Table of contents for 492 in Computeractive

We answer many questions in Computeractive, but I fear that ‘Is there a God?’ would be beyond us. However, we can certainly confirm that there’s a GodMode on your PC, and that it’s your computer’s best-kept secret. In our Cover Feature the omnipotent Jonathan Parkyn guides you through GodMode, explaining how it gives you shortcuts to important PC settings. The tool is so useful that it does sometimes feel miraculous. Also in this issue, we predict which software and services might become free in 2017. This is more than casual speculation – there is a strong trend for companies to give away products that they once charged for. Is there a catch? Well, you may see more adverts, and you’ll have to keep an eye on your personal data, but…

WATCH OUT FOR… Fake malware warnings in Edge What’s the threat? A security researcher has demonstrated how hackers can manipulate Edge so it shows fake malware alerts that mimic the browser’s genuine red warnings. Manuel Caballero from Buenos Aires said that hackers can display warnings that look almost identical to those produced by Edge’s SmartScreen filter, which tells you if you’re about to visit a site it deems to be unsafe. Caballero showed that hackers can change the wording of this warning to include a phone number (see screenshot). Calling the number would put you straight through to them. What should you do? Never ring a phone number in a warning from Edge. There’s no immediate danger because this threat has been presented in theory only – what’s known as…

Whoever came up with the expression ‘Any port in a storm’ clearly wasn’t thinking of the PC market. The last thing you’d want to be doing in a storm is trying to figure out which port you need to plug a peripheral into. Several types of port will end up being replaced by the new USB Type-C format. But if you thought that would simplify matters, you’d better go back and grab your sou’wester. Type-C refers to the shape of the plug and socket. Apple’s new MacBook Pro, for example, has four ultra-fast Type-C Thunderbolt 3 sockets. You can also plug USB Type-C 3.1 devices into them, but you can’t connect Thunderbolt 3 devices to the USB 3.1 Type-C ports on current PCs. Many screens, however, can connect to both…

OnePlus started out by crowdfunding, inviting customers to place pre-orders, and their success allowed them to develop a more conventional business model. It’s made some of the best-value phones of the past couple of years. At first glance, the 3T looks like a move in the wrong direction. When we first reviewed the OnePlus 3 (see Issue 480), it was a fantastic phone for a very reasonable £309. Then, as sterling fell, it went up to £329. Now it’s been replaced by a new model at £399. “With improved screen, speed and storage it remains a great bargain” So far, so disappointing. In fact, though, the 3T remains a great bargain. For a start, you get a sensible 64GB of storage as standard. As with iPhones, there’s no microSD card…

WINDOWS 10 COMPUTERS Intel’s Kaby Lake processors (pictured above) are finally appearing in laptops. For example, the Razer Blade Stealth (£1,249 from Amazon www.snipca.com/22831) has an i7-7500U, which uses less power while still matching the performance of many mid-range desktop PCs. Cheaper PCs will follow. Desktop PC builders have also begun to offer models with Kaby Lake processors, but early reports on performance suggest minimal gains over 2015’s Skylake processors. So if you see a Skylake bargain, we wouldn’t necessarily put off buying. By the end of the year, Cannon Lake will be replacing Kaby Lake in laptops. SHOULD I WAIT? Probably not PHONES & TABLETS Will 2017 bring an iPhone 8 or keep Apple fans waiting again with a 7s? We’re keener to see the more affordable iPhone SE…

PULL OUT & KEEP Issue 492 14 pages of easy-to-follow workshops and expert tips 35 Make your Start menu easier to use 38 Create your own news feed on your tablet 40 Control PCs on your home network 42 Edit videos without losing quality PLUS 43 Readers’ Tips 44 Phone & Tablet Tips 46 Make Windows Better 47 Make Office Better 48 Secret Tips For... Google Search Make your Start menu easier to use What you need: Start Menu X; Any Windows version (XP to 10) Time required: 40 minutes We’ve used several Start-menu replacement programs over the years, but none have as many features as Start Menu X. While there is a paid-for version for £16 with extra bells and whistles, the free version is packed with all the…

Trusted Contacts Free Android: www.snipca.com/22850 Google’s latest app lets you quickly share your location with people you trust, even if you’re offline or your phone’s switched off. Add your family members and closest friends, so that you can send your location (or request theirs) in an emergency. CameraSim Android: www.snipca.com/22853 £1.99 iOS: www.snipca.com/22854 £1.49 CameraSim teaches you how to take better photos on your DSLR camera. It explains each setting (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, and so on) and how they impact your photo. Experiment using the app, before applying the concepts with your camera. Laundrapp Free Android: www.snipca.com/22851 iOS: www.snipca.com/22852 This laundry-service app takes the strain out of washing clothes. First, go to the Laundrapp website (www.laundrapp.com) to make sure the service is available in your area. If…

NUMBER 1 As you will have noticed, every issue of Computeractive (including this page) is peppered with URLs that begin ‘www.snipca.com’. This lets us simplify long, convoluted website addresses to make it easier for you to access the online content you want – just type the snipca into your browser’s address bar to go directly to that website. The other advantage of using ‘Snipca’ is that we can keep track of how many people click each link, so that we can continue covering the sorts of things that most interest you. Here are your top 10 most popular programs of 2016, based on those Snipca clicks. 1 AdwCleaner www.snipca.com/21594 AdCleaner is our readers’ most-used program for the third year in a row, proving that adware remains one of the biggest…

32bit A measure of how much information a computer can process at once. Most older computers are 32bit. 4G Technology that delivers faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. Accelerometer A sensor that detects movement. Used in phones to determine portrait or landscape orientation. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. Aperture An opening that controls the amount of light entering a camera lens. Architecture A set of rules and methods that govern how hardware and software work. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Cache A temporary space for storing information. Calibration…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActive www.twitter.com/computeractive Stop scaremongering about Windows 7 I read Russell Garton’s letter in Issue 491 on Microsoft’s warning concerning ransomware affecting Windows 7. Sorry, but give it a rest. Windows 7 will be updated and patched until at least 14 January 2020, so let’s stop the scaremongering Microsoft and people like Mr Garton don’t understand the massive job it can be to keep upgrading operating systems. In my case, it would take me at least a week of hard work. I am heavily involved in flight simulation, with dozens of aircraft to install (if they work in Windows 10, that is). Does Microsoft care? No, as long as they can keep selling new operating systems. Let’s just enjoy using…

REMOTE PC TOOL TeamViewer 12 www.teamviewer.com What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 TeamViewer was created by and for business people, and its website is still littered with management jargon. But don’t be put off. This superb free program deserves a place on everyone’s PC. It lets you share a live, secure video stream of your screen with someone anywhere in the world. You see their screen and they see yours, and you can chat and share files while you’re at it. This means you can talk a friend through a PC problem without having to visit their house (or let them visit yours). You can invite family to view your latest photos while they’re on the other side of the world, and even give friends a tour of…

Find out what other products we liked. Buy our new 2015 Back Issue CD: £15 fromwww.snipca.com/21619 LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX305CA £650 from www.snipca.com/22321 Tested: Issue 475 This metal-cased ‘ultrabook’ looks much more expensive than it is. There’s no touchscreen or 36-degree hinge, just great quality all round and an ultra-sharp display. The M3 processor is adequate for most tasks, though not gaming. ALTERNATIVE Dell Inspiron 15 5000 If you need a full-size Windows 10 laptop with a DVD drive and a desktop PC-level i5 processor, this is a solid choice. £525 from www.snipca.com/21650 ANDROID TABLET Samsung Galaxy S2 9.7 £450 from www.snipca.com/21678 Tested: Issue 462 The Sony Xperia Z4 is too expensive and Google’s cheaper Nexus 9 has been discontinued, leaving the 32GB S2 9.7 as the best mid-sized choice.…

Email us your tips: letters@computeractive.co.uk TIP OF THE FOR TNIGHT Protect sensitive files with a password After reading Issue 489’s Best Free Software I installed the free PC-optimisation program Synei System Utilities 4.0 (www.snipca.com/22217). After trying it out for a few days, I discovered several useful tools that you probably didn’t have space to cover. My favourite is the option to password-protect sensitive files and folders. I use a Windows 7 PC and have a document containing all my bank-account details and account passwords, which I’ve always wanted to secure. Synei System Utilities proved to be the ideal solution. Click the Toolbox tab, then click Protect File/Folders at the bottom (see screenshot). You’ll now be prompted to enter and confirm a password, then enter a password hint. After doing this,…

AGES 0-5 Rainbow Slides: Care Bears £2.29 www.snipca.com/22855 (iOS) This is a simplified version of the classic snakes and ladders game that the whole family can play. Choose the bear you want, then tap the spinning wheel at the top right to determine your next move and advance up the grid. The first to the top wins. AGES 6-10 1010!* Free www.snipca.com/22856 (Android) Free www.snipca.com/22857 (iOS) In this Tetris-like puzzle game your child needs to build horizontal or vertical lines using blocks that appear at the bottom. The game ends when they can’t place a block within the grid. You can also compete in multiplayer mode. AGES 11-16 Super Mario Run* Free www.snipca.com/22858 (iOS) This classic Nintendo game is now available to play on your device. Timing is crucial as…

Search by date Searching on Google is generally straightforward, but there are ways to filter the search engine if you want more precise results. For example, Google delivers results that it thinks are most relevant, but they can often date from some time ago and therefore be no longer useful. If you want results from just the current year, or you’re searching for a particular article and know roughly when it was published, you can filter the search results accordingly. As an example, search for Windows 10 in Google. Once you see the results, click ‘Search tools’ at the top, then the ‘Any time’ dropdown menu and select ‘Custom range’ (see screenshot below left). In the pop-up box enter a start and end date and Google will only display results…

IObit Uninstaller Pro Format: Windows XP to 10 Website: www.snipca.com/22843 Price: £19 Free trial period: N/A They say a tidy home means a tidy mind, but could the clutter on a computer’s hard drive say just as much about a person’s psyche? Well, I hope not, because having taken a good look at the state of my own hard drive, I found it bloated with programs and apps that I barely remember downloading – never mind plan to use again. Suitably chastened, I began clearing out those programs that are surplus to my needs. Uninstalling multiple programs at a time is a clunky process using Windows alone, which is why I’d always recommend using IObit Uninstaller to speed up the process. This time I decided to go one better by…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: Auslogics Browser Care ‘Download Now! No adware, no spyware, no toolbars’ proclaims the Auslogics Browser Care web page (www.snipca.com/22902). It forgets to add ‘Just a browser-hijacking search engine, upgrade pop-up, unwanted Auslogics program and hidden registry junk’. Browser Care claims to clean browser plug-ins, extensions and junk data from your PC for free. We showed you how in a Workshop in Issue 474. But soon after, it began stuffing its own installer with rubbish – including files and folders that blighted my computer weeks after I thought I’d cleared them. Its new version 4.1 carries more PUPs than ever. Browser Care despair When I tested Browser Care in the summer, a couple of months after our Workshop, it installed a PUP called BoostSpeed. I removed…

Should Amazon take back inherently faulty goods? Q In May 2015, I bought a £137.99 Snooper DVR-3HD dashboard camera for my car from Amazon. It stopped charging after 15 months, but Snooper no longer supports this model so can’t repair it. Can I make a claim with Amazon? Gavin Read A Yes, Gavin can make a claim with Amazon because as the retailer it has a contract with him under the Sale of Goods Act. Because the camera can’t be repaired Amazon must offer a replacement. This can be a refurbished model, but must still be fit for purpose. If Amazon can’t do this Gavin is entitled to a refund, but Amazon can take some money off for the length of time Gavin has used the camera. For 15 months’…

New products tested by our experts Imagine you really fancy a curry, but the local Chinese restaurant has a special offer and you can get a whole banquet for the price of your usual balti. Do you stick with what you know you wanted, or let yourself be swayed? Don’t worry, this is still Computeractive, we haven’t morphed into Takeaway Weekly. PCs, you see, can be a bit like dinners. In our office, we tend to favour desktop PCs that devote more of their budget to the central processor (CPU) rather than the graphics card, so that we get our money’s worth in all-round performance, and we can do a little 3D gaming and advanced graphics tasks if and when we need it. That’s our regular chicken tikka masala, if…

Win 1 of 3 Kitvision’s Edge HD10 Action Camera Built for the adventurer who wants to take photos and videos anywhere, the Kitvision Edge HD10 Action Camera captures what you do in 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second. It records in incredible detail, thanks to the 170-degree ultra-wide angle lens and the 4x digital zoom. Once secure inside the waterproof case it can survive depths of 100 metres, making it ideal for scuba diving. To enter, email cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘edge’ in the subject line by midnight 17 January. You can buy Kitvision’s Edge HD10 Action Camera from Amazon for £149.99: www.snipca.com/22679. For more information on Kitvision products visit http://kitvision.co.uk and follow @KitvisionUK on Twitter.…

ANDROID & iOS Download Netflix movies and TV shows to watch offline In Issue 491 (see News page 8), we reported on Netflix’s new feature that lets subscribers download films and TV shows to watch offline. It’s limited to a certain number of titles, but there are still plenty to choose from. The fastest way to find content you can download is by opening the Netflix app (Android www.snipca.com/22847; iOS www.snipca.com/22848), tapping the three lines at the top left, then My Downloads. Next, tap Find Something To Download. You’ll see a list of all available titles, which include award-winning Netflix originals like The Crown and House of Cards; ITV shows like Cilla and Benidorm and Channel 4’s This is England ’90; as well as over 50 movies. To download an…

WINDOWS 10 Edit photos quickly Microsoft has updated Windows 10’s default Photos app, making it easier to edit your photos quickly. Open the app, click to select the photo you want, then click Edit at the top right. In the right-hand panel, you’ll see a button to ‘Crop and rotate’ your photo (see screenshot below). The Enhance and Adjust tabs now give you more nuanced editing controls. Select the tab you want, then move the sliders below the respective options (Enhance, Colour, Warmth, etc) to instantly see the changes applied to your photo. At the bottom you’ll see options to undo your edits, save the file, save a copy of it, or share the file using compatible apps (such as email and messaging). WINDOWS XP, VISTA, 7, 8, 10 De-select…

What is it? Microsoft’s grand vision to turn your Windows computer into your home’s control centre, letting you perform actions – such as playing your favourite music and turning lights on and off – just by talking to it. It’s the company’s answer to the ‘home automation’ craze that is sweeping technology companies. See that bandwagon over there? Microsoft wants to jump on it. How does it work? Differently to other products. Amazon’s Echo (pictured below) is a cylindrical speaker with no screen (we called it a “talking can” in our review, Issue 487). Google Home is slightly smaller, but again has no screen. Both are devices that are intended to sit on your coffee table or mantlepiece, awaiting your commands. But Home Hub (unrelated to BT’s Home Hub router)…

We aren’t ones to look a gift horse in the mouth here at Computeractive, so whenever previously paidfor software becomes free, we’re usually chomping at the bit. And 2016 was a generous year in terms of programs losing their price tag (see our box opposite). The trend began in January with WhatsApp waiving its annual subscription, and continued all year. LastPass made some of its features free in November. So which programs, apps and services are likely to follow suit in 2017, and what is likely to happen with Windows 10? Will it remain at its current price or will Microsoft make it free again? Read on for our predictions. We’ll revisit them this time next year to see how many we got right. Dropbox Pro Dropbox was once the…

Fix insecure connection error message If when trying to open a website in Firefox you see a ‘Your connection is not secure’ error message, it means the website’s security certificate is not recognised by Firefox and therefore not trusted. You should take the warning seriously because the website may contain malware. If you think the site is safe, you can check using Qualys’ website test page: www.ssllabs.com/ssltest. If you get the all-clear, you can force Firefox to load the website. Click Advanced and you’ll see one of two options: to load the site using Outdated Security or to ‘Add Exception’ (see screenshot below). Click the option you see and Firefox will now load the website. Fix recurring ‘Your connection is not secure’ error Even having carried out the previous fix,…

Fake freebies They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but I know that can’t be true because just before Christmas, coincidentally at around lunchtime, I was passing my local Pizza Express. There, in the window, I saw a poster offering ‘Free Snowball Dough Balls’. All I had to do was head inside, holler “Free Snowball Dough Balls” to a staff member and I’d walk out with free Snowball Dough Balls. And do you know what? It worked! The only catch was that the event was being staged for charity, so the waiter suggested I throw a few coppers into his collection bucket. Admittedly, the grump inside my head began to say: “Well, charity begins at home, so...” but then the Christmas spirit got the better of me…