Google has been doing its part to make sure everyone has a backup of important data, and it recently released a new tool for Windows and Mac users to take that redundancy to the next level. Appropriately named Backup and Sync, it’s a quick and effective tool to store your important files in the cloud.
How to Sync Your Desktop PC with Google Drive (and Google Photos)
Google has been doing its part to make sure everyone has a backup of important data, and it recently released a new tool for Windows and Mac users to take that redundancy to the next level. Appropriately named Backup and Sync, it’s a quick and effective tool to store your important files in the cloud.
If you’re switching to macOS from Windows, you might be confused about installing software. Sure, there’s the Mac App Store, but not everything is in there.
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.
Thanks to the switch from PowerPC to Intel many years ago, a Mac is just another PC. Sure, Macs come with macOS, but you can easily install Windows alongside macOS using Apple’s built-in Boot Camp feature.
Apple’s macOS can read from Windows-formatted NTFS drives, but can’t write to them out of the box. Here are a few solutions for getting full read/write access to NTFS drives.
Macs are very stable, but not every Mac application is. Every once in a while, something you’re using is going to crash. Sometimes this means the spinning beach ball of death, sometimes this means clicking an open window doesn’t do anything, no matter what you try. Sometimes the Dock indicates an application is open, but you can’t seem to find or open any windows.
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.
You recognize most of the processes you see while browsing Activity Monitor, but not hidd. The name is cryptic, and there’s no icon for you to recognize. Should you be worried?
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.
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.
Apple offers an official way to record your iPhone or iPad’s screen if you have a Mac. If you just have a Windows PC, there are third-party apps that will allow you to record anything on your screen.
Do you open a lot of windows on your Mac? Do you ever have trouble keeping track of them all? Then you need to know about Mission Control, which shows you all of your currently open windows, then gives you ways to organize them.
Passwords can be reset or bypassed on every operating system, so even if you’ve forgotten yours, there may be a way in. This also means that evildoers can likely get into your system if they have access to it—and it’s way easier than you think.
Virtual machines can use a large amount of disk space. If you want to regain some of that disk space, just deleting files inside the virtual machine won’t help. You’ll need to reclaim that disk space, shrinking the virtual hard disk and making it use less space on your Mac.
All web browsers remember a list of the web pages you’ve visited. You can delete this list at any time, clearing your browsing history and erasing the tracks stored on your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Each browser has its own separate history, so you’ll need to clear the history in multiple places if you’ve used more than one browser.
Microsoft Office document files you download from the internet can harm your PC. Office files can contain dangerous macros, but macros aren’t the only risk. With new malware attacking PCs through dangerous Office documents that don’t even contain macros, keeping yourself safe in Office is just one of the security practices you should follow.
Some PDFs are encrypted with a password, which you’ll need to enter each time you want to view the document. You can remove the password to save yourself some inconvenience if you’re keeping the PDF in a secure location.
The vim text editor, a standard tool included on Linux and macOS, can quickly encrypt text files with a password. It’s faster and more convenient than encrypting a text file with a separate utility. Here’s how to set it up.
Is it time to sell or give away your old Mac? Or do you just want a fresh start to clean up your machine? Here’s how to securely delete all of your files, then install a fresh version of macOS.
Browsers want to be helpful, so they always offer to save your passwords when you sign into websites. If you use a separate password manager like LastPass or 1Password—or if you just want to store your passwords in your own brain—you can make your browser stop asking you to save passwords.
When you run a command at the bash prompt, it normally prints the output of that command directly to the terminal so you can read it immediately. But bash also allows you to “redirect” the output of any command, saving it to a text file so you can review the output later.
Symbolic links, also known as symlinks, are special files that point to files or directories in other locations on your system. You can think of them like advanced aliases and here’s how to use them in MacOS.
Your Mac’s serial number is a unique identifier that distinguishes your Mac from all others. You have to provide your Mac’s serial number when requesting warranty service. You may also want to look up your Mac’s serial number if you’re reporting it stolen.
When you configure a proxy server on your Mac, applications will send their network traffic through the proxy server before going to their destination. This may be required by your employer to bypass a firewall, or you may want to use a proxy to bypass geoblocking and access websites that aren’t available in your country.
Steam trading cards are basically free money. Assuming you own a few games on Steam, you’re probably generating Steam trading cards without even realizing it—and you can sell them on the community market for Steam Wallet credit, which you can use to purchase games.
