How-To Geek

Time is not kind to electronics. So what if you were to help revive or upcycle a piece of tech history, while learning a thing or two along the way?

There are many things that go into an enterprise SSD that, for better or worse, don't have to go on a consumer SSD. But there is this one thing that I wish we'd see on the stuff we use—or maybe a variant of it.

Buying a new home is exciting, but once you unpack all the boxes and get settled in, the real work begins. You'll start decorating rooms, changing cabinet hardware, hanging pictures, or worse, something breaks. It's bound to happen, and while you don't need a bunch of fancy pro-grade tools, you'll need the essentials.

When it comes to home media servers, the most popular choice has been Plex for quite some time. I use Plex at the moment, and I even pay for an (optional) Plex Pass. Yet, just because Plex is the most popular option doesn't mean it's the best choice for you.

Most people treat a fresh Linux installation as a clean slate. Usually you install a browser, set your terminal font, run an update, and get on with real work. Over the years, though, I have noticed that my environment only feels usable when a handful of command line tools are present. These tools dramatically reduce friction and make daily tasks more efficient and reliable.

Do you have a garage full of Ryobi power tools and battery packs? If so, you'll be happy to hear that those batteries are useful for all sorts of things aside from powering drills and leaf blowers. You can actually turn your Ryobi battery into a portable phone or laptop charger while camping, in an emergency power outage, and more.

Debian Linux is a tried-and-true choice for getting a Linux device up and running. There are lots of other distros out there that take the Debian Linux experience a step further, and here are my favorites.

For about what you’d spend on a brand-new 2026 Toyota Corolla, the classifieds open the door to something way more interesting. Sitting around $17,000 on Kelley Blue Book, a 2016 Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400 brings 400 twin-turbocharged horsepower to the party—and that’s where things get fun.

Home Assistant notifications can be helpful, but seeing or hearing the same old thing can make your smart home feel static. Thankfully, you can brighten up your notifications with a bit of personality by integrating a service like Google Gemini into your notifications pipeline.

If you've dreamed of learning to code, you may wonder how to start. Linux might be the best OS to start your programming journey in. You'll be in good company for learning how to program like a professional. Here are several reasons why what's good for them is good for you as a new programmer.

Sometimes hotel Wi-Fi is insecure, limited, or an outright hassle to join. Fortunately, there is a way around all of those issues—the humble travel router.

Linux fans love to position Linux as the mortal enemy of Windows, but I think the whole debate misses how people really use Linux, or don't use it. Here are the reasons why.

When you bought or built your last computer, how much thought did you give to your PCIe lanes? I bet there's a good chance you never even considered the issue. For most people, things will probably work out even if you missed this particular spec, but for a significant portion of you reading this, getting your PCIe lane configuration wrong can end up being a painful and expensive lesson.

I work across multiple Windows machines every week, from my main desktop to laptops and rotating test systems. They're all running the same OS, but none of them feel finished right out of the box. Windows is perfectly usable by default. It's just not optimized.

Everybody loves a good bargain. Black Friday deals and Amazon Prime Days are just two examples of the human desire to save money. According to a report by Psychology Today, bargain hunting may be addictive. There is even a National Bargain Hunting Week that is observed in August each year.

On the surface, most Linux window managers look deceptively similar. It’s only once you start using them that you realize how differently they handle your workflow. Here’s a quick breakdown of how Linux window managers differ—and which ones I rank above the rest.

When you make changes to Home Assistant, there's always a risk that something will go wrong, rendering your entire smart home useless. This shouldn't stop you from experimenting, however. You just need to try things out in a safe environment that won't destroy your main Home Assistant instance.

Windows 10 has reached end-of-life, and as Microsoft has continued to push unpopular and buggy updates to Windows 11, the urge to switch to Linux has never been higher. This is the Linux distro you should try first.

It took me a while to figure out which 3D printer model was right for me, but it didn’t take long to realize which size I should be getting. That’s because there are only three things you need to consider to answer this question.

Backing up your data on what looks like a weird VHS sounds wild in 2026, but it was the reality for years. In a lot of offices and studios, doing backups literally meant swapping a little cartridge and hoping for the best.