How-To Geek

Not every great app costs hundreds of dollars a year in subscription fees. Whether you're looking to edit photos or work with PDFs, here are some of the best free Windows apps available.

LibreOffice is one of the best alternatives to Microsoft Office and Google Docs, and now it's rolling out a major update. LibreOffice 26.2 has arrived with some new features, compatibility improvements with Microsoft Office, and faster performance.

I haven't charged the Logitech Signature Slim Solar+ K980 wireless keyboard once since set-up, and that's the point. While its solar charging is nearly its only special feature, it does what it does well, delivering an excellent typing experience, long-lasting battery life, portability, and multi-device support.

In the United States, approximately 20% of the 42,915 people killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2021 were vulnerable road users, defined as pedestrians, cyclists, and wheelchair users. Contributing factors to the high number include distracted driving and speeding, with school zones among the highest-risk areas.

The weirder a Netflix documentary is, the better. If it's about true crime, those docs tend to become streaming sensations. Just look at the overwhelming success of Making a Murderer and Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer. The same success rate can be said for the crazy-but-true genre, which features unbelievable stories captured on film. The latest hit for the streamer is Secret Mall Apartment.

Netflix's intense and unique extreme climbing extravaganza Skyscraper Live has been a big success for the streamer, attracting a reported 6.2 million views and currently sitting at No. 2 on the Netflix U.S. Top 10. The stakes were high, as the world's most famous free solo climber, Alex Honnold, Spider-Manned his way up the 1,667-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper, one of the world's tallest buildings—no ropes, no safety harness, no nothing.

Solid-state drives, especially NVMe drives, have become ubiquitous in newer builds because of their convenient size, blazing fast transfer speeds, and cost. If you're shopping for a drive, you may be tempted to try and "future-proof" your SSD, but you shouldn't. There are better ways to spend your money.

Although Firefox is well-regarded by privacy-conscious users, some of its default settings can expose you to privacy risks. Additionally, the browser isn't optimized for performance, security, and user experience. If you're using Firefox with its default settings, I recommend turning off these features.

If you're thinking of leaving behind Netflix and other streaming services for a self-hosted Jellyfin server, you're not alone. I've been doing this for years, and I just started using a new video client on my Chromecast TV I'm excited to show you.

The Mazda Miata is an affordable and fun sports car beloved by enthusiasts from all walks of life. Although compact, there is enough room for most everyday things, from a gym bag and light luggage to a modest load of groceries. Standard safety features for the 2026 model include front and side airbags, side-impact door beams, blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and lane departure warning.

The vinyl versus CD debate keeps popping up its head, which is something I find personally annoying given that, objectively, CDs are the superior format. But, over time, I've realized that the claims by vinyl fanatics about the supposed audio quality of their beloved medium have less to do with objectivity and almost everything to do with subjectivity.

Typically, an SSD is better for data that you need to retrieve quickly, and not important files, which are relegated to hard drives that have more space.

There are many options for a mini PC, but not all of them have a Nintendo Entertainment System-inspired design. Acemagic wants to fix that with its new Retro X3 mini PC.

There was a time when only geeky tech enthusiasts used Android phones. That’s certainly not the case anymore, but there’s still some jargon that the average person probably doesn’t know. You might not use these terms in your daily life, but knowledge is power.

Ever found yourself juggling between your terminal and a grep command guide when you're deep inside a project? Meet Clapgrep, a sleek, modern utility that brings the speed of terminal search tools into a user-friendly graphical interface. It's how I turn complex queries into a simple "point and click" operation.

Reliability is often the first thing buyers think about when choosing an SUV, and for decades, Japanese-built crossovers have dominated that conversation. Yet one American SUV has quietly edged past many of its Japanese rivals in dependability scores, surprising shoppers who assume domestic models can’t compete on long-term reliability. In 2025, its track record makes it a compelling choice for anyone who wants peace of mind without sacrificing practicality or everyday usability.

There are tons of Linux distros. Most of them are new, some of them are old, some of them so old they don't exist anymore. But there's one distro that has stood the test of time, surprisingly. And that's none other than Slackware.

I've cut my streaming subscriptions and replaced them with a mix of digitized CDs and FLACs, but the default media players built into Windows and Linux don't offer the same convenience as Spotify. This is how I made my own music streaming service.

I have a bunch of cheap smart devices, and I've never felt comfortable putting them on the same Wi-Fi network as my phone and PC. When you hook up a new Wi-Fi-powered smart home gadget, it always asks to connect to your home Wi-Fi. But did you know that there’s an easy way to make the devices work without giving out your real Wi-Fi password?

Recently, we've heard a rumor of a coming apocalypse in the tech world: QR codes will soon be used up. I can tell you that this simply isn't true. In reality, it's an absurd way to talk about QR codes and similar technologies. Here's why.