If you have ever had hidden system files set to display on your Windows system, then you have likely noticed a ‘matching’ pair of desktop.ini files on your desktop. Why are there two of them? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answers to a confused reader’s question. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

iOS supports third-party browsers, but not like you might expect. Third-party browsers will always be inferior to Apple’s own Safari on iPhone and iPad — at least until Apple relaxes their restrictions. This is the reason why Mozilla no longer offers their Firefox Home app for iOS, and it’s the same reason why Google’s Chrome developers had an internal debate before releasing the current Chrome app in the App Store....

Google Play is full of task managers for Android. These utilities can show you apps running in the background, kill running apps, and otherwise manage your apps — but you don’t need to install any third-party software to do this. We’ll show you how to quickly and easily kill and manage your running apps using only the software included with your Android phone. Third-party task managers are unnecessary and many include harmful features, like task killers....

When it comes to digital distribution for PC games, Steam is the undisputed champion, serving up approximately 2.4 billion total game sales as of March 2017. But just because it currently has a lead in the market doesn’t mean you need to curtail your choices for digital game purchases. Here are 10 alternatives to Steam for PC gamers, some of which offer Steam compatibility, and which often beat it on price as well....

Web browsers have been growing up over the past few years. Now that Internet Explorer 6’s hold on the web has been broken, browsers have been implementing a variety of cool new features that websites are taking advantage of today. This article focuses on new web technologies that you can use on actual web pages today. Sure, some of you have no doubt heard of many of these, but the majority of people haven’t heard of all of them....

Chrome is a powerful browser, whether you’re using a desktop PC, smartphone, or tablet. These tips will help you browse faster and take advantage of Chrome’s features on the go. You can grab Chrome for Android from Google Play if it didn’t come with your device. Chrome is available for iPhone and iPad in Apple’s App Store. Swipe Between Tabs RELATED: 8 Tips and Tricks for Browsing with Safari on iPad and iPhone...

TrueCrypt’s dramatic shutdown in May, 2014 left everyone shocked. TrueCrypt was the go-to recommendation for full-disk encryption software, and the developers suddenly said the code was “not secure” and halted development. We still don’t know exactly why TrueCrypt was shut down — perhaps the developers were being pressured by a government, or perhaps they were simply sick of maintaining it. But here’s what you can use instead. TrueCrypt 7.1a (Yes, Still) Yes, TrueCrypt development was officially halted and its official downloads page was taken down....

Private Browsing mode in Safari lets you view sites without adding anything to your history on your iPhone and iPad. Here are four different ways to open a private tab in Safari when you need it. When you use a private tab, Safari doesn’t store your browsing history, AutoFill your information, suggest recent searches, or save cookies once you close the tab. With iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 arrived several changes, including how you can use private browsing mode in Safari....

Mobile apps are harvesting entire address books and uploading them to ad servers, tracking users’ movements via GPS, and doing other nasty things. But Android’s permission system doesn’t do enough to help users fight this. Android’s permission system offers an all-or-nothing choice that most users will ignore. The hidden App Ops interface looked like an in-development solution to this huge problem, but Google has now removed it entirely. Why Android’s App Permissions Are Broken When installing an app, you have a single choice to make....

What Is GarageBand? GarageBand is a digital audio workstation (DAW). Most DAW software is pricey, complex, and demanding, from a hardware perspective. GarageBand is free, approachable, and runs on any modern iPhone or iPad. You’ll find it in Apple’s App Store. It’s available for Mac, too, but we love the touch-based iPhone and iPad version most of all. You can use GarageBand to make music quickly, without any prior knowledge of musical theory or practical skills....

Have you ever wondered why your favorite game from Windows 95 just doesn’t seem to run on Windows 7 but other applications do? Well we have the answer for you, as well as a few solutions for how to fix it. Be sure to check out the previous articles in this Geek School series on Windows 7: Introducing How-To Geek School Upgrades and Migrations Configuring Devices Managing Disks And stay tuned for the rest of the series, as we have many more articles over the next few weeks....

The Pixel 6a is still a very strong phone, even in 2022. It comes with Google’s Tensor SoC, which also powered last year’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, and it comes with very reasonable specs for the price, with the Pixel 6’s only real downgrade being the camera — and it’s not even that bad, since it’s comparable to the camera in the Pixel 5. In the case of the Pixel 7, you get a full flagship package with a second-generation Tensor chip and Google’s amazing 50MP rear camera....

Somedays it’s fun to look at the surface level of the computing experience, and other days it’s fun to delve right into the inner workings. Today we’re taking a look at the structure of computer memory and just how much stuff you can pack into a stick of RAM. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

How to Access Today View in iPadOS 13 The Today View used to show up as its own page on the iPad. In iPadOS 13, it shows up as a column on the left edge of the iPad’s screen. Just swipe right anywhere on the left-most home screen to reveal the widgets panel. If you’re in the landscape mode, the icon grid will shrink to take up space next to the Today View panel....

Headers and Footers in a Word document are useful for adding dates, page numbers, and whatever other text you want. You can also place images in your header and footer, which is handy for adding, for example, a company logo. Here’s how to do it. First, we need to add a header or footer. If you just want to pop open the header or footer area and do your own thing, all you have to do is double click in the areas at the top or bottom of any page in your document....

Perhaps one of the most annoying things about Facebook (there are many) are game requests. Yes, they still exist, and they still continue to annoy users in droves. Facebook games seem to derive their staying power by being really addictive – Candy Crush Soda Saga, for example, has over 10 million users. That’s a lot of people who play Candy Crush Soda Saga, but Facebook has over 800-million active users, so that’s a lot people don’t play CCSS....

The default hostname for the Raspberry Pi is, creatively enough, “raspberrypi“. What if you want a different hostname or you want to avoid hostname conflicts on your local network? Read on as we show you how to quickly change the hostname of a Linux-based device. Why Do I Want to Do This? There are two primary reasons why you would want to take a few minutes to edit the local hostname of a Linux device on your network....

Windows and a lot of third-party apps store settings in the registry. If you’re wanting to edit the registry, there are a few ways you can do it. Here’s how to edit the Windows registry from the Command Prompt. Before we get started, it’s important that you back up the registry, as well as your computer, before you make any edits. One wrong move can make your system unstable or even completely inoperable....

vCard is the abbreviation for Virtual Business Card and is the standard format (.vcf files) for electronic business cards. vCards allow you to create and share contact information over the internet, such as in email messages and instant messaging. You can also use vCards to move contact information from one email or personal information management program to another, as long as both programs support the .vcf file format. vCards can contain name and address information, as well as phone numbers, email addresses, URLs, images, and audio clips....

You probably already know about Lorem Ipsum or perhaps tools such as Random Text Generator, however what can end up happening is – despite the nature of the text – people still focus on the text and attempt to read it. When situations such as this happen, using completely random or gibberish text can come in handy. When Lorem Ipsum Isn’t Enough Wikipedia defines Lorum Ipsum’s common use as:...