Contributor

How to digitize VHS tapes the cheap way

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Good news, everyone: My bar mitzvah videos from the mid-1990s are now digitized for the ages.

While I have no intention of actually watching them — oy, the embarrassment — I recently received the original tapes from my parents and felt like they were worth preserving in a more enduring form than VHS. I was able to do it for cheap thanks to my USB capture card, which I originally bought to take screenshots of streaming devices for my TechHive column on cord cutting but which continues to have all kinds of other neat uses.

Below, I’ll walk through how to digitize your own VHS tapes or camcorder footage using the same methods, plus a few extra tricks that might make a USB capture card worth considering.

This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get free tech tips every Tuesday.

The hardware

The USB capture card is a thumb-sized device with an HDMI input on one side and a USB plug on the other. Connect the capture card to your computer’s USB port, then hook up any device with HDMI output, and you can record that device’s video using a free program called OBS (more on that shortly).

Jared Newman / Foundry

Amazon is filled with capture cards from no-name brands for under $20. While the particular one I purchased is no longer available, this one looks pretty similar, able to capture video at 1080p up to 30 frames per second, or 720p at 60 frames per second. It uses a USB-C connector, but also has a USB-A adapter. (Alternatively, this one works the other way around.)

You’ll also need a VHS player, otherwise known as a VCR. If you don’t have one collecting dust in a closet — or don’t know anyone else who does — consider looking for one at a thrift store such as Goodwill, searching on Facebook Marketplace, or buying on eBay.

Of course, most VHS players don’t have HDMI output — including the one I pilfered from my father-in-law’s house for this project — so you also need a composite-to-HDMI adapter. I grabbed one on Amazon for $10.

The setup, in the end, looks like this:

VHS Player → Composite video out → Composite adapter → HDMI out → USB Capture Card → PC.

I’m using a Windows desktop, but this setup should work just as well with a Mac or Linux machine, or a Chromebook capable of running Linux apps.

The software

Jared Newman / Foundry

The other half of the equation is a free program called Open Broadcaster Software Studio, or OBS. It’s often used to stream video game console footage on sites like Twitch and YouTube, but you can also use it to record from pretty much any HDMI video source.

Once you’ve installed OBS and hooked up the USB capture card, you can record video with a handful of steps:

Under “Sources,” hit +, then select “Video Capture Device.”
Give the source a name, like “Capture Card,” and hit “OK.”
Select “USB 3.0 capture” — that’s your capture card — under the Device heading.

Jared Newman / Foundry

To preserve the VHS aspect ratio, change “Resolution/FPS Type” to “Custom” and set the Resolution to 640×480, then hit “OK.”
Under “Audio Mixer,” make sure the “Desktop Audio” and “Mic/Aux” sliders are set to zero or muted.
If you want to preview the tape player audio before recording, hit ⋮ under “Capture Card” in the Audio Mixer section, select “Advanced Audio Properties,” and set Audio Monitoring to “Monitoring and Output” for the Capture Card.

At this point, OBS should display your video when you hit play on the VCR, but only in a small corner of the preview window. To fix this, drag the corner of the video so it fills the screen, then move the video into the center of the preview window.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Now, you can hit play on your VHS player, and hit “Start Recording” in OBS. Wait until the video has finished and hit “Stop Recording,” and OBS will produce a video file in the MKV format, appearing in your computer’s video folder by default. You can then trim it down with any video editing software (I used the free Solveig AV1 Trimmer for Windows) or use a program like DVD Styler to burn the video to DVD.

More OBS and capture card tricks

A capture card and OBS aren’t the only ways to digitize a VHS tape. You can also purchase products like Vidbox or Roxio VHS to DVD for this specific purpose, or pay a professional to convert tapes in bulk.

But if you already have a VCR, buying the necessary adapters will only cost you about $30, roughly half the price of those other solutions. And in the long-run, the cobbled-together solution is a worthier investment. Once you get the hang of OBS, it becomes a way to record pretty much anything. Some examples:

Record from streaming devices: Plug a Roku or Fire TV Stick into your capture card, and you can record video from streaming sources such as Netflix or Disney+. You can also right-click the preview window and select “Screenshot (Source)” to capture a still image. This is how I illustrate most of my streaming device reviews over at TechHive.
Record your desktop: Hit the + button under “Sources” in OBS and select Display Capture (to record your entire screen) or Window Capture (to record just one application). Note that this won’t work with DRM video sources such as Netflix.
Record yourself: Add your webcam as a source from the Video Capture Device menu to include video of yourself. You can then overlay it onto other video sources to record yourself providing color commentary.

Note that you can use OBS’s “Scenes” menu to toggle between different setups, each with its own layout and capture device. That way, you can have a scene for digitizing VHS tapes, another for recording from streaming players, and another that overlays your webcam, all without having to set up everything from scratch each time.

OBS can take some time to learn — I’m still discovering many of its intricacies myself — but there’s a reason Twitch and YouTube streamers swear by it: With a little practice, the potential use cases are practically endless.

This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get free tech tips every Tuesday.

Backup Software

LocalSend: A free, super fast way to transfer files over Wi-Fi

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 10:30:00 +0000

While cloud storage services are convenient for sharing files across all your devices, sometimes there’s no substitute for a local file transfer.

That’s where LocalSend comes in. This free, open-source app uses your local Wi-Fi network to transfer files between practically any two devices. It’s much faster than uploading files to a cloud storage service and then waiting for them to download.

Best of all, LocalSend works across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, so there are no obnoxious ecosystem barriers to get in the way of sharing your files. (Looking at you, AirDrop.)

Sending files with LocalSend

To use LocalSend, you must install the app on each of your devices. Head to LocalSend’s download page for the desktop versions, or use the direct app store links for iOS and Android. There’s also an Amazon Appstore version, useful for transferring media files or sideloaded apps to a Fire TV Stick.

Once you’ve installed LocalSend on at least two devices, head to the app’s “Send” tab. Your other devices should appear under the “Nearby devices” heading with randomly-assigned nicknames, along with details on the device type.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Select a file using the File, Folder, Text, or Media tabs, then tap on the device where you want the file to go. On the other device, accept the file transfer request, and it’ll start downloading.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Want to send files to more than one device at the same time? Click the gear icon in the “Nearby devices” heading and select “Multiple devices,” then click all the devices you want to receive the file.

You can also generate a sharable link or QR code from gear icon menu, allowing you to share files with devices that haven’t installed the LocalSend app, but note that these devices will have to download each file one at a time.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Tweaking LocalSend’s settings

While LocalSend works well out of the box, the app’s settings menu includes a bunch of additional tweaks you may find useful:

Quit: Minimize to Tray/Menu Bar: When enabled, LocalSend will run in the background on your PC after closing the window, so it’ll remain visible to other devices on the newtork.
Destination: Choose where your files are saved.
Device name: Choose a more memorable identifier (such as “Desktop PC” or “iPad”) instead of the randomly-generated one.
Quick Save: On each device where this is enabled, files will automatically download without a confirmation prompt. Don’t enable this outside of your home network.
Auto Finish: When enabled, LocalSend will dismiss the file transfer status window a few seconds after the transfer is finished.
Save to history: Disabling this setting will stop LocalSend from keeping a record of previous file transfers. (You can also manually remove records through the history icon in the “Receive” tab.)

A couple alternatives

Jared Newman / Foundry

While LocalSend is the most versatile way to transfer files across a local network, a couple other options are also worth considering:

Pairdrop.net works in any web browser without having to install any software, but it lacks LocalSend’s ability to run in the background and automatically accept file transfers.
Payload has a slicker and more intuitive interface than LocalSend, but doesn’t support sharing with mobile devices.

Note that none of these options will automatically sync files and folders across your devices. For an open-source solution that syncs your all data without the cloud, check out SyncThing instead.

Sign up for Jared’s Advisorator newsletter to get more tech advice and app recommendations every week.

Personal Software

Laptop formfactors: A complete guide to every shape, use case, and special feature

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Until about 15 years ago, the term “laptop” meant one thing: a portable PC that unfolds to reveal a screen on one half and a keyboard on the other.

But with the launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010, PC vendors’ subsequent push into touchscreen designs, and the continued maturation of the PC market, the definition of “laptop” has broadened. Choosing a laptop isn’t just about tech specs and build quality. It’s now about the fundamental shape of the thing.

Let’s try to break it all down with a taxonomy for every kind of laptop you can buy today.

Further reading: PCWorld’s top laptop recommendations

Clamshell laptops

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The most conventional category of them all, clamshells do not flip, bend, or transform. They merely focus on letting you work with a keyboard and trackpad (or mouse) with the most efficient designs possible.

Even here, though, we can define a handful of subcategories:

Touchscreen laptops: These allow you to manipulate the screen directly while still resembling a regular laptop. Some regular laptops offer a touchscreen as an optional upgrade.
Ultraportable laptops: High-end consumer laptops with premium designs focused on portability. These may be informally known as “Ultrabooks” — stemming from Intel’s early-2010s marketing push against the MacBook Air — or just “thin-and-light” laptops. HP’s Dragonfly G4 is our current top pick in this subcategory.
Gaming laptops: Clamshells with dedicated graphics cards and other gaming-centric features, such as customizable keyboard lighting, unique cooling solutions, and flashy designs. You know them when you see them. Alienware’s m16 R2 is our top pick right now for a gaming laptop.
Desktop replacements: Heavier laptops with larger screens and powerful CPUs, with battery life and portability as afterthoughts. These tend to have some overlap with gaming laptops, as seen in our best laptops for video editing.

2-in-1 laptops

Beyond the basic clamshell, many PC makers offer laptops that can transform into tablets for drawing, taking notes, reading ebooks, and playing touchscreen games. While there are many kinds of 2-in-1 laptops, they mainly fall into two camps: convertibles and detachables.

Convertibles

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

With convertible laptops, the keyboard section is permanently connected to the screen, but it folds out of the way so you can lay the screen flat in your lap or on a table. While convertibles are heavier and bulkier than detachable laptops, they feel more like traditional clamshells when used in laptop mode. (They do, however, tend to be bulkier than non-convertible laptops.)

Within the convertible subgenre, there are a couple of subtypes:

360-degree hinge convertibles have screens that fold all the way around underneath the keyboard — a form made famous by Lenovo’s Yoga line.
Easel-style convertibles have pivoting screens that lay down on top of the keyboard. These are rarer, but Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio and HP’s Elite Folio are notable examples.

Detachables

Mattias Inghe

With detachable laptops, the screen portion pulls apart from the keyboard and becomes a standalone tablet. This gives you an uncompromised tablet experience, but with some trade-offs on the laptop front: Because all the computing components must sit behind the screen, it can be top-heavy and may need its own kickstand, so it’s more cumbersome to keep on your lap. Detachables may also be less performant than standard clamshells, whose components can use all the space under the keyboard to dissipate heat.

Detachables themselves fall into a few subcategories:

Detachables with kickstands, such the Microsoft Surface Pro and Dell’s Latitude 7320 Detachable, have lightweight keyboard covers that snap magnetically to the tablet portion.
Detachables with hinges, such as Microsoft’s Surface Book and Lenovo’s forthcoming ThinkPad Plus Gen 5 Hybrid, look more like traditional laptops when docked. (The latter actually has a Windows PC in the keyboard base and Android in the screen portion.)

Exotics

Mattias Inghe

Want something a little more unusual? Laptop makers have started experimenting with new kinds of laptops that involve multiple screens or foldable display tech.

These devices tend to be much pricier than traditional laptops, and they can sometimes feel like solutions in search of a problem. It’s not unusual for laptop makers to abandon or overhaul their ideas after a generation or two, so these experimental laptops are best-suited for folks who don’t mind living on the bleeding edge.

Let’s break down the different types:

Foldable laptops consist of a single, flexible display, whose two halves offer a laptop-like surface when partially folded or a larger, freestanding display when unfolded. A separate keyboard and trackpad deck allows for interaction without relying on the touchscreen. HP’s Spectre Foldable and Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold are recent examples.
Dual-screen laptops replace the usual keyboard section with a second screen, perhaps with an attachable keyboard and trackpad deck for input. Standing the screens up and using the keyboard separately approximates the feel of having two monitors. Asus did a great job on this concept with the 2024 ZenBook Duo.
Laptops with extra screens can supplement the main screen with extra information, as seen with Asus’ ROG Zephyrus Duo 16.
Twistable laptops have a screen that rotates around to provide extra functionality on the other side. An example is the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 4, which has an OLED screen on one side and E-ink on the other, with the latter aimed at notetaking, reading, and focused writing.

Laptops

Backing up your backups: Advanced backup tricks for cloud storage

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:30:00 +0000

You may have heard that backing up your data with a cloud storage provider isn’t good enough. After all, can you really trust services like Apple iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google One with your precious documents and photos?

You may recall, for instance, the time that Google Drive temporarily wiped out six months of backups for some users. Then there was the time a software developer obliterated his entire iCloud library by accident, only to be saved by Apple after tech bloggers took notice. Similar horror stories abound from folks who trust all their data to a single cloud storage provider.

For those reasons, techies often recommend keeping multiple copies of one’s data—including an offline copy if possible—but this advice has one big problem: Once you’ve saved lots of photos, videos, and other data to the cloud, your computer might not have enough free storage space to sync it all back down. That in turn makes it harder to create regular copies on an external drive or cloud backup service.

So let’s address this issue with several ways to back up your data from cloud storage, either to an external drive or another cloud storage provider.

This column first appeared in Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get more tech tips every Tuesday.

Automatic Google Photos backups

Jared Newman / Foundry

Credit where due: Google Photos makes it easy to download a copy of all your pictures and videos. It can also back them up directly to other cloud storage services on a routine basis. Here’s how:

Head to the Google Photos settings page.
Click the drop-down arrow next to “Export your data.”
Click the button that says “Backup.”
On the next page, click “All photo albums included” to choose which albums your want to back up, or just click “Next Step” to save them all. (If you don’t see the album selector, you may need to wait a minute or reload the page.)
Use the “Transfer to” dropdown to choose how to get your files. You can send files directly to Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Box, or get a download link for saving to your computer.
Choose to export just once, or every two months for a year, then hit “Create Export.”

This process can take a while if you have lots of photos and videos, but you’ll get an email when it’s done.

Further reading: PCWorld’s picks for best online backup services 2024

Download your iCloud Photos and Drive files

Jared Newman / Foundry

Because of how Apple manages storage for iCloud users, knowing where your photos are can be tricky. On iOS, it offers an “Optimize Storage” setting, which, if enabled, replaces photos on the device with low-quality versions when storage runs low while keeping full-resolution copies in iCloud. It does the same on MacOS when iCloud’s “Optimize Mac Storage” setting is enabled.

If you’re an iCloud user and have enabled these settings, your data won’t be saved in full on your devices, which means you can’t merely copy it all to an external drive for safe keeping. By contrast, turning off optimized storage on a Mac can quickly fill up the computer’s limited built-in storage space.

The workaround is to periodically download a copy of everything directly from Apple for safe keeping. You’ll need to do this on a computer, where you can save the files to an external hard drive.

For iCloud Photos:

Head to the iCloud Photos website.
From the Library section, click on a single photo, then hit Cmd+A (or Ctrl+A in Windows).
Click the download icon (the cloud with an arrow pointing down).
When prompted, choose where to store your photos, which will be saved in a ZIP file.

For iCloud Drive files:

Sign into Apple’s Data and Privacy portal.
Select “Request a copy of your data >”
Scroll to the bottom and check the box for “iCloud Drive files and documents.”
Click “Continue,” choose a file size (I suggest 25GB), then hit “Complete request.”

Note that for iCloud Drive, you may have to wait up to seven days to get your files. You can also request a copy of your iCloud Photos through this method, but the same waiting period applies.

Copy iCloud Photos to Google Photos

Jared Newman / IDG

For a simpler way to backup your iCloud Photos library—albeit one that requires more cloud storage—you can copy everything to Google Photos instead:

Sign into Apple’s Data and Privacy portal.
Select “Request to transfer a copy of your data ›”
Use the “Select destination” dropdown and select “Google Photos.”
Check the Photos and Videos boxes, click Continue, then click Continue again.
Sign into your Google account, then click “Confirm Transfers.”

Apple says this can take between three and seven days, and you’ll get an email when it’s done.

Send cloud files directly to an external drive

Jared Newman

I’ve saved my favorite solution for last: With a free program called Air Explorer, you can download files in bulk directly to an external drive from a wide range of cloud storage services, including Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box. You can also copy files to another cloud storage provider or backup service.

Compared to the solutions above, Air Explorer has more of a learning curve, but it’s also more powerful and flexible. Here’s how to set it up:

Download the app for Windows or MacOS.
At launch, you’ll be prompted to connect a cloud storage service. Use the “Accounts” tab to add more services if you’d like.
In the “Explore” tab, select your cloud storage service on the left side, and your storage destination (such as an external drive) on the right.

Jared Newman / Foundry

On the left side, select the cloud storage folder you want to back up, or just leave the entire drive selected to back up everything.
On the right side, navigate to the folder where you want to save your backup, then click on it.
Click the “Synchronize” button and select “Current Folders.”

At this point, you have a few options for how to create the backup. I suggest choosing “Update” instead of the default “Mirror,” as the latter will delete any files on your external drive folder if they’re not already stored in the cloud.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Click “OK.”
On the next screen, click “Compare.”
Click “Start the synchronization automatically when the comparison finishes,” or just wait for the comparison to finish and click “Start” on your own.

Jared Newman / Foundry

At this point, you’ll see a progress indicator for all your files. If all goes to plan, you’ll have a local copy of all the files from your cloud storage.

Unfortunately, the free version of Air Explorer doesn’t support automatic backups, so you’ll have to remember to periodically make backups on your own. If you want to schedule backups to run automatically, Air Explorer’s “Pro” version is a $42 one-time purchase.

A note about NAS

If you’re using a Network-Attached Storage device, it may also be able to make local copies of your cloud files. Synology, for instance, offers a Cloud Sync app for its NAS devices, while QNAP offers a similar Cloud Drive Sync tool in its own app store. I haven’t used these myself, but they should be similar to using Air Explorer with an external drive.

This might seem like a lot to deal with, but by making extra copies of your data—and your precious photos in particular—you’ll gain extra peace of mind that some technical snafu won’t wipe out your digital life.

Sign up for Jared’s Advisorator newsletter to get more tech tips in your inbox every Tuesday.

Storage

How to get unlimited masked emails to keep your inbox secure and private

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 14:00:00 +0000

I’ve long been a fan of both Bitwarden for password security and email aliases for privacy, but I recently discovered a slick solution that combines the benefits of both.

The process involves connecting Bitwarden’s username generator with DuckDuckGo’s masked email service. While it’s a bit tricky to set up, it ultimately gives you an easy way to create unique emails and passwords on any app or website you visit, all in one place. Best of all, it’s free with no usage limitations.

This column first appeared in Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get more tech tips every Tuesday.

Random passwords + unique emails

Let’s back up a little bit.

Bitwarden, if you’re unfamiliar, is a free password manager. When you sign up for an app or website, it can generate random passwords every time so you don’t end up using the same (or similar) passwords everywhere. Having unique passwords for each site means that if hackers steal your password from one place, they can’t use that password to break into your other accounts.

Masked emails—also known as email aliases—apply this same concept to email, letting you hand out unique, randomly generated email addresses that forward to your main inbox. Using masked emails is helpful for several reasons:

They protect your identity in a security breach, as your true email address never gets exposed.
They keep your true email hidden from marketers that want to built a profile around it for ad targeting.
They let you permanently block emails to any alias you’ve set up.
They’re handy for redeeming extra free trials or new customer discounts.

While masked emails are great in theory, remembering to set them up can be hassle, so last year, Bitwarden started integrating masked email services directly with its password manager. This allows users to generate unique emails and randomized passwords all in one place.

Initially, all of Bitwarden’s masked email options had their own subscription fees or usage limits. That changed in late 2022 when Bitwarden quietly added support for masked emails from DuckDuckGo, which lets you generate an unlimited number of email aliases for free.

Jared Newman / Foundry

While DuckDuckGo offers its own browser extension for creating masked emails, it comes with a big trade-off: Installing the extension prevents you from using any other search engine besides DuckDuckGo.

Bitwarden’s tie-in provides a workaround. You get the benefits of DuckDuckGo’s unlimited email masking, but without having to use DuckDuckGo’s browser extension and search engine. It also works in Bitwarden’s mobile app, providing an easy way to create masked email addresses while signing up for apps.

Bitwarden + DuckDuckGo

From here on, I’ll assume you’re already a Bitwarden user.

To set up the DuckDuckGo connection, you’ll need a desktop web browser running on a computer, not a phone. You’ll also need to temporarily install the DuckDuckGo web browser extension, then set up the Email Protection feature.

From here, the setup gets funky, so follow these steps closely:

From DuckDuckGo’s email autofill page, right-click anywhere on the page and select “Inspect” from the context menu.

Jared Newman / Foundry

You should see panel of developer tools slide in next to the webpage. Click the “Network” tab at the top.

Jared Newman / Foundry

On the DuckDuckGo site next to the sidebar, click the “Generate Private Duck Address” button.
In the developer panel sidebar, click on the word “addresses.”

Jared Newman / Foundry

In the sidebar, scroll down until you see the words “authorization: Bearer,” followed by a long string of letters and numbers.
Copy the long string of letters and numbers (without the “authorization: Bearer” portion) to your clipboard.

The text you just copied is your DuckDuckGo API key, a unique code tied to your account that’s required to set up email masking.

Treat the API key like a password and do not share it with anyone. If you want to generate masked emails on more devices other than your current one, I suggest storing it as a secure note inside Bitwarden. That way, you can access it later on your other devices.

Now, it’s time to plug that API key into Bitwarden:

Click the Bitwarden extension icon or open the app.
Select the “Generator” tab at the bottom.

Jared Newman / Foundry

In the “What would you like to generate?” section, select “Username.”
Under “Username type,” select “Forwarded email alias.”
Under “Service,” select “DuckDuckGo.”
Under “API key,” paste the string of letters and numbers you copied earlier.
Hit the Reload icon at the top and confirm that a duck.com address appears.

Once this is set up, you can generate masked email addresses directly from Bitwarden’s login creator. Just hit the + button at the top of the app, hit the Reload icon in the Username field, then hit the Reload icon at the top to create an email and hit “Select.” You can then use the “Password” field underneath to create a random password to go with it.

Jared Newman / Foundry

As I alluded to earlier, Bitwarden doesn’t sync your DuckDuckGo API key across devices, so you’ll need to paste it into the Generator tab on every device where Bitwarden is installed. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to create masked emails from anywhere.

Finally, don’t forget to uninstall DuckDuckGo’s browser extension from the device where you first set everything up. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck using DuckDuckGo’s privacy-centric search engine whether you want to or not.

Other options

This isn’t the only way to create secure passwords and masked emails in tandem. Some other options worth noting:

I’ve previously recommended Ironvest (formerly Abine Blur) for masked email addresses, and it also has a password manager built in. The free version has no usage limitations, it works on any device, and its browser extension can create new email addresses with one click when you’re signing up for a website. (I’ve considered using this in place of Bitwarden but am staying put for now.)
Apple offers an email masking feature, called “Hide My Email,” for paid iCloud+ subscribers, and it pairs nicely with the built-in password management features in iOS and MacOS. It’s best avoided if you don’t exclusively use Apple products.
1Password offers email masking for users of the Fastmail email service only.
Bitwarden’s other email masking options include SimpleLogin, AnonAddy, Firefox Relay, and Fastmail. All have usage limitations for non-paying users, but have other benefits that could make them worth considering. (Firefox Relay, for instance, can mask your phone number as well.)

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Security Software and Services

How to digitize and declutter your CDs and DVDs

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 12:30:00 +0000

A while I back, I wrote a column for TechHive on ways to rent or buy DVDs without Netflix’s now-dead DVD service. So it’s only fitting to now write the opposite story, about how to declutter the optical media you no longer want.

First, we’ll go over some ways to digitize any DVDs or CDs you want to save, using freely available software. We’ll also cover how to sell discs in bulk for a modest profit.

This story is adapted from Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get more tech tips every Tuesday.

Why digitize?

In an age of streaming abundance, you might not think digitizing physical media is worthwhile. Allow me to offer a few counterpoints:

Not all physical media is available on streaming services (or available on the ones you currently pay for). With a digital copy, you can access that content on all your devices without any clunky optical drives.
Digitizing allows you to preserve the content’s original quality without the extra compression that often comes with streaming.
If you have the time and inclination, running a personal media server is a fun and rewarding hobby, one that will let you access all your digitized content from anywhere without any ongoing subscription fees.

Get a disc drive

Unless your computer has an optical drive built in, you’ll need an external player to plug in over USB. For DVDs and CDs, I use an LG drive similar to this one, which I bought on sale for $20, but Amazon has generic models at similar prices.

The situation’s more complicated if you’re ripping Blu-rays. Low-end Blu-ray drives start at around $60 but can’t play 4K discs at all. Ripping 4K Blu-rays requires specific hardware and third-party firmware to circumvent copy protection, and probably isn’t worth the trouble unless you’re fully committed to the endeavor.

Digitizing a CD

Jared Newman / Foundry

My go-to for digitizing CDs is a free program called fre:ac, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

After installing fre.ac, just insert a CD into your drive, open the app, and wait for the album info to load. (You can also click the CD icon with a plus sign next to it.) The software automatically pulls in data from CDDB, so it should pull in track info for all but the most obscure albums.

You’ll have to provide album art on your own, though. Download some from Google Images, then head to the “Tags” tab in fre:ac. Click “Album” underneath, select “Add” under the “Cover Art” section, and select the image you downloaded.

Next, head to Options > General Settings > Output files. From here you can choose where to save your audio files and customize folder and file names.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Once everything’s configured, you can rip the album into a wide range of formats, which you can view by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the ▶️ button in the top toolbar. I suggest FLAC to preserve the CD’s original quality, or either MP3 or AAC if you want much smaller files in exchange for a loss in quality. Click the play button itself to start ripping.

More tools to check out: The fantastically named MusicBrainz Picard can automatically add album art and track info based on the audio file’s unique characteristics. I also like MP3Tag for tweaking track info in bulk, but it’s only free for Windows users. The Mac version costs $20.

Digitizing DVDs

Jared Newman / Foundry

Ripping DVDs is a simple affair with a free program called MakeMKV. With just a few clicks, it can convert your discs to the MKV file format. (Just be aware that if the DVD is copy-protected, ripping it is probably illegal.)

To get started in MakeMKV, just click the big disc icon and wait for the app to scan your disc’s contents. On the next screen, choose where to save your files. Click the little green arrow icon under “Make MKV,” then sit back and wait.

You’ll end up with one or more MKV files depending on the number of extras and deleted scenes included with the disc. Rename them in a way that’s recognizable, then gather them all into a single folder. (If you’re adding them to a Plex server, there’s a specific naming scheme to follow for bonus content.)

Note MakeMKV can also rip Blu-ray discs. It technically requires a $60 license after 30 days, but free license keys are available once per month while the software is in beta, as it has been since 2008.

Need smaller files? DVDs can easily eat up 5GB of storage space when ripped via MakeMKV, so consider using Handbrake to compress them down to a smaller size. The “Super HQ 480p” preset for DVDs should cut things in half without a noticeable drop in quality.

How to sell unwanted DVDs and Blu-rays

Jared Newman / Foundry

First, a disclaimer: If you just ripped a copy of a CD or DVD for personal use, you’re probably not allowed to turn around and sell it while keeping the digital version for yourself. For the purposes of this guide, I’m just going to assume you have a separate stack of discs that you’d like to get rid of, even without digitizing them first.

While you can always look for a local record store to sell your CDs, or try to sell everything in bulk on eBay, the appropriately-named Decluttr is a much simpler solution.

Download Decluttr’s app for iOS or Android, and you can scan the barcodes for all your CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. Decluttr will pay cash for each one and provides a free UPS label (or even multiple labels, if need be) to ship them out. You only need to provide the box in which to send them.

Admittedly, this isn’t the most economical way to offload old discs. I scanned 28 CDs and one DVD into the app, and the offers for each disc ranged from $0.10 to $3, with a total payout of $13.44. On a separate occasion, I scanned 37 for a meager $7.44.

But as motivation to finally get a stack of CDs out of my office, it’s enough, and I take some comfort in knowing that Decluttr will try to find a new home for them. Now I’ll be on the lookout for dusty CD towers at friends’ and families’ houses to see if we can offload any more.

Sign up for Jared’s Advisorator newsletter to get more tech tips every week.

Personal Software

4 hot PC trends to watch for in 2024

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Every time you think the PC industry is out of ideas, they come back with some new ones.

CES 2024 offered a solid glimpse of where things are going. The AI hype train is running at full speed, of course, but we also saw some promising developments for PC gamers and some fresh takes on portable computing. It’s a great time to be a PC user, and these emerging trends help prove it:

AI PCs (and puffed-up AI marketing) arrive

With Intel heralding the “AI PC era” at CES, PC makers are eager to play up the AI angle on their latest laptops. Still, consumers will need to be savvy about what’s actually new and useful here.

On the Intel side, the key component is the 14th-gen Core Ultra’s Neural Processing Unit (or NPU), which can handle AI tasks while using less power than a dedicated GPU. Some Windows AI features will require an NPU—including the Windows Studio Effects package that adds background blur and head tracking to webcam video—and some PC makers are also finding their own uses for it. HP, for instance, has showed how its Omen Transcend 14 gaming laptop can offload video streaming tasks to the NPU and free up the GPU for actual gaming.

Just be aware that high-end GPUs are still better for AI tasks overall, and that popular cloud-based AI applications such as ChatGPT—and Microsoft’s Copilot sidebar in Windows, for that matter—won’t use on-device processing at all. Even some features that vendors are talking up as AI-based, such as Acer’s audio noise cancellation, are just new renditions of what we already have.

Badass monitors get even better

Matt Smith / Foundry

If 2023 was the year of more accessible OLED monitors, 2024 is about ratcheting up their performance.

LG, for instance, unveiled a 27-inch 1440p OLED monitor with a 480Hz refresh rate, as did Asus (which is using the same LG panel). Both are the fastest OLED monitors to date, and are not far off from what we’ve seen on the LCD side. Samsung, meanwhile, is boosting refresh rates on its QD-OLED panels, as seen on the Odyssey G8 (4K, 240 Hz) and Odyssey G6 (1440p, 360 Hz).

And if extreme ultrawides are what you’re after, Acer’s joining the fray with its Z57 Mini-LED curved monitor, which essentially puts two 4K monitors side-by-side on a 57-inch display. It’ll provide some much-needed competition for the likes of Samsung’s Odyssey Neo G95C, which debuted at CES last year. Those in the market for high-end gaming monitors in 2024 will be spoiled for choice.

The War on Cables continues

Brad Chacos/IDG

While PC hardware makers started laying the groundwork for cable-free desktop builds last year, 2024 is the year in which the War on Cables gains significant traction.

At CES, Asus was showing off a new concept called BTF, which officially stands for “Back to the Future” but technically refers to back-of-motherboard placement for cables and power connections. BTF motherboards will also have an extra 600W PCIe connector, allowing compatible graphics cards to connect without any wiring. Cooler Master, Corsair, Inwin, Lian Li, Phanteks, Silverstone, and Thermaltake pledging to build compatible cases under what Asus calls the “BTF Alliance.”

MSI has also found a partner for its own Project Zero motherboard, which lacks Asus’ special PCIe connection but otherwise uses similar reverse-mount techniques to keep data cables and power connections out of sight. Maingear plans to go cable-free in its Zero Drop and NV9 Zero Concept designs, both due out this quarter.

Laptop makers get weird

Jared Newman / Foundry

Even the best laptops these days are pretty boring, so it’s nice to see PC makers display a taste for experimentation as they try to stand out.

Exhibit A: Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus, whose 14-inch touchscreen boots into Android when you detach it. Meanwhile, the laptop base can keep running Windows while docked to an external monitor. A lot of PCs claim to be 2-in-1s, but this one actually is two computers on one device. Lenovo also showed off a “Magic Bay” concept for its ThinkBook 13X and ThinkBook 16P, allowing users to clip a range of accessories onto a magnetized port at the top of the screen. (Snapping on a small secondary monitor seems especially appealing.)

Asus used CES to indulge in its wild side, as well, announcing a portable monitor with a folding screen along with a dual-screen OLED laptop. It’s similar to Lenovo’s Yoga 9i from last year, but has a full keyboard and trackpad deck along with a lower price of $1,500. Sooner or later, one of these ideas is going to stick.

Laptops

Master your Kindle with these 10 tips

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Of all the tech products Amazon offers, Kindle is the only one I’d seriously miss if it went away.

I was never much of a book person, but that’s changed as I’ve tried to divert more time away from social media. Kindle—not just the e-reader, but the mobile apps—are where a lot of that spare screen time has ended up.

As such, I’ve been digging deeper into the Kindle software to make the most of it, and using it not just for e-books, but as a hub for all kinds of reading. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Use the app

If you haven’t read a book on a smartphone lately, you might be surprised at how pleasant it’s become as mobile displays have grown larger and more vibrant.

To that end, the Kindle app on iOS and Android is a great way to read e-books, and you don’t need a Kindle e-reader to use it. Any Kindle books you purchase online will automatically sync across devices, as will your reading progress, so you can pick up where you left off on any phone, tablet, or e-reader that’s logged into the same Amazon account.

Personalize your pages

Jared Newman / Foundry

Tap near the top of the screen on a Kindle e-reader—or anywhere on the mobile app—then tap the “Aa” icon to change various reader settings, such as font size, line spacing, margins, and page color.

Personally, I always visit the “More” tab and enable “Page turn animation,” which lets me compulsively dog-ear the virtual pages while reading. I also disable “Popular Highlights,” because nothing ruins a great quote like seeing it underscored for emphasis. (Too bad Amazon doesn’t sync these settings across devices.)

Quick reading tweaks

Some Kindle options don’t require a trip into the settings menu:

Tap the bottom-left corner to switch between page count, location count, and estimated reading times.
Pinch the screen to quickly adjust text size.
On phones and tablets, tap the bottom-right corner to lock or unlock screen rotation. (This works independently of your device’s auto-rotate settings.)
On Kindle e-readers with built-in lighting, swipe down from the top for brightness controls and other quick settings.

Schedule screen warmth

Jared Newman / Foundry

If your Kindle has a warm light setting, you can adjust it on a schedule to minimize eyestrain at night. Swipe down from the top of the screen, then look just above the Warmth slider and tap on “Schedule.” Turn the schedule on from this menu, then set up your timing and warmth levels.

Unfortunately Kindle e-readers don’t let you switch between multiple user profiles, but there are a few things you can do to set up a device for more than one person:

Set up Amazon Household, so you and another person can share books across separate Amazon accounts.
To view only your own books, head to the Library tab, tap the filter icon near the top-left corner, then select “Your items.”
On Kindle e-readers, activate Kids mode by hitting the vertical ellipses icon, then selecting “Amazon Kids.” From here you can create a child profile, add kid-friendly books, and set up a PIN to get back to the regular menu.

Get free e-books

Jared Newman / Foundry

I’ll never tire of recommending Libby as a way to check out free e-books from your library, and it integrates flawlessly with Kindle so you can read across your devices and e-readers. The Libby app will ask to connect your Amazon account the first time you download a book, but you can also find this setting by tapping the menu icon, selecting Settings, then selecting “Read Books With…”

Rename your Kindle

If you’re a longtime Kindle app user, you’ve probably got an unwieldy list of devices to choose from when you buy a book online or borrow one from Libby. To make device selection easier, head to Settings in the Kindle app, then select “Device Name” and pick something more memorable than “Joe’s 6th iPhone.” (On e-readers, you’ll find this option under Settings > Your Account > Device Name.)

You can also head to Amazon’s Kindle app manager to remove old devices and set your current device as the default.

Email documents to Kindle

Got a book in PDF form or a lengthy Word document you need to read? Look up your Kindle email address—formatted as username_XXXXXX@kindle.com—and send those documents to yourself:

On the Kindle app, head to More > Settings, then look under “Send to Kindle Email Address.”
On Kindle e-readers, head to Settings > Your Account, then look under “Send-to-Kindle Email.”
You can also head to this webpage, click “Kindle,” then select a device. This menu even lets you set your address to something more memorable.

While each Kindle device or app technically has its own email address, anything you send to one should sync with all the others.

Save articles for later

Jared Newman / Foundry

With your Kindle email address in hand, you can start using it to bring in articles from elsewhere.

My preferred method is Instapaper, a free service that lets you save articles on the web for reading later. With Instapaper’s Kindle integration, you can get weekly or daily digests of unread articles delivered a single e-book.

Here’s how to get started:

After creating an Instapaper account, head to the settings menu, and copy down the email address in the Kindle section.
Sign into Amazon’s device preferences page, then click “Personal Document Settings.”
Scroll down and click “Add a new approved email address.”
Paste in the Instapaper email address you copied earlier, then hit “Add Address.”
Back in Instapaper settings, enter your Kindle email address, then enable “Kindle Automatic Delivery.” Set a delivery frequency, and hit “Save Kindle Preferences.”

Once you’ve set this up, you can use Instapaper’s bookmarklet, browser extension, or mobile apps to save articles, and they’ll show up on your Kindle app or e-reader in digest form. (The paid version of Instapaper also lets you send articles to Kindle directly.)

I changed these 11 Facebook settings, and you should too

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 11:30:00 +0000

Whether you love spending time on Facebook or merely do so out of obligation, there are lots of ways to make the experience more tolerable.

I’ve been spending a bit more time on the site lately, having been roped into a handful of Facebook Groups that I need to keep tabs on. As such, I’ve also dug into Facebook’s labyrinthine settings menu, looking for ways to protect privacy, lock down profile access, and generally make the site feel less obnoxious.

Below are the 11 quick changes that I ended up making, and that I recommend for anyone who spends time on Facebook as well:

Finding Facebook settings

Most of the tweaks below reside inside Facebook’s main settings menu, so here’s a quick refresher on how to get there:

In the mobile app: Tap the “More” tab, then tap the gear icon at the top of the screen.
On the web: Click the down arrow in the top-right corner, then select Settings & privacy > Settings.

I’ll just refer to these menus as “Facebook Settings” from here on.

Eliminate annoyances

Jared Newman / Foundry

Turn off external notifications: Head to Facebook Settings > Notifications, and you’ll find a list of controls so granular that I can only assume Facebook wants to scare people away.

I’d suggest scrolling right past those settings to the “Where you’ll receive notifications” section. For both the Email and SMS options, select “Required notifications,” and you won’t get any texts or emails about status updates, comments, and the like. Then, you can scroll back up and play with the options for in-app notifications (though I prefer to disable all those alerts in my phone’s settings menu).

No more video nags: In a shameless attempt to juice its viewership numbers, Facebook puts a little dot above its video tab even when it has nothing important to share. To hide the dot, head to Settings > Navigation bar > Manage notification dots, then uncheck “Videos.”

Customize the menu bar: Alternatively, you can hide videos and other unwanted tabs by heading to Facebook Settings > Shortcuts > Navigation bar in the mobile app. Select “Pin” for the sections you care about and “Hide” for the ones you don’t.

Disable autoplay: To further reduce video-related annoyances, turn off autoplay by heading to Facebook Settings > Media, then selecting “Never Autoplay Videos.” On the web, head to Settings > Videos, then change “Auto-Play Videos” to “Off.”

Protect your privacy

Jared Newman / Foundry

Stop creepy data collection: By default, Facebook collects all sorts of data from the apps you use, websites you visit, and businesses you patronize, all for ad-targeting purposes. If you’ve ever felt like Facebook is recording your real life conversations, this widespread tracking is probably why.

To stop it, head to the “Off-Facebook Activity” page (in the mobile app, you’ll find this under Facebook Settings > Off-Facebook activity), then, follow these two steps:

Select “Clear History” or “Clear Previous Activity.”
Select “Disconnect future activity,” then make sure “Future Off-Facebook Activity” is unchecked.

You will be logged out of any websites where you use the “Sign in with Facebook” option, but I’d suggest using other sign-in methods anyway to further minimize what Facebook knows about you.

Disable autofill: If you tap on a web link in the Facebook mobile app, it can collect any form data you enter—such as emails or addresses—for targeted ads. To disable this, head to Facebook Settings > Browser, then hit “Clear” at the top and uncheck the “Autofill” toggles underneath.

Delete your phone number: Facebook can use your phone number for targeted ads even if you only provided it for account security purposes. Assuming you’ve set up a different two-factor authentication method, consider deleting your number from Facebook by heading to Facebook Settings > Accounts Center > Personal Details > Contact Info. Select your number, then hit “Delete number.”

Control who sees what

Jared Newman / Foundry

Restrict your posts: Want to prevent certain connections from seeing some of your posts? Here’s my preferred method:

On Facebook’s website, go to your Friends list, select “Custom Lists,” then “Create List.” Give it a name, like “Work Colleagues” or “Barely Know.”
Click the “Add Friends” button, then choose who you want to exclude.
When posting, click the drop-down menu under your name, then select “Friends except…” Select your newly-created created list, and hit “Save Changes.” All future posts will now be hidden from people on that list unless you change this setting later.

Clean up old posts: In Facebook Settings, hit “Privacy Checkup” at the top, then select “Who Can See What You Share.” From here you can control who has access to your profile info and future posts, but you can also restrict old posts to just your friends with the “Limit past posts” function.

Don’t do free marketing: To prevent friends from seeing that you’ve “liked” a brand in Facebook ads, head back to the “Privacy Checkup” section and select “Your ad preferences on Facebook.” On the last page of this section, choose “Only me” from the drop-down.

Hide your status: To stop friends from seeing when you’re active on Facebook, open the mobile app and head to Settings > Active status, then uncheck “Show when you’re active.” (On the web, you’ll find this option by clicking the Messenger icon, selecting the “…” button, and clicking “Active Status.” Just note when this is disabled, you won’t be able to see friends’ statuses either.

While these settings tweaks won’t make Facebook drastically more enjoyable to use, they do at least make it feel somewhat calmer and less privacy-invasive.

This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get new tips every Tuesday.

Personal Software

Is Windows antivirus software still necessary in 2023?

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 11:30:00 +0000

For years, I’ve assumed that most people don’t need third-party antivirus tools and have cheerily passed this suggestion along to others.

After all, Microsoft’s Windows Security suite (also known as Windows Defender or Microsoft Defender) provides built-in virus protection for your PC, and it doesn’t cost a dime. I’ve been using it for years, and the last time I can recall having virus problems on my PC was well over a decade ago.

And yet, looking around for confirmation of this long-held belief quickly turns up an alternate universe, full of experts who insist that everyone should be paying for antivirus software. This advice comes not just from the companies that sell antivirus suites, but from reputable sites that perform antivirus software reviews (PCWorld included).

On top of that, nearly every laptop I’ve reviewed for PCWorld has come with some form of antivirus trialware from companies like McAfee and Norton. Those companies pay PC makers for placement, which wouldn’t make sense if no one bought the products, right?

At this point, I’ve heard enough questions from readers—and family members—that I decided to dig a little deeper. What I’ve learned is that my initial assumptions were mostly correct: Most people can indeed skate by without extra antivirus software. But that doesn’t mean everyone should, or that you shouldn’t take any extra precautions to stay safe.

The case against extra antivirus software

As an initial sanity check on my antivirus assumptions, I did the most obvious thing possible and put out the question on Twitter: Does Microsoft’s built-in Windows Security software provide enough protection for typical PC users?

The consensus answer was yes, with caveats.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Justin Duino of How-To Geek pointed to his site’s helpful article on the subject, which recommended Windows Security in conjunction with Malwarebytes’ free malware scanner. My fellow freelance journalist Rob Pegoraro also called out a Wirecutter article that came to the same conclusion. Another writer chimed in with a similar recommendation.

The reasoning is simple: Windows Security rivals other programs at sniffing out viruses. While this wasn’t always the case, Microsoft’s detection has improved considerably in recent years, to the point that the independent AV-TEST Institute regularly awards it a 5.5 or even a perfect 6 out 6 in protection, usability, and performance, beating industry averages.

Perhaps more importantly, security is decentralized now, so a single virus scanner is no longer your only line of protection. Some examples:

Major web browsers can detect and block malicious websites on their own, thanks to tools like Google Safe Browsing.
Those browsers may also warn you if you’re about to download an unrecognized program.
Major email providers, such as Gmail and Yahoo, scan attachments for viruses before you can even download them.
Those same email providers’ spam filters do a great job at keeping malicious emails out of your inbox and warning you of potential phishing schemes.
The SmartScreen filter built into Windows will warn you if you’re attempting to install unrecognized software.

Antivirus, in the end, is just another line of defense. For many people, Microsoft’s built-in defenses should be strong enough.

Getting a second opinion

Jared Newman / Foundry

So why to do some folks recommend Malwarebytes as an additional layer of protection? Mainly because it’s nice to have another set of eyes on your computer.

Last year, for instance, I ran a scan in Malwarebytes, and picked up a set of potentially unwanted programs tied to my installation of Chrome. While my Chrome installation seemed to be working fine—with no sketchy toolbars or search redirects that I could see—this did convince me to delete my sync data from Chrome, reset its settings, and perform a fresh Chrome install. (I suspect it was a browser extension behaving badly.)

But Malwarebytes has its downsides as well. If you’re not careful during installation, it will automatically install its own extension in all your browsers, and the free version routinely nags you with upgrade prompts. Also, unless you disable its real-time protections (which are only available as a 14-day trial for free users), they’ll override Microsoft’s own virus scanner.

I may still occasionally install Malwarebytes to get a second opinion on my computer’s health, but for now, I’m leaving it off my PC as well.

The case for extra antivirus protection

Ian Paul / Foundry

To be clear, third-party antivirus software isn’t a grift with no actual utility behind it. While many people don’t need to pay for antivirus software, there are still some reasons to consider doing so:

You need more help with security: Some antivirus programs offer extra security features beyond the realm of traditional virus scanning. Avast, for instance, can monitor webcam use and let you block untrusted apps from capturing video, and it can also alert you if any of your online passwords are involved in a security breach. (Many premium AV suites now offer identity protection features.)
You’re looking to bundle: In addition to extra security features, some antivirus programs offer tools that you might otherwise purchase separately. Norton 360 Deluxe, for instance, includes its own password manager and cloud storage service. Avast One has a built-in VPN and a temporary file cleaner.
You want more kinds of protection: Some third-party tools offer additional methods of protection that aren’t built into Windows. AVG’s “Behavior Shield,” for instance, can look for patterns of malicious behavior even when it hasn’t detected a virus, while Avast One has ransomware protection that prevents apps from encrypting your files without permission. (Windows offers this as well, but not by default.) Secure file deletion, browsing protection, and other helpful features are available in many premium security packages as well. Antivirus suites also typically provide protection for mobile devices as well as personal computers.

All of these extra features, however, may bloat up your computer, affecting performance and getting in your way, and they might not even be the best tools for the job. I’d much rather use a dedicated password manager than one that’s bundled with antivirus software, and if I needed a VPN, I’d want to choose the provider myself. That said, there’s strong appeal in an all-in-one solution for people who don’t want to handle a mish-mash of programs, and modern antivirus suites offer exactly that.

While extra antivirus software was essential in the early days of personal computing, these days it’s just one potential tool in the broader security arsenal, which should also include strong passwords, two-factor authentication, robust data backups, and a healthy dose of common sense. On that, at least, the experts seem to be in total harmony.

Want more tech advice like this? Sign up for my Advisorator newsletter, where a version of this column originally appeared.

Technology Industry

I switched my $1000 desktop for a $300 mini PC and regret nothing

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 15:02:21 +0000

Earlier this year, I impulse-bought a tiny, inexpensive desktop PC for research purposes. I didn’t expect it to change my entire computing setup.

But here I am now, using the $300 Beelink SER5 Mini PC as my daily workhorse, powering an ultrawide 1440p 100Hz monitor and smoothly handling any productivity task I’ve thrown at it. This little computer has been so delightful to use that I’ve relegated my full-sized desktop tower PC to the basement television, where it’s now serving exclusively as a gaming rig.

Consider this a lesson on technological overkill. Outside of some specialized use cases, the required compute power for getting things done might be a lot less than you think.

Further reading: Don’t build an ultra-tiny small form factor PC without reading this first

Sizing up the mini PC

Beelink sells an array of miniature computers, but the one I bought currently costs $274 (or $244 for Prime members) with the following specs:

AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor
16GB of RAM (DDR4)
512GB of storage (M.2 NVMe)
Windows 11 Pro
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Front ports: Two USB-A 3.2, one USB-C, 3.5mm audio
Rear ports: One USB-A 3.0, one USB-A 2.0, two HDMI 2.0, gigabit ethernet

Jared Newman / Foundry

Spec-wise, this is roughly on par with laptops in the $500 to $700 price range, except of course you’ll have to supply your own mouse, keyboard, and screen. The 5×5-inch frame is small enough to pick up with one hand, and it comes with VESA brackets for mounting the computer to the back of a monitor or television.

The Beelink SER5 also hides a neat feature on its underside: Removing the bottom plate reveals a slot for a 2.5-inch storage drive. I bought a 1TB solid state drive to store all my OneDrive files locally, and the PC recognized it without issue. (The device’s RAM and M.2 storage drive are upgradeable as well.)

Jared Newman / Foundry

How it fares

Going in, my plan was to briefly play around with the SER5’s default Windows 11 Pro installation before going back to my regular desktop for work. Even if I didn’t use the mini PC regularly, I figured it’d be useful for experimenting with other operating systems such as Linux or Chrome OS Flex.

In the end, the transition to daily work was so seamless that I never went back to my old computer at all.

As a tech journalist, my work typically involves writing in Obsidian, chatting in Slack with colleagues (and my newsletter readers), juggling a few dozen browser tabs in Brave, and attending video calls in Zoom or Google Meet. The Beelink SER5 handled all those tasks without ever noticeably slowing down, and it’s much quieter than the full-sized desktop I’d been using before.

I threw some more ambitious tasks at the mini PC as well, such as digitizing some old VHS tapes, recording streaming video sources via PlayOn Home, and running a Plex media server. Even with Plex’s commercial detection and PlayOn’s recording engine running in the background, I continued to work without any noticeable performance setbacks.

And while integrated Radeon graphics are no match for a dedicated graphics card, the Beelink SER5 has fared well as a low-end gaming device. Yakuza Kiwami runs at a smooth 60 frames per second on high settings at 1080p, and both Fortnite and the post-apocalyptic cat simulator Stray are playable at 1080p with framerates closer to 30 frames per second. I’ve also used it to play less-demanding games such as the Quake II remaster and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, while leaning on Nvidia’s GeForce Now for more intensive fare.

All this led to a realization that my hulking desktop PC was just wasting space while also being excessively loud and energy-intensive, and after a couple weeks I moved it out of my office for good. I gave it a factory reset, configured it exclusively for gaming in the basement, and now only turn it on as needed.

Lesson learned

Jared Newman / Foundry

When shopping for computers, it’s always tempting to buy for every potential use case, both real and perceived, now and in the future.

The Beelink SER5 is a reminder that we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns for most computing use cases. Despite having just a mid-range processor (one designed for laptops, at that), I was never wanting for more power or wishing I’d splurged on a pricier computer.

But mostly, I’m just happy to have a quieter office and a better place for the gaming PC that once occupied it.

This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get new tips every Tuesday.

Desktop PCs

How to use SyncThing to sync files without the cloud

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 14:30:00 +0000

If you’re looking for a free way to sync files across all your devices—and don’t mind putting a little work into it—SyncThing might be your answer.

Compared to cloud storage services such as OneDrive and Dropbox, SyncThing isn’t the easiest to set up. Its interface is unintuitive, and even figuring out what to install can lead to confusion.

But when everything clicks, it’s fantastic. Because it’s not dependent on remote servers, SyncThing can transfer files faster than cloud-based services. It’s also more flexible, with an array of granular controls over what gets synced where. Even cloud storage users might find utility in SyncThing as a supplemental tool after getting past its setup hurdles.

Let’s dig into how you can do that. And did I mention SyncThing is free?

What is SyncThing?

SyncThing is a peer-to-peer file sync service, meaning that your devices form a direct connection instead of storing files on someone else’s servers. If all those devices are on the same network, your files never leave that network (though SyncThing can work remotely as well). Most cloud storage providers don’t offer this kind of local connection, Dropbox being a notable exception.

SyncThing also offers extensive controls over syncing. Instead of being limited to a single folder, you can pair any folder on one device with any folder on another, both on internal and external hard drives. You can also set folders as “Send Only” or “Receive Only” so that deleting files on one device doesn’t affect the other. The software even lets you customize version histories for each device and set rules for how often to run the sync operation.

This leads to a lot of neat possibilities, which may be difficult or impossible to set up with cloud storage. For instance:

Quickly syncing large files, such video or audio files, either immediately or on a set schedule.
Syncing files that can’t be moved into your cloud storage folder, such as game saves in the Windows user directory.
Syncing files to a device that you’d rather not connect to cloud storage for security reasons, such as a Steam Deck.
Using one-way sync to push files from an internal drive on one device to an external drive on another.
Sharing files with a friend or colleague without affecting each other’s cloud storage limits.

How to install SyncThing

Installation is usually the easy part when it comes to computer software, but SyncThing’s a bit more complicated.

While SyncThing offers a basic app for Windows, Mac, and Linux, it does not load at startup by default or include a system tray utility for easy access. Those are pretty important features, so you’ll likely want a third-party app to handle them:

For Windows, consider SyncTrazor. It will automatically install SyncThing and run at startup, plus it includes a system tray icon and sync notifications.
For MacOS, SyncThing-MacOS is an excellent client for accessing SyncThing from the menu bar. It includes its own SyncThing installation as well.
Linux users can grab SyncThing-GTK. It’s available through Flathub, making installation easy on devices like the Steam Deck.
Android users can install SyncThing from the Google Play Store.
For the iPhone, the only option is Möbius Sync, which is free to try but costs $5 after transferring 20 MB of data. It also has one major limitation: You can’t use it to transfer photos from the iPhone’s Camera Roll.

To get started with SyncThing, you’ll need to install it on two devices. Any combination of platforms will work, so you can sync across Windows, Mac, Linux, and so on.

Also, before you go any further: Make a temporary copy of the data you plan to sync between devices, storing it outside the folders where you’ll do the syncing. That way you’ll have a backup if anything goes wrong during the setup.

SyncThing setup: Connect your devices

Jared Newman / Foundry

SyncThing doesn’t offer any kind of setup wizard, so once you’ve installed the program, you’ll be looking at a bare-bones dashboard with information about your device, plus a prompt to set up a GUI username and password. (The latter is only necessary if you’re sharing a device with someone you don’t trust and don’t want them messing with your SyncThing settings.)

Start by pairing the two devices where you installed SyncThing:

On the first device, click “Add Remote Device.”
If both machines are on the same Wi-Fi network: Choose your other device from the device list. It will have a unique code and symbol associated with it.

Jared Newman / Foundry

For pairing over the internet: Click the code under “Identification” on your other device. You’ll need to copy unique ID from here and paste it into the “Device ID” field on your first device.
Click “Save.”
Jump onto your other device, and you’ll see a request to add your first device. Click the green “Add device” button, then click “Save.”

Jared Newman / Foundry

Note that even if you pair two devices over Wi-Fi, the connection will persist even over the internet. That means you can move to another Wi-Fi network and continue to sync your files.

Create your SyncThing folder pairs

Jared Newman / Foundry

The next step is to choose which folders to sync between devices. SyncThing offers a default folder in your user directory, but you can also sync any folder, anywhere on your computer:

Click “Add folder.”
In the General tab, under “Folder Label,” choose a recognizable name for what you’re syncing or leave it blank. Each device can have different labels for the same synced folder.
Under “Folder ID,” choose a recognizable name or leave it blank. This ID must be the same across all devices.
Under Folder Path, specify the folder’s location on your storage drive. (You can retrieve this by right-clicking a folder in File Explorer and selecting “Copy as Path,” but you’ll have to remove the quotes after pasting it into this field.)

Jared Newman / Foundry

In the Sharing tab, select your other device under “Unshared devices.” Optionally enter a password if you’re sharing with another person’s computer, and want them to verify the pairing operation with a password.
In the File Versioning tab, and choose whether to keep a version history when files are updated. Read about these options for more details.

Jared Newman / Foundry

In the “Advanced” tab, choose how often to monitor for changes (or select “Watch for Changes,”).
By default, the folder will send and receive files from other devices. You can change this in the Advanced tab under “Folder Type.”
Click “Save.”

Now, jump onto your other device, and you should see a request to add the folder:

Jared Newman / Foundry

Click the green “Add Folder” button.
In the General tab, add a recognizable name under “Folder Label.”
Under Folder Path, choose where you’d like to store the contents being synced from the other devices. This can be a new folder, or an existing one.
Use the “File Versioning” and “Advanced” tabs just as you did on the other device.
When everything looks good, click “Save” to start syncing.

Want to add more folders? Just repeat the steps in this section.

Need to change the sync location for an existing folder? Remove it from the device you want to change, then re-add the folder in your newly-desired location.

Add more devices to SyncThing

Once you’ve set up a couple of devices in SyncThing, you can start adding more:

Install SyncThing on the new device.
Click the “Add Device” button, then choose your device from the list. (Note that it will have a unique symbol and identifier code, which you can look up on the original device.)
Jump onto the other device and click the green “Add Device” button.
Under the Sharing tab, choose which folders you’d like to sync with the new device.
Hop back to your new device and add each folder, just like in the section above.

To make things a bit easier, SyncThing also has a concept called “Introducer,” which you can choose whenever you’re pairing a new device. If you mark an existing device as an Introducer, it will automatically pair any other devices that you’ve connected to it. That way, you don’t have to repeat the entire pairing process for every device.

Other considerations

SyncThing works best when you have at least one always-on computer in the mix, such as a desktop PC or Raspberry Pi that doesn’t go into sleep mode. This will effectively serve as the bridge between all your other devices, ensuring that your folders stay in sync.

SyncThing also has lots of other knobs to tweak, well beyond what’s described here. While its documentation can get a bit dense, it’s a valuable resource for answer questions as you poke around.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, though, seeing everything sync across your devices can feel a bit like magic—especially when it’s something you couldn’t accomplish with cloud storage alone.

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Personal Software

Make Windows search so much better with these tricks

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 10:45:00 +0000

If you only ever use the Windows search function to track down the occasional program or settings menu, you’d be forgiven.

In the past, Windows search was notoriously slow at tracking down files, and in recent years the search panel has become more bloated with things like Bing search results. As such, the Windows search bar might not be your first stop when looking for files or information.

But with the right tweaks—and, perhaps, an extra app or two—you can turn Windows in to a powerful search solution, not just for your own files, but for quick answers, web searches, and your online documents.

Windows search basics

Jared Newman / Foundry

First, an oft-overlooked tip on searching in Windows: The actual search bar is completely superfluous. Just press the Windows key or click the Windows Start menu button, then begin typing to bring up search results—no separate search button required.

That, in turn, means you can hide the Windows search bar to free up some taskbar space. Right-click the taskbar, select Taskbar Settings, then select “Hide” in the Search drop-down menu at the top.

You should also make sure Windows search is finding all your files. From the Start menu, type “Indexing,” then open the “Indexing Options” menu. From here you can click the “Modify” button to choose the folders whose contents should appear in search results.

Find info from Windows Search

Jared Newman / Foundry

Windows Search can be more than just a place to find files, programs, and settings. It can also provide quick answers to common queries. For example:

Type “Weather” and a location to see the forecast.
Type a word along with “Definition,” “Synonym,” or “Antonym.”
Enter a math equation to get the solution.
Ask to convert currencies or units of measurement.
Type “[phrase] in [language]” for a quick translation.
Type a flight number to check status.
Get answers to basic queries, like “Population of NYC.”

These are essentially the same instant answers you’d get at the top of a results page in Bing. Only in this case, you needn’t open a browser tab to see them.

Changing the default search engine

Jared Newman / Foundry

You can also use Windows search to look up things on the web, but there’s one problem: Web searches always flow through Microsoft’s Edge browser and Bing.

While there’s no official way to change these settings, you can install MSEdgeRedirect to use your default browser and preferred search engine instead.

During installation, make sure to select “Active Mode,” which will improve the app’s performance. On the next screen, use the “Additional Redirections” setting to choose your search engine for web searches.

Now, press the Windows key and type in a web search query. Windows will continue to use Bing for its live previews in the search box, but pressing Enter will load the search in your default browser, with whatever search engine you chose above.

You can always revisit your redirect settings through the “MSER Settings” app via the Start menu.

PowerToys Run: Faster Windows file searches

Jared Newman / Foundry

Microsoft’s PowerToys is a free utility that adds a bunch of geeky features to Windows, one of which is a speedy system search tool called PowerToys Run. Press Alt+Space, and it’ll launch a search box in the middle of the screen.

In some ways, PowerToys Run is less capable than Windows’ built-in search function. It can’t provide instant answers to basic questions, and it lacks filters to show only documents or apps.

But it’s also more customizable, and supports geekier functions such as executing shell commands. Much of this customization appears inside the PowerToys Settings app, where you can toggle various plugins and prioritize them in search results.

Also: If you enable the web search plugin in PowerToys Run, it’ll open in your default browser and search engine with no extra software required.

Further reading: Supercharge Windows with Microsoft’s free PowerToys

Slapdash: Search your web apps

Jared Newman / Foundry

Microsoft’s Windows search tools still have one big blind spot: You can’t use them to search through online services such as Notion, Slack, or Google Drive.

That’s where Slapdash comes in. This free app lets you connect all kinds of online services, then search through them by pressing Ctrl+J. It’s great for looking for recent Slack conversation, loading pages in Notion, or tracking down a Google Sheet. (You can connect five of these apps for free, or more with a $12 per month subscription.)

Unfortunately, Slapdash can’t search local Windows files, so you can’t use it as a full replacement for Windows search or PowerToys Run. Still, its ability to search across web apps and services makes it a great complement to Microsoft’s own search tools.

This column comes from Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice in your inbox every week.

Personal Software

How to control Windows PC volume with any keyboard

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 13:00:00 +0000

For reasons that have always been unclear, Windows does not include standard keyboard shortcuts for turning the volume up or down.

Sure, most laptops have volume buttons on their keyboards, and some external keyboards have their own volume keys. But some of us like to use mechanical keyboards without their own volume controls, and would rather not have to fiddle with Windows’ on-screen volume slider.

That’s where 3RVX comes in. With this free Windows app, you can create your own volume control keyboard shortcuts, complete with an on-screen overlay that shows the current audio level.

Custom volume shortcuts in Windows

To get install 3RVX, head to the developer’s website and download the latest installer from under the “Downloads” heading.

Once installed, run 3RVX, and you’ll see a white volume icon in the system tray. Right-click it and select “Settings” to open the app’s settings menu.

Jared Newman / Foundry

By default, “Run on Windows Startup” is not enabled, so check this off if you want 3RVX to launch automatically.

Now, head to the Hotkeys tab, and use the following steps to create your volume shortcuts:

Hit the + button.
Click the blank area next to “Keys.”
Enter your desired keyboard shortcut for decreasing volume.
Click the drop-down next to “Action” and select “Decrease Volume.
Hit the + button again.
Click the blank area next to “Keys.”
Enter your desired keyboard shortcut for increasing volume.
Click the drop-down next to “Action” and select “Increase Volume.
Click “Apply.”

Jared Newman / Foundry

By default, 3RVX’s hotkeys will control the volume in 1/16th increments. To change this, check the “Amount” box, then enter the number of volume increments for each keypress. You can also switch to percentage-level adjustments instead.

Further customization

When you adjust the volume using hotkeys, 3RVX will show a default visual overlay that looks a lot like that of a Mac. If you can’t abide this, head back to the “General” tab and look to the “Skin” drop-down. Here you’ll find a handful of alternate overlays (including, of all things, a throwback to Windows Vista).

Jared Newman / Foundry

The app’s “Display” tab is also worth a look, as you can change the position of the volume control overlay and decide whether it should appear when other programs are running in fullscreen.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Meanwhile, the “OSD” tab lets you toggle overlays for other things, such as brightness and eject. You can also return to the “Hotkeys” tab, and create shortcuts for things like media control and screen brightness.

But even if you only use it for volume control, 3RVX fulfils a longstanding need that’s been inexplicably overlooked.

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Personal Software

9 techy travel hacks for your next trip

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 10:45:00 +0000

Whether you’re about to take a vacation or just dreaming of one, it’s helpful to have the right tech tools at your disposal.

I’ve certainly sampled my fair share, and found that many of them waste more time, energy, money than they purport to save. But below are the apps and tech tips that have become a permanent part of my travel arsenal. Keep these in mind before heading off on your next trip…

CozyCozy for hotel and home search

Jared Newman / Foundry

When you’re torn between staying at a hotel or in an AirBnB, CozyCozy can search across both at the same time (along with VRBO for good measure). Even better, its search results highlight the actual average price per night, including AirBnB’s cleaning and service fees.

A couple of suggestions, though: On CozyCozy’s results page, uncheck “Instant Booking” to make sure you’re seeing all possible results, and consider sorting by “price” instead of “price/value” to find the cheapest available options. You can always use the “Filters” tab to set a minimum rating on top of that, or to narrow down specific accommodations.

Check out CozyCozy →

iExit to plot your rest stop strategy

Jared Newman / Foundry

Pop quiz: You’re coming up on an exit that advertises a Wendy’s, a Taco Bell, and a Dunkin Donuts. But you’re also approaching In-N-Out Burger territory, and if you press on a little further, maybe you’ll strike gold. What do you do? The correct answer is to download iExit, which lists all the upcoming restaurants, hotels, lodging options, and gas stations (with prices) along U.S. interstates. No more rest station roulette for you!

WhoBrings for group packing lists

Jared Newman / Foundry

As an alternative to clunky spreadsheets or endless email chains, WhoBrings is a brilliantly simple way to figure out who’s bringing what. It doesn’t require any registration, so anyone can use it with practically no friction.

Just type the name of your packing list, add some items, then share the link with the rest of the group. Anyone who has the link can then claim responsibility for an item or add new items to the list. You can also specify a number of units for any item—12 beach towels, for instance, or three packs of beer—and people can choose how many they’ll bring.

Check out WhoBrings →

Organic Maps for walking directions

Jared Newman / Foundry

This free app for iOS and Android lets you download detailed maps from OpenStreetMap, complete with business names and other points of interest, and it provides turn-by-turn voice navigation without an internet connection.

While you can also use Google Maps for this purpose, Organic Maps has the advantage of supporting offline walking directions. It also has one especially neat trick: After searching for a location, try hitting the little arrow icon in the bottom right. This brings up a simple arrow pointing in the direction of your destination, giving you some freedom to explore while still telling you generally where to go. (Apple Watch users should also check out Walk Wellbeyond, which can put a similar arrow-based pointer on your wrist.)

Check out Organic Maps →

EveryTimeZone.com to keep track of time

Jared Newman / Foundry

Every Time Zone is a free website that does exactly what it says on the box, displaying the current time in every major time zone. By moving the time zone slider around, you can quickly look for potential meeting times with folks in other parts of the country or world.

Google Translate for signs and menus

Jared Newman / Foundry

Traveling abroad? While you may be familiar with Google Translate on the web, the iOS and Android app’s visual translation tool is where the real magic happens. Just tap the little camera icon near the top of the screen, and any text that appears in the viewfinder will switch to the language of your choosing. The hardest part is getting over the social awkwardness of pointing your phone at a street sign or food stand menu.

Temporary email folders to stay organized

Jared Newman / Foundry

While planning your next trip, create a folder in whatever email app you use, and drop all your confirmation and reservation emails into it as they arrive. That way you don’t have to fumble through your inbox while trying to look up basic information. When the trip is over, delete the folder to avoid cluttering your email’s sidebar menu.

iMessage or Google Assistant for flight status

Jared Newman / Foundry

If you’re an iPhone user, texting upcoming flight codes to yourself is a great way to keep track of departure and arrival times. Long-press the code and select “Preview Flight” for a quick status check.

Got Android instead? If you’ve enabled Smart features in Gmail, just summon Google Assistant on your phone and say “What’s my flight status?” or “When’s my flight?”

Don’t forget video downloads

Jared Newman / Foundry

Do you really want to leave your TV and movie options in the hand of some in-flight infotainment system? Before you head out, prepare to be offline with some video downloads on your phone or tablet. You can save videos for offline viewing in the following apps:

Netflix
Amazon Prime Video
Disney+
Apple TV+
Showtime
Starz
Epix
Hulu
Max
Paramount+
Peacock

Note that for services that offer an ad-supported tier, you’ll only be able to download with an ad-free plan.

This story was adapted from Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get more tech tips every Tuesday.

Mobile Apps

Speed up your Google searches with this hidden trick

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:45:00 +0000

Almost everyone uses Google, and for most of us that means pasting text into our browser’s address bar, or typing text into same. But next time you’re reading an article online and come across a name, word, or phrase you want to research further, try this:

Highlight the text.
Right-click on it.
Select “Search” in the pop-up context menu

Highlight, right-click, search. These three steps will instantly look up the selected text in a new browser tab using your default search engine. It might sound a little clunky, but in practice it’s more efficient than copying, opening a new browser tab, and pasting.

This also works for links, for those times when you see a link that doesn’t have an actual hyperlink. Just click “Go to” instead of “Search” in the context menu, and you’ll be on your way.

While I’ve admittedly known about this trick for years, it never clicked for me until recently, when I made a point of turning it into a habit. That’s often how things go in tech, with some of the best tools hiding in plain sight.

A version of this trick also exists on most mobile web browsers:

On Android: Highlight the snippet of text, then select “Web search.”
On iOS: Highlight the text, tap the little right arrow in the pop-up menu, then hit “Search web.”

Want to take it a step further? Check out the Context Menu Search browser extension, which lets you add other sites and search engines to the pop-up menu. Through the use of site search shortcuts, you can instantly look up the highlighted text on sites like YouTube, Wikipedia, and Amazon.

Jared Newman / Foundry

(If you happen to use Vivaldi, no extension is necessary. Just head to Settings > Search to customize your sources, then look for the “Search With” option in the pop-up menu.)

Now, all you have to do is develop the muscle memory to use this handy search trick in the first place. I can attest that it’s well worth the effort.

Just remember: Highlight, right-click, search.

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Online Services

Why Microsoft’s best Windows app store is actually Github

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 10:45:00 +0000

No disrespect to the Microsoft Store, but it’s not the most exciting place to discover new Windows software.

Peruse Microsoft’s official app store and you’ll mostly find the obvious, with apps like Word, Adobe Photoshop, and Zoom gracing the front pages. While the store does have some hidden gems, most of what’s on display feels a bit too squeaky clean.

If you’re looking for surprise and delight, the real action is happening over on Github. The site for software developers to manage their projects, which Microsoft spent $7.5 billion to acquire in 2018, is brimming with weird and wonderful indie apps that you can download for free.

Of course, Github isn’t really an app store, and it’s not set up to help people discover its hidden treasures. But given the inventiveness on offer, maybe it should be.

Great apps on Github

Jared Newman / Foundry

The quintessential Github app is a bit geekier than your typical app store fare. Often it’s the product of a lone developer who wanted to fix a software annoyance for themselves and decided to share the results with the world. Some developers accept donations or charge for app store versions of their work, but everything you find on Github itself is free to download.

Explorer Patcher, which we covered recently, is a great example. It’s designed to restore taskbar labels and other features that Microsoft removed in Windows 11, all without having to perform any manual registry edits. Along a similar line, MS Edge Redirect routes web searches from the Windows Start menu to your default browser, using your search engine of choice. That way, you’re not forced to use Microsoft Edge and Bing when searching via the taskbar.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Some examples are even more subversive. YouTube-DL, for instance, lets you download YouTube videos through the Windows Command Prompt, and other developers have built spin-offs with full graphical interfaces, such as YT-DLG and Tartube. (A few years ago, Github pulled YouTube-DL in response to a takedown request from the music industry, but quickly reversed course under pressure from developers and activist groups.)

In some cases, great apps get their start on Github long before arriving in any app store. Auto Dark Mode, a sorely needed Windows app for switching between dark and light system themes, first launched in Github in November 2018, nearly three years before making its way to the Microsoft Store. Lively Wallpaper, a great app for dynamic desktop backgrounds, popped up on Github in 2019, but didn’t launch a Microsoft Store version until last year. If you’re not averse to beta software, Github lets you try cool apps in their earliest stages.

More Github apps to try

Jared Newman / Foundry

Microsoft doesn’t do much to showcase what’s available to end users on Github, and that’s a shame, given what a useful resource it can be.

So in lieu of any official recommendations, here are some additional apps hosted on Github that are worth checking out:

Text-Grab: Extract text from anything on the screen. It has more options than PowerToys text grabber, which was made by the same developer.
Normcap: Another free OCR tool, easily launchable from the taskbar or Start menu.
Buzz: Offline audio transcription using OpenAI’s Whisper speech recognition.
Upscayl: Use AI to increase the resolution of your photos.
Math-HotKey: Highlight math syntax (such as “5×5+3”) in any text field, then press Ctrl+Shift+E to calculate it.
Rufus: A popular tool for making USB boot drives.
Min: An experimental, minimalist web browser.
WinMute: Mute system audio based on a schedule or other triggers.
Mouse Jiggler: Periodically moves the mouse to keep the system awake without messing around with sleep settings.
Music Caster: Cast local music files or web audio to Chromecast devices.
Dopamine: A basic, modern app for local music playback.
Nuclear: Desktop music player that pulls in tracks from YouTube, Bandcamp, and other online sources.
Pianobar: Listen to Pandora through a command line interface.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Project M: Music visualizer based on the classic Winamp plugin Milkdrop.
RunCat: Add a small running cat animation to the Windows taskbar.
eDEX-UI: A sci-fi themed terminal emulator.
RoundedTB: Tweak the Windows 11 taskbar with rounded corners, segments, and margins.
TranslucentTB: Make the taskbar translucent or transparent.
TwinkleTray: Control monitor brightness from your taskbar.
Windows 11 Fixer: Popular settings tweaks, all in one place.
Files: A slick alternative to the Windows File Explorer.
WinDynamicDesktop: Nature wallpapers from MacOS in which lighting changes throughout the day.
Windows95: A self-contained version of Microsoft’s classic OS, including Solitaire.

Jared Newman / Foundry

If you’re looking for more, try perusing the “Windows” collection to see if anything strikes your interest. You can also check out this directory of open-source apps or this list of Windows apps, many (but not all) of which are hosted on GitHub.

Before you start downloading

Compared to software from an App Store, installing apps from Github carries a bit of risk. Many hobbyist developers don’t pay for code-signing certificates, so Microsoft’s SmartScreen protections flag their software as potentially dangerous.

In lieu of any official review process, the best you can do to vet a particular program is look for online reviews or check the project’s “Issues” page to see if it’s being actively developed and commented-on. In SmartScreen, you’ll then have to click “More Info,” then “Run Anyway” to bypass Microsoft’s safety checks.

Assuming an app isn’t outright malicious, it can still cause problems, especially if it’s making fundamental changes to your machine. With Explorer Patcher, for instance, Microsoft previously warned against installing the software after a Windows update led to boot-up issues. Those issues have since been resolved, but they do illustrate how things can go wrong.

But for the adventurous, hopping outside the confines of an app store is well worth the reward, and Github is one of the best places to start doing that.

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Personal Software

The problem with built-in password managers

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 10:45:00 +0000

In recent years, it’s gotten a lot easier to have better password hygiene without using a dedicated password manager.

Thanks to built-in password management tools on iOS and Android, and at the browser level on Chrome and Microsoft Edge, you can create secure passwords with minimal efforts. These tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated, such that a separate password manager might not be necessary.

But before you tie all your logins with the likes of Google, Apple, and Microsoft, take some time to consider the trade-offs. In exchange for the convenience of their built-in solutions, you’ll lose both the freedom and features that a proper password manager provides.

Built-in options are improving

Relying solely on your web browser for password management used to be a laughable concept.

Sure, the auto-fill features in Chrome, Firefox, and other browsers made logging into websites easier, but they didn’t help you log into apps on your phone. They also didn’t include some features that were table stakes in dedicated password managers, such as the ability to generate secure passwords when signing up for new services.

As a result, they didn’t deliver the main benefit of using a dedicated password manager such as Dashlane or Bitwarden, which is to keep you from using the same weak passwords everywhere.

But a lot’s changed since then:

In 2020, Google added auto-fill support in Chrome for iOS, so if the browser is installed on your phone and synced to your Google account, it can fill out passwords in other apps. (A similar feature launched on Android a few years earlier.)
Microsoft followed suit a year later, so that Edge’s mobile apps (or the separate Microsoft Authenticator app) can fill out passwords for other apps on your phone.
Mozilla also added auto-fill support in the Firefox mobile app in 2021 after discontinuing its dedicated Lockwise password manager app.
Apple, meanwhile, launched a Chrome extension for iCloud Passwords in 2021, so logins you save to iCloud on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac are easily accessible on Windows PCs.

Google

These built-in password managers have also gotten better on the security front. They all have the ability to generate strong passwords on your behalf, and they can alert you to any passwords that are weak, redundant, or stolen. Apple even added two-factor authentication code support to iCloud in 2021, so you don’t need a separate app to help lock down your accounts.

All of which adds up to a compelling case for whatever password manager is built into your favorite web browser. Compared to dedicated password managers, the setup process is minimal, and they’ll likely never cost you anything, so I suspect that lot of people will use those default password tools without even thinking about it.

So what’s the problem?

The main reason I don’t rely on any of these password managers is largely about flexibility. I have a borderline obsession with not being permanently tied any particular device or computing platform, and these built-in password managers can ultimately be another mechanism for lock-in.

Since I’m using Bitwarden as my password manager, bringing my passwords to a new device or web browser only requires installing the Bitwarden app or browser extension, then logging in, and my passwords automatically sync no matter where I am. With built-in password managers, switching can be more of a hassle:

Microsoft, to its credit, offers a Chrome extension for accessing your passwords outside of Edge, but it doesn’t offer add-ons for Firefox or MacOS Safari. If you want to use those browsers, you’ll need to import your password list from Edge.
Chrome has no way to sync your passwords in other browsers, so whenever you switch, you’ll have to import your Chrome password list.
With iCloud Passwords, you can’t access your passwords on Android or sync passwords in Windows browsers other than Chrome and Edge. And unless you have a Mac, you can’t export your passwords to a different service at all.
Some alternative browsers, such as Vivaldi, Brave, and Opera, don’t offer auto-fill features for mobile apps. If you rely on their built-in password managers, you won’t have an easy way to log into apps on your phone.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Lock-in isn’t the only reason to consider a dedicated password manager. The major browsers still don’t offer group sharing options so that family members can easily log into shared services. Some password managers can also auto-fill passwords in desktop apps—Chrome, Edge, and Firefox can’t do this—and they have their own standalone mobile apps that make it easy to view your credentials from anywhere. Bitwarden even lets you plug in masked email addresses from a wide range of providers, while 1Password integrates with Privacy.com for limited-use credit cards.

But for me, the option to seamlessly switch between browsers or devices is by far the biggest factor. Being able to try new tools—or abandon ones that no longer work well—is important to me, and I never want something as mundane as passwords to get in the way. PCWorld’s guide to the best password managers can help you find the best option to fit your specific needs.

Get more practical tech advice every week with Jared’s Advisorator newsletter, where a version of this column first appeared.

Security Software and Services

This free Adobe Acrobat alternative rocks for basic PDF editing

Wed, 31 May 2023 10:45:00 +0000

While paid PDF editors have their place, you don’t need expensive software just for basic edits and simple document signing.

For a free alternative, check out iLovePDF.com. This website offers more than 20 PDF editing tools, all without any login prompts. Each tool has its own freestanding web link, so you can bookmark your favorites for even faster access.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Some examples of what the site offers:

Merge PDF: Combines multiple files into a single document.
Edit PDF: Adds text, shapes, and highlights to your PDF files.
Sign PDF: Apply a pre-made or drawn signature to PDF files.
Organize PDF: Rearrange the pages of a PDF file.

Keep in mind that iLovePDF doesn’t offer full-blown PDF editing, so you can’t use it to insert or remove text from a document. It does, however, offer a PDF to Word tool, which you can then edit and convert back to PDF again. While Word has a similar conversion feature built in, I found that iLovePDF did a better job preserving the original formatting in a test PDF file.

Jared Newman / Foundry

iLovePDF’s free version has some other limitations as well, including various file size limits for each of its tools. Signatures are also limited to one person, and don’t include any certification or auditing.

To lift those limits and gain access to more advanced features, such as iLovePDF’s desktop and mobile apps, you’ll need a subscription, which costs $7 per month or $48 per year. At that point, you may as well consider other paid options such as Acrobat or Nitro PDF Pro. PCWorld has reviewed these PDF editors extensively.

But if you’re only making simple PDF edits and don’t require any collaboration features, iLovePDF might be all that you need, and it won’t cost you a cent.

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Personal Software

How to get Microsoft Office 365 for cheap

Wed, 24 May 2023 10:45:00 +0000

Even at its list price of $70 per year, a personal subscription to Microsoft 365—or Office 365, as it used to be called—is one of the better deals in tech.

That subscription gets you full access to Microsoft’s Office suite along with 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage. I’ve been a mostly satisfied subscriber for years, partly for the Office software, though mainly to access my photos, documents, and personal music library from any device. (Those are just the tip of the benefits iceberg though; here are six reasons why a Microsoft 365 subscription is worth the money.)

But part of that satisfaction comes from never paying full price in the first place. Instead, I’ve made a point of buying Office 365 discount codes on eBay, using them to renew my subscription in one-year increments. These codes are often on sale for as little as $45, and have been readily available every time I’ve checked. (Here’s one example.)

Office 365 discounts: What you need to know

To find these Office 365 discount codes, just search for “Office 365 Personal” and look for listings that offer a one-year or 12-month subscription. Make sure that listing includes a picture of the product advertising a one-year subscription for one person, and that the seller has a large number of positive feedback ratings.

Jared Newman / IDG

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a family subscription, search for “Office 365 Home Premium” instead. These tend to be a bit pricier, but allow up to six family members to each have their own 1 TB of OneDrive storage.

A couple words of warning:

Do not, under any circumstance, purchase a “lifetime” subscription to Office 365, no matter how low the price is. These likely come from unscrupulous sellers distributing shared or stolen accounts, and and even if they work, you won’t be able to use them with your existing Microsoft account.
Avoid buying from international sellers, and watch out for the shipping price. Most sellers don’t tack on a shipping fee, but some do.

Once you place the order, you should receive a physical card in the mail containing a code that you can redeem on Microsoft’s Office setup site. Sign into your Microsoft account on that site and apply the code. If you already have an active subscription, Microsoft will simply push back your renewal date by 12 months.

During this process, Microsoft might also offer you a bonus month if you turn on auto-renew; you can turn it back off right after signing up and still get the extra month tacked on.

Just remember to repeat this process once per year and you should be able to enjoy Microsoft 365 at a deep discount for years to come. While you’re hunting for Microsoft discounts, if you’re a gamer, here’s how to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for cheap too. (And yes, despite the Xbox name, that includes access to well over a hundred PC games in Netflix-like fashion.)

A version of this story originally appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly newsletter for making sense of technology. Sign up to get tech tips, deals, and advice in your inbox.

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