LINUX IS CONFUSING. THESE ARTICLES SHOULD HELP.
Want to quickly check the speed of your current Internet connection? With speedtest-cli you can run a test in the command prompt, on any operating system.
Google’s Chromebooks run Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system based on Linux that provides you with a full Chrome browser and a basic desktop environment. Before buying a Chromebook, you may want to play with Chrome OS in a virtual machine in a window on your desktop.
Want to turn any old computer into a Chromebook? Google doesn’t provide official builds of Chrome OS for anything but official Chromebooks, but there are ways you can install the open-source Chromium OS software or a similar operating system.
By default, VMware creates “growable” disks that grow larger in size as you add data. Unfortunately, they don’t automatically shrink when you remove data. You’ll need to clean up or compact your disks to actually free up space on your hard drive.
If you use multiple Windows machines on your desk, you’re probably tired of swapping between keyboards and mice. There are hardware solutions—KVM switches, which use multiple inputs and outputs to share physical mice and keyboards. Synergy, a program that does the same thing over a network, is a more elegant solution, and it works with Windows, macOS, and Linux.
VMware normally creates “growable” disks, which start small and grow over time as you add data. However, you can also create “preallocated” disks that start at their maximum size. If you want to compact a disk later, you’ll need to convert it from preallocated to growable. Or, you may want to convert a disk from growable to preallocated for maximum performance.
It can be tough transporting your videos and music to every device you use. How do you know your Mac, Xbox, and Windows PC can read your files? Read on to find your perfect USB drive solution.
If you want to try Linux, you’ll need to choose a Linux distribution. There are hundreds of different Linux distributions, but some are better to start with than others.
If you’re itching give Android a try but don’t necessarily want use your whole computer for the task, the best option is to run it in a virtual machine using VirtualBox. It’s actually pretty easy to set up, and will offer you the full Android experience in a matter of a few minutes. Let’s do this thing.
An SSH client allows you to connect to a remote computer running an SSH server. The Secure Shell (SSH) protocol is often used for remote terminal connections, allowing you to access a text-mode terminal on a remote computer as if you were sitting of it. It can also be used for SSH tunneling, SCP file transfers, and other things.
By default, VirtualBox creates dynamic disks that grow over time as you add data. However, if you delete data from the virtual machine later, you’ll notice that the disk doesn’t automatically shrink. But you can manually shrink a dynamic disk using a hidden command.
VirtualBox allows you to choose either a dynamically allocated or fixed size disk when creating a new virtual hard disk file. Dynamically allocated disks are faster to create and can grow to larger sizes. Fixed size disks may be faster to use, but can’t grow any larger once they fill up. You can convert between the two formats and resize disks, if you like.
Microsoft’s new ReFS file system was originally introduced on Windows Server 2012. It’s included on Windows 10, where it can only be used as part of the drive-pooling Storage Spaces feature. ReFS will be improved in Windows Server 2016, and a leak from Microsoft indicates that it will be part of a new edition of Windows 10, named Windows 10 Pro for Advanced PCs.
A device’s MAC address is assigned by the manufacturer, but it’s not to hard to change—or “spoof”—those addresses when you need to. Here’s how do do it, and why you might want to.
One of the most common issues with aging laptops is overheating, something many people aren’t sure how to fix. We’ll help you figure out what’s causing the heat and how to keep your notebook functioning at a lower temperature.
Macs have a thriving ecosystem of software, but some programs still only support Windows. Whether you want to use business software or play Windows PC games, there are many ways to run Windows programs on your Mac.
Network issues can be hard to pinpoint, but if you have Chrome installed (or a Chromebook), you can easily run a thorough diagnostic right from your browser that can help you figure out what could be going wrong.
Windows 10’s Fall Creators Update, codenamed Redstone 3, will be released in September 2017. Here are all the new features you’ll see in the latest version of Windows—and some big, splashy features Microsoft announced that never arrived.
Wireshark, a network analysis tool formerly known as Ethereal, captures packets in real time and display them in human-readable format. Wireshark includes filters, color coding, and other features that let you dig deep into network traffic and inspect individual packets.
You turn on your computer one day and Windows refuses to boot—what do you do? “Windows won’t boot” is a common symptom with a variety of causes, so you’ll need to perform some troubleshooting.
Screenshots are great, but sometimes you need to create a video recording to really get your point across. You can record your computer’s desktop, your smartphone’s screen, or your tablet’s display.
RAM is one of the most essential parts of your desktop computer, and it’s also one of the quickest and easiest parts to upgrade. Modern RAM modules are incredibly simple to use, so it’s rare that something goes wrong in installation…but then when something does go wrong, it gets frustrating quickly. If your computer or operating system doesn’t recognize the RAM you’re using, here’s what you need to do to find the problem.
Apple claims their live streams are only available in Safari on macOS and iOS. But you don’t have to miss the new iPhone launch if you’re using a Windows PC or Android device. Apple doesn’t make it obvious how to do this, but you can watch its live events on any operating system.
Windows 10 S is “the soul of today’s Windows”, according to Microsoft. It’s a new version of Windows intended for school PCs, but available to everyone. It’s designed to be more simple and streamlined, so it only runs applications from the Windows Store—unless you spend another $50 to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.
The Storage Spaces feature built into Windows allows you to combine multiple hard drives into a single virtual drive. It can mirror data across multiple drives for redundancy, or combine multiple physical drives into a single pool of storage. Storage Spaces is similar to RAID or LVM on Linux.
