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MASSIVE security flaws – what you must do now

Full story page 6

ISSUE 464 ❘ 9 – 22 DECEMBER 2015

An unexpected error has occurred p74

Windows

Updates

WHY IT’S

NOT SAFE TO

IGNORE THEM

ANYMORE

Run this security

scan today

page 40

p50

£1.99

p38

p35

C@ntrol MSS

Welcome

EDITORIAL

Group Editor Daniel Booth

Features Editor Jane Hoskyn

Technical Editor Sherwin Coelho

Production Editor Graham Brown

Art Editor Katie Peat

Sorry, no technical or buying advice.

ADVERTISING

Advertisement sales & media pack

020 7907 6799

Advertising Director Andrea Mason

Deputy Advertising Manager Alexa Dracos

MARKETING AND CIRCULATION

Subscriptions Manager Sarah Aldridge

Senior Direct Marketing Executive

Rachel Evans

Marketing Production Manager Gemma Hills

For subscription enquiries ring 0844 815 0054

PRODUCTION

Group Production Manager

Stephen Catherall

Production Controller

Anisha Mogra

MANAGEMENT

Managing Director John Garewal

MD of Advertising Julian Lloyd-Evans

Commercial and Retail Director David Barker

Group Managing Director Ian Westwood

COO Brett Reynolds

Group Finance Director Ian Leggett

Chief Executive James Tye

Company Founder Felix Dennis

BRAND USAGE AND REPRINTS

Companies can obtain a licence to use approved

quotations from articles, the Computeractive

logo and Buy It! logo. Reprints of articles are also

available.

Please contact Wrights Media for more

information and rates:

UK: 877-652-5295 ext 164

International: 281-419-5725 ext 164

Email: Niademarco@wrightsmedia.com

Requests to use quotations from articles will

need to be approved by the editor. Please send

requests to: editor@computeractive.co.uk

OVERSEAS LICENSING

Computeractive is available for international

licensing. Contact Nicole Adams at nicole_

adams@dennis.co.uk or +44 (0)20 7907 6134

ONWARD RESALE

Th is publication may not be resold or otherwise

distributed, whether at, below or above face

value. Nor can this publication be advertised for

sale, transfer or distribution.

PERMISSIONS

Material may not be reproduced in any form

without the written consent of the publisher.

Please address such requests to John Garewal,

Dennis Publishing, 30 Cleveland Street,

London W1T 4JD

From the Editor

Four months after Windows 10 launched,

Microsoft’s strategy for pushing the upgrade on

to reluctant users has become clear. Th e

company has realised that its greatest weapon

is the Update process, through which it will

– at some point next year – automatically

download Windows 10 on to PCs running

7 and 8. It’s a deplorably intrusive move.

We don’t blame Microsoft for bullishly

promoting its new OS. We think it’s an

excellent system that everyone should, in due

course, upgrade to. But those in charge seem to

be suff ering from the delusion that they own

your PC, and can do what they like with it. In

this issue we explain how you can fi ght back.

p6

p50

Here’s news of a more positive update. Many

of you have asked us to publish a guide to

Android 5.0 and 6.0 - respectively Lollipop and

Marshmallow (daft names, I know). Well, it’s

arrived: our new book Th e Defi nitive Guide to

Android 2016, is on sale now through Amazon

(www.snipca.com/18829).

Daniel Booth

editor@computeractive.co.uk

p40

LIABILITY

While every care was taken preparing this

magazine, the publishers cannot be held

responsible for the accuracy of the information

or any consequence arising from it. All

judgments are based on equipment available

to Computeractive at the time of review.

Computeractive takes no responsibility for the

content of external websites whose addresses

are published in the magazine.

A DENNIS PUBLICATION

Computeractive is published

fortnightly by Dennis Publishing

Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD.

Company registered in England. Material may

not be reproduced in whole or part without the

consent of the publishers. ISSN 1461-6211

Average sales, Jan-Dec 2014, 88,274

copies per issue.

© Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited

p38

THIS ISSUE IN NUMBERS

£500

Price of Palicomp’s

new five-star

Windows 10 PC - p21

70m

Number of people who

play brain-training app

Lumosity - p59

£1.9bn

New investment by the

Govt in cybersecurity

defence - p9

p35

HOW TO USE

SNIPCA URLs

We use snipcas to turn long URLs that

are hard to type into ones that are

short and simple. They aren’t websites

themselves, which means they won’t

be recognised if you type them into

Google. Instead, you need to type them

into your browser address bar, then

press Enter. Doing this will take you to

the correct website.

9 - 22 December 2015 3

Contents 9 – 22 December 2015• Issue 464

In this issue…

Stop and control

50 Windows updates

Reclaim your computer from

Microsoft’s intrusive – and

unwanted – updates

Stay mentally fi t with

59 brain-training apps

Th e best software to give your

grey matter the workout it needs

to stay alert and agile

Use multiple accounts

60 in Windows 10

We explain why creating separate

accounts for you, your family and your

guests can make for a happy home

COVER

FEATURE

P50

Stop & Control

WINDOWS

UPDATES

Don’t let Microsoft make unwanted changes to your PC

Train

your

brain

p59

Use multiple accounts

in Windows 10 p60

6 News

10 Question of

the Fortnight

Why did Microsoft remove

its November update?

In every issue…

32 Competition

Win a 480GB Crucial

BX200 SSD

49 What’s All the Fuss

About? Surround Wi-Fi

Cracking the error-message

code p74

12 Letters

14 Consumeractive

16 Protect Your Tech

18 Best Free Software

Opera 33

30 Buy It!

64 Problems Solved

69 Fast Fixes

BBC iPlayer

73 Jargon Buster

74 The Final Straw

Stuart Andrews fails to

compute error messages

4

9 – 22 December 2015

Subscribe

be

NOW!

!

See page 62

for our special

subs offer

BUY IT!

★★★★★

Reviews

20

PC Specialist Cosmos IV

A Windows 10 laptop that’s certainly

no slouch

Palicomp AMD

Shockwave p21

PC Specialist Cosmos IV p20

Google

Nexus

6P p26

21 Palicomp AMD Shockwave

A Windows 10 desktop PC that’s

reliably quick off the mark

22 Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro

Home-entertainment tablet to

project your ideas

26

Google Nexus 6P

Google’s Android phone makes

all the right calls

27

Acer Liquid Jade Z

How old-fashioned! A budget phone

that’s only good for calls

28 Magix Movie Edit Pro 2016

A video editor that cuts costs

Magix Music Maker 2016

Th is software music studio makes for

a sound investment

29 Veho Muvi K2NPNG

An action camera for moving scenes

BUY IT!

★★★★★

Workshops & Tips

14 pages of brilliant workshops and expert tips

THE DEFINITIVE

GUIDE TO ANDROID

35 Fix Windows 10 problems

in one click

38 Resume broken downloads

40 Stop your router being

hacked

42 Download Google Maps

to use offline

43 Readers’ Tips

Restore internet in Windows 10

44 Phone and Tablet Tips

Tweak Google Photos to save space

46 Make Windows Better

Make a panorama in Photo Gallery

47 Make Office Better

Create cover pages in Word

48 Secret Tips For…

Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)

Our new 148-page book tells you everything

you need to know about Android, including

the best apps

and tips for the

Lollipop and

Marshmallow

updates.

NEW!

BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON

at www.snipca.com/18829

9 – 22 December 2015

5

News

Th e top stories in the world of technology

Dell admits PCs come with

huge security fl aws

Dell has been forced to

admit it pre-installed

on millions of PCs and

laptops a tool that hackers

could have exploited to steal

users’ bank details. It was one

of two serious security fl aws

identified on Dell PCs in the

space of days.

First, on Monday 23

November, Dell acknowledged

that a security feature on

some of its computers,

known as a self-signed root

certificate, contained a severe

vulnerability. Self-signed root

certificates are used to ensure

that data sent online is

encrypted, and therefore safe.

But on some Dell PCs and

laptops (mostly the Inspiron,

Precision and XPS ranges)

sold since July this year, a

certificate called eDellRoot

also contained the ‘key’ used

to decrypt it (see screenshot).

Th is meant hackers could

have exploited this fl aw to

trick people into visiting fake

sites that look genuine.

In these attacks, the padlock

icon in the browser’s address

fi eld convinces people that it’s

safe to enter their username

and password. If you fall

victim to this while banking

online, hackers can gain

access to your bank account.

In a blog post admitting the

fl aw (www.snipca.com/18928),

Dell said that eDellRoot was

added to make it “faster and

easier for our customers to

service their system”.

Dell insisted that the tool

isn’t “adware or malware” and

that it allowed Dell’s customer

services to quickly identify the

model of a person’s computer.

Th e company has released

instructions on removing

HOW TO FIX THE FLAWS

On 24 November Dell released a software

update to remove the fl awed certificates. To

check whether eDellRoot has been wiped from

your PC, visit https://edell.tlsfun.de, a website

that scans your PC looking for the certificate.

To make sure both certificates are removed,

use Dell’s ‘eDellRoot and DSDTestProvider

removal tool’, which will download automatically

at www.snipca.com/18940. You can also

eDellRoot (see box below),

and confirmed it won’t be

installed on PCs in the future.

It also issued a software

update that will remove the

certificate from affected PCs.

Reminders of

Lenovo’s Superfish

Th e second problem, which

emerged on 25 November, also

involved an unsafe security

certificate, although it wasn’t

pre-installed on computers.

Th is one was unwittingly

added to PCs by users who

downloaded the Dell System

Detect tool between 20

October and 24 November.

Dell says that the tool gives

manually remove the certificates, but it is a

complicated 27-step process, explained in Dell’s

blog post: www.snipca.com/18929.

Another option is to run Windows Defender

(in Windows 10 and 8.1) and Microsoft Security

Essentials (in Windows 7 and Vista), which

have been updated to remove both certificates.

Read more information at Microsoft’s Malware

Protection Center: www.snipca.com/18941.

COMMENT

Some credit has to go to

Dell for releasing a fix so

quickly, particularly given

how reluctant Lenovo was

earlier this year to admit the

dangers posed by Superfish.

But both scandals illustrate

that we can no longer take

for granted the safety of new

PCs. As well as considering

price, hardware and operating

system when buying a

computer, we now have to

wonder whether it’s riddled

with security holes big

enough for hackers to exploit.

Is it any wonder that sales of

computers are plummeting?

users a “more personalised

experience” when contacting

the company’s support

website. It has now been

replaced by a safer alternative.

Both cases are reminiscent

of the Lenovo scandal earlier

this year, in which the PC

manufacturer was caught

installing an unsafe version of

the Superfish adware on to

some laptops. Th e company

later apologised, and released

a tool to remove Superfish:

www.snipca.com/18943.

For more advice on staying

safe, read the Cover

Feature in our next issue:

‘Don’t Get Hacked in 2016’

– out on Weds 23 Dec

You’ll like this… A new Raspberry Pi

mini PC has launched costing just $5

(www.snipca.com/18917)

… but not this ISP Plusnet has been accused

of not properly encrypting passwords

(www.snipca.com/18944)

6

9 – 22 December 2015

Baby boomers stay safer online

than under-30s

Th e idea that younger people

know more about technology

than older generations has

been challenged by new

research into online security.

Antivirus company

Norton found that so-called

millennials – people reaching

young adulthood around the

year 2000 – are more likely

than baby boomers to leave

themselves exposed to risk

on the internet.

In its 2016 Cybersecurity

Insights Report (www.snipca.

com/18873), Norton said that

32 per cent of millennials in

the UK share their passwords

for online services, while only

13 per cent of baby boomers do.

Th e survey, which

questioned 17,125 adults

across 17 countries about their

online behaviour, also found

that just 33 per cent of

millennials said they always

use a secure password (one

consisting of at least eight

letters, numbers and symbols).

By contrast, 49 per cent of

baby boomers always use one.

Younger people are also

much more likely to abandon

an online account, rather

than go through the hassle

of closing it.

Many millenials simply

aren’t worried about the

risk posed by poor online

security. One in three felt that

security breaches no longer

have any real consequences –

a complacency attributed

to their increasing frequency

–while one in five thought

that their chances of

becoming a victim of

cybercrime was negligible.

Windows 10 to be the ‘most widely

installed version ever’

Th is reckless attitude has led

to a much higher incidence

of online crime targeting

millennials, with 31 per cent

reporting they have been a

victim, compared with 13 per

cent of older people.

In total, of the 1,000 people

in the UK surveyed, 44 per

cent said they had been a

victim of cybercrime.

Twenty-two per cent of

respondents said they had

experienced cybercrime in the

past 12 months, with 15 per

cent of these being targeted

by ransomware.

IN BRIEF

RUSSIAN HACKERS

STEAL £520M SINCE 2012

Hackers in Russia stole

at least $790m (around

£520m) in the past three

years from individuals and

businesses in the US and

western Europe. Th is was

the work of 160 hackers, all

now arrested. However, the

criminal gangs have recruited

over 1,000 new members,

so the true amount of money

stolen is likely to be much

higher. Th e figures come

from a Kaspersky report that

highlights the severity of

the threat posed by Russian

cybercrime.

CHANGE YOUR

AMAZON PASSWORD

Amazon has asked some

customers to reset their

password, leading to fears

that its security systems

may have been breached. In

an email to what’s thought

to be a small number of

users, Amazon said that

some passwords had been

“improperly stored”, or

exposed to other companies

that Amazon deals with.

Amazon said that it has

“no reason” to suspect

fraudulent activity.

Windows 10 is set to

be Microsoft’s most

successful operating

system (OS) ever. Th e

prediction comes

from technology

marketing company

Gartner, which said

that Windows 10’s

popularity is being

driven by Microsoft’s

offer of a free upgrade to

Windows 7 and 8 users.

Gartner also said that 50 per

cent of businesses worldwide

will be running Windows 10

by January 2017. If this happens,

the early success of Windows

10 would trump even that

enjoyed by Windows 7, which

launched in October 2009.

Businesses are preparing to

move on from Windows 7,

aware that Microsoft will end

support for the OS in January

2020. Microsoft’s latest

estimates, released in October,

indicate that Windows 10 is

now running on 120

million computers

worldwide.

Earlier this year,

Gartner identified

another consequence

of Windows 10 – a

slowdown in global

PC sales. Analysts said

that for the third

quarter of 2015 PC

sales were 7.7 per cent lower

than in the same quarter in

2014. Th is was attributed in

part to people upgrading their

existing PCs to Windows 10

for free, rather than buying

a new computer containing

the OS.

A robotic cat that purrs when

stroked is being marketed as

a “companion pet” for lonely

elderly people. Made by

toy company Hasbro, it rolls

contentedly on to its back for

a belly rub if you pet it long

enough. Unfortunately for

robot-cat lovers in the UK

(assuming there are any),

it’s only on sale in the US

at the moment. Watch the

mechanical moggy giving

“comfort and joy” at www.

snipca.com/18881.

9 – 22 December 2015

7

Do you block adverts? Then Yahoo

Mail will block you

Yahoo Mail has started to

prevent some users from

opening their emails until

they disable advert-blocking

tools in their browser.

People in the US using

AdBlock Plus (https://

adblockplus.org) in Chrome

and Firefox have reported

seeing error messages when

they attempt to open their

inbox (see screenshot).

Th e message reads: “Uh

oh… We are unable to display

Yahoo Mail. Please disable

Ad Blocker to continue

using Yahoo Mail”. Several

workarounds to the block

have been suggested online

(see box below).

If Yahoo extends the block

to the UK, you can try getting

round it by opening Yahoo Mail

in a browser other than Firefox

or Chrome, then clicking the

top-right Settings cog. In the

dropdown menu, click Settings,

UK to launch cyber attacks on ISIS

Th e Government will

launch cyber attacks

against Islamic State (ISIS)

as it attempts to thwart

the terrorists’ plans to

hack UK hospitals and

other vital infrastructure.

George Osborne said he

will double cyber security

funding over the next five

years to reach £1.9 billion.

He said that ISIS’s

“murderous brutality has a

strong digital element”.

“At a time when so many

others are using the internet

to enhance freedom and give

expression to liberal values

and creativity, they are using it

for evil,” he said.

While British intelligence

Yahoo explained the

message by saying it is testing

“a new product experience”

for a “small number” of Yahoo

Mail users in the US.

Th e company is probably

gauging how people react to

having their emails blocked,

hoping the majority will turn

off their ad-blocking software.

HOW TO BEAT YAHOO’S BLOCK

then ‘Viewing email’. Change

the view to Basic, then click

Save and re-open Yahoo Mail.

You could also try the solutions

suggested by Adblock Plus

users on their forum: www.

snipca.com/18858.

indicates that ISIS doesn’t yet

have the ability to cause harm

to the UK infrastructure,

Osborne warned they “are

doing their best to build it”.

He added: “The stakes could

hardly be higher – if our

electricity supply, or our air

traffic control, or our hospitals

It’s a highly controversial

move that will further fuel the

debate on ad-blocking tools.

Many web companies have

attacked how ad-blockers

work. Th ey say that the money

they get from advertising

helps them to keep their

online services free.

Without reliable advertising

revenue many websites,

particularly those run by

magazines and newspapers,

would probably start charging

people to access them.

Some newspapers, including

Th e Guardian and Th e

Washington Post in the US,

have displayed messages on

their websites to ask visitors to

disable their ad-blockers.

were successfully

attacked online, the

impact could be

measured not just in

terms of economic

damage, but of lives lost”.

Security experts

warned that an ISIS

cyber attack could have

devastating consequences

for British businesses

and infrastructure.

Bitdefender’s chief

security strategist, Alexandru

Catalin Cosoi, said: “A

possible worst-case scenario

is the crippling of all

communication and critical

infrastructures, ranging from

mobile phone to water supply,

electricity and gas”.

IN BRIEF

GMAIL WARNS YOU

ABOUT DODGY EMAILS

Google will start warning

Gmail users when they

receive an email through

an unencrypted connection.

In a blog post (www.snipca.

com/18834) Google said

that it found “regions of the

internet” such as malicious

servers preventing the

encryption of emails.

Google is concerned

about the dramatic rise of

potentially unsafe emails

sent to Gmail users from

other email providers.

FACEBOOK ‘BANS’

WOMAN CALLED ISIS

A US woman claimed

that Facebook suspended

her account because she

shares her first name with

the terrorist group ISIS.

San Francisco-based web

engineer Isis Anchalee said

that she proved her identity

to Facebook three times,

including by sending a

screenshot of her passport.

But it appears that she fell foul

of Facebook’s controversial

‘real-name’ policy, which

insists people use “authentic”

names. Facebook eventually

re-enabled her account, and

apologised (www.snipca.

com/18843).

WATCH OUT FOR XMAS

FRAUD ONLINE

Last-minute Christmas

shoppers have been warned

about falling for online scams,

after figures show there

was a rise in internet fraud

between December 20 and

23 last year. In total, online

fraudsters stole £16m from

UK shoppers and businesses

last Christmas, up from

£9.5m in 2013. Shoppers

should in particular be careful

when buying mobile phones,

which was the most common

item involved in online fraud

last December.

9 – 22 December 2015

9

?

Question

of the

Fortnight

Why did Microsoft remove

its November update?

The strange saga of the ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ Windows 10 update

Within hours of

subscribers receiving

Issue 463, several frustrated

readers had emailed us to ask

why they couldn’t fi nd the

option to download the

Windows 10 ‘November’

update at www.snipca.

com/18730. Th is URL, which

appeared in our ‘Master

Windows 10’s updated tools’

Workshop, takes you to the

Windows 10 download page. It

was the correct URL, and the

correct website, but between

Computeractive going to press

and the issue dropping on the

doormat, Microsoft removed

the update download option.

Nobody seemed to know

why it had done this. Th e

company’s only response was

that “future installs should be

through Windows Update”.

Some Windows experts

speculated it was because

many users had reported

problems with the update. For

example, it reinstalled apps

they had previously deleted

(see our Cover Feature, page

50). But then on 24 November,

just a few days after the update

disappeared, it was back. Th is

time we did get an explanation,

and even an apology.

Microsoft said it took down

the update after realising it

was inadvertently altering

some privacy settings on

Windows 10 PCs, overriding

changes users had previously

made (Windows 7 or 8 PCs

upgrading to 10 via the update

weren’t affected).

Th e company said that the

fl aw, which reverted settings

to Microsoft’s default, affected

“an extremely small number

of people”. Th e reinstated

update contains a fi x that

keeps all the privacy options

as you set them.

Microsoft admitted that the

update changed your privacy

settings

Th is of course begged the

question – which privacy

settings had been altered?

Th ankfully, Microsoft revealed

which ones when announcing

the update’s return (www.

snipca.com/ 18901). Th e four

changed settings were

‘advertising ID’, SmartScreen

Filter, ‘Background apps’ and

‘Sync with devices’.

Th e purpose of the last

two in this list are pretty

self-explanatory (but we’ll

explain them anyway).

‘Background apps’ lets you

decide which apps run in the

background, while ‘Sync with

devices’ lets you synchronise

data between your PC and

phone or tablet.

It’s less obvious from its

name what SmartScreen Filter

does. In fact in Edge and

Internet Explorer it warns you

when you are about to visit a

“suspicious” website or

download something

potentially harmful. In

Windows 10, SmartScreen

Filter checks the safety of

URLs used by apps you install

from the Windows Store.

It was the latter that the

update changed, reverting

the setting to ‘on’.

Is this something to worry

about? Not really. Most people

would have had SmartScreen

Filter switched on anyway,

even if they have no intention

of installing apps from the

Windows Store.

More disconcerting was

that the update changed the

‘advertising ID’ setting, one of

THE FACTS

• On 12 November Microsoft