also consider an apology or the business contract between Delphine
time (14 days), but we generally allow up goodwill gesture. and the company.
CASE ONGOING CASE ONGOING

CASE UPDATE

ISP lets customer cancel after speeds are half advertised

We’re happy to report that At first, the company said he of taking further action. But Pop
Essex-based internet provider would have to honour the Telecom’s response did leave us
Pop Telecom has said remaining 10 months of his puzzled. First, it said that Chris
customer Chris Ames can contract, but relented when was using EE’s broadband
cancel his contract without facing an early- we explained that Chris cables, when in fact they
termination fee, after he complained that he could take his case to the belong to Openreach. It
usually gets speeds that are below 30Mbps ombudsman under Ofcom’s then gave him the option of
– and sometimes single figures – despite code of practice on broadband switching to TalkTalk’s “faster”
paying for 67Mbps (see Issue 691). speeds. Advertising 67Mbps when cables, but TalkTalk doesn’t
Pop Telecom had admitted to Chris that you can’t provide even half that clearly have its own cables – it also uses
his speeds were low, but claimed they breaks the law. Openreach. We’ve asked Pop Telecom to
were as fast as he could get. It’s a good result, saving Chris the hassle clarify its advice.

14 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Contact us so we can investigate your case
Email: [email protected]
Please include your name, phone number and address.

Can I keep Fujufilm camera I didn’t order?

I’ve just received what appears goods you’ve never ordered Amazon, so he could contact the
Q to be a modern polaroid-type
Fujifilm Instax Mini 20 camera
arrive and the sender
either wants you to leave
company to check, but he’s
under no obligation to do this.
(pictured). I didn’t order it and it didn’t a positive review or will Our advice is that Bill
have my name on it, but was correctly try to bill you later. The should hang on to the camera
addressed to my home. Is this a cunning item may be a fake, but unopened for a month to
plan to get me to buy Fujifilm, and does it you are allowed to keep it. see if any attempt is made
legally belong to me? However, it may be a to reclaim the parcel.
Bill Schardt genuine mistake, and the It’s not as if he knows
seller sent it to the wrong the person and is
To answer Bill’s first question: address. Bill doesn’t have deliberately trying to
A no, we don’t believe Fujifilm is
trying to get him to buy
the seller’s name, but even if he did
we’d advise him not to contact them just
deprive them of their goods,
which would be theft. After that time, he
expensive film. But it could be what’s in case it is a scam. can do whatever he likes with the camera
known as a ‘brushing’ scam. This is when The item might have been sent by under British law.
CASE CLOSED

I’ve been moved broadband service supplied by Octopus

Energy. He made no attempt to get out
to TalkTalk – can of his contract then, so a dislike of
TalkTalk wouldn’t be sufficient reason
I leave for free? A
We want to reassure Malcolm
that TalkTalk is part of Ofcom’s
to exit without a penalty.
When a company buys another it must
I originally signed up for Shell compensation scheme, which agree to honour customers’ original
Q Broadband, but some months
later I was told it was being
automatically refunds customers for
outages and delayed repairs. It joined in
contracts. But if TalkTalk is breaching this
contract, perhaps by not delivering the
taken over by Octopus Energy. I don’t April 2019, along with BT, Sky, Virgin promised speed, Malcolm will be able to
want to be a TalkTalk customer, and Zen (see full list at www.snipca. leave without penalty – as long as he
particularly if it doesn’t belong to com/51679). allows TalkTalk time to address his
Ofcom’s automatic compensation The next question is one of contract complaints. Malcolm should also read the
scheme. If I leave, it’ll charge me an exit law. It’s true that Malcolm didn’t sign up original contract to see if it includes any
fee of £134.14. Can you clarify my rights? to TalkTalk, but what harms his case is get-out clause if the service is taken over
Malcolm Lee that he didn’t formally agree to have his by another company.
CASE ONGOING

CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE

Lebara helped to connect my existing number

Lebara featured heavily in Issue honest opinion on which package would
690’s Cover Feature on switching best suit me. I’ve not regretted moving from
to an MVNO, and my experience Three for one moment.
with the company has been Chris Pryce
excellent. I switched in February, but I wasn’t number to make sure it was connecting.
sure how to connect my existing number. Throughout our conversation he was Contact
I spoke to a customer-service assistant, patient and knowledgeable. He also
who was extremely helpful and rang me back answered all my questions about how
Lebara
at an agreed time. He said he thought the virtual networks operate, and gave me his • Call from Lebara SIM dial 5588
switch had taken place, but when I still couldn’t Has a company impressed you with its • Online chat www.snipca.com/51680
get it to work he suggested some other customer service? Please let us know: • Phone 020 7031 0791
fixes, and these did work. He kept calling my [email protected]

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 15

 Grow Your
Family Tree
If your ancestors helped to keep sailors safe on British
waters, follow Judith Batchelor’s advice to…
Search UK coastguard records
A
s a maritime nation with an Genuki (www.snipca.com/51346). Many
extensive coastline, a British of the entries are taken from census
defence force was needed to returns and you can track a coastguard’s
counteract the activities of smugglers career postings by looking at the
bringing illicit contraband ashore. birthplaces of their children. It was 1 2
Initially, Riding Officers on horseback common for coastguards to be posted to
patrolled the coast but in 1822, Her different stations to ensure there was no
Majesty’s Coastguard was officially partiality to family or friends.
formed. In time, coastguards were also You’ll also find records in class ADM
responsible for search-and-rescue 175 of the National Archives (www.
missions and the safety of people at sea. snipca.com/51671), where you can 3
Coastguard officers also provided a download records of service as digital
reserve for the Royal Navy. microfilm. Findmypast subscribers will The original document shows that ‘Robt’
find it easier to search these records in Napton previously served on HMS Lapwing
Find details in service its collection ‘Coastguards 1801-1952’
records (www.snipca.com/51349). screenshot above). It also tells me Napton
To find ancestors who served as I searched for Robert Napton, who I was appointed to the coastguard service
coastguards and information on their knew served as a coastguard in the on 22 February, 1836, from HMS Lapwing
families, visit the virtual reference library mid-1830s. I wasn’t sure exactly when 2 and was stationed as a boatman at New
though, so I selected ‘-/+ 2 years’ in the Quay, Padstow, Cornwall 3 .
‘Give or take’ menu ( 1 in our screenshot
2 left). I also ticked the ‘Name variants’ Browse Navy records
boxes under ‘First name’ and ‘Last name’ Napton’s service on HMS Lapwing means
2 to make sure the results included any that, like many coastguards, he had
different spellings. This paid off, because previously served in the Royal Navy.
1 among the 11 references Findmypast You can find information on them by
found, some recorded him as ‘Robt’, searching the service records of the Royal
while one spells his surname ‘Napston’. Navy, Royal Marines or Merchant Navy.
Clicking ‘View image’ on the results Start at Findmypast’s ‘Military, armed
If you don’t find the person you’re looking for,
broaden your date range and tick both ‘Name page brings up the original handwritten forces and conflict’ collection (www.
variants’ boxes record, showing the ‘Robt’ entry ( 1 in our snipca.com/51672). It revealed that
Napton had joined HMS Lapwing as an

Your Genealogy Problems Solved

able seaman aged 21 in November 1833.
He was later recalled to the Royal Navy
in 1854 to serve on HMS Caesar during
My dad was badly wounded in World War ‘Red Cross Volunteers During WWI, the Crimean War, returning to the
1, but made a near full recovery. He said 1914-1918’ (www.snipca.com/51335 coastguard service after his discharge
he owed his life to his nurse, and would – see Issue 687’s column), we found a on 30 April 1856.
have liked to thank her. The only details I handful of nurses named Gladys or Ancestry has the same records in its
have for her are ‘G Bell, No.7 M.H’. Can you Gertrude Bell. You may be able to use ‘UK Naval Officer and Rating Service
give me more details about her identity? this info to track down the nurse. Also try Records 1802-1919’ collection (www.
Graeme Stewart posting a query on The Long, Long Trail: snipca.com/51348), while you might
www.longlongtrail.co.uk. find further information – including
The initials ‘MH’ stand for military hospital, date of birth and a physical description
Have a genealogy question for Judith?
and No.7 is the Base Hospital in Boulogne, Email [email protected] with – in Findmypast’s ‘Britain, Merchant
France. Searching Ancestry’s collection ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line. Seamen 1835-1857’ collection (www.
snipca.com/51670).

16 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692 Next issue: Search Household Cavalry records
 Best Free Software
Robert Irvine recommends new programs that won’t cost you a thing
VIDEO PLAYER

FreeTube 0.21.3
www.snipca.com/51885
What you need: Windows 10 or 11, macOS or Linux

Although FreeTube is officially still in beta, this private detect when you add a duplicate video to
front-end for YouTube has made lots of major changes since a playlist and offer to remove the copy.
it last appeared in this section in Issue 647 (page 18). It has Another welcome addition tells you when the
overhauled its interface to make it faster and less buggy, Trending and Most Popular feeds were last updated on
dropped support for Windows 7 and 8.1, and – most YouTube. You can refresh the content manually by pressing
importantly – been updated to fix playback problems caused R or by clicking the Refresh button in the top-right corner.
by changes to YouTube. To make these feeds show more UK-relevant content, click
As you’ll be aware, Google has been clamping down on Settings in FreeTube’s sidebar and select General Settings.
tools that block adverts on YouTube, and FreeTube is one of Set ‘English (UK’) as the ‘Locale preference’ and ‘United
the best means of doing so. It removes all ads and tracking Kingdom’ as the ‘Region for trending’.
from the video service, while giving you free access to all its We also like that FreeTube’s search results now tell you
content – plus the option to download videos in MP4 format. which videos are in 4K quality and have subtitles – look
FreeTube has significantly improved its Playlists feature to for the tiny labels below the name of the uploader.
make it easier to add and organise content. Your playlists are Click ‘More info’ then ‘Run anyway’ if you see a
now presented in a grid format, with the option to sort them by SmartScreen warning when installing FreeTube – it’s
recently played or created, or alphabetically, and a more completely safe to use, with a clean bill of health from
accurate search tool. Usefully, the program will automatically VirusTotal (see www.snipca.com/51893).

1 Click the funnel button next 2 You can subscribe to 3 Like YouTube, FreeTube 4 The Settings tab also
to the search box to open YouTube channels just like keeps a log of videos lets you customise how
FreeTube’s search filters. As you would on the main you’ve watched in its FreeTube looks and
well as upload date, view site, and all those channels’ History section. To stop this works. You can change
count and duration, these videos will automatically happening, click Settings the colour of its theme
now include options to filter appear on the Subscriptions then Privacy Settings and (including to dark mode);
results by specific features, tab. To unsubscribe, you need switch off Remember hide recommendations and
such as subtitles, HD, 3D to click the Channels tab then History. Click ‘Clear Watch user comments; and block
and videos with a Creative the Unsubscribe button for History’ to delete your sponsored messages in
Commons licence. the relevant channel. saved viewing data. videos.

18 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

NETWORK SCANNER
SHOULD I PAY FOR…?
O&O Lanytix 1.2.1343 Choose the right version of software
www.snipca.com/51864
What you need: Windows 10 or 11
Any Video Converter Pro
This free tool from www.snipca.com/51871
O&O – developer of Price: $9.95 (£7.55) a month or $29.95 (£22.73) a year
Computeractive Free trial period: N/A
favourites AppBuster What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11
and ShutUp10++
– shows you which Packed with features and easy to use, Any Video Converter
devices are using (AVC) Free is one of our favourite programs for working
your home network. with video files – but how much more does its Pro version
Simply click the ‘Scan offer?
local network’ button Unusually for freemium software, none of the main
and O&O Lanytix will list all connected hardware, including tools in the standard edition are locked behind an Upgrade
computers, phones, tablets, smart TVs, streaming sticks, button, and AVC Pro doesn’t offer any extra ones. This
smart speakers and more. It provides details of each device’s means you can download, convert and edit videos, and
IP address, manufacturer and when it was first and last seen burn them to DVD, without being prompted to pay.
on your network. The latest version adds the ability to rename However,
devices to make them more recognisable – just click the several options
Properties button (see screenshot) and enter a new name. within those
It also lets you copy device information to your clipboard tools are
and remove items from its list. Usefully, the program now restricted to
highlights newly detected devices so you can quickly spot the paid-for
intruders, and allows you to scan specific IP ranges. version, and
give you both
EBOOK MANAGER more control
and greater
Calibre 7.17 flexibility.
www.snipca.com/51867 Most notably,
What you need: Windows 10 or 11, macOS or Linux AVC Pro will
remember
Calibre is the best your preferred format, resolution, frame rate and other
free software for output settings when you convert video and audio files,
reading, managing rather than make you configure them anew each time.
and converting Another big difference is that the Screen Record tool
ebooks on your (see screenshot) in AVC Free will only capture up to three
computer, and minutes of video, while the Pro version removes this limit.
is frequently The latter also lets you split large videos into more than five
updated with new segments, and merge five clips into a single video.
features and More niche benefits include the ability to add more
improvements. than three watermarks to a video and to use AI to convert
Version 7.17 adds support for page numbers in books, which an audio or video file into a text file in another language.
an ebook may contain if it’s been digitised from a paper Additionally, when downloading videos from YouTube and
edition. To jump to a specific page, hover your cursor over the hundreds of other sites, you can customise the audio and
top-right corner of Calibre’s ‘E-book viewer’ and click ‘Show subtitle settings.
controls’ then ‘Go to’. Select ‘Location’ (see screenshot), enter
the page number you want to jump to and click Go. This OUR VERDICT Don’t pay for it
works even when page numbers aren’t visible, because it uses Though some of AVC Pro’s extras may prove useful, the free
embedded metadata. To display them, select Preferences, version will be more than sufficient for most users’ needs.
then ‘Headers and footers’ in the viewer controls. Click one of If the three-minute limit in the Screen Record tool is too
the dropdown menus next to Header or Footer, depending on short, you can capture longer videos for free using ShareX
where you want page numbers to appear, and select ‘Pages (www.snipca.com/51874).
from paper edition’.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 19

 Best Free Software

What should I download?

We advise you which software and apps to use

Can I add a menu to videos on

How can I show a USB stick?
names on photos? I used to
I like to display names of people and dates taken Q download my
Q on my digital photos, but it’s tricky to do this with
group or crowd shots. Is there any free, basic
videos to DVD
using Sony Architect,
software that lets me show individuals’ names when you which let me add links
hover your cursor over their face? to navigate. I want to
Bruce Dodsworth upgrade to a USB stick, but I can’t find a free tool that lets me
add links. Is there one?
We can’t find a program that’s entirely free, but Graham Kerr
A Tonfotos (https://tonfotos.com) lets you tag up to
12 people before having to pay. You can remove this Yes, try the portable tool Compact AutoRunner
restriction by buying it for a one-off price (£38).
After downloading, double-click the setup file. Tick all
A (www.snipca.com/51366), which lets you design a
simple menu with clickable links and buttons
three boxes you see, then click ‘Use free version’. The (pictured). Extract its files to the root directory of your USB
program selects your Pictures, Desktops and Downloads stick, then click the ‘CompactAutoRunner_ConfigBuilder.exe’
folders by default, but you can add others. file to create your menu. Make sure you save the configuration
When you open it, Tonfotos immediately starts indexing file as ‘CompactAutoRunner.xml’, then double-click the
all your photos. If you have an Nvidia graphics card, you’ll ‘CompactAutoRunner.exe’ file to test your menu.
be prompted to download CUDA libraries, but we found
they couldn’t detect faces in certain folders, so click ‘Don’t
remind me anymore’ to skip this. Which PDF program has a
Once indexing is complete, select the People tab at the
top ( 1 in our screenshot). Tonfotos will detect and list
‘separate cover page’ option?
names on the left, while unidentified faces will appear in a
pop-up window 2 . Click ‘This is…’ to add their names.
Some faces in the main window will be marked with a
question mark. These need to be confirmed, so hover your
cursor over the photo and click the tick button to do so, or 2
right-click for more options 3 – including to identify it as
someone else. To see who else is in a photo, click the [i]
button 4 .
1
4
I read your alarming story about hackers targeting a
1 Q ‘flaw’ in Foxit PDF Reader (Issue 685, page 7). You
suggested PDFgear (www.pdfgear.com) as an
alternative, but it doesn’t offer a ‘separate cover page’ option.
Can you recommend a program that does?
Alex Bardy

3 2 To clarify, the ‘separate cover page’ option lets you

A show the first page of a PDF on its own, so the
following pages can be viewed side by side like an
open book. You’ll find this in the free Sumatra PDF (www.
sumatrapdfreader.org). Open your PDF, click the top-left menu
(three horizontal lines), then choose View followed by Book
View ( 1 in our screenshot) to achieve the desired effect 2 .

20 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692 Email us your questions at [email protected]

Named & Shamed
Keumars Afifi-Sabet puts the boot into tech villains,
jargon-spouting companies and misbehaving software

SOFTWARE WARNING!
Unwanted NordVPN free trials from Onestream

I
’ve been with Zen 1
Internet for five years,
paying £35 a month for
2
a reliable connection of
67Mbps. But I’m always looking for
cheaper deals, which is why an offer from
small provider Onestream caught my eye.
I’d get the same speed and pay £15 less a
month (see screenshot 1 ).
I hadn’t heard of Onestream, so did a
little research online. The company is
based in Fareham, Hampshire, was
formed in 2016 and uses Openreach’s
broadband cables. That all sounded fine.
But then I spotted a recent post on X Onestream promised 67Mbps for £15 less a
(formerly Twitter) by customer Daniel month than Zen Internet… …but appeared to sign up customers to
Roe who was shocked that Onestream NordVPN without their permission
had signed him up to a free trial of appeared online, the website ISPreview
NordVPN without his permission (www. repeatedly asked Onestream to clarify the None of this should put you off
snipca.com/51824, see screenshot 2 ). offer – specifically whether those who NordVPN, by the way – it’s one of our
Worse, the small print said he’d be didn’t cancel would be charged. After favourite VPNs (see page 50). But if
charged £4.95 a month if he didn’t several vague statements, Onestream you want to sign up for it, do so on its
cancel. Onestream even had the gall to eventually said “nobody has been charged website. And ignore emailed offers from
call this a “special discount” in a press and nobody will be charged unless they broadband providers whose marketing
release (www.snipca.com/51825). opt in”. It’s a total mess that Ofcom is strategy is more confused than a polar
After complaints from other customers now investigating. bear at the South Pole.

WHAT ARE THEY KEUMARS’ VILLAIN OF THE FORTNIGHT

TALKING ABOUT?

WHAT THEY SAY

Leroy Simpson
McAfee www.snipca.com/51792
“With McAfee Deepfake Detector now After seeing a car he Birmingham, and
available exclusively on Lenovo Copilot+ wanted being advertised was tracked down by
PCs, consumers who opt in are alerted on Facebook Marketplace, officers in nearby
within seconds if AI-altered audio is Leroy Simpson thought he woodland. He admitted
detected in videos, without relying on could negotiate a bargain robbery and aggravated
laborious manual video uploads. By by brandishing a knife to vehicle taking following
leveraging the power of the Neural the owner during the test the incident in February,
Processing Unit (NPU), McAfee’s AI drive. The terrified seller and in August was jailed
detection models perform the entire fled, leaving Simpson free for nine years. He was
identification process… directly on the PC, to drive 10 miles across also disqualified from
Credit Staffordshire Police

maximising on-device processing to keep the Midlands pursued by driving.

private user data off the cloud.” a police helicopter. The crime is a reminder that while
Simpson, who used a false name they are plenty of dodgy sellers on
WHAT THEY MEAN when contacting the seller, eventually Facebook Marketplace, you can’t
AI can’t help us speak plain English. crashed at Hopwood Services in assume all buyers are who they seem.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 21

 Reviews
New products tested by our experts New products tested by our experts

PC | £1,000 from CyberPowerPC www.snipca.com/51673

CyberPowerPC Infinity X145 Elite

Graphic detail

Up until about a year ago getting a PC There’s little difference in

with a graphics card installed could really the performance of the two
stretch your budget. Now we’re seeing processors in benchmark tests
these PCs available at pretty reasonable that push the cores to their
prices. The CyberPowerPC Infinity X145 limits. The Infinity’s Intel i5 ran
Elite isn’t exactly cheap, but considering about 12-per-cent slower than
it has one of the latest Intel processors the Ryzen 7. There’s a similar
and a decent graphics card, it’s certainly difference between the two in
good value for money. more demanding Windows
performance tests, though this
won’t be noticeable in day-to-day
Good value with office tasks and web browsing.
For further comparison, our
a graphics card current favourite desktop PC, the
Palicomp AMD Cobra (£400 from
installed, and has www.snipca.com/43515 – see page
30) runs at around 60-per-cent of
plenty of ports the speed of this model, but remains a
great choice for more modest Windows
That cutting-edge desktop chip is users considering it costs well under
the Intel Core i5-14400F, and it works half the price. graphics card connects to an HDMI
alongside an MSI GeForce RTX 4060 It’s the gulf between the Infinity’s port and three DisplayPorts.
graphics card, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB 4060 graphics and the Destiny’s 4070 One of the most impressive things
SSD. That’s not quite the high graphics graphics that really separates these two about the CyberPowerPC brand is its
specification we saw in the Palicomp more heavyweight machines. generous warranties. The Infinity comes
AMD Destiny (£1,250 from www.snipca. In graphics tests, the Infinity ran as with five years of cover in total, with the
com/51529, reviewed in Issue 691), which much as 45-per-cent slower than the first two covering parts, labour and
combined an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Destiny. That means it’s still got enough courier costs; the final three years are
processor with a powerful GeForce RTX in the tank for 1080p gaming at high- labour-only. This means in the event of
4070 graphics card. detail settings, and can even manage a repair you’d need to pay for any parts
However, for £250 less the Infinity 1440p resolution with the graphics and their transportation to and from
arguably provides better value for money settings turned down a notch, but you CyberPowerPC’s base in Gateshead.
if you’re just looking for a capable all-round shouldn’t expect it to work with 4K-
PC rather than one that runs games at resolution games.
high resolutions. For most of us, however, that’s VERDICT A sensible balance between
probably more than enough, and it will processor and graphics performance
certainly run Microsoft Flight Simulator makes this a great all-round PC
at these resolutions without any glitches.
The case has a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0
★★★★★
port on the top, alongside headphone ALTERNATIVE Palicomp AMD Cobra
and microphone jacks (pictured left). £400 This can’t compete when running
Around the back there are more games, but it
connections, including one USB-C, two provides
USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports. The a solid
Windows
SPECIFICATIONS performance
Ten-core Intel Core i5-14400F processor • 32GB of at a truly
memory • 8GB MSI GeForce RTX 4060 graphics •
1TB SSD • Windows 11 Home • 465x220x365mm
knockdown
(HxWxD) • Five-year warranty www.snipca. price
com/51673

22 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue

Issue692
692
 HOW WE TEST
Computeractive is owned by Future PLC,
LAPTOP ❘ £1,199 from Very www.snipca.com/51681 which employs a team of specialist
technical reviewers. You’ll often read

Lenovo LOQ 15in references to our benchmark testing,

which is a method of assessing products
using the same criteria. For example, we
Assault on battery test the speed of every PC and the battery
life of every phone and tablet in exactly
the same way. This makes our reviews
authoritative, rigorous and accurate.
The Nvidia GeForce 4060 graphics card Future PLC also owns the magazines
is a popular choice for manufacturers Maximum PC, PC Pro and T3, and the
looking to add a bit of gaming prowess websites Laptop Mag (www.laptopmag.
to their PCs – see the CyberPowerPC com), TechRadar (www.techradar.com)
Infinity X145 Elite reviewed left. Here it and Windows Central (www.windows
pops up again, but this time in a laptop. central.com). This means we can test
It’s been paired with an Intel Core thousands of products before choosing
i7-13650HX processor, which is more the most relevant for Computeractive.
powerful than the Infinity’s Core i5,
but is a generation older. FAIR AND IMPARTIAL
In general performance, it’s slightly Our writers follow strict guidelines to
faster than our current favourite ensure the reviews are fair and impartial.
laptop, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus The manufacturer has no involvement in
(£849 from www.snipca.com/51684 – our tests.
see page 30), which uses the newer an hour. It essentially means you need
Ultra 7 155H chip. You’d only really it plugged in virtually all the time. OUR AWARDS
want to pay the extra £350 for the LOQ It also has to work hard to keep itself We award every product
if you wanted a laptop with that level of cool, which means plenty of noise that gets five stars our
graphics capability – it ran our gaming generated by its fans. This is particularly Buy It! stamp of approval.
benchmark tests at more than 2.5 times noticeable at start-up and when put It means we were
the speed of the Inspiron. under even moderate levels of stress. It’s extremely impressed by the product, and
easily the loudest laptop we’ve reviewed we think you will be too.
recently, sometimes even drowning out
Every product that gets a
A powerful gaming the audio from its own speakers
four-star review is given the
The laptop case is mostly plastic,
laptop, but its battery but it feels sturdily built and doesn’t
Recommended award. We
highly recommend these
require careful handling. The IPS screen
life is short and its fans is fine, with a 1080p resolution and a
products, although they just fail to meet the
high standard of our Buy It! winners.
144Hz refresh rate, but its peak brightness
make quite a noise is just 350cd/m2, so details might start PRICES
getting tricky to make out in bright Our reviews contain a link to the best price
It’s not all good news, though. Putting sunshine. Its colours also look a bit we found online at the time of press.
powerful graphics into a laptop takes its washed out.
toll on battery life. Where the Inspiron One thing it gets right is its generous
can run for more than 15 hours between range of connectivity options. It comes
charges, the LOQ couldn’t make it past with one USB-C, three USB 3.0, one VERDICT The fastest gaming laptop
the two-hour mark in our video- HDMI and an Ethernet port. The keyboard we’ve reviewed to date, but this level of
playback and general Windows tests. is a good size and felt comfortable and power takes its toll on the battery and
When gaming, this dropped to less than responsive under our fingertips. However, requires noisy fans to keep it cool
the trackpad was small and felt cheap,
so you’ll probably want to connect your
★★★★★
favourite mouse. ALTERNATIVE Dell Insprion 14 Plus
£849 Similar performance in general
SPECIFICATIONS Windows
Fourteen-core Intel Core i7-13650HX processor • work for a
16GB RAM • Nvidia GeForce 4060 graphics card • lower price,
15.6in 1920x1080-pixel 144Hz IPS screen • 512GB but not ideal
SSD • 1x USB-C port • 3x USB 3.0 ports • 1x HDMI port
• 1x Ethernet port • Wi-Fi 6 • Bluetooth 5.1 • Windows
for running
11 Home • 24x360x298mm (HxWxD) • 2.38kg games
• One-year warranty www.snipca.com/51681

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 23

 Reviews
MONITOR | £200 from Amazon www.snipca.com/51687

Philips 27E1N1600AE
Setting the right tone

On paper – and even before testing it –

the Philips 27E1N1600AE looked like a
decent contender to replace our previous
favourite monitor. Like the BenQ
BL2790QT (£175 from www.snipca.
com/51568, reviewed in Issue 685) it
has a 27in screen with a resolution of
2560x1440 pixels. But this model beats it
in a number of key areas, including its
100Hz refresh rate (compared with 75Hz)
and a four-millisecond response time
(the BenQ model has 5ms). base means that you can raise or lower well in both bright natural daylight and
the monitor by 100mm and tilt it back under artificial light.
and forth with a single hand, without it At its default settings, we measured
Our new favourite wobbling to and fro. brightness at 215cd/m2, though you can
Connection options (pictured below turn it up to a maximum of 350cd/m2.
monitor offers plenty left) are ample. A USB-C port at the rear While contrast isn’t outstanding, the
can ferry a video signal from a compatible 1,598:1 contrast ratio is a significant
of connections, laptop, and can send back up to 65W step up on the BenQ model. The screen

accurate colours and an of power to charge connected devices.

There’s an HDMI port for more basic
recreates 82 per cent of the DCI-P3
colour standard, which again is better
understated design video connections, along with two USB
3.0 ports at the back, though only one of
than the 70 per cent we measured on the
BL2790QT. We still wouldn’t recommend
them is powerful enough to fast-charge a it to someone whose job depended on
Its combination of understated design mobile device. getting colour just right, but for most
and practical features is well judged. It It’s good to see that Philips hasn’t users it does a sterling job.
won’t win any design awards, but the forgotten other basic requirements, with One final word about the in-built
squared-off stand is a nice contrast to a bundled 1.5m HDMI cable, a 1.8m speakers. If you have no other choice,
the slim, curved back panel of the USB-C cable and a power cord. then they are just about loud enough.
monitor, and the overall build quality The power button on the rear doubles That said, the tinny, raspy sound quality
feels reassuringly solid. up as a four-way joystick for accessing means they can’t match most laptop
The stand is adjustable but isn’t as the onscreen display, and while it takes a speakers. Thankfully, there is a 3.5mm
versatile as some rivals – it doesn’t spin little getting used to, it works well audio-out socket at the rear of the
around into portrait mode, nor does it enough. The control scheme is a tad monitor, so you can hook up a pair of
swivel left and right. However, the hefty quirky, but the display presents all the headphones or external speakers if
usual options in a clear, logical way. But needed.
you shouldn’t need to use it too often
– we found it didn’t need much tweaking
beyond the brightness level. VERDICT An affordable 27in monitor
Given its budget price, its colour with a sharp resolution, impressive
accuracy is particularly impressive. image quality and sturdy build
Whites are bright, blacks are deep, and
colours are bold without looking
★★★★★
unnatural. The matte anti-glare coating ALTERNATIVE
does an effective job of dampening BenQ XBL2970QT £175 Our previous
reflections, and we found that it fared favourite 27in
monitor has has
SPECIFICATIONS fallen in price and
27in IPS screen • 2560x1440-pixel resolution • 16:9 remains good
aspect ratio • 100Hz refresh rate • 4ms response time
• 1x HDMI port • 1x USB-C port • 2x USB 3.0 ports
value if you want
• 483x617x220mm (HxWxD) • 5.75kg • Two-year to spend less
warranty www.snipca.com/51687

24 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Reviews
EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ❘ £163 from Western Digital www.snipca.com/51838
CHOOSE THE RIGHT SPECS
Western Digital Duty cycle
My Passport 6TB and monthly
page volume
Mega store
What does it do?
A printer’s duty cycle is the maximum
Western Digital has increased the number of pages per month it can
capacity of its largest portable hard drives print, as recommended by the
to 6TB after years of maxing them out at manufacturer. HP has also started
5TB. We tested the 6TB My Passport, but quoting a monthly page volume
the WD Black and Essential models figure, with minimum and maximum
benefit from the same capacity rise. numbers.
Its plastic shell is grey on the bottom
but available in a choice of white, red How does it work?
(pictured), blue or black on top. It comes A printer’s duty cycle is usually more
with a 45cm cable that has a regular USB relevant to business printers used
3.0 port at one end and USB Micro-B on by an entire office. That’s because the
the other. This may seem surprising now figure is often thousands of pages
that faster USB-C ports are the norm, but per month, which most home users
as this unit contains a mechanical hard won’t get anywhere near. The monthly
drive rather than an SSD, a connector page volume is more useful for home
with a maximum throughput of 5Gbps users, because it also suggests a
would be surplus to requirements. True Image, which will cover all your minimum number of pages per month
backup and drive-cloning needs and that the manufacturer recommends
protect you from ransomware. to keep a printer running smoothly. If
An inexpensive, As a mechanical drive, its transfer
speeds lag well behind most of the
that figure is well above your usual
output, it might be worth choosing a
high-capacity portable SSDs we’ve tested recently. One of our printer that’s less likely to clog up if
benchmark tests recorded a write speed you don’t use it every day.
drive with useful backup of 109MB/s (872Mbps), compared with
around 1,000MB/s from the Lexar SL500 What are the specs?
software SSD (reviewed in Issue 683). Keep in The HP OfficeJet Pro 9730e (£206
mind, however, that the SL500 costs £149 from HP at www.snipca.com/51840,
for 2TB (www.snipca.com/51863). As reviewed in Issue 691, pictured) has a
The drive is larger than most portable always, hard drives are slower but offer monthly page volume
drives of its type – it’s 1.4mm thicker more storage for your money. of 250 to 1,500 pages,
than its 5TB sibling and weighs 210g. If you need lots of storage space and so HP is suggesting
However, this is the first time we’ve seen can live with slow transfer speeds, this is it shouldn’t produce
a 6TB hard drive in a case of this size, and a very affordable option, provided your more than 1,500
as such there are no comparable models. PC has a standard USB port to plug it into. pages per month, or
Previous drives have been larger and fewer than 250. These are
required their own power supplies. This just guidelines to keep your printer in
model draws all the power it needs VERDICT A vast amount of portable good condition, though – it won’t stop
through its USB port. storage for a decent price, but it’s slow working if you print more or less. If the
Western Digital includes software for compared with SSDs because it uses minimum looks too high, you might
both PCs and Macs. WD Security older technology with moving parts prefer one of the models with a lower
manages the drive’s AES 256bit hardware figure in HP’s Envy range.
encryption and password, while WD
★★★★★
Drive Utilities lets you test the drive for ALTERNATIVE SanDisk Desk Drive Can I change it later?
problems and switch off the tiny activity SSD 8TB £600 It’s possible to get No. There’s no need to waste ink
LED. However, the best inclusion is a SSD speeds from printing pages simply to hit the
generous five-year licence for Acronis a high-capacity monthly minimum target, but it’s a
storage device, but good idea to look for a printer that
SPECIFICATIONS
6TB storage • Requires PC or laptop with USB 3.0
expect to pay a lot better suits your needs when deciding
port • 107x74x21mm (HxWxD) • 210g • Three-year more for it which one to buy.
warranty www.snipca.com/51838

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 25

 Reviews
TABLET ❘ £194 from AGM www.snipca.com/51823

AGM Pad P2 Active

Tough customer

AGM’s Pad P2 Active is an Android tablet The tablet is powered by the

in a sturdy case designed to withstand a MediaTek Helio G99 processor. This
few knocks. It will appeal to people who is good enough for running general
like to carry their tablet around with Android software, but it lags well behind
them, especially in more rugged the performance you’ll find in pricier
environments. The case doubles up as a tablets, and it’s not well suited to
stand (pictured below), so you can playing the latest games.
position the tablet in an upright position, In comparison tests against the
either in landscape or portrait mode. Qualcomm Snapdragon SM8550 elsewhere, the 50-megapixel camera
While the case certainly adds a layer of processor in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 can be relied on to do a decent job. The
protection and the stand is useful, it’s not (£649 from www.snipca.com/51826, screen is large at 11in across the diagonal
always ideal. For example, the tablet’s reviewed in Issue 667), it runs at around and – given this is designed to be used
buttons are covered with rubber bumps, one third of the speed, which seems outdoors – has a reasonable maximum
making them more difficult to press and about right for the price. Dip into games, brightness of 480cd/m2. Battery life is
to distinguish from the lumps sculpted however, and that gap increases, with also impressive, lasting 20 hours nine
into the rubber edge of the cover. The gaming benchmark tests showing the minutes in general use.
waterproof seal on the USB port also Pad P2 running at a meagre six per cent
makes it awkward to access. That keeps it of the speed of the Tab S9.
safe from dust and water (it has an Tablets aren’t generally bought for VERDICT A solidly built Android tablet
ingress protection rating of IP68), but their cameras, but the snaps produced designed for the great outdoors, but it
makes it fiddly to connect a cable when by this device are pretty good. They can’t can’t keep up with the performance of
you need to charge it. match the best smartphone cameras, more premium models
but if you find yourself needing to
capture something when your phone is
★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE
SPECIFICATIONS Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 £649
Eight-core MediaTek Helio G99 processor • 8GB A much more
RAM • 256GB storage • 1920x1200-pixel IPS screen powerful tablet,
• 50-megapixel rear camera • 8-megapixel front- which is capable
facing camera • Wi-Fi 6 • Bluetooth 5.1 • Android 14 •
187x275x21.3mm (HxWxD, including case) • 1.07kg
of running any
(including case) • One-year warranty www.snipca. Android apps
com/51823

WHAT SHOULD I BUY? We solve your buying dilemmas

What’s the best PC for photo and video editing?

I think the time has come for With that level of budget, we’d Photoshop, will benefit from the
Q me to bite the bullet and
upgrade to a new PC. My main
A suggest a desktop PC with a
powerful processor and a decent
standalone graphics hardware and
make editing photos and videos
requirement is a computer that will graphics card. The best option we’ve smoother and faster.
cope with the demands of encountered recently is the Palicomp Because this is slightly under your
Photoshop and video editing. AMD Destiny (£1,250 from www. maximum budget, you might consider
I am not very tech minded, snipca.com/51529, reviewed Issue adding more memory or a larger SSD
but I know I need something 691, pictured). This has an AMD when configuring the PC on Palicomp’s
powerful and fast. I have a Ryzen 7 7800 chip, which is more website. The extra storage might be
budget that can stretch up to than capable of running the software particularly useful if you have a lot of
£1,500. What would you you need, and an Nvidia RTX4070 videos to edit.
recommend? graphics card. Do you need advice on what you should buy?
Trevor Gask Adobe software, including Email us at [email protected]

26 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Reviews
WEBCAM | £45 from Logitech www.snipca.com/51819

Logitech Brio 105

A good call

The Brio 105 webcam lies at the more but also when we turned
affordable end of Logitech’s range and the lights off and were
is ideal for anyone looking to replace an illuminated only by the light from our attached, as is the folding clip that keeps
an older model or a lacklustre camera laptop screen. it in place when the webcam is sitting
built into a laptop. There’s no compromise on the Logi on top of your screen.
It doesn’t have all the powerful tools of Options+ software used to control it. This
its pricier Logitech stablemates and is is used across Logitech’s range and makes
limited to 1080p resolution footage and a it very easy to customise your image and VERDICT An effective webcam,
58-degree field of view. However, that’s audio. You can also simply plug it into particularly in low light, though you
more than enough if it’s only likely to be your laptop or PC without tweaking any don’t get the higher resolutions you’ll
you sitting in front of the camera, and settings. find in more expensive options
you aren’t too worried about sending For privacy reasons, it’s good to see a
your image with cutting-edge clarity to basic but functional plastic shutter that
★★★★★
those you’re talking to. you can slide over the lens when it’s not ALTERNATIVE Elgato Facecam MK.2
That said, footage quality is excellent. It in use, and while the single mic lacks £150 A smoother
looked good not only in a well-lit room, any advanced features, we found it 60fps video camera
worked well. with a wider field
SPECIFICATIONS The Brio 105 is small enough to sling of view, but it’s
1080p resolution at 30fps • 58-degree field of
view • 1x omnidirectional mic • 1.5m USB cable •
into a bag and light enough to take with significantly more
31x73x66mm (HxWxD) • 75g • Three-year warranty you wherever you go, but bear in mind expensive
www.snipca.com/51819 that the 1.5m USB cable is permanently

SECURITY CAMERA | £44 from Imou www.snipca.com/51815

Imou Rex 3D
Whole new ball game

Chinese manufacturer Imou offers a wide using the app or via its Ethernet socket
range of security cameras, including this if you prefer a more reliable wired and we had to manually reduce it to
indoor model. Its ball shape means that it connection. stop the camera recording footage of
can roll around within its stand and look Captured footage can be stored online inconsequential movements, such as a
in any direction. It pans horizontally or there’s a slot into which you can insert leaf blowing past a window.
through 355 degrees and vertically your own microSD card. The online-
through 90 degrees, so it can scan parts storage option will cost £2 a month if you
of a room that are beyond its field of view commit to a whole year. VERDICT An easy-to-install security
when static. You can also use its smart- Footage is shot as soon as the camera camera that can see beyond the reach
tracking feature to automatically follow detects movement and the image quality of most static cameras
any detected movement. is excellent. Its 1080p resolution isn’t as
Setup is straightforward – simply plug detailed as some rivals, but because it’s
★★★★★
the camera into a socket and download an indoor camera, detected movement ALTERNATIVE
the Imou Life mobile app. It can be tends to be closer to the lens so loss of Blink Mini £25 A
connected to your network wirelessly detail is less of a problem. Its night-vision cheaper indoor
mode worked well in our tests, capturing camera, but it can’t
SPECIFICATIONS plenty of detail even in the dark when move around on its
2304x1296-pixel resolution camera • 10m night
vision • 1x Ethernet port • Wi-Fi 4 • Two-way audio •
there was no other light in the room. base to follow
MicroSD card slot • 104x90x90mm (HxWxD) • 206g Our only criticism is that the movement
• One-year warranty www.snipca.com/51815 movement detection is overly sensitive,

28 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Reviews
SMART TV ❘ £599 from Amazon www.snipca.com/51850
DO I REALLY NEED...
Hisense 50U6NQTUK A 3D monitor
Set apart that doesn’t
require glasses?
The Hisense 50U6NQTUK has a 50in
screen based on the relatively recent What is it?
mini-LED technology. This uses tiny Samsung has
LEDs to illuminate the pixels that unveiled the
create the moving images on your Odyssey 3D
TV set. Because these are smaller than (pictured), a
the backlights typically found on LCD gaming monitor
sets, they provide richer contrast that can display in
between light and dark area, and both 2D and 3D,
produce a brighter picture. It can’t without the need for
quite match the quality of OLED special glasses.
screens, where each pixel has its own
light source, but it’s not far off and is a What does it do?
lot cheaper to manufacture. It uses eye-tracking cameras and a lens
As a comparison a 55in Hisense OLED movies and sports. mounted on the front to analyse how
TV with otherwise similar specifications It has two 10-Watt speakers that the viewer is looking at the screen. It
costs around £880 (www.snipca. produce a meaty bass sound and clear then adjusts the image to create “lifelike
com/51860), so you can see that a dialogue, even in more intense movie 3D images from 2D content”.
significant saving has been passed on. scenes. They support Dolby Atmos and
DTS: Virtual X and there are preset sound What’s the catch?
modes for different categories – Movie, We’re sceptical about any technology
An impressive TV Standard, Sport and more. The speakers that simulates 3D with content created
are limited, however, so we’d strongly in 2D – in essence, creating something
that balances screen recommend using a soundbar to take from nothing. Also, price hasn’t been
full advantage of these features. announced yet, but it’ll be expensive.
quality and price, but Hisense has its own smart-TV
So can I do without it?
speakers are so-so operating system called VIDAA. This
provides access to all major streaming Undoubtedly. 3D TVs didn’t take off and
apps, such as Netflix, Disney+ and we see no reason why 3D PC monitors
The design is basic but solidly built, Amazon Prime Video. More interestingly, would fare better.
with two sturdy feet to keep the whole it’s the first TV we’ve seen that has
thing stable. The bezel around the edge Freely – the long-term replacement
of the screen is thicker than many sets for Freesat and Freeview. It brings NEXT ISSUE
we’ve seen in this price range, but it’s terrestrial channels via your broadband
not intrusive. connection, so doesn’t require a TV On Sale Weds 25 Sept
The screen itself is surprisingly good. aerial or satellite dish.
Where it does lag behind pricier OLED
TVs is its brightness level. Everything Lenovo ThinkCentre
onscreen is still visible in broad daylight, VERDICT This mini-LED TV makes M90a Gen 5
A flexible all-in-one
but it lacks the punchy vibrancy you get a leap towards OLED picture quality
PC you can configure
from OLED panels. Contrast is impressive at a very reasonable price, and comes to suit your needs
overall, however, and its support of both with Freely, so you no longer need a TV
HDR10+ and Dolby Vision helps to keep aerial or dish for terrestrial channels PCSpecialist
colours accurate and vivid. 14 Lafité AI AMD
Motion is one area where the U6N
★★★★★
An affordable no-frills
struggles, requiring you to alter some ALTERNATIVE TCL 55RP630K laptop with a powerful
settings to accurately display action £319 This basic LCD model costs AMD processor
much less if
SPECIFICATIONS you don’t mind These and much more...
55in 4K Ultra HD 3840x2160-pixel resolution •
60Hz refresh rate • 2x 10W speakers • 4x HDMI
compromising on Subscribe to Computeractive at
ports • 703x1117x270mm (HxWxD) • 11kg • Two-year picture quality www.getcomputeractive.co.uk
warranty www.snipca.com/51850

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 29

 Buy It Find out which other products we liked.
Buy our 2023 Back Issue CD:
£18 from www.snipca.com/48860

Our pick of products that have won the Buy It award

P
LAPTOP DRRIC DESKTOP PC APPLE iPAD ENNEW
OP E TR
Y
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus Palicomp AMD Cobra Apple iPad 10.9in
£699 from www.snipca.com/51831 £400 from www.snipca.com/43515 £324 from www.snipca.com/51839
Tested Issue 683 Tested Issue 643 Tested Issue 646

This laptop has the same processor

(Intel Core Ultra 7 155H) as our previous The price of the 10th-generation iPad,
favourite (Acer Swift Go 4), but manages This fast PC is a mouth-watering released in 2022, has fallen far enough
to squeeze more speed out of it. It also bargain, with 16GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD to make it better value than earlier
comes with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a six-core processor – though it models. If the Amazon price above has
and a 14in 2240x1400-pixel screen. lacks USB-C ports and built-in Wi-Fi. expired, get it for £349 on Apple’s site.
Excellent value overall.
ALTERNATIVE Wired2Fire Ultima WS ALTERNATIVE iPad Mini With an even
ALTERNATIVE Acer Swift Go 14 Still a Home Office Workstation Blisteringly better, but smaller, screen than the
fast and powerful laptop, with a great fast PC, powered by an overclocked 10.9in iPad, the Mini also supports
14in screen. £1099 from www.snipca. eight-core processor and 1TB SSD. the Pencil and has 64GB of storage.
com/49733 £656 from www.snipca.com/41500 £499 from www.snipca.com/33050

ANDROID TABLET P APPLE iPHONE ANDROID PHONE P

DRRIC DRRIC
OP E OP E
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Apple iPhone 13 Google Pixel 7a
£649 from www.snipca.com/50039 £599 from www.snipca.com/43498 £329 from www.snipca.com/46332
Tested Issue 667 Tested Issue 627 Tested Issue 660

With a much brighter screen than our

previous favourite – the Galaxy Tab S8 Now £200 cheaper than its 2021 launch
– this is perfect for watching TV. It also price, the iPhone 13 has a superb screen,
has a faster processor, so tasks feel long battery life and an excellent camera – A cheaper version of Google’s flagship
smoother, even with several windows particularly for taking quick snaps without phone, this uses AI to add clarity to
open. £649 will get you the 128GB blurring. You could pay £799 for the newer photos, and lasts an impressive 10
version. If you want 256GB you’ll need iPhone 15, but we’re not convinced it’s hours. Has a fast processor and 8GB
to spend around £100 more. worth the extra money. RAM to supercharge performance.

ALTERNATIVE Lenovo Tab P11 Pro It’s ALTERNATIVE iPhone SE With a single ALTERNATIVE Nothing Phone 2a Don’t
slower than the Tab S9 and the screen camera and smaller screen but the be put off by the odd name. This has a
is duller, but has a detachable keyboard same powerful A15 processor and 64GB distinctive design, superb camera and
so you can use it as a laptop. £380 from storage as the iPhone 14, it’s great value. decent battery life. From a UK company
www.snipca.com/45244 £429 from www.snipca.com/34773 too. £349 from www.snipca.com/49930

30 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Buy It
Our pick of products that have won the Buy It award
MINI PC EBOOK READER SECURITY SOFTWARE

Minisforum UM780XTX Kobo Libra Colour Norton 360 Premium

£639 from www.snipca.com/48917 £199 from www.snipca.com/50192 £19.99 from www.snipca.com/33247
Tested Issue 676 Tested Issue 683 Tested Issue 629

Norton has always performed

This powerful machine currently costs strongly in our antivirus tests,
less than the Beelink SER6 Pro, but has Kobo’s first colour e-reader, with an regularly making the top three.
twice the memory, twice the storage E-Ink Kaleido 3 screen that supports Owned by US firm NortonLifeLock,
and a superior processor. These help 4,096 tones, making illustrations and it’s available at a discount on our
it run PC tasks faster and handle photos leap out at you. You can also Software Store. Use the link above
graphics more smoothly. Ports include make notes using a stylus, though that for a 10-device, two-year licence.
USB-C, USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort costs £70 extra. It has 32GB storage Other versions are available, including
and Gigabit Ethernet. and Bluetooth for playing audiobooks. Norton 360 for Gamers.

ALTERNATIVE Geekom A8 Very small ALTERNATIVE Amazon Kindle This low- ALTERNATIVE Bitdefender Total
PC with powerful processors, 32GB cost option is a good choice, especially Security Another top performer that
RAM and a 2TB SSD. £899 from www. now it has 16GB of storage. £85 from we’re offering at a discount. £29.99
snipca.com/51157 www.snipca.com/44221 from www.snipca.com/41141

WEBCAM PC MONITOR SOLID-STATE DRIVE

Logitech C925e Business BenQ BL2790QT Corsair MP600 Pro LPX

Webcam £180 from www.snipca.com/51568 500GB
£58 from www.snipca.com/50751 Tested Issue 685 £67 from www.snipca.com/41547
Tested Issue 608 Tested Issue 630

Despite the name, this webcam is also With a 1440p resolution on a 27in In our tests, this M.2 SSD hit speeds
great for home users. Its standout screen, this has a pixel density of 109 of 7,364MB/s and 6,870MB/s when
feature is automatically adjusting itself pixels per inch, making it extremely reading and writing data – astonishingly
to keep your picture looking sharp. It sharp. Also has great speakers, lots fast scores. It’s compatible with the
offers a 78-degree field of view, which of controls and plenty of ports. It’s the new PCIe 4.0 standard, which is twice
is fine for everyday video chats with one best balance between size, resolution, as fast as PCIe 3.0. The 1TB model
person in front of the camera. quality and price. costs £88; 2TB costs £158.

ALTERNATIVE Creative Live Cam Sync 4K ALTERNATIVE Asus ROG Strix XG27ACS ALTERNATIVE Crucial MX500 500GB
Affordable 4K webcam with high- Another excellent 27in monitor with As fast as an SSD can get in the
quality video that can also capture 1440p resolution and a fast refresh rate traditional 2.5in SATA format, this
voice from a distance. £38 from aimed at gamers. £260 from is a great-value upgrade. £44 from
www.snipca.com/51577 www.snipca.com/49898 www.snipca.com/37304

32 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Buy It

COMPETITION

Win a…
Pure Classic C-D6
CD player and digital radio
Winner of a Recommended award in a touch of timeless sophistication to
Issue 688 (page 29), Pure’s Classic any room.
C-D6 CD player and digital radio has To enter this competition, answer
Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, a built-in the question at www.snipca.
CD Player, AUX and USB ports, and Set your favourite DAB+/FM com/51787 and submit your details
DAB+/FM reception. stations with 30 preset slots, wake by midnight Tuesday 24 September.
Its design seamlessly blends up to your preferred tunes, and Good luck!
nostalgia with modern functionality, enjoy a relaxing sleep with the built-in
bringing back the joy of listening to timer. With easy-to-press buttons You can buy Pure’s Classic C-D6
CDs while embracing the digital era. and a handy remote control, you for £179.99 from www.snipca.
Equipped with stereo speakers and can access your audio experience com/51135. Visit Pure’s website for
2x 3in full-range drivers, it has audio effortlessly. more information on its full range
output of 2x 15 watts, so you can Whether you place it on a bookshelf, of radios and speakers: www.pure-
immerse yourself in rich stereo sound. kitchen counter or bedside table, it adds audio.com.

PRINTER SMART TV ROUTER P

DRRIC
OP E
Epson EcoTank ET-2830 Samsung Q60B Asus RT-AXE7800
£180 from www.snipca.com/51715 £490 from www.snipca.com/51020 £199 from www.snipca.com/47586
Tested Issue 676 Tested Issue 652 Tested Issue 665

This replaces the ET-1810 as our With our former favourite – the TCL This router has Wi-Fi 6E, so will be
favourite printer because it adds 55RP620K – out of stock, Samsung’s capable of the fastest possible speeds
copying and scanning to its functions 43in set is our new pick. It has excellent on the 6GHz network over the next
for only £20 more. Print quality is colour reproduction in well-lit scenes, few years. It has five Ethernet ports and
great, especially for photos, which and the picture is wonderfully sharp, also a USB 3.0 port to connect a hard
have crisp details, vivid colours and especially in 4K. drive or NAS drive.
realistic skin tones.
ALTERNATIVE LG OLED42C3 ALTERNATIVE Synology WRX560
ALTERNATIVE Epson EcoTank ET-1810 LG’s 42in TV is more than double Our previous favourite remains an
Not the fastest printer, but comes with the price, but unlike TCL’s model it excellent choice, delivering speeds of
enough ink for 4,500 mono and 7,500 has an OLED screen, boosting up to 791.5Mbps. Add more units to
colour pages. £160 from www.snipca. picture quality considerably. £849 from set up mesh Wi-Fi. £226 from
com/49863 www.snipca.com/47271 www.snipca.com/49161

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 33

Computeractive 2023
Back Issue CD & USB Stick
Both the CD and Stick contain all 26 issues from 2023

LE NOW!
ON SA

SOLD
OUT!

Buy the CD from us at Buy the Stick from us at

www.snipca.com/48860 www.snipca.com/48861
 Pull Out
& Keep

Workshops & Tips Issue 692

14 pages of easy-to-follow workshops and expert tips

35 P
 lan the perfect car 40 Readers’ Tips PLUS
journey with Waze 44 Phone & Tablet Tips 47 M
 ake Office Better
42 Browser Tips:
38 S
 ync bookmarks across Disable Google’s new 46 M
 ake Windows 48 In the Club: Build a
devices and browsers AI Overviews feature Better website using AI

HOW TO...
Plan the perfect car
journey with Waze by Nik Rawlinson

What you need: Waze app Time required: 30 minutes

T
he law is clear: holding or using a emergency services and much worse – plan your journey before
phone, sat nav, tablet, “or any other stopping would be unsafe leaving home. You’ll know where
device that can send or receive data” or impractical – but, in you’re going, how long the journey will
while you’re driving is illegal. That’s still general, what you can do take, how many miles you’ll be
true if you’re queuing in traffic, have with devices while driving travelling and when you need to leave.
stopped at lights, are sitting behind the is extremely limited. The Here, we’ll explain how to do that
wheel of a car that shuts down its engine penalties are significant, starting at six using the brilliant app Waze, owned by
while stopped, or supervising a learner. points and a £200 fine, rising to £1,000 Google, which not only helps you plan a
There are a few exceptions, like when and a driving ban. journey, but warns you of problems en
you’re safely parked or you need to call So, to reduce your risk of a fine – or route using user-contributed alerts.

Sign up for Waze the Waze app, it makes profile’ button. On the following screen,
1 Waze has free apps
for Android and iOS
a lot more sense to use
the website (www.
tap ‘Register this account’, followed
by ‘Register this account’ again. Tap
(www.waze.com/apps), as well waze.com) on your PC ‘Continue with Google’ if you want to
as a browser-based interface. if you’re planning it sign into Waze through your Google
Start by downloading the before you leave. You’ll account. If not, tap ‘Continue with email’
appropriate app for your have access to a full-size instead. Follow the instructions to create
phone, then check that Waze keyboard and mouse, an account tied to your email address.
isn’t going to send you down which is faster and more
any roads you’d prefer to avoid. comfortable to work Learn what Waze’s
Tap the three lines at the top
of the screen, then Settings
with than your phone’s
onscreen keyboard. To
2 icons mean
As soon as you’ve finished
followed by Navigation. Set Waze’s route planning do that, you first need to creating your account, put your phone
Use the sliders to avoid toll to suit your preferences by create a Waze account to one side and switch to the browser on
avoiding certain features,
roads, ferries, motorways from the Waze app on your PC. Visit www.waze.com and click
such as difficult junctions
and difficult junctions (see your phone. You’ll then ‘Log in’ at the top of the screen. Either
screenshot). If you tap the ‘Unpaved be able to sign into that account online click ‘Sign in with Google’ if you set up
roads’ option you can allow or not allow on your computer. Waze using your Google account, or enter
them, or tell it to only avoid long ones. Tap the three lines at the top left of your email address and Waze password.
Although you can plan a journey in the Waze app, followed by the ‘View Once you’ve logged in, zoom in on an

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 35

 area of the map so you can familiarise
yourself with some of the icons.
The map always shows live data, much
of which is provided by Waze users as
How I use Waze
they travel around the country. As you When I use Waze, it’s most often because I want to find out why
can see from the screenshot below, I’m stuck in traffic, and how far the jam extends. Waze can answer
focused on Leeds, several roads are these kinds of questions because users who aren’t in ‘invisible’
marked amber (particularly in the north- mode can tap the screen when they experience delays, potholes
west of the map, past the infirmary) to or bad weather, spot police, and so on. Their report is combined
indicate slow traffic, while others are red, with their location to position the alert on the live map, from which
showing more severe delays. it’s sent to all other users’ phones.
Amber discs with barrier icons denote Nik Rawlinson
closed roads 1 , and yellow disks with
How do you plan your car journeys?
hard hat-wearing heads are roadworks Please let us know: [email protected]
2 . On the left you’ll notice a couple of
yellow markers with warning triangles
on them 3 . These are potholes. And, to Waze’s app screen, or zoom in on the map, right-
shows speed
the south west, there’s a blue marker cameras, click the location from which you’ll
with a police officer on it 4 , showing 2 which might be setting off, and click ‘Set as starting
where police cars were last spotted. be the cause point’ ( 1 in our screenshot below). As
These icons also appear in the Waze of slow- you type a start point into the box, a list
moving (red)
app. So do the happy faces on wheels traffic here of matches will appear below it. As you
(which is the Waze icon) that you can continue typing, this will be refined to
see dotted around the map 5 , which are 1 only include close matches. If the one
other Waze users who have allowed their you need appears, click it. You have
location to be shared on the network. the same two options when specifying
Your location is also shared by default, your destination: either typing or right-
but you can turn this off if you don’t want clicking on the map.
to be seen. To do so, open the Waze app We’ve set our starting point as Aire
on your phone and tap the three lines Street 2 , just across from Leeds Railway
at the top of the screen. Tap Settings camera 1 , although with so much slow- Station, and our destination as
followed by Privacy, then turn on the moving traffic in either direction (where Scarborough Castle. Waze has suggested
slider next to ‘Go invisible’. the road is coloured red 2 ) it’s unlikely four routes of between one hour 42 minutes,
If you find the amount of data on the it’ll be catching many speeding drivers. and one hour 50 minutes. That assumes
browser-based map overwhelming, click we’d be setting off right away. What if you
the three lines at the top left and use the Plan your route were leaving in a few days and wanted to
sliders to turn off traffic jams, reports
(roadworks etc) and other Waze users.
3 Now let’s plan your first journey
using Waze in a browser on
arrive at a specific time?
In that case, you’d select an arrival
The same icons appear in the phone your PC. There are two ways to set your time. Click the ‘Leave now’ menu below
app, as well as speed cameras. The start point. Either type it into the ‘Choose the destination box and select ‘Arrive at’,
screenshot above right shows one such starting point’ box at the top left of the then pick a date and time from the two

1
5

3 2
4 2
1

Waze marks slow traffic, police presence and other road elements
including potholes and roadworks You can set your start and destination points by right-clicking the map

36 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Plan the perfect car journey with Waze

1 Share your
journey with
your phone
3 then tap ‘Plan
2 a drive’ to
open it
2

Waze gives you an indication of how heavy 1

traffic is likely to be at certain days and times

dropdown menus ( 1 in our screenshot

above right). You can choose any date
within the next seven days and Waze
will give you an idea of the likely traffic Turn on phone notifications so Waze can tell
based on usual conditions. you when you need to set off
When we wrote this feature, we wanted
to arrive at 11am on Saturday 27 July. media or messaging app. are, as you might not be at home at the
We were told we’d experience moderate Don’t do this if you need to get the best departure time. You’ll therefore
traffic, but as Waze shows this gets route onto your own phone. Because need to allow it to track you at all times
heavier later in the day 2 . you’ve logged into the Waze app and the – not just when you’re actively using
browser version using the same account, the app. If you’re happy for it to do so,
Share your route you can send the route directly to your enable this.
4 with others
It’s unlikely you’ll be following
phone from the website.
Click the blue ‘Save to app’ button and
You’ll also need to enable notifications
for Waze to send alerts. On your phone,
the route on your PC or laptop while it will be sent to your phone. You can check tap the Settings button or manually
driving, as even a laptop would be that it’s arrived by opening the Waze app open Settings to make the change. On
cumbersome and most lack the necessary on your phone and tapping the three- an iPhone, after opening Settings, scroll
GPS connection for tracking your lines button at the top of the screen. Tap down the list of options and tap Waze,
movements. So, you want to get the ‘Plan a drive’ ( 1 in our screenshot above), then tap Notifications and turn
route off your PC and on to your, or a and your journey should appear 2 . on the slider beside Allow Notifications
friend’s, phone. You’ll also see an option on this screen (see screenshot above).
To share the route with a friend, click to ‘Tell me when to leave’ 3 . If you enable On Android, after opening Settings,
the share button below the driving this by tapping the slider, Waze will keep tap Notifications followed by ‘App
directions box. This is a grey circle with a an eye on the traffic along your route in notifications’ and turn on the slider
blue icon inside it, showing three circles hours before your journey and advise you beside Waze (on our phone it was
connected by lines. Click ‘Copy link’ in when to leave based on your specified already turned on).
the panel that appears, then email or arrival time.
share what you’ve copied via a social- To do this, it needs to know where you Use the map
5 while driving
Now that you’ve planned your
ADD A STOP ON ROUTE journey, you can mount your phone
1 where it won’t distract you or obscure
You may have noticed your view through the windscreen, and
there’s no way to add a follow Waze’s directions.
stop when planning your If you don’t want to stop for Waze also works via Android Auto and
route. However, you can parking, fuel or food, tap the Apple CarPlay, so you can use it through
add one ‘intermediate’ stop magnifier icon and search for the screen on the head-end unit built
once you’ve set off. We’d what you do want. As you can into the dash of suitably equipped
recommend adding that see from our screenshot, vehicles.
stop before you set off. we’ve selected York Minster It should reroute you if it spots trouble
Tap ‘Go now’ then tap ( 1 in our screenshot) as our ahead, such as traffic jams and road
the estimated arrival time stop-off point as it’s on the way closures notified by other users who tap
at the bottom of the screen. to Scarborough. Having added the triangle in the corner of their own
Now scroll down to the it to our journey, we can tap ‘Go Waze app to add alerts. You can also use
‘Add a stop’ block and tap now’ 2 and set off. the live map to add your own alerts. Just
the icon for the kind of make sure you’re not spending so much
stop you want to make. 2 time looking at the map that you’re not
paying attention to the road.

Next issue: Play music while driving using an MP3 player Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 37
 Workshop
Sync bookmarks across
devices and browsers
What you need: Floccus; Google account Time required: 20 minutes

I f you’ve ever wanted to take more

control over how you sync your
bookmarks across several browsers and
means you can access your bookmarks
no matter what device or browser
you’re using. It does this using Google
computers, then you should consider Drive, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t
using Floccus (https://floccus.org). This – all you need is a Google account. It
clever, free extension lets you decide also encrypts your bookmarks so
which bookmarks (and browser tabs) neither Google nor hackers will ever
are synced with which PC or device. It be able to see them.

STEP You’ll need to install Floccus as a browser extension in

1 all the browsers and computers you want to sync

bookmarks across. On your primary browser visit
www.snipca.com/51843 and click the down arrow next to
‘Install in your browser’ to expand the section. Here you’ll find
download links for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Note the
Chrome link also works with Chromium-based browsers
including Brave, Vivaldi and Opera. Click the relevant link and
follow the on-screen prompts 1 to install the extension. You’ll
need to grant several permissions, including access to storage,
alarms, bookmarks and unlimited web access. The ‘Install in
your browser’ guide explains why these are necessary. 1

2
1

3 1

4 3
2

STEP Once installed, click the Floccus icon (a cloud STEP Leave the ‘Bookmarks file path’ set to ‘bookmarks.xbel’

2 containing a tick) on your browser toolbar – you may

have to click the jigsaw-piece button 1 first to access it.
3 1 . You’ll be invited to create a passphrase, which
encrypts your bookmarks so if your Google Drive
When the extension opens you’ll be prompted to create a new account is ever hacked, they will remain beyond the reach of
profile. Click ‘+ New Profile’ 2 to open a tab with step-by-step the attackers. We recommend a lengthy, but memorable
instructions. First, choose how you want to sync. If you have a passphrase – such as three random words as shown in our
Google account the easiest option is Google Drive, so select that screenshot 2 . Store this in your password manager if you’re not
3 , then click Continue 4 . It doesn’t matter if you don’t actually confident of remembering it. Finally, leave Bookmarks folder
use Google Drive as long as you have a Google account. Give selected under the Local Target heading, and click the blue
your profile a title, such as ‘My bookmarks’, and click Continue folder button 3 to select the top level (‘Untitled folder’) in the
again. You’ll be prompted to log into your Google account – pop-up window that appears. Click Save. Finally, click the
click ‘Login with Google’ followed by Continue. Continue button 4 (which should now have turned blue).

38 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 1

1
2 3
3
4

STEP You’ll now be prompted to choose how often your STEP Now install the Floccus extension in another browser –

4 bookmarks will be synced to and from this browser

on your PC. If in doubt, leave the default settings
5 either on the same PC or another. Open the extension
and click the Import/Export Profiles button 1 . This
(automatic sync every 15 minutes) unchanged and click time, click Import Profiles and locate and select the .json file
Continue to finish. You’ll see a message telling you the profile you saved in Step 4. Once imported, open the Floccus extension
has been created and that you can close the browser tab. To again – you’ll see it’s set to ‘Folder not found’ so click Options 2 .
verify everything is set up, reopen the extension and you should Scroll down to the Folder mapping section and click the blue
see your profile is now listed 1 and that the first sync has begun folder icon 3 next to the Bookmarks folder to select Untitled
or already taken place. Click the grey Import/Export Profiles Folder 4 before clicking Save. Scroll down to the bottom of the
button 2 to open a new browser tab. Click the Export Profiles page and click Save again.
button 3 to save a copy of your profile as a .json file.

Verify your bookmarks have synced by

STEP 2
6 opening the extension. If not, reopen it and
click the Sync button 1 . You can now repeat
these steps on all the browsers across your computers.
Floccus also supports multiple profiles so you can 3
sync different sets of bookmarks, or you can use it to 1
sync browser tabs between devices and browsers. To
do the latter, click New Profile 2 , and when working
through the steps, make sure you select ‘Browser
tabs’ 3 .

STEP Access your synced bookmarks on your phone or

7 tablet by installing the Floccus app for Android

(www.snipca.com/51845) or iOS (www.snipca.
com/51846). Place the .json file you exported in Step 4
4 somewhere accessible – for example, Google Drive. Open
Floccus and tap the Import/Export Profiles button 1 .
Choose ‘Import Profile’ and navigate to your online-storage
folder 2 to open the file. Next, tap the three vertical lines
top left and choose ‘My Bookmarks’ to return to the main
1 3 screen. Tap Settings 3 followed by ‘Login with Google’
to connect your Google account. Finally, tap the back
2
button followed by the sync button 4 to syncronise your
bookmarks to the app. Once complete, you can access them
via the Floccus app – tap one to open it in your default
browser.

Next issue: Switch to the superb new Arc browser Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 39
 Readers’ Tips
TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT

Translate languages using Microsoft Start

Thanks for introducing me to www.snipca.com/51504 (iPhone/iPad).
Microsoft’s Start app (Issue 690, page Launch it, then tap Apps at the bottom
62). I’ve been using all the tools you’ve right, followed by the Translator icon. 1
suggested, especially those for unit Then you simply tap the language buttons
conversion and planning car routes. at the top ( 1 in our screenshot), and
I’ve also discovered the Translator app, type where it says ‘Enter text’. I’ve
which you didn’t mention in your asked where the train station is 2 . The
feature. This proved invaluable during a translation appears below as you type 3 . 2 4
recent trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I If you’re not sure how to pronounce a 3
know a fair bit of French and Spanish, phrase, tap the speaker icon 4 to hear it
but I confess that my Croatian is spoken. It’s worth tapping ‘Widely used
somewhat rusty. phrases’ 5 for common translations such
Download the Start app from as ‘Hello’, ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Thank you’. 5
www.snipca.com/51505 (Android) or Frank Pearson

Frank wins a copy of our 2023 Back Issue CD Buy it from us at www.snipca.com/48860

SOFTWARE brackets.io). If you go to the Brackets WINDOWS

Use Phoenix Code Editor as a website you’ll see a link to ‘Phoenix Code Go back from Windows 11 to 10
replacement for Dreamweaver Editor’, which is described as “the next within 60 days
In Issue 690 (page 20) you generation of Brackets”. Issue 690’s feature ‘How not to
answered reader Stuart Robertson’s I don’t know if this means Brackets is upgrade to Windows 11’ (page 60)
request for an alternative to Adobe being discontinued or if it’s a separate mentioned the ability to extend the
Dreamweaver (www.snipca.com/51772) product, but I use Phoenix Code Editor rollback time from 10 days to 60,
by recommending Brackets (https:// (https://phcode.io, pictured below left) giving you much longer to revert to
and wouldn’t hesitate Windows 10 if you decide you prefer it.
to recommend it over This gave me the confidence to
Dreamweaver and Brackets, upgrade, because I thought it might
simply because it appears take a while to get my LaserJet 1102w
to be platform independent. printer and CanoScan LiDE 100 scanner
In other words, you can working with my HP Elite SFF 8100
run it on Windows, Linux PC, which has a first-generation i7
and macOS as well as processor, 8MB RAM and an SSD. All
online using any browser these devices are more than 10 years
based on Chrome. old, so I wasn’t sure any of them would
Frank Evans work with Windows 11.

Why I stopped using…

Cash add a debit or credit card. Using it with
Many readers have recently contactless payment systems is easy, too.
expressed their preference for It works using NFC, so make sure this is
using cash, and I agree that shops enabled on your phone. To do this on my
should be encouraged to keep it as an Google Pixel phone, I open Settings, then
option. But I’ve never liked carrying tap ‘Connected devices’ followed by
lots of coins in my pocket, and always ‘Connection preferences’. I can then see
felt nervous about losing my wallet under NFC that this option is switched on
while out and about. (see screenshot). As a precaution, you
should also ensure that your lock screen
And what I use instead... is active so that if you lose your phone,
Using Google Pay on my Android anyone who finds it would have to know
phone suits me better. It’s easy to set up your PIN to unlock and use it. Tell us why you stopped using a website, app
from www.snipca.com/51776 – you just Dennis Kramer or program: [email protected]

40 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Handy hints and tips from your fellow readers
Email us your tips: [email protected]

Reader recommends…
Logitech Signature AI Edition M750
£55 from www.snipca.com/50671

I’ve been impressed with easy, and now I simply

ChatGPT (https://chat.openai. press the turquoise button at
com) ever since you recommended it as the top to open ChatGPT, rather
an alternative to Google’s search engine than having to open my browser
(Issue 682, page 60). It answers my and type the URL.
questions in much more detail than The mouse is well built, and its
Google ever has. So I was interested in symmetrical design feels comfortable
your review of this Logitech mouse, in my right hand and my wife’s left
and the accompanying Options+ hand. It’s flexible, too, working with
software that lets you access ChatGPT both Bluetooth and a USB receiver. It
by clicking a button. would be a great purchase even if you
At £55, it cost more than I’d usually never used ChatGPT.
pay for a mouse, but I thought it would James Roberts
I used the program Rufus (www. be worth it given how often I planned Want to recommend hardware or software
snipca.com/51557, pictured above) to use the ChatGPT function. Setting to fellow readers?
to bypass Microsoft’s system up Logitech’s Options+ software was Email [email protected]
requirements, as you suggested. It all
went smoothly except that the option to
keep apps was greyed out, so I had to times have always been fast. Now I’ve or PDF within a target folder in the
reinstall them afterwards. upgraded my broadband to fibre-to-the- software rather than leaving the program
Installing my printer was easy because premises (FTTP) which has tripled my to search through every file.
it was already known to my router. I speeds and improved my Wi-Fi range. Morvyn Finch
simply had to select the correct option The only downside is that each
when running the driver package. The homeplug requires a mains socket SOFTWARE
scanner also worked with the old driver, (although some have a through socket) Use NAPS2 to scan
though this took several hours to get near the device, and an Ethernet cable and edit documents
working. However, I’m very happy with to connect to the network. However, I’m In Issue 690 (page 20) you
Windows 11 Pro, especially as it runs sure Mr Livesey would benefit from using recommended Windows Scan
very quickly with my devices. homeplugs. They would certainly be an (www.snipca.com/51139) as a way for
David Roy inexpensive solution to his problem. reader Alex Donald to preview scans on
Malcolm Otter his Epson printer. You said it has an
NETWORKS “easy-to-use” interface, and I can’t
Use homeplugs to expand SOFTWARE dispute that because I haven’t tried it.
your home network Find and replace files However, I doubt it’s easier to use than
I was interested in your answer to in Notepad++ the excellent NAPS2 (www.naps2.com,
Gerard Livesey’s problem in Issue I was recently asked for copies of pictured below), which I’ve been using
690 (‘How can I connect my HTML files I used when managing for the past few years, ever since reading
PC to my router wirelessly?’, a website many years ago. Thankfully, I about it in Computeractive.
page 65), because found that Notepad++ (www.snipca. I’ve got two printers at home (an Epson
I’ve done what you com/51771) has an excellent find-and- and an HP) and one in my office (Canon),
proposed using a replace function (see screenshot below), and NAPS2 works with all of them. You
TP-Link AC600 which let me search quickly through the simply scan your page then convert it to a
Nano Wireless hundreds of HTML files and remove dead PDF, TIFF, JPEG or PNG by clicking that
USB adapter (£11 links. I only wish I could find a way to option. Recently I’ve been using the OCR
from www.snipca. select specific types of files such as DOC option to extract text from scanned
com/51773, images, and that works very well too.
pictured above). This was some time ago, Alistair Law
and while it worked well for a while, I
also tried using homeplugs – and I’ve
been using them ever since. Over time
I’ve expanded my network to connect
two smart TVs, my wife’s laptop and a
mini PC, which uses one of the smart TVs
as a monitor.
They all use Ethernet, so the response

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 41

 Browser Tips
CHROMIUM AI Overviews (www.snipca.com/51725), The downside is that this method will
Disable Google’s new which removes the feature automatically, stop working in Chrome when uBlock
AI Overviews feature or ‘Bye Bye, Google AI’ (www.snipca. Origin is disabled later this year, and it
com/50619), which hides AI Overviews 2 can’t be used in uBlock Origin Lite (www.
and other annoyances such as discussions, snipca.com/51604). However, it will still
Three months after it launched the feature sponsored links and ‘people also ask’ prove effective in other Chromium
in the US, Google has added an AI suggestions. browsers with uBlock Origin installed.
Overview section to its search results in Alternatively, you can add a filter to
the UK ( 1 in our screenshot below). This uBlock Origin (www.snipca.com/51727) CHROME
provides AI-generated answers to your that prevents AI Overviews from being Keep using Manifest V2
search queries, by summarising content displayed in Google results. This seems extensions for longer
from several online sources. only fair considering Google’s plan to kill As we explained in our ‘Stop Google
While potentially useful, AI Overviews off that content-blocking extension. breaking your browser extensions’
also slow down your searches and Right-click the uBlock Origin icon on feature in Issue 691 (page 60), many of
sometimes give incorrect information – your browser’s toolbar and choose your favourite privacy add-ons – including
infamously telling Americans to “eat at Options. Click the ‘My filters’ tab, tick uBlock Origin – will soon stop working.
least one small rock per day”. Even worse, ‘Enable my custom filters’ and type the This is because Google is ditching its old
they’re prioritised above standard search following into the main text box: Manifest V2 (MV2) extensions system for
results and can’t be turned off – though google.com##div[data-mcpr]:has- the new and more restrictive Manifest V3.
they don’t appear for every query. text(AI Overview)google.com##.GcKpu Switching to another browser will let
Thankfully, there are a few ways to You can copy this code from our you keep using MV2 extensions for
tweak your browser so you don’t see AI Pastebin account at www.snipca. longer, but – if you’re comfortable
Overviews. The simplest method is to com/51726. Click ‘Apply changes’ to save tweaking the Windows registry – it’s
install an extension such as Hide Google the filter and remove AI Overviews. possible to extend their lifespan in
Chrome. Google doesn’t plan to disable
Manifest V2 for its Enterprise (business)
2
customers until June 2025, and by
enabling a hidden policy in the browser
you can get that extra time, too. See our
1 Workshop below for instructions.

FIREFOX
Show previews when you
hover over tabs
Back in Issue 680 (page 43), we
wrote about the forthcoming Tab
Previews feature in Firefox. This shows
thumbnail previews of web pages
when you hover your cursor over their
tabs – just like in Chrome and other

WORKSHOP Tweak the registry to beat Google’s MV2 switch-off

2
1 1

2
1

1 Type regedit in the Windows search box,

select ‘Run as administrator’ under
Registry Editor and click Yes. When the
2 Right-click this key and choose New then
‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’. Name the value
ExtensionManifestV2Availability 1 , double-
3 To check the registry hack has worked,
type chrome://policy into Chrome’s
address bar and press Enter. The policy
Registry Editor opens, navigate to the click it and change its value data to ‘2’ 2 . This ExtensionManifestV2Availability should
following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ tells Chrome to keep Manifest V2 enabled have a value of ‘2’ 1 . If you don’t see it,
SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome 1 . until further notice. Click ‘OK’ to confirm. click ‘Reload policies’ 2 to update the
page.

42 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Secret settings and the best extensions

BEST EXTENSION FOR… Viewing YouTube statistics

ViewStats last day, week, month and video views, and even the estimated
Chromium or year, or since it was revenue the channel has earned. Some
www.snipca.com/51729 published. features are limited to ViewStats’ paid-for
Firefox It also lets you compare a plan, but the free extension has plenty of
www.snipca.com/51730 video’s popularity with other information to fascinate YouTube addicts.
You don’t have to be a clips uploaded by the same
‘creator’ to be interested in the person or company (see If you don’t like that, try…
popularity of YouTube videos, screenshot) on a colour- TubeBuddy
but the site’s view count only coded line graph. Chromium
tells you so much. ViewStats Additionally, you can see www.snipca.com/51731
goes much further by showing statistics about YouTube This extension also provides YouTube
you how many times a video channels, including their statistics, but it’s targeted solely at creators
has been watched over the total number of subscribers and doesn’t tell you much for free.

built-in password manager. You can EDGE

now add a shortcut for the tool to the Open links faster using
browser’s toolbar, so you can view your Super Drag and Drop
stored logins with just one click. Edge 128, released in August,
To set this up, click the three-dot menu improves the browser’s ‘Super Drag
button in the top-right corner of the and Drop’ feature. This lets you open
1 2 browser and choose Passwords to open links and images on web pages in new
the password manager. You may be tabs simply by clicking and dragging
prompted to enter your Windows them. You can also use it to search for
password or PIN to unlock your passwords. selected text using Bing or your preferred
Chromium browsers. Right-click the key icon that appears search engine.
Firefox 129, released in mid-August, on DuckDuckGo’s toolbar and select Previously, ‘Super Drag and Drop’
makes Tab Previews official, which ‘Show passwords shortcut’ ( 1 in our worked silently, so you may not have
means you should now see a pop-up screenshot below). This will permanently realised it was active. It now displays a
image preview when you hover your pin the key to the toolbar to give you clear notification explaining that you
cursor over a tab. If not, and the browser one-click access to your passwords. should ‘Release [your mouse button]
displays only a tooltip containing the If that sounds risky in terms of security, to open the link in new tab’ (see
name of the page, you can enable the you can manually lock the password screenshot below) or ‘Release to search
feature yourself – rather than wait for it manager by clicking the three-dot icon in text’ – and that you can press Esc to
to ‘roll out’. its top-right corner then choosing Lock. cancel.
Type about:config into Firefox’s address Alternatively, set the browser to lock your To switch on ‘Super Drag and Drop’ in
bar, press Enter and click ‘Accept the Risk passwords automatically after a shorter Edge, go to Settings, then Appearance,
and Continue’. Search for the preference period of inactivity. scroll down to ‘Customise browser’
browser.tabs.hoverPreview.enabled To do this, click ‘Settings’ in the main and switch on ‘Enable Super Drag and
( 1 in our screenshot above) and either menu and select ‘Passwords & Autofill’. Drop’. If you don’t see this setting, type
double-click it or click its Toggle button In the Auto-lock section, click the edge://flags into Edge’s address bar and
to change its value to ‘true’ 2 . Do the dropdown menu next to ‘Lock access to press Enter to load the Experiments page.
same for the preference browser.tabs. passwords after computer is idle for’ 2 Find the experiment Microsoft Edge
hoverPreview.ShowThumbnails. and choose ‘1 minute’ or ‘5 minutes’ (the Super Drag Drop, select Enabled in its
Restart the browser and when Firefox default is 15 minutes). dropdown menu and click Restart.
reopens you should now see thumbnail
previews when you hover your cursor
over background tabs. To disable the
feature, change the values of the two
preferences back to ‘false’. 1
DUCKDUCKGO
Access your passwords
more easily
DuckDuckGo has updated its 2
browser for Windows (www.snipca.
com/51728) to make it easier to access the

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 43

 Phone and Tablet Tips
ANDROID & iOS shared with you, the Collection tab
Find pictures faster groups images into categories such as
in Google Photos ‘People and pets’, Places and Documents.
The Google Photos app for It also includes shortcuts for Screenshots,
Android (www.snipca.com/51732) Videos and Favourites, plus for the Bin
and iOS (www.snipca.com/51733) has where deleted items are sent 2 .
been redesigned to make it easier to find Google has ditched the Utilities folder
your pictures and videos. The Library tab from Photos and moved the tools it
on the bottom toolbar has been replaced contained to other areas of the app. For
by a new Collections tab ( 1 in our example, the Locked subfolder, where
screenshot below), which organises you can hide sensitive photos and videos,
content “automatically and intelligently”. and secure them with your device lock,
As well as storing albums you’ve is now located at the bottom of the
created yourself and that have been Collections tab.
To create new albums, collages and
highlight videos, you now just press the
plus sign in the top-right corner 3 to open
3 a set of ‘Create new’ options, which is a
much quicker process than before. And
2 to save space on your phone or tablet by
deleting photos and videos you’ve backed
up online, tap your profile icon top right
and choose ‘Free up space on this device’.
For more details of the changes to
Photos, see Google’s announcement at free version of ChatGPT.
www.snipca.com/51734. Previously, this feature was limited to
ChatGPT Plus subscribers, but you can
ANDROID & iOS now use it in the free app for Android
Create images for free (www.snipca.com/51736) and iOS (www.
using ChatGPT snipca.com/51737), as well as on the
In our ‘Why you must use AI’ ChatGPT website (www.snipca.com/51738).
Cover Feature in Issue 688 (get it Like Microsoft Designer, it’s powered
from www.snipca.com/51735), we said by OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 image-creation
Microsoft Designer is the best free way to technology, but annoyingly it restricts
1 create images using AI. Now you have you to generating and editing just two
another option, because OpenAI has pictures per day – Designer allows for 15.
made its image generator available in the To use the feature, simply type a text

BEST NEW APPS What you should install this fortnight

Geekbench AI Opera One Google Meet

Free Free Free
Android www.snipca.com/51739 Android www.snipca.com/51746 Android www.snipca.com/51748
iOS www.snipca.com/51740 iOS www.snipca.com/51747 iOS www.snipca.com/51749
Previously called Geekbench ML, this app Now available on iOS, Opera’s revamped Google’s updated video-chat app adds a
for benchmarking a device’s AI capabilities mobile browser has an interface that host of new features to make your Meet
has a new name changes colour to calls more flexible
and methodology. match the site you’re and fun. These include
It now provides viewing, and a search backgrounds, filters
three separate test box at the bottom and emoji reactions;
scores for different that’s easier to access the ability to share your
AI models and data with one hand. It also screen; an ‘On-the-Go’
types, and its results brings Opera’s AI mode that switches
consider accuracy as assistant Aria to your to an audio call when
well as CPU and GPU iPhone or iPad, along video isn’t convenient;
power. Geekbench AI with other useful and a text-chat option
is also available for features such as a free for when you can’t talk
Windows. VPN and ad blocker. out loud.

44 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Brilliant things to do on your device

prompt into ChatGPT’s message box and backgrounds could take a toll on your
press Enter. The app will then create a eyes.
picture based on your description and To stop that happening, DuckDuckGo
offer to augment or change it however has added an option to the app that
you want. Once you hit your two-image forces websites to use dark mode,
limit, it will display a banner telling you regardless of whether they support it.
to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus or try again Tap the three-dot icon in the top-right
tomorrow (see screenshot left). corner of the browser and choose Settings
then Appearance.
ANDROID & iOS Ensure the Theme is set to Dark (or
Protect your X account ‘System default’ if dark mode is enabled
with a passkey for your whole phone or tablet) and
If Elon Musk’s controversial switch on ‘Force Websites To Use Dark
changes haven’t put you off Theme’ (see screenshot right). Relaunch
using X (formerly Twitter), you should at the app and when DuckDuckGo reopens,
least make sure your account is secure. all web pages will now be dark.
Even if you have stopped using the social
network, it’s wise to prevent your old
profile from being taken over by hackers.
BEST APPS FOR... Tracking flights
To boost your security, the X app for
Android (www.snipca.com/51750) has Flighty
added support for passkeys; the iOS Free*
version (www. iOS www.snipca.com/51757
snipca.com/51751) Flighty lets you track the progress of a specific
introduced the flight, whether it’s your own or a friend or
feature in April. family member’s. Just enter the flight number
This lets you sign or route to view it on a map, and get real-time
in using your face, information about delays, cancellations,
fingerprint or taxiing times and weather conditions. You can
device PIN, rather try its Pro features for free for your first flight
than a two-factor without entering payment-card details.
authentication Best For Flight-delay information
code – an option X
dropped for free Skyscanner
users last year. Free
To set up a Android www.snipca.com/51758
passkey for your iOS www.snipca.com/51759
account, tap your profile picture in the Skyscanner saves you money on air travel
top-left corner of the X app and choose by tracking the cheapest dates to fly, and
‘Settings and privacy’ then ‘Security and sending you price-drop alerts when bargains
account access’. Tap ‘Security’ and, in the become available. You can then book through
‘Additional password protection’ section, the app without paying any hidden charges.
switch on the Passkey option. It recently added an AI feature called Savvy
Enter your X password, press Confirm Search, which provides curated travel
and select ‘Create passkey’ (see screenshot recommendations.
above). Tap ‘Continue’ and use your Best For Tracking flight prices
screen-lock method to create the passkey.
X will confirm that you’re all set, and you Flightradar24 Flight Tracker
can now sign in more securely. Free*
Android www.snipca.com/51755
ANDROID iOS www.snipca.com/51756
Force websites to use The best-known and still the most reliable
dark mode in DuckDuckGo app for tracking flights packs lots of useful
Like most mobile browsers, data into a smart, map-based interface. Its
DuckDuckGo Private Browser for latest features include Live Activities (iOS)
Android (www.snipca.com/51752) has a and Live Notifications (Android), which let
dark mode that helps reduce eye strain you follow planes in real time via a widget
when you’re browsing at night by inverting on your lock screen; and (with Premium) the
the colours on websites. However, the ability to view hundreds of aircraft in 3D.
feature relies on sites supporting the Best For Tracking live flights
setting – if they don’t, their bright white
*Contains in-app purchases

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 45

 Make Windows Better Expert tips for every version

WINDOWS 11 INSIDER
WINDOWS 10 & 11
Access your favourite files
much easier
With Windows 11 Build Replace Paint 3D with third-party app
22635.3930, available to Windows
Insiders on the beta channel, Microsoft has excellent 3D-design alternatives made
Microsoft has made it easier to access confirmed it’ll remove by other companies.
your recent, shared and favourite files in the Paint 3D app from One, aimed at beginners, is the free
File Explorer’s Home tab. You can now the Microsoft Store in November and online tool Tinkercad (www.tinkercad.
cycle between tabs rather than having to end support, despite launching it seven com). If you prefer a downloadable
open them separately. years ago as the long-term replacement program, try the open-source Blender,
To access your favourite files in the new for the original Paint app. which is geared towards intermediate
layout, open File Explorer and make sure Microsoft says users should switch and advanced users. Download it from
you are in the Home section ( 1 in our to its 3D Viewer app (www.snipca. the Microsoft Store via www.snipca.
screenshot below), then click Favourites com/51822), but there are other com/51806 (see screenshot).
2 . To mark a file as ‘favourite’, right-click
it then click ‘Add to Favourites’. To access
recent and shared files, simply click the
relevant heading.

WINDOWS 11
Generate images with
text prompts
Microsoft’s Paint program can
now create AI images from generate three images 5 – click one to see
descriptions you type. First, open it larger on the left 6 .
Paint, then click Image Creator ( 1 in our
screenshot below) and type a short WINDOWS 11
3
description in the ‘Describe what you’d Blur your background across
like to create’ field below (we typed ‘A all webcam software
sunset overlooking a redwood forest New in the Windows 11 24H2
during the summer’ 2 ). Next, pick an update – gradually being rolled
image style from the ‘Choose a style’ out over the next few months – is
dropdown menu – there are nine options Studio Effects, which lets you turn on
including watercolour, pixel art and ink settings like ‘background blur’ that work
sketch (we selected ‘Oil Painting’ 3 ). no matter which video-chat software you’re
Finally, click Create 4 . Image Creator will using your webcam with. This stops you
having to change 2
settings for different
1 programs.
Click the taskbar icons
( 1 in our screenshot 1
right) to open the ‘Quick
2 access’ menu, then However, the tool is available only in
3 click ‘Studio effects’. computers that have a compatible neural
6 Click the menu next to processing unit (NPU) alongside the CPU.
‘Background effect’ and These started to appear in machines in
change this setting 2021, and became more common during
5 from None to Standard 2023. To check if yours has one, search
4 2 . You’ll now see the for and open Task Manager on your PC,
background in your then click the Performance tab and look
webcam is blurred 3 . for NPU on the left.

46 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

Make Office Better Top tips for the best office programs

LIBREOFFICE WRITER & MICROSOFT WORD

Change your header style across your document

If you change your
mind about which
style, font or colour
to use for headers in your document,
you don’t need to alter them one by
one. Instead, make the change in one
instance then you can consider 1
updating the style to match your
selection. This will change all headers
immediately to match the new style.
In LibreOffice, we’ve chosen
Heading 1 (18pt black text) from the
Set Paragraph Style dropdown menu 3
for our document’s main headers.
But we now want to change them 2
to 25pt blue text. We changed this in
our first header ( 1 in our screenshot),
then opened the top-left dropdown
menu and clicked the arrow next to
Heading 1 2 . Next, we clicked ‘Update
to Match Selection’ 3 and all headers In Word, highlight the text in the first style is Header 1, then right-click
using the Heading 1 style changed to header that you’ve changed and right- Header 1 and click ‘Update Header 1 to
25pt blue text. click its style in the Style Gallery. If the Match Selection’.

WORD ONLINE comments and suggestions for any

Quickly add rows and column changes. Click the dropdown menu in
to tables the top-right corner ( 1 in our screenshot
Microsoft is improving the 2 left) then choose the mode you want to
online version of Word (www. use 2 .
snipca.com/51804) by letting 1
you add rows and columns to your MICROSOFT OUTLOOK
tables without having to access the Revert to Outlook’s classic ribbon
toolbar or right-click your mouse. One of the biggest changes in the
Previously, if you wanted to add a row, ONLYOFFICE new Microsoft Outlook, released
you had to right-click one, then right- Change editing modes in January, is a simplified ribbon
click and select Insert. more easily menu with buttons and features squeezed
All you need to do now is hover your A new addition to OnlyOffice, on to a single line. But if you don’t like
cursor between two rows at the edge available from June’s 8.1 release, this you can revert to the previous layout.
of a table until a plus symbol appears lets you easily switch between Click the ‘Ribbon display options’ arrow
( 1 in our screenshot below). Click this Editing, Reviewing and Viewing modes ( 1 in our screenshot below) to open the
and a new row will appear in the space with a new button in the toolbar. You Layout options, then select ‘Classic ribbon’ 2 .
between the two existing rows 2 . You can write in your document in Editing If you haven’t switched to the new
can also do this for columns by hovering mode as normal, switch to Viewing mode Outlook yet, you can download the new
your cursor between two existing to prevent any edits (even by mistake), app from the Microsoft Store at www.
columns on the edge of a table. or activate Reviewing mode to leave snipca.com/51805.
1

2
1

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 47

 In The Club
Run a club or society? Here’s how your tech can make it easier

Build a website quickly using AI

I f your club doesn’t have any skilled
web designers among its membership,
you can try creating a website using
WebSim AI. It uses AI to build a complete 2
site from just a few typed instructions.
You get 30 free instructions a day, which
should be enough to create a site. Once
it’s complete, you can upload it to your 1
web-hosting service.

Type your instructions

Start by visiting https://websim.ai, then
click Login (top right) and sign in using
your Discord or Google account (you’ll
need one or the other). The site will then
return you to the main screen. Before you
go any further, click the three vertical
dots and choose Settings. Now click the
down arrow next to Advanced and
change the default AI model to Sonnet 3.5
– this produces the best results. Press the refresh button to get a new design, or tell WebSim what you would like to change
Next, click inside the ‘What would you
like to create today?’ box and add some URL which you can change when you your PC for further editing. Click the
information about your site. The more upload the pages to your web-hosting three vertical dots (top right) and choose
information you provide, the better. For service. Download. Repeat for all your site’s
example, ‘Build me a yellow-themed Focus on the design at this point – you pages. These days, the best web-editing
website for the Anytown Photographic can change the text later. If you’re not tools are online, such as HTM Editor
Society photography club with pages for happy with the design, press the refresh (www.htmeditor.com). Open it, then
new members, membership fees and a button ( 1 in screenshot above) to create a click File, followed by Open File, and
FAQ section’ (see screenshot below) will new one. To make small adjustments – or select the HTML file you just saved. The
get you closer to your goal than a vague to add more pages – click inside the bar page will appear, ready for you to edit.
instruction like ‘Build me a website for containing the fake URL and type what Double-click anywhere on the page to
my digital photography club’. you want it to do, such as ‘change colour see a toolbar of commands that let you
You can ask WebSim AI to design you a to green’ 2 or ‘add a “contact us” link’. change your site’s appearance (see
logo (add ‘Also design site logo’ to your screenshot below). You can change
instructions), which will appear on the Download and edit your page the text or add images, such as photos
site’s page. Press Enter and WebSim will Once you’re happy with the design, you’ll and club logos. When you’ve finished,
create a site for you, along with a dummy need to save each page as an HTML file on open the File menu again, but this time
choose Save As to save a copy to your PC.
You can now upload this page to your
web-hosting service.

Type a description
then press Enter
and WebSim
AI will create a Right-click on HTM Editor for a toolbar that
website for you lets you add images and change the text

48 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692 Next issue: Create an event in your WhatsApp Community
What’s All the
Fuss About...
Control Panel
This ancient Windows tool came back from the dead faster than Lazarus

What is it?
One of the longest surviving parts of
Windows, giving you access to most of
your computer’s settings and tools
including Colour Management, Device
Manager, Power Options, Storage Spaces
and Troubleshooting. You can open it
in several ways, such as by pressing
Windows key+R and typing control.
It’s been part of Windows since version
1.0, released in 1985 – but perhaps not
for much longer.
What does that mean? Is it better than Control Panel?
Why? Is Microsoft axing it? In general usage, ‘deprecate’ is to Microsoft certainly thinks so, claiming
Yes it is. Oh no, wait, sorry. It isn’t. discourage the use of something made its design is neater and more modern.
by humans. Microsoft’s definition, as It arrived in Windows 8 and has
Hmm, that’s not the clearest detailed at www.snipca.com/51813, is a become more prominent in subsequent
answer… little different: “Deprecation is the state versions. You can open it by pressing the
Blame Microsoft. In late August it of a feature, functionality, or service that keyboard shortcut Windows key+I. But it
updated its support website (www. is no longer in active development. A lacks some settings you’ll still find in
snipca.com/51821) to say: “The Control deprecated feature may be retired and Control Panel, including Event Viewer,
Panel is in the process of being removed from future releases.” Tools that Defragment and Optimize Drives, Disk
deprecated in favor of the Settings app, Microsoft has deprecated recently include Cleanup and Task Scheduler. Search for
which offers a more modern and Cortana, Paint 3D and WordPad (see these in the app and you’ll get no results
streamlined experience.” them all at www.snipca.com/51814). (see screenshot below left). Generally,
This triggered a wave of obituaries open the Settings app if you want to
to Control Panel online, as Windows But not Control Panel? change how Windows looks or works,
veterans bid farewell to what was once No – at least, not officially. We suspect while check Control Panel for network,
the cornerstone of the operating system. that the Microsoft employee updating security or options related to hardware.
But it seems that reports of its death had the support page got a little ahead of
been greatly exaggerated, because a few themselves and added ‘deprecate’ So Control Panel is safe
days later Microsoft changed its support because they thought it reflected the for now?
advice to: “Many of the settings in Control company’s attitude towards Control Probably. It might even hang around for
Panel are in the process of being migrated Panel. You can’t really blame them. Windows 12, now rumoured to be released
to the Settings app, which offers a more Microsoft hasn’t updated it in years, and between July and October 2025. Microsoft
modern and streamlined experience.” wants users to switch to the Settings app has no love for the tool, and the Windows
This updated sentence didn’t mention instead – indeed, this opens if you click team must have discussed its removal.
the key word ‘deprecated’. ‘Settings’ in Control Panel. But it remains popular with many users,
especially those who prefer its old-style
design with recognisable logos.

You mean those pictured above?

Yes. There’s something reassuringly
unmistakable about a speaker icon
representing the Sound section, and a
battery for Power Options. The icons in
the new Settings app, with their flat,
modern style, might please Windows
designers, but are harder to identify
at a glance. As is often the way, what
Microsoft likes and what its users actually
The Settings app looks modern, but lacks many of the options you’ll still find in Control Panel want has turned out to be very different.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 49

 COVER FEATURE

WHY YOU MUST USE A

VPN
A VPN can do much more
than fake your location
and encrypt your data.
Robert Irvine reveals
the best 20 reasons to
install one on your PC,
phone and other devices

U
sing a virtual private network In this feature, we reveal the 20 best
WHAT YOU CAN DO (VPN) once implied you had things you can do with a VPN, from
something to hide – be it your well-known benefits such as protecting
• Disguise your identity from websites location or that you were your personal data to tricks you’ve never
you visit dabbling in nefarious activities. But while considered before. We also explain how
• Encrypt your data without sacrificing a VPN is the best way to protect your to tweak hidden settings for optimum
speed online privacy, it has many other benefits, speed and security.
• Block hidden trackers and which is why the encryption technology With so many services available,
personalised ads has now crossed over into the mainstream. we’ve focused our advice on the
• Watch more films on global streaming A recent YouGov survey found that most versatile and reliable VPNs:
services 47 per cent of UK adults have used a VPN, Windscribe, which gives you 10GB
• Access UK TV channels while you’re with more than two thirds doing so of data for free each month, once
abroad personally rather than professionally (see you confirm your email address (www.
• Download torrents without your ISP’s www.snipca.com/51841). Unsurprisingly, snipca.com/51842); ProtonVPN, whose
knowledge the most popular reasons for using one free version includes unlimited data
• Get cheaper prices online that are are safety on the internet and to access (www.snipca.com/51844); and the best
normally blocked in the UK geo-restricted content, but there are lots paid-for services NordVPN (www.
• Connect devices to your VPN hotspot more ways a VPN can improve your nordvpn.com) and ExpressVPN (www.
online experience. expressvpn.com).

50 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 WHY YOU MUST USE A

VPN
SEVEN WAYS A VPN BOOSTS YOUR PRIVACY & SECURITY
Protect your identity online VPN servers. A newer, even speedier
One of the two main purposes of a VPN is option is WireGuard (www.wireguard.
to hide your real IP address from websites com), which requires less bandwidth and
and online services. By re-routing your processing power to encrypt your data,
internet connection through one of its so is less likely to slow your browsing.
own remote servers, the VPN assigns you To switch your protocol to OpenVPN,
a new IP address so it appears you’re WireGuard or another reliable option
browsing from that location. such as IKEv2, go into your VPN’s
This prevents sites, services and third- settings, look for a section called
party snoopers from identifying you from Connection or similar, and select your
your IP address and using that information preference in the Protocol menu (see
to build a profile of you. However, though screenshot below left).
a VPN stops them seeing where you are, You may be able to choose between
websites can still figure out who you are TCP, which gives you a more stable
through browser fingerprinting. connection, or UCP, which provides a
Fingerprinting uses a unique faster one. Your VPN may also offer its
combination of information about your own protocol, such as NordVPN’s
device, including details of your operating NordLynx (which is based on WireGuard,
system, hardware specifications, installed www.snipca.com/51848) or ExpressVPN’s
software, internet provider, screen Windscribe’s Split Personality feature helps Lightway (www.snipca.com/51767).
resolution, location, time zone and more. reduce browser fingerprinting
A VPN won’t disguise all this data, so Stay safe on public Wi-Fi
some services include special anti- Stop hackers stealing your data It’s easier than ever to find and connect
fingerprinting features that better protect The other primary function of a VPN is to to public Wi-Fi hotspots, and enjoy
your identity. encrypt your data so that your internet high-speed internet without using
For example, Windscribe’s free traffic is unreadable to anyone who your mobile-data allowance. But this
extensions for Chromium (www.snipca. intercepts it. This keeps details of your convenience is potentially dangerous
com/51764) and Firefox (www.snipca. online activities completely private, and because the majority of Wi-Fi hotspots
com/51765) include an option called Split because the data is encrypted before it aren’t encrypted. If a hacker is connected
Personality, which randomly rotates your even leaves your device, any sensitive to the same network, they can intercept
‘user agent’ (the data your browser sends information you share – including and steal your data, and see which sites
to a site). This makes it look like you’re passwords, bank details and payment- you visit and what you do there.
using a different browser and operating card numbers – is fully protected. For this reason, it’s sensible to always
system, though Windscribe warns it “will VPNs typically combine AES-256bit use a VPN on public Wi-Fi, and preferably
not eliminate advanced fingerprinting” encryption with a secure, ‘tunneling’ set it to switch it on automatically
(www.snipca.com/51763). protocol. This is a set of rules and whenever you connect to a hotspot. Most
To enable Split Personality, open the instructions that determines how data VPNs include this option, in both their
Preferences menu in the Windscribe is sent from your device to the VPN’s desktop apps – for when you’re using
extension and click Privacy. Switch on server and then on to your destination. your laptop in a public place – and their
Split Personality and click the Rotate User Changing your default protocol can boost mobile apps, to encrypt data on your
Agent button (see screenshot above right) your security and ensure proficient phone or tablet.
to fake your data. The option is also hackers can’t steal your data. For example, in NordVPN’s Android or
available in Windscribe’s Experimental The most common protocol is iOS app, tap the Settings cog in the
MV3 extension for Chrome (www.snipca. OpenVPN (https://openvpn.net), which is top-right corner, choose Auto-connect
com/51762). fast, very secure and supported by most and select ‘On Wi-Fi networks’. In its
Boost your protection
against hackers by
changing your VPN’s
protocol

Connect to a VPN server automatically when

you use public Wi-Fi

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 51

 Windows app, the cog is in the bottom-
left corner and the Auto-connect option
is in the Connection section.
In Windscribe’s desktop or mobile app,
select Connection in Preferences, choose
Network Options then switch on Auto-
Secure Networks (see screenshot bottom
right of page 51). You can exclude trusted
networks such as your home Wi-Fi to
stop the VPN connecting automatically.
If Gmail keeps blocking your VPN, try changing
Block ads and hidden trackers your DNS server
Another benefit of masking your IP
address with a VPN is that it’s more used by your VPN – preferable to Google’s
difficult for hidden trackers to follow own. In Windscribe, for example, go to
you around the web. Many third-party the Connection Settings and select
cookies store IP-address information to Custom under Connected DNS. Enter the
help them identify and build a profile address for Google DNS – 8.8.8.8 – and
of you, which is subsequently used to The NetShield feature in Proton VPN Plus tap the green tick to save (see screenshot
target you with ads. blocks ads, trackers and malware above).
Sadly, because cookies collect a lot
more data than just your location, and Avoid malware infection Fake your GPS location
because they’re implanted on your device It’s a common misconception that a VPN It’s less easy to disguise your whereabouts
not your network, a VPN won’t stop them protects you against malware threats. But on your phone or tablet, because some
tracking you altogether – regardless of its while its encryption will stop hackers apps use your device’s GPS coordinates to
encryption. To boost your privacy, many intercepting your data, and disguising identify where you are – even if you don’t
VPNs include their own tools for blocking your IP address shields your home grant them permission to access your
ads and trackers, though these are often network, it’s no substitute for proper location. For extra protection, some
disabled by default. antivirus software. VPN apps for Android include a secret
In the Windscribe desktop and mobile That said, several VPNs do provide GPS-spoofing feature (Apple doesn’t
app, go to the R.O.B.E.R.T section of the malware-blocking options, including allow the option in iOS apps) that makes
Preferences screen and switch on the ‘Ad Windscribe’s R.O.B.E.R.T tool, it look like you’re somewhere else.
+ Trackers’ option. This blocks ads and ProtonVPN’s NetShield and especially In the Windscribe app for Android
trackers at the domain level, and once NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro (see (www.snipca.com/51786), go to
you enable it on one device it will be previous tip). This automatically blocks Preferences, then Connection and switch
applied to all those on which you have malicious URLs and lets you scan files for on GPS Spoofing. Tap ‘Let’s do it’ (see
Windscribe installed. threats while downloading. Interestingly, screenshot below) and follow the
The VPN’s browser extensions go even it works even when you’re not connected instructions to unlock ‘Developer
further with settings that block ads, to a VPN server, but we still recommend options’ and set Windscribe as your
trackers, social-network widgets and using it alongside – rather than instead of ‘mock location app’. Remember to switch
cookie-consent pop-ups, plus an – your usual security software. off the feature for apps that require your
Advanced mode that uses filters from real location, such as Uber and Just Eat.
uBlock Origin. Just be warned that some Keep your emails private Windscribe also includes a GPS-faking
sites may not load properly with all those Although Gmail and Outlook encrypt feature in its browser extensions, which
options enabled. your messages in transit, the method they matches the IP address of the server
NordVPN has a powerful feature called use – called Transport Layer Security you’re connected to with the geo–location
Threat Protection Pro, which “blocks (TLS) – is notoriously weak. It only encrypts data in your browser. Click Privacy in the
malicious websites, stops web trackers the connection, not the message or extension’s Preferences menu and enable
and removes annoying ads” (www. attached files, which means Google and Location Warp.
snipca.com/51768). It’s only available in Microsoft can read their contents, as can
the VPN’s Windows app with a Plus or hackers who intercept your emails once
Ultimate plan. NordVPN’s mobile apps they reach the recipient.
and browser have a more basic Threat A VPN offers stronger protection by
Protection option. encrypting your messages – as well as
Similarly, if you pay for Proton VPN your other internet traffic – regardless
Plus, you can use its NetShield feature of the email service you’re using. It also
(www.snipca.com/51769, see screenshot prevents marketing companies and
above right) to block ads, trackers and spammers from detecting your IP address
malware at a DNS level. ExpressVPN’s ad by embedding hidden trackers in the
and tracker blocker, Threat Manager messages they send you.
(www.snipca.com/51770), is available in Annoyingly, Gmail has been known to
all its apps – provided you use its block VPNs for ‘unusual traffic’. To get Switch on GPS Spoofing to stop Android apps
Lightway protocol. around this, try changing the DNS server detecting your real location

52 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 WHY YOU MUST USE A

VPN
EXPAND & ENHANCE YOUR ENTERTAINMENT
Unblock global streaming
services Why you need a VPN ‘kill switch’
Privacy concerns aside, the main reason
people use a VPN is of course to access Suddenly losing your connection to
content that’s unavailable in their a VPN server means your IP address
country due to geo-restrictions – most and browsing activities will be instantly
commonly US TV and films. Streaming exposed to snoopers, hackers and the
services like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime site or service you’re currently viewing.
Video have different – and often much To stop this happening, most VPNs
larger – libraries in different countries, include a feature called a ‘kill switch’,
while others such as Hulu and Max are which automatically disconnects your PC
only available in the US. or mobile device from the internet when Choose the option that disables internet
A VPN will potentially let you sign up VPN access is disrupted. access when the VPN connection drops
for global streaming sites and apps in the This disruption may be caused by network unexpectedly (see screenshot), rather
UK, though services are increasingly problems at your end, a server timeout or than when you intentionally disconnect.
getting wise to them and blocking access. the VPN software crashing. Once your You may also be able to restrict the kill
You can read regularly updated guides VPN connection is re-established, the kill switch to specific programs and apps.
to VPNs that unblock US Netflix and switch resumes internet traffic and Some VPNs give their kill switch a
other regional streaming services on our restores your protection. different name. ExpressVPN calls it
sister websites TechRadar (www.snipca. You usually need to activate the kill Network Lock, while in Windscribe the
com/51774) and Tom’s Guide (www. switch manually in your VPN’s settings. Firewall performs the same function.
snipca.com/51775).
Both recommend NordVPN as the best
option – “whether your Netflix account is app (www.snipca.com/51220) to unlock lets you access other services only
registered in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Google TV’s US-only live channels on available to UK residents, such as online
or Japan doesn’t matter; NordVPN unblocks our smart TV. Just bear in mind you may banks and the National Lottery website.
libraries worldwide without fail” – quickly use up Windscribe’s 10GB of free If the first UK server doesn’t work,
followed by Surfshark (www.surfshark. monthly data by intensive streaming of clear your browsing history and cookies,
com) and ExpressVPN. All three are HD films and TV. or the VPN app’s cache and data, and try
available for desktop, mobile and smart a different location – servers in Glasgow
TV platforms, and provide high-speed Access UK TV from abroad and Edinburgh (see screenshot below
connections and unlimited bandwidth. If you’re missing your favourite BBC, ITV left) are less likely to be identified and
If you don’t want to pay for a VPN, or Channel 4 programmes while you’re blocked than those in London. Switching
Windscribe offers 10 free American on holiday abroad, you can feasibly use a your VPN’s protocol (see page 51) may
servers, including Dallas, Los Angeles and VPN to tune in remotely. Simply connect also help, especially if it has a ‘stealth’
New York (see screenshot below), which to a UK server, sign into the broadcaster’s mode (see page 55).
let you access US services – though it’s streaming service and watch content
less reliable for Netflix than NordVPN. either live or on-demand. Watch more live sport (legally)
These servers are available in all Windscribe The BBC warns that “You cannot play Similarly, a VPN may let you watch
apps and extensions – look for the a programme if we detect you might be football matches, Formula 1 races and
options with a heart icon next to them – using a VPN” (www.snipca.com/51777), other sporting events that aren’t being
and you can connect to them with a and the other UK broadcasters say broadcast in the UK – or outside the UK
single click or tap. similar, but all the VPNs mentioned in the if you’re abroad – without resorting to
In our Easy When You Know How previous tip have been proven to unlock illegal IPTV streams. ExpressVPN promotes
column in Issue 689 (page 74), we iPlayer, ITVX and Channel 4 from overseas streaming live sport as one of the main
successfully used Windscribe’s Android (don’t forget you need a TV licence to benefits of its service (www.snipca.
watch any BBC content). This trick also com/51779, see screenshot below), and
Unlock US TV
services by
connecting to
Windscribe’s
American
servers

Pretend to be in a Scottish city to watch UK ExpressVPN promotes streaming live sport as

TV shows while abroad one of its key benefits

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 53

 even provides a calendar of upcoming Windscribe highlights countries where
sporting events. file sharing is ‘frowned upon’ (see
To watch on your big screen, install the screenshot left) and therefore forbidden.
VPN’s app on your smart TV or streaming
stick, connect to an overseas server and Speed up your online gaming
access the relevant sport-streaming VPNs have many benefits for avid online
service. The Premier League website gamers. They protect you from DDoS
helpfully lists all the broadcasters that attacks, let you play safely on public
have rights to show its matches in Wi-Fi, unlock games that are unavailable
different territories around the world in the UK and stop your ISP penalising
(www.snipca.com/51780). you for bandwidth-hogging activity. On
the downside, a VPN may slow your
Download large files connection, which reduces the response
Some VPN servers prevent you from
using torrents downloading files using torrents times essential for most games.
Torrents are often associated with illegal Happily, the best paid-for VPNs,
downloads of copyrighted material, but make sure you choose one that supports P2P including ExpressVPN and NordVPN, are
they also have legitimate uses, such as file sharing. The best option is Private optimised for online gaming to minimise
saving TV shows, films and music from Internet Access (www.snipca.com/51782), ping and ensure stable, secure and speedy
the Internet Archive – see our Cover which offers unrestricted torrenting on gameplay. They also have unlimited
Feature in Issue 687 (get it from www. all 35,000 of its servers across 91 countries; bandwidth, and – if installed on a router
snipca.com/51781). However, even when includes features that speed up and or used to create a VPN hotspot (see page
used legally, torrents can put your privacy secure P2P activities, including a ‘kill 57) – will work on games consoles like
at risk because your IP address is visible switch’ (see box on previous page), port PlayStation and Xbox.
to the people who are sharing the files. forwarding and split tunnelling (see page The only (trustworthy) free VPN to offer
A VPN lets you use torrents 57); and costs just £2.71 a month if you unlimited data is Proton VPN. However,
anonymously and also disguises your sign up for one year. Read the Tom’s it warns that the popularity of its free
activity from your ISP, which may slow Guide review at www.snipca.com/51783. servers can lead to “lower performance”
your connection if it suspects you’re Other VPNs support torrenting on most (www.snipca.com/51785), which means
downloading copyrighted content. Just but not all of their servers. For example, they’re not ideal for gaming.

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There’s need to install a new version of

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To upgrade, visit www.snipca.com/50563

and click the red Buy Now button on the right.

JUST SO YOU KNOW…

This offer can be used by one person only, and expires at midnight
on 24 September, 2024. It’s a lifetime licence for one computer.

54 00 – 00 Month 2023 • Issue xxx

 WHY YOU MUST USE A

VPN
BEAT UNFAIR INTERNET RESTRICTIONS
Beat internet censorship Islands) are all outside Fourteen Eyes
Unlike authoritarian regimes such as jurisdiction, but our favourite free VPN,
China, Iran and Russia, online content Windscribe, is based in Canada – one of
in the UK has traditionally not been the original Five Eyes countries.
censored or heavily monitored by the It addresses this concern by saying
Government. Since 2013, internet “we do not store any logs that can
providers have used their own filters to identify you and have never complied
block websites containing pornography, with a copyright or law enforcement
violence and gore, hate speech and other request” (www.snipca.com/51820, see
material deemed harmful to children, but Choose a VPN that won’t store and share your
screenshot left). It makes the valid point
these parental controls can be disabled private browsing data that a VPN can’t hand over data it doesn’t
through your customer account. collect, so a strict no-logs policy is often
Only sites containing illegal content “undermine the freedom of expression of more important than country of origin.
are usually banned in the UK, though many people in the UK” (www.snipca.
that could change following the com/51817). Stop your ISP throttling
introduction of the Online Safety Act last Though it won’t give you free reign to your connection
October (www.snipca.com/51816, see access prohibited content, a VPN will let Many VPNs offer a ‘stealth’ mode, which
screenshot below). you bypass unfair and unwarranted redirects your internet connection
Although well-intentioned as a means censorship by pretending to be in a through a special ‘obfuscated’ server.
of protecting young web users from country outside the UK. Its encryption This disguises that you’re using a VPN
potentially harmful content, there are will keep your activities private and help by making encrypted data look like
fears that the strict rules imposed by the you avoid entering personal information normal internet traffic.
act will block access to legitimate sites to verify your identity. As well as letting you access sites and
and services, and that its insistence on services that block VPNs, stealth mode
age-verification for adult sites will Avoid online surveillance can boost your browsing speed. Some
compromise users’ privacy. Some VPNs, especially free ones, keep internet providers ‘throttle’ (slow) their
Digital-rights organisation Open Rights logs of your activities for advertising users’ bandwidth when they engage in
Group says the Online Safety Act is “an purposes, while even reputable services heavy downloading or streaming at busy
overblown legislative mess that could are legally required to pass your data to times. A VPN hides your activities and
seriously harm our security” and will government agencies, if they’re based how much data you’re using, so you
in a ‘Fourteen Eyes’ country. won’t be unfairly throttled.
This international surveillance Most importantly, residents of countries
alliance, which includes the UK, where VPNs are banned (see box below
US, Canada, Australia and France left) can use stealth mode to browse
(it was originally Five Eyes – see anonymously without getting caught.
www.snipca.com/51818 for full Paid-for VPNs with a stealth option
details), involves intelligence include NordVPN, Mullvad VPN (www.
agencies sharing data about mullvad.net) and Surfshark, which calls
internet users, primarily to it Camouflage mode. ExpressVPN
combat terrorism. obfuscates your data automatically.
NordVPN (based in Panama), In Windscribe, you can choose
A VPN can bypass unfair restrictions imposed by the Proton VPN (Switzerland) and Stealth in the desktop or mobile app’s
Online Safety Act ExpressVPN (the British Virgin Connection Mode settings, while Proton
VPN recently added the feature to its
Windows version – it was already
Where you mustn’t use a VPN available on Android, iOS and macOS.
Choose ‘Settings’ in the main menu, click
Using a VPN abroad lets you access UK applies to Turkey and the UAE, where use the Connection tab and select the Stealth
content, and stay private and secure, but of an unauthorised VPN can lead to a large protocol (see screenshot below).
some countries have strict rules and laws fine or imprisonment.
against using the technology. VPNs are legal in India, but your data
VPNs are completely illegal in will be collected and stored for at least five
Turkmenistan and Belarus, where you’ll years, while in Pakistan and Oman you
receive an unspecified fine if caught using need government approval to use one.
one, and in Iraq and North Korea (penalty Other countries, such as Egypt, Turkey
unknown). In Russia, China and Iran, and Uganda permit VPNs, but heavily
VPNs are technically legal, but must be censor the sites offering them, making
approved by the government to prevent it difficult to sign up for a service and
access to ‘unlawful content’. The same download its software. Enable your VPN’s Stealth mode to stop your
ISP spying on you

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 55

 SAVE MONEY ON PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Avoid price discrimination 1 With a VPN server in the US,
Some websites and apps, particularly we saved £46 on a Paris
hotel-room booking
those for booking hotels, flights and car
rental, vary their prices based on your
geographical location – a practice known
as ‘price discrimination’. They also use
hidden trackers to determine what
you’ve viewed before, and adjust their
selling tactics accordingly – inflating the
cost and warning ‘Only two rooms/seats
left at this price!’.
A VPN can help you avoid this 2
discrimination and save money on your
next holiday. By choosing a server in (see page 51) as well as
another country, and clearing any cookies tracking cookies. However,
from your browser – or switching to it’s certainly worth a try,
incognito mode – you can sometimes fool and can also reduce the cost
a service into offering you lower prices or of digital purchases such as
special country-specific discounts. software and games. Just
Even with exchange rates and fees bear in mind that your real
taken into account, you may still make a location may be revealed
significant saving – and if prices are when you enter account and
higher with your VPN enabled, you can payment information.
simply try a different server. In our
example below, five nights in a Paris hotel Save money on that won’t be detected and blocked), it’s
cost £841 when booked normally (see streaming services possible to sign up for less and save over
screenshot 1 ), but $1,052 (approximately Over the past year, popular streaming £100 a year. For example, in Egypt a
£795) through a VPN server in the US 2 . services including Netflix, Disney+ and Standard (ad-free) Netflix plan costs
This sneaky trick won’t always work Spotify have increased their monthly 120 Egyptian pounds (roughly £1.86) a
– pricing algorithms depend on factors subscription prices in the UK and US, but month, compared with £10.99 in the UK.
other than location, and a site may in other countries they remain relatively To join an overseas version of Netflix,
identify you through fingerprinting cheap. With a reliable VPN (meaning one you’ll need to cancel your existing
account, clear all cookies, use your
browser’s translate function and hope
that your billing information won’t give
you away – a prepaid credit card can help
you beat this restriction. Once you’ve
signed up, disconnecting from the VPN
server should let you access Netflix’s UK
library for a lower price, though there’s
no guarantee this will work indefinitely.
See www.snipca.com/51827 (pictured
left) for a comparison of Netflix prices
in different countries, and the box
Compare the cost of a
Netflix subscription in below to learn how to compare
different countries regional content.

Compare global streaming services

Before you use a VPN to sign up with a dropdown menu – options include Netflix,
regional version of a streaming service, Disney+, Paramount+, Prime Video, Pluto
it’s worth checking if it’s worth the trouble. TV and Tubi TV – and choose a country
The handy website Stream With VPN in the ‘Available on’ menu. Alternatively,
(www.streamwithvpn.com) lets you see you can specify a VPN such as NordVPN,
which TV shows and films are available to ExpressVPN or Windscribe, to discover me’ to view the TV shows and films you’ll
watch on services in other countries, but which titles it will let you unlock. be able to access. You can also search for
not in the UK. In the ‘But not in’ menu, select United a series or movie to see which services
Select a service in the ‘Titles on’ Kingdom (see screenshot), then click ‘Show it’s available on in other countries.

56 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 WHY YOU MUST USE A

VPN
MAXIMISE YOUR VPN’S PROTECTION
Create your own VPN hotspot of the Windows Settings app.
The best VPNs offer apps for desktop, Windscribe’s Windows app helpfully
mobile and TV-streaming devices, so you provides a hotspot for other devices to
can access geo-restricted content and connect to. In its Connection settings,
protect your privacy wherever you go. switch on Secure Hotspot and enter the
If an app isn’t available for a particular SSID (network name) and password you
gadget in your home, you can set up a want to use. Note that not all network
VPN hotspot on your PC. This creates a adapters support this feature.
virtual router that shares your VPN’s
encryption and other benefits with up to Set up a VPN on your router
eight devices you connect to it. Some routers have a built-in VPN to
In Windows 10, press the Windows protect all the devices connected to your
key+I to open the Settings app and network. If not, you can upgrade your
choose ‘Network & Internet’ then ‘Mobile current router’s firmware with DD-WRT
hotspot’. Switch on ‘Share my Internet (https://dd-wrt.com), to add VPN support
connection with other devices’ ( 1 in our through the OpenVPN or WireGuard
Use split tunneling to apply your VPN’s
screenshot below) and click ‘Change protocol. However, this may not be protection to specific apps
adapter options’ 2 . In the window that possible on a router supplied by your ISP.
opens, you’ll see a set of network Search for your router’s manufacturer Restrict your VPN to
connections, one with ‘Virtual Adapter’ and model in the DD-WRT database specific software
in its description, which is the hotspot, (www.snipca.com/51832), and follow the A VPN – unlike a proxy – encrypts and
and another the name of your active VPN. instructions to install DD-WRT on your redirects your whole internet connection,
Right-click the latter, choose Properties router. ExpressVPN provides special not just your browsing activities. This
and click the Sharing tab. Tick the ‘Allow firmware for Linksys, Netgear and Asus can sometimes cause trouble with a
other network users to connect through routers (www.snipca.com/51836) and has website or app – for example, when
this computer’s internet connection’ box, its own Wi-Fi 6 router, the ExpressVPN logging into online banking or watching
select your hotspot network in the Aircove (£196 from www.snipca.com/51837, UK streaming services.
dropdown menu and click OK. pictured below) with a VPN built in. A feature called split tunneling solves
In Windows 11, switch on ‘Mobile Once you’ve installed DD-WRT, you’ll this problem by routing only some of
hotspot’ in your ‘Network & internet’ need to follow your VPN’s own guide to your data through your VPN. You can
settings, then type View network setting up its service on your router, so either specify which programs and apps
connections in the taskbar search box. that it connects to the right servers via are always protected by your VPN, or
Select that option and follow the steps OpenVPN or WireGuard. You can find whitelist software to exclude. For privacy
above. Connect a device to your new VPN NordVPN’s instructions at www.snipca. reasons, it’s sensible to protect your main
hotspot using the network name and com/51833, Proton VPN’s at www.snipca. browser using your VPN, but you can
password in the ‘Mobile hotspot’ section com/51834 and Windscribe’s at www. whitelist a different browser and use that
snipca.com/51835 – the feature is only to access sites that need to know your real
available to paid users. location
ExpressVPN’s
Most paid-for VPNs now include
Aircove router split-tunneling, as does Windscribe in its
has a built-in desktop and Android app (Apple forbids
1 VPN iOS apps using the feature). Switch on
the Split Tunneling option (see screenshot
above) in your Connection settings and
2 choose which apps to include or exclude.
Your VPN’s browser extension may let
you apply split tunneling to websites, to
Set up a VPN hotspot on your PC to protect up disable encryption and location-spoofing
to eight other devices when you visit them.

NEXT ISSUE On sale Wednesday 25 September

ON SALE
Weds
PLUS 25

WINDOWS 10 IS
Sept

• Why your front door
needs a smart lock
Burglars hate them – but

DOOMED!
We reveal ALL your you won’t
options – act now so 
• Record and save TV shows
you’re fully prepared You can still do this – just!

Subscribe to Computeractive at www.getcomputeractive.co.uk

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 57

 BLOCK NEW
COOKIE
POP-UPS
Cookie-consent banners are making it
difficult to protect your privacy – unless
you pay. Robert Irvine explains the best
ways to hide them on your PC and phone

C
ookie consent pop-ups, where have been greeted by a new type of We’ve seen examples of ‘consent or
websites ask for permission to cookie pop-up. Rather than offering the pay’ banners that threaten to share your
install cookies on your devices, traditional options to accept, reject or data with over 1,400 advertising partners
have been interrupting our customise/manage any cookies the site unless you purchase a subscription to
browsing since 2011. Introduced as part implants on your device (see screenshot access the site’s content. This can be
of the European Union’s ePrivacy below left), these updated privacy notices expensive – prices range from £2 to £5
Directive, these privacy notices were later are much more aggressive. per month – and in most cases you’ll
enforced in the UK by GDPR rules and, Typically, they give you just two still see adverts – they just won’t be
after Brexit, by the Data Protection Act 2018. choices: either pay for a subscription to personalised using information collected
Though the Conservative government unlock the content, or continue reading by tracking cookies.
proposed relaxing the requirement to for free but consent to the site using
show cookie banners on all sites accessed tracking cookies to target you with Why are websites showing
in the UK, this sadly never came to pass. ads, collect your personal data and these pop-ups?
Instead, pop-ups have become even share your details with its partners. You might assume companies are using
harder to avoid, understand and decline. There’s no third option that lets you these strict new cookie pop-ups to make
In this feature, we explain how you choose which cookies to accept, which up revenue from falling newspaper
can block these nuisances without has led to the new pop-ups being circulation or to combat the popularity of
compromising your privacy. dubbed ‘consent or pay’ and ‘pay to ad blockers. However, their adoption was
reject’ (see screenshot below). actually triggered by the Information
How are cookie pop-ups Worst of all, these cookie overlays can’t Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which last
getting worse? be closed or skipped, so if you want to November ordered 53 of the UK’s top 100
If you’ve recently visited a newspaper read the site’s content for free, you have websites to change their cookie policies
website for the first time, or since to consent to being tracked. They’re to comply with data-protection law (see
clearing your browsing data, you may particularly frustrating when you’re www.snipca.com/51851).
browsing on your phone, because they The ICO says sites “must make it as easy
can obstruct your entire screen until you for users to ‘Reject All’ advertising
either cough up or cave in. cookies as it is to ‘Accept All’”, and that if
visitors reject tracking they must not be
targeted with personalised ads. Although
this policy helps preserve web users’
privacy, site owners clearly – and no
doubt correctly – believe most people will
simply choose Reject All.
As a result they have updated their
rejection options so visitors who don’t
want to support content through ads and
Traditional cookie pop-ups let you withhold New pop-ups make you pay to reject cookies data collection must instead fund it
your permission for sites to track you and personalised ads through a monthly subscription. It makes

60 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

good business sense, but it’s also a
privacy nightmare for users who only
read the occasional article.
The ‘consent or pay’ approach assumes
that people will accept cookies just to
access content for free – and won’t realise
they’ll be tracked by hundreds of
advertising partners. And it’s not just
newspaper websites, either. In the EU,
Meta has been testing the option on
Facebook and Instagram (www.snipca.
com/51852), and other companies are
likely to follow suit.
uBlock Origin Lite has filters for blocking Brave’s desktop and mobile browsers let you
cookie notices and overlays block cookie pop-ups
How to block new cookie
pop-ups incognito mode apply. Sites can still changes’ and ‘Update now’ buttons at
Use private-browsing mode see your IP address and other identifying the top of the page.
The easiest way to read content for free information, and so can their advertising As we’ve reported in recent issues,
without personalised ads is to switch to partners. Also, some cookies remain uBlock Origin may soon be disabled in
your browser’s private or incognito mode. in your browser until you end the Chrome following the introduction of
This won’t stop sites displaying their private session. Google’s Manifest V3 (MV3) extensions
cookie pop-ups, and you’ll still need to system. The good news is that cookie-
give consent to be tracked, but it means Block cookie notices notice and overlay filters are still available
you can stop the site saving third-party using uBlock Origin in the MV3-compatible version uBlock
cookies on your PC or phone (see Ad blockers won’t automatically remove Origin Lite (www.snipca.com/51604, see
screenshot below). the new cookie pop-ups, and extensions screenshot above left), so you can
This option strikes the fairest balance such as I Don’t Care About Cookies accept continue blocking these pop-ups for the
between privacy and supporting free their requests in the background rather foreseeable future.
content, but the usual caveats about than refuse all tracking permissions. On an Android phone or tablet, you
Thankfully, our favourite content blocker, can install uBlock Origin in Firefox
uBlock Origin (www.snipca.com/50113), (www.snipca.com/51854) to stop the new
includes filter lists that block cookie cookie banners filling your screen. Tap
notices on every site you visit. This means the three-dot menu button in the
you can access their content without browser’s top-right corner, choose
compromising your privacy. Extensions and tap the plus sign next to
To enable these filters, right-click uBlock Origin, then Add. Once installed,
uBlock Origin’s toolbar button, open the extension’s settings and enable
choose Options and click the ‘Filter the cookie-notice filters.
lists’ tab. In the ‘Cookie notices’ section,
tick the boxes next to ‘EasyList/uBO – Switch to Brave on your PC and phone
You can stop sites implanting cookies by Cookie Notices’ and ‘AdGuard/uBO – If you don’t want to install an extension
reading their content in incognito mode Cookie Notices’, then click the ‘Apply to avoid cookie pop-ups, use Brave
(www.brave.com) to access websites
with ‘consent or pay’ policies. It’s the
Block tracking in mobile apps only browser that blocks the new
privacy notices automatically, though
Full-screen privacy notices Rather than tap Consent others – including DuckDuckGo’s
are increasingly common to dismiss the notice and desktop and mobile browsers, and
in free Android and iOS allow all tracking, just to Opera’s Android and iOS apps – can
apps. These appear when get into the app, press the block the more traditional banners.
you first open an app and ‘Manage options’ button Brave offers to block cookie-consent
prevent you from accessing (see screenshot) if there is notices when you first install the browser.
it until you respond. one. This will let you disable You can enable the feature later by
Like their website specific types of data going to brave://settings/shields/filters
equivalents, these pop-ups collection, such as ‘Create and ticking the box for the EasyList
ask for your consent to collect your profiles for personalised advertising’, Cookie filter.
personal data – through cookies, unique ‘Store information on a device’ and ‘Use In the Brave app for Android (www.
identifiers and other tracking methods – precise location data’. snipca.com/51856) and iOS (www.snipca.
so they can target you with ads. They Disable all these settings before you com/51857), go into the browser’s
also tell you how many partners they tap ‘Confirm choices’. It may take a few Settings and select ‘Brave Shields &
will share your data with – a figure that’s minutes but it’s worth the time and trouble privacy’. Switch on the option ‘Block
often in the hundreds. to protect your privacy. cookie consent notices’ (see screenshot
above) if it isn’t already enabled.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 61

 What You Should
NEVER
BUY ON
AMAZON
There are still plenty of fake products
on the world’s biggest online retailer.
Daniel Booth exposes them and
reveals how you can avoid being tricked

A
mazon’s status as the world’s below: on the left is a generic SD-card
premier store makes it our image that we’ve seen listed on Amazon
first stop for buying many tech by a range of obscure companies,
products. But that also makes including 5-star, Aogamb and Cticoal. It
it irresistible for scammers selling fake intentionally mimics the design of
goods that don’t work as advertised. SanDisk’s SD cards, pictured on the right.
These fraudsters abuse Amazon’s These cards often have five-star
marketplace system, which lets them list reviews, but most are fake. Predictably,
items as third-party sellers. the prices undercut the real cards: we 1 2
Having seized seven million counterfeit saw the fake card selling for £17.99 for
To avoid fakes search for products through a
products in 2023, Amazon is trying to 512GB, around £25 cheaper than SanDisk’s brand’s official Amazon store
fight back. And it takes the problem more equivalent. Not that you’ll get 512GB with
seriously than ever. But many critics these knock-offs: you’ll be lucky to get a USB sticks
think Amazon Marketplace is simply too tenth of the advertised storage. Storage devices are a favourite target for
big for the site to police properly, and that If you like a particular brand, don’t scammers because it’s easy and cheap to
it’s safer to shop at other retailers, such as search for it from Amazon’s home page. fake their capacity. This is as true of USB
Argos, Currys and John Lewis, which Instead, bookmark its store on the site sticks as it is for SD cards. You’ll find
don’t have third-party sellers. You may and search from there. For example, plenty of obscure brands in Amazon’s
want to avoid B&Q, Boots and Superdrug, you’ll find SanDisk’s store at www. sponsored results – ever heard of (or
though, which do now have marketplaces, snipca.com/51855 (see box opposite for attempted to pronounce) Deeiqeyp,
and we’ve also read many reports of fake more). Search for a product at the top Kangql or Tewene?
products on AliExpress and Temu. right ( 1 in our screenshot above right), We’re not saying these are fake, and
and you’ll see the results below. Just as on some even have their own Amazon
SD cards Amazon’s home page, you can filter storefront. But they’re not worth the
Search for SD cards on Amazon and results by price, customer reviews, gamble, especially when large-capacity
you’ll find dozens of fakes that imitate newest products and best sellers 2 . The sticks from the big names – Corsair,
genuine manufacturers (a theme we’ll results generated will all be genuine Kingston, Lexar, PNY, Samsung, SanDisk,
return to). Compare the two images products, uncontaminated by fakes. Verbatim – are now so cheap. For
example, while Tewene might tempt you
FAKE SANDISK with a 64GB stick for £7.55, SanDisk’s are
even cheaper at £7.45.
Also, if you are a SanDisk fan, make
sure you don’t accidentally buy a stick
from SunData. Not only does it use a
This fake card is capital S and D with the same number of
deliberately designed
to imitate SanDisk’s letters, but the logo is similar also – see
genuine product www.snipca.com/51873.

62 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

SSDs
The most outrageously fake item we’ve What to do if you’ve
ever seen on Amazon was a 16TB SSD
selling for just $70 (around £53), back in
bought a fake item
early 2023. Given that 8TB SSDs cost First, ask the seller for a refund, and
around £600, it was clearly a con, despite say you’re considering reporting
many (obviously bogus) five-star reviews. them to Amazon for fraud. If they
It turned out to be just a 64GB microSD don’t refund you, or ignore you
card in a circuit board with a USB-C entirely (which is likely), make a claim
connector. Brands selling it included through Amazon’s ‘A-to-z Guarantee
AanvinIY, HanvinBS and WuZ – none of Protection’ within 30 days (see www.
them known to us. The only genuine snipca.com/51861). Amazon has a
MyToner’s third-party cartridges for Epson
16TB SSD we’ve seen on sale recently is printers could be mistaken for the real deal
dedicated page for reporting fakes
iStorage’s password-protected (www.snipca.com/51862), but this
diskAshur2, and that’ll set you back but the packaging looks professional is only for companies who own the
£3,671: www.snipca.com/44627. enough to fool you at first glance. copyright being infringed.
Since then we’ve seen several fake SSDs
impersonating Samsung’s 980, 990 and Apple AirPods
1080 models, all listed at miraculously The popularity of Apple’s AirPods has Several tools claim to do this, and
cheap prices and promising record- spawned countless clones on Amazon. they’re all a bit erratic. We’ve had
breaking file-transfer speeds. But overall Most don’t claim to be Apple products, most success with ‘Amazon Ad &
there seem to be fewer fake SSDs, but simply mimic the simple white Sponsored Listing Blocker’ for Chromium
probably because Amazon is clamping design and hope to catch out unwary browsers (www.snipca.com/51865).
down on them – though counterfeiters buyers with sub-£30 prices. None Install it, then search for a product and
might just be focusing more on cheaper actually use ‘Apple’ in the listing, but you’ll see the sponsored listing briefly
storage devices (SD cards and USB sticks). some do bend the rules by describing appear, before vanishing. You’ll still see
their products as ‘pods’, rather than listings for Amazon’s Choice and
Printer ink cartridges the more generic earbuds. Here’s one Exclusive, but sponsored items should be
Manufacturers’ ink cartridges are such a example from the brand Wparhus: a thing of the past.
rip-off that we don’t blame you for www.snipca.com/51868.
looking on Amazon for cheaper alternatives Buy items sold and delivered
– and you’ll find plenty available. Search by Amazon
for ‘Epson ink cartridges’, for example, Many third-party sellers use Amazon’s
and alongside the official ink you’ll see ‘Fulfilment’ scheme, which stores their
products from many third parties products in the company’s warehouses
including Ejey, Hoinklo, Lemero, and sends them to the buyer. It’s an
MyToner and Ubinki. You’ll find similar affordable way for small sellers to pass
results for Brother, Canon and HP printers. all delivery responsibility to Amazon.
That’s not necessarily a problem, of However, that means fake and legitimate
course. Many people find a good third- items are stored in the same warehouse,
party seller and stick with it. But these and are sometimes mixed up.
companies are increasingly using photos
in their listings that could be mistaken for Genuine Apple AirPods have a serial number
on the underside of the lid of the charging case
official products. Buyers who want to
stick with the latter could easily be If you think you’ve bought fake
tricked into buying unofficial cartridges. AirPods, look for the serial number on
The cartridges from MyToner (pictured the underside of the lid of the charging
above right) are a case in point. It’s not case (pictured below), and the bottom of
allowed to use logos from printer companies, the right earbud. Type it into https://
checkcoverage.apple.com and if your
buds are authentic you’ll be able to Avoid third-party sellers by checking that the
Brand stores review your Apple warranty status.
product is both dispatched and sold by Amazon
on Amazon You can avoid third-party sellers
•• Apple www.snipca.com/51875
Brother www.snipca.com/51876
Remove Amazon’s
sponsored results
entirely by checking whether Amazon is
mentioned in both the ‘Dispatches from’
•• Canon www.snipca.com/51877
Epson www.snipca.com/51878
Many of the scammers behind fake
products seek credibility by buying a
and ‘Sold by’ information in the box on
the right of the product page (see
• HP www.snipca.com/51879 ‘sponsored’ result in Amazon’s search screenshot above). You can also filter
••Kingston www.snipca.com/51880
Lexar www.snipca.com/51881
results. Amazon really should do better at
preventing these (as should Google with
results to only show these items. Restrict
products to those sold and dispatched by
••
Samsung www.snipca.com/51882
SanDisk www.snipca.com/51883
fake search results), but until it does you
can use a browser extension to remove
Amazon by selecting the company in the
Seller category on the left when you
sponsored products. search the site.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 63

 Problems Solved
Our experts solve all your tech problems

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT

Why won’t Windows control my

monitor’s brightness?
I recently bought a monitor to 1
Q use as a second screen for my
laptop when I’m using it on
my desk. It works well enough, but I
can’t change the brightness using
Windows 10’s slider control. When
using the laptop on its own, the slider
lets me adjust the brightness of its
built-in screen, but as soon as I attach
the external monitor, it’s greyed out. I
can still use the monitor’s own menus
to adjust its brightness, but that’s a
hassle. Any ideas?
Vince Palmer

This feature relies on a

A protocol known as the Display
Data Channel/Command
Interface, or DDC/CI. This in turn Twinkle places an icon in the notification area that lets you control your monitor’s brightness
requires support from the monitor and
its drivers, as well as your graphics card allow compatible software to control monitor’s menus. If you find an option
drivers. For laptops and all-in-one them. But even if your monitor supports labelled ‘DDC/CI’, make sure it’s
desktop PCs, the manufacturer is DDC/CI, it’s not a given that its drivers switched on.
responsible for ensuring compatibility will support it and work with the Perhaps the easiest way to solve this
between all these elements. So with corresponding parts of your graphics problem, however, is to install a
these types of machines it’s usually card drivers. In other words it’s all a bit third-party tool that uses DDC/CI to
possible to adjust the screen’s hit and miss, and when it doesn’t work, control compatible features on your
brightness using the Windows slider. one of the results is a disabled Windows screen. This is particularly useful for
With a desktop setup the situation is brightness slider. people with a multi-monitor setup like
less straightforward. In most cases, it’s There are a number of things you can yours, because the best tools let you
safe to assume that your graphics card’s do to remedy this. First, have you control several displays at once,
driver supports DDC/CI. Most modern installed dedicated drivers for your new adjusting attributes such as brightness
monitors also support the protocol and monitor? It’s surprising how few people and contrast collectively or for each
do this, because most individual monitor.
2 displays simply work as There are a few tools that can do this,
soon as you plug them in but one of our favourites is Twinkle
so there seems little need. Tray, which is a free download from
That’s fine most of the the Microsoft Store (www.snipca.
time but it can result in com/51608). Once you’ve installed it,
little quirks like the one simply click the app’s star-shaped icon
you’re experiencing. in the notification area of the Windows
Check the monitor taskbar to access various sliders,
manufacturer’s website including one for brightness (see
to see what software is screenshot 1 ). If you right-click this
available, and install the icon and choose Settings 2 , you can
Right-click the Twinkle icon in the notification area to access latest drivers. You can customise the tool in various ways to
its Settings and customise the tool to your liking also investigate the make it even more useful.

64 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 Email us your problem and we’ll try to help:
[email protected]

How do I regain control of my email domain?

Years ago, my brother set 123-Reg’s domain-based email services cost
Q up email addresses for the
whole family. Mine is the
less than Google’s and Microsoft’s

same one I’m using to email you email services, which tend to cost around
now. I don’t know which service half the price of Google’s (www.snipca.
he used, although over the years com/51678, see screenshot left). Google
we’ve been on Thunderbird and Workspace does include lots of extras,
then later Gmail. however. It looks as if someone is paying
Everything was fine until some for twice-yearly renewals. That’s
time last year, when I found I was no presumably your brother, but if the
longer receiving emails. My brother 123-Reg account is set to renew his
can’t remember exactly what he set We’ve changed your name to domains automatically, he might not
up, and told me my only option was
to start paying for Google’s G Suite. This
A protect your real email address.
It sounds as if your brother
even realise this.
In theory, you can manage your emails
was a pain, but I eventually did it. registered a domain name and then, at in any service or program, including the
I’ve been paying Google ever since. some point, set up a paid-for Google free version of Gmail and Thunderbird.
I don’t use any of G Suite’s other tools, Workspace (the new name for G Suite) You simply pick them up from 123-Reg’s
so I’d rather not be paying for it. I’d account to manage email sent to and servers. But first you need to get control
happily go back to Thunderbird, but I from this address. of your domain, which means logging in
need to keep my email address. I’ve no We can see that your freddie-whicker. to the 123-Reg account that set it up. We
idea what I need to do to retain my co.uk domain name was set up 24 years can’t help you with that directly, but your
existing emails, or if I can do it for less ago and is currently managed by 123-Reg starting point is obviously your brother. If
than I’m paying Google. What advice (www.123-reg.co.uk). It was renewed in he doesn’t have the details you need, try
can you offer? 2023 and expires in 2025. contacting 123-Reg’s customer services.
Freddie Whicker 123-Reg offers its own domain-based You can call them on 0345 450 2310.

How do I set up a guest account on my Windows 11 PC?

I take part in various group 1
Q video calls using Zoom and
Microsoft Teams. To protect
my privacy, I use a spare computer to
make these calls. Could I install these
apps on a Windows 11 guest account on
my main computer instead so Zoom
and Teams can’t access my files? 2
John Knight

One of the restrictions

A Microsoft places on Windows
guest accounts is to block the
installation of software. This is to Select ‘I don’t have this person’s sign-in
ensure that the guest account is always information’ to create a brand new account
clean and ready for the next user. This
means you can’t use a Windows guest First, click the Start button followed Click ‘Add a user without a Microsoft account’
account for your purposes. by the Settings cog, then Accounts to isolate the new account from your own
This is no longer relevant, however, followed by ‘Other users’, and then
because (to use Microsoft’s jargon) ‘Add account’. Next, click the link that Finally, click the ‘Change account
guest accounts have been deprecated says ‘I don’t have this person’s sign-in type’ button to check that the
and are not part of Windows 11. information’ (see screenshot 1 ), followed ‘Account type’ is set to Standard
Instead, you can create a new ‘local’, by ‘Add a user without a Microsoft User, then click OK. You can now use
standard user account that’s isolated account’ 2 . Follow the prompts on Zoom and Teams privately on your
from your main Windows account. the next screen to complete the task. main computer.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 65

 Problems Solved
Can a caller stop me hanging up?
What broadband
speed do I need
I was always warned that
Q my phone line would stay

to stream Freely? ‘open’ if a caller didn’t

replace their receiver after the call.
What broadband speeds This could lead to a situation
Q would I need to stream
Freely’s TV services over the
where I might be deceived into
thinking I could make a call – for
internet? Mine are between 10 and example to verify the previous
13Mbps. Is that fast enough? caller’s identity – but still be
Pat Conneely connected to the original caller.
Now I’ve been told that this Under the UK’s analogue phone system, only the
You might think you’d situation has changed, and that BT caller could end a call, which was a gift to scammers
A need the fastest possible
broadband speeds for
cancels the line after just two
seconds. Can you confirm that this is the changed. The full details appear in a 2014
reliable streaming, but that’s not case and whether it’s true for other Openreach briefing document, which
true. Amazon, for example, says you telephone operators too? Also, does it you can read at www.snipca.com/51613
need a minimum of just 1Mbps to apply only to calls over conventional (see screenshot below), but the short
watch standard-definition (SD) copper lines or to VoIP calls as well? I’d version is that now almost all telephone
content on its Prime service, and be grateful if you could clarify this. exchanges automatically clear the call
5Mbps for HD (www.snipca. Phil Atkinson seconds after either participant hangs up.
com/51609). Netflix suggests even However, it’s possible that some
this is excessive, stating that 3Mbps is Certainly. In the days of analogue remote rural exchanges have yet to be
sufficient for HD streaming (www.
snipca.com/51610 – see screenshot 1 ),
A phone systems, this was a real
problem because, in the UK,
upgraded, and not every phone company
operates the same policy. If you’re not
though it does increase that to 5Mbps only the caller could ‘terminate’ a call by sure, contact your provider to confirm its
for true Full HD. Upping the hanging up, not the recipient. However, policies and find out which particular
resolution to 4K might cause you you’re also right that the situation has technologies your line uses.
buffering problems, however, as most
streaming services recommend
around 15Mbps or more for this.
Freely recommends a minimum
connection of 10Mbps (www.snipca.
com/51611) for HD streaming 2 and
up to 40Mbps for 4K content (www.
snipca.com/51612). That means
Freely’s 4K content may pose
problems over your connection, but
everything else should be fine.

You can stream Netflix in HD on a 3Mbps Thankfully BT remedied this situation and now either party can end a call by hanging up
connection, although it’s not Full HD
2 Q: Why did my VPN fail to hide my
identity?
A: Issue 668, page 67 – find it on
our 2023 Back Issue CD
Freely recommends at least 10Mbps for Buy it from
HD streaming – more than other services www.snipca.com/48860

66 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 How did you get your VPN working in Incognito mode?
In your reply to Phil Stoddart, 1 Open the Settings page in
Q in Issue 690’s Problems Solved
pages, the screenshot you
Chrome followed by Extensions
to locate Windscribe
printed showed Windscribe working
in Chrome’s Incognito mode. I’d love
to know how you did that. I use
Windscribe in Chrome, but when I
activate Incognito mode the 2
Windscribe icon disappears from my
toolbar. It would seem logical to be able
to use a VPN tool in Incognito mode, so
in the past I’ve wondered why it wasn’t Windscribe entry and click the Details
available. Now your screenshot has button (see screenshot 1 ). Now scroll
made me even more curious. Can you down to where it says ‘Allow in
tell me how you made this work? Incognito’. Under this option you’ll Activate this switch to make Windscribe
Christopher Blake see a warning stating that Chrome available in Chrome’s Incognito mode
can’t prevent extensions from recording
Well spotted! The fact that your browsing history. This is the also true when using it outside
A Windscribe is not available in
Incognito mode by default is
technicality that stops Windscribe being
available by default, because by enabling
Incognito mode. So the only difference
is that by enabling it, you have the
really just a technicality, albeit an it you’re negating an important part of added protection of masking your
important one. We’ll explain why in Chrome’s Incognito mode, if only for this IP address while in Incognito mode. If
just a moment. particular extension. That’s why you have you generally trust Windscribe, as we
To enable it, first open the Chrome to choose to enable it manually. do, there’s really little to worry about.
menu (three dots, top right) then click Doing this does mean that, in theory, So, slide the switch to its On position 2 ,
Settings followed by Extensions. Next, Windscribe could record everything you restart your Incognito window and
in the right-hand pane, locate the do in Incognito mode. However, that’s your Windscribe button will appear.

Where have my
files gone?
A folder called My Files, which
Q contains all my folders, has
vanished from Quick Access and
OneDrive. When I search my Documents
folder, it still appears complete with all
its sub-folders, but I don’t know how to
get to it. Can you help?
Alan Smith

One problem with the way

A Windows intentionally obscures
where and how files are stored
on local drives is that, increasingly,
people have no idea where anything
really is. We say this because the answer The file path in the screenshot Alan sent us revealed the location of his missing folder
to your question is actually in one of the
screenshots you sent us. It may seem called New Folder, which in turn is in else. Alternatively, if you’re not confident
obvious to the likes of us, but after years Documents in your OneDrive folder. about moving it, you can just leave it
of Microsoft shielding users from the To find it, press Windows key+E to where it is. Either way, you now know
inner workings of Windows, not everyone launch File Explorer then navigate where to find it in OneDrive.
can recognise or understand file paths. through OneDrive to Documents, then To create a link to this or any
We don’t know how it happened but, New Folder. There you will find your My other folder in Quick Access, simply
according to the screenshot, your My Files folder. You can drag and drop this right-click the folder and then choose
Files folder is now inside a subfolder folder back into Documents or anywhere ‘Pin to Quick Access’.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 67

 Problems Solved
How can I stop 1 To locate a troublesome app
in Windows 11, click Start,

these script errors? Settings, then Apps

When I boot my Windows 11

Q HP ProBook 6560b laptop,
two Script Error boxes pop up
with warnings apparently relating to a
Google URL. If I click the option allowing
the scripts to keep running, the messages
disappear and my laptop functions
without any apparent issues. How do I
get rid of these boxes?
2
Cyril Killen
network. So it’s very likely that you
First, as a general warning, have one of MiniTool’s programs
A we’d advise being very wary
of clicking the Yes button on
installed and that it’s misfiring somehow
when displaying adverts or during
any box that pops up unexpectedly. automatic updates.
Thankfully, we’re confident that no The simple fix is to uninstall the
harm has been done in this case. offending program and then, if you still
The script errors point to a unique want it, to reinstall it. To do this in
Google ID that’s linked to MiniTool Windows 11, first click the Start button Confirm your decision to uninstall the app,
(www.minitool.com). This company followed by Settings and then Apps (see and your troubles should be over
makes various PC utilities, the most screenshot 1 ). Now scroll through the list
famous of which is Partition Wizard. The of installed apps until you find the clicking Uninstall. Confirm your decision
offending utility is using that ID to pull in relevant entry, then click on the menu by clicking Uninstall again 2 , then restart
adverts from Google’s advertising button (three dots) to its right before your PC to complete the process.

Why won’t Microsoft let me install any apps?

My wife recently bought an 1
Q Acer Aspire 1 laptop to replace
an ancient predecessor. I
offered to set it up for her, but it won’t
let me install any apps that aren’t from
the Microsoft Store. I’ve got a list of
apps I’d like to install that aren’t
available from the Store. How can I get
round these ridiculous restrictions?
David Priest

You’re struggling with the

A limitations of S mode, which
is Microsoft’s way of
controlling every aspect of the
2
operating system. Some users,
particularly novices, can find this Clicking this button on Microsoft’s website takes
beneficial because it’s almost you to the appropriate page in the Store
impossible for malware to infect your
PC, but as you’ve discovered, you can To do this, search for ‘S mode’ in the
install only apps Microsoft has tested Microsoft Store, or find it by clicking
and made available through its Store. ‘Switch out of S mode’ on Microsoft’s
You’ll be pleased to hear that website at www.snipca.com/51617 (see
escaping is both easy and free, but bear screenshot 1 ) Once you’ve found the
in mind that it’s a one-way process. ‘Switch out of S mode’ page in the Store,
Once you’ve left S mode, you can’t go click the Get button. A moment later, Once you’ve found the page, click Get and
back. That’s probably no great loss. you’ll be free to install what you want 2 . wait for the Store to let you out of S mode

68 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

 ?? WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN...
Performance cores and Efficiency cores?
I’m looking for a new laptop, Intel’s exhaustive table tells you
Q and among the many things
confusing me are references to
how many P-cores and E-cores its
processors have

Performance cores and Efficiency

cores. I have no idea what these are, P-cores and E-cores, these
but some PCs have more Performance components balance power
cores than Efficiency ones, and vice and energy consumption.
versa. What do they do? I want a laptop Performance cores tackle
that runs well and has a good battery demanding tasks such as
life, so should I be looking for one with games and video editing, with
more Performance or more Efficiency little regard for power consumption. while minimising heat and inefficiency.
cores? Some laptops, such as those Efficiency cores meanwhile take care of The P-core and E-core count simply
with AMD processors, don’t seem to less intensive jobs such as email, and use gives you a little more detail about the
have them at all. Can you clear this up a lot less power in the process. hardware’s underlying design.
for me? So, in the simplest terms, more Intel publishes a vast table of
Samuel Crawford Performance cores mean a faster processor specifications, complete with
computer that generates a lot of heat and core counts, at www.snipca.com/51614
If we were being cynical we’d costs a bit more to run. With more (see screenshot). If you’re interested in
A say that these are largely a
marketing gimmick that gives
Efficiency cores on the other hand you
can expect less heat, a longer battery life
getting the highest performance, focus
on CPUs with the highest number of
Intel something to shout about. We say and lower energy bills, but your PC will P-cores. If battery life and running
this because although rival AMD’s probably be a little slower overall. costs are your priority, opt for a chip
processors have similar design elements, In practical terms, most users don’t with more E-cores. Otherwise, choose
the company hasn’t focused on them in really have to worry about any of this. one that has a balance of both.
its own advertising – at least not yet. The computer hardware, in conjunction Want to know the difference between
However, there is some merit to the with Windows, will always do its best to technical terms? Email noproblem@
distinction. Sometimes abbreviated to maximise performance and battery life computeractive.co.uk

Can I convert my old FCM files?

I have a USB stick containing your IP address (Windscribe is a good free
Q some FCM files that I used with
my Brother ScanNCut machine.
way to do this – get the extension from
www.windscribe.com).
Sadly the machine no longer works but You can open the resulting SVG files in
I’d still like to use the files. Is there a free most image-editing programs, where you
program I can use to convert them from can edit or save them in any format. Bear
FCM format to JPEG or TIFF? Use this free tool from Ideas R Us to convert in mind that if you save them as JPEG or
exotic FCM files to a more useful SVG format
John Gilbert TIFF files, you lose the benefit of infinite
There’s one online converter tool that scalability, so we’d stick with SVG format.
This is trickier than it should be does, from a small outfit called Ideas R
A because Brother intentionally Us, at www.snipca.com/51615. Click ON SALE
created the proprietary FCM
format when it could easily have used the
‘Choose file’ (see screenshot) then ‘Convert
FCM to SVG’, then click the Download Next Issue Weds
25 Sept
scalable vector graphics (SVG) format, link to download the converted files. The
which is a open source. The fabric-cutting website limits free conversions to 10, • How do I monitor network
machines (FCMs) that use Brother’s FCM based on your IP address, but you can traffic?
format are pretty niche, so the format purchase credits for more (£6.99 will buy •W
 hat are these mystery
isn’t widely supported. You can still open you 500 – see www.snipca.com/51616). recovered files?
and work with the files using Brother’s Note that while the site itself lacks a •W
 hy is my phone switching
own CanvasWorkspace tool (which is a security certificate, any purchases would itself on? ...And many more
free download from https:// be made through PayPal – which
canvasworkspace.brother.com), but that obviously does use security certification. Subscribe to Computeractive at
supports only FCM files, and doesn’t offer You could get a few more conversions www.getcomputeractive.co.uk
any way to convert to other formats. for free by using a VPN tool to change

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 69

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Problems Solved
Reader Support
Having a problem with our recommended software or expert tips?
Email [email protected] and we’ll do our best to help

Why won’t Brave show extensions you currently use (under

images on web pages? brave://extensions) to see if this helps.
I was interested to read Issue Re-enable them one by one, testing the
Q 686’s Cover Feature on
switching to the Brave
browser after each one until you find
which is stopping images loading. You
browser. It’s something I tried last year, could also try turning off the ‘Use
but I soon ditched the browser for graphics acceleration when available’
reasons I couldn’t remember. I’ve setting (under brave://settings/system).
been using Vivaldi (https://vivaldi.com) If none of these work, update Brave by
ever since, but after reading your going to https://brave.com/latest and
feature I decided to give Brave another installing the latest version.
go. I soon remembered why I had
abandoned it last year, however: rather Shouldn’t you have warned us
than showing images on web pages, it about ‘silence unknown callers’?
displays placeholders for them. Is there a In Issue 686 (page 65), you told
solution for this annoying problem?
Alan Brown
Q Brian Moulton that he could
thwart phone scammers by
blocking calls from unknown numbers.
There are several possible That’s true, but doing this can also cause
A reasons for this. First, type the
following into Brave’s address
serious problems. For example, I recently
missed several calls from doctors because
bar brave://settings/content/images my phone didn’t ring. The reason was
( 1 in our screenshot below) and make that they came from private numbers,
sure ‘Sites can show images’ is turned on not from the GP’s number I have saved
2 . If it isn’t, click the button next to it, on my phone. When I checked my
The ‘Add to home screen’ option is available
then visit a web page with images to test settings, I found that I had ‘Silence when you search for weather in the Google
whether this has fixed your problem. If Unknown Callers’ switched on. Shouldn’t app (top) but not in Chrome (bottom)
the setting was already enabled, or you have warned about this possibility?
enabling it makes no difference, go to Eugene Svobod screen’ seems to have been removed on
brave://settings/clearBrowserData. On my Samsung phone. Is Google trying to
the Basic tab, select ‘All time’ from the Brian Moulton asked for advice stop us using it?
‘Time range’ dropdown menu and make
sure all three options are ticked, then
A on how to block the high
volume of callbacks he was
Andy Bailey

click ‘Delete data’. getting from strangers after his phone It’s an easy mistake to make,
If you still can’t see images, try viewing
a web page in a Private tab – click the
number was stolen. That’s why we
suggested enabling ‘Silence Unknown
Q but we think you’re searching
for the weather using Chrome
Menu button (three horizontal lines) and Callers’ as an option in his case. But (or the Samsung Internet app) rather
select ‘New private window’. If images you’re right that this has the unintended than the Google app. If you use a
load in this mode, an extension could be side-effect of blocking potentially standard web browser, you won’t see the
causing the problem. Try disabling all the important calls if the number ringing you ‘Add to home screen’ option when you
isn’t in your contacts. As such, we’d click the three-dot icon next to the
recommend using this feature only in weather widget – you need the Google
extreme situations, such as Brian’s. app for this. See the two screenshots
1 above for a comparison.
Why can’t I use Google’s Bear in mind that the Google app
‘secret’ weather app? may not be installed on your device
2 I’m trying to load the ‘secret’ by default. If you can’t find it, go to
A Google weather app you
recommended in Issue 687
the Play Store and search for ‘Google’
to install it, then try following our
If Brave isn’t displaying web images, try turning
on the ‘Make sites show images’ setting (page 61), but the option to ‘Add to home steps again.

Issue 692 • 11 – 24 September 2024 71

 Jargon Buster
1080p High-definition video: DDoS Direct Denial of Service. Full HD Resolution of 1920x1080 JSON JavaScript Object Notation.
1920x1080 pixels. A targeted cyber-attack which pixels. Used to transmit data between a
brings down a web server. web application and a server.
3G/4G/5G Technologies that Geo-restricted Content such as
deliver faster mobile broadband. Deprecation When a software TV programmes and films that’s Manifest V2 Second version of
feature is being phased out and no intended to be watched only in a the software that runs Chrome
4K Video with a resolution of at longer recommended for use. specific country. browser extensions.
least 3840x2160 pixels.
DNS Domain Name System. A GPS Global positioning system. Metadata A set of data that gives
720p/1080p/1440p Common technology that associates PCs Satellite-based navigational system. information about a file.
types of high-definition video with their addresses on the web.
of 1280x720, 1920x1080 and GPU A chip designed to create 3D MicroSD card A small type of
2560x1440 pixels respectively. Dolby Atmos Surround-sound graphics, but which can also be memory card.
technology that adds ‘height’ to used for other computing tasks.
AES-256bit Advanced Encryption the audio through speakers built Mini-LED Mini Light-Emitting Diode.
Standard. A form of encryption into the top of devices. Graphics card A component in a A type of screen technology that
based on a key length of 256 bits. computer that produces the image uses smaller LEDs to improve the
Dolby Vision Dolby’s HDR (High shown on the monitor. quality of the backlighting and
AI Artificial intelligence. Dynamic Range) screen technology. overall image quality.
Intelligence demonstrated by a HDMI A type of connection that
machine rather than a human. Domain These are used to transmits high-definition video and MP4 A type of digital movie file
identify one or more IP addresses. audio signals. often used for portable players.
Bandwidth A measure of how
much data can be transferred Driver A file that tells Windows how HDR10+ High-dynamic range 10. MVNO Mobile virtual network
through a connection at one time. to work with an external device. Current industry standard for TVs. operator. A mobile provider that
piggybacks on another network
Benchmarking Comparing DTS-X A type of surround sound Hotspot A public area covered by rather than use its own.
software and products with an used on some DVDs. a Wi-Fi network that allows you to
accepted standard. access the internet. NFC A technology that allows two
Emoji A small graphic that can be devices to communicate by being
Beta A version of software that’s inserted into a text or email. HTML Hypertext Markup placed near to each other.
being tested. Language. The language used to
Ethernet A standard used write most web pages. NPU Neural processing unit.
Buffering Downloading a certain for almost all wired computer Specialised chip designed for
amount of data before starting to networks. Hz Hertz. Measures the frequency performing AI tasks.
play a video. something happens: 1Hz equals
FCM Fabric cutting machine files. once a second. OCR Optical character recognition.
Cache A temporary space for Used with Brother’s ScanNCut The process by which printed text
storing information. cutting machines. Incognito mode A browser mode is scanned and converted into
that doesn’t save your history. documents that can be edited.
cd/m2 Candela per square metre. Field of view The amount of
Standard unit of brightness. space measured in angles that can IP address A unique set of numbers OLED Organic light-emitting diode.
be seen from the camera lens. used to identify computers and A thin-film organic light-emitting
Contrast ratio A measure of the websites on the internet. diode used in PC and TV screens.
difference between the darkest and File path Shows the location of a
lightest possible shades on screen. file within Windows. IP68 International Protection rating. Open source Software that can
Denotes a device is resistant to be modified by anyone.
Cookie A small text file stored on Fingerprinting A tracking method dust, dirt and sand and can survive
your computer by a website. used by websites to identify you from underwater for 30 minutes at P2P Peer-to-peer. A way to
the device and software you’re using. depths of up to 1.5m. connect two or more computers
Core Units on a processor that without a central file server so they
carry out program instructions. Firmware Software stored on IPS A screen technology that uses can share and swap files.
hardware to control its operation. wider viewing angles and more
CPU Central Processing Unit. accurate colours. Passkey A method for signing into
Another term for a PC processor. Frame rate The number of still accounts by typing a one-off code,
images, or frames, shown per IPTV Internet Protocol Television. fingerprint or facial recognition
CUDA Compute Unified Device second to create a moving image. Sending TV programmes over a PC rather than a password.
Architecture. A system built by network rather than cable, satellite
Nvidia to increase computing Freemium A business model or terrestrial transmission. Paywall A system used by
performance. whereby basic services are commercial websites that allows
provided for free, while more ISO file A type of image file that access only to people who pay a
Dark mode Showing white text advanced features must be paid for. contains data from a CD or DVD. one-off fee or a subscription.
on a black background.
FTTP Fibre-to-the premises. Fibre JPEG Joint Photograph Experts Phishing A form of internet
DCI-P3 A colour space that has a broadband that goes straight to Group. A common type of image file fraud that tries to trick you into
wider spectrum than sRGB. the doorstep. created by most digital cameras. revealing personal details.

72 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692

PNG A format for images that Refresh rate Measured in Hertz SSD Solid-state drive. Storage that USB 2.0/3.0/3.1 Faster
shrinks file sizes using compression. (Hz), the number of times per uses no moving parts. successors to USB.
second that the image on your
Port forwarding Choosing which monitor is redrawn. SSID A name used to identify a USB-C A connector that’s reversible.
computer in your network a router wireless network.
should connect to. Roaming charge Fee incurred for USB Micro-B A small USB port on
receiving data through overseas SVG Scalable vector graphics. A phones and other portable devices.
Proprietary Software or mobile networks. file format that enables images to
hardware owned by a company be expanded without loss of details. Virtual machine A software-
with restrictions on its use. Root directory The top folder in based computer running inside
any hierarchy. Tag A keyword used to describe a another computer.
Proxy server A computer that sits file or web page.
between your PC and the internet Rpm Revolutions per minute. VoIP The routing of voice
and filters the connection. How fast the platters inside a hard TIFF A standard file format used conversations over the internet
drive spin, which determines how to store graphics images.
PSTN Old copper phone network quickly it can transfer files. VPN Virtual private network.
that’s being switched off in 2027. Tooltip A message that appears when Keeps all internet communication
SD card Secure Digital card. A the cursor hovers over an option. safe and private.
QR code Quick Response code. popular type of memory card.
A barcode that can be read using Torrent A file that’s downloaded Web host A company that allows
smartphones. Security certificate A file used to using BitTorrent software. your website to appear on the
verify the identity of the company internet.
RAM Random-access memory. running a website. TPM Trusted Platform Module.
Used for data storage while the PC A PC chip that stores keys which Whitelist A list of permitted
is switched on. SIM The smart card used by encrypt data on your hard drive. websites, email addresses and
mobile phones. programs used by security software.
Ransomware Malware run by Two-factor authentication
hackers who lock files on your PC and Skin A different, purely cosmetic A system that uses two different Widget A small program that runs
demand a payment to release them. appearance for a program. means to identify the user. on the Windows desktop.
 Easy when you
Know How
Hoping to make Microsoft’s latest operating system
look like its predecessor, Robert Irvine tries to…

Turn Windows 11 into Windows 10

I
t’s almost exactly three years since I RevertSV let Robert run a
first laid eyes on Windows 11, and I Windows 11 version that looked
and worked like Windows 10
confess it was loathe at first sight. Why
had the traditional Start-menu list been
replaced by a grid of ‘pinned’ icons? Why
couldn’t I access Task Manager from the
taskbar? And why was I stuck with using
Edge as my default web browser?
Since then, due to both the healing
power of time and numerous changes
made by Microsoft, I’ve made my peace
with Windows 11 and grown accustomed
to (most of) its eccentricities. But I still
prefer Windows 10 and when security
updates end next October I’ll do my virtual machine (VM), so I downloaded the OS, then the virtual machine
darndest to keep using it for as long the free virtual-machine manager restarted again.
as possible. VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org) before This time it displayed the Windows 10
saving RevertSV’s ISO file to my PC. This logo and booted into its interface – it
file was a whopping 6.4GB, roughly the even showed ‘Windows 10 Pro’ in the
same size as Microsoft’s official Windows bottom-right corner (see screenshot).
11 ISO, and took me four hours to Confusingly, I was then presented with
download – the Internet Archive has Windows 11’s privacy-settings screen. I
Nearly all options notoriously slow servers. disabled everything, clicked Accept and
While waiting, I installed and ran returned to the Windows 10 desktop.
worked properly – VirtualBox. I clicked the Machine menu, Familiar features including the Start
except Cortana, which chose New and called the VM Windows 11
RevertSV. Once the ISO eventually
button and menu, taskbar and search
box, File Explorer and Action Centre,
was no great loss finished downloading, I selected it under were in their traditional locations and
ISO Image and the file was automatically had the classic Windows 10 style –
detected as being ‘Windows 11 (64-bit)’. without a rounded corner in sight.
I clicked Next, entered a username and Nearly all options worked properly
password for the fake OS, and edited the when clicked – except Cortana, which
host name. I impatiently skipped through was no great loss – while Edge was the
In the meantime, I’ve been wondering the next few screens, leaving the default standard Chromium version rather than
if there’s a way to make Windows 11 look settings intact, and clicked Finish to the ‘legacy’ browser.
more like Windows 10, to ease the ‘power up’ the virtual machine. Most importantly, Windows Security
transition when the latter meets its maker. This opened a window showing the and Windows Update functioned
A potential solution comes from an Windows setup process, which I followed correctly – indeed the latter immediately
unofficial tool called RevertSV. According as if I were actually installing the OS. started downloading Windows 11
to our sister website TechRadar (www. When I reached the Activate Windows updates. I feared these would undo
snipca.com/51760), this reverts Windows screen, I chose ‘I don’t have a product RevertSV’s changes, so set them to pause.
11 to the Windows 10 interface without key’ and opted to perform a Custom I certainly wouldn’t install RevertSV
downgrading the operating system (OS). install rather than an Upgrade. on my non-virtual PC, because it’s still a
This sounded ideal, but on closer Installation completed without any work in progress and who knows what
inspection it wasn’t as simple as applying problems and the VM restarted to boot a havoc it could wreak. However, it was
a skin or theme pack. Instead, I needed to virtual version of Windows 11 within my interesting to see how Windows 11 can be
download an ISO file of RevertSV from real one. Except it didn’t get further than reverted to Windows 10 – a trick that may
the Internet Archive (www.snipca. the logo, because this is when RevertSV prove handy next October.
com/51761), where its developer warned finally kicked into action. A Command Need help making changes to your operating
it “may not work on real hardware”. Prompt window opened listing details of system? Let us know: noproblem@
I assumed this meant to test it in a ‘operations’ that presumably modified computeractive.co.uk

74 11 – 24 September 2024 • Issue 692 Next issue: Robert tries to convert risky files into safe PDFs
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