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I recall the time when nobody doubted Google’s greatness. Chrome had ousted IE as the browser of choice; its Search was an oracle of infinite wisdom; Gmail rescued people from Yahoo Mail; and Maps reliably stopped people getting lost. It often felt like Google and the internet were the same thing. But they’ve all gone downhill since. Google has added useless features, removed useful ones, redesigned almost continuously, and crammed adverts everywhere. It’s no wonder many have turned to innovative rivals like Brave and DuckDuckGo. At heart, though, they all remain excellent tools - and as Robert Irvine reveals in his Cover Feature, it doesn’t take much to make them great again. Sometimes this involves reversing annoying changes Google has made. Other tricks require you to unlock buried settings or…

A developer managed to install Windows 10 in just 104 seconds, much faster than the 20-30 minutes it takes most people. The developer, called NTDev, achieved this by installing the lightweight version of Windows 10 that’s available in his software Tiny10. NTDev created Tiny10 (free from www.snipca.com/49447) as a way for older and less powerful computers to install the operating system. It removes most of Windows 10’s built-in apps, which means it needs less RAM and storage to run than the full version of the operating system. NTDev posted a “speedrun” video of the installation on YouTube (www.snipca.com/49414, pictured), with a timer at the bottom right. There’s also a version for Windows 11, called Tiny11 (www.snipca.com/49448), that lets you install the operating system without your computer needing to have the…

Life insurance emails There seems to be a spate of scam emails selling life insurance at the moment. The one I received claimed to be from a company called SelectQuote, which I’d never heard of. It uses the tempting headline ‘Think you’re paying too much?’. Well, of course I do! Who doesn’t? But the price was quoted in US dollars, which triggered my built-in scam alert. The ‘Get a Free Quote’ button looks genuine, and everything except the currency appears convincing. I even like the slogan it used at the bottom of the email: ‘We shop. You save.’ But don’t be fooled – it’s a con. See here for proof: www.snipca.com/49351. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

How long should an iPad Air last? LEAD CASE Q An iPad Air 2020 (pictured) that I bought for £500 from John Lewis stopped charging after two and a half years. The Apple store I took it to said the charging point is faulty, and they offered me a new one if I paid £459. John Lewis says I have to prove the fault was inherent and offered me a £100 refund. Surely a hardware failure must be a problem with a component that existed when I bought it? Clare Kelly A Not necessarily. A hardware problem can also be caused by accidental damage or even fair wear and tear. In these cases, it wouldn’t be covered by the Consumer Rights Act (CRA). You’d have to pay to repair or…

What’s the best free alternative to Excel? Q I’m a retired pensioner looking for a cheap or free spreadsheet app. I did use Excel, but unfortunately I can’t afford to renew it. Can you suggest a free alternative? I’m using Windows 11. David Parnell A Take a look at LibreOffice, which comprises a spreadsheet (Calc), word processor (Writer) and presentation suite (Impress). It’s free from www.libreoffice.org and is regularly updated – the latest release (24.2) arrived in February. We include tips for it in every Make Office Better – see page 47. Calc does look a little different to Excel, but you’ll soon find your way around. The formulas you use in Excel work pretty much the same in Calc. LibreOffice does have its own file formats, but can also…

With 4TB of storage space, this Toshiba Canvio Flex external hard drive offers ample storage for your important files, documents, photos and videos – giving you peace of mind knowing that your data is securely backed up and always accessible. It’s designed to work interchangeably with most major device platforms and operating systems. It’s preformatted for Windows PCs, Macs and tablets, so you can seamlessly access data and share between devices It has a USB 3.0 interface, allowing it to deliver fast transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps – so you can quickly and easily transfer large files between devices. It’s also compact and light, so you can comfortably carry it with you wherever you go. It’s built to last, with a shock-resistant design that helps protect your data from…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT Export your system info as a text file You left out one useful tip in your otherwise comprehensive feature on using Glow (Issue 677, page 62). Once you’ve used it to show the details of your computer’s components, you can export the information as a TXT file. First, download Glow (www.snipca.com/49138), then open it and click a section on the left to reveal system information. Next, click Export Information (1 in our screenshot right) and decide whether to change the file name or leave it as random numbers. Now click Save then Yes if you want to open the file straight away as a Notepad file 2. Clicking ‘No’ simply saves the file on your computer. This contains all the information…

WINDOWS 11 INSIDER Edit photos and screenshots from your phone Windows 11’s 22631.3227 build, available to Insiders, lets you edit photos and screenshots you’ve taken on your Android device. Open Settings (press Windows key+I), click ‘Bluetooth & devices’ on the left, followed by ‘Mobile devices’. Next, click the ‘Allow this PC to access your mobile devices’ slider so it turns on (1 in our screenshot below). Windows 11 will download an update to a program called Cross Device Experience Host. When it’s installed, sign in with your Microsoft account. Next, in the ‘Manage mobile devices’ window, click ‘Add device’ 2 and scan the QR code with your phone. This will send a six-digit code to your PC. Next, grab your Android device and install Microsoft’s ‘Link to Windows’ app from…

WHAT YOU GET ✔ Real-time malware protection✔ Secure VPN✔ 75GB PC Cloud Backup✔ Webcam hack alerts PLUS Monitors the dark web for your personal information Norton is made by NortonLifeLock Inc – a standalone company dedicated to consumer cyber safety. It has always performed strongly in Computeractive antivirus tests, so we highly recommend it. 10 devices for two years NOW ONLY £19.99* Normally £179.99 Buy it from our Software Store at www.snipca.com/33247 *while stocks last…

Microsoft has suggested a temporary solution to the problem of a recent Windows 11 update refusing to install. It acknowledged on its ‘Release health’ pages that the update KB5034765, released to all users on 13 February, might fail to get past 96 per cent when installing (see www.snipca.com/49518). This failure produces the error message: ‘Something didn’t go as planned. No need to worry – undoing changes. Please keep your computer on.’ However, it took Microsoft until 26 February – nearly two weeks after the update – to confirm the problem. Microsoft added that the error, which doesn’t affect Windows 10, might be shown as 0x800F0922 in Windows Event Viewer. You can find and open this by typing event in Windows search. It said that uninstalling the hidden folder C:\$WinREAgent, then…

Internet provider Expert Telecom has admitted that it made a mistake by increasing Colin Sander’s monthly bill from £35.77 to £63.97 (see Issue 673). It has apologised to Colin and credited £63 to his account. It has also cut his ongoing bill to slightly less than he was originally paying. We thought the company had made an error. Yes, providers hit customers with above-inflation increases last year, but these were around 14 per cent. Expert Telecom’s increase by contrast was an eye-watering 79 per cent! Colin had wondered whether such a sharp increase meant he could cancel his contract without paying an early-termination fee. The answer would probably have been yes. Any terms in Expert Telecom’s contract letting it nearly double his bill would almost certainly have been deemed unfair…

ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE Malwarebytes 5 www.snipca.com/49517 What you need: Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, or macOS Nearly five years since the last major version was released (see Issue 567, page 18), Malwarebytes 5 has finally arrived. The popular antivirus software has been ‘reimagined’ to give your PC even more powerful protection against the latest security threats. When you open Malwarebytes 5, the first change you’ll notice is to the program’s Dashboard. The three tiles for running the Scanner, viewing your Detection History and configuring Real-Time Protection are now grouped in a Security section in the top-left corner, so they no longer dominate the interface. This makes room for the new Trusted Advisor section on the right, which provides a protection score for both your current PC and any mobile devices…

SOFTWARE WARNING! Turbo PC Cleaner Pro’s ads and pop-ups Microsoft’s eagerly awaited PC Manager is a huge let-down (see Issue 678, page 10), but I’d sooner use it than the hundreds of similar tools riddled with adverts and annoying pop-ups. One example is Turbo PC Cleaner Pro, which actually came top of the list when I searched for ‘PC Manager’ on the Microsoft Store (see screenshot right). Like all such tools, it claims to be an “all-in-one solution for optimizing and decluttering your computer”. Yet its 3.8 user rating was somehow even lower than the abysmal CCleaner (4.4). Maybe the reviews were unfair, so I installed it to check. The first thing it did was open Chrome without my permission (1 in our screenshot far right), then it launched the…

What do they do? The aspect ratio of a screen indicates the relationship between its width and height. It’s expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, usually quoting width first, then height. The aspect ratio of old squarish TVs used to be 4:3, but moved to 16:9 with the introduction of high-definition widescreen sets. PC monitors and smartphone screens also typically used 16:9 screens for many years, but as phones got larger, and more space was devoted to displays, aspect ratios have changed. How do they work? The challenge for phone manufacturers was to make larger screens without making their devices too wide to hold – and so they increased the height (when held in a portrait orientation). However, when describing the aspect ratio of smartphones, we still tend…

SECURITY CAMERA | £60 from Amazon www.snipca.com/49425 Home guard The Yale Smart Indoor Camera is an inconspicuous way to keep an eye on your house when you’re not there. It’s small (115x70x70mm, HxWxD), has a square base, a long thin stand and the camera sits in a circular unit at the top. It can sit on a flat surface or be mounted – using its stand – on a wall. A USB-C port on the back powers the device and the cable needs to be permanently plugged into a wall socket. The camera is simple to set up and operate, and this is all done through the Yale Home app. It captures footage at a resolution of 1080p and the video quality is excellent. Unsurprisingly, the quality is better in…

CHROME View tabs from other devices on your New Tab page One of the most useful features in Chrome, and the other major browsers, is the ability to sync open tabs between devices. This allows you to continue reading a page on your phone or tablet that you’ve just visited on your PC – and vice versa – without needing to search for it or enter its web address. Provided ‘Open tabs’ is selected in your Sync settings, you can view tabs from other devices in the Chrome desktop browser by clicking the three-dot menu, choosing History and selecting a device. In the Chrome mobile app, tap the three-dot menu followed by ‘Recent tabs’. If no devices are listed, select ‘Sync and Google services’ in Chrome’s Settings, click ‘Manage what…

MICROSOFT WORD Use different styles in the same paragraph You can set different styles in Word for different elements of your document – such as the title or body text. However, you can only use two different styles within the same sentence or paragraph if you add the Style Separator button to your Word toolbar. To do so, click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar icon (1 in our screenshot), then ‘More Commands…’ at the bottom of the menu. Now choose All Commands from the ‘Choose commands from:’ dropdown menu 2, then scroll down until you see Style Separator. Select it, then click ‘Add >>’, and it’ll move to the right-hand column 3. Click OK. You’ll now see the Style Separator icon in the Quick Access Toolbar 4. In our example,…

Despite its dubious privacy policies and anti-competitive business practices, the quality of Google’s products has rarely been in doubt. With their clean and friendly designs, tools such as Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Drive and Photos are easy – and free – to use on any device, so it’s no wonder they’ve become so embedded in our lives. But Google’s constant innovation has a variable effect on the sites, software and apps we use every day. Features are added and removed on a whim, some problems are fixed while others are ignored (or created), and familiar options are redesigned, renamed and relocated - for better or worse. Some experts believe Google’s standards are slipping, at least in its search results. A year-long study by German researchers noticed “a trend toward simplified, repetitive…

Windows 11 users running version 22H2 will receive new features until 26 June, after Microsoft extended the deadline. It means any new features included in updates for the latest version of Windows 11 (23H2) might also be added to 22H2. It initially planned to stop feature updates at the end of February, but has announced these will continue until the summer. Microsoft calls these ‘non-security preview updates’. Microsoft said it made the decision after listening to “user feedback” (see www.snipca.com/49519). After June, Microsoft will continue releasing security updates for 22H2 until 8 October. The company is now installing Windows 11’s 23H2 update automatically on computers still running versions 21H2 and 22H2 – see page 46.…

NEW EUFY CAMERA RUNS ON SOLAR POWER Eufy has released a 4K security camera that runs entirely on solar power. The 4G LTE Cam S330 (pictured) needs only two hours of sunlight to work for one month, Eufy claims. It works over 4G as well as Wi-Fi, and comes with a 32GB microSD card for storage. Buy it for £249 from www.snipca.com/49506. AMAZON: WE’RE NOT CLOSING FREEVEE Amazon has denied reports that it’s closing the free TV-streaming service Freevee. A story in marketing publication Adweek claimed it was likely to shut in the second quarter of the year. Insiders said that Amazon doesn’t want to run both Prime Video and Freevee, especially now that the former has adverts. Freevee has always contained adverts, which keeps it free. HUMAX YOUVIEW BOX…

I’m disgusted by the BBC’s decision to remove the option to download shows from the iPlayer to computers (Issue 678, page 7, pictured). I bet it was decided by a young executive who has a fast and modern phone, or perhaps the latest expensive iPad – probably bought on expenses. I have neither because I can’t afford them. And even if I won the lottery tomorrow and bought a hundred new devices, I live in a remote area with an appalling mobile reception. Me and my wife often watch catchup shows on our PC that we’ve downloaded from iPlayer. The screen isn’t massive, but it’s big enough and we’re hardly likely to start huddling around a tiny phone screen. Perhaps it was based solely on usage: not enough people downloaded…

A few years ago I bought the Fractal Define R6 computer case (£155 from www.snipca.com/49360, pictured). It’s a great case to build a PC in. But last year the power button started acting up. Sometimes you have to press hard on it and sometimes it will stick, so when Windows boots up it assumes that the button has been pressed and shuts down. When the case was first released you could get an optional front I/O panel with a USB-C connection. I thought this would fix the problem so I tried to find one, but failed because they’ve been discontinued. I asked Fractal whether they still sold this panel. Less than 24 hours later they replied saying it’s not sold separately, but they can arrange one for me. It was…

WinRAR 7 www.snipca.com/49514 Price: £34.54 Free trial: 40 days What you need: Windows 10 or 11, macOS or Linux WinRAR has been around since 1995, and – rather dubiously – claims to have over 500 million users worldwide (more than Firefox and Edge combined, if true). It recently released its seventh version, but now that Windows 11 can open RAR archives, do you really need to install, let alone pay, for the program? Although it’s best-known for letting you add files to and extract them from RAR archives, WinRAR works with most other compression formats, which you can associate it with during installation. It’s still the only software that lets you create files in its own RAR format, which offers superior compression to ZIP, but isn’t as good as 7z,…

Cieran McNamara posted these photos (and more) on dating sites to advertise his luxury lifestyle, which he claimed was paid for by a high-value property portfolio. In reality he was living out of a suitcase, but he still managed to trick four women into relationships and steal over £300,000 from them. McNamara, 37, broke hearts and ransacked bank accounts for 12 months from September 2022 before one woman grew suspicious and contacted Cheshire police. He was arrested last September, charged with four counts of fraud by false representation, and has now been sentenced to seven years behind bars. Detective Constable Victoria Hazlewood, who led the investigation, said McNamara “cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy” (www.snipca.com/49421). He better learn soon, because the only dates he can look forward to…

PC MONITOR | £388 from Ballicom www.snipca.com/49407 Bright idea A lot of monitors try to be all things to all people, with high refresh rates for gamers, HDR for movie buffs and great colour accuracy for photographers. This isn’t the case with the Iiyama ProLite XUB3293UHSN-B5, which is laser-focused on those who just want to carry out general computer work on their PC, but want a reasonably sized screen with a decent 4K resolution. With slim bezels on three sides of its 32in screen, the monitor looks slick and modern. It’s nicely put together, perched on a robust stand with a full range of adjustments, including the ability to pivot into portrait mode. If anything it probably looks a little too business-like for our tastes, but that’s unlikely to be…

SMARTPHONE | £649 from OnePlus www.snipca.com/49441 Happy medium Chinese manufacturer OnePlus recently launched two phones, the 12 and 12R, which is the model we’re reviewing here. The 12 costs £999 and is the flagship of the OnePlus range; the 12R chops around £350 off that price by using older components from the OnePlus 11 (£679 from www.snipca.com/45226, reviewed in Issue 653). The 12R runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which was cutting edge a year ago, but has since been superseded by the Gen 3. It’s supported by 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage. With the same core components, it’s no surprise that the 12R offers similar performance levels to the OnePlus 11. While this lags behind more expensive contemporaries, it’s still pretty competitive against other…

EARBUDS | £50 from Amazon www.snipca.com/49426 Sound investment The EarFun Air 2 earbuds are proof that buying budget tech no longer means settling for low-quality products that lack features, durability and overall quality. The design is fantastic – both buds and charging case are slick and lightweight. The buds easily fit into our ears, and the case is small enough to fit into a pocket. Unsurpringly, they have fewer features than the most expensive models. You do get some handy basics, such as an app-based equaliser system, which lets you tweak the sound to your taste, and the case can be charged wirelessly, which is an unexpected bonus. Some absent or fiddly-to-use features may put you off the Air 2 buds, though. The lack of any noise cancellation won’t be…

ANDROID & iOS Try WhatsApp’s new text-formatting options WhatsApp has added new options for formatting your messages, so you can make long blocks of text easier to read. These complement the existing options for bold, italics and strikethrough, and are similarly easy to miss unless you know what to type. The most useful addition is the ability to create bullet-pointed lists in your WhatsApp chats. Just enter a hyphen - and press Space and it will turn into a bullet point (see screenshot below) so you can start your list. Press Enter to move on to the next point in the list, or Delete to erase the bullet point and return to standard typing. Alternatively, to create a numbered list, enter a number, followed by a full stop and a…

It’s common to hear the refrain “I can hear you, can you hear me?” in group video chats. If you’re trying to run club meetings online, you won’t want to waste valuable time trying to get everybody’s microphones and cameras working. Instead, you can send a message asking participants to check their video and audio feeds before the meeting starts. Here are some instructions that you and your members should follow. Check your webcam There are two types of webcam: internal cameras that are built into a laptop screen, for example, and external ones that connect to a PC over a USB cable. To check that an internal webcam is working, type camera in Windows Search, then click Open. All being well, you’ll see yourself on screen (pictured below). This…

Somebody should tell Ring that inflation has plummeted over the past 12 months. The video doorbell and security camera manufacturer, owned by Amazon, recently clobbered doorbell customers with massive price rises. On 11 March it increased the Protect Basic subscription from £34.99 to £49.99 per device (annual payment), and from £3.49 to £4.99 (monthly). That’s an outrageous rise of 43 per cent – more than 10 times the current inflation rate. Following a 2022 rise of £10 to £34.99, this means Ring has doubled the cost of subscription in under two years. Paying for Protect Basic stores videos online for 180 days, though only for one device. To cover all your devices, you’ll need to pay for Protect Plus (compare the plans at www.snipca.com/49479). This costs £8/£80 a month/year, and…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Can I edit my right-click menu? Q When I open the right-click menu in Windows 11, the items I use most – Rename, Copy and Paste – are all hidden under ‘Show more options’. It’s frustrating that I have to click this before I can access those functions. I’d like to move some of the options I never use, such as ‘Copy as path’ or ‘Compress to zip file’, to the ‘Show more options’ entry instead. Is it possible to edit the right-click menu in Windows 10 or 11? Eamonn Colley A The right-click menu is key to using Windows efficiently, so it’s surprising how little control Microsoft has given users over it. To be fair,…

Why didn’t you mention that Eufy is Chinese? Q I enjoyed your review of the Eufy Video Doorbell E340 (Issue 676, page 29, pictured right), but I’m concerned it didn’t mention that Eufy is owned by the Chinese firm Anker. This means when you use Eufy’s doorbell, you’re using facial-recognition technology that could be sent to China. I think it’s important to tell readers when a company uses technology. I don’t use Chinese and Russian software because the servers could be based in a country where there’s no regard for privacy. Guy Dewsbury A We understand your concerns, and we aim to mention the product’s country of origin where possible – especially if it’s from China – so we apologise for not doing so in this instance. You’re right to…

1080p High-definition video: 1920x1080 pixels. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 720p A common resolution of high-definition video: 1280x720 pixels. 7z Also known as 7-Zip. A free, open-source file archiver. AES 128 bit Advanced Encryption Standard. An extremely secure method of encrypting data. AI Artificial intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. Often used to describe technology that can perform human-like tasks. Alexa routine A feature on Echo smart speakers that lets you trigger a series of actions using a voice command. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Most commonly used in smartphones, tablets and smartwatches. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A…