How-To Geek

You've done the work—you picked a solid router, set a real admin password, maybe even splurged on a mesh system and a VPN subscription. Your home network feels locked down, and honestly, it probably is. Then, one day, you want to check your security cameras from the office, and you flip on one innocent little setting to make it happen.

Android Auto keeps its settings simple, for good reason. The app is based around the things you need every day, with minimal distractions. But if you unlock the developer mode in Android Auto, you can access a few more features. Most are designed for testing and debugging, but some are actually quite useful for everyone.

As a voracious consumer of television shows, nothing excites me more than a premiere episode so good that it’s impossible to avoid rolling right into the next one. These shows have characters that feel alive, narrative twists you never see coming, and cliffhangers that have you promising yourself that you’ll stop after just one more episode.

Ever wanted to quickly check something on your PC while you're away? Or maybe grab that one file you forgot to transfer to your phone? Here's what I use to seamlessly access my Windows PC from my Android phone, no matter where I am.

It's not a great time to replace your GPU right now, which means it's time to give it some love and try to make it stay with you for a while longer, even if it feels like it's officially too old at this point.

Everyone’s talking about AI coding tools right now, but most of the examples feel abstract—a web-based operating system, a DOOM clone, portfolio websites. They’re cool, but they don’t really solve real problems in your day-to-day life. Well, I’ve been running into a frustrating app gap lately where some of the tools I rely on in Linux don’t exist on Windows, and vice versa. That disconnect has been slowing down my workflow, so I decided to vibe-code my way out of it.

Microsoft keeps stuffing new features into the Windows 11 Start menu, and with most of them enabled by default, it has become unnecessarily cluttered. Add web search results that have zero value—when I need to search the web, I'll just open a browser—and you end up with a Start menu that feels bloated rather than helpful. By disabling the following features and options, I turned the Start menu on my Windows 11 PC into a lightweight application launcher and local search interface.

If you read about solid state drives (SSDs), you'll encounter a mountain of advice about how you can optimize your SSD's speed and longevity. However, modern SSDs, advanced controllers, and operating systems have made much of that advice irrelevant. Worse yet, some of it can actually be detrimental to the stability of your PC, especially if you're running a system with limited amounts of RAM.

Over the years, our smartphones have become the one piece of tech that never leaves our side when we travel. Whether it's navigating a new city, contacting the host for the stay, or just keeping yourself entertained while waiting for transport, it's safe to say that traveling would look very different without our beloved devices.

Happy Fourth of July to all those who celebrate! Hopefully, your day is full of food, family, and fun. When you decide to wind down for the night and hit the couch, perhaps stream a movie related to the holiday or summer. Some of these picks are rather obvious, including the 1996 action movie named after July 4.

Repairing things is one of the best reasons to get a 3D printer, and it might just give you the push you need to learn to model items for yourself. If you’re looking for some inspiration, here are some examples of how a 3D printer can come in clutch and save you money.

The ESP32 microcontroller has become hugely popular in the worlds of DIY electronics and smart home automation. You can use the small chips to build an enormous range of different things at relatively low prices. One of the biggest barriers for people dipping their toes into the world of ESP32 is the fear of having to get stuck in with a soldering iron, but there are plenty of genius ESP32 projects that don't require any soldering at all.

Hulu's July lineup might even be more impressive than last month, which included the fifth and final season of The Bear. July's offerings include splashy premieres and anticipated returns. Kicking things off is the sequel to an underrated 2019 horror comedy that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The umbrelOS is a server OS for everybody. People who aren't familiar with the command-line interface can just start their homelab using umbrelOS without any technical knowledge. And for people who already have one, umbrelOS can make an excellent addition to an existing setup.

Building a smart home can feel like an expensive process. There are plenty of excellent smart home devices that come with price tags to match. You don't have to spend a lot to build a great smart home; there are some excellent devices that are relatively cheap.

I hate it when the internet goes down, or I can't get cell reception. We tend to take it for granted that we have access to insane amounts of information from our phones, and only appreciate it when it's gone. I wanted to create something that would let me access some of that information even when I was offline, so I decided to turn my old Kindle into a Wikipedia archive.

Google Maps is one of the best ways to get around because of how it adapts. Things like traffic and construction zones are taken into account, but so is fuel efficiency. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all setting, and you probably haven’t touched it.

Smart speakers come in all shapes, sizes, and price points—you can even make your own. But before you put one in your home (or another one), there are a few important questions you should ponder.

Netflix is packed with something for everyone year-round, but its collection of summer shows and movies is incredible. Whether it's a light romance or a seasonal adventure, your summer watch list this year can be filled with the hottest titles.

Once, my homelab was a simple setup. I had an old PC stuffed into a corner of my basement with a few Raspberry Pis haphazardly scattered on the top of the case. However, as my setup has grown in usefulness and complexity, I had to seriously reevaluate how everything was configured so that it was consistently useful.