Make your PC talk to you

Stop squinting at tiny words on your screen – make your PC read them out loud instead. Jonathan Parkyn reveals the best free text-to-speech tools

In almost any science-fiction film or TV show you care to mention – from 2001 to Star Trek – the computers of the future are able to talk back to their users. What you might not know is that the computer sitting on your desk or lap right now can do this too. It’s not a feature that costs hundreds of pounds, either.

Free text-to-speech (TTS) tools are already built into Windows, and there are many excellent third-party alternatives that can dictate documents and emails, convert text into audio files, read web pages to you and more. Here’s how to let your computer do the talking.

Adobe Flash Player

Fix jerky videos and games, make webcams and audio work and speed up your internet

Whatever’s going wrong...

For any Flash problem, the first thing to do is check that you’ve got the latest version installed by visiting the plug-in’s home page (www.snipca.com/15769). Look in the Version Information box to find out your installed version, then check the table underneath it to see if it’s up to date. If it’s not, click the Player Download Center link and follow the prompts.

Remove built-in junk

Your hard drive was full before it even left the shop. Jane Hoskyn shows you how to remove the rubbish that came pre-installed on your PC, laptop, phone and tablet

The best way to declutter your junk-filled old PC is to replace it with a new one, you’d think. After years of fighting a losing battle against that growing landfill of software, updates and program files, you deserve a fast, new, empty machine.

You won’t get that, though. You may get a new machine that’s deliciously fast, but it won’t be empty. In fact, unless you construct the PC yourself or pay someone through the nose to custom-build it for you, you’ll get a shiny new PC that’s stuffed to the gills with pre-installed junk.