Maintenance & Optimization Articles

How To Get the Most Out of Your Chromebook’s RAM

Chrome OS manages RAM differently than Windows or Mac computers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t optimize your workflow to make the most of your system’s potentially limited RAM. Here are some tips to help m...

How to Update Your Chromebook

Chrome OS gets major updates every six weeks, with security patches coming more frequently. Updates are usually downloaded and installed automatically in the background, but here’s how to make sure your Chromebook is a...

Brady Gavin May 16th

Should You Clear the System Cache on Your Android Phone?

Some Android phones store temporary files used for things like OS updates in a cache partition. You may have seen recommendations across the web suggesting that you clear this partition from time to time—but is that a good ...

Adam Doud May 16th

How to Kill Processes From the Linux Terminal

Killing a process is sometimes the only way to get rid of it. Despite the harsh name, “killing” a process just means “forcing it to quit.” Here’s how to do it from the Linux or macOS command line...

Dave McKay May 8th

How to Reboot or Shut Down Linux Using the Command Line

Feel like starting over? This tutorial will show you how to cleanly and safely reboot or shut down your Linux or macOS computer from the command line.

Dave McKay Apr 26th

How to Optimize USB Storage for Better Performance on Windows 10

According to Microsoft, Windows 10 no longer optimizes external storage devices for “better performance” as of the October 2018 Update. Instead, it optimizes them for “quick removal.” Here’s what...

Chris Hoffman Apr 8th

Windows Task Manager: The Complete Guide

The Windows Task Manager is a powerful tool packed with useful information, from your system’s overall resource usage to detailed statistics about each process. This guide explains every feature and technical term in th...

Which Processes Can You Safely Quit in Activity Monitor on a Mac?

MacOS’s Activity Monitor will give you a list of all the apps you’re running, which is useful for closing down CPU-hungry processes. But it also throws in a bunch of system process, some of which may not be safe t...

Anthony Heddings Mar 20th

How to Disable the Windows 10 Startup Delay

After Windows starts up, it waits about ten seconds before opening your startup programs. This “startup delay” lets your desktop and Windows services finish loading, making everything run a bit smoother. If you ha...

Brady Gavin Feb 11th

How to Check the Status of AppleCare on your Apple Devices

No matter whether your Apple device is in its initial AppleCare warranty period or covered by AppleCare+, checking its current coverage can be the first step in getting a repair. Here’s how to check what’s covered...

Oliver Haslam Feb 7th

How to Roll Back a Driver in Windows

Updating a driver on your PC doesn’t always work out well. Sometimes, they introduce bugs or simply don’t run as well as the version they replaced. Luckily, Windows makes it easy to roll back to a previous driver...

Brady Gavin Feb 5th

How to Prevent Storage Sense From Deleting Your Downloaded Files on Windows 10

Storage Sense is the Disk Cleanup replacement for the modern world. It frees up space on your computer by deleting things like recycle bin contents, temporary internet files, and app temporary files. This also includes the Do...

Brady Gavin Jan 31st

How to Declutter Your Web Browser Bookmarks

Browser bookmarks can become a mess over time. Do you need bookmarks to hundreds of web pages you never visit? Here’s how to back up your bookmarks, purge them efficiently, and keep a more organized browser going forwar...

Chris Hoffman Jan 31st

Looking for a Microsoft Signature Edition PC? Here’s What to Do Instead

Microsoft’s Signature Edition PCs were one of the Microsoft Store’s best offerings since Microsoft used a clean copy of Windows with no bloatware on these PCs. Microsoft no longer makes Signature Edition PCs, but ...

Josh Hendrickson Jan 29th

How to Check Your iPhone’s Battery Health

iOS includes several useful tools for displaying how much battery life your iPhone has left, as well as which apps are consuming the most of your battery. However, none of these tools actually tell you anything about your b...

HTG Explains: What Are All Those Advanced Power Settings in Windows?

Windows has many “advanced power settings” you can adjust. These options let you choose between performance and battery life, control what Windows does when you have a critical battery level, and tweak what press...

How to Use Mailbox Cleanup to Purge Your Outlook Folders of Rubbish

Mailbox Cleanup in Outlook is a set of tools designed to get rid of rubbish from your mailbox. You can use it to review the size of your mailbox, clean out items automatically by size and date, and perform a few other functio...

Rob Woodgate Oct 23rd, 2018

Don’t Upgrade to the Latest Operating Systems on Day One

Gone are the days of using the same unchanging operating system for years. Windows 10 is getting a significant upgrade every six months, and those updates break things. Even Apple keeps messing up with iPhone updates....

Why Do My Mac’s Desktop Icons Say “Out of Space”?

If you have a new Mac, you may have noticed the words “Out of Space” under many of your Desktop icons and documents. Don’t worry, your computer’s hard drive isn’t actually out of space—your...

Anthony Heddings Oct 10th, 2018

How to Enable the Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

Microsoft has added an “Ultimate Performance” power scheme to Windows 10 April 2018 Update. It’s built upon the High-Performance power scheme but tries to eke out every little bit of performance possible. He...

Brady Gavin Oct 9th, 2018

The Best Discord Bots to Power Up Your Server

Discord has an extensive API and good support for bots on their platform. Because of this, there are tons of bots to go around. However, many of them just copy one another’s functionality. We’ve picked out the on...

Anthony Heddings Oct 4th, 2018

How to See Power Usage in Windows 10’s Task Manager

Windows 10’s Task Manager now shows you the power usage of each process on your system. This feature is new in the October 2018 Update.

Chris Hoffman Oct 3rd, 2018

How to Make Your Own Discord Bot

Discord has an excellent API for writing custom bots, and a very active bot community. Today we’ll take a look at how to get started making your own.

Anthony Heddings Sep 17th, 2018

Disk Cleanup is Going Away in Windows 10 and We Miss It Already

Microsoft quietly announced that Disk Cleanup is now deprecated, news that was buried at the bottom of a blog post about Windows 10’s Storage Sense. Disk Cleanup isn’t going away immediately but is on its way out ...

The Best Power User Tips for Discord

Discord rocks a sleek, minimalist design, at least compared to alternatives like Teamspeak and Skype. Many of the most useful features aren’t apparent until you dig into the settings and turn them on....

Anthony Heddings Sep 5th, 2018