Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023 51 REPLACE THESE CLASSIC WINDOWS TOOLS 1 Snipping Tool In what’s been dubbed the ‘aCropalypse’, a security flaw was recently discovered in Windows 11’s Snipping Tool and ‘Snip & Sketch’ in Windows 10 that allows other people to see parts of a screenshot that you’ve cropped out. As we reported in Issue 655 (page 6), in a worst-case scenario the bug could enable someone to see sensitive information you thought you’d removed from an image, such as bank-account details. Microsoft has issued an emergency patch to fix the vulnerability, which it described as ‘Low severity’ because “successful exploitation requires uncommon user interaction and several factors outside of an attacker’s control” (www.snipca.com/45645). However, the flaw may still make you think twice about using Snipping Tool or ‘Snip & Sketch’ to capture and edit screenshots, especially when superior free tools are available. What to use instead ShareX www.snipca.com/45646 ShareX is an excellent free, open-source screen-capture tool that does everything Snipping Tool can – including recording videos – and much more besides. Although its interface looks a little confusing at first, dig into the program’s menus and you’ll find a host of useful options for capturing, annotating and sharing screenshots. You can choose to capture specific windows, areas or your entire screen; blur and pixelate sensitive information or delete it using ShareX’s Smart Eraser tool; automatically upload screenshots to online-storage services including Google Drive, OneDrive and Google Photos; and save image and video content in a range of formats including PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF and MP4. ShareX lets you take screenshots using the hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts) of your choice, and specify which action it performs after capturing grabs, such as copying the result to your clipboard (see screenshot below left), opening it in an image editor or using OCR to extract text. Annotation options include drawing on screenshots with lines, shapes and arrows; adding text, step numbers and speech bubbles; and highlighting important elements in different colours. ShareX’s versatility puts Snipping Tool and ‘Snip & Sketch’ to shame, but for a simpler alternative consider Greenshot (www.snipca.com/45580) instead. This free program has a handy Obfuscate option for concealing private data, but it hasn’t been updated since 2017. 2 File Explorer When Microsoft updated File Explorer last year to give it a long-awaited tabbed interface, we thought it was finally giving this essential system tool the attention it deserved. However, the change only applied to File Explorer in Windows 11 – as will upcoming improvements including a new Home button and Gallery view, and less-welcome additions such as ‘recommended content’ – so Windows 10 users don’t get the benefit. Although Windows 11 users can now open folders in tabs to easily switch between them, File Explorer is still pretty basic. By removing the ribbon toolbar, Microsoft was clearly trying to make the tool easier to use, but it actually achieved the opposite effect, forcing you to hunt for options that were once just a click away. What to use instead Files www.snipca.com/45585 Files is the file manager that Files Explorer could be if Microsoft made more effort. This fantastic free program packs lots of useful features into an attractive interface that makes working with multiple files and folders as simple as possible. As well as opening folders in new tabs, you can switch between grid, column and tile layouts – or choose Adaptive to adjust the layout to suit the type of files you’re viewing. You can sort items by name, size, type, date modified and date created; and easily select multiple files by ticking the boxes in their top-left corners, rather than holding down Ctrl. Files also lets you organise items by labelling them with coloured tags, so for example you can mark documents that need attention as orange and completed files as green. Click the Settings cog in the top-right corner of the program window to access further options. These include a dark mode to reduce eye strain at night, a choice of tinted backgrounds and a ‘Calculate folder sizes’ setting that shows you the size of a folder when you hover your cursor over its icon. You can also see how much space is used and available on a partition or drive (see screenshot above). To set Files as your default file manager instead of File Explorer, click Advanced in the Settings window and switch on ‘Set Files as the default file manager’. Note that this feature is still ‘experimental’. Make sure you click the ‘classic installer’ link to download Files for free, because if you get the app from the Microsoft Store it will cost you £8. 3 Windows Search The search tool built into the taskbar in Windows 10 and 11 is notoriously poor, especially at finding documents, photos and other files stored on your hard drive. It’s slow, inaccurate and often yields no results for your search queries, even when you know that matches exist. Switching on Enhanced indexing in the Settings app can help speed up searches, but it also takes time and system resources to compile and update the index. Specify what ShareX does after capturing screenshots, such as copying them to your clipboard Files makes it easy to manage multiple files, folders and drives, and see available space STOP USING WINDOWS TOOLS
52 PowerToys Run finds files, launches programs, converts units of measurement and much more Rather than improve the desktop search facility In Windows 11, Microsoft has instead focused on adding web-search options that use its search engine Bing, and recently integrated its new AI-powered Bing Chat tool. Although these additions save you having to open your browser to get online information, they’re not much use for searching your PC. Windows Search is good at locating Windows tools and settings, but as a file finder it leaves a lot to be desired. What to use instead Everything www.snipca.com/45586 Everything is the search tool that Windows badly needs – it’s fast, accurate and easy to use, and concentrates on local searches rather than unnecessary web ones. It quickly indexes all the files and folders on your hard drive so you can find documents, photos and other items simply by typing part of their names into its search box. Results appear almost instantly and can be sorted by file type, size, date created and modified, and other attributes by clicking the View menu and choosing ‘Sort by’ (see screenshot below). You can also choose to view thumbnail previews of each item and create your own search filters for more precise searches. To add an Everything search box to the Windows taskbar, install EverythingToolbar (www.snipca.com/45587) open its Preferences and choose ‘Replace start menu search box’. Alternatively, just click the magnifying-glass icon to launch Everything. To optimise its performance, Everything doesn’t index the text within files, but if you want to search file contents as well, we recommend the portable version of DocFetcher (www. snipca.com/45588). This indexes Office file formats including DOCX, XLS and RTF, as well as PDF, EPUB and HTML files, and the metadata of MP3 and JPEG files. It takes a while to create its initial indexes, but you can speed things up by limiting its searches to specific drives or folders. 4 Windows Run The Run command, which you launch by pressing Windows key+R or rightclicking the Start button and choosing Run, has been around since Windows 95 and is definitely showing its age. It offers a simple way to open programs, system tools, websites and folders, but it’s very basic and slow, and hasn’t significantly changed since it was introduced. There’s a sense that Microsoft only keeps the tool in Windows because long-time Run users would be outraged if it was removed, so the company instead keeps it effectively tucked away. What to use instead PowerToys Run The best free alternative to Run comes from Microsoft itself in the form of PowerToys Run. This is available as part of the superb PowerToys system-utility suite (www. snipca.com/45597), and – once enabled – can be launched by pressing Alt+Space or by clicking the PowerToys icon in your system tray and selecting its shortcut. It serves as both a speedy search tool for finding files, folders, browser bookmarks and more; and a launcher for opening programs, settings and registry keys. However, it’s the optional plug-ins that make PowerToys Run really useful. These are enabled through its Settings page and include options to perform mathematical calculations; convert units of measurement (see screenshot above); check the time in different countries; restart and shut down your PC, and lots more. You simply type an activation command, such as %% for unit conversions, followed by your query and PowerToys Run will give you an instant answer. See www.snipca. com/45598 for more details. For a more lightweight solution, which doesn’t require downloading a whole suite of tools, we recommend Listary (www.listary.com). This free tool also combines file-search and programlaunching options, and lets you create custom commands, though some features are limited to a paid-for Pro version that costs $19.95 (£16). 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656 Everything offers a much faster way to find files than the Windows search tool
STOP USING WINDOWS TOOLS Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023 53 5 Task Manager One of the most baffling decisions Microsoft made in Windows 11 was to remove the option to launch Task Manager directly from the taskbar, which suggested it no longer thought the tool was important. Thankfully, this was rectified with the 22H2 update last year and Task Manager was also redesigned with some new features, including a search box for finding specific processes, a dark mode and an ‘Efficiency mode’ that prevents programs from hogging system resources. Sadly, Windows 10 users haven’t received any of these improvements and while Windows 11’s Task Manager looks smarter and offers more options than before, it still doesn’t provide much information about individual processes. What to use instead Process Explorer www.snipca.com/45601 Process Explorer is Microsoft’s alternative Task Manager for power users, which provides a wealth of useful options for managing and viewing information about PC processes. It colour-codes processes so you can see which are essential system services, third-party tools and new items, and which recently added a dark mode – click Options, then Theme to activate this. Right-clicking a process lets you free up memory and CPU power, and you can drag the crosshairs icon from the toolbar to a locked file to find out which process is locking it. Process Explorer also lets you check if an unknown process is suspicious by using the malware-analysis service VirusTotal. Open the Options menu and select ‘Check VirusTotal.com’ to add a new VirusTotal column to the program (see screenshot below) that shows you how many antivirus engines detect the process as malicious. You can set Process Explorer as your default Windows task manager by clicking Options, Replace Task Manager, then choosing Yes to confirm. It will then open when you press Ctrl+Shift+Esc or right-click the taskbar and choose Task Manager. 6 Registry Editor Considering how integral the registry is to Windows – providing a massive database of configuration settings for your hardware, software, preferences, profiles and more – it’s surprising that Microsoft has never made the Registry Editor easier to use. Presumably this is to deter less tech-savvy people from tweaking settings that mess up their PCs, but for those of us who like to customise Windows by editing registry keys, it’s a shame that ‘regedit’ remains as fiddly and slow as ever. What to use instead O&O RegEditor www.snipca.com/45603 O&O RegEditor offers a simpler and faster way to browse and edit the registry than Registry Editor. It has the same ‘tree branch’ structure, but offers lots of extra features. Options include the ability to copy, paste, import and export registry keys; save frequently used keys as ‘favourites’; and a speedy search tool that helps you find, edit and delete keys and values without needing to open lots of branches first. O&O RegEditor is portable, so doesn’t require installation, but you can set it as your default registry editor by clicking its File menu and choosing ‘Always open’ next to ‘.REG files’ (see screenshot above). 7 Disk Cleanup Microsoft has been threatening to remove its Disk Cleanup tool since 2018, in favour of the Storage Sense feature in Windows 10 and 11. However, it’s still available in the latest versions of both operating systems – possibly because many users prefer removing junk with the old clean-up tool to configuring Storage Sense’s settings. Fortunately, Microsoft now offers a new way to clean up and speed up your PC that combines the best options from both methods. What to use instead Microsoft PC Manager www.snipca.com/45604 Although PC Manager is still in beta, it provides a fast and effective way to remove junk files and space hogs from your PC. Click the Cleanup tab, choose ‘Health check’ and the tool will quickly detect unnecessary items on your hard drive, including temporary files and cached data. Click ‘Proceed’ to delete these junk files, then choose ‘Storage management’ and select ‘Deep cleanup’ (see screenshot below). This performs a more thorough scan for files that can be removed to free up space, including old Windows updates and Microsoft Defender logs. You can also delete large files that are eating into storage, and automatically clean up junk files – though this option still relies on Storage Sense. Process Explorer uses VirusTotal to reveal whether active processes on your PC are potentially dangerous O&O RegEditor makes browsing and searching the Windows registry straightforward Microsoft’s new PC Manager is far better than its classic but outdated Disk Cleanup tool
54 00 – 00 Month 2023 • Issue xxx Buy Windows 11 Pro for just £79.99! READER OFFER! JUST SO YOU KNOW… This offer can be used by one person only, and expires at midnight on 9 May, 2023. It’s a lifetime licence for one computer. ADD A DISC FOR £5.95 In this special offer you can buy Windows 11 Pro for just £79.99 – that’s £140 cheaper than Microsoft’s full price of £219.99. To buy Windows 11 Pro, visit www.snipca.com/41588 and click the red Buy Now button on the right. Open-Shell restores the Windows Start menu to its traditional location and appearance 8 Start No Windows feature has suffered more from Microsoft’s meddling than the Start menu. Scrapped in Windows 8 (then restored in 8.1), bloated with ‘live tiles’ in Windows 10, then relocated and ‘reimagined’ in Windows 11 – and soon to display adverts in the form of ‘notifications’ (www.snipca.com/45605). It’s a tool we’d gladly stop using, if it weren’t so important. Because the Start menu is your main means of accessing programs and turning off and restarting your PC, it would be unwise to remove it even if that were possible, so instead it’s better to find a replacement. What to use instead Open-Shell www.snipca.com/45606 Unlike most Start-menu alternatives, Open-Shell is completely free to use. In Windows 10, it automatically changes your Start menu to a classic, compact list that gives you easy access to your programs, recent items, Windows settings, shutdown options and more. Right-click the Start button and choose Settings to apply different skins (themes), such as Metallic, Midnight and Windows Aero, and different Start-menu styles, including the old Windows 7 layout. In Windows 11, because Microsoft has placed the Weather widget where the Start button used to be, you need to open Open-Shell’s Menu Settings first. On the Start Menu Style tab, select ‘Replace Start button’ (see screenshot) and choose your preferred button design, before you customise the menu’s appearance. You can then launch your new menu by clicking OpenShell’s Start button or press the Windows key to open the Windows 11 Start menu. To hide the Weather widget, right-click the taskbar, choose ‘Taskbar settings’ and switch off Widgets. You can get a traditional Start menu and taskbar in Windows 11 by installing StartAllBack (www.startallback.com). This program moves taskbar icons to the left of your screen, so the Start button appears in its familiar position, and applies a Windows 7-style layout to your Start menu, including a search box. If you prefer, you can choose its ‘Proper 11’ theme to retain Windows 11’s rounded corners and colour scheme. StartAllBack costs £4.99, but this is a one-off purchase – there’s also a Windows 10 version called StartIsBack (www.startisback.com).
STOP USING WINDOWS TOOLS 55 STOP USING PREINSTALLED WINDOWS APPS 9 Paint Many Windows users are very fond of Paint, as Microsoft discovered in 2019 when it faced a backlash for planning to remove the graphics program from Windows 10. It changed its mind and also made Paint available as a Microsoft Store app. An updated version is available in Windows 11, while its successor – the less popular Paint 3D – is still installed on many PCs. Although it’s handy to have a simple tool to hand for basic image edits and artistic doodles, there are better free options than Paint, albeit without the accompanying sense of nostalgia. Even the Windows 11 app only has a tiny set of tools, and its brushes and shapes are geared more towards touchscreens than mouse work. What to use instead Paint.NET www.snipca.com/45617 As Paint.NET was conceived as an advanced replacement for Paint, it’s the most obvious free alternative, and version 5 of the program – released in January – makes it too good to ignore. This major update switches to using your PC’s graphic processor to make the software faster, and adds a host of effects and adjustments that previously required you to install plug-ins. These include a Bokeh effect that lets you blur the background of photos while keeping the subject in focus. Paint.NET has also added ‘pressure sensitivity’, which lets you draw with natural-looking brush strokes using a stylus pen or graphics tablet. It’s a much more sophisticated program than Paint, but it’s still simpler than the likes of Photoshop and GIMP, especially when working with Layers (see screenshot below left), which let you ‘paint’ complex images by stacking multiple elements. Make sure you download the desktop program rather than the Microsoft Store app, as the latter costs £8.39. 10 Microsoft Photos Like Paint, the Photos app in Windows is great for simple tasks such as viewing, organising and performing basic edits to your pictures, and also offers filters and adjustments, including red-eye removal. In Windows 10, it includes a video editor, which lets you turn your photos into short films, complete with captions, music and 3D effects. This feature has been dropped in Windows 11, with video-editing moved to Microsoft’s Clipchamp app and more emphasis now placed on viewing images. Sadly, both versions are slow and use a lot of resources, and though some users may find the integration with OneDrive useful, it’s also rather pushy on Microsoft’s part. What to use instead IrfanView www.snipca.com/45618 For a lightweight image viewer that also offers lots of editing options, it’s hard to beat IrfanView. This versatile free program is speedy to use, lets you convert and rename large batches of photos in one go and – unlike Photos – presents all its tools in logically organised menus so they’re only ever a couple of clicks away. Options include colour correction, frames, red-eye reduction, watermark and effects such as Blur, Oil Paint, Sepia (see screenshot above right) and Insert Speech Bubbles. Many more are available by installing the Plugins pack from www.snipca.com/44509. You can also run IrfanView from a USB stick to edit your photos wherever you go. For an even simpler solution in a more Photos-like interface, we like the new Icecream Photo Editor (www.snipca. com/45546) – see our Workshop, page 38. 11 Media Player After burying Windows Media Player (WMP) in Windows 10 (it’s no longer listed in the Start menu, but is still installed if you search for it), Microsoft has now revived it in Windows 11 to replace the little-loved Groove Music app. However, the new app is nothing to get excited about. Although its interface looks clean and modern, it lacks most of the features that made the old WMP appealing, such as skins and visualisations, and is slow to import audio and video files. The only interesting new feature is the ability to play and rip audio CDs, which the Windows 7-era Media Player did anyway. What to use instead SMPlayer www.snipca.com/45621 VLC Media Player is the most popular free alternative to Windows Media Player, but SMPlayer is just as powerful and uses fewer system resources than either of those programs. It can play virtually all video and audio formats, including CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, without needing any extra codecs, and can also stream content over the internet. SMPlayer includes an equaliser and audio filters, so you can get the sound of your media playback just right; options for adjusting the playback speed, importing subtitles and grabbing Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023 Paint.NET is a free sophisticated, feature-packed alternative to Paint that uses Layers to stack multiple elements IrfanView offers a speedy way to view and edit your photos and includes effects such as Sepia
56 screenshots from films; and the ability to bookmark long files so you can jump straight to specific moments. It can also be customised with a choice of attractive skins. Best of all, SMPlayer offers a YouTube browser that lets you watch videos on the service without opening your browser. Download and install the SMTube plug-in (www.smtube.org), then click View and select ‘YouTube browser’ (see screenshot right) to search for a video. Click ‘Proceed’ to link the program with YouTube, and play the selected clip. 12 Notepad There’s nothing really wrong with Notepad, the simple text editor that first appeared in MS-DOS in 1983 and has been in every version of Windows since. Indeed, it’s one of the rare examples of Microsoft adopting an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach. Even the Windows 11 redesign has improved rather than ruined the app by adding a new dark mode, multi-step Undo function and tabbed browsing, as well as combining the View and Format menus. However, envious Windows 10 users – and Windows 11 users seeking more options – should consider the following alternative. What to use instead Notepad++ www.snipca.com/45620 Notepad++ has long offered tabbed browsing and a dark mode, along with dozens of other useful features. It’s primarily aimed at programmers, and its interface initially looks intimidating, but you’ll soon find it a much more flexible way to take notes than traditional Notepad. For example, the left-hand sidebar numbers each line of text and lets you mark the most important lines with a small blue circle. This allows you to delete unnecessary content by rightclicking the sidebar and choosing Remove NonBookmarked Lines. You can look up words online by highlighting them, right-clicking and selecting ‘Search on Internet’ (see screenshot below); autocomplete commonly used words and phrases by switching on Auto-completion in the Edit menu; automate tasks by creating macros; find and replace words across multiple documents; and add even more features by installing plug-ins. To make Notepad++ look simpler, you can hide its toolbar. Click the Settings menu, choose Preferences then General and tick Hide in the Toolbar section. 13 Mail The built-in Mail app in Windows 10 and 11 suffers from being both basic and bloated, which means you have to wait for it to load but then can’t do much with it. For example, there’s no option to create rules to filter messages into specific folders; you can’t send emails in plain text; and clicking ‘Switch to calendar’ opens the separate Calendar app, which is also slow to load. It’s no wonder Microsoft is now encouraging Windows users to try its new Outlook app, which will be free to use when it launches soon, unlike the previous Microsoft 365 version - rather than stick with Mail. What to use instead Thunderbird www.snipca.com/45622 Since it was redesigned last year, Thunderbird has been our favourite free email client, combining the simplicity of a webmail service with the features of a desktop program. You can import your messages and contacts from Gmail, Outlook and other providers; switch between multiple emails using tabbed browsing; and find messages easily by typing words into the Quick Filter search box (see screenshot above). As well as offering reliable junk-mail filters, Thunderbird protects you against phishing scams and blocks hidden trackers in emails. It lets you send large files faster by sharing them through your preferred online storage service and customise how it looks and works by adjusting its layout, applying themes and installing hundreds of add-ons. Unlike the Windows Mail app, Thunderbird’s calendar is fully integrated with the program and it’s constantly being updated with new features. Also, in contrast to Microsoft’s new Outlook app, it doesn’t display ads in your inbox – or anywhere else. 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656 SMPlayer supports nearly all media formats and lets you browse and watch YouTube videos Notepad++ includes everything you get in Notepad and dozens of other useful features Thunderbird makes it easier to search your inbox than the Windows Mail app
STOP USING WINDOWS TOOLS 57 NEXT ISSUE Subscribe to Computeractive at www.getcomputeractive.co.uk PLUS ON SALE Weds 10 May On sale Wednesday 10 May HOW TO BE 100% INVISIBLE ONLINE Some Windows tools can’t be removed through the ‘Apps & features’ or ‘Installed apps’ section of the Settings app or the ‘Uninstall a program’ list in the Control Panel. Instead, you need to uninstall them via the Optional Features screen. To access this, open the Settings app, select Apps then ‘Apps & features’ (in Windows 10 only) and click the ‘Optional features’ link. Here you’ll see entries DITCH THESE WINDOWS SYSTEM TOOLS 14 Device Manager Device Manager is an important Windows tool that’s hampered by being tucked away and by its old-fashioned tree-branch structure – it looks exactly the same in Windows 11 as it did in Windows 98. If only there was a faster way to access information about the devices connected to your PC. What to use instead DevManView www.snipca.com/45624 DevManView from the prolific developer NirSoft shows Microsoft how it’s done, by listing all your connected hardware in a flat list instead of a tree view. Doubleclick a device to view information including the date and time it was installed and last used. Right-click it for useful options such as disabling, enabling and uninstalling the device; navigating to the relevant registry key; and performing a Google search for its name (see screenshot below). Provided you run DevManView as an administrator, you can also check the device lists of other computers on your network. 15 System Information Boring but useful, the System Information tool provides details of your hardware configuration and components in the driest manner imaginable – long lists that take a few Uninstall built-in Windows tools seconds to load. It helps you discover the correct parts for upgrading your PC, assuming you don’t fall asleep while browsing it. What to use instead CPU-Z www.snipca.com/45642 CPU-Z scans your PC and installed hardware to generate a detailed report about everything from your processor type to the speed of your internal clock. You can explore this data more easily than in System Information by clicking tabs such as CPU, Mainboard and Graphics, and save the report as a text file. It also lets you ‘validate’ your system’s specifications to compare them with other users. If CPU-Z seems too complicated, try O&O DeskInfo – see page 19. 16 Disk Management The Disk Management tool in Windows, which you access by right-clicking the Start button, allows you to create, format and manage drive partitions without needing to install dedicated partitioning software. But if you’ve ever tried using this basic, slow and far-from-intuitive tool, you’ll understand why so many third-party programs are available. What to use instead IM-Magic Partition Resizer www.snipca.com/45634 Putting a friendlier face on partitioning, IM-Magic Partition Resizer provides step-by-step instructions for tasks such as resizing, formatting and copying partitions, changing drive letters, converting NTFS to FAT32, and more. Like other free partitioning tools, some features are limited to its paid-for version, but it doesn’t nag you to upgrade – though there is an annoying ‘follow us on Facebook’ icon. It also lets you migrate your operating system to a different, empty drive (see screenshot above). Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023 for apps we’ve covered in this feature, including Paint, Notepad and Windows Media Player, as well as obscure tools such as ‘Windows Fax and Scan’, Steps Recorder and WordPad. Select an unwanted item and click the Uninstall button to remove it. If you later change your mind, click ‘Add a feature’, tick the box next to the removed tool and click Install. DevManView lets you carry out Google searches of your PC’s components IM-Magic Partition Resizer lets you migrate your current operating sytem to a different drive • GET FREE MOBILE DATA Clever tricks to unlock deals • FIX BROKEN USB STICKS And recover lost files Best NEW ways to stay anonymous on the internet
60 YOUR TV’S SOUND Modern TVs are thinner than ever, leaving less room for speakers and making speech hard to hear. Daniel Booth explains how to amplify dialogue using devices and settings Change your TV’s settings We’ll start with the cheapest way to improve your TV’s audio: tweak its settings. Grab your remote control, then open the Settings menu to see which adjustments you can make. You may find that your TV’s default setting is ‘movie’ mode, which is ideal for explosions and car chases, but not for mumbled dialogue. To change this, look for a setting called ‘Clear voice’ or something similar. This mode accentuates speech, making it more prominent against background sounds. Many LG TVs have this option, as do TVs from Samsung and Sony. Some TVs also have settings for customising the audio to suit the room. On LG TVs, for example, select One Touch Sound Tuning (pictured below), then Start New Sound Tuning. Sit where you normally would when watching TV, then point your remote control at the TV so it can use the remote’s microphone to work out the layout of your room. LG says this works best in small rooms where low frequencies have the effect of “masking, blurring and smothering” other sounds (see www. snipca.com/45666). Another setting to look for is dynamic range. Programme makers use this to widen the audio range between loud noises (gun fire, for instance) and quieter sounds (speech), aiming for a more dramatic effect overall. You can lessen these extremes by choosing a narrow or ‘compressed’ option in the dynamic range settings, assuming your TV has these. Finding this setting will depend on your make of TV, but they shouldn’t vary too much from Dolby’s instructions at www.snipca. com/45681. Buy a soundbar to make speech clearer Soundbars connect with your TV to provide superior speakers to those built into the set. They typically sit in front of your TV, though you can mount them on a wall. For emphasising speech, consider the specialist soundbars made by US company ZVOX. Founded in 2003, it developed features such as AccuVoice to address a “growing crisis of incomprehensible TV dialogue”. AccuVoice is built into our favourite ZVOX soundbar – the AV157 (pictured above). Released in 2020 and priced £160 (www.snipca.com/45669), it’s 17 inches wide and has 12 levels of ‘dialogue boost’: half through AccuVoice, half through the more powerful SuperVoice, which reduces non-spoken background sounds. These features make it feel more like a hearing aid you can attach to your TV than a device for amplifying all sound. It has two inputs – Toslink optical and 3.5mm analogue – and one 3.5mm analogue output to connect either headphones or a subwoofer speaker. Threaded inserts on the back make it easy to mount it under a screen or on a wall (you’ll need to buy the mount separately). Setting it up is easy also, as shown on ZVOX’s YouTube channel: www.snipca. com/45674. BOOST Select ‘One Touch Sound Tuning’ to make your LG TV customise the audio for your room 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656 ZVOX’s AV157 uses AccuVoice to make speech more distinct from background noise
61 Customise TV subtitles to suit your eyes Buy RF TV headphones The RF above refers to ‘Radio Frequency’, which some devices use as an alternative to Bluetooth for connecting to TVs. It operates through a base station plugged into a TV’s wired audio outputs, and has more bandwidth, which increases sound quality. But it lacks the portability and versatility of Bluetooth because you need to take the base station with you wherever you want to connect. However, as we’re dealing with sound quality here, we recommend RF headphones as a way of boosting the audibility of speech on TVs. Our best budget choice are Sony’s wireless MDR-RF811RK (pictured right), which come with an RF transmitter (not Bluetooth) that plugs into the mains, and a small jack to plug into a TV’s audio output. They were released in 2012, so you’re not getting the latest audio technology, but they have a decent battery life of around 13 hours. Most retailers sell them for £60, but we found them for £10 less on Amazon (www.snipca.com/45675). Hopefully, they’ll still be as cheap when you read this. One of the best reasons to use TV headphones is that you might be able to set a specific volume level that’s different to what other people in the room are hearing. Check whether your TV has a setting for sound through different outputs (eg, speakers and headphones). If not, and your TV has separate audio output phono sockets, you could buy a 3.5mm Stereo Jack Socket to Twin Phono RCA Plugs adapter cable, such as this £2.15 model from Kenable (www.snipca. com/45689). It lets you split the volume between TV and headphones. If your budget can stretch further, try the Sennheiser RS 5200 (£200 from www.snipca.com/45677, pictured left). It also uses RF to connect to your TV, and has a TV mode for prioritising dialogue. It lasts about 12 hours on a full charge. The reason for its Y-shaped, stethoscope-like design is the eight-centimetre RF receiver and battery dangling below your neck. It looks odd and takes some getting used to, but is light enough (64 grams) to be surprisingly comfortable. Usefully, you can set separate volume levels for your left and right ears. Other people in the room will hear the volume as it’s coming directly from the TV, unaffected by the level you set. Use streaming devices and speakers It’s tricky to select a volume to suit all viewers when their hearing abilities vary greatly. One solution is for the person with the worst hearing to use a device like the Sennheiser RS 5200 (see previous tip), but you could instead try a speaker that amplifies audio frequencies of speech without increasing the overall volume. Sony’s Wireless Handy TV Speaker SRS-LSR20 (£135 from www.snipca. com/45684, pictured left) is the best choice. It has a dedicated centre speaker for voices, which is flanked by left and right stereo drivers, plus a Voice Zoom mode that makes the human voice clearer. Once charged, pair it with your TV and place it next to the person who has hearing problems. If they plug in headphones, they might be able to set an independent volume level that doesn’t affect what other people will hear (see previous tip for caveats). It weighs just 630 grams, so it’s easy to carry into other rooms that have TVs. Amazon offered an alternative option last year when it updated its Fire TV Cube (£140 from www.snipca.com/45685) to become the first streaming device to connect directly to your hearing aid. It uses a system called Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA), and works only with compatible hearing aids made by UK firm Starkey (www.starkey.co.uk), including the brand Audibel, which it owns. To use it, you have to pair your hearing aid via Bluetooth, as you would when pairing headphones. If you have any problems read Amazon’s advice at www.snipca.com/45686. As good as these devices are, you might want to also turn on subtitles to make sure you don’t miss a single word of dialogue. Most streaming services now let you customise subtitles to suit your eyes. Back in 2021 the BBC added five text sizes to iPlayer (see www.snipca.com/45687). Netflix went further earlier this year by introducing four colours to its TV app: the default white text, drop shadow (white text with black background), light (black text with white background), and contrast (yellow text with black background, pictured). Amazon Prime Video gives you similar settings – click the Subtitles button to see them – but YouTube has the most advanced options. Play a video, then select the Settings cog at the right of the player’s controls. Now click Captions, followed by ‘Caption style’ to see options to change text and background colour, as well as the font and its size. Amazon is selling Sony’s MDR-RF811RK headphones for just £50 It may look like a stethoscope, but the Sennheiser RS 5200 is a clever design that boosts dialogue Place Sony’s Wireless Handy TV Speaker near a person who has hearing difficulties Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023
62 AI tools you must use Artificial intelligence is supposed to make our lives easier, but many new AI tools are more gimmicky than useful. Robert Irvine recommends free services that are actually worth using Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly the biggest tech trend of 2023. Since the AI company OpenAI launched its ChatGPT language model last November, the web has gone AI-mad, even though plenty of machine-learning tools were already available. AI is designed to make our lives easier by performing tedious tasks for us, but while many of the latest tools are very impressive, others are gimmicky and even creepy. Here we recommend the best new AI tools you can try for free, and explain why they’re worth using. Find online information much faster The biggest new AI tool of the year (so far) is undoubtedly the Chat mode in Microsoft’s Bing search engine. It’s powered by the same GPT-4 AI language model as ChatGPT (www. snipca.com/45655) but is more focused, topical and convenient for web searches, and entirely free to use (ChatGPT has a paid-for Plus plan). You can access Bing Chat – which Microsoft calls ‘your AI copilot’ – at www.bing.com/new (provided you’re using Edge), by clicking the new Discover button in the Edge browser, through the search bar in Windows 11 and by installing the Bing or Edge app on your phone or tablet. Simply ask the chatbot a question and it will respond with information it finds online, including details of its sources. You can then ask up to 19 follow-up questions, before Bing Chat suggests you start a new topic (see screenshot below) – Microsoft recently increased the limit to 200 chats per day. Unlike ChatGPT, which has limited knowledge of events after 2021, Bing Chat provides up-to-date responses, and its conversational style – which you can switch between Creative, Precise and Balanced – makes it feel like you’re talking to a real person. It saves you having to visit several websites to get the details you need, and its information is impressively accurate. Clearly annoyed at being trumped by long-term rival Microsoft, Google has rushed out its own AI chat tool, Bard. Sign up to try this at www.snipca. com/45656 and you won’t need to wait long – we got access within two days – but you may find it underwhelming compared with Bing Chat. Its responses to your prompts are less friendly and helpful, and the option to ‘Google it’ to view related searches for your query somewhat defeats the object of chatting to an AI bot. Still, it’s early days for Bard and Google may yet up its game. Create images from text prompts Although AI-powered text-to-image generators can be gimmicky – especially if you use prompts such as ‘purple cycling unicorn’ – they also have practical purposes. Perhaps you need a copyrightfree picture of a particular subject for a project, or a unique profile image to protect your privacy on social media. These tools are very easy to use – you just enter a few words and the AI creates an illustration based on those terms. The best-known service, OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 (www.snipca.com/45657), is ‘freemium’, which means you can only create and download a limited number of images before you need to buy credits – priced from $15 (£12) for a pack of 115. You get 50 credits for free for your first month, then 15 for subsequent months – one credit generates four pictures, but you Bing Chat finds you accurate information faster than if you search for it yourself 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656
63 3 gimmicky AI tools you can do without may need to try several times to get a suitable image. To beat this restriction, try Microsoft’s new Bing Image Creator (www.snipca. com/45658). This is based on DALL-E 2, and produces the same quality text-toimage results (see screenshot above), but is free to use - as long as you’re signed into your Microsoft account. You can also access the tool from Bing Chat (see previous tip) by switching to Creative mode. Another option is Craiyon (www. craiyon.com), which similarly turns text prompts into artwork for free, provided you’re willing to wait a minute or two, and put up with ads and a watermark – if not, you can pay $5 (£4) a month to remove those restrictions. Transcribe your conversations Nobody likes the idea of someone eavesdropping on their conversations, but having an impartial AI tool transcribe your voice or video calls gives you a useful written record of what was said. One of the best options is Otter (https://otter.ai), which is primarily designed for making notes of business meetings, but also offers a free plan for personal use that lets you transcribe 300 minutes of calls every month at up to 30 minutes per conversation. The Otter app for Android (www. snipca.com/45660) or iOS (www.snipca. com/45661) transcribes VoIP calls in real time, with the AI automatically detecting individual speakers. On your PC, you can transcribe video calls on services including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet through the Otter website See Issue 655’s In The Club (page 48) for more on Otter. You can also use AI to transcribe face-to-face conversations, which is useful if you’re hard of hearing. Google’s free Live Transcribe app for Android (www.snipca.com/45662) and a paid-for app of the same name for iOS (www. snipca.com/45663) generate real-time transcriptions, so you don’t miss a word of what’s being said. Improve your writing style Grammarly (www.grammarly.com) has long used AI to detect spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, and suggest ways to improve the clarity and tone of your writing. Now, Grammarly is rolling out a new feature called GrammarlyGo (www.snipca.com/45664), which uses a ChatGPT-style AI model to generate content based on text prompts and rewrite your emails, documents and more in your preferred ‘voice’. Unusually for Grammarly, which limits many of its best options to its paid-for plan, GrammarlyGo will be available for free to users in the UK. Our favourite new AI-powered tool for improving your writing style is DeepL Write (www.snipca.com/45665). Unlike Grammarly, which offers a desktop program, mobile apps, browser extensions and more, this is currently only available through its website, but it’s completely free to use and impressively fast at rephrasing sentences (see screenshot above), correcting spelling and grammar mistakes, and making helpful suggestions. Clean up your photos Perfecting your photos using imageediting software can be tedious and time consuming, so why not let AI do the hard work for you? In our ‘Restore your old photos and videos’ feature in Issue 651 (get it from www.snipca.com/45178), we recommended the best AI-powered tools for tasks such as colourising your photos, sharpening blurry faces and cleaning up scratches. Another great option is SnapEdit’s Remove Object tool (www.snipca. com/45667), which uses AI to detect and delete unwanted people and objects from photos, and blend the background so you’d never know they were there. Unlike similar tools, it’s (currently) entirely free to use with no limit on the image size. Simply upload a picture, click the Auto AI button and SnapEdit will identify people and objects in the shot. Select what you want to delete, click Remove (see screenshot left) and download the result. SnapEdit can also remove backgrounds from photos and retouch them to fix blur, blemishes and noise, but you need to pay to download high-resolution results. DeepSwap www.deepswap.ai This site uses AI to swap your face with that of a celebrity in a photo, video or GIF. It’s undoubtedly clever and the results look great, but the novelty soon wears off and sharing your face with an online service requires a huge degree of trust. Boomy https://boomy.com Who needs musical prowess or songwriting skills when Boomy can generate tracks for you in a matter of minutes and submit them to streaming services such as Spotify? The results are impressive but it has worrying implications for ‘real’ artists. Random Face Generator www.snipca.com/45668 Created to highlight the capabilities of AI, this site generates instant photos of fake people, which you can customise by gender, age and ethnicity. It’s not only creepy but expensive too – downloading an HD portrait costs $14.95 (£12). Bing Image Creator turns your text prompts into high-quality images for free DeepL Write uses AI to rephrase sentences and detect then correct mistakes SnapEdit’s AI can remove unwanted objects, people and animals from photos Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023
64 PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT Problems Solved Our experts solve all your tech problems Will my new hardware break my Windows licence? Q I have Windows 10 Pro on my computer, upgraded from my retail copy of Windows 7 Pro. I am planning to install a new motherboard and processor into my computer. I understand that Microsoft would require that I buy a new licence, because it would see an upgraded system as a new computer. However, I seem to remember reading that as long as it’s a retail copy of Windows, there’s a way to transfer the licence. Is this correct and if so, given that I used the free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, would this still apply? Mike Youngson A We’ve noted many times in these pages that Microsoft’s software-licensing terms are complicated. As such, it’s often difficult to give unequivocal answers. Here, though, we’re confident in saying that you’ll be fine – at least if you’re sure your original Windows 7 licence was a retail version. That’s because whatever licence you had for Windows 7 was subsumed into your Windows 10 licence when you upgraded. So, a retail copy of Windows 7 would in effect become a retail copy of Windows 10. Incidentally, the same is true with a Windows 10 to 11 upgrade – so you have a Windows 11 retail copy awaiting you whenever you’re ready. You can check what kind of licence covers your copy of Windows by using the operating system’s hidden Software Licensing Management tool. You can also use this tool to ‘uninstall’ the current Windows licence, thus releasing the product key for use elsewhere – more on that a bit later. First, press Windows key+X to open the Quick Link menu and then click ‘Windows PowerShell (Admin)’. Now type slmgr /dli (see screenshot 1 ) and press Enter: the box that appears will reveal details about your copy of Windows, including whether it’s a retail or OEM (manufacturer) licence. If it’s a retail copy – as you believe – then you should be able to reactivate Windows after any hardware upgrade – even if you’re replacing everything. Indeed, you can install your copy of Windows on a brand new PC if you want. All you need to do first is to wipe the hard drive containing Windows, or release the licence. To do the latter using the Software Licensing Management tool, in a PowerShell window type slmgr /upk and press Enter. The effect is more or less immediate, so only do this when you’re ready to upgrade. Finally, if you’re installing Windows 10 afresh and have released the licence, you might find it activates automatically. If not, click Start followed by the Settings cog, and then ‘Update & Security’ followed by Activation. Next, click the Troubleshoot link 2 followed by ‘I recently changed hardware on this device’ 3 . You’ll now be asked to select your country and given a telephone number 4 to dial to manually activate Windows, along with a lengthy Installation ID. Follow the robot voice prompts to enter this and you should be good to go. If it fails, you’ll be put through to a customer-service assistant to whom you can explain your situation. 1 2 3 Use Powershell (1) to find out the details of your Windows licence. To activate Windows 10 afresh, click Troubleshoot (2), then this link (3) to receive a phone number (4) 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656 4
65 Email us your problem and we’ll try to help: [email protected] How do I install my favourite old program? Choose the installation file’s Properties (1), then Windows XP’s compatibility mode (2) Q I have used Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9 for many years, and it still does everything I want. However, it won’t install on my Windows 11 computer. Is there a way around this please? Brian Higgins A This program was discontinued by Microsoft 16 years ago – when Windows XP was still the company’s flagship operating system – so you’ve been on borrowed time for a while now. Even so, it’s often possible to get older programs to work by using the Compatibility mode tool that’s built into Windows 10 and 11. We don’t have a copy of Digital Image Pro 9, so we can’t test that this will definitely work for it. However, we can tell you what to do. First, open the program’s installation CD in File Explorer, then right-click the ‘setup.exe file’ and choose Properties (see screenshot 1 ). Next, click to select the Compatibility tab and, under ‘Compatibility mode’ tick the ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for’ box. We know this program used to run in Windows XP, so open the dropdown menu and choose ‘Windows XP (Service Pack 3)’ 2 . Now click OK. Finally, double-click the ‘setup.exe’ file to launch the installation. If you’re lucky, it’ll install and run without a problem. However, with such an old program there is no guarantee, and certainly no fixes if aspects of it do not work correctly in Windows 11. Why does my uTorrent app keep changing the order of lists? Tick this option in the right-click menu to order a column by when torrents were added Q My uTorrent app has started automatically scrolling to the bottom of the list of torrents. This makes it impossible to select a specific torrent. Any ideas on how I might correct this please? Paul Harvey A We suspect that you’ve inadvertently clicked one of the column headings. Doing so tells uTorrent to sort the list according to the selected column’s category. This can sometimes result in a torrents list that updates in real time. For example, if you accidentally click on the Down Speed or Up Speed column, uTorrent would constantly rearrange your list to reflect the current respective speeds of every torrent – so it feels like it’s impossible to focus on one or select the one you want. A quick way to fix this is by clicking the Name heading and setting it to sort alphabetically (because this should ensure the list is largely static). Alternatively, click the # (hashtag) column to sort your list by the order that torrents were added, because this should be entirely static. If you don’t see the # column, rightclick any column heading then tick # (see screenshot). Incidentally, a second click on any column heading reverses the sort order. 1 Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023 2
66 Problems Solved Buy it from www.snipca.com/44660 Q: Can I use my old Virgin box for Freeview? A: Issue 638, page 66 – find it on our 2022 Back Issue CD Right-click a folder in File Explorer then select ‘Open in new tab’ Will the copper switch-off kill my cordless phones? Q I found Issue 648’s Ditch Your Landline Cover Feature (buy a back issue from www.snipca. com/45367) very helpful. BT has been trying to persuade me to switch to its fibre-optic service, which would mean connecting my telephone to my BT router. However, I currently have a traditional telephone connected to a socket near my router, plus two cordless phones and their charging base stations connected to other sockets in different rooms. I’m not sure your article covered this situation, but am I right in thinking that if I switched to fibre, my cordless phones would no longer work? Morley Pecker A When the copper switch-off happens in 2025, anyone who wants a landline will have to go digital. A landline is not compulsory, though, so you could rely on mobile phones instead, and just get your broadband from BT or another provider. Even if you opt for a digital landline, any traditional phone extensions in your house will no longer work, because the technology they use is completely different. However, the new system has been designed to work with most traditional (analogue) phones, including cordless models. In most cases, you can either plug the phone directly into a socket on your router such as BT’s Smart Hub 2 (pictured below left), or use a little adapter to achieve the same result using an Ethernet port. A traditional cordless phone is no different. Simply plug the base station into the router socket or adapter, and your phone will work as if connected to an analogue landline. As we noted in our feature, BT in particular is offering free digital phones to subscribers who want or need one. However, it also sells what it calls a Digital Voice Adapter (pictured above), for £14.98 (www.snipca. com/45513), which to all intents and purposes does the job of an old extension socket. Just plug it into a mains socket in any room, press its button to pair it with your BT Smart Hub, then plug in a traditional phone or cordless base station. If your cordless phones are the more modern DECT variety, you’ll only need one Digital Voice Adapter, because a single device can communicate with multiple DECT handsets. For corded (or non-DECT cordless) phones, you’ll need a Digital Voice Adapter for each handset. Can I open new File Explorer tabs from the desktop? Q Windows 11’s File Explorer now has tabs, but I can’t work out how to open a request in a new tab rather than a separate window. For example, I have several folders on my desktop. Opening one launches File Explorer in the first tab of a new window, as expected. However, clicking a second desktop folder simply opens another window. I’d like to keep the first File Explorer window open but have the second folder appear in a second tab. Is that possible? Brian King A Annoyingly, File Explorer doesn’t work that way. Double-clicking a folder on the Windows desktop always opens a new File Explorer window, somewhat defeating the object of a tabbed interface. One workaround is to rightclick the folder in a File Explorer window and choose ‘Open in a new tab’ from the menu (see screenshot below), but it’s not very elegant. Tabs are a new feature in File Explorer, so we’re sure Microsoft will refine them over time. Meanwhile, you can use Windows’ built-in Feedback Hub to suggest any improvements you’d like to see. Press Windows key+F to summon it, then fill in the form to express your thoughts. Modern fibre routers such as BT’s Smart Hub 2 have a built-in socket for an analogue phone BT’s Digital Voice Adapters can connect your analogue phones to the fibre network 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656
67 Can I save iPad photos to USB storage? Select some photos from your Library, then tap ‘Save to Files’ to save them to a USB stick Q I have a 10th-generation iPad, and my 5GB of memory has almost run out. Can I free up space by downloading the photos in my cloud storage to a USB device? I have a USB adapter for my iPad. Derek Wilkinson A Yes, there are two ways to do this, but first we need to clear up a couple of things. The 5GB of memory you refer to is the less-than-generous allocation of iCloud storage Apple gives away for free to users of its computers and iOS devices. This isn’t the same as your iPad’s built-in storage, which on a 10th-gen model should be at least 64GB. However, as your iPad’s Photos app automatically uploads your photos to iCloud, that 5GB can quickly fill up. You can stop the app uploading photos automatically if you prefer. Tap ‘Settings’ followed by your name, then iCloud. Next, tap Photos, then swipe the iCloud Photos slider to its Off position. You can download your photos from iCloud to a computer or from your iPad to a connected USB stick. To download them from iCloud, go to www.icloud. com and log in using your Apple ID and password. Click ‘Photos’ followed by Library, then click to select the photos you want to download, or press Control (Ctrl)+A to select them all. Finally, click the Download icon at the top right (a cloud with a down arrow through it). To copy photos from your iPad to a USB stick, launch the Photos app, then tap Library, followed by Select. Now tap or swipe your finger over the photos you want to save. Tap the Share icon (a square with an arrow through it, near the bottom-left of the screen), then choose ‘Save to Files’ (see screenshot above). Finally, select your USB stick and tap Save, then wait for your iPad to copy the photos. Why can’t I open my old photos? Use the format-hex PowerShell command to see the contents of files as hexadecimal data Q My wife was treated for cancer over a decade ago. During this time we saved some photos and videos to DVD. Now when I try to open the files, I can access everything except 17 JPEG images. I’ve copied these files to my PC and tried various ways to open them, but without any luck. I’ve sent you a couple. Can you open them? Carl Atkinson A We wish we could help, but the image files you sent us are empty. When viewed in hex form, which is the numbering system computers use, your files appear to contain millions of zeroes Something must have gone wrong when you created the DVD. We’re afraid it’s impossible to rescue a file when none of the data has been preserved. You can see the problem for yourself by using a little-known PowerShell command called format-hex. Press Windows key+X to open the Quick Link menu, then click ‘Windows PowerShell (Admin)’. Now use the cd (‘change directory’) command to switch to the folder that contains your photos. For example, if your files are on drive D in a folder called MyPhotos, you’d type cd d:\MyPhotos and press Enter. You can view the hex code one page at a time by typing format-hex filename. jpg | more (see screenshot 1 ) then pressing Enter. Replace ‘filename’ with the name of your JPEG file. To type the vertical-line symbol in the command above, hold the Shift key and press the backslash key ‘\’ (usually to the left of Z). You’ll now see the file in hex format 2 . We’re sorry we couldn’t help you retrieve your photos, but we hope we’ve saved you further time trying to access them. Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023 1 2
68 Problems Solved Can I erase System Data from my iPhone? If you’re having trouble installing iOS updates, try using iTunes on your PC However, there are other ways you can enable your phone to install iOS updates. The easiest is to use the Offload Unused Apps feature to temporarily (and automatically) remove apps you rarely use. This releases some storage, but keeps any personal data associated with the apps intact. To do this, open Settings then tap App Store (see screenshot 1 ). Swipe to locate the Offload Unused Apps option below 2 , and tap its slider to flip it to the On position. If you still don’t have enough free space, you can use the Windows version of iTunes to install updates (www.snipca.com/45512), which eliminates the need to use your iPhone’s storage. Connect your iPhone to your PC using the USB cable, then click the iPhone icon that appears at the top of the iTunes window. Click the ‘Check for Update’ button 3 and follow the instructions. Can I block fake photo emails? Q My wife receives lots of emails from an account pretending to be mine, which ask her to click links to view photos I’ve supposedly sent. She always deletes them, but then more arrive. Can I block all emails that contain the word ‘photos’ or ‘pictures’? I am 78 and not fully computer-literate, despite being a subscriber for over 20 years David Clarke JP A Sadly, you can’t stop someone spoofing your email address, or variants of it. The example you sent shows that the perpetrators are generating email addresses containing your name mixed with random letters and numbers, so you can’t block by email address either. However, you can block by keywords. We’re not sure which email program you use, but you have a Gmail address, so we’ll explain how to do it using that. First, click the cog icon at the top right followed by ‘See all settings’. Then click the ‘Filters and blocked addresses’ tab and select ‘Create a new filter’. Type photos into the ‘Includes the words’ field, then click ‘Create filter’ (see screenshot 1 ). Next, choose what you’d like Gmail to do with filtered emails. If you’re happy never to see them, tick ‘Delete it’ 2 . Alternatively, you can set Gmail to label suspect messages so you can check them later. Tick ‘Apply the label’, then create a suitable label. To activate your filter, click the ‘Create filter’ button. You can create as many filters as you want. Use Gmail’s ‘Filters and Blocked addresses’ tab to weed out emails that contain particular words 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656 Q I can no longer install updates on my 16GB iPhone SE because I don’t have enough storage. My phone has just 1GB spare, but the latest iOS requires 1.65GB. Nearly 7GB of storage is taken up by iOS itself, while its System Data occupies another 5.59GB. Apps take up around 2.44GB. What exactly is System Data? I can’t find a clear explanation online. Is it something I can delete? I store very little media on the phone, so it’s irritating that Apple has produced a device that’s so difficult to update. Ted Sheehan A Only Apple really knows what System Data is, and because the company never explains in detail how any part of iOS works, you won’t find a clear description of it anywhere. This means there’s not a lot you can do about System Data. The operating system manages it for its own needs, according to its own schedule. 1 2 3 1 2
69 WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN... Want to know the difference between technical terms? Email noproblem@ computeractive.co.uk Next Issue Subscribe to Computeractive at www.getcomputeractive.co.uk ? ? ON SALE Weds 10 May Software versions? • Will archiving emails speed up my PC? • Will my files open in free software? • Was I sold the wrong RAM? ...And many more Q I recently used VirusTotal (www.virustotal.com) to check the URL of a download before clicking it. Most of the security services considered it Clean but one labelled it Malicious. Should I avoid it? The program is GRC’s InControl, and Avira flagged it as Malicious. Eamonn Colley A That’s a very good question. Caution is clearly the most sensible approach, and you’ve exhibited plenty of that, first by checking a download link using the brilliant VirusTotal service, and then by querying the results with us. We ran the same test and received the same result (see screenshot below). However, malware is always evolving, and so are the virus definitions security programs use to detect it, so not every tool will make the correct judgement every time. That’s why an aggregator like VirusTotal is so useful. A unanimous Clean verdict is very reassuring, but a single Malicious mark, even if it’s a false positive, will prompt you to double-check what you’re doing. In this specific instance, we can say for sure that this is a false positive, because InControl is a safe program from a trusted developer. Whose security advice can I trust? Q I’ve been using computers for decades, but I still consider myself far from an expert. As I get older, I find I’m increasingly annoyed by the number of updates I have to download. My iPad receives several app updates every day, and the same is true of my computer. If Windows isn’t downloading its own updates, then some program or other will be. LibreOffice regularly asks me to update to the latest version, for example, but I never notice any difference. Why is this? You regularly advise us to keep our software up to date, but I seem to be spending as much time doing this as using my computer. Reg Morris A We certainly advise everyone to keep their software and apps up to date, but honestly, we couldn’t agree more. The avalanche of updates, particularly for mobile apps, can seem overwhelming at times. This is partly because developers are always finding and fixing bugs, but also because intense competition drives them to add ever more features, even if many of them go completely unnoticed by most users. You mentioned LibreOffice, so let’s talk about that. This program follows a ‘point release’ model, which means each major version is usually followed by one or more minor releases. Every release has a number, and its relative importance is signified by the digits, separated by dots, that appear after the major release number. At the time of writing, for example, the latest stable version of LibreOffice is 7.4.6. So, 7 signifies a major version change. The 4 indicates the fourth significant update to 7, which adds new features. Finally, the 6 reveals that there have been six minor changes since the release of 7.4, almost all of which will have been small bug fixes. You don’t necessarily need to apply every update as soon as it appears, but it’s a good idea to find out what the developer says about each release. For example, you can view the full release notes for each new version of LibreOffice at www.snipca.com/45511 (see screenshot above). A single red mark in VirusTotal’s results is probably a false positive, but it’s always worth double checking LibreOffice publishes details of every new release on its website Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023
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Reader Support Problems Solved Issue 656 • 26 April – 9 May 2023 71 Having a problem with our recommended software or expert tips? Email [email protected] and we’ll do our best to help Tool in the list 2 and, if it’s there, click the Update button next to it 3 . If it still doesn’t work, try uninstalling your current version of Snipping Tool. Look for it under Settings, Apps, Installed Apps, then click the three-dots button and select Uninstall. You can then download a new version from the Microsoft Store. Why can’t I drag Edge to create a desktop shortcut? Q I want to disable the new Discover button in Edge, as described in Issue 654 (page 42). I couldn’t see the desktop shortcut for Edge so, following your advice, I tried to create one by dragging Edge from my Start menu to my desktop. However, this didn’t work. What am I doing wrong? Margaret Ferguson A An odd quirk of Windows 11 is that it won’t let you drag icons from the ‘Pinned’ area of your Start menu to create desktop shortcuts. Instead, you need to click ‘All apps’, then scroll to Microsoft Edge in the alphabetical list of apps, and drag its icon to your desktop from there. You’ll know that it’s working, because a small ‘Link’ label appears over the icon as you drag it (see screenshot below). We’re sorry we didn’t point this out in our Browser Tips. Where’s the ‘Record’ option in Windows’ Snipping Tool? Q I tried using Microsoft’s updated Snipping Tool to record my screen (Issue 653, page 6), but I couldn’t see the ‘Record’ icon you mention in the article. I’d installed the required Windows update, but according to the ‘About’ page in Windows’ Settings, I have Build 22621.1413, not the 22621.1344 version. Has Microsoft removed the Record function? Martin Peck A This might have something to do with a recent bug discovered in the Windows 11 Snipping Tool, which enabled users to recover data that had been cropped out of screenshots (see Issue 655, page 6). Microsoft has now fixed this vulnerability in an update, so it’s possible that Snipping Tool was between versions when you tried it. Alternatively, you may simply have an older version of Snipping Tool installed on your PC. It’s an app from the Microsoft Store, so if you don’t have automatic app updates enabled, you’ll need to update the tool manually to get the latest features. To do this, open the Microsoft Store app from the Start menu, then click the Library icon ( 1 in our screenshot below). This should reveal a list of apps that need updating. Look for Snipping Does SSD Fresh contain malware? Q I installed SSD Fresh 2023 from snipca.com/45222 after reading your recommendation in Issue 653 (page 18). However, when I subsequently ran Malwarebytes, it highlighted 227 pieces of malware – all from SSD Fresh. I immediately removed the program and its associated malware using Malwarebytes. Why are you recommending this program? John Munro A SSD Fresh is perfectly safe to use, but it comes bundled with an offer to install the Opera browser. This potentially unwanted program (PUP) is probably what Malwarebytes is warning you about. We mentioned the PUP in our review of SSD Fresh, and recommended that you decline the offer during installation. We also pointed out that you need to give your email address to the program’s developer. When installing SSD Fresh, look out for the Optional Offer screen, which asks if you want to install Opera (though it could be any program the developers have a deal with). Click the Decline button at the bottom left (see screenshot above) to avoid installing any unwanted extras. Open ‘Microsoft Store’, click the Library icon, then scroll to Snipping Tool and click Update ‘Link’ appears in Windows 11 when you drag an app to your desktop to create a shortcut Click ‘Decline’ on SSD Fresh’s Optional Offer screen to dodge unwanted software 1 2 3
1080p Of the common types of high-definition video, this is the best quality: 1920x1080 pixels. 2K A screen with 2048x1080 pixels. 3G/4G/5G Technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. Administrator Someone who can make changes to a computer that will affect others who also use it. Aggregator A service that brings together information from different sources, such as news or malware detection. AI Artificial Intelligence. Intelligence demonstrated by a machine rather than a human being. Aspect ratio A measurement of the shape of a screen. Traditional PC screens are 4:3. Widescreen displays are 16:9 or 16:10. Bandwidth A measure of how much data can be transferred through a connection at one time. Benchmarking Comparing software and products with an accepted standard. Beta A version of software that’s being tested. Beta versions are often released so problems can be ironed out. Bot Automated software designed to perform specific tasks. Cache A temporary space for storing information. cd/m2 Candela per square metre. Standard unit of brightness. Chatbot A computer program designed to recreate conversation with human users, especially over the internet. Typically used to offer automated customer support. Client A program that acts as an interface between PC and server. Code Describes the various programming languages used to create programs. Codec Short for Compressor/ Decompressor. A file that tells a computer how to record or play a type of media file. Colorimeter A tool for measuring the colour accuracy of monitors by calibrating its brightness, contrast and colour. Colour temperature How blue and yellow-orange combine to produce the overall colour of your monitor. Cookie A small text file stored on your computer by a website. Used to store browsing preferences, website log-in details and so on. CPU Central Processing Unit. Another term for a computer processor. D-SUB D-subminiature. D-shaped plugs and sockets widely used in communications and on earlier PCs. Dark mode Showing white text on a black background. Dark web Websites that can only be accessed using special software such as Tor Browser. DCI-P3 A colour space that has a wider spectrum than sRGB. DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications. A technology used by cordless digital home telephones. DisplayPort A new socket for connecting monitors. DOCX The default file format used by Word 2007 and later. Driver A file that tells Windows how to work with an external device. Emoji A small graphic that can be inserted into a text message or email. EPUB A file format used by many popular ebook readers. False positive When an antivirus program wrongly detects a malware infection. FAT32 An old system used for formatting hard drives, and still used for some portable drives. Fingerprinting A tracking method used by websites to identify you from the device and software you’re using. Frame rate The number of still images, or frames, shown per second to create a moving image. GHz Gigahertz. A measure of how many instructions a chip can process per second. 1GHz is equal to 1,000MHz. GIF Graphics Interchange Format. A type of image file often used on the web, but now largely superseded by PNG. Gigabit Internet connection offering speeds of at least 1Gbps (1,000Mbps). Graphics card A component in a computer that produces the image shown on the monitor. Greyscale The range of grey shades from white to black, used on both black-and-white screens and print-outs. HDMI High-definition media interface. A type of connection that transmits high-definition video and audio signals. Heat sink A block of metal used to help dissipate the heat from a computer chip. HTML Hypertext Markup Language. The language used to write most web pages. IPS A screen technology that has wider viewing angles and more accurate colours. JPEG Joint Photograph Experts Group. A common type of image file created by most digital cameras. Language model AI software that attempts to predict which word should come next in a sentence based on the preceding words. Latency A measure of the delay in exchanging data between devices and web servers and on networks. LED Light-emitting diode. An electronic device that emits light. Used to provide the backlight for some LCDs. Machine learning The science of teaching computers how to learn by themselves, without further human input. Macro An automated series of commands or options that can be run at any time. Handy if you often need to perform repetitive actions. Membrane keyboard Keyboards that use rubber domes that connect to small electrical contacts. Have a softer typing feel, and are quieter and cheaper. Mesh Wi-Fi Wireless network system that uses multiple, connected routers to stretch Wi-Fi further than a traditional router. Metadata A set of data that gives information about a file. Micro-etch Adding fine texture to a mouse mat so it works better with optical sensors. MicroSD card A small type of memory card. Can be converted to SD size using an adapter. MP4 A type of digital movie file often used for portable players. Noise Visible dust-like speckles that appear in some camera and TV images. NTFS New Technology File System. A file system used by all recent versions of Windows. OCR Optical character recognition. The process by which printed text is scanned and converted into documents that can be edited. OLED Organic light-emitting diode. A thin-film organic lightemitting diode used in computer displays and television screens. Onion address URLs for websites on the dark web, accessible only through the Tor browser. Open source Software that can be modified by anyone, rather than just by the employees of the company that created it. Partition A large hard drive can be split into two or more partitions or ‘virtual’ drives. 72 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656 Jargon Buster
Phishing A form of internet fraud that tries to trick you into revealing personal details. Plain text Text in a document that doesn’t contain any formatting. Plug-in A small program that adds extra features to software or to your web browser. PNG Portable Network Graphics. A format for images that shrinks file sizes using compression but without discarding any data. ppi Pixels per inch. Measure of screen resolution. Product key A unique serial number issued by software companies that must be typed in before a program will launch for the first time. QR code Quick Response code. A barcode that can be read using smartphones. RAM Random-access memory. The computer’s working area. Read To access data saved on a computer. Refurbished A second-hand device that has been repaired by its manufacturer so that it can be resold and reused. Registry keys The Windows registry equivalent of a folder. RSS Really Simple Syndication. A simple format for automatically distributing news headlines and other content from the web. RTF Rich Text Format. A file format used to transfer files between different types of word-processing programs. SD card Secure Digital card. A popular type of memory card. Spoof Fake your location to beat geographical restrictions online. sRGB A standard RGB colour space for use on monitors, printers and the internet. SSD Solid-state drive. Storage that, unlike a hard drive, uses no moving parts. Subreddit A forum dedicated to a specific topic on the website Reddit. Switch Mechanism under a keyboard that determines whether a key has been pressed. Temporary file A file created by a browser to store website data. TIFF Tagged Image File Format. A standard file format used to store graphics images. Tor Browser A web browser designed for anonymous surfing. Torrent A file that can be downloaded using Bittorrent software. Toslink optical A cable carrying digital audio from CD and DVD players and PCs to an audio-video receiver. Two-factor authentication A system that uses two different means to identify the user. USB 2.0/3.0/3.1 Faster successors to USB. USB-C A new connector that’s reversible, letting you plug it in upside down. VoIP Voice over IP. The routing of voice conversations over the internet. VPN Virtual private network. Keeps all internet communication safe and private. Wi-Fi 6 Wi-Fi standard with speeds up to 10 times faster than 802.11ac. Also called 802.11ax. Widget A small program that runs on the Windows desktop. Write Save data to a hard drive. XLS The default file format for Microsoft Excel up to version 2007.
KnowHow Easy when you 74 Next issue: Robert tries to explore an area using augmented reality Need help printing from your phone? Let us know: [email protected] 26 April – 9 May 2023 • Issue 656 The Print feature on Robert’s phone only allowed him to print part of a screenshot… …but with SMS Backup & Restore he was able to print a whole text conversation formatting options, only one section of the lengthy screenshot was printed – and at a ridiculously large size. After trying several workarounds – copying the image to Google Docs, converting it to PDF, swearing at my phone – I gave up and installed a free app called SMS Backup & Restore (www. snipca.com/45560). I granted this permission to view my SMS messages (but not phone calls) and tapped ‘Set up a Backup’. I chose to back up messages to Google Drive and gave the app access to my account – but only files and folders it had created itself. I switched off ‘Schedule recurring backups’ and tapped ‘Back up now’ to upload my messages to Drive. Once this was done, I tapped View Details and selected the newly created backup file to see the list of my saved messages. I opened the conversation I wanted to print, tapped the three-dot button in its top-right corner and chose Print Conversation (see screenshot 2 ). This opened my phone’s Print screen, where this time I was successfully able to print the whole chat at a reasonable and readable size. Whether a Google Pixel 7 allows you to avoid all this faff, I’m not sure – you’ll have to ask Lucian. Print texts from his phone Seeking to create physical copies of his textmessage chats, Robert Irvine tries to… I ’m not one to criticise people I’ve never met, but I make an exception for Lucian from the Google Pixel 7 advert (www. snipca.com/45553). It’s not just sour grapes that he’s much younger than me, but his assertion that a Pixel phone is the only logical way to access your favourite Google tools. “You use Google Chrome, you use Gmail, you use Google Maps,” says Lucian. “So why would you not use a Google phone as well? It just makes sense having it all in one convenient place.” For someone who knows so much about technology, I’m surprised Lucian isn’t aware that every Android phone has those Google apps installed (Android being owned by Google) – even budget handsets that cost one-tenth the price of a Pixel 7. Perhaps his next discovery will be that Google phones also have a Messages app, which lets you send and receive oldfashioned text messages. Admittedly, I sometimes forget it’s there, until I get a verification code from a website or a greeting from a WhatsApp refusenik. Because texts aren’t synced ‘in the cloud’ like emails, they live on your phone, which is both restrictive and risky. If you lose or break your device, those messages are lost forever, unless you have physical copies. But how do you print a text conversation? I decided to find out. Unlike Chrome and Gmail for Android, the Messages app doesn’t have a Print option for sending content to your wireless printer. But you can take a screenshot of a text message and open it in an app that does let you print, such as Google Photos. To test this method, I opened a text conversation in Messages and pressed the power and volume down buttons on my Android phone to take a screenshot. This captured the part of the message shown on-screen and saved it to Google Photos. But ideally I wanted to save the entire chat, so I tried again using the ‘scrolling screenshot’ option. I tapped the ‘Capture more’ icon in the bottom left of my screen, and my phone scrolled through and captured the whole conversation, saving the result as a single screenshot. I should mention that ‘scrolling screenshots’ are only available in Android 12 or later. In Google Photos, I opened the very long image, tapped the three-dot icon in the top-right corner and chose Print. I then pressed the ‘Select a printer’ menu, tapped ‘All printers’ and Google Photos quickly found my HP printer. I selected this, set ISO A4 as the paper size and tapped the Print icon (see screenshot 1 ). Within seconds, my printer started printing my text-message conversation, but I immediately noticed a problem. Because my phone didn’t offer any I tried several workarounds, including converting to PDF and swearing at my phone 1 2
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