How-To Geek

Disposable compressed air dusters are an essential part of the desktop toolkit, as they provide an easy, efficient, and effortless way to clean your computer and everything around it. However, they come with one major downside—they are a one-and-done deal. Once you run out of gas, you need to buy a new can.

With the start of April, Netflix is welcoming entertaining movies that will be available to stream for the foreseeable future. One of the new movies I'm ready to watch is Thrash, a new shark movie where the Jaws-like creatures wreak havoc on a coastal town during a hurricane. It might only be spring, but I'll watch this type of survival thriller any time of the year.

There are quite a few microcontroller options on the market, from Arduino and Raspberry Pi to Espressif’s ESP32 platform. Personally, I'm not too fussed about Arduino or Raspberry Pi—here’s why my next microcontroller will be an ESP32.

If you have a modern phone with a recent OLED screen, there's a decent chance that it comes with an AOD or Always-On Display feature. With this active, your screen will stay on and show information even when it's locked. Your first instinct might be to turn this off, or never turn it on because you think it's just going to tank your phone's battery.

Some GPUs offer better value than others, no matter your use case. Whether you’re a gamer, someone who needs raw GPU compute, or just lots of memory to play with local AI models, certain graphics cards will always deliver more value than others.

Samsung knows there's no need to have two text messaging apps on your Galaxy phone, and it's ending that confusion soon. The company has warned users that the Samsung Messages app will be discontinued in July 2026 and will exclusively use Google Messages going forward.

We're still a month away from summer blockbuster season. However, this week's addition of new streaming movies is headlined by a shark thriller that will certainly make an impact on Netflix's top 10.

AI chatbots are great at answering questions or analyzing text, but they're usually limited to the tools that are built in. MCP changes that by giving chatbots a standard way to connect to external services, so that you can use your chatbot to actually get things done.

These days, there are literally dozens of streaming devices and dongles available, often at extremely affordable price points. But if you're an enthusiast or want more power and features than a $30 Fire TV Stick can deliver, you'll want this 11-year-old streaming device.

Most people shortlisting distros completely skip over MX Linux. There’s no glossy marketing campaign behind it, most YouTube channels don’t cover it, and you probably won’t see it trending on social media. However, at the time of writing, MX Linux ranks number three on DistroWatch, beating popular names like Ubuntu, Fedora, and even Zorin OS—which recently got a million downloads. Here are three reasons that justify its dominant position.

The Windows Registry is an effective way to make changes to Windows 11, especially in situations where Microsoft hasn't provided an official way to change a setting. Unfortunately, it also comes with some potential drawbacks.

Self-hosting a VPN wasn't something I ever expected I'd do—it just seemed unnecessary. However, after using it for a while, my WireGuard server has quickly become irreplaceable. Now, I can't imagine using my homelab without it.

Although I've listed hard drives, or HDDs, among the 7 types of storage media that are officially too old, that doesn't mean that I don't use them. In fact, one of my most important, most precious drives is an old HDD which I've had for a good few years now.

Linux has a weird way of pulling you deeper. One day you’re installing Ubuntu, and before you know it, you’re tweaking configs, switching distros, and living in the terminal. As such, if you’ve been using Linux for some time now, a natural question pops up—how far down the rabbit hole have you actually gone? Here are the seven levels of Linux users to help you see where you land.

You probably own at least one device that relies on infrared communication. Infrared is the key to making dumb devices smart for a fraction of the price it would cost for a new “smart” appliance. Thankfully, Home Assistant makes it easier than ever in the April 2026 release.

I used to treat Word's "Save as type" menu like a digital museum—a collection of dusty, legacy formats I'd never need to touch. However, it's actually a specialized toolkit that can shrink-wrap your layouts, protect your master templates from accidental overwrites, and turn a static page into an automated document engine.

I spend a lot of time bouncing between macOS for music production, Linux for reviving older PCs, and Windows, where I get most of my work done. It's my default environment, and over the years I've gotten pretty obsessive about smoothing out the rough edges. Not because Windows is unusable, but because it's full of little bits of friction that add up fast. Search feels inconsistent, window management is good but not great, and too many things still take more clicks than they should.

Don't you just love a mini PC? Smaller than a laptop, way smaller than a desktop, and with specs that often sit somewhere in between. I love the idea of having a whole computer that fits inside my purse, but I have to admit that my mini PCs spent most of their lives collecting dust on a shelf. What a waste.

With all due respect to the Chevrolet Corvette, no vehicle is more deeply woven into the American identity than the Ford pickup truck. The F-Series has been the best-selling truck in the country for nearly half a century, and the best-selling vehicle of any kind for 44 years straight.

If you’re like me and you’re a reader, you like all kinds of different formats of books. With so many movie and TV adaptations coming from books, I’ve been reading physical copies, loving my e-reader, and, what’s even better, listening to audiobooks. This, of course, has led me to Libby and to Audible.