It’s tempting to put your personal touch on your emails with a hand-picked font and maybe even a unique color. After all, everyone else is just using the boring default settings, right? You’ll definitely stand out, but it might not be in the way you want. RELATED: 5 Fonts You Should Stop Using (and Better Alternatives) Email Is the Wild West Email is one of the last true universal standards we have left....

Using Your Voice You can also ask your Echo, “Alexa, what’s on my shopping list?” and she’ll read out everything that you have on the list currently. Through the Alexa App If you’d rather not mess with third-party apps for controlling your Echo from afar, you can still add anything to your shopping list by using the Alexa app on your phone. Simply just open the app and start by tapping on the menu button in the top-left corner of the screen....

When you get an error saying that Windows could not find a particular DLL file, it can be awfully tempting to download the file from one of the many DLL sites out there. Here’s why you shouldn’t. What Are DLLs? RELATED: What Is rundll32.exe and Why Is It Running? Before we get started on why you shouldn’t download Dynamic Link Library (DLL) files from the Internet, let’s first take a look at what DLL files are....

With recent acts of terrorism in Paris and Lebanon, news media and government have been using the word “encryption” as if it’s somehow to blame. Nonsense. Encryption is easy to understand, and if you’re not using it, you should be. Like many technologies, encryption has the potential to be misused, but that does not make it dangerous. And it doesn’t mean that people who use it are dangerous or bad....

Why Distance Matters How far you sit from your monitor matters because sitting too close or too far can cause eye strain. The further away you are, the smaller everything will be on your screen. If you’re unable to see the contents clearly, you’re going to strain your eyes to read smaller text On the other hand, if you sit too close, everything will be magnified, which makes it harder to take everything in....

Differences in Connections Both TVs and monitors will accept HDMI input, assuming they were made in the last decade. HDMI is the industry standard for video signals, and you’ll find them on nearly every device that outputs video from Rokus and game consoles to computers. Technically, if all you’re looking for is a screen to plug something into, either a TV or monitor will do. Monitors will usually have other connections, such as DisplayPort, to support higher resolutions and refresh rates....

If you have kids that use phones and tablets, you probably worry about their usage. Google’s Family Link service is incredibly useful for parents. We’ll show you why you should be using it. What Is Family Link? Before we explain why you should use Family Link, let’s talk a little about what it actually is. At the core, Family Link is a suite of tools for parents to help them monitor their kids’ devices....

Nine years after starting How-To Geek, we’ve served up 1 Billion pageviews to our readers. Here’s the (brief) story of how we did it, and how we’re going to take things to the next level. Spoiler: We’ve hired an awesome new editor-in-chief. In case you don’t know who I am, my name is Lowell Heddings, and I’m the founder, owner, server admin, programmer, and current editor-in-chief of How-To Geek....

This article had the headline “Warning: Don’t Download Software From SourceForge If You Can Help It” when we published it back in 2015. Since then, much has changed. SourceForge was sold to a new company that immediately stopped the DevShare program in 2016. We’re leaving the rest of this article here for historical reference, but our criticism is outdated. SourceForge isn’t behaving badly anymore. Our Original 2015 Article “SourceForge are (sic) abusing the trust that we and our users had put into their service in the past,” according to the GIMP project....

Backups are critical. But, if you’re just performing regular backups to a nearby external hard drive or USB drive, you’re missing an important part of your backup strategy. You need your files stored in separate physical locations. So-called “offsite backups” will protect your important files from catastrophic events like fires, floods, and robberies of your home or office. Files stored in just one physical location are vulnerable. Why Offsite Backups Are Critical RELATED: 8 Backup Tools Explained for Windows 7 and 8...

You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers. Today we take a look at why you should never vacuum your dusty PC, how covert books to read on the Kindle, and how to control multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse. Cleaning Out Your Dusty PC sans Vacuum Cleaner Dear Dusty, I’ve heard from more than one person that it’s a bad idea to vacuum out the inside of your PC… but why?...

You love Pandora’s streaming music service and you use it on your computer, phone, and even pipe it into your stereo system, yet the quality of the stream seems to vary depending on the device you use. What gives? Read on as we show a Pandora-loving reader how to maximize the quality of his streaming experience. When comparing audio files/streams it’s easy to imagine that you are, well, just imagining the differences....

If you are new to using Wi-Fi in your home, then you may find yourself curious about how it all works when your devices are connected to your router. With that in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answers to a curious reader’s questions. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. Photo courtesy of Scott Beale (Flickr)....

Android 7.0 Nougat is another feature-refining build for the OS, with lots of little tweaks and optimizations throughout. Google covered a lot of the big features when it announced Nougat (then called “Android N”), but today we’re going to highlight a handful of features that you may not have already heard about. RELATED: The Best New Features in Android 7.0 “Nougat” The Settings Menu Is Now More Efficient The Settings menu in Android has always been a relatively simple place, with everything broken down into an easy-to-use list....

With the advent of the summer sun just starting to peek out, it’s time to whip out those running shoes and work up a sweat. This is our guide to all the the apps and gear we love to lose pounds with. While we might still be a ways off from the weight loss wonder drug everyone’s been waiting for, in the meantime our smartphones offer a dozen different tools and techniques that will help you to get motivated in the morning, keep the calories down, and push you to your limits the next time another mile doesn’t feel like enough....

Let’s face it, gaming with a TV remote is mostly a novelty and frustrating for anything more complex than simple games. If you want to unlock the gaming potential of your shiny new Apple TV you need to pair a real game controller. Read on as we show you how. Note: This tutorial applies to the 2015 4th-generation Apple TV hardware update and the subsequent updates running tvOS. Why Do I Want To Do This?...

By default, the Files app on Chrome OS provides access to your Google Drive storage online and the Downloads folder, which is your Chromebook’s local storage. But Google’s made it possible to extend the Files app with more cloud storage services and remote file servers, including Windows file shares. Set this up and you’ll have easy access to other remote file systems. They’ll appear in the Files app and in your Chromebook’s standard “Open” and “Save” dialogs....

On your Windows PC, you can boot into safe mode to load Windows without any third-party software. You can do the same on Android with Android’s safe mode. In safe mode, Android won’t load any third-party applications. This allows you to troubleshoot your device – if you’re experiencing crashes, freezes, or battery life issues, you can boot into safe mode and see if the issues still happen there. From safe mode, you can uninstall misbehaving third-party apps....

Change the Name of Your AirPods Using an iPhone To update your AirPods‘ name with your iPhone, ensure your iPhone is paired and connected to your AirPods. Then, on your iPhone, launch the Settings app and tap “Bluetooth.” On the “Bluetooth” page, find your AirPods in the list. Then, next to your AirPods, tap the “i” icon. On the AirPods page, tap the “Name” field. On the “Name” screen that opens, delete the existing name by tapping “X....

Kodi has an official remote app called Kore, but it’s rather basic. Yatse is a third-party Android app that takes Kodi to a whole new level, adding voice commands, PVR support, and a whole lot more. Here’s how to use it. Sure, you can control Kodi with an MCE remote or a Logitech Harmony remote, and there are certainly advantages to a hardware with real buttons. They’re tactile, a bit more familiar, and guests don’t need to install an app just to watch TV....