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Unless you have a desk that stretches across different time zones, you’ll appreciate the space you’ll save by using a mini PC. These magnificent machines are small enough to carry in one hand but have the speed and versatility of their bigger desktop cousins. However, I know some people think they’re a niche interest and are best left to experts. I hope Nik Rawlinson’s Cover Feature dispels that belief. He explains how you can use them for everyday tasks such as streaming video, sharing files and running alternatives to Windows. He also recommends the best models for each task. Your choice of mini PCs has never been greater, ranging from sub-£200 budget models to £1,000 powerhouses, so it’s not easy to know which suits your needs. And new devices are…

Gloucester City Council has said Russian hackers were behind a “sophisticated” ransomware attack in December 2021 that knocked out its services, disrupting benefits payments, planning applications and house sales. The council has worked with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, to investigate the attack. It said that while the hackers may have accessed some information about residents, nothing has been published online. It has received advice from law-enforcement agencies that suggests it’s unlikely any details will now be leaked. Experts think the Conti gang was behind the attack. Earlier this year, the Government sanctioned seven individuals associated with the group. It has also attacked several other organisations around the world, including hospitals, schools, businesses and other local authorities. The group supports the Russian…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake Amazon adverts in Google What’s the threat? Scammers are infiltrating Google search results with fake adverts for Amazon that contain the genuine URLs www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca (the Canadian version of the site, 1 in our screenshot right). Clicking the URL takes you to what looks like Amazon’s login page, where you can sign in with your email address or phone number 2, but is actually a phishing site that steals your password and credit card number. The scams were spotted by Malwarebytes, which said they’re part of a recent “surge” in fake adverts (see www.snipca.com/46274) following a lull of several months. How can you stay safe? Because these adverts use real Amazon URLs, it’s hard to spot that they’re fake. So rather than searching for ‘Amazon’,…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Endless ads and nags from AVG AntiVirus AVG’s ‘AntiVirus & Virus Cleaner’ (www.snipca.com/46273) is among the most popular apps on the Google Play Store, with more than 100 million downloads and a star rating of 4.8. It’s designed to “help protect you from harmful viruses and malware”. But what it’s really designed to do is nag you endlessly into paying for the premium version of the tool. Almost every other button or feature is a way for AVG to promote its upgrade to paid-for ‘Advanced Protection’. Tapping ‘Scan’, for example, takes you to a screen offering three tools that are only available if you upgrade: Automatic Scan, Scam Protection and App Lock (1 in our screenshot right). Craftily AVG doesn’t mention that you have to pay – note, for…

WEBCAM | £115 from Dell www.snipca.com/46341 The Pro Webcam sits in the middle of Dell’s range, balancing good quality and decent resolution with a price that isn’t over the top if you’re serious about improving your streaming video over that of a built-in webcam. The camera is sleek and black, with a circular barrel that’s 44mm in diameter and 92mm long. It weighs just 155g, too, so it won’t drag you down if you need to pop it in a bag with your laptop. A fold-out mount with a rubber grip holds the webcam in place on top of your monitor. This counterbalances the camera’s weight, and offers some scope for adjusting the angle, although there’s also a tripod mount if you prefer. A magnetic privacy cap lets you cover…

CHROME Customise Chrome’s appearance more easily Chrome 113, which was released in May, makes it much easier to personalise the browser’s appearance to suit your taste. It introduces new customisation options that you can apply from Chrome’s side panel, and lets you preview changes instantly to achieve the look you want. Open a new tab and click the Customise Chrome button in the bottom-right corner to reveal the new customisation settings in the side panel. Click one of the coloured circles in the Appearance section to apply a new colour scheme to the browser’s toolbars and New Tab page. You can also click the ‘Custom colour’ eye-dropper icon (1 in our screenshot below) to fine-tune the colours. Alternatively, click the ‘Change theme’ button 2 to apply a different theme to…

MICROSOFT EXCEL Move columns and rows by holding down Shift You can rearrange columns and rows in spreadsheets by cutting and pasting them, but there’s a simpler way to move your data. First, highlight the cells you’d like to move (1 in our screenshot below), then hold down the Shift key and move the cursor to the edge of the column 2. When the mouse pointer turns into a multi-directional arrow symbol, hold Shift and drag the column by clicking your mouse. You can now drag this column anywhere in your spreadsheet. In our example, we want to move the data in D to column F at the far right of the table. We dragged the column until a green border appeared on the edge of F 3. Releasing the left…

Sales of computers plunged in the first three months of 2023, falling by 29 per cent – and that followed a similar drop in the final quarter of 2022. It’s clear that the pandemic boom in home technology – and computers in particular – has ended. However, some analysts expect one sector to buck this trend: mini PCs. More people are realising that size really does matter after all. It’s not hard to see why. Continuing improvements in memory and processing strength are allowing manufacturers to cram power and speed into a box not much bigger than a wallet. If you configure these micro machines correctly and add the right peripherals, you’ll have a device every bit as useful as your existing tower PC. But which model is best for…

Why you should change your DNS server When you type a standard web address into your browser’s address bar, the request is sent to your DNS (Domain Name System) server. This then translates the URL into a numeric IP address so your browser can load the corresponding website. Your DNS server is assigned to you when you sign up with your internet provider, usually through the supplied router, and is used by all the devices connected to your home network. You’ll also have an alternative DNS server, as a backup in case there are technical problems with the main one. Although your default DNS server will be perfectly adequate, the requests you make to it allow your ISP to view details of every site you visit. Switching to a different…

BT has announced that it will start encouraging customers in the East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside and Northern Ireland to switch to its Digital Voice phones as part of its next phase to move all customers off copper phone lines. The company said that customers in these regions will be contacted at least four weeks before being upgraded to “help ensure they’re ready to make the switch”. It added that “for the vast majority of customers, the move to Digital Voice simply involves connecting a landline phone to a BT broadband router”. BT claims that more than 99 per cent of phone handsets are compatible with its Digital Home Phone service. For those that aren’t it has “a range of handsets that customers can add to their order”. However, some…

The BBC has called for iPlayer buttons to be added to all TV remote controls to make it easier for viewers to watch its shows. In a letter to the House of Commons it claimed that the lack of such buttons meant public-service broadcasting was “falling behind” streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix. Most remote controls now have buttons for accessing streaming services, such as the Fire TV remote pictured, taking viewers to them in a single press. LG, Samsung and Sony also make remotes with buttons to streaming services. The BBC wrote: “Remote controls are a major gateway to content on TV sets and user interfaces – their importance demonstrated by fierce competition between the largest content providers for branded buttons.” As well as iPlayer, buttons…

SYSTEM INFORMATION TOOL Glow 1.70 www.snipca.com/46385 What you need: Windows 10 or 11 Windows doesn’t make it easy to find information about your PC, such as the make of your processor, the amount of available storage space or which version of the operating system you’re running. Glow provides a free solution to this problem by offering a comprehensive but simply presented overview of your system. It looks and works much like Piriform’s Speccy, which has sadly been neglected since Avast bought the company in 2017. As in Speccy, Glow organises its information about different aspects of your PC’s hardware into logical categories, including Motherboard, Processor, Memory, Storage and Network. Select one of these in the menu on the left for in-depth details, such as each component’s manufacturer and model, its…

ANDROID & iOS Access Bing Chat instantly on your mobile device Microsoft is continuing to promote its AI-powered Bing Chat tool by adding several new ways to interact with the chatbot on your phone or tablet. The feature is now integrated with the mobile version of Edge – simply tap the new Bing speech-bubble icon at the bottom of the browser (see screenshot below) to start a conversation, ask Bing questions about any topic or prompt it to generate content for you. Usefully, your chats are synced across your PC and mobile devices, so you can pick up where you left off. Additionally, you can now add a Bing Chat widget to your home screen to access the tool without opening Bing or Edge first. On an Android device with…

Buy Windows 11 Pro for just £79.99! In this special offer you can buy Windows 11 Pro for just £79.99 – that’s £140 cheaper than Microsoft’s full price of £219.99. To buy Windows 11 Pro, visit www.snipca.com/41588 and click the red Buy Now button on the right. If you have any questions about your order please email editor@computeractive.co.uk JUST SO YOU KNOW… This offer can be used by one person only, and expires at midnight on 4 July, 2023. It’s a lifetime licence for one computer.…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT How do I pay for parking without a smartphone? Q I hear that soon parking machines will not be accepting cash. I only have an old Doro pay-as-you-go (PAYG) phone, which I use only for very occasional emergencies and to receive texts to authorise payments. Can I use this phone, or a debit card, to pay for parking? Glen Thomas A This is a great question but one for which there isn’t a straightforward answer. That’s because every car park has a different operator, and every operator is free to put in place its own payment mechanisms. It’s true that in some areas many paid car parks have done away with traditional coin-operated pay-and-display machines in…

Every security expert we’ve spoken to expects the number of victims to rise far above 100,000 as more companies reveal they’ve been hacked. It’s a reminder that Russian gangs aren’t just out to “disrupt or destroy” UK infrastructure – in the words of Deputy PM Oliver Dowden. These cyber-gangsters are just as motivated by greed as by nationalist ideology. We explained in Issue 653 how to check whether your details had been stolen by Russian gangs - buy it from www.snipca.com/46415.…

Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Please include your name, phone number and address. Can I get refund for Apple’s faulty keyboard? Q In October 2018, I bought a MacBook Pro from CK IT Solutions for £1,200. The ‘butterfly’ keyboard stopped working properly during the Covid pandemic. Apple has acknowledged that there’s an inherent fault but is refusing to help me. Am I protected by the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) even though it’s only the keyboard that’s inherently faulty? David Harmer A Yes, David is protected because the keyboard is an integral part of the laptop. But his contract is with the retailer, CK IT Solutions, so under the CRA it has responsibility for helping him, not Apple. However, CK IT Solutions is in trouble. Last…

What can I use to replace PagePlus? Q Serif PagePlus just about works on my Windows 11 PC, but I’m probably just one update away from it no longer working. Serif has replaced it with Affinity Publisher (https://affinity.serif.com), but it’s too complex for me. What else could I use, preferably free or for a reasonable price? Kate Phimister A Try Scribus, which you can download for free from www.scribus.net (pictured below). It includes all the tools you need to incorporate images and text, and convert the result into a PDF for sharing or printing. It has several tools you’d expect in paid-for software, including support for ICC colour profiles, CMYK colours, and the ability to import InDesign Markup Language (IDML) files. Despite being free, it is actively developed, with the…

MINI PC | £320 from Amazon www.snipca.com/46260 Most mini PCs are squat little boxes, such as the Intel NUC 13 Pro (reviewed opposite). Minisforum has decided to do things differently with its MC560 PC, despite using a motherboard of the same size as the NUC’s and an AMD processor designed for smaller PCs and laptops. “This unusual mini PC in a vertical case offers plenty of power for the price” Instead, Minisforum’s designers have built the PC on its side in a case that’s taller than it is deep or wide. With a camera mounted on the top, and a microphone and speakers in the case, this PC is designed to sit in full view on your desk, ready for making video calls. It even has a fold-out foot so…

SMARTPHONE | £449 from Amazon www.snipca.com/46332 The Google Pixel 7a is the company’s follow-up to the Pixel 7 (£549, reviewed in Issue 645). As with the 6a before it, Google has stripped out some features from its predecessor to make the phone more affordable. But while the 6a removed many of the Pixel 6’s best features, the 7a has maintained much of what made the 7 impressive – in fact there isn’t a huge difference between the two. “Our new favourite phone offers longer battery life and superb performance” For example, while the refresh rates of previous a-series Pixel phones have been reduced to 60Hz, the 7a matches the 90Hz of the Pixel 7. It’s a smaller 6.1in screen but is just as bright, though it isn’t quite as vivid…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Use touchpad for left-handed PC control Laurence Rostron complains that phones aren’t designed for left-handed people (Issue 658, Letters). As a fellow ‘leftie’ I share his frustration. I don’t have an answer to his phone problem, but he might like to swap his mouse for a portable touchpad. I did this a few years ago and have never regretted it. They’re designed to be ambidextrous, so you can use them with either hand. The model I recommend is the Peripad-704 (£30 from www.snipca.com/46240, pictured), which is just over four inches by two and recognises a range of finger-swiping gestures including swipes, pan-and-dragging, double clicks and zooming. As it’s wireless, you can move it about without getting all tangled up. It’s not…

WINDOWS 11 Add seconds to the System Tray clock In its third ‘Moment’ update for Windows 11, which was installed on computers as part of ‘Patch Tuesday’ on 13 June, Microsoft added a setting that shows seconds in the taskbar clock. Right-click your taskbar then click ‘Taskbar settings’. Click the ‘Taskbar behaviours’ dropdown menu (1 in our screenshot below), then scroll down to the option ‘Show seconds in system tray clock’ 2. Tick the box and the time will now show in the HH:MM:SS – hours, minutes and seconds – format 3. WINDOWS 10 Turn off Search Highlights Microsoft has said it won’t add any more major features to Windows 10 ahead of ending support for the system in October 2025. But it continues to add smaller tools – some…

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1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 2K A screen with 2048x1080 pixels. 32bit/64bit A measure of how much data a PC can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit, more modern ones are 64bit. 5G The latest generation of mobile networks. Administrator Someone who can make changes to a computer that will affect others who also use it. AI Artificial Intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. Often used to describe technology that can perform human-like tasks. Airplane mode Phones and tablets in this mode disable all radio communication (GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc) so they are safe to use on aircraft. APK Android Package Kit. The file format Android uses to install apps. Augmented reality Lets you…