How-To Geek

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.

A NAS is one of the devices you expect to be available 24/7, working around the clock to allow seamless file transfer and retrieval. The thing is, running non-stop means that even small differences in power consumption can add up on your electricity bill. The savings won’t be huge, but you can still shave more than a few bucks off your monthly costs by avoiding the following NAS mistakes.

Grammarly Pro feels way too expensive in a world where affordable LLMs like ChatGPT exist and can handle grammar just fine. The only reason you'd still pay for it is the experience—inline editing that shows you exactly what's wrong without rewriting your voice. Well, here's a prompt that makes ChatGPT behave like Grammarly Pro, offering inline edits for seamless proofreading.

A nice Hi-Fi system used to be the center of a home's audio experience, but today a flood of Bluetooth speakers, wireless headphones, soundbars, and even more audio gadgets make it seem like the Hi-Fi's days are done.

Disney+ is embracing the Dark Side, as Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is about to emerge on the service. Before The Mandalorianbrought Star Wars into live-action television, the franchise was thriving in animated form, thanks to the initial success of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Among the many new twists that the series introduced, one of the most notable developments was the return of Darth Maul after his apparent death in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Not that long ago, I received a text message from the Illinois Tollway Authority stating I had an unpaid toll. At first, I thought it might be possible, since I do travel through Chicago on occasion to see family elsewhere in the Midwest and have an E-ZPass on my windshield.

If you've ever accidentally entered the wrong command in Command Prompt or PowerShell you aren't alone—everyone does it eventually. Fortunately, one of Linux's best safeguards is now available for the Windows Terminal.

Over the past decade, AMD has fallen into NVIDIA’s shadow, especially as DLSS and NVIDIA’s push into AI and machine learning reshaped what gamers expect from a GPU.

If you like using open-source apps on your Android phone, you likely visit GitHub on a regular basis, since it's the largest open-source app repository out there. But GitHub, in its default form, is anything but the best way to discover new apps and update the ones you already have on your phone, even if you have a GitHub account.

If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably put off certain projects in your homelab because they feel too difficult up front. Recently, I found that the homelab projects I was putting off weren’t actually as difficult as I thought when I did them, and that completely changed how I viewed projects in my homelab and in other areas of my life.