Lowell Heddings
Contributing since September, 2006
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1336articles
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About Lowell Heddings
Lowell Heddings is the founder of How-To Geek. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over 250 million people.
Prior to starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in the IT field doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, and programming. The last decade of his previous career, however, was largely spent doing business automation for large corporations. The e-commerce integrations he created are still being used to automate billions of dollars worth of transactions today.
Latest Articles
Java on OS X is Bundling Crapware, Here's How to Make it Stop
It's really sad, but Oracle started bundling crapware like the Ask "app" even for Mac OS X users now.
How to Remove uTorrent's EpicScale Crapware From Your Computer
The internet went crazy today when somebody figured out that uTorrent was bundling a piece of crapware called EpicScale that uses your computer to mine for Bitcoins, and according to many reports, was silently installed.
Disable Adaptive Brightness in Windows to Fix Dark Screen Problems
If you just installed Windows 8 or Windows 10 on your laptop and the screen won’t stay at the brightness level you want, it’s probably because the adaptive brightness feature isn’t working right on your system.
Mac OS X Isn’t Safe Anymore: The Crapware / Malware Epidemic Has Begun
OS X users like to make fun of Windows users as the only ones that have a malware problem.
Google is Now Blocking Crapware in Search Results, Ads, and Chrome
We've been doing a lot of research into crapware and malware lately, and one of the most troubling things we found was that Google was serving up search results for open source software.
Download.com and Others Bundle Superfish-Style HTTPS Breaking Adware
It's a scary time to be a Windows user.
Scammers Are Using a Fake Version of AdwCleaner to Trick People
The latest trend in the awful Windows ecosystem is pretty ridiculous -- scammers have a fake version of the reputable AdwCleaner tool, which is a real tool for Windows experts.
How to Reload Windows 8.1 on Your Surface Pro Tablet
If you upgraded your Surface Pro tablet to the Windows 10 preview and everything broke, or you just need to completely reinstall the thing, today we're going to show you how to reload Windows with a recovery USB.
Even Microsoft is Doing the Bundling Nonsense with Their Downloads Now
We've been complaining for a long time that there's no safe place to download freeware where the downloads are free of bundled add-ons that usually redirect your browser to something other than what you chose.
How to Use Google for Safari Search on Your iPhone or iPad
You might be asking yourself why we'd write an article about how to switch to Google as your default search engine on the iPhone or iPad when it's already the default.
How to Remove the Awful ShopperPro Adware / Malware
We were testing out our theory that all freeware download sites are awful when we got infected with the ShopperPro adware, which just completely takes over your entire browser window with obnoxious ads, redirects Amazon links to some shady site, and is awful.
Microsoft Announces Windows 10 (It Has Holograms!) But Should You Care?
Microsoft officially announced Windows 10's features today, and it includes things like the Cortana digital assistant, Xbox integration, a completely new browser that isn't Internet Explorer, and yes, holograms.
Yes, <i>Every</i> Freeware Download Site is Serving Crapware (Here's the Proof)
When we wrote about what happens when you install the top ten apps from CNET Downloads, about half of the comments were from people saying, "Well you should download from a trusted source.
How to Remove the Horrible BoBrowser Adware / Malware
We were testing out some freeware download sites to prove our assertion that all download sites are pushing bundled crapware (and yes, they are) when we ran across a truly terrible piece of malware called BoBrowser which replaces Chrome with a lookalike that is chock full of adware.
How to Find Your Minecraft Saved Games Folder on Any OS
We were setting up a new Minecraft server at HTG headquarters to play the awesome Captive Minecraft survival mode game (which uses vanilla Minecraft, no mods required), when we realized we didn't have an article about how to find your saved games folder.
How to Stop iPhoto from Starting When You Plug in an iPhone, iPad or Memory Card
After switching to OS X, there was one big annoyance that kept happening over and over -- every time I plug anything into my MacBook and it happens to have a DCIM folder on the file system, iPhoto will immediately launch and start scanning.
How to Tell Whether Your Windows PC is Using a Proxy Server
While researching for our article about what happens when you install crapware from a really lousy download site, we noticed that some of the crapware and spyware will actually try to install a proxy server to spy on you.
The How-To Geek at CES 2015 Live Photo Blog
Most of the How-To Geek team is at CES 2015, and we're doing a group photo "live blog" of sorts, which just means that we'll be posting pictures of everything we're looking at in Vegas, as we're looking at it (assuming we have a decent Internet connection).
How to Backup and Restore the Windows Registry
You can back up sections of the Windows Registry to a file using the Registry Editor, but to properly make a backup of the Registry you really should use System Restore.
How to Automatically Reboot Your Router the Geeky Way
Verizon FIOS is great -- the speeds are incredible, and the price is… well, kinda expensive.