Table of contents for Vol. 448 in Computeractive

Every week I receive emails from readers despairing at how many nasty extras came bundled with their latest download. It’s making many of you think twice about clicking that download button. Happily, not everything you want to do on your PC requires software. For example, you can speed up your PC using utilities you’ve already got on your computer, or by using web tools that require no installation. Jane Hoskyn reveals the best in our Cover Feature (page 50). We’ll never stop recommending software because for some tasks nothing else will do. But we’ll always point out which ones come with junk, and which should be ditched for superior online alternatives. One piece of software you should definitely try is Spartan, Microsoft’s exciting new browser (see page 38). Internet Explorer…

Holiday-makers have been warned about the dangers of online fraud when booking trips this summer. It comes as a new report reveals that more than 1,500 cases of holiday fraud were reported to the police in 2014. Scammers stole around £2.2m from duped travellers, with the average loss being £889. Many tourists only find they’ve been swindled when they arrive at their accommodation to discover that no booking was actually made. The findings come from the City of London Police, who have joined forces with Government-supported organisation Get Safe Online and the UK travel association ABTA to highlight some of the scams tourists face in the coming months. They have published a free downloadable PDF (www.snipca.com/16198, see image) offering advice on how to spot holiday scams. The most common type…

PAY TO REMOVE YOUTUBE ADVERTS YouTube looks set to launch a subscription service this summer that lets you pay to remove adverts. They revealed the news in an email to owners of YouTube channels. YouTube hasn’t confirmed how much it’ll cost to remove adverts, but reports suggest around $10 (about £7). You can already prevent adverts from playing by using an ad-blocker, such as Adblock Plus (https://adblockplus.org). EE LAUNCHES WI-FI PHONE CALLS EE customers can use the company’s new WiFi Calling service (www.snipca.com/16121) to make phone calls and send texts over the internet if they can’t get a mobile signal. It’s currently available only on the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and Microsoft Lumia 640 phones, with iPhones on the way. For more details see our sister website Expert Reviews:…

Junk offender: KC Softwares At first glance, KC Softwares (www.kcsoftwares.com) looks like a brilliant independent champion of free software, similar to NirSoft (www.nirsoft.net). And it could be, if only its installers weren’t riddled with unwanted extras. Its program SUMo (Software Update Monitor, www.snipca.com/16203), for example, sounded perfect for this issue’s Best Free Software. Windows gave me a ‘red shield’ warning when I opened the installer, but that’s fairly common. Alarm bells only really sounded when I read this in the setup wizard: “By clicking Next you agree to initiate the installation process, which will include a small piece of software used to verify your acceptance of our partner’s disclosures”. Woah there! What small piece of software? What partners? I’m agreeing to nothing, pal. KC and the unwanted extras Was I…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive ‘Appalled’ that Clean Reader had to remove ebooks I’m appalled that the couple running the Clean Reader app have been forced to stop selling ebooks (News, Issue 447). What’s most outrageous is that authors were annoyed by the app’s censorship, as though censorship is of itself a bad thing. That’s utter nonsense. An app that replaces swear words with ‘cleaner’ alternatives is, of course, involved in censoring, but in doing so it’s acting no differently to a TV channel dubbing words so a film can be broadcast before the watershed. Authors should be more realistic, and understand that a ‘toned down’ version of their book for younger (or more delicate) eyes is not a crime against freedom…

Contact us so we can investigate your case Email: consumeractive@computeractive.co.uk Write: Consumeractive, Computeractive, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD Please include both your phone number and address. Unfortunately, we can’t reply to all your letters. Who’s responsible for delivery left with neighbours? Q I ordered a kimono from Kays catalogue (now called K&Co, www.kandco.com), but it never arrived. The courier claims to have delivered it to a neighbour, but I don’t know these people. They’re saying they’ve not got it. What can I do now? Akiko Chiba A Akiko obviously didn’t give permission for the kimono to be left with strangers, so she should complain to K&Co and demand they send her a new one, or give her a refund. The law is clear on this matter. If you give…

What’s the best calendar software? Q I’ve stopped using Microsoft Outlook for email, but I miss its calendar tools. I used it to design and print my calendars, with repeat dates and different designs for each month. What should I now use instead? Bob Cowx A You don’t say what email software you’re using now, Bob, but if you’ve switched to the online version of Outlook you may like its own calendar tool (https://calendar.live.com). Like the Desktop version it lets you set up repeat events and print in various formats. It also has free design templates (www.snipca.com/16174) and a great user guide (www.snipca.com/16173). Google Calendar (https://www.google.com/calendar) is worth a try, too – and don’t miss its experimental features such as Gentle Notifications and background photos (www.snipca.com/16175). Both these calendar services…

MAY 2015 Microsoft has announced the Surface 3, a cheaper and lighter version of the Surface Pro 3 tablet. It’ll have a 10.8in 1080p screen, the new Atom X7 processor and weigh 622g. Unlike the Surface 2, it will use Windows 8.1 – not Windows RT. SUMMER 2015 The Asus Chromebit is a Chrome OS PC the size of a USB stick that plugs into your monitor’s HDMI port. It will cost $100 in the US with UK pricing to be confirmed. AUTUMN 2015 The Dell Venue 10 7000 is the 10in version of the Venue 8 7000 Android tablet (see our review, Issue 447). Its ‘barrel edge’ will house a bigger battery and a magnetic connection for its optional Bluetooth keyboard. AUTUMN 2015 Apple is rumoured to be working…

WhatsApp Messenger, one of the best free phone messaging apps, now lets you make free voice calls to anyone that uses the app. Though you can only make and receive calls using an Android phone at the moment, the company says iPhone users will get this feature soon. Calls are made via your phone’s internet connection, so ensure you’re in an area with Wi-Fi connectivity to get the best call quality. You can also make calls on 3G and 4G, though these are less reliable. STEP 1 If you don’t have WhatsApp on your Android phone, install it from www.snipca.com/16045 and follow the instructions to set it up (it costs $1 per year after the first 12 months, which are free). If you do already use it, you’ll need to…

Infinit Free Android: www.snipca.com/16126 iOS: www.snipca.com/16127 Infinit is the fastest way to send files to other people’s devices. Its transfer speeds are much faster than using cloud-storage services. There’s no limit on the number of files you can send or on the file size. You can also transfer files between your devices and PC by downloading the free PC program from www.infinit.io. AZ Screen Recorder Free Android: www.snipca.com/16133 If you use a device running Android Lollipop (5.0), then this is the best app to record whatever you do on it. You can pause or stop a screen recording and select the video quality. It records audio playing on your device and spoken dictations (using your device’s mic). Snapseed Free Android: www.snipca.com/16134 iOS: www.snipca.com/16135 One of the most popular photo-editing apps…

OUTLOOK.COM Customise the email actions that appear in your inbox Emails in your http://Outlook.com inbox have a flag icon beside the subject line, and moving your cursor to any email in the list reveals two more icons – ‘Mark as read’ and Delete. But did you know that you can add more actions, and also edit the order in which they appear? Click the cog icon at the top right (next to your name), then click Options. Now click the last option – ‘Instant actions’ (in the Customizing Outlook.com section). You’ll see a box with two columns (see screenshot). The left box has two sections – ‘Show on mouse over’ (actions that appear when you move your mouse over an email) and ‘Show always’ (the action that’s shown by default).…

What is it? Microsoft’s new biometric-authentication technology, which lets you sign into Windows 10 using your eyes, face and fingers. It recognises unique physical characteristics, such as your iris pattern, fingerprints and facial features, thereby saving you from the tyranny of passwords. When you sign in, you’ll be greeted with a reassuring smiley face and a friendly ‘Hello’ (see main image – Terry Myerson is Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Operating Systems). Will it mean the end of passwords? Microsoft desperately hopes so. On its blog announcing Windows Hello (www.snipca.com/15972), Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore wrote that passwords “are easily hackable and even when complex they are not effective, but most of us want something easy to remember, so we either choose a simple password or end up noting it down somewhere,…

A Ryanair steward has been sacked after he was caught selling on eBay a £500 Nikon camera left behind in the cabin by a passenger. The Portugueseborn Fernando Miguel Andrade Viseu was rumbled when Aaron Galloway, a 23-year-old teacher from Brighton, went on eBay to buy a replacement camera, only to find his own one being auctioned (see screenshot). It had received 25 bids, and had reached a price of £320. The auction had just 35 minutes left to run when Galloway spotted it. He immediately contacted the seller, saying: “I am assuming that you work for Ryanair as the cabin gets checked after the flight and your location is Stansted”. Galloway later said: “I was pretty surprised because actually he could have ignored me and there was nothing I…

On average, it takes just 82 seconds after the launch of a phishing campaign to trick its first victim, according to a new report on cybercrime. Around half of victims who open a malicious email do so within an hour of receiving it. The Data Breach Investigations Report (www.verizonenterprise.com/DBIR), compiled by US broadband company Verizon, aims to expose the cyber-threats companies face. It found that phishing remains the most effective method of attack. After analysing 80,000 attacks in 2014, researchers found that in many companies around 25 per cent of people who received a phishing email opened it. This may not be enough to infect a PC, but clicking a link or attachment in the email often is. The report found that 11 per cent of people did this. Bob…

Binkiland Binkiland. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? A green and pleasant land full of rabbits from Harry Potter (www.snipca.com/16165). Unfortunately, life is not like Harry Potter and Binkiland is deeply unpleasant. This browser hijacker first hitched a lift into my PC a couple of months ago when I tested the screenrecording tool CamStudio, and it’s since proved to be the most tenacious piece of junk I’ve ever encountered. I clean the living daylights out of my PC every couple of days with AdwCleaner, Malwarebytes, CCleaner and JRT (Junkware Removal Tool), but Binkiland won’t go. It’s there every morning, like a facial feature you wish you could chop off. It pretends to be friendly, too, which makes it all the more reprehensible – and its “easy removal guide” (www.snipca.com/16200) is a bad…

How glad I was to see in Letters, Issue 447, the reply by Arthur Evans that effectively countered the blinkered view expressed by Harry Powell concerning Windows XP in the previous issue. While using XP for internet activity can lead to security risks, it is possible to limit these with a little care. XP is an excellent and capable operating system, far superior to Windows ME that preceded it and to Windows Vista that followed. I run two desktop computers: one is a refurbished Windows 7 system while the other, older PC runs XP. Last summer I set up XP to dual-boot with the Linux distribution Precise Puppy 5.7.1 (www.snipca.com/16094, see screenshot) and disabled internet activity. It works very well. Linux is reasonably risk-free for internet activity, while XP is…

Reader gets Currys refund after recording his chat with them Whenever you are pursuing a refund, it helps to have as much evidence at your disposal. That’s why Computeractive reader Chris Newbon recorded a phone conversation he’d had with Currys, during which they said they would refund him if a second repair of his laptop failed. Faced with this proof, Currys refunded the full amount of £899, a result which had seemed in doubt when we reported Chris’s case in Issue 447. At the time, Currys was repairing for the second time the HP Envy laptop he bought there in December 2014. Unfortunately, the repaired laptop lasted less than 24 hours. Chris returned to the store, where he was told that the laptop would have to be repaired a third…

Unpaid toll-road fee scam I recently received an email regarding an unpaid “toll-road” fee. It said: “Dear Andy. You have not paid for driving on a toll-road. Please, do not forget to service your debt. You can review the invoice in the attachment. Sincerely, Henry Walters, E-ZPass Manager”. The use of my first name was interesting, and the toll-road angle is a new one to me. Apart from a few odd words, the email was quite believable (but still obviously fake, as a toll-road charge would have included my car details). Be warned, though: it seems scammers’ English is getting better and better. Warn your fellow readers about scams at letters@computeractive.co.uk…

Ikea Markus £125 from www.snipca.com/16150 A comfortable, smart-looking and easy-to-assemble office chair, with tilt and swivel but no height-adjustable arm rests. Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse £80 from www.snipca.com/16151 A comfortable wireless mouse that can work with up to three different computers via Bluetooth and its own wireless dongle. It has six programmable buttons and a second scroll wheel for navigating websites and virtual desktops. It’s also incredibly accurate and responsive. Leef iBridge £48 from www.snipca.com/16149 A USB 2.0 stick that also has a Lightning connector so you can transfer files between your PC and your iOS device. It’s not especially fast (large and small files copy over at around 11MB/s), but its curved design means it doesn’t stick out awkwardly when plugged in. Samsung External Battery Pack (11,300mAh) £65…

Find out what other products we liked in 2014. Buy our Back Issue CD now: www.snipca.com/14981 LAPTOP PRICE DROP Asus X555LA-XX290H £300 from www.snipca.com/16158 Tested: Issue 446 Asus has made all the right choices with this budget Windows 8.1 laptop. Its comfortable keyboard, fast performance, respectably lengthy battery life and bright screen are all the more impressive given its low price. ALTERNATIVE Asus Chromebook C200 A cheap Chrome OS ultra-portable laptop with a bright screen, lengthy battery life and a great keyboard. £175 from www.snipca.com/16159 PHONE Motorola Moto G 4G (second generation) £150 (without contract) from www.snipca.com/16160 Tested: Issue 436 Moto G 4G has been updated with a 5in screen, 4G and a microSD card slot. The 3G version has dual SIM slots. ALTERNATIVE: Apple iPhone 5s An excellent smartphone…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk` TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT ✓ Copy and store text to a clipboard to paste later I find myself using the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C (Copy) and Ctrl+V (Paste) all the time, whether it’s copying text from one program to another, sending interesting URLs to friends via email and social media, or pasting passwords to sign into my accounts. I even like to copy any great quotes I come across online and save them to my ‘diary of quotes’. Thankfully, I stumbled upon a brilliant free clipboard manager called Remembr, which has recently been updated with a more user-friendly interface. It saves any text you copy – for example, from Word or from a website – to a list. When you’re ready you just click any text…

AGES 0-5 ABC Gurus £1.49 www.snipca.com/16128 (iOS) Designed by pre-school teachers, ABC Gurus will help your toddlers learn about letters of the alphabet. They tap a letter on a grid, then colour and decorate it using items such as crowns, eyes, moustaches and mouths. They’ll then see a small animation of a word that begins with that letter. AGES 6-10 Endless Reader Free www.snipca.com/16129 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/16130 (iOS) This educational app makes learning to read fun. Your child completes sentences by dragging words to their correct outline. As they drag the word, they’ll hear it spoken. With every completed sentence, an animation will illustrate its meaning. AGES 11-16 Stick Cricket 2 Free www.snipca.com/16131 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/16132 (iOS) This addictive game is all about timing. Tap the arrow on the left…

Hack Firefox using free extensions Firefox supports far more – and far more inventive – extensions than Chrome or Internet Explorer (IE). This is largely due to its open-source design, which allows developers to access its source code. We like Classic Theme Restorer (www.snipca.com/16194), which lets you restore favourite lost Firefox features, including the old Firefox button. ‘Theme Font & Size Changer’ (www.snipca.com/16195), lets you change web-page fonts to a more readable style – or less readable, if you prefer! You’ll find plenty more tweaking tools in Mozilla’s directory (https://addons.mozilla.org) – or go straight to www.snipca.com/16193 to see users’ favourites. Incidentally, you don’t have to go through the menu icon (the three lines) to visit your secure ‘Add-ons’ page (where you manage your extensions); simply type about:addons into the address…

The WiFi SweetSpots app (Android www.snipca.com/16052, iOS www.snipca.com/16053) is a free and convenient way to test your router’s range. Make sure your phone or tablet is connected to your Wi-Fi network, then open the app and tap Start. You’ll see a real-time graph representing the current connection speed in Mbps. Walk around your house and garden to see how your connection speed is affected by your position, and where you get the best coverage. The app even has an audio mode that bleeps when you hit a sweet spot, just like a metal detector.…

Age UK has made its own version of recent Facebook adverts in its latest campaign to highlight loneliness among the elderly. The posters display the words ‘no friends’ over images of solitary old people (see right). They are a direct reference to the current Facebook adverts that celebrate the beneficial effects of friendship and end with the word ‘Friends’ on screen (watch one at www.snipca.com/16231). As part of the ad campaign Age UK is encouraging people to donate £3 by texting ‘HELLO’ to 70007. Marianne Hewitt, Age UK’s head of brand, said: “It’s time we took loneliness seriously as a threat to a happy and healthy later life. We need to do more to support older people to stay socially connected: this is a big part of our job at…

CLASSIC QUIZ SHOWS NOW ON IPLAYER You can now watch episodes of classic BBC game shows on the iPlayer, including Ask the Family, Call My Bluff and What’s My Line?. The collection, ‘curated’ by Pointless presenter Richard Osman, also contains an episode of Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? from 1954. In the show teams of archaeologists and historians had to identify objects from museums. You can watch all the episodes at www.snipca.com/16196. WINDOWS 10.1 DETAILS LEAKED Windows 10 may still be in its Preview stage, but details of its first update, codenamed Redstone, have already leaked online. According to Brad Sams of the website Neowin (www.snipca.com/16201), Redstone will be released in two waves in 2016, first in June and then October. He suggests that the name Redstone is taken from the name…

Facebook is fixing a bug it has blamed for tracking the browsing habits of people, even if they don’t have an account. It follows a report commissioned by a Belgian data-protection agency that claimed people were being tracked by Facebook even if they just clicked one of the site’s ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ buttons on another website (see News, Issue 447). These buttons appear on over 13 million websites. At the time Facebook dismissed the report, saying it contained “factual inaccuracies”. But in a statement titled ‘Setting the Record Straight on a Belgian Academic Report’ (www.snipca.com/16107), Richard Allan, Facebook’s Vice President of Policy in Europe wrote: “The researchers did find a bug that may have sent cookies to some people when they weren’t on Facebook. This was not our intention –…

NEW KOBO E-READER CHEAPER THAN KINDLE VOYAGE Kobo has announced a new e-reader with a resolution better than Amazon’s Kindle Voyage but costs £59 less. The Glo HD, which is available from 1 June priced £110, has a screen resolution of 1448x1072 pixels, slightly more than the Voyage. However, at 9.2mm, it’s chunkier than the Voyage, which is 7.6mm thick. It also weighs six grams more. We will review it soon. AMAZON SUES SITES SELLING FAKE REVIEWS Amazon has filed a lawsuit in the US against websites that allegedly sell fake four- and five-star reviews to companies. The bogus reviews get added to items the companies are selling on Amazon in order to boost sales. Amazon says the websites sell reviews in packages up to 100 and add them to…

In Issue 447’s ‘Question of the Fortnight’ you ask ‘When will robots take over from humans?’. It was an interesting read, but I believe the fear of a robot mutiny is overblown. Ever since the uprising of the Luddites during the Industrial Revolution we’ve had doomsday predictions that machines will make humans obsolete. But instead the march of technology has made all of our lives richer (both financially and emotionally). I can see why some people are unsettled by the rise of robots, but I’m prepared to bet it will improve our lot overall, making us more prosperous and enabling us to live longer through medical advances. It’s true that technology will make certain trades redundant, but you can’t un-invent technology, nor can you artificially stifle innovation in order to…

WATCH OUT FOR… Chrome extensions that steal your info What happened? Google recently removed 192 extensions from the Chrome Web Store (https://chrome.google.com/webstore), after they were revealed to be stealing sensitive data from millions of users. The move follows a report from the University of California, which worked with Google to measure the dangers of dodgy extensions. After analysing more than 100 million visits to Google’s web pages, researchers found that five per cent of people were using at least one malicious extension that steals personal information, such as login details, or bombards users with adverts. One of the extensions Google removed is Webpage Screenshot, after Swedish security firm ScrapeSentry found that it copies all your browsing history and sends it to an IP address registered in the US. The makers…

SOFTWARE UNINSTALLER BCUninstaller 1.6 www.snipca.com/16144 What you need: Windows 7 or 8/8.1 BCUninstaller (the C stands for ‘crap’, like in CCleaner; the B stands for the less indelicate ‘bulk’) is a tiny new fish in a very crowded pond. We’ve already got Revo Uninstaller, GeekUninstaller and a stack of others (see our Cover Feature in Issue 427), not to mention Windows’ built-in uninstaller. So why bother with this 794KB minnow instead? Despite its size and portable nature, BCUninstaller is unusually quick and powerful. It can remove batches of programs at once, then scan your Registry for leftover files and get rid of them, too. It does all this from a packed but tidy program window, which has options to exclude Microsoft programs from a scan and even disable ‘uninstall protection’…

What’s the best non-click mouse for my podcasts? Q I record a regular podcast about stamp collecting, but my listeners complain that the sound of my mouse buttons clicking is far too distracting. Is there a mouse with silent buttons that you could recommend? Rene Wagner A The best ‘noiseless’ mouse that we’ve tested is the Nexus SM-5000 (£19 from www.snipca.com/16101 – see photo), which is unrelated to Google’s similarly named range of Android devices. The buttons on this wireless mouse emit approximately 35 decibels of noise, which is around one-third that of a standard mouse. It’s worth remembering that if you use a laptop, you can simply tap the surface of the touchpad instead of pressing the physical buttons to activate onscreen controls. Tapping your computer’s touchscreen, if it…

WEB DESIGN PRICE DROP Serif WebPlus X8 £50 from www.snipca.com/15278 Tested: Issue 443 WebPlus X8 is one of the best programs available for designing a website without having to write a line of code. It comes with lots of templates, with more available for purchase if you need them. It also has lots of specialist tools for building a small business website. ALTERNATIVE: JimdoPro This browserbased program for creating websites is slick and feature packed, but lacking in high-quality templates. £60 a year from www.jimdo.com/pricing MULTIFUNCTION PRINTER Canon Pixma MG4250 £50 from www.snipca.com/12457 Tested: Issue 382 This budget multifunction printer (MFP) isn’t the fastest available, but it’s cheap to buy and inexpensive to run. Just as importantly, both prints and scans look great. Unless you need faster print speeds or…

ANDROID Set recurring reminders using Google Keep Google Keep, one of the best free note-taking apps, now lets you set recurring reminders. It’s a great way to remember those tasks you need to carry out on a regular basis, whether it’s every day, once a week, or every month. We’ll show you how to create a note with a list of things to do, then set a recurring reminder for it. To create a note, open Google Keep (www.snipca.com/16122), then tap the ‘+’ symbol at the bottom right. You’ll see four icons. The mic icon lets you dictate a note, the camera icon lets you add a photo to your note and the notebook icon lets you type a note. To create a list-based note, tap the three horizontal lines.…

WINDOWS 10 Change your default programs in Windows 10 There’s an easy way to change your default programs in Windows 10. For example, if you find Internet Explorer sluggish, you can use Spartan as your default browser (see our Workshop on page 38 to learn about the Microsoft’s new browser). Alternatively, you can try Chrome or Firefox – both browsers worked fine when we installed them in the latest version of the Windows 10 Technical Preview. To set a default program, click the Start button, Settings, System, then Defaults. You’ll see a list of all your current default programs for your ‘Web browser’, Email, ‘Music player’ and so on. Click any default program to see the other installed programs that can carry out that action (see screenshot above right), then…

ROBOT ‘Add-ons’ isn’t the only page you can access by typing about: into the address bar. Type about:robots then press Enter and see who greets you. TRY AGAIN Click Try Again after going to ‘about:robots’. That’ll teach you. Oh, and look at the tab. BOOK OF MOZILLA Type about:mozilla in the address bar, press Enter and prepare to be baffled. BOUNCING UNICORN Open ‘Additional Tools and Features’ (see ‘Add hidden toolbar buttons’ tip above) and drag all optional items from the righthand pane to the left-hand pane, then click Exit Customise. Now we challenge you to find the bouncing unicorn (clue: see screenshot).…

Agomo may be the future of PC-cleaning software, but it’s currently the only genuine product of its kind. Beware imitators. Anvisoft’s new tool Cloud System Booster (www.snipca.com/16118) is described on software listings site AlternativeTo (www.snipca.com/16119) as a free online product. But it’s actually just a free trial for a conventional installable program that costs $22.98 (£15.70) and happens to have an online dashboard. Shame, we’d rather got our hopes up. Still, at least Cloud System Booster isn’t malware, unlike FileLab Windows Cleaner (www.snipca.com/16114, see screenshot, but approach with caution). This tool claims to let you clean your Registry from the comfort of your browser. Its web ‘app’ won’t even open in the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox, so we searched Google for solutions and got a slew of results…

You can record your phone calls and voicemails if you use an Android phone, but not if you have an iPhone, due to the more protected nature of the iOS operating system. The choice of free callrecording apps available to Android users is huge. We like Call Recorder (www.snipca.com/16071, see screenshot), which automatically records all incoming and outgoing calls as temporary files, then lets you save any you want to keep as MP3 files on your phone’s SD card. The similarly named Call Recorder ACR (www.snipca.com/16072) – also free – supports a broader range of file formats and lets you password-protect your recordings for added security, but isn’t supported by all Android devices. While it’s perfectly legal to record your own phone conversations, it’s pretty unethical to do so in…

Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: noproblem@computeractive.co.uk PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT How do I wipe everything from my old PCs? Q I have two Dell Vostro 220 tower computers, which are about five years old. A local computer company is willing to give me a cash allowance for both in exchange for a laptop which will be more beneficial to me. I want to ensure both computers are wiped of all my personal information. What’s the best way to do this? I know the shop would do it but I’d feel happier doing this myself before handing them over. One of the PCs contains a lot of customer information on Windows Live Mail, which I’d like to retain in order to return to my old company. Can…

There’s nothing on screen If your PC display is completely blank, first check all the cables, including the power (we’ve all occasionally forgotten to flick the switch on). Next, look for a Source button, which is often to be found on a panel on the front of modern monitors. You might have accidentally hit this while switching on, resulting in your display switching to a different video source. Also remove all cables other than power and the one to the PC, to eliminate the possibility that your monitor is prioritising a different source. Picture is rotated or upside down Many graphics card drivers have built-in keyboard shortcuts that let you rotate your display’s orientation. This is very useful if you want to use your monitor in portrait mode (www.snipca.com/16083) or…

1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 32bit A measure of how much data a computer can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. Add-on See Extensions. Applet A small program, often one that runs within a larger program to perform a specific task. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Beta versions are often released so problems can be ironed out. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. Essential software built into every PC that connects the vital components. It’s visible for a few seconds when the PC starts. Boot disk When it starts the computer looks on…

Social media mobs Last month, Facebook removed one of the emoticons it lets people use to tell their friends how they’re feeling. Called the ‘feeling fat’ emoticon, it was a smiling, double-chinned yellow blob to illustrate the kind of happy, slightly guilty feeling you might have after stuffing down an unnecessary pudding following a hefty main course. Facebook did this because 16,000 signed an online petition to get the chubby-cheeked emoticon dropped from the list of options. It was seen, in the words of Facebook’s explanation/apology, as “reinforcing a negative body image, particularly for people struggling with eating disorders”. “Facebook and Twitter seem to be the new home of bonkers political correctness” In some ways, I don’t have a problem with this. There are people out there with eating disorders,…