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Android allows developers to replace its keyboard with their own keyboard apps. This has led to experimentation and great new features, like the gesture-typing feature that’s made its way into Android’s official keyboard after proving itself in third-party keyboards. This sort of customization isn’t possible on Apple’s iOS or even Microsoft’s modern Windows environments. Installing a third-party keyboard is easy — install it from Google Play, launch it like another app, and it will explain how to enable it....

Many of Windows 10’s best features showed up in Mac OS X years ago, including virtual desktops, Expose-like window management, and a notification center. Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite has some other ideas Microsoft should copy for version 10 of its own operating system, too. All operating systems copy from each other, and that’s a good thing. This isn’t about who invented what first — it’s about improving the operating systems billions of people use every day....

Let’s be honest: The Windows desktop is a mess. Sure, it’s extremely powerful and has a huge software library, but it’s not a good experience for average people. It’s not even a good experience for geeks, although we tolerate it. Even Microsoft agrees about this. Microsoft’s Surface tablets with Windows RT don’t support any third-party desktop apps. They consider this a feature — users can’t install malware and other desktop junk, so the system will always be speedy and secure....

Medical conditions sometimes require us to tweak Windows in order to accommodate a particular physical limitation or need. With this in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post looks at options available for a reader’s visual monochrome needs. 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. The Question SuperUser reader Liam William wants to know if there is a way to force Windows to display in Grayscale:...

When you are setting up a personal server for the first time or simply seeking to upgrade or update, you may wonder just what hardware components are necessary versus what is unnecessary. Consider racks for example, do you absolutely have to have a rack for your server? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has some helpful answers to a curious 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....

Sure, you can get your exchange administrator to export a list for you, but thankfully there’s an easy way using Microsoft Access. Prerequisite: You will need to make sure you do this on a computer that has Outlook installed and configured. Start by opening Access, and creating a blank database. Now select File \ Get External Data \ Import You will see a standard file open dialog. In here, you will open the drop-down menu for Files of type, and you should see Exchange() in the list:...

In this installation of Geek School, we look at how we can administer our machines remotely using Remote Assistance, Remote Desktop, Windows Remote Management also known as WinRM, and PowerShell. 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 Managing Applications Managing Internet Explorer IP Addressing Fundamentals Networking Wireless Networking Windows Firewall...

Come and join us as we make a the world a safer place using our Windows Firewall in this edition of Geek School. 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 Managing Applications Managing Internet Explorer IP Addressing Fundamentals Networking Wireless Networking And stay tuned for the rest of the series all next week....

Google revealed last month that it was merging its two video chat services together, Google Meet and Google Duo. The process has finally started, but what exactly is happening? What’s Happening? Right now, Google has two services for video calls. Duo is a simplified app intended for direct video calls, mostly on mobile devices (though there is a web app). Meet is more like Zoom or video calls on Microsoft Teams, with links to join calls and a more complex feature set....

Google recently made a significant change to the stable and beta channels of Chrome, one that disabled any extension that did not come from the Web Store. While this will help improve security for many of Chrome’s users, how does someone with a legitimate non-web store extension get it to work again? 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....

The Wild Area The Wild Area in Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Galar Region is an entirely new experience for all Pokémon players; it is the first truly open-world section of the Pokémon series. You will encounter wild Pokémon on the field in the Wild Areas. However, the Pokémon you encounter will vary, depending on your location in the Wild Area as well as the weather. If it’s raining, for example, more Water-type Pokémon will appear....

Like with all other web browsers, you can change the Brave browser’s home page to any website of your choice. This lets you open that site in the browser by just clicking the Home button. We’ll show you how to set this up. To make a site your home page, all you need is that site or web page’s web address (URL). You’ll type or paste this address in Brave, and the browser will make it your home page....

Have you installed so many apps in Windows 8.1 that you’re quickly running out of room? This might especially be the case if you’re using a Windows tablet. There is an easy way to see how much space each installed app is using. NOTE: We show this procedure being done on a PC, so we talk about clicking with the mouse. If you’re using a tablet, simply touch the screen with your finger instead....

By default, Hyper-V tries to figure out which Virtual Machines were powered on at the time that your PC had its power cut. It uses this list to automatically turn Virtual Machines back on when your PC powers on. Here is how to change what gets switched back on. How To Configure Hyper-V Virtual Machine Startup Behavior Unfortunately, Virtual Machine startup behavior is configured at the Virtual Machine level and therefore needs to be set for each Virtual Machine separately....

Microsoft’s Windows To Go feature installs Windows as a live system on a bootable USB drive. It’s officially only for Enterprise editions of Windows, but we’ve found a way to do it with any edition of Windows 8 or 8.1. Note: This should work for Windows 10 as well but we haven’t yet tested it out. Once Microsoft releases the final version we’ll test and update this article. Of course, you’re also welcome to test it out and let us know....

Want a great way to share your Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow on social media, your company intranet, or a blog? You can create an animated GIF of your PowerPoint presentation and share it with the world. If you have PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 on Windows or Mac, creating an animated GIF is a piece of cake. Since the steps differ slightly, we’ll list them separately so that you can jump right to the platform you need....

Your Facebook profile says a lot about you. It’s likely your most visible online presence, so it’s worth making it look good. Here’s how to pick a great cover photo. Bear In Mind the Size Restrictions Facebook’s cover photos come in a weird size. They’re 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels (roughly a 2.7:1 aspect ratio) in a desktop browser. And they’re 640 pixels wide by 340 (about 1.88:1) pixels tall on mobile....

Apple’s Game Center is included on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It’s a social gaming service for games on Apple’s platforms. With Game Center, you might see friend invites, game invites, and other notifications — but you can disable all that and never see a Game Center notification again. You can sign out of Game Center, although some games may require it. Either way, it’s possible to disable game invites, friend requests, and notifications — all the ways Game Center can pester you....

The Global menu in Ubuntu was designed to provide more space for program windows. However, if you use a large monitor or multiple monitors, the Global menu can be an annoyance as the menus get further away from their respective program windows. If you don’t like the Global menu feature in Ubuntu 13.10, you can easily turn it off. NOTE: When we say to type something in this article and there are quotes around the text, DO NOT type the quotes, unless we specify otherwise....

If you don’t want to see online results when you search using the Unity Dash, you can disable this feature. We’ve previously shown you how to do this using the command line. However, there is an easier way to do this in the system settings. Click the “System Settings” icon on the Unity bar. In the “Personal” section of the “System Settings” window, click the “Security & Privacy” icon....