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Why is Magix Music Maker’s amp greyed out? Q

your Magix Music Maker Secret Tips (Issue 504, page 48) says that I can use a Usb-to-audio jack cable to connect my electric guitar to my PC, then add effects using the Vandal SE digital amp. I connected my guitar but the Vandal SE option was greyed out. Any advice? Michael Brennan

A

the first thing you should do is make sure Music Maker is properly set up to play back your guitar via your PC’S sound card. With your guitar connected to your PC, click File, Settings, then Audio Recording. When the ‘Audio recording’ pop-up message opens, choose Magix Low Latency from the ‘Audio line-in’ dropdown menu. Next, tick the Monitoring box, then click OK.

Next, in Music Maker’s main window, click File, then ‘New project’ to begin a project from scratch (click ‘Save project’ or ‘Don’t save’ when prompted, depending on whether you wish to save the current project). Next, click anywhere within the Music Maker window, then press the ‘R’ key on your keyboard. You’ll see that the top track will start recording. Double-click the soundwave that appears (it will turn orange – see screenshot below), then click Effects and Vandal SE (which will no longer be greyed out) to open the digital amp. You should now be able to play guitar with effects.

Why are there no words in my custom dictionary? Q

I followed your guidance to remove custom words from Outlook.com’s dictionary (Issue 505, Page 64), but I don’t see a list of words as suggested when I open the default.dic file. Instead, the only listed item reads #LID 2057. Do you have any suggestions? Ian Watkins

A

from what you’ve told us we know that you’ve opened the correct file. The #LID 2057 entry was the big clue, as that’s the identifier Microsoft uses for a custom Uk-english dictionary. The fact the default.dic file is blank means that you haven’t added any words to Outlook.com in Edge. But, because each browser saves the words you add differently, you might have some stored in other browsers. To see a list of words you’ve added in Chrome, for example, open the browser, click the three dots (top right), Settings, Advanced (at the bottom of the page), ‘Spell check’, then ‘Customised spelling’. Firefox users should follow the instructions at: www.snipca.com/24915.

How do I grab O&O Filedirect’s link? Q

I downloaded O&O Filedirect following your recommendation (Issue 503, page 19). I dragged in the files I wanted to share and generated the link as described. However, how do I then ‘grab’ the link? It does not seem to copy and paste. Mike Elford

A

you can’t press Ctrl+c to copy the link (as you might in Word, for example), but you can click the Copy button (see screenshot above right) to copy it to your clipboard. Right-clicking within an email and selecting paste will then paste the link. You can also use the ‘Share via’ options (to the left of Copy). The first icon will open an email in your default email client with the link inserted, the second will create a Facebook message, the third a tweet and the final icon a Google+ message.

Should Virgin Media users change their router’s password? Q

your ‘Question of the Fortnight’ on chucking out your Virgin router (Issue 505, page 11) implies that going to the router’s web address takes you straight to its settings page. You don’t mention logging on to the router with your admin password. I would have thought changing this was just as important as changing the Wi-fi password when it comes to protecting it from hackers? John Hall

A

you’re right, you should also change the default username and password of your router. In fact, Virgin’s Super Hub 1 and 2 routers actually use the password ‘changeme’ by default to remind you to do exactly that. To do so on a Super Hub 1 or 2, log into your router using the web address, username and password printed on the back of the router, click Super Hub Settings, type your new password into the Password and Re-enter password fields, then click Save Password.

Super Hub 3 routers have a unique password (called the ‘Settings password’) printed on their base, so changing it isn’t as essential. You still can, though: log in using the printed details, click Admin, ‘Change password’, enter the current and new passwords into the relevant boxes, then click ‘Apply changes’.