The longer you have been using your PC or laptop, the slower it will become as more programs are installed and files fill up your hard drive. In most cases you won’t need to reinstall Windows as one of the following tips should get your computer booting up quickly again. Method 1. Stop all those apps loading at startup When you install new apps, many add themselves to the Startup list, which means Windows has to launch them, or at least part of them, each time it boots up....

If you’re a regular frequenter of popular Facebook pages and groups, then you might have spotted a little jewel icon with the legend Top Fan on some of your fellow commenter’s posts. These mark those individuals out as, well, Top Fans. So, what are they and how do you get one? We explain. What is a Facebook Top Fan badge? There are a variety of badges that appear on people’s posts within Facebook pages or groups: initially just Top Fan and Valued Commenter, but now some new badges are now available to Facebook groups....

Whether you’re in publishing or a design student, Adobe InDesign is a staple in the creative industry, along with Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro. The typesetting app allows users to design sleek and sophisticated documents, whether in print or digital form: from books, brochures, posters and pamphlets to ebooks, interactive documents, and everything in between. In this article, we go through where to get Adobe InDesign, free trials, student discounts and more....

Paramount+ is the home of multiple live-action Star Trek TV shows and the live-action Halo series, as well as one of the biggest films of 2022, Top Gun: Maverick. How to activate Paramount+ on Sky Q, Sky Glass and Sky Stream Time to complete: 10 minutes Materials required: Sky Q, Sky Glass or Sky Stream, TV and smartphone/PC Turn on your Sky device and search for ‘Paramount +’ in My Sky and then Sky Shop Chris Martin...

Imagine if every time you left the house, a stranger followed you. Imagine they noted down where you live, who you friends are, the places you shop and the things you buy. Then imagine they shared that information with individuals you didn’t know, and in turn those individuals began stopping you in the street, offering you goods and services. After all, they know exactly what you like. You would probably find that kind of behaviour greatly disturbing....

Sometimes, it appears that your old laptop is done for. It might be still fully functional, and everything in general is working fine, but it is just so painfully slow. Even then, if it’s working fine, it’s always a shame to get rid of a perfectly good device and have to buy a new laptop, just because the old one needs some time to think. Fortunately, there is a solution for that!...

With the exception of a more stripped-back Chromebook experience, there really are only two operating systems to choose from when buying a PC or laptop. Windows is the market leader by far, but that’s due in part to the huge range of devices that run Microsoft’s software. macOS’ unique design and integration with other Apple devices have made it a firm favourite for many people, although there are only a handful of expensive devices....

On average, a dishwasher should last for 10 years. But if you want to ensure a decade of trouble-free use, you’ll need to maintain it. Here are our best tips for taking care of your dishwasher. 1. Read the manual The best way to extend the life of your dishwasher is to tailor all of your actions to the information in the instruction manual. While manuals are sometimes a nightmare to navigate, and those that are less than perfectly translated are often cryptic in their advice, it’s worth your time to try to read it through....

Home air quality can affect your health and happiness. But what pollutants are likely to be in the air in your home – and how can you find out which are a problem? Read on to find out. What’s in the air in your home? These are the harmful pollutants most likely to be in the air in your home: VOCs (volatile organic compounds) – chemicals from solvents, cleaning products, personal care products, new furniture, paints and aerosols Particulate matter or particle pollution – dust, dirt, soot and liquids Raised carbon dioxide levels – from heaters, dryers and fireplaces Carbon monoxide – also from heaters, dryers and fireplaces Radon – an odourless, tasteless, radioactive gas VOCs VOC stands for volatile organic compound....

YouTube is one of the best ways to listen to music, but the snag is that when you switch to another app the audio stops playing. That means you can’t do anything else with your device such as checking email, Instagram or browsing the web. There is a workaround, though, which we’ll show you and there are various apps which let you watch YouTube videos in a pop-up window that floats over other apps....

Sometimes, it’s good to be able to keep a record of a phone conversation. Whether it’s dealing with organisations or individuals that have a tendency to say one thing then do another or preserving an ideas session with your friends and colleagues, the ability to record a phone call can be very useful. We’ve already written about how to record calls on an iPhone , but if you need to do this on an Android phone, here’s how it’s done....

If you use your Android smartphone as the sole repository for your precious contacts, you don’t have to worry about losing your phone. And if you accidentally delete that all-important number, you can get it back. Here we’ll show you how to use a clever feature built into Gmail to restore lost contact details. How to recover lost contacts from Android: use Gmail It might seem odd to look for your contacts in Gmail rather than on your phone, but as the services are intertwined there’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re looking for here....

If you regularly share a Windows 11 device with someone else, you’ll know the value of user accounts. Rather than everyone having the same apps, files and settings, you can easily only keep what’s actually relevant to you. However, there may come a time when you no longer need a specific user account anymore. Microsoft offers options for temporary or more permanent removals, both of which we’ll run through in this article....

Thanks to the advances in smartphone and camera technology in recent years, we’re all recording more video than ever before. Capturing those precious memories for posterity is all well and good, but if you find that when you import them to your PC that they’re sideways or upside down, here’s how you can rotate those videos and get things back in the right orientation. Can Windows Movie Maker rotate videos? Yes, it can....

WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature that brings its messaging app into line with other social apps: the ability to send a photo or video that the recipient can view only once before it self-destructs. We first wrote about this feature back in June when it entered beta, but it’s now just a standard part of the app. We’ll explain in a few simple steps how to use the View Once feature… but also how to get around it....

So, you’ve got a new Android phone and want to get your voicemail up and running. Or maybe you’ve had one for a while and never gotten around to recording the message people hear when they call you. Well, both of those are easily fixed, as setting up voicemail on an Android phone is simple. Here’s how to get everything just the way you like it. How do I know if I have voicemail set up on my phone already?...

One of the main attractions of working on desktop is the large screens on offer, with most laptops coming in 13in, 15in or even 17in variants. In the case of desktop PCs that can stretch to more than 30in, and that’s before you factor in connecting to an external monitor . All that screen real estate means there’s ample opportunity for multitasking. Windows 10 offers plenty of excellent tools for this, many of which can be accessed via Task View ....

The Second episode of Digital Defenders is available to listen on Spotify and iTunes There are so many scams around these days, not to mention companies selling your personal information without your knowledge, that it can feel as if it’s impossible to have any kind of control over who can see and have your data online. But it is possible, and we’ll outline a few simple ways to lock down your privacy settings, manage your passwords and keep your finances safe....

Thankfully, this is very easy to sort out. Here’s how. On the next page select the Your Addresses box. You may need to confirm your password again, but once this is done you’ll be presented with a list of all the current addresses listed in your account. Find the one that you want to change, then click on the Edit option just below the address. Scroll down until you find the section headed Weekend delivery....

Let us start this guide by saying that although it is technically possible, using an old router to extend your home Wi-Fi coverage isn’t the best way to go about it. It’s the only option if you want to spend no money at all (though you may still need to buy a long Ethernet cable), but it’s inelegant and impractical in many cases. That’s because a lot of routers don’t support wireless bridging and, even if they do, you may need two routers from the same manufacturer (or even two identical routers) to make them talk to each other without connecting them together using a network cable....