How-To Geek

If you're still saving Excel spreadsheets with a three-letter .xls extension, you're lugging around a digital anchor from the era of dial-up. Beyond being a 1990s relic, these legacy files are slow, prone to corruption, and—most dangerously—a preferred backdoor for modern malware. It's time to move to XLSX and never look back.

For almost a year, I was jumping from one Linux distro to the next without ever settling on one for more than a week. Here’s how I stopped and found the right distro for me.

Ryobi is one of the most popular tool brands around, particularly with DIYers and homeowners, and for good reason. The brand offers over 300 tools and accessories at affordable prices. The lineup constantly improves, and if you're debating a Ryobi ONE+ tool vs One+ HP, here's what you need to know and why the "HP" model is more expensive.

Does the thought of your parents facing an emergency when you’re not around keep you up at night? Are you worried they won’t be able to use their smartphone when they actually need it? These simple Android tweaks transformed how I care for my aging parents from afar.

As great as Linux can be if you're concerned about security, privacy, and customizability, there are a few things that could be improved. One of the best quality-of-life changes I've made has been switching to Flatpak to install most of my apps.

I've used Microsoft Excel since I was a kid because that's when they started teaching Microsoft Office in school to elementary students. I've been aware of the changes, but one that got away from me is arguably one of the best features Excel ever had.

HDMI cables are a fact of life, and usually you don't need them to be particularly long. Connecting a console or Blu-ray player to a TV that's right next to it usually means having too much cable rather than too little. However, there are plenty of reasons you'd want a longer cable.

Over the last year, I’ve gone from “AI is useless” to “AI is my employee I couldn’t run my business without.” I started out on ChatGPT, and eventually went to Gemini—but Claude is where I feel the most at home.

It’s never been easier to get into 3D printing, and the cheapest way in is to buy a second-hand model. There’s no shortage of these on the second-hand market, but what might seem like a bargain could cost you in time, parts, and effort down the line.

I’ve been writing HTML since the late ‘90s, and while the web has evolved in a hundred different ways, the core of it really hasn’t. You still open a file, structure your markup, style it with CSS, and refine it until it looks and behaves the way you want. The fundamentals are the same. The tags are more semantic, the layouts are more flexible, and the standards are tighter, but at its heart, HTML is still crafted line by line.

Most people think of DisplayPort as the premium alternative to HDMI on PCs. But, although it is generally the best connection to use with a computer monitor, there's far more to DisplayPort than meets the eye.

Affordable, fuel-efficient vehicles are harder to find in 2026 as new-car prices climb, but even within a $30,000 budget, there are still a handful of standout models that deliver impressive mileage without forcing buyers to overspend. These efficient newcomers prove you don’t have to choose between practicality and everyday affordability, you can have both.

For years, streaming has been holding out on us. One of the best perks of physical media isn't a limited-edition slip cover or box set; it's the options. Director's cuts, alternate editions, versions that changed the mood of the film, or revealed the filmmaker's real intent, not squashed by the studio. The problem is that all those extras have traditionally lived in plastic—bonus discs, collector sets, and under layers of menus.

1080p has been the mainstream PC gaming resolution since the early 2010s. Just as it seemed like we were finally ready to move on to 1440p and 4K monitors, we’ve hit an unexpected wall this year. Rather than fading into obscurity, all signs point to 1080p remaining the dominant resolution now—and likely for years to come.

Hybrid SUVs are everywhere right now, and buyers have more solid options than ever. Automakers are going all-in on electrification, but traditional hybrids are still the sweet spot for most people who want better efficiency without changing their daily routine.

You can use Linux without mastering the command line and messing around in terminal windows. But if you do, you’ll miss out on the command line’s speed, power, and low-level fine-grained control.

The Spotify mobile app includes a number of gestures that speed up and simplify various actions. Instead of digging through menus, you can swipe to add or remove songs from the queue, like tracks, jump to artist and album pages with a single tap, and more.

The next time you play a PC game, you might get a recap showing achievements, screenshots, and other game data after you're done. Microsoft is starting to test the feature on the Insiders channels, ahead of a wider rollout.

When shopping for an NVMe SSD for your PC, you'll frequently come across long lists of buzzwords and specifications. However, not all specs are equally important, and even the ones that matter are often less relevant to most users than you might think. Here are a few tips I follow when buying NVMes to get the best deal every time.

Have you ever wanted to pick up a new Ryobi tool, but saw the price and slowly (or quickly) backed away? There’s a much better place than Home Depot to buy your Ryobi tools, where you'll pay lower prices and still get a warranty.