Computer History

Before DVDs, There Were VCDs: The Video Disc Everyone Forgot

Many folks in the United States may never have heard of VCDs. However, in many parts of the world, these CD-based movies were the main way anyone could get their hands on the latest and greatest Hollywood hits….

Sydney Butler Mar 26th

20 Classic Smartphone Apps: Where Are They Now?

Millions of apps have been released for the iPhone and Android devices over the years. In the early days of smartphones, there were some apps and games that were particularly popular and important. Let’s check in on some of t…

Joe Fedewa Feb 26th

I Installed Google Chrome 1.0, Here’s How It Went

Google Chrome was first released back in 2008, and it would later become the most popular web browser in the world. Does the first version of the world’s most popular desktop web browser still hold up, though?…

Corbin Davenport Feb 25th

How Screen Savers Literally Save Your Screen

Winding pipes, dizzying 3D mazes, a haunted house, colorful flurries—screen savers used to be fun. They also used to serve a very important purpose, and may still today. That purpose was described in the name itself all thi…

Joe Fedewa Jan 2nd

Intel Arc GPUs Now Work Better With Older Games

Intel is slowly building up its own line of dedicated graphics cards, under the “Arc” brand. The company recently pushed a driver update focused on DirectX 9 performance, giving older games and apps a big boost….

Corbin Davenport Dec 10th, 2022

Remember When New CPUs Were Always a Huge Upgrade?

Nowadays, it seems like many PC hardware upgrades are mostly iterative, incremental upgrades. Other than a few extra cores, or faster-clocked cores, we’re not getting anything truly exciting or earth-shattering. What ever hap…

Arol Wright Dec 9th, 2022

You Can Try Hundreds of ’90s PalmPilot Apps in Your Browser

The PalmPilot was one of the most influential mobile devices of the 1990s, and helped establish Palm as a dominant player in the tech industry. Now you can use hundreds of apps and games made for it in your web browser….

Corbin Davenport Nov 28th, 2022

What Happened to 3D Desktops Like Bumptop?

Some of the most memorable scenes from Jurassic Park and Minority Report involve 3D computer interfaces that look amazing onscreen but haven’t taken off in real life. Yet 3D desktops aren’t dead, and their peak is still ahead…

Sydney Butler Nov 8th, 2022

StumbleUpon Made the Internet Feel Small

The internet is home to over one billion websites—and no great way to aimlessly explore them. StumbleUpon was the answer to this problem. It put a big “Shuffle” button on the internet, and the web didn’t feel so big….

Joe Fedewa Nov 5th, 2022

If Only We Could Blow on Gadgets to Fix Them

There are numerous reasons why I could never get a job as tech support, since my answer to most queries would be: “Did you blow on it? Maybe you should blow on it. Nothing? Ok, hold on. Try hitting it.”…

Chason Gordon Nov 1st, 2022

The 10 Worst Computer Viruses in History

Computer virus: Those two words instantly make us sweat—and for good reason. Since the 1980s, viruses have wreaked havoc on everything from our inboxes to industrial facilities. While cybersecurity has improved, the damage…

Brenna Miles Oct 28th, 2022

22 Classic Windows Games You Can Play Right Now

Do you fondly remember playing card games in a classroom on a Windows 95 workstation? Perhaps you passed the time in an early 1990s office cubicle sweeping for mines. You can relive the classic games of Windows past today. We…

Tim Brookes Oct 8th, 2022

What Ever Happened to HD-DVD?

Just like VHS and BetaMax, there was once a format war between the winning Blu-ray format and the now-defunct HD-DVD format. The war between these two formats was over in a mere two years, so what happened?…

Sydney Butler Sep 30th, 2022

A Farewell Tour of Benj’s Best HTG Computer History Articles

After 2.5 years and over 1,000 articles here, I’m leaving How-To Geek. It’s a bittersweet feeling, since I love this place, but new adventures are calling. Before I go, I thought it would be fun to round up my favorite and m…

Benj Edwards Aug 26th, 2022

Where Did the Term “Computer User” Come From?

We use the term “computer user” frequently, but with so many people who purchase computers, why not say “computer owner,” “computer customer,” or something else? We dug into the history behind the term and found something we …

Benj Edwards Aug 24th, 2022

Why Was Atari Called Atari?

With powerful branding and design, Atari became a household name in video games and computers during the 1970s and early ’80s. We’ll explain how its founders came up with the name and what it means.

Benj Edwards Aug 22nd, 2022

What Is a Pixel?

In our age of digital media, we often take for granted the humble pixel. But what exactly is a pixel, and how did it come to be such an important part of our lives? We’ll explain.

Benj Edwards Aug 15th, 2022

Radio Shack’s First PC: 45 Years of TRS-80

45 years ago, Radio Shack released the TRS-80 Micro Computer System, a 1977 personal computer that launched an era of low-cost PCs along with computers from Apple and Commodore. Here’s what was special about it….

Benj Edwards Aug 3rd, 2022

The Best-Selling PC of All Time: Commodore 64 Turns 40

40 years ago, Commodore released the Commodore 64 home computer, which set sales records, shook the American video game industry to its core, and introduced programming to a generation of kids around the world. Here’s why it …

Benj Edwards Aug 1st, 2022

You Can Now Play 3D Pinball From Windows on Nearly Anything

3D Pinball Space Cadet was a game first included in the ‘Microsoft Plus!’ pack for Windows 95, and it gained popularity for its inclusion in Windows XP. Even though the game doesn’t ship with Windows anymore, you can still pl…

Corbin Davenport Jul 1st, 2022

A World Without Wires: 25 Years of Wi-Fi

It’s been a quarter-century since the IEEE introduced the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard. Since then, speeds have increased, and wireless internet has changed the world. Here’s a look back.

Benj Edwards Jun 30th, 2022

“Atari Was Very, Very Hard” Nolan Bushnell on Atari, 50 Years Later

It’s been 50 years since Nolan Bushnell co-founded Atari, which brought video games to the mainstream. To celebrate, we asked Bushnell what he learned during the early years—and what we’ve lost sight of since then….

Benj Edwards Jun 27th, 2022

What’s the Difference Between the “Enter” and “Return” Keys?

On a Mac extended keyboard, there’s a “Return” and an “Enter” key. On most PC keyboards, there are two “Enter” keys, but some say “Return” instead. What’s going on here? We look at the history behind the keys….

Benj Edwards Jun 13th, 2022

5 Ways Windows Phone Was Ahead of Its Time

In the mobile OS landscape, Windows Phone wasn’t around for very long (2010-2017). It was never very popular, but Microsoft infused it with some new, interesting ideas. A few of those ideas ended up being ahead of their time….

Joe Fedewa Jun 11th, 2022

45 Years Later, The Apple II Still Has Lessons to Teach Us

45 years after the Apple II personal computer launched, the tech industry has arguably moved away from a few of the core principals that launched Apple and the personal computer into the mainstream. We spoke with industry lum…

Benj Edwards Jun 10th, 2022

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