Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-06-08)

Readers’ Tips

TIP OF THE FORTNIGHT

40

Why I stopped using...

Brian wins a copy of our 2021 Back Issue CD Buy it on Amazon http://www.snipca.com/42077

Tell us why you stopped using a website, app or program: letters@

computeractive.co.uk

8 – 21 June 2022 • Issue 633

Get VoIP and PSTN numbers on one phone

recommended, but its

benefits outweigh the

extra costs involved, and

it works fine with

Sipgate.

What drew me to it

was the base unit. It’s

similar to the one used

by the HT801 that

connects to your router,

but also has a connection to plug into

your PSTN socket, so the handset (which

Following Issue 628’s ‘How To’ on

converting your home phone to Vo I P

using a Sipgate account, I agree that

paying around £200 for a fully featured

VoIP phone can’t be justified.

After some research, I bought the

Siemens Gigaset S850A GO Professional

VoIP Cordless Phone (£80 from LiGo

Electronics, http://www.snipca.com/41985,

pictured). I appreciate it’s £40 dearer

than the Grandstream HandyTone HT801

(www.snipca.com/41133) that you

can be placed anywhere in

the house) can access both

the VoIP line and the

existing phone line. It

means both phone numbers

are accessible from just one

phone.

It suits our home layout.

The router is in the spare

bedroom near

the front of our bungalow,

while the lounge, diner

ANTIVIRUS

Stop Norton blocking

safe programs

Like many of your readers I

switched from Kaspersky to

Norton, much as a point of principle as

well as the possibility that updates may

not continue. However, I found that

Norton blocked some of my Visual Studio

software. One of my programs was

quarantined, removing it from its folder.

Nobody else uses it except me, so I know

exactly what I programmed and what it

does. Fortunately, Norton has settings

such as Data Protector and whitelist

options to stop over-enthusiastic scans

and warnings. You can also confirm EXE

files as safe by going to Settings, Antivirus,

then ‘Scans and Risks’ (see screenshot left).

Rob Barnes

WINDOWS

Press X, U and S to send

your PC to Sleep

In Issue 631 (page 60) you explained

how to use the ‘Power & sleep’

setting to send a computer into Sleep

mode. I’ve used another, slightly quicker

method on my past three computers. I

press Windows key+X to open the

‘Power User’ menu, then press U to open

shut-down options (see screenshot

above), followed by S. This sends the

computer to sleep straight away. Note that

when you press U and S you don’t need

to also hold down the Windows key.

Terry Steels

My hands

I run a business and have to perform many repeated

tasks, such as filling in forms, moving files, copying

data from websites and emailing customers. This used to take

me and my team 80 hours a week by hand.

And what I use instead...

Now we use six Razer keyboards, such as the Cynosa Lite

(£23 from http://www.snipca.com/41986, pictured), together with

Razer’s Synapse software (www.razer.com/synapse-3).

We’ve recorded macros for each task, so the keyboard and

Synapse can perform them for us automatically. You’re

supposed to use these keyboards for gaming, but instead I’ve

turned them into personal assistants.

Let’s say I want to move a photo, create a folder or rename a

file – I simply click record on the Macros setting, perform the

task once, then click stop. It will then do that for us thousands

of times while we go off to work on something else.

Pete Wallace