How-To Geek - We Explain Technology

How to Use a Windows Laptop as a Wireless Monitor (for Another PC)

You’d like a secondary screen to increase your productivity in Windows 10, but you don’t have another monitor handy. If you have a recent Windows laptop or tablet, though, you can use it as a wireless monitor.

The Best Cell Phone Plans for Families

Finding the right cell plan for you and your family can be a challenge. While many plans are simpler than ever before, the difference between carriers is still vast. Here are the plans that deserve a closer look.

What is “Lost Mode” on the iPhone, iPad, or Mac?

If you ever lose your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch, you should put it in “Lost Mode.” Lost Mode locks your device to protect your personal information, tracks its location, and places a customizable message on its lock screen.

Why Do iPhones Generally Have Better Sound Quality Than Android?

If you’ve ever used both platforms—especially listening to audio through headphones—you probably noticed that iPhones generally have better sound and more volume than Android. But why is that?

The Best Qi Wireless Charging Pads

Now that Apple has joined the wireless charging party, a lot more smartphone owners can take advantage of wireless charging pads. Here are the best choices on the market.

How to Get Started With Audible and Audiobooks

Audiobooks—or books on tape—have been around for decades but they’re booming in popularity now that they no longer take up a dozen CDs and the cost has plummeted. Let’s look at how to get started.

How to Link or Embed an Excel Worksheet in a Word Document

Sometimes, you want to include the data on an Excel spreadsheet in your Microsoft Word document. There are a couple of ways to do this, depending on whether or not you want to maintain a connection with the source Excel sheet. Let’s take a look

The Best Premium Laptop Bags For Every Need

Your laptop works hard for you. Doesn’t it deserve a fancy place to rest in between your destinations? And more pertinently, don’t you deserve a fancy bag to show it off? Here’s our top picks.

How to Set Up and Configure Your Amazon Echo

So you just got an Amazon Echo, either from the recent sales or the holidays. Let’s take a look at how to set it up and some useful things you can task your Echo with.

The Kindle Oasis: Two Years Later, Still The Best E-Reader Around

The Kindle Oasis is Amazon’s premium Kindle device. It’s—supposedly—the best e-reader Amazon can make but is it worth the ridiculous price? Read on to find out.

What Are Woofers, Mid-Range Speakers, and Tweeters?

Woofers, mid-range speakers, and tweeters are all types of loudspeakers. Most often, all three types of speakers are mounted in a single enclosure, but you can also find each in discrete enclosures. Let’s take a closer look at how they work.

How to Enable (or Disable) Automatic Updates on Your iPhone or iPad

Apple’s iOS 12 operating system will bring automatic operating system updates to iPhone and iPad. The App Store can automatically update your installed apps, too. Here’s how to enable these updates, or disable them if you’d rather update manually.

The Best Mesh Wi-Fi Routers For Every Need

When a single Wi-Fi router won’t do, a mesh Wi-Fi system lets you get strong coverage everywhere in your house without tearing your walls apart. These are our favorites.

What Does the Depth of Field Preview Button Do On Your Camera?

Have you ever wondered what the button next to the lens mount on your DSLR is for? Not the one that you use to detach a lens, but that other one? That’s the depth of field preview button. Let’s dig in.

Why Does Google Chrome Say Websites Are “Not Secure”?

Starting with Chrome 68, Google Chrome labels all non-HTTPS websites as “Not Secure.” Nothing else has changed—HTTP websites are just as secure as they’ve always been—but Google is giving the entire web a shove towards secure, encrypted connections.

How To Create A Graph On The Web

Sometimes you just need to make a decent-looking graph, but don’t want to get bogged down in a complex spreadsheet app. Here are some free websites that let you create graphs, no matter what your experience level.

The Best Desktop Photo Printer For Every Budget

Ultra portable photo printers are great for when convenience and speed is key to printing your photos, but how about if you want a better quality image? We’ve taken a look at the best desktop photo printers.

How To Rename AV Inputs On Roku TVs

Roku’s software is a popular standard for “smart” HDTVs, especially among budget manufacturers. If you want your homescreen to be more organized, you can apply custom names and icons to your input device. Here’s how.

PSA: Make Sure You Have a Backup for Two-Factor Authentication

Two factor authentication (2FA) is generally a great security tool. But if you have it enabled on your Apple or Google accounts, this could really come back to bite you in the worst way. Here’s what you need to know.

The Best Digital Audio Workstations for Windows

If you’re looking to get into music recording, you’re going to need a good DAW—or Digital Audio Workstation. There’s no shortage of choices, so here’s a look at some of the best options for Windows to get you going.

How to Use Alexa Without an Amazon Echo

You don’t need an Amazon Echo to use Alexa. You can play Skyrim and Westworld, take advantage of Alexa voice shopping, and just use Alexa normally with your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone.

What to Do If You Find Someone’s Lost iPhone or Smartphone

Smartphones go missing all the time. I’m pretty sure my sister loses hers the second Tuesday and third Thursday of every month. We’ve already looked at what to do if you lose your smartphone so let’s take a different perspective: what to do if you find someone’s smartphone and want to return it to them.

How to Recover Your Forgotten Yahoo! Password

If you don’t use a password manager, those complex passwords can be pretty hard to remember. If you’ve forgotten your Yahoo password, you can’t really recover that same password, but it’s easy enough to recover your account by resetting your password to something new.

The Best Desk Chair Alternatives

For millennia, the preferred place to park your posterior has been a chair. But this is The Future, people! We don’t have flying cars, but we can do better than a rusty faux leather swivel chair.

Amazon Fire TV Cube Review: The Universal Remote You’ve Been Waiting For

What happens when you put an Echo Dot, a Fire TV, and a universal remote in a blender? Figuratively, you get what’s called the Fire TV Cube, and Amazon hopes it will take over your home entertainment system.

The Best Dopp Kit Travel Bag for Your Toiletries

A few hours on a plane doesn’t have to leave you looking (and presumably smelling) like Robin Williams in Jumanji. As long as you bring a razor, comb, toothbrush, and a few toiletries along, you can be your usual dapper self in no time. But what to put them in? Let’s look at the best travel toiletries bags going.

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The First Video Game To Feature Point-And-Click Mechanics Was?

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Is Google Replacing Android with Fuchsia? Maybe, But Not for a Long Time

Today Bloomberg is reporting that Google’s new Project Fuchsia operating system might actually be a successor to Android. Since this will likely fuel speculation, we thought we’d weigh in with our completely uninformed educated guesses as well. Read More »

Google’s Bringing Back Google Now (Sort of) Inside Assistant

That little icon in Google Assistant may not look like much, but it heralds a return to form for Google. Now, when you tap this new button, you’ll find something like the extremely useful Google Now. Read More »

Google Hid An Awesome Per-App Auto Rotate Feature in Android P

Historically, when you turn your phone on its side, the screen rotates. To keep this from happening, you can lock the orientation. But with Android P, Google included a way to have to the best of both worlds. Read More »

The Best Prime Day Deals Are 50% Off Amazon Devices (Echo, Cameras, Fire, Kindle)

Amazon’s Prime Day officially starts at 3PM EST today, but as always, the real deals are deeply discounted Amazon products, and this year that includes smarthome devices like Ring, cloud camera, and security systems. Read More »

Google Chrome Will Start Using 10% More RAM Now, Thanks to Spectre

Soon Google Chrome is going to use even more of your RAM, assuming that it’s even possible to use more than it already does. This is because of Chrome 67’s new Site Isolation feature to protect against Spectre. Read More »

How to Use YouTube’s New Incognito Mode to Hide Your Watch History

It only takes watching one random off-topic video to make YouTube’s algorithms start showing you a bazillion weird videos that you don’t really want to see. Luckily they just added Incognito mode to YouTube, which works just like Chrome Incognito mode does. Here’s how to enable it on Android. Read More »

Firefox Launches a Password Manager for iPhone and Notes for Android

Firefox Test Pilot is where Mozilla tests experimental features that might eventually become part of Firefox. Today they launched a password manager for your iPhone, and Notes for Android phones, which use Firefox Sync to access passwords and notes saved in your browser. Read More »

How to Enable USB Restricted Mode on Your iPhone or iPad, Available in iOS 11.4.1

Apple’s iPhones are extremely secure once you’ve used TouchID or FaceID and a passcode to lock them down, but there was a loophole with specialized USB tools plugging into the lightning port. Here’s how to enable USB Restricted Mode to secure against it. Read More »

Reminder: Your Smart TV is Almost Certainly Spying on You

You’re not just paranoid: your smart TV really is tracking what you watch. And yes: other devices in your house are showing relevant ads based on what you watch. Read More »

This AI-Powered Polaroid Spits Out Childish Drawings Instead of Photos

Here’s a useless project for you: a Polaroid-style camera that prints out childish drawings of whatever you take a picture of. Read More »

Look Out: Browser Crashing Tech Support Pop-ups Are Back

Those pop-ups that slow down PCs and tell you to call “Microsoft” at a sketchy 1-800 number are back, thanks to an newly exploited browser bug. Read More »

Researchers Find Apps Aren’t Recording Your Conversations (But Some Are Grabbing Screenshots)

Facebook isn’t spying on everything you say. Your data plan would be higher, and your battery life worse, if that were the case. Read More »

Facebook Bug Gave Blocked Users Access to Your Posts and Photos

A Facebook bug temporarily unblocked people for 800,000 Facebook users, briefly giving blocked individuals access to posts and photos. Read More »

Browser Extension Stylish Knows What Porn You Watch (And All of Your Web History)

Stylish, a browser extension with two million users, has been monitoring your browsing history for over a year. Read More »

Reminder: Third Party Gmail Apps Have Full Access to Your Email

Remember that “cool” free Gmail app you installed years ago and then forgot about? It probably still has access to your email, and actual humans might be sifting through them. Read More »