Web User - UK (2019-10-02)

Readers’ Tips

Use AI to complete

your writ ing

Refreshthe look of
your phone with new
wallpaper

Send yourtips [email protected]– win aWeb User Back Issues disc! 2 - 15 October 2019^71

GENERAL PC

Disableunwanted gaming
tools
I read online thatstopping theGame Bar
from running can speed upyour PC but
I can’t say I’ve noticed much difference.
Still, if you don’t play games onyour PC,
why have the gaming services enabled?
Open the Settings app, goto the
Gaming section and turn off theswitches
for ‘Record game clips’ in the ‘Game bar’
section, ‘Record in the background’ in
Captures and ‘Record audio’ in
Broadcasting.
Jo Marks, via email

ANDROID

Getall the phone wallpapers
you need
I’m sick of the defaultwallpapers that
came installed onmy phone. In
desperation, I tried all sorts of otherways
to liven it up–
from NASA images
on dailyrotation
to myown
personal photos–
but nothing beats
the 4KWallpapers
app (bit.ly/
wallpaper485).
As its name
suggests, most of
the images are in
4K, so they look
super-crisp onmy
Samsung device.
You can choose
your favourite
wallpaper orforce
it to update at set
times, and with
new wallpapers
addedevery day, you’ll likely never see
the same ones twice. You caneven tweak
themby adding blur and changing the
contrast,to make them more personal.
Kiera Bridges, via email

BROWSERS

Control YouTube videos with
your mouse
If you want a seamlessway to co ntrol
YouTube videos, Irecommend Mouse&

Video – a browser tool for Firefox (bit.ly/

mousevideo485). It overlays your video

with invisible dividers that perform

different functions depending on where

you ho ver and scroll.For example,to

switch to full screen, move the cursorto

the top-leftcorner and scroll the wheel;

to jump backward s or forwardsby ten

seconds, move the cursorto the bottom-

right and scroll the wheel up or down.

Henry Piper, via email

MOBILE

Revealhidden Android games

To access hidden games in Android,

openyour phone’s Settings and goto

About Device, Software Info. The menus

will vary depending onyour device, but

whenyou find the AndroidVersion,keep

tapping it (maybe a dozen times?) until

something happens.

On Android7, a big N appears on the

screen. Pull down from thetop to show

all the icons and tapEdit. Drag the catto

the row of iconsat the top, then exit Edit

and tap the cat. On Android 8you geta

largeO. Tap it repeatedly, then long-

pressto show an octopus.Weird!

AndrewTaylor, via email

WEBSITES

Let a robot finish your

sentence

We often hear about how advanced

artificial intelligence and machine

learning is. Now, you can try it out

yourself. Goto ‘Talk to Transformer’

(talktotransformer.com) andstart typing

anything –a

sentence, a story,

or even justyour

name. Press

CompleteText

and thewebsite’s

OpenAI language

model

automatically

completes the

rest of your

sentence, creating

“coherent

paragraphs oftext

one word at

a time”. It can be

a bit hit and miss,

but it’s always interesting.

Joshua Chung, via email

It’s a good idea to disable Windows
featuresyou never use

Control YouTube videos using Mouse &

Video for Firefox

BLUNDER OF THE FORTNIGHT

Have you managedto fix a PC-related disaster?

If so, please sendyour [email protected]

I’ve never liked theWindows

10 lock screen, which seems

designedto slow me down.

I know it’s a security measure

but, frankly, there’s nothing

worth stealing onmy

computer. I discovered a

Registry hackto disable it

permanentlyby opening the

RegistryEditor and goingto:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\

SOFTWARE\Policies\

Microsoft\Windows\

Personalisation

Next, I created a DWORD

(32-bit)Value and named it

NoLockScreen. After setting

the value to 1, I restartedmy

now lock-freecomputer.

Unfortunately – andregularreaders

may know where this is going –my

grandson got onto thecomputer and

Turn off the Windows lock screen

GENERAL PC

‘accidentally’ bought someFortnite

coins on Amazon.Less on learnt.The

lock screen is now back in place.

David Hawking, via email

You canswitch off your lock screen with a

Regist ry tweak – but shouldyou?