Windows 7, 8, and 10 create a special “System Reserved” partition when you install them on a clean disk. Windows doesn’t normally assign a drive letter to these partitions, so you’ll only see them when you use Disk Management or similar utility.
What Is the System Reserved Partition and Can You Delete It?
Windows 7, 8, and 10 create a special “System Reserved” partition when you install them on a clean disk. Windows doesn’t normally assign a drive letter to these partitions, so you’ll only see them when you use Disk Management or similar utility.
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 battery’s long-term health, which is just as important.
Windows’ Safe Mode is an essential tool. On computers infected with malware or crashing because of buggy drivers, Safe Mode may be the only way to start the computer.
Keeping the operating system of your Synology NAS up to date is only half of the smooth home server experience: the other half is keeping all your application packages up to date, too. Let’s look at how to manually update your packages as well as how to automate the process.
Windows 10 automatically performs system maintenance tasks like security scanning and disk optimization on a schedule. By default, Windows runs these tasks every day at 2 AM and wakes up your PC to do it if it’s sleeping.
Building a gaming PC is an expensive proposition, even on the “value” side of things—we’re talking about at lest $500 for a new machine. Penny-pinchers often forego unnecessary extras. And since most CPUs come with a cooler right in the box, why bother with a big bulky aftermarket cooler, especially if you’re not going to overclock anything?
Your iPad and iPhone come with on-screen touch keyboards, but there’s nothing stopping you from connecting a good old fashioned physical keyboard and typing on that. Here’s how to get started.
It’s easy to use a lot of mobile data with Instagram. Whether you’re posting your own photos and videos, or just flicking through your feed, it’s all pretty data intensive, especially if you have friends who post a lot of videos.
Windows 10 uses memory compression to store more data in your system’s memory than it otherwise could. If you visit the Task Manager and look at your memory usage details, you’ll likely see that some of your memory is “compressed”. Here’s what that means.
An iPhone that won’t charge properly is more than a little bit frustrating. Before you tear your hair out, take a stroll down out troubleshooting checklist to rule out common causes of charging problems—and, fingers crossed, resolve your issue without sending your phone in for service.
Like Facebook, Snapchat can quickly use a lot of data. By default, even when you’re on mobile data, Snapchat will automatically download any Snaps you receive or Stories your friends post. All it takes is one friend to go a little heavy with the video Snaps, and you can burn through a hundred megabytes just by opening the app.
Tethering allows you to get online with your smartphone’s data connection, but you likely have a limited amount of data, and Windows 10 PCs can be very data hungry. You probably won’t want Windows 10 automatically downloading big updates and syncing large amounts of data until you get back to a normal Internet connection. Here’s how to limit that activity when you’re tethering.
Hardware drivers are the software that allow your operating system to communicate with your hardware. Windows includes built-in drivers and automatically downloads new ones to make setup easier, but device manufacturers also provide their own driver packages.
Windows contains a variety of system utilities that are useful, but well-hidden. Some are buried deep in the Start menu, while others you can access only if you know the right command to run.
It’s 2018, shouldn’t we stop worrying about disk space? Nope, not at all! A modern MacBook might have a solid-state drive with just 128 GB of space, which means you’ll be seeing the dreaded “Your startup disk is almost full” error sooner rather than later. It’s very important to keep your hard drive nice and clean.
If you’ve got multiple computers at your desk, you probably know that it’s a pain to use more than one keyboard and mouse. Here’s how to use a single keyboard and mouse on more than one PC using a tool from Microsoft.
What’s the ideal resolution for a PC game? Ask most players and they’ll immediately answer, “Whatever your monitor can support.” That’s the obvious solution—after all, it would hardly make sense to render graphics at higher than your equipment can actually output and your eyes can see, right? …Right?
Your Nintendo Switch is probably filthy. Since the Switch pulls double duty as a shared family console and a handheld gaming console, it has extra opportunity to get dirty fingers all over it. Here’s how to clean all the parts of your Switch without getting it wet or ruining it.
There are tons of third-party partition managers for Windows, but did you know that Windows includes its own? Microsoft did a good job of hiding the Disk Management tool, but it’s there.
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.
Computers can sleep, hibernate, shut down, or, in some cases, use a hybrid sleep. Learn the differences and decide what’s right for your laptop.
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.
Whether you’re overclocking your computer, comparing different systems, or just bragging about your hardware, a benchmark quantifies your computer’s performance. Windows has a large ecosystem of useful benchmarking applications, and many of them are free.
Computers crash and freeze. Your Windows PC may have automatically rebooted itself, too. If so, it probably experienced a blue screen of death when you weren’t looking. The first step in troubleshooting is finding more specific error details.
PC gaming isn’t quite as simple as console gaming. If you have a laptop with weak graphics hardware or an older PC, it’s important to check whether your computer can support a game before you spend your hard-earned cash.
