Articles about Tips

The world of cyber-security presents us with a tangled web of information. 2016 had its fair share cyber security tales and it’s clear that the hackers aren’t slowing down in their attacks.

In our increasingly paranoid online world, we are told what we can and can’t open, when and where we will be hacked, and how the cyber criminals are inescapable. Individuals and businesses are bombarded by the influx of guidelines on how to live their internet lives -- but how can this information be filtered into something tangible for everyday use?

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In addition to news and reviews, we also regularly publish 'How to' guides here on BetaNews.

These are often very popular and cover a range of topics, software, and services. Taking a look back, as is the tradition at this time of year, I thought it would be good to revisit the most popular guides published in the past 12 months.

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Windows 10 offers a lot of personalization options. Go to Settings > Personalization and you can change the background, alter the color scheme, pick a different Lock screen background, and apply themes.

If you want Windows 10 to show a splash of color, go to the Colors section and toggle the 'Show color on Start, taskbar and Action Center' setting to On. There’s not an option to only change the taskbar’s color unfortunately, but it is possible to do this.

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If you have an unlimited mobile data plan -- or a very generous one at least -- then you don’t have to worry about apps going crazy, and gobbling up data when you’re out and about.

If, however, you’re on a more limited plan, you probably want to save data where you can. Facebook is one of the worst apps for consuming data rather unnecessarily, but you can rein it in.

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Windows 10 has a lock screen mode called Windows Spotlight that pulls attractive images from the web on a daily basis. In most instances, you’ll only see these when you log on, or lock your PC.

If you see an image that you’d like to use as Windows wallpaper, you can’t simply right-click and save it, but there is a way to easily export Windows Spotlight images to a folder so you can use them as desktop backgrounds.

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Mobile devices have inundated our lives. Smartphones, tablets, phablets, wearables, the list of mobiles and their variants is endless. People have stopped talking and started dat(a)ing in a big way. Communication through smart devices has clearly overwhelmed us like never before. People are buying, paying and living through their mobiles. Love and relationships can be activated through a single app.

We have reached a state where people use more than a single smart device at a time. As long as the smart-ness of smartphones was confined to individuals, the corporate world could afford to remain a silent bystander, but no longer. The BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is the new norm and not a single business can avoid the challenges which come with mobility in management.

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Your PC suddenly locks up. Nothing responds. The screen turns black. It looks like disaster…

But no. There’s a beep from the speaker, your screen comes back to life, and a message explains that your display driver stopped responding, but had now recovered.

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One of Windows 10’s biggest new features is the inclusion of Microsoft’s personal assistant, Cortana. She can do all sorts of things for you, from searching the web, to setting reminders, and even looking up songs as they play.

You can summon Cortana at any time simply by saying "Hey, Cortana", but if you’d rather call her something different -- "Siri", perhaps, or "Darling", or "Ava" -- it’s possible to give her a name change. This is how.

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For some, Apple's decision to drop the startup chime from the latest batch of MacBook Pros came as great news -- for others it was an absolute travesty.

The quest for a silent startup has led many Mac users over the years to seek out third party tools to kill the sound, but now that it has gone there are those who want it back. All is not lost! If you prefer a musical start to your computing sessions, you can re-enable the chime.

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You may be more than happy with your choice of Windows wallpaper, but what you may not know is it’s not as good as it could be.

I’m not saying the image itself isn’t great, but the problem is Windows 10 automatically compresses the picture to help system performance, and that reduces the overall wallpaper quality, quite considerably.

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It can be useful finding out when friends are broadcasting live on Facebook, but unfortunately -- depending on your friends, of course -- there is a good chance they won’t be broadcasting something so interesting you’ll want to drop whatever you’re doing to watch there and then.

Facebook will alert you when someone is live, but like any notification, you can disable this so you won’t be alerted when Dave takes a motorbike ride in the rain, or Ellie’s children perform an out-of-tune rendition of "Let it go" from Frozen.

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If you’re having problems getting the Windows 10 Start menu to open, or it’s just not working as it should, you’re not alone. Quite a few people have encountered issues following upgrading to the new OS, or updating to a new build.

Rebooting might fix temporary problems, but if it doesn’t we have some more advanced solutions for you to try.

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With Windows 10, Microsoft has encouraged users away from the Control Panel in favour of the newer Settings. This is fine for many things, but there are still times when the Control Panel is needed.

In recent builds of Windows 10, the Control Panel shortcut has vanished from the Win + X menu (which can also be accessed by right clicking the Start button), leaving some people perplexed about how to change certain settings. Thankfully, there is a way to get the shortcut back in the latest Insider builds.

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There are a number of benefits to being a Windows Insider, the primary one being that you gain access to the latest features before anyone else. If you're running build 14936 of Windows 10, there's a new option available that will be of interest to many people -- the ability to remove built-in apps.

It's something that Windows 10 users have been looking for for some time, and it's not quite clear why it has taken Microsoft so long to make the option available. The good news is that it is now possible to remove some of the default apps that you simply do not need; the bad news is that there are still some that remain untouchable.

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Easter eggs -- secret extras hidden in software and on websites -- are not quite as prevalent as they used to be, but there are still plenty to be found out there. Google is one company that continues to hide little gems in its products, and many of them are games.

From Google Search and Android, to Maps and Google Earth, there are numerous little pick-up-and-play games that are perfect for killing a few minutes at work. So, grab yourself a coffee, have your fingers poised over Alt-Tab in case the boss appears, and get ready to play!

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