Table of contents for 641 in Computeractive

The UK now has the world’s 35th-fastest average broadband speed, up from 43rd a year ago, and 47th in 2020. It ranks lower than 18 Western European nations, including France, Germany and Spain, but is above Denmark, Ireland and Italy. The figures come from broadband-comparison site Cable.co.uk and internet-research firm M-Lab, who release a joint annual report ranking global speeds. Their 2022 report (www.snipca.com/43280), which they compiled using data from 1.1 billion speed tests across 220 countries, shows the UK averaging a download speed of 72.06Mbps – a considerable rise from 51.48Mbps last year. Globally, the average speed is 34.79Mbps, up from 29.79Mbps last year. Many of the countries with the fastest speeds are small or island nations (see box below left), where full-fibre networks are usually easier to roll…

Search online for British Home Children Between 1869 and 1948 thousands of British children were sent to Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand, where it was believed they would find better opportunities. Known as British Home Children, many were orphans, while others were from families that couldn’t afford to support them. In a small number of cases, children were transported wrongly believing their parents had died, and parents were told their child had passed away, prompting an apology from the British Government in 2010 (www.snipca.com/43235). Shockingly, many of the children were abused by the institutions that were meant to help them, particularly in Australia and Canada. Governments in both countries have since apologised. Track down children sent to Canada The country that makes it easiest to search for children…

We’ve seen a steady stream of Dell Inspiron laptops appearing lately, with the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 reviewed in Issue 638 and the Inspiron 16 2-in-1 in Issue 640. Unlike those two models, however, this Inspiron is a traditional laptop that doesn’t bend over backwards to become a tablet. “An excellent all-rounder for general use and some gaming” Dell has made some well-judged component choices to keep the price under £1,000. The first is an 11th generation Intel processor, the Core i7-11800H, which is a generation behind the current crop. However, this has left some room in the budget for standalone graphics hardware in the shape of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, giving the laptop a decent all-round performance that suits a general-purpose machine. It’s backed up with a generous 16GB…

Logitech’s MX range of peripherals proved that the company knows how to build high-end products with prices to match – see our reviews of the MX Mechanical Keyboard and MX Master 3S Mouse in Issue 634. However, it has different ambitions for the mid-range K650 Keyboard and M650 Mouse (reviewed below). These products are aimed at users who want no-fuss, affordable mice and keyboards with a simple design and modern wireless connectivity. While there are certainly cheaper keyboards on the market, the K650 walks the tightrope between affordability and quality. It’s a decent basic keyboard with few of the frills you’ll find on Logitech’s pricier models. Plug the USB Bolt receiver into your computer, or connect via Bluetooth, and it works without fuss. That’s true whether you’re connecting it to…

LAPTOP Lenovo Yoga 6 Gen7 £630 from www.snipca.com/42509 Tested Issue 637 Lenovo’s new laptop has an amazing screen, a fast processor and lasts 15 hours on a single charge. It has all the ports you need, including two USB-C, two USB 3.0 and HDMI. At £663. It represents stunning value. ALTERNATIVE Dell XPS 13 New Intel CPUs and a taller screen make this a more powerful, all-round slim laptop. Prices start at £959 from www.snipca.com/42979 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 £649 from www.snipca.com/42211 Tested Issue 634 Samsung has replaced its own Tab S7+ to become our favourite Android tablet. It’s fast with a stunning 11in screen, and has a longer battery life than the iPad. This model gives you 128GB – you’ll need to pay £699 for 256GB. ALTERNATIVE Lenovo…

Set up automatic email replies Managing a club can be a lot of work, so the last thing you want to worry about is having to reply promptly to members’ emails. If you use Gmail, you can ease some of your workload by setting up rules that send automatic replies based on the content of the message and who it’s from. Create your reply template In our example, a photography club is using rules to handle competition entries. First, you need to enable your templates to send automatic replies. Click the top-right Settings cog, then ‘See all settings’. Click ‘Advanced’ and select Enable in the Templates section, then Save Changes at the bottom. Next, click Compose to open a new blank email. Here, we’ll create a template that thanks members…

It’s no secret that Google likes to track you and hoover up data about your activities so it can make money through adverts. If you use a lot of its services – and you leave your settings on their defaults – then Google will be able to record a mildly terrifying amount of information about you: where you’ve been, what you’ve searched for, which videos you’ve watched and much more. Thankfully, if you know which settings to change, you can use Google’s ever-growing array of apps and tools without compromising your privacy – though bear in mind that many of its tools rely on recording your activity in order to work as intended. If you block Google from recording your location data, for example, Maps and other tools will no…

Q I’ve been trying to clear the cache for each app on my Kindle Fire tablet (pictured). When I try, the settings page initially shows that the cache contains 0Kb. However, if I exit the settings page, then return, the cache size has jumped to 16.38Kb. This happens for every app. Why is this, and does it matter? Jim Fraser A This is entirely normal because, almost by design, any cache is only ever empty for a short period of time. The whole point of a cache on a Fire tablet or any other device is to speed things up by keeping essential data close to hand. Every Fire app requires a tiny amount of key data, which adds up to 16.38Kb, so while you can empty the cache to…

Q Recently my little grandson destroyed the right-arrow key on my keyboard by repeatedly pressing it while using a space program he loves. Using PowerToys, I switched the arrow key’s function to the right Shift key. This works fine, but now Sticky Keys keeps kicking in. Is there a way to disable this permanently? I read about renaming ‘sethc’, but there are three of them on my PC, and I’m wary of tinkering in the System32 folder. Jim Kerr A As you’ve discovered, the keyboard shortcut for Sticky Keys is to press the Shift key five times. The official way to disable this is through the ‘Ease of Access’ panel in Settings. It sounds as if you’ve tried this, but if not, click Start, then the Settings cog, followed by…

Microsoft has released a security fix for Windows 7, even though it stopped fully supporting the operating system in January 2020. The update, which also applies to Windows 8.1, 10 and 11, is by far the most urgent fix in Microsoft’s latest collection of monthly security updates, released on Tuesday 13 September. It fixes a flaw called CVE-2022-37969, which is a zero-day vulnerability – meaning that previously security researchers didn’t know it existed. However, there’s a possibility that hackers were aware of it, and have been exploiting it to remotely control infected computers. Microsoft credited researchers from four companies, suggesting that they may have seen evidence of it being used. Microsoft hasn’t revealed much detail about the vulnerability, though did say that an attacker would already have needed to access…

Hackers are hiding malware in a photo taken by Nasa’s James Webb Telescope and emailing it to people in an attempt to infect their computers. The image, showing a galaxy that formed 4.6 billion years ago (pictured), was the first from the telescope that Nasa released. It described the photo as “the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date”. The attack was detected by US security firm Securonix, naming it ‘GO#WEBBFUSCATOR’ (www.snipca.com/43354). It said the image is emailed as a Microsoft Office attachment that contains metadata which downloads the malware. The company said one of the reasons the malware is so dangerous is that it’s presented as a normal JPEG image, and therefore avoids being detected by antivirus software. Securonix vice-president Augusto Barros said that hackers…

Microsoft 365 subscribers will soon be able to automate tasks in Excel, a feature currently available only in the online version of the spreadsheet tool. It will be welcomed by Excel users who have to perform lots of repetitive tasks when entering data. The feature was confirmed in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, where the company reveals forthcoming tools that will be added – visit www.snipca.com/43376 and look for the heading ‘Automate your tasks in Excel for Windows’. Scheduled for release in October, it will let users “create, edit and run” Office Scripts, which are sequences of commands that trigger a program or task. In ‘Excel for the Web’ (www.snipca.com/43377), you can make Office Scripts using the Action Recorder tool (pictured), as Microsoft explains at www.snipca.com/43378. Once you create a script,…

We wouldn’t recommend ditching Windows for everyday computing work, but if you want an affordable second computer that’s well designed and easy to manage, a Chromebook is an excellent option. These lightweight laptops use a streamlined operating system from Google called Chrome OS (pictured right), which runs software in the Chrome browser. This means most of the software you use is hosted online, so to work in an office suite, for example, you might use Google Docs or Microsoft’s online Office software, and save all your files in the cloud. You’ll be surprised at how much software is available in this format, although you can’t run your regular Windows software in Chrome OS. Because the entire operating system is based around the browser, it needs fewer resources than Windows. This…

Whether you’re looking for a mouse to pair with the K650 keyboard (reviewed above) or you’re simply replacing an existing one, the M650 could be just the ticket. Like the keyboard, it isn’t the flashiest of products, but it is a reliable, well-made wireless mouse for a reasonable price. Its contoured shape fits nicely in the palm. Right-handers will find that the two side-mounted shortcut buttons sit perfectly under your thumb, while the speedy scroll wheel is a cut above those you find on cheaper mice. These little details add to the overall impression that its design and build quality are worth paying a little extra for. Though not designed to be a travel mouse, it’s relatively compact, so you could easily slip it into a bag to use while…

Following your tip on alphabetising by surname in Microsoft Word (Issue 640, page 47), here’s how I alphabetise text that’s in a table in Word. For my job as a part-time tutor, I often have to sort the second, third or fourth columns alphabetically. First, I select the text, then click the top-left Home button and select the A-Z ‘Sort’ button (1 in our screenshot) to bring up the Sort box. My tables always have headings, so I make sure ‘Header row’ is selected at the bottom 2. This ensures that the ‘Sort by’ dropdown menu shows my table’s headings – in this case that’s Country, Population, Capital, Population 3. If I wanted to alphabetise by Country, which is the first column, I select that in the ‘Sort by’ menu, then…

What is it? ‘Where is it?’ is a more pertinent question. GeoGuessr (www.snipca.com/43357) is an addictive online game that tests your geographical knowledge by asking you to identify random locations around the world from Google Street View imagery. How does it work? In GeoGuessr’s Classic mode, you’re shown five photos per round of different places and click a map to pinpoint where you think they are. The closer you are to the actual locations, the more points you score – up to 5,000 for a direct hit. Click the Street View imagery to explore the area for clues, and zoom into the map to guess as precisely as possible. There are several games to choose from, including World, United States and United Kingdom, and daily challenges such as Famous Places…

1 Standalone scanners The duties of a scanner have effectively been absorbed into multi-function device (MFD) printers, but you can still buy standalone scanners, and there are lots of reasons why you might want to. Perhaps the scanning function of your current MFD isn’t great, for example, or you often need to print and scan at the same time. If you scan a lot, then something like the Epson WorkForce DS-1630 (£250 from www.snipca.com/43315, pictured below) might be worth considering. It’s a traditional flatbed scanner with an auto-document feeder, which allows you to scan photos, documents and more in bulk without having to lift the lid between each scan. Or perhaps you need to scan on the go? If so, then something like the Epson WorkForce DS-360W Mobile Scanner (£254…

Remove duplicate files for free Of all the things said to be making a comeback this year, from compact discs to flared jeans, WinZip probably ranks near the bottom – just above 1970s-style electricity blackouts – in terms of anticipation. Ever since Microsoft built ZIP file support into Windows XP, WinZip has been redundant – especially when free alternatives such as 7-Zip (www.7-zip.org) are available. So I was surprised by my own reaction when I read that WinZip had released a new version. Although not as excited as when I heard that KP was bringing back ‘Scampi ’n’ Lemon’ flavour Nik Naks (www.snipca.com/43244), I was intrigued to learn that WinZip now includes a duplicate cleaner that runs separately from the main program. Pointless copies of files are the bane of…

More than five million people logged into Flightradar24 to watch the Queen’s coffin being flown from Edinburgh to London, setting a record for the site. Flightradar24 (www.flightradar24.com) is a flight-tracking site that lets you follow aeroplanes in real time during their journey. It said that 4.79 million people followed the RAF Globemaster C-17 fly from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt on its site and app. A further 296,000 watched live on YouTube (rewatch it at www.snipca.com/43381, pictured). The previous record was set in August when a flight carrying US politician Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan was followed by 2.2 million people. Flightradar24 added that within seconds of the Globemaster C-17 taking off more than six million people tried to track it, placing “unprecedented strain” on its system. This forced it to limit…

Broadband firms and mobile networks could soon be forced to state more prominently in their adverts whether prices might increase during a customer’s contract. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has launched a consultation (www.snipca.com/43285) to examine whether such measures are needed to “avoid misleading consumers”. It’s now common for companies to increase prices during contracts. Some, such as Sky and Virgin Media, hike prices by amounts not specified in contracts, which gives customers the opportunity to cancel without paying an early-termination fee. Others, including BT, EE and TalkTalk, have small print in their contracts that allows them to increase prices by the rate of inflation plus a fixed amount. Because this rise is explained in the contract’s terms, customers can’t cancel early without paying a fee. However, many customers…

MINI PC ❘ £199 from Geekom www.snipca.com/43212 Geekom MiniAir 11 Small size, huge bargain Not everyone needs a full-size desktop PC, but that doesn’t mean a laptop is your only option. A mini PC is an excellent space-saving alternative, with enough power to run standard productivity software, while dispensing with the huge case and extra fans needed to keep more powerful hardware cool. Some mini PCs are stuffed with the latest components and cost as much as their desktop counterparts, but that’s not so with this little marvel from Taiwanese company Geekom. Available directly from the manufacturer for £199, or through Amazon for around £240 (www.snipca.com/43213), it’s only 34mm high, 117mm wide and 112mm long (or ‘deep’) so will barely take up any space on your desk. It even comes…

If you could run Windows on an iPad Pro it would probably look like Huawei’s MateBook E. This Windows 11 tablet comes with a detachable keyboard case, which seamlessly converts it into a laptop. Its slim and sleek design is clearly influenced by the iPad, offering a sculpted metal frame, large screen and narrow bezels. The keyboard cover is included in the price, but doesn’t cut any corners in quality. It’s certainly a joy to type on, with a springy feel to the keys that make it feel more like typing on a laptop than a tablet. There are two models available. The £600 version has an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The £700 model, which we’ve reviewed here, has an Intel Core i5…

In Issue 640 we reviewed Huawei’s tri-band WiFi Mesh 7, which offered a two-unit mesh Wi-Fi system for £270. Here we’re looking at its little brother, the WiFi Mesh 3, which provides three units for £170 – that’s an extra unit for £100 less. Understandably, you might be wondering what compromises have been made to make it so much more affordable. For a start, the individual units are smaller – just 174mm tall. This actually has benefits because they’re slightly less conspicuous around the house. Each unit has three Gigabit Ethernet ports instead of four, but as with the Mesh 7 model you’re still able to tap compatible Android devices on the top (pictured below) to connect them instantly using NFC. “Cheaper and less conspicuous, but slower at longer distances”…

What you need: Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer Time required: One hour Word and Excel are perfect partners. If you subscribe to Microsoft 365, or you’ve bought Office outright, you’ll already have access to Microsoft’s word processing and spreadsheet software and may well spend a lot of time switching between the two. But what if we told you there’s no need to do it that way? And that you can do a lot of what you need using Word alone, including working with figures and performing calculations, so you no longer had to keep the two programs running side by side? Here, we’ll explore the different ways you can work with formulas and embedded spreadsheets using Word alone. What’s more, once we’ve finished with Word, we’ll show you how to…

MusicBee Everyone raves about MusicBee, including reader Ken Blakemore in Issue 639’s Readers’ Tips. It clearly has a lot to offer. But I found it overcomplicated, made worse by help pages littered with pop-up ads. All I needed was to organise my music without spending too much time learning how. And what I use instead… So I’m putting in a word for MediaMonkey (www.mediamonkey.com), which does much if not all that MusicBee does. I found it simpler and more intuitive, and ripping CDs is a doddle (see screenshot). There’s still a learning curve to negotiate, but all the key functions are clear and quickly accessible, rather than hidden away behind menus and submenus. Especially helpful is the ability to move and rename albums and tracks in bulk, according to set criteria.…

Substital Chromium www.snipca.com/43217 Firefox www.snipca.com/43218 Streaming services now provide subtitles – technically called ‘closed captions’ – for much of their content, but you still come across films and shows that lack them, while YouTube’s AI-generated subtitles are often inaccurate. Substital adds closed captions to online videos using subtitle files shared by users. Click its toolbar button on a page that contains streaming video, select the detected video and Substital stream, without interfering with playback. Use the Synchronization slider to nudge them into sync with the images. Substital works with Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube and other services. If you don’t like that, try… Subtitles For YouTube Chromium www.snipca.com/43220 Improve the quality of YouTube’s closed captions by using this extension to find and upload a subtitles file for the video you’re…

Q I have a Sony turntable that’s connected to a Hama preamplifier, which in turn connects to the audio-in port on my desktop PC using a 3.5mm audio cable. I’d like to connect the preamplifier to my HP 14-series laptop too, but it doesn’t have an audio-in socket. An obvious solution would be to use a USB adapter, but I can’t tell whether the 3.5mm-to-USB devices advertised online actually provide audio inputs, or if they transmit audio signals at all. Do you have any suggestions? Ted Sheehan A Yes, such devices can do the job. The pictured Tecknet model (around £6.50 from www.snipca.com/43125), for example, adds separate microphone and headphone jacks. Others come in cable form and provide just a headphone socket. Some adapters claim to support mic input, but…

Can I swap my Sky router for an Asus model? Q Having read Robert Irvine’s article on refurbished routers (Issue 638, page 62), I’d hoped to swap my Sky router (model ER115) for an Asus router (RT-AC51U), but Asus tells me I can’t. Is this right? Alan Parker A Unfortunately, the Asus RT-AC51U router doesn’t have a built-in DSL modem, which means you can’t use it as a straightforward replacement for Sky’s ER115, because you’d still need a modem to connect to your broadband service. What’s more, the ER115 doesn’t offer a modem-only mode, so you can’t even disable its Wi-Fi and use the RT-AC51U as your wireless router instead by connecting it to the Sky box via an Ethernet cable. Our first suggestion would be to ask Sky to…