Items tagged with how-to

Bethesda officially launched Starfield on September 6 and quickly garnered over 6 million players. The highly anticipated first-person open-world RPG has enamored many with numerous ships to fly as gamers visit new worlds filled with strange alien creatures and minerals to mine. While some may be flourishing in space, other players may be Read more...
The mouse and graphical user interface are still arguably two of the greatest innovations in computing. They make computers easy to use, but that does not always mean slinging a cursor around is the best use of time. The keyboard still reigns supreme for many Windows tasks, so it is worthwhile to learn how to use it... Read more...
Whether you have a cutting-edge blazing fast solid-state drive or an ancient magnetic hard disk drive, you are probably filling them with a ton of files you no longer need. Storage bloat involves more than just keeping your old essays from the high school you graduated from decades ago. Your computer likely has... Read more...
If working in IT has taught me anything, it is that many computer issues truly can be resolved with a reboot. If I’ve learned two things, though, it is that a myriad of remaining Windows issues can be resolved with a simple command. The Windows system file checker is such an effective general fix-all that I believe... Read more...
There was a bit of a freak-out when it was learned that John Wardle, developer of the viral hit Wordle, sold his word game to The New York Times for a sum in the "low seven figures." While Wardle can now deservedly relish in being a millionaire, the question is, how long with Wordle remain free to play before it gets... Read more...
Sony's PlayStation 5 launched in November of 2020 somewhat incomplete. While the hardware had an M.2 slot to expand the internal storage needed by PS5 games, the software didn't know what to do with it out of the box. Earlier this year though, Sony opened up a beta program with early access to firmware that can use that slot, and we managed... Read more...
If you are searching for a webcam upgrade to boost your Zoom or other video conferencing quality, you may already have it. Canon has released a free EOS Webcam Utility which allows many of its cameras to function as plug-and-play USB webcams on Windows computers. The idea of using a DSLR or mirrorless camera as a... Read more...
Dell’s XPS 15 2-In-1 is a unique hybrid convertible, premium ultrabook in a couple of respects, partly because of its high quality Dell XPS series machined aluminum and hybrid carbon fiber construction, along with its beautiful 15-inch, 400 nits, near bezel-less Dell Infinity Edge display. However, the machine is also... Read more...
Many long time Windows users have not been pleased with Microsoft’s decision to block updates to Windows 7 and 8.1 for systems running current and future generations of processors. Intel’s Kaby Lake and AMD’s Ryzen chips are among the first blacklisted casualties of this policy. Microsoft deemed this necessary to... Read more...
Retro gaming made a major resurgence this past holiday season, with the release of Nintendo’s ultra-hyped NES Classic, a scaled down clone of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Out of the box, the NES Classic has thirty preloaded game titles, though some recent hacks exposed a method for uploading more if... Read more...
It's pretty easy to build up a sprawling tower of games through Steam. In fact, it's difficult not to, what with the constant barrage of sales throughout the year. The frequent deep discounts provide ample opportunity to add to your catalog of games whether you have the time to play them all or not. But what if an... Read more...
In this latest episode of HotHardware's Two and Half Geeks, Dave, Marco and our resident ¼ Geek Apprentice Michael (Dave's son) build a custom, high-end Gaming System for the winner of our totally awesome Dads and Grads sweepstakes! Enjoy this bad boy, Lamar! And a BIG thanks for entering the sweepstakes... Read more...
Building a Home Theater PC is often times a much better option for enabling your entertainment center for various forms of digital media playback capability.  Rather than stepping up to additional discrete components, like a stand-alone Blu-ray, DVD or CD player, why not really infuse your living room entertainment center with real intelligence... Read more...
Building a Home Theater PC is often times a much better option for enabling your entertainment center for various forms of digital media playback capability.  Rather than stepping up to additional discrete components, like a stand-alone Blu-ray, DVD or CD player, why not infuse your living room entertainment center with real intelligence... Read more...
Upgrading your notebook's legacy hard drive to a new, fast SSD is a substantial upgrade that makes good sense for a number of reasons.  First, Solid State Drives offer orders of magnitude higher performance under certain conditions, with blazingly fast random access times.  They also produce much less heat versus a standard 2.5-inch... Read more...
Upgrading your notebook's legacy hard drive to a new, fast SSD is a substantial upgrade that makes good sense for a number of reasons.  First, Solid State Drives offer orders of magnitude higher performance under certain conditions, with blazingly fast random access times.  They also produce much less heat versus a standard 2.5-inch... Read more...