Featured Articles - The Best of How-To Geek

How to Make Your Dumb Window Air Conditioner Smart

Window A/C units are critical in homes without central air conditioning. But turning every unit on and off is a pain, and smart air conditioners are expensive. With a smart plug, you can make many A/C units smart....

Microsoft’s New Windows Terminal Is Now Available

You can now download a preview version of the new Windows Terminal app from the Store on Windows 10! Microsoft released this application on the evening of June 21 after a listing showed up earlier that day....

Chris Hoffman Jun 21st

How to Report a Fake Business Listing on Google Maps

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google Maps is overrun with fake business listings created by scammers, and Google says it removed more than 3 million of them in 2018. Here’s how to report any fake businesses you s...

Chris Hoffman Jun 21st

How Piracy Makes Legal Streaming Services Better

We tend to look at piracy as the antithesis of Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, or Prime Video. But as it turns out, you can thank ruthless digital pirates for the low price and high quality of your favorite streaming services....

Andrew Heinzman Jun 21st

How to Securely Delete Files on Linux

Shred old data files for the same reason you shred old paper documents. We tell you what you need to know about securely deleting Linux files. This tutorial covers the shred command and the secure-delete suite of utilities....

Dave McKay Jun 21st

5 Ways to Save Money on Your Netflix Account

Netflix costs less than cable, but it’s still a bit expensive. A year of Netflix’s “Basic” plan is $108, and a year of “Premium” Netflix costs $192. Thankfully, you can reduce your subscrip...

How to Migrate Ext2 or Ext3 File Systems to Ext4 on Linux

Know you should upgrade your Linux filesystem but can’t face the aggravation? Here’s how to convert ext2 and ext3 to ext4 without the upheaval of a complete re-install.

Dave McKay Jun 20th

What Is the Menu Key For? (and How to Remap It)

Did you know your keyboard has a menu key? On full-size keyboards, you’ll find it to the left of your right Ctrl key. This key opens context menus, but you can tweak it to make it more useful.

How to Use the vmstat Command on Linux

Your Linux or macOS computer is using virtual memory. Discover how it’s affecting your system’s use of physical memory, CPU, and hard disk resources.

Dave McKay Jun 19th

How to Scan (or Rescan) For Channels on Your TV

So, you’re trying to watch free over-the-air TV, but you can’t find any channels. That’s perfectly normal. You just need to run a quick channel scan (or rescan), and you’ll be good to go....

Andrew Heinzman Jun 19th

Why Video Doorbells Are the Best Smarthome Gadget

Video doorbells are the most important smarthome device you can buy. Smart light bulbs may be flashy, but—when properly integrated—a video doorbell will become something you can’t live without. They’re...

How to Report Phishing and Malicious Websites in Google Chrome

Google now makes it much easier to report “suspicious websites” in Chrome. Websites you might want to report include phishing websites, sites hosting malware, and similar bad things. Google will use these reports ...

Chris Hoffman Jun 18th

How to Search All Your PC’s Files in Windows 10’s Start Menu

Windows 10’s May 2019 Update finally adds the ability to search all your PC’s files directly from your Start menu. However, this feature is disabled by default. Here’s how to enable it for quicker, easier fi...

Chris Hoffman Jun 18th

How to Keep Your Mac and Apps Up To Date

Keeping your Mac up-to-date may seem like a chore, but it’s an essential part of protecting yourself online. Apple and app developers patch security holes when they’re found—and they add helpful new features...

Tim Brookes Jun 18th

Why Do Noise Canceling Headphones Hurt My Ears?

Does your new pair of noise-canceling headphones put a painful feeling of “pressure” on your ears? It turns out that your mind is playing tricks on you.

Do You Really Need Antivirus For Your Smart TV?

Samsung says you should be running a virus scan on your Samsung smart TV “every few weeks.” The company added McAfee antivirus to its TVs recently. But do you really need to manually run an antivirus scan—o...

Chris Hoffman Jun 17th

How to Fix a Black Screen After Updating Windows 10

Some Windows 10 PCs have been rebooting to a black screen after installing the June 2019 cumulative update from Windows Update. This seems scary at first, but luckily there’s a quick fix that will solve your problem....

Chris Hoffman Jun 17th

How to Use the Linux cat and tac Commands

The cat and tac commands display the contents of text files, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Dive a little deeper and learn some productive Linux command line tricks.

Dave McKay Jun 17th

How to See Which Apps Are Using Your Webcam on Windows 10

Your webcam’s light is on, but which applications are watching you? Windows 10 now has an easy, built-in way to find out. You can also see which apps have previously used your webcam—and the precise time they last...

Chris Hoffman Jun 17th

Future Tech: What We’re Most Excited About

It might be a little early to celebrate the death of the twenty-teens, but we can’t help but look at the future. Wave goodbye to crappy internet, console gaming, and unconvincing Instagram filters. Say hello to the tech...

How Do Smart Homes Work?

Smarthomes are like any other home, just with extra control options for lights, plugs, thermostats, and more. But those additional controls introduce complexity, and understanding how they work will help you build a better sm...

Josh Hendrickson Jun 16th

What’s Going to Happen to Your Huawei or Honor Phone?

The US government has effectively banned Google and other companies from doing business with Huawei. Google can’t work with Huawei on future products—but you might be wondering what happens to any existing Huawei ...

Will a Smart Plug Pay For Itself?

Smart plugs are a great way to automate your dumb devices, like lamps, game systems, and coffee makers. They also promise energy and money savings. But will they save enough money to pay for themselves? Maybe eventually....

Hardware Security Keys Keep Getting Recalled; Are They Safe?

We recommend hardware security keys like Yubico’s YubiKeys and Google’s Titan Security Key. But both manufacturers have recently recalled keys due to hardware flaws, and that sounds a little worrying. What’s...

Chris Hoffman Jun 14th

Google Drive and Photos Are Splitting: What You Need to Know

Google has announced that Google Drive and Google Photos will be separating in July. Google says, “the connection between these services is confusing,” so it’s making some changes to “simplify the expe...

Chris Hoffman Jun 14th