How-To Geek

SSD speeds are far from the only thing that matters. In fact, many will say that they're almost irrelevant, and buying an expensive SSD is a waste of money.

Recently, my mini PC started acting up. It would freeze every so often, and Windows just didn't feel as responsive as it normally did. Nothing had completely stopped working, but the system had become unreliable enough that I knew something was wrong.

It seems like everything today has a subscription attached to it—whether a video streaming app, a food diary app, or even a calculator app. No matter the intent, there is a paywall for additional features.

Some of Excel's most useful features aren't hidden behind complicated menus or obscure keyboard shortcuts. They're built into controls you probably pass over without a second thought. Here are some that can save you time every day.

I'd never considered getting a page turner for my Kindle. When my wife got hers, I finally understood the appeal, but I couldn't believe how the device actually worked.

In my experience, there are two kinds of Ethernet cable users: those who buy one cable and use it for the next 10 years without ever thinking whether it's good or bad, and those who overthink the topic of these cables into oblivion, almost min-maxing every purchase and upgrading every so often. There is some in between, but not a lot.

Linux is having a moment, or rather, Microsoft is scaring people away from Windows. If you're making a transition, I highly recommend you consider the open-source GNOME desktop. Far from being a complicated hobbyist project for hardcore Linux nerds, GNOME today is fun, stylized, polished, and privacy-respecting in a way that feels foreign on Windows PCs, Chromebooks, and even MacBooks.

For many of us, we seem to get more spam calls than calls from people in our contacts list. The problem with strict call filters is that they run the risk of blocking the people you do actually want to hear from. Thankfully, that’s not something you need to worry about if you use an Android phone.

I've been vibe-coding small apps for a while now, and the biggest problem with them is that they live and die on the machine they were built on. Ideally, you'd want to self-host these apps so they're accessible across all your devices. So, this time, I'm testing Claude vs. Gemini to see which model does a better job of building a Dockerized app and making the self-hosting process as simple as possible.

The Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) combines an ESP32 microcontroller and small LCD touch display in one affordable package. The integrated screen means that you can build many projects without ever picking up a soldering iron or a breadboard.

Waze packs a lot of personality and utility into its phone app, but a chunk of that gets left behind once you plug into Android Auto. Here are three features that still don't make the jump.

I love building PCs, but I don't know anybody, myself included, who finds motherboards that exciting (outside of people who work with them for a living, I guess). It's all GPUs and CPUs, and complaining about outrageous prices.

Fake SD cards and SSDs have been a problem for a long time, especially on online storefronts like Amazon, eBay, or AliExpress. The issue has only gotten worse since memory shortages have driven the price of storage sky-high, with little hope of relief any time soon.

Most Excel tutorials hand you a sales spreadsheet from a fictional company and tell you to practice pivot tables on data you don't care about. That method of learning or coming back to Excel doesn't work for everyone. The trick to actually retaining this stuff is working with data that means something to you. If you grew up playing Pokémon, you'll know how structured the games are and how well they'd translate into real excel spreadsheet problems.

Large airports are a potential security nightmare. There are random, unfamiliar Wi-Fi networks everywhere, charging ports that could be compromised, and more people than you could ever hope to count. I'm also basically always in a rush when I'm in an airport.

Running old CD-ROM games on modern Windows isn't too hard if you know how to manage Windows' compatibility software. But what if you have a Linux desktop and don't want to leave your old Windows games behind?

Sometimes you want to laugh, sometimes you want to cry, and sometimes you want a movie so intense that you grip the arm of your couch so hard you nearly rip the upholstery off. If the Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Song Yadong UFC fight on Saturday isn't the kind of thrill you're after, these three thriller movies on Paramount+ might do the trick.

DLSS 5 isn't due for an official release until sometime later this year, but an unfinished version that slipped out with NBA 2K27 has allowed the RenoDX modding community to get it running with dozens of games.

Location access is one of those permissions that everyone should take seriously. Not every app that requests it truly needs it. You may not think a mobile payments app like Google Wallet needs location access, but it actually enables some helpful features.

If you've decided to try Linux, you might have trouble leaving Windows. Maybe your favorite game only runs on Windows, or you need a Windows program for your work. Maybe you think dual-booting Windows and Linux is too much trouble. There are ways to get started with the Linux terminal that can run within Windows.