Maintenance & Optimization Articles

How to Find Official Windows Drivers for Any Device

All your computer hardware, from the motherboard to the webcam, needs drivers to function properly. Here’s how to download the official device drivers for your hardware, whether you’re using Windows 10 or 7....

How to Remove Viruses and Malware on Your Windows PC

Whether you saw a message saying a virus was detected, or your computer just seems slow and unreliable, you’ll want to scan for malware on your PC and remove any you find. Here’s how to clean your PC of viruses an...

How to Manage Startup Programs in Windows 10’s Settings App

Windows 10’s Settings app now lets you disable the programs that automatically run when you sign in to your computer. This same functionality was previously hidden in Windows 10’s Task Manager, and was hidden unde...

Chris Hoffman May 10th, 2018

7 Must-Have Tools for Mobile Phone Repair

If you’re thinking about replacing the battery in your smartphone yourself, or even switching out that shattered screen, there are several tools you should have to make the job a lot easier.

Craig Lloyd May 8th, 2018

What is the Latest LTS Version of Ubuntu?

The latest LTS version of Ubuntu is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS “Bionic Beaver,” which was released on April 26, 2018. Canonical releases new stable versions of Ubuntu every six months, and new Long Term Support versions eve...

Chris Hoffman May 8th, 2018

How to Monitor GPU Usage in the Windows Task Manager

Windows 10’s Task Manager has detailed GPU-monitoring tools hidden in it. You can view per-application and system-wide GPU usage, and Microsoft promises the Task Manager’s numbers will be more accurate than the on...

Don’t Worry About Your Smartphone’s Battery, Just Use It

When you’re trying to get the most life out of your device, it’s easy to overthink batteries. Don’t. Plug in your devices when possible, carry a battery pack with you, and get on with your life....

Justin Pot May 3rd, 2018

How to Disable Startup Programs in Windows

The more software you install on your computer, the longer it may seem to take to start up Windows. Many programs add themselves to the list of programs started when you boot your computer, and that list can get long....

How to Free Over 10GB of Disk Space After Installing Windows 10’s May 2019 Update

Did you just install the May 2019 Update? If so, there’s more than 10 GB of data wasting space on your hard drive—we had 24.6 GB! On a laptop or tablet with a limited amount of storage, this can fill up your devic...

Chris Hoffman May 1st, 2018

How to See What Data Windows 10 is Sending to Microsoft

Microsoft is making Windows 10’s telemetry more transparent with the April 2018 Update. You can now view the exact diagnostic information your Windows PC is sending to Microsoft. You can even delete it from Microsoft&#8...

Chris Hoffman Apr 30th, 2018

Not Getting macOS Notifications? Here’s How to Fix It (Without Rebooting)

If your Mac is mysteriously no longer showing notifications, restarting your Mac will most likely fix the problem. However, here’s a quick way to remedy the situation without restarting.

Craig Lloyd Apr 17th, 2018

How Much Electricity Do All Your Appliances Use?

You know how much electricity you use overall each month, because you pay the bill. But, you can also figure out how much electricity each appliance uses individually and how much it contributes to your total usage....

Craig Lloyd Apr 16th, 2018

How to Hide a Recovery Partition (or Other Drive) in Windows

PC manufacturers often include recovery partitions. These are usually hidden, but sometimes become visible under This PC and elsewhere in Windows. Here’s how to hide a recovery partition—or any other drive....

Can You Upgrade the RAM in Your Mac?

While Macs certainly aren’t as easy to upgrade as a typical PC, it’s surprisingly simple to upgrade some components like RAM—especially if you’ve got a Mac desktop or an older laptop. Adding more RAM can breat...

Harry Guinness Apr 11th, 2018

How to See Which Apps Are Draining Your Battery on an Android Phone or Tablet

If your Android phone’s battery always feels a little low, you can find out exactly where that power is going. Android’s Battery screen shows you what’s used battery power since your last charge, from apps to syste...

How to Change Your User Account in Windows 10’s Ubuntu Bash Shell

When you first install Ubuntu or another Linux distribution on Windows 10, you’re asked to create a UNIX username and password. Bash automatically signs into that user account when you launch the shell, but you can chan...

Chris Hoffman Mar 13th, 2018

Troubleshoot Browsing Issues by Reloading the DNS Client Cache on Windows

Have you ever gotten DNS errors while trying to browse the web, but another computer on the same network is working just fine? There’s a good chance you need to clear the computer’s DNS cache to fix it....

Chris Hoffman Mar 9th, 2018

How to Get More Meaningful Battery Stats on Your Android Phone

Android battery life and the tools for monitoring usage have gotten better over the last few years, but the stock options are still sometimes not enough. But there are ways to gauge your battery usage, remaining time, and ev...

How To Tag Any Windows File For Easy Organization

If Windows Search just isn’t cutting it for helping you find your files, you can give it a little help by adding tags to any Windows file.

Michael Crider Mar 7th, 2018

Not Getting Android OS Updates? Here’s How Google Is Updating Your Device Anyway

How to Monitor Your Android Device’s Battery Health

Battery health is a big deal—perhaps now more than ever, with the whole iPhone slowdown debacle. While that in itself doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on Android phones, keeping your device’s battery hea...

Cameron Summerson Feb 23rd, 2018

What Are All Those NVIDIA Processes Running in the Background?

If you’ve installed NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience software, you’ll see quite a few NVIDIA processes running in the background on your PC. We counted ten separate processes in our Windows Task Manager. But what...

How to Set Your PC Games’ Graphics Settings with No Effort

PC gamers have to set a myriad of graphics options to balance performance with graphics quality. If you don’t want to tweak them by hand, NVIDIA, AMD, and even Intel provide tools that will do it for you....

Chris Hoffman Feb 16th, 2018

The Best Third-Party Alexa Skills on the Amazon Echo

The Amazon Echo can do a lot of neat stuff, but its built-in features are just the tip of the iceberg. With third-party “Alexa Skills”, you can add further capabilities to the Echo, like adding events to your Goo...

Craig Lloyd Feb 7th, 2018

How to Create the Ultimate USB Key Ring to Solve Any Computer Problem

If you’re “the computer guy” (or girl) to your friends and family, you’re probably asked to diagnose and fix their problems on a regular basis. If you can’t stand to tell them to leave you alone,...