Table of contents for 700 in Computeractive

Every December Google reveals its top ‘trending’ search terms of the previous 12 months (see page 7). It’s typically quite interesting, especially the People category which usually introduces me to names I’d never heard of (Sabrina Carpenter? Luke Littler? Richard Gadd?). But I’m always keener to know which programs have proved most popular with readers during the year. We measure this by ranking how many clicks our shortened Snipca URLs get. What’s clear is you still love programs that give you more control over Windows, whether that’s revealing system info (Glow), replacing File Explorer (Files) or updating your software (Patch My PC). In a world of dazzling AI, these boring-but-useful tools remain as important as ever. These are all high in the top 20 programs compiled by Robert Irvine in…

Sporting events and untimely deaths dominated Google searches in the UK during 2024. The company has unveiled its annual ‘Year in Search’ report, revealing the top trending search terms in the past 12 months. These are searches that had the biggest spike compared with the previous year – rather than the most searched overall. Top of the list was Euros, as football fans sought information about the football tournament that took place in June and July in Germany. This was followed by singer Liam Payne, who died aged 31 in October. The third most searched term was Jay Slater, the 19-year-old Brit who died after a fall while on holiday in Tenerife. Fourth was doctor and TV presenter Michael Mosley, who died after going missing during a walk on the…

Can I get a refund for rolling VPN subscription? Q A payment for £45.60 was taken from my PayPal account by Spider VPN for a subscription I no longer use. I tried numerous times to cancel it before it renewed, but was unable to. Despite explaining the Consumer Contract Regulations (CCRs) to the company it has refused to give me a refund, claiming this is explained in its terms and conditions. I thought my rights would be the same as Eirian Williams’, who wanted a refund from DelM8 in Issue 696. Paul Underhill A Paul’s right that his case is similar to Eirian Williams’, and it might end up being resolved in the same way (see Case Update below). The CCRs give you 14 days to claim a refund for…

FileSeek Pro www.snipca.com/53212 Price: $19 (£15) Free trial period: 30 days What you need: Windows 10 or 11 We’re always on the lookout for alternatives to the unreliable file-search tool built into Windows, and FileSeek is a worthy contender. It has lots of useful options to help you find files quickly, and it doesn’t slow your PC by ‘indexing’ in the background. The Pro edition has a generous free trial that lets you test all FileSeek’s features for a month before it reverts to the Free version. Unlike many freemium tools, it doesn’t nag you to upgrade and there are only a few differences between editions. Both versions allow you to search any folder or drive, with options to search only for items created or modified within a specific time…

Can you suggest an Android phone with physical keys? Q My wife swears by her BlackBerry KeyOne and its physical keyboard, but it’s on its last legs. I’d like to get her something similar and wondered if anyone is making decent Android phones with physical keys? Rob Cross A Sadly, phones with physical built-in keyboards are few and far between. However, there is one option that’s worth considering. It’s called the Unihertz Titan Slim (pictured) and is available from Amazon for £260 at www.snipca.com/53136. It first appeared in 2022, so is five years younger than the Blackberry KeyOne. Though we haven’t tested the phone, reviews on Amazon and elsewhere suggest that it’s a pretty good alternative to a BlackBerry device, with its durable battery and slim design. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely…

MAPS Set minimum transfer times on public transport I liked Kevin Wiffen’s tip on setting traffic-delay times in Magic Earth (Issue 698). I’ve been using it as a replacement for Google Maps on my phone since you recommended doing so in Issue 696 (page 62). I have a couple of tips for new users like me, particularly those who rely on public transport. First install it on your device from www.magicearth.com. Now tap the icon in the top-right, which looks like an arrow pointing right, then select a transport type from the dropdown menu at the top. Choosing ‘Public Transport’ selects bus and train services. Now type your current position and where you’re going. Select 1 your destination from the suggestions that appear, then tap Route at the top right.…

Having downsized to a bungalow on the Suffolk coast with my wife, I needed a cheap TV for our small study, where I retreat to watch Amazon Prime Video while she watches BBC and ITV programmes in the lounge. I read Computeractive’s review of the RCA Roku TV (Issue 686, page 29) and it sounded like what I wanted. At 24 inches the screen is the perfect size for a small room, and I was already familiar with the Roku interface and remote control, having previously owned a Roku Express. The price was right too – just £125. The TV was easy to hang on the wall using the VESA mount, and the audio quality is fine as long as you don’t turn the volume up too high. Adding the…

Proton Calendar Free* Android www.snipca.com/53103 iOS www.snipca.com/53104 Proton Calendar is a private alternative to Google Calendar that protects your events using end-to-end encryption. You can switch between day, three-day, week and month views, and light and dark modes. The Android app can display your schedule in a widget on your home screen – a feature coming to the iOS version soon. Best For Encrypting your calendar Birthday Calendar Reminder Free* Android www.snipca.com/53106 iOS www.snipca.com/53107 Ensure you don’t miss anyone’s birthday in 2025 by installing this calendar/reminder app. Import birthday info from your contacts, existing calendar or a CSV or XLSX file, and choose when you want to be reminded, such as on the day or weeks in advance. You can also add birthdays manually. TimeTree Free* Android www.snipca.com/53108 iOS www.snipca.com/53109…

LIBREOFFICE CALC & MICROSOFT EXCEL Use the Filter function to extract spreadsheet data One of the most useful spreadsheet functions added to LibreOffice 24.8, released in August, is ‘Filter’. This tool, which Microsoft added to Excel several years ago, extracts rows or columns based on specific conditions that you type, saving you from having to scroll through large spreadsheets. In our example, we want to extract all the data marked as ‘Bills’ from our expenses spreadsheet. We click in the cell we want this data to appear (E4), then type =FILTER(A3:C18,B3:B18='BILLS') – 1 in our screenshot. When we press Enter, Calc adds the curly brackets (also called braces) to the beginning and end of the function. We chose A3:C18 because that’s the range of data we’re searching, while B3:B18 is…

A growing number of PC tools are now competing for control of the Alt+Space keyboard shortcut. It’s the default hotkey for launching the new ChatGPT app for Windows, the Run utility in PowerToys and Microsoft’s updated Copilot app. Alt+Space also displays your active program’s window menu, which contains the Minimise, Maximise and Restore options. So how do you determine what will control the shortcut in 2025? Microsoft addressed this concern when it announced the new Copilot app in December. It said: “For any apps installed on your PC that might utilise this keyboard shortcut, Windows will register whichever app is launched first on your PC and running in the background as the app that is invoked when using Alt+Space” (www.snipca.com/53205). In other words, it’s first come, first served!…

When did you explain how to avoid paying Amazon’s delivery fees? Gordon Taylor CA SAYS In Issue 687, page 60. Buy a back issue from www.snipca.com/53128. I need to extract some files from an old hard drive but can’t find the issue where you covered this. When was it? Lee Ritchie CA SAYS You’ll find it in Issue 680, page 35 – buy a back issue from www.snipca.com/53131 I’ve just installed Waze to help me navigate during car journeys. When was your How To giving instructions on this? Tom Carter CA SAYS In Issue 692, page 35. Buy a back issue from www.snipca.com/53129.…

We’re pleased to report that Eirian Williams’ bank has refunded him the £40 that address-finding app DelM8 (https://delm8.com, pictured) took from him as part of a rolling subscription (see Issue 696). Eiriam used DelM8 when he worked as a paramedic, and he says it’s a great app. But he no longer needs it now he’s retired, and didn’t realise he had to cancel his subscription. We told Delmate Ltd, which owns DelM8, that Eirian was entitled to a refund because he had cancelled his subscription within 14 days of it being renewed, and hadn’t used it during this time. It agreed to cancel his subscription, but refused to refund him. The company told us it doesn’t send reminders to customers that their subscription is being renewed, but it will have…

I have ancestors who moved to the US in the 1940s. Do you know if they would’ve appeared yet in any online censuses? Diana Granville Yes, they may have been in the 1950 US Federal Census, available to search for free online at the US National Archives (www.snipca.com/53191). Search for the first and last name of the head of the household, plus the state and county of residence if known. The search engine will return any close variations or matches. Once you have found a record of interest, click the buttons or links to view a digitised copy. Also read FamilySearch’s breakdown of the questions: www.snipca.com/53192. Have a genealogy question for Judith? Email letters@computeractive.co.uk with ‘Grow Your Family Tree’ in the subject line.…

How can I see all my passwords? Q Thanks to Computeractive’s recommendations I now use Brave, Opera, Edge and Firefox to browse the web, as well as Chrome. I love having this choice, but I often forget the passwords I need for specific sites and accounts. Is there a program that can help? Eric Bullen A Yes, it’s called WebBrowserPassView, and is made by NirSoft, developer of several excellent programs we’ve recommended over the years. Visit www.snipca.com/53080, then scroll down and click the download link below the Feedback heading. Also make a note of the ZIP file password (wbpv28821@) – you’ll need to type this to run the program. You’ll also need to click ‘More info’ then ‘Run anyway’ to bypass Microsoft Defender’s SmartScreen warning. As well as showing your…

LAPTOP | £1,099 from Currys www.snipca.com/53086 There are a number of impressive features about this LG laptop. The first thing we noticed was just how light it is. At 999g, it’s impressively portable for a model with a 15.6in screen. For comparison, it’s a full 500g lighter than the MSI Prestige 16 AI Studio (£1,200 from www.snipca.com/52708, reviewed in Issue 698), which has a similar-sized screen. “Wonderfully slim with a stunning screen, though not as fast as our favourite laptop” Talking of which, the screen is one of this laptop’s standout features. Based on OLED technology, it has eye-catching contrast levels and excellent colour accuracy, hitting a remarkable 99 per cent of the DCI-P3 standard. That makes it ideal for watching movies, and editing videos and photos. It’s bright, too,…

What is it? Local dimming is a technology designed to improve contrast on IPS screens on computers and TVs (like the TCL C645K, pictured) so that it’s closer to the levels you see on OLED screens. While OLED panels illuminate individual pixels to switch between brilliant white and perfect black (and every colour in between), IPS screens use a shared light across a number of pixels to create colours. How does it work? It works by increasing the number of shared lights and assigning each one to a different section of the screen. Cheaper IPS screens that don’t use local dimming have just one light to illuminate the pixels from behind. If that light needs to be at full brightness to create white areas, any black sections are likely to…

You’ve probably heard the phrase, ‘tidy desk, tidy mind’. Nobody seems to know quite where it came from (we’ve searched), but the philosophy is easy to understand: if you’re not working amid piles of clutter, you can probably think more clearly and – as a result – be more productive. This is just as true in the digital realm as it is in the physical world. The trouble is, Windows’ desktop is too convenient a place to save files you’re going to need in the near future. Why bury them several folders deep? Well, for one thing, because your desktop can quickly get cluttered, which makes finding those files tricky. Secondly, Microsoft has gone to great lengths to give us more efficient alternatives to using the desktop as a dumping…

I installed the Thunderbird app on my Android phone as soon as I read about it in Issue 696 (page 44), and linked it to my Gmail email account. I was curious to see how Thunderbird would work on a phone compared with a PC – would it incorporate any of the phone’s controls, for example? The answer is yes. It offers a clever way of scrolling through messages using your phone’s volume buttons. Install the app from the Google Play Store (www.snipca.com/52416) then once you’ve linked your accounts, tap the three horizontal lines at the top left. Next tap the settings cog at the bottom left, then ‘General settings’ at the top. Now tap ‘Interaction’ and tick ‘Volume key navigation’ (1 in our screenshot). Now when you open an…

CHROME Remove the new ‘Tab groups’ button Google made lots of tweaks to Chrome in 2024, some of which were more useful than others. One of the most noticeable was the addition of a ‘Tab groups’ button to the browser’s Bookmarks bar. This looks like a grid of four squares and appears to the left of your bookmarks (1 in screenshot below). While this button will come in handy if you use Chrome’s ‘Tab groups’ feature to organise your tabs into themed groups, it’s otherwise likely to prove annoying. Thankfully, you can remove the ‘Tab groups’ button if you don’t need it. Rather than right-click the button and choose Hide or Delete (which would be the obvious solution), you have to right-click elsewhere on the Bookmarks bar and deselect the…

ANDROID & iOS Enhance your video calls in Messenger After focusing most of its attention on WhatsApp in 2024 (see next tip), Meta has added several useful features to its other messaging app, Messenger. These mainly focus on making your video calls “easier, more reliable and more fun”. For starters, all video calls made over Wi-Fi now use HD by default to provide a higher-quality picture. To use HD over a mobile connection too, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of a Messenger call, choose ‘Call settings’ and switch on ‘Mobile data for HD video’ (1 in our screenshot below). To improve the audio quality as well, tap ‘Microphone mode’ 2 and switch on ‘Voice isolation’. This will reduce background noise so the other person can hear you…

WINDOWS 10 & 11 Record the previous 30 seconds in games Game Bar in Windows lets you record videos of games as you play them (though you can use it to record anything you do on your computer). One of its smartest features is to record the previous moments of a game. You can activate this when you’ve done something memorable and want to capture it as a video. First, press Windows key+I to open Settings, then click Gaming. Turn on the Game Bar slider at the top of the page. Next, click Captures on the left (or in the centre in Windows 11), then turn on ‘Record in the background while I’m playing a game’ (1 in our screenshot below). Now set how long you want to record for…

Centre yourself in video meetings When your club has video meetings, you’ll be seen more clearly and understood better if you’re positioned in the middle of everyone’s screen. It means they’ll get a better view of your facial expressions and physical gestures, which often get lost in virtual meetings. Google introduced automatic centring in its Meet video-chat tool in 2022, but only for customers of its business-focused Workplace packages (from £5 per user per month: www.snipca.com/53095). In November, it made this feature part of the free version of Meet, meaning anyone can use it (see www.snipca.com/53094). It’s turned on by default, so you might have already benefitted from it without realising. To check that it’s activated, open Meet by clicking its video-camera icon in your Gmail panel. Now start a…

1 ChatGPT Android www.snipca.com/49601 iOS www.snipca.com/49602 The brilliant AI assistant ChatGPT (pictured) was not only your favourite tool from our ‘Best new free apps you’ll never stop using’ Cover Feature in Issue 680, but your most-installed app of 2024. Look out for more in-depth ChatGPT coverage in 2025. 2 MSN (Start) Android www.snipca.com/53143 iOS www.snipca.com/53144 Microsoft Start (since rebranded ‘MSN’) proved amazingly popular when we mentioned its accurate weather forecasts in Issue 686’s News section (page 9). We subsequently devoted a whole feature to the app in Issue 690 (page 62). 3 Toilet Finder Android www.snipca.com/49596 iOS www.snipca.com/49597 The second most-installed app from Issue 680’s Cover Feature addresses the diminishing number of public conveniences. It can automatically detect your location, or you can search for a place before you arrive,…

480p/720p/1080p/1440p Common types of high-definition video of 640x480, 1280x720, 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 pixels respectively. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. Admin mode Allows you to make changes to a computer that will affect other people who use it. AHCI Advanced Host Controller Interface. A standard that allows SATA drives to support advanced features. ARC Audio return channel. A feature on TVs that lets audio signals travel both to and from the TV via a single HDMI cable. ARM Advanced RISC Machine. Processors that are more energy-efficient and used in more devices than those made by AMD and Intel. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with…

ADOBE ERASES PHOTO REFLECTIONS WITH AI A new tool in Adobe Photoshop uses AI to remove reflections in photos (as pictured below). Adobe says it’s been “trained using millions of simulated photographs”. At the moment it works only on RAW photos – read Adobe’s blog for more: www.snipca.com/53231. LG STOPS MAKING BLU-RAY PLAYERS LG has stopped making Blu-ray players and has removed them from its website. The South Korean company last released players in 2018 (the UBK80 and UBK90 models), though they’ve not been available in the UK for some time. It leaves Panasonic and Sony as the only major companies making Blu-ray players, though LG did say they might make them again if demand picks up. NEW RASPBERRY PI 500 IS A PC IN A KEYBOARD Raspberry Pi has…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake ‘printer help’ in Google results What’s the threat? Scammers have paid Google for sponsored results for the searches ‘HP printer help’ and ‘Canon printer help’. The scam was spotted by Malwarebytes, which posted a screenshot showing four fake results (1 in our screenshot) for the made-up companies Megadrive Solutions, Geeks Pro Software Prints, Select Easy 123 Print and Print Care Tech. All of these results are above the genuine URL for HP 2. Clicking one of the fake results shows an advert then asks you to enter your printer’s model number in order to download the driver you need to fix your problem. But this ‘installation’ fails every time you try it. You’re then told to click a button to start a live chat for advice…

You reported in Issue 699 (page 6, pictured) that Microsoft won’t “U-turn” on its decision to require Windows 11 computers to have the TPM 2.0 chip. I wonder if such inflexibility might cause the public to perform its own U-turn and give up Windows entirely. Microsoft might insist that TPM is a “non-negotiable” part of Windows, but it’s not absolutely necessary for a functioning or safe computer. PC security exists on a spectrum. Anyone using Windows 7 online is mad. Anyone using Windows 7 offline is less so. Anyone using Windows 10 without TPM doesn’t have much to worry about. Anyone using Windows 11 with TPM activated is as protected as you can be. My point is that Microsoft needs to find a way to keep 600 million Windows 10…

One of the prisms in my three-year-old pair of Hawke binoculars had gone out of alignment, probably because they’d been dropped. This rendered them useless. There’s a national shortage of optic repairers, so in desperation I contacted the makers, Hawke Optics (https://uk.hawkeoptics.com). I was able to send them proof of purchase and on Tuesday morning received a prepaid postage label. I sent them off that afternoon and received confirmation of their receipt on Wednesday morning. On Thursday, I received a brand-new pair of binoculars. Now that’s impressive service! In fact, it’s difficult to think how it could have been better. I hope you see fit to publish this as a counterbalance to the problems elsewhere on this page and to show that there are companies who care about their customers.…

DIGITAL ART TOOL FotoSketcher 3.97 www.snipca.com/53248 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1. 10 or 11 Software that turns your photos into art by applying stylised effects is usually expensive, complicated or both. Although there are now AI tools that transform your pictures at the click of a button, they tend to be resource-intensive and limit the number or quality of images you can convert. FotoSketcher avoids all these problems, offering a free, simple and unlimited way to make ordinary photos look like oil paintings, watercolours or pencil sketches. The program takes care of all the complex processing, letting you create stunning results with minimal effort. The FotoSketcher interface is split into two, with the left side showing your source image and the right offering a preview of the edited picture…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Malware-like trash from Bing Wallpaper app I’m always looking for stunning wallpaper images for my PC’s desktop, so was interested in Microsoft’s Bing Wallpaper app (a “collection of beautiful images from around the world”). It’s just been made available as an app on the Microsoft Store. Visit its page (www.snipca.com/53166) and you’ll see some of those beautiful images, including Tuscan villages, the Taj Mahal and walruses swimming in the Arctic. Lovely. But what you don’t see on the page – and only appears once you’ve installed the app – is a baffling screen with two blank buttons (1 in our screenshot) and a tiny message saying ‘Yes, try it now’ 2. I assumed the blue button needed clicking, so did just that. But I had a bad feeling about…

PRINTER | £193 from Amazon www.snipca.com/53101 The HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e isn’t an everyday printer for people who like to print a few photos and the odd letter. However, if you use a printer for working from home, or simply want a range of features for producing high-quality documents, copies, homework and more, this is a multifunction model that should satisfy your needs for a reasonable price. “A fast printer that produces excellent text and vibrant photos” Despite its attractive price it goes well beyond the basics. Its scanner is equipped with a 35-sheet automatic document feeder that can handle multi-page scans, photocopies and faxes (anyone under a certain age may need to look that one up). Both scanner and printer support automatic double-sided processing (while a few printers still…

EBOOK READER | £95 from Amazon www.snipca.com/53137 Amazon isn’t claiming this is a giant leap forward from the previous version of the basic Kindle, launched in 2022 (reviewed in Issue 647), which was the 11th generation of the ebook reader. And while there are minor improvements in this latest model, they clearly aren’t enough to justify calling this 12th generation. Think of it as 11 and a bit. “The slight boost in performance and brightness doesn’t justify this upgrade” Although Amazon doesn’t reveal which screen technology this model uses, we compared it with the new Kindle Paperwhite and the Kobo Clara BW and concluded that it’s an E Ink Carta 1200 panel, which is identical to the 2022 model. That said, the screen can go around 25-per-cent brighter, probably due…

Kaspersky Password Manager I thought I’d uninstalled all my Kaspersky software following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but I forgot about this app on my Android phone. The last thing I’d want to do these days is trust Kaspersky with my passwords. And what I use instead… I now use a combination of Bitwarden’s password manager (https://bitwarden.com) and ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com). The latter might surprise some readers because it’s obviously not a security tool, but you can ask it to create strong passwords. For example, ask it for eight 12-character passwords based on the year 1951 using special characters and both upper and lowercase letters, and it’ll do this within seconds. It’s remarkable. You can then ask it to add or remove certain characters and it’ll respond. It can also give you…

DisMail Free Android www.snipca.com/53092 DisMail generates temporary email addresses you can use to register with websites and apps. This keeps your real address private and prevents spam. To create a fake email address, simply slide the green button and copy the result to your clipboard. Emails are sent to your DisMail Inbox, so you can verify account sign-ups. Merlin Bird ID Free Android www.snipca.com/53097 iOS www.snipca.com/53098 This brilliant free app for identifying birds from photos and sounds has been updated with some new features. Its ‘Life List’ tab, which stores details of birds you’ve identified, now suggests species to look out for in your area, while its Explore tab now provides images of every bird. Merlin has also improved its photo identification. Firefox for Android tablets Free Android www.snipca.com/53102 Firefox…

NirSoft, one of our favourite software developers, has updated NetworkUsageView to fix a bug that was causing it to crash on computers running the Windows 11 24H2 update. This program shows how much data your programs have used, letting you identify those that hog a lot of your resources – look in the Bytes Sent and Received columns on the right. You can see this information in Windows Settings and Task Manager, but NetworkUsageView has a better design. Visit www.snipca.com/53100 then scroll down to the bottom and click either the 32bit or 64bit download link (under the Feedback heading) depending on which type of processor your computer has. Extract the ZIP file then launch the program. Like most NirSoft tools, you can make the information easier to see by clicking…

As well as the location-sharing apps we’ve mentioned, it’s possible to use tracking devices to monitor someone else’s location remotely. Some, such as the AngelSense GPS Tracker (www.angelsense.com, from £25 per month) are designed to provide remote support for vulnerable people, and include features such as fall alerts. Others, such as Apple’s AirTags (£35, www.apple.com/uk/airtag) and Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag2 (£24, www.snipca.com/53188) could offer a cheap and easy way to monitor the whereabouts of young children or elderly relatives. However, even with the best intentions, using an app or tracking device to monitor someone else’s location requires careful consideration of the ethical and legal implications. In the UK, tracking any person without their permission may be deemed illegal under privacy laws, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR.…

Why can’t I download Tor browser? Q I’ve tried downloading the Tor browser as you recommended in Issue 695’s Cover Feature ‘Why you must use Tor’. However, I always get the same error message: ‘Secure Connection Failed. An error occurred…’. The message advises that I ‘contact the website owners to inform them of the problem’, but as Firefox or Norton won’t let me contact Tor, this will be difficult. Any suggestions? Paul Hornsby A We’re not entirely sure whether you can’t access the Tor website through Firefox, or any websites through Firefox when Tor is running. We’ll tackle both problems. Firefox shows this error when it can’t establish a secure connection with a web page. However, Firefox isn’t blocking you from downloading Tor. We tested this by using Firefox to…