Posts

Whether you’re looking for a way to simply extend your Wi-Fi network, bridge your existing Wi-Fi network to a LAN, or create a completely new access point, the Netgear EX6100 can do it all. Read on as we put the multi-faceted little range extender through the paces. What Is The EX6100? The Netgear EX6100 (herein referred to as the EX6100 for brevity) is a wall-wart form factor wireless extender. Wireless extenders are intended to extend the reach of your original wireless signal beyond the range of your primary Wi-Fi connection; you place the extender within the current range of your router and it takes that signal and extends it outward....

Today Microsoft officially announced the next version of Windows, which was expected to be called Windows 9, or maybe Windows One, or even maybe just Windows. But it’s Windows 10. Here are the highlights. The short version is that Microsoft has realized that desktop users really were unhappy with Windows 8, and this version of Windows focuses on using the desktop. Windows 10 aims to unify everything together, so it’s one platform and one store for everything across all devices....

The new Beam is a major upgrade to the original model. This time around it provides five speaker arrays compared to the original’s three, features a much faster processor, and supports HDMI eARC in addition to the standard ARC. That said, the biggest feature in the new Beam is the addition of Dolby Atmos support. All these features sound great, but they’re packed into a small package that costs more than some complete soundbar systems on the market....

“Help, my computer is broken!” comes the phone call yet again. If you’re stuck playing tech support for family or friends, there are many free tools that allow you to remotely access the other person’s computer and fix it. There are a million and one remote tech support options out there. We’ll look at the best ones here, whether you need to walk them through downloading one over the phone or want to set up remote access ahead of time....

Back in October, Google quietly revealed in a support document that the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro would soon have free access to Google One VPN, a basic VPN service included with the Premium tier of Google One (priced at $9.99/month). Now the rollout is official, as Google told How-To Geek, “Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro users will be able to use VPN by Google One at no cost and keep their online activity protected no matter what app or web browser you use....

Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite introduced a new Notification Center. It’s similar to the notification center found in iOS, bringing together widgets and notifications into one location. The notification center normally offers widgets and a list of previous notifications. You can also extend it with powerful scripts, thanks to a third-party application. Accessing the Notification Center To access the notification center, just click the button at the top-right corner of your screen — the one on the far-right side of the top menu bar....

Facebook is used by a lot of different people for a lot of different things, so it’s only natural that Facebook would have different sets of features for each of them. There are three main ways you can use Facebook: with a regular Profile, as a Page, or as a Group admin. Let’s look at what each is for. Facebook Profiles A Facebook Profile is what you probably think of when someone mentions Facebook....

The function keys on keyboards don’t get the love they used to, but depending on the app you’re running, they can still be quite handy. Microsoft PowerPoint has some interesting features tucked away behind your function keys. Here’s what they do. F1 F1: When you’re in editing mode, pressing F1 displays the help menu. When you’re in slideshow mode, pressing F1 reveals the slideshow’s controls so you can do things like moving forward or backward in your presentation....

Building up a solid custom dictionary in Microsoft Word takes a while as you add a handful of words at a time, but once you get it built up, it makes working on your documents a much more pleasant task. So what do you do when you need to re-install Windows and do not want to lose your custom dictionary? 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....

With shows like Crikey! It’s the Irwins and The Aquarium, you can take in all the fantastic content offered by the Animal Planet channel. These services bring you all of the animal content without being locked into a cable bill. Animal Planet Website and App Animal Planet has mobile apps as well as a website where you can stream its content. Unfortunately, to use this service, you just have to link your TV provider....

Browser plug-ins are on their way out. Apple’s iOS has never supported plug-ins, Flash is long-discontinued for Android, and the new version of IE for Windows 8 doesn’t support most plug-ins. Chrome will soon be blocking traditional NPAPI browser plug-ins. The web isn’t going in reverse and losing features. There’s a good reason browser plug-ins are going away, and the web will be better once they’re gone. Browser developers are integrating plug-in features into browsers themselves....

Sometimes the faithful download progress meter on your browser (or other application) just throws its hands in the air and gives up on displaying the remaining download time. Why does it sometimes nail the projected download time and sometimes fails to report it all together? 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 Coldblackice wants to know why his browser doesn’t always dish the dirt:...

Have you upgraded to Windows 8 yet? We’ve published a lot of Windows 8 articles here at How-To Geek, and I’ve written many of them, but I haven’t. I still use Windows 7 on my PC. This is just one geek’s opinion. I’ve been playing with Windows 8 for much longer than most people. It has been about a year since I wrote my first Windows 8 articles (using a prerelease) here at How-To Geek....

Microsoft’s Scroogled campaign is wrong about Chromebooks. Chromebooks definitely aren’t for everyone, but they’re not completely useless either. And Chromebooks have more in common with Microsoft’s vision than Microsoft wants to admit. If the Scroogled advertisements feel like political attack ads, that’s because they basically are. They’re overseen by a man who had previously run political campaigns. Luckily for Google, the main message the ads convey is that Chromebooks exist....

The benchmarks are clear: Solid-state drives slow down as you fill them up. Fill your solid-state drive to near-capacity and its write performance will decrease dramatically. The reason why lies in the way SSDs and NAND Flash storage work. Filling the drive to capacity is one of the things you should never do with a solid-state drive. A nearly full solid-state drive will have much slower write operations, slowing down your computer....

Windows software downloads are a mess. Many programs try to drag adware and other malicious junk onto your computer. Even safe programs we test sometimes turn to the dark side and start bundling junk later. More experienced geeks may not fall for this stuff as often, but we have all kinds of readers here. We prefer to avoid putting our readers into situations where they could be infected because they downloaded something we recommended....

Computer networking is filled with jargon that isn’t self-explanatory. Here’s a quick overview of many of the terms you’ll see when you glance at the network status information on any device. We’re definitely simplifying things a bit here — this isn’t an in-depth look at any one term. ISP RELATED: Who Provides Internet Service for My Internet Service Provider? Your Internet service provider is the company that provides you with your Internet connection....

Why Cable Management Matters Proper cable management won’t necessarily help keep your PC cooler, since most mid-sized cases have a good amount of extra space. Only in the most extreme cases, where cables are somehow blocking fans or vents, would it make a difference. But cable management is about more than just temperatures. First of all, a PC build is never completely finished. There will always be a new GPU or CPU that you want, an extra storage drive to add, a better cooler, more RAM, and RGB lighting strips to make it really pop....

We’ve previously covered the standard ways to free up space on Windows. But if you have a small solid-state drive and really want more hard space, there are geekier ways to reclaim hard drive space. Not all of these tips are recommended — in fact, if you have more than enough hard drive space, following these tips may actually be a bad idea. There’s a tradeoff to changing all of these settings....

Are you tired of ‘chasing’ your garage door opener all over the interior of your car, or perhaps you have a need to keep it out of sight so it is not stolen? Today’s DIY video provides some nice inspiration for a ‘tied down’, hidden set up that is easy to manage and use! Garage Door Opener Hack! [YouTube]