How-To Geek

Toyota’s January 2026 U.S. sales are in, and the Camry hybrid is still crushing it. The midsize sedan sits at the top of Toyota’s electrified sales chart, proving there’s plenty of love for a well-built hybrid.

Netflix's release schedule for 2026 has kicked off with a thrilling winter slate, with new and returning shows taking center stage. Spread across genres like action, romance, and comedy, there's a lot to choose from in February if you're looking for a watch list refresh.

One of the best things about owning a 3D printer is the massive variety of materials you can use to print objects. PLA is the most common and easiest to work with, ABS has its (literal) strengths, and you can do interesting things with PETG and carbon fiber filaments.

Hatchbacks aren’t usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think luxury, but one model quietly delivers upscale features at a price that’s easier on the wallet than many premium alternatives. While mainstream buyers often overlook it in favor of larger vehicles or more familiar nameplates, this hatch offers a surprising mix of refinement, style, and modern tech that feels more upscale than its compact footprint suggests.

SSDs are fast, but even they can be slowed down over time. If you live for speed and feel like your SSD starts to get just a little slower sometimes, especially near the end of a week, there is one setting you might want to check out called TRIM.

Motion sensors are great for turning on lights when you enter a room, but they're pretty bad at knowing how long to keep them on if people are sitting still. Presence sensors are a great solution, as they detect occupancy rather than motion. There's a whole lot more you can use them for than just controlling your lights.

Wonder Man is proving to be a massive series success, and fans can’t get enough. Yet, the incredible new show is far from the only hit franchise available on Disney+.

The power tool market is crowded, with passionate owners who prefer a specific color of tool over others for performance or perceived value. We all have a tool brand we avoid or love to trash on, but did you know that only three companies own and make the majority of cordless power tools?

When you read about Linux, you probably see a lot of talk about commands to use in the terminal. The command line can seem intimidating if you aren't used to it, which is understandable. But what if we told you you don't have to worry about that?

Keep Notes is sneakily one of Google’s most useful apps. It’s awesome for making lists or simply jotting down a quick idea before it leaves your brain. If you use Keep, you probably know the basic features, but are you using it to its full potential?

DirectStorage can do wonders for your games. But you'd be surprised by how many people don't use it, or aren't aware it exists, despite being a staple Windows feature.

Does your thermostat or other temperature sensor feel out of whack? Do you find that certain parts of the house feel too hot or cold, even when you set the temperature to a comfortable number?

We all have a bunch of old cables that work just fine, so there's no apparent pressure to get rid of them or replace them right away. A good quality cable won't have any sort of physical failure during normal home use ever.

There was a time when saving a Word doc to your desktop was the best way to find it the next day. That time ended a decade ago. Today, saving an Office file to your desktop is the most dangerous habit in your workflow because it's a modern productivity dead-end.

Home Assistant gets most of the hype, and I’m happy to see an open-source project get so much love—but that doesn’t mean it’s your only local smart home option. If you find Home Assistant intimidating, unreliable, or requiring more maintenance than you care to put in, know that there are other smart home hubs available that give you cloud-free control of your smart home.

Oftentimes, I catch myself using data instead of Wi-Fi to stream Netflix or YouTube. It's almost never on purpose, and I end up burning my data plan for no reason. Since these apps don't give you a warning when you're streaming on data, I set up my own warning system using a simple automation.

You've probably heard of the Emacs text editor, but did you know it's often repurposed to replace full-blown desktop applications? It's not common knowledge, but Emacs has a very mature ecosystem and is multi-functional beyond its original purpose. From RSS readers to email clients, I have four Emacs use cases I prefer over traditional software.

Microsoft Publisher, the king of the church bake-sale flyer, is officially retiring in October 2026. If you're still using it for your layouts, you're on a collision course with a "file not found" error. Here's why this once-popular legacy app is disappearing, how to rescue your files, and the modern tools you can use instead.

Operating systems are complex and large pieces of software, and the same goes for Linux systems. Fortunately, there are still plenty of small Linux distros available. They're also quite useful things to keep on spare USB drives or virtual machines. Here's why.

Windows 11 comes loaded with a bunch of different apps and features that I neither want nor use. Normally, after a fresh install I spend quite a bit of time just getting rid of things. This application let me create my own Windows 11 ISO that cuts the bloat before I even install it.